Static lightning build?

[Turmoil]

Couple of questions about lightning builds.

First, is a pure light sorc pretty much stuck on farming certain bosses or having to group to overcome the immunities in hell? I know people do pure light but I figure they must be either really patient or really frustrated.

Second, what would a good secondary tree be? Cold would be good for crowd control, and fire good for damage (although you need lots of points in synergies for good dmg).

Third, has anyone tried putting big points into static charge and using that as a main offensive "softening-up" weapon? i.e. static 3-4x, then nuke with chain, rinse repeat.

My only experience so far is with cold/fire so I'm not sure how things work with light.

[kuafu]

1) Pure light sorc just needs an Infinity merc. There're very very few lightning-immune monsters that Conviction aura cannot break; and they're all unique boss monsters that you can either skip or let your merc to kill.
2) Lightning tree requires synergies to shine, so you need a lot of skill points there to make it effective. That means you will have very few points left for a secondary tree, which makes Frozen Orb the best choice. You can find a guide on CL/FO sorc in the sticky thread.
3) 1-point in static is enough, because extra points only increase the range. A lightning-based sorc will carry a lot of +skill items, so that 1 point in static will get boosted to an effective level; any further point will just be a waste.

[Cope]

1) Pure light sorc just needs an Infinity merc. There're very very few lightning-immune monsters that Conviction aura cannot break; and they're all unique boss monsters that you can either skip or let your merc to kill.


It is correct that there are few lightning immunes that Conviction will not break. However, it is not true that all of these are uniques. The lightning variety of Horror Mages in act 5 hell have 130% lightning resistance and therefore can't be broken by Infinity's Conviction alone.

[kuafu]

Good catch, I didn't notice that before. Same for the lightning variety of Returned Mages (http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/monsters/act5g-skeleton-mage.shtml), which has 120% lightning resistance.

[EnerSense]

Second, what would a good secondary tree be? Cold would be good for crowd control, and fire good for damage (although you need lots of points in synergies for good dmg).


Frozen Orb is a good secondary spell with lightning. You actually don't need lots of points in Fire Wall to be effective in Hell. Just max it and put a few points in Fire Mastery. Add some +skills and you're set.

[Hymn]

As to your "static" question, since you will be basing your sorceress major in Lightning, you will already have a high level static with just your + skills. Static damage does no go up by level, the range does.

[Cope]

Good catch, I didn't notice that before. Same for the lightning variety of Returned Mages (http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/monsters/act5g-skeleton-mage.shtml), which has 120% lightning resistance.

Well actually this is incorrect. There are several other monsters that have 120% lightning resistance inherantly also, but these can all be broken by Infinity's Conviction. Its Conviction is capable of breaking any immunity of up to 121%.

[Jagroen]

with conviction and +x%/-x% light facets in gear it adds up, eg: griffs,eschuta,20/20 light monarch and -45-55% light res on infinity.
i think you can break the immunity of a 130% light res monster

[CloudStrife]

No, tho only thing that can break immunes is the pally conviction and the necros lower res curse. If you have griffions the -res doesnt count until the immunty is broken. And when a monsters immunity is broken, the -res off of Conviction only works at 1/4 effective ness i think...not sure if thats right im rembering this off the top of my head. Also the -res of Infinity's wepon, not the arua, doesn't help you at all. Only the merc.

[sirpoopsalot]

And when a monsters immunity is broken, the -res off of Conviction only works at 1/4 effective ness i think...

1/5 actually [/nitpick]

[PhatTrumpet]

Well actually this is incorrect. There are several other monsters that have 120% lightning resistance inherantly also, but these can all be broken by Infinity's Conviction. Its Conviction is capable of breaking any immunity of up to 121%.
'Infinity' grants lvl 12 Conviction.

Lvl 12 Conviction reduces enemy resistance by 85%.

85% / 5 = 17%

121% - 17% = 104%, i.e. still immune.