New character ideas?

[TurbulentTurtle]

New character ideas?

My wind Druid died 2 days ago, and I'm deciding which new character should I start working on. I thought that a sorceress would be a good idea, because the only characters I have are Druids, and I kinda need a way to get new items, and a MF sorc would be the best IMO.

So my question is what type of sorc would be best? I kinda thought about doing a fire sorc, but I see alot of cold sorcs nowadays. Which one would a better MFer in your opinions? I need a character which would also be good for rushing, in case I were to make another character

Any other ideas would be appreciated. Thank you.

 

[MoUsE_WiZ]

Blizzard vs Orb for meph running is really just a matter of preference, there's plenty of debates on the subject if you read back. Same goes for the ancient tunnels/mausoleum/crypt if you like doing those areas.
For pindle you're probably better off using Blizzard due to GS, but then again if you're doing pindle you're probably better off with a bonecro, javazon, or trapper.
For cows chain lightning is the best.

As a rusher depends on what type of gear you've got available.
Assuming you can build a good merc who can do the CI council/ancients go cold.
If you can't build a good merc, I'd recommend building a second character such as a hammerdin to clear the CS, council, and ancients. The other alternative if merc is out as an option is meteorb, but imo the 2 character system is better.
Blizzard is better than Orb, but only if you have gear that'll keep you alive without energy shield for a rusher. If you don't have gear that can keep you alive without it, you'll want to go ES/TK/Orb instead.

Um...hope this post is somewhat coherent.
Oh, and don't build a fire sorc unless you have a highly specific task planned for it, or want to be slightly different than most other people...cold are better virtually everywhere that people commonly go.

 

[PhatTrumpet]

Orb/Fireball Sorcs are a favorite of mine for their versatility and effectiveness. They can kill anywhere in the game, are good for mf runs, and can rush with the best of them. I have a lvl 88 in single player who I still run Meph and the Pits with on occasion because she's so fun to play.

75% blocking is necessary with this build as you don't have the skill points necessary for a decent Energy Shield. High resists and MDR are also of importance, along with a decent Holy Freeze Merc.

The first thing you need is 20 points in Orb and about 100% Cold Mastery (slvl17). This usually means around 8-12 points into CM, depending on your +skills gear. After that you'll want to max Fireball with one point in Fire Mastery. From there you can either spend the extra points to get Meteor or rely solely on the Firebolt synergy.

The general rule for a maximum damage Fireball is as follows: the number of skill points invested in synergies should be 10 to 11 more than your current level of Fire Mastery with +skills.

So, once you've maxed Fireball, if you've got, say, a lvl 4 Fire Mastery you'd want to have about 14 pts invested in synergies (14 Firebolt, or 1 Firebolt 13 Meteor). If you've got a lvl 16 Fire Mastery you'd want about 26 pts invested in synergies (20 Firebolt 6 Meteor, or 6 Firebolt 20 Meteor). Trust me, I did out an entire spreadsheet on this crap.

Off the top of my head, my 88 build looks something like:
20 Orb
12 Cold Mastery
4 Static
1 Teleport
20 Fireball
20 Firebolt
9 Fire Mastery

I obviously had to play her untwinked, so I put a couple more in Static and Cold Mastery than I now need. She found all her own gear and is now sporting a ~380 Orb, 105% CM, ~3.6k Fireball, ~950 life and ~700 mana (without Shako). It took her quite a few tries to take down Hell Ancients, but that's hardly an issue on bnet.

If I made her again (which I am in the process of doing online right now... slow going as my mfer isn't finding jack squat and all my friends have stopped playing) I would leave Static at 1 point, Cold Mastery at 10, and pump Meteor instead of Firebolt, although I'm not quite sure if it's entirely worth the three prereqs.

 

[TurbulentTurtle]

So from what I understand after reading your two posts (which were very helpful, thanks for the responses), I should definitely make a sorceress with at least one good cold skill.
Since I'm trying to go untwinked and MAYBE unrushed, what would be a good way to use my stats and skill points without wasting some into something completely useless?
I'm gonna probably be making a Blizz/Frozen Orb sorc btw.

 

[PhatTrumpet]

Blizzard is much better untwinked since you can start pumping Ice Blast right away at lvl 6 and then start decimating at lvl 24 when you get Blizzard. Then you'll want to max Blizzard and probably Telekenesis so that you have a decent Energy Shield. Then definitely max Cold Mastery. After that it's up to you... Blizzard synergies for more damage (some people like Glacial Spike, I don't find it all that helpful, especially if you use a Holy Freeze Merc), Energy Shield if you have a decent mana pool, Teleport if you Meph a lot, even Static if that's your fancy.

Standard stat placement: leave energy where it is, get enough str for your planned gear, enough dex to keep your effective blocking somewhere between your listed shield block and 75%, rest into vit.

 

[TurbulentTurtle]

Would frozen orb be a good choice for a second attack, or should I try for another element?

 

[PhatTrumpet]

1. You won't have enough points for a secondary attack with a Blizzard/ES build.

2. Having a secondary attack that's the same element as your primary is... well, really friggin' stupid. If you prefer Frozen Orb over Blizzard then do that, not both. It's just a whole lot more hassle to get an Orb Sorc to lvl 30 untwinked than it is to get a Blizzard Sorc to 24.


If you go with Orb you'll have far more options, as all an Orb Sorc really needs is 20 points in Orb and anywhere between about 8-20 points in Cold Mastery (you want at least 100% CM).

Hybrids (dual element) are excellent for versatility and solo play, and often times it's better to not even bother with Energy Shield so that you can pump the damage on your second element -- ES can be more of a burden than a blessing in many situations if you don't invest heavily in Telekenesis. As I said earlier, my personal preference is Orb/Fireball because both spells are very ranged, cold is good for Meph while fire is good for Andariel, and technically you're dealing four types of damage: cold with Orb, fire with Fireball, lightning with Static Field, and physical with your Mercenary.

There's also Meteorb, Orb/Firewall, Orb/ChainLightning, Orb/ChargedBolt, etc. All of these hybrids are actually easier to build untwinked than the Orb Sorc because on your way up to lvl 30 you can be killing with and pumping your secondary attack. I remember having upwards of 400 Fireball damage before even getting Orb, or Fire Mastery for that matter.

 

[Full_Circle]

Having a secondary attack that's the same element as your primary is... well, really friggin' stupid.

Well put. :lol:

I would recommend that you stick to one element (cold) if you intend to run primarily Andariel and Mephisto, especially untwinked. Fireball/Orb or Meteorb sorcs both work well, but they're a bit more gear dependent than your max TK cold sorc.