Thinking about Meteorb..

[Quietus]

I'm still working on getting a really good foothold on this Ladder, and I've been thinking... I'd like to make a meteorb sorc, and abuse the first drop glitch. However, I'm still trying to determine what would be the better setup... In both, I intend to use :

Full tal rasha set, probably ptopaz'ed and (if I can spare the wealth) ist the weapon, though that can wait
War travellers (i have a 41% pair)

The rest, I'm not so sure about. I know I need more fast cast somewhere, tal's set gives me 50 total, and I want at least the 65 breakpoint - which means either lidless, or magefists. I could also wear both lidless and magefists, and two fcr rings, for 105 breakpoint, and using this fill up my poison resist..

But with lidless, getting max block will mean a huge sacrifice in terms of life. If I use lidless, I won't get max block, because 300+ dex is too much.

My merc will use :

ethglitched stone armor, at least 3500k + defense
Tal's mask for the leech/resists
weapon to be determined - either insight or obedience, most likely. Prefer obedience.

Now, my question is this : if I intend to teleport to mephisto/baal with this sorceress, how important is it that I get max block? And if it's very important, would it be worth the material investment to get a Sanctuary sheild of some sort, or should I stick with a pdiamond whitsan's? I think 65% fcr breakpoint will be plenty for teleporting, and since most of my spells are timered that's not an issue - I'm just concerned about survivability at this point.

So, I suppose what I need is advice. Do I :

A) Get a pdiamond whitsans, get very low dex, lose out on a very meager amount of resists, but have higher life. Ring slots for manalds, replaced with sojs when I get them. Resists sit at 54/54/54/14 in hell before charms.
B) Get a sanctuary, get decent dex, 75 resist all with some stack, have an alright amount of life, use ring slots for manalds/sojs.
C) Use a lidless, no dex, higher life, but useless block. Ring slots are 10 fcr each, for 105 breakpoint, with resists - strength on the rings as well allows me to have a little more life. Resists are same as the whitsan's setup, except rings now give resists as well - one I have adds 24 light resist and 17 strength.

[FrostBurn]

The never ending question of max block or max vita.....

It really depends on your playstyle. Do you take risks? Do you like to tank? Do you like to get up close and personal? If you do, then max block. If you don't, then max vita.

You will want to achieve the 63% FCR breakpoint. 50% from the full set and 20% from Magefist will do that easily. My Blizzballer is very happy with 70%; she can tele fast, she can tele into packs of monsters while getting to Baal or Meph, and she can tele out before those monsters even have a chance to hit her. It is only if you tele into a pack of extra fast, fanaticism pack that you could get hit, and that is where block comes in.

A) Max block? Well, you can go with the Whitstan's, but block is all that you'll do. And 25% of physical damage will still get through. That bit of saved dex from Whistan's high block % which you've put into vit isn't going to do much considering how hard monsters hit in Hell. And if you are not going to tank with max block, why bother spending the dex points in the first place? My solution is to go with a Stormshield if you plan to go max block. You spend more dex compared to Whistan's, but if you are going to tank with your sorc, the 35% PDR on SS will rule out the Whistan's any day.

B) Sanctuary? Well, in a Troll Nest with base 40% block (or even a Hyperion at 44%), you end up spending less dex than a SS at 67% CtB, thanks to Sanctuary's +20 dex. Stacked resists will always be nice when you come across a conviction enchanted boss. But that wouldn't be very often. And again, will you tank with max block and Sanctuary? If you tank, 25% of physical damage will break through, and with less life, it will hurt a lot more. If you tank, go with SS. If you don't plan to tank, why bother with max block? I hear people reading this and saying 'but you can max block just in case when you happen to get hit and you block it'. I say, go max vita then; with that extra life, you can absorb those hits as if you blocked them in the first place.

C) Max vita? Now here is an option. Breaking the 105% FCR, even extra fast, fanaticism packs could find it hard to hit you before you tele out again. And with all that extra life, you can take more hits without having to worry too much. But you'll never tank. Not even with that extra 300-400 life. The rest of your sorc's career will be behind her merc, spamming spells while your merc takes the blows. If this does it for you, then go with max vita. You'll certainly survive against gloams for longer. And the +2 skills is sweetness on top.

Like I said at the start, it basically comes down to this. Your playstyle. If you play dangerously and like the idea of standing toe to toe with Meph or Baal while spamming spells, go with max block, and with Stormshield. If you like the idea of being more defensive, having lots more life, and staying at the fringes spamming spells while your merc gets hammered, go with max vita. All other considerations are secondary.

If you max block, teleing to Meph/Baal is not a big deal as you tele fast enough to not get hit and if you do, you stand a good chance to block it. If you max vita, you could even tele at 1 frame faster, and if you do get hit, that much life means you won't really notice the damage. Both ways even themselves out.

As for resists with SS, cold and lightning are taken care of. Fire can be covered with a few small 11% fire resist sc's, or a nice fire resist jewel. As for poison, just carry an antidote potion or three in your belt. It isn't as if you really need that whole 16 boxes filled with full rejuvies.

[AnimeCraze]

Lidless? Spirit beats it all day long. It also frees up both your ring spots. Magefist + spirit hits the 105 BP as long as the spirit shield is 35 FCR. This is assuming that you are building a vita sorc. You can now put your SoJ, wisp, nat's peace, or whatever favourite rare rings here.

I don't know much about block sorc, since I tend to optimize for kill speed. When I made a melee sorc last ladder, it was with stormshield, which I think is pretty good, given the resist and DR.

[Quietus]

Hmmm... reconsidering... stormsheild isn't a bad idea, though I am concerned about the strength requirement. My next heaviest peice of equipment would be my War Travs, at 95, which give +10 ... is it worth investing the 50 extra strength, having slightly lower resists, and 195 dex @ level 80 for Stormsheild? Tal's set does give a 20 dex bonus from the belt, which will help...

I also have to take into consideration my ping. For some unknown reason, between 3-5 PM and 10-midnight, I run around in ~500 ping. This means nearly constant lag, which is why I began considering a block build in the first place. I think it would definately be safer, because with that kind of ping it takes a full half second for anything I do to register, in which time I tend to get the snot kicked out of me... stormsheild would certainly help with that, particularly with the 35% damage reduction.

And, it helps that I *have* a stormsheild, which will build nicely into this... what would be the best thing to socket into it? I'm thinking a pdiamond, since Ums are likely to be a little short for me.. which will leave me with (I believe) 54/75/75/14 resists. Will this be enough? It's been a very long time since I played a meteorb, and I wasn't happy with the last one's output... but I think that this time around I could do much better.

::Edit:: just noticed the mention of resists above. Since I plan to abuse the first drop bug (Starting with Meph, I'll use those runs to level from 80 for a bit and try and collect some nice things before moving on to Baals), I should be alright with the 209-214 mf that I would have from an unsocketed Tal set, correct? That would mean that I could put a Ral rune and a Tal rune into my armor and helm, which would give me max fire and higher poison... or I could put a Ral rune into the helm and Shael the armor, for the 9-frame hit recovery... not sure how I'd work my belt though, I normally carry health/mana/juvies/portals in that order, it'd be awkward fitting antidotes in somewhere.

[FrostBurn]

If you max block, with 3x Anya, full Tal set and a SS will have your cold and lightning resists at 75 and above. Fire will be at 35. Poison -5(?).

Socket the SS with a 30% fire resist / -15% req jewel, if you have the resources to trade for one (or a 15% all resist / -15% req jewel). If not, socket with a Ral to bring fire resist up to 70%. If you max block, you will tank, and you will come up against Balrog types, especially if you do Baal runs.

Another way is to carry 3x 11% fire resist sc's, or a gc with 30% fire resist.

If you socket with a -15% req jewel, SS needs 133 str to equip. That's worth the str investment. Even if you can't, and invest str to 156, you can make up for the lost vit with two 20 life sc's.

Above 200% MF is good. But I would socket Tal's helm and armour with PTopazes, or Ists if you are rich. A dedicated MF would certainly benefit from an Ist'ed Tal orb. Forget about getting resist in the helm and armour. Use charms to max resists. A PTopaz in a helm gives 24% MF, and you need 3.43x 7% MF sc's to achieve the same number. A Ral in the helm gives you 30% fire resist, and 3x 11% fire resist sc's beat it. Tal's offers all the FHR you need; do not bother with a Shael for more FHR.

As for the poison, there is no easy solution. Fortunately, only Achmel's poison needs serious worry; all other poisons do not drain your life too much, even at 1-10% poison resist. If you carry a tome of TP, hotkey TP. That frees up your 4th belt row for antidote potions, and you'll only really need those when facing Achmel's bunch.

PS. Consider a Blizzballer (in the stickies) instead of a Meteorb. If you plan to run Meph and Baal, the Blizzard of a Blizzballer beats FO and Meteor anyday.

[Quietus]

I don't carry a tome of tp, I don't like the response time in comparison to hitting 4. I can't imagine it would be too difficult to pack antidotes under my cube, though. And that's a good point about the ptopaz vs runes in tal's stuff.

About the ist, well - I'm trying. I've got a trade thread in the useast L forum offering a 3/19/19/21 and a Dream tiara for the gear I need, and if I can pull it off I'll have enough to stick an Ist in the orb. I've got my other priorities, however - namely,the tal set itself.

[AnimeCraze]

Barlogs are no problem for me what so ever, even if I tank (and I don't even block). I use glacial spike in between orbs. The barlogs are then frozen solid and there will be no fire breathing on you. It helps to keep my merc alive with Lister pack as well.

As for poison, my merc help me out regen the damage.

Anyways, with torch + anni, my sorc has maxed all resist in hell (I am using spirit, but that doesn't matter since SS gives resist as well), and does fine in runs, except when a doll pops next to me or I tele into a convict soul pack.

[FrostBurn]

The freeze length of GS is rather pathetic for a Meteorb. But then, I'm used to the freeze length of my Blizzballer, which gives me over three seconds per GS. No matter how many +skills a Meteorb has to buff up her 1 pt GS, she will probably still need to cast it almost continuously to keep them perpetually frozen.

Ah yes, I forget about the fancy torch and anni you b.netters use. I was talking from a SP point of view. Yes, if you use those items, you will almost max your fire resists, and even if you don't, one 11% fire resist sc will take you to 75% or over.

[Quietus]

The freeze length of GS is rather pathetic for a Meteorb. But then, I'm used to the freeze length of my Blizzballer, which gives me over three seconds per GS. No matter how many +skills a Meteorb has to buff up her 1 pt GS, she will probably still need to cast it almost continuously to keep them perpetually frozen.

Ah yes, I forget about the fancy torch and anni you b.netters use. I was talking from a SP point of view. Yes, if you use those items, you will almost max your fire resists, and even if you don't, one 11% fire resist sc will take you to 75% or over.


Meh, I'm not rich enough for a torch really, I'm more interested in getting the rest of her gear before I concern myself with that. I still haven't looked into the Blizzballer, I'll have to do that when I get the chance - just got home, and I'm exhausted.