HELP: ultimate PvM Lightning sorc gear/skill tree

[chrisjsayshey]

HELP: ultimate PvM Lightning sorc gear/skill tree

i need some opinions on the best gear/skills for a 1.12 lightning sorc, mainly for rushing/hell baal runs/ possibly meph (assuming an items price doesnt matter [and items are perfect], and the sorc has ani, torch, +light skill charms). I have some ideas but im not sure about certain item combinations being better than others. by better i mean overall, considering resistances, and damage

what im thinking
sorc gear:
Helm: Shako / griffons eye?
Armor: Chains of Honor ?
Weapon: Eschuta's Temper - 3Skills/20LD / or HOTO? / or crescent moon?
Shield: Spirit Monarch - 25-34% FCR
Amulet: Mara Kaleidoscope
Ring: 2 x Stone of Jordan
Belt: Arachnid Mesh
Glove: Magefist
Boots: Sandstorm Trek

light facet jewels will be thrown in wherever possible as long as resists are maxed

i'm not sure what combinations of these items would work best... any help would be appreciated. also looking for other options on the shield.. not willing to use all those str stat points to use a monarch

mercenary act 2 freeze merc (is this the best one?)
weapon: infinity cryptic axe
helm: andy's visage
armor: fortitude? i'm not sure

Skill tree. For those with lightning sorc's im wondering which build they find works best for PvM. energy shield build? or the vit build.

anyways any constructive comments would be helpful... if you think you have equipment combos that would be more effective please post. thank you

 

[RayCastle]

Re: HELP: ultimate PvM Lightning sorc gear/skill tree

Personally I like using a Act 2 prayer merc with Infinity, quite sure the Meditation synergizes with Prayer giving some awesome Mana/Health regen.

 

[KillaMike]

Re: HELP: ultimate PvM Lightning sorc gear/skill tree

set up i ll try to attend next ladder season:

eth infinity scythe for sexy looks.
upped viper magi with gul / shael ( 5% max mana or 20fhr )
griffon eye with RBF in it
arach belt
soj
soj
upped mage fist
silkweave boots
sorc amulet with 2 skills 20 fcr and other godly mods as add on

1 torch + 1 anni with 3-4 skillers and 2-3 mana GC.

memory staff on switch for awesome level 40 ES.

and bo barb in game with high bo level to make me godlike XD

skills:

maxed TK
enough skills to reach lvl 40 ES with prebuffing gear
maxed Lighting
maxed LM
maxed Bolts
and rest points into Nova + CL
not forget 1 pt wounder skills.

/e merc gear:

eth CV insight
eth Gbane
eth Andy face

holy freeze or healing aura, not sure yet

 

[Scudstorm]

Re: HELP: ultimate PvM Lightning sorc gear/skill tree

holy freeze or healing aura, not sure yet

HF would prolly be better for HC. Prayer is good for lazy people (like me) who like to see the bulb fill up by itself, but it really does not offer more survivability than chugging healing pots...

 

[chrisjsayshey]

Re: HELP: ultimate PvM Lightning sorc gear/skill tree

some questions mike...
1) the double infinity mods stack? -99-110 enemy lightning reistance?.
2)would that be more effective than eschutas +40% Faster Cast Rate +10-20% To Lightning Skill Damage and +20-30 To Energy (nice with the ES build)? also this would cost you the use of a shield. or is this purely for looks?
3) hell resists would seem to be very low

 

[Scudstorm]

Re: HELP: ultimate PvM Lightning sorc gear/skill tree

1) the double infinity mods stack? -99-110 enemy lightning reistance?.
2)would that be more effective than eschutas +40% Faster Cast Rate +10-20% To Lightning Skill Damage and +20-30 To Energy (nice with the ES build)? also this would cost you the use of a shield. or is this purely for looks?
3) hell resists would seem to be very low

1) If you meant whether the -ELR mods stack when you have Infy on both you can your merc, the answer is no. Your merc's Infy's -ELR doesn't work in the first place.

If you're wondering whether -ELR stack with Conviction, than the answer is yes.

In both cases your numbers are off And he's using Insight on the merc...

2) Eschuta's is junk. Either use a HotO or a Crescent Moon if you're not carrying Infinity yourself.

3) With good gear they would not. Remember, you have charms.

 

[KillaMike]

Re: HELP: ultimate PvM Lightning sorc gear/skill tree

some questions mike...
3) hell resists would seem to be very low

3) With good gear they would not. Remember, you have charms.

just reminder for ES users, resistance does not matter, it gets counted AFTER your es is down, by which case, you ll be dead.

ES 95% counted at 0% resistance, and your resistance counts when your ES is down. so there is really no point at trying to sorb anything, or have extremely high resistance such as your ES will be abused before you could sorb anything.

only thing that ES doesnt work is: Poison ( thats where 75% poison length reduction amulet is at its best ) and open wound.

ES sorc, needs no resistance beside poison.

so as you could see, having high resistance is absolutely pointless.

edit:

Poison and Resists

Energy Shield is applied before resists so the mana damage effectively has Resist 0 for Fire, Lightning and Cold Resistance. Poison goes straight through ES, so a good poison resistance / some Antidote potions are essential. Andariels Vissage is an excellent way to get a strong Poison Resistance, allowing upto 85% Poison Resist.

from threat: how to make energy shield working for you ( just on top of page )

 

[chrisjsayshey]

Re: HELP: ultimate PvM Lightning sorc gear/skill tree

2) Eschuta's is junk. Either use a HotO or a Crescent Moon if you're not carrying Infinity yourself. - which of these would be best for the ES build.. hoto crescent moon or infinity.

-also is using infinity on the merc a good idea? or is insight better because of the ES build..

also, is vipermagi gul or shael'd the optimal armor for this build

p.s. thank you both for all your help.. very useful

 

[KillaMike]

Re: HELP: ultimate PvM Lightning sorc gear/skill tree

hoto is nice, because it has 15% max mana, 3 skills with 40 FCR
eschuta is nice, because it can have 20% to lighting damage, what can be translated as additional 2 pts into Lighting Mastery, which concludes that HOTO> Eschuta for es build.

crescent moon is nice, when you lucking -elr to kill LI monsters after infinity on your merc breaks it down. ( personally i d use oculus then crescent moon )

second of all, infinity on merc is standard for lighting-sorc-tm

however, i am going to use it in my hands for simple reason: it has -55enemy lighting resistance which helps a lot.

Q. why wear it on you when you got merc?

A. because -elr on infi from merc doesnt affect them for your toon, aka when he attacks, he got -55% elr and you not, so you need to make it with Griffon eye and other -elr gear.

INFI vs HOTO vs ESCHUTA

hoto can be paired with spirit, and you can have some block now, and better fcr, and that can make your life SOOOOO MUCH EASIER.

true, but you ll need to have a lot of -elr to fetch from somewhere else, and only possible source can be griffon, when can have of -20 elr and with rainbow facet, can have -25 ELR.

that is good, but your merc barely breaks lighting immunity and you ll still have to spend a lot of lighting to finish of souls.

eschuta: 3 skills, fcr, upto 40 energy with 20% to lighting skills, can be socketed with RBF to get -5/25. also can be pared up with shield.

easchuta is better then hoto, because eschuta's mana bonus, can be bo'ed, there for better potential for more mana then HoTO, but people want str bugged look, so they ll choose hoto for poison resistance and neglect other nice mods that they just ignore.

infinity: -55 enemy lighting resistence, paired up with griffon eye -25 elr = -70 elr with addition help of infinity makes nearly all LI monster's to have lighting resistance of around 0. makes EVERYTHING incredibly easy to kill.

also got some walking / run speed on it, with mf making it just awesome.

infinity on merc is always good idea to use, but there is no point of having 2 infinities on merc and sorc, such as, conviction aura does not stack like holy shock from 2 dream runewords, and bonus of -elr only applies to wearer.

vipermagi to be socketed with either gul or shael is my choice, it also can be socketed with perfict saphire or ruby for higher life/mana, but i find those 2 runes to stand out above others in my eyes

 

[chrisjsayshey]

Re: HELP: ultimate PvM Lightning sorc gear/skill tree

so you are saying use inifinity on sorc over eschuta/hoto paired with spirit? and if this is the case it would be best to put insight on the merc instead of another infinity.

 

[chrisjsayshey]

Re: HELP: ultimate PvM Lightning sorc gear/skill tree

also, what about using say ormus' robes instead of vapermagi. you lose 10% FCR but the
+10-15% to Lightning Skill Damage, +10-15% Mana Regen, + 3 to random Sorceress Skill
could make this worth it, couldn't it. like you say, the only resist that matters is poison, so if that can be brought up high enough without vapermagi, wouldn't this be the best armor?

 

[KillaMike]

Re: HELP: ultimate PvM Lightning sorc gear/skill tree

also, what about using say ormus' robes instead of vapermagi. you lose 10% FCR but the
+10-15% to Lightning Skill Damage, +10-15% Mana Regen, + 3 to random Sorceress Skill
could make this worth it, couldn't it. like you say, the only resist that matters is poison, so if that can be brought up high enough without vapermagi, wouldn't this be the best armor?

1post: yes

2nd post:

nope, because 10 fcr less = you have to find 10fcr ring to get to 117 bp for lighting.

10-15% do absolutly next to nothing when your damage already 20k+

and i just like looks of that armour on my sorc ( i am style addictive )

and you still forgetting, viper magi has 35% all res, including poison

as lighting sorc, for you more important -elr then +lighting skills damage.

also, i am going to use charged bolts WITH lighting and CL, all mixed up, so +3 to ES would be nice for prebuffing, but then it would be too much hassle for me, i just prefer viper's

but nothing wrong with testing

side note:

use edit button, double posting can be annoying

 

[Scudstorm]

Re: HELP: ultimate PvM Lightning sorc gear/skill tree

just reminder for ES users, resistance does not matter, it gets counted AFTER your es is down, by which case, you ll be dead.

Why'd you be dead? ES sorcs don't die to every Manaburn mob...

And in cases where ES drop to non-manaburn sources (typically some crazy elemental damage since ES doesn't count resistances), you'll need resists the most when your ES drops.

For an ES sorc, resists are more of a life saver in dire situations than a regular dmg reduc source.

A note on CM vs Infy:

I wouldn't recommend carrying Infy unless you run CS a lot or are an ES sorc in dire need of Meditation (which you shouldn't if you have very nice gear, we're talking about the "ultimate" pvm setup here).

Why? Because:

1. You're not a CB/Nova sorc. You want your enemies around your merc, not yourself. So around your merc is where you want your Conviction to be;

2. You will use Griffon's, and Griff + CM = plenty -ELR already. By carrying Infy, you'll lose all the juicy mods on Spirit and gain only -20ELR extra. When you already have more than -60ELR, that's not good enough.

3. If you want absolutely that much -ELR, CM + 20/20 JMoD > Infy.

Note on Eschuta's:

Since its +dmg% is a crap mod, it will win over HotO only if you need that socket for a facet. In that case, the +resists on HotO will easily let you free up another socket in another piece of equip. Or a couple skillers' space in term of charms.

Now, imho when you talk about an "ultimate" sorc build, you shouldn't stop your fcr at 117. 200 all the way! Those chicks can get the throne portal up just as you join the baal run.

 

[bergbusen]

Re: HELP: ultimate PvM Lightning sorc gear/skill tree

I totally agree that eshuta is so crap that i dont even bother to pick it up, it´s adds so little damage it´s ridicouls, like 300 and that dosn´t matter when u have like 27k lightning. Cresent moon i gonna try if i can get that 117 fcr.

For armor i think up´g viper with sol is the way to go for ES sorc, unless u have a 3skill, 25 pdr amu (impossible to find, i got a 3,11 pdr now). I have to sugesst one more armor, Enigma. I now many dissagree, but when u look at stats it´s really great.

Enigma:
x to str = more vit/energy.
x to mf%m who doesnt mf in this game.
life after kill.
2 skill.
1 to tele, saves 2 skills for those witout es, thats twice the damage u get from
carrying that crappy eshuta, even if its 3-20.
u ran fast + a little %damage reduc.

Coh:
the only thing thas it does better is 65@(what i think..=) ), but if u got torch,anni res usally is not an issue.

 

[mirandacore]

Re: HELP: ultimate PvM Lightning sorc gear/skill tree

I carry an infinity on my sorceress. One of the biggest problems is that she has to get close to the enemies for the conviction to kick in. Another problem is that to get the 117 fcr breakpoint she has to wear magefists, caster ammy, vipermagi, and caster rings. This hurts her +skills.

Her chain lightning does only 1-7k damage. And even though she uses ES, her health is 800, and her mana only 1.5k after battle orders from CTA. The problem is that she can't wear sojs or frosties.

On the other hand, she has two advantages over a CM/spirit build:

1. She has an extra 100 stat points to spend because she doesn't need to put any points into strength. This equates to about 350 extra life due to the life bonus from CTA.

2. Her merc can carry an ebotd eth warpike, which does insane damage, especially combined with the sorceress's conviction aura. He almost never misses, and it does 50-60% more damage than the typical eth thresher infinity. The +30 to attributes is also pretty nice for the merc. When I'm feeling lazy, I just tele into a room, sit there, and let the merc kill everything on the screen.

Her biggest problem is survivability. Her damage is fine, and she can eat through light immunes like knife through butter, but she needs more resist charms (so she won't get massacred by souls), better fcr rings, and more life. The problem is that she has to get close to the enemy for the conviction to kick in. This means that souls kill her.

But once she gets her life to 1k, resistances to 75, and mana to 2k, she'd be pretty hard to beat. As of now, the only enemies that cause trouble are souls and those glitched poison vipers in Nithalak's temple.

 

[KillaMike]

Re: HELP: ultimate PvM Lightning sorc gear/skill tree

your life / mana sounds awfully low, try to get some fcr from amulet ( i assume you using mara -,-' ) and swap ring for a soj. also, forget about full inventory of skillers, get mana charms ( small charm can be@ 20/17 and GC can be: 59mana/45hp, but cheaper cause no one knows how to use them XD )

if we talking about insanity here, then i will agree, 200fcr sorc with lighting as main attack, is VERY insane. she is fastest baal killer, and still got record for killing him under 2mins30secs with all waves ( insane, eh? ) with p1teleport p8 killing waves and p3 killing baal ( record is been holding on SP, such as people say its incredibly hard to kill baal this fast on SP. )

but i am going ES with gear i have said in my 1st post because, i find that this sorc, is safe enough to kill CS in under 1min20secs in p8 condition.







and typical, you forgetting that eschuta adds 40energy that can be bo'ed.

translating even more: 40 energy --> 3 mana per point = 120 mana. 120 + 120 / 100 * 89 = 226.8 mana after bo (if to count you have level 19 bo ). then to count all of % to max mana gear it can shoot up to 1k mana in end.

STOP SAYING ITS CRAP!!! >.< IT ISNT >.< you just not looking at mods ES sorc is interested in.

if all you care about is fcr+mana+res go back to wizzard spike with 15%res jool in it, for 90%all res 50 fcr and a huge mana boost. >.<



Fine, and now lets talk about resistence on my gear:

30 res from anay
20 res from torch
20 res from anni
35 res from vipers.
thats 5 res in hell mode, and 75% poison length reduction = you are not afraid of poison from wave 2 in baal room.

what more do you want? more res? fine: griffon + vipers, get UM in there, you got additional 30% res, you end up with 35% all res in hell mode. get 8 more 5% all res charms, and your resistance maxed.

with this set up, you ll have no DR, so you ll die to physical damage. and you have no shield, DAMN. then we shall get amulet with damage reduction, and loose 20 fcr from there, and poison length reduction. no worries, lets catch up on rings: 20 str with fcr and god like adds like mana/life and lose 50% to max mana.

/sarcasm.

set up i have provided on top of this page is more then enough to kill everything in game beside monsters that are immune to lighting after infinity and stay alive laughing at monsters. ( not, with my set up you should have at least 2.4k mana, and have small charms with mana / fhr / life )

 

[Scudstorm]

Re: HELP: ultimate PvM Lightning sorc gear/skill tree

1. She has an extra 100 stat points to spend because she doesn't need to put any points into strength. This equates to about 350 extra life due to the life bonus from CTA.

Spirit has 22 vita, ~100mana (or 50 saved points in energy), and 55 fhr. Obviously, ES sorcs have more use for the mana than vita sorcs. Don't forget Spirit users also have Spirit on switch, meaning +1 BO.

If you make me choose between 28 vita points (56 life) and 55 fhr, I choose the fhr any day

Simply cuz +life is such an easier mod to get than +fhr on charms.

1 to tele, saves 2 skills for those witout es

I would highly advice against that. Two reasons:

1. Telekinesis is very useful. Its most famous use is for knockning back unbreakable immunes for your merc to kill (mainly for the cold enchanted ones and hard hitting ones who put your merc into hit recovery, both of which will slow down the killing if not properly mollified with TK). Other than that, it can take Tps, Wps, open your chest, pick up gold, potions, keys, scrolls, pop chests, barrels, racks... Saves you bunch of time running (in town) and teleing (outside) around.

2. If you die and have a hard point in Tele, you can res your merc (who is a killing machine) and tele back to your corpse to recover your xp. This is mainly for solo MFing games. Without tele, it's much harder to get your merc where you want him to be, and if he lags behind, the naked little you will be the main point of interest of any monsters in the area.

and typical, you forgetting that eschuta adds 40energy that can be bo'ed.

translating even more: 40 energy --> 3 mana per point = 120 mana. 120 + 120 / 100 * 89 = 226.8 mana after bo (if to count you have level 19 bo ). then to count all of % to max mana gear it can shoot up to 1k mana in end.

STOP SAYING ITS CRAP!!! >.< IT ISNT >.< you just not looking at mods ES sorc is interested in.

Well I agree that I am partial to vita sorcs :whistling: But I ain't here to argue a rich SC pure light sorc has no reason to go ES.

However I find it a bit hard to believe those 40 energy can shoot up to 1k mana with BO and %max mana gear. Are you saying if I spend 200 stat poins in energy, I shall get at minimum 5k mana with your "big mana" setup?

Fine, and now lets talk about resistence on my gear:

30 res from anay
20 res from torch
20 res from anni
35 res from vipers.
thats 5 res in hell mode, and 75% poison length reduction = you are not afraid of poison from wave 2 in baal room.

The point I'm trying to make is, if you have 5 res in Hell mode on a VITA sorc, you'd get slaughtered. And if you're an ES sorc whose ES got shot down by gloams, you're exactly like a VITA sorc, just with less life. Are you sure going 5 @res is such a good idea in those situations?

On a SC ES sorc I wouldn't care so much about res. But you play HC, and playing risky isn't as recommended.

set up i have provided on top of this page is more then enough to kill everything in game beside monsters that are immune to lighting after infinity and stay alive laughing at monsters. ( not, with my set up you should have at least 2.4k mana, and have small charms with mana / fhr / life )

That's exactly what every other light sorc with Infy merc does. The ones with a lot -ELR have an easier time than the ones with too few, ofc. My sorc runs CM and has -57ELR, vita build with 1.6k life post-BO (didn't invest much into her beyond the essentials). The only times she dies are when I get carelessly stupid, such as standing right next to Geleb in NM while my merc kills it.

 

[KillaMike]

Re: HELP: ultimate PvM Lightning sorc gear/skill tree

That's exactly what every other light sorc with Infy merc does. The ones with a lot -ELR have an easier time than the ones with too few, ofc. My sorc runs CM and has -57ELR, vita build with 1.6k life post-BO (didn't invest much into her beyond the essentials). The only times she dies are when I get carelessly stupid, such as standing right next to Geleb in NM while my merc kills it.

so why should i be afraid of something? like i already mentioned, i will be using BO barb instead of cta, and his bo will be from level 40, which lasts 10mins + and gives close to 150% extra mana / life.

and i ve been playing hc for quite some time, to know what i can pull off, and what i can't. i ve experemted with different builds, and i ve found this one very interesting, and as a must have for next ladder.

she will be very safe with 4k+ mana, and 1.5k+ life ( YES, I LL BE USING BO BARB INSTEAD OF CTA ) and i dont think i ll have many problems.

and about survivability: nothing is safe in HC, even hammerdin's with 20k+ def + 24%DR + over stacked res and 4k+ hp can die damned easy