Question(s) about Sorceress gear/defense/vitality

[Ragnar the Unknowing]

I haven't had any questions for the Newcomer Forum for awhile, but I have been troubled recently so here goes: My lvl 58 Meteorb Sorceress that has just begun NM, Act IV has a Defense of roughly 520. Do I worry about my low defense or is that just part of playing as a sorceress? I hadn’t died once until NM, Act III and now I have about five times. Additionally, I have invested a TON of character points into vitality. Isn’t their a cap or is she going to end up with 400 points there?

Thanks for reading/responding.

Her gear:

Lore (Runeword) Cap
4 Defense
+1 to all skill levels
+2 Mana per Kill
Lowers Damage by 7
30% Lightning Resistance
+10 Energy
+2 Light Radius

Heavenly Garb (Normal, Unique)
216 Defense
+100% Enhanced Defense
+10% Resistance To All
+25% Mana Regen
+15 to Energy
+50% Damage Against Undead
+100 to Attack Rating Against Undead

Leaf (Runeword) S. Staff
+5-30 Fire Damage
+2 mana per kill
+3 to Fire Skills
+33% Cold Resistance
+3 Inferno
+3 Fire Bolt
+3 Warmth

Infernostride (Unique, Exceptional) Demonhide Boots
103 Defense
Adds 12-33 Fire Damage
20% Faster Run/Walk
+10% to Maximum Fire Resist
+30% to Fire Resist
+2 Light Radius
+120-150% Enhanced Defense
+40-70% More Gold from Monsters
+15 Defense
5% Chance of casting slvl 8 Blaze When Struck

Frostburn (Unique, Normal) Gauntlets
48 Defense
+30 Defense
+5% Enhanced Damage
+40% Mana
Adds 1-6 Cold Damage, 2 Seconds Cold Length
+10-20% Enhanced Defense

Tal-Rasha’s Fire-Spun Cloth (Exp. Set) Mesh Belt
36 Defense
-20% Item Requirements
+30 Mana
+20 Dexterity
+37% of damage taken goes to Mana
+10-15% Better chance of getting magical item

Nokozan Amulet (Unique Amulet)
Adds 3-6 Fire Damage
+10% to Maximum Fire Resist
+50% to Fire Resist
+3 Light Radius
20% Faster Hit Recovery

Stone of Jordan (Unique Ring)
+20 Mana
+25% Mana
+1-12 Lightning Damage
+1 to All Skills

Dwarf Star (Unique Ring)
+100% extra gold found
+40 to Maximum Stamina
Heal Stamina Plus 15%
+40 to Life
Magical Damage Taken Reduced by (12-15)
Absorbs 15% Fire Damage

[xOSERx]

First of all....get a new helmet. =P

Other than the 4 defense cap, your defense isn't too bad. You might consider a normal/hell act 2 defensive merc with Defiance to boost your defense. Also, if he can tank for you, you'll have to worry less about getting hit.

A sorc shouldn't concern herself mainly with defense rating. Unless you're playing hardcore, go for damage. Once you start getting the better uniques, the defense will take care of itself.

And I've always found it good to pour points into vitality with casters. You might want to think about putting enough points into strength to wear the heavier uniques (like Skullder's) for later on.

-Oser

edit: Oh, and Ragnar, don't worry so much about dying. If you die 5 times a day, you're still doing fine. ;)

[Ragnar the Unknowing]

...Other than the 4 defense cap, your defense isn't too bad. You might consider a normal/hell act 2 defensive merc with Defiance to boost your defense. Also, if he can tank for you, you'll have to worry less about getting hit...
Is that what my merc's aura represents? He's raised all the way from Normal, Act II and I can't figure out what he does... he can tank like a mofo though. Also, do you know where the Vitality cap for the sorceress character lies?

[krischan]

I wouldn't care too much about defense rating. Just ensure that your sorc doesn't get into melee.

You should get an armor with better abilities. Even the Stealth runeword armor is better. This is a superb low-budget runeword - you just need a 2 socket light armor, a Tal and an Eth rune.

I don't find any mention of items that provide FHR. That's critical when getting into respectively out of trouble. It's critical for Meph runs as well, else you will die when you teleport into a pack of stygian dolls while searching for the stairs down. You can get lots of fhr via charms.

Try to get a Rising Sun amulet (+2 fire skills and, more important, lots of fire absorb). Many fire spells do continuous damage and Rising Sun will make you immune to many fire spells, like hydra and meteor in Durance 3. These will even heal you !

You should also get rid of the Leaf staff and get a good orb with +skills and fcr and a shield (Lidless or Splendor runeword). A rare +2 skills/20%fcr orb and perhaps additional mods together with a +1 skills shield (Lidless, Splendor runeword or even Visceratuant) gives you +3 to all skills as well and you don't need the single skill bonuses from Leaf anymore, I guess.

I give my sorc enough strength to wear Skullders and no dex at all. The rest is distributed between mana and vitality in such a way that she always has a little bit more life than mana, so sh won't suffer from the blood mana curse of those winged female demons from act 5 or Baal.

[awjl]

i can see that you make great efforts by typing / copying out the stats of all the items u mentioned.

Defence is never an issue to a sorceress. Her defense if meant to be the lowest in the game, so just let it be - low.

Your metor/orb sor should be a mf sor... therefore, you should plan to equip her with mf items. Chance guard, occy, shako, tal armour / skullers, dual nagel rings, gold wrap / tal belt, tal ammy / other ammy (depending if you are using the tal armour-belt-ammy combo), a Rhyme shield and war traveller as boots.

There is no cap on the vita any chars can have. It's always the more the merrier. The only concern here is whether you are going for max block with whistan or stormsheild (needs high str). The choice is yours. If you dont care about max block, simply have enough str to use your items and the rest will go into vita. Yes... 400 vita if you can.

Also, for your pet, it will be nice if you get a Holy Freeze pet from Act 2 NM, i think it's defensive... :hanky:

[Tao_of_Xero]

I could be mistaken here, but don't sorcs get a rather large defense boost from things like frozen armor (or whatever the last in that skill tree is)? I haven't played a sorc since I lost mine to act IV of hell in ladder season 1, but I seem to recal somewhere that either the frozen armor or a TK/ES combo gives a boost to defense. And as to your other question...I play Hardcore exclusively, so I hope there's no cap on how many points can be put into vitality :D

[krischan]

The point of using frozen armor is that it freezes melee attackers for a short time, so if you are quick enough, they can't hit you again before you teleport away. Spending one point is enough.

An alternative to frozen armor might be energy shield, but I like frozen armor more. It doesn't have any prereqs and, more important, it's better then energy shield IMO.

Energy shield might drain you out of mana in situations where it would be better to lose the full amount of life instead (e.g. while teleporting through durance 2).

Energy shield absorbs damage before fire/cold/lightning absorb comes into play, so you will get healed less and lose mana from attacks that wouldn't have hurt you anyway, like meteors and hydras in act 2 while wearing a Rising Sun amulet. It might be useful in cows or something. However, my current meteorb sorc hasn't spent all the skill points for its prereqs.

[xOSERx]

Is that what my merc's aura represents? He's raised all the way from Normal, Act II and I can't figure out what he does... he can tank like a mofo though. Also, do you know where the Vitality cap for the sorceress character lies?

It depends on which type of merc you bought. If the aura is blue, it's either Defiance (adds defense) or Prayer (regenerates life). If it's a blue dome (like he's standing in a mound of blue jello) then it'd defiance. If it more flares out at his feet, then it's prayer. If it's a little red circle, then it's blessed aim (boosts your attack rating)

Better yet...
Defiance (defensive): http://www.diabloii.net/characters/paladin/screens/defiance.shtml
Prayer (combat...?): http://www.diabloii.net/characters/paladin/screens/prayer.shtml
Blessed Aim (offensive): http://www.diabloii.net/characters/paladin/screens/blessed-aim.shtml

-Oser

[Dodgydave]

Don't worry about your defence, it'll always be low and you should never be close enough to melee attackers for them to hit you. Just cast and teleport, cast and teleport and position your merc to tank for you. Your choice of merc will be an act 2 merc (probably) and go for defiance if you want to run bosses (especially Baal) or Holy freeze if you want to use her to run more open areas (say the Pit).

There is no cap on you vitality - but remember your sorc only gets 2 hp per stat point in vitality. You may be better off investing in dex for max block if you plan on using an orb and a shield with decent blocking. To increase life look for items which add a lot straight to life or small charms of vita (up to 20 life per charm) can go a long way to help.