Matriarch ZodSorc – high-defense Dream/Zeal Sorc

ffs

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Feb 7, 2017
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This is the 5th character in my Zod sept, aptly and equally uncreatively named. :) A bit of a special case this one!

Recorded a short vid showing her Mat Baal run and gear that she finished A5 Hell with:


Not the best showcase of her defense-oriented build idea (see below), but didn't bother recording some random runs in another area. :)

Equipment and build
Code:
Arkaine's Valor 'Zod'
Dream Crand Crown (28 FHR, 19@)
Dream Troll nest (20 FHR, 18@)
Passion PB (14 ED base, 223% ED, 74% AR)
Ravenfroat
Rare ring 8 LL, 11@, 17 str, 12 dex
eth Sandstorm Trek
eth rare gloves 20 IAS, 3 LL, triple res (CR/FR/LR)
HLW
SoE (7/14/15)

Inventory: 6x Sparking GC with life, 2x Shimmering GC with life, rest life/mana SCs

Demon Limb in stash for Enchant.

Merc (Defiance): Infinity, eth bugged Fortitude, Andy's

Build: 20 LM, 20 Warmth, 20 Telekinesis, 20 Shiver Armor, 10/rest FM, 1 SF/Teleport/ES/pre-reqs

She used more offensively oriented gear (BKWB, full skiller inventory) until A4, but – as expected – I felt the need to up her resists for the last two acts when encountering things like Pit Lords and Souls. Previously she had Enchant skilled as well, but following a friendly reminder by @saracen85 pointing out the Demon Limb option, we freed up those skill points to go with the above build.

Gearing and build approach
While all previous chars in the sept naturally used a Zod'ed weapon (and so will the two remaining ones), I decided to go for something else with this girl:

Screenshot003.jpg

I figured the high defense roll (both base and modifier) made it worthy of a Zod, provided that it was used on a character that can really boost defense and benefit from it gameplay-wise. Moreover, I didn't have any really convincing Zod weapon choices for a melee Sorc, and it just so happened that Sorc can indeed boost defense significantly, even though I've never done it before.

The idea was to couple this with max'ed Shiver Armor, paired with Defiance Merc, and having an eye on defense on remaining armor pieces. This resulted in ~19k defense overall:

Screenshot009.jpg

Highest defense on any Sorc I've ever played, and it worked out really nicely. She didn't get hit much at all, and in situations where she was hit (mostly when swarmed by lots of enemies), the high defense still allowed her to easily teleport out and reposition.

Aside from the defense, Arkaine's stats make it a beautiful fit for ES Sorcs in general. Obviously +2 skills and some life are nice, but in particular MDR helps in reducing elemental damage while ES is up, whereas FHR helps in situations when ES is suddenly lost (as she's easily put in hit recovery at that point).

Questing/Twinking
We went P8 from start to finish. Twinked Sorc is incredibly fast to get through the game. If you're @Nano, you can get her from start to Mat in under 2 hours. That wasn't quite enough for me to finish her :) but at least to bring her to A1 Hell. Details on twinking route below:
1-12: Staff with Charged Bolt charges, Hsarus belt + boots
12-24: Staves with Nova and Teleport charges, Stealth, Eye of Etlich, FCR/mana rings, Tarnhelm, Magefist
24+: Magic orb +4 Blizzard, +6 MPK, Wall of the Eyeless
27: Insight Merc, Spirit on Sorc
29+: SoJs, SoE, Viper
42+: Cold skillers

She mostly killed things using Static Field + Nova charges until 24, and Blizzard thereafter. With that she was leveled to 74 in NM and then entered Hell. Given the annoying lvl 85 requirement on Arkaine's Valor, we respec'ed to the Zeal build (using CoH as an interim solution) upon entering Hell, and then did P8 Pit runs until 85. As mentioned above, at first I focused on higher damage with things like BKWB and full skiller inventory and went up to A4 with that. For A4 and A5 we swapped in some additional resists. She was respec'ed several times throughout Hell, in particular to account for the inclusion of Demon Limb, max TK and higher mana, and later to tailor stat points to her final gear.

Sticking to P8 slowed her down in areas with lots of LIs, but Enchant, Merc and the little physical damage she was dealing still got the job done. I considered using a 4-facet Monarch on switch to bring broken LIs guys below 50% quickly with Static Field, but in the end I didn't bother (and rather had FCR to teleport with somewhat acceptable speed).

Obviously everything not Lighting immune met its demise very quickly. Every hit dished out up to 52k damage (or 44k with more defensive gear later on).

In general, questing wasn't very eventful, hence no further screenshots. Only drops mentioning were unique Conqueror Crown in the Pit and Shako from Baal. Hell HF was disappointing ('Io' I tink).

Thoughts
This was the first time I played a Dream Sorc with Zeal from Passion instead of Bear, and I was curious as to how it would compare. Beating the damage output of a Dream/Bear Sorc is impossible, so I didn't expect that. :) That being said, while the Bear Sorc basically does the same and arguably slightly better (both re DPS and survivability), the Zeal variant is very close in all deparments for sure. Plus, being able to cast without changing out of Bear form is an upside (though I didn't mind doing that with Bear Sorc either tbh).

One of the two remaining sept chars is a Paladin who will also be using Dreams along with HF. Looking forward to observing his gameplay in comparison to this Sorc. The second remaing char is Necro. I plan to finish both in the upcoming weeks to wrap up the sept.

Thanks for reading!
 
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Very nice character, and that armor is quite something to behold. Looking forward to seeing the pally in action too!
 
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Congrats!!!

Out of curiosity... You mapped Zeal on LMB despite being a non-Pally. Is it for familiarity's sake?

Just realized that I have mapped Zeal to LMB on all 3 of my non-Pallys despite preferring high FPA melee skills to be on RMB🤔
 
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@saracen85 yeah I'm used to having melee attacking skills on LMB, rarely on RMB. Just a matter of taste I guess.

@D2DC If recent RFLs are any meaningful indication, it won’t be long until we see more Zods. :) Been using lots of runes since the last RFL, time to farm some more soon!
 
Nice character and I like the use of the Zod. I used Arkaine's on my ES Vengeance Sorc and agree it is a great fit for ES.
I honestly wonder what Blizzard was thinking when they put the level requirements on some of the uniques. You can equip any ot the OP RWs before level 70, but need to wait unti a level most people finish Hell at before you can use Arkaine's, Tomb Reaver, Azurewrath etc.
 
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