Jon_'s Energy Shield Tri-Elementalist Guide

[Jon_]

Jon_'s Energy Shield Tri-Elementalist Guide

My first time writing a guide of any sort so bare with me. BTW I play on USEast Ladder. The tri-elementalist term may be a little misleading.. haha.. it uses all 3 attacks but cold is the main one with fire and lightning supporting.

First things first, I'm not claiming this to be the best MFing build or fastest PvM build or even a super PvP build but I found it very fun to play as I've been pretty tired with the generic full-tal's set Meteorb sorcs. I have one for MFing, yes she's powerful.. a little too powerful, so it skinda boring.
It's not exactly the most inexpensive build either... and yes I know, with the perfect gear, almost any type of build can be viable.

Special thanks to Zarhrezz for the wonderful ES guide, which is what I based most of my info and ideas off of. This guide is quite similar to his, but with some of my own experiences and ideas.


Skills
Lightning Tree
15-20 Telekinesis - I don't really think its necessary to have a totally synergized energy shield if you have a large enough mana pool. But less mana taken away always helps.
20 ES - Must have, to maximize energy shield absorbtion. It's capped at 95%, (lvl 40) which is what we'll be aiming for
1 point in everything else (8 points) - With all your +lightning/+skills gear, one point in lightning mastery and one point in thunderstorm does pretty decent
damage for PvP purposes I find.

Cold Tree
20 Frozen Orb - The best value to skill point cold spell in the tree. Does plenty of damage even without being synergized.
1 Cold Mastery - Yes I realize the ideal is 17 cold mastery to get -100 resist, but this build's skill point distribution is too tight. I find the +skills put
cold mastery to a decent enough level to solo hell without too many problems
1 Shiver Armor - Massive defensive boost with ideal armor, plus it will chill monsters as they swing at you, not only if they hit you, unlike frozen armor.
7 prerequisites

Fire Tree
This part is really up to you which skill you want to use... I use firewall because it doesn't have any synergies and it seems pretty well suited for a tanking sorc.
1 warmth - With ridiculous amounts of mana, one point of warmth with +skills regenerates mana pretty fast.
1 fire mastery - decent damage boost to your skill of choice
20 firewall - Lots of raw damage
2 prerequisites

With all skill quests, this build should be "completed" in the mid-80s or so, which is not at all unattainable with hell baal runs. I put completed in quotes because there are always areas where you can add extra points, like cold/fire mastery, telekinesis or warmth.


Stats
Strength - Enough to wear Gladiator's Bane (111 str) with strength gear. Unless you wish to Hel/-15 req the gladiator bane, or stick with an Ironpelt.
Dex - base, an advantage to energy shield is that maxblock is not at all necessary. Therefore you can keep dex at base.
Vit - base, no life required in this build :)
Energy - EVERYTHING! The more mana you have, the more hits you can take. Should be at least 400+ with gear.


Equipment
Energy shield is a prebuffable skill, meaning you can put on equip to get energy shield as high as possible, cast it, and then switch back to fighting gear.

However, being the lazy person I am, I don't like doing this.. the only prebuffering I do is on weapon switch. So I try to find a balance in the gear for +skills and other stats.
Another thing to note is that resistances, although helpful, does not make much of a difference AT ALL to the amount of damage you take. In fact, I have -80 resist all in hell (I've only done 2 anya quests so far).

The most important mods you will be looking for are:
+skills, +lightning skills
Damage reduced by X
Magic Damage reduced by X
Increase mana by X%
Cannot be Frozen

Helm
Ideal: Shako - lots of life and mana and the invaluable +2 skills, 10% pdr is useful too. I socketed this with a ptopaz for the extra MF.. but now I'm guessing maybe a pskull would've been better for the extra mana/life regen. Or even a perfect sapphire for extra mana. And for the rich, a rainbow facet.
Others: Any +skill helm, Lore(OrtSol), delerium, crown of ages, tarnhelm etc. etc.
Prebuff: +3 lightning skills circlet

Armor
Ideal: Gladiator's Bane - this baby is pretty much designed for an ES sorc in my opinion... massive damage/magic damage reduced by X, 50% poison length reduction (poison will be a big weakness), cannot be frozen (saves a ravenfrost slot) and massive defense. Coupled with a cold armour and a defiance merc, a barb's shout, your defense will be ridiculous.
Others: Ironpelt - decent damage/magic damage reduced by X, Vipermagi/Spirit Shroud - +1 skill, magic damage reduced by X.
Prebuff: Vipermagi or any other +1 skill armour. If you're really rich, you could prebuff with Enigma or Arkaine's valor, although strength will be an issue.

Belt
Ideal: Arachnid's Mesh - +1 skill, increase mana 5%, high defense for a belt
Others: String of Ears - magic damage reduced by X, 10% pdr is always good

Gloves
Ideal: Frostburn - no brainer here.. increase mana 40%, nothing else really comes close. Not too hard to get either
Others: MAYBE magefist if you need the +1 fire skill, mana regen is also useful

Boots
Ideal: Silkweave - increase mana 10%
Others: Nothing really spectacular in terms of boots, anything will do actually... maybe sander's for the fast r/w and str/dex

Amulet
Ideal: Something with an 'everlasting' mod. Damage reduced by 24 or so. Coupled with +2 all skills or +3 one branch makes for an awesome amulet
Others: +1 skill amulets
Prebuff: +3 lightning amulet

Rings
Ideal: 2xStone of Jordans - increase mana 25% and +1 skills... sweet
Others: BulKathos for the +1 skills or magical +mana rings. Can be over +90 mana and can come with decent secondary mods.

Weapon
Since no shield is necessary for this build, a lot of staffs that people usually stay away from are pretty good for this build. Note however, the dex requirements on some of these staffs. You might need an anni or dex charms to get the required level of dex. I wouldn't put points into base dex though.
Ideal: Mang Song's Lesson - +5 skills, -enemy resist for all trees, fcr and mana regen
Others: Ondal's wisdom - up to +4 skills, big fcr, lots of energy, + big defense, magic damage reduced by X and 5% extra experience gained.. a close rival to MSL.
Switch/prebuff: Again a no brainer... Memory runeword in a staff with +3 energy shield already on base item. Memory is LumIoSolEth, its pretty much the runeword version of Ondal's wisdom, the runes aren't particularly hard to obtain either. It will give a total of +3 skills and +6 energy shield, which makes +9, it goes a long way to obtaining level 40 ES. A perfect base staff with +3 energy shield, two other +3s in one of your attack spells made into memory can give MSL a run for its money since it also has magic damage reduced and increase mana 20%

Charm
Any +sorc tree charm is useful, especially +lightning. Annilus of course, but not all of us have one.


For those interested, the gear I'm using right now...
Helm - shako w/ptopaz
Armor - Gladiator's bane w/sol rune for extra damage reduced by 7
Belt - Arachnid's Mesh
Gloves - Upgraded Frostburns for that little bit of extra defense... since upgrading normal items are so cheap, make sure you have enuf str for the upgraded version though.
Boots - Infernostrides (temporary... looking for something better)
Amulet - +3 lightning skills, +1 light radius (haha)
Rings - 2xSOJ, found one by myself, another is on loan from a friend haha, its ridiculous how expensive they are on ladder right now.
Weapon - Ondal's wisdom (+3 skills)
Switch - wand of lower resist... still looking for a +3 energy shield base staff.

Charms: one +1 lightning charm, two +dex charms to equip Ondal's Wisdom.


Merc
I would recommend an Act 2 defiance merc (normal/hell). I bought mine in hell, but if you have the patience to level a normal merc up to high levels, go for it, it'll give a few extra levels on the aura.
Weapon: Bonehew(2xAmn), Reaper's Toll or anything with high dmg and life leech. Doom is awesome, but very expensive.
Armor: Any high defense armor, I use Duriel's shell (good resistance, cannot be frozen, +str)
Helm: Socketed helm with amethysts for +str to equip Bonehew. Eth stealskull or shako are good choices too.


Gameplay
static+Orb can kill most anything. But vs cold immunes, you'll need to tank, or get your merc to tank while monsters stand in your firewall.
vs Cold/Fire immunes, static them, let your merc kill and help with either nova spam or telekinesis to stun. TStorm should be active as much as possible as
well. If you see mana burn creatures... run like hell... let your merc deal with them hahah, not really much else to say. Mana burn will be your main weakness. The other weakness is poison. Since energy shield does not protect against poison and with such low poison resist, it can bring you down to 1 health in no time. Also, I always keep one slot of my belt full of antidote potions.

Hope this guide is useful, again, thx to Zarhrezz for his wonderful ES guide and all those who post on diabloii.net forums for all the info. Any suggestions/corrections welcome!

[cheap_trik]

u didnt really mention damage reduced by, which is a GREAT mod
it makes a 3x sol helm a possibility if u dont have a shako

also, u could use lidless/occy for +4 to skills for prebuf and even use it for killing if u want
the other choice would b prebuf with that and switch to wiz/double pdiamond mosers for resists

maybe offer some replacements for soj's???
most players cant afford these..most players

hows the killing speed? i know u said it wasnt the fastest, but i know i get really annoyed if i must spend over a min on a pack of champions or uniques...

other than that
nice guide!

[hypermonkeytl]

Why Firewall? Wouldn't Fire Ball be a more viable attack, because you have the pack attack, Frozen Orb, and the Defense, fully synergized Energy Shield, but no single monster attack. Why would you spend 24 mana killing one monster when you could easily spend like 10 (not sure on figures, sorry) DESTROYING another. I don't know, Firewall is for those immobile monsters, or if you like tanking. Bleh, other than that, nice guide ::thumbs up::

[Stiertje]

Didn't have time to read the whole post, but I do have one remark. You say this is a Tri-Elementalist, but I fail to see why. I know you use spells from 3 trees, but those are support spells mainly, excepting the 1 point in Thunderstorm. TS will then hardly be your main killer, leaving you with a dual-tree build namely Fire/Cold.

This is of course just a remark. Maybe I got the notion wrong on what a Tri-Elementalist actually is, but I thought it to be a build with attack spells that can pack a punch from all 3 trees.

[WitchCoven]

Couple other thoughts for people to consider:

With the discovery of the "PRUDENCE" runeword, I have been thinking it would be a nice fit with the EShield build, given the Damage Reduced by 3 / Magic Damage Reduced by 17 mods. Put in an elite, two socketed, ethereal armor, and the defence should easily reach the mid 1000s or higher (on par with other armor choices). I guess comparing it and Glad Bane's stats does show that Glad Bane is superior for the Damage Reduced By X stat. I guess it depends on the other stats and your particular build.

I agree with the Telekinesis at 15 - 20 (to taste), but I have been thinking about using + light skill charms in inventory (I play USEast / Non-Ladder, so find the desired equipment is usually more about patience than riches). With say a full compliment of +8 Light Skills, +9 from an EShield Memory Staff on switch, and a typical compliment of say +8 to All Skills from other equipment, you will have a total of +25 to EShield on switch, witch means you would only need to add 15 to EShield base to reach the 40 skill level. The side benefit is that you would have a total of +16 to Light Skills plus whatever your main weapon switch offered (+3 to +5).

As you said, this should make even the smallest skill point investment into the light skills all that more valuable. The extra skills you save from EShield could then be invested in the other two trees to taste? I guess the real question is whether your total damage output for your other skills is better by putting in the extra skill point in a synergy / mastery, or leaving them in EShield and reducing your Light Skill charms and replacing with either Fire or Cold Skill Charms? I guess the last method would add one point to your main attack and one point to your mastery. This sounds like a question for the skill planners to optimize the skill distribution.

One other question for the author (or others familiar with the 40 EShield / Max Mana build). What is the overall survivability? With the except of Mana Burn and Poison, what about the other main problems??? Mainly asking about Gloam packs, Doll packs, Lister and minions, etc. The typical one or two hit kill monsters for most other builds? Does the EShield make you nearly immune to most things???

Thanks to everyone for the build ideas,
WitchCoven

[melianor]

I agree with Stertje here. The build looks like fun and great to play, but that is not a Tri-Elementalist. If so then all builds that use any spell from all 3 trees, no matter which, would be Tri-Elementalists.

Tri-Elementalist definition:
A build that has at least 1 spell in each tree that is able to actually kill monsters on its own. Ofcourse not counting in if that monster immune to that particular spell.

Examples:
Meteor/Charged Bolt/Frozen Orb
Firewall/Chain Lightning/Blizzard
.......

Thunderstorm would go into that category, but unless you max Lightning Mastery with it, you can not really call that a killing spell. Telekinesis and Energy Shield are support spells.

We have Stormcryers Tri-Elementalist thread up here and from all the posts inthere you can see very well what build suits the definition of a Tri-Elementalist!

Otherwise this build sounds like good fun 8)

[WitchCoven]

Didn't have time to read the whole post, but I do have one remark. You say this is a Tri-Elementalist, but I fail to see why. I know you use spells from 3 trees, but those are support spells mainly, excepting the 1 point in Thunderstorm. TS will then hardly be your main killer, leaving you with a dual-tree build namely Fire/Cold.

This is of course just a remark. Maybe I got the notion wrong on what a Tri-Elementalist actually is, but I thought it to be a build with attack spells that can pack a punch from all 3 trees.


My argument/definition of a Tri-Elementalist (ArchMage) has always been "a Sorc who can handle any creature in the game solo, without a merc, and without having to rely on other party members... preferably in a 8 player game".

With this in mind, every one of my ArchMage builds (and all other dual-elemental sorcs) typically focus on two main skills (one from two separate elemental tabs). Those two main skills will kill most every creature in the game, save for a few uniques that spawn with immunities in both of your main skills.

The difference is that a dual-elemental, when they run up against the unique with the double immunity will either: 1) tele away and leave him behind, 2) use their merc to kill it (perhaps helping out with a support spell such as static or telekinesis, etc), or 3) let the rest of the party finish him off (if they are all adventuring together).

To me, the ArchMage would switch to their third (and typically weaker) skill tree, and continue to kill away at the creature. That is not to say that I don't keep the merc around, and that he doesn't help out tremendously in these situations, it is just that I could do it solo if I chose or had to.

The pros & cons of a tri vs dual build is that the dual build will almost always be able to walk through 99+% of the game faster than a tri build (just a fact of numbers, the dual build will have more skills available for synergies than the tri build). The tri build trades some of her overall punch, to gain mastery over that last 1% of the game. NOTE: It sounds like the authors approach focuses more on defence (EShield) and sacrificies even more on overall offense to get it. I am sure it is still a valid approach, versus the more common "the best defence is a good offense" approach. It should still get the job done.

Anyway, this isn't much different than the discussions between the single tree vs dual tree debates. There are a lot of people that like the very fast kill speed of the single tree, fully synergized builds (such as a BlizzSorc). When people ask them, "What about the (roughly) 33% of the creatures that will be immune to your element?", the response is typically, 1) I tele away, 2) be prepared to skip entire maps, 3) just don't go to those areas, 4) I use my merc, or 5) you will probably need to party with others to clear those areas.

The fact that most of my ArchMages seem to be slightly under powered versions of a dual tree is why I was advicating TStorm back in StormCryer's tri-guide/discussion. In 1.09, TStorm was not the mass kill spell of choice. But with having Meteor and Frozen Orb as my two main killing spells, TStorms damage didn't have to mass kill. That was what Meteor and FO were for. TStorm provided passive damage, picking off stragglers, and only came into the spotlight for those rare dual immune uniques. In those situations, I would use either Meteor or FO to finish off the unique's minions, leaving only the dual immune unique behind. I would static down to half life, then watch as the TStorm would strike the unique over and over and over again. With every thing else off the screen, the TStorm would only have one valid target, so "targeting" with TStorm (one of the anti-arguments for TStorm) never really came into question. Pretty much just tank the unique (was playing a 1.09 standard max block / physical damage reduced / Stormshield / tri-elementalist). If her merc helped out, so much the better, but I never really needed him.

I will admit that I have experimented with her in 1.10, and although she is still a viable build, I can see that she is weaker now than she use to be. And TStorm, unless super high level damage, will sometimes not be able to overcome a uniques life regen rate. But I think the overall concept is still valid in 1.10, and I think that is what the author is trying to communicate.

It would be interesting to see others opinions. Perhaps I am way off base compared to the rest of the community.

WitchCoven

[Zroc]

Neat stuff, Jon ;)
Quick tip...there's an exceptional unique staff called Warpspear that has +3 skills and +3 Energy Shield...you can usually get those for like 5 pgems, and it works great until you get your elusive +3 ES staff for memory.

My buddy has a sorc a LOT like yours, with some tweaks you may like...

Instead or Ordal's, go get a Gerke's Sanctuary ;)
Stats:

Defense: 221-268 (varies)(Base Defense: 68-78)
Required Level: 44
Required Strength: 133
Chance to Block: Pal: 84%, Ama/Asn/Bar: 79%, Dru/Nec/Sor: 74%
Durability: 172
Paladin Smite Damage: 10 To 17
+180-240% Enhanced Defense (varies)
+30% Increased Chance of Blocking
All Resistances +20-30 (varies)
Replenish Life +15
Damage Reduced By 11-16 (varies)
Magic Damage Reduced By 14-18 (varies)

Yep, even more huge Damage Reduced and Magic Damage reduced...between that and glad bane, it's rather hilarious. Plus, you get resists and +15 replenish life.

Then combine that with a good one-hander...my buddy likes Death's Fathom, for the +3 and big ol' boost to Frozen Orb.

Now, he didn't go into the fire tree at all, though, except for warmth.
He did much like WitchCoven suggested...got 8 lightning skillers, to make hitting 40 ES rather easy (I think he ended up putting 16 hard points in ES, and 16 hard points in TK). Since he HAD those light skillers, he went Orb and Lighting skills, and put lightning facets in his gear. I don't know exactly how he placed them, but I think he went 20 in orb, 8 in CM, 1 point Tstorm, maxed Chain Lightning, and threw the rest into Lightning Mastery. He ended up with like a 3000+ chain lightning mass damage spell, which wasn't too shabby for a secondary skill, really.

But for your specific build, you might wanna look at something like a Fathom and Gerkes over a staff. Get a Warpspear until ya find your memory staff. Boots, maybe some Sandstorm Treks, for the big vit and str bonus, plus it sounds like you could use some poison resist, and those give up to 70% poison resist.

[melianor]

"a Sorc who can handle any creature in the game solo, without a merc, and without having to rely on other party members... preferably in a 8 player game".

Sorry, but that argument for a Tri-build is valid FOR ANY kind of Sorc build, no? You can ask this for a Single-tree or a dual tree to be a requirement, and with a Merc all those builds can meet that.

Why are Single-tree and dual-tree builds called so?
Because the have spells, that are capable to dispose of monsters on their own, unless those are immune to that specific spell.

single-tree builds: Blizzard, Frozen Orb, Pure Lightning, Pure Fire
dual-tree: Meteor/Fo CL/FO TS/FO FW/CL.......
Tri-build: FW/CB/FO, Meteor/CL/FO, Meteor/CB/Blizzard......

Those builds got this definition because the all have specific spells that can actually kill something with each of those spells. All other spells are for defense only or utility spells.

[WitchCoven]

My argument/definition of a Tri-Elementalist (ArchMage) has always been "a Sorc who can handle any creature in the game solo, without a merc, and without having to rely on other party members... preferably in a 8 player game".



Sorry, but that argument for a Tri-build is valid FOR ANY kind of Sorc build, no? You can ask this for a Single-tree or a dual tree to be a requirement, and with a Merc all those builds can meet that.


Exactly my point. With a Merc, even a single tree build can solo the game (with the possible exception of a Physical Immune / Element Immune, depending on Merc equipment).

I am saying that an ArchMage should be able to kill any creature in the game, without a Merc. Therefore, I am implying that an ArchMage has to have spells, capable of killing, in all three elements. So I am implying similar builds as the examples that you gave.

The one possible exception between our definitions could be an Kingslayer (Vengence) Enchantress with maxed masteries. I have heard rumors of this build, although I have not tested it yet. In theory, it seems that this build should be able to handle any creature in the game because of the multiple sources of elemental damage. I know that my current Passion Enchantress has problems with Fire Immunes, and that is where my Merc has to come in.

If it is true that the Kingslayer Enchantress (or Werebear Enchantress... never tried that one either) can handle any creature in the game, without a Merc, then it would technically meet my definition, although it would not meet the classical definition that most others assume. I will be willing to concede on this point, although the Enchantress is really more a specialty character anyway.

WitchCoven

[jumbo_SHRIMP]

Razorswitch
Jo Staff
Two-Hand Damage: 6-21 (13.5 Avg)
Required Level: 28
Required Strength: 18
Durability: 20
Base Weapon Speed: [-10]
+50% Damage To Undead
+1 To All Skills
30% Faster Cast Rate
Magic Damage Reduced By 15
All Resistances +50
+175 To Mana
+80 To Life
Attacker Takes Damage Of 15
(Only Spawns In Patch 1.09 or later)

phelix