Point distribution for FO/CL Sorceress

I'm building a FO/CL Sorceress, and am currently level 29; not a high level as of now, I know.

I was just wondering when I should start investing in cold abilities. My build so far is pretty much just lightning:

1 Warmth

1 Charged Bolt

1 Static Field

1 Telekinesis

1 Teleport

13 Lightning

12 Chain Lightning

Nothing under Cold Spells yet.

I assume I at least max my Lightning/Chain Lightning out before dipping into the cold tree, but I'm not sure if I should put some into Lightning Mastery before doing that either.

Any help is well received, thanks!|||Make sure you get Frozen Orb before you go into Nightmare. I usually go into Nightmare around level 40. Frozen Orb really shines in NM. You can use that to help your character level up in that difficulty. Once you max it in NM, continue with the lightning tree.|||Quote:








I assume I at least max my Lightning/Chain Lightning out before dipping into the cold tree, but I'm not sure if I should put some into Lightning Mastery before doing that either.

Any help is well received, thanks!




Both are effective in norm/nmare so build one strong side and other weak (as backup). Start adding points to weaker side at late nmare.

As we have those respects, it's not so important anymore how to devide those points. So you can go with pure lightning then change build later to orb/cl.

If you have decent items(spirit sword, peasant crown, vipermagi, +2L amu etc..) to get 78 fcr or 117 fcr then go ahead and continue with CL/L. Lightning sorc's first trouble is late act5 (nmare), so you have plenty of time to level. With insight merc you don't have mana problems either.

You need those points in L-mastery if you want to clear full games fast in nmare.

Or use strong orb in nmare, then you don't need to worry about fcr.|||I usually max FO out first as it takes far less points (20 vs 60) to become Hell-effective. FO pretty much owns NM mode.

However, I would definitely not wait until L60 to start even working on the cold tree. As soon as you have CL maxed out, I'd switch over and get FO online.

If I were you (I'd respec, but...) I'd put 1 pt in LM when I hit 30, then start right away on going up the Cold tree and get FO to 20 with 1 pt CM, then head back and finish fleshing out your CL synergies, starting with LM|||Thanks a lot for the help guys, I don't have any of those great pieces of gear as of right now, but working on it with both my other character and eventually this one.|||Is there a downside to having Blizzard instead of Frozen Orb?

I've read Blizzard is "harder to aim", but I see as long as you lead something if it's going fast, or whatever, it's not that big of a deal, and blizzard seems to do more damage outright.

Frozen Orb seems to do a lot of damage if the orb passes underneath a group or mob and the spin of the shards hits directly under it.|||Quote:








Is there a downside to having Blizzard instead of Frozen Orb?

I've read Blizzard is "harder to aim", but I see as long as you lead something if it's going fast, or whatever, it's not that big of a deal, and blizzard seems to do more damage outright.

Frozen Orb seems to do a lot of damage if the orb passes underneath a group or mob and the spin of the shards hits directly under it.




Hard to say, they are both good (I hate orb, not the skill itself, but sound it makes). It's little easier to make orb viable than blizzard. If you level your sorc ~80 then use orb, around ~90 you have enough points to make blizzard viable.

I like longer cast delay with bizz, so there is more time to use lightning side.

And you can cast it far ahead taking away ranged attackers at back, for example those souls in while clearing throne.

You have to use Blizzard at right side, so its harder to tele-blizz-tele-blizz than with tele-orb-tele-orb. So blizzard is not so good against very fast moving monsters or against lonely archers.

Luckily those typical areas like Chaos, Throne, AT (ancient tunnel, hatch in lost city) are very good areas for blizz.

I am using Blizzard as 2nd attack with my L/CL sorc. I am using CM (crescent moon) as weapon, so my lightning side is my main killer.



edit: Maybe its better to start as Orb/CL sorc, then respect to blizz/CL when you got better items. You can always respect back to orb if you don't like. That way you find sorc that suits you playing style better.|||Quote:








Hard to say, they are both good (I hate orb, not the skill itself, but sound it makes). It's little easier to make orb viable than blizzard. If you level your sorc ~80 then use orb, around ~90 you have enough points to make blizzard viable.

I like longer cast delay with bizz, so there is more time to use lightning side.

And you can cast it far ahead taking away ranged attackers at back, for example those souls in while clearing throne.

You have to use Blizzard at right side, so its harder to tele-blizz-tele-blizz than with tele-orb-tele-orb. So blizzard is not so good against very fast moving monsters or against lonely archers.

Luckily those typical areas like Chaos, Throne, AT (ancient tunnel, hatch in lost city) are very good areas for blizz.

I am using Blizzard as 2nd attack with my L/CL sorc. I am using CM (crescent moon) as weapon, so my lightning side is my main killer.



edit: Maybe its better to start as Orb/CL sorc, then respect to blizz/CL when you got better items. You can always respect back to orb if you don't like. That way you find sorc that suits you playing style better.




Thank you for all your input!

I'm level 52 now, and I've been putting more points into frozen orb after getting CL up to 20. I have +3 to most skills +4 to some lightning skills right now, not so great, but it's better than nothing I guess. I just found a nice ethereal war scythe for my merc and put insight on it, I love it lol.

Are you using crescent moon pretty much because of the -35% resistances? I don't see much more that would help out a sorc except for the little magic absorb and +2 mana after each kill. I'm using a unique staff "Spire of Lazarus". Gives some great stats on it, not sure how rare it is and "good" in terms of the higher end gear.

The reason I was asking for blizzard instead of frozen orb, mainly, was because I think it would make Mephisto way easier using the moat trick, due to frozen orb not being able to reach that far. Also blizzard seems to work way better on big groups, but on the fast mobs I understand the problem there.

So far frozen orb is working out great, and it takes down things really fast. It almost puts the CL and Lightning to shame, lol.

I do use blizzard every now and then just for some extra damage while I lightning, and when I want to slow some mobs down.|||Blizzard takes way more skillpoints to make it viable, thats why FO is the second skill of choice. Lightning is the most skillpoint-hungry of all the trees, so you just dont have enough SPs go to around to have a decent Blizzard and a decent CL.

You wont really need to moat trick Mephisto, once you level up enough. Your merc will have enough innate resists, and between SF and FO/Lightning, he'll go down fast enough that you're never in any real danger.|||Quote:








Blizzard takes way more skillpoints to make it viable, thats why FO is the second skill of choice. Lightning is the most skillpoint-hungry of all the trees, so you just dont have enough SPs go to around to have a decent Blizzard and a decent CL.

You wont really need to moat trick Mephisto, once you level up enough. Your merc will have enough innate resists, and between SF and FO/Lightning, he'll go down fast enough that you're never in any real danger.




I always forget to use Static Field. I don't think I've used it on a boss yet, lol. Fail!