Sorc build questions, give opinions plz

[FinalDay]

suppose you go a blizz sorc, all synergies...how do you get a DECENT backup (non cold) skill? 20 to backup leaves no room to its mastery, hence, resulting a really weak skill...

when i went light or fire i found cold to be the best backup, since maxing cold mastery is really useless (PvM) so you could go well with 20 points...

also, how much FCR is recommended for a Nova Sorc (old school really), are there breaks as with IAS?

thx

[chubbypuppy]

suppose you go a blizz sorc, all synergies...how do you get a DECENT backup (non cold) skill? 20 to backup leaves no room to its mastery, hence, resulting a really weak skill...

when i went light or fire i found cold to be the best backup, since maxing cold mastery is really useless (PvM) so you could go well with 20 points...

also, how much FCR is recommended for a Nova Sorc (old school really), are there breaks as with IAS?

thx

If you want full synergy blizz sorc, just give up on a backup skill. You wont have enough points. Just use static/TK/merc to kill off cold immunes or teleport past them.

>> maxing cold mastery is really useless (PvM)

This statement is really incorrect. I always max my cold mastery. If you are farming Meph, he has 75% cold resist, so you need level 32 CM to get him to -100% cold resist (doubling your damage). For non resistant monsters, you need lvl 17 CM to get them to -100%. Until you hit that -100%, 1 pt into CM returns more net damage than 1pt into synergy.

[RetroStar]

I don't think you can get a backup skills if you max all synergy for blizzard.

As stated, mastery is extremely important.

[Dendroid King]

If pvm, I reccomed seriously the meteor orb build. Frozen Orb is a fabulous skill that without maxing it's synergy it could deal high damage. Btw, FO is only the secondary skill while FB and Meteor r more important. It is a versatile build and Sasja did make a guide on this.

Preq 4
Fire Ball 20
Meteor 20
Fire Mastery 20
Warmth 1

Preq 5
Frozen Ob 20
Cold Mastery - depending on ur + all skills until lvl 17 will do
Telekinesis 1
Teleport 1

Assume u have +7 to all skills, put 10 points. Therefore, 102 skill points used.

Well Blizzard is no doubt a very good skill but u will need to maximize it's synery to be on par with FO. FO is good in the sense that it is the spell that requires the least points to deliver decent damage. Then FB + Meteor is a better combination than Light + CL due to the same reason. Therefore I dun reccomed Lightning.

If u r finding urself very stingy aby spending points meteorb is the best way to go. U can go for pure blizzard but if u do, u will have to rely on ur mercenaries to do the killing for cold immunes. Threre are Blizzard + FB builds, but I believe meteorb is the way to go. And Cold Mastery imho is the best masteries among all the elements since most monsters have some resistance to each elemets. Reduce resistance > + damage for highly or semi resistance monsters.

[FinalDay]

mmm, new questions then
is blizzard viable as backup skill (that is, 20 into it and some in mastery)? orb surely is, but id like some variation ya know...

[Epsilon Eyez]

Blizzard requires around 40+ points to be effective in Hell, 20 Blizzard and 20 synergy. If you don't have much +skills, then dumping points into Cold Mastery becomes necessary.

So it depends on what you mean by effective, for a Blizzard that can kill stuff in one "storm", I think 60+ points would work. 20 Blizzard, and 40 total synergies, and some into Cold Mastery depending on skills. I wouldn't consider 60+ points a backup though.

[Noite Escura]

I think the most powerful/less costly alternative as backup for Cold would be Firewall. I really don't know HOW effective it can be though. Plus it's hard to use.