==================================== PvP Sorceress Guide by Jowy Atreides ==================================== Author : Jowy Atreides Date : 31 Dec 2003 Version : 2.02 Patch Version : 1.10 (!) Legal stuff : Copyright 2003 Jowy Atreides. You may make copies of this for personal use. You may publish this guide on non-commercial sites, as long as the guide is not edited in any way. Permission is not necessary, as long as I'm credited as the author of this guide. You may not use this guide in any way to make money, publish it in magazines, commercial web sites without my permission. You may not edit the guide in any way. With that set aside, let's get on with the guide. --------------- Version history --------------- 28-9-2003 - First version completed. 29-9-2003 - 1.01, minor spelling errors corrected, some information added. 3-10-2003 - 1.02, added some information in the Sorc Vs Necro section. 9-10-2003 - 1.03, added some minor info, rewritten a few sentences. 10-11-2003 - 1.20, updated for patch 1.10. 12-11-2003 - 1.21, corrected some spelling errors, added some stuff. 20-11-2003 - 1.30, added information in most sections, added a new section. 26-12-2003 - 2.00, added TvT section, corrected some spelling errors, and added information in the class specific section. 27-12-2003 - 2.01, corrected some spelling errors. 31-12-2003 - 2.02, added some information in most class sections. ================= Table of contents ================= 0) News 1) Introduction 2) Stat distribution 3) Skill distribution 4) Equipment 5) General strategies 6) Class specific strategies 7) Team vs Team strategy 8) Some formulae 9) Appendix 10) My 1.10 Sorc 11) Closing words 12) Credits and thanks ======= 0) News ======= Oh wow, 1.10 is finally here, and it's had some very significant changes for PvP. Some of the things I've found I'll list here. 1) The PvP penalty for spells is 1/6 instead of 1/4 now. The appendix has an article about this, and 2). 2) Cold Mastery works as straight subtraction instead of taking a percentage of the total, this is good and bad. Read Skill section for explanation. 3) 110-114% double-cast problem seems to have been fixed. 4) Bug! The timer on Frozen Orb seems to be linked with other spells sometimes. Skill section for details. 5) Amazons can "dodge" spells now. Bad, Blizzard. 6) +% Mana items such as Frostburn and Soj don't give their Mana boost to +Energy from items and Mana based on clvl items. This is why Sorcs "lost" Mana during the transition from 1.09 to 1.10. Hopefully Blizzard will regard this as a bug, and fix it. =============== 1) Introduction =============== Hello, this is Jowy Atreides, welcome to my PvP Sorceress Guide. I post as JowyBlight on the Gamefaqs.com forums, and roam the Battle.net Realms as *Jowy. This guide is intended for Sorc PvP play on the Europe realm, patch 1.09, following the German Duellliga and PostReality/Euro PvP rules. If you play on other realms or leagues, information in this guide may not be useful or applicable, because of different Physical Damage Reduction caps, or other prohibited items. If you plan to use this guide, I will assume that you have no problem with PvM and are moderately wealthy in terms of equipment. Furthermore you need a stable connection. If you plan to play PvP Sorc, having good "ping" is essential. The delay time between your in-game action and the server noticing it, is measured in Ping, in ms. So if you have a delay of 2000 ms, you have a delay of 2 seconds. Of course this makes even normal PvM play unpleasant. You can check your Ping in-game with the command FPS (press enter, type "/FPS" as if you were saying it, hit enter again). For good Sorc play, a constant ping of around 100 or lower is necessary. Some terminology : Sorc = Sorceress Barb = Barbarian Nec = Necromancer ASN = Assassin Pal = Paladin Zon = Amazon STR = Strength DEX = Dexterity VIT = Vitality NRG = Energy PvP = Player vs Player TvT = Team vs Team Clvl = Character Level Slvl = Skill Level FPS = Frames Per Second, Frames Per Shot FPA = Frames Per Attack FPC = Frames per Cast FHR = Faster Hit Recovery FBR = Faster Block Rate DTM = Damage to Mana FO = Frozen Orb CM = Cold Mastery TS = Thunderstorm LM = Lightning Mastery ES = Energy Shield SF = Static Field TK = Telekinesis LR = Lower Resistances Conv = Conviction PDR = Physical Damage Reduction MDR = Magic Damage Reduction Def = Defense DMG = Damage Wiz = Wizardspike Ocu = Oculus SvS = Sorc vs Sorc SvZ = Sorc Vs Zon SvN = Sorc vs Nec ==================== 2) Stat distribution ==================== Here I'll describe what I think is the ideal way to distribute your character's stat points. -Strength : This should be kept low. With my build, you won't need much more than 60 Strength whilst equipped, to be able to wear a Frostburn. Strength doesn't boost your damage in any way as with physical attackers, so more points in it is useless. You may want to raise your Strength to 70 with equipment on to be able to wear a Gothic Plate, but I don't recommend it, I'll explain later why. 1.10 : You may want to keep this even lower now, because the unique Small Charm Annihilus adds +10-20 to all stats. Keep in mind that the armor Ormus' Robes requires 77 Strength, if you intend to wear it. -Dexterity : Dexterity is used to be able to wear items, and to increase your chance to Block. Your highest Dex requirement item is Wizardspike, which requires 75 Dexterity. To get 75% chance to Block with a Whitstan's Guard at clvl 99, you need 186 Dex. 1.10 : See above. -Vitality : Vitality increases your character's longevity, because you can sustain more damage. Each point in Vitality gives your Sorc 2 Life (which is further increased with the use of Jah Runes). This is the Stat you'll be boosting the most, 300+ is recommended. *1.10 : My current Sorc only has about 200 Vitality, because she has much higher base Energy than the old Sorc. The new PvP penalty of 1/6 instead of 1/4, and the higher % ES absorbing makes up for the loss of Life though. -Energy : *1.09 : (Keeping this as low as possible is advisable. Yes, you need Mana to cast spells, and to absorb damage with your Energy Shield, but you want to pump your Vitality, not your Energy. The reason for this is because there are so many Mana boosting items in LoD. Even with base Energy you can get 1400+ Mana using Oculus, and 2000+ with Wizardspike. But still, if you have alot of plain Life or Skill Charms, you might want to consider putting some points into Energy to get a decent Mana pool. Alot of people say that base Energy is necessary, but if you run out of Mana during play, you're as good as dead, so if you don't have a steady Mana pool with base Energy, putting points in it isn't a bad idea.) *1.10 : I feel you need to put quite a bit of points in this now, to be effective as a Sorc. The main reasoning behind this, is that Sorcs "lost mana" in the transition from 1.09 to 1.10. For example, my own Sorc had 1839 Mana. Now she has 14xx with the very same setup, not an item changed. I believe this might be because Blizzard changed something about how +% Mana items work, such as Frostburn. (update : the reason Sorcs' Mana total lowered is because +% Mana items such as Frostburn don't give their Mana boost to items with +Energy or +Mana based on clvl anymore) Besides that, Energy Shield absorbs *much* larger portions of the damage now, it goes up to 80-90% now I think, so if you try to play with an 1.09 Sorc, you'll be out of mana after 1-3 good hits. You might want to get around 100 Energy, to keep enough Mana to fight after taking hits. Nothing as annoying as having your Sorc yell out "Not enough Mana!" when you see 3.5k Damage Bone Spirits guiding towards you. On the other hand, Energy Shield now has a synergy with Telekinesis. In 1.09, for each point of Life you lose, you lose 2 Mana. With extra points in Telekinesis, this can be brought down to a 1:1 ratio in 1.10. More detailed information about this in the Skills section. With a high Telekinesis, you might not need such high base Energy. ===================== 3) Skill distribution ===================== The Sorceress has many elemental skills at her disposal, but many of them are useless because they deal low damage, or are ineffective at hitting your opponent. I will describe the most common template, the FrozenOrb/Thunderstorm Sorc. -Why Frozen Orb? *1.09 : Frozen Orb is easy to aim, because it covers a very wide area, so you can cover a screen easily and surround your opponent. It does over 500 damage per shard at higher levels (38+) and is nigh unresistable due to Cold Mastery. ------- *1.10 : Frozen Orb in 1.10 has a VERY big bug. The cast delay is linked with other spells, even spells that have *no* cast delay. (i.e Teleport) You can view this by putting FO on the left button, and Teleport on the right. Hold down the FO button, and see what happens to the right button. Pretty bad, isn't it? This is a very significant bug, because it makes you stuck in place after throwing an orb, about half the time. I have e-mailed Blizz tech support about this, but haven't had a reply yet. But besides that, Frozen still deals great damage, and is one of the better offensive skills out there. ------ -Cold Mastery *1.09 : Cold Mastery lowers your opponent's resistances by a percentage. At slvl 38 this lowers your opponent's Cold Resistance by 95%. Maxing this is important, to get the best performance out of your Frozen Orb. Besides that, if you have a low level Cold Mastery, you're in trouble if people have stacked Cold Resist alot (400+). ------ *1.10 : Cold Mastery works different now. In 1.09 it took a percentage of the total. Example, enemy has 300 Cold Resistance, you have 95% Cold Mastery (slvl 38). 300 * (300 * 0.95) = 15% Cold Resistance remaining. Not much, for such high Cold Resistance. For 1.10 it's : 300 - 205% (slvl ~40) = 95%(!) Cold Resistance remaining. This is capped off at 75%, without Cold Resistance maximum raising items, but can be brought to 95% if your opponent tweaked himself to be anti-Sorc. What does this tell us? In both situations your enemy has 300% Cold Res. But in 1.09 you do : 100 - 15% CR = 85% of your Damage. In 1.10 you do : 100 - 95% CR = 5% damage. In this "worst" scenario, you do s e v e n t e e n times less damage than in 1.09, and *then* you get the 1/6 PvP penalty instead of 1/4. Anyway, if your opponent has this kind of Cold Resistance and some Life Replenish, it's impossible for you to kill him. Although, there is a good side about this too. Cold Mastery can lower enemy Resistance below zero now. Of course it couldn't do this in 1.09, because it took a percentage of the total. Quick example : Enemy has 150 Cold Resistance, you have 205% Cold Mastery. 150 - 205 = -55% Cold Resistance. This increases your damage by 55%, which somewhat makes up for the 1/6 penalty. Some tests about this can be read in the appendix. -Why Thunderstorm? *1.09 : (Thunderstorm is a passive skill, that does around 2000 listed damage at slvl 30, and 3000+ at slvl 40. The main use of this skill is to get you out of blocklock. If you are close to your opponent, and you get blocklocked, TS might put your opponent in hit recovery, meaning he won't be shooting arrows so you have time to teleport away. Also, since Frozen Orb has a casting delay of 1 second, you cannot cast another timered spell during that period. TS is passive, so you don't have to worry about that. Lightning Mastery is maxed out along with this, to make it deal as much damage as possible. Note : You cannot pre-cast Thunderstorm with items on your Weapon Switch that boost Thunderstorm, the skill level will drop to your current Level once you change back to your normal Weapon slot.) -------- *1.10 : 1.10 introduced the "synergies" : By putting skill points in a skill that has a synergy bonus for another skill, it will enhance that other skill. This Sorceress build has 2 notable synergies. Note : You *only* get the synergy bonus if you put actual skill points into it. +Skills from items don't add the synergy bonus, but you still get the normal bonus for having extra skill points in a skill. *Ice Bolt : Each point in this, adds 2% damage to your Frozen Orb. This may not seem much, but every little bit of damage helps. *Telekinesis : Telekinesis reduces the amount of Mana lost with Energy shield. With 0 points (theoretically, since you can't get ES without Telekinesis) this is a 1 : 2 ratio, 2 Mana per Life point. With every point spent in Telekinesis, this amount is lowered by 6.25% (taken from the Arreat Summit). So with 16 points in this, the ratio is dropped to 1:1. Of course, this is a very useful skill, and needs skill points. Wheter you can make it go even lower than a 1:1 ratio, by putting over 16 skill points in it, is unknown as of now. So, you need extra skill points to put in these skills, where do you get them? I think it's time to abandon Thunderstorm. The reasoning for this, is that the new PvP penalty is 1/6 now, instead of 1/4. This has put a significant drop in Thunderstorm damage. And on top of that, Amazons can avoid it now, as if it were a physical attack. It does very little damage now, and is dodgable. Not worth the 40 Skill points anymore, in my opinion. Although, you may want to put just one skill point in it, to get the dodge animation on Amazons, this puts them in place for a moment. It'll make it easier for you to land an Orb hit. With the 40 points from TS/LM free, you have plenty to put 16 in Telekinesis, and 20 in Ice Bolt. --Other skills : **Energy Shield : This spell allows you to reduce a percentage of the damage you take in your Mana. A simple example : You take a hit of 1000 damage. Your Energy shield absorbs 50%. You will lose 500 Life, and 1000 Mana (you lose 2 points of Mana for every lifepoint you lost). If you have damage to mana % items : 37% Damage to Mana (Tal Rasha's Belt) : (500 * 0,37=185) 500 Life lost, 815 Mana lost. If you have Physical Damage Reduction (PDR) % items : 10% PDR (Harlequin Crest) : 450 Life lost, 900 Mana lost. With both 37% DTM and 10% PDR you get : 450 Life lost, 733 Mana lost. As you can see, the Mana loss is quite high, so you need ways to regain Mana fast so you can keep fighting. That means you have to pump Warmth and Teleport. Note : you cannot pre-cast Energy Shield with equipment on your Weapon Switch that boost Energy Shield. 1.10 : You may want to put more points into this than just one, because of the huge damage reduction you get from it. If you get it really high though (75%+), you practically *need* those 16 points in Telekinesis and a high Mana pool to be effective. A problem with Energy Shield is that the Mana loss is calculated before Resistance with the new PvP damage resolving order in 1.10, which means you lose over 4 times as much Mana than you would in 1.09. The new PvP damage order is : 1) 1/6 PvP penalty 2) Energy Shield / Cyclone Armor / Bone Armor 3) -MDR/-DR 4) Resistances 5) % absorb 6) + absorb In 1.09, Energy Shield was applied after all the other factors were resolved. But still, Energy Shield is a *very* useful skill in 1.10, because it increases your effective life by alot, as long as you are careful around elemental attackers. For physical attackers it doesn't matter much, because Sorcs were only allowed to use 10% PDR max, so the increased Mana loss is negligable. **Warmth : This spell increases the rate your Mana regenerates with. It sounds useful on paper, but if you have a low Mana pool to begin with (1000-1300) it's better to leave this low and increase Teleport instead. 1 to 10 points in this skill is recommended, depending on your Mana pool. If you have high Mana (1800+), put more in it, otherwise go for Teleport. **Teleport : This is the skill that makes the Sorceress, and gives her an edge over other characters: Instant transportation, anywhere, anytime. This skill starts at a hefty 24 mana per cast, which is alot if you cast it 3 times per second. At slvl 24 this spell costs 1 Mana per cast, which pretty much makes it free. Putting points in this is good, because you can regenerate more Mana while you teleport, instead of losing Mana. I feel that gaining Mana while teleporting is essential to Sorc play, and the more you get the better. All the spare points should go here, and a base level of over 8 is recommended. **The Cold Armours : Personally I don't use these. They inflict some minor Cold Damage to your opponent, and boost your Defense. This might make that one Multishot or Whirlwind miss, but wheter it's worth boosting is debatable. Zero points, or 1, and let your equipment boost it. As for the skill distribution : Frozen Orb - Maxed out Cold Mastery - Maxed out Thunderstorm - Maxed out Lightning Mastery - Maxed out Teleport - 8+ Warmth - Rest of the skill points Pre-reqs This should be attainable by clvl 85 or so, higher levels just makes it easier. 1.10 skill point distribution : ------------------------------- (Disclaimer : I haven't actually tried this build in PvP, nor have I built it on the closed realm. I have made some tests with it on Open, that's all. So wheter this is a "useful" or the "most effective" build is debatable.) Update : I've built the Sorc on closed Europe with the template below, and she's at clvl 87 now, and doing great. Mana isn't a problem anymore, and her killing power is much greater compared to my 1.09 Sorc. Anyway : Maxed skills : -Frozen Orb -Ice Bolt -Cold Mastery Rest : -16 in Telekinesis -1+ in Energy Shield, depending on your Mana pool, and how often you get hit. -You may want more points into Warmth than Teleport now, because your Mana pool will most likely be higher than in 1.09. This makes Warmth more effective. ============ 4) Equipment ============ Ah yes, your equipment. The Diablo series have always been highly reliant of equipment, and this especially holds true for PvP. Although the Sorceress is arguably the least item-dependant character, having a good set of equipment is still essential for success. I will list what I think is the ideal item for each slot, and give some cheaper alternatives if I can. I will not list any 1.08 items, since you can no longer find them, and most of them are duped. ----- 1.10 notice : I have made a test build on open with some of the 1.10 items, but I'm still unsure which of the new items I like, so I will leave this section in it's 1.09 state. Most of it will remain the same anyway, the biggest changes would be : -Arachnid Mesh unique Spiderweb Sash belt. +1 Skills, 20% FCR, 5% to max Mana, this will probably be the new "best" Sorceress belt. -Rainbow Facet jewels, with + to Cold Skill Damage/-Resistance. Improves your damage, so it speaks for itself. -Death's Fathom unique Dimensional Shard : +3 skills, and up to 30% Cold skill damage increased, this adds ALOT of damage. Unfortunately, it's a Ladder-only item. -Ormus' Robes adds 10-15% to Fire/Light/Cold Damage, and +3 to a random Sorc skill. Warmth or Teleport is good to have here, along with a high percentage on Cold. -Heart of the Oak runeword Flail. This opens up new possibilities because it has the same skill bonus as Oculus, but 10% more FCR. This means you can get 9 FPC with just the Flail and Vipermagi and leaves the Gloves and Belt slots free. Very nice indeed. ----------- Helm slot : ----------- Harlequin Crest Shako Defense: 98-141 Required Level: 62 Required Strength: 50 Durability: 12 +2 To All Skills + (1.5 Per Character Level) 1.5-148.5 To Life (Based On Character Level) + (1.5 Per Character Level) 1.5-148.5 To Mana (Based On Character Level) Damage Reduced By 10% 50% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items +2 To Strength +2 To Dexterity +2 To Vitality +2 To Energy (Only Spawns In Patch 1.09 or later) No competition here. The massive Mana boost is great for us base-Energy Sorcs, and the Damage Reduction, +Skills and extra Life just makes it more attractive. There's no reason you should use anything other than this (now if only it were a Circlet ..). **Socketing options : *Jah Rune : This increases your Life total by 5%, and is my preferred option, since you'll want as much Life as possible. The drawbacks are that Jah's are quite expensive, and that the 5% life boost doesn't get boosted in conjunction with a Barb's Battle Orders. *Perfect Ruby : This adds 38 Life, and is a cheaper option than the Jah Rune. The difference between the two isn't that much, but you'll want to move up to Jah eventually, to squeeze as much Life out of your Sorc as possible. *Dol Rune : This adds 7 replenish Life, which is always handy, and can be the difference between winning and losing a fight. Note that Replenish Life is capped at 20 in Duellliga, and at 15 in Euro PvP/Postreality for Sorc. *Perfect Skull : Same idea, but a bit less Life replenish, but some Mana Regeneration to make up for it. *Resistance Jewel/Um rune : This adds 15% to all your Resistances, a Sorc generally doesn't need this though. With Wizardspike you instantly have 75% Resist All on Normal, and that's where duels take place. If you use Oculus, you could consider using an Um rune then, but the options listed above are better. *Lo Rune : +5% to Maxmimum Lightning Resistance Lowers enemy Sorc TS resistance, good if the opponent has 40+ Thunderstorm level. *Damage to Mana Jewel : You can get 7-12% DTM on a Jewel with a Dun prefix, this is useful on any item to lower Energy Shield Mana losses. ------------- Armour slot : ------------- *Skin of the Vipermagi Serpentskin Armor Defense: 279.4 (Base Defense: 127) Required Level: 29 Required Strength: 43 Durability: 24 +120% Enhanced Defense +1 To All Skills 30% Faster Cast Rate Magic Damage Reduced By 9-13 (varies) All Resistances +20-35 (varies) (Only Spawns In Patch 1.09 or later) This is the most common piece of armour you'll find on Europe Block Sorcs. The most important mod on this is the 30% Faster Cast Rate (FCR). The +1 Skill and Resistances are useful too. *Que-Hegan's Wisdom Mage Plate Defense: 628.8-681.2 (varies)(Base Defense: 262) Required Level: 51 Required Strength: 55 Durability: 60 +140-160% Enhanced Defense +1 To All Skill Levels +3 To Mana After Each Kill 20% Faster Cast Rate 20% Faster Hit Recovery Magic Damage Reduced By 6-10 (varies) +15 To Energy (Only Spawns In Patch 1.09 or later) The mods that stands out on this armour is the 20% Faster Hit Recovery. Socketed with a Shael Rune that gives an additional 20% FHR, just by wearing this armour alone speeds up Hit Recovery from 15 frames, to 10 frames. Having decent FHR makes Trappers alot easier to fight. *Twitchthroe Studded Leather Defense: 57-60 (varies)(Base Defense: 32-35) Required Level: 16 Required Strength: 27 Durability: 32 +25 Defense 25% Increase chance of blocking 20% Faster Hit Recovery 20% Increased Attack Speed +10 To Dexterity +10 To Strength (Only Spawns In Patch 1.09 or later) The important mod on this armour is the 25% increased chance of blocking. You may consider using this to save on Dexterity, but personally I don't use it, because it has no Faster Cast Rate, which means you'll have to use Wizardspike. Along with the loss of +1 skill on Skin of the Vipermagi, you'll lose a total of +4 to all Skills. *Arkaine's Valor Balrog Skin Defense: 1295-1450.4 (varies)(Base Defense: 518) Required Level: 85 Required Strength: 165 Durability: 30 +150-180% Enhanced Defense +1-2 To All Class Skill Levels* (varies) + (0.5 Per Character Level) 0.5-49.5 To Vitality (Based On Character Level) 30% Faster Hit Recovery Damage Reduced By 10-15 (varies) (Only Spawns In Patch 1.09 or later) This armour is no good in my opinion. I see some Europe Sorcs walking around with this, and I wonder, why? My biggest gripe with it, is the 165 (!) Strength requirement. That means you have to waste over 100 more Stat points on Strength to be able to wear this. The armour only gives 50 Vitality at clvl 99, so you'll still lose 50 Vitality in the big picture. All that, for just +2 to all Skill Levels and 30% FHR and a high Defense rating. Since we're playing Euro PvP/Duellliga rules, you can't wear a Stormshield, which would have been the only reason to get your Strength that high in the first place. Also, the armour doesn't have any Faster Cast Rate, so you'll have to make up for that somewhere too (ex : you have to wear Wizardspike + Magefist, where you lose +3 to all Skills already). Avoid at all costs. *Jeweler's Gothic Plate of the Whale 'JahJahJahJah' Required Strength : 70 +20% to maximum Life +100 to Life This armour dons a massive life boost (I gain about 300 with it). The drawbacks are that it has no FCR, and requires 70 Strength. The main use for this is against Sorcs, where the extra Life comes in handy, but if you use this armour, you'll be forced to teleport at 9 Frames Per Cast (I'll explain Cast Rates later in this guide). I feel this is too slow sometimes, to Orb-trap other Sorcs. Limited use, and 4 Jah Runes are expensive. **Socketing options : Because Runes and Jewels get the same bonuses in helmets and armour, I'll briefly list the options from the helm slot again. *Jah Rune : +5% to maximum Life. Again, the Life boost is nice, there aren't much better options than this. *Perfect Ruby : +38 Life, the cheaper alternative to Jah. *Dol Rune : 7 Replenish Life. *Perfect Skull : Replenish Life and Mana. Um Rune/Resist Jewel : 15% Resist All. *Lo Rune : +5% to Maxmimum Lightning Resistance Lowers enemy Sorc TS resistance, good if the opponent has 40+ Thunderstorm level. *Damage to Mana Jewel : You can get 7-12% DTM on a Jewel with a Dun prefix, this is useful on any item to lower Energy Shield Mana losses. ------------- Weapon slot : ------------- This is where the eternal debate of "Oculus or Wizardspike?" comes in. I will list both options, and give my opinion about when to use which. *The Oculus Swirling Crystal One-Hand Damage: 18 To 42 (30 Avg) Required Level: 42 Durability: 50 (Sorceress Only) +3 Sorceress Skill Levels +5 To Mana After Each Kill All Resistances +20 25% Chance To Cast Level 1 Teleport When Struck 30% Faster Cast Rate +20 To Vitality +20 To Energy +20% Enhanced Defense 50% Better Chance Of Getting Magic Items (Only Spawns In Patch 1.09 or later) This piece most importantly adds +3 to Skills, which the Wizardspike lacks. But, Wizardspike has 30% more Faster Cast Rate than Oculus, which in turn makes it easier to get a 9 Frames Per Cast Rate. The Oculus also has a 25% chance to cast Teleport when struck, this can get you out of blocklock sometimes, which is useful, but sometimes it only gets you into more trouble. Also, along with War Traveler, this is the most misspelt unique item name. * Wizardspike Bone Knife One-Hand Damage: 23 to 49 (36 Avg) Required Level: 61 Required Strength: 38 Required Dexterity: 75 Base Weapon Speed: [-20] + (2 Per Character Level) 2-198 To Mana (Based On Character Level) 50% Faster Cast Rate Regenerate Mana 15% Increase Maximum Mana 15% All Resistances +75 Indestructible (Spawns In Any Patch) This weapon gives an insane Mana boost, and good Faster Cast Rate and Resistances, but lacks Skill Levels. The high Mana, Cast Rate and resistances make this ideal for Sorc vs Sorc matches. So, to summarize : *Oculus : Pro : +Skill +Chance to cast Teleport when Struck Con : -Less Cast Rate than Wizardspike -Low Resistances -Chance to cast Teleport when Struck *Wizardspike : Pro: +Huge Mana boost +Faster Cast Rate +Resistances Con : -Lacks Skill Levels *Suicide Branch Burnt Wand One-Hand Damage: 8 To 18 (13 Avg) Required Level: 33 Required Strength: 25 Durability: 15 Base Weapon Speed: [0] 150% Damage To Undead +1 To All Skills 50% Faster Cast Rate Increase Maximum Mana 10% All Resistances +10 +40 To Life Attacker Takes Damage of 25 This is a good alternative for Wizardspike, for when you need the Faster Cast Rate, but don't need the Mana boost. It dons a nice +1 Skill and 40 Life. **Socketing options : *+9 Strength/Dexterity/Faster Hit Recovery/Replenish Life Jewel : Lots of mods, and the +Str/Dex will allow you to save on stat points, and replenish Life is always welcome. A very nice, albeit expensive option. *Ko Rune : +10 Dexterity This will allow you to put less into Dex, so you can get more Vitality. *Fal Rune : +10 Strength Same reasoning. *Lum Rune : +10 Energy Yup, you know what. *Io Rune : +10 Vitality Yawn. *15 Resist Jewel : Extra Resistances may come in handy if you need 75% Lightning Resistance on Hell, but there are better options than this. *Damage to Mana Jewel : You can get 7-12% DTM on a Jewel with a Dun prefix, this is useful on any item to lower Energy Shield Mana losses. ------------- Shield slot : ------------- *Whitstan's Guard Round Shield Defense: 129-154 (varies)(Base Defense: 47-55) Required Level: 29 Required Strength: 53 Durability: 64 Chance To Block: Pal: 75% Ama/Asn/Bar: 75% Dru/Nec/Sor: 75% +175% Enhanced Defense Half Freeze Duration 40% Faster Block Rate +55% Increased Chance Of Blocking +5 To Light Radius The best Sorceress Shield to fight physical attackers with. The massive Increased Chance to Block mod saves alot of Dexterity, which in turn you can put in Life. You should always use this when you need to Block attacks. *Visceratuant Defender Defense: 100-125 (varies)(Base Defense: 50) Required Level: 28 Required Strength: 37 Chance to Block: Pal: 70%, Ama/Asn/Bar: 65%, Dru/Nec/Sor: 60% Durability: 68 Paladin Smite Damage: 8 To 12 +100-150% Enhanced Defense (varies) 30% Increased Chance of Blocking 30% Faster Block Rate +1 To Sorceress Skill Levels Attacker Takes Lightning Damage of 10 A decent choice for the +1 Skill, but it has less Chance to Block than Whitstan's Guard, so you have to invest more into Dexterity. It blocks just as fast as Whitstan's though. *Moser's Blessed Circle Round Shield Defense: 156.8-179.2 (varies)(Base Defense: 56) Required Level: 31 Required Strength: 53 Chance to Block: Pal: 67%, Ama/Asn/Bar: 62%, Dru/Nec/Sor: 57% Durability: 64 Paladin Smite Damage: 7 To 14 +180-220% Enhanced Defense (varies) +25% Increased Chance of Blocking 30% Faster Block Rate All Resistances +25 Gem Sockets (2) (Only Spawns In Patch 1.09 or later) This is useful when you need the Resistances, since it has two open Sockets, you can socket it with Perfect Diamonds or Um Runes to increase the Resistance bonus even further. *Lidless Wall Grim Shield Defense: 271.8-347.3 (varies)(Base Defense: 151) Required Level: 41 Required Strength: 58 Chance to Block: Pal: 50%, Ama/Asn/Bar: 45%, Dru/Nec/Sor: 40% Durability: 40 Paladin Smite Damage: 14 To 20 +80-130% Enhanced Defense (varies) +1 To All Skill Levels Increase Maximum Mana 10% 20% Faster Cast Rate +3-5 To Mana After Each Kill (varies) +10 To Energy +1 To Light Radius (Only Spawns In Patch 1.09 or later) The Shield to use when you don't need to block physical attacks. The biggest drawback on this is the bad Block rate, so don't try to use it versus physical attackers, since it requires a humongous amount of Dexterity to retain 75% Block with it at high levels. **Socketing options : *Jah Rune : +50 to Life. Useful to get as much Life as possible, but if you use your Weapon Switch often, the extra life will be lost when you switch back (ex : you have 1700/1700 life, you switch, and drop to 1650/1650, you switch back, and you'll have 1650/1700). *Shael Rune : 20% Faster Block Rate If you put this in Whitstan's Guard, it should speed up your Block Rate from 6 Frames to 5. Wheter this has any practical use, is uncertain. *Dol Rune : +7 Replenish Life Extra Replenish Life never hurts, unless you're over the cap. *Um Rune/Perfect Diamond/Resist Jewel : Extra Resistances, not much to be said about it. *Lo Rune : +5% to maximum Lightning Resistance : This is a very nice socket for Lidless Wall in my opinion, it lowers enemy Sorc Thunderstorm Damage by 20% if you go from 75% Light Resistance to 80%. Ko/Fal/Io/Lum Rune : +10 to one Stat, useful, but there are better options. *Damage to Mana Jewel : You can get 7-12% DTM on a Jewel with a Dun prefix, this is useful on any item to lower Energy Shield Mana losses. *Sur Rune : This adds +50 to Mana when socketed in a shield, useful if you suffer from Mana problems. ------------ Amulet slot: ------------ *Mara's Kaleidoscope Amulet Required Level: 67 +2 To All Skill Levels All Resistances +20-30(varies) +5 To Energy +5 To Vitality +5 To Dexterity +5 To Strength (Only Spawns In Patch 1.09 or later) Good all-round amulet, but nothing spectacular. *Tal Rasha's Adjudication Amulet Required Level: 67 +2 To Sorceress Skill Levels Lightning Resist +33% Adds 3-32 Lightning Damage +42 To Mana +50 To Life A better option than Mara's Kaleidoscope, this adds more Life/Mana than Mara's. Along with the Belt from this set, it adds a nice 10 Replenish Life. *Crafted/Rare Amulet : -Caster Amulet Recipe: Magical Amulet + Jewel (any) + Ral Rune (#8) + Perfect Amethyst Preset Mods: 4-10% Regenerate Mana +10-20 Mana Faster Cast 5-10% This recipe can net you an amulet with: +2 to Sorc Skill Levels +60 to Mana +50 to Lightning Resistance +60 to Life +10-20% Faster Cast Rate +20 to Strength, or Dex/Energy Of course it's near impossible to get an amulet with ALL of those mods, but as long as you have several of them, the amulet is nice. Tal Rasha's will be better in most cases though, unless you really need the Faster Cast Rate. Note : the 20% Faster Cast Rate is only possible on a Crafted Amulet, not on a Rare Amulet. ----------- Ring slots: ----------- *Stone of Jordan Ring Required Level: 29 +1 To All Skill Levels Increase Maximum Mana 25% Adds 1-12 Lightning Damage +20 To Mana (Spawns In Any Patch) The best legit Sorc ring, this adds alot of Mana, and +1 skill. Generally you'll be wearing two of these all the time, but in some situations you may want to wear something like : *Crafted/Rare/Magic Ring : +60-120 Mana +10% Faster Cast Rate +40 Life +Resists +Replenish Life For some fights you want to get 8 Frames Per Cast instead of 9, and you have to use a Ring like this. Note : the +120 Mana prefix only spawns on Magic Rings. ----------- Belt Slot : ----------- *Gloom's Trap Mesh Belt Defense: 90.2-102.5 (varies)(Base Defense: 41) Required Level: 36 Required Strength: 58 Durability: 16 16 Boxes +120-150% Enhanced Defense (varies) 5% Mana Stolen Per Hit Increase Maximum Mana 15% Regenerate Mana 15% +15 To Vitality -3 To Light Radius (Only Spawns In Patch 1.09 or later) Mana and Life bonus, nothing spectacular though. *Tal Rasha's Fine-Spun Cloth Mesh Belt Defense: 35-40 Defense: 95-100 Required Level: 53 Required Strength: 47 Durability: 16 Requirements -20% 37% Damage Taken Goes To Mana +30 To Mana +20 To Dexterity 10-15% Better Chance Of Magic Items This is my belt of choice. Along with the Amulet from the same set, you also gain 10 Replenish Life. The Belt generally has nice mods, and the 37% Damage to Mana is just plain neat. The drawbacks are that it doesn't have any Life or Faster Cast Rate. *Trang-Oul's Girth Troll Belt Defense: 134-166 (varies)(Base Defense: 59-66) Required Level: 62 Required Strength: 91 Durability: 18 +75-100 Defense (varies) Requirements -40% Cannot Be Frozen Replenish Life +5 +25-50 To Mana +30 Maximum Stamina +66 To Life A nice Belt with high Life/Mana, and some Replenish Life, but again, no Faster Cast Rate. *Crafted Belt : Caster Belt Recipe: Magical Light Belt or Sharkskin Belt (Excep) or Vampirefang Belt (Elite) + Jewel (any) + Ith Rune (#6) + Perfect Amethyst Preset Mods: 4-10% Regenerate Mana +10-20 Mana +5-10% Faster Cast Other mods you want on a Belt like this : +Faster Hit Recovery +Life/Mana +Str/Dex +Resistances +Replenish Life These belts have the possibility to be the best Sorc belts in the game, but it may take many tries to get a good one with alot of the mods described above. ----------- Glove slot: ----------- There are pretty much only two choices on what to wear in the Glove slot : *Magefist Light Gauntlets Defense: 24.4-25.6 (varies)(Base Defense: 12) Required Level: 23 Required Strength: 45 Durability: 18 +20-30% Enhanced Defense +10 Defense +1 To Fire Skills 20% Faster Cast Rate Regenerate Mana 25% Adds 1-6 Fire Damage (Only Spawns In Patch 1.09 or later) The mod that stands out on this pair of gloves is the 20% Faster Cast Rate, but it has some minor other bonuses too, such as +1 Fire Skills and Mana Regeneration. This is generally used to get 8 Frames Per Cast (explained later). *Frostburn Gauntlets Defense: 47.6-49.2 (varies)(Base Defense: 16) Required Level: 29 Required Strength: 60 Durability: 24 +10-20% Enhanced Defense (varies) +30 Defense +5% Enhanced Damage Maximum Mana 40% Adds 1-6 Cold Damage, Cold Duration: 2 Seconds (Only Spawns In Patch 1.09 or later) These Gloves increase your Mana greatly, 40% is added to your base Mana. These are good to have a 9 Frames Per Cast setup with a high Mana pool with. ----------- Boots slot: ----------- And lastly, the Boots. I don't feel there are many options here, the best option for a Sorc is a pair of Waterwalk. These boots have the following mods : *Waterwalk Sharkskin Boots Defense: 112-124 (varies)(Base Defense: 40) Required Level: 32 Required Strength: 18 Durability: 14 +180-210% Enhanced Defense (varies) 20% Faster Run/Walk +100 Defense Vs. Missile +15 To Dexterity +5% Maximum Fire Resist Heal Stamina Plus 50% +40 Max Stamina +45-65 To Life (varies) (Only Spawns In Patch 1.09 or later) The highlights are the 15 Dexterity, and 65 Life on a perfect pair. 65 life equals 32.5 Stat points, together with the 15 Dexterity, that's a higher Stat boost than you can get on any other boots. *Silkweave Mesh Boots Defense: 112.5-130.5 (varies)(Base Defense: 40) Required Level: 36 Required Strength: 65 Durability: 16 +150-190% Enhanced Defense (varies) 30% Faster Run/Walk +5 To Mana After Each Kill Increase Maximum Mana 10% +200 Defense VS. Missile Some people swear by these, but I feel they aren't very good, and FAR inferior to Waterwalk. 10% Mana added to your base pool isn't much, and it has few other useful mods. *Aldur's Advance Battle Boots Defense: 39-47 Required Level: 45 Required Strength: 95 Indestructible 40% Faster Run/Walk +180 Maximum Stamina 10% Damage Taken Goes To Mana Heal Stamina Plus +32% +50 To Life Some people like to use these for Sorc vs Sorc because they have high Life and some Damage to Mana, but I feel the Strength requirement is too high, and the DTM is minimal. A better source for DTM is the Tal Rasha's belt, or Jewels. A typical PvP Sorc setup is : Harlequin Crest Skin of the Vipermagi/Ormus' Robes Weapon Switch 1 : Heart of the Oak/Oculus/Whitstan's Guard Weapon Switch 2 : Wizardspike/Lidless Wall Tal Rasha's Belt/Crafted Belt/Arachnid Mesh Tal Rasha's Adjudication Amulet/Mara's/Crafted Waterwalk 2 Stones of Jordan Magefist/Frostburn ------ Charms ------ Your inventory needs Charms. Skill Charms grant a significant damage boost, and you should have 8 to 10 of them. You can fill the row below the Skill Charms with Small Charms with Life/Mana, preferably both mods on one Charm. The charms are : *Chilling Grand Charm of (suffix) : +1 to Cold Skills. These boost your Frozen Orb damage, and your Cold Mastery level, so of course they are incredibly useful. You'll want +30-45 Life on these Charms, but those are hard to come by and very expensive, plain Skill Charms are fine if you can't afford the ones with Life. Skill Charms with FHR are nice too. *Sparking Grand Charm of (suffix) : +1 to Lightning Skills, these boost your Thunderstorm damage to ridiculous levels, and lowers your Teleport Mana Cost. It's up to you to decide wheter you want to use Cold or Lightning Charms, or a mixture of both. As with the Cold Charms, extra Life or FHR is nice on these, albeit expensive. *Serpent's Charms of Vita : +17 to Mana, +20 to Life on a perfect Small Charm, 34 Mana, 35 Life on a Large Charm, 59 Mana, 45 Life on a Grand Charm. These provide a very nice boost to your Life/Mana, they can be essential if you use Oculus. *Amber Small Charms of (suffix) : These add 9-11% to Lightning Resistance, you may need these to retain maximum Lightning Resistance on Hell difficulty, where Sorc vs Sorc takes place. Good suffixes for Charms like these are +life, FHR. =================== 5) General Strategy =================== Phew, the Equipment section sure was a long read (and a long write, for me). Here I'll give some general tips for Sorc play. -Know your Faster Cast Rate breakpoints. There are two major breakpoints that Sorceress' use. The first one is 63%+ to 104% Faster Cast Rate. This nets you a Cast rate of 9 Frames per Cast (FPC). Diablo 2 runs on 25 Frames per Second, this means you can teleport 25/9 = 2,8 times per Second. This setup is easily reached with : *Oculus (30%), *Skin of the Vipermagi (30%) *and a Caster Belt/Amulet (3%+) Or just : *Wizardspike (50%) *Skin of the Vipermagi (30%) 1.09 : (The other breakpoint is 105%+ Faster Cast Rate, this will let you teleport at 8 FPC. There are some problems involved with this though, you need 114%+ Faster Cast Rate, or some of your spells will fizzle and you'll only get the cast animation client side, which means that to other people it seems you're not casting anything at all. With 8 FPC you can cast teleport 3,125 times per second. The difference between 8 and 9 is significant.) ***Note*** This problem with 105-114 FCR seems to have been fixed. At least, I tried teleporting around with 110% FCR on several occassions, and I didn't experience the "double-cast" effect. To get 8 FPC easily, I like the setup : *Wizardspike (50%) *Skin of the Vipermagi (30%) *Lidless Wall (20%) *Magefist (20%) This setup gives you 120% Fast Cast, a steady 8 FPC, high Mana because you have Wizardspike and two Stones of Jordan. ----- *1.10 : This could be an easy way of getting 8 FPC in 1.10 : *Wizardspike (50%) *Skin of the Vipermagi (30%) *Lidless Wall (20%) *Arachnid Mesh (20%) Or : *Heart of the Oak (40%) *Ormus' Robes (20%) *Lidless Wall (20%) *Arachnid Mesh (20%) *Amulet with 5%+ FCR This leaves both ring and glove slots free, where you can change for a setup that has block. For example, by wearing Whitstan's Guard instead of Lidless, and using Magefist. 8 FPC isn't necessary in most fights though, and requires good ping to be effective with. I prefer to play with 9 FPC in most fights, and get a few more skill points or extra Mana. The setup I use is : *Heart of the Oak (40%) *Ormus' Robes (20%) *Arachnid Mesh (20%) This gives me 80% FCR, which is over the 63% breakpoint, so I get 9 FPC. On my weapon switch I have : *Ormus' Robes (20%) *Arachnid Mesh (20%) *Wizardspike (50%) *Lidless Wall (20%) This is 110% FCR total, or 8 FPC. I can switch between these during battle if I need extra speed/Mana, or don't need block in a certain situation. -Frozen Orb has a timer of 1 second, this means you can Teleport roughly 3 times before you can throw another Orb, you can use those teleports as a guideline. That means you get a pattern of Orb, Teleport, Teleport, Teleport, Orb, Teleport ..etc. (notice : this doesn't hold true in 1.10, because of the "timer" bug, where every skill button is redded out sometimes after you cast a timered skill, in this case Frozen orb. Hopefully this will get fixed soon) -Level more. The higher level you are, the more skill points you have to spend on Warmth and Teleport, and you'll get more Mana/Life from Harlequin/Wizardspike, which in turn is boosted again by Jah's, Frostburn, Stones of Jordan, etc. The higher level you are, the easier it is to stay alive as a Sorceress. -Have a steady Mana pool. You don't want to get drained empty in one attack, or lose Mana while Teleporting - that's a definite no-no. To prevent this, make sure your Teleport and Warmth are at a decent Skill Level, and have a sizable Mana Pool. -Cold Charms or Lightning Charms? What do you want to be? A FO/TS Sorc, or a TS/FO Sorc? I will list the Pro's and Con's on both types. (this is 1.09 information, as Thunderstorm is MUCH less useful in 1.10) FO/TS ----- Pro: -FO is harder to negate than TS. -More range than TS. -With the high level FO, pretty much every shard will put low life (1000-1200 life) characters inhit recovery. Con: -You have to actually aim your FO. TS/FO ----- Pro: -If you are in TS range, and get blocklocked, the TS will pretty much *always* get you out of blocklock by putting your opponent into hit recovery due to your high level TS. -You don't have to aim TS, so it's easier to use. -Lightning Skill Charms will also boost your Teleport level, which makes it easier for you to keep a steady Mana pool. Con: -A 40 TS Sorc can kill a 75% Lightning Resist Amazon with average Life with 3-4 TS alone, but if your enemy is prepared(95% Light Res, Absorb, etc) you're in trouble, because your main source of damage is nearly negated. -If you get blocklocked outside TS range, you're in big trouble as well, but that also holds true for the FO/TS build. -People will complain about your high TS, and say it requires "no skill". Well, onto the next point. -Explore the map before a duel. You'll want to know where the corners, the walls, and the houses are, because knowing the terrain gives you an edge over your opponent. You have an idea of where they can be approaching from, and where the safety points are. In the Blood Moor area, there are often big "blocks" on the map. If you put your cursor completely against the edge of your screen, you can teleport to the other side. Some stupid art to make it more clear : X<--opponent |---------------------------| | the block | | | |___________________________| X<--you This can be a good surprise attack, if you see your opponent is on the other side of the block, you can "appear out of nowhere" and hit him with a Frozen Orb and immediately teleport away after that. Don't do this too often though, since it will get very predictable, and the next time you try it, he might have a surprise waiting for you. You can also teleport over a river using this same method, if you are on a bridge map. -Next point, know the range of your Frozen Orb, and of your Thunderstorm. Know from which angle your Frozen Orb will do the most damage. Try to aim your Orb in a way, so that when the "ball" part of the Frozen Orb will explode directly on top of your opponent. A hit like this is called a "full Orb" and can easily take over 1000 life off your opponent. Try to aim these Orbs where you think your opponent is going, instead of where he is standing, if your opponent is running. -You can turn Frozen Orb invisible, by teleporting in, throwing an Orb, and then teleport off-map range before the Orb is finished. With off-map I mean that you cannot see your opponent's name on the map anymore. When you do this, the Orb and it's shards will become invisible. You can use this to lay traps where you think your opponent is going, this is especially useful in Sorc vs Sorc. -Don't be overly aggressive, or extremely passive, but find a road between the two. Being overly aggressive usually means you'll die, unless you're extremely lucky, or exceptionally skilled. While being extremely passive makes fights long, boring, and tedious for your opponent. There are times to attack, and moments to run away. Practice to know when to do which. -Avoid teleporting predictably as much as possible. Bad Sorcs always Teleport predictably, good Sorcs do it less. The better you are, the more refined and seemingly random your teleport pattern is. It's important to avoid teleporting in a circle pattern up close, because it's VERY predictable, and your opponent will just camp the next spot you'll teleport to, and you'll be in trouble. If you're on one side of a corner, and your opponent is half a screen away on the other side of it, you can expect him to be attacking that spot, waiting for you to teleport into it. More fancy art : Z3 | Block | Y X < enemy Z2 | -------------------- you X | --> Z1 It is predictable for you to teleport into spot Y, so he'll probably camp it, by constantly shooting arrows in that spot for example. It's better to teleport to spot Z1, and then attack at spot Z2 or Z3, while your opponent is camping spot Y. You can also teleport into the forementioned spot Y, if you did spot Z several times, to keep your attack patterns random. -Practice alot. Becoming a good Sorc player doesn't come instantly (for most of us, at least) and with practice you'll become better. Do Sorc vs Amazon 30 times against the same opponent for example, and if you find yourself doing bad, try to figure out why or where you die, and try to find a different solution to that problem in the next fight. -A simple explanation of the mod "Absorb" is that it "absorbs" an amount of damage, thus that part of the damage is negated, and on top of that it also heals your character for the same amount of damage. An example : Raven Frost has 20% Cold Absorb, this means 20% damage is absorbed, and 20% is healed, and your Cold Damage is effectively lowered by 40%. That's why Necromancers with two Raven Frosts are so tough. Also, the first hit(target has full life) you deal doesn't seem to take the healing part in account. This doesn't really matter with Frozen Orb because it deals small amounts of damage with each shard, but launches many shards, but with attacks that do alot of damage in one hit, it's a nice advantage. -And lastly, try to be nice. The last thing B.Net needs is another noob-calling machine that makes up excuses with every loss. If you lose, don't blame it on "LAG" or "LOL DESYNC", just try to do better next time, or even compliment your opponent on a match well-played. Cough. ================================ 6) Character Specific Strategies ================================ ------------------- Sorceress Vs Amazon ------------------- The Amazon, the most prominent class in dueling games. Easy to use, hard to master. Because there are so many of them, alot of them aren't very good. Your average Amazon has 1000 to 1600 Life, 85% Lightning Resistance, and 2800-4500 maximum Guided Arrow Damage. This means they can kill you in 2-3 shots, so you should proceed with caution. I recommend using 9 FPC against Amazons, because 8 FPC requires you to use a Wizardspike, which means your attacks will be weaker, and you might have to give up a Stone of Jordan too, in favour of a 10% Fast Cast Ring, which weakens your attack further. The golden rule in Sorc vs Amazon is : ***if she is running, she is NOT shooting***. Watch carefully wheter your opponent is moving or not. Take cover behind walls, corners, or in houses. If you find the Amazon shooting a continuous stream of Guided Arrows against the a wall, of which you are on the other side, she must be crazy to expect you to teleport into it. Let her shoot, she'll waste precious Mana and Arrows. Your average Amazon has 250 to 450 Mana, and shooting continuously like this is very taxing for her. It's just a bit of psychological warfare, if you don't attack, she'll become more careful and waste arrows less, which gives you more room to move. In 1.10 this got even better, because Amazons can't leech much Mana back now. :) With a good hit, they get ~10 Mana maybe, which is almost nothing. You can also teleport to the other side she's camping, as described in the General Strategies part. Mixing both strategies of waiting, and attacking is perfect. -Avoid teleporting in circles up close, don't be a clocksorc! This is VERY important. If you teleport in circles from up close, it's VERY easy for the Amazon to camp the location you'll teleport next to, and you'll be stuck in blocklock, this means game over most of the time. Circle Teleporting(circleporting after this) from far away (1.5-2+ screens) is fine, because arrows won't lock very often from that far, you just have to watch out not to teleport exactly into a stream of GA's. Mix up your Teleport pattern, do a 180 grade half circle pattern, and then back to your starting spot for example, and next time do the 180 grade pattern, but instead of going back to your starting location, teleport behind your opponent for a good hit, or teleport out. The possibilities are infinite. Know the range of your Frozen Orb. There are generally two kinds of Orbs you'll be throwing : -Chipping Orbs -Full Orbs "Chipping" is the art of teleporting from about 1.5 screens away around your opponent, and surrounding him with Orb Shards. You'll slowly take away his Life, with little risk to yourself. Chipping is an art of pressuring your opponent, this will make your opponent run, or he will take damage. That brings us back to the golden rule, when your opponent is running, he isn't shooting. That's a perfect oppertunity for you to give chase, and follow up with a "full Orb". If you're going in for the full Orb, try to make sure you have at least a few Orb Shards flying towards your opponent also. These shards will put your opponent in hit recovery if he stops to shoot you, while you are up-close positioning yourself for the full Orb. That way blocklock will be prevented, since you can Teleport away while he is in hit recovery. If you do happen to get blocklocked after all, you *should* be at the proper distance to get that full Orb off. With some luck you'll be able to cast an Orb (hold down the mouse button). After this the Amazon has the choice of keeping her blocklock, or moving. If you did position yourself properly, the Amazon will take massive damage from standing in the full Orb, get put in Hit Recovery, and you'll be able to Teleport away. If she does move, then constant stream of arrows blocklocking you will stop, and you'll be able to Teleport away also. Being able to chip effectively* makes a Sorc successful against Amazons. Try to surround her as much as possible with Orb Shards, so she has few places to move to without taking damage, and then go in for the full Orb. If you only cover one side with your Orb Shards, the Amazon will run to the opposite side, and be safe while she can retaliate, this is a situation you should prevent, by following up and casting Orb shards on the other side also. *It's hard to chip in 1.10, because of the nasty bug with Frozen Orb I described in the Skill section. You Orb, pause, teleport, Orb, pause, Teleport, etc. This seriously needs to be fixed. -Another important aspect of Sorc vs Amazon is to watch your opponents arrows. If you see arrows curve into your direction, Teleport behind a wall, corner or into a house immediately, and let the arrows collide against the wall. Don't try to finish your pattern, the arrows might turn invisible, and while you're up close, they all collide, and you'll take damage, or be put in blocklock. Both are fatal. -Again, be unpredictable. If you do half-circle Teleports finishing with teleporting behind your opponent alot, chances are that he'll shoot behind his back the next time. Stay on the same side once in awhile to confuse him, instead of teleporting behind him every time. -Be wary of opponents who "wallhug", i.e, they stay against a wall, or in a corner the whole time. If they do this, they force you to be passive, try to chip them, and wish you were born as a Hydra Sorc. -If you are namelocked, teleport off maprange, and your opponent will lose his namelock. You can tell you're namelocked if every arrow curves into your direction. -Lastly, Sorc vs Amazon requires alot of practice, since it's one of the harder match-ups for a beginning Sorc, but later on, it turns out to be quite easy versus the majority of Amazons. *1.10 : Amazons in public games are much easier now, because of multi-socket unique items gone, and GA/Pierce bug gone. On top of that, they can hardly leech Life/Mana, and do less damage too. Furthermore, you can't get blocklocked for whole seconds, like in 1.09. You can pretty much Teleport away immediatly, even if the Amazon hits you continuously with arrows. But they are able to "dodge" all your spells now. This is good and bad. The good part is that it puts them in the dodge animation, so they can't move for a moment. The bad part is that you don't do the damage. The strategy remains the same though. Small update : I've seen Amazons dodge whole full Orbs without taking a scratch, but they can't shoot either during that period, because they're busy dodging. Very awkward, Blizzard. ------------------------ Sorceress vs Necromancer ------------------------ This match-up is very similar to Sorc vs Amazon, so most of the Sorc vs Amazon strategies apply here too, but there are some differences : -Bone Spirit travels alot slower than Guided Arrow, but is unblockable, and turns invisible easily due to it's slow speed. A good Necromancer can set traps for you like this. -Necromancers also have Poison Nova, a deadly ring that can take off quite a bit of damage if you're not careful. Try to chip him if he uses Poison Nova alot, but you should go in for a full Orb once in awhile too, to keep him on his toes. -While Necromancers have a weaker offense than Amazons, they last ALOT longer because they are allowed to use two Raven Frosts, which provide 20% Cold Absorb each, which means your Cold Damage is lowered by 80%. If you're not careful, they might outtank you, so be cautious and try not to lose too much life during shootouts. -In this fight you do not need Block, so just use the 120% Faster Cast Rate setup, which lets you Teleport at such speeds that Bone Spirit will never catch up, unless you teleport into a trap. But still, if you have alot of Bone Spirits following you, Teleport behind a wall and let them collide there before continuing the fight. -The key to winning against Necromancers is to be able to chip effectively. Try to stay within "full Orb" range all the time, and surround him as much as possible, while teleporting unpredictably to avoid getting hit. Don't get *too* close, because if he shift-clicks right next to his feet, the Bone Spirits will track from there, and you WILL get hit if you're that close. *1.10 : Necro strategy remains the same too, but : Necro's do ALOT more damage now. Their Bone Spirit can go over 3500 damage. Poison Nova does VERY high amounts of Damage too. 1 hit from a Nova could drain you to 1 Life very fast. Either carry Antidotes (cough), or stay out of Nova range, or have some +Max % Res / Length reduction items. Furthermore Bone Spear does alot of Damage too now. If you get namelocked by it, don't underestimate it, but Teleport off-map to get rid of the namelock. Likewise with Bone Spirit. Other than that, the fight isn't particularly hard against the majority of Necromancers, because you plainly have more mobility than them. Funfact : I've fought a Necro in a public game with my Barb, with his freshly made Breath of the Dying Colossus Blade. My barb : 4700 Life, 4600 max Whirlwind, with DS from Gore Rider and Highlords Wrath. I run up to the Necro, use the "dance of death" triangle pattern whirling on him. He casts "Weaken" on me, and holds down the button with Bone Spirit, and doesn't move an inch. Guess who dies? Yup, that's right. Me. He was pretty easy for my Sorc though, couldn't have had alot of Cold Resistance. If they do have high CR, it's a near lost cause. ---------------------- Sorceress vs Barbarian ---------------------- This can be a very long fight, because your typical Barbarian has 4000-5000 Life, and a Raven Frost along with a Thundergod's Vigor. A good Barbarian isn't offensive, but instead he is cautious and defensive, and will try to make you chase him. This means you have to play quite offensively, but try to keep a decent amount of distance between you and him when you're not attacking, so you have time to react to sudden changes in his running direction. Try to chip him, and aim Orbs where you think he'll run to, instead of directly at him. Avoid teleporting directly in front of him, the Barb is CLOSER than he looks! -If the Barb is a thrower, or a Hybrid, treat him like a Bowazon with a lesser offense, but higher Life total. If you are stuck in blocklock, do NOT try to teleport out of it, instead, *walk*, not run a few steps until you're not blocklocked anymore, and then swiftly teleport away to recover, since he'll most likely have gotten a namelock while you were blocklocked. (if you run instead of walk, your chance to block will drop) Also, with Duellliga rules, Barbarians are allowed to use an amulet with Teleport Charges, and the Sorc is allowed a maximum of 40% chance to Block on her Shield. This gives him a VERY big advantage. If he gets a namelock on you with Teleport, he'll directly Teleport to where you are, and follow up with a Whirlwind (think Dragon Flight, only better). Along with the 40% Block, 1 Whirlwind can easily spell death for you, so against Barbs like this you have to be very passive, try to chip them offscreen, and if you do happen to teleport close to them, never stay on their screen for long. *1.10 : Very little change, Barbs really got the bad end of this patch. Their damage is lowered, and they gained few bonuses. Although, Barbs can pretty much Teleport unlimited now, thanks to the Runeword "Enigma". And, they last longer because of the new 1/6 penalty. With the 1.10 Sorc build, these are generally no danger. This is because they can hardly damage you due to your high ES absorbing. Whirlwind attacks do very little damage most of the time, what *does* do damage is the "Open Wounds" mod. This can easily drain 500 Life off you when your opponent is high enough level, and the bad part is that it's unresistable in any way. -------------------- Sorceress vs Paladin -------------------- Paladins usually try to attack Sorcs with Fist of the Heavens (FoH). Alone this attack does very little damage, even when it's at high levels (35+), it'll do less than 100 damage, and you can recover from it easily. The sucker is that when you have Conviction on, the green aura, it can lower your elemental Resistance over 250%, which effectively means your Lightning Resistance is -100%. And *then*, he can kill you in 3-4 FoH's. So, what does this tell us? Don't attack the Paladin if you have Conviction on. You can be aggressive with close range chipping, and full Orbs, but when Conviction happens to stick, Teleport out immediately, and do offscreen chipping, or recover somewhere out of range until it is gone. Some Paladins will also try to use Charge, or Smite against you, these are generally no threat in 1v1, since they just won't catch up. (this doesn't hold true in 1.10, because Charge is so fast that you can *see* the Paladin Teleport whole screens. If they get a Chargelock, either take the gamble of orbing in front of you and Teleporting away, repeat. Or Teleport behind a wall/house) This fight isn't particularly hard, but can be VERY long, if the Paladin has 2.5k+ Life, huge Cold Resistance, and plays passive. Using the 120% Faster Cast Rate setup in this fight is recommended, to avoid getting namelocked with FoH as much as possible. 1.10 : It seems like all the 1.09 Amazons went to playing Paladin. They've gotten some huge boosts in their skill. The two important ones : -Charge is *really* fast now, and still desyncs as much as before, maybe even more than before. Once he gets a click-lock on you, you should Teleport behind a wall. -Fist of the Heavens is easier to aim now. The Paladin doesn't Need to get a namelock like in 1.09, when he clicks in a certain radius around you (about the range of the Iron Maiden curse) the FoH will be cast. Once you get on the Paladin's screen, he will hit. And this drains your Mana very fast with the higher Energy Shield Damage reduction. Besides that, when Paladins use Salvation, they get huge Cold Resistance, this makes them real tanks. A very hard match-up now. Update : I've fought some of these with my 1.10 build Sorc. Thanks to the increased damage from the Ice Bolt synergy and new items, it's a much more even match-up now. Paladin still has the advantage though. A well-built Paladin can drain a 1.7k Mana pool with 3-4 FoH, without even having Conviction locked on. This is one of the hardest fights any Sorceress will come across, along with the Trapper. There's not much you can do about it, because it's so easy to hit with FoH. Get as high Light Resistance as allowed, and high Mana so you can regenerate faster. (I have 2.2k Mana when I fight FoH'ers in 1v1 with ~200 Light res stacked) --------------------- Sorceress vs Assassin --------------------- The Assassin, this can be quite a hard fight, but again, if you know what you're doing, it should be no problem. First you have to make sure what kind of Assassin your opponent is. There are three general types : *Martial Artist : These use a big claw, and have a base level Trap to stun with. *Hybrid : Like the Martial Artist, but with a higher level Trap. *Trapper : These only use Traps, you can usually tell an Assassin is a Trapper if she dons a Wizardspike. The Que-Hegans armour socketed with a Shael (40% FHR) is a very handy tool in this fight. With the armour your hit recovery is lowered from 15 to 10 Frames. This means you can almost get out of any Trap. Approach the Assassin like you do against an Amazon, chip her, and try to get a full Orb in once in awhile. If you get Mind Blast on your character, Teleport out. If you have Mind Blast on, any attack that hits you will put you in Hit Recovery. Normally you only get put in Hit Recovery if an attack does more damage than 1/12 of your Life total. This means you'll be stuck, doing your Hit Recovery animation over and over while the Assassin refreshes her Traps and Mind Blast, or takes a few swipes at you with her Claw. So, wait til the Mind Blast effect (the stars over your head) is gone before you attack again. If the Assassin uses Dragon Flight on you, and puts you in Blocklock with her Claw attack, don't panic and Teleport like a madman. Instead, walk one step out of claw range, and then Teleport away. The reasoning on this is that the Assassin can attack with a speed of 7 Frames Per Attack, whereas your Cast Rate is either 8 or 9 frames. Theoretically this means your Casting animation is cut off at the last or second last frame, every time. Of course this doesn't always hold true, because of lag, or missed swings, etc. The same thing goes for Traps; if you happen to get locked down by the Assassin and are getting pummeled by Traps, *run* out of the danger zone, and try to time it so, that just before the trap is about to hit you again to Teleport away. You should Teleport off map-range after this, because the Assassin still has a namelock, so you need to get rid of that. 120% Faster Cast Rate is recommended in this fight, so you can Teleport fast and avoid namelock as much as possible. 1.10 : Had the chance to fight some more Trappers now. They are very popular nowadays, because Lightning Sentry damage can go over 12000 max. Coupled with the timer bug (unable to Teleport after casting a timered spell), this is a very hard match-up. This is because 1 hit from LS could take away half your Mana pool, and you get hit alot due to the timer bug. The match-up is near impossible with an Orb Sorc, because you have to be quite close to hit with Orb, and once you've casted an Orb, you have a good chance of the Teleport button turning red too, which cuts off your escape route. I generally walk a few steps after I cast an Orb, and then try to Teleport instead of trying to Teleport immediatly. High Mana and 8 FPC is recommended here. On the other hand, MA/Hybrid sins are weakened quite a bit, due to their 100% chance of critical with one point in weapon mastery being fixed, and leech nerfed. On top of that, they can't use Dragon Flight to teleport to you, unless you are on their screen. Which makes their mobility very limited. Formerly a very hard match-up, but it's mostly low-threat now. Of course there are still good players out there that can play a MA sin very effectively. ------------------ Sorceress vs Druid ------------------ This generally isn't a hard fight, but make no mistake, there are some very deadly Druids out there. The most common build of Druids is the Werewolf, these are high speed characters with alot of Life. They don't pose much of a challenge most of the time due to their inability to hit you, but if they are very passive, they can put you into blocklock with a shift-attack while you chase them. This is a situation you should and can avoid, by keeping at least half a screen distance between you and him. This is close enough for a full Orb, but too far for him to hit you. Be careful though, they usually equip a big Polearm with range 5 on their Werewolf, which has a deceptively large amount of range. There are also Werebear Druids, these sometimes use Shockwave to stun you (similar to the Assassin's Mind Blast). But, this attack doesn't have much range, and can be avoided pretty easily. And their main attacks also lack range, so they shouldn't pose much threat. I prefer 9 FPC with as high skill level as possible in this fight, so you can kill the Druid as fast as possible. *1.10 : Armageddon seems to do quite a bit of damage now. It can be deadly if the Druid uses Teleport, since the effect travels with him, but if he doesn't : easy to hit him. Since your attack plain has more range than his. People use the Hurricane/Tornado attacks too. I don't think Hurricane does much damage, but Tornado hurts. The attack has *very* little range though, so you won't get hit by it unless the Druid uses Teleport. Cyclone Armor is a force to be reckoned with now. It can absorb over 1000 damage I think, and they can recast it indefinitely. This means you have to be hurting the Druid constantly, or he'll just recast it and take zero damage. The shapeshifters haven't change much, but the Werewolf "Rabies" is a very dangerous skill. If it hits, it drains a couple hundred Life per second, and can do over 1000 Damage over time. *and* it kills you when you're low on HP, unlike Poison. When you get struck by Rabies, the fight is pretty much over. So you have to be very careful against a Werewolf Druid that utilizes this skill. Keep your distance. ---------------------- Sorceress vs Sorceress ---------------------- Ah, a mirror match! This can be one of the most fun, and at the same time, one of the most boring and long fights you'll have to participate in. It all depends on how the other Sorc plays. Some Sorcs are very cowardly : they Teleport away as soon as they see you on the map, so the chance of you hitting them is minimal. These are called passive Sorcs, and generally not worth fighting, because a defensive Sorc always has an edge over an offensive Sorc, and a Sorc that is defensive all the time, and does this well, is nearly unbeatable. You'll take damage while attacking the other Sorc, but she is perfectly safe. One thing you can try, is to stay off his maprange, and throw Orbs where you think he'll teleport to, and generally be throwing Orbs all the time, to increase the chance of her teleporting into invisible Orb Shards. But with that, you've become a passive Sorc yourself. Great. In "normal" Sorc Vs Sorc, it's a match of wits, who can attack better while taking less damage at the same time? Never try to Orb where you see your opponent, because he'll always Teleport to another spot. That's why you should try to Orb where you think he's going, instead of where he is. Try not to be overly aggressive, because this will cost you Life, but attacking once in awhile doesn't hurt. You should be throwing Orbs pretty much constantly, to maximize the chance of hitting your opponent. If you are chasing a Sorc (BAD idea) throw Orbs directly in front of you, if he keeps Teleporting in the same direction, he'll teleport directly into it, which is, ouch. This fight can take over half an hour, so having good Replenish Life is a good idea to regain Life during the fight. Make sure you have 8 FPC and a high Mana pool also, 9 FPC can be too slow to set Orb traps, or escape from an Orb trap yourself. *1.10 : Mana is a very big issue now. Thunderstorm takes large portions of Mana if it does hit, which is bad. For SvS you practically *need* a new build with high Telekinesis or Mana. 1.10 Sorcs don't really use Thunderstorm anymore. What you see now are mostly Fireball or Orb Sorcs. Fireball is dangerous because of the amount of damage it deals, and 1-2 hits of a strong Fireball takes all your Mana. I don't have much to say here, besides that you have to practice dodging attacks. And if you get hit by one and lose your Mana, walk a few steps away and then Teleport away, instead of holding down the mouse button with Teleport with 0 Mana while he pummels you with more attacks. ========================= 7) Team vs Team strategy ========================= Team vs Team (TvT) is a pretty big part in most of the league train games. Of course, all of the strategies against other classes still apply, but sometimes the situation is different, because you have to mix strategies to fight two classes at once, or some classes become more dangerous because their partner supplements them. In balanced TvT both teams have Battle Orders or neither team has it, but sometimes there is only one Barb in the game and the fight turns out to be non-BO vs BO. This gives you a signifcant disadvantage, especially if you're against other Sorcs. With BO you can be much more aggressive than without, because you have more Life/Mana which allows you to take more hits, and the bigger Mana pool makes it much harder to run out of Mana due to a higher Mana regeneration rate. Generally in TvT one team starts from Cold Plains, and the other from the town entrance. Exploring the map before the fight begins is a good idea, so you have an idea of which way the enemy might be approaching from. When you explore during battle, try to travel in areas that are not likely to be "camped". For example, Teleport near the walls to avoid getting hit by stray projectiles. Or if you start from town Teleport near the walls, far away from the other team to avoid them seeing you on their mini-map, and then attack them from behind, from the side they started. They most likely expect you to be attacking from the town side, since that's where you started. This can be a good first attack. Also, this puts them in a pincer-like attack. Your team is on the town side, and you're at the Cold Plains side, and the enemy is between you two. This means that some of the fire is not directed at you, or, it gives your team a better chance to attack because you're distracting them. Furthermore, half the key to success is to find the weakest link. If you see a target separated from the rest of the party, don't hesistate to take him down quickly, so the full team is weaker. This is especially nice if you manage to take down one of the supporters, so it's easier to rush them. The other half is to play *with* your team. For example, if a Barb or Amazon is attacking an enemy, rush in to help. You don't really have to worry about your own safety if it's two against one, because your target will mostly be running instead of attacking. Likewise, if one of your party members is separated and getting ganged up on, rush in to help. Or if it's a hopeless cause, try to find the other part of the team that's not rushing, and see if you can make a trade. One of your team members' life for one of theirs. That's pretty much all I have to say about general TvT strategy. There are some character combinations that are especially dangerous, which you have to keep in mind when you attack : -------------- *Barb / anyone -------------- This means the team has Battle Orders, and over twice as much Life/Mana as usual. Every good team should consist of a Barb. (well, not anymore perhaps, with the Call to Arms runeword ..) On a sidenote, the Druid's Oak Sage gives a similar Life bonus but no Mana, and the Oak Sage ghost is killable. ---------------------------------------- *Conviction Paladin / elemental attacker ---------------------------------------- A good level Conviction lowers target resistance by 150%. This means *alot* of increased damage, and with skills like Fireball often a one hit kill. When you're the one with a Conviction Paladin in the team, make sure you're with him when he rushes into the enemy team, so his sacrifice isn't wasted. It's very easy to destroy a whole team with just you and the Conv Paladin with a good rush, a deadly combination. ------------------------------- *Necromancer / Paladin / Amazon ------------------------------- Both Necro and Paladin have a way to increase the damage an Amazon deals. Necromancers through Amplify Damage or Decrepify, which lower your PDR by 100% and 50% respectively. Paladins have damage enhancing auras. When these two are combined, it means the Amazon can kill you in 1-2 shots, and you have to be very careful. Common tournament TvT teams are Barb/Nec/Zon/Zon or Barb/Nec/Pal/Zon or Barb/Pal/Sorc/Sorc, for the reasons mentioned above. Expect to see more Trappers in there in 1.10, and less Amazons due to lack of leech. I'm most likely forgetting some combinations, I'll add more if I can think of it. ================ 8) Some formulae ================ Here are some lists of breakpoints and such. Faster Cast Rate breakpoints : ------------------------------ 0% Faster Cast Rate - 13 FPC 9% Faster Cast Rate - 12 FPC 20% Faster Cast Rate - 11 FPC 37% Faster Cast Rate - 10 FPC 63% Faster Cast Rate - 9 FPC 105% Faster Cast Rate - 8 FPC Faster Hit Recovery breakpoints : --------------------------------- 0% Faster Hit Recovery - 15 Frames 5% Faster Hit Recovery - 14 Frames 9% Faster Hit Recovery - 13 Frames 14% Faster Hit Recovery - 12 Frames 20% Faster Hit Recovery - 11 Frames 30% Faster Hit Recovery - 10 Frames 42% Faster Hit Recovery - 9 Frames 60% Faster Hit Recovery - 8 Frames 86% Faster Hit Recovery - 7 Frames 142% Faster Hit Recovery - 6 Frames 280% Faster Hit Recovery - 5 Frames Faster Block Rate breakpoints : ------------------------------- 0% Faster Block Rate - 9 Frames 7% Faster Block Rate - 8 Frames 15% Faster Block Rate - 7 Frames 27% Faster Block Rate - 6 Frames 48% Faster Block Rate - 5 Frames 86% Faster Block Rate - 4 Frames =========== 9) Appendix =========== Here is an article I've written on the GameFaqs forum, about Cold Mastery. Hi. So I see all these topics about how "FO + CM is super deadly now, blah blah". Here are some tests I've made about CM/PvP penalty. First test : Ice Blast : 91-100 damage, vs target with 0% Cold Res. Cold Mastery : not skilled. Damage : 16, 17, 16, 16, 17, 17, 17, 16, 16, 17. Conclusion : PvP penalty for spells is 1/6 now. Second test : Ice Blast : 91-100 damage, vs target with 0% Cold Res. Cold Mastery : 100% Damage : 31, 32, 34, 31, 32, 32, 33, 34, 33, 33. Conclusion : Cold Mastery can lower below 0%, even to -100%. Now for the real test : Ice Blast : 91-100 damage, vs target with 175% Cold Res. Cold Mastery : 100% Damage : 4, 2, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4. Arreat Summit says : "If a target has 75% Cold Resistance and you use Skill Level 1 Cold Mastery, the target's resistance will be 75 - 75% * 0.20 = 60." With that formula, the result would be like this : 175 - 175 * 1 = 0. Obviously, looking at the damage, it's MUCH lower than when my test object had 0% Cold Res. (test 1 and 2) The effect is : 175% CR - 100% CM = 75% CR remaining, so the Ice Blast only does 25% damage, and the numbers support that. Now, look at this : 175% - 100% = 75% res. That makes more sense, and it's correct. 2-4 damage * 4 = 12-16, which brings us back to our original damage. This means that, Cold Mastery is straight substraction, not taking a percentage of the total, as listed by the Arreat Summit. One more test for the heck of it: Ice Blast : 91-100 damage, vs target with 175% Cold Res Cold Mastery : 175% Damage : 16, 15, 16, 16, 16, 16, 14, 15, 16, 16. This brings up back to our original damage, as seen in test 1. "175% CR - 175% CM = 0% CR" This means that if the enemy has no Cold Res, your cold attack can do up to double damage compared to 1.09, even before the Ice Bolt synergy. But on the other hand, if they do have mass cold res (300+), your FO will do very little damage, because it can be reduced up to 95% with CR + CR Max raising items. This is significant for PvP, as CR needs to be capped in PvP dueling circles. Thanks for reading. ================ 10) My 1.10 Sorc ================ Here I'll list the stats of the Sorceress I'm currently working on, for those who are interested. She is doing quite well in public games, as the PvP leagues are somewhat closed right now, because they have to make new rules to adjust to 1.10. Anyway : Base stats : 60 Str. (I have an Annihilus, and I have 77 Str whilst equipped - enough to wear Ormus' Robes) 120 Dex. (165 while equipped, enough for max Block with Whitstan's) 189 Vit. (a bit low, in favour of higher Mana) 150 NRG. (yup, that's right. 1.10 Sorcs need high Mana, 150 may be a bit too high though, if you don't have good Charms your Life total will suffer) * Base skills : 20 Ice Bolt 20 Frozen Orb 20 Cold Mastery 16 Telekinesis 5 Warmth 5 Teleport 4 Energy Shield Rest pre-requisites I'm at clvl 87 right now. I plan to get clvl 90, and put the 3 skill points in either Energy Shield or Telekinesis, or in a combination of both perhaps. *Stats equipped : 15xx Life 17xx Mana 9 FPC : Slvl 40 Orb, 960 Damage per Shard with 40 Cold Mastery. 8 FPC : (weapon switch) Slvl 38 Orb, 910 Damage per Shard, and 2000 Mana. Slvl 19 Warmth Slvl 17 Teleport Slvl 15 Energy Shield (69% damage absorb) With these stats I can take alot of Damage if I play carefully, and most of it is absorbed through Energy Shield into my Mana. With the high base Mana and Warmth, I can replenish that Mana quickly so I can keep fighting. This build has proven to be quite effective so far, although I miss the sound of Thunderstorm striking someone. *Equipment : Helm : Harlequin Crest 'Jah' Armor : Ormus' Robes 15% Cold, +3 Warmth, socketed 4%/4% Cold Rainbow Facet Jewel / Vipermagi 'Jah' Weapon : Heart of the Oak Flail / Wizardspike Shield : Whitstan's Guard 'Jah' / Lidless Wall 'Lo' Belt : Arachnid Mesh Gloves : Frostburn / Magefist Boots : Waterwalk Amulet : Tal Rasha's Adjudication Rings : Dual SoJ ================= 11) Closing words ================= Well, that's it for this guide, I hope you found it useful, and if you managed to read this far : cookie for you. If you have questions or comments, you can send them to Jowy@S-mail.com , try to put "PvP Sorc guide" or something similar in the header, so I won't delete it as spam. The guide is updated for 1.10 now. The Team vs Team section is up also. I'm currently working on a Sorceress that uses Blizzard as her main attack. I'll probably add the build and strategies later. So, happy hunting, and good luck. ====================== 12) Credits and thanks ====================== Me - For writing this thing. Blizzard - For creating this god-awfully addictive game. DiabloII.net - For some Skill/Stat information. Battle.net - For item statistics. Tharn - For showing me the new PvP damage order. Nemdra - Not playing much, are you? Nec - A splendid example of a Skill-Over-Items player, and you're a great person. Sanna - Um, for making unusual builds work, and you're fun to talk to. Aeren - Grumpy as usual, but still, that's you. Whizz - Good luck with stuff, I'll miss ya. Phil - Another one of the quitters? Kazzie - Or should I say troll that PKS in ladder games? Astro - You're crazy, but still fun to hang around with. Oh and: PS2 >> Xbox. Wheres - Heads up, man. Sweden isn't THAT far away. Other OT - Hi, I'm probably forgetting alot of you here. My Planloses Pack team - We should get the team ready for 1.10 TvT. O_O Dawg - You play too much. Rest of you - <3 Copyright 2003 Jowy Atreides.