PVP FO/ES Questions!

[SepticFairTrader]

Looking for a fun PvP char that isin't completly useless in PvM and decided on a Frost Orb / Energy Shield Sorc based on this guide

http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=269825

However this guide is abit outdated and I was wondering if anyone knew a more up to date FO/ES guide :crazyeyes:

A few thoughts too:

I cant decide on what shield! The guide is very confusing and doesn't even mention stormshield. Is stormshield / sanctuary the best for all purpose pvp? your input is welcome!

What Frost armour to use? thinking of 1 point in Shiver Armour to help pvp :)

that's all for now, any one whos made this build or knows alot about please leave info or links to good guides and I'll appreciate it.

1 more question: Am i barking up the wrong tree with Frost Orb? Is Fire/light massively better in pvp? I wouldnt mind building a fireball/light ES sorc either so input on those builds also welcome!

Thanks for reading.

[scottymill]

For some input on the diff element sorcs....I'll just give my opinions and/or experiences. I am making a lightning es max block sorc right now but it is not even close to being finished so cant really say much bout it. I have had a 200 fcr Fire sorc and she was prob top two best duelers I have ever had. She was not es tho but prob woulda been even better if she was. I have never mad a es orber but have dueled one, cant remember her name right now but she was the best dueling sorc I have ever faced. I did not ever see her lose and she always whipped me pretty good although this was when I was using my necro a lot.

[melianor]

Why should it be outdated, or which parts do you think to be outdated. If the publishing date is just old, then the build is still correct and viable, since there have not been any game element changes in 1.12a.

[SepticFairTrader]

Why should it be outdated, or which parts do you think to be outdated. If the publishing date is just old, then the build is still correct and viable, since there have not been any game element changes in 1.12a.

Published in 2004, thought there had been some changes since then but I may be wrong :whistling: ok fine the guides pretty much up to date :jig:

Thanks for your input scottymill, nice to hear the orb/es build gave you problems :) - or at least for my purposes!

I am still not entirely sure on what gear to aim for, but this is what I think atm:

Helm: Nightwing's Veil with 5-5 facet
Amulet: Tal amulet or a rare with 2 skills / fcr
Weapon: Death Fathom with 5-5 facet
Shield: NO IDEA !
Switch: CTA / skill shield (spirit or lidless depending on strength)
Armour: Ormus Robe: + 3 warmth/teleport 15 % cold with 5-5 facet
Ring 1: Soj
Ring 2: another soj or fcr rare ring.
Gloves: Frostburns
Belt: Arachnid
Boots: Silkweave (10 % mana boost)

I've gone for mainly + mana items as I see fcr less useful on a orb sorc(inbuilt cast delay)

My MAIN PROBLEM Is what shield should I use? the guide in the Original post does not cover the shields very well imo, doesnt even mention Stormshield. I have no clue what shield to go for.
I know resists are pretty worthless for ES builds so im thinking possibly the stormshield with -15 % requirments jewel because of DR and I would like to have maxblock. This would also mean i can have Spirit on switch to boost CTA and bo.

So any opinions on my gear choices? I didnt do charms but thats pretty self explantory to hit the breakpoints of fhr ill need cold skillers with fhr, and ignore resists a bit. Life sc's or +life on skillers be less useful than mana i spose for this ES build.

Please post if you think this setup is "wrong" or could be better. And What shield do you think i should go for? Yes im going for max block btw :)

[scottymill]

Dont think you wont need fcr just because your an orb sorc and its a timer spell. The thing i guess i forgot to mention about that sorc that owned me was that she was very fast and a good teleporter. You need to at least reach the 105 breakpoint, not for orb but for teleport. and dont forget about Sanctuary shield. Resists are prob more important that you are thinking because a big elemental attack will drain your es.

[SepticFairTrader]

Dont think you wont need fcr just because your an orb sorc and its a timer spell. The thing i guess i forgot to mention about that sorc that owned me was that she was very fast and a good teleporter. You need to at least reach the 105 breakpoint, not for orb but for teleport. and dont forget about Sanctuary shield. Resists are prob more important that you are thinking because a big elemental attack will drain your es.

Ok I see your point, fcr and resists cant be ignored.

So your advising Sanctuary? I was leaning towards whistans guard for the mega block and to free up lots of stat points for energy. My problem with Sanctuary is the high strength requirement..... (127) in a Hyperion, as suggested in the guide, maybe a different shield would be better for it as its only a 3 sox runeword.

More advice welcome!

Still not sure :scratchchin:

[scottymill]

It also says tower shield in the guide which is only 75 str i believe and will do just as good of a job blocking as hyperion, 64% block on both shields. Id just use tower shield, thats what i plan on using with my sorc.

[SepticFairTrader]

Looks like the perfect gear I will aim for will be :

Helm: Nightwing's Veil with 5-5 facet (20-5 cold + 20 dex + sorb + 2 skills)
Amulet: Crafted with 2 sorc skills 20 FCR + mana / life + resists
Weapon: Death Fathom with 5-5 facet (3 skills + 20 FCR + cold dmg)
Shield: Sanctuary Tower Sheild (64% block, 20% FHR, +20 dex, 7 MDR, 50-70 all resists)
Switch: CTA / Lidless Wall
Armour: Ormus Robe: + 3 warmth +20 fcr +regenmana 10-15% + 15% cold with 5-5 facet
Ring 1: Soj (1 skills 25 % more mana)
Ring 2: 10 FCR +mana +stats + resists
Gloves: Frostburns (40 % max mana) - Possibly swapped for magefist because of FCR problems.....
Belt: Arachnid (1 skills, 20 fcr, %5 max mana)
Boots: Silkweave (10 % mana boost)

CHARMS:
20 attributes annihuls
20 attributes sorc hellfire torch
9 cold skillers (5x 12FHR 4 x +life/mana)
2 sc's with 5 FHR
rest will be sc's with 5 all res or life/mana

my final str/dex stats will be:

+40 strength (none from gear only from torch/anni)
So I will have 50str with charms and will need to put some points in here to wear all my gear.

+80 dex (40 charms/40 from gear) will help me save points for more in energy!

Should have plenty for energy then....


Break Points:

Aiming for 86 FHR: so with my gear above I get only 20 FHR from the shield, therefore I will get 60 more FHR from 5 cold skillers with 12 FHR and the final 6 % from 2 sc's with 5 FHR.
If there's a better way to get that FHR please post :)

Aiming for 105 FCR: so with my gear above I have only 90 FCR, 15 less than I need. I could reach this by changing my frostburns for magefist gloves but then I lose a huge chunk of Mana. I could swap the Soj out for 10 more FCR but I need 15 :scratchchin:


Still a few problems with this, how to reach that 105 FCR without losing frostburns is the main issue.

Still a work in progress, any more advice on what to change please post ! especially you scottymill ! my sole help atm :whistling: much appreciated

[scottymill]

FHR was the same prob I was having with my sorc so i just gave it up and debating just goin 200 fcr or just not worrying about max block on my sorc. As for the FCR i would just drop frostburns and add trangs or magefist. Just a habit for me to go with trangs, dunno why. Anyways magefist will give an extra skill to warmth and will get you the breakpoint you need. You will lose some mana from frostburns but you will gain survivability by being more mobile and faster. Setup looks pretty good IMO. you could always drop the ormus and get a vipermagi, 30 fcr and see what setups you get from that.

[SepticFairTrader]

FHR was the same prob I was having with my sorc so i just gave it up and debating just goin 200 fcr or just not worrying about max block on my sorc. As for the FCR i would just drop frostburns and add trangs or magefist. Just a habit for me to go with trangs, dunno why. Anyways magefist will give an extra skill to warmth and will get you the breakpoint you need. You will lose some mana from frostburns but you will gain survivability by being more mobile and faster. Setup looks pretty good IMO. you could always drop the ormus and get a vipermagi, 30 fcr and see what setups you get from that.

Nice to hear from you :crazyeyes: Yes I didn't consider vipermagi, hmmm.

If I use a viper, my FCR problems can be solved by swapping the soj out for another 10 fcr ring. so the options are:

OPTION ONE: Ormus robe (20%) + Magefist (20%) + soj + 10 fcr ring (10%) which equals 110 fcr overall from my gear.

or

OPTION TWO: Vipermagi (30%) + Frostburns (0%) + 2 x 10 fcr rings (20%) which also equals 110 FCR overall.

So FCR is fine for both options, however when comparing the other stats...


OPTION ONE will have:

+15% cold damage
+15% + 25% = +40% regen mana
+3 skills to warmth or teleport
+1 skills to fire (1 to warmth)
+1 to all skills (soj)
+25% mana boost
+ some random stats/resists from the one rare 10 FCR ring

OPTION TWO will have:

+1 to all skills (viper)
MDR by 13 (viper)
+35 resist all (viper)
+40% mana boost (frostburns)
+some random stats/resists from TWO rare 10 FCR rings.

So if we compare the options, option one has alot more damage (15%) when compared to option two with a slightly smaller boost to the mana pool (25 % compared to 40%). Option two may have ~35 or so more resists but I'll have plenty of resists from the Sanctuary shield and this should not be a problem for a ES build.

Therefore I am leaning towards option one for the boost to orb damage (15% cold damage) ASWELL as keeping a decent mana pool boost 25% AND having 40% regen mana which option two does not have.

Please give me your opinions on which option you think is best and why?.

Still a work in progress, but progress has been made :D

Definatly closer to my new sorc :) thanks scottymill and post what you think of ze two options :yes:

btw had alot to drink so tell me if theirs spelling problems or stuff that doesnt make sense :D

[scottymill]

Glad to hear im not the only one drinking tonight lol and chicks coming over now so i aint on long but option one looks fine too me if it looks go to you. Should have yourself a good sorc. Hope it works out, let me know how it goes.

[SepticFairTrader]

will do Scotty :D

Im not quite rich enough to buy all the bits yet so still some time for more planning.

the skills im definatly going for are:

20 frost orb
20 cold mastery
20 telekinis
1 in warmth
1 in cold/light prerequests
only 1 to start with then left over points in ES

Then im thinking of 20 in icebolt to raise my damage, and the remaining points into energy shield which wont be much, probably get ES to like lvl 14 by lvl93....

Seems crazy not to max ES on a ES build, However im planning to use and figure out some prebuff gear like Memory staff +9 ES, which should get my ES up to 40 or so after bo/prebuff.

If not ill just take those points out of icebolt (only 40 % dmg) and go for

20 Frost orb
20 cold mastery
20 telekninis
20 energy shield
1 in prerequests
rest in warmth