So this miniguide will discuss DTGM, how it works, and why a vita/ES build is the BEST vs melee and brief builds to utilize it. Just trying to improve on years of cookiecutters. Also is low str/dex with no prebuff. Credits to tommyvv for keeping me interested in this old ass game.

Damage taken goes to mana works only vs physical melee damage which seems weak but it will strengthen one of the sorc's weakest matchups, the BvC (and also smiters/charge). For example, when 100 damage is taken to life, with 100%dtgm, 100 mana is then added to your mana supply. When combined with ES, Dtgm effectively acts like normal damage reduction % given enough dtgm and the right %ES.

Here are the %dtgm and %ES needed to break even (replace all mana that is lost from the hit):
50% ES needs 75%dtgm
60% ES needs 100%dtgm

Its pretty clear how quickly dtgm experiences diminishing returns, but you must also take mana regen into account as well as the fact that it is stupid to die with 0% life and 100% mana. This miniguide will shoot for 65-70% ES (meaning no precast) with 105% dtgm which in effect is the same as 65% physical damage reduction. This translate to each melee hit only draining life and a small bit of mana that is replaced by regen. Why is this important? It frees equipment slots that vita sorcs would normally have to reserve for DR% items (storm/dungo/coa) which are usually high str. In addition it allows for the use of my favorite shield, Whistan's guard which blocks faster and requires significantly less dex. A low str/dex build allows for cheaper gear and more hard points in vita. In addition, only a small amount of mana is needed, approx 1.2-1.5k. As long as mana is not drained completely by a single hit, it will remain full.

Lets take a 18k gg WW hit from super stronk barb, after pvp 1/6 thats 3k dmg. With 70% es and 20tk (always max tk with ES) 1575 mana is drained, so 1576 mana is need to keep mana up. (and only 900 dmg to life)

Lets do some quick comparisons to standard vita and ES builds against melee attackers.
GG vita sorc with 4.5k life and 50%DR = 9k effective HP
GG 95% ES sorc 1.5k life 6k mana 0%DR = 7.5k effective HP (lets say 9k with GG mana regen) (also owned by poison and openwounds common to BvC)
cheap vita/es 3k life with 1.5kmana with 105% dtgm, 70% ES (approx 500fg with inv) = 10k effective HP!
GG vita/es 4k life with 105% dtgm,70% ES (dunno if this is possible but maybe) = 13.3K effective HP!

Sample vita/ES FB build:
Helm: 3fireskills / 20 fcr / 2os (jah,jah / shaels / whatev) or 2sorc rare circ
Amulet: 2sorc / 15+% fcr / life / mana (nn stats so it people should sell these cheaper)
Weapon: suicide branch! (soc whatever you need, facet or 7fhr / life jewel)
Aromor: NAJ's LIGHT PLATE = 65life and 45%dtgm! not to mention res and a skill +gg style (soc whatever, jah)
Shield: Whistan's guard (soc eld)
Gloves: magefist
Rings: sojs
belt: NIGHTSMOKE = gg 50%dtgm + gg style
Boots: aldurs = 40%r/w, 10%dtgm, 50life and 50fire res

Standard lifer inventory (most expensive part) and needed small charms.
Skills are obv: 20bolt, 20ball, 20meteor, 20mastery, 20tk finished ~92

This gives approx same damage as most firesorc, but much cheaper and should easily hit 3klife with 1.5kmana. Can definitely be improved with gg rare rings/ammy, etc. But allowos for minimal stats in dex and str so you can gear swap when you dont need MB. Also can keep 105%dtgm which is equivalent to 70% DR WITHOUT a shield! meaning shield can be swapped for spirit or more likely lidless (low str) vs smiters! As well as increased survivability vs elemental damage (hybrid sins come to mind).
The vita/ES hybrid will (shine even more on a blizz setup, sacrificing only a few points in CM to max tk (also with NO annoying prebuff).

Thanks for reading all of this, lets get some criticism!

tl;dr version: nightsmoke + naj lightplate = 60-70%DR vita sorc

block of text.

well got that one out of the way, enjoy the tl;dr version tho.

it actually works, just think of it as very tanky, not immortal.

the advantage of pure es sorcs being their ability to regenerate all damage taken (mana from warmth very quickly healing, and the low damage taken to HP easily cured by hoto, or negated by MDR)
whereas vita sorcs can tank more in a single go

and ~70% es sorcs with high DTM can tank the most damage in a row without their ES ever breaking, but its only a fair amount of hits you can take before you die- you're still a sorc.

its not bad at all.


I'd say you should tweak it to figure out how much life/mana you have, what % ES you should optimally shoot for given a small amount of regen inbetween
for example with your 18000 whirlwind, you're losing 900 hp and 630 mana per hit.
with 3000 life and 1500 mana, it seems about right that you'd wind up at 0 mana at almost the same time you're at 0 life, given some regen inbetween
so 70% sounds about right, but you can always do the math to come up with an exact value

This post was edited by Goomshill on Mar 15 2011 05:56pm

wat

Thanks. Most people neglect dtgm because they expect it to be 100% immortal instead of just using a moderate amount to supplement a lower %ES. Again, for anyone else, this is NOT an immortal sorc like tommyvv's but closer to a cookiecutter build designed to tank as much damage as possible in a short time period.

I have figure it all out, but its hard enough to get people to read the rounded numbers version :/ and 70% includes some mana drain which can be made up with base warmth. Thanks for the tip tho.

Interesting. So DTGM doesn't affect elemental damage? I always thought it did, but it just wasn't very strong for pvp. Will it work the same against Guided Arrow?

sadly no. it seems like its either broke and blizz doesn't care or its working as intended lol and no it doesn't work vs guided arrows. only thing I haven't tested is zerk but im pretty sure that doesn't work either as its magical. ES is weak vs elemental tho anyway so having large base life with high res as well as ES to defend against melee/magic attacks like teeth/bonespear is very effective.

Would it be possible to factor in a stormshield for high dr and an es dtgm combo instead of whitstans to negate more damage?
Just a thought