Hardcore Frozen Orb/Fire Ball Sorceress; Socialism's Orb-it-aller

[zrk]

Re: Hardcore Frozen Orb/Fire Ball Sorceress; Socialism’s “Orb-it-allerâ€

Life loss - yes; usefulness - no. With BO and high-end stat equipment your hp cushion is large enough to handle what the game can throw at you, while if you're poor it isn't. With BO you essentially get twice as much HP for every point spent in vit, thus you get more from a vit build if you have it.

That being said, I'm not against max block if you're well equipped.

The difference in gain is integer gain, not relative gain. The relative gain from BO is the same for both full vit and block builds(aside from the tiny differences caused by different ratio of bo-able life to non-boable from sources like shako or vit build's spirit etc) as BO is a multiplicative effect in the first place.

Also, when blind teleporting, a group of monsters all start attacking a player at roughly the same time. That means that the burst damage output is very high. Now if this group happens to be a bad combination of affixes, it is totally realistic that they can pump out 5000 damage(including crits) in a burst. A vit sorc would be instantly evaporated by this(the 300 extra life from going full vit wont help there), a block sorc has a decent dice roll(+ stormshield DR) to survive it.

Why were you dying to Nightmare Mephisto? Static works to 25% HP in Nightmare, then Frozen Orb/Fireball should finish him off.

Mephisto should have been dead in seconds. I think you may need to review your tactics.

Mephs spells can do a lot of damage, especially as a lot of mid level players are using unoptimal gear for survival(after all, theres almost no guides for that purpose). Items that would provide critical survivability cushion like +life belts and armors help a ton against this

 

[hubb]

Re: Hardcore Frozen Orb/Fire Ball Sorceress; Socialism’s “Orb-it-allerâ€

As I said, I don't doubt the effectiveness of a max block build.

The difference in gain is integer gain, not relative gain. The relative gain from BO is the same for both full vit and block builds

I'm fully aware. This changes absolutely nothing regarding the point I'm making

 

[Sigh]

Re: Hardcore Frozen Orb/Fire Ball Sorceress; Socialism’s “Orb-it-allerâ€

What bonuses will I get if I just wear Tal Rasha's Helm, Belt, & Wand? I have Spirit, Lore, & Goldwrap in those places so I'm assuming I'm better off keeping those rather than having a partial set bonus, but I wanted to check and see if there was something stronger.

 

[entwilighter]

Re: Hardcore Frozen Orb/Fire Ball Sorceress; Socialism’s “Orb-it-allerâ€

You will get the following set bonuses:

Replenish Life 10
65% Better Chance of Finding Magic Items

10% Faster Cast Rate (belt)
60 Defense (belt)

-15 to Enemy Fire Resistance (stave)
+1 to Sorceress Skills (stave)

That's on top of the items themselves. I didn't equip the helm until I could equip the armor. I was using PCrown and then Shako until then. Lore would work fine too. Spirit would also be fine instead of the Lidless Eye, depending on your Mana/FCR/FHR resistance needs, etc.

What I mean is, the full set bonus is pretty far superior.

 

[Kretschmer]

Re: Hardcore Frozen Orb/Fire Ball Sorceress; Socialism’s “Orb-it-allerâ€

How much slower is FO/CL than FO/FB?

(Utwinked, so assuming spirits/vipermagi/etc for leveling.)

 

[SpecterX]

Re: Hardcore Frozen Orb/Fire Ball Sorceress; Socialism’s “Orb-it-allerâ€

Hi,

First off, thank you so much for the insightful post! I started D2 again for the first time since 2001, and after screwing up my build a bit (especially being completely untwinked) I have been using this as a guide and I wanted to thank the creator and all others for the helpful comments.

I'm looking for some help since I am struggling pretty mightily for gear. I understand this build isn't based off the gear, but I figured I'd have a lot better than I have currently, and I wouldn't drain mana as quickly as I do.

Level: 76

My Gear Setup is as follows:
Head: "Lore" Circlet
Weapon: "Spirit" Crystal Sword
Shield: "Rhyme" Kite Shield
Armor: "Stealth" Serpent Armor
Hands: The Hand of Broc
Ring1: Manald Heal
Ring2: Havoc Gyre - +30 - Fire Res +5HealthReplen +1Mana after Kill +8 MF
Belt: Bladebuckle
Feet: Infernostride
Amulet: Havoc Heart - +1Sorc Skills, +9% Light/Fire/Pois Res, +33% Cold Res +4HealthReplen

Obviously there are things that need to be replaced here.

My Skill Setup is as follows:
----Not including +Skills from armor
Fire Skills:
Firebolt: 10
Fireball: 20
Warmth: 3
Inferno/Blaze/Firewall: 1
Meteor: 3
Fire Mastery: 1
----I was going Meteor/Orb before I found this build which I tend to enjoy a lot more

Cold Skills:
Ice Bolt: 4
Shiver Armor: 1
Pre-Reqs for Orb: 1
Frozen Orb: 20
Cold Mastery: 10

Lightning Skills:
Static Field: 1
TK: 1
Teleport: 1

Attribute Points:
----These are WITH bonuses
Strength:140
Dexterity:41
Vitality:242
Energy:90

Yes, I know a respec would be good, but I'm not sure how much strength I should put in as a base, I've read prepare for your highest needed strength item, which I am preparing for the Monarch Shield. My Energy is a bit higher from lower level spending and because with my gear it helps a bit.

Right now, I haven't killed NM Baal because I try to do group Baal Runs on Bnet. Solo, I can safely TP to NM Andy, Kind-of Safely TP to NM Meph (sometimes the Stygian Dolls rock me especially if I can't find Lvl3 quickly - loss of too much mana from teleporting to the wrong area).

I have either had REALLY bad luck (I finally found a 4 socket Scythe, but the game dropped and didn't save it so I still don't have Insight on my Merc) or I'm doing something wrong. Should I be soloing NM Baal now? Where should I be going. This gear seems very subpar for where I am.

Please let me know. Thank again for all the help.

 

[Krupa]

Re: Hardcore Frozen Orb/Fire Ball Sorceress; Socialism’s “Orb-it-allerâ€

my 0.02$:

having rhyme without actually using block seems wasted imo. high blockrate makes teleporting on a low fcr much safer. to achieve that, i´d make a rhyme in a boneshield or tower shield. the loss of life is easily compensated by blokcing 75% of all physical attacks.
otherwise i´d use a splendor shield with skill and fcr.
the hand of broc is not very useful. u should either try to get magefists (skill, fcr, mane regen), frostburns for the increased mana or craft caster gloves, if those are unavailable
i´d also try to craft a caster belt. it will probably do u more good than the bladebuckle. fhr is more than coverd by the spirit sword. for armor i´d switch to lionheart. with its huge stat and res bonus its very useful. another fine choice would be smoke (that is if skin of the vipermagi is unavailable)

 

[SpecterX]

Re: Hardcore Frozen Orb/Fire Ball Sorceress; Socialism’s “Orb-it-allerâ€

my 0.02$:

having rhyme without actually using block seems wasted imo. high blockrate makes teleporting on a low fcr much safer. to achieve that, i´d make a rhyme in a boneshield or tower shield. the loss of life is easily compensated by blokcing 75% of all physical attacks.
otherwise i´d use a splendor shield with skill and fcr.
the hand of broc is not very useful. u should either try to get magefists (skill, fcr, mane regen), frostburns for the increased mana or craft caster gloves, if those are unavailable
i´d also try to craft a caster belt. it will probably do u more good than the bladebuckle. fhr is more than coverd by the spirit sword. for armor i´d switch to lionheart. with its huge stat and res bonus its very useful. another fine choice would be smoke (that is if skin of the vipermagi is unavailable)

I agree with the Smoke/Lionheart, however, referring to my prior post, I have been incredibly unlucky and my highest Rune at the moment is HEL. Magefist and Frostburns fall under the unlucky category.

I will start looking for a Bone Shield/Tower Shield with two sockets so I can put Rhyme in it. How high do I need to respec my Dexterity to so that I can be max block. I've read 75%, but how many points of Dexterity is that actually?

Thanks for the tips, I'll start running Countess again, maybe I'll get something other than normal runes.

 

[zrk]

Re: Hardcore Frozen Orb/Fire Ball Sorceress; Socialism’s “Orb-it-allerâ€

I agree with the Smoke/Lionheart, however, referring to my prior post, I have been incredibly unlucky and my highest Rune at the moment is HEL. Magefist and Frostburns fall under the unlucky category.

I will start looking for a Bone Shield/Tower Shield with two sockets so I can put Rhyme in it. How high do I need to respec my Dexterity to so that I can be max block. I've read 75%, but how many points of Dexterity is that actually?

Thanks for the tips, I'll start running Countess again, maybe I'll get something other than normal runes.

You might want to calculate ur stats for stormshield because thats the end-game max blocker de-facto shield anyway.

 

[darkstarhub]

Re: Hardcore Frozen Orb/Fire Ball Sorceress; Socialism’s “Orb-it-allerâ€

I had found way more uniques than you have by the time I was at level 76. I had 3 pul runes drop by level 76 and a ton of unique boots, gloves, armor, belts, and helms. You should do a respec to put the wasted points in meteor and prereqs into orb, cold mastery, fire mastery, or fire bolt. You would be better off putting points in Cold Mastery before Ice bolt, as the synergy is only 2% for Ice bolt. How many of your respecs have you used? Try to find some Magic find gear and do some Andy, Pindle, Shenk, Eldritch, and countess runs. I found loads of uniques from Andy. Look for a decent 4 socket armor and put 4 PTopaz in it. I used a Gothic Plate, then an Archon Plate, and then I finally found a Skullders. If you need dex numbers for shields, look in the Meteorb guide thread that is in the sorc forum with this guide, it is the best write up I have ever seen for a sorceress even if you are not going with meteorb. I went with the orbitaller with my second respec and I am doing decent in hell. I am at level 83 now and I can tank anything in nightmare when I went back for a little bit to farm meph a little more.

 

[SpecterX]

Re: Hardcore Frozen Orb/Fire Ball Sorceress; Socialism’s “Orb-it-allerâ€

I had found way more uniques than you have by the time I was at level 76. I had 3 pul runes drop by level 76 and a ton of unique boots, gloves, armor, belts, and helms. You should do a respec to put the wasted points in meteor and prereqs into orb, cold mastery, fire mastery, or fire bolt. You would be better off putting points in Cold Mastery before Ice bolt, as the synergy is only 2% for Ice bolt. How many of your respecs have you used? Try to find some Magic find gear and do some Andy, Pindle, Shenk, Eldritch, and countess runs. I found loads of uniques from Andy. Look for a decent 4 socket armor and put 4 PTopaz in it. I used a Gothic Plate, then an Archon Plate, and then I finally found a Skullders. If you need dex numbers for shields, look in the Meteorb guide thread that is in the sorc forum with this guide, it is the best write up I have ever seen for a sorceress even if you are not going with meteorb. I went with the orbitaller with my second respec and I am doing decent in hell. I am at level 83 now and I can tank anything in nightmare when I went back for a little bit to farm meph a little more.

Don't get me wrong, I have found a good bit of uniques. However, these uniques are useless to me, I have found at least 3 Dark Clan Crudgels on 3 different Andy Runs, I've found my Manald Heal from Andy, found 3 Cathan's Rings from 3 different Andy Runs, found a ton of unique Xbows/Bows, lots of Barbarian Equipment. The Magefist/FrostBurns, Skin of Vipermagi (until today I got it from Meph) and other useful Uniques/Sets have eluded me. It's one of the reasons at 76 I am still using The Hand of Broc because I haven't found anything, not even a Rare that is better.

My luck on Socketed items (2 socket Grim Shield, 4 socket any-type Polearm, 4 Socket Armor) and Runes however have been completely unlucky. Highest, I've seen is a Ko.

I have made a "MF Set" which is pretty awful, but I use it for Andy/Shenk (Meph is a little more risky because of what I lose), I have a 3 Socket Gothic Plate with PTopaz 2 Socket Helm with PTopaz a 20% Ring and a 26% Ammy.

I'll take a look at that post and see what I can find so I can use my respec wisely for the stat points. Thanks for the advice.

 

[Eoanthropus]

Re: Hardcore Frozen Orb/Fire Ball Sorceress; Socialism’s “Orb-it-allerâ€

An excellent build, my Orbitaller became my first character to ever finish Hell.

Since many monsters in Hell have some degree of Cold resistance, I would think that shaving a few points of Ice Bolt and putting them into Cold Mastery would be a good idea, since if I understood correctly, Cold Mastery will yield more damage for Orb than Icebolt synergy until the target reaches -100 cold resistance. Any thoughts?

My apologies if this has been said before, but I don't feel like ploughing through 16 pages.

Thanks for the great build Socialism

 

[peddroelm]

Re: Hardcore Frozen Orb/Fire Ball Sorceress; Socialism’s “Orb-it-allerâ€

Giving Diablo II a new go after a few years break...

Going to attempt a untwinked Hardcore singleplayer run using the dual element sorc - FO/FB.

The way I understand this guide this is to be a glass cannon build - kind of stealth bomber - droping the payload and changing position before any possible retaliation. Always changing position and keeping the merc between the frail sorc and danger...[speed, mobility, high damage from range].

ATM I've made it to Act2 [lvl 23] without hicups. The only pieces of gear worth mentioning are two 10 FCR magic rings and the +3 FB +1 Warmth shopped staff. FB killing speed is great even with /players 8.

Lvl 1 Teleport's mana cost is exorbitant[rare convenience//emergency uses] so I'm still a little way of the trademark modbility this build emphasises. Hopefully I'll get there if I don't manage to kill her first ..

Will have to produce better gear soon[Leaf,Lore,Stealth,..] as for the moment Duriel looks mighty threatening ...

 

[Mixtures]

Re: Hardcore Frozen Orb/Fire Ball Sorceress; Socialism’s “Orb-it-allerâ€

Great build. With full tal's set this build has given me no problems when dealing with Hell. Thanks again!

 

[mrhuat]

Re: Hardcore Frozen Orb/Fire Ball Sorceress; Socialism’s “Orb-it-allerâ€

yea this build is great! Just respec into this from a pure frozen orb, it absolutely owns in all act1-act3 lvl85 areas!

 

[peddroelm]

Re: Hardcore Frozen Orb/Fire Ball Sorceress; Socialism’s “Orb-it-allerâ€

Going to attempt a untwinked Hardcore singleplayer run using the dual element sorc - FO/FB.

Will have to produce better gear soon[Leaf,Lore,Stealth,..] as for the moment Duriel looks mighty threatening ...

Made it to lvl 77 so far [act 1 hell].

Drilled NM andariel&mef for some equipment ... Occulus,Duriel's shell, wristan's guard, magefists, Tal Rasha's Helm&Orb, magic ring 10 FCR/120 mana, GC 12 FHR/+48 mana ...

800+ life, 500+ mana, good block, maxed NM rezists, decent FCR - NM is no longer a challenge even in players 8. On hell Act 1 progress was slow..

Will have to drill NM Andy and Mef some more before venturing into hell...In NM you can sacrifice FCR in order to get other critical stuff such as rezists or + cold skills damage ...
On hell you need full rezists + full power of both FO and FB. FB NEEDS decent FCR to be effective - the need for good equipment is much higher...


[the repetitive mf runs quickly bore me so I also started a untwinked avenger run ...it pains me to sell all those juicy avenger items found by the sorc but he must fend for himself ]

 

[SpecterX]

Re: Hardcore Frozen Orb/Fire Ball Sorceress; Socialism’s “Orb-it-allerâ€

I have been running this build and LOVE it.

Question about it though, I'm 87 with a friend of mine (barb 86) and we just tried (key word there) our first Uber Run, and well I started the run 1/2 through 87 and ended beginning at 87 and started with 1.5M ended with 250K.

We did finish with help from a Pally friend. I don't think we would have been able to do it without him. I digress, how can I maximize this build to work for ubers (or can I)? I find ubers incredibly challenging, and much more fun that doing chaos/baal runs with bots. Any thoughts? Would love to know.

Gear:
Full Tal's
Rings: Dwarf Star/Raven Frost
Boots: Infernostride
Gloves: Magefist

P.S. I cant tell you how many times my merc died in there.

 

[peddroelm]

Re: Hardcore Frozen Orb/Fire Ball Sorceress; Socialism’s “Orb-it-allerâ€

...our first Uber Run, and well I started the run 1/2 through 87 and ended beginning at 87 and started with 1.5M ended with 250K.

We did finish with help from a Pally friend. I don't think we would have been able to do it without him...

This is not a build for taking on the Ubers...

 

[wannsolo]

Re: Hardcore Frozen Orb/Fire Ball Sorceress; Socialism’s “Orb-it-allerâ€

what about stat points? i didn't see a section for that... should I get strength up to a necessary level for gear and then the rest into vitality and mana?

 

[Pyrotechnician1]

Re: Hardcore Frozen Orb/Fire Ball Sorceress; Socialism’s “Orb-it-allerâ€

For any sorc its always going to be just enough str to equip your gear. Dex is completely dependent on if your going for max block, if your using spirit monarch like the setup used in the guide I would not recommend it as it would take way to much dex. Vitality is your main point for stat points, every extra point you have should go here. Energy is usually base if you have a sufficient gear setup, especially if you have insight on your mercenary as this is usually an infinite supply of mana.