D2r: Dual Dream Melee/zeal Sorceress W/ Bow + More - Topic

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Sep 23 2024 09:43pm

Guide to a Dual Dream Melee/Zeal Sorceress including Bow on swap + Bear + Self wielding infinity+ Throw

Introduction:

This guide will showcase an off meta build that was introduced to me back in LOD. I had always took an interest in her high damage zeal attacks and bow on swap. With the new changes in fire mastery being fix on missile attacks , her bow/throw damage is quite sufficient. In addition, holy shock pulse from your dreams will deal double damage in close range. This guide will show different variations that can be used involving around dual dreams and passion runeword/ zeal charges weapons. I will also introduce different variations involving around the bear, self wielding infinity, throw sorc and using normal attacks instead of zeal. I mostly pvp with this build so go accordingly to what fits you in your situation even though most setup I list below can be used for pvm as well.

Note- This guide involves around hitting 95% energy shield, but can do 88% for gm rules setting.

Why energy shield?

- Energy shield acts as a secondary life pool for your sorceress. Great thing about energy shield is that resistance does not matter as much as long as your mana pool is high enough to be dealt another hit. The only exception on this is that poison ignores the mana and drains your life instead so having high poison resistance or poison length reduction is essential in staying alive. Maxing telekinesis is one of the main priority to max out on this build since it’s a bonus synergy to energy shield that lowers the damage being taken to your mana. Overall, having a high mana pool is essential in staying alive. Furthermore, the more mana you have and while having max warmth , the regeneration would be faster. Ideally 3000+ mana is where you want to be so investing more into energy is crucial.

Note- Items with “% Damage taken goes to mana” does not work with energy shield

Why dreams?

-Dreams offer the paladin aura skill holy shock that gets boosted from lightning mastery. With a lvl 30 holy shock you will obtain lightning pulse damage and insane amount of lightning melee damage. Your damage could be as low as 40k+ lightning damage and can push up to 80k+damage with proper gears and pre-buff enchant. Majority of your damage is lightning from dreams and partial fire from enchant and fire mastery making items with deadly strike, mana/life leech and % damage to demons useless since they work only with physical damages.

-Dream helm choices includes anything with low strength requirement such as circlet, tiara, diadem, great helm, crown.

-Dream shield choices includes tower shield, pavise, hyperion for the highest block of 44% on a sorceress although tower shield is recommended for the lower strength requirement.

Note- You may use any dreams in any base, however, I prefer low strength requirements so I am able to add more points into energy. There is no need to invest a heavy amount of strength just to wear your dreams unless you are going for looks or want some more defense. While being a sorceress, gaining that little extra defense from say a bone visage vs a diadem is very minimal. Dream in a kite shield is slightly useful vs casters as being a lighter shield compared to a tower shield you are able to run a little faster. If your build has more than 127str , Hyperion would be a better choice compared to tower shield/pavise due to the additional defense and being a medium shield.

-Light armor/shields = 0% FRW penalty
-Medium armor/shields = -5% FRW penalty
-Heavy armor/shields = -10% FRW penalty

Should I use dragon/hand of justice runewords for holy fire?
-From my experience they do not offer the sheer power like dreams and you would be sacrificing zeal attacks or are required increase attack speed items elsewhere to reach your breakpoints. Remember Lightning mastery greatly boost up your damage compared to fire mastery.

How am I able to obtain the skill zeal?
-Passion runeword grants you the paladin skill zeal. Zeal is a rapid sequences of attacks that adds attack rating to the user while making your attacks interruptible. The up side to this is that your zeal attacks wouldn’t put you into FHR lock while getting hit , however, the down side is that you would be standing still for the remainder of your attacks. Depending on how many + skills you have , you are able to get the maximum amount of 5 zeal attacks (lvl 4 zeal). Passion runeword varies in enhance damage and bonus to attack rating. The bonus to AR is more important then ED as I said before this sorceress does lightning/fire damage not physical.

Note: You may use the skill berserk from the runeword passion for some situations, but it’s not fully recommended since every swing it would drop your defense to 0 and convert your physical damage to magical even though you hardly do any physical damage. It would be best suited to perform normal attacks when you are in an area that has multiple summons or monsters.

In PvP, phase blade with zeal charges and fools mod is a must to be able to reach 10k+ attacking rating. Zeal charges level plays a part in how many zeals is performed. A level 3 charge gives 4 attacks, while a level 4 charge gives 5 attacks. There some benefits in getting 5 hits in some match up, but not needed. For example, against most casters 4 zeal attacks is plenty enough since you do not want to stay in that attack animation for too long resulting in you getting hit. While a level 5 zeal attacks are good vs most melee characters to get the most hits in. Yes repairing charges every match is annoying, but is definitely needed for this build to land any hit vs high defense opponents. There no point in having high damage when you are not able to land a single hit. Furthermore by obtaining a zeal charges weapon with high base ias on it, it opens a whole new world of variations in jewels or armor selections, otherwise use passion.

Note- Passion or zeal charges weapon should only be used in a phase blade granting you less ias needed to reach the max frame of 65% ias. Passions grants the user 25%ias so only 40ias is needed.The following ias charts will be listed later on.

Call to arms:
-Ideally it is recommended to get a staff cta that grants +3 energy shield if you do not wish to prebuff with memory runeword. A added bonus would be to find one that also have chilling/shiver armor to save some skill points

Should I use spirit monarch on swap with a non staff CTA?
- No because you are investing a heavy amount of points in strength just to get +2 more into battle orders when those points can be added to energy instead. If you can’t afford a +3 energy shield cta staff, a regular cta with lidless/Saigon shield / splendor will do just fine.

Damage reduce / Magic damage reduce
- Since this sorceress involves around energy shield, it is beneficial to carry items with these. Depending on how high these reduction are, it can minimize the damage taken to your life since we are a 95% energy shield build.

Are items that have + energy better than + mana?
-No, items that have + mana gives more mana than + energy on items especially for a sorceress.

Low on attacking rating ?
- Angelic ammy and ring can be substitute for more AR if needed. Sander boot or Hsarus belt and boots combo also offer additional AR.

Poison Resistance + Poison Length Reduce
-Very essential to have items with poison resistance as stated before as this is the only resistance that will eat through your life and items with poison length reduced (PLR) to minimize the length of poison is being dealt to your life. Items that has PLR can be found on amulets that has a maximum of 75%plr, snakecord, death’s hand, etc.

Stats placement:
Strength- Enough for gears
Dexterity- Enough for max block (200-300 dex is needed )
Vitality- None
Mana- Rest of your points

Note- For some setups that are later listed below, this sorceress may have more dexterity invested compared to energy. The high amount of Dexterity may seem crazy, but is needed since this is one of the main source other than enchant that you gained attack rating. You may choose to go max block if you choose to wish too, but it is definitely essential to stay alive in pvp/pvm.

Skills placement:
- Without pre buff
20 lightning mastery
20 enchant
20 warmth
20 telekinesis
1 fire mastery
1 blaze
1 thunderstorm (need hard point to activate thunderstorm)
1 shiver/chilling armor ( can be granted through items to save points )
18+ energy shield

Note- These skill placement involves being lvl 99 without the use of pre buffing energy shield. If you would like to pre buff with energy shield items , go accordingly to how many less hard points you will need to put in energy shield to reach 95% es and put into fire mastery/thunderstorm/blaze . By adding a single point into thunderstorm and blaze you will gain the skill thunderstorm that will tickle your enemy hp and blaze grants you additional frw. Adding blaze is essential in my opinion for a zeal sorc due to the lack of frw she has without enigma and running a tower shield (heavy).

-With full pre buff energy shield items
20 lightning mastery
20 enchant
20 warmth
20 telekinesis
5 energy shield (lvl 40 is 95%es)
1 point shiver/chilling armor ( can be granted through items to save points )

Remainder points into the following skills that you choose to invest in:
-Blaze- Additional FRW (can get up to 40+frw) with added fire movement damage
-Fire mastery - More added fire damage
-Chilling/Shiver armor- Adds some defense and cold damage against your opponent. You can add 1 pt into cold mastery if you choose this route.
-Thunderstorm/static-Higher lvl would proc thunderstorm more frequently. The link below shows how frequent TS shoots at what level of thunderstorm you have. On the other hand , putting into static field would increase the damage more than adding more points into thunderstorm.

http://theamazonbasin.com/wiki/index.php/Thunder_Storm

Pre buff gears (optional)

Energy shield:
- +9 energy shield memory runeword
- +3 energy shield ormus
- X2 soj
- Spider
- +3 lightning skill helm + amulet
- Torch & Anni
- Battle command
- X9 lightning grand charms

Note: Only 5 hard points is needed into energy shield with all these items, however , it gets annoying recasting.

Enchant:
- +6 Enchant orb + lidless - fire faceted
- +3 enchant ormus-facet
- X2 sojs
- Spider
- +3 fire skill helm-facet + Amulet
- Torch & Anni
- Battle command
- x9 Fire grand charms
- Magefist

Note: Can get as high as lvl 54 Enchant with the following gears above. You would need to pre buff enchant to get 80+k damage, but again it gets annoying, time consuming and not needed since she does a lot of damage already. The boost in attack rating would greatly increase if choose to do so.

Breakpoints:

Faster Hit Recovery-60 or 86 fhr is recommended
0% 15
5% 14
9% 13
14% 12
20% 11
30% 10
42% 9
60% 8 <—
86% 7 <—
142% 6
280% 5
1480% 4

Note- Your dreams roll 20-30 FHR each so go according to charms or items to achieve these breakpoints.

Faster Cast Rates:-37% fcr is the minimum, but can go a little lower or higher
0% 13
9% 12 <—
20% 11 <—
37% 10 <—
63% 9 <—
105% 8
200% 7

Zeal with phase blade- 65% ias is recommended

IAS FPA
0 8+(10)+15
5 8+(9)+14
15 7+(9)+13
24 7+(8)+13
30 7+(8)+12
54 6+(8)+11
65 6+(7)+11 <—

Note- Remember when you are using Zeal you are stuck in that animation till your are finish with your attacks, so having the max ias frame is crucial in staying alive.

Normal attacks with phase blades- including using stun/concentration charges (explanation later). 48%ias is recommended.

IAS FPA
0 13
10 12
24 11
48 10 <—

Bow/crossbow selection
-Each bow or crossbow will vary in weapon base speed. Bows such as composite/hunter/razor/ blade are recommended for the -10 wsm to reacher a higher ias frame and lower strength requirements. For cross bows such as Cho ku that has -60 wsm only need 8ias to hit the 11 frame. Repeating crossbow with -40 wsm needs 35ias to hit the 11 frame. Bows are able to hit a higher ias frame , but require higher ias compared to crossbows.

Bow with 0 wsm (widowmaker)
-65% ias is recommended but can go lower on certain setups. Widowmaker needs to be socketed with a shael for some setups to reach the 11 frame mark.
IAS FPA
0 16
8 15
16 14
27 13
42 12
65 11 <—
102 10
174 9

Bow with -10 wsm
IAS FPA
0 15
5 14
14 13
26 12
44 11 <—
72 10 <—
125 9

-40 wsm ( Repeating crossbow)
IAS FPA
0 14
4 13
16 12
35 11 <—

-60 wsm (Chu Ko)
IAS FPA
0 12
8 11 <—

Widow maker- Excellent choice of bow to seeks your opponent when you fire them. Great thing about Guided arrow it does not require any attacking rating instead it depends on their block %. There a way you can utilize the projection of guided arrow to go a certain direction.

Explosion arrow- Good option since the explosion itself from explosion arrow are non blockable and gets boosted by fire mastery though it may not be a lot depending on how many points you put into fire mastery. Demon machine, brand runeword or bow with explosion charges are the bows to be use here.

Multiple shot charges- Although your damage is reduced to 3/4th, with a lvl 8 multishot on the bow can grant 9 arrows which may not seem like a lot, but using it vs casters or summons can be quite useful. If you want to go a little crazy, socket them with Um rune to grant you open wounds or Nef rune for knockback. The downside to this is that open wounds/Knockback will only proc in the 2 center arrows. If you place your cursor on your character, the projection of the arrows would scatter out.

If you are unsure of how much ias is needed for a specific bow/ weapons click the following link below

https://warren1001.github.io/IAS_Calculator/

Zeal variations:

Recommended setups:
1. Jewelers Armor (100life/24fhr/75PLR/6MDR/15DR)
Armor: Jewelers armor - x3 15ias/15 all resist + Cham / x3 15ias/100 ar + Cham / x3 15ias/30 to a resistance +Cham
Helm:Dream
Shield:Dream
Weapon: Passion
Glove: Frostburn
Belt: Spider
Boot: Crafted caster boot or tri res boot
Amulet: 2 sorc/17fcr+/mana
Rings: x2 Sojs
Swap: +3 energy shield cta / widowmaker-shael

Note- This is the best setup in maintaining the highest zeal/bow frame bp and big mana pool, but expensive if it does not fit your budget. The resist on jewels does not need to be perfect since you are able to substitute for boots or charms. Some of the following gears setup below would need an additional ias to reach else where to maintain the 65% ias bp on widowmaker if you choose to wish too. If you can afford a jeweler armor in a dusk shroud that would be the best armor to use for the 0% frw penalty, high defense and lower strength requirement armor. Otherwise, these armor can be purchased through a vendor such as gothic plate, full plate mail, ancient armor, etc.

2. Hustle armor/ Treachery
Armor: Hustle/ Treachery (Hustle would need an extra 5%ias somewhere else when switching over to widowmaker to reach the 65% bp)
Helm:Dream
Shield:Dream
Weapon: Passion
Glove: Frostburn
Belt: Spider
Boot: Craft mana/tri resist boots
Rings: Raven frost + Soj
Amulet: 2 sorc/17+fcr/mana
Swap: +3 energy shield cta/widowmaker-shael

Note-Hustle is an excellent budget friendly choice that offers ias,frw, 10dex/res and evade while treachery offers IAS, FHR, fade that will boost your resistance, and 15% Damage reduction

3. Guardian angel
Armor: Guardian angel -15ias/15 all resist
Helm:Dream
Shield:Dream
Weapon:Passion
Glove: Immortal King (25ias with 2 set pieces)
Belt: Spider
Boot: Immortal King
Rings: Ravenfrost + Soj
Amulet: 2 Sorc/17 fcr+ ammy
Swap: 3+ energy shield cta/widowmaker

Note- Great option to reach max block easier and obtain 90+ all resist, but requires high amount of strength to wear these gears. Guardian angel also has faster block rate of 30% that gives your sorceress a
6 frame block (27% faster block rate)

4. Twitchthroe
Armor: Twitchthroe-15ias/15 all resist or 15ias/100 ar
Helm: Dream
Shield: Dream
Weapon: Passion
Glove:Frostburn
Belt: Nosferatu Coil (adds 10% ias)
Boot: Crafted mana boot/ tri resist
Rings: Ravenfrost + Soj
Amulet: 2 Sorc/ 9-20 fcr ammy ( 9 or 20 fcr are the fcr bps)
Swap: +3 energy shield cta/ window maker

Note: Good alternative to achieve max block with lower strength requirement compared to guardian angel. If you are able to obtain a 30 ias + phase blade (socketed with 15ias jewel) with zeal charges then the setup below would be ideal to achieve max zeal ias frame and high mana pool.

Armor: Twitchthroe-Cham
Helm: Dream
Shield: Dream
Weapon: 30+ias phase blade with fools and zeal charges with 15ias/15res or Shael
Glove:Frostburn
Belt: Spider
Boot: Crafted mana boot/ tri resist
Rings: x2 Sojs
Amulet: 2 Sorc/ 17fcr+ ammy to reach 37fcr bp or 2sorc/increase chance to block /dex/str/mana ( can spawn both increase chance to block + fcr)
Swap: +3 energy shield cta/ window maker

Alternative Setups:
1. Enigma/chains of honor
Armor: Enigma/ Coh
Helm: Dream
Shield: Dream
Glove: 20ias/str/dex/mana, immortal king (25ias with 2 set pieces)
Belt: Spider
Boot: Crafted mana boots, tri resist, immortal king
Rings: Ravenfrost +soj
Amulet: Highlord/cat eyes
Swap: 3+ energy shield cta/widowmaker

Note- Majority should have a set of this armor, you may use it if it fits your budget

2. Vipermagi
Armor: Vipermagi -15ias/15 all resist
Helm:Dream
Shield:Dream
Weapon:Passion
Glove: Immortal King (25ias with 2 set pieces)
Belt: Spider
Boot: Immortal King
Rings: Ravenfrost + Soj
Amulet: 2 Sorc/13 fcr+ ammy (to reach 63fcr bp) or Mara
Swap: 3+ energy shield cta/widowmaker

Note- Decent option to hit the 63fcr BP if you need to tele around faster

3. Tyrael might
Armor: Tyrael might -15ias/15 all resist
Helm:Dream
Shield:Dream
Weapon: Passion
Glove:Immortal King (25ias with 2 set pieces)
Belt: Spider
Boot:Immortal king
Rings: x2 Sojs
Amulet: 2 Sorc/17fcr+ ammy
Swap: 3+ energy shield cta/ window maker

Note: Uncommon armor, but a good option since Tyrael’s might offers cannot be frozen, resistance + 20frw

4. Crow caw
Armor: Crow caw-Cham
Helm: Dream
Shield: Dream
Weapon: Passion
Glove: Immortal king (25ias with 2 set pieces)
Belt: Spider
Boot: Immortal king
Rings: Sojs
Amulet: 2 Sorc/ 17fcr+ ammy/mana
Swap: +3 energy shield cta/ window maker

Note: Unique armor selection that gives 35% chance for open wounds, 15ias/15dex/15fhr

5. Gladiator’s Bane
Armor: Gladiator’s Bane-15ias/15res
Helm: Dream
Shield: Dream
Weapon: Passion
Glove: Immortal king (25ias with 2 set pieces)
Belt: Spider
Boot: Immortal king
Rings: Sojs
Amulet: 2 Sorc/ 17fcr+ ammy/mana
Swap: +3 energy shield cta/ window maker

Note- Commonly known armor used on an immortal sorceress that offers MDR and DR, CBF and FHR.

Normal attacks variations:
1. Open wounds
Armor: Vipermagi- Cham
Helm: Dream
Shield: Dream
Weapon: 6 socket phase blade - Shael + x2 15ias/15res + 3 UM (75% open wounds )
Glove:Frostburn
Belt: Spider
Boot: Crafted mana boot/ tri resist
Rings: x2 soj
Amulet: 2 sorc/ 13+fcr/mana amulet
Swap: +3 energy shield cta/ window maker -shael

Note- Good vs low def/block casters to proc opens wounds to your opponent to drain their life and achieve 63fcr while still maintaining max ias frame of 48ias with normal attacks

2. - Lightning resist
Armor: Jeweler armor - x3 15ias/15res+ Cham, hustle , treachery
Helm: Dream
Shield: Dream
Weapon: Crescent moon or 6 socket phase blade Shael or 15ias/15res + x5 5/5 light facet
Glove:Frostburn
Belt: Spider
Boot: Crafted mana boot/ tri resist
Rings: x2 soj or soj + raven frost
Amulet: 2 sorc/ 17+fcr/mana amulet
Swap: +3 energy shield cta/ window maker -shael

Note: Good alternative using normal attacks but dishing out additional damage from the facets and -lightning resist

3. Eth (-25% defense )
Armor: Jeweler armor - x3 15ias/15res+ Cham, hustle , treachery
Helm: Dream
Shield: Dream
Weapon: 6 socket phase blade Shael or 15ias/15res + x5 eth rune (-125% defense)
Glove:Frostburn
Belt: Spider
Boot: Crafted mana boot/ tri resist
Rings: x2 soj or soj + raven frost
Amulet: 2 sorc/ 17+fcr/mana amulet
Swap: +3 energy shield cta/ window maker -shael

Note- May be an odd looking weapon, but eth rune offers -25% defense to enemies. In PVP, there is a penalty of 1/2 when using this. So with a -125% defense eth weapon, you are able to reduce your opponent defense down to 62.5%.

4. Wizardspike (Faster cast rate) vs caster
Armor: Jeweler armor - x3 15ias/15res or 20mana + Cham, hustle/treachery
Helm: Dream
Shield: Dream
Weapon: Wizardspike-15ias/15res or 20mana or Shael
Glove:Frostburn
Belt: String of ears (15mdr)or spider
Boot: Crafted mana boot/ tri resist
Rings: x2 soj or Soj+raven frost
Amulet: 2sorc, 13+fcr ammy/mana
Swap: +3 energy shield cta/ window maker -shael

Note- Good vs casters with non max block or low defense characters. With this setup you are able to get a massive boost in mana, stack resistance and reach 63% fcr. You are able to substitute some of the jewelries for angelic set to reach more AR just make sure you reach 63%fcr if you choose to wish too. This setup reaches the 10 frame (50ias) normal attack same as a phaseblade. The IAS frame for daggers are listed below

VTs

Member

Posts: 1,457

Joined: Aug 4 2012

Gold: 133.00

Sep 23 2024 09:44pm

Dagger melee Sorceress

Dagger weapons are able to reach a higher frame than phase blades that allows you to swing faster

Note: Daggers or knifes are able to spawn poison daggers/stun/concentrate charges that will boost your attack rating even more

Daggers with -20 wsm (dagger, kris, bone, fanged knife,etc)
IAS FPA
0 14
3 13
13 12
27 11
50 10 <—
89 9 <—

1. 89ias + 37fcr setup
Armor: Jeweler armor - x3 15ias/15 res + Cham/ hustle / treachery
Helm: Dream
Shield: Dream
Weapon: 30-40ias Fools dagger (socket to reach 45-50ias to reach 9 frame (89 ias)
Glove:Frostburn
Belt: Spider
Boot: Crafted mana boot/ tri resist
Rings: x2 Sojs or Soj + raven frost
Amulet: 2 Sorc/ 17+fcr/ mana
Swap: +3 energy shield cta/ window maker-Shael

2. 50ias +63fcr setup:
Armor: Vipermagi -Cham
Helm: Dream
Shield: Dream
Weapon: 30+ias Fools dagger (socket to reach 50+ias to reach 10 frame (50 ias)
Glove:Frostburn
Belt: Spider
Boot: Crafted mana boot/ tri resist
Rings: x2 Sojs
Amulet: 2 Sorc/ 13+fcr/ mana
Swap: +3 energy shield cta/ window maker-Shael

Throw Sorceress:
Though the idea of throwing projectile knives at your opponent may seems kind of clunky, the changes of missile attacks does efficient amount of damages especially wearing dual dreams. If they are in close range, you may melee them but need an additional ias to reach 9 frame of 89% ias or stick with 10 frame of 50%ias

Throw IAS chart with -20 wsm throwing knives (winged knife, balanced knife, war dart)

IAS FPA
0 16
6 15
16 14
29 13
48 12
78 11 <—

1. Throw
Armor: Jeweler armor- x3 15ias/15res+ Cham / hustle/ treachery or Jeweler armor x4 15ias/15res if you want to melee + throw
Helm:Dream
Shield:Dream
Weapon: eth 40ias/ fools/ erep throwing knife
Glove:Frostburn
Belt: Spider
Boot:Crafted mana boot/ tri resist boot
Rings: Soj + Ravenfrost or Soj + Soj
Amulet: 2 Sorc/17fcr+ ammy /mana
Swap: +3 energy shield cta/ window maker-Shael

Note- The weapon doesn’t need to be ethereal since you hardly do any physical or have replenishing mod on them since you are able to replenish quantities with a throwing barbarian.

Bear Sorceress:

With the new wolf/bear ias changes, the former rapid fast attack speed that we all known and loved are non existence . To even get a decent ias frame, you are required to prebuff with mark of the bear from the runeword metamorphosis to make it viable because without the mark, your attacks is relatively slow. Listed below are the ias breakpoints for wielding a phase blade. 99 ias frame is my recommendation to maintain a decent attack speed. Mark of the bear from metamorphosis that last for 180 seconds offer +25% attack speed (not to be mistaken for +25%ias ) and 20% damage reduction. Below are the ias charts with and without the mark while wielding a phase blade. It displays a drastic difference in ias frame with the mark.

Note- Both phase blade and daggers with -20 wsm have very similar ias charts, but they both have a 7 frame of 99 ias that is recommended to use.

Without Mark of the bear:
IAS FPA
0 12
11 11
27 10
54 9
105 8
232 7

With Mark of the bear:
IAS FPA
0 10
14 9
42 8
99 7 <—
280 6

1. Non max block
Armor: Hustle/ Treachery / Jeweler of the whale -45ias/45res + Cham
Helm:Dream
Shield:Dream
Weapon: 6 socket phaseblade - x3 shael + x3 light facet or x4 15ias/res jewels + x2 facet or 40% ias fools fanged knife/phase blade (needs to be socketed to reach 60+ias)
Glove:Frostburn
Belt: Spider/ Mavina set belt/ string of ears
Boot:Crafted mana boot/ tri resist boot
Rings: Soj + Ravenfrost
Amulet: 2 Sorc/17fcr+ ammy /Cat eyes
Swap: Beast/CTA/Metamorphosis

Note- Some fcr is recommended if you want to tele around faster (PVM) otherwise use items with frw (PVP)

2. Max block
Armor: Twitchthroe-Cham
Helm:Dream
Shield:Dream
Weapon: 40ias fools fanged knife/phase blade (needs to be socketed to reach 80+ias)
Glove:Frostburn
Belt: Spider/ Mavina set belt/ string of ears
Boot:Crafted mana boot/ tri resist boot
Rings: x2 sojs
Amulet: Cat eyes/ 2sorc, increased chance to block amulet
Swap: Beast/CTA/Metamorphosis

Self wielding Infinity

The idea of having ability to wield a scythe and doing massive damage?! Why not..The conviction aura would lower their -light resist and defense and on top of that there the -55LR on the weapon itself that would decimate your opponent. Infinity should be made in war scythe for the added weapon range of 4 compared to a scythe that has the weapon range of 1-2 and is the better base for a lower weapon speed base for a sorceress compared brandistock. The following chart below are the ias bp that are needed. I recommend hitting 52 or 89 ias

IAS FPA
0 14
6 13
16 12
30 11
52 10 <—
89 9 <—

1. Infinity
Armor: Jewelers armor - x4 15ias/15 all resist/ x4 15ias/100ar
Helm:Dream
Weapon: Infinity
Glove: Frostburn / Death hand (2 pieces=30ias)
Belt: Spider / Death guard ( 2 pieces=30ias)
Boot: Crafted caster boot or tri res boot
Amulet: 2 sorc/17+ or 20fcr ammy
Rings: Ravenfrost + soj / x2sojs
Swap: +3 energy shield cta / widowmaker-shael

Inventory
X8 45life Lightning skillers gcs
X9 20life/17mana scs , 20life/5 res, 36ar/20 life
20/20 Torch
20/20/x Anni
Cube with bow/cta/mara

Note: Since this sorceress does insane amount of lightning damage, you are able to substitute some light grand charms for some AR/life, fire gcs , Life/mana if you choose to wish too, however, just make sure to still obtain 95% es. Small charms can vary on your match up, but 20life/17mana will be your main setup.

Grand charms:
-Lightning grand charms offers about 2k lightning damage per grand charms
-Fire grand charms offers fire damage and more attack rating
-Life/mana grand charms offers higher mana pool for survivability but less damage
-Attack rating grand charms offer more attacking than fire grand charms, but less fire damage

Small charms:
-20life/17 mana: Offer mana for survivability
-20life-1-71 lightning damage / 2-99 lightning damage: The Lightning damage will get boosted from your Lightning mastery, but these are expensive and hard to come by. In my opinion, having more mana outweighs damage.
-36 attacking rating /20 life: Incase you need more attack rating for certain matchups
-20life/5 all resist: Common charm to max your resistance
-20life/ 11 poison resist: Useful to stack your poison resist vs poison dealing characters such as poison necromancer, rabies Druid, plague javazon, etc
-451 pdsc or 20 life/ 175 pdsc: Prevent some life replenishment on your opponent or drains their health especially on other energy shield sorceress.

Mercenary
Act 2 Holy freeze for crowd control/ Blessed aim for more attack rating
Helm: Andariel -15ias/30 fire resist / Delirium runeword for crowd control/ Cure
Armor: Fortitude
Weapon:Infinity

Player vs Player

This build will NOT beat all classes. This particular build is just for those who would like dueling with something different compared to your typical cookie cutter builds. She possess a lot of elemental damage that would definitely catch your opponent off guard with your attacks. Telekinesis skill is useful to namelock your opponent if you choose to use it, while blaze offer 20+more frw to run a little faster. A tactic to use with blaze is to create a small circle of fire to lure them inside if they require to be close to you to deal burning damage. Depending on how high of a level of blaze is, creating that small circle will burn your opponent life quickly.

There no particular strategy in PvP other than waiting for an opportunity to melee your opponents and using your bow to keep a safe distance while offering devastating damage to them with the new changes. You may be over defensive with the bow, but I personally like being up close and personal for majority of the time. The bow swap will cause chip damage and the ability to regenerate your mana pool while keeping a safe distance.

When facing an opponent with summons (druid and necromancer) using normal attacks or even concentrate charges weapons if you are to get one makes your attacks interruptible like zeal. Even using a stun charges weapon will stun your opponent for less than 2 seconds bringing them to FHR lock once your thunderstorm hits them. The idea around using normal attacks versus druids or necro with summons is to up shift attack while your cursor is on your character when they teleport on you, since zeal would be attacking mostly their minions. A tactic I use with zeal is that I would run shift zeal if I notice my opponent name locking me constantly. In addition, using holy shock from dreams is great to killing most summons. If there a Druid with full wolves summon, teleport around till their summons vanish then go for the kill.

This sorceress does surprisingly well vs most casters out there, however, not so much vs other melee characters (bvc) because of their open wounds/poison damage. To be able to maximum your potential vs casters , it may be better suited to slap on some ravenfrost or other dex items to be able to gain maxblock easier so you are able to invest more points into energy if you wish to choose this route. A potential option to use would be to slap on a whitstan set shield to gain high amount of faster block rate and Increase chance to block, but lose half of your damage.

Learning how to namelock properly is crucial for this build to be able to catch most casters out there. Having zeal on your left click and while holding their name down + running towards them you are able to name lock and follow up with more locks.

Against whirlwind or blade fury assassin it’s very important to have maxblock and high poison resistance to somewhat counter their venom. Their venom will eat through your life rapidly instead of your mana. Majority of assassin would have the skill weapon block. The penalty when having this skill would be when she walks/run their block drops to 0% and the full block % would only apply when she staying absolutely still. By knowing this, you are able to lure her and strike. Her shadow master displays a problem too since she has these abilities also, so when the shadow is not near her master, tele on the master and attack.

Paladins would be one of your hard match up since their holy shield grants them essential amount of defense and block%. High amount of attack rating would be needed for this case, however, if you notice them running after you , run away and shift zeal to deliever a blow when their defense drops to 0 having 1/3 of their block%. Against hammerdins , try to tele behind their blind spot when they are casting their hammers in one spot. When paladin uses charge, their block becomes 1/3 so take advantage of this and tele on them (not directly in front of them) when they charge away to hit them.

Against barbarian, max block is a must in staying alive due to their high damage and have sufficient high attack rating due to their high defense. Playing defensively with a bow is an option, but knowing when to swap back to your shield is something you will need to time correctly. This sorceress is not suited to stand still and take that much damage so timing when to teleport on them when their whirlwind is about end is a must.

Sorceress with max block is a problem since you do not want to be stuck in that zeal animation for too long getting hit. I tactic I use is teleporting behind them since they are directly casting their spells in certain direction, I would deliver my attacks and teleport away when I feel like my sorceress is taking too much damage or feel like I would lose the match by being overconfident.

Amazon particularly bowa zons would have low resistance. Lucky your holy shock pulse and thunderstorm would do sufficient amount of lightning damage to them depending on how well geared they are. The advantage that our sorceress have is that having max block and chilling armor are going to be nightmare for them vs our build. With their slow fcr frame, we are able to name lock them pretty easy. It is highly recommended to have high poison resist since majority of them carry poisons charms. If they swap over to their javelins and throw fury, teleport away and try to tele stomp on them on their bow side.

Poison damages charms may be used to substitute some of your charms, but keep in mind most dueling league restrict no more than x1 451 scs. Furthermore, in the some dueling league 88% energy shield is maximum you can have without the ability to have no more than 75% to a resistance ( stacking resist is okay). I mostly duel in public so these restriction doesn’t apply to myself, however, I have the ability to switch over to 88% es when needed to be.

Chilling armor would be your main defensive skill against most casters , while shiver armor would be use versus melee characters that causes some cold damage. Chilling armor would deflect most ranged attacks with a ice bolt to the attacker. These armor skills is very useful in PvP since it does causes cold damages to the attacker, if they do not have cannot be frozen items , they would be frozen for a short amount of time given you an opportunity to swing your weapon while they are slowed.

When fighting a melee opponent set your sorc into walk mode to get 75% block and while vs a caster set into run mode for the obvious reasons.

Most matchup are going to be difficult since sorceress aren’t meant to be close quarter combat, but this is why 95% energy shield is essential to this build. Even with almost perfect gears on my sorceress I still struggle with most match up, but that’s the beauty of this build it’s unique and fun.

This sorceress requires good gears to even keep up with most people, so do not expect to go out on the battlefield to beat everyone. Just the thought of using a melee attack with a sorceress would make your opponent laugh, until they get 1-4 shot from her.

PvP videos: https://www.youtube.com/@smiterd2r575/videos

Conclusion

I have gone through many test and variations that I believe to be best suited for this mysterious build. I know this guide might be overwhelming, but I wanted to share different variations that I have been testing in PvP. This off meta sorceress and items below that I have possess since D2R launch have been a journey and will get slightly better when I think of new ideas to improve on her. My sorceress involves sacrificing damage for more mana for survivability, but still have the ability to swap back to a pure damage setup. My gears and jewels option are going to be slightly different listed above because I am able to reach ias frame easier with my rare 40ias/fools/ zeal charges phase blades while still maintaining sufficient amount of attack rating compared to a passion. As like an immortal sorceress I carry items with MDR and DR on some of my setups to negate the damages taken while substituting light gcs for life/mana to obtain 5000+ mana. I hope this guide share some light of this rare build since most of the guides I read are outdated from LOD days . With upcoming changes (hopefully) will make this build stronger and viable so potentially you the reader will be interested in making one yourself.

If you any questions about this build, shoot me a message or have any feedback on my first guide write them down below.

This post was edited by VTs on Sep 23 2024 09:46pm

VTs

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Sep 23 2024 09:44pm

MultipleUser1

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Sep 23 2024 11:13pm

1st !

Sam43

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Oct 1 2024 09:18am

Great guide from the top D2R Zeal/bowa sorc on D2R :thumbsup:

Your gear makes me jealous af

Have you ever considered a Spirit Phaseblade for the vs bone necro matchup instead of say Wizzy?

You'd lose 5 AS compared to your 15 ias jewel wizzy and quite a bit of mana and fcr, but you get a bit of magic sorb as well as 2 @skills for fire/light mastery. Might not be worth doing but would at least be pretty cheap to test out. Though it is already hard enough to catch necros in a zeal so, might not be worth

VTs

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Oct 10 2024 02:57pm

Quote (Sam43 @ Oct 1 2024 08:18am)

Great guide from the top D2R Zeal/bowa sorc on D2R :thumbsup:

Your gear makes me jealous af

Have you ever considered a Spirit Phaseblade for the vs bone necro matchup instead of say Wizzy?

You'd lose 5 AS compared to your 15 ias jewel wizzy and quite a bit of mana and fcr, but you get a bit of magic sorb as well as 2 @skills for fire/light mastery. Might not be worth doing but would at least be pretty cheap to test out. Though it is already hard enough to catch necros in a zeal so, might not be worth

Honestly I never thought about using spirit, but don’t think 8 magic absorb would do much compared to MDR items vs necros. This is something I would have to test. Like you mention about ias, spirit sword doesn’t have any ias, so you would need to make up the difference of 48ias somewhere to hit the desired bp for normal attacks

flamingjavelin2

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Oct 14 2024 02:05am

gg best build

eCheque

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