My PvM light sorc setup (long post, sorry)

[deslok]

I want to be able to face all of hell without dying, and if possible, I'd like to have 200-300 mf. As for my merc, I mostly want him to stay alive, as I should be able to take care of most bosses (right?). All comments are welcome.

SKILLS
1 warmth
1 teleport/telekensis/static field
20 lightning
20 chain lightning
20 lightning mastery
20 nova or charged bolt (not sure I'll use either)
rest in remaining synergy

STATS
strength: enough for gear
dex: base (thought about maxing block, but I think I'm better off not doing it)
vit: rest
energy: base?

GEAR (1st choice, followed by possible alternatives)
helm: griffon's eye w/ facet, 3 light skills/20fcr/2 facets
ammy: 3 light skills/life, mara's
weapon: hoto, eschuta's w/ facet
armor: enigma dusk (for str/life/def/mf), coh archon (for res)
shield: spirit
gloves: frostburns, fire res or absorb if I can do without
rings: bk rings, sojs if I need extra mana
belt: arachnid mesh
boots: fire res boots, sandstorm trek (str/etc.)
torch, anni, gheed's, light gcs w/ fhr or life, 5 res scs w/ mf or life
alt gear: cta + spirit, or if I can find one, a cta staff w/ cold armor skills

MERC GEAR (defiance I think)
gaze w/ ???
eth infinity cryptic axe
stone (res, fhr), fortitude (enhanced damage, ~5 more res, life)

END STATS (w/ 1st choice gear)
120 FCR
67 FHR
-25 to enemy lightning res.
75 all res
~500 vit., 96 energy
up to ~190 mf (more if I use chance guards and/or war travelers)

SPECIFIC QUESTIONS
1. Do you think it's worth putting a point in frozen armor? Or 2 points for chilling? (I could have the names mixed up, but you know what I mean.)
1. Do you think it would be worth it to use mara's instead of 3 light/life ammy just so I can wear treks (and possibly chance guards if I don't need frosties)?
2. Do you think it would be better to use coh for the res? I'd have to invest more in str and lose my main mf source, but I could use eschuta's instead of hoto. Or would a crescent moon be better?
3. If I have, say, 40 fire res, would a 35 fire res or +15 fire absorb item be better? I don't know much about absorb...
4. For the merc, would the stone or fortitude be a better choice for keeping him alive?
5. What would you recommend putting in the merc's helm? (He will be 5-8 short of max res with stone.) Is there any point in doing cannot be frozen for a merc?
6. Is there a guide anywhere that says about how long it takes to get to certain levels? I haven't leveled any characters since before 1.10, so I don't know much about the changes (though I am aware it will take a lot longer).

Thanks! :heart:

[brokensvt]

If you want reasonable MF + Survival, sub out the Griff's for Shako, and the Enigma/CoH for an Upped Vipermagi. Both get Topaz/Ist, whichever floats your boat. BK rings are pointless, use SoJ's. If you think you won't use Charged Bolt, you are quite wrong. It's quite simply the best boss killer you have in your arsenal. Frostburns are nice gloves, but on my latest(7th iirc) rebuild, I used double-upped Bloodfists, and love the easy FHR and life. Keep in mind that with Bloodfists + Spirit, you're one SC from 86%. Hoto is excellent, Eschutas is absolute garbage. Another(better?) option for survival is the tried-and-true Wizspike. Despite varying opinions, just remember it offers huge resists, 10 more FCR(not necessary with this build, but nice to free up other spots), and a SOCKET(think another Ist).

[Smackin]

1. Dont use any of the cold armors, with ur fcr u can easily get away before they finish attacking.
1. Maras are much better unless u can get a ammy with 10+fcr/mana/res/etc.
2. I'd use enigma BP and stick with hoto
3.. Res is always better than absorb until 95.
4. Ur better off with fort. More dmg=more leech=stay alive
5. Andy's with ral is top if u plan on doin andy and other boss runs. I personally have CBF on all my mercs because melee chars suck while chilled.
6. I'm not sure.

[deslok]

If you want reasonable MF + Survival, sub out the Griff's for Shako,I assumed the -25 would help with bosses and immunes, but Shako could work.and the Enigma/CoH for an Upped Vipermagi.For the FCR you mean?BK rings are pointless, use SoJ's.Yeah, for some reason I thought they added vitality instead of life. Probably not worth it.If you think you won't use Charged Bolt, you are quite wrong. It's quite simply the best boss killer you have in your arsenal.I'll have to give it a try. This is my first light sorc, so the skills are a bit new to me.

2. I'd use enigma BP and stick with hotoI'll have to add enough str for dusk in order to have 156 for Spirit anyway.
5. Andy's with ral is top if u plan on doin andy and other boss runs. I personally have CBF on all my mercs because melee chars suck while chilled.The only problem with this setup is it would leave me no life leech. EDIT: Oops, wrong again. Think I'd be fine with no damage reduction? I also wouldn't have a socket for CBF.


I've taken your other comments into consideration too even though I didn't comment on them. Thanks!

[brokensvt]

The -resist is novel, yes. You truly won't need it as badly as you're thinking for general PVM use(rushing, MFing bosses, etc.). As odd as it sounds, you get a good bit more damage from Shako than from Griff's, and the MF/DR/Life/Mana are icing on the cake. I suggested Viper because it makes up for the lost FCR from Griff's, gives some nice resists and MDR, and retains one skill point. The main reason BK's are pointless is because the +Life/lvl is not BO'able with CTA, so really it's quite the waste. The +mana from the SoJ's is quite noticable when spamming Chain Lightning, for example.

[deslok]

I'm not surprised that I do more damage with the Shako, but surely this isn't the case if you take the -res into account, right? I didn't know that about the BK rings.

[Zinsho Lexagen]

Actually, you don't get more damage from Shako + VMagi vs Griffon + Enigma/CoH. Both combinations provide +3 Skills, Shako + Vmagi providing at best +10% Light damage from 2 facets while Griffon gets 10%+ unsocketed, allowing you to socket resists/mf/what have you without your damage changing.

The difference is minimal on the LCS, however the additional 10 to 15 -res from Griffon (Assuming you socket 5/5Facets rather than pTopaz or any such) ends up making it more significant.

I was quite bored this evening and made a spreadsheet to compare the some of the suggested set ups, and to summarize the results, the only time a HoTo did better than a Crescent Moon was at very low resists where raw damage compensated for the -resist difference or when put up against stacked resists that negated all the advantage that the Crescent Moon had.

I can provide/upload the spreadsheet if anyone is interested in seeing the results for themselves, just let me know.

[deslok]

Actually, you don't get more damage from Shako + VMagi vs Griffon + Enigma/CoH. Both combinations provide +3 Skills, Shako + Vmagi providing at best +10% Light damage from 2 facets while Griffon gets 10%+ unsocketed, allowing you to socket resists/mf/what have you without your damage changing.

The difference is minimal on the LCS, however the additional 10 to 15 -res from Griffon (Assuming you socket 5/5Facets rather than pTopaz or any such) ends up making it more significant.

I was quite bored this evening and made a spreadsheet to compare the some of the suggested set ups, and to summarize the results, the only time a HoTo did better than a Crescent Moon was at very low resists where raw damage compensated for the -resist difference or when put up against stacked resists that negated all the advantage that the Crescent Moon had.

I can provide/upload the spreadsheet if anyone is interested in seeing the results for themselves, just let me know.I'd be interested in seeing it. Did you take cast rate into account in your calculations? Because 40% FCR is no easy thing to make up for without losing other stats, and I'd lose 40 res as well. Did you take -res from griffin's and conviction (infinity) into account as well? (Obviously you get into diminishing returns on additional -res after a certain point.)

EDIT: I started this sorc tonight, and I'm thinking I'm going to avoid putting a point in teleport and telekinesis... with Enigma I'll have teleport anyway, and I can finish my build two levels sooner. Try to talk me out of this if you think it's a really bad idea. The only downsides I see are (1) I won't be able to switch my armor out in the future and (2) if I die (which I'm hoping won't happen too much) I may want to recover my body for the experience. I could always keep a +teleport staff in my stash, but the idea of bodies popping still makes me uneasy as I haven't played much since this was changed... it was changed, right?

[Zinsho Lexagen]

I didn't use Infinity, adding that number into the calculations would likely sway values in favor of using HoTo simply because of the additional +skills.

I did take casting rate into account, the different gear set ups I calculated values with all had at least 120 FCR.

To explain the spreadsheet before providing a link to it, I used one sheet to calculate the different FCR/+Skills/+ and - Light Damage from gear and facets (assumption being that any socket available had a facet). With those values accounted for I used a skill calculator to get the non-Mastery values for damage for CB, Light and CL (Assuming level 80, 1 in static/tk/tele/warmth and 7 in nova) then taking the +%Damage of Lightning Mastery. Using that I calculated what the LCS should display and using the averages of those damages compared them to each other versus enemies with resistances ranging from 0 to 99 in 5% increments (4 from 95 to 99 but 100 is pointless). Also then compared them versus stacked resistances until each combination was vs 75 res all after -res.

Then since I was bored I went and color coded every one of those values, figuring out which gear set up did best/worst vs the given resists.

For mods I assumed perfect 5/5 light facets and 35fcr spirit monarch. For gear choices with Griffs I accounted for both a perfect one and one with the absolute worst possible roll, the rest will fall somewhere in between.

The spreadsheet itself:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p3Iv_nCBGFY-ZF00NFy3AbA

[HeroXVII]

1 point Shiver armor at least.

And Enigma is a bad choice, use a CoH on AP or a Dusk Shroud

[deslok]

Zinsho Lexagen: Very thorough calculations. I'm thinking you're right about the HOTO being better with conviction though, perhaps with the exception of light immunes since conviction only does 1/5th its usual -res.

HeroXVII: Why is Enigma a bad choice if I can get my res elsewhere?

[Zinsho Lexagen]

Hoto/Eschutas (particularly the latter) will do better with an infinity wielding merc than Crescent moon, against non-immunes at least. Against immunes it might be a different story but I don't know the math for that off the top of my head, plus I'd need specific resists to calculate it rather than approximates to show the damage progression as resists change.

A wielded infinity might do better still than the shown choices, at least versus higher resists, I'll probably calculate that this evening if I remember to.

[deslok]

So I think I'm pretty happy with the setup at this point. I think I might do a Holy Freeze merc instead of Defiance. Good idea? Bad idea? Seems like it might help my merc stay alive longer, but I could be wrong. Revised plan below:

SKILLS
1 warmth/static field
20 lightning/CL/LM/CB/nova

If I get to it or feel I need it:
1-3 for cold armor
1 telekinesis/teleport

STATS
same

GEAR
griffon's eye w/ facet
mara's
hoto
dusk enigma
spirit
frostburns or chance guards
sojs
arachnid mesh
war travs
same charms and alt gear

I'm gonna use my circlet + magefists for now till I get griffon's. I'll leave some stat points unused (for str) to keep the option of switching to CoH open. If I switch to CoH, I'd probably switch to Eschuta's w/ facet and +3 light/life ammy too.

MERC GEAR
eth infinity cryptic axe
andy's helm w/ ral
fortitude

I'm still not 100% convinced on the helm and armor. I thought it was good to have damage reduced, and I could get IAS with a jewel. Also, the FHR on Stone is very tempting...

END STATS
same, a little more mf

[LRSAIA]

I've remade the infinity light sorc about half a dozen times. The best combo so far PVM is as follows:

griffon
um'd upped v.magi
mara's or crafted
weild infinity scythe/base polearm
fcr ring
soj
arach
eth treks
few light skill charms
magefist
spirit or lidless if you are a str vs life pincher/call to arms on switch

Norm Combat (ie Prayer) Merc
Andy's w' whatever (ral, Lo, Cham)
eth great poleaxe insight

You get double prayer auras and unlimited mana from the meditation. You heal super fast. He has enough damage to poke unbreakable light immunes and you hit everything else with near double damage from the - resists of infinity weilded + griffon. Easily outpaces hammerdin PVM. No cold armors as your tele speed with that gear is plenty quick. You LCS will not read quite as high as the person using the merc's infinity and weilding a hoto and spirit but trust me...this girl hits everyone hard. If conviction breaks it the -light resist from the runeword itself, griffon, facets, etc all still work to take your prey into negative territory and you have 85% of the raw damage numbers. Plus you don't look like every other dopy sorc who carries the kite shield and mace around....

Just my pair of cents....