max block or full vita

[dcrunk]

Hello sorceress fans. It is my first time posting here on the sorceress forums and have been reading alot on different sorceress builds and find great information everywhere but right now i'm building a meteorb sorceress at lvl 77... and have some stat points to invest.:scratchchin: I am wondering is full block better than all vita? I know they prob both have their perks but would like to know what end game stats/ gear if i am to go either route. Right now im using a

Spirit broadsword (30 fcr)
Lidless
rare resists armor
Lore helm
rare resists mf boots
fcr rings
2 cold skills resists amulet
goldwrap
resists gloves/ no fcr at the moment can switch to trangs if need be.

So with these im doing well with countess/pitt runs but am concerned about hell meph when i get to him...Countess can be bad if I tele into pack and get locked up. I dont use energy shield either. Input and questions welcome

Thanks :thumbsup:

[Ilumm]

Hello sorceress fans. It is my first time posting here on the sorceress forums and have been reading alot on different sorceress builds and find great information everywhere but right now i'm building a meteorb sorceress at lvl 77... and have some stat points to invest.:scratchchin: I am wondering is full block better than all vita? I know they prob both have their perks but would like to know what end game stats/ gear if i am to go either route. Right now im using a

Spirit broadsword (30 fcr)
Lidless
rare resists armor
Lore helm
rare resists mf boots
fcr rings
2 cold skills resists amulet
goldwrap
resists gloves/ no fcr at the moment can switch to trangs if need be.

So with these im doing well with countess/pitt runs but am concerned about hell meph when i get to him...Countess can be bad if I tele into pack and get locked up. I dont use energy shield either. Input and questions welcome

Thanks :thumbsup:

The main problem with max block on a sorceress is that her shields have a really low block chance and you would need a lot of block.There is a thread somewhere in the knowledge library showing houw much dex you would need and it would just be too much (if i can remember right somewhere around 250 at lvl 80-85).

So my decision(just started a sorc also) would be:
156str(for 4s monarch-spirit)(if you know you can afford ani/torch/etc lower this)
min dex
max vita
min energy.

I have been helped the past days to decide this by other forum members and i thought to return the favor to someone.

[sirpoopsalot]

Lidless is not a good blocking shield, so I would not pursue max-block with it as your shield. If you decide to pursue a different shield, then blocking can become a more desirable choice.

In my opinion, as a rule-of-thumb, if you're going to get max-block with a sorceress, the shield she's using should have a 60% (or higher - preferably higher) inherent chance to block. Lidless Wall has a 40% chance to block for sorceresses, so it's significantly below my "cut-off" line.

Gimme a second and I'll edit in a link to an overview of some of the most common "good" shields for sorceresses...
Edit: Here ya go (http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showpost.php?p=5877158&postcount=3)

Edit2: In the case of that post, Spirit, LidlessWall, and Splendor are not good blocking shields, but all of the other options can reasonably pursue max-block.

[melianor]

I agree with sirpoopsalot here. The only really viable blocking shields are the one's listed in that post, apart from "Spirit" shield of course.

If you do not use Mosers, Visceratuant or stormshield just keep heading down the vitality route. Both ways work, its mostly a matter of gear choice.

[dmg1]

Why should it be only "all vita" or "max block"? Is there some reason not to put some points in dex and most in block?

[sirpoopsalot]

Why should it be only "all vita" or "max block"? Is there some reason not to put some points in dex and most in block?

No reason; in fact, a few of us do this sometimes.

In my case, if I'm using Spirit or Lidless, the inherent block on the shield is so low that I just go with full-vita.

But if I'm using another shield with a better blocking %, I commonly get 800-1000 life (to help negate the chance of 1-hit-kills and lower the chance of being sent into hit recovery) and then put the rest into dexterity - sometimes ending up with 50% or 60% blocking as a result.

This works fine for PvM, but generally in PvP you'll want max-block or full-vita.

[Animation]

Wow! 800-1000 life? Nice. I thought I was doing good with 750 Life. I do have max block and max resists and +6 to all skills, 70% FCR. and about 180% MF though. I do struggle a bit on the Life Orb, though I managed to get through to the end of Act 5 (havent passed Hell Ancients). I have found that 750 life is enough.

Anyway, am I right in thinking that Spirit is Ladder/Online only? I play single player. I prefer the max blocking. One of my Sorceresses uses a Moser's (the one above) and the other one (only level 78) uses a PDiamond in a Viscertaunt or whatever.

I didnt know that upgrading the Viscertaunt would up the blocking percentage. I need to go research what STR the upgrade would require. This may let me back down off my Dex some. Well, the Viscertaunt-wielding spellwitch is level 78 or thereabouts, so there isnt a lot of backing down to be done, but I can back down a bit over the next 10 levels.

Anyway, thanks for the thread, even if I'm a late-comer. :) Its just interesting to read about other approaches. I prefer extremes so the middle-block route would freak me out. :)

Lewis

[sirpoopsalot]

I play single player too, but in my case, I'm rich... filthy rich... 800+ life really is nothing to me anymore. You're right that you can do very well with ~750 though.

And an upgraded Visceratuant requires 77 strength; which is still pretty reasonable. If you can afford the runes, it's definitely a good candidate because it'll save you a moderate amount of dexterity for max-block (about ~25 points at level85, iirc), and the shield even gets a decent improvement to defense when upgraded.


And yes, Spirit is a ladder-only runeword. There is a gamemod in the single player forum that enables these runewords (but doesn't change gameplay otherwise), that's used by a large percentage of the SP community.