Infinity ES Nova TS Guide v1.0Table of Contents1. Introduction
2. Gear
3. Skill/Stat Placement
4. Strategies
5. End/credits
1. IntroductionHi, I'm Chris and this is my first guide since back in 1.09(wasn't posted here). This build focuses around Infinity(hence the name), using the old school skills of Nova and Thunderstorm.
Why build this character? Simple, I built this character because, frankly, I sucked at namelocking and telestomping. I tried BvC, Bone Necro, and Hybridzon before I decided that I was far too awful at PvP and namelocking to be of any use in real duels. I thought about going the spray and pray route of Fireball or Frozen Orb, but ultimately decided those weren't for me. Since I played back in 1.09 I remembered when Nova was king of cow killing, second only maybe to Lightning Fury. Thunderstorm is a powerful asset in itself, dishing out 3,500+ damage per second to a target within range, and will operate much like Armageddon on a Fire Druid/Shaman, cast it then forget about it.
The most important part of the build though is the Infinity. This one item lowers your opponents' Lightning resistance by 85 with the Conviction Aura, then another 45-55(varies). This means that opponents will need to stack resistance to more than 315, just to have maximum resistance in Hell. We'll want to make Infinity in a low end Polearm, I prefer Scythe, but I'd settle for a Voulge or anything else you can get away with base strength in for more -resistance.
Breakpoints reached and damage not shown in the screenshot:
105 FCR
142 FHR(escape!)
Base strength, every single stat point into energy. This may be the only character that can pull off this stat placement and still be effective.
222-246 Charged Bolt(24 Bolts)
5-5352 Chain Lightning
3186-3857 Thunderstorm damage2. The Gear:Weapon: Infinity in a low requirement polearm. Try to get the best -resistance number you can. Ethereal for sexiness, you won't be needing the Cyclone Armor charges. Well, they're not worth it IMO. Here are the stats we're looking at:
50% Chance To Cast Level 20 Chain Lightning When You Kill An Enemy
Level 12 Conviction Aura When Equipped
+35% Faster Run/Walk
+255-325% Enhanced Damage (varies)
-(45-55)% To Enemy Lightning Resistance (varies)
40% Chance of Crushing Blow
Prevent Monster Heal
0.5-49.5 To Vitality (Based on Character Level)
30% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Level 21 Cyclone Armor (30 Charges)
At Level 21, Cyclone Armor absorbs 280 elemental damage. You may think to yourself: "anything helps!" But you need to keep in mind that Cyclone Armor factors in at the same time as Energy Shield. This means you save yourself 280 elemental damage, or basically 280 mana on the first hit, and only the first hit. After that you have to recast the armor, recharge the weapon, etc. Just not worth it in my opinion.
Switch: CtA / Hel'd Lidless. Mana is Life here, don't skimp out. Get a +6 BO one. +6 Battle Command is important too, we'll have a very very low level Battle Command, and +1 skills is important in your Lightning/Nova damage.
The other, more expensive option would be a CtA staff with +2 or more to Energy Shield, Thunderstorm, and cold armors. This would save you skill points to put into Lightning and make your TS more powerful. The problem is that finding this staff is incredibly hard and will likely run you a small fg fortune even for one with just ES. I've been searching for the better part of 2 months and have yet to find one. The one I did find with +3 ES and +1 TS would have ran me 100 fg+, I decided it wasn't worth it.
Helm: IMO only one real option here: Powered Circlet/Tiara/Coronet/Diadem of the Magus(+3 Light Skills, 20 fcr) with 2 open sockets. We'll be Shaeling these for the FHR. Why not Griffon's Eye? Well, it'll give us 5 more FCR, true. But that would be the only reason I'd use it. Your Infinity is already taking away up to 140 enemy lightning resistance, and for pvp purposes, anyone who stacks resist is probably stacking for FoHdins, which means they'll use a lot more resistance than is necessary to negate your extra -25 from Griffon's. The +1 All skills helps your BO, but not by enough to negate the +3 Lightning Skills the Powered circlet grants you.
Armor: Skin of the Vipermagi non-upped, Shaeled. We want this not upped for the low strength requirement. Also, gives 30 FCR which helps us reach the 105 fcr breakpoint.
Belt: Arach. Duh.
Gloves: Magefists, regenerate mana and 20 fcr. Don't up them.
Boots: Crafted Mana Boots with FHR, replenish life, and 40+ Mana. People might recommend Ethereal Treks for the FHR, but I call those people silly. Although, Etreks are possibly easier to get hold of. Etreks are a viable option, but you'll lose 400+ mana after BO if you use them.
Amulet: 2 Sorc Skills/15+ FCR ammy. We'll need 15 to hit the 105 FCR breakpoint. Viper, Arach, Circlet, and Magefist get us to 90 only. If you use Griffon's Eye, a 10 FCR ammy will do. Ideal Ammy would be 2/15 fcr/High Mana/life/replenish life. No need for stats.
Rings: 2x SoJs for the healthy mana and skill boost.
Inventory: 6x Lightning FHR Grand Charms, 3x Lightning Lifers, 20/xx Torch, 20/xx Anni, 2x 5 FHR/17 Mana SCs, 8x 20/17 SCs. With this FHR, we'll reach the 144 FHR breakpoint. This helps us escape many sticky situations. Bmanas if you're NL and can afford them.
Stashed gear: Memory Prebuff, Insight in a +3 Nova/Lightning Staff(go for a lvl 17 Meditation), the Ears of the Farcast Zons you've pwned since you built this char.
Other gear is subject to your realm and if you're Ladder or Nonladder, and whether or not you want to use things like Wizzy Gloves and such.
3. Skill/Stat Placement -Stat Placement: Enough str to wear your gear. For me this was 0. Every other point goes into energy.
This highly depends on if you want to prebuff. Either way the results are still the same, the difference will be how many points you have to place into Lightning.
Prereqs: 1 point each in Charged Bolt, Static Field, Lightning, Teleport, Chain Lightning
1 point Wonder in Warmth
Enough points to reach lvl 40 ES(95% ES)
20 Telekinesis
20 Nova
20 Thunderstorm
20 Lightning Mastery
Remaining points go into Lightning for utility damage. You'll have a decently powerful Lightning, which comes in handy in a few select duels.
On my sorc, the build was finished at level 90 with no prebuff. With a +9 ES Memory, you could be done as early as level 84. I really recommend higher levels though.
Given our two main attacks have no synergies, we'll be going the Energy Shield route, with maxed mana. Well, we pretty much have to. Since we're using Infinity, we have Negative resistance in hell not factoring in the Anya bug. Energy Shield will protect us partially from elemental attacks, with 95% of the damage going to our mana before factoring in resistance. The remaining 5% of the damage will be taken by our life. Let's do a simple calculation to show why maxed resistance isn't necessary.
Let's take for example a 12000 damage elemental attack is launched at you. One build, we have maxed Resistance(75%), another build we have 0 resistance. 12000 damage is reduced to 1/6 in PvP, which is 2000 damage. 1900 damage will go right to our mana, leaving 100 points to hit our health like a hammer. With 0 resistance, we'll take 100 damage. 1/10th of our HP roughly, using optimal gear or better. With 75% resistance, we'll take 25 damage instead. The problem of course, is getting 75% resistance. Let's say for example on my sorc, I wanted to sacrifice my 20/17's for 20/5's. I'll need 17 20/5's to maximize my resistance. That means 289 BO'able Mana. That also means 289 SoJ/arach/boot % increased mana. Not to mention that to get this increase in resistance, we'll actually have to sacrifice 2 skillers, which takes away from either our FHR or Life to boot. Basically, maximizing resistance even with the best charms isn't worth it.
4. Strategies:Vs Pallys - Smiters/Chargers: One of your two hardest matchups. They have massive resistance usually, an attack that can stun you undefinitely, and an aura that negates the entire purpose of Infinity. Tele around them never sitting still. If they connect on a charge lock the only way to escape is to WSG out and tele off their minimap. Let Thunderstorm do most of the work, this will be boring, but can be effective. If they don't have a solid lock on you, you can fire Lightnings their direction and try to connect. Don't get too cocky though, if they get that lock on you, you can kiss your no shield using self goodbye.
Hammerdins: Can be hard if stacked resistance or sorbing. Can be a really fun duel though, you can tank about 3 hammers in a row, but don't get cocky. Just because they're at 1/4 Life doesn't mean you can stomp them and expect to win. Clip them with the edge of your Novas, if you see them start to tele, get out of there. Your reaction time to their stomps and not falling into hammertraps will largely decide the outcome. Patience is key here.
If they try to telestomp, do the telewalk. As they flash next to you, tele southeast and spam Novas to drain their life.
Joderdins: Desyncing Hdins basically. Will try and spring a surprise hammer right on top of you. Your only escapes will be in their hammerfields which can kill your mana very quickly. Tele in a parallel path to them, to the southeast. Spam Novas and Lightnings every step of the way. This duel is kinda like fighting blind, since you almost never know where they really are. Thunderstorm can key you in if they're too close for comfort though.
FoHdins: This is one of two times I'll suggest a gear swap. Switch your Infinity for Insight staff. Their Conviction negates yours, and their spell auto-aims. Your only hope is to get the surprise jump on them, which honestly probably isn't going to work since they have so much life. Only way I've found to beat them is using driveby technique. Hop onto their screen, spam Nova 3-4 times, tele off their minimap again. Let your mana regen a little bit from the FoH hit, do another driveby. Lather, rinse repeat. Insight should keep your mana up nicely against all those FoH hits.
Auradin: If they're stacking you can't win. Pulse drains your mana and you can't sorb because your resistance is too low. Non-stacking Auradins aren't a pushover either. If they charge you, their elemental damage drains your mana pool rather quickly, and you don't have enough resist to tank the added damage from their auras either. Use the same strategy as with Smiters/Chargers. You might want to switch to your Insight setup if their Conviction level is higher than yours and they're using it. Alternately though, if you keep Infinity on, they're much less likely to switch over to their resistance aura. I personally just stick with Infinity because I'm too lazy to gear swap.
V/Ts and other hybrids: Mix and match methods and learn your opponent. Rule of thumb on pallies for me is to never let them get a namelock. Tele in circles around them to prevent them from getting that namelock, tele off screen if they get it.
vs. Amazons -Most of these have low resistance. At least low enough that using Infinity will make their resistance less than max. Those that don't aren't going to do great damage, but can still kill you fairly quickly.
Bowzons/glass cannon builds: Good ones have pretty well stacked resistance and knockback. Tele in zigzags ultimately ending behind them, where their folly of arrows fired in the opposite direction won't track you. Commence the Nova stomping. With Thunderstorm pestering them and Novas 3 times a second you should put them in dodge lock. If they tank too much and recover, time for you to get off screen and away from their arrow folleys. Approach quickly from a different angle than before to throw them off.
Javazons/hybrids to include plague javelins: One Charged Strike is your death, so you'll want to clip them with the edge of your Novas. Be careful not to get caught in a Plague cloud, it will reduce your life to 1, almost guaranteed. Follow the same basic strategy as with Bowzons, but be careful not to linger lest you eat a Charged Strike, and your opponent eats your ear.
vs. Barbarians - A long duel, to say the least. Barbs with Widowmaker are quite a bit tougher too.
Tele parallel to long whirls, Nova clipping them as much as possible. If the barb isn't aggressive, you can fire off Lightnings from a distance. Just be careful, a good whirl can bring you down to practically no life if not completely drain your mana pool. My FHR setup helps me avoid the Leap-Tele-Whirl Combo barbs like to use. As soon as you see their tele flash, tele perpendicular to their direction, spam 2-3 Novas and get out of there. A second whirl is quick to follow the first.
vs. Sorceress - Fun duels IMO, and you've got an advantage that other sorcs don't have. Thunderstorm drains their mana pool quickly if they're ES, and if they're Vita, it'll slowly whittle away their life. Nova is also unavoidable. If your opponent is in range it will hit them. The trick is not getting crushed by their more powerful spells like Blizz and Fireball. SvS is one of my two favorites to duel with on this char, and I'll just give some brief tips since the duels are virtually impossible to give a strategy.
Don't tank Blizz. Get the heck out of the Blizzard if you find yourself caught in one.
Fireballs hurt. A lot. Don't get hit by them, tele behind your opponent and don't let them get a namelock on you.
Don't chase Orb sorcs. Orb has a much wider range than either TS or Nova. Try to cut them off on their tele paths
Zeal sorcs kill you if they hit you. Once. Don't let that happen
Other sorcs will think they can tank Nova and just sit still. Switch over to Lightning and namelock them with it for a nasty surprise headed their way.Learn from your mistakes dueling other sorcs. Assuming equal gear, this char does pretty good SvS.
vs. Necromancers - Two types: Boners, and poison. Both can be tricky. I would say though that a good poison Necro has the advantage, able to effectively one shot you if you get hit by two spammed poison novas in a row.
Bonemancers with good resist will try to Tank your Novas and throw spears at you. Make them pay for this with Lightnings. Once they see their Life draining quickly with Lightnings, they'll rethink their tanking ability and try to get out. Chase them down and commence TS and Nova pounding them. They'll fall soon enough. Any good bonemancer will tell you that ES sorcs are some of their hardest duels. Prove them right. You don't have as much mana as an ES fireball sorc, but you're not a pushover either. ES can tank quite a few bonehits.
Poisonmancers have a different advantage than most. Their attacks will drain you to 1 hp almost instantly, so be careful not to get hit. Poison Novas move pretty slowly, use that to your advantage. If he tries to telestomp you, get out of PNs range. Fire Lightning from a distance. Don't worry about the Fire Golem or Teeth, neither can kill you at 1 hp.
Another tactic courtesy of boxelders: Spam Charged Bolts in their direction, when they go to telestomp tele out of range of their Poison Nova, they'll tele into your Charged Bolt fields taking a decent hit.
Vs. Druids - Fun duels IMO, probably some of the most fun to play on this char. They have everything going for them in this matchup, yet I still find myself beating very good druids about 50% of the time. Every time I play them I get better too.
Windies: Cyclone Armor is incredible for them. Think of it as a recastable Manapool on an ES sorc. Your goal is to negate that and send them into hit recovery before they can recast.
Chain Lightning their minions away. One or two direct hits should be enough. Without Oak their life is more on par with sending them into hit recovery when you break the cyclone armor. If he tries to get away to recast, chase him down and make him pay for his waste of time. I've found that it takes about 4-5 Novas to break the Cyclone armor, which means you can't let him waste any of your time. A single Lightning shot with a TS will break his Armor too, and that's your chance to stomp. Don't stand too close to him though. He can tank your Novas longer than you can tank Nados.
Another strategy is to telewalk. When they attempt to telestomp you, walk or move to the southeast, spamming Novas as you do so.
Shapeshift druids: just stay out of range. Desyncing druids are tougher, but not by much.
Vs Assassins - Hardest matchup by far, bar none. They have everything going for them that destroys you. High damage elemental attack to drain your mana, immobilizing mindblast, poison based skill with enough damage to take you to 1 life, a minion to take TSes, and a passive aura that boosts their resistance. There's a reason Diablo lore calls them "magekillers." No class does it better than these guys. I wont go much in depth about strategies here, because honestly if they have stacked resistance, you don't stand a chance.
Your best option is to fire Lightning from off screen or driveby Nova hits if their trap layout isn't smart. Make them chase you, take out their minion if possible. Never stick around long enough to let them Namelock you unless they're certainly going to due with another hit. I wish you luck, cause this is an insanely hard duel.
5. End/credits:This isn't a top tier pvp class with only one weakness and a bunch of 50/50 matchups, but Nova is certainly nostalgic for me, and has advantages that other spells simply can't compete with. This is a great entry level pvper running significantly cheaper than most classes. You can also certainly get by with less than perfect gear. My sorc was a force to be reckoned with at 850 life/2500 mana. It takes time to get used to but requires little skill other than learning how to avoid attacks. I'd recommend it to anyone though, its fun for gm or bm duels. Hope you enjoyed reading the guide, and maybe it'll inspire you to make one.
Credits to:
Boxelders - for inspiring the huge gear swap that gave me nearly an extra 800 mana. Provided some strategies
Badboy187 - for loaning me gear to show me how much of a difference 144 fhr made, and general donations.
USWSCL pub game players - not everyone is good, but everyone gave me enough practice to realize the full potential of this build.
This post was edited by cweaver8518 on Mar 15 2011 05:15pm