Lightning sorc using Infinity herself--viable?

[WrathTalon]

Having recently made a Trapper who carried Infinity herself, rather than putting it on her merc (because I play mostly PvM 8-person Chaos games, and A2 mercs die like flies to Maiden), and having found it to be a very powerful build, I'm wondering about doing the same thing on a pure Lightning sorc.

Wearing it myself would not only guarantee that I always have the ridiculous damage enhancement of Conviction, with or without merc, but also give me the extra added benefit of the -enemy resist from the runeword (which I don't get if it's on the merc), for even more pumped-up damage.

Disadvantages are legion, though: no Occy/WizSpike and no shield, so missing out on potential fast cast, plus-skills, resists, mana, etc. etc...

Wondering if anyone has tried putting Infininty on a sorc directly before, and what the results were... Any thoughts appreciated.

[rynke]

it....sux....crap.....fcr.....slow....killing....h ope....u...see...where i am going :p

[emar]

Having recently made a Trapper who carried Infinity herself, rather than putting it on her merc (because I play mostly PvM 8-person Chaos games, and A2 mercs die like flies to Maiden), and having found it to be a very powerful build, I'm wondering about doing the same thing on a pure Lightning sorc.

Wearing it myself would not only guarantee that I always have the ridiculous damage enhancement of Conviction, with or without merc, but also give me the extra added benefit of the -enemy resist from the runeword (which I don't get if it's on the merc), for even more pumped-up damage.

Disadvantages are legion, though: no Occy/WizSpike and no shield, so missing out on potential fast cast, plus-skills, resists, mana, etc. etc...

Wondering if anyone has tried putting Infininty on a sorc directly before, and what the results were... Any thoughts appreciated.

I am actually wielding it on my Light sorcy atm and it is effective. You can read Xenon's Nova Sorcy guide which utilizes this weapon. There isn't much room for gear alterations though as you need to hit particular FCR BP's. To compensate for the lack of defensive capabilities (i.e., Shield and Block) ES may be considered.

Wearing it also opens up the Merc slot for all sorts of possibilities including Insight :grin:

This works better on Sorci's requiring the 105 BP though, but 117 is workable.

It does work, but you need specific items to do it, unless you want to take a loss and hit a lower frame.

[lagalot]

My light sorc carries one also,though she was originally built around merc infinity.I carry mine on switch.Sorc using infinity certainly works,makes for interesting moments with monsters,not using any shield though.

Mine uses mainly for chaos sanc and wsk where there are oks and merc regularly dies.Rather than resurect him my sorc can break the immunity.

[MageChick]

hmm, faceted eschuta/spirit on main weapon, infinity on switch. Could be fun.

[LorveN]

I got one with infi equipped, and even though I still don't have any skillers, torch etc, I still kill fairly well in 8p games with 7k lightning. Imagine the result with skillers/torch/anni/good equip...

[WrathTalon]

Grateful for the responses, gents. It's good to know that it might be a viable option.

I read Xenon's guide with interest (thanks for the link), but since I'll be going L/CL rather than Nova, I wonder how much to base my build on his. Because the Infinity I have is a Thresher (high requirements!), I'll be forced to pump str. and dex. quite a bit just to use it. So I wonder if I should forget about ES, and pursue a fully-synergized build along with some uncharacteristically defensive gear for a sorc (i.e., CoA, CoH, Shadow Dancer, etc.).

LorveN, I like your signature. "Beware that you don't walk in front of any catapults" indeed! :laugh:

[Xenon[XoA]]

Just grab a voulge/scythe or somethin' and make an infinity in that. You could also try trading your thresher for one. It's well worth the stat points you;ll save, as dexterity's rather useless (and hi str as well) on these sorcis.

[Gimmershred]

Read the infinity nova guide. Replace the 10fcr amu in that guide with a 12% or higher fcr amu. Replace 1 soj for a fcr ring. Tadaaa you have a 117fcr lightsorc with an infi in her hands.

Manaburn can be a pain on a 95% es sorc. and it might cost a lot of skillpoints. But you don't need to have your res high up when you have 95%es(except poison, but that's easy with sandstorms) wich is pretty hard when you wear infinity. Hard choice to make.

[WrathTalon]

Well, my Infinity-toting lightning sorc is now level 82, and having a blast.

I went a slightly different route regarding gear and build. Since I didn't have access to Griffs or any FCR rings or ammies, but had lots of melee gear from other characters, I decided that this girl would forego the Energy Shield route and pump those points into synergies instead, for (almost) fully-synergized Lightning and Chain Lightning. (max LM, max L, max CL, max CB, almost max Nova, 1 pt. in Teleport and Warmth and first cold armor)

My gear:
Head: CoA
Body: CoH
Weapon: Infinity thresher
Gloves: Magefist
Belt: Arach
Boots: Shadow Dancer
Ammy: Mara
Rings: dual SoJs
plus Anni, Torch, 6 Lightning GCs, 7 Vita SCs.

This set-up gives maxed 75% Resists, 35% PDR, 60% FHR, and 40% FCR.

To use this heavy gear, I had to pump str. and dex. quite a bit. But I think it has all worked out. At level 82 now, I have 1021 life and 439 mana. The mana is enough to fuel my sparks, and the life, while seemingly low, is actually more than sufficient. I chalk this up to the maxed resists, 35% PDR, and 60% FHR. Because Infinity's Conviction only has a radius of 13 yards--enough to cover most of the screen, but not the corners--I'm forced to play a little closer to monsters than I would otherwise. But the melee gear seems to be keeping me alive here, even without a shield or Energy Shield.

Yeah, this means sacrificing a lot of FCR. I only have 40% (from Magefist and Arach). But the advantages of this build more than make up for the drawbacks. 40% FCR will give me a 15-frame lightning attack. Sure, it's slow--but maxed 117% FCR only gives a 12-frame, which is only 20% faster. So with Energy Shield and 117% FCR, I would deal 20% more damage. Nothing to sneeze at, sure--but on the other hand, by foregoing Energy Shield and relying on defensive melee gear to protect me instead, I can pump 40 more points into synergies, which increases my damage by a LOT more than 20%. In this case, using ES and single-mindedly pursuing FCR would actually result in lower net damage.

Another advantage of relying on CoA, CoH, and Shadow Dancers to keep me alive rather than ES: I don't need to use an A2 Insight merc. (Which don't stay alive in Chaos anyway.) This frees me up to use an A1 Rogue merc, and put an Ice on her, for some serious (IM-proof!) Holy Freeze and Frost Nova safety. I never felt this safe when using ES.

Granted, some of this gear (CoA) is ridiculously expensive... Though I guess Griffs and rare FCR ammies & rings aren't cheap either.

[emar]

Well that is a completely unconventional sorci setup. I'm impressed at the choices. Glad it is working for you!

[MageChick]

Yeah, looks like a pretty unique setup. Ever thought about using up'd Viper Magi instead? You'll loose a skill and some resits, but gain some more fast cast and damage reduction.

[WrathTalon]

Yeah, looks like a pretty unique setup. Ever thought about using up'd Viper Magi instead? You'll loose a skill and some resits, but gain some more fast cast and damage reduction.

Huh, MageChick, never thought about switching my CoH for an upped Viper Magi... You've made me sit down and crunch some numbers. :tongue:

I've just checked out the lightning FCR tables... Sadly, in my case it wouldn't do much, I don't think. I've currently got 40% FCR, for a 15-frame attack. With Viper Magi, I'd get 70% FCR, for a 14-frame attack. So would speed up my attack/increase my damage by 7%. :smiley:

On the other hand, by losing one to plus-skills, my CL damage goes down from 9.6k to 9.1--a loss of 5%, which eats up almost all of the damage gain of the faster cast. :sad2:

And even if I found and donned a Viper Magi with perfect stats (35% resist-all), my resists would still plummet from 75% to 45%, in effect doubling (!) the elemental damage I'd take. :shocked: I'd also lose CoH's 8% PDR, reducing me from 35% to 27%, which would mean a 30% increase in the physical damage I'd take...

So while Viper Magi is probably peerless for an ES Infinity build, for this fully-synergized Infinity build, I think CoH is the optimal armor...

[WrathTalon]

Well that is a completely unconventional sorci setup. I'm impressed at the choices. Glad it is working for you!

Thanks, Emar! I'm having a lot of fun with her.

Since I've never made a fast-casting ES-Infinity sorc, I'm really interested in knowing how they might compare in terms of damage output to the fully-synergized but slower-casting sorc I'm playing.

My girl is level 82 right now. At base (without figuring in the extra damage from Infinity), she does 24k Lightning damage, and 9.6k Chain Lightning. But that's at a slow, 15-frame attack (40% FCR)...

Could anybody with a fast-casting ES-Infinity sorc share their stats?

Cheers.