MageChick
10-10-2006, 08:01
Yes I know the Lightning sorc thing has been done to death. But I don't have one yet, so here goes.
Intro:
This is not intended to be a guide. Guides are written so that the author can help the readers. I’m writing this so that you all can help me. Any decent guide discusses options and alternatives. It points the reader in the right direction and then guides them along the way. I’m going to stick to the equipment and options I have and I can get. I will focus on the single best way of doing it, not all the different ways of doing it. Specifically I’m a PvM player and I like to MF. I like to be able to solo every part of the game as well as contribute to big group runs.
I'm going to try to tie it all together into a build. I've decided to vary the standard equipment set a little bit and go for 200% FCR. I've never done a 200% FCR sorc before so this will be new territory for me. There are a few good reasons why I think a 200% FCR Lightning sorc can be godly. For most sorcs you have to sacrifice a lot of good gear to hit 200% FCR. But for a wealthy lightning sorc there’s very little sacrifice to hit 200% FCR. (for my equipment I’m loosing 3 potential skills, but it is possible to only loose 2 skills) The damage and speed are unrivaled in the worlds of sorcs. Not only do we pass the 200% FCR limit for Teleport and charged bolt, but we pass the 194% breakpoint for lightning and chain lightning.
We got into some really good discussion the other day about optimum lightning equipment and skill placement. We even debated stat placement a bit (max block or max vit). That was really what kicked it this all off. You can read the original threads here.
Charged bolt aiming- http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=500749
To carry infinity or not, that is the question- http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=500685
Skills:
20 Charged Bolt
20 Nova
20 Lightning
20 Chain Lightning
20 Lightning Mastery
1 Thunderstorm
1 Static
1 Telekinesis
1 Teleport
1 Warmth
105 points total, complete at lvl 95.
This is simple enough – standard light sorc set up. I may need to look at a light/ES build too. We’ll debate that later. I assume that would look like this.
20 Charged Bolt
1 Nova
20 Lightning
20 Chain Lightning
20 Lightning Mastery
1 Thunderstorm
1 Static
20 Telekinesis
1 Teleport
1 Energy Shield
1 Warmth
106 points total, complete at lvl 96. Same as above, just slid 19 points from Nova to TK and added 1 point in ES.
This will decrease our Lightning synergy % from 480% to 328% and our CL synergy % from 240% to 164% equating to a net effective loss of about 25% damage for Lightning and Chain Lightning. Charged Bolt (our main boss killer) is unaffected. From this loss we gain an 70-80% redirection in damage from an slvl 15-25 energy shield with 125% reduction in mana lost from a level 20 Telekinesis. My first though it that this is worth it, but remember that we’ll have less mana than a typical lightning sorc (our +% mana gear is all swapped out for %FCR gear). We’ll have to look at this again at the end.
Stats:
For the non-ES build
Strength – Enough for gear (spirit monarch)
Dexterity – Base or enough for gear (wizard spike)
Vitality – Everything else
Energy – Base – 50 points
For the ES build (non PvP)
Strength – Enough for gear (spirit monarch)
Dexterity – Base or enough for gear (wizard spike)
Vitality – 100 points
Energy – Everything else
This is normally pretty easy, but when we get into the gear options you’ll see that it’s not going to be so simple. Our non-blocking sorc may need points into dexterity, strength is a big issue, and our non-ES build will have a large demand for mana. We’ll be working with a fair amount of rare or magical gear so it’s not even like we can predetermine our gear ahead of time. In order to balance your stat points perfectly you’ll actually have to have all your end game gear on hand before you complete the build.
Gear:
There’s not a lot of wiggle room here, but a little more than your typical 200% FCR fireball sorc. Lots of spendy stuff here too, don’t try to go cheap – you’ll be better off with some other build.
Helm:
Griffon’s Diadem. (Really no room for compromise here. +1 skill, +10-15% Lightning Damage -15-25% Enemy Lightning Resistance and 25% Fast Cast Rate. I wish we could get these exact mods on all of our gear. About the only other option would be to get a 20% FCR circlet, but even with godly mods I don’t think it could ever be better than Griffon’s. I'll stay with the trend on facet my griffons)
Weapon:
Wizzard Spike or Hoto. (Either way we need lots of resists and FCR. I suppose a Eschuta could work, but we really need resists here. Going with Wizzy will get you 10% more FCR and more resists than Hoto, but you’ll loose 3 skills. You can somewhat make up for the loss of skills by faceting the Wizzy with a lightning facet, but you’ll still loose damage. Wizzy will also take 75 dex to carry, so even with a perfect anni and torch you’ll still need to get some more dex somewhere. No matter which we choose we’ll get some extra mana so that helps)
Shield:
Spirit Monarch. (Again, no real room for compromise. Technically it is possible with a lidless, but loosing 15% FCR will mean that everything else needs to be near perfect. We’ll need all the FCR we can get. In fact this build really works best with a perfect +35% FCR spirit. In addition to the FCR we get +2 skills, 55% FHR, about 100 Mana and 22 Vit. All great stuff, the only downside is that we’ll need 156 Str to equip this thing. Even with good gear we’ll still end up pumping our base str over 100 probably..
Armor:
Skin of the Viper Magi, Up’d and possibly Um’d (No wiggle room here again. Ormus Robes or Qui-Hegans both come with 10% less FCR and they don’t get us any better mods anyway. We can really use the 30% FCR. Getting up to 35% resist all and +1 skill helps too. Look to facet or Um this thing, possibly P Topaz?)
Gloves:
Magefists, Up’d two times (You can swap these out for Trang gloves if you want. Both will give you 20% FCR. Magefists come with mana regen and +1 fire skill (which only helps our warmth), Trang’s come with cold resist. Your call really.)
Belt:
Arachnids Mesh (+1 skill and 20% FCR, nothing else will work)
Boots:
Lots of options here really. Infernostride will come with fire resists which your spirit shield lacks. Waterwalk comes with dex which you may need for wizzy and life which is always helpful. Silkweaves come with mana – this may be the best choice for ES builds. War Trav’s are known for their nice MF but also come with str and vit – probably best for PvM. Sandstorm Treks come with FHR and str and vit, they also add in nice poison resistance. Marrowwalk come with str and dex. It doesn’t really matter here, there’s even a bunch of rare boots that will fit in nicely. I’ll go with War Trav’s just because this is a MF char for me, but you could sure go with something else.
Amulet:
Crafted +2 skill, 20% FCR, hopefully some resists and life/mana or stat points too. Because we’re working with crafted stuff it will really depend on what you can find/make/afford. I’ve landed a nice +2 skill, 10% FCR amy with resists. That means I need to make up 10% FCR somewhere else. The only other places with wiggle room are weapon or rings.
Rings:
SOJ’s or FCR Rings, preferably with resists and life/mana and stat points again. If you have enough FCR, by all means go with SOJ’s here whenever possible. You need both the skill and the extra mana. A godly FCR ring is nice. If you can pick up all the mods I mentioned it will really help too.
Sockets:
Really the best options for sockets are going to be lightning facets for more damage. Um’s for resistance could be used too. I can also see Ber’ing your armor for some DR%, but anything else would be stretching it. Any stat points you may need can be had with charms.
Charms:
Anni and Torch of course. We need strength and possibly dex in addition to the normal demands on vit and energy, so skimping with some cheap ones will mean we have to make up the difference somewhere. PvP will of course want 9x skillers with life or FHR. But I’m not into PvP so I’ll use Gheed’s for the MF (this is still a MF char) and make room for the cube. I’ll add in a few chams to make sure my resistance is maxed for non-es builds, but I’ll probably let my resists sit where they may if I go with ES. If I do go ES, I’ll add in a few skillers just to pump my damage and ES. I generally like to have at least 4 columns open in inventory in addition to the cube just for drops.
Weapon Switch:
CTA is always nice to have around, but I probably won’t keep it slotted full time (that’s what the cube is for). I’d like to keep an infinity on switch myself in case the merc dies. Even if I did a weapon switch, I’d still be casting with 125% FCR. I normally keep a gull/rhyme or ali-baba/4xIst Monarch on switch for the boss kills. Hmm, can’t do all three. I suppose I’ll keep them in the stash and decide what I want to carry before each run and which goes in the cube.
Equipment Summery:
If we get the maximum FCR out of every space there is, that would be 220% FCR. That means that we have 20% to play with. I’d like to use Hoto instead of Wizzy to get more skills. I’d also like to use at least 1 SOJ for the skill and mana. But I don’t have a 20% FCR amy, so I can’t do both. I do have some nice FCR rings with resist all and stats, so I’ll go with Hoto and 2x FCR rings instead of Wizzy, 1 FCR ring and 1 SOJ. This way I don’t have to worry about dex either. So here’s the final lay out.
Griffon’s (Faceted)
Hoto
Spirit
ViperMagi (Faceted)
Magefists
Arach
War Trav’s
+2/10 skill/FCR amy
10/10 FCR/resist ring
10/11 FCR/resist ring
Anni
Torch
Gheeds
Skills: +9 all, +5 sorc – not too bad before adding skillers.
FCR: 200% - perfect.
FHR: 55% - I’ll add 5% more here from a SC to hit the 60% breakpoint.
Resists: With perfect resists on Hoto, Viper Magi, FCR rings (15% is possible), Torch and Anni you can have max’d resists in hell. My gear isn’t perfect, but spirit does come with 35% resistance to three elements and I can make up the difference in charms. No need to resort to Um’ing gear.
MF: 90% - No my war trav’s aren’t perfect, but my gheeds is and I have 3% MF as a mod on my amy. This is still pretty lacking for a MF char. I’ll try to add a few MF SC’s or I guess I could P topaz my viper magi.
Merc:
I really like the slowing effect of the NM Act 2 Defensive merc. His holy freeze aura is great for teleporting. Defiance could also be used for more def, or even a might merc if he’s having problems killing the remaining few lightning immunes
Weapon: Infinity Polearm is obviously the best bet here. I have a decent Eth CV at the moment, so his damage is decent too. We need the conviction to break the immunes and a strong weapon to kill the few that can’t be broken.
Helm: Andy’s (ral’d) or Vamp Gaze (IAS) will work. Just look for Life Leech and IAS. DR% is nice too.
Armor: Eth Fort is probably the best, but Eth Stone is decent too. Just get lots of def and some resists here along with some FHR.
Damage and comparisons – coming soon.
So far I've purchased all the gear above and I'm on level 41. It is coming nicely. Any suggestions/improvments are welcome. This is my first pure lightning sorc so I'm kinda on unfamiliar ground. You can maybe catch me US East sometime if you want.
*jak3676
*magechick
Intro:
This is not intended to be a guide. Guides are written so that the author can help the readers. I’m writing this so that you all can help me. Any decent guide discusses options and alternatives. It points the reader in the right direction and then guides them along the way. I’m going to stick to the equipment and options I have and I can get. I will focus on the single best way of doing it, not all the different ways of doing it. Specifically I’m a PvM player and I like to MF. I like to be able to solo every part of the game as well as contribute to big group runs.
I'm going to try to tie it all together into a build. I've decided to vary the standard equipment set a little bit and go for 200% FCR. I've never done a 200% FCR sorc before so this will be new territory for me. There are a few good reasons why I think a 200% FCR Lightning sorc can be godly. For most sorcs you have to sacrifice a lot of good gear to hit 200% FCR. But for a wealthy lightning sorc there’s very little sacrifice to hit 200% FCR. (for my equipment I’m loosing 3 potential skills, but it is possible to only loose 2 skills) The damage and speed are unrivaled in the worlds of sorcs. Not only do we pass the 200% FCR limit for Teleport and charged bolt, but we pass the 194% breakpoint for lightning and chain lightning.
We got into some really good discussion the other day about optimum lightning equipment and skill placement. We even debated stat placement a bit (max block or max vit). That was really what kicked it this all off. You can read the original threads here.
Charged bolt aiming- http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=500749
To carry infinity or not, that is the question- http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=500685
Skills:
20 Charged Bolt
20 Nova
20 Lightning
20 Chain Lightning
20 Lightning Mastery
1 Thunderstorm
1 Static
1 Telekinesis
1 Teleport
1 Warmth
105 points total, complete at lvl 95.
This is simple enough – standard light sorc set up. I may need to look at a light/ES build too. We’ll debate that later. I assume that would look like this.
20 Charged Bolt
1 Nova
20 Lightning
20 Chain Lightning
20 Lightning Mastery
1 Thunderstorm
1 Static
20 Telekinesis
1 Teleport
1 Energy Shield
1 Warmth
106 points total, complete at lvl 96. Same as above, just slid 19 points from Nova to TK and added 1 point in ES.
This will decrease our Lightning synergy % from 480% to 328% and our CL synergy % from 240% to 164% equating to a net effective loss of about 25% damage for Lightning and Chain Lightning. Charged Bolt (our main boss killer) is unaffected. From this loss we gain an 70-80% redirection in damage from an slvl 15-25 energy shield with 125% reduction in mana lost from a level 20 Telekinesis. My first though it that this is worth it, but remember that we’ll have less mana than a typical lightning sorc (our +% mana gear is all swapped out for %FCR gear). We’ll have to look at this again at the end.
Stats:
For the non-ES build
Strength – Enough for gear (spirit monarch)
Dexterity – Base or enough for gear (wizard spike)
Vitality – Everything else
Energy – Base – 50 points
For the ES build (non PvP)
Strength – Enough for gear (spirit monarch)
Dexterity – Base or enough for gear (wizard spike)
Vitality – 100 points
Energy – Everything else
This is normally pretty easy, but when we get into the gear options you’ll see that it’s not going to be so simple. Our non-blocking sorc may need points into dexterity, strength is a big issue, and our non-ES build will have a large demand for mana. We’ll be working with a fair amount of rare or magical gear so it’s not even like we can predetermine our gear ahead of time. In order to balance your stat points perfectly you’ll actually have to have all your end game gear on hand before you complete the build.
Gear:
There’s not a lot of wiggle room here, but a little more than your typical 200% FCR fireball sorc. Lots of spendy stuff here too, don’t try to go cheap – you’ll be better off with some other build.
Helm:
Griffon’s Diadem. (Really no room for compromise here. +1 skill, +10-15% Lightning Damage -15-25% Enemy Lightning Resistance and 25% Fast Cast Rate. I wish we could get these exact mods on all of our gear. About the only other option would be to get a 20% FCR circlet, but even with godly mods I don’t think it could ever be better than Griffon’s. I'll stay with the trend on facet my griffons)
Weapon:
Wizzard Spike or Hoto. (Either way we need lots of resists and FCR. I suppose a Eschuta could work, but we really need resists here. Going with Wizzy will get you 10% more FCR and more resists than Hoto, but you’ll loose 3 skills. You can somewhat make up for the loss of skills by faceting the Wizzy with a lightning facet, but you’ll still loose damage. Wizzy will also take 75 dex to carry, so even with a perfect anni and torch you’ll still need to get some more dex somewhere. No matter which we choose we’ll get some extra mana so that helps)
Shield:
Spirit Monarch. (Again, no real room for compromise. Technically it is possible with a lidless, but loosing 15% FCR will mean that everything else needs to be near perfect. We’ll need all the FCR we can get. In fact this build really works best with a perfect +35% FCR spirit. In addition to the FCR we get +2 skills, 55% FHR, about 100 Mana and 22 Vit. All great stuff, the only downside is that we’ll need 156 Str to equip this thing. Even with good gear we’ll still end up pumping our base str over 100 probably..
Armor:
Skin of the Viper Magi, Up’d and possibly Um’d (No wiggle room here again. Ormus Robes or Qui-Hegans both come with 10% less FCR and they don’t get us any better mods anyway. We can really use the 30% FCR. Getting up to 35% resist all and +1 skill helps too. Look to facet or Um this thing, possibly P Topaz?)
Gloves:
Magefists, Up’d two times (You can swap these out for Trang gloves if you want. Both will give you 20% FCR. Magefists come with mana regen and +1 fire skill (which only helps our warmth), Trang’s come with cold resist. Your call really.)
Belt:
Arachnids Mesh (+1 skill and 20% FCR, nothing else will work)
Boots:
Lots of options here really. Infernostride will come with fire resists which your spirit shield lacks. Waterwalk comes with dex which you may need for wizzy and life which is always helpful. Silkweaves come with mana – this may be the best choice for ES builds. War Trav’s are known for their nice MF but also come with str and vit – probably best for PvM. Sandstorm Treks come with FHR and str and vit, they also add in nice poison resistance. Marrowwalk come with str and dex. It doesn’t really matter here, there’s even a bunch of rare boots that will fit in nicely. I’ll go with War Trav’s just because this is a MF char for me, but you could sure go with something else.
Amulet:
Crafted +2 skill, 20% FCR, hopefully some resists and life/mana or stat points too. Because we’re working with crafted stuff it will really depend on what you can find/make/afford. I’ve landed a nice +2 skill, 10% FCR amy with resists. That means I need to make up 10% FCR somewhere else. The only other places with wiggle room are weapon or rings.
Rings:
SOJ’s or FCR Rings, preferably with resists and life/mana and stat points again. If you have enough FCR, by all means go with SOJ’s here whenever possible. You need both the skill and the extra mana. A godly FCR ring is nice. If you can pick up all the mods I mentioned it will really help too.
Sockets:
Really the best options for sockets are going to be lightning facets for more damage. Um’s for resistance could be used too. I can also see Ber’ing your armor for some DR%, but anything else would be stretching it. Any stat points you may need can be had with charms.
Charms:
Anni and Torch of course. We need strength and possibly dex in addition to the normal demands on vit and energy, so skimping with some cheap ones will mean we have to make up the difference somewhere. PvP will of course want 9x skillers with life or FHR. But I’m not into PvP so I’ll use Gheed’s for the MF (this is still a MF char) and make room for the cube. I’ll add in a few chams to make sure my resistance is maxed for non-es builds, but I’ll probably let my resists sit where they may if I go with ES. If I do go ES, I’ll add in a few skillers just to pump my damage and ES. I generally like to have at least 4 columns open in inventory in addition to the cube just for drops.
Weapon Switch:
CTA is always nice to have around, but I probably won’t keep it slotted full time (that’s what the cube is for). I’d like to keep an infinity on switch myself in case the merc dies. Even if I did a weapon switch, I’d still be casting with 125% FCR. I normally keep a gull/rhyme or ali-baba/4xIst Monarch on switch for the boss kills. Hmm, can’t do all three. I suppose I’ll keep them in the stash and decide what I want to carry before each run and which goes in the cube.
Equipment Summery:
If we get the maximum FCR out of every space there is, that would be 220% FCR. That means that we have 20% to play with. I’d like to use Hoto instead of Wizzy to get more skills. I’d also like to use at least 1 SOJ for the skill and mana. But I don’t have a 20% FCR amy, so I can’t do both. I do have some nice FCR rings with resist all and stats, so I’ll go with Hoto and 2x FCR rings instead of Wizzy, 1 FCR ring and 1 SOJ. This way I don’t have to worry about dex either. So here’s the final lay out.
Griffon’s (Faceted)
Hoto
Spirit
ViperMagi (Faceted)
Magefists
Arach
War Trav’s
+2/10 skill/FCR amy
10/10 FCR/resist ring
10/11 FCR/resist ring
Anni
Torch
Gheeds
Skills: +9 all, +5 sorc – not too bad before adding skillers.
FCR: 200% - perfect.
FHR: 55% - I’ll add 5% more here from a SC to hit the 60% breakpoint.
Resists: With perfect resists on Hoto, Viper Magi, FCR rings (15% is possible), Torch and Anni you can have max’d resists in hell. My gear isn’t perfect, but spirit does come with 35% resistance to three elements and I can make up the difference in charms. No need to resort to Um’ing gear.
MF: 90% - No my war trav’s aren’t perfect, but my gheeds is and I have 3% MF as a mod on my amy. This is still pretty lacking for a MF char. I’ll try to add a few MF SC’s or I guess I could P topaz my viper magi.
Merc:
I really like the slowing effect of the NM Act 2 Defensive merc. His holy freeze aura is great for teleporting. Defiance could also be used for more def, or even a might merc if he’s having problems killing the remaining few lightning immunes
Weapon: Infinity Polearm is obviously the best bet here. I have a decent Eth CV at the moment, so his damage is decent too. We need the conviction to break the immunes and a strong weapon to kill the few that can’t be broken.
Helm: Andy’s (ral’d) or Vamp Gaze (IAS) will work. Just look for Life Leech and IAS. DR% is nice too.
Armor: Eth Fort is probably the best, but Eth Stone is decent too. Just get lots of def and some resists here along with some FHR.
Damage and comparisons – coming soon.
So far I've purchased all the gear above and I'm on level 41. It is coming nicely. Any suggestions/improvments are welcome. This is my first pure lightning sorc so I'm kinda on unfamiliar ground. You can maybe catch me US East sometime if you want.
*jak3676
*magechick