First of all, i am the type of pvp who likes to play with different chars or different styles than rather use the same char that everyone else is using. Whether im winning or not i find it more fun to be different. Although this character at this lvl is different you better believe your going to be winning with it. This is an idea i came up with a while ago after testing lvl 9 sorcs. Then the accepted idea that lvl 12 sorcs are also vlld on lld101 led me to test out new builds. While i have not ever even attempted to build this character in D2 i have seen 2 of them on east, one equipped very well, and the other equipped mediocre. Both though have had incredible results and are among the top vllds on east non lad, or were. This character is incredibly cheap compared to mainstream vllds, but still very effective.

The Defense Route of the lvl 12 Ice Blast Sorc

Armor
Eth Bugged 4 Open socket Ancient armor with -30req/40+dtm/and as much dex/life/mana as possible.

Helm
Sigons
Visor Great Helm with 35 base def or 60 identified defense and as much +dex/life/mana/def u can get or just a Ruby will do. I believe max dex is 3 and max mana is 10 and max life is 8 and max def is 8 on lvl 12 jewels. That is a total of 7 vita and 5 energy, giving you the equivalent to 12 stat points. But a ruby will also give you the equivalent of 12 stat points. Whatever your fancy is, though ruby is way cheaper.

Gloves
Bloodfists, no doubt about it u want these and nothing else, just make sure they are the 18 defense and not the 17's.

Belt
Sigons Wrap Plated Belt with 11 defense and nothing less.

Boots
Sigons Sabot Greaves with 15 defense and nothing less.

Shield
Eth rare Tower Shield with high% enhanced defense, deflecting mods(20icb/30fbr), repair, and hopefully 2 sockets<-- that is your dream shield.
Sturdy Gothic Shield of deflecting. Aim for 40% enhanced defense, and 2 sockets with larzuk socket quest. socket this with those 3dex/10mana/8life/8 def jewels, or as close as possible seeing i have never seen a jewel like that.
Sturdy Bone Shield of Deflecting. Just like the gothic shield. The difference between bone and gothic is, bone can have lower def but has higher % block, and gothic has higher def and less block. 4% difference to be exact.

Weapon
Sorc Orb with 10fcr, 3 ice blast, dtm, and 2 open sockets. Or as close to that as u can get, but you will need 10fcr on that wand.

Rings
2x
Rare rings with 10fcr, 5 life rep, mana, life, stats(energy, strength, dexterity). Your going to need the fcr, the life rep +5 is damn sexy and u will want that. Last things on the rings that u'll want is mana then life.

Ammy
10fcr, 5 life rep, +hard stats (hard stats are strength and dexterity, max u can get on ammy at this lvl is 10 i believe, total of 5str+5dex), +nrg, mana, and life. The more of everything the better.

Switch
Sorc Orb with +3 Shiver armor
Sigons Guard Tower Shield with -15 req jewel or hel rune.

Charms
20x 15 life large charms with +mana or +def if possible.

Skills
Ice Bolt-12
Ice Blast-7
Frozen Armor-3
Shiver Armor-1

Attribute Placing
Strength: 70
Dex: Enough for 75% block, use a blocking calculator or just watch the % go up til it hits 75% with your dex. The calcs are the same thing as what u'll see in game.
Vitality: Whatever attributes are left go here.
Energy: With the sorc being lvl 12 she will have 57 mana on her already, add that to the 30 from sigs and she's got 87 mana, thats more than enough.

Tables
Faster Cast Rate-10
Faster Block Rate-6
Faster Hit Recovery-10

With
this build i have talked to someone who has been able to break 1.3k def and is remaking to hit 1.5k def. Also shiver armor adds 19-25 dmg every single time the person swings. The dmg with this build will be 166-183 but most vllds will not have more than 30 resists. 166-183 damage after pvp and resists is 19-21 dmg. Small but with your such high defense and always hitting it builds up. You have to think of it like a jabber, small dmg hits in many many rounds. I hope some other people try this cuase i have heard this is a very fun build.

I also have a Faster hit recovery style build that if anyone wants pm'd to them i will do so, but i don't think it will be anywhere near effective as the defense.

This post was edited by xvmurdacb on Feb 2 2007 10:46am

oo nice how is it vs kick sins?

my guess is a kicker would tear themselves apart on the armor. lots of fast, low dmg attacks is suicide vs shiver armor.

This post was edited by waramp on Feb 2 2007 01:44pm

These sorcs do very vs. vllds.

My sac pally beats them because he has 75 res and a slow, high damage attack so I take less dmg from Shiver Armor.

All my other vllds get beat by this build though.

My guess is that is destroys kicksins... and probably most chars with low AR.

I can vouch (from own experiance) that the defensive setup will be better than the FHR setup.
Defence pwns.

Edit: Nice 4200 posts.

This post was edited by ste91 on Feb 2 2007 01:56pm

very cool i dont vlld that much was wondering are casters even viable at those low lvls or is it mainly melee dominated?

edit: ste never post again 4200 is to leet of a stoner number to kill

This post was edited by alexxmars on Feb 2 2007 01:57pm

This is the only effective caster I have seen.

It is allowed to go to level 12. A level 9 ice blaster wouldn't do well.

I might actually build one of these. I have some nice lvl 9/12 caster jewelry... 5 Energy 8 Mana 10FCR amulet... 10FCR 5 Life Rep Ring... etc...

Since I've never seen one of these in action (I have only one reason for building an Ice Sorc), what are they like vs Jabbers? Since Jabbers are the biggest problem to my Barb...

Well it depends on the quality of the jabber.

With 75% cold res I think a godly jabber would win.

With 75% cold res, I think a mediocre jabber would win if it were a 9 inner sight build.

The strong part about this char is that few vllds have good cold res. I think any vlld would beat this sorc with 75% cold res.

But the sorc is the perfect counter to a jabber. Not only does a jabber hit fast, but theie dodge is useless. Still, I think a 75% res jabber wins.

This post was edited by breakbeatz2 on Feb 2 2007 02:32pm