Hey guys!
Doing some theorycrafting and Looking for some sorc expert's here

After grinding on her for the whole season I got a bit bored by my nova sorc ,so I thought about playing lightning instead , going from es nova to class cannon lightning. I never played a non nova light sorc.

Seeing most lightning setups with hoto or crescent moon. But shouldn‘t an infinity still be king for dmg , even as a non nova sorc ?
Let’s compare infinity to the other setups!

Let’s take a look at my current sorc. had a Great season start and now I have a pretty gg es nova setup:

Weapon: -55 infinity scythe
Switch: cta in 3es war staff
Helm: -25/+16 Griffon
Armor: Viper 35 with 5/5 facette
Amulet: +2 sorc 10fcr 20@
Gloves: Magefist
Belt: arach
Rings: 2x Soj
Boots: 100+ trires boots light fire psn

Inventory:
torch
Ani
70 light sunder
5x fhr light skiller
2x light lifer (or 1+Gheeds)
Mix of 7mf/11 light res and 7mf/5all charms

Merc:
Insight , forti , Andy

This gives me following stats:
5k Nova (without Gheeds)
-85 Enemy Light res from gear (max possible when keeping fcr bp)
105fcr
Capped resist except cold (still at 40, not bad)
60fhr breakpoint

The lightning setup I had in mind (with a twist on the merc ) looks like this:

https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner/7x0206za

Change amulet from 10fcr to 12fcr +
Change 1x Soj for 1x 10fcr ring
Rest stays the same.

Then I would loose +1 skills from Soj get some more defensive stats and/or mf from ring and keep the stats I mentioned above with the 117 fcr lightning breakpoint instead of the 105 nova breakpoint.

The thing I never saw mentioned is the merc with this setup:

Since you use infinity on your Self and don’t run es (Insight not needed) , merc is free to try something new:

Act 5 merc
2x plague for lower res proc
Coh + vamp gaze for survival

Then you would have -85 enemy Light res from gear plus conviction from infinity PLUS lower resist procs from your barb merc. I realy think that can not be topped when it comes to dmg.

With crescent moon spirit I loose -20 enemy res
And need to use infinity on merc .with hoto I loose even more dmg.

With a spirit setup it is way easier to get the 117 fcr breakpoint , stacking more mf , res fhr etc. It’s the smoother setup all around for sure.

But when you have huge budget and an very expensive inventory, you can cap resists, get a nice fhr breakpoint and still lots of mf (good luck with gg mf amu and mf trires boots but it is doable!) while maintaining the 117 fcr breakpoint with infinity in hand.

Soooo I think a crescent moon or Hoto spirit light sorc is much much easier to build

But with super high budget (Sick boots amulet inventory etc) you can get rid of the cons of an infi sorc and deal insane dmg , especially with max - enemy res, conviction AND lower res procs from your merc.

All things considered there shouldn‘t be any light build that can shred P8 faster.
Or am I missing something ?

Whats your thoughts on it guys ? Why is infinity self wield only considered for nova sorc?
It’s much more expensive for sure , but when you are rich enough it looks like the best P8 setup for me

Lmk your thoughts !

This post was edited by Junglist69 on Dec 15 2022 05:16am

it's not awful but a common cmoon build is more effective on a vita light sorc for a number of reasons. having insight merc on an es sorc is mostly a survivability thing, you don't need that as vita light

standard build:
cmoon
spirit
griffon
viper/eni
arach
mages/trangs/chances
sojs
maras/17 fcr amu

overcapped fcr with viper, allows you to use chances if you want. or swap out viper and mara so you can use a 17 fcr amu + eni and hit 117.

thanks for your response!

Added a Char builder link.

https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner/7x0206za

That’s how I would build it. 60fhr, all res capped, maxed -85 enemy res, 125fcr (can get rid of some amulet fcr), no str points needed at all with decent torch/ani. Infi on yourself + no need for insight makes room for an A5 plague merc for lower res procs while keeping conv aura from yourself.

You for sure can add more mf with chancies, war travelers and such and also get the fcr cap a lot more easy with the "classic" setups . But with the setup in my link, you still get good MF and def stats (you also dont need any str points basicly when going lidless on cta switch. Saving ~100 str points) and much more dmg I guess.

Without ES you dont need insight merc, got you there. With classic setup your merc uses infi. But when you self equip it and play without ES, you don´t need a2 merc at all. That way you can use an Barb merc with 2x plague, giving you one more big source of - enemy res.
. Have you tried an A5 merc for sorc yet?

Guess on lower player counts you should go with spirit setup and some more MF.

But for pure P8 shredding https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner/7x0206za seems optimal for me, dmg wise. What do you think about an dual Plague ACT5 merc ? Infi is covered, Insight not needed. Lower res should help dmg even more.

This post was edited by Junglist69 on Dec 15 2022 05:28am

Dual plague Merc looks like a meme.

Lightning sorcs go fast and don't get hit, who has time to wait around hoping for a proc?

Plus you are losing +4 skills for no reason (enigma, spirit, soj) so your base dmg is lower and you miss out on good QoL stats from enigma like life, life per kill, mf, frw.

I would do the build that has worked for decades.