Meteorb Sorc questions..

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Hi,

I've started my first Meteorb Sorc (level 43 SP now) and have some
questions. Basic skill plan is FO 20, FB 20, ME 20, FM 1+, CM 1+ and
the usual suspects of 1-point skills (Static, Tele, Warmth).
Other skills (FO synergy) will be laid out later.

For FO, will these small cold damage charms increase freeze time like
they do with the Amazon's Freezing arrow?

Sorc doesn't have much use for stuff like CB, CS or AR, right? Important
things are faster cast rate and hit recovery, I think?

At the moment, she has a HF merc with Insight stick and can chain-cast
her FB and FO spells. To free up the valuable merc weapon, how much
Warmth would be needed?

What about life and mana leech - no physical damage, no leeching?

At level 43, she has a Spirit sword, Rhyme shield, Tarnhelm and
Vipermagi. Gloves are Frostburns and boots Infernostride. Any better belt
than Goldwrap?

I have the Occulus and Wizardspike (for later) in my ATMA stash. What
other good mid-level or high-level equipment should I look for?

Energy shield? I still have to begin to understand this skill. Which of
the cold armors?

Thanks,

Oliver

 

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In article <d7sluf$15h$05$1@news.t-online.com>,
Oliver Wenzel <ouuch@t-online.de> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I've started my first Meteorb Sorc (level 43 SP now) and have some
> questions. Basic skill plan is FO 20, FB 20, ME 20, FM 1+, CM 1+ and
> the usual suspects of 1-point skills (Static, Tele, Warmth).
> Other skills (FO synergy) will be laid out later.
>
> For FO, will these small cold damage charms increase freeze time like
> they do with the Amazon's Freezing arrow?
>

Nope. Only melee/missle attacks are helped by +dmg charms of any type


> Sorc doesn't have much use for stuff like CB, CS or AR, right? Important
> things are faster cast rate and hit recovery, I think?

Correct. Add to list of good stuff for sorcs mana & life & magic dmg
reduction.

>
> At the moment, she has a HF merc with Insight stick and can chain-cast
> her FB and FO spells. To free up the valuable merc weapon, how much
> Warmth would be needed?

Insight rocks (at least on the CL sorc build I made...sheesh CL eats up
mana). Just make a new one later in an elite weapon.

>
> What about life and mana leech - no physical damage, no leeching?
>

Correct.

> At level 43, she has a Spirit sword, Rhyme shield, Tarnhelm and
> Vipermagi. Gloves are Frostburns and boots Infernostride. Any better belt
> than Goldwrap?

Upgraded Goldwrap can be an endgame belt for MFing character. Tals' set
has a belt, so that's always a possible choice....as is Arachnid Mesh
for the +1 skills. I'm sue there's a couple other choices here.

>
> I have the Occulus and Wizardspike (for later) in my ATMA stash. What
> other good mid-level or high-level equipment should I look for?
>

Check every rare orb you find.


> Energy shield? I still have to begin to understand this skill. Which of
> the cold armors?

That seems to be personal choice. Personally, I stuck with one point in
the first one and left it at that.

 

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Hi,

Larry Geyer <larrygeyer@comcast.net> wrote in
news:larrygeyer-F803B3.17243504062005@comcast.dca.giganews.com:

> In article <d7sluf$15h$05$1@news.t-online.com>,
> Oliver Wenzel <ouuch@t-online.de> wrote:
>>
>> For FO, will these small cold damage charms increase freeze time like
>> they do with the Amazon's Freezing arrow?
>
> Nope. Only melee/missle attacks are helped by +dmg charms of any type

too bad. Would have been nice to freeze them for a longer time. But
perhaps my HF merc will do this for me.
>
>> Sorc doesn't have much use for stuff like CB, CS or AR, right?
>> Important things are faster cast rate and hit recovery, I think?
>
> Correct. Add to list of good stuff for sorcs mana & life & magic dmg
> reduction.

Yep. I'm skipping max block and go for base Energy, so I can put most
stat points into vit. And I wonder if I should switch my HF merc for a
prayer guy w/ Insight?
>
>>
>> At the moment, she has a HF merc with Insight stick and can
>> chain-cast her FB and FO spells. To free up the valuable merc weapon,
>> how much Warmth would be needed?
>
> Insight rocks (at least on the CL sorc build I made...sheesh CL eats
> up mana). Just make a new one later in an elite weapon.

Already got one or two in a Thresher and Cryptic axe. I'm still looking
for ethereal ones.
>
>> At level 43, she has a Spirit sword, Rhyme shield, Tarnhelm and
>> Vipermagi. Gloves are Frostburns and boots Infernostride. Any better
>> belt than Goldwrap?
>
> Upgraded Goldwrap can be an endgame belt for MFing character. Tals'
> set has a belt, so that's always a possible choice....as is Arachnid
> Mesh for the +1 skills. I'm sue there's a couple other choices here.
>
Haven't found an Arachnid's yet, but sorc likes the SoJ.

Thanks,

Oliver

 

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Oliver Wenzel schrieb:
>>>Sorc doesn't have much use for stuff like CB, CS or AR, right?
>>>Important things are faster cast rate and hit recovery, I think?

As FO and Meteor are timered spells, faster cast has a limited use here.
Only usefull for teleporting around at high speed.

>>Correct. Add to list of good stuff for sorcs mana & life & magic dmg
>>reduction.
>
> Yep. I'm skipping max block and go for base Energy, so I can put most
> stat points into vit. And I wonder if I should switch my HF merc for a
> prayer guy w/ Insight?

I highly recommend max block. IMHO, the investment in dex for max block
is more valuable that the increased number of hit points. The downside
is that the shield selection is limited to Whitstan's Guard and
Visceratuant (Stormshield and Gerke's have too high str requirements).
Upgrading the Visceratuant gives higher blocking but requires 77 str.

My FB/FO Sorc has a Prayer/Insight merc ATM. Although the automatic life
recovery is nice and usefull, I'd say a HF merc is the better choice
(especially for a Meteor sorc). Drinking and picking up a red potion now
and then can replace Prayer easily. If it wouldn't feel so wrong to
replace my sorc's merc hired in normal difficulty ...

>>>At the moment, she has a HF merc with Insight stick and can
>>>chain-cast her FB and FO spells. To free up the valuable merc weapon,
>>>how much Warmth would be needed?
>>
>>Insight rocks (at least on the CL sorc build I made...sheesh CL eats
>>up mana). Just make a new one later in an elite weapon.

Because Meteor and FO are timered spells, you can't spam them like crazy
anyway. Even with base energy, a single point in Warmth might be enough.
It will require equipment like Frostburn, Bahamut rings/SoJ, mana charms
and lots of +skills though. The payback is that you can give your merc a
Weapon like Reaper's Toll (IMO the ultimate weapon for this build - the
merc can survive most battles and keeps the critters in place which
allows to give them the full meteor dose) making boss fights a lot easier.

> Already got one or two in a Thresher and Cryptic axe. I'm still looking
> for ethereal ones.
>
>>>At level 43, she has a Spirit sword, Rhyme shield, Tarnhelm and
>>>Vipermagi. Gloves are Frostburns and boots Infernostride. Any better
>>>belt than Goldwrap?
>>
>>Upgraded Goldwrap can be an endgame belt for MFing character. Tals'
>>set has a belt, so that's always a possible choice....as is Arachnid
>>Mesh for the +1 skills. I'm sue there's a couple other choices here.

Rare triple resists belts with +life, a Plated belt of the Whale with
resists (shopable), Gloomstrap or a goodly crafted sharkskin belt are
good choices too.

> Haven't found an Arachnid's yet, but sorc likes the SoJ.

Cool, a SoJ .

---
Hannes

 

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Hi,

Hannes Brunner <bruhan12@web.de> wrote in
news:3gg1efFc6l40U1@individual.net:

> Oliver Wenzel schrieb:
>>>>Sorc doesn't have much use for stuff like CB, CS or AR, right?
>>>>Important things are faster cast rate and hit recovery, I think?
>
> As FO and Meteor are timered spells, faster cast has a limited use
> here. Only usefull for teleporting around at high speed.

hmm. I've just managed to get this 105% FCR breakpoint. If I stay with the
65%FCR, lots of equipment options open up.
OTOH, I start to love teleporting around. I still need to really embrace
this tele life style, as I'm getting easily disoriented.
>
>> Yep. I'm skipping max block and go for base Energy, so I can put most
>> stat points into vit. And I wonder if I should switch my HF merc for
>> a prayer guy w/ Insight?
>
> I highly recommend max block. IMHO, the investment in dex for max
> block is more valuable that the increased number of hit points. The
> downside is that the shield selection is limited to Whitstan's Guard
> and Visceratuant (Stormshield and Gerke's have too high str
> requirements). Upgrading the Visceratuant gives higher blocking but
> requires 77 str.

I believe I have more than 100 STR with gear. With some struggling I might
even be able to get enough STR for a Spirit shield.
How much dex for a Monarch to reach max blocking?
OTOH, Rhyme shield gives me resists, CBF and some MF. 60% blocking ATM
isn't that bad, either?
>
> My FB/FO Sorc has a Prayer/Insight merc ATM. Although the automatic
> life recovery is nice and usefull, I'd say a HF merc is the better
> choice (especially for a Meteor sorc). Drinking and picking up a red
> potion now and then can replace Prayer easily. If it wouldn't feel so
> wrong to replace my sorc's merc hired in normal difficulty ...
>
I'm a rejuv junkie. I pick up every rejuv and cube them up to full ones. I
even put excess ones in my ATMA stash.
It's always bad to throw out a trusted and proven friend. And it can take
quite some time to retrain a new merc.

>>>>At the moment, she has a HF merc with Insight stick and can
>>>>chain-cast her FB and FO spells. To free up the valuable merc
>>>>weapon, how much Warmth would be needed?
>>>
>>>Insight rocks (at least on the CL sorc build I made...sheesh CL eats
>>>up mana). Just make a new one later in an elite weapon.
>
With Lionheart armor, my level 57 merc can now use an Insight thresher.
He'll get upped Duriel's when he grows up some more.

> Because Meteor and FO are timered spells, you can't spam them like
> crazy anyway. Even with base energy, a single point in Warmth might be
> enough. It will require equipment like Frostburn, Bahamut rings/SoJ,
> mana charms and lots of +skills though. The payback is that you can
> give your merc a Weapon like Reaper's Toll (IMO the ultimate weapon
> for this build - the merc can survive most battles and keeps the
> critters in place which allows to give them the full meteor dose)
> making boss fights a lot easier.
>
Mebbe I'll just carry my Reaper's as backup against bosses. I should be
able to get quite high with +skills, as I have several +fire/cold charms
and other stuff. Gotta see if Warmth with one skill points recovers enough
mana.

>>>Upgraded Goldwrap can be an endgame belt for MFing character. Tals'
>>>set has a belt, so that's always a possible choice....as is Arachnid
>>>Mesh for the +1 skills. I'm sue there's a couple other choices here.
>
> Rare triple resists belts with +life, a Plated belt of the Whale with
> resists (shopable), Gloomstrap or a goodly crafted sharkskin belt are
> good choices too.

I have a nice belt with +25 res to fire/light/poison and +60 life.
>
>> Haven't found an Arachnid's yet, but sorc likes the SoJ.
>
> Cool, a SoJ .

Got it about a year ago, but at that time I'd rather have wanted a
Ravenfrost ring. Found my first one about a month ago - after 2 years of
playing.

Regards,

Oliver

ps. Just found a Gull dagger in Act3 swamps. So without much fiddling I
already have 205%MF on weapon switch. And merc adds another 68%MF.

 

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Oliver Wenzel schrieb:

<snip>

>>I highly recommend max block. IMHO, the investment in dex for max
>>block is more valuable that the increased number of hit points. The
>>downside is that the shield selection is limited to Whitstan's Guard
>>and Visceratuant (Stormshield and Gerke's have too high str
>>requirements). Upgrading the Visceratuant gives higher blocking but
>>requires 77 str.
>
> I believe I have more than 100 STR with gear. With some struggling I might
> even be able to get enough STR for a Spirit shield.
> How much dex for a Monarch to reach max blocking?
> OTOH, Rhyme shield gives me resists, CBF and some MF. 60% blocking ATM
> isn't that bad, either?

Spirit offers no blocking bonus to the 42% of a Monarch. You will need
around 300 dex for max block at clvl 80. A bit too much (Upgraded
Visceratuant 182, Whitstan's 153, Stormshield 195, Gerkes 178).

>>My FB/FO Sorc has a Prayer/Insight merc ATM. Although the automatic
>>life recovery is nice and usefull, I'd say a HF merc is the better
>>choice (especially for a Meteor sorc). Drinking and picking up a red
>>potion now and then can replace Prayer easily. If it wouldn't feel so
>>wrong to replace my sorc's merc hired in normal difficulty ...
>
> I'm a rejuv junkie. I pick up every rejuv and cube them up to full ones. I
> even put excess ones in my ATMA stash.

Tell me about it .

> It's always bad to throw out a trusted and proven friend. And it can take
> quite some time to retrain a new merc.

True. But more than that's it's something like 'Ok, I never tried to
finish the game with a Prayer merc before, let's do that at least once'.

<snip>

> Mebbe I'll just carry my Reaper's as backup against bosses. I should be
> able to get quite high with +skills, as I have several +fire/cold charms
> and other stuff. Gotta see if Warmth with one skill points recovers enough
> mana.

Sounds like a plan to me .

>>>>Upgraded Goldwrap can be an endgame belt for MFing character. Tals'
>>>>set has a belt, so that's always a possible choice....as is Arachnid
>>>>Mesh for the +1 skills. I'm sue there's a couple other choices here.
>>
>>Rare triple resists belts with +life, a Plated belt of the Whale with
>>resists (shopable), Gloomstrap or a goodly crafted sharkskin belt are
>>good choices too.
>
> I have a nice belt with +25 res to fire/light/poison and +60 life.

Dang. Gime gime gime.

---
Hannes

 

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Hi,

Hannes Brunner <bruhan12@web.de> wrote in
news:3gif7aFced34U1@individual.net:

> Oliver Wenzel schrieb:
>
>> OTOH, Rhyme shield gives me resists, CBF and some MF. 60% blocking
>> ATM isn't that bad, either?
>
> Spirit offers no blocking bonus to the 42% of a Monarch. You will need
> around 300 dex for max block at clvl 80. A bit too much (Upgraded
> Visceratuant 182, Whitstan's 153, Stormshield 195, Gerkes 178).

I'd need about 100 dex points to get there (starting from now 60 dex). I
guess I'll skip on it and put em in vit.
OTOH, I've a bunch of +STR items, so I'll stay with that Spirit Monarch.
That STR will allow me to wear one of my Duriel's socketed with UM.

>> It's always bad to throw out a trusted and proven friend. And it can
>> take quite some time to retrain a new merc.
>
> True. But more than that's it's something like 'Ok, I never tried to
> finish the game with a Prayer merc before, let's do that at least
> once'.

What char/build would benefit the most from a Prayer/Insight merc? I really
like the idea and consider switching to that merc once I get to Act2 hell.

>>
>> I have a nice belt with +25 res to fire/light/poison and +60 life.
>
> Dang. Gime gime gime.

Funny thing is this belt was sitting unused in my ATMA stash and I only
discovered it shortly. Didn't even know I had it.

Sorc has just grown up to level 67 and killed NM Baal. With Gull dagger on
weapon switch and adding in the merc she has about 425%MF w/o much
tweaking. I'm really surprised how much damage FO does - numbers with
around 500 cold damage don't look too impressive.

I'm still undecided between Wizardspike or Occulus. When Gloams or ranged
attackers are around, the teleport feature of Occy fires much too often.
OTOH, with Occy, Spirit shield, Harley's and a Tal's ammu and SoJ, I'd have
+10 skills easily.

And I'll only need to find Tal's armor for the complete set. Is it worth
the effort?

Regards,

Oliver

 

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Oliver Wenzel schrieb:

<snip>

> What char/build would benefit the most from a Prayer/Insight merc? I really
> like the idea and consider switching to that merc once I get to Act2 hell.

That would have to be a build with low life and huge mana requirements.
Mageazon or ES sorc maybe. But most builds will get more out of a
different merc selection.

>>>I have a nice belt with +25 res to fire/light/poison and +60 life.
>>
>>Dang. Gime gime gime.
>
> Funny thing is this belt was sitting unused in my ATMA stash and I only
> discovered it shortly. Didn't even know I had it.

Sometimes it's good to be a packrat, isn't it

> Sorc has just grown up to level 67 and killed NM Baal. With Gull dagger on
> weapon switch and adding in the merc she has about 425%MF w/o much
> tweaking. I'm really surprised how much damage FO does - numbers with
> around 500 cold damage don't look too impressive.
>
> I'm still undecided between Wizardspike or Occulus. When Gloams or ranged
> attackers are around, the teleport feature of Occy fires much too often.
> OTOH, with Occy, Spirit shield, Harley's and a Tal's ammu and SoJ, I'd have
> +10 skills easily.

A HotO would be an even better replacement for Occy. My FB/FO sorc has
one and uses the Raven/Oak charges frequently.

> And I'll only need to find Tal's armor for the complete set. Is it worth
> the effort?

The complete set has a high coolness factor, yes. But it's not uber
compared to Harley/HotO/Vipermagi/your belt/Mara's or nice +2 amulet.

---
Hannes

 

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Hi,

Hannes Brunner <bruhan12@web.de> wrote in
news:3gl11jFcvhhhU1@individual.net:

> Oliver Wenzel schrieb:

>> I'm still undecided between Wizardspike or Occulus. When Gloams or
>> ranged attackers are around, the teleport feature of Occy fires much
>> too often. OTOH, with Occy, Spirit shield, Harley's and a Tal's ammu
>> and SoJ, I'd have +10 skills easily.
>
> A HotO would be an even better replacement for Occy. My FB/FO sorc has
> one and uses the Raven/Oak charges frequently.

I've put the only VEX I found in a Death runeword, I think. But I found a
rare orb in my stash with 20%FCR, +2 Sorc skills, +2 CM and LM, +1 ES.
Socketed with a rare jewel, it gives 45/19/6/6 resists, too.

With this orb and the stuff above, I have full resists in hell, 850 life,
500ish mana and still 212%MF (312%MF with Gull on WS).

But on my first venture into hell, I found that these quill rates hurt very
much with their arrows. If you run into a boss pack of them, it's an easy
and fast death. So I wonder if I should drop that Vipermagi and go for an
armor with higher defense?

Regards,

Oliver

 

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Oliver Wenzel schrieb:
> Hi,
>
> Hannes Brunner <bruhan12@web.de> wrote in
> news:3gl11jFcvhhhU1@individual.net:
>
>>Oliver Wenzel schrieb:
>
>>>I'm still undecided between Wizardspike or Occulus. When Gloams or
>>>ranged attackers are around, the teleport feature of Occy fires much
>>>too often. OTOH, with Occy, Spirit shield, Harley's and a Tal's ammu
>>>and SoJ, I'd have +10 skills easily.
>>
>>A HotO would be an even better replacement for Occy. My FB/FO sorc has
>>one and uses the Raven/Oak charges frequently.
>
> I've put the only VEX I found in a Death runeword, I think. But I found a
> rare orb in my stash with 20%FCR, +2 Sorc skills, +2 CM and LM, +1 ES.
> Socketed with a rare jewel, it gives 45/19/6/6 resists, too.

Nice one .

> With this orb and the stuff above, I have full resists in hell, 850 life,
> 500ish mana and still 212%MF (312%MF with Gull on WS).
>
> But on my first venture into hell, I found that these quill rates hurt very
> much with their arrows. If you run into a boss pack of them, it's an easy
> and fast death. So I wonder if I should drop that Vipermagi and go for an
> armor with higher defense?

Just an armor with high defense won't do the job. You need a booster
too. This can be a defiance merc and one of the cold armors. The aim is
to have at least 5k defense rating. At 10k, it starts to make a real
difference. But it's hard to get such high numbers with a sorc.

Too bad I couldn't talk you into the max blocking thingy .

---
Hannes

 

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Hi,

Hannes Brunner <bruhan12@web.de> wrote in
news:3gnomkFd6pdjU1@individual.net:

> Oliver Wenzel schrieb:

>> But on my first venture into hell, I found that these quill rates
>> hurt very much with their arrows. If you run into a boss pack of
>> them, it's an easy and fast death. So I wonder if I should drop that
>> Vipermagi and go for an armor with higher defense?
>
> Just an armor with high defense won't do the job. You need a booster
> too. This can be a defiance merc and one of the cold armors. The aim
> is to have at least 5k defense rating. At 10k, it starts to make a
> real difference. But it's hard to get such high numbers with a sorc.

I guess I'll try my Gloom armor for some time. The ctc Dim Vision has
saved the butt of one of my other chars more often than not. Resists are
the same as on my upped Viper, so switching back is n o problem.

> Too bad I couldn't talk you into the max blocking thingy .

It would have taken at least 120 points to dex, as she only has around 60
now. And would have meant shields w/o many resists or MF.
I'm currenty trying to outfit her for hell, and found setups with Spirit
shield giving about 1100 life, res all and level 30 FB/FO/ME. And still
more than 300MF with that Gull dagger WS.

Regards,

Oliver

 

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Hi,

"~misfit~" <misfit61nz@hooya.co.nz> wrote in
news:d878j0.3vc.1@fairground.synaptic.net.nz:

> Oliver Wenzel wrote:
>> But on my first venture into hell, I found that these quill rates
>> hurt very much with their arrows. If you run into a boss pack of
>> them, it's an easy and fast death. So I wonder if I should drop that
>> Vipermagi and go for an armor with higher defense?
>
> Upgrade the Vipermagi. It makes for a really nice armour, the last one
> I upgraded came out at 1007 def. Ko, Lem and Pdiamond is all you need
> to turn it into a great armour. (Has a lvl req of 57 and str req of 84
> when upped). --

that's clear. It's upgraded and socketed with UM for +44 res all. Def is
about 927, I think.
I have a GLOOM armor on another char, and the 15% ctc Dim Vision seems to
work quite nice against ranged attackers.

Regards,

Oliver