PvM Nova

[sajoda]

First of all I checked all guides and maybe I'm blind but I didn't find any guide where Nova was one of THE skills for close combat. If there's a guide direct me and I'm very grateful. If not continue reading ....

I wanna make a close-combat-sorc using Nova as (one of) the main attack(s) to do mainly Cows and Diaruns. What else do you recommend as useful close combat attacks? What good combo's you have in mind?

Of course the gear depends on the skills I use but I have a tri-tank using Thunderstorm/Hydra/Blizzard/Static and she stands her ground very well in 8-player baalruns. Static the crap out of the minions while mostly Thunderstorm and Blizzard take them down. Hydra is nice for cold-immunes in the rest of the game. But back to the gear. She uses Hoto/CoH/Shako/Arach/Frosties/Gerkes/WT's/Mara's and 2 Sojs. And CTA/Lidless on switch. Think that needs adjustment for the Nova-sorc?

All suggestions are welcome :xman:

[Luckymofo]

Since you're fairly rich, I'll assume you have good stuff. First, nova in 1.10 is very weak because of lack of synergies and fairly high mana cost(me thinks).
Second, since you want close combat, I suggest using passion weapon or one of the new runewords and go enchantress route. That's all I can come up with at top of my head. Good luck regardless; close combat sorcs deserve kudos(whatever the .... that means) :thumbsup:

[sajoda]

Thanks for the quick reply but I want to go the hard way. Determined to use Nova :xmad: and been the enchantress-route so I need a challenge.

Does Thunderstorm gets overruled by Nova btw? Cause if not the lightning damage (with maxed Lightning Mastery) would be nice with the mentioned gear and some 3 skillers making lvl 35. Nova would be 1512-1997 and Thunderstorm 2008-2561. Strange combo though :xdrunk:

[Healing]

Right now, my nova-orb sorc is doing around 1500 damage at lvl 30 nova and lighting mastery, with a perfect eschutas. Yes, it blows, but I haven't given up! Infinity has given me hope...

[st-hearts]

1500 damage isn't that bad, if you're casting at 9 frames. That's almost 4500 a second.

If I were still playing, I'd probably give my merc an Insight weapon and go ES/Nova. Let's see me run out of mana now.

~Hearts~

[Bugzy]

Nova build is a efficient build simply because you can feed it well into a cold sorc. Nova sorc needs only 40 skill points, leaving you roughly 60 to build up a secondary tree. Secondly, the damage isn't all that bad considering you will be using it mostly for cow runs. It doesn't fair up that well in /players 8 cow runs but when your on your own with no interruptions then you can easy told hoards of cows down in seconds with high fcr.

I can't really say whether the gear is good or not - I've only recently got the pleasure of doing the expansion and so my knowledge of expansion items is limited - what I do know however is that you'll be needing an awful lot of mana/fcr for speedy cow runs. The idea is to get in the centre of a large quanity of cows so you can get the best killers per minute. However if you aim is unaccurately you will let them get too close and you'll die. For the situation when 1-10 start hitting you, max blocking is essential. You'll also need a lot of fcr to get out of this blocking stance and to take down the crowd as soon as possible.

In a /players 1 game with limited equipment a cow run would take 5 or so minutes. With uber equipment much less. Lightning is also favoured in cow runs because it can't kill the cow king which means you can go anywhere within the map without living in fear that you'll kill the cow king.

Energy shield isn't needed for a cow running sorc but it could be fine considering you'll have a large mana pool to supplement it. Static is very useful for its ability to decrease the enemy's hitpoints quickly but it is a personal preferance choice and if you did want to use it to its fullest then you'd need to max it or near max it for maximun range.

However if I was you i'd invest 40 points into lightning mastery and nova. Then with the remaining 50/60 points put them into the cold line. This will allow you to be more effective in stuff other than cow runs and it can be a nice break away from the monotinous casting of nova. Yes the damage will be fertile with nova but when mastered it is a pretty deadly skill. If you intend to use it for MFing and the such then I'd defiently say no to nova.

It shines in areas with lots of mobs, fairly low hitpoints, no immunities and slow mobs. You want to be gettin 10+ novas in before the front line mobs start hitting you which in effect is 15k damage. When they start gettin you into a chain block situation you want to teleport out and rince and repeat. Of course - with more fcr you can easily get more novas in which will wipe out the cows.

Have fun cow hunting :)

[Healing]

Heh, my nova/orb sorc was originally built as a countess runner :clap: Perhaps the one thing it excels at. Other than that, it will be quite expensive to get it to where I want it to be. For cows, again, nothing really beats blizzard...but meh, sorry to jack your thread :xmad:

[Bugzy]

Heh, my nova/orb sorc was originally built as a countess runner :clap: Perhaps the one thing it excels at. Other than that, it will be quite expensive to get it to where I want it to be. For cows, again, nothing really beats blizzard...but meh, sorry to jack your thread :xmad:

Nova > Blizzard in speed :P Those delays etc. all add up :P

[Sartok]

Nova may be costly... but its a fun build no doubt. It can work well, especially in countess runs like you said..

The only problem I have seen people have is with mana... and your sojs, silk, arachs, and frosties should cover you. Good luck!

[Jon_]

I made a pure nova sorc wearing:
shako
perfect lightning eschutas
lidless
+3 lightning/10%fcr ammy
silkweaves
frostburns
arach mesh
2xSoJ
vipermagi
4x lightning gc
reaches 2nd last fast cast break point (105% i think... 200% is next)
enuf str to wear an ormus (still looking for +3 nova ormus)
everything else into energy

max nova, lightning mastery, telekinesis, enuf for max ES, rest into warmth

and she can't kill anything past mid hell but definitely excels in nm cows
however, infinity on a merc might change all that... too bad i cant afford it yet

[Wambat]

The key to Nova is FCR; you need to get this past an insane brake point, over 200 I think. Once there it shines for the damage it will do to multiple targets. If you have the equipment, and you plan on using the sorc for cows, forget about a second tree and make an ES/Nova sorc, with an Insight staff you will stand invulnerable in a massive pack of cows and take them down with dozens of Novas in a few seconds.

[Jon_]

The key to Nova is FCR; you need to get this past an insane brake point, over 200 I think. Once there it shines for the damage it will do to multiple targets. If you have the equipment, and you plan on using the sorc for cows, forget about a second tree and make an ES/Nova sorc, with an Insight staff you will stand invulnerable in a massive pack of cows and take them down with dozens of Novas in a few seconds.

Just my opinion but I dont think the equipment sacrificed is worth the extra fast cast...
IIRC you'll need to use
50% wizard spike
30% viper magi
35% spirit shield (this makes it a little easier)
20% gloves (trang/magefist)
20% helm (preferably with +3 lightning skills)
20% arachnid's
30% in rings/ammy

You'll be losing 2 +skills in SoJ, the +3 from eschutas(and +lightning dmg), tons of mana from frost burns (and sojs) and a possible +3 from ormus too (and +lightning dmg).
The damage lost doesnt seem to be worth it. With all the mana you have, regen shouldn't be a problem, so i think infinity on a merc might be better.

On the plus side you have TONS of resist from wiz spike, viper magi and the spirit shield

[skygoneblue]

Jon_

Well, with your setup, what you said is true. But look at this setup:

Griffon's Eye (25)
Vipermagi (30)
Heart of the Oak (40)

Magefist (20)
Rare Amulet (20)
Spirit Shield (35)

Arachnid's (20)
Rare ring (10)

=200

You have:

Roughly 10-11 to all skills (depending on amulet)
Bonuses from Griffon's
200 FCR with room for a SoJ
Better mana regeneration (Magefist provides a point into Warmth)
Pretty good resistances (easy to get over 100 to all)

With Maxed Nova and Lightning Mastery, this build can do 1178-1581 damage in 9 frames, and that's not including the bonus from Griffon's or any GCs in your inventory.

I think 200 FCR and a viable Nova sorc is totally possible!

[Sartok]

Nova sorcs are probly one of the most useful sorcs at 200FCR, especially now with the effectiveness of ES. Just remember that a good FHR is required when building one... but Spirit and a pair of Treks should cover that...

[skygoneblue]

How effective would a dueler be using Nova? Warcry barbs can take out a fair number of people using a warcry that stuns them into submission after quite a few casts - would a 9 frame Nova be able to do the same thing?

20 Nova
20 Thunder Storm
20 Lightning Mastery
20 Energy Shield
20 Telekinesis
Rest into Warmth

It might get kinda screwed by characters that have a ton of FHR (like Werewolves), but I'm kidna curious. :)
You could tele around them, wait for the Thunder Storm to strike and knock them off guard. Tele in quick as closely as you can and spam Nova like crazy. They shouldn't live too long... :lol:

[jumbo_SHRIMP]

1500 lit damage will never even tickle a halfway decent pvper

phelix