View Full Version : Classic Blizzard Sorc Guide
This is a guide to building a classic blizzard sorc which is the most common, and in my opinion all around best, type of sorc in 1.10. This guide is primarily geared towards HC because thats what I have more experience with. This is not a guide to "the best sorc you can make", it just reflects my experience with the game so take what you like from it and change what you dont like.
About this build: Sorcs are one of the most fun chars to play and also the most fragile. Thus they are the most challenging and fun char to play in hardcore. They are hands down the char I played the most in my years of D2 classic.
Goal of this build: To make a sorc that is tough as nails and does good damage in hell. With this build you will be able to kill in hell 8 player games and teleport through the thickest packs of the toughest monsters in the game without fear. You will be able to make hot, open seals and kill vizir solo in an 8 player game in CS runs.
Why use Blizzard: Most sorcs are cold sorcs because A) it slows down enemies and B) most monsters in Chaos Sanctuary (end game xp zone) and Catacombs lvl 4 (best place to hunt for SOJ) are not cold immune. Blizzard is simply better than Orb IMO.
Stats:
Str: 60 (for Frostburn)
Dex: 51 (for Shard)
Ene: base-75*
Vit: rest
*From my experience I think 500, or a bit less, mana is the number you should aim for. More than that is nice but it's not really needed. Lets brake it down:
The sorc starts with 35 mana and gets +2 mana per lvl. At lvl86 this totals: 85 x 2 = 170 + 35 = 205. This guide calls for the use of Shard and Nightsmoke so thats + 70 = 275. With frostburns 275 + 40% = 385.
At lvl86 (where it starts getting tough), with base energy you have 385 mana. With another 80 you get 80 + 40% = 112 + 385 = 497.
IN CONCLUSION: you need +80 max mana from your items and/or stats.
Skills:
Warmth: 1
Static: 1
Frozen Armor: 1
Energy Shield and pre-reqs: 1*
Telekinesis: 20
Cold Mastery: 20
Blizzard and synergies: the rest
*Only 1 point in ES because this sorc has high life and low mana. With a +2 amulet and barbarian battle command you already have 35% dmg to mana, if you put more than 1-2 points here your mana will not be able to handle the dmg.
Equipment:
Shard
Nightsmoke (I like it for the 50% dmg to mana combined with energy shield. If you know how dmg to mana works you will see why this belt is great for this build.)
Frostburns
Rare Mage Plate: 350+ def, resists, life, mana, socket (using a soj) with Pruby
Rare Grim Helm or other: def, resists, life, mana, socket with Pruby / Pruby helmet
Rare Boots: 2 (fire/light) or 3 (fire/any 2) resists 35%+
Rare Amulet: +skills prismatic w/ or w/o Faster Cast Rate (FCR)
Rare Rings: FCR, resists, life, mana (rings+amulet must give 20% FCR to reach 70% overall)
Shield: Low budget: 45%+ Ward (has more def/block than a 3d shield if you dont need the extra res), high budget: rare Grim Shield 200+ def, 30% faster block rate/20% increased block, prismatic, socket with Pdiamond.
How much Resistence you want: You should not seek simply to max all resists in hell. In CS runs you get the lower resists curse cast on you all the time, that knocks 65% off all your resists. If Infector spawns with conviction or if another boss around him has conviction thats another 75%+ off. If this happens YOU WILL NOT HAVE TIME TO REACT. It is simply too much damage for the sorc to handle. Fire res in particular you should have at least 120-130 stacked over max. Lightning you should also stack as much as possible, though fire comes first (fire and physical dmg are the main threats inisde CS). Cold you should simply max and poison not even that.
Ok, that about does her. Wraps her all up. With this build you will have everything you need: life, defense, resists, block, dmg and FCR. Great for lvling this the toughest areas of the game.
How can you handle monster with cold immune?
For example, Lord De Seis (Oblivion Knight) in act 4 CS, most of the time, he is fire immune and cold immune, which leave us no choice but to use physical/lighning attack. If it is expansion, sure we can leave the job to our mecenary. But in classic....
How can you handle monster with cold immune?
For example, Lord De Seis (Oblivion Knight) in act 4 CS, most of the time, he is fire immune and cold immune, which leave us no choice but to use physical/lighning attack. If it is expansion, sure we can leave the job to our mecenary. But in classic....Kill everyone around Seis, use static to get him down to 1 life and finish with telekinesis.
Fearlessone
23-04-2005, 08:36
Nope. He will reheal and always seem to have more than just a hairline of life left. I have used and seen used static then thunderstorm. But this doesnt always work. If u have max orb/blizzard and cold mastery, and a backup kill skill in fire such as meteor/firewall/fireball and good fire mastery plus perhaps a good bit into static, mana shield and warmth: u dont have alot of skills left over to dump in t-storm.
I would carry some + sorc skill items in stash to boost damage, maybe a sig shield, crappy +2 ammy, +1 set sword or bong.
Thanks for the guide, Palm.
Was wondering about why u would only put 1-2 pts in ES (the mana ball). All the best classic sorcies have one, and any good ones that dont usually dont know what its for. I have found that the mana shield is very irritating early on in Nm and early hell, with sudden empty mana ball. This is cured with the usual +mana items u talk about, and leveling mana add ons, and greater likelihood of getting BO by the time u get to late hell. I would also push life to close to 900+ (pre-BO), without a pruby helm, and instead use a pskull'd or psapphire helm for MANA. I'm not an expert with ES and damage calc's, but half a dozen pts are good and I think some ppl max it.
why is it that every time i see someone putting up a classic sorc guide everyone of them says 1 point in warmth?
this isnt LOD where you can put 1 point in warmth and have +27 points from gear.... If you dont want to be using mana pots every few seconds then you need to invest in warmth.
Was wondering about why u would only put 1-2 pts in ES The problem with ES is that it redirects dmg to mana but without applying resists. % dmg to mana only applies to the dmg taken on life. The more dmg you redirect via ES to mana the less effective % dmg to mana is at nullifying some of the dmg. And at pretty much any ES lvl nullifying elemental dmg doesnt work. You need to find a balance of high life and some ES that greatly reduces physical dmg, nullifying some of it, and is able to take elemental dmg in a balanced way, i.e more or less equally in life and mana, though your mana should run out first. This is a high life sorc build thought out for HC, you can go with a high mana low life ES sorc but thats something else.
If you dont want to be using mana pots every few seconds then you need to invest in warmth. You can go with warmth but its not needed with 500 mana + BO. I'd rather invest in dmg
You can go with warmth but its not needed with 500 mana + BO. I'd rather invest in dmg
no guarantees that you will get to play with a barb 100% of the time, granted most CS runs do have atleast 1 barb in them but there are times that i find i get into runs where there is no barb.
TheCerberus
24-04-2005, 00:45
no guarantees that you will get to play with a barb 100% of the time, granted most CS runs do have atleast 1 barb in them but there are times that i find i get into runs where there is no barb.
Mana pot. Lvl 20 Warmth regens faster than lvl 1 Meditation.
Mana pot. Lvl 20 Warmth regens faster than lvl 1 Meditation.
pretty sure you meant that the other way lvl 1 meditation rengens faster than lvl 20 warmth.
I'd rather invest in dmg
If your going for a low mana build investing points for dmg, can you explain the choice of
20 Telekinesis
1 Energy Sheild
If you have a low mana build your not relying to heavily on ES to keep you alive. So why invest in Telekinesis? You could for example get 10 warmth and 10 telekinesis.
NightShade
24-04-2005, 03:07
Minor question : How do they do in PvP?
TheCerberus
24-04-2005, 03:34
Minor question : How do they do in PvP?
My mistake, I did mean lvl 1 meditation is superior.
Blizz sorcs I have found, can be used much better in PvP than orbers. I feel that orbers are a much better starter build, and a lot of people seem to grasp it easily. It has a wide range when it explodes, so you can make a mistake in aiming and still get hits in except in SvS. But when it comes to damage and the ability to knock people out, blizzard is my favorite of the two. Orb needs to explode exactly on the person to get the most damage, but Blizzard can hit, stun, and keep you down. As a bone necro, I did well against orbers, but Blizzers were more of a threat to me.
I like fireball sorcs the best though. :)
If your going for a low mana build investing points for dmg, can you explain the choice of
20 Telekinesis
1 Energy Sheild
If you have a low mana build your not relying to heavily on ES to keep you alive. So why invest in Telekinesis? You could for example get 10 warmth and 10 telekinesis. You have to factor in +skills and I also factor in the barbarian battle command because this is a sorc to run CS basically and climb the ladder with. In hc no one will do a cs run with bo so it makes sense to factor in that +1 all skills. With great gear you can wear a soj and get +3 skills, thats 5 ES (40%) right there. If you dont play alot and are pretty sure you wont get gear like that then it's ok to add 1 or 2 more points to ES. Ideal for this build is around 35% ES, but soj gives more mana so it rounds things out. 35-40% dmg redirected is a big deal. You'll have 1k+ life, 500 mana and a balanced ES. Those 35%-40% are worth the 20 points in telekinesis. You dont need to relly heavily on ES because you will have 1k+ life easily so its like having 1400 life How do they do in PvP?Not so good for pvp due how elemental dmg works with ES. For pvp I recomend no ES, maxed Orb/ice bolt/mast, teleport and warmth. Stack cold res like crazy and use 90-95% maxed cold (iratha full set, hawkmail, dual fcr rings with cold res, 3saph shield, etc). You can tele non stop, melee chars shouldn't be able to catch you and other cold sorcs shouldn't hurt much.
Nice guide... you beat me too it.
Though I would also add a section about mf. My blizz sorc is doing hell andy/meph with almost pure mf gear on. She uses tanc armor/ ammy, mf boots/chancies/nagels/gold wrap/tarn/gul for kill/ward somtimes milbreagas
She does fine in those places using moat trick to take out meph and I do get pretty nice drops having 400 mf.
This guide is stickied so Palm can write an update to it. Palm, when you are finished with the update I will unstick this one and close it with a redirect to the new one.
Go ahead and make a new post with the updated guide. You can copy and paste it into the new post and then make whatever changes you want to. That way, you don't have to re-write the entire thing.
Thanks for letting me revise the guide and for the link Dacar92. :thumbsup:
Revised 12/10/2005: Originally named this guide a blizzard sorc guide but the title is actually misleading. It's more of a vit sorc guide for hc with a suggestion that you use blizzard for damage. You could go with something else for damage and still follow this guide. The key IMO with sorcs is to find a balance between the life/mana you want and the correct % ES for that life/mana ratio. This guide attempts to find that balance at the high life/low mana end of the spectrum. I also try to achieve maximum survivability while maintaining good killing power. As far as the actual guide the only main flaw it in that I can think of is lack of faster hit recovery mod on my equipment section. fhr is also very important for the sorc who has the lowest base fhr speed and relies on a good fhr speed to tele out of nasty mob packs quickly - you should get as much of it as possible. Added a related link at the bottom. ///
About this build: Sorcs are one of the most fun chars to play and also the most fragile. Thus they are the most challenging and fun char to play in hardcore. They are hands down the char I played the most in my years of D2 classic.
Goal of this build: To make a sorc that is tough as nails and does good damage in hell. With this build you will be able to kill in hell 8 player games and teleport through the thickest packs of the toughest monsters in the game without fear. You will be able to make hot, open seals and kill vizir solo in an 8 player game in CS runs.
Why use Blizzard: Most sorcs are cold sorcs because A) it slows down enemies and B) most monsters in Chaos Sanctuary (end game xp zone) and Catacombs lvl 4 (best place to hunt for SOJ) are not cold immune. Blizzard is simply better than Orb IMO.
Stats:
Str: 60 (for Frostburn)
Dex: 51 (for Shard)
Ene: base-75*
Vit: rest
*From my experience I think 500, or a bit less, mana is the number you should aim for. More than that is nice but it's not really needed. Lets brake it down:
The sorc starts with 35 mana and gets +2 mana per lvl. At lvl86 this totals: 85 x 2 = 170 + 35 = 205. This guide calls for the use of Shard and Nightsmoke so thats + 70 = 275. With frostburns 275 + 40% = 385.
At lvl86 (where it starts getting tough), with base energy you have 385 mana. With another 80 you get 80 + 40% = 112 + 385 = 497.
IN CONCLUSION: you need +80 max mana from your items and/or stats.
Skills:
Warmth: 1
Static: 1
Frozen Armor: 1
Energy Shield: 1-2*
Telekinesis: 20
Cold Mastery: 20
Blizzard and synergies: the rest
*Only 1 point in ES because this sorc has high life and low mana. With a +2 amulet and barbarian battle command you already have 35% dmg to mana, if you put more than 1-2 points here your mana will not be able to handle the dmg.
Equipment:
Shard
Nightsmoke (I like it for the 50% dmg to mana combined with energy shield. If you know how dmg to mana works you will see why this belt is great for this build.)
Frostburns
Rare Mage Plate: 350+ def, resists, life, mana, socket (using a soj) with Pruby
Rare Grim Helm or other: def, resists, life, mana, socket with Pruby / Pruby helmet
Rare Boots: 2 (fire/light) or 3 (fire/any 2) resists 35%+
Rare Amulet: +skills prismatic w/ or w/o Faster Cast Rate (FCR)
Rare Rings: FCR, resists, life, mana (rings+amulet must give 20% FCR to reach 70% overall)
Shield: Low budget: 45%+ Ward (has more def/block than a 3d shield if you dont need the extra res), high budget: rare Grim Shield 200+ def, 30% faster block rate/20% increased block, prismatic, socket with Pdiamond.
How much Resistence you want: You should not seek simply to max all resists in hell. In CS runs you get the lower resists curse cast on you all the time, that knocks ~50% off all your resists. If Infector spawns with conviction or if another boss around him has conviction thats another ~70% off. If this happens YOU WILL NOT HAVE TIME TO REACT. It is simply too much damage for the sorc to handle. Fire res in particular you should try for as much as 120-130 stacked over max. Lightning you should also stack as much as possible, though fire comes first (fire and physical dmg are the main threats inisde CS). Cold you should simply max and poison not even that.
Ok, that about does her. Wraps her all up. With this build you will have everything you need: life, defense, resists, block, dmg and FCR. Great for lvling this the toughest areas of the game.
Energy shield explained (http://strategy.diabloii.net/news.php?id=564).
fredsta54
13-10-2005, 00:00
Nice guide. However, like you have said, its highly orientated towards a hc cs blizz sorc. In the pvp scene, and sc, players might want to use diffirent gear.
As for pvp, personally, i like to go 110 fcr on my blizz sorcs and have a nice fat dmg ice blast that can be used for spamming =P
Fred
Nice guide. However, like you have said, its highly orientated towards a hc cs blizz sorc. In the pvp scene, and sc, players might want to use diffirent gear.
As for pvp, personally, i like to go 110 fcr on my blizz sorcs and have a nice fat dmg ice blast that can be used for spamming =P
FredTks. If I played SC I'd prolly give myself more mana just to make life a bit easier but thats about it. I do fine with 70 fcr. Noobs love to compare damage but what they dont compare (or worry about), because it's not a number that you can say out loud, is how many seconds of lag they can survive. But there will be that one time when you lag and dont realize it right away or that time when shout and bc goes off but bo doesn't stick and you tele unbo'ed into some bad stuff...
Zodijackyl
16-10-2005, 18:14
70fcr is plenty, I would only go for 110 fcr on a fireball sorc with very good gear. My current blizzer build is:
All vitality
Maxed Blizz/CM/IceBlast/IceBolt
18 Glacial Spike
gear has been changing as i got more as the ladder season progressed:
Shard/Twitch are nearly essential
Shield: 17/30/20 20pris -20req 6mana (a simple 30/20 pris would work)
Boots: 30frw 40cr 24fr hfd (fun for pvp, work well in CS)
Ring 1: 10fcr 9min 20 20 30 resists
Ring 2: 10fcr 8str 12dex 15lr
Gloves: Dual stat, CR/LR (forget exact mods)
Ammy: (this needs improvement) +1sorc 4rep 30cr 39fr (ideally +2 str pris)
For a CS sorc, I would want shard, fcr ammy, one fcr ring, one soj, Frostburn
For a PvP sorc, I would want Shard, Magefist, 2 sojs, +2 pris ammy (no fcr needed)
I would skip frozen armors, theyre really just a waste. If you really need them, get them from a staff. If you save up some gold, buy a +2sorc +3energyshield staff from a merchant. Should save alot of points, and your damage will be much better. Static field is an option, as is warmth. Personally, I have no static and I'm waiting for level 93 to add to warmth (90 + 1/4 bar now)
~Steve
Noite Escura
16-10-2005, 20:41
Kill everyone around Seis, use static to get him down to 1 life and finish with telekinesis.
Just so you know, I found out after editing several SP chars that this doesn't work at all. Infact I wasn't able to lower down their HPs enough to kill most monster even using something more powerful than Telekinesis, like Nova i.e. This with 70 fcr, but I'm not sure more fcr will work either.
But then, any single element Sorc is always team play aimed, so you'll have plenty of other chars around to kill Cold imunes...
Overall good guide
Zodijackyl
29-10-2005, 20:51
Just so you know, I found out after editing several SP chars that this doesn't work at all. Infact I wasn't able to lower down their HPs enough to kill most monster even using something more powerful than Telekinesis, like Nova i.e. This with 70 fcr, but I'm not sure more fcr will work either.
But then, any single element Sorc is always team play aimed, so you'll have plenty of other chars around to kill Cold imunes...
Overall good guide
Seis replenishes life too fast, telekinesis has no chance. The only build I've used that can kill him w/ a secondary skill is my orb/tstorm sorc, and its a pain in the *** to do it. In the time it takes to do one cs run w/ orb/ts sorc, you could do 2-3 runs with 7 or 8 people and get alot more xp.
For solo runs w/ blizz, just do the fector/seis seals and any champs/special groups you find. This will get you to 90 easily if you raid games.
Added to the Build Guides sticky and unstuck it.
GoonShoes
17-01-2006, 23:21
the reason for 20, or high level telekenisis is to reduce the damage ES does to your mana. At lv 1 telekenisis every point of damage done to you will do 2 damage to your mana e.g. 40%ES, lvl 1 telekenisis and u take 100damage you would lose 60hp and 80mana.
At lv 20 telekenisis the damage to your mana is 0.75 per 1 damage so with the same example as above you lose 60hp and 30mana. big differance considering you can be hit for 200dam (which would be 140 mana) and when u run out of mana u lose ES, cant tele away... bad news.
Also the %to mana items can regenerate your mana, with 40% ES 20 telekenisis you dont lose mana, you actually gain 6% with 50%to mana (nightsmoke), with nightsmoke and 1 telekenisis you lose 33% of the mana damage. with the same example as above... 60hp and 23mana (instead of 80). with 20 telekenisis +nightsmoke u can have 45% es with no loss.
Please correct me if im wrong :P
Does anyone know if its possible to make a pure ES sorc, as in no res and all 'damage reduced by X/magic damage reduced by X items' as ive only done it in LoD and not classic, dunno if its possible... anyone tryed it??
fredsta54
18-01-2006, 00:11
Does anyone know if its possible to make a pure ES sorc, as in no res and all 'damage reduced by X/magic damage reduced by X items' as ive only done it in LoD and not classic, dunno if its possible... anyone tryed it??
i have tried it. It was succesful. It woulda been better w/ better gear ;)
Heres what i did-
20 es
20 teleknises
20 orb
20 mastery
1 tele
1 warmth
rest ice bolt
50 base vita
rest energy
2X sojs
frosties
maelstrom
+2 10 fcr ammy (had no res on it)
pdiamond 1 pruby large shield
venomward
3 pruby mask
hotspurs
I dont remember what i did for belt, it was origginally nightsmoke but o changed it b/c with such a huge mana pool it didnt help much
I think i achived 2k mana, 90% fire resist stacked, 90% psn res + 75% plr, lr woulda been maxed if i had pris on the ammy, low cr, life was like 500ish
venomward is the best armour for a PURE es sorc imo, as psn resist is the most important (only 1 that goes straight through es)
But yah... low resist + conviction in hell cs barely touched this gal
The only problem is mana burn, as imagined with a pure es sorc, but yah it was a great build, sacrificing offense for a huge defense.
If i had godly rares with dmg/magic dmg reduced by x im pretty sure i would take 0 dmg from many attacks
Oh yah, and +2 sorc 3 es staff + tarn for prebuff =P
EDIT: yes i tried this sorc w/o res and it got owned badly.. with 90 fr/90 psn/decent light res it worked a lot better
Fred
GoonShoes
18-01-2006, 07:11
hmmm, i was thinking about buildng one in hc... dunno if thats a good idea, ive only made one char in hc classic and it cant really do mf runs with any speed (javama) it also has the poorest items ever, but hey its in hell, it aint dieing, cant complain.... anyway i dont think ill have the items to build one, ive never had much sucess with sorc. i wana change that.
fredsta54
18-01-2006, 18:43
hmmm, i was thinking about buildng one in hc... dunno if thats a good idea, ive only made one char in hc classic and it cant really do mf runs with any speed (javama) it also has the poorest items ever, but hey its in hell, it aint dieing, cant complain.... anyway i dont think ill have the items to build one, ive never had much sucess with sorc. i wana change that.
It would not be good in hc even with perfect gear due to mana burn. I wouldnt make a pure es sorc unless you had 2X sojs, or 1 soj + high mana good fcr ring + good rare wand w/ fcr //mana//res
Fred
WhiteLightning
18-01-2006, 22:21
Also the %to mana items can regenerate your mana, with 40% ES 20 telekenisis you dont lose mana, you actually gain 6% with 50%to mana (nightsmoke), with nightsmoke and 1 telekenisis you lose 33% of the mana damage. with the same example as above... 60hp and 23mana (instead of 80). with 20 telekenisis +nightsmoke u can have 45% es with no loss.
Please correct me if im wrong :P
It's not quite that simple. Damage taken goes to mana is only applied on the actual damage that your life ball sees.
Here is a good explanation of anything you could ever want to know about energy shield:
http://strategy.diabloii.net/news.php?id=564
GoonShoes
19-01-2006, 01:44
i used an energy sheild calculator to work out the amount of %to mana needed for a 40%ES, it uses the same formula as the one you provided. it came out to be 50% for 40%es with lv 20telekenisis
fredsta54
19-01-2006, 02:01
all i know is that if you get hit with 40% es 20 telekenises 50% dtm, your mana is going down
Fred
GoonShoes
19-01-2006, 03:52
ive only used the formula, so never actually tryed... if you've tryed it fred then i agree with you.
70fcr is plenty, I would only go for 110 fcr on a fireball sorc with very good gear. My current blizzer build is:
All vitality
Maxed Blizz/CM/IceBlast/IceBolt
18 Glacial Spike
gear has been changing as i got more as the ladder season progressed:
Shard/Twitch are nearly essential
Shield: 17/30/20 20pris -20req 6mana (a simple 30/20 pris would work)
Boots: 30frw 40cr 24fr hfd (fun for pvp, work well in CS)
Ring 1: 10fcr 9min 20 20 30 resists
Ring 2: 10fcr 8str 12dex 15lr
Gloves: Dual stat, CR/LR (forget exact mods)
Ammy: (this needs improvement) +1sorc 4rep 30cr 39fr (ideally +2 str pris)
For a CS sorc, I would want shard, fcr ammy, one fcr ring, one soj, Frostburn
For a PvP sorc, I would want Shard, Magefist, 2 sojs, +2 pris ammy (no fcr needed)
I would skip frozen armors, theyre really just a waste. If you really need them, get them from a staff. If you save up some gold, buy a +2sorc +3energyshield staff from a merchant. Should save alot of points, and your damage will be much better. Static field is an option, as is warmth. Personally, I have no static and I'm waiting for level 93 to add to warmth (90 + 1/4 bar now)
~Steve
I'm close to finishing up my Blizzer on East SCNL, and I have something similar to Steve's build that works well PvM and PvP.
Helm: 10 FHR + Life + LR, CR, PR Bone Helm
Weapon: Spectral Shard
Shield: 30/20 PDiamond Priz + 5 Str Bone Shield
Armor: 24 FHR + Life + FR, LR + 2 Dex Hard Leather Armor
Gloves: 2 Str + 10 Dex + Mana + Rep Life + FR Chain Gloves
Boots: 30 FRW + CR, FR, LR + 8 Dex Light Plated Boots
Belt: 17 FHR + Life + FR + 20 Str Sharkskin Belt
Rings: 10 FCR + 12 Dex + FR Ring, 10 FCR + CR, FR + 5 Str Ring
Amulet: +1 Sorc + CR, LR + 8 Str Amulet
Stats: All to Vit, 465 Base @ Level 89
Skills: Maxed Blizz, CM, Ice Blast, Ice Bolt, 17 Glacial Spike, 1 Telekin, 1 Tele
I skipped the Cold Armors and ES since they're not really needed, and Static Field is for Sorc Rushers IMO, but I do like the idea of Warmth on my Sorc, and I'll wait until 93 for that. :grin:
I like this build a lot, and I can change the Armor at will and still have maxed rez in Hell (0 PR in Hell) without my Armor. However, I'm working on getting better gear for my Blizzer, and I'm hoping to MF and trade for some nice stuff on Ladder to bring to NL so I can show it off to damn dupe users.
This has been my project for several months now, and I hope to have the best post-patch, non-dupe SCNL Blizzard Sorc on East. (Watch out, Steve! :tongue: )
- Akukami
Just a question from one who will start d2 now again after 2 years without - and begin in classic. Back to the roots (at least a little bit :azn: )
I want to start with this type of sorc as my first (or second) char (softcore). What should i aim for as i don't have this highend items you postet here - is 20 telekinesis worth - at least for a starting char and leaving one of the blizzard syns out? Do the 20 points in telekineses make a sorc life that much safer then with the points in a blizzard synergy?
I read fredstas budget sorc but i think i like blizzard only more then orb/ts.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Just a question from one who will start d2 now again after 2 years without - and begin in classic. Back to the roots (at least a little bit :azn: )
I want to start with this type of sorc as my first (or second) char (softcore). What should i aim for as i don't have this highend items you postet here - is 20 telekinesis worth - at least for a starting char and leaving one of the blizzard syns out? Do the 20 points in telekineses make a sorc life that much safer then with the points in a blizzard synergy?
I read fredstas budget sorc but i think i like blizzard only more then orb/ts.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Blizzers are geared for high life and high damage, but if you're starting up, and you want a character that's cheap and easy to make, go with an Orber. With it, you can MF in a lot of areas, rush other people, and even duel. Points to max out would be Frozen Orb, Cold Mastery, Ice Bolt, and Teleport. Teleport is mostly for movement so you don't have to mana pot all the time.
For gear, look up Fred's MF Orber guide that can be also found in his mini-guide library.
- Akukami
Noite Escura
12-04-2006, 18:40
Just a question from one who will start d2 now again after 2 years without - and begin in classic. Back to the roots (at least a little bit :azn: )
I want to start with this type of sorc as my first (or second) char (softcore). What should i aim for as i don't have this highend items you postet here - is 20 telekinesis worth - at least for a starting char and leaving one of the blizzard syns out? Do the 20 points in telekineses make a sorc life that much safer then with the points in a blizzard synergy?
I read fredstas budget sorc but i think i like blizzard only more then orb/ts.
Thanks in advance for your help.
It's a personal preference, but personally I don't like Energy Shield in PvM builds. For ES to work you have to sacrifice life and damage. Then you get hit by a Mana Burn monster and you are shieldless anyway, and will have less life to survive.
Zodijackyl
13-04-2006, 00:51
IMO energy shield is bad on a blizzer, since you need to add to energy for it to work decently, and you lose high end damage by doing this. Blizzers are fine without it. ES is still however good for other builds that don't need the skills like blizz. Orbers are great since they have plenty of extra skills, and it's also feasable to go with high level ES and then pump the energy stat quite high.
ok - thx for your answers! I think i will then go with
max: Blizz, CM, Ice Blast, Ice Bolt
1: Telekin, Tele, Warmth, Static
Rest: Glacial Spike
Is max CM required? Somewhere i read to get it to 17 including skills from items and only go for 20 for pvp. I don't think i will pvp with her - so skill arround 15 or also put in the other 5 points?
I think she will do mephisto a lot to get some decent stuff for herself and my other chars.
and thanks again for your help :)
ok - thx for your answers! I think i will then go with
max: Blizz, CM, Ice Blast, Ice Bolt
1: Telekin, Tele, Warmth, Static
Rest: Glacial Spike
Is max CM required? Somewhere i read to get it to 17 including skills from items and only go for 20 for pvp. I don't think i will pvp with her - so skill arround 15 or also put in the other 5 points?
I think she will do mephisto a lot to get some decent stuff for herself and my other chars.
and thanks again for your help :)
Max out CM. You'll see better results in terms of killing speed.
- Akukami
ok - so max CM (even "the last 5 points") is better than putting the points in Glacial Spike.
ok - so max CM (even "the last 5 points") is better than putting the points in Glacial Spike.
Yeah, but I would go without Static because it really is not needed for a Blizzer. Warmth is fine, but I would wait for a while before getting your synergies for Blizzard high.
- Akukami
Zodijackyl
14-04-2006, 02:54
Noticing my old gear posted, I'll repost my new gear, which is quite optimal for a blizzer:
Twitch+Shard+Magefist
Amulet: +2sorc 7min 17str 34life 19pris 43cr
Rings: SOJ/10fcr 10str 11dex 20fr
Belt: 10fhr 16str 23life 23cr 24fr light belt
Boots: 30frw 8dex 35cr 37lr blue chain boots
Helm: Switch between 10fhr 3ene 73life 28cr 27lr ruby winged helm and 10fhr 78life 24fr 24lr red bone helm
Shield: Switch between 17/30/20 38pris dtm blue small shield and 17/30/20 39pris 50cr -30tower
Pure vitality, max Ice Bolt/Ice Blast/Glacial Spike/Blizzard/Cold Mastery, one each to Telekinesis, Teleport, and Frost Nova.
Not bad?
fredsta54
14-04-2006, 17:15
Noticing my old gear posted, I'll repost my new gear, which is quite optimal for a blizzer:
Twitch+Shard+Magefist
Amulet: +2sorc 7min 17str 34life 19pris 43cr
Rings: SOJ/10fcr 10str 11dex 20fr
Belt: 10fhr 16str 23life 23cr 24fr light belt
Boots: 30frw 8dex 35cr 37lr blue chain boots
Helm: Switch between 10fhr 3ene 73life 28cr 27lr ruby winged helm and 10fhr 78life 24fr 24lr red bone helm
Shield: Switch between 17/30/20 38pris dtm blue small shield and 17/30/20 39pris 50cr -30tower
Pure vitality, max Ice Bolt/Ice Blast/Glacial Spike/Blizzard/Cold Mastery, one each to Telekinesis, Teleport, and Frost Nova.
Not bad?
winged helm. 115 str req
Base str/dex
O.o
(i know you mean great helm... just had to say it =P)
Fred
Lol, I noticed that, too, and a "Wtf?" appeared above my head. Just just not to say anything about it though.
- Akukami
Zodijackyl
15-04-2006, 11:33
Well of course it's a great helm :P
Non Ladder I have a -40 req winged helm with decent mods, but not very useful. Collecting items is fun though!
pretty sure you meant that the other way lvl 1 meditation rengens faster than lvl 20 warmth.
If your going for a low mana build investing points for dmg, can you explain the choice of
20 Telekinesis
1 Energy Sheild
If you have a low mana build your not relying to heavily on ES to keep you alive. So why invest in Telekinesis? You could for example get 10 warmth and 10 telekinesis.
Okay, I'm basically a hardcore newb and whatnot I haven't played for about 5 years.. But I saw your build and it seems to be not bad, but if you dont have all those "godly items" you listed, what should you do? i.e you posted items with life + mana + res + fhr~etc that's alot to get if you're using stuff like shard and nightsmoke
Ijakeash
17-05-2006, 06:07
My blizz sorc does 1.7k damage, at level 65, for PvM. And Ice blast does 1k damage, for PvP. That is what a blizz sorc should be used for in my opinion(blizz is good for nking though).
fredsta54
19-05-2006, 01:28
My blizz sorc does 1.7k damage, at level 65, for PvM. And Ice blast does 1k damage, for PvP. That is what a blizz sorc should be used for in my opinion(blizz is good for nking though).
blizz owns ice blast for pvp, ice blast is only good in some circumstances
IB w/ 110 fcr, is fun though :P
Fred
Hawkreborn
19-03-2007, 00:59
why is it that every time i see someone putting up a classic sorc guide everyone of them says 1 point in warmth?
this isnt LOD where you can put 1 point in warmth and have +27 points from gear.... If you dont want to be using mana pots every few seconds then you need to invest in warmth.
You might not have +27 points but thats why it is called a 1pt wonder, like static field, in the end you should have 1-3 skills from equipment
Noticing my old gear posted, I'll repost my new gear, which is quite optimal for a blizzer:
Twitch+Shard+Magefist
Amulet: +2sorc 7min 17str 34life 19pris 43cr
Rings: SOJ/10fcr 10str 11dex 20fr
Belt: 10fhr 16str 23life 23cr 24fr light belt
Boots: 30frw 8dex 35cr 37lr blue chain boots
Helm: Switch between 10fhr 3ene 73life 28cr 27lr ruby winged helm and 10fhr 78life 24fr 24lr red bone helm
Shield: Switch between 17/30/20 38pris dtm blue small shield and 17/30/20 39pris 50cr -30tower
Pure vitality, max Ice Bolt/Ice Blast/Glacial Spike/Blizzard/Cold Mastery, one each to Telekinesis, Teleport, and Frost Nova.
Not bad?
never use twitch or towers, how i play over 60 block is dangerous i like to get in real close to the mob frost nova 1st and circle it as i blizz which hurts but keeps the mob tight and any super high block % and your risking that block stun and maybe not able to tele to safety. No pts in es either i find around 100 base in energy isn't too bad if you plan to get around lv 85-90 you'll never run out of mana and with good bo and gear rarely get too low on hp. I can see how pure vita is attractive but i've never needed to change this other than few tweaks can run a csrun w/o bo, rush, pk whatever.
never use twitch or towers, how i play over 60 block is dangerous i like to get in real close to the mob frost nova 1st and circle it as i blizz which hurts but keeps the mob tight and any super high block % and your risking that block stun and maybe not able to tele to safety.
I'm going to have to disagree, weep. Before I got my hands on nice Studded armor, I used Twitch, and that armor has saved countless times in Hell CS. I've never been "block-stunned" by a mob long enough to not be able to Tele away, but I can also credit part of that to my high FHR.
- Akukami
I've never been "block-stunned" by a mob long enough to not be able to Tele away, but I can also credit part of that to my high FHR.
- Akukami
like i said, just how i played block stun was inevitable never seen a reason to change my set-up or build, i only copy from the best :thumbsup: but anything can work depends on your skill, just don't like the twitch setup personally.
Who exactly did you copy from? :shocked:
- Akukami
WNxNokturnal
28-06-2009, 18:27
Why max telekinesis?
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