Diablo 2 & Sorceress builds

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Things are going well. I'm about 2/3 through Act I Nightmare at this point. I had some lucky gambles last night, netting me a rare ancient armor and a very nice circlet that gives 20% resist all, +1 sorceress skills, and a couple of other useful mods. That got all of my resistance up to a far more acceptable level. Cold is maxed, fire is at 70, and poison and lightning are in the 40s. I can also trade in my +1 skills amulet for a prismatic as soon as I snag a perfect emerald, and then all my resistances should at least get me into the upper 50s to low 60s.

So with the exception of the gloves and orb I'm using, I'm fairly satisfied with my existing equipment. The caster gloves are less than great, although I'll craft a new pair soon, and based on the first craft, the outcome of the second almost has to be an improvement. My orb is still a non-magical Jared's Stone with +3 to fireball and +2 to shiver armor that I started using in Act III Normal. As Frozen Orb has now become my primary attack, I'd prefer to get something that improved that skill. Plus, once I max out fireball and meteor, the extra damage I'd get for an extra +3 to the fireball skill will be minimal (especially considering you don't get the synergy bonus for +skill items).

Other than that, Act I has been a breeze. I haven't died once since starting Nightmare (probably because nothing stands up to Frozen Orb). That having been said, I seem to remember that Act II is significantly more difficult than Act I other than the first quest in the sewers. Once scarabs, slingers and sand maggots enter the picture with their elemental attacks, things get more difficult.

However, unless they have cold resistance, Frozen Orb will still mow them down. I haven't even maxed out Frozen Orb, and won't for about another 7 or 8 levels, so that attack is still improving to deal with future enemies than may be able to survive a Frozen Orb at it's current level.

Now that I have experienced it, I completely agree with what others have said regarding Frozen Orb as a primary attack throughout much of Nightmare. It's an unbelievably effective attack. Anything short of a champion or unique cannot withstand its damage, and you're capable of clearing out entire swaths of enemies with a single spell. I've also become effective at quickly switching between skills when fighting uniques. Because of the cool down period with Frozen Orb, when I'm fighting a unique, I'll blast off a FO, and then switch to Fire Ball during the cool down period and get a FB or two off before switching back to FO.

 

Most of Nightmare is actually easier than Normal, mainly because of Frozen Orb. To be fair, no normal monster (except cold immunes) will be able to withstand FO, because even though the monsters get tougher, your skill level with FO increases as well (and so does the damage)

That crown you got is a very lucky gamble indeed, especially this early in Nightmare. I think it'll be a while (possibly not before Hell) till you find something better, unless you farm an area for magic items.

Act 2 is trickier, but as long as you keep your distance and dodge the charged bolts it should be just as easy as Act 1.

 

Agreed. I'm even considering socketing it with something. Maybe a perfect topaz for some extra mf. Honestly, other than the potential of finding another piece of headgear with +2 to sorceress skills and a bunch of other mods, what would be better than what I currently have? Also I think it is only circlets and tiaras that can come with +skills, which further decrease my odds of improving on what I already have.

 

All right, I picked up D2 and the expansion the other day and have had a bit of a play around with it.

I would like to take a sorceress right through to the end and have a build in mind but I am not too sure how well she would work so I thought that I'd post my idea here.

So here it is:

20 Warmth
20 Enchant
To bolster the attack of my hireling. Hopefully this should be able to give the hireling from act 2 and amazing damage rating when he wields the pike (which is the best spear I have found so far)

10 Ice Blast
20 Frozen Orb
20 Cold Mastery

The 10 in Ice Blast will hopefully be enough until I get Frozen Orb as it can deal out a good amount of damage fairly quickly.

The rest of the points will go into prequisites or other spells that wont have to much bearing on the way this character will be played.

Any comments would be great.

 

You dont need 20 in warmth. In 109 games maybe. But in 1.10 you can buy mana potions, so there really isnt any point in spending that many points in warmth. Maybe 1-5.

Enchant? hmm, I wouldnt, but I suppose you could.

Frozen orb is devastating, but dont go for ice blast and frozen orb - you only need one cold based attack, and ice blast and frozen orb have no synergies as far as I remember.

Also, you need another elemental attack - hydra, meteor, firewall and fireball are good choices, chain lightning requires a large amount of skill points invested to be any good.

the reason you need another elemental attack is that many enemies are immune to one or more elements later on, and you cant always rely on your merc.

 

The 10 points to Ice Blast were just to get through until I am able to get Frozen Orb. I suppose I could use Ice Bolt as that has synergies with Frozen Orb but would constantly levelling in that be enough to last out until level 30 or wouldnt it do enough damage?

The 20 points in Warmth were there to power up Enchant as I think Enchant gets a bonus from it.

I think I might also point a few points in Fireball as you suggested but that would mean that I would have to sacrifice a few points in other areas to make it any good (like powering it up with fire mastery and synergies).

What is the maximum number of points you get throughout the game anyway?

 

110 points max.

I seriously wouldnt recommend putting points into ice blast if you arent going to use it endgame.

If you plan to use fireball, put points into that instead, should be enough to last you until you get frozen orb.

40 points to beef up your merc is rather a lot, and I'm not sure you will see the full benefit for it because mercs only do half damage to bosses. you weaken your overral build for the sake of your merc.

 

I read somewhere a couple of days ago that if you maxed out enchant, your merc could deal out some serious damage (I think it was like 3000+). Surely there isnt much in the Hell difficulty that could stand up to that, even if it is from a merc.

 

3000 is a lot, and many monsters would get owned by it. I suppose it could work, I prefer relying on my own magic to do the killing though.

Remember that unlike paladins and barbarians, mercs wont get attacks that do extra damage.

still could be quite effective though, give it a try.

 

All right, I have considered the things you have said and I have decided to make a build like this:

20 Warmth
20 Enchant
20 Fire Matery
20 Frozen Orb
10 Cold Mastery
12 Lightning (might change to 11 Chain Lightining)
8 points for prequisites (9 if I use Chain Lightning)
Total: 110

That covers 3 elements so immunities shouldnt be a problem at higher levels.

Also, what would be the best kind of weapon to use? I have seen the War Staff which I believe is meant to be the best staff but I have also seen those little sorceress only wand thingies. Can you wield one of these wand thingies in each hand or do you have to use a shield?

 

Dont bother with lightning. your build uses fire and cold skills, trying to use 3 of your skill tabs will only result in a weaker class.

Rather use fireball or something. I know that inferno has a synergy with warmth, but apparently it only does 1/3 of its listed damage.

[quote[That covers 3 elements so immunities shouldnt be a problem at higher levels.[/quote]

you dont need 3, only two. your merc does physical damage. nothing is ever immune to fire, cold and physical. if you put 10 points in the fire tree, you can benefit from fire mastery, and possible a synergy from another one of your skills.

weapons? most players go for orbs and shields instead of staffs, for defense. raise dex till it is high enough for max block, then put everything else into vitality. endgame base strength should be 60-100, maybe closer to 60. usually not a point in energy. remember to raise dex and vit and str simultaneously for the first 30 levels or so.

 

Righto. Cheers Mate

 

@TBA - You've got a lot of good advice. Since I'm playing a sorceress right now, I'll add my two cents in as well.

First of all, while 110 points is the theoretical maximum number of skill points you can get, in practice you won't ever get to level 99, which is what you'll need to get 110 total skill points. You get one skill point per level, and then on each difficulty setting there are four more skill points you can earn through quests. So you get four bonus skill points in normal, nightmare and hell difficulty (total of 12), and then one for each level up (total of 98) - that's where you come up with the 110 total.

In practice though, because of exponential increases in experience points required to hit the next level up, getting a character to level 99 is effectively impossible. (Alright, it's not *technically* impossible, but it would require you to play the game for a few hours every day for the next year, which is more devotion than most people have, at least for a single character.)

So the question you really should be asking is what level can I expect to be by the time I fight Baal on Hell difficulty? Most people, regardless of what class they are playing, reach Baal around levels 80-85. Adding in the 12 skill points you get from quests, you're looking at having somewhere around 91-96 skill points available for your character. And you should really plan your character around those points. That's why a sorceress who uses three elements is so hard to play - you can't really pump a third skill until the late levels, and you likely won't ever get to the high levels. In your example with spending the last 12 points on lightning, it means you wouldn't spend your first point into lightning until level 88!

The next thing to consider is how you distribute your ability points. On every level up, you will get 5 ability points to place in strength, dexterity, vitality and energy. There is no minimum or maximum for any stat, so you could place all 5 into one of those attributes, or spread them around into several attributes on each level up.

The first recommendation I have here is don't put a lot of points into energy. I know that sounds nuts, as a sorceress is going to be using a lot of spells, but sorceresses get a bonus of three more mana upon each level up whether they put any points into energy or not. Therefore, even if you don't spend any points in mana, by the time you get your sorceress up to a respectable level, she will have tons a mana. Especially since you are planning on placing 20 points into warmth, you'll be regenerating mana like crazy! For your build I would recommend leaving energy at its base level.

As for your other abilities, it entire depends on whether you decide to use a single handed weapon (called orbs) or a two handed weapon (called staves). There are good sides and bad sides to each choice. Staves can be purchased from storekeepers in each act. Therefore, they are plentiful, and you'll be able to easily find/purchase staves that raise your skills for specific spells. For this build, you'll probably want to get a staff that gives +3 to frozen orb, and +3 to enchant, and that shouldn't be too hard to find. Every trip to town, you'll see a dozen or more staves for sale, so it will only be a matter of time before you get one with the specific spells you're looking for. (But don't expect to find a staff with +3 to frozen orb early on. The shopkeepers tend to sell staves with spells appropriate to your level, so in Act I normal, staves will have spells typically used by a character in the beginning levels. You won't start seeing level 30 spell boosters until your character gets close to level 30.)

On the other hand, there are orbs. Orbs can get all the same spell boosting abilities that staves get, but since they are single handed weapons, you can use a shield. However, you'll never see an orb for sale anywhere. All orbs must be found. Therefore, they are far less common than staves, and likewise, it is much more difficult to find one with the specific spell boosters you are looking for.

How this relates to how you distrubtes your abilities points is simple: Your chance to block is proportional to your dexterity. Therefore, if you are deciding to use an orb and a shield, you're going to need to invest a healthy amount of ability points into dexterity. A shield is only useful if you can block something with it, and a high level sorceress will need 150+ in dexterity to effectively block with a shield. However, if you decide to use a staff and forego the use of a shield, then there's no need to place many points into dexterity at all. In fact, most sorceresses who use a staff leave their dexterity at base.

Regardless of what you decide there, you are probably going to want to get your sorceress up to about 75-100 in strength. It all depends on how good of armor you want to use. The better armors are heavier and require greater strength th use. If you're using a shield, you'll probably want a tower shield, as that has the highest chance to block. Tower shields require 75 strength points, so if you're using a shield, I'd say 75 would be the minimum for strength.

So you're going to put some points into strength, and no points into energy. So the lion's share of your points need to go into dexterity and vitality. If you're not using a shield, don't pump dexterity and pour all of your ability points into vitality once you get your strength to where you want it. If you are using a shield, put enough points into dexterity to maintain a high % chance to block, and anything left over goes to vitality.

Finally, I'll tell you about my sorceress to give you an idea how I spent my points on skills and abilities. I'm currently level 47, on Act II, Nightmare difficulty. My stength is exactly 100 (I like using heavy armors), my dexterity is a little over 100 (I'm using a shield) and my vitality is currently at 60. I haven't spent a single point on energy. My stength is currently as high as I'll likely ever need it to be, and as a result, all of my remaining points are going into dexterity and vitality. I need about 2 points spent in dexterity every level up to maintain my max block, which leaves 3 points left over for vitality.

As for my spell selection, frozen orb is my primary attack. Ever since I've hit level 30, every single skill point has gone into frozen orb, which will be maxed out at level 49. The only other skill points spent on the cold tree up to this point were spent on prerequisities. I relied on fireball in the early levels to get me up to level 30, when I switched to Frozen Orb. (Actually, I was more like level 35 when I switched to frozen orb, because I needed to get several skill levels in frozen orb before it started doing more damage than fireball.)

My build will look like this at the end:

20 frozen orb
20 fireball
20 meteor
10 cold mastery
10 fire mastery
And all of the requisities, plus one point wonders in warmth, telekinesis and teleport.

As you can see, I plan my builds to use about 90 skill points, as I know I'll never get up to the 110 max.

 

Hmmm, those are good points Aldeth.

I suppose I dont really need 20 points in Fire Mastery as the bonus at the higher levels might not be as good. The points that I was going to put in Fireball (I chose this in the end over lightning) could probably be cut down a bit as I only need it to get to level 30. After that it will be useless for me.

I am not really too worried about the weapon though I will probably stick to the orb thingies.

 

use staffs for a while, until orbs become more plentiful. then use orbs and shields.

fire mastery adds 37% enhanced damage initially, and 8% per level after that. lightning mastery adds 50% enhanced damage and 12% per level after that. no idea why the two are so different, maybe cos fire damage has a much higher minimum damage than lightning.

you might want to download a dll mod that allows you to increase your stash size for convenience sake, or a muling program like ATMA. muling refers to storing stuff you wont to keep but your current character cant use somewhere else.

go to the phrozen keep for a good list of mods and tools if you want to mod your game, but you dont really need to if you are fine with the as is.

 

As Proteus says, the biggest bonus is actually at level 1, but the bonus remains decent after that. Fire Mastery adds to the damage of all of your spells, including enchant, so it should be a consideration. At the minimum, you'll want to get a single point into it early for the large initial bonus.

Firball will definitely lose its punch on Nightmare and especially Hell difficulties. The only way it remains a viable spell is if you pump fireball and meteor. Meteor gives a very nice +14% damage to Fireball for every point spent in it. Likewise, Fireball gives a +7% bonus to meteor for every point spent in it. Once both a maxed out at 20 they do very nice damage, and make for excellent support spells.

Since you won't have enough points to pump both of them, I agree that you should only put enough points in it to get you through the early levels. You'll need something in the way of offensive firepower prior to level 30, and I also agree that fireball is a better choice than lightning. As Proteus points out, while the max damage on lighning spells is higher, the minimum stays very low. You'll get more consistent damage out of fireball.

You should be. The orb/staff is the primary means of increasing your skill levels beyond level 20 (circlets, rings, and amulets are the other usual means). Take my sorceress for instance. Last night I ran across a rare glowing orb that gave me 22% lightning resistance (thank god for that - I was finally able to max out lightning resistance, which is really useful to have in Act II!). However, the reason I made the switch from my previous orb was for the bonus skills. The orb gives +2 to all cold spells, +1 to fire mastery and +1 to lightning mastery. As a cold/fire sorceress the lightning mastery boost is pointless, but the others are worth having. The +1 to fire mastery ups my fireball and meteor damage by 8% each. The +2 to all cold skills helps my frozen orb in two ways - it adds +2 to the skill itself, obviously increasing its damage, but it also adds +2 to cold mastery, lowering the cold resistance of enemies to boot. It also improves my shiver armor by +2, but I already had that as a bonus on my previous orb, so it's really no different for me there.

This also serves as a good example of the kind of item you want for your sorceress. Since your sorceress is primarily fire based, you would want something that gives a +1, 2, or 3 to all fire skills, and then a bonus to some other frequently used spell, like frozen orb.

 

Oh sorry guys I got the fire mastery stats wrong.

its +30% initially and 7% after that.

 

@ Aldeth:
I probably should have phrased what I meant by "I am not really too worried about the weapon" better. What I meant by it was that I will use either staves or orbs and dont really have an issue switching between them.

Edit:
@ Proteus:
I downloaded your mod and had a play around with it and it seems pretty good apart from one thing. The Cube that you get at the start wont let me transmute 3 chipped topazs (is that the plural for topaz?) into a flawed topaz. Was that your intent? If so, is it written down somewhere?

[ April 21, 2007, 04:13: Message edited by: TrueBlueAussie ]

 

@TBA - While there isn't too much of an issue switching between staves and orbs (you do have a weapon switch, so it is theoretically possible to switch between them on the fly even), picking one type early on is important. If you think that there's even a slight chance of you using staves throughout a significant portion of the game, then you probably don't want to put many points into dexterity.

A sorceress is never going to get the same amount of life points as a barbarian or a druid without going to exceptional lengths. Additionally, no matter how you setup your build you likely will not have a high enough strength to protect yourself with the best armors. Basically a sorceress only has two options.

1.) Spend a disproportionate number of attribute points into vitality. Since sorceresses get a poor conversion of only two life for every point invested in vitality, the only way you can survive hits in hell difficulty is by really investing in this attribute. By using this strategy, it is not unusual for your sorceress to have 300 in vitality by the time she hits level 70 or so.

2.) Focus on not getting hit. This requires you spending a disproportionate number of points into dexterity, to acheive max block. The other thing these sorceresses typically do is invest a little more into strength than normal, and try to get their hands on some better armor and damage reduction gear. Since they won't have the vitality to survive more than a single hit on hell difficulty, minimizing the number of hits becomes essential.

Since option #2 requires the use of a shield, most sorceresses who prefer to use a staff go with option #1. They accept the fact that they will get hit, but the plan is to have a big enough life pool to survive a couple of hits and gulp down a healing potion. Option #2 means you get hit a heck of a lot less, but don't have staying power if you get yourself into trouble - on hell difficulty, two hits is enough to kill you in all likelihood.

Now, I suppose it's possible to try an make an in-between build that tries to maximize the potential of both options, but typically, this game doesn't work that way. If the outcome is like everything else in this game, if you half-ass it between two options, you end up with a character that isn't particularly good at anything as opposed to a versatile character that can do many things. (Which is kind of annoying - D2 is one of very few RPGs in which specialization makes for a better character than versatility. In nearly every other RPG, the more versatile character usually is the one that comes out on top, because the versatile character has more ways to deal with different situations.)

Anyway, my character is level 55 in Act III Nightmare. Aside from a stupid death or two that I should have been able to avoid, there have been no problems up to this point. However, I am faced with a difficult decision regarding attribute allocation. I found a very nice chromatic pavise shield of deflecting. It has a base 24% resist all. Socketing it would get in up to 43%, and if I happen to get lucky and get two sockets, it will take it to 62% resist all. Which is great, except for the small problem that this shield, like all other pavise shields, has a strength requirement of 133. That is about 30 points more than I had intended to spend in strength. That high dexteriry requirement to maintain 75% chance to block isn't going away either, so every point I put into strength is a point that isn't going into vitality. So the question becomes is using this shield worth the additional investment in strength, that will force me to end up having a even more fragile character in Hell difficulty? If I take this route, I'll end up with a character who will enter Hell difficulty at about level 70, and I'll only have a vitality of about 100, maybe 110. In other words, vitality will be my lowest attribute except for energy that will be at base.

My initial impression is to go for the better shield, because having a higher strength does more than just allow me to use this one piece of equipment. Having a strength of 133 will open up a greater range of exceptional equipment. A lot of the high end exceptional armors, boots, and gloves also have strength requirements in the 100-130 range as well, which should theoretically allow me to have a higher defense character going into hell difficulty. Since I already have a defiance mercenary, having a high base defense is actually not such a bad idea. The high defense will allow me to avoid even more damage, and it is doubtful that the extra 60 points of life I would get from 30 more points in vitality would be sufficent for me to take an extra hit on hell difficulty.

 

TBA:

someone else says they have a problem like that!

oh no, must be a bug. will fix tonight, as soon as I see what caused the problem.

thanks for pointing it out.