Sorry I just do not agree with a few things you have said. However that's natural - everyone plays diablo 2 differently. They have different gameplay & character control preferences. Perhaps our preferences are just totally different.
Just my two cents...my sorc was not based on tals at all...
At the end I was just running into 7 player games and clearing monsters for white/socketed items.
So I used:
Upped umed viper
Maras
Eschutas 3/20/20 OR HOTO (for raven/oak sage - safety in pub teleporting)
Sandtreks
Arachnid Mesh
Shako (Shaeled - yes, the best rune for my build was a shael: I tried Ber, Lo, Jah, Perfect ruby...but trust me, having tested them all, I survived best with shael)
Storm socketed with -15% req/15 all res jewel
Wisp Projector: light absorb, PLUS a life spirit - which allows a one hit buffer whilist teleporting in public games. At first I used a bul kathos and an soj...but...to be a little bit safer I kept the wisp on all the time.
Then a bul kathos ring (I sometimes changed this to an soj - I interchanged these rings - depends if you have enough mana or not - both are acceptable).
Magefist (upped of course)
Torch, anni, + fire skillers. Depending on what zone I was mf-ing (for white socketed items), I would switch to a few cold skillers. They have either + 6 to strength or 35 to life.
Merc:
Infinity
Eth Chains of honour (not fort)
Guilliames (wrong spelling?) face - this was for bosses.
Again for the merc...it was not necessarily the most expensive equipment that worked the best. I experimented with Fortitude...but without life leech, I had to use andys face.
Eth COH + Gulls face + Infinity > Fortitude + Andys face + Infinity - anytime. Yes. I really mean it.
And I tried different merc weaps. All of them. Just don't bother with anything else. Infinity is best.
Breakpoints/main stats to consider:
Using my items I had:
110 fcr (30 viper, 20 arachnid, 40 Eschutas, 20 magefists) - 105 fcr is the breakpoint.
45% dr (35 dr storm + 10 dr shako)
45% fhr (20 shakoshael + 20 treks+ 5%fhr/5all res sc) - 42% bp
So for the all skill items (boost bo on cta as well...):
2 Shako
2 Maras
1 Viper
1 Arachnid
1 Anni
Sorc only skill boosters:
3 Eschutas OR HOTO (NOT eth - so you can recharge raven/oak sage-one hit shield for public teleporting!)
3 Torch (Sorc skills only of course)
1 Magefists (1 to fire skills)
+ 7 fire skillers with life (Again you can interchange with cold skillers if you are mfing elsewhere).
This gives:
+ 21 (22 with battle command) to fire skills in total (Your glacial spike stuns and your fireball will kill fast with infinity. This means monster freeze on left click and fireball on right click
+ 7 (8) to bo (level 13/14/15 bo with a + 6 cta and +1 from battle orders + 1 from troll nest splendor)
+ 7 to cold skills (this varies on personal preference depending on cold skillers...)
If you get hit...you recover well (42% fhr/45% dmg red). Yes. The fhr break, really works well. No joke. You'd naturally think a ber'ed shako is better. It is not. I promise you. And by the way, that's if your spell damage has not already murdered the monsters. Also I didn't bother with high block builds...not worth it for me personally, given I can teleport fast (105% fcr break), I can freeze with glacial spike and my merc was strong. Oh yeah...the life spirit from wisp also gave me a one hit shield.
And that. (If you are already rich with items), is how I built my sorc...
Oh and also - yes this is crazy...but I added one skill to thunderstorm (yes a bit noob maybe...but), when public mfing - it "seeks" monsters out for you. I just found it useful, given I had so many + skill items to boost it. Again though.. this is up to you.
Erm...any questions? Recommendations? Constructive criticism is also welcome...