Rebuilding my Tals Nova sorc, need input on skills

[leifper]

Hi everyone. im currently enjoying my lvl 88 full tals nova sorc. Kicking *** and loving it. But, im pure light, so having trouble with LI's, obviously. So I am toying with the idea of rebuilding her, with a backup skill for LI's. My skill points now is:

20 nova
20 lightning mastery
20 ES
20 TK
~15 Warmth
+ prerequisites

My gear is full tals, lidless eye (but i have a 26%FCR monarch i will use if i rebuild her, will put more points in str.), 2x10%fcr rings, aldurs boots and magefist gauntlets. so Ive reached the 105% FCR breakpoint. stats are around 100 str, base dex, 150 (I think) vit and aounrd 200 energy.

This setup kicks totally ***, spamming nova kills everything except LI's, im doing alot of keyruns and hell mephruns. But, I feel that I have invested too many points in ES/TK. its at 85% dr now, which is great, casue i dont loose any life at all, except against mana burn mobs or poison attacks.

But with just 1 skillpoint in ES and 14 in TK to reach the 1to1 dmg to mana ratio, i would still have a 61% dr ES after my 10 +skills from tals/torch. This, along with alot less points that i wasted in warmth, i would have around 40/45 extra skill points to use.

BUT, and heres the question, which skill should i go for as a backup/alternate attack to nova?

Im kinda leaning towards frozen orb, cause its a great skill. But its timered, so it wouldnt benefit from my 105FCR.
Fire ball is an option, but it seems weaker thatn FO, but again, this I can spam like a madman, so maybe its about equal? Meteor maybe, or glacial spike? remember ive got around 40-45 skill points, so Im thinking max a skill+synergy and a few points in the mastery, along with my +10 to all skills should be enough for som decent damage.

Some input here on what you would recommend would be really appriciated.

Regards Mike

[redground]

frozen orb is timered, but when it is fully synergised it kils almost any LI in one hit, if you aim it right it is an awesome skill.

And yeah, you benefit from your 105FCR because you never cast FO and stay.. Cast->teleport->Cast->teleport.....

[leifper]

Started rebuilding it earlyer today. now at lvl 65, with maxxed FO, maxxed Nova and working on synergies and masteris. So far it all seems great, much more flexible now. so FO/Nova its is.

Final buils will be something like this:

Nova - 20
Lightning mastery 15-20
ES - 1
TK - 16-20

FO 20
Cold mastery - 1
Ice bolt - ~9

1 warmth/shiver armour + some prequisites. Looks to be quite good.

[zionhuyga]

If you have a light sorc that can't kill light immunes, may I suggest Infinity? :yes:

Also, points in ice bolt aren't really needed and are mostly wasted if you put it there. They only increase orb damage by 2% per point anyway. I'd definitely put those points to maxing lightning mastery and telekinesis instead. Also, you should put a point in thunderstorm since with maxed lightning mastery and +skills, thunderstorm can do some good damage.

[leifper]

At lvl 85, light mastery will be maxed, and telekinesis at lvl 16. but i guess putting 4 more points into TK instead of ice bolt would be better. And I'll see about the thunderstorm, I've always seen it as a unneccasary skill, with not too much dmg, and slow attack speed, if you can call it that. But maybe I'll give it a try, after all it's only one point.

[redground]

At lvl 85, light mastery will be maxed, and telekinesis at lvl 16. but i guess putting 4 more points into TK instead of ice bolt would be better. And I'll see about the thunderstorm, I've always seen it as a unneccasary skill, with not too much dmg, and slow attack speed, if you can call it that. But maybe I'll give it a try, after all it's only one point.

I think that thunder storm is pretty useless... It will get not more than 1000dmg, why to you need it? nah...

Maxing TK and ice bolt is not a good idea, choose one (safety or offensive, if you want).

[zionhuyga]

Thunderstorm may not do 50k damage per second, but it is still a nice spell. A single point gives you decent (as in not useless) damage and all you have to do is cast it beforehand and forget about it. Another advantage is that it automatically hits enemies that you may not be paying attention to, such as those near-invisible crawling beast things in nihl's temple.

In my opinion, a single point there adds a lot more than, say, 2% extra damage in frozen orb.

[redground]

Thunderstorm may not do 50k damage per second, but it is still a nice spell. A single point gives you decent (as in not useless) damage and all you have to do is cast it beforehand and forget about it. Another advantage is that it automatically hits enemies that you may not be paying attention to, such as those near-invisible crawling beast things in nihl's temple.

In my opinion, a single point there adds a lot more than, say, 2% extra damage in frozen orb.

They way it is now it is ok.. and also pretty cheap.

The idea on the ice bolt was to make it maxed, after 20 hard points it adds 40%, and that is a nice bonus to a awesome skill like frozen orb. They guy chose the ES route, so there is also no point in adding any points there.

[leifper]

Ok, so now I'm lvl 86, I have maxed all the skills I wanted. 20nova, 20 LM, 20TK, 20FO. Also one skill point in warmth, thunderstorm, es, cold mastery and shiver armour.

I currently have 1 skill point remaining, and will most likely gain a few more levels, so I'm looking at maybe 4-5 skill points to distribute. Where do i put them? Cold mastery? iIe bolt? Warmth?

Can't really decide which one to go for, so help would be nice. Thx again.

[redground]

Ok, so now I'm lvl 86, I have maxed all the skills I wanted. 20nova, 20 LM, 20TK, 20FO. Also one skill point in warmth, thunderstorm, es, cold mastery and shiver armour.

I currently have 1 skill point remaining, and will most likely gain a few more levels, so I'm looking at maybe 4-5 skill points to distribute. Where do i put them? Cold mastery? iIe bolt? Warmth?

Can't really decide which one to go for, so help would be nice. Thx again.

you have to reach lvl 17 CM to have -100% cold resist. If your +skill itens cover that dont worry.

+5 points in ice bolt you give you a 10% bonus on frozen orb, it is not awesome.

After lvl 12 or so static field covers the entire screen.

You dont need more points in warmth if you have an act2 merc with insight, and it wont hurt you do drink a few pots.

You could also dump then in energy shield for more dmg reduction, but that might not be a great thing.

You could also get Enchant, to make your marc hit a litle harder and to help people.

5 points are not a great thing to transform your build. It is a hard decision for you now, i am usually temped to go for power better than any other thing (that might be a stupid decision tho), so i would go for 10% more dmg on frozen orb, maybe for ES if you are dying too often.

[leifper]

you have to reach lvl 17 CM to have -100% cold resist. If your +skill itens cover that dont worry.

+5 points in ice bolt you give you a 10% bonus on frozen orb, it is not awesome.

After lvl 12 or so static field covers the entire screen.

You dont need more points in warmth if you have an act2 merc with insight, and it wont hurt you do drink a few pots.

You could also dump then in energy shield for more dmg reduction, but that might not be a great thing.

You could also get Enchant, to make your marc hit a litle harder and to help people.

5 points are not a great thing to transform your build. It is a hard decision for you now, i am usually temped to go for power better than any other thing (that might be a stupid decision tho), so i would go for 10% more dmg on frozen orb, maybe for ES if you are dying too often.

Thx for the advice, very much what I was thinking. I currently have +12 to all skills, but when i get an anni, sojs and maybe some skillers I'll reach lvl 17 CM fine, and static will also be high enough. I do as you guessed have an act 2 insight merc, so mana is no problem really.

Getting enchant is a good idea, but instead of using points I think muling over a demon limb thats I have had laying around will work just as well.

But in the end I completely agree with going for maximum damage, Espicially since I'm quite happy with my survivability, so more ES is not needed.

Well, Ice bolt it is then, thx for all the help.

[kohamster]

How about 1 point in shiver armor? It's freezing effect does provide nice additional survivability.

[Ed from Russia]

In PvM I normally don't bother getting a cold armor because you really don't need it (and because i would forget to recast it anyway when it wears off). But for 1 pt you can't really mess up your build.

[leifper]

I have one point in shiver armour aswell. Quite useful when teleporting.

[Zelator]

CM >>>>> Ice bolt! As so many people say here, that lvl 17 CM is the optimal number, it is not. Each point in CM will give your enemies an extra -5% Cold resist which is 5% more dmg. And there are many monsters that got high cold res (30-80%) witohut being immune, to them, a 2% Orb dmg won't do sh*t, but some extra points in cold mastery definately would!

Just a thought, I've always preferred CM over Ice bolt.

[redground]

CM >>>>> Ice bolt! As so many people say here, that lvl 17 CM is the optimal number, it is not. Each point in CM will give your enemies an extra -5% Cold resist which is 5% more dmg. And there are many monsters that got high cold res (30-80%) witohut being immune, to them, a 2% Orb dmg won't do sh*t, but some extra points in cold mastery definately would!

Just a thought, I've always preferred CM over Ice bolt.

But if the monster have 0 cold res after lvl 17 cold mastery you will just wast that points. The points in ice bolt will never be wasted.

To check the more viable way you would need to check every monster´s resist, specially the light imune monsters. Does anybody have those tables?

[Socialism]

Level 17 TK makes Manadestruction a 1:1 ratio

[leifper]

I have 20 hardpoints in TK, so thats taken care of.

Thx for the great suggestions/advice. It seems to me its either going to be ice bolt or cold mastery, and since I will hit at least lvl 17 CM (-100% reisist) after a few skillers, along with a some Cold RBF which give -3-5% resist each, that putting points in ice bolt will be where they are best spent.