ya, idk how i went full retard

but yes coh is trash

63 fcr is fine on blizz sorc though

That’s the thing. I tried using a High vita / storm shield build with no ES for a while but it was actually way less safe / tanky. I also lost the 105 fcr and 86 fhr breakpoints which could not have been remedied without making big changes to the other gear and charms. Even with the breakpoints I would not feel nearly as safe.

What I found is that I achieved the absolute highest level of tankiness in all situations using guardian angel, spirit monarch, dwarf, wisp, dungos, max block, 72% energy shield with max warmth and max telekinesis with 86 fhr and 105 fcr. Almost nothing could ever break the energy shield, not even souls, and could face tank several doll explosions with ease, and when ES did get broken it was from trying to tank mana burn mobs where they were able to get in some strong extra hits after the initial mana burn, but no single mana burn is enough to break the ES. It was nice, but I wanted more damage.

So I’ve found a pretty happy balance where I’m at now. I don’t usually like COH as anything other than possibly a merc armor, but with my current setup, it actually works perfectly. It allows me to easily have 75 all res with conviction on as well. And I’ve spent hours balancing and rebalancing the stats, skills and gear to get to this point, and it’s by far the safest build I’ve ever played. I literally only use potions on the merc, with very rare exceptions. But you also have to play it correctly and accurately for it to work at maximum efficiency. Can’t just tele into the middle of giant double mobs of extra fast cursed fanaticism death lords on /players8 and expect to be invulnerable.

I disagree, I think 63 fcr on any sorc is a death wish waiting to happen in hardcore.


I was curious to see how much of a difference it would make if I abandoned the ES idea.

I did some runs in /p8 tinkering around with my build and tried going pure damage / pure vita / base dex
with 1 point ES (72%), 1 point telekinesis, 1 point warmth just to see how she fared.

Although she had about 2800 life and 7k blizz like this,
the 1.8k increased blizz damage wasnt that noticeable of a difference at all from the 5.2k ive been running with,
and the nonexistent damage reduction that i'm used to having from having the huge telekinesis bonus to energy shield
was sorely missed.

Also, with ES both on or off, she couldn't take a hit for sh*t.
One amp-fanat hit from a single minion of de seis hit for 900 life
with my usual build, a hit like this only hits for about 200-300 life.

The mana regen was comparably terrible as well, and those mana burning ghosties in CS were now a huge annoyance,
whereas with my normal build they dont even affect my mana pool whatsoever.

This drew me to the conclusion that its not just the huge regen from the level 30 warmth and gear,
but more importantly having a ton of points in telekinesis to reduce the damage received in the first place that makes the biggest difference
and is why this dual regen ES build is so tanky.

So I've determined that I've now found the most balanced skill distribution possible for my build,
but the one thing I keep struggling with is the balance of Life/Mana.

Pros of more mana:
*more mana = faster mana regen, bigger mana shield.

Cons:
*Less life on reserve for tanking physical Amp'd hits,
or rare occasions when energy shield gets removed.
*Mana burn still drops it to about 100-200 mana no matter how big the pool is
*Having more mana than life = Blood Mana curse @ Nihl and @ Baal, and is a minor annoyance and can require up to 1-2 healing potions at worst.


So i'm still trying to find the perfect balance of mana/life

this is what i'm going to run with for a while, though.

Here are my current skill trees after BO:
(Not shown: 30 warmth)




And here are the stats pages:
(with Manald equipped for CS. For WSK/Baal i switch out to 19 sorb wisp)



I'm liking the 2k life and the 1748 mana is still a pretty nice pool, considering I used to run with less of both.

Let's get back to business. Another dclone spawned.



what a YUMM upgrade
(old anni was 15-18-10. With new anni, still hit 75 all res with conviction)


This post was edited by GetStabby on Nov 8 2019 03:31pm

with more gear I am looking to convert my blizz sorc to blizz melee hybrid then i can whack cold immunes

if I ever used guardian angel I would personally go max block, and also craft a block neck:)

LOL that should be precious.

The only reason I went max block for a while there was because of guardian angel, it certainly makes it a lot easier.

Despite how incredibly tanky it was, i think i actually prefer only having 11% chance to block on my blizz sorcy with her current build
Since im generally up close and personal with most mobs, even standing in the direct center of them at times,
letting them draw toward me while casting blizz all over myself,
the blocking got me stuck sometimes and briefly unable to tele.

Here's a good example of the exquisite tankiness I speak so fondly of.

This is a chaos sanctuary /players 8 triple mob with conviction that I tele'd right into the middle of and just started letting loose.
These 3 screen shots happen over the course of maybe 5 or 6 seconds.
As you can see, my merc quickly gets eaten alive, so I feed him 1 full juvie.
Otherwise, no potions were needed whatsoever, and I come out of it without a scratch, in fact, nearly fully regenerated already by the end of the battle

obviously if this were a triple mob of cursed fanat baddies etc i would be just a little more cautious, but alas.

Yes. It is really that good. Do not doubt the science of my build and my leet ass d2 skills, my brazen child. The last and ONLY softcore character i ever played was the same year d2 was released. I haven’t had a hardcore death since some bnet lag spike deaths and some pvp deaths against whack ass trig users like 5-6 years ago.

I've been doing some testing with ES.
I love this build but there was one glaring issue.

The only time my Health pool was vulnerable, other than super nasty mobs with mana burn,
was in /p8 when Amp'd taking big might/fanat physical hits.
(/p8 Amp Fanat De Seis minions would take about 200-300 life per hit,
and when Amp'd, /p8 diablo could take about the same 200-300 life per physical hit.)
And yet when taking these big amp'd physical hits, my mana didn't really seem to be affected.

I wondered, does Amp for some reason cause physical attacks to bypass ES completely? Can't be.
So i tried an experiment for a few runs.
I maxed energy shield which took it from 72% absorption all the way to 91%
Maxed telekinesis, and maxed warmth, for maximum energy shield efficacy.
I then went base vita and put all points into energy, resulting in about 1300 life and i think 2850 mana or so, dont recall.

And then I went straight to de seis in /players 8, killed most of his minions, and left a couple to experiment with.
I let de seis amp me, and then let his last 2 minions attack me freely.
To my surprise, they were only hitting my life for about 30 per hit.
Mana was taking huge damage, however. around 600 mana per hit.

So that answered my question, but posed a new one. What is the perfect balance now?

I always just assumed 72% ES was the best because thats what I've always heard, so i just stuck with that.

So I did some tinkering and found a pretty nice new balance.
80% ES, Max telekinesis, 5 less points in warmth than before,
1518 life, 2358 mana. and about 300 less blizz damage.
A fair trade off for a more efficient energy shield.

After several runs like this, I can safely say that Amp is no longer as much of an issue,
even though it wasn't that big of an issue to begin with,
as I don't let might/fanat/cursed mobs even hit me very often.

Perfect, I was able to get a screen shot of the exact amount of damage taken from an amp'd /p8 physical diablo hit.

Before, when amp'd, /p8 diablo would hit me for about 250 life per hit and not much mana.

Now, after going max telekinesis and 80% ES in the rebalance, it's about 100 life and 74 mana per hit.

i like it a lot