Tal Rasha Question

ThePriest

New member
Dec 11, 2009
8
0
0
Tal Rasha Question

Hey there!

I have been reading through a couple of threads here, and had a new sorcerer build (For me) In mind, and wanted to try out tal Rashas aswell. So i had a couple of questions about that.

The whole idea will be around :

- Using Tal Rashas set.

- Firewall / Orb sorcerer

- Get rid of the look of my gear (Strenght bug)


That's the drawback of my whole plan. I cannot stand the look of Tal Rashas set, I hate it with passion. And i'm planning on getting rid of it through the strenght bug, not putting a single point into strenght at all, and socketing the armor with Hel /Jewel.

I was planning on skilling :

20 Fire wall
20 Fire mastery
20 Frozen orb
1 Cold Mastery

And putting my stats like :

Strenght - Base
Dexterity - Base (Unless i go for block)
Vitliaty - Everything (Unless i go for ES)
Energy - Nothing (Unless i go for ES)

After this i will still have points left, and i'm not sure where to put them. Should i go ES or not? Should i go into lightning, or focus more on either frost or fire? I'm not using firewall because it's efficient (Though i find it decently efficient if you know how to position it) I'm using it because it's FUN. It would be fun aswell to put skills into fireball, but then i have a feeling i might neglect the firewall.

My gear would look something like this.

[Gear]

Tal Rashas Helm (Str 55) - 5/5 Fire / Cold
Tal Rashas Amulet
Tal Rashas poke stick - 5/5 Fire / Cold
Tal Rashas belt (str 47)
Tal Rashas Armor (Str 84) - Hel (Str 69)
Magefist (str 45)
Soj
Soj / 10 Fcr
Lidless (str 58) - 5/5 fire / Cold
[No idea what boots]

[Switch]

Cta 6/6/3
Lidless / Splendor


[Charms]


Anni - 15/15 (Can change this to a 20/xx)
Torch - 18/16 (Can change this for a 20/xx)
Fire sk / 5-6 str * 3
Cold sk / 5-6 str * 2

This would put my strenght to 68-73 from a base of 10. And would let me carry the whole set as long as i socket the armor with Hel / Jewel.

This would bring me : +17-18 (Fire) and +15-16 (Cold) skills depending on if i use FCR ring to reach 105% or a second soj.

Now for some questions :

1.) Breakpoints, would like 105% FCR but is it worth losing out on an Soj for a FCR ring? And what about Fhr?

2.) Damage, is there anyway to improve the damage still (Except more Sk's), and should i put 5/5 fire or 5/5 cold facets?

3.) Will the strenght bug work with this setup?

4.) I can afford anything for this setup, so getting gear isn't the problem. Is there anything you would change?

5.) Where should i put my last skills?

6.) ES or vitality build.

7.) Max block worth it? Going to use lidless.

8.) I can afford getting a merc with the best gear, should i put infinity on him, and what helm / armor? Fortitude / Andariels?

9.) What about some MF? Should i remove some facets and socket the item with ist instead? I'm not too keen on swapping for alibaba, i rather have CTA There. With this setup i would get 168% mf, Should i try to hit 200? Perhaps more? And i won't be equipping WT (War travelers) as they require 9x strenght.



I'm not trying to be godly efficient, if i wanted that i would spend hundreds of hr's on rare / Runewords. What i'm trying to is to be as efficient as possible while using tal gear and firewall / Orb sorc. And having a nice yellow circle around me and no visible armor. :thumbup:

-Priest
 
Last edited:
Re: Tal Rasha Question

Sorry to be the one to say it, but the strength bug applies only to other people seeing your character, not you. YOU will still see the "ugly" tal rasha set on yourself even though you're "strenght glitched"

edit: you can use cow king's boots as they give mf and huge dexterity bonuses. If you decide not to go with 105% FCR (63% is enough for pvm in my opinion) you can take advantage of that by using visceratuant shield and going max block.
 
Re: Tal Rasha Question

all is nice, but 1 thing... str bug shows only for others, you WILL see your set, what ever you do.

fcr: 105 = safe blind teleporting

fhr: 44 for pvm, ( spirit gives 55 FHR )

if you can afford infi, make lighting sorc, you won't have to put up with tal rasha set.

you might want to read this for gear ideas

max block with either spirit or lidless, is waste, block is very low, if you want to go with block, use SS.

ES = no no, you are dual element, you have no spare points for it.

for dual element you might want to use: Insight stick, G-Bane and Gaze. but thats my set up, there are other set ups as well, and there is no thing as best gear for merc.
 
Re: Tal Rasha Question

all is nice, but 1 thing... str bug shows only for others, you WILL see your set, what ever you do.

fcr: 105 = safe blind teleporting

fhr: 44 for pvm, ( spirit gives 55 FHR )

if you can afford infi, make lighting sorc, you won't have to put up with tal rasha set.

you might want to read this for gear ideas

max block with either spirit or lidless, is waste, block is very low, if you want to go with block, use SS.

ES = no no, you are dual element, you have no spare points for it.

for dual element you might want to use: Insight stick, G-Bane and Gaze. but thats my set up, there are other set ups as well, and there is no thing as best gear for merc.

1.) As long as i'm the only one having to look at the horror, i'll manage.

2.) I like the whole Tal Rashas set, And i'm doing this for fun and because it's different. I'm alright with looking at it as long as other people won't see the horror. I'm not too interested in Lightning sorc, it was fast and easy but i didn't find it to be too much fun.

3.) Alright, won't bother with max block then.

4.) So with :

20 Firewall
20 Fire mastery
20 Orb
1 Cold mastery.

I really don't see how i can't take ES even as dual element? Where would you put it on a Firewall / orber?

5.) You're right that there is no "Best gear" For merc, it's how you play and personal taste. Though having Infinity on merc will make it go quicker, and be more efficient than having insight and using a potion or two. And fortitude would increase the damage by 300%, Or a eth stone runeword could bring 5 000 armor to the table. But is Infinity worth it as cold / Fire? If not then insight would be a great idea.

6.) Great idea with the cow king boots, i have to look into that.


 
Re: Tal Rasha Question

1) fair enough :p

2) lighting sorc is fun when you jump in middle of pack and thinking: who's gonna kill whom 1st?

3) max black is good, but yeah, you ll lose far too much hp, sorry :(

4) tbh... i didnt look at skills properly 1st time, i though it was fo/fb, with that set up you can go es, but how much mana you'd have? 1.5k after bo? good enough, you can go es, i am being dumn :S but vita will have more dmg.

5) i think insight would be better :p
 
Re: Tal Rasha Question

1) fair enough :p

2) lighting sorc is fun when you jump in middle of pack and thinking: who's gonna kill whom 1st?

3) max black is good, but yeah, you ll lose far too much hp, sorry :(

4) tbh... i didnt look at skills properly 1st time, i though it was fo/fb, with that set up you can go es, but how much mana you'd have? 1.5k after bo? good enough, you can go es, i am being dumn :S but vita will have more dmg.

5) i think insight would be better :p

2.) Yea it's great fun, especially when you're going through chaos sanctuary and see infinity + lightning clear a path through the mobs in seconds like a hot knife through butter. But it's still not.. unique enough, and i guess that's why i'm doing this because i want somehting new.

3.) I was unsure about the max block if it was worth it when i use lidless, but it seems that i would have to spend faar too much dexterity to reach it with lidless. So scratch that idea.

4.) Well if i go ES, i would go full out telekinesis / ES and aiming for 3-4K mana if possible. It's Either full out ES + Energy, or vitality.

5.) Gaaah, hoooow can you say that? A petty meditation is better than a - resistance to both fire and cold? *Sobs*. But jokes aside, if i go ES i won't use insight as warmth + high mana pool is more than enough. If i go vitality i'll start of with infinity i belive, and if i notice that i have more problem with mana than the damage, i'll try to swap around for insight.


[Edited] :

I'm still wondering about :

1.) Should i replace a Soj with a fcr ring to reach 105%? Does it help firewall or Orb anything, or is it purely for teleport?

2.) Which FHR break should i aim for? Tal rashas set give me 25%, so which would be best?

3.) I'll reach 200 MF with gheed, is that enough or should i replace facets?

4.) 5/5 fire or 5/5 cold, or a mix of both, and then what ratio?

5.) I haven't used orb for a long time, is it's damage on level 36-37 enough in hell?

6.) What if i replaced orb with blizzard?


 
Last edited:
Re: Tal Rasha Question

5.) Gaaah, hoooow can you say that? A petty meditation is better than a - resistance to both fire and cold? *Sobs*. But jokes aside, if i go ES i won't use insight as warmth + high mana pool is more than enough. If i go vitality i'll start of with infinity i belive, and if i notice that i have more problem with mana than the damage, i'll try to swap around for insight.

tee hee. *gives shoulder to cry into*

back to seriousness, there are couple of monsters that can be broken down with infinity, so theoretically, it gives -enemy resistance only to fire ( bless you Cold Mastery :p ) and is it worth then infinate teleport casts? ( i see you are not maxing teleport, so that would annoying to teleport and drinking mana pots ) so i d suggest going with insight stick.


 
Re: Tal Rasha Question

tee hee. *gives shoulder to cry into*

back to seriousness, there are couple of monsters that can be broken down with infinity, so theoretically, it gives -enemy resistance only to fire ( bless you Cold Mastery :p ) and is it worth then infinate teleport casts? ( i see you are not maxing teleport, so that would annoying to teleport and drinking mana pots ) so i d suggest going with insight stick.

So it would all come down to ES then, if i get ES i won't need insight thanks to high regneration, If i go without it i could use it to aid teleportation. And how much warmth would help me out with regneration, and with a level 12 teleport it would cost me 13 mana per teleport.


 
Re: Tal Rasha Question

if you get enough points with maxed skills etc etc, get teleport to 1pt. warmth doesnt help THAT much, i remember rickster giving his timing on his sorc, difference with 20hard pts and with 1, was: full bulb in 21sec or 17-18 sec. not life changing, but 1pt mana sounds better to me :p

and if going es, level 17 meditation gives 700% mana regen, gives to already nice mana regen, andother massive regen, means... you got far too much mana for pvm :D ( but i agree, you dont need this much regen for pvm :) so go go infi ^^
 
Re: Tal Rasha Question

Not to rain on your parade, but you said something about throwing fire ball into the mix may cause you to neglect fire wall. Keep in mind that because both frozen orb and fire wall are delay spells, you will always have to wait about a whole second to cast either, and you will have to choose one of them.

Basically, at the end of the day, you will be choosing frozen orb more than 80% of the time because it kills way more effectively than firewall, and you will find the only time you use firewall at all is on cold immunes, which will take forever anyways, or to stack on bosses, which other than andy is almost negligible when you can just use frozen orb.

Also keep in mind that, if you plan on carrying this broad into 1.13 which will be inevitable anyways that in the new patch, firewall now has not one, not two, but THREE synergies: 1% from blaze and inferno, 4% from warmth. Now, if blizz didn't touch the original damage of firewall, then that means firewall is now more powerful than ever! Also, it means that maxing warmth wouldn't be a bad idea, and since you would have it maxed anyways, maxing telekenisis and using a memory staff OR maxing ES and putting any spare into telekinesis may actually give you decent manalife.

However, if blizzard decided to nerf the original damage of firewall to compensate and balance it out since it now has synergies, it would mean that maxing the synergies is a must just to bring it to the damage it had pre-1.13. I am not 100% sure of this, but you should research it and find out before comminting.

Oh wait, you can just kill a bunch of bosses and redo your points anyways. Thanks for ruining the fun blizzard...

As for the rest of your post, with your setup, you have right at about 40 skill points left assuming you get to 99, but seeing as that isn't likely for most players, lets say you will have 30 to spend.

You can go and make a tri-elemental sorc, maxing lightning mastery and mix it with about 10 points in one of the following:

Chain Lightning - will be a bit weak, but with decent cast rate and full tals (and especially with Infinity) it will be almost as good of a crowd-killer as frozen orb. It is also great ranged attack.

Nova - Another crowd controller, but at higher skills the mana cost will be high without much warmth or insight, and the radius isn't as good of a range as chain lightning would be.

Thunder Storm - Won't do much. This goes into the "every little bit helps" bin, and is more than likely a waste. However, it leaves you open to keeping FO on left click, fire wall on right, and prebuffing TS to leave it running which is great for ODC folks like myself.

I, on the other hand, would not go for any of those options. If it were my character, I would (and bear with me here) max Static Field.

I hardly see anyone do this, and many people say it is a waste, even calling me a noob. But think about it: it is no different than maxing Corpse Explosion. With a maxed static field and +skill gear (not to mention the -lightning resist of tals and potentially infinity, because -resist will increase the efficiency of Static last time I checked) you will be essentially casting a crushing blow effect on every non-lightning immune more than a screen over.

So you would use FO more often, but when encountering a group of cold immunes, you simple mad-cast static after teleing away, and lay a firewall in their path. By the time they pass through, their hp is so low that most won't make it past two steps in the wall.

So yeah, my ideal setup for you:

20 Fire Wall
20 Fire Mastery
20 Frozen Orb
20 Static Field
1 Prerequisites, teleport, telekinesis
----
and
----
*1 Cold Mastery
Rest in Warmth
*If the statement above about firewall needing synergies to be effective in 1.13 is true
----
or
----
*1 Warmth
Rest in cold mastery
If synergies aren't required for firewall to be as effective as it was pre-1.13

Of course, it is your game, your character, your playstyle, so do what you wish. These are just my opinions. You have a decent and fun looking character design there and I'm sure you will enjoy it regardless :thumbup:
 
Re: Tal Rasha Question

^I agree, Orb shall be the main killer and therefore it needs some Ice Bolt buffing.

Now, if blizz didn't touch the original damage of firewall, then that means firewall is now more powerful than ever! Also, it means that maxing warmth wouldn't be a bad idea, and since you would have it maxed anyways, maxing telekenisis and using a memory staff OR maxing ES and putting any spare into telekinesis may actually give you decent manalife.

They didn't touch Firewall's damage. However, as it was plenty powerful with 21 skill points, there wasn't much point in giving it synergies.

Warmth has pretty mediocre effect past slvl1. I wouldn't even max it on a melee/ES sorc if I don't have the points to spare.

But think about it: it is no different than maxing Corpse Explosion.

PnB necros rarely max CE due to their high # of +PnB gear. Summoners, on the other hand, have generally less +PnB skills, nowhere else worthwhile to put their points, and have only CE as direct dmg dealer.

Sorcs identify better with PnB necros than with summoners. More +skills, have other direct-damage spells, and skill points can help boost other attacks.

If you play Classic (where +skills are quite rare), you'd see quite a lot of sorcs maxing Static.

(not to mention the -lightning resist of tals and potentially infinity, because -resist will increase the efficiency of Static last time I checked)

They do work, but not in any simple way you'd expect (d2 rarely makes sense...). Check this thread for some in-depth analysis on how they interact (look out for posts by onderduiker). The info isn't very relevant for most sorcs since they don't static that much anyways, but I figured you'd benefit from it :p

@OP: imo 105fcr is very well worth the sacrifice of 1 soj. But in your case it would be both of them, I wouldn't bother if I were you on a build with 2 timered spells.


 
PurePremium
Estimated market value
Low
High