Okok, showtime then.
Build:
Normal/NM was rushed with pretty standard progression Envy suit+bow -> Hax 1.09 Ravenclaw -> Enchant+Razortail+Kuko -> +max skill Blizzard. Sorcs are my favourite class partly because how easily they can skip the tutorial parts of the game. She was then leveled on NM Eldritch -> Pindle -> waves to 78 and after quick respec and upon entering Hell she assumed her final form:
Warmth - 20
Fire Mastery - 20
Frozen Armor - 1 (rest went here after maxing TS)
Cold Mastery - 1
Teleport - 1
Thunderstorm - 15 - (later maxed this)
Lightning Mastery - 20
+prereqs
And obviously - Vengeance - 0
She had (after BC) +5 on main switch and +10 on prebuff for Frozen Armor and TS, plus Demon Limb for Enchant in Cube
Gear:
I had few gear options in mind, but after seeing her in Shako and waking up soaking in cold sweat multiple times from the horrific dreams it brought the night after I just ditched that option, went on pilgrimage to Lausanne and swore on Coco Chanels grave that I shall make the setup with Kira work:
Kingslayer Glorious Axe (First roll - 231, second roll 232, third roll 231, I mean RLY game? Finally 262%ED. Yes I'm out of Guls now)
Kira's (Shael, 64 AllRes)
CoH AP (Yes I'm also out of Bers now. I was saving it for Beast. No biggie though, it's not like the next project is about shapeshifters or smth.)
Laying of Hands
String of Ears (8% LL, 14% DR)
Wartravs
Highlord's
Bkwb (5% LL)
Carrion Wind (9% LL - I considered another bkwb, but those CtC 'nados are just too many stylepoints to pass. Also, I have found only one bkwb ever. Yeah that's probably the main reason, thinking about it in retrospect ...)
Switch: Eshutas (+3 skills, +15 fire skill, -4/+5fire facet) + Spirit Monarch -> she hits 85 fcr (9 frames)
A5 Merc: eth Wampgaze(15ias/13allres), eth Duriel's Shell (shael), eth Beta Crescent Moon Highland Blade
Charms: 70 max damage, 468 ar, 5-158 lightning dmg, 27 cold res, 218 life, 10 frw, 5 fhr
She hits 9 frame fhr breakpoint, 11 frame attack (9 with faith rogue), has stacked max resists, 22% DR and 30% leech. Life - it depends on the level of BO 1500-2000. I brought my CtA with the ability to cast lvl 21 BO total, but Maxicek is a filthy haxxor and was providing the party with his lvl25 one, but I kinda anticipated poor sods like me with pathetic +12BO CtA's would be utterly useless in a group of haxxors like this, so I brought the Eshutas as plan B.
Gameplay:
Well. The party had druid with spirit and BO higher than most barbs, Faith rogue, Infinity/might desert merc, Pride merc too at some point, Holy Freeze paladin, uh, what else, yeah, my merc with 20% CtC static across the whole screen. Like 134 minions. Yeh. Oh, and everyone was dealing rainbow damage. Overpowered is an understatement. So my contribution to the party was mainly burning 90% of my Enchant charges on random skeleton mages in vain effort to click on an actual party member and telebombing shamen and looking nice. And having a blast, oh my, LEEROY! Absolute blast, I didnt have such fun in D2 for a long time, massive thanks to
@maxicek for hosting this madness and for the squad for being awesome. And in the end, I had a chance to play the last half of the act V solo (/p1), so here are my main observations in no particular order:
- I knew she will be fragile, but it was better than expected. You just have to maneuvre you way a bit and avoid getting swarmed, but teleport and ok-ish fhr are an excellent tools for that.
- Also frozen armor rock. It is a literal life saver for extrafast packs, stairtraps or when you teleport and are stupid at the same time.
- I was afraid of single swing attack, but sorcs are for some weird reason really fast with two handed axes and the 11frame attack didnt bother me a bit. Pleasantly surprised here, I should explore this teritorry more.
- 30% leech on the other hand was pretty weak with this build. Ton of unleechables everywhere. Low physical dps most of the time. I would try drac's next time.
- TS actually did kill stuff. Maybe up to 20% of all damage dealt? I usually telestomped shaman/caster/lasher and when he was dead, most of his pack was seriously injured by static and/or finished by the TS. It worked really well with this playstyle.
- Speaking of static - it came from the beta crescent moon I made ages ago when rushing mules for the beta CtA from the leftovers I had. And it worked GREAT. Really great merc overall. He actually went and ATTACKED stuff instead of hiding somewhere, managed not to die a lot, the CtC chainlightning also killed a lot of stuff, he himself killed a lot of stuff, stunned monsters everywhere, I think with delirium he will be an excellent team member. Yeah he pretty much took out might/extra strong Lister by himself. I will definitely use him much more.
- I questioned my choice to go without ES first, I really like ES builds with Insight a lot, but then wave 3,4 and 5 spawned mana burn so .. that would have been an esc&exit.
- Ancients were divided and conquered. The whirler whirled like 80% of my lifebulb in one whirl, so I let merc do it and that was it. I really really like this merc. No juves consumed, as I didn't have any. I don't remember what mods, but without those pesky resistances to worry about they just feel like you play on nightmare. And that's my feeling overall with vengeance - /p1 hell plays pretty much like /p8 NM with a nasty surprise here and there.
- AR, well LCS said 40% to hit hell Ball. Most of the time it was around 70-80%, meh, close enough. With conviction around in MP, majority of whiffs were due to desync I think.
- She was fun. More fun solo that I'd expect. Stylish equip, CtC fun ('nados rock!), never really boring, always something to do, always something to look at, 8/10 would do it again.
Tl;Dr:
Obviously, the main reason for this project was the MP fun, but I'd say if you have the gear and want to try something a little bit different in the land of sorc, try her. Get Infinity might merc with Delirium and slap some Dracul's on her and she might even be quite strong.
Also mp sept +1!
Also - she's still a sorc in her hearth so I cloud not let those Frostburns just expire on the groud and I did pick another LoH, because two LoH are better than one LoH. Im not sharing
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