Matriarch tuyet the Blizzard Sorceress

[little birdy]

Well, it seems I have finally developed a taste for the Blizzard Sorceress!

Here she is:



Fun fact: the name is based on a Vietnamese word. Depending on the tone you use, it means either snow (tuyết) or great (tuyệt). Both accurate descriptors for this character

I have struggled to enjoy Cold Sorceresses in general since getting back into D2 via D2R. Blizzard is powerful, of course, but casting can be clunky on controller (I play on Switch). I have learned to live with that. And now that Sunder GCs are a thing in offline single player, and because they game gifted me some Cold skillers on recent MF runs, I figured: Why not try one more time?

Early on, I used a combo of Ice Blast, Static Field, and ranged attacks (Tal rune loaded Composite bow) until eventually unlocking Blizzard at level 24. No skill points were spent on unnecessary skills early on, so I have all three re-specs still. In the early going of Normal difficulty, I made liberal use of changing players settings to suit my needs to get to level 24 with minimal fuss. Once I had a few points in Blizzard, a 'Spirit' Sword, 'Insight' bow on my Rogue merc, the game stayed on /p8 until the end of NM.

NM was a cake walk. It's usually the easiest part of the game. I defeated NM Baal around level 72/73 IIRC, and then spent a bit of time in NM Terror Zones to hit level 75 and be able to equip the Cold Rupture Sunder GC.

I played Hell on /p1, but no doubt I could have adjusted that a bit higher. It just would have taken a bit longer. A combo of Static Field and Blizzard takes care of sundered cold immunes in short order, and of course all the monsters that weren't innately immune to cold just get absolutely crushed by Blizzard (and Ice Blast to clean up the stragglers).

I decided to try going for max block with the character so I could get up close to mobs and hit them with Static Field a bit more safely. That seemed to work well for me.

Only a couple of interesting finds along the way: Arioc's Needle (+4 all skills), Gul rune, and one potentially OK base for 'Mosaic'.

Matriach tuyet - Level 83

STATS
Strength: 96 (110 w/ gear)
Dexterity: 141 (190)
Vitality: 228 (242)
Energy: 35 (64)
(5 points unspent)
Life: 857
Mana: 611
Fire/Cold/Lightning/Poison res.: 66/75/75/58

SKILLS
Blizzard, Glacial Spike, Ice Blast: 20 points each (30 w/ gear)
Ice Bolt: 7 points (17 w/ gear) <--- future points will go here
Shiver Armor, Warmth, Static Field, Teleport: 1 point

GEAR
Helm: Harlequin Crest (also have a Nightwing's in the stash for situational use)
Armor: Skin of the Vipermagi (upped)
Weapon: 'Heart of the Oak' Flail (+39 all res.)
Shield: Visceratuant (upped) (P. Diamond for +19 all res.)
Wiz. Spike and Whistan's Guard on switch that I never switched to...
Gloves: Frostburn (upped to War Gauntlets)
Belt: Tal's Fine-Spun Cloth
Boots: Nat's Soul
Amulet: Saracen's Chance (+22 all res.)
Rings: Rares with cold and lightning resistances, stat bonuses, MF
Charms: 3x Cold skillers, Cold Rupture, various charms with res., life, mana, FHR

MERCENARY
Azrael - Level 83 Desert Dude (Defiance)
Weapon: 'Insight' Thresher
Helm: Tal's Horadric Crest
Armor: Black Hades (3 empty sockets)

I stuck with my Rogue merc until quite late in Hell. She was great and rarely ever died even with very poor gear. I eventually decided that a Defiance merc was the best choice for this character and made the switch, but I decided to handicap him a bit with a crummy armor. Sorry Azrael. He still didn't die much because it's easy to keep the merc relatively safe via Teleporting.

I will for sure be playing this character more in Terror Zones. She will crush Ancient Tunnels, that much I know for sure.

Thanks for reading

 

[snickersnack]

Nice write-up!

I'm itching, though .... what's that claw base for *maybe* Mosaic?

 

[Miron]

Well done, congrats!

I also want to see the claw. Any future changes in gear?

 

[little birdy]

Well done, congrats!

I also want to see the claw. Any future changes in gear?

Thanks!

I will definitely change up some of the gear if I find stuff that piques my interest. I still haven't found a Mara's in D2R. That would be a clear and obvious upgrade over Saracen's Chance. Any rare or crafted amulet with +skills and other nice mods would be an improvement, really. There is nothing special about the rare rings I'm using right now either. I am also very curious about potentially running a 'Doom' Axe with a Blizzard Sorc... but I am short a Lo and probably don't want to spend my only Ohm and Cham on that. Death's Fathom would also be up for consideration if I ever find one.

The claw is Feral Claws with +2 Phoenix Strike and another inconsequential mod. Definitely not the best there is, but it is the best I've found so far, and I'm checking all the decent white claws that drop in my questing and farming sessions. I'm not in a hurry to make any 'Mosaic' claws just yet.

 

[maxicek]

Max block? You don't see many of those these days
I think I went max block on my first Blizz Sorc, until respecs came along. I think it is a pretty good choice for the build. Congratulations.

 

[little birdy]

Max block? You don't see many of those these days
I think I went max block on my first Blizz Sorc, until respecs came along. I think it is a pretty good choice for the build. Congratulations.

Thanks!

In many of my builds, I have followed the "just enough Strength/Dexterity, max Vitality, no Energy" way of allocating stats without thinking much about it. But I mainly play softcore and, while I'm not the most skillful player in the world, my characters don't often die. I'm starting to think I'm wasting stat points in Vitality in some cases. More Life isn't a bad thing, but maybe it isn't necessary. It's an idea I'm going to play with on future builds, depending on the character.

 

[maxicek]

Well it isn't like you get much life per Vit point on a Sorc anyway. And max block is like 75% resist vs physical.

 

[little birdy]

Well it isn't like you get much life per Vit point on a Sorc anyway. And max block is like 75% resist vs physical.

Yep. I got too focused on the higher Life total, but, like you say, investment in Vitality isn't super great on a Sorceress specifically... and the trade off for a bit less Life and a much greater chance to block seems like a good choice to me.

 

[PhineasB]

Let’s see if we can coax Nightfish out of retirement to engage in the max block vs. max vita debate! I wish I could find the post, but 5 minutes searching didn’t yield a hit for the post where he had a classic Nightfish analysis of why max block was better for Sorc’s than max vita; such a great read, and I will try to find it this weekend when I have more time.

As I’ve noted elsewhere, I generally depart from that view due to slow block rate and ability to speed up FHR much more easily, and also being in SC. But even in my HC characters, I generally focus on vita and it works for me.

But it just goes to show that we all have different styles and preferences.