Hi !

I noticed a lack of such guide in the stickied, and since some people post questions about it from time to time, i decided to write that small guide.


Contents :

1 - General tips
2 - Skill distribution
3 - Stats distribution
4 - Gear
5 - Conclusion

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1 - General tips
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A bear sorc is a sorceress in bearform using melee attacks.

Shaping to bear is possible with Beast runeword.

When in bearform, only standard attacks are available, nothing else.

Bearform allows bonus on life, defense, and physical damage.

In bearform, sorceress uses another fhr table (same as the bear druid).

Fhr Frames
0% 13
5% 12
10% 11
16% 10
24% 9
37% 8
54% 7
86% 6
152% 5
360% 4

Bear-sorc can be a real killing machine, using enchant (for attack rating and fire damage) and dream runewords in combination with light mastery.

With 2 dreams, you'll have 1-1668 light damage added to melee attack, and 1-556 pulse damage delivered through all screen every 2 seconds.
Those light damage are boosted by your light mastery, twice for melee attacks, so you can reach more than 50K max light damage.

With a conviction-merc on your side, cleaning 8 players hell games will be easy.
Conviction not only helps to pierce lightning resistance and break most immunities,
it also provides - 83% on monster's defense, thus leaving near 95% chance to hit everything.
As shown in this small table, taken at CLvl 92 :
attack rating Chance to hit Hell Baal
500 48%
1,000 64%
2,000 77%
5,000 87%
7,500 90%
10,000 91%
35,000 95%

So ... what else ?

To be able to tank, we will need :
fast attack speed / decent fhr / block / life / resistance

For more attack speed, we'll switch Beast to another weapon :
9 fpa ---- Beast Berserker axe (+25extra weapon ias),
8 fpa ---- Beast Caduceus/War spike (+15extra weapon ias),
8 fpa ---- 60ias Berserker axe (+65extra weapon ias),
7 fpa ---- 40ias Phase Blade (+15extra weapon ias),
7 fpa ---- 60ias War spike (+45extra weapon ias),
5 fpa ---- 95ias Phase blade / 115ias Caduceus (without extra ias).

In this guide, you'll find 4 different setups, each with advantages / disadvantages.

A - Enigma setup
B - Guardian Angel setup
C - Switchroe setup
D - Fortitude setup (Master_Zappy setup)

All those setups will be vita / max block.

Energy shield is not a good choice for bear-sorc, since bearform gives bonus on life and not on mana.
Burned in bearform will leave you no chance to escape (impossible to tele away).
Trying to develop an es-bear-sorc will lead to hard choices, and from experience, won't be working in pvm as good as those setups. Maybe for pvp...

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2 - Skill distribution
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As said before, energy shield is something you should not worry about, so this is an easy part.

Fire tree :
Max enchant / warmth / fire mastery

Light tree :
Max light mastery
1 in static
1 in teleport (except for Enigma setup)

Cold tree :
remaining points in Shiver armor (except for Fortitude setup)
1 in Cold mastery

Not much skilled required, this sorc will be totally playable at level 80.
Since Fortitude will cast level 15 chilling armor, i suggest to put last points in cold mastery (nothing else is helpfull).

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3 - Stats distribution
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Another easy part, once decided vita / max block.

Strength : enough to wear gear
Dexterity : enough to reach 75%block
Vitality : all remaining points
Energy : none

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4 - Gear
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Since it's not a pvp-char, i avoid pre-buff in my gear choices, for quick play / fun.
No pre-buff means also no CtA, since we already have Beast.
All figures are given with CLvl 92 + perfect stuff.


A - Enigma Setup

pros : high elemental damage - high frw - high defense - max attack speed - some %dr - some CB
cons : no fbr - recovery 6 frames "only" - no leech

with this setup, we'll reach :
5 fpa ( 7 when decrep)
4105 life
86% fhr breakpoint
75@res
23%dr
75%block
0%fbr
7.5K ar
17.5K def
4.7K-5.7K fire damage
0-59K light damage

Body armor : Enigma Archon plate
Weapon : 6sox Phase Blade / Shael + 5 x 15ias/15@res
Dream helm : Bone visage
Dream shield : Hyperion
Gloves : Blood crafted str/dext/CB (ias/res not needed)
Belt : Verdungo
Boots : (eth) Treks
Amu : Block crafted 2soso/stats/block (res not needed)
Rings : Raven + BK

switch : low req Beast + (eth) Spirit monarch

inventory :
Light skillers / life
ar / life small charms

merc : defiance + infinity


B - Guardian angel Setup

pros : decent defense - max attack speed - some CB - gozu res/absorb - 30%fbr
cons : no %dr - recovery 6 frames "only" - no leech - very poor frw

with this setup, we'll reach :
5 fpa ( 7 when decrep)
4053 life
86% fhr breakpoint
90@res (95lr)
0%dr
75%block
30%fbr
6.8K ar
12.8K def
3.4K-4.2K fire damage
0-52K light damage

Body armor : Guardian angel / fhr-dext-@res-ar jewel
Weapon : 6sox Phase Blade / Shael + 5 x 15ias/15@res
Dream helm : Bone visage
Dream shield : Hyperion
Gloves : Blood crafted str/dext/CB (ias/res not needed)
Belt : Thundergod
Boots : (eth) Treks
Amu : Block crafted 2soso/stats/block (res not needed)
Rings : 2 x Raven

switch : low req Beast + (eth) Spirit monarch
inventory :
Light skillers / life
ar / life small charms

merc : defiance + infinity


C - Twitchroe Setup

pros : highest life - 5 frames recovery - decent attack speed - some leech
cons : no fbr - poor defense - no %dr

with this setup, we'll reach :
5 fpa ( 8 when decrep)
4203 life
152% fhr breakpoint
75@res
0%dr
75%block
0%fbr
5.3K ar
3.2K def
3.1K-3.9K fire damage
0-52K light damage
0.7K physical

Body armor : up Twitchroe / fhr-dext-@res-pr jewel
Weapon : Griswold caduceus / 3 x Shael + 15ias/15@res
Dream helm : Death mask
Dream shield : Tower shield
Gloves : 2 x up Bloodfist
Belt : Bladebuckle
Boots : Blood crafted 30frw/10fhr/dext
Amu : Block crafted 2soso/res/stats/block
Rings : Raven + rare ring res/stats/leech

switch : low req Beast + lidless
inventory :
Light skillers / life
ar / life small charms

merc : might + infinity


D - Fortitude Setup

pros : high physical damage + leech - some CB+OW
cons : no fbr - recovery 6 frames "only" - no %dr - poor life - "slow" attack speed

with this setup, we'll reach :
7 fpa ( 11 when decrep)
3240 life
86% fhr breakpoint
75@res (80lr)
0%dr
75%block
0%fbr
7.3K ar
7.9K def
2.8K-3.5K fire damage
0-50K light damage
3K-4.8K physical (4.2K-6.7K on demons)

Body armor : Fortitude Archon plate
Weapon : eth BotD War Spike
Dream helm : Bone visage
Dream shield : Hyperion
Gloves : Laying of Hands
Belt : Nosferatu
Boots : Gores
Amu : Highlord
Rings : Raven + Blood crafted ar/leech/str/life

switch : low req Beast + Lidless
inventory :
1 x Light skillers / fhr
then Light skillers / life
3 x 5@/5fhr small charms
4 x 5@/20life small charms
then ar / life small charms

merc : might + infinity


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5 - Conclusion
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Any of these 4 setups will perfectly be able to clean any Hell game.
I've played each of them, i cannot decide wich one is the best.

Of course i dont pretend to cover here all the choices,
as full %dr bear using Shatstop ber'ed + verdungo, or Grief PB that allows 7fpa and the use of verdungo...

Any feedback will be welcome.

Enjoy !

Looks solid and these are overdue for the sng side.

opinion/preference points

on the fort setup, I spec pure vita and this eliminates the fbr issue
wisp instead of the rare ring. Soul protection, le safety. That build has ~27% leach already so the sorb is handy indeed.
By keeping the wizzy in the cube in your inventory full time allows for the 105fcr bp if you want to run some bosses or rush a buddy. Swap this with your beast, tele to the throne (or destination) , hit 'I" swap on the beast shift and go slam some monsters. Stuff like the summoner or countess for a key run, you wont even need to reshift. Just smash em with the botd and hella damage. 1 or 2 hits, collect loot and move on.


Dracs for the griz caddy setup makes this character basically immortal.

Ive never seen someone advocating the enigma build. The frw is indeed handy but I feel coh covers this slot better. Then your free to add leach via griz caddy and dracs while still maintaining max res. It's alot cheaper then 5 15/15 jewels too.



The +1 from using a spirit is worth the str you lose by stating this. My merc always had on andy's hat and coh which isnt the best merc setup but it allowed a fast +4 for my skills when I traded for a moment. With beast you can easily glitch a spirit on, exp if you also grab your mercs hat for the initial chant/shift.

This post was edited by Master_Zappy on Jul 27 2010 08:57pm

ty for the input !

about draks :
i never been satisfied by leech from life tap, ctc are too low i think, and it's quickly removed by confused.
hence, i never feel safe when using draks.

about Coh (+griswold+draks) over Enigma :
physical damage (without forty at least) on gris caddy isnt so high to rely on leech.
caddy+coh = 80@res, 95/75 pb = 75@
coh = 8%dr 2sk, enigma = the same
more str on enigma means more final life, maintaining 75%block,
slight more defense on enigma,
and among all i really enjoy the 45%frw !

thats why i think enigma > coh, but of course a CoH+Griswold+Draks build would be perfectly viable.

95/75 pb is more expensive than 15/15 shael caddy, indeed, but i don't care about price here.

about str investement to wear eth Spirit over lidless :
as you said, you only need to take andy's from merc to wear eth monarch on switch with +40str beast ! no need to invest more str points.
but i didnt care here for prebuffing / taking from merc. i just look for a quick and funny way to play.
if someone like pre-buffing, then we can use +3fire amu / +6enchant orb / +3enchant ormus / 2xSoj, arach... this bear-sorc will be dreadfull !

about max vita / no-block : seems viable for the leech-build, i agree.

regards

Up

nice one! verry fun to play!

(mebe just mix in a low es(max telekenisis) great togethor with max warmth)
compensates your lacking life leache a little!
i know, mana burn monsters exist!

ofc your GA+sick res is a selution to!

great guide!

I guess u wont kill any decent pvper with such a shitty sorc, so clean 7 ppls in pubs with meleesorc = hopeless xDD

thx !

i tried with some es, as you said nearly invicible until meeting mana-burning monsters... when you cannot tele away when in bear form
thats why i decided to leave es to zeal-sorc, not bear



its a pvm guide, not pvp...

Up

One question. The AR table with chance to hit hell ball, is that with or without conviction from merc?

is with lvl12 conviction.

infinity is the only choice as merc weapon since for each build, light damages is the main source of kills.