I have a 438 mf frozen orb sorc with act 5 merc tanking
you could prob use this for blizzard too and do more damage, but I prefer spamming frozen orb than waiting for blizzard to hit.
+37 skills with no skillers. Command shout yes.
isted occy
-5+5 cold facet shako
nigma
30 maras
35 cast spirit
bo+rand spirit on switch
40 chancies
49 war travs
arach
20% light absorb whisp ring
Dwarf star 15% fire absorb
cold rupture gc
cold res sc's to counter the cold rupture and (frost nova on death mobs killing you)
torch
anni
x7 cold res sc 10-11 resist only
12x 7 mf sc
39 mf gheeds
now heres what make its work, act 5 barb.
plague eth mythical sword (cast lower res when struck = frozen orb actually useful + Cleansing aura to cover poisons)
last wish pb (cast life tap to never die, fade for extra survival, might aura for more damage, crushing blow for big hits)
eth fort (high defense + chilling armor = hard to hit for tanking melee mobs + 5% max light res = 80 light res for tanking spirits)
Gface (high crushing blow adds to the big hits and majorly helps kill everything + Faster hit recovery is a bonus)
I have been enjoying this setup, even though its much slower than nova sorc. Although Nova sorc is purely for speed clearing. This is more mf based running.
I can kill anything and if its a high cold res mob, merc kills them fast.
merc can also solo act bosses P1-3. I havnt really had any full games yet.
752-786 Frozen orb
-200% cold mastery
85% cast rate with only 3 cast items
+37 skills total
+20 frozen orb, cold mastery, ice bolt
+1 tele, static, enchant (for merc attack rating, DO NOT need fire mastery)
+13 chilling armor, warmth
current level 87
I think 10 hard points(give or take depend on skills points) into warmth or 350% mana regen is req for good mana regen without insight.
I just made this build recently and has been doing solo clears just fine, even when other farmers join the game.
This post was edited by Josiah on Apr 2 2026 10:14am