Basic Questions (Charms etc.)

[jatna]

Hi. I am playing a Sorceress in Normal difficulty. She is casting fireball mainly.

If I get a charm that says +whatever elemental damage, say +3 cold damage, does that add to my fireball damage or is it only for physical weapon attacks?

If it is only for weapon attacks, what charms add damage for spell casters?

What charms and magic item properties should I be focusing on?

I also don't get faster cast rate and attack rating. The sorceress seems to cast as fast as I can click. What does faster cast rate do? Is it important? Is attack rating important to a caster? What does that do?

Sorry these questions are so basic. Thanks if you can answer them coherently for me.

[Black Lotus]

If I get a charm that says +whatever elemental damage, say +3 cold damage, does that add to my fireball damage or is it only for physical weapon attacks?

It needs you to actually swing creature with your sword or scepter or anything to get this bonus. Spells and abilities that dont involve such a thing, dont recieve anything. Things that say "+5% fire damage", however, do increase skill damage.

You'd be probably willing to read that http://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Breakpoints and especially the faster cast rate part on sorceress.

[djmbbandie]

Resists are important in this game. I would look for charms that have lightning and fire resist, as they are the main forms of damage. Also, since the sorceress has low health, I would be looking for charms that add to life.

I would also suggest that you make a leaf staff (putting two runes, first tir, then ral, into a two socketed staff). This adds +3 to your fire skills and will improve your damage a lot. The best staffs are the ones that have +3 fireball already, but as long as it's a staff with two sockets, you can make leaf in it.

For the magical properties you should be focusing on, I would say to look for staffs and orbs that add to your fireball skill.

[royalairfarce]

Attack rating is useless to a sorc (unless enchantress perhaps but I have no experience with those).
Fastcast let u cast faster, so u will be able to cast more fireballs/second if u stack it. Its not only the amount of damage u do, but the damage/second that really matters. Black lotus link explains it in detail.

Grand Charms with + to cold/fire/lightning (called skillers) will increase your damage, but only drop rarely in Nightmare act3 and behond.

U can find all possible builds for your sorc here:
http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/s...-Edition-der-0

Would suggest u try Meteor + Frozen Orb or Fireball + Frozen orb

[Dawnmaster]

Also, keep in mind, that boosting dexterity does not only increase your attack rating, but also your block % if you're wielding a shield.

As for Faster Cast Rate, in itself, it does nothing to increase your casting speed, but at certain breaking points (cumulative Faster Cast Rate) you will cast faster:

Sorceress
FCR Frames
0% 13
9% 12
20% 11
37% 10
63% 9
105% 8
200% 7

This basically means that if you have a total of 200 faster cast rate, you will cast almost twice as fast as if you had none.