dealing with gloams and burning souls

I just hit nightmare and these things really hurt. I have a few questions about going lighting absorb.

Is the cap for any one element 40 percent? Should I try to get 1 tgods belt for 20 percent and a wisp for another 20 percent?

What else should I prepare for as a sorc max block or another element absorb? My first character was a necro summoner forgot all about the gloams been a long time since I played.|||Are you using Spirit Runeword? If you can make one of those, they have Magic absorb stat that works on Lightning.

Also, Tgod is a number absorb, not a percentage absorb, so its not limited by the 40% cap. The % cap to any element (Cold, Lightning and Fire are the only ones with % absorb) is indeed 40%. But wisp projector has a level requirement of 76, is your level high enough for it?

I am not a very big fan of Max block sorcs because High block shields with FCR doesn't really exist, and sorcs have the lowest natural block rating amongst all the characters (same as Necros, but they have good shields so max block for them is easily achieveable). If you find general survivability to be an issue, I'd use Energy Shield instead, because it works for all damage rather than just simply physical. Do not use ES unless you have Insight though, because it will eat your mana.

If you really want to go max block, I suggest using a really high blocking shield (such as Whistan's Guard, set Round shield) so you can also maximise your health, or shields with Block/Resists (Moser's Blessed Circle, Unique Round Shield, see the pattern? :P). Max block might help you with a couple of acts, but upon reaching act 4 hell, the elemental attacks start to really hurt, and max block won't save you from them, so your last line of defence would have to be resists, which is hard to achieve without some dedicated resistance gear (Wizardspike, skin of viper etc).

It takes more gear to make Max block effective than it takes for ES to be effective for untwinked characters (ones that uses gear they find), which is why I prefer ES.|||Thank you for your post very informative. I am not high enough for the wisp didnt even notice. I will look into the spirit shield too. I have insight but was going meteor orb so not sure if I can get up to es will look into that more. I probably wont worry much about max block then. I think my lightning is at 75resist now but they still put a hurt on me thats why was looking into the absorb.

Thank you again for your post was very helpful.|||If you want to try out ES, the best way would be to make a Memory, preferrably from a staff that already has ES on it, though not crucial. with a modest level 7 ES (thats 6 from memory itself without a ES already on it and +1 skills from anywhere else), you will still have 50% damage reduction from ES.

Be careful of mana burns.|||Short of a multiplayer game, you don't really need to worry about them too much if you're equipped well. When I say well, I'm not referring to absorb, as I typically avoid absorb on sorcs because I find other stats far more important.

TGod's isn't 20%, its integer 20. I can't remember all the math but its on Arreat Summit.

Since my main sorc is a 200fcr pure lite, I rely on offense (and infinity merc) to take these guys down, but my belt is also full of rejuvs to apply as needed. In order to hit 200fcr, the only real spot I can get any integer absorb/reduction is Skin of the Vipermagi.

As you won't be restricted in gear setup with a dual element, you've got options, but I've never relied on the absorb outside of PvP.

Chenw covered the basics with the blocking, and just to reiterate max block won't stop the lightning but will help with exploding dolls. Maxblock on a sorc is more of a pvp or hardcore use.

The big problem with ES is that to make it effective it takes a lot of points, which thus reduce your damage. As dual element sorcs need all the points they can get, it really hurts those builds.|||Hence why I suggested using memory to both try it out and hopefully alleviate a few points thats so crucially needed for ES.

The tightness of points in a Dual element sorc was a reason why I chose Nova/Orb over everything else because it only required 3 skills maxed out, leaving room for a 4th maxed skill with points to spare. The ES was pretty much an accident though, I found a 4os staff with +3 ES, so I gave ES a shot at trying when my sorc only had maxed orbs and had about 47 points left over (Couldn't for the life of me which dual sorc I wanted). I found it to be surprisingly effective in NM and it is still in test drive in Hell. I am reasonably happy with it so far, although it could be purely down to the +9 ES stick I got|||When using ES, a nice Memory is usually expected to save some hardpoints in ES, but it doesn't affect the TK synergy, so to get those benefits the hardpoints need to be placed.

Probably the biggest reason I never liked ES was the mana curse. Combine that with mana burn, its easier to focus on pure vit. I did use ES for a while so I didn't have to worry about elemental resists, but only because the setup was overloaded in MF.|||I'm using Tal's with 1 15%@/5 dex jewel and I have 75 resist lightning in Hell. In NM I have 75 (duh) and I have 974 hp.. I'm lv 75 if you are curious. I'm PURE Blizzard sorc and I have yet to die. Absorb isn't necessary. If you think it is crucial try to get Labsorb on your merc. Have the merc tank and you win. Ofc I'm pulling 8050-8412 dmg per hit with Bizz and 4012-4121 with Ice Blast so even on /p8 I get mostly 1 hit kills. (other than uniques/bosses) Gloams aren't... as bad as everyone says. They are a pain in the *** but they aren't too bad. With practice you will KNOW when and where they will be/strike. And, wouldn't you be teleporting the whole time till bosses? Why would gloams be a bother if you skip them?