Frrost Nova Sorcie - opinions please ?

[Rohar]

Hail there ....

Has anyone here ever tried to make a sorceress with Frost Nova at high levels and as one of her main skills as a variant ? I've just started one, and I'd like people's opinions on my build so far, my plan - and advice and how I should proceed, or if anyone has actually gone down this route, how they found it .. the sorcie, Elemenara is at a very early stage in her D II career, so if people care to offer alternative build suggestions, I'll consider them (the only conditions are that I do want Frost Nova to figure in as a main skill and to raise it quite high, although it could be a secondary one. I'd also like to make her a tri-elemental sorcie, so planning to have one skill maxed or raised high in each of the sorceress skill trees)

This is my skills list so far (I'm not sure what my charrie equipment is off-hand, but if anyone wants for the sake of commenting, I'll check it, and post it) She's level 8 so far and has just defeated Blood Raven, and her skills list is

Firebolt @ 1 (I plan to get Hydra, so this is a pre-reg)
Warmth @ 4 (I figured that Frost Nova is going to be mana intensive, so I've been pumping warmth for this reason)
Frost Nova @ 3

My planned skill path through the rest of act and up to the middle/late stages of Act II is this (I thought I'd go Frost Nova/Lightning/Hydra as major skills, but like I said, alternative suggestions would be welcome, in accordance with what I've stated above)

8 FN @ 3
9 CB @ 1
10 FN @ 4
12 Fireball @ 1, Lightning @ 1
13 FN @ 5
14 Lightning @ 2
15 FN @ 6
16 Lightning @ 3
17 Warmth @ 5
Rad FN @ 7
18 Enchant @ 1
19-21 Lightning @ 4-6

Ok, that's it - opinions/advice/suggestions welcome ! :)
Rohar

[AtomicKitKat]

Narcotics Triads.

[Rohar]

That would be cause I plan to save the point from 11 in order to get both Fireball and Lightning at lvl 12 - thanks for pointing that out. Also you said something about Narcotics Triads - is this a hint to some previous post I should be looking at ? if so, will someone please enlighten me as to where it is.

[Guest]

For the veterans which view this board in one reply at a time (great if you've got a lot of useless time to waste), they'll only see "Level 11 is missing! (nt)", with the nt meaning "no text" - so they don't have to view the post.

But since whenever time - it feels clever to make that NT text into something else, in case those who do not use the "one reply at a time" reads it and can think that it's clever. :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :blink: :unsure:

[Archon_Wing]

Crap, you discovered the local drug ring. :lol:

[moget?]

Hi,

The main problem with a diverse sorceress these days in the sheer lack of skill points available to you. Prior to 1.10, there was no problem with having a tri-elementalist. With the coming of synergy skills, it becomes necessary to invest into auxiliary skills for maximum damage output (not necessary, but optimal). For this reason, I suggest you opt out of some of your choices. Of course, if you don't plan on bringing this character far in the game (past normal mode for example), then you are free to invest in skills as you see fit.

The fact that you want to be a tri-elementalist suggests to me that you want to be able to handle any monster that comes your way (depending on immunities).

Hydra gets bonuses from fire bolt and fire ball, as well as fire mastery.

Lightning gets bonuses from (many skills): charged bolt, nova, chain lightning, and lightning mastery.

Frost Nova gets bonuses from blizzard, frozen orb, and cold mastery.

For this reason, you may want to consider taking one tree down a notch. I was thinking that you could perhaps omit the lightning component, and instead get Static Field. This skill has no synergies, and does not need lightning damage, and is good even without being mastered.

Oh, and I'd recommend you don't pump warmth too high, you can always boost it with +skills, extra mana, and regen items. All of my sorceresses have level 4 warmth, base.

[AtomicKitKat]

Crap, you discovered the local drug ring.  :lol:

Damn, byebye kneecaps! :(

[Rohar]

First off, thanks for the advice :) I'll definitely keep in mind your advice in warmth and probably put a few more points in and then leave it.

I see what you mean about the synergy stuff .... Hmm, I've never done a sorcie with Frozen orb as a major skill before , although I've tried it as a minor skill and liked it, so I might do that. If I went that route, I might pare down Hydra to become a secondary or tertiary skill, in effect reserving for situation where I come up against cold and lightning immunes. I take your point about static field, although I've never been a big fan of SF, anyway, as it's an overused skill, especially in combo with Frozen orb, if I decided to go that way. Then again having both Hydra & Frozen Orb would require a lot of pre-reqs which would take any from skill points for my main skills , plus might be quite uber, and I'm trying to have a somewhat variant build here, so that is something to think about too. Perhaps I should go for a lower fire skill instead in that case. Opinions, comments anyone ?

Rohar

[ryan4nayr]

I have always liked FNova, I always assign a hotkey for it whether I just got it just in time vs. Blood Raven, or when I'm being overwhelmed by Lister & I need an escape skill. Don't expect to kill anything with it, but it's good for sh!ts & giggles when everything around you become smurf statues.

As for tri-elementalists... pre-1.10, they were viable, just took *some* amount of lvling to make them effective... but when they got there... wow... lots of luck to you going that route, you'll be needing it.

[Caaroid]

Espeically since there are no viable lightning skills in the game :)

Ah wait, there are a few!
Lightning fury, Lightning sentry, Fist of Heavens.

Pity your sorc won't be using them :)

[Fragbait]

Hail Rohar,

perhaps this thread could be of some help to you.
It was back in 1.09 when I started to conquer Nightmare with my Frostnova Izual-Sorceress. I think I had Fireball as my second skill, I'm not sure, it is long ago.

EDIT: It was meteor. I preferred the higher damage, and with the critters being chilled, it was fairly easy to aim.
EDIT end.

Don't know about 1.10, though. Just after I got it to work recently, the display of my notebook had problems and I had to send it in. Oh well :(
Good luck on all accounts, I loved the 30+ seconds chill duration.
I played Singleplayer, but I think especially in 1.10 your party might appreciate the skill, too. Imagine the improvement if the frenzytaurs or guest monsters that are very fast are lame, and your party-zealot or party-frenzy-barb give 'em beans...

Greetings, Fragbait

[Nystul]

You're definition of viable is very narrow ;) Lightning tree has some great skills, even for damage (static field and thunderstorm, at least). It just doesn't really have any one skill that you can spam away and everything dies.

I suspect that many sorc players overspecialize. Frozen orb with 20 points in synergy is what, 17% more damage than orb with 10 points in synergy? Instead of killing something with 7 orbs you only need 6 (neglecting regen, which of course can be dealt with in many ways if necessary)... how much will you notice that difference in gameplay? With +5 to all (sorceress) skills from items and those 10 points, you could probably bolster your existing lightning skills enough to kill the occasion fire/cold immune boss (at the very least, make life easy for your merc). And these skills (well again, static and thunderstorm, at least) can be useful combination spells even when you are using fire or cold for the primary damage against a monster.

Of course, if the character is a variant who relies on frost nova and wants to avoid using certain powerful skills, that's a whole other animal...

[ryan4nayr]

improvement if the frenzytaurs or guest monsters that are very fast are lame, and your party-zealot or party-frenzy-barb give 'em beans...

Many monsters received "upgrades" in 1.10. Some Frenzytaur-types, for example, have Cannot Be Frozen mods, as well as the various CIs that begin to pop up in Nm. Max block might be nice to have in these situations, I'm really not sure how a sorc can handle this.

[AtomicKitKat]

Lightning DOES have one spammable skill. It's called Nova. :P And it would probably fit in well with frost nova, since:

1) It only requires one pre-req(Static, if memory serves)
2) It is almost identical(except different damage type/magnitude and doesn't chill)
3) It works just as well with Faster Cast.

[Caaroid]

I tried a lightning sorc. I went all-out lightning to be able to test all skills. 5k CL and 10k Lightning damage should be sufficient - and they were not. I do not know why (CL seems to be slower than other spammable skills, and Lightning does not seem to be affected by fast cast at all), but the only REAL killer lightning skill I saw was charged bolt - and even that could not compare to a single-synergy fireball.

Consider: a sorc can cast a 1-10k lightning, whereas an assasin can lay 5 x 1-5k traps, meaning 2.5 times the damage output. Ah, and she gets shadow varrior, fade and mind blast, and for all this she has to sacrifice teleport, and the now useless energy shield. That is just sad game ballance even if we disregard the existence of the (for me unattainable) Enigma.

And yes, I tried to play my novasorc as well. Deader than dead.

Mind you, all these tries were around skill level 30. If one has 10 lightning skill charms with an annulus and whatnot, one might find a usable lightning skill. At the moment however I found that with +10 to skills a 20-orb 1 mastery "build" kills most cold immunes faster, than a 20-20-20-20 lightning sorc. I define this as unviable.

And yes, I presume one could make any sorc skill work if you get a bow merc that can stop monster regen. You can keep teleporting about with maxed TS and for things to die. I for one find this rather painful, thus the "hasty" non-viable tag. I should have said "lightning skills are significantly weaker", but my original post was intended more as a sarcastic post and less an informative one.

Also, static is a wonder; however, it's a one-point one. I do not consider a sorc using static a three-elementalist; it's just a specialist with the most powerful equalizer.

And about Frozen orb: the synergy is nearly useless (outside PvP). The mastery, however, is wonderful! -145% at level 26, now come on! Anything that's not immune is (cold) toast. In case of the other ice skills, you need the specialization. GS does weak damage, and Blizzard misses so often, that you must make every hit count. In case of the fire tree, Meteor does not necessarily need all it's synergies, but fireball needs at least one (16k Venom Lord life, anyone?).

Ah well, we're all playing different games after all :)

[ryan4nayr]

Lightning DOES have one spammable skill. It's called Nova. :P And it would probably fit in well with frost nova, since:

1) It only requires one pre-req(Static, if memory serves)
2) It is almost identical(except different damage type/magnitude and doesn't chill)
3) It works just as well with Faster Cast.

Pro's & Con's

(1) Nova dmg is significantly better than FNova. Max their respective Masteries, Nova dmg still wins. FNova dmg only wins due to its synergies, which Nova (rightfully) lacks.

(2) Nova + Ltng Mastery + Teleport + 2 prereq + Warmth = 63 skill pts.
FNova + Cold Mastery + FO+Bliz synergies + Teleport + 4 prereqs + Warmth = 105 skill pts.

(3) Nova relies on monsters homing in on the caster... packing their (soon to be toast) bodies into the radius. FNova freezes monsters in their tracks, dealing dmg to less dense monster packs; also, these ice statues block out other monsters from entering this killing radius. Could be a good thing, however, since frozen monsters don't hit you (& can't argue with 27 sec. norm freeze duration). But since you're casting more fnova to kill the same amount of monsters, mana consumption is even more ridiculous.

:-) I think I'm gonna start a fnovasorc now.

[Zyr]

I had never paid much attention to Frost Nova until a few weeks ago, when I equipped my then 20-something SC Ladder Enchantress with Malice in a +2 Frost Nova, +1 Shiver Armor, +1 Fire Ball battle staff-- just in time for the Act III jungles.

Wow, what an eye-opener! Fetishes, Flayers, and especially Soul Killers and their Shaman firebreathers had meant inevitable multiple deaths for my earlier sorcs. Not so for this Enchantress! Frost Nova not only stopped them in their tracks, making them easy targets, but painted them blue, making them even easier targets. I took savage glee in shattering Stormtree by whacking him with a stick... The Kurast sewer and temples and the Durance were a breeze...

While I may not use it as a primary killer, I now consider Frost Nova an indispensible skill for any sorc I play. Rohar and ryan4nayr, I hope you'll post about your experiences with the skill at higher levels. :)

[Rohar]

After reading all the posts, I think I like the Idea of having Frost Nova and Nova together .... As ryan4nayr pointed out Nova doesn't have any synergies, and in contrast to Lightning which was what I was thinking of getting before, at high levels, it has a much better minimum damage (I think the minimum damage of Lightning is actually 1 constantly) Obviously this would go up with synergies and Lightning Mastery, but with Nova that problem would be solved after I got slvl 2, so it seems a better bet.

So I think I'm going to go for Frost Nova & Frozen Orb, Nova and Fireball as my main skills (I'll probably concentrate on the cold tree skills over the over 2 (I may max Fireball, but I probably won't look at synergies except for maybe some FM), and Nova I may only get enough to use as a tertiary skill for dealing with Cold/Fire Immunes (perhaps again, with some LM). Ryan4nayr, I'd also be interested to hear how you get on with your Frost Nova Sorcie too. I'll try to remember to post about how I get on, too.

[Rohar]

Ok ... I've had some time to play a bit more with my frost nova sorcie, and I thought I'd report back a little bit on my findings and experiences so far, and how I plan to progress with my skill ....

Elemenara is now about clvl 14, and in late act I (currently in the Tamoe Highlands).
Her main skills are as follows: Frost Nova @ 5 (7 with staff), Fireball 2 (4 with staff), Nova @ 1, Warmth @ 4.
She also has an +3 Frost Nova staff as an alternate so, depending on which staff I'm using, Frost Nova is either 7 or 8 at the moment.
After using the skill extensively through act 1, I'm actually quite impressed, more than I thought I would be -
I've been contemplating trying this kind of a build for a while, but I've been put off a bit before now, thinking it would be very weak (which might have been the case in previous patch versions). However, in v1.10 at slvl 7-8 it's actually fairly decent for crowd control and as an aoe spell. However, since this is Act I, I'm going to reserve my judgement still a bit, until Elemenara comes across tougher opposition down the line - especially the main bosses -I'm a bit nervous at the prospect of facing Duriel or Diablo especially (any hints, fragbait?).
My main problem seems to be mana ... as I expected, it is quite mana hungry , and I tend to find myself running my mana ball dry quite often. Fortunately, especially now mana potions are available at the shops, this is a nuisance, rather than a severe problem at the moment. Still, I'm going to be on the lookout for items and equipment to increase mana & mana regeneration (any tips on possible equipment anyone ?).
As far as plans go, I think I'm going to concentrate on Frost Nova and Fireball up to early Act V, when I hit lvl 30 and Frozen Orb .
Ok, I think that's about it for now - I'll probably report again when I've played more.

Rohar.

[AtomicKitKat]

Hope for a +3 FN Orb with a lot of +mana.

Make a Stealth(TalEth) Armour. It has:

25% Faster Casting Rate (MORE NOVAS PER SECOND!)
25% Faster Hit Recovery (QUICKER GETAWAYS FROM TRAPS!)
25% Faster run/walk speed (EVEN QUICKER GETAWAYS!)
-3 magical damage taken (LESS DAMAGE FROM PESKY MAGES!)
+15% Mana Regeneration Rate (MORE MANA TO PLAY WITH!)
+30% Poison Resistance (Anda-who?)
+15% Maximum Stamina (MORE ENERGY TO RUN AWAY WITH!)
+6 Dexterity
Clvl Required: 17

In short, it's got pretty much everything a caster could want. And yeah, I know there's a lot of caps there, but I wanted it to look like an advertisement. Yes, I'm a Stealth addict. :P I'd suggest verious levels of chipped sapphire armours until you can use it.

Rhyme(ShaeEth) Shield:

Cannot be Frozen (Hah! Who's the smurf now? Didn't work against Holy Freeze, and I think it still doesn't.)
40% Faster Block Rate(For those cases when you actually blocked)
20% Increased Chance of Blocking(ditto)
Regenerate Mana 15% (a sweet +30% regen already, with Stealth)
+25% to all Resistances (Always welcome)
+25% to Magic Find (Useful)
+50% Extra Gold from Monsters (ditto)
Clvl Required: 17

Lore(OrtSol) Helm:

+1 to all skill levels (More Frost Nova goodness!)
+2 Mana per Kill (On top of all that regen? This is gravy!)
Lowers Damage by 7 (combined with the MDR from Stealth, makes you harder to kill overall)
30% Lightning Resistance (always useful against LEBs)
+10 Energy (MORE MANA!)
+2 Light Radius (ahh, whatever, just means you can see who you kill more clearly)
Clvl Required: 27

Except for the Lore, the other 2 are pretty easy to come by. Shae could be a problem unless you twink though. But they start dropping around late Act 5.

If you can, craft Caster(Perfect Amethyst+certain magical items) set items. A +2 cold skills/Sorc skills amulet would be perfect(but likely to be min level 30+). Caster Belt/boots would be worthwhile too, especially if the boots have FRW.

Alternatively, you can go with a 3DT/Ancients' Pledge shield for resistances(but that requires more str, and slows you down)

The reason why you'll want FRW is twofold. First, you'll be wanting to run around activating as many creatures as possible, so that you can maximise the use of FN. Secondly, you'll want to run away(only enough to get behind the furthest part of the crowd) when they start surrounding you, so increased speed plus them being slowed down will ensure you do.