Matriarch nova (I bet you'll never guess the build!)

[little birdy]

Yes, of course, she is a Nova Sorceress. Just completed Hell difficulty at level 81, and then hit level 82 in one pass through the Terrorized Barracks and Jail.



STATS
nova (Level 82)
Strength: 65 (89 w/ gear)
Dexterity: 25 (47)
Vitality: 10 (57)
Energy: 400 (447)
Life: 404 (536 w/ Oak Sage from Nature's Peace)
Mana: 1933
Fire/Cold/Lightning/Poison Res: 53/58/36/72
90% FHR
110% FCR

SKILLS
Nova, Static Field, Lightning Mastery, Telekinesis: 20 (29 w/ gear)
Energy Shield: 7 (16) [rest of points of course go here)
Teleport, Frozen Armor, Warmth, and prereqs in Lightning tree: 1 (10)

GEAR (Final)
'Obsession' War Staff (on loan from my Fire Ball Sorc who now uses Tal's set)
Griffon's Eye (w/ Lightning Facet... +4/-5 IIRC...)
Que-Hegan's Wisdom (might socket it, got another Facet kicking around... but I might change the armor altogether... undecided)
Mara's (+24 all res.)
Frostburn
Gloom's Trap
Silkweave
Stone of Jordan
Raven Frost / Nature's Peace (depending on the situation)
Lightning Sunder
Misc. charms with life, mana, resistances (I have zero Lightning skillers)
Druid torch for an extra +17 attributes / +14 all res.

This was a super fun playthrough. Should have tried Nova sooner! But... it has been a crazy busy summer and I have had precious little time to play games. She had been stalled at the beginning of Act V Hell since the end of May IIRC. Finally got some time to power through Act V tonight.

This was my first time (that I can recall ) playing a Nova build, or any sort of Energy Shield build for that matter. As a result, I set a couple of loose goals for myself that I thought my help me better experience what this Energy Shield thing is all about:

• Allot stat points with a max Energy approach in mind. Just enough Strength and then everything else into Energy. More Mana will be a good thing, right?
• Prioritize gear that has Mana or Energy bonuses, even if it isn't necessarily the best item I have available for that slot. Even more Mana will be an even gooder thing, right..!?
• No respec'ing, no leveling with different skills, rely on Nova straight from level 12 to really get a feel for how this build performs across all three difficulties.

So, yeah, more mana was supposed to make my Energy Shield more impenetrable. In practice, it didn't feel like that, and some extra points in Vitality would have been wiser IMO. My resistances were also quite bad at points, so that was another factor... but whatever. I could have of course tried a bit harder to learn more about how Energy Shield works to make more informed decisions, but trial and error is more fun.

Normal and NM were a cakewalk. I zipped through much of Normal on p1, with a bit of targetted EXP grinding on p8 at certain spots, until I was able to equip some of my early twinking items. Then I turned it up to p8 and didn't look back until the end of NM. The most important items: 'Insight' on the mercenary, and the Razorswitch unique Jo Staff for my character. Razorswitch is a nifty little staff, somewhat underrated IMO. Obviously I could have equipped a 'Spirit' sword, but I prefer the aesthetics of a Sorc with a staff.

In Hell, I toned it down to p1, because, well, that's what I pretty much always do. At the start of Hell, my resistances were in the negatives and my Life was sub-300, so p1 was dangerous enough even with some pretty solid gear and Energy Shield absorbing an OK amount of damage.

When I sat down to play tonight, I decided to make my life easier and shake up some of the gear to get my resistances out of the red. That was really helpful.

• Out went Crescent Moon (unique amulet, originally selected for the Mana bonus) and in came Mara's.
• Out went some junk charms found along the way to make room for the Druid torch plus a +12 all res. Grand Charm. That was very helpful! I still had a Grand Charm with +5 Life taking up space in my inventory, so it was easy to purge and make room

Act V Hell went very smoothly except for the Frozen River. I died a bunch in there. All avoidable, I'm sure. I was being dumb. Got lucky in the WSK / Throne Room to not find Souls. Baal's minions, and then Baal, went down without much trouble.

So, yeah, I had fun with nova and definitely intend to keep leveling her up in Terror Zones, keep messing around with the gear until I find what I think is the best setup, etc. I haven't used a respec yet, so I can play around quite a bit.

Thanks for reading if you got this far And thanks to Kasim for all the moral support throughout the playthrough. Couldn't have done it without you, buddy!

Kasim, Level 82 Deser Mercenary (Prayer)
'Insight' Thresher
'Lionheart' Wyrmhide
'Cure' Tiara

I owe this guy an armor upgrade... He rarely died though. Prayer + 'Cure' + 'Insight' is for sure a winning combo. I have a Ber rune burning a hole in my pocket, so perhaps I will reward him with a 'Chains of Honor'...

 

[TheNix]

Congratulations. Did you have any problem with the Blood Mana curse?

 

[little birdy]

Congratulations. Did you have any problem with the Blood Mana curse?

Thanks! Yeah, the Blood Mana curse is a nuisance. It makes you slow down a bit. This is an example of where the merc’s ‘Cure’ helm really helps. Cleansing aura makes it go away fairly quickly. I’d just teleport to a safe space after getting cursed, wait it out, and then jump back into the fray. You win out eventually, even if it takes a bit longer.