Help on my Light sorc, low life and Crescent moon vs Hoto

[UberB]

Help on my Light sorc, low life and Crescent moon vs Hoto

I was bored playing my Hammerdin so I sold all his gear and decided to make an equally cookie-cutter build, the light sorc. :crazyeyes:

Now, I've grushed her to Hell, chaos and baal'ed up and she's level 84, just enough to buy a level 83 holy freeze merc to wear andariel's visage. Come to think of it, I might as well switch to Vampire Gaze as I don't need the strength bonus.

Anyway, on to my gear, skill and stat build.

Skill Build

I decided to skip Shiver Armor, the best of the armors. Instead I opted to squeeze every last drop of synergy I could get.

Level 84

20 Lightning
20 Chain Lightning
20 Lightning Mastery
20 Nova (I wanted to play around with Nova because it's such a cool spell so I maxed it over charged bolt)
10 Charged bolt
1 Teleport, static, thunderstorm, warmth, prereqs

Stat build

Strength: 136 base. Just enough to wear CoH to wear spirit monarch. I didn't expect to have torch/anni but I managed to get an anni on the way (thank you so much Murdock ).

Dex: none

Vita: Rest

Energy: none

Equipment

Helm: Shako, I will be getting Griffon's soon but this poses a bit of a problem, read on

Armor: CoH Archon plate

Weapon: Crescent Moon in a crystal sword, I feel that the -35% lightning res is superior to Hoto. I'd like to hear some opinion on this subject though.

Shield: Spirit monarch, 33% FCR. I'll reroll a 35 one when I get griffons

Gloves: Magefists

Belt: Arachnid Mesh

Rings: One 10 FCR ring, one resist ring

Boots: Waterwalks

Amulet: Seraph's Hymn, might get mara's if I need the resists

Inventory: some random charms that give me some resists and a 12/10 anni.

Merc wears:

Helmet: Andariel's Visage, gonna swap this for a Vampire Gaze

Armor: Loricated Mail with 3 flawless rubies, lol, need to get shaftstop or duriel's shell or whatever

Weapon: Eth Infinity Cryptic Axe with 324% ED, 1% away from max ED . Now I know thresher is better blah blah but I used the cube formula for an eth cryptic axe and got 4 sockets, plus CA resells better on ignorant bnet.:thumbup:

Overall Stats

Lightning is 4-13744 damage.

Chain Lightning is 4-6439 damage.

Thunderstorm is 502-996 damage. Probably shouldn't even have put a point in it.

Nova damage is 1100-1484 damage, great for messing around in normal.

83 FCR, enough to get the 65 FCR breakpoint for tele'ing and 78 FCR for lightning/CL. I will get 117 FCR when I get Griffon's.

Resists in hell: 41 fire, 63 cold, 63 lightning, 63 poison. My resists aren't bad but there's just enough room for me to squeeze a low sorc torch in there. I will be getting one after I buy Griffon's.

Life is 1045. Mana is 481. This is where the problem starts, I feel that 1k life is far too low. Now I know put more points than usual in strength but they matter little as merely 2 life per point. I feel that my gear is all "correct" so why is my life low? Is this normal? And if I sub out Shako for Griffon's like everyone does, I end up with 915 life! Now I don't know about you but I feel that there's definitely a problem here. I've run everything over in my head and I don't think I've done anything wrong. Even a torch would only give me 50-60 more life (no 20/20's for practical purposes, I'm not that rich).

So what I want to know is:

1. Did I do anything wrong so that I have so few life?

2. If not, I guess CTA is very necessary?

3. In your opinion which is better Crescent Moon or Hoto?

 

[zaxcloudo]

Re: Help on my Light sorc, low life and Crescent moon vs Hoto

1. You could get by with less strength; this means more points in vitality. If you have perfect gear, your sorc can have 1.8k life, 3k life battle ordered.
We could always look into the energy shield path if you want, but that will weaken your damage at the cost of higher survivability.

2. A CTA would help, but not necessarily a necessity.

3. In my opinion, I believe HoTO is better, because it grants +3 to all skills, gives 40 Faster Cast Rate, and provides +30-40 all resistances.

 

[ancalagon]

Re: Help on my Light sorc, low life and Crescent moon vs Hoto

I was bored playing my Hammerdin so I sold all his gear and decided to make an equally cookie-cutter build, the light sorc. :crazyeyes:

Now, I've grushed her to Hell, chaos and baal'ed up and she's level 84, just enough to buy a level 83 holy freeze merc to wear andariel's visage. Come to think of it, I might as well switch to Vampire Gaze as I don't need the strength bonus.

Anyway, on to my gear, skill and stat build.

Skill Build

I decided to skip Shiver Armor, the best of the armors. Instead I opted to squeeze every last drop of synergy I could get.

Level 84

20 Lightning
20 Chain Lightning
20 Lightning Mastery
20 Nova (I wanted to play around with Nova because it's such a cool spell so I maxed it over charged bolt)
10 Charged bolt
1 Teleport, static, thunderstorm, warmth, prereqs

Stat build

Strength: 136 base. Just enough to wear CoH to wear spirit monarch. I didn't expect to have torch/anni but I managed to get an anni on the way (thank you so much Murdock ).

Dex: none

Vita: Rest

Energy: none

Equipment

Helm: Shako, I will be getting Griffon's soon but this poses a bit of a problem, read on

Armor: CoH Archon plate

Weapon: Crescent Moon in a crystal sword, I feel that the -35% lightning res is superior to Hoto. I'd like to hear some opinion on this subject though.

Shield: Spirit monarch, 33% FCR. I'll reroll a 35 one when I get griffons

Gloves: Magefists

Belt: Arachnid Mesh

Rings: One 10 FCR ring, one resist ring

Boots: Waterwalks

Amulet: Seraph's Hymn, might get mara's if I need the resists

Inventory: some random charms that give me some resists and a 12/10 anni.

Merc wears:

Helmet: Andariel's Visage, gonna swap this for a Vampire Gaze

Armor: Loricated Mail with 3 flawless rubies, lol, need to get shaftstop or duriel's shell or whatever

Weapon: Eth Infinity Cryptic Axe with 324% ED, 1% away from max ED . Now I know thresher is better blah blah but I used the cube formula for an eth cryptic axe and got 4 sockets, plus CA resells better on ignorant bnet.:thumbup:

Overall Stats

Lightning is 4-13744 damage.

Chain Lightning is 4-6439 damage.

Thunderstorm is 502-996 damage. Probably shouldn't even have put a point in it.

Nova damage is 1100-1484 damage, great for messing around in normal.

83 FCR, enough to get the 65 FCR breakpoint for tele'ing and 78 FCR for lightning/CL. I will get 117 FCR when I get Griffon's.

Resists in hell: 41 fire, 63 cold, 63 lightning, 63 poison. My resists aren't bad but there's just enough room for me to squeeze a low sorc torch in there. I will be getting one after I buy Griffon's.

Life is 1045. Mana is 481. This is where the problem starts, I feel that 1k life is far too low. Now I know put more points than usual in strength but they matter little as merely 2 life per point. I feel that my gear is all "correct" so why is my life low? Is this normal? And if I sub out Shako for Griffon's like everyone does, I end up with 915 life! Now I don't know about you but I feel that there's definitely a problem here. I've run everything over in my head and I don't think I've done anything wrong. Even a torch would only give me 50-60 more life (no 20/20's for practical purposes, I'm not that rich).

So what I want to know is:

1. Did I do anything wrong so that I have so few life?

2. If not, I guess CTA is very necessary?

3. In your opinion which is better Crescent Moon or Hoto?

1. No I cant think of anything wrong you have done. Its just sorcs get minimal returns on life from vitality points and levelling up. Try level up to level 88 or 89 / 90 (its not that hard, 92+ starts becoming slow) and put some extra points into Vita. Also, you could have spared some points from strength by buying a cheap torch and put some charms with str in your inventory. Also, make sure you completed all Alkor quests. But basically, there is nothing wrong you have done. My Cold Sorc only has 1300 life so not that far off.
2. If you can afford one, it will do miracles. Sorcs have low life to begin with and there are parts of the game where you will be surrounded by enemies and forced into constant hit recovery because of poor defense and block, which could mean instant death.
3.
HOTO: +3 To All Skills, +40% Faster Cast Rate, +10 To Dexterity, Replenish Life +20, Increase Maximum Mana 15%, All Resistances +30-40

Crescent Moon: -35% to enemy lightning resistance.

I just listed what I see the only useful mods on these 2 runewords. In comparison, HOTO is a clear winner (I even took Replenish Life +20 into account because when it skips +10, it becomes real useful). Crescent Moon's only use is its passive bonus, which if, as youre saying you will get a Griff (and you should socket it with a facet) you will get something close like -20 to 25%. I would also recommend a nice faceted Ormus, if you can afford.

TBH, 14K Lightning is pretty low for a light sorc, but the gear required to reach a decent damage range is really expensive (I have the same problem with my Blizz sorc), so Crescent Moon's mod will ultimately net you more damage. But I just cant see it worth sacrificing over HOTO.

 

[UberB]

Re: Help on my Light sorc, low life and Crescent moon vs Hoto

The advantage crescent moon has is against those originally lightning immune monsters. They will still be at ~90% with infinity and ~70% with just Griffon's which I fear may not be enough. That is the reason why I chose Crescent Moon.

With hoto, is the damage still enough to kill those burning souls/storm casters etc quickly in 8-player games?

 

[ancalagon]

Re: Help on my Light sorc, low life and Crescent moon vs Hoto

The advantage crescent moon has is against those originally lightning immune monsters. They will still be at ~90% with infinity and ~70% with just Griffon's which I fear may not be enough. That is the reason why I chose Crescent Moon.

With hoto, is the damage still enough to kill those burning souls/storm casters etc quickly in 8-player games?

I'm afraid not. I used to use my Light sorc for MF solo runs, and she had around 25k to 30k damage. With just Infinity and no Griff / facets (cant remember if I had Eschuta or not either :/), she had no problem with the burning souls or storm casters. If you feel its worth sacrificing for HOTO's awesome mods, then go for it I'd say.

 

[UberB]

Re: Help on my Light sorc, low life and Crescent moon vs Hoto

It looks like I've been blindly going for the -lightning resistance instead of paying attention to what I give up with it

Hoto seems to be the superior option for me.

 

[zaxcloudo]

Re: Help on my Light sorc, low life and Crescent moon vs Hoto

It looks like I've been blindly going for the -lightning resistance instead of paying attention to what I give up with it

kinda sounds like a sad love story
now i feel depressed... >_<

 

[ancalagon]

Re: Help on my Light sorc, low life and Crescent moon vs Hoto

kinda sounds like a sad love story
now i feel depressed... >_<

LOL, how funny that iS!