Charged bolt still any good?

[Envenom]

See title. :/ Is it viable in Hell?

[aclockworkprple]

Well....sort of. Its a synergy for lightning and chain lightning, so if you're making a lightning sorc, then it will already be very powerful, but there's really no reason to use it when you have two other lightning spells doing huge damage already. I could be wrong though, wouldn't be the first time.

[Frowny]

Its not a great skill to base a build along, because like clockwork said, you have 2 other great skills to use.

In an all lightenign build though, it does quite well as the first skill you max. It gives you something to use early on when lightening or chain lightening would be terrible for that many points. It can easily get you through NM if you max lightening mastery but falters a lot in Hell. On my light sorc at lvl 30 with Light mastery and lightning maxed it does 232-264 dmg per bolt and 24 bolts. Its still the best spell I have for big monsters i can get up next too (multiple bolts hit) but doesn't do anything if the dmg is spread out. Good bolting!

[Tinitha]

I love charged bolt.
I love the white bolts carpet.
But this spell is fun, ony fun.

My sorc has very high FCR (110%) and +12 to all skills, +8 to lightning skills... this gives her a Charged Bolt like this:

Mana cost: 23
Lightning damage: 726 - 755
Number of bolts: 24

She has also maxed lightning and lightning mastery.

She uses Eschuta's Temper 19% and has also 1 x 5/5 light facet for an additional 24% Lightning Damage.

For lightning immunes, she uses Lvl 32 Frozen Orb with Lvl 17 Cold Mastery as backup spell.

For long range targets, she can use also his lightning, but it has only maxed 1 of 3 synergies.

Mana cost: 28
Lightning damage: 6 - 16119 (ø8063)
[Synergy] Charged Bolt: +160% Lightning damage (8% / Lvl)
[Synergy] Chain Lightning: +0% Lightning damage (8% / Lvl)
[Synergy] Nova: +0% Lightning damage (8% / Lvl)

She has a permanent Thunder Storm around...

Mana cost: 19
Deals damage every 1.5 Seconds
Duration: 200 Seconds
Lightning damage: 1419 - 2066 (ø1742.5)
Radius: 11 Yards

This built is a lot of expensive, if you compare it to other builts, because 105 FCR and + levels are a must. I order to be effective, you must approach the target (monster or player) as near as you can, to max the number of bolts that hit him, so you need also MaxBlock.

23 mana at 105 FCR is also mana expensive, so you must have at least 700-800 mana to not be a lot of pot-dependant.

Life and damage reduction are your other goals.

Well, Charged Bolt is very fun but I do not recommend it to your first sorc build, because it needs very good gear to work.

My gear...

Shako PT
Tal's Ammy
Upg & Umed Viper
Umed Storm switch PDia Upg Lidless
Hoto 40 switch 5/5 Light Eschuta's 19%
2 x SOJ
Upg Magefists
Arach
Waterwalks

Anni and 8 x Lightning Skillers
Rest 20 life SCs

Tin.

[melianor]

Charged Bolt is still very useful and packs enough power.
Fully synergized in a Lightning Build it is extremely sufficient in disposing of packs and bosses (when used closeup with a merc infront of you)

CB can also be used in Archmage builds which are also still viable.

But like some others said you will need quite a nice amount of +skills to gain some reasonable damage with CB. You can be able to get ~400 + damage per bolt with ALOT of +skills from items and skillers. Also gear that supports -xx% lightning resistance will help alot here.

One of my Archmage builds uses CB as an attack spell, but also gear that sports +11 Lightning skills and -20% lightninig resistance to monsters. That build is rather a support char in multiplayer games but a nice quick killer in single player bnet games.

Pure Lightning with CB and enough +skills will be a kicker even in multiplayer :D

[xnick]

1) With the Marrowalk bug, Lightning can get synergie from Chain Lightning without spending points in it! I don't know what would be the biggest number out there; at least charges of slvl 7 exist...

2) "Crescent Moon" offers enemy lightning resistance reduction

3) Related to this thread (i think), is NOVA viable?


:wave:

[melianor]

1) With the Marrowalk bug, Lightning can get synergie from Chain Lightning without spending points in it! I don't know what would be the biggest number out there; at least charges of slvl 7 exist...

There's Baezils Vortex with charges, but thats Nova charges, so no use for CB. You could maybe get a ring or such with charges, but you sacrifice a slot or other good potentials. Might be worth a though though.

2) "Crescent Moon" offers enemy lightning resistance reduction

But you sacrifice other good pts/skills you can get with other items that way :/ -xx% res should rather come from facets +x/-5 facets are not that expensive.


3) Related to this thread (i think), is NOVA viable?
:wave:
There are People with Nova/TS/FO who claim to do well with that build. I assume thought that those will have to have some heavy FCR (110%) and atop of that also masses of +15-20 skills 8) Should be doable though since FO wont need any skillers to help it along. So you can pack 10 LIghtning Skillers

[S.N.A.F.U.]

Marrow bug works for sorcs?

[Almighty Cow]

A Boltress Guide by Lira Lindriel (http://www.rpgforums.net/showthread.php?t=200654&highlight=boltress)

[Jell-O]

Marrow bug works for sorcs?No(sorc doesn't have boneskills), he was referring to the synergy bug/feature with charges in general, marrowbug was just not the best word of choice in this case.

[Lira Lindriel]

Most definitely! ;) - But I see Almighty Cow already has linked you to my guide. :)

Of all the sorcs I've played in 1.10 so far (and I've six Mats with two more in Hell right now), my fav is the Chargedboltress. :D

[LLD-Vampire]

No(sorc doesn't have boneskills), he was referring to the synergy bug/feature with charges in general, marrowbug was just not the best word of choice in this case.
:\ stupid bug has people confused.

Charged items ARE supposed to add damage as a synergy, BUT only up to level 20, the marrow bug makes it like having 33 points into bone prison. (When only 20 is possible) so yeah...

Also charged bolt sorcs are pointless, their attack is only useful for pvp in my opinion. (used like teeth for necs)

If you tele right on a boss or something I suppose it can work but if your gonna use charged bolt use a light sorc so you don't have to try to use it against monsters.

BTW if anything above is wrong oops

[melianor]

Also charged bolt sorcs are pointless, their attack is only useful for pvp in my opinion. (used like teeth for necs)

If you tele right on a boss or something I suppose it can work but if your gonna use charged bolt use a light sorc so you don't have to try to use it against monsters.


Charged Bolt is not useless at all. using it frequently in Dual-builds and Archmage. With the right synergy/mastery distribution this is still a very powerful spell, not only for boss-killing but also for general monster killing.
With my current Archmage build i use Charged Bolt and it kills very nicely, tnx.

[Lira Lindriel]

Also charged bolt sorcs are pointless, their attack is only useful for pvp in my opinion. (used like teeth for necs)

If you tele right on a boss or something I suppose it can work but if your gonna use charged bolt use a light sorc so you don't have to try to use it against monsters.
*gets a laughing fit* You haven't seen my Iphigenia in action!
I handle most of Hell p8 solo with her and for the rest p4. She's lvl 90. She's got maxed CB, maxed L, maxed LM. Maxed FO, a few points in CM.
With the full Tal-set, 1 BK, 1 SoJ, Lidless, 7 lit-skillers, she has +8 all skills, +15 lit skills. She has 24 bolts per cast (which is max in 1.10), casts with 65% FCR (2,7 spells/sec) and deals ~550 dam/bolt. If you multiply that out, it's 35 k potential dam/sec! - And that's just her CB. Beat that! :P
(I could do better using uniques of course - but I'm using her for mf-runs and this setup still allows for ~300 mf and maxed res easily)
Of course I have to get close to monsters to deliver my bolts - which means she is a bit more fragile than a meteorb-sorc. She definitely kicks a$$, though!