Quote (GetStabby @ Nov 11 2019 05:45pm)
Please stop :rofl: I’ve played nearly every possible angle and every possible build of blizz sorc on hardcore in the past 20 years. And with this one sorc alone, I’ve re-tested all the possible builds that I can.
You’ll never be able to logically convince me of going max vita (2.8k life) and enigma and SOE and defiance merc and more points in shiver armor/nova and blizz damage, with no ES, over the build I have now. Because I’ve tried it and it was far less efficient and way more dangerous. For starters, I was drinking potions, not good.
First of all, I choose dungos over SOE for the FHR, life replenish and vita that SOE lacks. I get 15 MDR from dwarf and that’s sufficient.
the one thing I regret was upgrading guardian angel, I didn’t really need that extra defense at the cost of 40 more strength. That being said, it doesn’t really matter. I have a regular um’d guardian angel on another character if I really want it back to normal.
Now, I’ve done a TON of runs with many different variations on her gear, build and damage. My kill speed with 5k blizz is pretty much the exact same as it was when I tried maxing her blizz damage which was only about 7.2k. I also tried maxing nova to help with cold immunes, it didn’t make much of a difference, except on wave 2, because merc is the primary cold immunes handler. And having one hard point in nova is enough to wipe out wave 2 very easily on /players 3.
I don’t think you could have tested this exact build without also having my exact charms, exact gear and skill/stat allocation, but most importantly, my exact play style and thousands of runs with said exact build and play style. Because after thousands of runs with this sorc, I’m still constantly thinking about tweaking things.
That being said, I’m literally a master of controlling blizz sorcs. They are the hardest sorc to master because the targeting of blizzard takes so long to get used to and to perfect. Therefore most players will never find the maximum potential efficiency that blizz sorcs have to offer.
My runs are fast. Safe. Efficient. And kill speed is extremely high while survivability is even higher. I’ve been doing this for a very long time. On hardcore classic and expansion both.
The better someone is at constantly teleporting and repositioning while grouping up mobs and adding in supplemental static damage before and during blizzards, the faster their killspeed will be. And I’m a certifiable master of this. I had almost the same killspeed with 7.2k blizz as I did with 3.2k blizz because I know how to make that 3.2k blizz as efficient as possible.
The only time it really slowed me down having 3.2k was fighting diablo and Baal, even with -150 mastery at all times. That’s another thing. Having -150 mastery is key for killspeed and is why blizzard is so good.
But I digress. I need my morning coffee and smoke B)
wow you are like my sister. someone who thinks that he/she is a master and knows best because he/she was dealing with a subject for such a long time. well, there is always someone who knows something you missed. and i am not talking of myself...
drinking poitions not good? but prayer merc and life replenish is? that's what i was talking about. your build is chill and you can play half afk. nothing bad about that. you may play as you like. but you shouldn't pretend that your way is the very best in terms of efficiency. why not use healing pots and defiance or holy freeze merc? a healing potion does the job of your prayer merc + replenish items and you can easily refill your belt when picking up stuff or when selling at vendor or during the time when diablo spawns/between baal waves.
concerning soe/dungo. apparently you need the 10 fhr because you don't have a coa. with coa and spirit you only need 1 x 5 fhr sc to reach 86 fhr breakpoint. i guess it depends on coa. so you are fine with dungo as long as you wear shako. nevertheless, coa would free up some slots: you can use soe instead and don't need a dwarf which you can replace with soj (should do anyway IMO) but i read you didn't found soj either... so yeah in this case your item choice is legit.
ofc i didn't test the exact same build you are using. gear and charms were a bit different for sure. but i tried the prayer merc with insight and different ES setups just as you did and played always on players 7. especially in chaos i felt like "wtf nothing can kill me". but with max vita, max blizzard dmg, some points in armor and a defiance merc wearing doom i still felt pretty much invulnarable but did more dmg resulting in slightly faster run times.
i agree that being able to "constantly teleporting and repositioning while grouping up mobs and adding in supplemental static damage before and during blizzards" is far more important for your killspeed than having good gear. but if you really are such a master of controlling a blizz sorc you just wouldn't need your insanely high amount of survivability. i would recommend your build to any rookie or mediocre skilled player.
with your build your runs are fast, extremely safe and efficient!
with higher blizz and ice blast dmg your runs would be slightly faster, slightly less safe and slightly more efficient!
i know which way i would chose...