Fire vs. Lightning

[se7ensparks]

I've heard about players who use melee weaponsghtning spells with sorceresses. Apparently, high Lightning Mastery + Lightning charms + weapons with large "+ Lightning damage" is a functional way to kill monsters.

I wanted to know if it would be possible to survive in Hell level doing something similar with fire damage --

If a sorceress had max Fire Mastery, max Enchant, a weapon/bow with fire damage and + fire damage charms would the character be able to kill the average non-fire immune monster in Hell? I figure there would be room on the skill tree for energy shield, cold armor and frost nova -- to slow monsters down.

Thanks,

[MongoJerry]

Enchant is a fun skill, and I've been using it myself. I highly recommend it. However, at least as of the beta, Blizzard fixed the bug/feature that made Lightning Mastery and Fire Mastery multiply the damage dealt by charms, weapons, etc. I assume that's also true in the final release. The masteries only affect spell damage. However, since Enchant is a "spell," Fire Mastery does work with it.

[Crystalion]

as of the beta, Blizzard fixed the bug/feature that made Lightning Mastery and Fire Mastery multiply the damage dealt by charms, weapons, etc.  I assume that's also true in the final release.  The masteries only affect spell damage.

Actually, in the relevant AB threads (which I think you've read) Ruvanal said that Enchant acts effectively as if it were a +fire charm. The Fire Mastery of an enchanted Sorceress (I did not say that she enchanted herself--the FM of the enchanting sorc is applied when building "Ruvanal's charm", so to speak) is indeed helping her melee damage (but not her ranged attacks).

I never trust timestamps on these posts (timezone weirdness, etc.) so I'm not sure if you hadn't seen those posts before posting this or not. In any event, it seems to me that either Ruvanal's analogy is incorrect or your statement (masteries only affect spell damage) is incorrect.

I don't have the time to run a test ATM, sorry.

[MongoJerry]

He described it sometimes as an aura and sometimes as a charm. I think the charm reference was just a metaphor he was using and not an exact description of how the game code treats Enchant. If, however, the game code does treat Enchant as a charm -- and therefore charms like Enchant -- then that would mean that you'd get the mastery multiplier on charm damage only if you're using a melee attack and not if you're using missile fire attacks. When you do your testing, make sure to try both kinds of attacks.