View Full Version : need help on my orb sorc
crucialTK
07-07-2008, 22:57
hi all,
I currently have a level 63 orb sorc. Ive already maxed out orb / cold mastery / ice bolt and I'm not sure which skill I'd want to work on. Originally, I wanted to max teleport but I am now deciding against that. I am currently leaning towards thunderstorm but is that skill good anymore (?) back when I use to play before... TS was a godly skill.. is it a good investment... i feel i need at least a second elemental skill.... if its not worth it then should i just dump points into warmth and tele?
dougolasjr
07-07-2008, 23:00
It really depends on what you plan on doing with your orb sorc. If you are going to be rushing or mfing (meph, andy) then the points in Tele would be beneficial but not neccessary if you don't mind potting. I don't think the amount of points you can put into getting TS and LM would give you much damage.
crucialTK
08-07-2008, 00:36
It really depends on what you plan on doing with your orb sorc. If you are going to be rushing or mfing (meph, andy) then the points in Tele would be beneficial but not neccessary if you don't mind potting. I don't think the amount of points you can put into getting TS and LM would give you much damage.
well, I technically have 37 skill points I can put into TS and LM.. but will it be worth it? I dont mind potting and i have items that give me decent mana.... is there a better lightning / fire skill I can invest in?
Well I liked the oldschool without immunities. I tried a few 2 element specs but they just don't cut it. In classic most of the time you face masses of immune enemies TS is kinda helpless against all those.
With all my orbers I just used to skip the immunes and I had at least 15 points in static to cut down mobs hp. To face the facts orb isnt as effective as blizzard but with static helping it is fast enough and I like the play style a lot more. Static static orb static static orb.. teleporting around etc compared to blizzard blizz blizz blizz blizz blizzz blizz. You feel alot more in control with orb.
I'm not sure what u planning to do with your sorc. For soloing I did a lot of outer steppes and plains of despair.. also damned is a good place but if damned has those flesh spawners then it's kinda akward to play there. Also river of flame is nice when not grotesques. river and damned cold immunes are a bit hard to avoid since there is less room to teleport.
At higher levels I also soloed seal bosses (not seis obviosly). With some build i tried to find out if I can get seis down but he has high fire and light resses so it would need a very high damage alternative spell. Static can't take him much lower than 1/4 and after that u need some nice burst to get him down in 8 player games.
i never drink mana poitions since i have lvl 17 meditation aura insight on my merc so i would not invest any skill points into teleport.
I'd try to invest skill points into some other elemtal damage spells, but don't know if it'll work well. Built cl/orb sorc for mfing last ladder and while it was cool that i could kill everything in the game... the killing speed was quite slow in some places. That's why i built pure blizz sorc this ladder and im running no cold immunes arease only.
i never drink mana poitions since i have lvl 17 meditation aura insight on my merc so i would not invest any skill points into teleport.
I'd try to invest skill points into some other elemtal damage spells, but don't know if it'll work well. Built cl/orb sorc for mfing last ladder and while it was cool that i could kill everything in the game... the killing speed was quite slow in some places. That's why i built pure blizz sorc this ladder and im running no cold immunes arease only.
SInce when there have been runewords in classic?.. or mercs. Check the forum section where u are posting :)
I don't like sorc builds that doesn't have mana.. it was made to easy that u can now just buy mana pots from vendor. If u drank them like that all the time in 1.09 you would run out.
holy cow :x) will take a better look before i post something next time
if u want 2x elemental build tim, go with firewall/mastery. that can do quite a bit of dmg and it will stack. if not id recommend splitting tele/static. i would get static to about 10 yards then go with tele and maybe a few warmth. if u got 37 skill points u can be doing this much fire dmg with wall:
[2 pre req skills] 20 fire wall and 15 mastery = 2.9 k dmg per second for 3.6 seconds, so thats about 7 k per wall if u keep baddies in it, or stack them up thats gets pretty painful.
HegemonKhan
08-07-2008, 19:12
for my rush'er-mf'er orb sorc (currently lvl 81) i really like the skill choice i used.
maxed orb, icebolt, cm, than i maxed teleport (can't explain in words how nice it is. u have to try it in game and see. since this is my rush-mf sorc i wanted max teleport). than i had to decide what skills after that with the extra ones as i lvl more. i was like well with so few points nothing is really gonna help much. i could have (and might still put a pt into one of the cold armors. but i didnt really feel a few pts would really make much difference as i can usually jsut teleport away with some FCR from melee groups anyways) so i thought about cs. well since i was a pure cold sorc and thinking about cs and i didn't really ahve enough pts for a 2nd elem damage type, except for...static (lit damage). i decide to put my remaining points into static to boost its range slowly. right now the static range is still a bit short but im only lvl 81. a few more lvls and it'll be good sized range and very usefull. i am happy with these choices i make. it's working well.
so if u like my type of sorc build here is its skill placement:
max orb, icebolt, cm, teleport, static.
order of skill placement:
icebolt until char lvl 30. at char lvl 6 1 pt into static. at char lvl 18 1 pt into teleport (and its prequisite telekineses). at char lvl 24 1 pt into bliz (and its prequisites iceblast, glacial spike, frost nova..err can't remember if frost nova is needed for bliz or if its needed for orb...oh well). keep putting pts into icebolt until char lvl 30 but u use bliz for mass kills and icebolt for single monsters. at char lvl 30 put a pt into both orb and cm (and its prequisite frost nova if it wasn't needed to get bliz). now u put pts into orb. if u have extra skills and can't put into orb than put into cm. once orb is maxed than put into cm. when cm is maxed put into icebolt (if its not maxed already). than put into teleport. once teleport is maxed put into static. optionally, and whenever u want/can, put a pt into whatever cold armor, if u want to do so. i hadn't done so yet but if u want to u can.
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i have a real quick question to any one who knows:
1. does LM (lightning mastery) help static at all or not?
i've been told/read that monster lit resistances effect the static damage % it does. so thats why i am asking about lit mastery if it helps static or counters the monsters resistances' negative effects on static's % damage.
fledgeling
08-07-2008, 20:45
You dont need max cold mastery versus the monsters. They have a cap of 100% cold resistance (unless they are totally immune), thus you dont need more than 17 points (after +skills).
Personally, for a rush sorc I would give, 20 into teleport, 20 into orb, 14 or 15 (depending on +skills) into cold mastery, 5+ into warmth (or even much, much more, Im a big fan of warmth). I dont think there is much of a difference betwen a 300 and 400 dmg orb, when you are rushing, thus I would distribute the 20 spare points (no orb synergy) into some attack skills - say 3-5 points into static (instead of the usual 1) and 15 into chain lighthing/mastery. My tree of choice would be lightning, as I havent seen de-seis be both cold and lightning immune, while he often spans fire+cold immune (in nightmare).
But frankly speaking I have never tried rushing more than 4 ppl, so perhaps the additonal points into orb synergy are important. Currently I rush with my level 60 glitcher and use 1 (+2skills) static and a +2/3 chainlightning staff. It seems to work, but it takes a lot of time to kill de seis with 1-2 fillers. With more players in game I usually prefer to bring another char, because +7 chain lightning (from items) seems not to be enough
HegemonKhan
09-07-2008, 01:53
u probably are right about not needing so much cm, but i like to max it anyways for these "possible" reasons:
1. for option of/for/in dueling, cm is very needed.
2. if monsters have a 100% cold resist cap than would'nt a cm that does over 100% resist reduction, mean negative resistance to mosnters and thus your cold attack do more than normal damage?
when u have negatives resistances spells do above 100% damage to u. when u got -50% elem resist that elem does 1.5 (150%)its normal damage to u. so it should be same with monsters when u do it to them.
3 (and also adresses #2.). with conviction and/or LR (lower resist) monster elem immunities are broken, which than allows other skills or mods to take the resistance down even further for more damage!!!!!
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u are right that if a monster is immune to cold, CM IS USELESS, except...
when u have conviction or LR breaking that imunity which i mentioned jsut above in #3.
Arkansaw
09-07-2008, 04:06
Hmm...because of the points you 'wasted' into ice bolt, your second element will always be underpowered if you want to do long term rushing (the rush to hell act 4 variety). But I see there is no investment for static and teleport either? Then it's still okay, you can power up firewall enough, but perhaps at the expense of teleport (and your patience due to pots etc).
crucialTK
09-07-2008, 20:44
Hmm...because of the points you 'wasted' into ice bolt, your second element will always be underpowered if you want to do long term rushing (the rush to hell act 4 variety). But I see there is no investment for static and teleport either? Then it's still okay, you can power up firewall enough, but perhaps at the expense of teleport (and your patience due to pots etc).
i wouldnt say i wasted any points putting it into ice bolt.. because it gives a 2% bonus to orb...
Level 21 orb w/ 1 points to ice bolt: 281-296 cold dmg
Level 21 orb w/21 points to ice bolt: 391-413 cold dmg
or by "wasted" do you mean because its absolutely necessary for orb?
im sure you mean the latter... anyways i have one point in static and tele... thanks to +1 skill its 2 points. :D
HegemonKhan
09-07-2008, 22:56
i'll let him speak for himself,
but i think that what he/she means by "wasted" is that if u want to be duel/bi elem u need those 20 pts from icebolt into your 2nd elem and its mastery. its better to have 20 into cm than icebolt for u orb when u wanna (and need to) use those additional 20 pts into a 2nd elem and its mastery.
Arkansaw
10-07-2008, 04:23
Yea, I was referring to the latter. Pple who tend to do a lot of those rushes, can put up to 15 pts each into static and teleport, just to make some of that repetition less painful.
My last orb sorc at the synergy time had ice bolt maxed, orb maxed, cm at least 15 at that level. Then about 8 in energy shield and over 15 in static. Can't remember the exact numbers now im at work. But she had no second element. So by having that you need to cut out from somewhere :)
When it comes to ice bolts usefullness. Well all the lightning immune monsters die a lot faster at least. And I guess same goes to everything else. U get like 33% more damage when you have the synergy. 400 instead of 300/ shard. Some advantages are saving mana. You need to use static a bit less.
I need to test some more with my old sorc that doesn't have synergies.. I'll check how she can kill things and if it goes ok I prolly make a sorc with no ice bolt but perhaps firewall as another element. I wish I had some editor where I could test .P
I wish I had some editor where I could test .P
Hi Akse ;)
Theres a skill planner on d2skills.com, if that's what you are looking for.
http://diablo2.ingame.de/spiel/skills/calc/index.php?lang=en
Hi Akse ;)
Theres a skill planner on d2skills.com, if that's what you are looking for.
http://diablo2.ingame.de/spiel/skills/calc/index.php?lang=en
I've tried that but I wanna make an singleplayer char where I can test out if orb without synergies is able to do some kind of damage and If firewall is any good to kill cold immunes. :) I had some jamella's editor but I think its pre-lod one and the characters and items kinda bugged If I played later versions.
Arkansaw
14-07-2008, 15:36
You can try getting plugy version 8.00 from phrozen keep for character testing, although you need to have a set of the 1.11 dll files, since the mod is yet to be updated for 1.12
Thanks I think I try it or then I just build the sorc and it works if it works .) I prolly test out with my old orb sorc if no synergy orb can kill ok in 8 player games if it does then I just hope lvl 20 firewall can kill something with 1 in mastery .)
HegemonKhan
16-07-2008, 01:11
in an 8 player hell cs game orb is weak unless u have +skill gear for it and/or use static.
*but static is slow (not too effective) in hell cs because nearly all monsters have either really high lit resist and/or high life pool.
however, if u happen to have like 3 or more orb sorcs casting....u clean up 8 player hell cs easy, except the mages (including seis).....grr......
fire damage (like fire sorcs) are actually quite useful. since cold can kill nearly everything and what is cold immune is usually vulnerible to fire.
....poor lit (lightning).
fire and ice is really all u need to clear d2 from normal blood more to hell cs
Yeah ice and fire :)
I was pretty surprised that I was able to kill de seis with lightning level 4. It took a while to get him very low with static then cast lightning 2 times then static again and more lightning and suddenly it died. I think the game was full when I started to clear the CS with that old orb sorcer I have (no synergies). Was failrly easy to clear.. altho it took a lot of teleporting static and lots of orbs to take down mobs. When they were tightly packed and I was able to just nuke one pack it went down nicely but at the center area when lots of mobs was scattered and was orbing just to slow them down it took a while. I think there was still 5+ people in game when I killed de seis.
Anyway that sorc has pretty good gear in terms of + skills (2 sojs) so I doubt I will be able to make similar. But static is still ok in hell a4 imo. For lightning immune mobs I could throw some orbs first to slow then put up some firewall and then orbing.. would be some more damage like that. And visually nice and unique. I think I haven't seen any orb/fw sorcs in classic :P
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