The Dreaming Redeemer Enchantress

INTRODUCTION

Greetings, and thanks for having a look at my first public guide.

This is a PvM build, great for solo play. It�s not a PvP build. I have virtually no experience with PvP, so I�ll leave PvP-related questions for others to answer.

Enchantresses are expensive by nature and this build is no exception. This is also a pretty specific build, designed for solo play in Hell Difficulty. I think she'd do fine in a multi-player game, just keep in mind that other players who need dead bodies (necromancers, Death Sentry-dependent Assassins, others using Redemption, etc.), might not be thrilled by your Redemption aura, which you need and can't "turn off."



GENERAL DESCRIPTION:

The Dreaming Redeemer Enchantress is a melee sorceress who enjoys the protection of a fully maximized Energy Shield, rendering her virtually invulnerable to most attacks. Her signature dual Dreams, mightily enhanced by her Lightning Mastery and the Conviction aura of her mercenary's Infinity weapon, provide 1) a powerful Holy Shock aura which sizzles nearby enemies, and 2) massive lightning damage to her melee attack.

Her trademark weapon, the Phoenix phase blade, procs frequent Firestorms on strike for big fire damage to her target and residual damage to enemies fanning far out in front of her. This damage is enhanced by her Fire Mastery, Infinity's Conviction, and Phoenix's -28 to Enemy Fire Resistance. This weapon also provides %400 enhanced physical damage, a 20% chance per strike to double this damage, ignores the Defense rating of most monsters, and steals a hefty percentage of damage dealt and converts it to mana. Phoenix provides a sizable increase in defense against missile attacks, and if any fire damage manages to get through her Energy Shield, Magic Damage Reduction, and Resistance, Phoenix will absorb most if not all of it, adding to her Life. Finally, a powerful Redemption aura constantly consumes the bodies of her slain enemies and converts the energy into massive amounts of Life and Mana.

Her mercenary is no slouch. In addition to his formidable Infinity weapon which provides the enemy resistance-lowering Conviction aura, high physical damage, and frequent blasts of Chain Lightning, his Dragon armor adds Venom poison damage to his attacks, and procs Hydras frequently, often spawning several of them in rapid succession, which auto-target any enemies in range with bolts of lethal fire. Flying, jumping, egg-hatching, and dart-blowing annoyances that manage to survive the lightning pulse of Dreams are quickly dispatched by this dragon fire and redeemed, exalting the life and energy of the Enchantress.



STATS:

STR Enough to use Gladiator�s Bane armor, 111 with bonuses from gear/charms.

DEX Enough to use a Phase Blade, 136 with bonuses from gear/charms.

VIT To taste. I prefer enough to hit 1K Life after BO from CTA

NRG Everything else. This is a maximized Energy Shield build.



SKILLS (assume 1 point in prerequisites for the skills listed):

1 Shiver Armor

1 Static Field

1 Teleport

20 Telekinesis

15-20 Energy Shield (hit level 40 with gear/charms and buff gear. Hit level 40!)

20 Lightning Mastery

1 Thunderstorm

20 Fire Mastery

1-x Enchant (all remaining points)



GEAR:

Weapon: Phoenix Phase Blade (PB required for acceptable attack speed)

Helm: Dream (in a circlet or other low-STR helm; I use a diadem)

Shield: Dream (in a low-STR shield; I use a kite shield)

Armor: Gladiator�s Bane (look for very high if not max DR, MDR)

Gloves: 20 IAS required; STR, pRes, Mana desired (I use crafted Caster gloves)

Belt: Nosferatu�s Coil (10 IAS required; only other option is Goldwrap)

Boots: Silkweaves (Mana)

Amulet: Highlord�s Wrath (+ All Skill and IAS, 20 IAS required)

Rings: 2 SoJs (+ All Skills and Mana)

Switch:

- Wep: CTA

- Shield: Splendor (in a low-STR shield; I use a Kite Shield)

Charms: Anni, Torch, Lite/Life Skillers (0-7); AR/FHR, Mana/FHR, AllRes/FHR SCs (6)

Buff:

- ES Memory Staff (up to +9 to ES)

- Harlequin Crest Shako, or a Powered magic (blue) circlet (+2 or +3 to ES buff, respectively)



MERCENARY: Act 2 Nightmare Defensive "Holy Freeze"

Weapon: Infinity in an elite, preferably ethereal polearm

Armor: Dragon in an elite, preferably ethereal armor

Helm: Vampire Gaze, preferably Ethereal, socketed with an Um or x/15 allres jewel. 15ias/15allres is ideal.

***



THE DREAMING REDEEMER ENCHANTRESS

Background, Discourse, and Rationale

Work in progress ... more to follow as time permits.|||You know what is interesting... I build a lot of ES sorcs, and I vary my build from a more classic build, by keeping Life and Mana equal so I don't run into problems with Blood Mana Curse. This works extremely well in practice, so I would never think of going the full Energy route with ES.

This build you've posted is such an awesome exception to that rule, because you get to actually enjoy the massive mana regen from almost full Energy with ES, and no Blood Mana worries because you will never be casting a magic spell. I bet this would be an extremely fun build to play with |||Quote:








You know what is interesting... I build a lot of ES sorcs, and I vary my build from a more classic build, by keeping Life and Mana equal so I don't run into problems with Blood Mana Curse. This works extremely well in practice, so I would never think of going the full Energy route with ES.

This build you've posted is such an awesome exception to that rule, because you get to actually enjoy the massive mana regen from almost full Energy with ES, and no Blood Mana worries because you will never be casting a magic spell. I bet this would be an extremely fun build to play with




Hello Knarlfist; thanks for commenting. I sure found her to be a lot of fun. Honestly, I can't think of any other build I've played that had such an easy (but tactically interesting) run through Hell Difficulty.

I just finished Hell with her last night. As I was making my way to rescue Anya, I was cursed with Blood Mana by succubi. Remembering the effect while playing my traditional ES Lightning Sorc, I groaned and retreated--and then remembered! With great relish, my merc and I proceeded to teleport right onto them, swatting away. Indeed, that dreaded curse wasn't a problem for this gal; Redemption rapidly replenished what little life I lost using teleport. ES and Redemption: a mighty combo.

I couldn't help but grin when Baal cast Blood Mana on me--zero effect. Despite my relatively low AR and an unnerving number of swing-and-misses, he went down in less than ten seconds, thanks to the huge damage even one hit does. I'm loving my first enchantress!|||I'll say this...a great deal of your procs are going to be negligible in Hell. Unsynergized Hydras from Dragon, unsynergized CLs from Infinity, are going to be significantly less powerful than your enchant/dream damage. As such, I'd highly recommend Treachery as an alternative merc armor - you keep the Venom, which is still small but much more practical poison damage, while adding 45 IAS to greatly increase his physical DPS (which is the vast proportion of his damage anyway), and Fade is the single best defensive proc for mercs.

Likewise, even with 400% damage and deadly strike, a sorc with a phase blade on autoattack is going to do pretty weak physical (read:leeching) damage. Of course, you want Phoenix in a PB anyway for Redemption and -30 WSM, but just keep in mind that Dream's Lighting damage is about 75% of your total output, Enchant's Fire is about 24.5%, and everything else is about 0.5%

Shiver Armor takes 4 SPs, while Frozen Armor only takes 1, and in Hell the freeze length is going to be a fraction of a second anyway without points in CM. Probably better to do 1 pt in Frozen Armor and save the other 3 to synergize your Enchant more.

I never liked TS for PvM and, again, its 2 points you can use to beef up your main attack. Its damage is pretty weak and only hits 1 time per second, at random.

Kite shield's a bad choice for Dream, Bone shield gives you much better base block and even less STR req. But since you're hitting 111 for Gbane anyway, why not just go all the way up to Dream Troll Nest? It'll have better resale value anyway, and give you a better bonus with your Cold Armor multiplier.

Speaking of armor, you're using Gbane for CBF and DR/MDR...but did you think about a +2 Arkaines, and then switching a SoJ for a Raven? Raven gives you your CBF and 20 dex which helps offset the higher STR req on Arkaines, and you lose +1 skill on SoJ but get +2 skill on Arkaines. Both have 30FHR. You give up ~5 PDR and the MDR, but you can make up if you want by socketing with Mal (you didnt mention what you socked your Gbane with), or socket with an IAS jewel, which I assume frees up your belt slot to go with String of Ears for the MDR or Arachs for another +1 skill, max mana, and a nice 10% slow to go on top of Holy Freeze and chill If you meet the STR for Arkaines, you can use a Spirit Monarch on switch then too for another +1 to your BO.

Whats your answer to the classic banes of the ES sorc - strong poison damage and Mana Burn monsters?|||Quote:








I'll say this...a great deal of your procs are going to be negligible in Hell. Unsynergized Hydras from Dragon, unsynergized CLs from Infinity, are going to be significantly less powerful than your enchant/dream damage.




Hello Droid; thanks for commenting. "Negligible" depends on the expectation. I agree that supporting fire proc damage will be significantly less powerful than the enchant/dream damage of her melee attack (heh, at 50K per strike, there are few other forms of attack that could compare), and also when compared to her lightning pulses--against non-lightning immunes. But I disagree with the blanket statement that the procs are negligible throughout Hell difficulty. I just finished Hell with her, and except for the CL from Infinity, the procs were noticeably useful in many situations. One shouldn't expect the Hydra bolts and Firestorm waves to take down the stronger Hell monsters on their own, true. But they did take down the lesser, faster, most annoying critters at range without me having to teleport all over after them. This was particularly helpful when they were immune to the lightning pulses from the Dreams.

Firestorm sends out multiple streamers, and at point blank range, most if not all hit. I can't vouch for its accuracy, but according to this thread, the Firestorm does 124-144 per second. That's without enhancement from Fire Mastery, Phoenix, and Infinity, and that's for one stream. I haven't yet found data on exactly how many streams are produced (if anyone knows, please post!), but this damage adds up to a lot against her melee target. From what I could tell, this helped a lot against Lightning Immunes. They went down a lot faster when I was swatting along with my merc, than when I let him tank them alone. I would test this further against Lightning Immunes, without him around, but that means no Infinity present; hence, not an effective test.

I also tested (qualitative) against Lightning Immunes with Kingslayer, Crescent Moon, and Passion, to compare. None of them performed noticeably better than Phoenix. Crescent Moon's strengths are lightning-based. Passion's attack speed was obviously better, but lacks elemental enhancement. Of these, Kingslayer's 33% CB with Vengeance did a fine job, but not noticeably better than Phoenix from my view. Hence, I conclude that the Firestorm damage is significant when tanking one to one against a Lightning Immune. As a secondary source of elemental damage to her enormous lightning attack, it contributes to the overall arsenal in an important way. That it does area damage fanning out from her is just icing, complimenting the Hydra procs from Dragon nicely.

I agree that a level 15 Hydra's damage is not so significant. But keep in mind there are three heads per Hydra, and the damage shown is for one. When several Hydras spawn, the damage adds up nicely, and Infinity does its thing. The auto-targeting nature of their attack is also quite nice. I sat and watched closely on many occasions when several of them spawned and fired on big monsters like Urdurs and spitting garbage eaters in the River of Flame; if they weren't Fire Immunes, the Hydras did pound away at them and reduced their life at a very good rate. I kept checking my merc with teleport so he wouldn't interfere with my observations. I could easily tell the difference between the Dream pulses and the Hydra damage. What I enjoyed most about them was the way they tracked and killed the lightning-immune smaller, faster critters in the desert, jungles, and on the Mountain outright, allowing my sorc to touch up her nails instead of teleporting around like crazy after them.

In summary, I found the Firestorm and Hydra procs to be quite useful and a strong compliment to her primary lightning attacks--and a welcome difference in game play from cookie-cutter approaches.


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As such, I'd highly recommend Treachery as an alternative merc armor - you keep the Venom, which is still small but much more practical poison damage, while adding 45 IAS to greatly increase his physical DPS (which is the vast proportion of his damage anyway), and Fade is the single best defensive proc for mercs.




Indeed, Treachery is fabulous. I use it on many if not most of my mercs and believe it to be one of the finest Hell-capable merc armors for the money. In this case however, I get level 18 Venom as opposed to 15, and the Hydras. I use teleport tactically, so IAS on him isn't so crucial as I'm rarely in one spot for more than a couple of seconds when taking the battle to the enemy (and I have a 15ias jewel in his helm).

This merc definitely does miss the Fade aura, as his resists are below max due the the equipment he's using. But he only died twice in my run through Hell, and once was to poison because I forgot to check him. I keep him out of too much trouble by using Teleport liberally.


Quote:








Likewise, even with 400% damage and deadly strike, a sorc with a phase blade on autoattack is going to do pretty weak physical (read:leeching) damage. Of course, you want Phoenix in a PB anyway for Redemption and -30 WSM, but just keep in mind that Dream's Lighting damage is about 75% of your total output, Enchant's Fire is about 24.5%, and everything else is about 0.5%




Agreed, aside from the merc, this build's physical attack is not a primary feature, and the 300-400% ED from Phoenix doesn't add much to her attack if you gear her like I've described above. However, what she choose to carry in her backpack is flexible, considering the huge lightning damage she does even without skillers (around 40K instead of 50K, heh). A player could choose to collect max damage charms and raise her physical damage (and AR ...) significantly, in which case the ED bonus becomes a very nice enhancement.

In regard to leech--this is a strong ES build, complimented by a Redemption aura, mobilized with Teleport. Leech isn't very important. Up until Hell Worldstone, my gal used only one (one!) big purple pot, against the Ancients. Her life ball almost never dropped more than a sliver, except when hit by very strong mana-burners. When this happened I just teleported away and redeemed, or circled and let our auras do their thing.


Quote:








Shiver Armor takes 4 SPs, while Frozen Armor only takes 1, and in Hell the freeze length is going to be a fraction of a second anyway without points in CM. Probably better to do 1 pt in Frozen Armor and save the other 3 to synergize your Enchant more.




Up until this build, my rationale was exactly what you've described above. Then I read the write-up here about the Bodomsorc Enchantress variant, which states that Shiver Armor actually freezes them before they hit you, unlike Frozen Armor. From my observations on this last run through Hell, this seems to be true. Freezing an attacking monster before they strike is much better than after, particularly in the case of mana-burners. I haven't yet researched and tested further to confirm the difference between these two defenses, but I will.

CORRECTION: This is exactly what is stated in the Bodomsorc guide (courtesy BodomSaint):

Shiver Armor has the nasty habit to freeze every force that tries to harm you. For this effect to trigger the enemy doesn’t even have to successfully land a hit on you. The attempt itself is enough for it to trigger. This spell is very handy when facing a numerical superiority of monsters or when teleporting through a field of enemies. This can be a lifesaver and well worth a point.



I am remiss in stating that it freezes before they hit. It triggers before they hit. Also, based on the skill description from Arreat, it doesn't freeze, but damages and slows. Still, based on how I play this gal, I still prefer Shiver over Frozen. She does fine with the skill points in Enchant that she has and will have as she levels more. Infinity is lowering enemy defense considerably, she has ITD, and her weapon does so much damage against bosses that it may take a few swings before she hits, but each hit does uber damage. And she can handle some hits. Hits will often trigger Confuse, which is a great crowd control proc. This was one reason why I didn't sweat her low defense. Defense under 10K is overrated anyway, imo, and since I'm using a Freeze merc over Defiance, 10K def ain't gonna happen.




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I never liked TS for PvM and, again, its 2 points you can use to beef up your main attack. Its damage is pretty weak and only hits 1 time per second, at random.




Well, I guess it comes down to a matter of preference. When my main attack is already stellar, I look to broaden my attack forms (melee, ranged, area of effect, active, passive, personal, minion, etc.) and damage types (physical, fire, lite, cold, poison, magic, etc.). Again, I originally took your point of view and didn't include Thunderstorm. I even forgot to include it when I wrote up this build and had to add it on my re-read. But my current build includes it. With Lightning Mastery and Infinity, the thunderbolts kill average monsters in Hell Acts I, II, and III outright. It adds nicely to a collection of damage sources and effects that I don't have to manage much in battle: Holy Shock Aura; Holy Fire Aura (bleh); sporadic Chain Lightning (meh); Confusion, Firestorm, and Hydra procs (the latter two I do manage somewhat, by kiting monsters where I want them when possible and placing myself tactically with teleport when I attack to maximize their effect). She wishes she could Mind Blast; with all of these going, everything would be stunned all the time and she could do yoga or something.


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Kite shield's a bad choice for Dream, Bone shield gives you much better base block and even less STR req. But since you're hitting 111 for Gbane anyway, why not just go all the way up to Dream Troll Nest? It'll have better resale value anyway, and give you a better bonus with your Cold Armor multiplier.




Heh, well here, aside from low STR req, my choice was based on the adage that "style is everything." I just don't like the way bone shields look, and block isn't so important to this build, being PvM ES. She didn't miss having decent block at all. You have a very good point on resale value though, as Dreams are expensive. I've HEL'd the Gbane, so it's STR req is 96 iirc.


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Speaking of armor, you're using Gbane for CBF and DR/MDR...but did you think about a +2 Arkaines, and then switching a SoJ for a Raven? Raven gives you your CBF and 20 dex which helps offset the higher STR req on Arkaines, and you lose +1 skill on SoJ but get +2 skill on Arkaines. Both have 30FHR. You give up ~5 PDR and the MDR, but you can make up if you want by socketing with Mal (you didnt mention what you socked your Gbane with), or socket with an IAS jewel, which I assume frees up your belt slot to go with String of Ears for the MDR or Arachs for another +1 skill, max mana, and a nice 10% slow to go on top of Holy Freeze and chill If you meet the STR for Arkaines, you can use a Spirit Monarch on switch then too for another +1 to your BO.




A very good analysis, and I should try it. I did look up Arkaine's on Arreat, but even after 6 or more seasons of play with over 20 accounts still active, I don't think I have one, heh. Yep, replacing the HEL with MAL wouldn't be a big deal, but in my mind, losing the 25% mana bonus from the SoJ (+1 BO wouldn't make up for that ... but then there's the Spirit option, hmm) and the 13 MDR from the GBane, are significant losses. The 50% Poison Length Reduction on the Gbane is very nice for an ES sorc too. I agonized trying to find an alternative to Gbane for a day, and wasn't successful coming up with an alternative that set my mind at ease. She can't wear Frostburns (needs the 20IAS), so her mana pool isn't as big as some ES sorcs. Redemption does make up for this most of the time, but it's not a guarantee. Finally, the STR requirement was the deciding factor: it would mean diverting a lot more stat points from NRG to STR, and she needs the mana. Mana is life, etc. Transferring DEX gained from the Ravenfrost to STR would help, but (165-20)-96= 49 stat points, that's 98 base mana lost. I guess that could be made up in the charm collection, so it's worth testing out. I played with Arach/String combos, but not with Arkaine, so yes, I'll have to experiment with what you propose here and see what can be done. Thanks for the tips!


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Whats your answer to the classic banes of the ES sorc - strong poison damage and Mana Burn monsters?




When I realized she hardly ever needs to pot, I replaced one column in my belt with antidotes. I rarely had to use them because Redemption keeps her life ball pretty much maxed while in combat, and restores her mana ball very quickly also. So long as she keeps moving and killing (her aura alone does this well with lesser, numerous creatures, and Redemption sucks them up), poison is kept at bay. She does have over 40% PR from gear/charms in Hell and the 50% PLR from Gbane, which help a lot. Then there's always TP and heal, heh.

Mana burners will ever be tedious with ES builds. Redemption helps a lot provided the shield didn't drop completely (3/5 times from my approximation) and there are bodies around. If the shield dropped, I'd retreat and re-cast, or Town and recast with buff. If it was still up, she'd teleport away to bodies, or to easier kills, redeem, and proceed back cautiously to let her aura or her merc and his hydra procs kill the bastards. Then I usually Town and re-establish a fully buffed ES. She had pots, but I didn't use them to see how deep into Hell diff I could get without them. I wanted to test the effectiveness of Redemption. Conclusion = awesome.

These are two of her three primary challenges: Poison, the least of them; Mana Burners, the most dangerous, and finally, Lightning/Fire Immunes. The last could be challenging, particularly ones that were lightning-enchanted. I couldn't stay close to the boss for very long without my mana ball dropping dangerously from the CBs. So to deal with them, I used teleport to kite and separate the minions from the boss, let my merc kill them with his physical damage one at a time (I attacked too, but my damage wasn't much), and then used teleport liberally to attack the boss with my merc, retreating and restoring him with a pot if needed, until the boss dropped. It worked plenty fine, and dual Immunes are thankfully rare. An option would be to stock up on Max Damage charms in the backpack to bolster her physical damage.

One other threat deserves mention: Black Soul packs. They were also dangerous when grouped or when I was surrounded by them with their huge long-ranged lightning attacks. Getting surrounded is a mistake on the player's part imo--one can easily get carried away with Tele. Don't, heh. Again, I would lure them out one by one, teleport right onto them, and attack. They went down pretty easy when separated.

My most hated of all critters are the Dolls. I HATE THEM! THEY SCARE ME! Even if they spawned with Lightning Immunity, they weren't much of a problem. I let my merc kill them while sticking my tongue out at a safe distance. His hydras were effective against them too, once they clustered around him stabbity-stab. I don't think I ran into a Fire/Lightning Immune Doll mob. I don't even want to think about that, ugh.

ANYWAY, wow. Quite a writing exercise you've given me here. Thanks for your input, Droid, much appreciated! I'll be testing out your suggestions as time permits.|||I thought of a way to gauge the effectiveness of Phoenix's level 22 Firestorm against lightning immunes in Hell Difficulty, without my merc around adding to the damage, but still maintaining the Conviction aura from his Infinity.

I recreated my enchantress and her equipment carefully in Single Player, using a popular tool which I will not mention nor discuss further because of this forum's policy regarding such things. I checked, double-checked, and triple-checked stats, weapon properties, etc. Then I added a level 12 Conviction aura to her armor, opened a game, and killed off my merc.

I proceeded first to Cold Plains, then to the jungles, then to Ancient's Way. In the Cold Plains, charging, lightning-immune spear-women were slain easily with one swat, and many were killed by the Firestorm waves before they got to me. Verdict: Even after spreading well away from me, Firestorm's waves were quite effective against the lightning-immunes here.

In the jungles, I encountered hordes of lightning-immune Flayers and their Shamans (it appeared to be a double spawn; there were more than usual). One swat killed any one of them, and streamers from Firestorm killed waves of them when it proc'd, particularly when multiple triggers overlapped. I still had to teleport around to chase down stragglers which eluded the fire streams, but these were few. Verdict: Firestorm was quite helpful, again.

Finally, in the Ancient's Way, I encountered some worthy opponents. The level spawned with speedy groups of lightning-immune pikers, packs of lightning-immune, lightning-ball spitting Afflicted, and Frozen Terrors. I tele'd into the midst of the spear-women, including three packs of super-uniques, and tanked them. They went down quickly, though fewer died at a distance from the waves alone at this level. My Enchant damage isn't super high (around level 23 iirc), so I assume Firestorm at close range was the main reason why I tore through these large lightning-immune packs so rapidly.

The normal Afflicted died just as easily. The overlapping Firestorm waves killed more of these at a distance, I assume because they're not as sturdy as the pikers, or are more susceptible to fire damage, or both.

I encountered two super-unique packs of Afflicted. One was mana-burn. I was hit and burned three times. The first and second time my shield held and I retreated, redeemed and returned, attempting to divide and conquer them. The third time I was hit, my shield dropped. I had enough mana to teleport away, pot, re-cast, and return to finish them off. A bit of a hassle and slow-down, but not difficult to overcome.

The second Afflicted pack dropped my mana ball more than anything else I encountered during this test because the boss was lightning-enchanted. Again, I kited its minions away from it, killed them, and then returned to kill the boss. It took a few seconds of smacking for him to drop, the charged bolts reducing my mana ball to about a third. Redemption quickly restored it to full.

The Frozen Terrors were not lightning-immune and I suspect, particularly vulnerable to fire damage. I positioned myself in a narrow corridor so a large pack of them had to line up to come at me. I smacked the lead one several times, triggering multiple firestorms that melted the rest in their tracks. Against these, the Dreams were also pulsing away.

I conclude that the effectiveness of level 22 Firestorm procs from Phoenix, triggering on 40% of hits (that's potentially twice in two seconds with her 2.5 attacks per second attack speed), shouldn't be underestimated. It's an effective secondary form of attack which supports her primary lightning assaults well, complimented further by her Enchant, and by her Merc's Hydra procs.

***

Edit Update:

I've been testing her (qualitative) on /players 8 and she's held up very nicely. It takes her a bit longer to kill, and her merc needs pots more often, but they still do quite well. Mana burners are still a pain, but she's overcome every pack, albeit slowly in some cases. The effects of her Dream pulses, Firestorm wakes, and Hydra procs from her merc's armor are less dramatic on /players 8, but still contribute significantly to her overall damage output and crowd control. Redemption aura remains a wonderful compliment to her ES invulnerability. She did finally get killed once--tele'd into a pack of Fanaticism 'taurs in WSK, and the boss was Extra Strong. But meh, that kind of surprise will challenge just about any build.

If you're looking for a variant to the typical Dream Enchantress, you might enjoy this build. I sure love playing her.|||Sorry for the semi necro reply, but why not use hand of justice, dragon, and 2x dreams? You could have a phoenix on switch for mana redemption, then your fire pulses aren't pitiful as well. Same skills maxes of course. Alternately, you could try this: max lm, fm, telekinesis/es, then Frozen orb/1 pt in CM. Tri elemental! Just a theory of course|||Quote:










Whats your answer to the classic banes of the ES sorc - strong poison damage and Mana Burn monsters?






I love reading this constant question, and getting to laugh about it when I think in conjunction with my ES sorc's build.

I know it doesn't have much to do with the OP's particular build/gearset... but on my ES sorc, I pshaw at both Mana Burn'ers, Poison Dmg, AND Blood Mana curse as well.

My resists in Hell mode are 90/95/90/90. Max Block, PDR, close to 90% DR from Energy Shield, Absorbs from gear on each of the elements, balanced Life and Mana so I never get Blood Mana Cursed, and such massive Mana regen from gear/Warmth/Insight that I've actually witnessed my Mana ball read 0 but didn't lose my ES because the game calculated the regen so fast that it was enough to "techincally" not fall off.

On the rare occasion that a Mana Burn'er does get my ES down, either Max Block and PDR takes care of it, or the fact that I don't have 200 Life like many full ES sorcs means I can take a few hits.

I just don't see how people can stand playing an ES Sorc in a glass cannon fashion... imo that build is way better suited the way I run it, with enough defensive backups that I am not dead in the water if my ES ball falls off |||I built a Hoj/Dragon/Dual Dream Auradin right before this gal, which got me interested in trying a dual dream enchantress. I wanted to try something different from the typical Passion/Zeal build, and hence experimented with a number of different options. I did start with HoJ/Dragon, but wanted a stronger ES, hence GBane. I tried finding other sources for MDR/PDR/CbF etc., but in the end, Gbane seemed like the best option for what I was trying to achieve. Droid's options re: Arkaine, etc., above, are something I'll try out when I focus my attention back on her sometime in the future, assuming I can get my hands on a good Arkaine.

I whipped out this so-called mini "guide" because I didn't find anything significant when I searched on Phoenix and Enchantress prior to building her. After putting her through the hoops, I realized that she performs well--well enough to deserve mention among the other Enchantress variants posted here. There's nothing "unique" or particularly special about her--just a nice combination of ES/Dual Dream, with Phoenix in a weapon being her oddity. If someone else ends up thinking along these lines and does a search, maybe this thread will provide them with some helpful information to get them started.|||Well I'm gonna take this a different route and do what I suggested. As soon as I get the cash to afford all this of course. I'm not far off sitting with 6 HRs in my stash at the moment and about to put up an auction which should net me a few more HRs if I get what I'm hoping to get out of it. Will let you know how the Holy Orber works out!

Here's what I was thinking as a starter

Low Str HoJ, Dragon, Dual Dreams

No Dex

No Vit

Max Energy or balance out Vit and energy

Use enough FCR to hit the 75(I think that's the breakpoint). This requires Magefist(helps with HF too), Arach, and 35 FCR from Rings/ammies. Hard to get, but still must be done unless you like slow tele.

Skill placement: Both Fire Mastery and Light Mastery have no prereqs, max those for 40 points. 20 Points in Telekinesis obviously, debating on how much is appropriate for energy shield. Inventory I would think should be light GCs to help with lowering tele cost, and needing less hard points in ES. Also, LM helps Holy Shock. This is up for debate though, as your Orb will be weak without Cold GCs. One Hard point should be spent in Cold Mastery and Warmth, and the spare points spent in Frozen Orb.

This would work on a few levels. You have a strong pulse in 2 elements now, and for anything that's immune, you have a 3rd string on the bench! 3rd String isn't exactly a bad quarterback himself, I might add. Oh, also he chills in addition to Holy Freeze from your merc I might add.

Merc would have Infinity of course, and for quadruple(lol) backup, I would actually recommend Fort for physical damage and just general merc survivability. Fort+Gaze/Andy's = basically merc doesn't die much.