This thread is for discussion of the Sorceress in Diablo II. [/hr]
Since the Public Testing Realm (PTR) (see The Wait is Over -- PTR Patch 1.13)went live this week with Diablo II: Lord of Destruction patch 1.13, I decided to try out the Sorceress with her newly arranged skills, primarily Hydra and a build wired for it.
Her fire-based skills at first seemed changed enough to merit trying a fire-based build once more (I often avoid them and go with a cold-based or lightning-based build because of the lack of slowing effects or a huge impact from FCR that Lightning gets and skills like Meteor and Hydra do not):
Official Blizzard Quote:
Sorceress
-Firewall - Synergy receives 1% damage per point of Inferno and Blaze and 4% per point of Warmth.
-Blaze - Synergy receives 2% damage per point of Firewall and 4% per point of Warmth.
-Hydra - Increased base damage by 15% per rank.
-Hydra - Increased base speed of Hydra projectile.
-Hydra - Reduced cooldown by 25%.
-Lightning Mastery - Reduced overall effect by 15%.
So, I began by using the nifty instant level-up cheat that is active on the PTR to decrease effort in testing new characters (simply type level 99 in a game and press enter). I spread my points to invest in Teleport and its prerequisites and one point in Frozen Armor (for a significant bonus of defense). After that, I crammed them in to the Fire Spells skill tree, maxing Fire Mastery, Hydra, Fire Ball, and Fire Bolt.
As for my stat point investment, well, it was a bit odd to do. Normally, I save all of my stat points until I can wear my gear so that I don't waste a single point. In this case, I didn't have any gear saved up to look forward to, and since I had all my stat points available from using the instant level cheat, I decided to just cover my bases, so to speak, with 100 in STR, 200 in VIT, and 245 in ENG. The excessive amount in ENG was due to the fact that I had no gear that added a ton to ENG or Mana Regeneration and I needed to Teleport through Normal, Nightmare, and Hell difficulty modes.
Yes, if any of you recognize her name, it used to be my name here on DiabloFans. Kudos to you guys!
Normal mode was, of course, a cinch. As we all know, Normal doesn't even require gear. I could probably have played it naked and been completely fine. Of course, the allure of the gold cheat (typing Gold x in a game, where x is the amount of gold you would like to hold, so long as it doesn't exceed your carrying limit) brought me to gamble a ton for some interesting rare items. Item stats typically included FCR, Resistances, ENG, and +skill modifiers.
Nightmare mode was fairly easy, as well, aside from some fire immune baddies I met along the way, primarily in the Chaos Sanctuary, where Doom Knights, if I remember correctly, were immune to my fire-based attacks. Luckily, I had my smexy Act II mercenary Vikhyat by my side to defend me while I ran in circles like a dog with its tail on fire as the Doom Knights trailed me. After about fifteen minutes of that, and the help of some friends that popped in, I managed to finish the rest of Nightmare mode on my own with relatively little hardship.
The real problem hit me full-force in Hell mode, as I had been anticipating. The whole while I had been hoping that the Legacy team had tuned-down immune monsters in Hell to give elemental characters a fighting chance when poor. Of course, they were all still there, and I ended up scratching the entire build, despite the updates in casting delay and damage for Hydra, via the respeccing option at Akara after completing the Den of Evil quest.
Right now, I'm working on building-up a good lightning-based build, my personal favorite (still have an incomplete but somewhat in-depth guide here on our Wiki- hoping to finish it with the updates of 1.13). After that, I'm looking forward to a good session building an ultimate tank with the Druid as a Werebear, especially because of the upgrades Werebears got in the patch so far. Overall, the patch isn't everything I wanted, but there are some fun bits here and there to fiddle with and I'm making the best I can of it. Hopefully more will be fixed and added as progress on the patch continues in the PTR.
I think the hydra sorceress might be very viable if you get an infinity mercenary, and a LR charges wand for some nasty immunes.
Actually, that's something I can honestly say i've never thought about... +LR Skills items on the swap. Perhaps something that procs LR on your Merc or something could help as well.
My sorc wally orbface uses firewall/orb as its primary spells (1.12) before the firewall synergies it made her quite powerful (not in dmg but in adaptability) using orb as primary and wall as secondary spell. orb takes care of most anything and any ice immunes can easily be taken out by my merc, merc tank + inf + firewall = a lot of charred corpses. i havent played much of 1.13 yet i can only imagine that the synergies wont effect my wally orbface that much due to the fact that its pretty costly but its a pretty decent build in 1.12 could work better in 1.13. would be nice if firewall had only the 1 synergie with a larger bonus (preferably warmth apposed to inferno)
PvP hydra sorc is gona own if you want to camp the town entrance lol
I remember people using hydra sorc to pvp, it wasnt bad. Now with the buff, its gona be better. You just gotta get a high fcr and stunlock someone with nova or something and the hydras will kill him
I think the hydra sorceress might be very viable if you get an infinity mercenary, and a LR charges wand for some nasty immunes.
The problem is that Infinity can't break most immunes, especially in Hell, effectively. The reason it works so well with Lightning immunes is because of the solid -lightning res modifier it has. The actual aura is more like icing.
I mean, even with my Infinity on East, Fire immunes remain in Chaos Sanctuary while Lightning ones are gone.
Of course, every bit helps. Not contesting that I really just think that they should have concise ways of breaking all immunes, not just Lightning ones. I don't think we should have them at all, actually. Resistances, yes. Immunes, no.
Having a lower resist wand on my wep swap always did the trick for me. It raped my funds repairing it, but it really helped once the merc died off, or if you needed to further lower the resists of your enemies.
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Well, first that comes to my mind is a good Ormus' Robes (x/15/x) that adds to something like Fire Mastery or Fireball. Great FCR, too, and Mana Regen. That or CoH, imo.
You just really can't get around not having Teleport if you're a Sorceress, though. Their natural low defense and health do not bode well for dueling unless you have Teleport (although there are obviously ways around this). Similar reasons for PvM.
the wand that adds to fire dmg and -fire res right?
its pretty much the same gear except fire facets and the robes and wand are tailored for fire skills. innit?
this is why i love the sorc...you dont even need any uniques or runewords though, any rares or magical items with +fire skills is great for ammy and rings, helm, belt, boots, and orb.
a inv filled with 3/20/20s and fire skill gcs are a must for pvp
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Remember the String of Ears
"to the worm in horseradish, the world is horseradish."
remember the days of occy and wiz rings? .08 shakos and hacked occys and hacked valors? my sorc could stand in the barbs ww's and not feel a thing...then in 1.10 they beasted the fire sorc and made them unstoppable...
lol
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Remember the String of Ears
"to the worm in horseradish, the world is horseradish."
[/hr]
Since the Public Testing Realm (PTR) (see The Wait is Over -- PTR Patch 1.13)went live this week with Diablo II: Lord of Destruction patch 1.13, I decided to try out the Sorceress with her newly arranged skills, primarily Hydra and a build wired for it.
Her fire-based skills at first seemed changed enough to merit trying a fire-based build once more (I often avoid them and go with a cold-based or lightning-based build because of the lack of slowing effects or a huge impact from FCR that Lightning gets and skills like Meteor and Hydra do not):
Official Blizzard Quote:
Sorceress
-Firewall - Synergy receives 1% damage per point of Inferno and Blaze and 4% per point of Warmth.
-Blaze - Synergy receives 2% damage per point of Firewall and 4% per point of Warmth.
-Hydra - Increased base damage by 15% per rank.
-Hydra - Increased base speed of Hydra projectile.
-Hydra - Reduced cooldown by 25%.
-Lightning Mastery - Reduced overall effect by 15%.
As for my stat point investment, well, it was a bit odd to do. Normally, I save all of my stat points until I can wear my gear so that I don't waste a single point. In this case, I didn't have any gear saved up to look forward to, and since I had all my stat points available from using the instant level cheat, I decided to just cover my bases, so to speak, with 100 in STR, 200 in VIT, and 245 in ENG. The excessive amount in ENG was due to the fact that I had no gear that added a ton to ENG or Mana Regeneration and I needed to Teleport through Normal, Nightmare, and Hell difficulty modes.
Yes, if any of you recognize her name, it used to be my name here on DiabloFans. Kudos to you guys!
Normal mode was, of course, a cinch. As we all know, Normal doesn't even require gear. I could probably have played it naked and been completely fine. Of course, the allure of the gold cheat (typing Gold x in a game, where x is the amount of gold you would like to hold, so long as it doesn't exceed your carrying limit) brought me to gamble a ton for some interesting rare items. Item stats typically included FCR, Resistances, ENG, and +skill modifiers.
The real problem hit me full-force in Hell mode, as I had been anticipating. The whole while I had been hoping that the Legacy team had tuned-down immune monsters in Hell to give elemental characters a fighting chance when poor. Of course, they were all still there, and I ended up scratching the entire build, despite the updates in casting delay and damage for Hydra, via the respeccing option at Akara after completing the Den of Evil quest.
Right now, I'm working on building-up a good lightning-based build, my personal favorite (still have an incomplete but somewhat in-depth guide here on our Wiki- hoping to finish it with the updates of 1.13). After that, I'm looking forward to a good session building an ultimate tank with the Druid as a Werebear, especially because of the upgrades Werebears got in the patch so far. Overall, the patch isn't everything I wanted, but there are some fun bits here and there to fiddle with and I'm making the best I can of it. Hopefully more will be fixed and added as progress on the patch continues in the PTR.
Actually, that's something I can honestly say i've never thought about... +LR Skills items on the swap. Perhaps something that procs LR on your Merc or something could help as well.
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I remember people using hydra sorc to pvp, it wasnt bad. Now with the buff, its gona be better. You just gotta get a high fcr and stunlock someone with nova or something and the hydras will kill him
The problem is that Infinity can't break most immunes, especially in Hell, effectively. The reason it works so well with Lightning immunes is because of the solid -lightning res modifier it has. The actual aura is more like icing.
I mean, even with my Infinity on East, Fire immunes remain in Chaos Sanctuary while Lightning ones are gone.
Of course, every bit helps. Not contesting that I really just think that they should have concise ways of breaking all immunes, not just Lightning ones. I don't think we should have them at all, actually. Resistances, yes. Immunes, no.
my fav type? fire or ice. fire for the dmg and ice for its pvm.
and teleport is the best skill ever.
also like how this is a sticky but none of the other classes are (keep it this way)
"to the worm in horseradish, the world is horseradish."
"to the worm in horseradish, the world is horseradish."
You just really can't get around not having Teleport if you're a Sorceress, though. Their natural low defense and health do not bode well for dueling unless you have Teleport (although there are obviously ways around this). Similar reasons for PvM.
its pretty much the same gear except fire facets and the robes and wand are tailored for fire skills. innit?
this is why i love the sorc...you dont even need any uniques or runewords though, any rares or magical items with +fire skills is great for ammy and rings, helm, belt, boots, and orb.
a inv filled with 3/20/20s and fire skill gcs are a must for pvp
"to the worm in horseradish, the world is horseradish."
And yeah, that wand. Love that thing ^^.
Eschuta's Temper, and good choice Working on one for my Lit sorce on East...
lol
"to the worm in horseradish, the world is horseradish."
"to the worm in horseradish, the world is horseradish."
"to the worm in horseradish, the world is horseradish."