mostly wondering which build is better for leveling.

The traditional fire trap build into lightening respec early NM. or going with a martial arts/bladesin approach? I've done the trap approach quite often, and early ladder so long as you find groups doing content in hell, especially something without lightening you're generally fine. but going solo, things can get pretty dicy by andy. Merc falls over left right and center at that level.

most suggest fire traps into early nm and then lightening. I usually transition to lightening usually around a1 nm (usually 30ish by then), putting points into fireblast usually a little after the 1st synergy is maxed. that said, even with a fireblast as secondary, killing the more annoying light immunes in hell can be quite problematic. especially area's that are full LI's. the damage isn't that high without the base skill being high, and investing into it early cuts ls damage by nearly half, making even non li's die slower. I've done both and usually just ignoring targets afte cloak of shadows/mind blast is generally a lot faster of a play than sitting there slowly lobbing lvl 5-10 fireblasts.

that said, I haven't seen any real playthroughs or guides on MA sin. So i'm not sure how it stacks up comparatively

atm I'm just practiving early ladder really. as I prefer to use sin to farm myself some dkeys instead of focus farming mephisto/andariel with a sorc, and you can do that with dirt cheap gear if you know how to play the runs. . . I'll likely try FoH pld as well, but figuring that out will be for another time.

This post was edited by cyborgtemplar0911 on Jul 16 2022 11:38pm

While leveling, go fire traps until A4 NM.

I've done that. but transitioning to light a little earlier is surprisingly faster. especially now with the stronger synergies. Sure you don't really get fire immunes till a4 nm, but wake of fire damage falls off pretty hard relative to lightening sentry with one near maxed synergy. and it's also far more lenient in area's like act 2, where the lightening beams aren't restricted by the ground in the arcane sanctuary, and lightening is also better for maggot lair. . . plus it lets you farm nm countess dramatically easier for your spirit/insight than fire does. . . . it's only an issue in hell as a single element.

My irritation is less the normal/nm transition on traps and mostly just dealing with hell when I don't have a 2nd elemental person with me.

So i was curious how MA sin does in comparison mostly because of the hell transition. without being in a party

This post was edited by cyborgtemplar0911 on Jul 17 2022 03:18pm

Fire blast and death sentry are your friends. I am killing immunes with that combo+merc. IMO, a trapsin doesn't need any MA skills.There is a PVM hybrid however I played vs ubers and for faster baal kills. You can skill dtalon instead of fireblast with upped gores, stormshield, dracs and a crishing blow weapon (stormlash). This means then no cta and you go melee, fireblast is the more chill solution.

the dmg with fireblast is just reallyr eally low. i'm at like maybe 200ish? sure it can kill things but takes foreverr and by then the merc has died to the elite pack in a2.