Enchantress advice required; Passion? Order of skill allocation?

Hi guys,

I play Single Player and TCP/IP Diablo games and I have myself the makings of a hardcore enchantress. She's currently level 38 and has just killed Baal for the first time (playing through on /players 8).

Skills look like:

Enchant 20 (22)

Energy Shield 8 (10)

Prereqs, Static Field, Fire Mastery 1 (3)

1 spare

Stats with items look like:

Str 125

Dex 26 (base)

Vitality 10 (base)

Energy 110

Spare 10

I intend the build to be full ES (20 ES, 20 TK) and fully synergised Enchant (Warmth, FM at 20).

In items I'm moderately wealthy in terms of single player and dirt poor in terms of bnet; no HRs to speak of, but your usual twink kit not including the endgame. Most of this character's life will be spent playing with a poison/summon necro. But I'd like her to be able to not require his presence to survive for a short time (scouting trips).

At this point I do not much killing. I do two things in combat; hunt down and kill individuals (usually casters like oblivion knights or shaman), and jump into packs and soften them up with static field.

So, some questions:

1. I have a Passion phase blade (req dex 136). Is it worth the dex investment to have Zeal? I'm not sure if things will be too scary to hit in Hell or what the go will be. Am I best off just setting myself up to use static field and allow my team mate(s) to get the kills? Will a dex investment like this put me into blocklock territory (plan on using Gerke's endgame)?

2. Skill allocation from here? ES is deflecting 57% and going up in small increments. TK is base, and my mana runs out long before my life does. Warmth would buff my damage and increase my mana regen.

Any other advice? Things I've missed? I've read the "Make Energy Shield Work for You" thread a few times and it's awesome, btw.|||Now I'm level 60. Well, I decided to respec and equip the Passion. It's going pretty well. I also maxed my TK before putting points in Warmth (which now is also approaching max). I'm unconvinced that I'll be able to keep up the kill rate in Hell though. So when I respec in Hell I may not bother with passion (eth eth eth eth PB instead?), but it will depend on the damage I'm dealing.|||The only Enchantress I've made, and throughly enjoyed, even if my damage did lower in Hell, is a Demon Machine ranged Enchantress. I just *love* watching the fireworks go off. Have you considered this option? It should protect you a little better with the meat shields out there.

Also, is there any particular reason you're going ES? Just to try it out? I'm not really a big fan of a fully-synergized ES in HC. I just think missing that one mana-burn mob will end up in my ultimate demise, especially if I was a melee Sorceress. I have tinkered around with a "minimal" ES before using either a hard-point or Memory staff, and it did seem to give me a little leeway from one hit shots.

Also, if you don't go the full ES route, you can either add FO as a backup (alright), or use LM+CM with charms to do diverse elemental damage. I find the latter option to be a little more fun, personally. Plus it would mean every type of damage, except pure magic, is covered to some extent by both you and the Necro (all elements, poison, and physical).

Hopefully someone else with a little more practical experience with ES and melee Enchantress in HC can chime in, but that's my two coins. Demon Machine + Razortail = Fun .

edit: And did you look up Nightfish's Ribcracker Enchantress in the SPF? He's got the only Enchantress Guardian I know of in the SPF, so maybe his experience can help for melee.|||Nightfish is a freak :P He's done some crazy stuff, but I didn't know about that one. I'll have to go look it up.

I went down the ES route because I want a character that can actually take a hit. I like being able to sit in the middle of mobs as a Sorceress. It gives me an odd delight. I hadn't seriously considered demon machine as an alternative to melee, although I had read that it is viable. I guess for me the main attraction of the enchantress was the melee; the oddness of having a sorceress beating things with a stick.

Fortunately, with the respecs now available I can try melee styles and respec to Demon Machine if I need to later.

At the moment though, my tactic is to pick things off by teleporting next to them, my merc hits them and I zeal them and they die. It's working for the time being. Alternatively, I teleport to the back of a pack and unleash the static field related rage (soften them up for poison nova to finish them), it's been working well too.

I'll let you guys know how I go with it|||Good luck with that.



If I had half a mind to do an enchantress I think I'd use a stone armour for the golem and harmony bow for the valk and revives. |||Even with enchant the sorc has AR issues so I didn't find harmony very effective. Nothing beats the demon machine with it's nice AR boost and 66% pierce.|||you will need a good physical damage weapon for hell mode, as most act 1 mobs are fire immune (the same is true for act 4). also, a few points into vitality can't hurt, or at least get some "makeshift hit points" with perfect rubies on armor/helm. Relying entirely on ES as your life bulb isn't going to cut it against mana burn mobs in hell. you will end up dying a lot. Make sure you have some 500ish to 700 real hit points (red bulb) before you try to take on hell with ES|||Having mat'ed and further leveled a Passion-wielding melee enchantress up to lvl 94, I feel like I can offer some observations.

I went the full ES/TK route myself...and found it wanting. I was geared up with 37 pdr via Gerke's Sanctuary and some sol runes (granted, not a great amount, but decent) and I still felt like my ES was going down very quickly in melee combat. I really feel like you need to make ES your primary gear focus to make it effective and I couldn't make it work since nearly all of my gear was focused on FHR/life/resists/attack speed/blocking. All things that I needed to make make a sorc melee-viable. I couldn't prebuff ES either, since my stash was jam-packed with prebuff gear for Enchant.

Defensively, your best friend is teleport, stay mobile and pick off monsters at the edges of packs. You never want to get into a situation where you're surrounded on all sides.

1. To me, Zeal is most definitely necessary if you plan on meleeing effectively. The sorc's normal attack was just too slow for me, and I was constantly getting interrupted. I also am using Gerke's as my endgame shield and I felt like a Shael was necessary to speed up the blocking. Also, don't neglect FHR. The sorc's FHR breakpoints are awful. I got up to the 7 frame breakpoint and I still feel like it could be faster.

2. If you're twinking, not much is going to hurt you in Normal and Nightmare, so just focus on cranking up your damage as fast as possible. Probably a mix of Warmth and Fire Mastery.

Offensively, this build can kill effectively in Hell diff, but you're going to need a decent prebuff. I'm currently working with a 12k-14k Zeal after a full prebuff. I can kill non fire-immunes in one or two zeal cycles on p8.|||I thought that my hit recovery animation will never be triggered because (so far) my mana is taking hits, but my life never does. FHR isn't useful unless I'm hit recovering, so is it likely I'll be taking hits in hell that get to my life globe?

Balancing gear is an issue I'm aware of already. Finding space for +3 all skills to get a level 4 zeal has been more challenging than it sounds (I don't have a spare SoJ at this point). I'm hunting for a suitable Memory base, which will be my only ES prebuff gear I think - so it won't be the full level 40 95% ES that one should aim for, but it shouldn't be too far off.

Thanks for the advice relating to strategy. To this point I've been safe even in the middle of most packs, it's good to know that this will not last. I just Shaeled my Gerke's Pavise; good call - I'd been wondering what to put in it. Was probably going to Sol it if no better option presented itself.|||If you need the damage, put on a 'dream' helm (if you can in SP) and max lightning mastery instead of fire. I think with just one dream on (an absolutely no prebuff gear [I hate prebuff]) I get ~20k-30k or something like that.

If you max both light and fire mastery you minimum goes from a couple thousand to 10k-ish, and the max is crazy. With two dreams and great gear you get upwards of 70k damage zeal. Attack rating and resists are my only issues. With infinity, or lower resists from necro, hitting isn't and issue, and so long as I stay on the move and not get hit by the cursed black souls, its no too bad Its fun watching baal go down in a few zeals.