So I have been looking at all of the dual element sorcs in the forums, and have laid my eyes on the Nova Sorc because 1. It reminds me of a standard 1.09d pvm Sorc, 2. It seems to need the least amount of points invested to max it out (unlike compared to say Bolts or Fball). 3. Seems like a fun build 4. I can keep my ES
Before I go into burning the first of my respecs, if anyone could offer their opinions, that would be great. My MF gear at the moment totals +9 all skills.
1. My primary concern about using Nova is that it looks like, on paper, to inflict the least amount of damage per spell when fully maxed out, how does this work on the Countess and her... lackeys? Good enough? barely? not at all? or awesome?
2. Is FO good enough for AT or would I be there forever?
thanks!|||Nova needs to be maxed along with LM for it to be useful in Hell.
But I'd be weary of mixing it with ES as its a close quarters spell and put you at higher risk for mana burn
Orb is fine for AT - assuming you're not running in MP games. The hardest part of cold damage is getting +cold damage% as it will have a more noticeable affect vs plus skills.
Unless you're mfing items for your holy grail, you don't have to focus much on MF at all since its a lot harder to trade off the nice finds for a decent price these days. In deciding on gear setup, don't feel obligated to fit the MF in.
I believe there's a guide for the blizz/nova sorc somewhere, you might want to search for that and take a look for additional perspective.
If you're primary focus is AT, you don't need ES at all as slow moving as everything is in there really.|||my 2 cent.
Nova has everything to do with your cast rate. You need the 105 castrate breakpoint to put mobs into hit recovery.
Nova/fo build is a fun build for sure.
With 9+ skills your nova is gonna do 1025-1389. That is enough to kill in player 1 games (solo games) and esp the countess.
My suggested build for you:
Warmth 1
Ice bolt/Ice blast/Frost Nova/Glazial spike/Blizzard 1
orb 20
CM 8 (to get to -100 after pluss skills)
20 Nova
20 Lightmastery
20 telekinetic
1 static/teleport and ES
A total of 97 points. the rest you can do what ever you like with.
With 9 skills your ES is gonna absorb 69%. If you want you can drop the rest of the points into ES. However, you then need to think about your life to mana ratio.
More about that in the ES sticky on top.
So to sum it up.
You need the 105% cast rate breakpoint.
Life:Mana ratio with ES
Your merc should be able to kill the countess no matter what spec you have with just a insight.
And you should use insight no matter what because of mana burn monsters.|||I am already using Insight at the moment on my Sorc with no plans to change it whatsoever, so that won't be a problem. The actual problem at the moment is that its made out of a non-eth Grim Scythe (which was a BAD idea in about 100 ways), so in my brief trial in Hell, he wasnt leeching enough health and got pounced into the ground by Countess' minions (lack of Shaftstop might also explain it)
I am contemplating on not investing the points into ES, I had a surprise find in pits on my Necro, +3 ES staff with 4 sockets, made a Memory out of it.
I am doing Pits at the moment just for the white/grey/random surprise drops for runes and other unexpected things (Last ladder I had an IK armor pop in AT, sorry SECKSE!, and this ladder I had a Gris shield pop in Pits. Yet I cant find a decent eth elite polearm to save my life... a couple of eth CA in cubes has lead to 6k gold piles...
Getting the 105% FCR break point wont be hard, I already have 68% on me without either Skin or Magefist and i have both, but forgoing Frostburn for Magefist will be hard on the mana. I can use Wizardspike, but as Seckse knows about my stance on Wizardspike :P With Wizzy, my + skills would fall to +7 (Shako, Tal amulet, Skin and Spirit) Hopefully that's enough to keep mobs stunlocked?
While I am here, something strange I recently found. When I was using my Memory staff for the ES (not just the boost, I had to use it to actually get ES), my ES didnt dissappear after I ran out of mana, but when I put points into it (so I could use Gull/Splendor switch), ES dissappears as normal when I go OOM (Out of Mana).. Wonder if anyone seen this before or was I hallucinating from all the Oblivion knights i laid waste to....|||No worries, I got my Ik Armor finally several days back
The non-eth grim scythe isn't THAT bad, its better than no insight at all, trust me.
My builds basically use magefist unless I want the cold res or poison damage from trangs. Frostburns are gloves I like to have in stored in case I ever want to use them. But then again, running a 200fcr lite sorc, I know how fast that mana drains so you'll probably want to keep the frosties on for now. You might as well use the viper. Can't remember what weapon you're using, but a spirit/spirit works well enough if you don't have the hoto/eschuta's.|||I use Double spirit (28%/31%, yum). I guess i'll go experiment some... Shall I PM you for refund if the build fails? :P j/k
The reason why I said Grim Scythe was a bad idea was because my merc couldn't use it till level 72, which by then, my merc would have been able to use elite polearms (Thresher immediately comes to mind).|||Tried the new Nova/Orb build, works surprisingly well against countess, and Pits astoundingly hates me.
After I built the tree up, I found that the pits now spawn with large amounts of Lightning enchanted bosses, which with their inherent Cold immunity, makes me unable to touch them...
Now, my merc should have been able to handle it, but like i said, he doesnt deal enough damage to outleech the damage he has taken, and his armor is MP wealth.
I did notice that my merc was dying to those ranged archers quite a bit. Is that a case of damage/leech or would I also need some %DR like shaftstop?|||Well the level req on an insight shouldn't be that high, I take it the dex was an issue maybe?
As far as pits - you're not setup well for it. AT is actually easier even tho its later in the game. Since the pits have all 3 immunities naturally, and can spawn dual on top of that, only my pure lite makes regular visits. Fire/cold can work well in there, but that's dependent on your mercs gear. Having to switch between trees is a pain in pits though.
Wealth is a bad armor for him since his tank ability is far more important. Cheapest runeword armors would be smoke or the assassin's treachery. Treachery is decent enough that you can use it as end game merc armor, but fort is still king.
Shaftstop is also decent if you have it readily available.|||Thanks for that Seckse, I used Treachery for my Zealot/Smiter uberdin and was fond of it, didnt occur to me that it would work on a merc too...
Now off to find a replacement for that 3os Dusk shroud that despawned on me when i was muling...
EDIT: And you were right about the Grim Scythe, the dex was the biggest kicker. I had wished I'd get a Crown of thieves sometime so I could eliminate that problem. Got it eventually, after he was able to wield it naturally... They never come when you actually need them do they? >.<|||Yeah - been starting HC untwinked - getting a 4os polearm proved to be a pain, granted I avoided re-running areas as much as possible to try to stick to a "single pass" mindset.
As for the treachery, while the last one I made was in an eth for merc, really you don't need to bother as its got No ED itself. By putting it in a regular, you could always borrow it from merc, prebuff (if you want to), than give it back, repairing it once in a blue moon.
No comments:
Post a Comment