Melee Sorc PvP

[eA-Zaku]

First, thanks for taking the time to see what this thread is all about. I know it's probably one of the less common and less effective PvP builds, but as a long-time veteran returning to the game, I just want to play for fun.

So onto my questions.

Which is the best path for a melee sorc?

- Fully synergized Enchant
- Fully synergized Energy Shield

or

- Fully synergized Enchant
- Lightning Mastery

Should I use Dream even without Lightning Mastery? Or seek better options for melee/Enchant. Lightning Mastery basically requires a commitment to Dream, but no Lightning Mastery allows Energy Shield as well as better options in gear, and perhaps even Facets.

Should I be in werebear form the majority of the time? What I've gathered so far:

Werebear:
+ More life
+ Faster attack
+ More defense?

- CANNOT TELEPORT ZOMG!!! Remember, this is for PvP, and sorc's natural advantage is item-less Teleport
- Ugly
- Lower FHR?

Sorceress:
+ Teleport
+ Can cast other spells? Even though I probably won't use any other attacks
+ More FHR?

- Lower life
- Slower attack
- Less defense?

If Sorceress form is better for PvP, should I be:

- Energy Shield + Dream
- Energy Shield w/o Dream
- Lightning Mastery + Dream
- FROZEN ORB WITH SYNERGY? With Dream or w/o Dream?

If anyone can answer any of these questions, much less all of them, I will be greatly appreciated. Also any comments, insults, and jeers are welcome.

[Proxyi]

For PvP:

Dont make it!!! :grin:

I made one it sux :(

Btw when u rly would try one then try this:

Synergized Es (20 pt telekinesis)
Es 1 pt (precast it)
Dream helm+tower shield
Enough dex for Max block
20 LM
20 Enchant
20 Warmth
rest into es/thundestorm
Pump mana (vita none)

[McTCM]

if it's only PvP
max
LM
FM
warmth
ES
and tk

use demonlimb for enchant

[Dennis_KoreanGuy]

if it's only PvP
max
LM
FM
warmth
ES
and tk

use demonlimb for enchant

Hmm fully synergized (warmth) with max FM might actually get lvl 23 Enchant to do something... Clever, using a charge item. Have you tried this?

If this does work, you might be able to go all LM+ES+Enchant.

Bear melee > Sorc melee with tele.

Frozen Orb will not work. Even if you decide to go melee sorc form which is a horrible idea, your gear is not optimzed at all for FO. Extremely negatable damage with low fcr make you a horrible melee / caster.

[jesterlolz]

Also, if I were you, I would use a guardian angel. It helps reach the high dexterity needed for 75% a lot easier. Also, I agree with using bear over regular, and you should have a widowmaker in your stash, so you can beat smiters (because you will have no chance otherwise).

[Eilo Rytyj]

Using Demon Limb as a source of Enchant is the better way of doing things IMO. It's far more skill-point efficient, lasts for 11 minutes, and you'll unlikely get much higher than slvl 23 Enchant anyway.

Socketing the Demon Limb with a Hel rune is the logical choice, bringing the strength requirement down to 106 from 133, which is much more managable.

[Dennis_KoreanGuy]

Also, if I were you, I would use a guardian angel. It helps reach the high dexterity needed for 75% a lot easier. Also, I agree with using bear over regular, and you should have a widowmaker in your stash, so you can beat smiters (because you will have no chance otherwise).

Ehh? I would suggest Enigma.

Hmm... widow + tele on a bear sorc going nonbear isn't too effective, but I suppose its better than 1v1 face to face Smiter... They will eat your face in.

[Gimmershred]

If you pick bear (wich i wouldn't for pvp), then use:

dualdream, Guardian angel for max block.
Phaseblade with 5x 15ias/15res jewels + shael.

That way you will have 90 all res, maxblock. i also suggest you prebuff your bo and bear, then put cta and beast in stash and put a harmony on switch for the frw and maybe even the revives.

With a meleesorc your are quite chanceless vs smiters anyways.

If you go bear i wouldnt go with a 95% es, that means you put all your points in energy while bo, werebear and lycanthropy all 3 boost your life. You also can't make use of items like sojs to boost your manapool since you will need ar.
More viable seems a low lvl es imho

[Darksteel]

Not my guide, but I've made it following this and I can hold my own against anything except a smiter/charger. It's pretty damn funny how much damage these guys can do one zeal and I can kill a BvC (gotta play it smart though against other melee chars though.) I usually eat other sorcs alive with this guy =)

FF7_LethaL's PvP Enchantress Guide

Note: I can't say I'm the best Enchantress out there, because I'm not; however, there are very few of them (if any) you will encounter in the PvP world, so I'm expressing my opinion to you to try and make the use of a PvP Enchantress a more broad idea.
Note: I'm aware there are other, similar guides for Enchantresses out there, but I haven't seen many that are geared towards PvP. Feel free to point them out to me if there are, though.

cE-Fenix - Level 83 Sorceress
1603 Life
4833 Defense
12733 Attack Rating
75% Block
90/90/90/90 Resists (Hell)
86% FHR
20% FCR

Another Note: I am not yet finished with the character, but the PvP results are astounding regardless. I'll tell you future plans towards the end of the guide.




Skill Distribution
20 Warmth
20 Enchant
20 Fire Mastery
20 Lightning Mastery
5-10 Shiver Armor
1 Thunderstorm
1 Teleport
11 prerequisites

20 Enchant
Obviously needs to be maxed, since you are an Enchantress. Along with the benefit of 3,000 Fire Damage, doubled on melee striking, this makes your weapon pretty.

20 Warmth
The only synergy to Enchant. Without this maxed you might as well give up on your character, tickling isn't considered a style of dueling.

20 Fire Mastery
Hopefully it's comprehendable that the Fire Skill should be boosted with Fire Mastery. Another necessity to make Enchant useful in PvP.

20 Lightning Mastery
This is where a "Dream" Helmet/Shield turns into a Sorceress' "dream." A plain level 30 Holy Shock adds 1 - 1668 Lightning damage to your melee attacks. A level 30 (low) Lightning Mastery is almost 400% Lightning Damage, turning the Holy Shock into a beast, dishing out 4 - 8306 damage. This is the part that even boggles my mind, though. When I stick both Dreams on, the total max damage shown on the character screen is 35k. It can't be that Lightning Mastery stacks twice like Enchant with Fire Mastery (once on casting and again on striking), so I'm really not sure.

5-10 Shiver Armor
Your defense boost. Any melee character needs some sort of defense, even with max block.

1 Teleport
Do I really have to explain this?

1 Thunderstorm
Not really a necessity, I just find it useful for all the duelers that try to run to town before they die;

XxKiss-AkaraxX was slain by cE-Fenix

It's even better against the characters that have little to negative resistances, where you can win a duel by teleporting in circles.




Stat Distribution
Strength: Enough for gear
Really, the only +Stat gear you're wearing are Immortal King's Gauntlets (I'll explain later) and Hellfire Torch/Annihilus. This forces you to leave your precious base 10 strength builds, but trust me, it's worth it.

Dexterity: Enough for 75% Block
Another necessity for any melee character. This is what keeps you alive... well, 75% of the time. =) This is another big blow to your Vitality pool, but if you've played any other melee character you'll understand it's needed.

Vitality: Everything else
You can wear your gear, you already have max block, and you sure as hell don't need a large mana pool. All other stats go here.

Energy: None
See: Vitality
***This is a Vitality build, mainly because with your gear/stat placement you won't have enough Mana or extra skills to max Telekenesis or get a good Absorb. Also, Zeal costs mana, and if you're Mana is drained you can't attack, or teleport away (Unless you run until your maxed out Warmth kicks in).



Equipment Setup
This is where you have the most leway. I'm going to suggest what I use, and where applicable, give a suggestion for other good choices or ideas I've seen.

Weapon:
"Passion" Phase Blade
The fastest 1-hander in the game, fastest base weapon behind the Demon Crossbow. Passion grants the ever-so-useful Zeal skill to any character wielding it, and with Annihilus / Arachnid's / Battle Orders you can get Zeal to level 4, with it's maximum of 5 hits. Passion also offers 25% IAS, decent Enhanced Damage (Although it's unnecessary for an elemental-based melee character) and a very nice Attack Rating bonus.

"Grief" / "Last Wish" Phase Blade
Grief for the speed and +Damage, or Last Wish for the Crushing Blow. I never found either of them as good as a Passion since +Damage and CB are both Physical-based amplifiers, but I've heard others that did well with them. Honestly, though, I believe the only true choice is a Passion PB.

"Beast" / Shael'd Phase Blade switch
Use Beast to transform into a Bear, then switch weapons to a Shael'd Phase Blade to reach the last IAS breakpoint. Have I tried it? No. Have I seen it work? Yes; however, I've never dueled a Sorceress using this setup so I don't know if it's better. Frankly, I prefer my girl the way she is. =)

Armor:
Guardian Angel
There are two ways to go with this. You can either grab an Ethereal one and throw in a Zod for a nice defense armor, or you can use a Non-Eth one and stick in an IAS Jewel (Does this hit the next BP?) or an Um Rune. Regardless of what you choose, the 20% Increased Chance of Blocking and 15% to All MAX Resists are VERY nice attributes (Note that the 20% Block from this saves you about 110 Dexterity at level 83 if my calculations are right).

Shield:
"Dream" Trolls Nest/Blade Barrier/Dragon Shield
This is one of the base items to the build, there really is no choice. Look for 25%+ FHR and 15%+ All Resists. I use a Dragon Shield (mainly for personal preferance) which has a 38% block rate whereas the Trolls Nest and Blade Barrier have 40%. The difference is about 10 Dexterity, so you can choose. Other shields that can get 3 sockets either have a lower block rate or require much more strength than your other gear.

Helmet:
"Dream" Demonhead/Bone Visage/Winged Helm/Tiara/Etc
Another base item of the build, this cannot be changed out for anything else. Still look for 25%+ FHR to reach the 86% FHR breakpoint and 15%+ All Resist to fulfill the bonus from Guardian Angel (Try for 90% All Resist in Hell without Treachery). The only difference between Helms is personal preferance.

Amulet:
Metalgrid
400+ Attack Rating, 25+ All Resists, and 300+ Defense. What could be better for this build? I tried on 2x Angelic's Rings with Angelic's Amulet and I got a whopping 2k more Attack Rating than Metalgrid with 2x Raven Frosts. Not worth the benefits, in my opinion.

Highlord's
+1 Skills, 20% IAS, and Deadly Strike (Although DS doesn't work with elemental damage, making it kind of useless). Also has some Lightning Resistance and Lightning Damage (which is multiplied by Lightning Mastery).

Mara's Kaleidoscope
+2 Skills, +5 all Attributes, and 20+ All Resists. This is probably the melee character that would benefit most from +2 Skills giving you 24% more Lightning Damage and 14% more Fire Damage. The attribute bonus is pretty sweet, and the Resists are just as good.

Gloves:
Immortal King's Forge
Decent defense, +20 Strength/Dexterity, and when coupled with any other Immortal King piece they grant you an extra 25% IAS.

Bloodfists
Double-Ungraded preferred, but the IAS/FHR/Life are amazing for just about any character in the game, be it melee or caster.

Boots:
Immortal King's Pillar
The highest strength-requiring item in the build at 125, these boots provide 40% FRW, +110 Attack Rating, and +44 Life. Not only that, but they provide IK Gloves the 25% IAS from the 2-item set bonus.

Sandstorm Treks
If you choose not to be degraded in telling people your Sorceress uses IK set, these are a very nice second choice. Defense (Of course better if Ethereal because of the repair mod), +10-15 Strength/Vitality and 20% FHR are the main points to their use.

Belt
Arachnid's Mesh
+1 Skills and 20% FCR. The Damage boost from +1 Skills (Also what brings your Zeal to 5 hits). 20% FCR to catch the little buggers that try to hit and run.

Verdungo's Hearty Cord
30-40 Vitality, 10% FHR, and 10-15% DR. You have 0% DR from your other gear, so if you find yourself lacking in fights with other melee's you might want to throw this on.

Rings
2x Raven Frosts
I use 2x 20/200+ Raven Frosts which brings me to over 12k Attack Rating (With Metalgrid's 427 AR, Enchant's 350%+ Boost, and Passion's 50%+ Boost). The 40 Dexterity is an awesome addition to your journey to max block, and the Cannot Be Frozen mod just adds fuel to the proverbial fire.

Bul-Katho's Wedding Band
+1 Skills and +Life are really the useful things here, but I don't see how they could beat the mods of a Raven Frost

Rare AR/Stat/Resist Ring
Although impossibly rare, you can get rings with +120 Attack Rating, 20 Strength, 15 Dexterity, and 11% All Resist. Almost the same benefits as Raven Frost with some additional "godly" bonuses. If you can find something like this, I'd suggest swapping out a Raven Frost for it.

Inventory
I currently use a 20/17 Sorceress Hellfire Torch, a 17/20/6 Annihilus, 3 Fire Skill GCs with 25-31 Life, one Fire/Light Skill GC with 12% FHR, a 128 AR/1-30 Light Damage GC, and 3x 15% All Resist GCs. The Small Charm spots range from Lifers to Resist to FHR. Pretty much, get FHR charms if you still haven't hit the 86% breakpoint, get All Resist GCs/SCs if you haven't achieved 90% All Resists in Hell, or get Life GCs/SCs if you have hit 90% All Resist and 86% FHR. You also might want to aim for more Light GCs than Fire, but I used what I had.

Pre-Buff Gear
Without getting overly expensive, I try to use the following in pre-buffing (Battle Orders + Enchant)
31% HotO
Lidless Wall
Vipermagi
Shako
Tal's Amulet
Magefists
2x 3% BK Rings
Arachnid's
With these and Battle Command you get a total of +11 All Skills, +13 Sorceress Skills, and +14 Fire Skills (Add 4 to all for Torch/Annihilus, and add accordingly with your Skill GCs). That's enough to almost double your Fire Damage and give you 65%+ Life/Mana. The Pre-Buff isn't even necessary, though. You can do upwards of 40K max damage without it, but it does help with extra life and about 8K more damage if you feel you don't already do enough.



As for strategy, I can't really tell you HOW to duel. If you actually do make a character like mine you'll understand that skill only comes with practice. I can say, however, that Smiters are a pain in the *** and WWBarbs are hit-and-run duels.

[eA-Zaku]

Thank you. Very useful info.

Reason I'm making this character is cause my BvC is not expired yet. That crap gets boring fast.

Does the Demonlimb enchant charges work with the Fire Mastery and Warmth? I need confirmation before I set the skills.

Also any experience with the 1.10/1.11 fully synergized Energy Shield could also please tell me if with 75% block and high Energy count will I run out of mana to Teleport away or Zeal if I get struck?

[primerib]

to darksteel:
non es lol? that's suicide

[elope with me]

Thank you. Very useful info.

Reason I'm making this character is cause my BvC is not expired yet. That crap gets boring fast.

Does the Demonlimb enchant charges work with the Fire Mastery and Warmth? I need confirmation before I set the skills.

Also any experience with the 1.10/1.11 fully synergized Energy Shield could also please tell me if with 75% block and high Energy count will I run out of mana to Teleport away or Zeal if I get struck?

Yes!!! It does work!!! No!!! It dosn't matter!!!

The damage from enchant is so incredibly small compared to what we want from our dreams.

[LorveN]

All you should want is the %ar from enchant. Maybe some damage for heavy absorbers, but it won't get high anyways.