I need this forums advice on thunderstorm....

[Conanbarbarian]

My brother is currently deciding on his sorceress build and has been for some time. He seems torn weather to choose chainlighting or thunderstorm.

Bear in mind this is his first sorceress build....

On another related point which would be the best build for him to try? I do believe Meterorb is the best for beginners... please correct me if I'm wrong.

Cheers

[KaythonXE]

I never liked meteorbs. But if he is going to go strictly lightning I didn't even bother with a point in thunderstorm. The point it is really won't kill anything, not unless you invest more points but why would you do that? All it does is strike like.. 1.2 seconds on one target. It's a crappy foh if you ask me. :P

[EnerSense]

If it's a choice between thunderstorm and chain lightning, I'd pick chain lightning. Thunderstorm has no synergies and it's damage can only be increased by putting points in lightning mastery. Even with thunderstorm and lightning mastery maxed, it's damage is low. Chain lightning is better since you can increase it's power with synergies as well. Just remember that it is slow but you can speed it up with fcr items. Most say to use 117% fcr to cast it quickly. I use the spell but have a lower fcr which is fine with me. Below is some information that I found useful:

FCR Breakpoints – Lightning/ Chainlightning

For lightning and chain lightning the breakpoints are

FCR Frames
0% 19
7% 18
15% 17
23% 16
35% 15
52% 14
78% 13
117% 12
194% 11

-ES

[GalenDoUrden]

I would also recomend chain lightning. I use is it as one of my main skills when I run hell baal in pub games. Currently I have 200 fcr (hit the last bp's for all spellcasting) and can do almost 12k max with my chain lightning without 2 of my gc's so I have some room to pick stuff up. It makes a great killer and it is fast. Last night I had great fun going around and stealing all the uniques off of baal before the bot running the game could pick them up.

[blot]

Thunderstorm is fine as a buffer skill ie putting a point into it espically for pvp so you can stun your opponent. But it really has no dmg, so chain lighting is by far a better skill to max.

Meterorb is a fine build to start with, my favorite is blizzard sorc with a Act 2 merc.

[Thyiad]

favorite is blizzard sorc with a Act 2 merc.

I change mercs like most people change socks .... so does everyone recommend a might merc from act II or are there any other suggestions? My blizz has a defence merc at the mo ...