+Dmg vs -resist and weap speed questions

[soonborn]

Ok first this is my first post here but I read often and continually find that this site has the best D2 info available due to the very knowledgable and helpful posters and mods, so thank you all for helping me many times even though you never knew it.

Now for my questions

I am playing around with building an enchant dream machine sorc and a ES/Orb sorc and have a couple questions.

1) The weap speed calc says sorc is pretty much maxed at 2 attacks per sec due to the godly IAS needed for the next break point. I was playing around with phase blades and infinity poles for an enchant sorc and found they both give the same attack rate in the calc. Is this wrong?

2) Is -60 cold resist from say doom (lol) > the +35 dmg -5 resist available from a p shard? and is there in fact a cap on total -resist? I have read there is a 100 cap, if there is what is the point of maxing cold mastery, it just doesnt sound right.

3) Is ES worth playing with at all unless you intent to stick in the 40 pts to max it? Right now with my enchant build I can max tk but will only have a few pts left for ES and little + all skill gear so I was thinking of just abandoning totally and using pts elswhere such as cold mastery or static. I just have trouble going half way with a skill, I just cant bring myself to do it.

Right now I have a very nice Blizz Fball sorc that is a mf monster, and i highly recomend trying one out, for pvm of course. I have 2 nagels, chancies, travs, topazed tal armor and helm, tal belt. I have tal orb and spirit on attack and switch to istd baba and monarch on kills which still gives me tal full mf benefit. She still rules hell with little trouble except the minions and sometimes the ancients.

Thanks for the help

[Grobyc]

1. Not sure about this one, I never used a melee sorc.

2. The point of cold mastery is to lower their resistance. And, as we all know, not all monsters have 0 resistance to cold. So any points above 15 (if I remember correctly) which lowers 100% resistance is strictly for monsters that have cold resistance.

3. I personally prefer Telekinesis over points into ES. The reason is because ES could still work pretty well with plus skills, the Telekinesis synergy however cannot. Also, if your ES is that high, your mana will drop very fast. I would much rather even out the damage to my hp and mana so I don't run out one or the other which will be the case if you don't have enough into Telekinesis. But this still depends on how many points you have into ES, how much mana, and how much hp.

[Chimaira]

1. According to the calculator I used the sorceress has the following breakpoints

Phase Blade -30 speed
IAS Frames
0 % 13
10 % 12
24 % 11
48 % 10

Thresher -10 speed (fastest polearm)

0 % 14
6 % 13
16 % 12
30 % 11
52 % 10
89 % 9

I'm not sure if this is 100% correct because it seems kind of weird that the Thresher can get faster than the Phase Blade. But anyways I think a sword+shield is better than a polearm, not matter how sick the stats for Infinity are.

If you're going for an enchantress you should really check out this guide...totally awesome.

http://www.rpgforums.net/showthread.php?t=129947

2. There is no cap on -% resists...However a monster can never be reduced below -100% so that's why people usually get lvl 15 Cold Mastery. Maxing Cold Mastery isn't a total waste however...because as Grobyc said some monsters have cold resistance, so if a monster has 20% cold resistance you need -120% enemy cold resist to make them take maximum damage. Cold Mastery doesn't affect Cold Immunes, unless their immunity is broken by Lower Resist/Conviction.

3. I'd also say that points are better spent in Telekinesis..I also think that Energy Shield is at it's best when you specialise around it. If you don't go all out you probably won't have a lot of mana, which can be very annoying when teleporting and spamming spells and on top of that getting hit:( A sorceress can get by without using ES very easily, if she has a strong mercenary.

[Absolute-Fire]

3. I personally prefer Telekinesis over points into ES. The reason is because ES could still work pretty well with plus skills, the Telekinesis synergy however cannot. Also, if your ES is that high, your mana will drop very fast. I would much rather even out the damage to my hp and mana so I don't run out one or the other which will be the case if you don't have enough into Telekinesis. But this still depends on how many points you have into ES, how much mana, and how much hp.

If you want to play around with ES, Telekinesis HAVE TO be maxed. If you didn't maxed Telekinesis or put too many skill point to Energy Shield, 1 high damage element attack will drain all your mana. I personally recommend ppl who want to use ES find a ratio between life and mana.
The ideal situation is Life and mana drops at same percentage(by magic damage), and at least 100+ mana after 2 20k FBs hits instantly.

[Grobyc]

If you want to play around with ES, Telekinesis HAVE TO be maxed. If you didn't maxed Telekinesis or put too many skill point to Energy Shield, 1 high damage element attack will drain all your mana. I personally recommend ppl who want to use ES find a ratio between life and mana.
The ideal situation is Life and mana drops at same percentage(by magic damage), and at least 100+ mana after 2 20k FBs hits instantly.

So why'd you quote me? :scratch: