What gear/skills for perfect HC Light Sorc?

[d00m2k]

I have a great full light Javazon with infinity merc and I've had a blast with her. However, I'm looking to try something new and I can pretty much transfer most of my gear right to my sorc.

I was thinking--skill wise (most of my chars get around 90-95):

1 Warmth
1 Shiver Armor + 3 prereqs
20 Telekinesis
1 Teleport
1 Energy Shield
20 CB
20 Lightning
20 Chain
20 Light Mastery
1 Static
Last few points into Nova

As for gear:
Griffons UM
Enigma (love the STR, MF)
Crescent Moon (I love this, it's like having +10 skills, and like +20 if you run WSK areas a lot)
SS UM
Arach
BK
SOJ
War Travs
Trang's Gloves
Maras

And of course Anni + Torch, with other charms making up resists. My merc will have some resist/str armor, Infinity, Blackhorn's mask for light resist or if he doesn't need it andy's or equivalent.

What do you guys think?

[MoUsE_WiZ]

1) 6*5 = +30/-30 vs -35 if you wanted your weapon as a pure damage boost.
Note that HotO would save you 3 Ums that could be turned into facets (or topazs, as I mention later) so that's +3, +15%, -15%. Oh, and you get your FCR.
2) Enigma on a sorc? You're joking, right? With SS+Anni, properly bugged, SS isn't going to cost you a whole lot to put on, the STR is pretty negligable... the MF you can get other places... for instance, Um+Um+Um = 52% resist... CoH+Top Top Ist = 73% MF and an extra 13% resist. I prefer viper though.
3) 125%. Or 200%. 65% is horrid. Speed is king.
4) To solve said problem, suggest HotO, or Eschatu's, or Wizzy. Then Viper for armour... if not viper, then Spirit for shield. Spirit + CoH seems like the more common choice, but I like SS. I also like Wizzy... unless you're packing a bunch of 20/17s you're going to be hurting for mana, plus having stacked resists is good.
5) I prefer Tgods to Arach, unless you're doing 1/5+ runs your damage is plenty without the +1 skill, and more hp/85% lr/absorb is always handy. If you're planning on loading a bunch though Arach's probably the choice. Same sort of idea with the above wizzy... unless you're soloing 5+ player runs you're going to be mowing things down either way.
6) I notice you're not mentioning skillers? With Griffs, Maras, Infinity, Storch I would think you'd be packing 8-9, no? So far I've been assuming that you would be... so if you're not then arach+hoto or eschatu's is probably the better choice than wizzy+tgods.
7) Merc... all he'll be killing for you is LE Lister generally speaking. That means CBF and FHR. Gladiator's Bane covers both nicely... or you can get it from the hat spot and give him Treachery, because the IAS is handy too, and fade drops decrep duration. Of course if your infinity is a CV you'll need some STR for him from somewhere till he can where it himself, plus that isn't till 85, so until then whatever you've got in mind probably works.

[d00m2k]

Thanks for the advice.

I don't have skillers (yet?) and I don't have facets, although I could probably get those.

I can probably trade my Enigma for a CoH. It looks like I want to hit at least 78 FCR for lightning.

[Brave_turtle]

You will need atleast 105 FCR to have better survability.

Don't concentrate your wealth on skillers, they are overated. Try to get serpent grand charm of vita (mana/life GC's) instead.

[mozza]

117% is the way forward and enigma isnt bad on a sorc if you are using it for mf since you save one skill on teleport and it gives mega strength which is needed to wear a monarch. As for the shield i would prefer using a spirit monarch over stormshield since fcr/fhr/life and energy along with resists are all good unless you are planning on making a max block sorc then this would be more achievable with the stormshield.
For belt some guy said thundergods over arach which i find pretty stupid. If you want a different build then by all means go for it there really is no better caster belt than arachnids. Also if you go enigma than the plus strength on thundergos isn't needed at all.
Eschutas isn't that great and if you can afford the hoto then it definitely is the much better choice than eschutas.

[MYK]

The thing about enigma is...It leaves a huge hole where you could have resists/fcr. If you don't mind jumping through excessive hoops to get those back, then it works...Still, I'd rather burn an engima armor on a hammerdin or something else that lacks teleport before giving it to a sork.

[PvtCaboose]

Reading my biggest problem is that your wasting 20pts into tele. Just put one, your +all skills will take care of the rest.
I'd suggest a COH for your sorc instead, Enigma isn't that useful to a sorc tbh.
Use a spirit instead of a SS a monarch isnt worth much and you can get 4os with a socketing quest. And all the runes are easy to come by.
Instead of Cresent Moon use Eschunta it gives more damage to lightning skills.
Are you planning on mf'ing? If not use Sandstorm Trek for your boots, the +str will help you in the long run.
Also, if you use magefist instead of trangs you get another +1 into fire skills which in turn makes warmth go up.

For your merc I'd suggest lay off the res use Andys, if your lucky you can get it eth. Also, Infinity and Fort would probably be your best bet.

[MoUsE_WiZ]

Reading my biggest problem
Yup.

He said 20tk, not 20 port =p

For belt some guy said thundergods over arach which i find pretty stupid. If you want a different build then by all means go for it there really is no better caster belt than arachnids.
The 20% FCR is overkill if you go with Viper over CoH, it really only nets +1 skill (unless going for 200%). When you're 1 shotting everything anyways +1 skill is also overkill, and you'll be 1 shotting everything unless you're trying to solo 5+ player baals.

Arach is a "win more" belt that doesn't really do anything for any of the weaknesses a sorc has.

Edit, you don't save a skill on port, it's still a prereq for ES. If you're skipping ES then it saves you 2 skills (1 on TK as a prereq). Basically it's like a bad and expensive version of skullders on a sorc... you lose +1 skill, but you also lose a facet, and -5% LR beats +1 skill in most cases. Course I wouldn't use skullders either... once you can afford maras, griffs, and infinity, why do you need MF?

[xXxfunbobxXx]

if he plans to prebuff es then it actually does save him quite a bit of skills
i have a stick that can be a 9 es stick and a 9 es stick if ur interested
and also if u can get ur resist from charms and plan to go max block go storm eshuta and enigma cause enigma has more mf and will save u a skill int eleport and u can prebuff es :)

[mozza]

Once you get maras, griffs and infinity you still need mf to get more items. I have those items apart from griffs but i still want more items so i have the option of building more chars. He is also asking for the perfect light sorc and imo enigma is the best armour for a sorc if you have unlimited wealth.

[Tai.]

Alright, just my two cents here.

It seems people are leaning toward:

Griff's
Spirit Monarch
Enigma
Arach
Eschuta's or CMoon
Mara's
Mages
Whatever for rings
Treks

Which gives us a grand total of:

The 117 fcr bp (overkill actually, just going by what's been listed)
decent damage
-5 res all in hell including anya quests.
Lots of saved stat points from the enigma for that great sorc vita bonus
No block
No room for skillers
No light absorb

Assuming 20 res all torch and anni, that only leaves you with 60 res all from charms unless you feel like covering for conviction or lower res, which bumps it to ~100 res all to make up (yes i counted the 35 to the important 3 in spirit and assumed 30 res all mara's - nothing was um'ed, with um in griff's and 15 res all in eschuta's would obviously be diff).

Personally, I'd rather...
Have room in my inventory for Skillers, vitas or Skiller Vitas and be able to cover myself in case of conviction gloams
Than...
Have more natural MF on me, save two stat points (assuming prebuff ES orb or staff) and lose out on potentially +8-9 Skills from charms.

Back on topic:

My Ideal Setup would probably be:

Griff's
50 res all upped Viper (CoH also an option)
35 FCR spirit monarch
Mages
FCR/Str/Dex/Mana ring
TGod's
Treks or travs
Might as well keep the 30 res all Mara's
Then if Going with Viper - CMoon or even 30-30 weap
If CoH - HoTO and you can replace the FCR ring with whatever

With 30 res all mara's (only assuming because of previous assumptions on gear) and viper (lower res than coh/hoto setup) plus anya quests and spirit, we're looking at 45 base res before charms in hell.

Assuming the same torch/anni as the previous example, we end up with 85 lightning res, 75 on the rest with NO charms used. Thus we have room for skillers, vitas whatever and will more than likely end up with a higher life total. It's 74 strength from Enigma (at lvl 99 though I hope to god you're not waiting to 99 to glitch your gear on) vs the 40 stats from TGod's and potentially an additional 20 stats from CoH.


I'd rather spend the 14 stat points and the 2 skill points than carry around 20 5 res all sc's which will cost you 400 life, then again, that's just me.

Cheers
-Tai

P.S. what's the deal with Shiver Armor? I've never found it worth it, and personally I'd rather prebuff it and save the 4 skill points there...

[d00m2k]

The shiver armor is for a slow casting sorc. If you have under 105FCR, it lets you teleport out of groups easily. I could prebuff it, but that's an annoyance I'd rather avoid. If I break 105 FCR, I probably won't put any points into shiver.

Everyone loves Spirit. I hate it. I think I just love 75% block and 35% damage reduction too much. Maybe because once the must-play-so-safe-with-this-gear wears off, I'm fairly lazy and risky.

I've been testing out the builds in single player, and I haven't found 117FCR really any different from 78FCR. In fact, I'm so used to teleporting on my amazon through the WSK, that I don't think I even need 105FCR. I may end up going only for 78FCR. I lose 1 frame. That means after casting Lightning like 12 or 13 times, I could have casted it one more in that time.

What I'm thinking now: 78 FCR breakpoint TANK
(no more shiver armor)

Griffons UM
Upp'ed Viper UM
SS UM/Light Facet
Crescent Moon Axe
Treks/War Travs/triple resist + FHR (not sure)
Arach
Maras

For rings and glove, I have two setups (I need 3 more FCR)
10% FCR
SOJ
Frostburns
[This setup would provide good mana for ES, as you know I'm not putting any points into energy]

OR

SOJ
SOJ
Trangs/Mage
[This gives an additional +skill, a bit less mana, but probably some good resists]

[MoUsE_WiZ]

SojSojTrang imo, unless you've got a godly fcr ring. 15% prismatic/60+ mana/10% FCR/decent stats or hp. That sort of thing. Then I'd still say SojSojTrang, but it'd be a shame to let such a pretty ring go to waste ^^

Edit... you really, really, should look into ditching that crescent moon though. Wiz, hoto, and Eschatu's are all much better choices. 9 frame port is sloooooooow.

Once you get maras, griffs and infinity you still need mf to get more items.
Once you've got maras, griffs, and infinity, it's probably a pretty safe assumption that you've got MF in another place too. Spending money on MF is stupid and I don't understand why people do it... get a cheap runner up, use it to build the baalers or the duelers. Using an MFer to build an MFer is counter productive.

He is also asking for the perfect light sorc and imo enigma is the best armour for a sorc if you have unlimited wealth.
No, no it's not.
Not even close.
Jewlers Archon of Stability, +20/-20.
CoH.
Viper.
I prefer Viper to CoH because it gives you a facet which beats the skill, and the resists are easy to make up in charms where FCR isn't, but if someone is willing to run with Spirit over SS (which I'm not) then I can see the arguements for CoH. Enigma, on the other hand, is a horrid choice, skullders is better, if for no other reason than it nets the same result and lets you spend on these other characters you're allegedly building.

[Brave_turtle]

The max block will kill you if you don't have enough FHR and especially low FCR like you planning to have.

You also said you are planning to go all Vita route but with es/maxtelek you will seriously lack of mana.

I find it a bit odd that you choose indirect damage (crescent moon) over FCR. I would have chosen hoto over it. I suggest you to try and edit a char in SP with different setup to see.

Here's the setup I had last ladder:

http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=542121

If I could change something, I would have traded for some Serpent grand charm of vita (Mana/life GC) instead of those expensive Life skillers.

[MoUsE_WiZ]

The max block will kill you if you don't have enough FHR and especially low FCR like you planning to have.
How will max block kill someone?
There hasn't been block-lock for years... now all FBR does is say "you will only block 1 attack every X frames" and doesn't trigger a recovery animation.

You also said you are planning to go all Vita route but with es/maxtelek you will seriously lack of mana.
Very seriously.
Also remember BO/SoJ/Frost don't multiply energy gained from anni/torch (or vit... but energy's the important one).

With enough skills you'll port around fine, but you'll be able to empty the pool in seconds once you stop to deal damage. You really do need some mana in charms, and probably from somewhere else too (eg wizzy, or hoto+fcr/mana ring).

I find it kinda funny you take indirect damage (crescent moon) which only excels against 1% of all monsters over FCR.
He's not using facets at this point, so he's only packing something like -15-20% + Infinity until he gets them, so crescent moon will be improving damage against even 0% resist monsters, nevermind 50% resist ones, not just LIs that have been broken. It's really not a bad idea, but it's also not what I'd call a good idea either.

[Brave_turtle]

How will max block kill someone?
There hasn't been block-lock for years... now all FBR does is say "you will only block 1 attack every X frames" and doesn't trigger a recovery animation.


Block Lock will kill you if you don't have enough FHR and FCR. The last death I've seen was because of it and it was about 1hour ago. RIP IXoZ lvl 88.

[MoUsE_WiZ]

Block Lock will kill you if you don't have enough FHR and FCR. The last death I've seen was because of it and it was about 1hour ago. RIP IXoZ lvl 88.

No, it won't.
There is no such thing as block lock.
Period.

Stunlock will still kill you, but that isn't caused by the block animation. It's caused from taking hits... I believe 1/12th your HP is the magic number, but that could be dated.

Edit... just so you don't bother trying to tell me otherwise a second time...
- Block lock' has been eliminated. When a player character has just
blocked an attack, the player cannot block again for a short period of
time, the length of which increases as Blocking speed increases.

Edit 2... you're not wrong in stating that getting locked will kill you, and that you prevent getting locked with FCR and FHR, it's just that blocking doesn't cause the lock to occur, and against blockable attacks, will aid in preventing it.

[Brave_turtle]

No, it won't.

Edit 2... you're not wrong in stating that getting locked will kill you, and that you prevent getting locked with FCR and FHR, it's just that blocking doesn't cause the lock to occur, and against blockable attacks, will aid in preventing it.

All fine by me, my main point was to prove that FHR and FCR was essential. I don't even know why you are arguing just to agree with me.

Silly :rolleyes:

[Hp_Sauce]

It's caused from taking hits... I believe 1/12th your HP is the magic number, but that could be dated.

I'm 99.9% sure that this information is not dated.

-hps

[MoUsE_WiZ]

All fine by me, my main point was to prove that FHR and FCR was essential. I don't even know why you are arguing just to agree with me.

Silly :rolleyes:

Because I fully don't agree with you.
Having block will not get someone killed. Having block, and not having FHR and FCR, is better than not having any of the three.

[STINGER]

All fine by me, my main point was to prove that FHR and FCR was essential. I don't even know why you are arguing just to agree with me.

Silly :rolleyes:

Umm.....you were WRONG! Simply put, your information was incorrect when you stated "block lock". It doesnt matter if it is a fact that FCR and FHR are very important.

[d00m2k]

I was under the impression that you could block again while in blocking animation. I.e. You block an attack, and your block animation is 8frames. 4 frames into that block animation, you're hit and block again, resettin the 8frame animation.

If not, then faster block rate would be a necessity.

I'm now debating whether to even make a sorc. In 5 - 8ppl games, whether CS'ing friends or Baaling, no sorc build mentioned here comes remotely close to my Javazon. The only advantage would be teleport speed really. The javazon has like a 13 or 14 frame teleport, no FHR, no FCR, no FBR, and I can tele to throne fairly easily (although with many many mana pots)

[Brave_turtle]

Because I fully don't agree with you.
Having block will not get someone killed. Having block, and not having FHR and FCR, is better than not having any of the three.

I think you misunderstood my statement. By going S/S he will have lower FHR/FCR therefore will be more susceptible to block lock than going Spirit.

Don't get me wrong, max block is a very nice thing to have but IMO, in this situation Spirit, FHR/FCR is better.

[xXxfunbobxXx]

i think this is all solved by saying dont use cresent moon if ur gonna use ss cause ur fcr will be lacking.

[Hp_Sauce]

I think you misunderstood my statement. By going S/S he will have lower FHR/FCR therefore will be more susceptible to block lock than going Spirit.

Don't get me wrong, max block is a very nice thing to have but IMO, in this situation Spirit, FHR/FCR is better.

Stop using the term Block Lock... it doesn't exist anymore, it's a relic if 1.09.

If he uses a Storm Shield he will have lower FHR/FCR therefore he will be more susceptible to getting hit by a monster (because teleporting will be slower) and he will then be more susceptible to getting stuck in that place by being put into Hit Recovery Animation due to lack of FHR from continually being hit by monsters that due more then 1/12th of the players health.

Hit Recovery Animation (the one that activates if a monster does more then 1/12th of your health in damage) is effected by FHR. It has nothing to do with blocking, or FBR.

It's not that I'm disagreeing or agreeing with your SS vs Spirit argument, it's just that you can't use the term Block Lock.

-hps

[STINGER]

block lock

As soon as you STOP using those two words together you just might find that you are fairly accurate but there is no, "block lock" in this game anymore....zero, 0, zero, nada, none, or AUCUN for our potential French Canadians!

aucune serrure de bloc

[d00m2k]

So you can't block while blocking? You have to wait for the animation to finish before you can block another attack?

[Hp_Sauce]

So you can't block while blocking? You have to wait for the animation to finish before you can block another attack?

Correct, and correct.

Mousy already Quoted it to you straight out of the "Patch.txt" file that is in your Diablo 2 folder, under the 1.10 section.

'Block lock' has been eliminated. When a player character has just blocked an attack, the player cannot block again for a short period of time, the length of which increases as Blocking speed increases.

This means the higher your FBR is, the longer you have to wait before you can block again after you've already blocked. Which means if you have to wait before you block again... there is no way block lock can exist.

-hps

[STINGER]

aucune serrure de bloc

BTW, I dont know a lick of French, all the credit goes to Altavist's Babel Fish!