Fireball/static/act 2 ice merc viable build?

[Deicidus]

I'm making a new PvM sorc. I wanted to use fireball but didn't want to be a meteorb sorc, so I thought static field would be a good secondary spell. I would use Fireball and meteor as my main spells, and take down the rest with static and my Act 2 frozen aura merc.

Here is my skill plan:

20 Fire Ball
20 Fire Mastery
20 Meteor
20 Fire Bolt
1 Warmth
3 Prerequisite

20 Static Field
1 Energy Shield
5 Prerequisite

And this comes out elegantly to exactly 110 skill points. I made another post to see if LM affects static field damage, and I would probably move some of its points to the mastery if it would help.

Will this combo work out ok? Should I go with more ES or ditch it altogether? And there's that whole blocking/life debate. Any other one-point wonders I should sacrifice some SF power to?

Thanks for your input!
-Deicidus

[mathil]

before you go maxing static field, realize what you are doing. look at its radius. see if that is really as big as you want it. for normal purposes, 10 to 15 after skills is plenty. if you want the radius to be bigger, i would say up to 20 after skills, but after that...idk man. lets just say you won't miss the skill points if you don't invest them in static field.

as far as the one point wonders, you've got it covered with tk, teleport, sf, and warmth. there is something to be said about a point in cold armor (first one), but if you dont' have a bunch of defense, forget it.

i would drop ES completely. you need to put atleast 15-20 points in telekinesis to use it effectively. that would save 3 in prereqs

[Isopropyl]

U know static will not kill an enemy. Ull static whoever ur Mfin too half HP, then kill him with FB and Meteror

[xanth]

yeah i think he knows that...but i agree with mathil...if you max it, after all the +skills you would be staticing people off the screen which would be usefull i guess but then you'll be attracting more monsters to you. as long as you get your merc setup decently you'll be fine with fire immunes.

[melianor]

lvl20 Static Field can be fun to play with, but i also hardly think its necessary.
I would rather try the ES route with 20 TK and 1 ES. Though you would have to start pumping energy then.

What about adding Frozen Orb to the equation? Just technically you would have a Meteorb Sorc then, thats not as powerful on the on the cold tree, but you would get a ncie spell to slow monsters or dispose of Fire Immunes.
20 BLizz, 1 CM would work here too. It can act as a supplementary spell for your Merc so he has it easier at killing fire immunes.

About LM affecting Static Field:
Lightning Mastery does not affect Static Field, since it always tries to drain 25% of current health, no matter how much you pump into Lightning Mastery.

What does affect Static Field though is -xx% lightning resistance.
Static Field will always try to drain 25% of the current health, but lightning resistances on a monster will reduce this. In the end though with casting enough Static FIeld you will bring the monster down to the limit set by the difficulty.
So added -xx% lightning resistances sources will not really make your draining appear that much faster.

[Deicidus]

Sorry I haven't replied yet--my Internet has been sporadic, and I went to a fair.

Thanks for your help! You've given me a lot of good advice (I'm not a newbie, but nailing down some of the details of the sorc has always troubled me.)

You're right, I shouldn't get max Static unless I just want it for fun. I'm not sure where to spend the extra skill points, though. This is my first new ladder character, so I won't have the good equipment to warrant Frozen Armor. Hey, does putting points in CM help my cold merc's attack? He does cold damage from his aura, after all. I could also drop them in Warmth so I wouldn't need quite as much mana.

I'm leaning towards getting minimum energy and pumping vitality. I hate one-hit kills and don't like having to worry about hit recovery speeds. Is this a good decision?

[melianor]

Cold Mastery only affects the cold attacks, that the Sorceress makes herself. Mercenaries or other players do not benefit from Cold Mastery.

You can either drop those into Warmth, or max Inferno which is a synergy for Meteor, and will make the ground damage of Meteor higher.

Unless you can get hold of some max-blocking Shield and will be using an Orb, i'd say all other points into Vitality are fine. Leaving energy at base is very commonly done with Sorceress builds.


Max-blocking might be a bit safer, but Vitality route should do it just aswell.

[Deicidus]

I decided to go with blocking, because I've done Vitality sorceresses before. This time, maybe I won't die so much.

I'll get more Warmth later on if I'm sure I need it, but otherwise, this character is all planned out. Thanks again, everyone!