Which is better? Light Sorc vs. Light Zon

TheOtherMe

TheOtherMe

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Which is better? Light Sorc vs. Light Zon

Ok, I have a really nice Griffons and a really nice eth Infinity that I currently use on a Zon that I made since I've managed to go my whole D2 career having never played a Furyzon until this season. I've made a Light Sorc in the past, but I never had access to the really high end stuff and was somewhat disappointed with my results. So I will list my current setup for my Zon and my ideal setup for a Sorc, and I would like opinions (preferably from people who have tried both) as to what the pro's and con's of each setup are and why you would pick one over the other.

P.S. I play PvM and usually spend my time magic finding in full games or rushing friends and strangers. So I'm really looking for a character that is the most well rounded for accomplishing those two tasks while balancing killing speed and survivability.

My current Zon:
Griffons -24/18
Engima
eth Titans
Phoenix
+2/20/str/res gloves
Thundergod's
War Travs
SoJ/Raven
Highlords

Merc: eth Gaze, eth Fortitude, eth Thresher Infinity

My ideal Sorc:
Griffons -24/18
Viper 35res
Spirit 35fcr
Crescent Moon
Magefist
Arachnid
Rares? or Travs
SoJ x2
Mara's 27res

Merc: eth Gaze, eth Fortitude, eth Thresher Infinity

With this setup I am able to hit the 117fcr breakpoint, but resists are pretty crappy. I don't know if that will be a problem though as she should tear through everything with the massive -light resists. I also would welcome any feedback on what equipment would make her better while maintaing the 117fcr breakpoint.
 
Re: Which is better? Light Sorc vs. Light Zon

Javazon's are EXTREMELY strong. My wife's hasn't died in PvM in I don't know how long ... on the other hand, I did get killed by a pack of frenzytaur's with my light sorc last night ... heh.

What are your skills for the Javazon jsut so I know what to give pro's/con's about?

~I

(that gear is rock'n btw)
 
Re: Which is better? Light Sorc vs. Light Zon

I've got 1 in the passives, enough to hit 17 on valk with buffs, and then all light skills.
 
Re: Which is better? Light Sorc vs. Light Zon

Lacking Infinity, I haven't played either, but...

The biggest issues that I can see are related to teleport. Sure the 'zon has access to it with Enigma, but your lack of FCR means you'll be casting it at a very slow speed (16 frames with your current 25 FCR; you can find the breakpoints here if you want to consider some extra FCR gear). Personally, I prefer highly mobile characters - even at the cost of survivability sometimes - so I'd likely choose the lightning sorc for that very reason.

Or I'd consider tweaking the gear to squeeze a little more FCR on there somehow. With the +Life per Kill on Enigma, I'd consider dropping the Phoenix for a Spirit (my cow-runner gets by quite well with 'only' +7 Life per Kill), and maybe drop the SoJ for an FCR ring too, which would bring you down to a more bearable 13 frames.


Specific suggestions:
- Razortail > TGod's for a Lightning 'zon. The extra Pierce can easily push you near/over 100%, which will typically equate to MUCH more damage than a few +skills. Enough that if you're desperately seeking the extra lightning resist/absorb, I'd try to find it elsewhere (Wisp Projector? Lo runes? etc.).

- With the nice Griffon's, you don't need the Cresent Moon on the sorc. I understand it'll help work wonders against broken immunes, but you're so stretched getting 117 FCR that your resists aren't very good. I'd likely pick a HotO, or maybe even a Wizardspike, instead of the CM, and let your Griffon's do the work against broken immunes. You'll be a little slower at times, but the other weapons would give you a nice boost to resists and FCR, and maybe allow you to substitute in other items like CoH and/or a +3 amulet to squeeze some extra power on there to help make up for not lowering resists as much.

- If you want to stay with the CM, I think Trang's > Magefists for gloves. IMO, your resists are more important than your mana.

- For boots, don't ignore Aldur's and Nat's set boots either. They each have some decent mods (Aldur's is great with Spirit, since it provides the fire resists the shield lacks). But with your current setup, I'd probably pick rares with resists over Wartrav's, Treks, or other uniques.
 
Re: Which is better? Light Sorc vs. Light Zon

My sorc has fairly good survivablity becuase she teles so fast she rarely gets hit. I've never played a lightzon, but like sirpoopsalot, I enjoy mobile characters and the light sorc is just that.
 
Re: Which is better? Light Sorc vs. Light Zon

Thanks for the suggestions, I really appreciate it. Now I just need someone who has tried out a setup with Griffons and Crescent Moon to tell me whether it's worth the trade-offs for the kill speed.
 
Re: Which is better? Light Sorc vs. Light Zon

Ok, I've thought about this a little more and crunched some numbers and just need a few more opinions.

I've narrowed the gear choices down to what I think makes the most sense thanks to the input I've received thus far:

Griffons
CoH
HotO
Spirit 32fcr
Arachnid
Chancies
Aldurs
2xSoJ
+3/life Ammy

With the above items and my anni, torch, and mf charms my totals look like this: 117fcr; 174 cr, lr, pr and 184fr; 55fhr; +18 skills; 198mf (with lots of space for picking up items).

Further questions:
1. With my fhr at 9 frames and no fbr my blocking is also at 9 frames, so I should not bother with blocking at all and focus on life?

2. With decent life and good resists will I be better with MF items on switch or should I stick with CtA?

3. Will I be able to kill mobs fast enough that I would be better off getting a might merc to help him kill immunes? Or should I stick with HF to keep the safety net?

4. Will the setup above be good enough to allow me to run any part of the game (I run: cows, pits, countess, andy, ancient tunnels, summoner, trav, meph, river of flame, chaos, shenk, eldritch, pindle, nith, wsk, baal) without undue risk of dying?

Thanks for the suggestions guys.
 
Re: Which is better? Light Sorc vs. Light Zon

jeremyrx said:
Further questions:
1. With my fhr at 9 frames and no fbr my blocking is also at 9 frames, so I should not bother with blocking at all and focus on life?

2. With decent life and good resists will I be better with MF items on switch or should I stick with CtA?

3. Will I be able to kill mobs fast enough that I would be better off getting a might merc to help him kill immunes? Or should I stick with HF to keep the safety net?

4. Will the setup above be good enough to allow me to run any part of the game (I run: cows, pits, countess, andy, ancient tunnels, summoner, trav, meph, river of flame, chaos, shenk, eldritch, pindle, nith, wsk, baal) without undue risk of dying?

Thanks for the suggestions guys.
Click to expand...

1. Never block with Spirit unless you're a pally.

2. I'm not a big fan of mf switches unless your primary switch REALLY lacks mf. Light sorcs are excellent at running areas, which will constitute half of your mf routine. So I'd recommend CtA. Don't forget that it gives you +1 skills too: more killing speed.

3. With eth infy and fort on merc, he can kill Lister in full games with bearable speed. So go with Holy Freeze, I'd say.

4. Totally. My full tal's light sorc can do that. Why couldn't you? Only things that can piss you off are:
- Merc dying in Chaos;
- Unbreakable light immune skeletons in some parts of the game (a lot of them in Tombs) which have to be killed by tele-stomping with your merc;
- Gloams and dolls.

Why not run Duriel? The symbol of the real Tomb is the one lacking behind the Summoner (the blue floating ones). Dur had been nice to me and dropped Arach and HoZ. I believe he has the highest chance for Mara's, too.

Don't forget the extra strategic teleing for Nihlathak to avoid his CE, and Telekinesis for single big immune targets :)


 
Re: Which is better? Light Sorc vs. Light Zon

1. DO NOT try to block with a Spirit monarch. Trust me on this.

2. Depends. I'd rather have the CtA, since IMO ~50% more life & mana is worth more than ~5% better drops.

3. I never use a HF merc anymore. In my experience their aura's "defensive superiority" is highly overrated (since it's often nerfed against the most dangerous monsters). I'd rather go with Might any day of the week (and twice on Sundays, as the saying goes).

4. Yeah, I believe so. The CtA will help in some of the tougher areas. And there might be better builds for some specifics (coldsorcs for tunnels, something for Nith, etc.), but this should be about as well-rounded as you get.



BTW, I don't see how you have 198 MF. Like Scudstorm said, if your MF is low enough on primary, then I might reconsider point #2. 198 isn't what I'd call low "enough", but ~38 is.
 
Re: Which is better? Light Sorc vs. Light Zon

Thanks guys! I'll have to add Duriel to my list.

The extra MF comes from the 7% and a couple 6%/mana sc's I will be carrying with me. Thanks for the take on the merc, I was thinking with the kill speed she should boast that the slight slowdown would not be worth it.

One more question: Would it be better to wear a nice pair of war travs and pick up a big fire resist gc? Maybe one with fhr to hit that next breakpoint?

Thanks a lot guys! I'm glad to hear that this chic should be able to do all the areas I want to without sacrificing survivability or kill speed. I think I'll have to try it out.
 
Re: Which is better? Light Sorc vs. Light Zon

Your gear is pretty well the same as mine :) I think the wartravs might be better if you can replace the fire res with charms.

I find that running dkeys is super easy with this build. I can usually do a run in about a minute. Its a great way to build up wealth.
 
Re: Which is better? Light Sorc vs. Light Zon

Hmmm, more information leads to more questions.

With all the mana I'll get from HotO and 2x SoJ, should I consider going eshield? Or is that a bad idea since this is a PvM toon?

Would I do better getting a nice Eschuta's and putting a -5/5 facet in there and picking up a 30 Mara's to make up for some of the lost resists?
 
Re: Which is better? Light Sorc vs. Light Zon

I wouldnt recommend ES. To get an effective ES you will lose some killing speed. Besides you should have enough survivability.

And i would also go with the hoto + 3lightskill/life ammy. This way you would have similar damage if not more. And it would be a lot cheaper.
 
Re: Which is better? Light Sorc vs. Light Zon

jeremyrx said:
Thanks for the suggestions, I really appreciate it. Now I just need someone who has tried out a setup with Griffons and Crescent Moon to tell me whether it's worth the trade-offs for the kill speed.
Click to expand...

I run Griffons and CM and sure you loose some resists but you can make up for that with other stuff like charms and 3x res boots and since you seem to be going with maras u get some there as well. You cant really compare -lr to any other stat its just so extremley good.

I switch from a eschutas and ive never looked back. CM is just that much better.

The whole point of making a light sorc is breaking immunities, being able to kill most of the monsters in the game. with just griffons the monster still resist more than half your damage, with CM you do roughly twice the damage as you would have without it. That being said, the choice should be easy.


 
Re: Which is better? Light Sorc vs. Light Zon

Hmmm to answer your question, I have played both and my answer is that:

Light sorcs are really strong and so are javazons (assuming both have infi merc) but sorc is fast, where as java, in my opinion, are more fun.

I just love javazons killing bosses so quickly with infi merc + fully charged CS.

However don't get me wrong, light sorcs are soo oawesome too :jig:
 
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