Lookin for Help: Ranged Enchantress /w Frozen Orb

[holabuster]

Hey guys, I'm looking for some help on how to build a Ranged Enchantress for softcore non-ladder. I plan to use the following:

Demon Machine :)
Chains of Honor
Um'd Shako

That is seriously the extent to which I've figured out my equip!

Then my skills distribution:

20 Enchant
20 Fire Mastery
20 Warmth
20 Frozen Orb
1-8 in Cold Mastery (Really need help with this, since I will have to see how much +skills I can get on this sorc)

Like I said, I really need help with this build. Any suggestions, builds, or advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

P.S: I heard that using a bow with fires explosive arrows does NOT need AR. I also know that using such a bow gives two chances to do damage--the explosion part and the actual striking of the arrow. Do both not require AR? Or would I need AR to hit with the arrow?

[Superhal]

looks good, but do you really need 2 ranged skills?

i'm in the camp of "do 1 thing really well" so this is just my point of view. others should arrive shortly. :)

i would suggest 20 tk/rest in ES, as you won't be using mana much anyway, and let the merc take care of fire immunes. you can also put buriza on the switch, but you'll need a little more str.

[holabuster]

First off, thanks for the reply.

Next, I'm interested in what you mean by doing one thing really well. Do you mean that since I have frozen orb, my equipment will not allow my enchantress ability to excel? What I'm hoping to do is to find an ideal compromise to achieve a very high enchant skill level while being able to survive.

The things I'm shooting for are:
75% Resist all in hell (hence the Chains of Honor and Um'd Shako which together gives +80%)
Enough Ias to reach the breakpoint with Demon Machine (I belive a 15% ias jewel will cut it)
High plus skills
Decent level of Damage reduce (already have 18% from Chains and Shako)

I don't know if this is feasable. Any suggestions?

Also, could you explain why I would use Buriza on switch? And should I get a might mercenary since you recommended I allow my merc to kill fire immunes?

Last of all, I heard Telekinesis/Energy Shield was pretty inefficient. I've never finished a sorc before so I wouldn't know how effective it is. But it seems that since i have no shield, I would be hit alot, meaning my mana orb would be empty, meaning I coiuld only sustain 1-2 hits and have no mana to teleport. Any advice?

Thanks!

[Superhal]

First off, thanks for the reply.

Next, I'm interested in what you mean by doing one thing really well. Do you mean that since I have frozen orb, my equipment will not allow my enchantress ability to excel? What I'm hoping to do is to find an ideal compromise to achieve a very high enchant skill level while being able to survive.


what i mean is it is better to be able to completely and utterly destroy all non-fire immunes than it is to do them less effectively so that you can do some of them with frozen orb. don't worry, other people will chime in here.

The things I'm shooting for are:
75% Resist all in hell (hence the Chains of Honor and Um'd Shako which together gives +80%)
Enough Ias to reach the breakpoint with Demon Machine (I belive a 15% ias jewel will cut it)
High plus skills
Decent level of Damage reduce (already have 18% from Chains and Shako)

I don't know if this is feasable. Any suggestions?


some absorbs are good. most chars can't take 1 lightning from a gloam without tgods.

i think pdr will be ok, since you aren't planning on going melee at all anyway.

the problem i had with resists in hell was conviction bosspacks. nothing really you can do about it, which is why i'm trying the es/tk route.

Also, could you explain why I would use Buriza on switch? And should I get a might mercenary since you recommended I allow my merc to kill fire immunes?


Buriza has a lot of cold/phys damage to help out your merc.

what i do is use static to help him, but you aren't using a shield or enough pdr, imho.

i like might, but hf and defiance are good as well.

Last of all, I heard Telekinesis/Energy Shield was pretty inefficient. I've never finished a sorc before so I wouldn't know how effective it is. But it seems that since i have no shield, I would be hit alot, meaning my mana orb would be empty, meaning I coiuld only sustain 1-2 hits and have no mana to teleport. Any advice?

Thanks!

it seems that you need a substantial amount of tk for es to be effective.

you won't be using mana much vs non-fire immunes, so it will just be sitting there. you might as well use it for defense.

[holabuster]

Lots of great points, thanks! I will consider using the buriza and dropping frozen orb. As I see it, I have a few options to go.

1) Use frozen orb (which I'm reconsidering)
2) Use High TK/ES
3) Use High Chilling Armor

I'm thinking chilling armor would be more useful that TK/ES. I would be hit less often due to high def, and will also have an effective chillng method.

Your opinion? :) Again I really appreciate your help.

Also, why do you think the effectiveness of a ranged enchantress will be diminished if supplemented by frozen orb? I was thinking that since both would use high plus skills and since the enchantresses fighting style uses no mana, a supplementary spell would be effective. In addition, both would be ranged so I wouldn't need to equip one character for close in your face combat and another for ranged.

Thanks again if you can provide an explanation.

[lextalionis]

Also, why do you think the effectiveness of a ranged enchantress will be diminished if supplemented by frozen orb? I was thinking that since both would use high plus skills and since the enchantresses fighting style uses no mana, a supplementary spell would be effective. In addition, both would be ranged so I wouldn't need to equip one character for close in your face combat and another for ranged.

Thanks again if you can provide an explanation.

I have to agree with you. I think that Orb is a great compliment to Enchant. You won't need a lot of mana to use Orb. You can use Orb to slow things down, while your Fire damage really does it well.

Especially if you are playing a lot by yourself.

Think about your play style. Certainly you aren't going to be meleeing. You'll be prebuffing your Enchant from your stash with a leaf stash. Remember that you can change all your fire equipment out since your fire damage will not be enhanced by your level of FM. So your equipment will be mostly IAS to get to the proper breakpoint and getting pierce maxed.

But you should have pretty darn good fire damage from a distance. So you will want to attack as fast as possible. Just like spamming fireballs. So the question is do you want to stop firing with good damage of enchant to cast Orb??? Things like Freezing Armor and Thunderstorm are both cast and forget stuff. So its nice to do that. Good luck.

[awjl]

Great help in here.
i've started a enchantress as well, but mine will be a melee one. She's curently at lvl 62. i'm going to train tk/ES though. Wearing Stone when i get to lvl 63. She will be holding a Passion sword, but i've yet to get a 4soc phase blade :rant: .

[holabuster]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I am really excited about sstarting my new sorc.

EDIT: One very last thing. I can't imagine what I'd be donig with this sorc other than playing it for fun. I usually aim to make either a PvP character or an MFer. Do you think this build has potential as a pvper? Would gloves with guided arrow charges be helpful? Or should I have melee stuff on switch? Thanks.

[Superhal]

enchant with demon machine or kuko is effective in p8 hell.

regarding cold armors: you won't be in melee range much, so your big concerns are elemental and missile. i think elemental is the bigger problem, so i would go tk/es.

regarding +skills: you could extensively pump say FO with a lot of +skills on the switch and gc's. this again goes back to my philosophy about doing 1 thing well vs doing 2 or more things not as well. if you go tk/es, you could get a wiz spike/whistans on the switch, put in a few more points in dex, and be a great tele'r.

[lextalionis]

enchant with demon machine or kuko is effective in p8 hell.

regarding cold armors: you won't be in melee range much, so your big concerns are elemental and missile. i think elemental is the bigger problem, so i would go tk/es.

regarding +skills: you could extensively pump say FO with a lot of +skills on the switch and gc's. this again goes back to my philosophy about doing 1 thing well vs doing 2 or more things not as well. if you go tk/es, you could get a wiz spike/whistans on the switch, put in a few more points in dex, and be a great tele'r.

Elemental is a huge problem for ES though, because of the elemental damage bugg. Even with an insane level of Warmth, you'll still have problems with high elemental damage. That's why I was thinking Defense from Missiles from one of the Cold Shields. I was thinking for elemental you'll just have to get best resists possible and some absorb.

I will say I like the idea of having WS and Whistans on Weapon switch. You'll have good Dex too, so you should have Max Block. Defense from Cold Armor will help when teleporting against melee damage, too.

I do agree with doing one thing well for party players. But I also think this isn't like Meteor/FB where you have synergies you don't have maxed.

[Superhal]

es/tk needs to be tested more, but right now we're finding that it does work well with high tk.

at lvl 20, es is listed as taking 75% of the damage. so, it's just as effective vs elemental as having 75% resists.

i have a theory that with max es, you don't need max resists. again, more testing is needed.

[melianor]

es/tk needs to be tested more, but right now we're finding that it does work well with high tk.

at lvl 20, es is listed as taking 75% of the damage. so, it's just as effective vs elemental as having 75% resists.

i have a theory that with max es, you don't need max resists. again, more testing is needed.
There is apost by Zharezz in the SP Forum where he features an ES build with max TK/ES. From what i remember he did not really take any noticeable damage, but i am not sure if his build was going along with 0% resistances.