does this build sound retarded?

[droc]

200 fcr nova sorc...with lots and lots and lots of mana! :laugh:
20 nova
20 mast
20es
20tk
20 warmth

with infinity merc

eshuta
griff
35%fcr spirit (low str req)
vipermagi
arach
magefists
dunno which boots...
2skill/20fcr ammy
10fcr ring
soj
torch
anni
9Light Gcs

i dont know what the dmg would be....but i think itd look cool as hell

or would it just make more sense to make a 200fcr lightning sorc...

[BobCox]

Nova was a good build at one time, when you could spam without next delay etc.

[sirpoopsalot]

I made a 200 FCR Nova sorc not that long ago, and it was a blast. I play Single Player (and don't have Infinity), so instead of TK/ES I had to have a backup attack - Firewall is what I chose. The matriarch writeup is here (http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=595701), if you'd care to read.

One problem I had was that the damage from Nova doesn't scale that well. If you get in a game with 8 players, you might be a little light on the killing power. I'm not sure how much of a difference Infinity would make though, so you might be fine.


Some points that I'd like to mention about your equipment.

- Infinity is bad*ss, but you're going to be gulping mana pots left-right-and-center. Hopefully you can party-up with someone else with an Insight merc.

- One item that you might want to look at for a weapon is Wizardspike. Especially without an Insight, I guarantee you'd love the HUGE boost to your mana pool. It's also got a little higher FCR, so you could swap in a 2nd SoJ and boost your mana even further (and get back +1 of the skills you'd loose). And Wizzy's +75 resists obviously aren't going to hurt you either.

- Even if you don't like a Wizardspike, I think that HotO is much better than Eschuta's. Since Eschuta's +damage is added to your mastery, it's like using a +3 Lightning skills, +1-2 Lightning Mastery wand with 40 FCR... really not that great when you consider what HotO (or Wizzy) offer instead.


Anyways, good luck if you try it. I think you'll like it, and I'm sure it will work well for you.

[sirpoopsalot]

Nova was a good build at one time, when you could spam without next delay etc.

I forgot to mention this previously, but according to this link the next-delay for Nova is 4-frames. Since you're casting at 7, it won't be a problem. It sure didn't seem to be a problem with my sorc.

http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=128208

[MYK]

I made a 200 FCR Nova sorc not that long ago, and it was a blast. I play Single Player (and don't have Infinity), so instead of TK/ES I had to have a backup attack - Firewall is what I chose. The matriarch writeup is here (http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=595701), if you'd care to read.

One problem I had was that the damage from Nova doesn't scale that well. If you get in a game with 8 players, you might be a little light on the killing power. I'm not sure how much of a difference Infinity would make though, so you might be fine.


Some points that I'd like to mention about your equipment.

- Infinity is bad*ss, but you're going to be gulping mana pots left-right-and-center. Hopefully you can party-up with someone else with an Insight merc.

- One item that you might want to look at for a weapon is Wizardspike. Especially without an Insight, I guarantee you'd love the HUGE boost to your mana pool. It's also got a little higher FCR, so you could swap in a 2nd SoJ and boost your mana even further (and get back +1 of the skills you'd loose). And Wizzy's +75 resists obviously aren't going to hurt you either.

- Even if you don't like a Wizardspike, I think that HotO is much better than Eschuta's. Since Eschuta's +damage is added to your mastery, it's like using a +3 Lightning skills, +1-2 Lightning Mastery wand with 40 FCR... really not that great when you consider what HotO (or Wizzy) offer instead.


Anyways, good luck if you try it. I think you'll like it, and I'm sure it will work well for you.

One could drop a frame an self carry an insight stick.

It takes gear and a half, and some more to make it work. Might not be worth the mana regen. Maybe.

[Darkoooo]

I think that this build could really work out ok. You'll have 95% ES, 0.75 Mana taken per 1 damage, average of ~2750 damage, with lots of mana, and Infinity merc. Nova sorces are a lot of fun, so go for it:wink3:.

Definatly switch out Eschuta's for HotO.

You might want to loose 2 skillers so you have 2*4 loose space in your inventory so you can grab something when it drops:wink3: (you won't loose the 95% ES, now you have it at lvl 42, and lvl needed for 95% ES is 40).

[Barrynor]

Nova was one of the killer builds in 1.09. There's no reason why it won't work now, especially if you first fire off some Static Fields really quick. With a lot of + lighting skills SF will have a decent enough range to shred some health, and Nova will do the rest. Either use FO (good for slowing things down, and a real winner since 1.01) or Firewall as a backup-spell. FO is fire-and-forget, and Firewall is fire-and-hope-they-burn. FO is easier on the skill points though, as 20 FO + skillers +1 CM will do a lot of damage already. That way you can

20 Nova
20 LM
20 TK
20 FO
1 CM
1 ES

and be done by 77-ish. You could even stick 20 pts in FW in there, and any leftovers in FM, for a 3-element build that won't be particulary weak or silly.

[DH Amazon]

Building Nova sorc at the moment. She is lvl84 now.
20 Nova -> gives 32-40 nova, depends what items I use
20 Mastery
20 Warmth -> as this a synergy to enchant I took different route
20 enchant -> lvl43 now
rest in fire mastery

I can quite easy solo all bosses while alone and I clear those tc85 areas in full games anyway (pit,ancient tunnel, maggot3, travi temples, river).

I reduced mana pool along the way, was too much with high warmth anyway.
But I use melee too for immunes, so I dont need that huge mana pool. I rarely need to use mana bottles, maybe one bottle per 1 min or so. And as a bonus mana stays full while teleing.

Your build is totally different, but nova still kills just fine. IF you have enough mana and IF you stay alive.

I use crescent moon (phase blade) for its -35%light resist and ignore target defense, so its perfect for this build. 210 str 200 dex and 1150 life at the moment. Max block, 45% psysical damage reduced and 7k defense (Prudence gives 2.3k) and resist maxed. So I stay alive just fine while spamming nova near monsters.


edit: My budget is what I found, so cant afford infinity. So no pure nova sorc for me.

[MalVeauX]

Heya,

I have a Nova sorc. They're insanely fun. They were fun back in 1.09 (and one of the widely made top ones). Now they don't have the punch they used to due to damage limitations (no snyergy to Nova... why the hell did they do that? Even frick'n orb got a synergy... grr), but it's fast to cast and since only Mastery is used with it, you can be free to either build a 2nd skill, or use Nova and Mastery as synergy to another lighting skill (like Lighting or ChainLight), or you can go for something else, like Orb for the LI's (which I recommend, since you will meet up with those).

I find you don't need ES/TK and all that in PvM. In PvP sure, but PvM, you will spam Nova `zog zog zog' and they die. Your merc will attract most of the heat as you teleport around to zap things. When you blast nova really fast, they get a little animation often. You should be fine.

I will point out that I don't have godly stuff for my Nova. Mine's a budget fun build. I focused on FCR too, not +skills. If you can get higher damage, great, but FCR is what I cared about because I'd rather hit something several times with lower damage than slow with higher damage. I found with high cast rate, I didn't need block or anything... most things are dead before it matters.

Oh, and I use a Prayer Merc with Insight for double heal and mana regen.

Cheers,

[Arek]

"Mental retardation is a term for a pattern of persistently slow learning of basic motor and language skills ("milestones") during childhood, and a significantly below-normal global intellectual capacity as an adult. One common criterion for diagnosis of mental retardation is a tested intelligence quotient (IQ) of 70 or below and deficits in adaptive functioning.

People with mental retardation may be described as having developmental disabilities, global developmental delay, or learning difficulties.

Signs
There are many signs. For example, children with developmental disabilities may learn to sit up, to crawl, or to walk later than other children, or they may learn to talk later. Both adults and children with intellectual disabilities may also

have trouble speaking
find it hard to remember things
have trouble understanding social rules
have trouble discerning cause and effect
have trouble solving problems
have trouble thinking logically.
persistence of infantile behaviour.
In early childhood mild disability (IQ 60–70) may not be obvious, and may not be diagnosed until children begin school. Even when poor academic performance is recognized, it may take expert assessment to distinguish mild mental disability from learning disability or behavior problems. As they become adults, many people can live independently and may be considered by others in their community as "slow" rather than retarded.

Moderate disability (IQ 50–60) is nearly always obvious within the first years of life. These people will encounter difficulty in school, at home, and in the community. In many cases they will need to join special, usually separate, classes in school, but they can still progress to become functioning members of society. As adults they may live with their parents, in a supportive group home, or even semi-independently with significant supportive services to help them, for example, manage their finances.

Among people with intellectual disabilities, only about one in eight will score below 50 on IQ tests. A person with a more severe disability will need more intensive support and supervision his or her entire life.

The limitations of cognitive function will cause a child to learn and develop more slowly than a typical child. Children may take longer to learn to speak, walk, and take care of their personal needs such as dressing or eating. Learning will take them longer, require more repetition, and there may be some things they cannot learn. The extent of the limits of learning is a function of the severity of the disability.

Nevertheless, virtually every child is able to learn, develop, and grow to some extent."

-source: wikipedia.org

Please be so kind and stop using this verb if you aren't using it to it's meaning. I have no doubts that you didn't mean it bad, bud still it sounds very ugly and it might to embitter people. There are so many other words you can use, please do it.

[droc]

[QUOTE=Arek;5999165]"Mental retardation is a term for a pattern of persistently slow learning of basic motor and language skills ("milestones") during childhood, and a significantly below-normal global intellectual capacity as an adult. One common criterion for diagnosis of mental retardation is a tested intelligence quotient (IQ) of 70 or below and deficits in adaptive functioning.


sorry if i offended you, but what i mean by "retarded" is SLOW which is one definition:

v. re·tard·ed, re·tard·ing, re·tards

v. tr.
To cause to move or proceed slowly; delay or impede.

v. intr.
To be delayed.

n.

1. A slowing down or hindering of progress; a delay.
2. Music A slackening of tempo.

(Courtesy of dictionary.com)

Nova sorcs are notorious for low dmg, ergo being slow or retarded...since they dont have synergies, so i was wondering if it was a good idea for a gg sorc. i should have said VIABLE. Sorry!

[droc]

why should i sub eschuta (3skill, +25% LD, -5% ELR with a +5/-5 facet) for HotO? ive never played a char that used hoto so i dont know all the nice things about hoto aside from resists

i will only have 7GCs if i can get that many b/c i like to pick things up :rolleyes:

if i ever get this guy going ill let you guys know how the build works out...

also for merc im thinking of using Infinity non-eth Scythe, Treachery (for IAS and resists from fade), Gface or Andy's visage. this will allow me to use infinity if i so desire b/c of low str reqs, and if i leave it on merc, he wont die every 2 sec in Chaos sanc! plus lots of IAS with 75% CB is always nice

[sirpoopsalot]

why should i sub eschuta (3skill, +25% LD, -5% ELR with a +5/-5 facet) for HotO?

like I said, the Escuta's is like a +3 skills, +2 Lightning Mastery magic wand... HotO has the same +3 skills, but instead of +2 Lightning Mastery you get nice resistances, and a boost to mana as your primary benefits. It also has a little bit of dexterity, and will help you regenerate a little life. For almost everyone, that's worth +2LM. One other often-overlooked aspect of HotO is the charges of Raven.

*waits for the sound of laughter to die down*.

Sometime you're using HotO and Gloams are spanking you, try setting a few ravens free and see what happens. Blind gloams = safe gloams.

[Arek]

I took it too much seriously yesterday. Now i see it from more angles again, after some sweet rest :smiley: . My apologies

I think this sorcy is cool in lower acts, where nova tears trough all non lightning imune. Making her good pit or countess runner, with frozen orb as a secondary attack for example. The problem are higher acts, where almost all monsters have tremendous hitpoints supported by high resistancies. There nova falls to mediocre, very uncomfortable spell. Also i play single player too, but can imagine nova to work well with infinity and other ladder yummies :fortuneteller: .

[droc]

[QUOTE=sirpoopsalot;6000851]like I said, the Escuta's is like a +3 skills, +2 Lightning Mastery magic wand... HotO has the same +3 skills, but instead of +2 Lightning Mastery you get nice resistances, and a boost to mana as your primary benefits. It also has a little bit of dexterity, and will help you regenerate a little life. For almost everyone, that's worth +2LM. One other often-overlooked aspect of HotO is the charges of Raven.

hmmm...interesting. i guess i'll have to test out both and see which i like better. also, since i have no experience with light sorcs, i was thinking that if the nova build wasnt exactly what i was expecting (it wont be as powerful as a pure lightning sorc b/c dmg is so poor in comparison) i can remake her with lightning as my main focus (with synergies maxed) instead, still with 200%fcr. with lightning i think that the dmg bonus would be worth the eschuta for sure...but then again i dont really play sorcs, so i would like your feed back. Thanks!

[dejavoodoo]

Building Nova sorc at the moment. She is lvl84 now.
20 Nova -> gives 32-40 nova, depends what items I use
20 Mastery
20 Warmth -> as this a synergy to enchant I took different route
20 enchant -> lvl43 now
rest in fire mastery

I can quite easy solo all bosses while alone and I clear those tc85 areas in full games anyway (pit,ancient tunnel, maggot3, travi temples, river).

I reduced mana pool along the way, was too much with high warmth anyway.
But I use melee too for immunes, so I dont need that huge mana pool. I rarely need to use mana bottles, maybe one bottle per 1 min or so. And as a bonus mana stays full while teleing.

Your build is totally different, but nova still kills just fine. IF you have enough mana and IF you stay alive.

I use crescent moon (phase blade) for its -35%light resist and ignore target defense, so its perfect for this build. 210 str 200 dex and 1150 life at the moment. Max block, 45% psysical damage reduced and 7k defense (Prudence gives 2.3k) and resist maxed. So I stay alive just fine while spamming nova near monsters.


edit: My budget is what I found, so cant afford infinity. So no pure nova sorc for me.


By any chance is there a guide to this?

[sirpoopsalot]

By any chance is there a guide to this?

you just posted it. :tongue:

Lemme summarize (based on my single-player style of play - so no rushes):
- melee through act1, until at least level18
- switch over to +mana/mana regen. gear and start using Nova at the start of Act2. Manald Heal rings, Perfect Sapphire Helm/Armor, and Tir runes in a shield/weapon will make life bearable. If you don't have that much equipment, it's probably easier to spend a few points in Enchant and Warmth and stay melee for a while, then switch over to points in Nova/LM after...
- level27 - give your merc an Insight polearm (I have one in a halberd - it rocks)
- level27+. equip +skills, +mana, +fcr gear. kill things. Nova primary, enchant/melee backup.

Str & Dex: enough for equipment (and maybe/probably max-block)
Vit: Everything else


... other than equipment, that about sums it up.

[dejavoodoo]

Are you unsure about the equipment, or is it pretty much crecent moon + whatever I decide to use? Which will be the standard it seems: shako, spirit shield, frostburns, then fcr res rings, res ammy w/ + skills, and some boots w/ res.

[DH Amazon]

By any chance is there a guide to this?

What you like to know, its quite simple to use. Sorc is lvl92 now and still going strong. Soloed all exp, dont like baalruns. Got killed once while over 85, one boss exploded too strongly. Its not too easy to play, still lots of near deaths while killing archers etc... in full games.

In that other thread more info about this build. I didn't build using any guide, I just build it around that one sword.

Max block with Stormshield and Shako together gives nice damage reduced. Add crescent moon phase blade and you have almost basic components for this build. Sword gives 20ias, so 30 ias more is needed for fastest attack. So ias jool in Shako and rest from armor or gloves.

Found nice rare jool, planning to put in stormshield to replace perfect diamond. Got enough resist, so I changed LoH gloves to magefist. Ias jool in armor. Lvl44 enchant so far, fire mastery not maxed yet, 17 hard points in that so far, so 3 lvls to go.

Typical run in full games: Pits, Ancient tunnel, whole Maggot or Travi Temples.
(actually all areas possible in full games except iron maiden curse ones)
While soloing: Killing all monsters in all lvls while walking to baal. Nova is fast enough to kill cursing nights.

edit: I use 3xtal (armor+amu+belt) for MF bonus. If just pure damage then other items are better. And If I need to clear area with lots of souls, I change Tal belt to Thunder Gods belt.

No frostburns, got more than enough mana. Spirit shield is just to cast enchant and while teleing around. Upped vipermagi is good armor too. Or Gladiators Bane, but hard to get resist .
Havent found perfect vipermagi yet, so havent tried upped armor with this build.

[dejavoodoo]

So no spirit? I am going to assume that in this build the blocking is very important as most people use spirit for anything, yet I know the blocking is much lower than stormshield.

[sirpoopsalot]

Are you unsure about the equipment, or ...

Too lazy, actually. :grin: There are a lot of viable options, and a lot of room for personal preference (you can tell that with my choice of shield/helm vs. DH Amazon's, IMO both would work: FCR & -ELR on my setup versus PDR on his... both tie back to the balance provided by the rest of your gear too).

If I tried this, I'd aim for 63 FCR, max-block, and get most of the rest of my gear towards melee benefits. 105FCR is very nice, but it would mean a significant majority of your equipment is caster-focused, and you might find your melee ability limited. I could be wrong though - I haven't tried this.

One thing that I'm fairly certain about though: you do NOT want to use Spirit. If you have cresent moon phase blade, you already have a lot of points spent in dexterity - if you add on the points for the strength requirement of a Spirit, that means you won't have very many points in vitality... and a 500 HP melee sorc is a dead sorc. A different base weapon for the CM might make some sense, but then you're probably getting a significantly slower attack and no-block (or less block, at least).

Here's what I'd most likely aim towards for end-game:

CM phaseblade
2xPdiamond Moser's Blessed Circle (+8% more blocking if you can afford to upgrade it)
Griffon's Eye (I think you'd want this more than a Shako)
Magefists
CoH (if you can afford one) / Vipermagi / Smoke
... those 5 I'm fairly certain about, then after that I'd look at (I haven't 'done the math' to figure out the exact resists/stats/etc):

rare belts with resists, stats, FHR / String of Ears / Arachnids Mesh
rare boots with resists and FR/W / Goreriders / Wartrav's
Ravenfrost
rare ring with FCR, resists, and/or leech / SoJ / BKWB
Maras / crafted caster amulet / Cresent Moon (amulet) / Metalgrid


*****
Edit: mostly too slow :p

To answer your question Spirit is great for most casters, but it pretty much sucks for melee (because it doesn't provide much for defensive abilities). Since you're a hybrid, and since sorcs are generally quite fragile, I think you'll really want more defense from your shield.

[DH Amazon]

So no spirit? I am going to assume that in this build the blocking is very important as most people use spirit for anything, yet I know the blocking is much lower than stormshield.

You kind of need stormshield and max block while taking archers pack while amplify curse is on you. Merc has 1.5x life, he goes down much easier and still sorc can take those archers down. No need to visit town and remove curses.

Spirit is still best fcr shield and you have str to wear. So its best weapon switch shield. This build lack fcr while using Stormshield, so good to have 105fcr or at least 65 fcr while teleing around.

edit:
Leech (mana or life) is not needed, or its quite useless anyway, because 95% damage is elemental anyway.

Cant afford/never tested Griffon eye. Might be good, but then need to get some life from others items. And there are places where you need to take some boss down, because merc cant survive, so extra damage reduced is not bad. You can/need to play aggressively this build, its the way I like to play with sorc. Tele from monster to monsters. Because no leech, you need to drink quite a lot bottles in hard places.

I have Crescent Moon in other sword too, but I like phase better. No repairing and got dex anyway to use it. And faster attack.
Dungo better that String belt, that leech is quite useless for this. Arach is good if you want to use nova more, but this is more like 80% melee 20% caster type of build.

CoH I tested, but got enough resist already and more fcr (vipermagi) or more mf (tal) I like better. And it was friends armor anyway, so no real option to use.

[dejavoodoo]

Ok cool, Thanks. I'm definitely going to try this build next.

[Foolishpleazure]

like I said, the Escuta's is like a +3 skills, +2 Lightning Mastery magic wand... HotO has the same +3 skills, but instead of +2 Lightning Mastery you get nice resistances, and a boost to mana as your primary benefits. It also has a little bit of dexterity, and will help you regenerate a little life. For almost everyone, that's worth +2LM. One other often-overlooked aspect of HotO is the charges of Raven.

*waits for the sound of laughter to die down*.

Sometime you're using HotO and Gloams are spanking you, try setting a few ravens free and see what happens. Blind gloams = safe gloams.



Except that,theres a glitch with the raven charges in HOTO..for some reason you cast them,they fly around for about a second,then POOF.....they dissapear.

[JSfly]

Theres some videos of one of the sorcs ya'll are talking about in action.

Pvm:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLgLJzu6lvo

Pvp:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOc9ZjiPmpw