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- Some introduction and history -
Well.. I've been around these forums for quite some time and haven't yet written about or at least reported a single pat/mat. Why? Because they where mostly boring builds that I made either to MF or test how far I can push a hybrid sorc.
Without any further delay.. Ladies and gents, let me introduce my guild of mages.
Sorrow is my dedicated AT running blizzard sorc.
Adjudication is the LK runner.
The Dea, Deity and Divinity triplet where all slightly different cold/light hybrids (no tokens back then).
And now, the more interesting builds.
First of, Fervor. Made her a long time ago as an enchantress to help speed up my forge rushes, leveling of new chars, etc. Later respecialized into some insane, kinda suicidal, physical damage based build. She was sporting a 3x eth tomb reaver, fortitude, might merc, the works. Damage was around 5000, average. Life leech was crazy, but.. she had lots of problems, running around with a massive polearm might look really cool, but lacks the safety that all sorcs really need. It was fun tearing through stuff until I encountered gloam/archer packs, then it was mostly dying. Also, she couldn't manage p8 on her own. And then I remembered.. a build I had in mind for years, but never managed to obtain all the fancy gear I needed.
- Stardust -
I had her in my mind for more than four years.. planning, yearning, trying to find the items I needed. In the end she became a dream I never realized. Until now, when 1.13, a few lucky drops and some good trades made it all possible.
I had the problem of making a melee sorceress that could both tank and deal damage. Even enough to handle p8 baal runs. The only way I could achieve this was to make an elemental damage based sorc and that required a lot of hard to find gear.
Stardust's LCS, after killing p8 ancients
- Skill allocation and reasoning -
The skill layout is quite simple, but it's simplicity hides the secret from which this build draws its power. The way elemental masteries work on a sorc is well known today, by most people. For those few that haven't studied melee sorcs in detail I will provide a short explanation.
Any elemental damage dealt by the sorc is amplified by the appropriate mastery. This is quite clear. However, when in melee, the bonus is added two times, but it only works this way for auras and enchant's fire damage. So with +500 holy shock's (I know its more with dream's lvl 15 HS, this is just an example) lighting damage and LM providing +400% she will be dishing out 12500 lightning damage instead of the expected 2500. This is why melee enchantresses reach impressive LCS damage numbers.
Lets move on to the skill layout.
Fire mastery - 20 - to get the most out of enchant and all other fire damage
Enchant - 20 - maxing for damage, attack rating and duration
Warmth - 20 - Enchant synergy
Lightning mastery - 20 - insane boost to lightning damage
Cold mastery - 1 - with + skills, usually, doubles your cold damage output
Shiver armor - 12+ - superior than Frozen armor, chills monsters before they actually hit you, also defense, yeah, I actually rolled with a defiance merc for a while and had about 13k defense, but holy freeze proved to be more efficient. I might switch back to defiance when the merc becomes beefier, had to take HF because Lister & co would eat him alive
Teleport, telekinesis, static field and prerequisites - a total of 8 points - no brainers for any sorc
The build will be done at level 98 which I am hoping to get to one day as my final goal for this character. No doubt, this will be a long journey, but with her being fully able to do solo p8 baal runs under five minutes, I don't see why she wouldn't get there one day.
- Stats -
Strength - had to push it as high as 165 so Arkaine's would stay equipped when I switched to CtA/Spirit
Dexterity - as much as it takes to maintain maximum block, attack rating isn't really an issue (will explain later)
Vitality - everything else goes here, you want you sorc to live
Energy - totally irrelevant for this build, level 30ish warmth will ensure you have enough mana to teleport and cast an occasional static field
- The Gear -
Everyone was really just waiting for this part, right?
There are many key items in this build, without them it just doesn't work.
I had the runes for an Enigma, but I said to myself: "Ef that, I'm making my Dream come true".
The holy shock aura provided by this RW adds a heap of lightning damage, which is all amplified by LM, twice. Its what makes this build so strong.
The weapon of choice is Azurewrath, a beautiful sword, fast, plenty of elemental damage, many tasty mods.
Storm shield for protection, although I'm still uncertain should I use a Shael'd or the Um'd one (with the latter I can swap out resistance charms for more elemental damage).
1.07 Arkaine's Valor, enough said. Perfect for this build.
Raven frost and a beta BKWB coupled with an awesome crafted amulet which I received in a trade with Fabian.
Thundergod's Vigor for the stats and lightning immortality.Code:Blood Talisman Amulet Required Level: 89 Fingerprint: 0x11a5847c Item Level: 95 Version: Expansion 1.10+ +2 to Sorceress Skill Levels +6% Faster Cast Rate +20 to Dexterity +11 to Mana Regenerate Mana 6% All Resistances +20 Damage Reduced by 2
Sandstorm Trek's for stats and poison resist.
The only slot which might use an improvement is the glove slot. Really have no idea what to put in here, so I'm using a nice rare pair. 20% IAS is mandatory to hit the maximum attack speed with Azurewrath (2.5 attacks per second).
And CtA/Spirit on my prebuff, teleport, static and what not switch. Together with the crafted amulet I hit 37+ FCR, while not too fast, its a good teleporting speed for a melee sorc.Code:Death Hold Light Gauntlets Defense: 9 Durability: 18 of 18 Required Level: 48 Required Strength: 45 Fingerprint: 0x7ad2c72a Item Level: 88 Version: Expansion 1.10+ +20% Increased Attack Speed +14 to Dexterity +15 to Mana Fire Resist +25% Poison Length Reduced by 25%
Inventory is filled with skillers with life, many elemental and resistance charms.
Full gear readouts for the curious:
Spoiler
- Mercenary -
Deserves a special section since he is very important for this build.
Providing both HF and conviction, along with incredible crowd control through Delirium. Makes the build safer, skyrockets the elemental damage and makes things much easier to hit. This is why AR wasn't an issue. Also, I use battle cry on baal to further lower his defense (along with damage), probably, making my sorc reach the maximum 95% chance to hit.
Since both Infinity and Delirium where key items the merc turned out to have no life leech at all. So I had to make CoH, "just" for the leech. There are a few unique choices, but they are not particularly impressive.
Emilio's Items:
Code:Chains of Honor Dusk Shroud DolUmBerIst Defense: 782 Durability: 20 of 20 Required Level: 63 Required Strength: 77 Fingerprint: 0x131b5a85 Item Level: 85 Version: Expansion 1.10+ +2 to All Skills +200% Damage to Demons +100% Damage to Undead 8% Life stolen per hit +70% Enhanced Defense +20 to Strength Replenish Life +7 All Resistances +65 Damage Reduced by 8% 25% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items 4 Sockets (4 used) Delirium Diadem LemIstIo Defense: 314 Durability: 20 of 20 Required Level: 64 Fingerprint: 0x5ccd810f Item Level: 85 Version: Expansion 1.10+ 14% Chance to cast level 13 Terror when struck 6% Chance to cast level 14 Mind Blast when struck 1% Chance to cast level 50 Delirium when struck 11% Chance to cast level 18 Confuse on striking +2 to All Skills +261 Defense +10 to Vitality 50% Extra Gold from Monsters 25% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items Level 17 Attract (60/60 Charges) 3 Sockets (3 used) Infinity Giant Thresher BerMalBerIst Two Hand Damage: 284 - 810 Durability: 28 of 28 Required Level: 66 Required Strength: 178 Required Dexterity: 130 Fingerprint: 0x2715cef3 Item Level: 98 Version: Expansion 50% Chance to cast level 20 Chain Lightning when you Kill an Enemy Level 12 Conviction Aura When Equipped +35% Faster Run/Walk 374% Enhanced Damage -49% to Enemy Lightning Resistance 40% Chance of Crushing Blow Prevent Monster Heal +45 to Vitality (Based on Character Level) 30% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items Level 21 Cyclone Armor (30/30 Charges) Ethereal
- Final thoughts -
I would really like to get her to level 98 so she would be finished. Its an incredible pleasure to play this character. I wanted to make her for such a long time.. and she turned out even more powerful than I have ever imagined.
She can handle almost everything. The only real problem are unblockable attacks such as viper magi's bone spears. Even p8 fire and lightning immune lister (unbreakable by Infinity) goes down under 30 seconds. Courtesy of heaps of cold and magic damage provided by Azurewrath.
The charm department could use some improvements, so I might trade or try to find better charms on my own. Also, I'll be crafting some safety amulets, trying to score 7+ ICoB (needing a lot less dex to achieve max block means a lot more vitality), 10 FCR, 15 - 20 resists, str or dex and 2 to sorc skills. This could take me like a thousand tries, that's why I have already traded for that amulet with Fabian.
Some questions I predict will be asked. (But feel free to ask anything which you are wondering about and I haven't covered in the write up.)
Why not use Passion so you don't have to single click on everything you want to kill?
Passion might have zeal build it, but it is much weaker than Azurewrath, just compare the mods. The speed difference is 2.5 vs 3.25 attacks per second, with that I can live with. I don't need the extra AR or damage from zeal since the physical component is negligible in this build. And style. Definitely style.
No life leech?
Yeah, no real life leech. I experimented with leech as high as 20%, but the physical damage is just too weak for her to be able to steal any decent amounts back. So I just drink potions when I have to.
What can hurt this char?
Besides pure, unblockable magic damage the only real issue is when wave 3 or 4 spawn with conviction. That's why I'm considering trading or getting my own 1.07 loh (massive fire absorb). Certainly extra fast, might or fanatic lister is trouble, but it is for most melee chars. And the real trouble is that the merc drops dead in seconds, they can't kill her fast enough, before she teleports away.
And some random stats for the conclusion of this lengthy post.
Primary - Naked/Gear / Switch - Naked/Gear - Without buffs / Buffed
Strength: 133/202 / 133/172
Dexterity: 178/239 / 178/239
Vitality: 194/470 / 194/492
Energy: 35/41 / 35/41
HP: 557/1518 / 557/1550 / 2040 with bo
Mana: 213/349 / 213/461 / 578 with bo
Stamina: 347/487 / 347/487
Defense: 44/2925 / 44/2925 / 7552 with shiver armor
AR: 840/1370 / 840/1370 / 5466 with enchant
Fire: 188/148/88 / 166/126/66
Cold: 184/144/84 / 137/97/37
Lightning: 188/148/88 / 176/136/76
Poison: 179/139/79 / 192/152/92
MF: 32 / 62
GF: 0 / 0
FR/W: 20 / 20
FHR: 87 / 142
IAS: 50 / 60
FCR: 6 / 38
Block: 83 / 52
Hope you liked my melee sorceress
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crawlingdeadman
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