Tips to Make the Strongest Overall/General Sorceress

Socialism said:
I've always hated the Tal Rasha set because one cannot reasonably attain 75% blocking and hit the 105/117% FCR breakpoint at the same time.
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If this is SC, forget the block. Teleing and killing faster and more reliably most of the time is more than a good sacrifice for death in say 1 in 100 runs for the purposes of MFing and killing stuff. Also, block lock from very minor attacks (attacks that is not strong enough to trigger hit recovery) is simply annoying as it slows my killing. A defensive setup that attains both block and FCR breakpoint is going to suffer in killing power, especially for dual element builds.

My question is, however, why are we talking about Tal's set and dual elements to start with? I thought we are to make the strongest overall sorc, which pretty much means some sort of infinity light sorc.



 
Last time I made a SC anything was 1.08 : \

Schmeh, Infinity light sorcs are overrated. Enigma Hammerdins do the same thing, but better, safer, and cheaper.
 
Cheaper? Pcombs are not cheap by any means. Besides, sorcs has the fastest teleing speed. I would not disagree about them being safer though, much safer, as they are the only build that can max block with spirit, and 2 frame block too.
 
Why would you need Pcombat GCs?

11k dmg / 26% DR / 125% FCR (8 frame) / immune-to-Conviction overstacked resists / 90 FHR / 2.7k hp (3bo CTA) with a Gheeds and a 15 allres / 12 FHR GC. Easily soloed hell ancients in 8 player games, frequently tanked FE deaths, giggled maniacally at souls / dolls, etc. Durable's still around on HCNL :>
 
Newbie Question: What weapon should I make an Infinity runeword in if my Sorceress is carrying it herself?

Thanks,
Victor Ly
 
Non-ethereal normal polearm, say a voulge. Low reqs, and you can recharge the cyclone armor.

If you need to pawn it off at any point, market it as a great Chaos Sanctuary weapon for a mercenary :>
 
Socialism said:
Why would you need Pcombat GCs?

11k dmg / 26% DR / 125% FCR (8 frame) / immune-to-Conviction overstacked resists / 90 FHR / 2.7k hp (3bo CTA) with a Gheeds and a 15 allres / 12 FHR GC. Easily soloed hell ancients in 8 player games, frequently tanked FE deaths, giggled maniacally at souls / dolls, etc. Durable's still around on HCNL :>
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Slight correction: 125 FCR is 9 frames for Paladins.



 
Socialism said:
Non-ethereal normal polearm, say a voulge. Low reqs, and you can recharge the cyclone armor.

If you need to pawn it off at any point, market it as a great Chaos Sanctuary weapon for a mercenary :>
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Thank you for the information, as well as all the help you've provided in this thread and in the Sorceress forum in general.

Thanks,
Victor Ly



 
Socialism said:
Non-ethereal normal polearm, say a voulge. Low reqs, and you can recharge the cyclone armor.

If you need to pawn it off at any point, market it as a great Chaos Sanctuary weapon for a mercenary :>
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or you can make an iron golem out of it


 
Update: I have finished building the Sorceress, who is currently level 85. She is a Frozen Orb/Chain Lightning Sorceress, with the following skills maxed: Frozen Orb, Chain Lightning, Lightning Mastery, and Lightning. I am planning to put the rest of my points into Charged Bolt to increase the Chain Lightning damage.

The Sorceress is using the full Tal Rasha's Wrappings set, along with a Spirit Monarch shield, Magefists, two fast cast rate with high strength rings, and War Traveler. After getting enough strength to wield the monarch, I dumped the rest of her stat points into vitality. She has max Lightning, Cold, and Fire resistances and 51 Poison resistance in Hell difficulty.

Problems:
1) Mana is the biggest issue right now.
1a) If I teleport for a while, I'm clear out of mana, which means that I usually use about one to two super mana potions just to find Durance of Hate level 3 from the Durance of Hate level 2 Waypoint.
1b) If there are a lot of monsters and I hold Chain Lightning down, I am out of mana within seconds.
1c) I invested one point into Energy Shield, which is pushed to level 13 with items (no charms included). At level 13, my Energy Shield absorbs 65% of the damage; because of this, I sometimes run out of mana from just one monster hit.

2) I am not used to having no block. I know this isn't hardcore mode, but I am somewhat used to having maxed block on a PvM Sorceress. Due to lack of blocking, I usually die within two seconds (even with 1000+ life) once my mana runs out. Well, I understood that this Sorceress wouldn't have blocking in the beginning, so that's fine.

3) Act2 Defiance Mercenary keeps on dying. I am using the same gear my old Sorceress used (Shaftstop, Ethereal Crown of Thieves, and Kelpie Snare), but he cannot survive even one fifth as well as the old mercenary for some reason. How can I build a mercenary who can take hits and not crumble (or force me to spam potions for him/her)? I am considering changing the gear to Vampiregaze, Shaftstop, and The Reaper's Toll. Any suggestions?

Is there any way I can fix the mana problem? My former Sorceress, which was built according to Socialism's Hardcore Orb/TK Blind-Teleporting Budget MF Sorceress can survive much better, probably because of blocking. My new Sorceress deals a lot more damage though.

Any thoughts? Thank you,
Victor Ly
 
1) ES and no TK = bad. Consider not using it at all. Or at least try casting it at a weapon switch with less + skills setup to get a lower ES.
2) I'm a big fan of block, but if you're using Spirit you should do just fine. My guess: ES is your villain here. Have you tried TPing with ES off?
3) It his level the same as the last one? Going 85+ makes a great diff for mercs survival.
As for mana, the problem I see that your choice of building in your strength on equipment has limited your flexibility. Otherwise you could have gone with FCR/mana rings instead and Silkweaves
 
Noite Escura said:
1) ES and no TK = bad. Consider not using it at all. Or at least try casting it at a weapon switch with less + skills setup to get a lower ES.
2) I'm a big fan of block, but if you're using Spirit you should do just fine. My guess: ES is your villain here. Have you tried TPing with ES off?
3) It his level the same as the last one? Going 85+ makes a great diff for mercs survival.
As for mana, the problem I see that your choice of building in your strength on equipment has limited your flexibility. Otherwise you could have gone with FCR/mana rings instead and Silkweaves
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Thanks for the suggestions. Would pumping points into Telekinesis be a good idea at this point? Without Energy Shield in battles, I die if I get hit a few times, even with over 1000 life. I can actually still go with FCR/mana rings, as I wasn't too sure about the strength part of my build, so I have over 100 stat points saved. My mercenary is currently level 83, and my Sorceress is 85.

I'll learn how to battle without Energy Shield and see what happens. Will report back later. Thank you!

Victor Ly



 
1k life and still die after getting hit a few times? You might want to improve your play style, as my full Tal's meteorb sorc hardly dies.
 
Yeh, my girl never died, even while teleing through WSK with souls, OKs, Frenzytaurs. She has around 1.3-1.4K hp, ~600 mana, but since I'm using insight on merc, i never run outta mana, unless I spam CL. After u get 156 str, dump the rest into vit, as u wont need any other stat. Merc wise, he WILL die, but mine rarely dies because I ALWAYS tele around monsters while spamming CL/FO/L towards them. Besides, I usually smoke the monsters before they get a chance to smoke my merc, and I never let him tank archers. I dont see how u can die in a few hits, as my sorc can tank quite a bit, even without %DR. If it helps, heres my setup:

Full tals, perf orb, perf belt
travs
magefist
10fcr/12res ring
10fcr/2x life/1x mana/8PR/10CR ring
35fcr spirit monarch
crap anni
high res storch
5x Plain Lite GCs
Gheeds

Merc:
Ral'ed andys
duriel's shell(frozen merc is a piece of useless crap, even with max %DR)
crap insight thresher

Skills:
Max FO
Max CL
Max L
Max Lite master
total of lvl17 CM after +skills
rest into chargebolt

As u can see, my sorc is nowhere near ideal setup, and my merc is using pratically crap gear(except andy's). My tactics? Tele and kill, simple as that. Vs non LIs, I dont even orb, as it takes too much time and I can spam enough CL to kill in the time it takes to orb. VS achers, I tele into them, orb(chills and makes them scatter), tele out, pick out the boss first. If the boss is CI/LI, I pick out the rest of the pack first. She has no problems, even in 8-player baal runs where there are souls/OKs/Vipers in the throne. In fact, several times during a baal run, where everyone(including them hammerdinz) died cuz of souls, viper, OKs, I go in with my sorc and cleaned out atleast half the pack. Quick teleing and skill switching is required, but shes capable of doing every part of the game, except for dclone and ubers. I recently ripped her apart to complete my hammerdin, but I'll gear her back as soon as I finish equipping my pally.

Once I gear her back, I'll upgrade her gear to the following:
Full tals(x/-5 Lite facets, even in the helm)
35fcr spirit monarch
magefist
travs
2x 10fcr/110+ mana magic ring
high res anni
high res torch
5x lite skillers
5x 17mana scs(two with 5% fhr to break the 86% FHR BP)

Merc:
Andys ral'ed
upp eth 190ed+ duriel's/eth 190ed+ glads bane
Eth Infinity CV

If I manage the above setup, my killing power will surpass even the strongest hammerdin, only to be beaten by a pure infinity lite sorc and a pimped out LF/CS zon. There is one other setup for this build that can further take her killing power to another level, but for the cost...I'd rather spend it on a pvp char.:laugh:
 
Smackin said:
Once I gear her back, I'll upgrade her gear to the following:
Full tals(x/-5 Lite facets, even in the helm)
35fcr spirit monarch
magefist
travs
2x 10fcr/110+ mana magic ring
high res anni
high res torch
5x lite skillers
5x 17mana scs(two with 5% fhr to break the 86% FHR BP)

Merc:
Andys ral'ed
upp eth 190ed+ duriel's/eth 190ed+ glads bane
Eth Infinity CV

If I manage the above setup, my killing power will surpass even the strongest hammerdin, only to be beaten by a pure infinity lite sorc and a pimped out LF/CS zon. There is one other setup for this build that can further take her killing power to another level, but for the cost...I'd rather spend it on a pvp char.:laugh:
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My current mercenary currently has an upgraded Ethereal 193%ED Duriel's Shell, Insight Ethereal Cryptic Axe, and an Andariel's Visage. Unfortunately, he dies to Hell Mephisto within 6 seconds if I do not feed him potions. I am planning to upgrade to an Ethereal Infinity CV (or should I do CA?) within the next few days. Any suggestions on a better mercenary setup? I have yet to socket the Andariel's Visage and Duriel's Shell.

Thanks,
Victor Ly
*mastavicx and *mastavic



 
MaStAViC said:
My current mercenary currently has an upgraded Ethereal 193%ED Duriel's Shell, Insight Ethereal Cryptic Axe, and an Andariel's Visage. Unfortunately, he dies to Hell Mephisto within 6 seconds if I do not feed him potions. I am planning to upgrade to an Ethereal Infinity CV (or should I do CA?) within the next few days. Any suggestions on a better mercenary setup? I have yet to socket the Andariel's Visage and Duriel's Shell.

Thanks,
Victor Ly
*mastavicx and *mastavic
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Reapers toll or Kelpie Snare > Eth elite whatever Vs. Hell Mephisto.

I'm sure you've got at least one of those sitting around to try out. He should do okay, then. He's wearing better gear that what mine uses and mine does just fine. :prop:


 
is kelpie really that useful? id imagine the slow mod would face penalty vs an act boss but ive never actualy played with the oversized fork before
 
MYK said:
Reapers toll or Kelpie Snare > Eth elite whatever Vs. Hell Mephisto.

I'm sure you've got at least one of those sitting around to try out. He should do okay, then. He's wearing better gear that what mine uses and mine does just fine. :prop:
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lendial said:
is kelpie really that useful? id imagine the slow mod would face penalty vs an act boss but ive never actualy played with the oversized fork before
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Kelpie Snare isn't too bad against Hell Mephisto. With Kelpie Snare (instead of Insight Ethereal Cryptic Axe), I noticed that my mercenary can last two to three times as well. However, I will be rather dependent on my mercenary once I get him an Infinity weapon. Are there other non-weapon items that has the "Slows Target By %" mod?

stfrn said:
I like Blackhorn's Face against meph- 20%slow and 20%lightning absorb, but no leech.
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I tried Blackhorn's Face on my mercenary against Mephisto but that did not help at all, maybe because it only slows target by 20% and not 75% like Kelpie Snare. Regarding leech, life cannot be leeched off of Hell Mephisto anyway, so I don't really mind that it has no leech.

Thanks,
Victor Ly
*mastavicx and *mastavic



 
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