This is one of my unique builds that I have kept a secret for a long time. But I think other people should have the chance to enjoy it as well. Currently I have one with 100% p gear for the most part and its effectiveness at killing melee-based characters in pvp is unparalleled.

Notes:

- I currently own this build on WSCNL. Her name is Barrier (previously Oppression but was remade).

- The optimum build would be achieved at level 97, and for even more orb damage level 99 would be cool; however, its effectiveness is not reduced anywhere from levels 90-94 for the most part.

- ATTN trolls: this is the character for you. It is the ultimate way to troll physical damage heroes in pvp by teleing in from of them and kill them with your presence. I nearly died laughing the first time I saw the amazing effect shiver armor had on a whirlwind barb. Without sufficient sorb/mass cold res, a barb can die in a single whirlwind. But you have to see it for yourself. You can kill players just by having them try to kill you. You often do not need to use orb (your main attack) against physical-based builds. I've killed 3 whirlwind barbs all at once without using a potion or orb once before I myself died.

- ATTN people that hate cookie cutter builds: this is the character for you. This is a very original build with a great deal of thought put into it. Some of the items on this sorc you would usually associate with barbs/zealers...others seem pretty standard for sorcs.

- People will often attribute their death as a result of this character to thorns or hax. That is how little is known about the power of shiver armor. It confuses people even more when you put a bramble on merc so you actually have thorns.

- Best/almost unbeatable vs. chargers (any paladin that charges), zealers, frenzy, whirlwind, fury/rabies, guided arrow/multi shot zons, charged strike (sometimes), venom whirl (from a sin), smiters (they can kill you too though with smite), any character that has to make direct contact with you to kill you.

- Takes very little damage vs. physical characters and very difficult to land a hit on.

- Yes, shiver armor damages characters even if you yourself don't take damage. They just have to contact you physically. As a matter of fact, it can kill them easily sometimes, without the sorceress taking any damage at all.

- Can fight normal casters, however it would be just with a basic caster orb build (which is n't as effective as it is on a pure orber). Not recommended if you want the intentional LoLs effect.

- This character is pretty amusing in pvm. With your shiver armor casted, you can teleport into a sea of physical damage monsters in hell mode, walk away from your computer, come back, and they'll all be dead with your sorceress barely scathed. It can survive relentless attacks from a sizeable group of reviving fallens in hell mode for over an hour and from a sizeable group of zombies for over 30 minutes. She's "tonka tuff"

- This character uses prebuff for increased effectiveness. However, it is often not necessary, and for maximum effectiveness, it isn't very extensive compared to most sorc prebuff.

- I have tested other variations of this sorc like "blizzard/shiver armor" and "ice blast/shiver armor". Because orb has only 1 synergy and is effective without it, it is far more effective than either of those options, or even frost nova.

The following pictures were taken with her shiver armor prebuffed but with her not in bear mode nor with defiance activated on merc.





Type: Armor/orb vita mb sorc

Primary skills:

Teleport
Frozen orb
Shiver armor
Chilling armor
Battle command
Battle orders


Approx. stats this char has:

2.7-2.9k life
86% fhr frame
27% or 48% fbr frame
37% fcr frame vs physical (standard build) and 105% vs casters
2.2k shiver armor damage w/ buff
1.2-1.3k shiver armor damage w/o buff
1.3k chilling armor damage w/ buff
800-900 chilling armor damage w/o buff
800-900 orb damage using vs. physical build
23k def w/o bear mode
28k def w/ bear mode
35k+ def w/ defiance (from merc) and bear mode
55k+ def w/ barb shout as well
75% block
50% dr
53fire res/75 cold res/75 light res/75 psn res (with maras/vs physical gear)
58fire res/75 cold res/75 light res/75 psn res (with metalgrid/vs physical gear)


Skill breakdown (this is also the order skills should be leveled in for the most part):

1. 20 into shiver armor
2. 20 into chilling armor
3. 20 into frozen armor
4. 1 into telekinesis (to get to tele)
5. 1 into teleport
6. 1 into warmth (so you have mana to tele)
7. 1 into ice bolt
8. 1 into frost nova
9. 1 into ice blast
10. 1 into glacial spike
11. 1 into blizzard
12. 20 into orb
13. 20/rest into cold mastery (this will take till lvl 97)
14. 2 into ice bolt (this will take till lvl 99)

With the skill breakdown, it is important to note that you can focus on orb being stronger as opposed to cold mastery (which doesn't really help after a certain point), and therefore transfer skills from cold mastery into ice bolt (orb's synergy). However, I personally prefer maxing cold mastery, since barbs and paladins like to stack res even in gm duels. These are your primary targets, as well as the focus being mainly on the hilariously powerful effect of shiver/chilling armor and not so much on orb. It depends on how balanced you want your character to be regarding these two skills.


Stats:

1. Points into str until you can wear all gear without being str bugged
2. Points into dex until you have 75% block with your stormshield and all other gear
3. Rest of your points go into vita


Standard item setup:

Note: some items are more effective in different situations. All items listed here are idealized to their perfection. However, gcs and scs, for example, with lower stats like cold gcs with only 30+ life and scs with only 20+ def and 20 life will work nearly as effectively. This goes for every item I list. Not everything or even anything has to be 100% perfect. However, there are few item substitutes besides the ones I've listed that will result in the same/similar quality.

Inventory:

20/20 storch
20/20/x anni
9x 45life cold gcs (matching for prettiness)
10x 30def/20life scs (matching for prettiness)
1x 2str/17mana sc (swithout for vs caster setup)

Notes: You can have 30+ cold lifers and still be nearly as effective as well as 20 life scs with lower defense mods. Everything in this inventory seems normal for most sorcs...except the 30def/20life scs which you usually only use on a zealer or a bvb. Since you don't need additional res (and aren't focusing casters) and you dont need max damage or ar (unless you want to focus on bear mode which I'll explain below), defense is your best secondary stat. About 1k more defense added by shiver armor never hurt anyone.

Gear (this doesn't not include prebuff):

Helms:

500+def, 15%cold dmg, 20dex eth nightwings + zod rune socket
120%ed, 15%cold dmg, 20dex, 9 sorb non-eth nightwings + 5/5 cold die facet socket
visionary 2os helm w/ 400+ def, 10% ds (bear mode only)

Notes: The non-eth nightwings is better if you want more orb damage since you can put a 5/5 die cold facet in it (and it is also used for prebuff). However, the eth nightwings offers more defense, which adds on another great deal of defense. This sorceress hits around 23k defense with all armors maxed and pre-buff (19.6k without prebuff). Can you believe it? And in order to do so, max defense is preferred on all items. An item I never used (visionary 2os of some sort with high def) can be stored on a mule outside the character (because not all these build switches will fit on one character) and can be used to further optimize bear mode.

Amulets:

350def/35@res metalgrid (if you want it to look pretty go for a 450ar/350def/35@res metalgrid)
30res maras
2sorc/10-20fcr/20dex/60life/res ammy
Angelics ammy (bear mode only)

Notes: The perfect maras gives more life. Also if you built with only the maras, you save yourself from having to put more points into strength. The metalgrid has the obvious advantage of 350 defense though. Angelics is for bear mode only which will be explained in a section below. In a notes section below under "rings" I later will mention that if you get an sorc ammy with high fcr instead of these two options, you can reach 63%fcr. It is up to you, however, if you think its worth it for that extra frame of speed...even though you can kill most physical chars just by standing rooted in place.

Weapons:

30%cold dmg/40lr/40fr non-eth or eth fathom + 5/5 cold die facet socket
6/6/4 eth cs or other cta (bo switch)
285ed/3ar/40str beastz (bear mode only)
demon limb (optional enchant buff for bear mode only)

Notes: really only one choice here. Fathom is the best prebuff weapon, and the best weapon for frozen orb. The beastz go on after fathom prebuff and is used to go into bear mode which will be explained below. Of course, a cta is best on switch.

Shields:

151 stormshield + jah rune socket
151 stormshield + shael rune socket
zbugged spirit shield (bo switch, also can be used for vs caster build)

Notes: There is really only one choice for a main shield. Nothing beats the dr%, block, defense, and res offered by a stormshield. A jah rune for 50 life is probably one of the best options. I tested out many, and it even beats out the eld rune in effectiveness. The other rune that could prove useful is a shael to increase the block frame from 35% to 48%. This helps to escape chargers faster to then retaliate with orb. The obvious choice as a bo shield is a no brainer. I've tried some of the best melee dex/str/def/-15req etc jewels for the stormshield, but none quite beat the effectiveness of a jah rune. Also, doing this makes it impossible to switch to a vs caster build. The stormshield is also perfect for bear mode. No switchout would optimize it.

Belt:

140%ed/40vit/13rep/15dr verdungos
spiders (vs casters only)

Notes: Dungos is all around perfect to max your dr and provide more vita and high defense. Enough said. Also, it is perfect for bear mode.

Boots:

170%ed/15str/15vita/70%pr eth sandstorm treks

Notes: There really is only one good option for boots as well. This gives you your 86% fhr frame, vita, str, and even maxes your poison res so that melee chars that stack poison damage wont have a huge effect on you. Also the enormous defense on ETH treks is a must. Because gores would ruin the str build, only the treks must be used in bear mode. Treks are a strong choice among many melee chars anyways.

Gloves:

98def double up'd mages
20%ias/10cb/15dex/20life etc gloves (bear mode only)

Notes: the double up'd mages along with the fathom provide the 37% fcr necessary to tele around efficiently enough to be annoying to physical chars and to make smiters chase you using charge (and thus damage themselves by running into you). 37% fcr is plenty for such purposes. More would compromise too much of the build, and less would make you too slow. Double up'd is for the defense of course. In bear mode, however, where you dont cast anything, the crushing blow gloves are quite useful as a possible switch. I don't use those myself either though to make things simple.

Rings:

2x 5ll bk rings (matching for prettiness)
2x 10fcr/15dex/60life/90mana rings
2x matching angelic rings (bear mode only)

Notes: Nothing like a bk ring to give life as well as to make your orb more powerful by adding skills. While I think its possible to put crafted caster rings here, I also think that the loss of too many skills will make orb useless. The next fcr frame is 63%, which may take great pains to achieve in the build. Is it worth it? Also the bk rings are automatically the best prebuff rings, saves work. The angelic rings are for bear mode along with the angelic ammy to provide high attack rating.

Armor:

zbug ap stone 300%ed
170%ed 35@res ebug ap prudence
up'd vipermagi 1034 defense 35@res (vs casters only) + 9str/15@res socket

Notes: Both/ either of these armors would work for bear mode like they do for zeal. They are also the best armors for your standard frozen orb build, and provide all the fhr you need without changing out your gcs just to get more fhr (especially the stone). I personally use the stone option, but the prudence option provides a bit more defense without having a higher str requirement. It's sorta a tossup though all considered. The stone also has str and vita. The prudence has higher res.

Merc:

Type:

Act 2 hell defensive - defiance aura

Notes: Defiance is the only aura that would truly benefit this character. It adds 10k defense or so, and thus is quite useful. It must be noted that this character's merc is only really useful if you trap it in town and walk around to the blood moor. Once in the blood moor you cannot teleport or your merc will follow obviously. Because you can kill other physical characters by standing perfectly still, without using any skills, this should be no problem. Thus, the merc can provide you with all the more trolling potential and can buff up your defense to max power. It is also possible to use an ice for a weapon instead of an eth doom ca, and then get an act 1 merc. The only thing with that though, is that merc wouldn't be trapped, and such a merc wouldn't give you uber defense.

Helm:

Can be almost any common merc helm including but not limited to the following:

eth andys
eth vgaze
eth crown of theives
eth delirium
eth dream

Notes: Delirium is fun to play around with pvm, but dream looks the coolest.

Armor:

ebug bramble lvl 21 thorns

Notes: If you trap your merc right, you will have the thorns aura too. When people die by trying to whirl or charge or zeal you, they may falsely attribute it to thorns (due to ignorance). Of course, this makes it all the more funny. Also, thorns does add some legitimate damage, but nothing in comparison to the shiver armor.

Weapon:

eth doom ca -60%enemy cold res

Notes: The holy freeze aura from this weapon can slow down people that are trying to attack your motionless character. It makes for an easier escape of the trolling goes fault. Also, if the -60%enemy cold res from the doom actually works, then it is helping to penetrate the resistances of your enemies.


Prebuff (this is the gear you wear before casting shiver armor):

3+ shiver armor 20% cold dmg ormus (with 5/5 jewel of course)
20/20 cold monarch
35/5 death's fathom
2x 5%ll bk rings
spiders
eth treks
mages
non-eth 20/5 nightwings
3cold/16+str ammy (it needs to have 16+str, otherwise you can't wear all prebuff gear simultaneously. This is due to the loss of the zbug stone during prebuff.)

Chilling armor specific prebuff:

3+ chilling armor 20% cold damage ormus instead of +3 shiver armor 20% cold dmg ormus
snowclash belt instead of spiders


PvP strategies:

Strategy vs. bvcs:

Go into bear mode and follow the steps in the bear mode guide at the end. Make sure to buff shiver armor beforehand. Because these characters have high res/sorb sometimes, it is better to be able to slap them. If you insist in using the standard orb setup, make sure to tele alot and avoid being whirled. Try to orb them as much as possible before they whirl you (even though they will often take heavy damage from the shiver armor). In gm pks (at least on east) they aren't allowed to use 2x raven frosts anyways. If this is the case, bvcs are as good as dead and you don't need to worry.

Strategy vs. bvbs/ww sins:

Use your standard frozen orb build using the possibilities outlined in the gear sections above. Bvbs have shields so it is useless to use bear mode against them. Better to have teleport. Make sure to buff shiver armor beforehand. Let them whirlwind you. If you can't kill a non-caster killer barb with shiver armor alone (usually effortlessly), you made the character wrong.

Strategy vs. fury/rabies druids/zealers of all kinds:

For these characters, you can go into bear mode and follow the steps in the bear mode guide at the end. However, you can often just stand there with your normal orb/sorc build, and watch them die in seconds trying to zeal you. Fury druids are extremely powerful and can often perform heavy damage on even this character. It may be good to orb them just for good measure. But unless they get lucky, they even die just like the best of zealers (even Warrior guild grade ones, its been tested ^_^).

Strategy vs. chargers

Teleport around and let them charge you. As they charge you, you should be orbing them to threaten them, and thus to make them keep charging you. Chargers usually have the toughest time landing a blow on this character, and thus, it is often that you may kill a charger without taking any damage at all. And they, will die from charging you too much (running into your shiver armor). Even the most powerful charger could not kill me in one shot (not quite, but they can get close).

Strategy vs. smiters

This is an example of a character where a 63%fcr setup might help against. You MUST keep teleing and orbing them so that they have to charge you...rather than smite you. If they smite you, you will take damage and die in about 4-5 hits. They will take damage too via shiver armor...but not fast enough. If you make them charge you the whole time though...and they can't catch/tele land on you...then you will win.

Strategy vs. bow zons (guided arrow/straffe/multi-shot/hydrid)

Instead of buffing shiver armor, it is necessary to buff chilling armor against these foes. Don't worry though. If you keep yourself in close distance of the bow zon while orbing them, they will die quite fast when they don't actually dodge the chilling armor bolts that shoot out. Chilling armor is quite devastating especially vs. guided arrow if you keep your distance so that the bolts actually hit. Usually they will die faster than you do from getting hit 25% of the time from the arrows. If they switch to javalin, make sure to keep distance and orb. If they use lightning bolt, your chilling armor will kill them.

Strategy vs. casters

Use the up'd vipermagi, the spider (instead of the dungos), and the zbug spirit shield, and you magically have enough fcr and res to fight casters. Your orb damage will be around 1k (and thus not super high)...but now you will be an orber. Because casters do not physically come into contact with you...shiver armor is useless. Also, because most casters do "nuke grade damage", chilling armor will not be effective enough to kill your opponents even if you tele right ontop of them. However, it would still be wise to buff chilling armor before fighting casters such as other sorceresses. This is probably the most boring and worthless duel for this character though, and I don't recommend it if you can avoid it. Use another character instead. Orbers, mediocre ones especially, are just not the best caster vs casters. Also its not being used to its full troll potential.

Strategy vs caster druids

Cry. Cry alot. And CrySomeMore. Orb sorcs of any kind cannot kill ele druids, or even damage them at all oftentimes because they can't even penetrate their cyclone armor. You will die if you decide to pk an elemental druid with this character. Bear mode is no help here as well. It's good to be completely honest sometimes.


Bear mode explained: After prebuffing shiver armor, instead of leaving or putting your frozen orb gear (the main recommended gear) back on, put all the gear on recommend for bear mode on instead. All such gear has "bear mode only" in parentheses next to each item in the gear sections above. Then, you use the beastz to turn into a bear.

Bear mode gear:

beastz (used to shapeshift into a werebear)
stormshield
angelic ammy
angelic rings
dungos
eth ss treks
20ias 10cb life dex gloves or leave on mages
visionary 2os 400+ def 10% deadly strike helm etc. or 500+ def nightwings
zbug stone or prudence
cta
bo shield
3/20/20's instead of 30def/20life scs is possible but doesn't help as much as you'd think. I don't recommend taking all the time to prebuff and switch out the 9x gcs for 9x 132/45's though.

Notes: After you have a powerful shiver armor around your sorceress, you can decide to whip on a beastz along with all the other gear instead of a fathom and so on. Then you turn into a terrifying grizzly bear. In this form, you have more defense, but obviously less mobility, and you can't teleport. This is probably the ultimate troll mode though, since you can now b*tch slap characters instead of orb them. You won't do too much damage with your slap; however, with high attack rating, you can land hits quite frequently at a high enough ias to make bvcs take alot of damage. Bvcs will probably die faster from your shiver armor alone, but a good troll normal attack always helps. Also make sure to use demon limb for prebuff if you feel like you don't have enough ar and if its allowed. I'd say though, bear mode probably doesn't work well at all vs smiters or chargers. It really is only best vs fury druids and barb vs. casters that decide they don't need shields. Punish them for their unwise choice!


The "barrier" orb sorc is my favorite build on d2. Nothing beats the laughs I got from playing with this character. Sure I have my more serious characters, but this one will always have a special place on my account. Even when I'm retired and quit. Hope you enjoy this guide! If you are on west non-ladder, don't be shy to pm me for demonstrations. I can show you the power.

This post was edited by RUSSiABANK on Feb 8 2011 04:35am

it could be funny char

hehe it exists. It's not theoretical. At first when i made it 3 years ago I didn't think it would be very effective. Man was I wrong lmao.

gg

Nice guide, well written etc. Must test this thingie some time ^^

This post was edited by Spankwire on Feb 8 2011 04:42am

skimmed through, i might make on for teh lulz

Nice one! I've been thinking about something like this for a few months, nice to see a guide! GG!

About prebuff: the .cold res doesn't hang in there, right? though is it only the +cold damage from the prebuf and not from when the damage is applied that counts?

Very nice guide, all explained, all buffs ,etc, i like that

I saw one of those sorcs before and i was like wtf

Edit, why not put on merc more +skills gear like ariocs(4skills) and andys, and maybe coh for +8 skills for awersome +8 to definace. Mercs benefit from +skills and u benefit from their aura lvl increase ^ ^

This post was edited by bioshocker on Feb 8 2011 07:07am

my merc wears the delirium (+2) option as well as a doom (another +2). And of course bramble is probably the best armor. And I'm sure you could give +8 defiance...but It's probably better to have -60 cold res +4 skills and lvl 21 thorns.



yeah only the % cold damage and the skills count for prebuff. Not the -cold res. It's just like enchant in this way.

This post was edited by RUSSiABANK on Feb 8 2011 12:29pm

this sounds like a lot of fun, you should make some gameplay videos of the build in action!

found something similar made back in 07, stead of orb, it was an ES/shive nonblockr build made for shiver to auto kill while tanking.
MDR highly essentially to tank long enough for shiver to kill, curious if it is still viable in 1.13... hmmmm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAosWAtUWH4

This post was edited by Batou079 on Feb 8 2011 01:02pm