Dmg on low lvls

[Flamme]

I'm in the process of makeing a meteorb. Currently I'm just lvl 12, but what I discovered is that my dmg is super low compaired to any other class I played. Even with an item that added 3 lvls to firebolt it was much more efficent whacking them with my axe. Apparently I'm not supposed to put more than a single point in any spells until I'm lvl 25 at wich points I'm going to start buidling up my metoer, at that time I will also have 12 points saved up, and they will not be all used until lvl 37.

I also found out that atm the way to get most dmg done is to drag out a 2h axe, equip my merc with a bow wich adds another 9 poisendmg to attacks and spam lvl 1 frost nove on minions. Atm that works quite alright(I just finsished the countess). But how is that going to work later? I mean killing Andarial with a 2h weapon as a sorceress, not to mention the other act bosses as my dmg won't be going up anything at all until I get lvl 24 and get lvl 1 meteor and can chill with Blizzard instead of frost nova. Only upgrade I get will be from gear.

Is that even possibly and will it in a few lvls time become a drag to try and kill stuff with only 1 point in any spells until I hit late 20ies?

[Mungojerry]

You heard wrong! You can instantly start pumping up fire bolt and fire ball, so do it asap! They are synergies to meteor so no points lost there shop in Act 2 for 2 socked stave with +3 fireball then put tir ral in that sucker for gg damage!

[Karth]

Fire sorcs do some of the highest single-target damage through normal; that leaf staff really helps.

That said, buy some throwing javelins from Charsi and lob them any time you're low on mana. They're really fantastic (fast, good damage, ranged for safety) for getting through earlier A1.

[TheWorkingBoor]

Respecs can be used to great effect too... for starting off untwinked I personally prefer to pump Ice Blast for a while - use it to freeze enemies, then you can whack them safely with your weapon while they're frozen solid and your mana regenerates. You'll need to still drink blue potions, but maybe not quite as much as with the fire/lightning skills.

Also, adding a bunch of +skills (like with a leaf staff) will usually drive up your mana costs for spell-casting. And with your limited mana pool, that can be something of a pain. One idea to improve this is to pump your synergies instead of your main skills (so, for example, a fireball sorceress that maximizes Firebolt before spending more than a point or two in Fireball itself).

Another idea that I've used to combat (relatively) high mana usage early on is to stick Tir runes in all of your gear. Pick up all of the grey orbs you find, and pump a few Tir runes in shield/armor/helm slots too. I've used +mana per kill items early game before, and with enough of them, they can all add up pretty nicely - and more mana = more killspeed early on. In my opinion this tactic can rival adding a bunch of +skills for maintaining killspeed, because it can provide a more reliable & steady supply of mana.

[Karth]

Also, adding a bunch of +skills (like with a leaf staff) will usually drive up your mana costs for spell-casting. And with your limited mana pool, that can be something of a pain. One idea to improve this is to pump your synergies instead of your main skills (so, for example, a fireball sorceress that maximizes Firebolt before spending more than a point or two in Fireball itself).

It is still much better to 1-hit a monster and pay a little more mana per cast than to have to hit it twice and usually have to pay about 1.5x as much as 1-hitting was gonna cost you. More if it takes 3 shots. I pump energy/chug pots/tir rune/sapphire everything until the costs are not horrible. Something can be said for pumping synergies but I usually prefer to have maximum damage available for the hard spots in the game and to just deal with mana problems elsewhere.

[Causa]

I'm at the same spot on my sorc as the OP. I started bumbing skill points to firebolt right away and I'm flying through monsters.
Don't know why people are talking about manacost going up because the cost for firebolt is always 2.5.

So if you only have mana pool of 100 and use some tir runes in gear you should have to use mana pot quite rarely.
Warmth is not doing much on such low mana pool but anything helps.

I picked up 3 socket breast plate and 3 Tir runes in there. Same with 2 socket helm. There's 10 points of mana returned after any kill. Not many monsters are capable of taking 4 firebolts so it's quite effective. Yep, she's a glasscannon but it's not a problem on such low levels.

-Causa

[magicrectangle]

Don't know why people are talking about manacost going up because the cost for firebolt is always 2.5

They're talking about fireball, which is what you'll be using primarily aside from the very low levels. Still, putting points in firebolt as a fireball synergy can raise fireball damage without increasing the cost (it isn't all that efficient to do this when your fireball skill is low though).

Anyway firebolt into fireball is hands down the best low-level sorc build, and all the points go straight into meteorb anyway, so I don't know why on earth you would save all your points until level 25.