This build seems to be getting popular as a farming character. Covers alot of ground in a short time, vs bosses she is average to below average. Makes for a very fun starter build.





This build is setup for solo farming. Notice the Disciple set for the fantastic life/mana boost, huge res boost and 4 open sockets on the armour. The beauty of this set is it leaves your weapon and shield slot open aswell as your helm spot. This means you can use +3 light skills circlets (with res all and life/mana or fcr). having 4 open sockets available on helm and armour is extremely usefull.

As this is mainly for solo farming I opted to max telekenisis and put a point in energy shield. With the added mana from your set you wont run out while casting, so putting that big blue bulb to use seems like a good idea.

With no points in telekenisis your energy shield will lose 2 mana for every 1 point of damage it absorbs. with a maxed tk it will take 0.75 mana per point of damage absorbed. Energy shield is extremely weak with no points invested in Tk so getting 16 hard points in it will take you to a 1 mana lost per 1 damage absorbed. meaning it will take the same loss as your life before res and dr% etc. are factored in.

Energy shield comes right after defence and block in the damage calculation. this means it has zero res. The upside is that Lower resist cant weaken it. It does take alot of damage from elemental attacks due to the no resists but it is extremely strong against physical attacks. With this setup and an insight merc, you recover from an empty mana bulb to full in around 12 seconds, regardless of how much mana you have. If you have 1.2k mana you will be recovering 100 mana per second. If you have 12k mana you will be recovering 1k mana per second. This means that the bigger you can get your mana bulb the more mana you regain per second. This is the only sorc skill that gets stronger by boosting energy.

Now with the big mana regen you get from 1 point in warmth (then buffed with + skills) and mana per kill AND an insight merc, you recover mana faster and more constantly than prayer can recover life.

I opted for an act 2 prayer merc with insight for a long time. the insane mana regen and double heal power from prayer and insight combo keeps both bulbs full all the time. Using a "dream" helm on him will break immunes up till act 4 hell. from then on you will need "Knowledge" on you or "infinity" to break the immunes. Dream helm is handy for casting confuse when the merc is hit, it really helps with the crowd control. It also helps when i realy need insight on him, it means that he can still break the weaker immunes and, if bosses arent light immune, i always go for insight just to add to my survivability.

Stat wise: 50ish str so you dont need a mass of charms to equip and can use your sockets for saphires and rubys. This means you can fill your inventory with mana and life charms or skillers if you come across any. 15 base energy and the rest in vitality Unless you want to boost energy to increase your Energy Shields potency.

Skill wise I maxed static first for the speed of trash killing, Then nova until 36 (get 1 in thunder storm too) at 36 I maxed mastery, then finished nova and finaly thunder storm. at level 60 i put 10 in telekenisis so energy shield was synergised a little when it came to use the disciple set. remaining points after maxing Tk would go to warmth or frozen armour.

As long as you can get over the 115 frc breakpoint you should clear at a good speed. if you feel you really want the 200%fcr breakpoint you can add amns to your helm and armour as needed.

Fun build, be prepared to get a sore head from static spammage.

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hiya dod.

dont suppose you can post a screeny of your inventory?, just wondering is that damage with skillers and such.

cause i think with the new patch changes to skillers its going to be alot harder to get that sort of damage with skillers.

thx
nebs.
p.s
cant wait for reset, yipeeeee....

yeh thats mostly skillers, 17 + anni, heart and brain.

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Hmm.. sounds like a fun build, but you say for solo farming..

what would you change if u wanted to maximize the sorc for group play? A lightning build of course..

I would go for less defense and more offense, eg. lose the disciple set and go tgods belt, hellmouth gloves, silkweaves/mancers boots, stormshield, fcr sorc rings with res/life etc. and templars faceted. doing that would lose an absolute ton of mana and i mean a ton. (all the mana i have there is with 15 base energy) It would also make my mana regen so much weaker, would also mean i would be using mana faster than i could recover it, thus cutting my energy shields potency by an awfull lot. She is fantastic for team play with that setup tbh, not as strong as she could be but she is well rounded in survivability and attack.

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Sorry for resurrecting this but just how the hell is your energy 341 above it's base? Could you tell me your whole gear?

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Yeah, I was wondering the same thing. How do you get both your life and mana so high, even with Disciple set.

Yeh, disciple set gives a great life/mana boost.

~10 (base energy) + 240 (8 Frost Tear in armor,helm) + 30 (anni) + 55 (disciple set) + 21 (rare helm) = 356

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"Silence is golden when you can't think of a good answer",- Ali.

yeh saphs make a big impact and 4 mana per 1 energy is GG. You can get well above 10k with a pure energy placement. You are in danger of death from mana burn packs alot more that way though. Thats with no mana charms too. Before I amassed all those skillers she was full of 50+ mana charms that pushed her well over 10k mana.

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How well does this set up do now? can she solo all of NM? and how do you deal with the bosses? Who tanks them? Sorry for all the noob questions.

This setup works just fine still. The point about soloing you are making is covered in the topic name (solo farming setup) Ie. clearing trash very fast and not worrying about bosses. With high enough energy and insight on the merc you can solo some bosses but act end bosses are not soloable with a sorc at the correct level (at least once you are past act 1 and 2) With the propper strategy you can kill bosses but you need to be doing alot of teleporting, to keep your merc alive.

With a decent merc setup they can usualy tank sub bosses like sarina, izzy etc but not major bosses. The setup is for farming items alone. With that setup above she could clear hell tundra in 5-10 mins tops.

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Bilibili's a nova sorc, and with semi-decent gear (Templar's w/ random light facets) and it kills just fine in 5-6 player Tundras.

I didn't use disc set though, if you want my gear list just send me a PM.

Templars with facets aint semi-decent, it's high end.

lol, templars is lvl 92 required iirc, thats not semi decent at all. facets arent semi decent either, lot of players cant afford stuff like that.

Is she able to do NM Countess and Nith? I'm looking for a good character set up (given the fact that I'm new and play HC) that can farm NM Countess and Nith for some runes.

I play SC, but I can try countess.

Nilth probably not.

I view something close to Holyghost high-end, but that's just me XD

the stuff he has is a lot easier to find (dweb, trangs or dweb, enigma, etc). he just has a lot of gcs and good facets, as well as a build that does bosses probably too easily.

First, my apologies for resurrecting a thread, but it seemed more applicable to post here as opposed to starting a new thread.

Moving on, I decided to create a lightning sorc to serve the farming purpose. However, I play single player and would like her to be able to progress entirely on her own, act bosses included.

With that in mind, what would you change in the build/equipment? I was considering an A1 physical merc for the teleporting aspect, but that prevents the use of Insight. I'm actually undecided between all the mercs - A1 has raw physical damage and the ability to hit while teleporting. Act2 gives prayer and can wear Insight, but Insight isn't the best tank survivability weapon. Act3 could break immunities or deal damage via separate element, but then there's gear competition (I'm untwinked in single player). Act5 can wear Insight (right?), but I haven't tried them in HU - are they viable, survivable tanks for a caster?

The merc then alters the playability - without Insight, Energy Shield seems iffy. Build - 20 Static/Nova/Tstorm/Mastery, 1 Warmth/Teleport. Then what? Without ES, I guess more points in Frozen Armor, unless ES is the way to go no matter what, which means 16-20 in TK.

I appreciate any assistance

You can kill bosses with the build but it takes time and patience. You are constantly constantly on the move. You have to tele around alot and usualy use static. Your best bet will be to fill all equip with diamonds until you get to ancients. Once there switch to dr% setup and back to diamonds vs baals minions and wsk.

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Appreciate the input, PureRage. I suppose damage reduction by % overtakes the integer amount supplied by diamonds? Or is it just a matter of them dealing primarily physical damage and everywhere else being a mix of physical and elemental?

I'm going to see how the A1 merc works for me, especially in conjunction with teleport. I don't want to roll through the game, but going untwinked..... aahhhh, I'll have to play it out and consider changing mercs later.

Gear wise, since I may not be doing an ES build (haven't decided yet) - should I try to stack caster gear (crafted) for the +mana and sink my stat points into vita?

you can go an energy build on sc without much trouble. 100 vase vita would be reasonable. If you do the energyshield route then you dont need to worry about dr% and pdr as much the es is hit pretty much first. You can make it have a dr% effect by maxing tk though.

2 life per vita is so small, if its sc i would suggest going the energy route. My friend has an es sorc going 50 base vita and she is an amazing tank.

Mull it over, I'd love to hear how a pure energy nova sorc gets on. I know I wished i had invested more into energy, I actually switched to energy around level 70. You can easily break 10k mana unbuffed.

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As it is, I think I have ~65 vita and 40 or so energy. To be perfectly honest, I didn't even take notice to the amount of life added per vita point with her - just in the habit of adding X-to-vita per level, etc.

What are the most effective ways of maintaining a full mana orb if using ES, without having Insight? Mana per kill, mana regen on items, and lots of +skills to buff Warmth? Is warmth a 1-hit-wonder for a HU sorc, or worth putting to 5 or so?

I figure Nova itself is an 80 point build (mastery + synergies), leaving ~20 to play around with. So one additional skill can be maxed, or those points can be split amongst what - Frozen Armor? TK? Warmth?

For now, I'll get vita to 100-125, and go straight energy from there. Haven't made a sorc since playing vanilla 1.10 so I'm a bit out of the loop, and HU is a totally different animal. This should be fun I think I'll give ES a go, as well.

I'll keep this updated with how things go.

edit: She's getting 4 life per vita point, that's not so minuscule after all.

i dont think she's getting 4 life per vita since thats the same as barbs and pallies? or are my numbers mixed up, somebody posted the chart a while ago. I would also suggest if you are going e shield dont put anymore pts in vita, you need to buff that blue ball and you get the most energy per point of any class, and since it supplements your vita, its like ur lvling vita, but not.

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“Education has failed in a very serious way to convey the most important lesson science can teach: skepticism”

sorcs ->
3 life per vita pt.
5 life per lvl.

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Perhaps the solo edition is different, or perhaps my install is screwed up, but I'm getting +4 life per vita; I haven't made it a point to check the +per level gains.

It's a moot point though, no worries. I built a test character and laid my points out, here's what I'm thinking:

35-40 strength, 25-35 dex (do I even have a chance of blocking?), 125 vita, rest energy
20 Static/Nova/Tstorm/Mastery (80 points)
1 ES/Teleport/Warmth (3)
16-20 TK (16-20)

That puts me anywhere from 99-103 skill points. Considering the max (assuming I get her that far) is what, 114 points at level 101? That leaves 11 points, which I figure can be distributed to Frozen Armor (more DR/MDR and %ED) or Warmth. Any other ideas besides that?

id probs pump warmth with your spare points. With massive mana bulbs, regen gets extremely strong

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Honestly, not much of a difference putting 2 more points in warmth, thats just 20% more regen. I'd go for 20 in TK, and a few more points in ES so that you get a 95% ES. frozen armor is a 1 point wonder with all the +skills gear.

20% regen on a 12k mana bulb is a good 300 mana per sec recovery. The bigger the bulb is the higher the returns of mana regen.

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I haven't got a clue why you would want 95% ES, unless you managed to get it with +skills (and you most likely will if you work hard enough). Personally, I prefer to make use of that red bulb, considering your damage taken to life is already dramatically reduced by ES. Save some mana, yo? My 2 cents: 1 ES and go warmth in the end.

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-ISO- Moonstone Rubies, +6/-6 Psn/Lite Facets,
Hearts (pal/nec/dru/zon), Braaaains

Or maybe you are wearing "increase maximum life % " gear.

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"I am who I am. Your approval isn't needed"

Appreciate all the input, guys.

I'm level 20 with no rubies in my gear and no maximum life % gear. So that doesn't explain it.

I think the most damage I'd want ES to take is 75%, and the remainder will be affected by my resists/MDR/DR/etc. that ES skips. I'm still unsure of using an A2 merc so a few extra points in Warmth may help counter not having Insight. I'll see how it plays out.

Side note - I hate not being able to teleport through things. I can understand walls and closed doors for the rushing aspect. But a rock? Come onnnnn haha

a= base life
b= stat points
c = life per stat point
d = total life

a + ( bc ) = d



We know base life is 5. So, this screenshot shows:

5 + 60c = 185
60c = 185 -5
60c = 180
c = 180/60 = 3

And thats how I tell you : "you are wrong somehow, sorcs gain 3 life per vita point . Check it again"

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"I am who I am. Your approval isn't needed"

Created a sorceress (TestGirl), took a screenshot, added 1 to Vita, took another screenshot. Here are the results:



I assure you this is without any gear on, no +1 life charms, no tricks. Not sure how to explain it - again, maybe a difference between solo and multiplayer editions?

I checked again

it will be solo vs multi, more life on solo since you are alone

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Multiplayer:

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-ISO- Moonstone Rubies, +6/-6 Psn/Lite Facets,
Hearts (pal/nec/dru/zon), Braaaains

Then that problem is settled .

She's 23 at the moment and doing pretty well. I'm really loving partial set bonuses - wearing Angelic ring/armor and Arcanna's helm/ammy. Lots of MF, mana, mana regen, etc. Looking forward to finishing Arcanna's set (if only the staff could be gambled).

At low levels, what are my best bets for damage increase? Skill gear, +% damage from Ort runes or -% resists from topazes? I remember reading somewhere on the forums that -% and +% differ in importance depending on the resists of the monsters or the difficulty you're in, but I'm not sure which post it was

you are better with ort runes until around the end of act 4. You will probs want to add a tir to the weapon for trash killing. Its all about pierce on bosses so you may want to switch to 3 p topaz in the weapon for that. If you can, get a helm and armour you can put some diamonds in (flawless will do) once at the end of act 3 and start of act 4. You will find arcannas armour all over act 4 and he weapon will most likely drop from the council, if not before that.

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Appreciate the input as always, PureRage.

Yeah, right now I'm using some rare axe just because it has 4mpk on it, and I haven't found a weapon worth using sockets on yet. I cross my fingers that I find the unique sorc orb (I usually find it from Andy with all my other chars) so I can stick an Ort and Tir in there.

I feel like I find the staff throughout Act 2, so I'm almost there (just hit catacombs). Having loads of MF is helpful - I haven't stacked this much MF on a character in HU before, I feel like I'm dropping sets and uniques left and right.

Considering the squishiness of sorcs, diamonds in armor sound like a good plan. However, DR/MDR are ignored for ES right? But then, I suppose in a place like the River of Flame, there's nothing but elemental damage which will destroy ES anyway.

You are better not using an orb until you get the level 40 one, the level 20, 60 and 85 orb have no pierce so i never use them. Once you get tht orb I would suggest using 2 pgems in it and skip the tir. You shoulc have enough mana by then to cast with no problems.

A few things I would do once around the act 4 area and there is alot more ele damage. Use your es in the first 3 areas until rof. The elemental damage is pretty low until then so your es will work well. If you find the ele damage in rof to be bad then I would let es go off and use a diamonded setup. Against diablo, the chances are his flamewave will bust your es pretty fast.

theres a few things to do to counter this.
1: leave es up and dodge his nasty ele attacks. The best way to do this, is to watch his actions, If he stretches up with both hands in the air, teleport behind him. That will keep you out of the flames and will save your mana alot more.
Fill up on diamonds before the fight so you have a safety net if your es is taking too much damage. If you dont have this, you may get stuck in a flamewave and be unable to tele out due to no mana from es rape.

The same things work with duriel and meph etc too. Just diff attacks you need to avoid. Ie. lightning vortex and cb on meph, and just the frozen vortex kinda thing duriel uses.

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Good information, thanks for the tips

That actually brings up at interesting point - unless it is simply a playstyle issue, what is the "wiser" choice - orb/1h weapon and shield or 2h staff?

Early game, I was picturing a dual Spirit setup (boatload of mana and FCR), but that negates the ability to use Arcanna's (which provides some very nice mods) or something like Thunder. The 40, 75 and 95 orbs seem worthwhile, but Starlight seems fantastic as well.

At the moment, I'm still using something like the Pelta Lunata and a 1h axe with MPK; once I get the runes for a Spirit I figure that should hold me over. In 10 levels I can look forward to the Spectral Shard and Arcanna's, but beyond that I'm at a loss

whatever gives the most pierce, I generally use a ratio of -10% res to 3 skill points. Ie. If i can get a staff with 10% less pierce but 3 more skills and not lose out on res/fcr I will usualy choose the staff. Generally I use the level 40 orb until I can make the starlight/stillwater/flame rw in a staff. That will see you through until hell easily.

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