Questions about PvP Blizzard

[Lycanthronick]

I want to make a PvP Blizzard user. My question is specific to my gear and skills so I will list those.

I am thinking I would like to build this way...

20 Blizzard
20 Glacial Spike
20 Ice Blast
13 Ice Bolt
1 Cold Mastery
20 Telekenisis
1 Energy Shield
______________________
Totals with Plus Skills from gear/charms/cta:
19+ skills, 9+ cold skills, 125fcr

Energy Shield Absorbs = 75% of damage
Blizzard Damage Before -%enemy cold resist and +%cold damage = 8358-8639
-%enemy cold resist from items/mastery = -170%
+%cold damage = 30%

I will have enough Strength for gear. I will be putting nothing into Energy. I want to have enough Dex for Max Block with a Stormshield. The rest will go into Vitality.

I will have to use Occy with a 5/5 Cold Facet in it because I cannot afford a Fathom. The mods are actually pretty nice for this build as far as I can see. I will be using an Enigma to help me beef up to equip Spirit Monarch/Stormshield. After all equipment/charm modifiers I will need to sink 36-20 pts into Strength Total.

How much dex will I need at lvl 90 to reach max block on Stormshield?

I am hopingto have max block on Stormshield 'Ber'ed, in chest for Malee duels, which would give me a total of 50%dr which is applied before Energy shield on Malee attacks. I then get 75% of the remaining damage absorbed by my mana, leaving my Vitality (should be around 3k) to deal with the remainder.

Since ES is not effected by my resists, I will be better protected with a lower %ES absorb rate and hitting the 125fcr breakpoint should help me lay down Ice Blasts and Teleport fast enough till I can namelock and tele/blizz someone.

Does this sound like a solid plan? Suggestions?

[Mikk0]

didnt quite get it all.. but heres what i spoted

105 fcr is needed only

your mana will be gone faster than you can say chees with zero points invested in energy..

[Lycanthronick]

How do you mean? Let's suppose someone does huge phys damage and hits me. That damage is modified in hell right? (1/4th total damage? 1/10th total damage? I can't remember) Then that damage will be cut in half by %damage resist. Then 25% of the remaineder will go to my health, which will be around 3k. The rest would go to a manapool of more then 2k, prob more like 3k from items (spider, silkweaves, frostburns). Then this malee'er would have to survive an initial blizzard punch of 16k+cold damage (before hell/resistence modifiers) without the benefit of the 1 ravenfrost he/she is prob wearing (since the first hit on blizz is not affected by absorb). If the malee'er can get through all that and hit me again, then I can see where my mana would be near gone, but if I didn't have the shield, or had max manashield and nerfed my Blizz damage, I think I would be just as dead.

Fighting casters would be different. Is it for sure that ES has no elemental resistence, and does not benefit from absorb elemental damage? I've read both that it does and doesnt.

[brokensvt]

You won't have 3k mana with no energy investment, and I'm thinking your math is a bit off. The PVP penalty is 1/6, there is no "hell penalty." You'll still take massive damage straight to mana, then 25% spills over to your life in your example. Your ~1.5k mana will be gone in a single hit to any "good" melee duelers.

[Noite Escura]

Only 1 in Cold Mastery is too low either. Better max it and take points from Ice Bolt and Glacial Spike. Well maybe it's not needed to max it at this point of the ladder, but certainly 1 point doesn't cut it...

[Lycanthronick]

First of all, thanks everyone for feedback and input. This is for nonladder. I wouldn't mind some facts and figures on what your trying to suggest I do though. Such as Cold mastery being maxed and 1 hit kills if i dont max ES.

My math figures turn out this way....

Lets say I get hit by a 10k physical damage hit.

10k / 6(pvp penelty) = 1666 / 2(%damage resist) = 833 total damage

1pt ES after plus skills eats 75% of the damage = 624 mana damage
Total Health Damage after ES = 208

Now if I have a 1.5k mana pool (with frostburns+spider+occy+silkweaves I will have over 2k for sure though), then it would take 3 hits at 10k damage to drain my mana. At which time I would still have 2.4k~ life left. This means it would take 5 hits at 10k to kill me.

Factor into this 75% block rate and 300%+mana regain and I am having a bit of trouble figuring out how I will get "one hit KO'ed" with my 1pt. pure vit build.

Secondly, I thought -%to enemy elemental resist worked at a maximum of -100% to enemy resist. Meaning any more -%enemy resist would be useless. With 1pt to Cold Mastery, I would have -160% enemy cold resist with my plus skills. After factoring gear, I would have a total of -170% to enemy cold resist. If I was to dump 19 more points into it, I would have -255% to enemy cold resist, but decrease my Blizzard damage from 8358 - 8639 to 6183 - 6390(this is before my +%cold damage).

Most oponents will have 75% cold res in hell, before absorb. The initial hit of Blizzard takes affect without absorb however. This means, with the above numbers and skills, I can do (8358 * 30%(+%cold damage) = 10865 damage before -%enemy cold resist modifier.

Even after pvp/cold res of 75% is calculated, many players will not survive the first hit of Blizzard to even hit me. Should they survive though, at 5+ hits of 10k damage through max block and 105fcr, then I deserve to lose :grin: .

I am considering putting more into energy and putting my health at 1.5-2.5k though.

[brokensvt]

Your math looks solid, except for one thing. A good tri-whirl from a BVC is NOT one hit @ a static damage. A good tri-whirl from a WW sin is NOT one hit @ a static damage(venom + OW aside). A spammed volly of Guided arrows is NOT a single hit. A tele-smiter with respectable IAS will hit more than once in a volly.

[Jezza]

Also, are you factoring the 1/6 of damage you do in your calculations?

[Noite Escura]

Secondly, I thought -%to enemy elemental resist worked at a maximum of -100% to enemy resist. Meaning any more -%enemy resist would be useless. With 1pt to Cold Mastery, I would have -160% enemy cold resist with my plus skills. After factoring gear, I would have a total of -170% to enemy cold resist. If I was to dump 19 more points into it, I would have -255% to enemy cold resist, but decrease my Blizzard damage from 8358 - 8639 to 6183 - 6390(this is before my +%cold damage).

Most oponents will have 75% cold res in hell, before absorb. The initial hit of Blizzard takes affect without absorb however. This means, with the above numbers and skills, I can do (8358 * 30%(+%cold damage) = 10865 damage before -%enemy cold resist modifier.

Even after pvp/cold res of 75% is calculated, many players will not survive the first hit of Blizzard to even hit me. Should they survive though, at 5+ hits of 10k damage through max block and 105fcr, then I deserve to lose :grin: .


It's not that simple really, people can and will stack resistances when fighting Blizzers. By stacking I mean puting more res equipment that is needed. A Paladin, for example can use a 40+base shield socketed with 4 PSaphires. That alone is 200 Cold res. This is an extreme example, but in non-ladder, the good players all can stack incredible amounts of resistances against Blizzard or FoH. If you present this data at the PvP forum I'm almost certain they would tell you several ways to counteract that -res number...

[Lycanthronick]

@Jezza, no I don't factor 1/6 penelty into my damage calculation, also I don't factor in my -%enemy cold res. 10865 total damage / 6(pvp penelty) = 1810 damage before -%enemy cold res is factored. As Noite Escura mentioned, some people will stack res. If my -%cold res is totaly neutralized by huge stacked cold res, I will still do 25% of my 1810 damage against most oponents. This means with absolutley no -%enemy cold resist, I will still do 452 damage a hit.

However, the truth is that most people can not afford to have 200+ elemental resists. I am sure if I clear a public game, or challenge someone who knows I Blizz, they will stack cold res, but otherwise most players will have around 100 cold resists in hell (25 res stacked over the max res of 75%). In these cases I will do somewhere in the range of 3620-4k damage a hit.

It is also true, as Brokensvt points out, that I will not be trading hit for hit in a static situation. Preferably my fcr, and tele'ing into my own Blizz (while laying frozen blasts) will keep my sorc from getting tri-whirled. In fact I don't see how barbs will be much of a problem for this build. WW sins will be a big problem since venom and ow is gonna kill me in 1-2 whirls. Paladins or others with 85%+cold res will also be very hard.

I was not trying to say this build is unbeatable. I was just presenting a pure vit, 1pt energy shield Blizz sorc as viable. And I was arguing that she would not get all mana leached in one hit.

In fact, my estimates were low on looking to my earlier post. With 20pt Telekenisis, I will take .75 mana damage for ever damage point absorbed by ES. This means a 10k physical hit will look like this...

10k / 6 = 1666 / 2 = 833 total damage delt
833 / 4 = 208 health damage to the sorc
833 - 208 = 625
Telekenisis synergy = .75 damage to mana for each 1 pt of damage
625 / 4 = 156
625 - 156 = 469 total damage to mana after a 10k physical damage hit

Let's say I was tri-whirled by a Barb and just stood there and let him do it perfectly. Let's say he did 10k damage per WW hit. Let's say he can hit check me 4 times on each WW, adding up to 12 hit checks per tri-WW.

Since I will be teleporting with walk on to make sure I use my 75% block, I will get hit 3 times in the tri-WW. This will do 624 damage to my health, and 1407 damage to my mana. This means I have enough mana to Blizz twice and Teleport 5-6 times. I would still have 1.8k-800 life and would be regaining mana at around 300%.

This is a more realistic example of what would happen in a pvp situation. If a barb/pali is doing 10k damage a hit, then they will not have huge stacked cold res, which means that they will die faster. Should they stack res, they will do much lower damage, allowing me to last longer. Maxing Vit and using items to boost mana allows me to do more damage then a max ES sorc, while being much buffer then a full Vit sorc.

[asakuraaa]

Telekenisis gives already 100% at Skill 16, if u got good life/mana u may put 4 points in a synergie for pushing the dmg. for my sorce i use 18 points and i think it matches perfectly..