The classic lightning sorc...

[Fists of War]

Recently I've become interested in making a lite sorc...

Max lighting, chain lightning, charged bolt, lite mastery, 1 warmth/tstorm/tele etc, rest in nova.

There are no guides and barely any info in threads on them. Just wondering if anyone has any good experiences with them, or enough knowledge to write a guide?

If not, a basic gear guide would suffice. This would probably be for PvP, but good at PvM too, as all my PvP characters end up spending at least 50% of their lives in CS.

[goomba]

for the most part, everyone has come to the conclusion that they are NOT viable in classic, which is pretty much why you won't find a build guide for one as either PvM, or PvP.

[EagleEntek]

Why not viable in classic? I would have thought better than pure fire due to the ammount of immunes in hell to fire... ?

[goomba]

Why not viable in classic? I would have thought better than pure fire due to the ammount of immunes in hell to fire... ?

as I understand it, randomness of strikes for the thunderstorm, and damage ranges of quite literally 1-233453543534534 puts the average damage per attack on the other lightning tree attacks too low compared to the mana consumption.

a talented fball/meteor sorc can typically solo viz and roughly 50% of the time seis in hell cs.

similarly a less talented orber, or more appropriately blizzer can solo viz and better than 50% fo the time infector, and his entire hoard in a hell cs

lightning sorcs can contribute/weaken the hoards, but certainly will not be dominating a cs run...

:shrug:

[Akukami]

While it's not viable as a PvM Sorc, you can try it as a PvP Sorc if you like. Put 110 FCR on it and pair up with another Sorc or FoHer and you'll be pretty annoying. :laugh:

- Akukami

[WarlockCC]

Mind you, lightning and chain lightning have different casting breakpoints then most other sorc spells.
Lightning and Chain lightning :
FCR % FPC
0 19
7 18
15 17
23 16
37 15
52 14
78 13
117 12
194 11

While the other spells have :
FCR % FPC
0 13
9 12
20 11
37 10
63 9
105 8
200 7

So you would need 120 fcr to get your lightning to the fastest possible lightning casting bp in classic.

I'm contemplating making one myself, you should get about 9k(4.5k avg) damage at 13 frames (80fcr bp). I think such a sorc should be able to make a difference. Using lightning anyway, you can damage entire paths of enemies, just don't target specific enemies.
Yeah, I think I'll give it a go, just to see how it works. I vaguely recall still having a +2 sorc 10fcr and 1 res amu lying around anyway.

[Classics]

I've had two level 87 Lightning Sorcs. And I gotta say, they are seriously underrated. I plan on making another one - but getting this one to about 89 or 90. They're much better than you think, and nobody sees them coming! I could SvS and win against Fire/Blizz/Orbs, rather easily. People were surprised how good she was. Don't be afraid of making odd builds - it's much more respectable than the legions and legions of the same stat/skill dins you see all the time.

Just take my word, they're great.

[Akukami]

I could SvS and win against Fire/Blizz/Orbs, rather easily.

The same can be said about Lightning Sorcs. In my entire time playing D2, I've come across only 3 decent SvS Light Sorcs, and all 3 of them got crushed by my Glitch MFer without stacked LR while they had stacked CR. Is it the skill of the player in question? Probably, but there is a reason why certain builds aren't used for PvP - which happens to be the same reason why you see the same builds over and over again: Classic Light Sorcs deal unreliable damage.

- Akukami

[Fists of War]

I've had two level 87 Lightning Sorcs. And I gotta say, they are seriously underrated. I plan on making another one - but getting this one to about 89 or 90. They're much better than you think, and nobody sees them coming! I could SvS and win against Fire/Blizz/Orbs, rather easily. People were surprised how good she was. Don't be afraid of making odd builds - it's much more respectable than the legions and legions of the same stat/skill dins you see all the time.

Just take my word, they're great.

What gear did you use? Shard/magefists/fcr rings or a nice staff...?

Did you just use lightning, or did charged bolt/nova come in handy?

I reckon I'll probably make one now. Maybe just make it a mld sorc.

[BrentChX]

It is to my understand, that lite sorces pWn
So heres what i was thinking of making:
Helm(idk?)
Weapon-Shard
Shield-30/20/fhr? or w.e with @ res and mana?
belt-fhr/str/other stuff?
rings-2x fcr with str/@res/mana/life/etc.
boots- fhr/mana/frw maybe/str?
gloves-idk magies?

and stats:
max lightning
max cl
max lm
max cb
1ts
1tele
1static
1telek
other preq
max nova after other stuff
this a good build?

[FireMarshal]

Im curious as to what skills were used too, Classics.. Was your build both PvM and PvP? Building a character that moonlights as either keeps the boredom away =)

[traveling]

What is the PvP and PvM? Who can I explain?

[Paladine]

I'm not sure if I understand your question traveling but PvP means Person vs Person or Player vs Player and PvM means Player vs Monster

[goomba]

It is to my understand, that lite sorces pWn
So heres what i was thinking of making:
Helm(idk?)
Weapon-Shard
Shield-30/20/fhr? or w.e with @ res and mana?
belt-fhr/str/other stuff?
rings-2x fcr with str/@res/mana/life/etc.
boots- fhr/mana/frw maybe/str?
gloves-idk magies?

this a good build?

while it is not unknown to use "naked sorcs" it's rare that one intentionally forgoes armor... most of what you are describing as gear is the same for most sorcs.

you haven't indicated if you were going vita route, but I'm guessing that's the case seeing no energy shield in your allocation, and thus no real need to pump mana.

as was mentioned many times in this thread, the amount of damage is unpredictable, and unreliable and for that reason, they do not "pwn" - in fact most folks prefer to think of them as unviable builds in either the pvm, or pvp role.

*Shrug*

final note, if I'm not mistaken boots can not spawn with str on them any longer. gloves however can still spawn with str AND dex, as well as multiple resistances, and other valuable mods as well. if you are using two fcr rings already, and/or one and an fcr ammy use something better than magefists

[Akukami]

In this case, Magefist is actually the best option. A Light Sorc's build is simliar to that of an FBaller, if you didn't know. :smiley:

- Akukami

[goomba]

In this case, Magefist is actually the best option. A Light Sorc's build is simliar to that of an FBaller, if you didn't know. :smiley:

- Akukami

I did. no wall of eyeless no legitimate way of hitting 110fcr, which dumps him back down to the 70fcr breakpt, meaning using twinker/rez gloves if he already has good fcr rings

edit, and yeah, I only glimpsed at the lightning attack breakpts.

[Murrogh]

I did. no wall of eyeless no legitimate way of hitting 110fcr, which dumps him back down to the 70fcr breakpt, meaning using twinker/rez gloves if he already has good fcr rings

edit, and yeah, I only glimpsed at the lightning attack breakpts.

I would suggest using magefist and sojs for a pvm lightning sorc, those skills are very important

[Akukami]

It still won't do reliable damage. Sure, you increase Max Damage, but not the Min.

- Akukami

[fledgeling]

since my posts got deleted for some reason:

PvM you will be using lightning and IMO culven's point and a sigon shield are worth it for the additional + skills
perhaps use a tarn too, for even more damage
the +max damage seems to help more than the FCR (which is kinda contradictive to the numbers, but seems to work)


PvP - I recommend at least point into the thunder storm, because it will do some damage
perhaps 110fcr here - dont use lightning, but these little bolts, which seem to hit mutliple times. Lightnings miss a lot, since they are much slower than fireballs

[Fists of War]

Fledgeling you should've looked a bit harder at the BP's. You want 80fcr for lightning casting, this also covers the 70fcr bp for teleing.

Since my OP, I've read a few guides (LoD). I've come to see that one point in thunder storm is a must for PvM and PvP. It's like 200-400 damage for just one point. In PvM You will also be using chain lightning a lot, and at about 1-5000 damage, it's the better option for big crowds/cows.

And togethor with some info from this thread I've figured that the best gear is (for a non-ES, good damage/fcr build, mostly PvP)

Shard
Magefists
+2 sorc/10 fcr amulet
2*soj's
30/20 priz bone shield
Magefists
boots with plenty of res
fcr/life/res armour and helm

Swap out the armour for twitch against barbs. You may need to use a 3pDia shield or ward, or even 3pSaph/Topaz shield versus FoH/Cold sorcs.

Should give you around 1-10k or 12k damage, around 1-5k chain damage, and about 150-200 charged bolt damage.

Res could be hard to get without any on the rings, but those +2 skills add a hell of a lot of damage, and the mana is essential if you don't want to drink half a dozen mana pots per duel.

Or for PvP...maybe use +2 sorc/+3 lightning staff, soj's, +2 ammy, tarn, silks...destroy cows without any res with 1-15k+ lightning damage :P

[traveling]

I'm not sure if I understand your question traveling but PvP means Person vs Person or Player vs Player and PvM means Player vs Monster

thanks for your explanation. :flowers:

[Paladine]

Your welcome

[Dabljuh]

I should build a sorc again.

Right now I'm kind of thinking

Max static
Max nova
Max lightning mastery

Maybe finish with frost nova, warmth, teleport, whatdiknow. Gear, just going for max FCR and protection.

Just for the sheer fun factor. Static is probably the most awesome spell the sorc has, especially in classic, so it should be possible to combine it with something else for great justice.

The usual problem is immunes in hell diff. But what sorc doesn't have that problem except for Meteorb?

[Pcon]

Lightnings breakpoints are actually at 80 and 120. Lightning can be very good as it is very hard to stack it. Chargedbolt is a good spammer when u tele on someone. 15k dmg is not unheard of with staff. Also lightning is harder to dodge than fball and faster moving. Only bad thing is the number of skill points required, and the extra 10fcr required.