Alphabetz's Infinity Lightning/nova Es Sorceress. - Topic

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Jul 12 2008 03:05pm

Alphabetz's Infinity Lightning/Nova Sorceress.

Table Of Content.
Introduction.
Abbrevations.
Frames.
Stats.
Skills.
Items.
PvM.
General PvM Strategies.
PvP.
General PvP Strategies.
Final Words.

Introduction.

The Infinity Nova Sorceress is a forgotten character. With powers beyond any other Sorceress.
I wrote this guide as an attempt to bring Light upon this amazingly fun character and to hopefully inspire you to create your own Sorceress. And if you do, I promise you, you won't be disappointed.
I've written this guide based on my own experiences with this class.

Abbrevations.
FCR - Faster Cast Rate.
FHR - Faster Hit Recovery.
Str - Short for Strength.
Infy - Short for the Runeword Infinity.
MB - Max Block.
Es - Energy Shield.
Sorc - Short for Sorceress.
Sks - Skills
UT - Uber Tristram.
DClone - Diablo Clone.
SoJ - Stone Of Jordan.
FRW - Faster Run Walk.
PvP - Player versus Player.
PvM - Player versus Monster.
CL - Chain Lightning.
WW - Whirlwind.
MB - Mind Blast.

FCR And FHR Frames.

FHR Frames.

0% 15
5% 14
9% 13
14% 12
20% 11
30% 10
42% 9
60% 8
86% 7
142% 6
280% 5
1480% 4

Try to hit one of the gray FHR Frames.

FCR Frames.

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

For this build, we'll be aiming for the 105 FCR breakpoint. The FHR will be explained later, in the Item section.

Stats.

Strength - Barely any Strength points should be taken. It depends on which weapon you choose to make Infinity in.
Dexterity - None.
Vitality - None.
Energy - Everything.

Explanation.

For a Sorceress, Strength is useless, unless it's for equipping the items. The highest Strength item you'll wear is the Infinity, which should be made in a low Str Weapon, like a Voulge. You will therefore need a small amount of Strength to equip your Infy, if any at all.
Dexterity is also useless since were not aiming for MB and none of the items require a high amount of Dexterity.
You may think that this is wrong, but no. No Vitality should be taken. This is a 95 Es Build and why would you need life when your mana will take the damage? Sure, Manaburn and Poison will drain your life pretty fast, but that's why we have TP's and Akara to run to.
And Energy, the more Mana the better so almost all points go here.

Skills.

Max the following ;
Telekinesis,
Lightning Mastery,
Lightning,
Nova,
(Energy Sheild).

Put one point inte the following ;
All prereq's,
Warmth,
Thunderstorm.

Explanation.

Telekinesis will reduce the amount of Mana your losing when you're struck. This means that you'll take less damage if Telekinesis is Maxed.
Lightning Mastery is hopefully a no brainer, it increases your damage. Which is helpful of course.
Lightning is one of our main attacks, no reaseon why we wouldn't want to max this. Same with Nova.
The amount of points you should take in ES is very dependable on your gear and Inventory.
With my first Infinity Sorc, I accidentally had 42 points in ES, which is 2 Points that could have been spent elsewhere. You might forget that after you've BOed, all your skill levels has increased by 1, and therefore you need calculate the amount of skillpoints you need in ES before you start putting skills into your character.

Warmth is a very, very useful passive little skill in the Fire Tree, it increases our Mana Regeneration which is extremely useful since our Mana is our Life. A full Mana orb = Living, An empty Mana orb = Death. So much Mana Regeneration is good.
Since we are using Infinity, all our Lightning attacks will have a MUCH higher damage output than what it says on the screen. 1 Point in Thunderstorm is enough to actually do some damage on most characters.

Items.

Helm - Griffons Eye.
Crafted Amulet - 10+ Fcr, 2 Sorc Sks, Mana Adds.
Weapon - Infinity Voulge.
Armor - Vipermagi.
Shield - None.
Gloves - Magefists.
Ring 1 - Stone Of Jordan.
Belt - Arachnid Mesh.
Ring 2 - Stone Of Jordan.
Boots - Mana Boots.

Explanation.

Helm - Griffons gives us many useful adds and therefore makes this an important part of the build.
It gives us 25 FCR which is needed to hit the 105 FCR breakpoint. It also gives us one to all skills which is useful of course. But, most importantly it boosts our Lightning damage and decreases our opponents Lightning Resistance, which is crucial.
Amulet - 10 FCR is a MUST since we need 105 FCR, 2 Sorc Skills is also crucial to boost our danage and increase our ES Level. The adds could be any really, Mana adds seems to be the most reasonable thing we want on the Amulet because the more Mana, the better.
Weapon - The key of this build, without this awesome weapon wont kill anything. Infinity does not boost our damage, it decreases our enemies Resistances instead, that's why the weapon is so good for any Lightning attack.
Armor - Viper gives us 30 FCR and 1 Skill point. Crucial mods for this build and therefore a must as our Armor.
Shield - Since Infinity can only be made in 2handed Weapons a Shield is impossible to use.
Gloves - Increases our FCR and gives is Mana Regeneration which is useful.
Rings - I should not need to tell you why but I'm doing it anyway. SoJ's gives us 1 Skill Point which is nice and most importantly, it increases our Mana by 25%.
Belt - Arach increases our Mana by 5% and gives us 1 Skill Point aswell as 20 FCR, and therefore making this the best possible belt for this build.
Boots - The ideal boots would be 30 FRW, 10 FHR and 5x Mana. These are expensive though. A cheaper alternative is plain Mana boots with 4-5x Mana.

Inventory.

Torch and Anni - As high stats as possible. The important thing is that you have them. Any stat will do but the higher the better.
Sc's - The best possible would be 17 Mana / 5 FHR.
Gc's - 9x Clean/12 Fhr Lightning Skillers.

Explanation.

No need to explain the Torch/Anni.
This build will lack FHR and the only way to get it is from the Inventory, but if you cant afford FHR Sc's/Gc's, go for plain 17 Mana Sc's and clean Lightning Skillers.

PvM.

The wonderful thing about this character is that it's very versitile and works wonders in both PvP and PvM.
I've helped my friend through many UT's by killing Diablo/Baal without any complications.
And one day, the earth started shaking and I was like "WOoOt ?!". No, it wasn't an earthquake, it was DClone and I ealisy took him down.
That's how strong and viable this character is.

General PvM Strategies.

Since you will most likely be doing Diaruns and Baalruns when you do PvM, I will only tell you tactics about these.
This character can easily solo Hell, without any difficulties.
The great thing is that you can Teleport straight into a mob and just Nova the living hell out of you. Nova has a "stun" effect and will set any monster into recovery mode. And when they're in recovery mode thay cannot hit you.
That's the general tactic. Be really offensive and take down any Casters first, like Oblivion Knights, Souls and such.

PvP.

I've mostly played pub with this character and it has been a pleasure killing all kinds of characters. The good thing about this character is that it can tank quite a lot while still dishing out some heavy damage.

General PvP Strategies.

Sorceress -

Fire ; These guys will be fast so you have to plan your moves and do some thinking while watching out for the Fb's. Play defensive and spam Novas all over the place. After each Teleport, spam some Novas. These guys will probably try to namelock you and therefore the Nova-spamming. Once they've been hit by a Nova, either keep going until they're dead and pray for some low FHR on their side or switch to Lightning and kill them.

Cold ; Orbers shouldn't be a problem, just watch out for the big orb-ball and chase them to death. Orb is also a timed attack, use this to your advantage and take them down while they're waiting til they can shoot another Orb.
Blizzard is more problematic though, Nova here will be quite pointless unless you're very skilled and know the exact radius of Nova and hit them with the edge of your Nova because they will probably self-blizz if they see you attacking them. Use Lightning here and take them down. Blizzard is also a timed attack, when they've cast one Blizz, they'll probably retreat and wait til they can shoot another Blizz. When they retreat, go for the kill. Nova,Nova,Nova,Light,Light. They're dead.

Lightning ; Same as Fb's really. Play very defensive and wait for an oppertunity to get a Lightning hit. If they get hit, they will retreat and then you do your Nova-magic and they're dead.

Paladins -

Hammers ; These duels can be really easy or extremely hard. These guys should have/probably have stacked resistance. Therefore very defensive playstyle and wait for them to make mistakes. They WILL try to namelock you so spam Novas and if they've been hit by either your Novas or your Thunderstorm, they will be set into FHR Mode, make some Lightnings and pray to the Lightning-Gods for some good hits. If this doesn't kill them, repeat.

Smiters ; Same as with Hammers, can be very easy or very hard. They will charge after you so make Lightnings behind you and pray for some hits. Use Teleport much and play tactical. These guys wont go down very easily so repeat,repeat.

FoH'ers ; For these duels you need to be quick. Make quick turns and make Novas. If you stay in their area for too long, Conviction will kick in and they will have time to FoH you. You might die. And therefore you need to be quick. They will charge around and make FoH's, you need to play really tactical and estimate their next charge and spam Novas there. You need to think much and be quick.

Druids -

Windys ; You might this will be a hard duel due to Druids high life, Cyclone Armor, their pets and such. But no. You have to play defensive and at first, instead of making Lightnings, shoot Chain-Lightnings to kill their pets and if you're lucky, their Cyclone Armor. If this has occured, they will retreat to recast everything. By this point, it's easy, just hunt them down and make some Lightnings and they're dead.

Shapers ; Should be easy, dont let them get too close though. When they are in Bear/Wolf form they are unable to teleport, this means that they can only walk which makes them quite easy targets.

Necromancers -

Bonemancers ; I dont think I've ever lost to a Bonemancer. These guys have low life and arent that fast. Should be quite easy. A few Novas and they're dead. The tactic here is to just chase them down, play really offensive.

Summoners ; Time to use CL together with Nova, take down their big zoo of Revives and Skellies and they are easy targets.

Poison Mancers ; Could be a quite challenging duel since Poison will take your life down really fast. You need to be really quick here. Same as with FoH's, quick turns, avoid getting hit be their Novas. These guys will go down, it's really important that you get the first hit though.

Amazons -

Javazons ; You can not get hit by their CS, that is crucial. If they land a couple of hits, you're dead.
These guys can be really annoying. These guys probably have Dodge/Avoid/Evade which makes them dodge your attacks. If you've namelocked them it can be a battle between who has got the fastest FCR/FHR, if the Amazons FHR is faster than your FCR, your dead. If it's reversed, they're dead.

Bowzons ; These duels can be reeally annoying. They will have a high chance of Dodgind your attacks which means that if you hit them 5 times, maybe 1 or 2 hits actually hurts them. Teleport around in circles to avoid arrows from hitting you, and when you're close enough, gogo Nova/Lightning. 50/50 duel here.

Poisonzons ; You need to be quick, avoiding their Poison Spears is pretty easy but if they land a hit on you, your life is drained instantly and suddenly, you've become an easy target. It's almost all about the first hit here.

Barbarians -

WW Barbs ; These Guys will have high life and high Resistances which makes them tough opponents. Play really defensive and shoot Lightnings in their direction. It's important that you stay defensive because they will probably have a bit OW, which will drain your life, and if you play offensive the chances are that you'll get hit. So stay defensive and wait them out. Sooner or later, they will make mistakes, use them to your advantage. These duels usually takes quite a while. The Barb probably wins 60/40 here.

Assassins -

Trap Assassins ; In my opinion, the lamest character out there. They will stay defensive and stand within a line of their traps. But, sooner or later they will move out and stand infront of their traps. Now is the time for the attack. Try to namelock them and just spam Novas and Lightnings on them. They will probably have Fade on so these guys can be tough.

Hybsins ; These will try to Namelock+MB+WW. When they've got you trapped in their spammage of MB, they will Teleport on you and WW. It's important that you try to make a couple of Novas to land some hits. If they WW on you and if they do the Tri-Whirl, you're probably dead but if they do long whirls switch to Lightning and spam in the direction their WW'ing. Their traps shouldnt be a problem, they're too weak.

Final Words.

This character is truly underestimated and you should never, ever doubt the Power behind the Mighty Infinity combined with Energy Shield and Nova. The combination is Deadly.
Enjoy ~