which lightning skill?

[:1]so I'm making a full tals infinity merc sorc, I'm going for 20 orb, 20 icebolt, 0CM (+12 from items and also get -res from infinity) and I'm unsure where to put the lightning skills, how much mastery, and how much into synergies?

Zerker|||Why would you make a orb sorc/dual tree sorc with inifinity? I am not saying its anything wrong with it i am just wondering.|||I think it should actually work quite well. Infinity against everything that wasn't immune before is such an overkill that even not heavily synergised skills should take them down quickly.

Orb is obvious. I'm not so sure about Ice Bolt. Due to CM you'll almost always have -100 CR against non immunes which makes Orb powerful enough judging from my Meteorb experience.

If you wanna stick with Ice Bolt, I would max Static Field and Charged Bolt and put 1 point in LM. If CI -> static down and fill the screen with Charged Bolt. Sounds very fun to me.

If you don't max Ice Bolt, you could max another L skill. Lightning would be best I think. Makes your Charged Bolt a good deal more powerful for crowd control and against bosses you can focus with Lightning.

You won't beat pure Lightning Infinity Sorcs in terms of efficiency of course, but it sure sounds like a fun build.|||Hm...I would go either one of two ways, either go with Lightning and Chain Lightning maxed, dump the rest into either a synergy or Lightning mastery OR since you have infinity max Nova and Lightning mastery. With the conviction you should put most non lightning immunes into hit recovery fairly easily, this lets you be fairly safe and be right in the action (the best way to keep it more exciting imo).|||Like they've said, with Infi pure lightning would be better. Or you could just skip Ice Bolt. The synergy does make a very appreciable difference towards making FO a more viable main skill in P2/3/4 so if you're set on FO as main skill, go for it.

For light skills, the balance between synergy and mastery depends on your total +skills and which skill you prefer to use, and you can work it out for yourself with a skill calc. |||I found that even at lvl 30 lightning mastery was still adding +12% per point compared to synergies +8%

I am going 0cm, max fo, max ice bolt, max lm, max lightning, and teleport till 4mana cost.

I'm just short of 4k light damage, and with full synergy orb +12cm from items and conviction, orb will almost one shot groups in lvl 85 areas without cold immunes, this makes me as strong or stronger than a pure orb sorc, with the same survivability and a skill to kill immunes with.

I could have gone orb fireball and been a quicker killer but would have come across more immunes and had to get merc to kill them.

I haven't tried her against everything yet, so I will update if I change the setup.

Zerker|||Quote:








I found that even at lvl 30 lightning mastery was still adding +12% per point compared to synergies +8%




The trick with Lightning, lightning mastery, and synergies is that the math works like this:

Lightning damage*Synergy%*Lightning mastery

You have almost nothing in the middle there, and with this kind of thing, increasing the lowest variable is the quickest way to increase damage. Since Lightning Mastery benefits from +skills, 1 point will go a long way. The rest of the points you put into a synergy.

Ex:

+10 skills, 20 lightning, 20 mastery, 1 charged bolt: 4-2968 damage (1486 average)

+10 skills, 20 lightning, 1 mastery, 20 charged bolt: 2-3875 damage (1938 average)|||Wow, thanks Karth. This is the exact thing I'm wondering for a while on my cold/light sorc. I only use lightning on cold immunes, and right now I maxed lightning and put all remaining points into mastery, because I thought mastery gives higher dmg increase.

Thanks again, I think I will respec my sorc now.|||Quote:








Wow, thanks Karth. This is the exact thing I'm wondering for a while on my cold/light sorc. I only use lightning on cold immunes, and right now I maxed lightning and put all remaining points into mastery, because I thought mastery gives higher dmg increase.

Thanks again, I think I will respec my sorc now.




No problem. Keep in mind that the more points in synergies you have and/or the fewer +skills, the more likely it is that you should be increasing Lightning Mastery. I don't think I can link to the skill calculator I use on this board, but google one and you should be able to find some help.