Critique my Blizzard MFer?

[Varren]

Hello all, I was just wondering how I could best improve my Blizzard MFer? I know she doesn't have the -absolute- best gear, but she can handle Meph and Pindle with ease. Cold Immunes are a problem, and I'm not wealthy enough for Infinity, so my MFing options are pretty limited right now.

Level 90

20 Ice Bolt
20 Ice Blast
20 Glacial Spike
20 Blizzard
16 Cold Mastery
1 Frost Nova
1 Shiver Armor
1 Telekinesis
1 Static Field
1 Teleport
1 Warmth

Armor: Perfect Topaz Tal Rasha's Guardianship
Helm: Perfect Topaz Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest
Belt: Tal Rasha's Fine-Spun Cloth
Weapon: Tal Rasha's Lidless Eye
Shield: "Splendor" Troll Nest
Boots: War Travelers
Gloves: Chance Guards
Rings: 2x Nagelrings
Amulet: Tal Rasha's Adjudication
Charms: A handful of 5-7% MF SCs, a +1 to Cold Skills GC, and a Gheed's GC.

Total MF: 461%
Blizzard Damage: 4554-4816

The main thing I'm pondering is how much Blizzard Damage should I sacrifice for Magic-Findability? Again, I don't have enough runes to make any of the high-end runewords, so I've been relying entirely on uniques and set items.

So, does anyone have any thoughts? If there's any additional info that could be useful, I'd be glad to provide it.

[LongingForDeath]

That's pretty close to my favored setup for a Blizzard sorc. Only thing I'd change is a Spirit Monarch instead of the Splendor, preferably a 35 FCR one, so you reach the 105 FCR breakpoint for fast teleporting when you change the Chance Guards for Magefist or Trang's Gloves. That would still leave you with at least 400 MF, which is more than enough already. But you can always put more MF SCs into your inventory. Also, try to get a Gull dagger or Ali Baba on switch, along with a Rhyme shield. If you use that just before you kill the boss, you'll get an additional 115 - 175 MF, depending on which weapon you use and if you put an Ist or two into the Ali Baba. If you can find a Cold Facet, I'd put that into the Tal's Lidless Eye for an increase in damage. A torch and Annihilus will help as well. Otherwise you have a pretty solid setup there.

As for Infinity and cold immunes: From what I've heard, you'll still have problems with them, since most cold immunities can't be broken.

[sirpoopsalot]

I think you're currently sitting at 60 FCR. I'd definitely drop a nagelring for a FCR ring for the next breakpoint - it's well worth it (especially if you can get a FCR ring that has some MF). LFD's suggestion of 105 FCR with Spirit+Magefists/Trangs is another good idea.


And Infinity will not help you against 99% of cold immunes - their resistances are too high to be removed by anything. At your point, the only real solution is to get your merc a hard-hitting weapon and use static field & telekinesis to help him make the kills (or you could simply run/teleport away). Another semi-common tactic is to stick a couple of Hel runes in a Bonehew and equip it on weapon switch and utilize the Corpse Explosion charges. Or you could try a +3 Firewall 'Leaf' staff on switch too (it's dirt cheap, but that'll be a slow solution for sure).

[VoX Dei]

In your position I would replace a nagelring with a fcr+mf ring like suggested by Longing and Sirpoops. In case you don't have a decent enough fcr+mf ring you can simply replace splendor with lidless wall.

[Varren]

Y'know I did notice that I was teleporting more slowly with the Splendor shield, but now that I've read about the cast speed breakpoints, it makes much more sense. I just didn't realize how big of a difference 10% can make!

I was actually using a Lidless Wall prior to the Splendor shield. I suppose I could live without the extra 20% MF and go back to faster teleporting. Sounds good to me.

[Swordslash]

I've been pondering some related things for the past few days... what's a good Cold Mastery level to end at (after +skills) for a Blizz sorc? You only need to end at L17 for 0% CR enemies, and that's only if you use absolutely no cold facets, or other -enemy resist items such as Infinity. If you encounter 75% CR enemies, you'd want up to L32 Cold Mastery after +skills, but otherwise those CM points are wasted. They could also be wasted if you decide to use the aforementioned cold facets or Infinity. Frozen Orb pumps the damage on Glacial Spike, which you could fire between Blizzards, so it's a tradeoff there.

I was also wondering something about the workings of MF. Say you cast a Blizzard over Pindleskin, then you switch to your MF-switch hands, then the Blizzard which you had already cast kills Pindle. What MF does it use in that case -- pre-switch or post-switch?

[sirpoopsalot]

The MF you have in effect at the time that the monster dies is what's used - so you can cast your blizzard, switch to max MF, and wait patiently for the last shards to finish a monster off and still get the max MF benefit.


As for the best amounts of CM, that's obviously very subjective to what you plan to do with your sorc. Here's my very generalized opinion, with caveats not really explored:

level 10-17 CM - questing, dual-elementalist (amount depends on how tightly stretched I am for skills and if I want to 'push' my non-cold tree). This sorc is not intended for specific runs.

level 17 - 22 CM - dedicated countess runner, LK runner.

level 17 - 27 CM - Pindle & WSK/Baal runner (I prefer 27 CM, since it's effective on Lister, Baal, and a few other nasties, but it depends on the skillpoints I have available).

level 27 - 32 CM - dedicated Meph runner.

I haven't really done serious AT runs, so I don't know what monsters natural resistances tend to be for that area. I'm guessing I'd want somewhere in the ~22 - 27 range.

<--- those should get you somewhere in the range of max-damage-without-excess for the area you're running. If I were running multiple areas & such, I'd probably try for at least 17 if cold was my 'backup' attack, and probably 17-27 if cold was my 'primary' - depending on available skillpoints, of course.

And, of course, adding things like Rainbow Facets and Infinity would affect my CM investment.

[Swordslash]

Thanks, yeah it looks like Hell Pindleskin has 50% CR, so you'd want up to L27 CM. Guess I won't be taking any Frozen Orb then, Glacial will have to be happy with only 2/3 of its potential synergy. And I suspected that thing about MF-at-time-of-kill, just wanted to be sure. Your spell/effect probably just lists that it belongs to you. If every little effect you gave off had to independantly memorize all of your current stats/info, that would get ridiculous.