wait i thought the whole point of self infy sorc was the flat -55 res which isn't mitigated by sunders and doesn't work on merc? is this wrong? conviction only adds -17 right? edit: realised this is only in the case for immunes
to answer opp i think the reason guides suggest hoto + spirit is because lightning has many more synergies to spend on, which means you can't fully max es/tk that abuses the mechanic of not needing res. Since you need res the hoto/spirit combo is hard to beat. These guides are outdated, as stated above cmoon is for sure a better option than hoto
Also i bet you should be able to self wield infy: you need to use a 2/15 amu (ideally with 20res) and one fcr ring instead of soj (ideally with 11res and 41lr) and complete the build with res charms instead of mana charms in inventory.
The question is does the -20 lres of infy over cmoon beat +4sk (spirit + soj + 3/10) ? hard to say without crunching numbers but looks pretty close, although much more expensive. You also get the qol of cure merc
Yeah the main point of self-wield is the flat -res ofc.
But also, nova is more a tanky telestomp build due to ES and how nova is a shorter range circular effect that benefits more if you position in the middle of everything.
Lightning build, without es, is way less tanky and will normally be played more from a distance. At least if merc has infinity he’s running straight at enemies right after tele so the conviction aura is still a bit closer than if you were self-wield.
But yeah, on lightning build the -res is still primordial.
Cmoon > hoto
And without es/insight merc you need some res and defensive stats and mana. Spirit helps with all that. Also helps reaching the 117fcr bp.
Using self-wield infinity would require dropping the 2 sojs to reach that bp.