Sorc Cold Build? (need step by step, please)

[Tylersh]

Hi, I just bought Diablo 2 today after playing WoW for a year and a half. (Quit WoW)

I made a Sorceress, but I am very confused on what spells I need, and how many points need to be put into each spell, despite how many different websites I've read on Sorceresses.

Can someone help me out with a step by step cold build? What spells first, how many points into each spell, etc.

I currently have: 1 into ice bolt, 1 into frozen armor, 3 into warmth.

[Tylersh]

Hmm, doesn't look like I can play a single player character on battle.net, so I suppose I will be pure PvE...

[omgwtfbbqpwned]

By the way, I do plan on mainly PvP, even though I have no idea how the PvP system in D2 works.

--> PvP characters generally don't do as efficient in the game. Might want to start off easy.

First of all welcome.

Secondly, what do you want? FO Sorc PvP or Blizzard Sorc PvP?

Secondly, do you intend to play B.Net or SP? Both have PvP, but SP generally has less tournaments and less frequent pubs.

If you want to play B.Net (that's what I think your intentions are), here is what I suggest.

Restart your character on B.Net, you're level 6 or so, and that takes less than 5 minutes to do.

Also, if you intend to PvP, you might want to find some items to trade for High Runes first, which involves like 1 hr of farming on B.Net. If you go with crappy gear, you won't have too much fun dying.

[sirpoopsalot]

edit: meh, primarily PvP, huh?

20 in Ice Bolt
20 in Frozen Orb <-- primary attack
20 in Cold Mastery
20 in Telekinesis
1 Static Field
1 Teleport
1 Chilling Armor (and prerequisites)
remaining points into Energy Shield

For your stat points, spend about 75 in strength, probably around 200 in dexterity (this will vary based upon your shield), ~60 in Vitality, and the rest into Energy.

This is a very basic, generic PvP build. Your equipment will probably be your biggest hinderance, as that makes a huge difference - in PvP especially.

[Tylersh]

By the way, I do plan on mainly PvP, even though I have no idea how the PvP system in D2 works.

--> PvP characters generally don't do as efficient in the game. Might want to start off easy.

First of all welcome.

Secondly, what do you want? FO Sorc PvP or Blizzard Sorc PvP?

Secondly, do you intend to play B.Net or SP? Both have PvP, but SP generally has less tournaments and less frequent pubs.

If you want to play B.Net (that's what I think your intentions are), here is what I suggest.

Restart your character on B.Net, you're level 6 or so, and that takes less than 5 minutes to do.

Also, if you intend to PvP, you might want to find some items to trade for High Runes first, which involves like 1 hr of farming on B.Net. If you go with crappy gear, you won't have too much fun dying.


Thanks for the reply.

I am totally fine doing single player, that was my intention when I bought the game, but I will kinda miss PvP, and I don't see any way to PvP on single player.

As long as I can do everything PvE wise that I can do on Bnet server, I am fine with single player 100%.

I feel like I might need to restart my char though, I put 3 points into warmth, and supposedly only need 1.

I would like to go with a blizzard build though, that seems like a lot of fun.

[Tylersh]

edit: meh, primarily PvP, huh?

20 in Ice Bolt
20 in Frozen Orb <-- primary attack
20 in Cold Mastery
20 in Telekinesis
1 Static Field
1 Teleport
1 Chilling Armor (and prerequisites)
remaining points into Energy Shield

For your stat points, spend about 75 in strength, probably around 200 in dexterity (this will vary based upon your shield), ~60 in Vitality, and the rest into Energy.

This is a very basic, generic PvP build. Your equipment will probably be your biggest hinderance, as that makes a huge difference - in PvP especially.

:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

I wish I had copied your post and pasted it into notepad before you edited.

Thanks for the reply, but I had changed my mind basically at the last second :S

[sirpoopsalot]

lol - that was for a PvM blizzsorc. gimme a sec and I'll give you a reasonable facimile.


Edit: actually, this guide (http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=263549) has pretty much everything that I mentioned, and then some. The only thing that I posted that might not be in that guide is the build-strategy of Frozen Orb vs. Blizzard.

Blizzard is a bad*ss skill, but it takes a lot of skill points to be truly effective. You can only spend 20 points into any skill, but Blizzard also gains damage when you put points into Glacial Spike, Ice Blast, and Ice Bolt (these are called synergies, btw). If you spend a lot of points into Blizzard and its synergies, it's possible to get an extremely high amount of damage (but of course, you're not going to have much of a backup attack - in fact, a backup attack isn't a good idea with Blizzard, IMO - just use teleport to bypass any cold-immune monsters).

On the other hand, Frozen Orb is a very solid spell on its own. You don't have to spend a bunch of points into synergies. In fact, for PvM you can get by with just 20 points into Frozen Orb, and one point into Cold Mastery. If you're looking for a second attack against monsters, then Frozen Orb will leave you a lot more skillpoints to make that a strong attack (note, for PvP you really don't need a backup attack - but if you want to solo the game and kill every monster, you do). A lot of people wanting to use a Lightning or Fire skill as their primary attack will use Frozen Orb as a backup skill.



As for progressing through the game, sorcs run out of mana, so it's actually easier to go with a melee attack until at least level18. As a blizzsorc, I would do it something like this:

<melee playstyle>
1 point Ice Bolt
1 point Frost Nova
1 point Ice Blast
<at level18>
1 point into Glacial Spike
<start to become more of a melee/caster hybrid - look for equipment with +mana and +mana per kill to help>
4 more points Glacial Spike until level23
- at level24 start putting points into Blizzard at every level. This should be at 20 points at level43
- at level30 make certain you have at least one saved skillpoint to put into Cold Mastery (you should have many more)

While leveling through your 30's I would boost Cold Mastery with the skillpoints you saved early on - at the same as you're putting points into Blizzard. Once Cold Mastery gets to around level 10-12, stop putting points into it and switch over to one of Blizzard's damage synergies (Glacial Spike, Ice Blast, etc.).


For progressing through with a the PvP Frozen Orb sorc I listed above, I'd spend 8-10 into Icebolt early on, then save most other skill points for level30, and then split the save skill points between Frozen Orb and Cold Mastery until they're gone. Then finish putting points into Frozen Orb before Cold Mastery (and finally, finish off Ice Bolt).



Also, I'm not sure if you saw my mention. Sorcs are the slowest-progressing character through the early-game (and their mana supply sucks early on). Once you start to get into level40 and higher, they really start to kick butt (although sorcs will always remain somewhat fragile - at least their mana does improve, eventually). However, the early game can be very slow-paced, and this can be discouraging. Don't let slow progress wear you down.

[Tylersh]

lol - that was for a PvM blizzsorc. gimme a sec and I'll give you a reasonable facimile.

Yeah, heh, that's what I changed my mind into (meaning I want a PvM "blizzsorc" :o), luckily I read the post, but don't remember the "what points when" thing :undecided:

[Tylersh]

http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=261493

Looks kind of like something I could go for, does it look fine to you guys?

[omgwtfbbqpwned]

Poops can handle the building stuff, so I'll take care of the rest.

Awesome Site (http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/) - has all the items listed, with a lot more information.

SP is much different from B.Net. If you want to play SP but not alone, go to the SP forum. There, you can interact via MP (questing, PvPing) or even trade at the trade forum.

Generally, main differences between SP and B.Net:

SP doesn't have Annihilus, Hellfire Torch (items), and their respective events. B.Net does. That is one aspect of Realm play you'll be missing out on. All other items other than those two can be found in SP. The other aspect is that B.Net realm play has runewords specific to it only (ie you cannot get them on SP naturally).

If you join the SPF, then:

SP doesn't have access to Realm-only runewords. B.Net does. HOWEVER, there is a Runeword mod that grants access to SP players.

SP uses ATMA, a program, to mule. B.Net relies on many many mules.

SP has about 50 active total members at a time (probably less in the upcoming future because of Hellgate), B.Net has thousands, which leads to:

i. SPF has an occasional idiot scammer/etc. that joins every so often, only to get banned within 1 week. Of those thousands, about almost one in every five people is an idiot, and sadly, God won't smite them.

ii. SPF doesn't encourage duping, so high-end runewords are nearly impossible unless you download an item pack or editor. On B.Net, there's plenty of dupers, and there's plenty of people who let C++ play for them while they go to elementary school and fail their grade 6 math class. This generates a huge pool of Runes and items.

[sirpoopsalot]

On B.Net, there's plenty of dupers, and there's plenty of people who let C++ play for them while they go to elementary school and fail their grade 6 math class for the 4th time. This generates a huge pool of Runes and items.

... I just had to correct this ommision. :wink:

And for the record, grade 6 was the hardest four years of my life. :tongue:

[Tylersh]

Thanks for the replies.

Also, what about energy, vitality? Not putting any points in energy doesn't seem like a good idea to me, but I don't know anything about D2 :p.

[sirpoopsalot]

Eventually your mana supply will catch up to your casting cost, even with no points spend in Energy - but it can be a painfully long time when you're first starting off. I would say that a few points into Energy isn't a horrible idea, but you should probably (definitely) not have more than 60 in it. Any spare points should go into vitality.

The only exception to my last paragraph: if you go with a build that uses Energy Shield (ES). Because ES redirects damage from life into mana, it makes sense to boost your mana. In that case, the usuall method is to have 50-70 points (total) in Vitality and all remaining points into Energy.

[Tylersh]

Alright, my sorc is level 11 now, I have put every single point into vitality, I feel like I should put a few into strength now, and maybe energy, but how many in each?

[sirpoopsalot]

Usually everyone will pump strength early to be able to wear better gear ASAP (plus, early monster attacks don't hurt that much, so low vitality isn't that troublesome). I would say about 50 total there would be a good start, but you should probably try to get it to ~70 before you complete normal difficulty.

Energy = whenever. It'll help you more early in the game.

As for how much... that's up to you. If you're playing mostly melee at this point, emphasize Str first. If you want to try switching to a caster, emphasize NRG first.

[Tylersh]

Usually everyone will pump strength early to be able to wear better gear ASAP (plus, early monster attacks don't hurt that much, so low vitality isn't that troublesome). I would say about 50 total there would be a good start, but you should probably try to get it to ~70 before you complete normal difficulty.

Energy = whenever. It'll help you more early in the game.

As for how much... that's up to you. If you're playing mostly melee at this point, emphasize Str first. If you want to try switching to a caster, emphasize NRG first.

Thanks for the reply.

Normal difficulty = act 1?

I believe it's level 13 now, I have put everything into vitality, except I put 2 into STR.

I am mainly casting at the moment, but the more and more I read about sticking with base energy, the more I don't want to put points into energy.. So I think I'll just go ahead and not put any into energy..

[sirpoopsalot]

normal difficulty = acts1 through 5 (usually you'll be level35 or higher before finishing normal difficulty. Since you're new to the game and don't have much for decent equipment yet, I'd recommend somewhere much closer to level45)

... once you finish those 5 acts, you're able to move on to Nightmare (exact same quests and the exact same acts where you start over in Act1, but the monsters become significantly harder), and finally on to Hell difficulty (where even the Blood Moor can be difficult when you're new to the game - but still, the same 5 acts).

[BlargX]

As sirpoopsalot says, "As for progressing through the game, sorcs run out of mana, so it's actually easier to go with a melee attack until at least level18".

That gives you some time to improve your spells and stats, and makes super early game mana worries unnecessary. If you're careful to check everything that drops, and sell off whatever you don't need, you should be fine with whatever melee junk you get. You'll probably be able to find at least a short staff or an eagle orb or two that lets you get a better level of spells or give you ones you don't have, and you can pop some chipped gems into some armor or a weapon or helm to quickly improve your character, too. Bear in mind that if you are meleeing a lot, those items and jewelry that give life and life regen and attack rating might be worth a lot more to you than mana gear for a good long while.

Read the trading forum long before you are seriously considering trading, to get an idea how it works and what things are worth to people. Save ALL your gems, because they are very tradeable for gear, especially at high levels, even in single-player, which has its own trade forum here.