Been posted elsewhere for a while, figured i'd be cool too and post here
A lot of people try making level 18 sorcs and end up getting owned. They are really fragile characters, but if you make them right they can be very powerful. Fball sorcs and Cbolt sorcs can be good respectively, but this guide is for an 18 ice blast sorc.
Starting Sorc Information and bps
Starting Attributes
Strength: 10
Dexterity: 25
Vitality: 10
Energy: 35
Hit Points: 40
Stamina: 74
Mana: 35
Each Character Level
Life +1
Stamina +1
Mana +2
Attribute Point Effect
1 Vitality point gives 2 Life
1 Vitality point gives 1 Stamina
1 Energy point gives 2 Mana
FHR Frames
0% 15
5% 14
9% 13
14% 12
20% 11
30% 10
42% 9
60% 8
86% 7
142% 6
FCR Frames
0% 13
9% 12
20% 11
37% 10
63% 9
105% 8
200% 7
FBR Frames
0% 9
7% 8
15% 7
27% 6
48% 5
86% 4
200% 3
underlined breakpoints are what i recommend.
Gear
Helm
If you can get one, a 1 cold skills 10 fcr circ is very nice. You can also opt for 1 cold 20 frw, but teleport is used in this build so mass frw isn't really needed. You don't have to have 10 fcr on the circ. I use a 1 cold, 1-110 light damg (random), 70 life 40 mana, half freeze dur. circ. Mana will be your main prob so try to get a 2os 1 cold/mana/life/rep or any good mods you can find. Either put 2 P skulls in it or P rubies for life. If you really have trouble with mana consider Psaphires.
If you can't afford or find a circlet with good mods, you can use a tarn helm socketed with one of the above, but you miss out on a lot of handy mods.
Armor
Stealth of course (Tal Eth). Frw/Fhr/Fcr, dex, mana regen, has everything a caster could want. Make it in an armor with as low str require as you can get.
Ammy
Try to get a 1 cold ammy with mods like 10 fcr, life, mana, rep, str/dex. You don't have to have fcr on it, but just remember that at least 4 of your other items excluding stealth will need fcr to hit the bp. A cheap alternative is eye of etlich, but try to not use this as it gives no other really helpful mods.
Rings
Definitely try to get fcr on these. If you get 20 from here, that means you can get by with harder items that may lack fcr. Aim for 10 fcr/life/mana/rep/resists. Main prob again is mana, so at the bare minimum try to at least get 10 fcr and a little mana. 40 mana is max on 18 rings.
Belt
A 10 fcr belt with mana and regen works really nice. If you don't need this to hit the bp, then use a 24 fhr belt with life on it. Works nice. If you can get some str on it too your set. I use an 8% fcr, 1 str, 18 mana, 6 mana regen. A substitute is lenymo if you can't get either of the other two. Has some good mana regen and resists.
Shield
i recommend a 30/20 bone shield (30 fbr, 20 increased chance to block) with dtm. Vbsod are pretty good, try to get one with 2os. If you can manage to get one, a 17/30/20 is really nice. (17 fhr) That lets you hit the fhr bp without using a fhr belt or a fhr gc. If you go with a rare one, look for 17/30/20, mana, dtm, resists. I use a rare 30/20 bone shield with 19 mana and some resists. I'll prob get around to putting an ith in it eventually for some dtm.
Gloves
Bloodfists! You get a huge life bonus and 30 fhr to help hit the bp. Pretty amazing gloves. Try to get some with 18 def instead of 17 because they look better.
Weapon
You will of course want an orb with 3 ice blast. 10 fcr on it is very handy and helps a lot to hit the bp. It isn't set in stone that you have to have fcr on it though, as long as you are getting enough from the rest of your gear. 3 ice blast is the main mod you want on it. They can also spawn with 1 cold skills, 3 ib, but those are very rare. As long as you have 3 ib you should be ok. Try to get mods like life/mana/resists as well. Put some 6 dex jewels in it to help you hit max block easier. I use an eth/rep 10 fcr orb with 3 ice blast and a little mana and resists.
I've also heard of people trying to use Maelstrom to hit the 105% fcr bp. This is folly. I recommend you never even think of this. The damage you lose out on from your orb would be to much. the 63% bp is perfectly fine.
Boots
Cow kings, you get the huge dex to help with max block.
Switch Weapon
You will want to use a switch weapon with +3 shiver armor on it. This allows you to have a pretty strong shiver armor without putting any hard skills in it. I use a 3 shiver/2 warmth short staff. You can shop them really easily off of norm akara.
Inventory
Mana will definitely hurt you at first, so try getting 2 or 3 mana gcs. Max mana on an 18 gc is 33. Try to get them with 2nd mods if you can. Also, if your using a regular 30/20 bone shield and a fcr belt, you will have to use a grand charm with 12% fhr to hit the recommended breakpoint. An ideal gc for this would be a 12fhr 33 mana one. You can also keep a few extra fhr gcs or lc's in your stash if you feel you need to bump up a fhr bp versus zealers or something.
The rest of your inventory should be filled with small charms that have 15 life/7 mana, or as close to it as you can get. This character can still be effective using plain 15 lifers, but you will need to be getting mana from somewhere.
Stats
Str - Enough for gear. Shouldn't exceed 25 (for bone shield.) If you have some nice jewels with dex/dtm/-15 or something similar, you can lower the str require and not have to waste so many points in str for your shield.
Dex - You will definitely want max block. A lvl 18 sorc using a 30/20 bone shield takes 60 dex to achieve max block. Getting some of these from jewels is very helpful.
Vit - All leftovers.
Energy - None, try to get your mana from gear and charms.
Skills
1 warmth*
1 Telekinesis
1 Teleport (some don't skill this, i find it VERY helpful)
14 Ice bolt
13 Ice blast
*Personally i would NOT put one in warmth. It really cuts into your ice blast damage. If you feel you need it though, go ahead and skill it. You should honestly be getting enough regen/dtm from gear though.
There isn't much in the way of strategy. Use your switch to get up a nice shiver armor, make sure you walk vs melee. Use teleport to its maximum potential and have fun. Ice sorcs are really good characters and are fun as hell in tvt.
NOTE: There is a little different variation that is built for max defense. The skills are pretty much the same layout. Only difference is you would be using an eth/rep armor with as much def as you can find, as well as high def shields. Many also use the bottom sig trio for the 100 def bonus. Be warned though that these types don't hit the same bp's. They simply can't. They are very good vs melee though because of the high def.
This post was edited by badguts on Feb 12 2010 01:47pm