Question: Skills On Sorc

[Ethercastle]

Was this a stupid mistake? I lvled my Ice Bolt to 20 for bonus on frozen orb, then spent 4 skill points to get to frozen orb. Leaving me at lvl 23 for I spent 1 sp off radament on Ice Bolt. I had 7 extra sp to save up, and once I had lvl 30 I spent 1 on frozen orb, I ended up getting to lvl 42, lvl 12 orb. I was getting tired of it, I beat the den finally and spent it on telekenisis. Then I beat Izual with only 5 sp, and got 7. Spent 1 on teleport, and spent 6 to get energy shield, and thunder storm. Out of sp I beat norm, and went on to nm after lvl 47, I spent my 5 sp from those lvls to orb and now its lvl 17, 3 more lvls to max, or 2 if I spend my nm den point on it. But what im getting is, was it dumb for me to spend those sp on the thunder skills to get to energy shield(for defence) and thunder storm? For my plan is to max Thunder Storm, Orb, Ice Bolt, Ice Mastery, and Lighting Mastery. So i can do 1.5k orb and 1.5 Thunder Storm. And let my items give bonus's to skills like shiver armor, and energy shield. So was it stupid to waste those sp before maxing orb, or was it fine, because I can make it up in the long run.

[Humphrey]

I've never seen it recommened to level Ice Bolt for a Frozen orb synergy, so I think those points could have been better spent.

And energy shield is near useless unless you build the whole build around it (there is a guide about an energy shield build in the stickies).

[RetroStar]

Anyway to simpilfy that post? I dont get what you're saying.

[darksentinel]

Build is fine. Skills were maxed oddly though ;). I wouldn't use Energy Shield. It will kill you if you're not using an ES build.
What level are you? 47? If you're playing on the Realms you will be fine since you can be rushed and group level. On Single Player you're screwed.
Max Orb, concentrate on Thunderstorm. Your build will be ok when it's high enough and with patience it will all work out - some of my friends have had success with this build so you're all good.

[KevinHideo]

I've never seen it recommened to level Ice Bolt for a Frozen orb synergy, so I think those points could have been better spent.

And energy shield is near useless unless you build the whole build around it (there is a guide about an energy shield build in the stickies).

im with humphrey on this one.. i mean think about it. you get 2% per level for the synergy making a grand total of 40% extra damage. so if you have lets say 300 damage for your FO, then its only gonna be about 430 damage. thats 20 points you would have used on a secondary skill. firewall is a pretty good choice as it has no other synergies, and if you are using thunder storm, you could go for a tri elemental sorc :D i wanna see more of those heh.. as well, ES is a big waste of mana / time / patience unless you build around it. im pretty much just repeating what humphrey said but a lot longer so ill stop now. no wait.... now.

[Ethercastle]

Hmm, well, I'd rather have more damage ups, besides a maxed Ice Bolt adds 130 damage, plus 10 lvls from items is more, and then with ice mastery, is alot of damage so i can rush better, and faster. And, its not much of a big deal wasting 1 sp on energy shield, and i need the exact same skills to get to thunder storm so no waste. Except i need telekenisis and tele to get to it, but i need tele to rush faster, and im not the walking type heh. I mean with 700 mana at lvl 49 who wants to walk? So, my sorc will turn okay right? I really only wasted 1 sp, the 20 on bolt wasnt a complete waste. And btw, im terrible at % so how much damage would Bolt add at lvl 30?

[darksentinel]

Synergy Bonuses are capped to the amount of skill points you actually invest in the skill, and ignore +skills. So if you put 20 into Ice Bolt, you will have a maximum of +40% from the sunergy to your Orb.

And btw, if you use Energy Shield in Hell, your 700 mana will be drained instantly and you will have to walk. How did you get 700 mana at level 49? Did you put stat points into Energy? Cos thats just a waste...

And with that build you won't be able to rush Hell very well, cos you'll die easy, and in order to rush you have to be able to kill monsters quickly. Orb damage is too low to do this, and your Thunderstorm only takes out one enemy at a time, so Cold Immunes will be a pain. Nightmare will be fine though.

With your skills you won't be able to go tri-elemental either, since that requires you to have enough skill points to make a third element effective.

I'd personally say that the Frozen Orb/Thunderstorm build is designed for more experienced sorceress players, and I'm not sure if that describes you... But good luck anyway.