Seekubg Unique/Uncommone build ideas

[SPApropos]

Hey all

I'm looking for a way to make a sorc that is not part of the cookie cutter selections. that means no pure fire/cold/light, as well as no fo/cl or metor orb or the like (done a few of them but i want something differnt)

an enchantress seams entirely like a pure fure
blue balled sorc requires ladder words (cure the ladder words! if they won't reset ladder at least let us use them!)
the melee sorc has potential but i haven't investigated on nl fesability

but i wanna do something different, this char is my self named char - due to sorc being my first d2 love (druid as soon as i got expansion)

but it's gotta be different, i like the fo but everyone has these...

oh and it's gotta be fesable :P if i can't get past a1 hell this will be a horraly failed build lol! already got the sorc that can do that....

any/all suggestions and comments are appricaited... i got no idea how to make her and she's in the leveling stages now.. (yes this is a end gear build cuz i want it perfect, and i got no idea how to build her...)

thanks!

Aproops

[Crowd Control]

Well, I'm not really into the original never-been-done-before builds. But if you want an original build you should get back to basic. What makes the sorc different from other classes is her elemental skills. Since elemental attacks are not the kind you seek, I would look for other skills which are very useful for the sorc. You could try to make a mana dependant build with warmth, or a tank-like soso with the cold-armor skills maxed.

[Vegetall]

well get away from CL/FO-FO/ME-FB/Blizz... i mean think outside the box, use t-strom again i never see a sorc with that anymore... or change it up, do a CL/FW or CB/FB i dunno.... think of skills that arent normaly used... like make a cold armor melee sorc insted of a enchantress.... or a hydra/blizzard... or glaciar spike/ and soemthing else.... its endless with a sorc, but the end result can be bad, but u have to find out first.... if u want to do a unique build

[PhatTrumpet]

You don't see Ranged Enchantresses much anymore (just make sure you use something that fires explosive arrows, like Demon Machine). You could even mix in some Static and Frozen Orb to round out the build a bit.

Tri-elementalists aren't very common at all and are extremely customizable. Just pick a primary spell from each tree and try to balance the damage as best you can.

[SSoG]

Charged Boltresses are extremely uncommon, but viable (if difficult- you need to fire those Charged Bolts at point blank range if you want to deal any damage). Nova Sorceresses are also still viable, but they require some pretty crazy gear. If you want to get *REALLY* different, you can make a FROST nova sorceress (yes, it can kill in Hell as well as Nova, it just requires 20 more skill points to do so). Blaze is another Hell-viable skill that you never see anyone using because it's more difficult and requires a different playstyle, and Firewall is one of the most powerful skills in the game, but nobody uses it because they can't aim it right.

With all of that said, the build I'd recommend is Hydra/Orb (if you don't mind using Orb as a secondary skill to kill FIs). Hydra is a little slower than the cookie cutters, but oh so safe, and capable of killing just fine in Hell. Far and away my favorite sorc build.

[SPApropos]

appriciate the input!

i vaguely rememebr the days of tstorm, but that wasy way back when, and i'm guessing it was .08 when i played before my disks went into cold storage

fo is always a favorate, but every build i use has it - so i'm aiming away from it

but a hydra/blizzard sounds intersting and if it costs more, so be it, this is a namesake, so it'll be a case of "slow and steady end gear" compared to the "24 hour rush to 85/90" - point in fact this char is first on my second acount, so that gives you an idea on how long i've waited to make use of it!

now i think i recall some people mentioning a skill calculator or something? i'm definately going to want to play around with that before i start using my character (i've gone thoruh a few rebuilds of my sorc and i'd rather not have to redo this one over and over!!)

mmmm firewall (isn't fire walk a synergy? that was always fun if not the most practical)

[EnerSense]

mmmm firewall (isn't fire walk a synergy? that was always fun if not the most practical)

Nope. Blaze is not a synergy to Fire Wall but it's fun to use. Anyway tell us how your build works out. Maybe you're bored with playing sorcs. Try playing tri-elementalists. These builds always kept me interested since there are many spells to choose from.

[Brave_turtle]

Try Nova/orb sorc.

Use infinity on you so you won't have to max Cold mastery. Use ES so you can tank while blasting static + nova. Use act3 merc + lawbringer for sexyness and undead knockback.

With this build you can basically kill CS faster than Cser pally. De Seis will be a joke. In baal run souls/dolls will be knocked back while you nova them. Use Orb on Lords and Impress people!

20 nova
20 light mastery
20 FO
20 IB
20 telek
1 ES

I may do a guide on ES/telek light sorc and Nova/orb sorc. Have fun!

[SSoG]

appriciate the input!

i vaguely rememebr the days of tstorm, but that wasy way back when, and i'm guessing it was .08 when i played before my disks went into cold storage

fo is always a favorate, but every build i use has it - so i'm aiming away from it

but a hydra/blizzard sounds intersting and if it costs more, so be it, this is a namesake, so it'll be a case of "slow and steady end gear" compared to the "24 hour rush to 85/90" - point in fact this char is first on my second acount, so that gives you an idea on how long i've waited to make use of it!

Hydra and Blizzard is, in my opinion, not really doable. Both Hydra and Blizzard require too much investment to become Hell viable. Maybe if you have 150 skill points to spend, but not with 110.

[NASE]

I would say fireball/glacial spike. These are the highest level spammable spells with the same breakpoint. Making most of you gear supplement every skill. If you go with fireball and a timer spell, all you FCR gear is a waste on one of your skill. With this setup, every FCR is used on every skill, even teleport, and don't most of these come with +skill (+ to all skills)? So every item you use will be put to full use.

[SSoG]

I would say fireball/glacial spike. These are the highest level spammable spells with the same breakpoint. Making most of you gear supplement every skill. If you go with fireball and a timer spell, all you FCR gear is a waste on one of your skill. With this setup, every FCR is used on every skill, even teleport, and don't most of these come with +skill (+ to all skills)? So every item you use will be put to full use.

If you go with Fireball and a spammable spell, your FCR is not wasted. Consider: with an equal amount of FCR, you can cast Orb/Fireball/Fireball/Fireball just as quickly as you can cast Spike/Fireball/Fireball/Fireball. Just cast fireballs until the timer runs out and you can cast just as many spells per second in both cases. As long as you have ONE spammable spell, your FCR will not be wasted.

The advantage of pairing a timered spell with a spammable spell is that the timered spells are more powerful per cast (balanced by the timer), which means Timered/Spammable/Spammable/Spammable will produce more damage than Spammable/Spammable/Spammable/Spammable.

[Hymn]

Firewall/Glacial spike is probably the best combo that I haven't seen put in action yet. You use Glacial spike to freeze them in place, then single cast firewall over the monster and switch back to glacial spike to keep them there until they die.

[Vegetall]

Firewall/Glacial spike is probably the best combo that I haven't seen put in action yet. You use Glacial spike to freeze them in place, then single cast firewall over the monster and switch back to glacial spike to keep them there until they die.

i remeber in classic when that was a prime build... those were the days

[Kilken]

here is a merc/tele reliant build i think would be fun if you tried it

max lite/fire/cold mastery/tstorm

HoJ weapon, dream helm and sheild, phoenix armor, infinity merc with dream helm and dragon armor(act2 cold merc)

so just tele and let your merc do the hitting, you might even be good at PvP...slow em down, hurt em with all elements, tele so they cant hit you

just a thought

[SPApropos]

Thanks for the input all!

some of the neat (or more classic) idea's no longer work as well - which is unfortunate but not suprising

so i decided i didn't want a "so uber it's dull to play with friends" build, and went for more of a support/fun in groups kind of idea (if i wanna go for uber slaughter solo the insanely powerfull hdin can come out of the closet)

so far this is very rough points distrobution, so you'll notise that i'm going to havet o do something about where to put it all, since clvl 119 just doesn't happen...

The Frozen Enchantress

Basically FO so i have some kiling power, to lay down cover for my melee friends as i enchant their weapons. using ES to protect myself and by making my party friends fire enchanted - i'd make a great ally in most battles (except chaos, can't kill fire immunes with fire enchantment so well)

assuming all named skills are pushed to their max, this is how the skills would play out

42 = Warmth, 2 requirments, Enchantment
44 = Icebolt, 4 requirements, Frozen Orb
20 = Cold Mastery
25 = 5 requirements, Energy Shield (tele and tk are requiremetns and both handy anyways)
for a grand total of 131 skill points - :shocked:
well we can chop 12 from that for the 3x4 skill quests in each difficulty
leaving us down to 119. well 119 isn't going to happen soo.... since 99 is just a bit much for my nerves to handle the baaling - we need to chop 25-29 skills for the "end goal" of 95-90

at this very second i'm looking to see where i can chop off these skills.. cold mastery is vital to make fo work in hell, after reading into it a bit i see some info suggesting i *must* use 15 points in tk to get es to a decent level...

i hope i haven't buggered this char up already! i kinda laid the groundwork for this build already... (dam impatience!!)

any and all suggestions are welcome - i don't get to play with fire wall/fire walk but then i think i can live w/o it (or get an item skiller for it) but i wanted a killing skill and a good party member helping option so this is what i have for now..

stat points would be a whole new ball game but i'll worry about that after skills..

[markkski]

For PVM you don't need the 20 points in Icebolt for the measly 1% or whatever it is to Frozen Orb damage. You also don't need to max Cold Mastery, since -res is capped at some point (-100% I think) and your merc will have infinity on (this will only help extra when cold immune monsters are broken, which if I understand correctly, won't happen often). You could probably get away with 5 or so base points in Cold Mastery depending on your +skills. You can save points in ES with a memory staff which will give you +9 to ES if made in a +3 ES base staff. That should get you to the area you are looking for, or at least make things more manageable.

[SPApropos]

well after discovering a skill calculator on a differn site (as well as combing these forums for info)

i've come up with a clvl 93 plan - one that i hope will work!

Frozen Enchantress (or Icy Torchbearer)

27 = warmth 10, enchant 15, 2 req
34 = tk 10, es 20, 4 req
54 = Ice Bolt 10, fo 20, cm 20, 4 req
115 total -12 skill q's

now... now i gotta figure out stats.. a mostly blue ball max block seams like the most logical idea to me, but i am non-ladder so i can either harass one of my friends into helping me with an infinity merc that will make life easier!

right now i'm only 76 so i got a few more levels to go before i have this completed, but i'd appriciate any/all inpu on stats!

if this turn out to be a good party favor i'll be using it more often with my friends - that hdin can come in and clear, but it gets dull to be one/hang around a hdin on a rampage (unless they are carrying the runs for me to level up with :afro: )

edit: (i took a while to put this into a post so i'm late responding to the last post) and that's a very good point on the cm - i might only put a base 10 into it to allow for more points into enchant.

but (and i italic's it up there before i saw your post) this is non ladder. and i refuse to perm out, espically when leveling... so getting my hands on that merc is going to be the most redicoliously difficult part of this build.. while i can work on getting gear put together for it, i do have a spare enlightenemnt ds i'll put on once i use enough poitns to wear it, i've had to str bug (rings torch and charms, wish i had an anni surplus!) just to get a vipermagi on with my eye of lidless (erm the lower one)

but gear will be dealt with as i go, i'm trying to hold off on using stats cuz i :a - don't want any form of ugly shako showing (using a lore 123 def shako) b - am aiming to not have to rebuild her, she's nicely in first char slot for that acount :P

[markkski]

If anything, you will want more into TK than into ES. Otherwise your blue ball will get drained far too fast to worry about what your ES level is. Always max TK first and put extras into ES. You can always buff ES, for TK only the hard points count.

[SPApropos]

If anything, you will want more into TK than into ES. Otherwise your blue ball will get drained far too fast to worry about what your ES level is. Always max TK first and put extras into ES. You can always buff ES, for TK only the hard points count.

very good point - i do happen to have held onto a warspear gothic staff (+3skills, +3es, +3tele, +3tk) that i use to prebuff es (also have a prebuf thunderstorm that is likely more fun then usefull, as well as a chilling armor prebuff)

thanks for pointing that out i'll have to make those adjustments

if using 30 points between the two where would be the best compramise?