The guide to the mf Light sorcy

[fredsta54]

an mf lightning sorc? wtfnoob blizzard and orb sorc owns lightning rofl

haha, seriously though heres the guide.

This sorceress is the MOST fun sorceress i have ever played since 09

it is a static/nova sorc that runs the arcane sanctuary in hell. more on this later

why nova and static, isnt chain lightning/light better?

im going to be honest with you, nova really isnt that great, in act 4 where monsters all have high resitances to light. chain light is far better there

however

to have decent chain light dmg you must max all synergies and your build is finished iirc at llv 94 AND on a chain light sorceress you cant max teleport or static which are needed. also, from testing with chain light at players 8 arcane, and nova, nova wins. cuz of max static ^^ (u have to play this sorc to see what i mean)

this build is finished at low 70s and excels at what it does

EVEN AT PLAYERS 8, you will kill as fast as an ww barb does in the flayer jungle, with your nova/static sorc in the arcane sanctuary

my nova/static sorc is lvl 74 and still gets great exp in arcane, in fact, i see no reason to even go to act3 and 4


all monsters in arcane have what seems like 0 light resist, and i have never seen an light immune unique

anyway heres the guide

skills
20 static field= 1 screen radius. in arcane static reduces all monsters to 1/100th of their life in seconds, even in a full game
20 nova- when the monsters are low on life teleport into the middle of them cast it once or twice and they all die (watch your xp bar jump)
20 light mastery- to make your usually crappy nova hurt
rest of the points to teleport


gear

you want 70 fcr, max light and fire resists(doesnt need to be stacked), a decent fhr breakpoint, and max block with faster block rate mod on your shield, once you get that, try and get some mf on you

sample gear suggestion
shard
twitch
30/20 20 pris shield with at least 50 block (can be shopped)
chancegaurds
2x fcr fr lr rings
fhr fr lr belt with 4 slots
fhr hopefully mf resist boots
1 sorc pris ammy is good bet, if it has mf then even better

as for helm- tarn, 3ptopaz mask, and even no mf using fhr fr lr rare or itharas helm

if you can, carry a gull in inventory for when you get to the summoner

now, to playing your sorcy

teleport madly around stopping when you see champions and uniques to get that exp and potential drops. normal monsters ignore and keep teleporting until you reach the chests at the end of arcane. make sure to carry keys and open them each. remember, the more players in the game, the more drops

also note that mf has no effect on drops from chests

when you teleport into the summoner zap him until he is very low on life, then switch to gull only for him and kill with nova, his drops arent that bad and he does give a little bit of exp

rinse and repeat. there is no need to ever go to act 3 and act 4, it might even ruin chance of drops on summoner if you click on the journal and you take the portal to canyon of magi (just my theory)

the mf run is complete when all the chests in each corner are opened, all the uniques that you can kill and summoner are dead


thanks for reading this, i hope to get posotive comments, and hopefully someone else will folllow my guide and try mfing arcane, nova was godly in 09 and is godly in 1.12 if combined with fcr and static, but only against monsters with low light resists



Fred

[WarlockCC]

I like it, it's different, a refreshing change from all the "cookie cutter" builds out there.
Thus, I took the liberty of sticking it in the sticky. Though I'd like to see some more votes for this guide to keep it there. :)

[HegemonKhan]

nice guide,

what type of items and mods do u get from chests, summoner, and random special monsters? could u list some items and their mods ?

i was actually looking at this type of build too (though not with-for mf'ing)

how is the damage with 20 nova and 20 lit mast (and the 20 static) ? is it enough to be able to do hell cs with its high lit resist monsters (though takes longer of course) or no ?

though don't forgot, if your fortunate enough to have access to a LowRes necro and/or a conviction paladin...removing hell cs monsters' high lit res...a nova or chain lit sorc could maybe decimate hell cs as fast as cold sorc :D

[rynke]

fred u llama, whats the point in mfing @ arcane??

lmk what kind of items u get chests/summoner :d

7/10 for non CC build

[fredsta54]

what is the point of mfing at arcane? id say all items can drop there, as the monsters u kill are lvl 67 (not sure of summoners mlvl)

all monsters are not ligvht immune or seemingly even resitant, and give good exp till the late 70s

wit this sorc you will kill as fast as you do in a full game as you do in a solo game

in a full game chests drop a lot of gold and from my experience they drop a lot of rares too, once rare mage plate rare ring and some other desirable types all dropped from 1 chest, unfortunately the mods were rubbish ^^

and summoner tends to drop quite uniques commonly too, i think he also has a higher chance, like andy, to drop rings, soj any1? but only from experience

you asking why mf arcane is like asking why would an mf ww barb run flayer jungle. the answer is because its fast fun runs that give good results and experience

@hamegkon:

with the help of lower resist or conviction static rules at hell cs, even at playeres 8, otherwise not so much. doom kinghts, seiss minions dont need their resistances to be lowered to do good light dmg, but the balrogs and OK's have high resistances to light :(

this sorc does most of her damage by static, followed by nova to finish them off, remember, static kills as fast as it does in full games as it does solo.

with no + skills maxed nova n light mastery nova will do iirc 750ish dmg, avg.



Fred

[fredsta54]

just an update that mf DOES work on the chests in arcane, making this build even more tempting (go on, make this girl and you ownt be dissapointed, at least for this purpose ^^)



confirmed by single player forum, and i trust these guys :D



Fred

[HegemonKhan]

i think its the sparkly chests that mf does NOT effect... or maybe i'm getting it confused, and for sparkly chests it's the # of drops that are unaffected (not mf) since sparkly chest are hardcoded ?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
just a quick comment about # of drops, you should look at the d2 wiki's item generation tutorial page. it explains everything about drops. (i'm too lazy to find and copy paste the link here).

but it says roughly something like this:

# of drops is kinda based on a point system. the more points the more # of dropped items:

1 pt when u kill monster (duh)
1 pt for each # of players in the game
1 pt for each # of players in your party AND within 2 screens of the kill
only half a point for each # of players NOT in party or in party but NOT within 2 screens of kill
etc...

something like this...

so if u were to have party members be next to u, u get even more drops for every killed monster or object opened like chests or dead bodies. the only problem is not having those players pick up the drops instead of u :P

[fredsta54]

i think its the sparkly chests that mf does NOT effect... or maybe i'm getting it confused, and for sparkly chests it's the # of drops that are unaffected (not mf) since sparkly chest are hardcoded ?

yah ur right

[HegemonKhan]

which ?

is it the mf that is unaffected for sparkly chests or is it the # of drops unaffected for sparkly chests or maybe both are unaffected for sparkly chests ?

also my previous post, i added some info about # of drops, in case u weren't aware of it.

[fredsta54]

which ?

is it the mf that is unaffected for sparkly chests or is it the # of drops unaffected for sparkly chests or maybe both are unaffected for sparkly chests ?

also my previous post, i added some info about # of drops, in case u weren't aware of it.

that sparkly chests are uneffected by mf, otherwise i have no idea. try asking in the single player forum




Fred

[fredsta54]

any1 more comments? ^^

thanks for reading,

Fred

[TraderScope]

I found this staff for Lightning Storm using Sorc (I dont know if any exists rofl) today and I am now tempted to make one but I heard that staff sorcs are bad hmm..

+2 Sorc
+20FCR
+3 Thunder Storm
+20 Energy
+18 Mana
35 CR
(+20% Faster Attack Rate)
(+1 Frost Nova)

[WarlockCC]

You could just use that staff to activate level 5+ thunder storm on any sorc and then put on your normal gear again. Could even consider that on a dueler, it's free extra damage.

[TraderScope]

I am actually tempted to try this build now since I got my hands on some sorc gear.. Can you tell me what kind of items have dropped for you from the summoner, for the statistics? =)

[serendipity]

Do you have any points into energy? What are your stats? I would think you'd run out of mana very quickly if you don't have any points into energy. Thanks!

[zaxien]

If you want to get daring, use iron jang bong..

every ladder I play a nova sorc since .09 most of them stay non title characters for norm cs and the rest end up being nm cow plowers, and even a few nm csers.

My usual builds are like yours fred, lots of static, max nova/mastery and a bit of warmth but in cows and cs you need lots of fhr and at least 70 fcr although 110 novas are extremly fun.

I have even tried a full 300mf cower but it failed miserably due to the lack of fcr which is a must for any nova sorc.

I wonder (even though you said not to ! :p ) if a chain/static sorc would be better to do what you are doing? You could get more mf since you only need 60fcr, you will have a 1500dam chain and like 1200 light @ lvl 60 (w/out quests) or so at 65 (with the 10 +skills you get from quests not counting hell izzy) you could have 2k chain and 2.7 light, this is with 15 to static mind you and not counting any + skills you would get from an ammy or tarn. You could even take the pts from lightning and put them to nova and have a static/chain/nova.

I do love me some nova though and have not once thought about trying arcane in hell with them, I usually dont go past nm due to the huge pain in the butt of not being able to kill solo effectively, I have one sitting in nm @ lvl 55 right now I may give it a shot and see what its like.

[TraderScope]

I seem to be eperienceing mana problems with my static/nova sorc. I'm lvl 47 now in hell and I guess I need to get my hands on some better items atm.

[WarlockCC]

I've found with most mana intense builds, I can't really judge lack of mana until level 80.
So I save some points and usually find at level 80 it's fine.

[TraderScope]

So you think I should invest some points into energy or not, I'm currently on the side of not putting any but, whaddaya guys think?

[WarlockCC]

I think you should save some statpoints(50 or so) until you're level 80 and then see how it goes.
Doesn't have to be 80, just until the point where your leveling begins to slow down.

[fredsta54]

u wont need to put pnts to energy, as your teleport willl be maxed, static only costs iirc 9 mana, and then u only nova once or twice and they all die.




Fred

[purplelocust]

Nice build! Have you tried it in Cows? I have fond memories of FCR static/nova builds in cows from 1.09 and earlier, and I believe cows have low/no lightning resists in Hell (except of course the King and possible bosspacks.)

On chests: superchests (the ones at the end of the fingers of the Arcane Sanctuary and like the coveted ones in Lower Kurast) are unaffected by MF. Ordinary chests, like those you just run across on the way out there, I believe are. Note: sparkly chests (in Great Marsh, in the Flayer Dungeon, etc.) are different from superchests. Superchests roll for the rare/magic for the entire drop, so occasionally you are treated to a "shower of rares" in a full game.


For Thunderstorm: if there are no hard points in the skill, I think it doesn't persist, even though the sparkly ring is there. It would be worth finding out how prebuff works for Thunderstorm- it's something odd, like the damage and duration are prebuffable but the frequency at which it strikes isn't, so it never strikes if you have no hard points in it. I'm not sure, but it would be worth find out more before planning on it.

[TraderScope]

Well, I already sold my thunderstorm stick to Drognan I believe, so that's not a question anymore for me. I'm now at my 60's soon and hoping to max out the mastery of lightning now.. It seems like many monsters are immune to lightning though, but I'm still leaning towards the arcane sanctuary, in which I made some experiments and found out that you can't "bug" Summoner, so you can freely move to act IV and enjoy some Mephisto/Diablo runs also with this build. Thsi give more freedom and enjoyment to the build as well (not restricted only to Act II Arcane Sanctuary.)
Also, I think from my eperience Andariel is out of the question with this build.
I got a decent gear btw, just need some levels now to do _some_ better damage, and also to get some valuable health points, I guess..

[TraderScope]

A little update:
I have gotten some more gear on my sorc and it's getting better now at lvl 64. I have done some full game arcane and with some well planned placing and quick reflexes, using tele+static+nova is fun and rewarding at the same time - The xp seems jumping high. For now I can only dream about frequent rare drops with my MF though. Hoping to see this sorc in full action at her early 80's!

[fredsta54]

great to see that someones making my build :)

[TraderScope]

Update: I need more MF gear now as it seems the drops are not satisfying enough, with better MF gear (godly gear) I'm sure it will be nice.

I'm now seriously thinking about +2 +3Nova Staff (preferably with adds) as it seems I can well avoid the creeps by teleing around and doing static/nova combo.. will update as I get my hands on one :)

Edit: so far with +2/2/2 (chilling armor), +11 Ene staff it seems pretty nice (I'm actually killing faster now with this setup), equipping magefists (40fcr, 37 breakpoint passed, 20 FCR from rings).. now If I find a +2/3 nova 20fcr one and +2 +10 fcr amu I will hit the 70FCR breakpoint.
Chilling armor from the current staff helps a little if I get hit (which is rare with my tactic).

[zaxien]

Update: I need more MF gear now as it seems the drops are not satisfying enough, with better MF gear (godly gear) I'm sure it will be nice.

I'm now seriously thinking about +2 +3Nova Staff (preferably with adds) as it seems I can well avoid the creeps by teleing around and doing static/nova combo.. will update as I get my hands on one :)


3 words Iron Jang Bong +2 20fcr +2 nova

until you can get your hands on a +2 20fcr +3 + res staff ofc

[TraderScope]

3 words Iron Jang Bong +2 20fcr +2 nova

until you can get your hands on a +2 20fcr +3 + res staff ofc

Well yes I know, but as I'm a perfectionist I have now ran some hours at Drognan's place to buy one with 3/2, 20FCR.

edit:
Found a 20fcr/2/2 green staff now that I must be satisfied with (after about 4-5 hrs at gheed's which netted me with 2xenchant staves also though). My Nova is now lvl 26 and I'm zapping trough enemies like a breeze in full cs games. All I now need is better MF gear. I think this kills possibly even faster than the shield + Shard combo and is a change, altough it might be risky at times without good LR/FR gear and added life.. certainly with good life/resist gear I would go this route to MF Arcane myself. Also, I put 1 point into cold armor, which makes 5 total with added skills atm and gives me some survivability.

[TraderScope]

I have done more testing now in full games and atm with no Life gear and only 20 lightning res (with the staff build) my sorc is too fragile to be more viable than the recommended shield type. I'm still rushing with my staff-build, it's very nice to do tomb runs/cows with.

Conclusion:

The best build for this type of a lightning soso would be, in my opinion:

+2 +10fcr amulet with resists LR/FR and SoJ in one finger with shield + Shard combo.

If one wants to go full arcane Sanctuary ( players.) with the the staff build you should have a good amount of health from either gear or levels. At lvl 90 one could be wreaking havock..

[HegemonKhan]

are u staying glitched for the summoner? how good are the summoner drops? if not, u could complete the summoner quest and get to clvl "90" so it'll be easier than come back and do arcane runs for the chests. and if u really want, u can have another player come and kill the summoner for a glitch kill-drop. u make game and sora to summoner, make a tp, the glitched char comes in tp and kills summoner.

[TraderScope]

I tried to glitch him several times before moving onto act IV and he only dropped blue items, so I think Summoner can't be glitched.. Atm Summoner only drops maybe 1 rare per run (full game, with GUll equipped). I have also tried equipping the dagger for the normal chests but so far have only gotten magical (blue) items out of them :(

I still think this's viable build if you have the MF gear that doesn't get you too gimped!

[WarlockCC]

Where the magic items perhaps double durability ?

[TraderScope]

Damn, I didn't check that close ^^