Building a sorceress...

[Racoontje]

As soon as my amazon hits Act V NM, I'm hoping to be able to get some basic items (Wizardspike being one of them) so I can build a sorceress. I'm doubting what build I should use.

When 1.10 started, I had an Orb sorceress. Good thing about Orb is the plenty of skills left for telekinesis and Energy shield, both essential survival skills in my opinion. My sorceress was able to tank Lister Hell if he wasn't Mighted or Fanatic. I'm worried that going for a "killer" spell such as Blizzard or Meteor will totally kill my ability to invest in those two skills. Any ideas?

[weedkilz]

As soon as my amazon hits Act V NM, I'm hoping to be able to get some basic items (Wizardspike being one of them) so I can build a sorceress. I'm doubting what build I should use.

When 1.10 started, I had an Orb sorceress. Good thing about Orb is the plenty of skills left for telekinesis and Energy shield, both essential survival skills in my opinion. My sorceress was able to tank Lister Hell if he wasn't Mighted or Fanatic. I'm worried that going for a "killer" spell such as Blizzard or Meteor will totally kill my ability to invest in those two skills. Any ideas?

I have an orbtk sorc and she is by far the best sorc I have ever had. With wizzy/whistans/vipermagi you can do anything in nm you want. The basic build I used was:
max orb
max cm
max tk
1 to es-you dont want any more than this becasue you will go base energy which is plenty for orber
rest into teleport and ice bolt(orbs synergy?)

As I said, base energy, max block and max resists and you are in tip top shape with this build. You can farm nm mpeh till the cows come home without worrying about anything once you get wizzy,whiststans, and vipermagi. Just make sure before you start tele'n like mad you get at least 63 fcr. Once you get that you will be ok. Slap an insight on your merc and you will be golden. This is the most solid sorc build I have seen or used, for the reasons you mentioned. More freedom to put points in othe rskills.

[Baranor]

if you get a mediation merc you can tele around with slvl 1 tele without trouble.

[Racoontje]

OK, sounds OK I guess. Is it really impossible to make a hell meph killer that is still very robust?

[xeyloderixed]

very much so. although most of my untwinked sorks (by this i mean non uber gear) bit the dust after 200 runs each, hell meff is still very doable. i myself subscrube to this skill layout:

20 orb, cm, tk, warmth

but on the last sork i made i did a balanced teleport/warmth build. either build works well for hell meff, although i seriously suggest a heavily investment in chamrs for people building from scratch. although it is very hard to achieve a 800/800 life/mana ratio without shako or wizardspike, it is nevertheless doable, and it should be your main goal before atempting meff.

edit: forgot to mention kelpie snare, which is just about the only thing you need to actually do meff. i seriously doubt any starting sork without it can run meff consistently.

[Racoontje]

I'm starting NM Shenk runs tomorrow. I'm hoping that I can get both Shako and Wiz within a few days :-)

[xeyloderixed]

nm shenk does not drop either of those.

[tootootoofar]

i can give u a wizzy if u are on east
*tootootoofar
tell me here or pm if u want cuz i might not be on for a while due to school work

[MoUsE_WiZ]

To be fair, I think NM Shenk does drop shako.
He might even drop green shakos.
Just not green with gold lettering.

If you want shako/wizzy without leaving NM do NM baal runs. They're pretty easy for an orber of decent level and the minions/baal DO drop more or less everything hell andy can.

[Racoontje]

Really? Is Shako that high ilvl?

[weedkilz]

very much so. although most of my untwinked sorks (by this i mean non uber gear) bit the dust after 200 runs each, hell meff is still very doable. i myself subscrube to this skill layout:

20 orb, cm, tk, warmth

but on the last sork i made i did a balanced teleport/warmth build. either build works well for hell meff, although i seriously suggest a heavily investment in chamrs for people building from scratch. although it is very hard to achieve a 800/800 life/mana ratio without shako or wizardspike, it is nevertheless doable, and it should be your main goal before atempting meff.

edit: forgot to mention kelpie snare, which is just about the only thing you need to actually do meff. i seriously doubt any starting sork without it can run meff consistently.

That is the basic build, however with the insight runeword, you can ditch the warmth points as well as more in tele really and put them in ice bolt and one of the frozen armors probably. THat single simple runeword has changed the orb build to make it even more flexible.
Also 800 mana is waaay more than you really need. I was using 640 ish on my mf]r and I know I Have done more runs than I can possibly imagine with her. Leveling from 67-87 just from doing meph runs, she has never even gotten the meph quest doing first drop. With meditation, you definately dont need 800. When you get wizzy even a pair of frostburns will help some if you go for the 63 fcr. You will get that just from wizzy and vipermagi. Getting a shako would be a good idea for the life yo uget. but not essential. You should be able to get 800 life without it. I have 1300 life on my 90 sorc that wears ss and has max block. With shako you should be able to have `~1k life depending on what shield you use. Whitstans will more be than 1k ss a tad less all depending on your charms.

[det]

NM Baal is indeed the first who can drop it. Hell Shenk was another guy kind enough to donate one.

With SS, Peasant Crown, Viper, TG, Wiz (and some other stuff) and an Insight merc its pretty easy and safe to tele down to Meph in hell (I have 105 FCR), but since I am a meteorber and only lv 73 or so, its hard to kill him and my idiot merc often stirrs up monsters (and dies subsequently).

To be honest I found most of my items questing, trading, playing. Meph runs bore me to hell and Baal runs are to dangerous for me alone :(

The first drop on Meph was never kind to me as well..but then again...I stopped after 50 or so in total. Some ppl here must be doing 50 a day ^^

[Racoontje]

Wait a sec, so bolt /IS/ a synergy for orb?

[Stimm]

NM Baal is indeed the first who can drop it. Hell Shenk was another guy kind enough to donate one.

With SS, Peasant Crown, Viper, TG, Wiz (and some other stuff) and an Insight merc its pretty easy and safe to tele down to Meph in hell (I have 105 FCR), but since I am a meteorber and only lv 73 or so, its hard to kill him and my idiot merc often stirrs up monsters (and dies subsequently).

To be honest I found most of my items questing, trading, playing. Meph runs bore me to hell and Baal runs are to dangerous for me alone :(

The first drop on Meph was never kind to me as well..but then again...I stopped after 50 or so in total. Some ppl here must be doing 50 a day ^^

actually nm lister is the first

[det]

actually nm lister is the first


Tsk...4 years in the game and i still spread false info...

New try:

No..bolt is NOT a synergy for orb

[Baranor]

please remember that mercs with insight can still die vs and act boss and then you're suddenly without a mana source and thus very much caught with your pants down.

look, my 1300 life//1299 mana sorc had a med merc too but could manage very well on her own. she had no block, no tk synergy and clvl 7 es after +skills. but i was good at what i did.

[xeyloderixed]

That is the basic build, however with the insight runeword, you can ditch the warmth points as well as more in tele really and put them in ice bolt and one of the frozen armors probably. THat single simple runeword has changed the orb build to make it even more flexible.
Also 800 mana is waaay more than you really need. I was using 640 ish on my mf]r and I know I Have done more runs than I can possibly imagine with her. Leveling from 67-87 just from doing meph runs, she has never even gotten the meph quest doing first drop. With meditation, you definately dont need 800. When you get wizzy even a pair of frostburns will help some if you go for the 63 fcr. You will get that just from wizzy and vipermagi. Getting a shako would be a good idea for the life yo uget. but not essential. You should be able to get 800 life without it. I have 1300 life on my 90 sorc that wears ss and has max block. With shako you should be able to have `~1k life depending on what shield you use. Whitstans will more be than 1k ss a tad less all depending on your charms.

the only reason i do not (and will not) use/recommend the insight runeword is because it is very tough to kill act bosses without any type of slow effect. if you've tried killing hell meff without slow and untwinked, you will probably know (i did this very early in ladder 1, and i actually only killed meff in 1 out of 15 or so runs. the other 14, i had to exit). it is infinitely safer to just ditch the insight merc, give him a kelpie, and get 800 mana, than have to to do the meff dane/moat trick.

[MoUsE_WiZ]

ACTUALLY
Shako lvl = 69
Ventor = 71
So 4th wave can drop too if my understanding is correct -.-

Ice Bolt is a synergy to orb.
Just not one you want to invest in unless you've got uber gear.
Until your CM says "-175%" on a meph runner you'll always want cm>ice bolt, and with the es/tk/tele-and-or-warmth you're not going to have points for both.