Socialism's Ultrafun Hardcore Static Field Enchantress der=0>

[Socialism]

Hi all.

Some of you may be aware of the Hardcore A1 Normal to Hell Baal and beyond Call To Arms I recently organized. Thread references here, here, and here.

I designed this build to get out of Normal as fast as possible and ramp up our killspeed in Hell. As I suspected, playing a team's Enchantress became wayyy more fun than than the role was traditionally thought to be. This tremendously successful build greatly aided in our ladder domination this past reset, and is currently (as of June 20th) one of the top sorceresses (CTA-Noob) on the ladder.

Be aware that this sorceress was developed with three things in mind:
1) getting out of normal as fast as possible to allow levelling to blossom
2) playing with a group - significantly ramping up damage in Hell
3) the assumption of minimal or untwinked item acquisition

Enough banter; here's the build.

Skill Setup

01 Fire Bolt
01 Fire Ball
20 Warmth
20 Enchant***
20 Fire Mastery

01 Blaze
01 Inferno
20 Fire Wall**

15 Static Field*
01 Telekinesis
01 Teleport

01 Frozen Armor
01 Frost Nova

101 Skill Points, done at level 90.

* Static Field at level 15 hard-investment has close to fullscreen radius with no additional +skills. This makes the game go by ninjafast.

** Two routes. Those who twink and just want to build a "backup" enchantress will be more interested in developing Enchant first. Those playing through the game (not rushing, etc) will find more utility in building up Fire Wall simultaneously with Enchant or building up Fire Wall first (depending on their party).

*** This skill is severely weak before level 30, used primarily for increasing attack rating rather than ramping up damage. Assuming you're playing on a team (because this is not exactly a "viable" solo-build), increased Enchant damage won't need to come along until later on in Nightmare when you're meeting immunities anyway. Besides. For all of Normal difficulty, 15 Static Field will make the game a breeze by slivering everything, thus negating any necessity for Enchant.

Skill Progression

- 1 into Frost Nova ASAP. Frozen Armor's optional, but this build is so point-minimal anyway, there's not enough reason not to get a point into it.
- Jam 15 into Static Field first. This is your main skill. This will make the entire game go crazy faster.
- 1 point into Enchant and Fire Wall at 18.

Depending on the gear you have available, you may want to play through using Fire Wall as your main skill, building up enchant later on. This gives you massive killspeed early-on while you rely primarily on Static Field. See earlier note on Fire Wall.

- Either:
1) Build up Fire Wall with the bare minimum development in Enchant (1-5 Warmth, 1-5 Enchant, 1-5 Fire Mastery)
or
2) Build up Enchant with a bare minimum development in Fire Wall (~5 Fire Wall)

Either route is fine, really; Static Field will sliver everything, making ~5 Fire Wall enough for pretty much all of normal. Once you reach nightmare, halt on the Enchant development until Fire Wall is fully built.

Equipment

Standard sorceress equipment suggestions.

This untwinked build relies on the "Leaf" runeword (Tir Ral) staff. Spend an hour or so shopping for a +2 or +3 Firewall/Enchant staff with 2 sockets in Act 2; exiting-and-reentering town to reset Drognan's trade inventory.

For Static Field delivery, you'll want a more defensive switch; that is, FCR on weapon, resists and decent blocking on shield. Spirit sword + Rhyme Shield are an excellent combination. Mana consumption is always an issue. This means FILL YOUR INVENTORY WITH BLUE POTIONS AND USE THEM, and get as many sapphires in your helm/armor as possible early on.

Life can be made easier with dorky equipment by wielding a Hunter's Bow (faster than a short bow) on switch with Leaf. This is not a melee enchantress. You can toss a bow on and make her somewhat useful, or you can Fire Wall from afar, or both.

Play Tips

See a monster on the screen? Cast Static Field until their life doesn't go down any further.

Then, kill them using a bow (Raven Claw / Kuko-Shakaku / Demon Machine), your Fire Wall, or the army of enchanted necro skeletons / zealot paladins / frenzy barbarians / multishot amazons around you.

Try not to get killed in the process.



Enjoy. I know you will, because this build gets the Socialism 'seal of approval'. This is a quick writeup, given; no 'stats' section or diatribe on block/vita included - it's assumed mostly experienced players (who actually know how to aim with Fire Wall) will be playing this build, as the vast majority of nooblets will be playing such damage-defined kill-all builds as Blizzard Sorceresses and MeteOrbers and demanding writeups for their legit Infinity Lightning Sorceressessesssessessses.

Cheerio,
Shaharris / Socialism / Sunforge

[Lyrs]

Awesome writeup SL. I made a similiar sorc, only I opted for Frozen Orb instead of Firewall.

20 Warmth
20 Enchant
20 FM
20 Orb
10 CM
10 Static
1 TK
1 TL
1 Orb pre.

Awesome team play potential and excellent solo ability.

[Socialism]

Absolutely! Folks balk at static field's nerfing of 50% in Hell, but when compared to trying to kill cold immunes with Orb (via telekinesis/mercenary combo), it's stellar.

Superfun, way faster than the 'traditional' caster sorceress method of leveling (as opposed to the lame/repetitive/boring enchant+tristram+tombs+cows formula), certainly makes it more interesting when you find decent mercenary equipment early on (Razortine, anyone?).

Untwinked, we've got Bob trying to make it to 99 with CTA-Noob, East Hardcore Ladder. Hilarious.

[prion]

he's currently level 88 and ranked 100 overall, 38 sorc

[MaStAViC]

Thanks for writing this, Socialism.

I'm building an untwinked Melee Enchant Sorceress and am trying to pick up a few things from your guide, such as having high Static Field. I'll be playing alongside my girlfriend's untwinked Summoner Necromancer. Is there any way to make this Sorceress you're describing a melee one?

Thanks,
Vic

[Cryton]

This is how i leveled in normal this ladder reset aswell I absolutely love static field. I use it non stop on my current blizzballer. And i will use it no matter what build i am using.

I have 5 points in it reaching 14 yards with tals, torch and spirit. More then enough to oneshot kill with blizzard. I blizz, static then tp bomb the rest of the cold immune mobs with fireball.

I did play a simular static field enchantress last ladder.

However i never maxed enchant but i did max static field and used dual dream. And killed with pulses. My merc had infinity ofc. Two pulses and the entire screen was dead. It was fun