Pvm Mf Blizz Sorc - Topic

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Dec 11 2012 08:10pm

0.0IN: Introduction
Since I have been getting a million pms recently, I am writing a LADDER blizz sorc guide. Please note that guides like this are only ever a guideline; your individual play style and competence have a huge bearing on the effects of your stat / gear choices. As an example; there is no point using a switch weapon for reasons apart from prebuff unless you are comfortable with quickly switching.

Acronyms used:

MF: Magic find
forb: Frozen Orb
blizz: Blizzard (duh)
GS: Glacial spike
ES: Energy Shield
TK: Tekekinesis
NM: Nightmare (difficulty)
FCR: Faster cast rate
FBR: Faster block rate
FHR: Faster hit recovery
alvl: Area level
PvM: Plaver vs Monster
PvP: Player vs Player
CV: Colossus volgue

So you want to make a blizz sorc?

There are two main reasons to use a blizz sorc:
MFing and
Duelling

0.1FO: A note on Frozen Orb
For both of these, a forber will work just as well. The lessened number of stats points that are required for maxxed forb allow for heavy secondary skilling (typically meteor or the such). I'm not going to go into the damage calculations here, but a 100% perfect forb player who can get every forb to land in the sweet spot will out damage a blizz sorc. For those who do not know, the forb sweet spot is the location at the end of its range where the orb terminates. If this location is inside a monster, all the emitted shards will hit that mob for massive damage. However, landing those consistently is HARD and your damage output is severely lowered if you ever need to reposition / teleport to safety or get knock backed. For that reason, I avoid forb.

0.2BZ: Why A Blizz sorc?
I have mentioned why blizz is my preference over forb. But, why use either? There are a few reasons:
Cold sorcs have a huge boon in that the Cold Mastery skill pierces enemy cold resistances.
Kitting a MF blizz sorc for NM farming is incredibly cheap.
There is no single item that makes or breaks a blizz sorc (as compared to infinity / girffons eye for a light sorc). A fairly constant strength gradient results; As you upgrade each item in a blizz sorcs kit, you get proportionally stronger; No need to wait until a magic level or item is obtained.
Cold damage slows and/or freezes(Yes, this is obvious). This means that any fast little bastards (knockback vipers, fetishes, exploding fetishes etc) who are renown for murdering sorcs by framelocking (explained later) them stop being fast and can't get to you. Useful.
Damage is constant. Lighting damage hits absurdly high values, but is more or less a (1 -> Lots) damage spread. Get unlucky and you do very little damage.
Damage is instant. Stuff like meteor and fireball do huge amounts of damage but need to get there first: teleporting mobs or merely fast ones will move away from meteors and fireballs. The slow from cold spells and the fact that blizz damages a target area more or less instantly avoid this issue.

Use the following search codes to quickly find whatever you are looking for (jsp has fairly poor layout options).

0.1CO: Contents of this guide
Intro (0.0IN)
A note on forb (0.1FO)
Why Blizz (0.2BZ)
Contents (0.1CO)
MF blizz sorc (1.0MF)
Important break points (1.1BP)
Magic find notes (1.2MN)
Places to MF (1.3PM)
Playstyle notes (1.4PS)
Items to use (1.5IT)
Stats and skills (1.6SS)
PvP blizz sorc: I am not the best person to write a pvp blizz guide. Look elsewhere
Important things to know about (mostly for noobs)(3.0IP)
Framelocking (3.1FM)
What is a breakpoint? (3.2BP)
Immunities and breaking/piercing them (3.3IM)

1.0MF: MF Blizz sorc
1.1BP: Important break points
See (3.2BP) if you are not sure on what a breakpoint is or why they are important.
For casting cold spells:
Frames: 013|012|011|010|009|008|007
....FCR: 000|009|020|037|063|105|200
Note that the time between blizzard casts is a "casting delay" and cannot be reduced by anything.
FCR is important as it gives us glacial spike / ice bolt casts faster.
For block speed:
Frames: 009|008|007|006|005|004|003|002
....FBR: 000|007|015|027|048|086|200|4680
Not superbly important for a pvm sorceress.
If you decide to build a blocking sorc, relevant.
As a general rule, it blocking takes less frames than getting hit.
For hit recovery:
Frames: 015|014|013|012|011|010|009|008|007|005|004|003
....FHR: 000|005|009|014|020|030|042|060|086|142|280|1480
Super important, especially in high enemy density areas.

1.2MN: Magic find notes
To understand how magic find works, a quick note on how item drops are determined is required. When a mob dies, it rolls on its treasure class tables to see what type of item will be dropped for each of its possible drop chances (most items a mob can drop is 6, but mobs can roll more than six times) - (junk, equipment, good (runes etc), nothing, etc). Once these are determined your MF comes into play by amplifying the probabilities of each item quality (white < magic < rare < unique).
MF has drastically lowering returns for unique/rare drops as your MF increases:
..............MF: 000|100|200|300|400|500|1000
...MF for rares: 000|100|183|250|300|340|460
MF for uniques: 000|100|171|211|236|253|295

But the numbers always go up, so more MF is always good right? NO. High MF gear is not high damage gear. Thus, the more MF you build, the slower you kills things. What we want is the specific "sweet spot" for your playstyle that compromises killing speed and MF for optimal returns.

As a side note, if you want whites / socketeds then you want 0 MF. This is actually worthwhile in some cases: a 4os monarch is worth considerably more than 99.99% of all magical monarchs.

1.3PM: Places to MF.
When working out where to MF, try each of the locations I have listed. Try them 20 times. If you have to go to town, chicken or almost die more than twice in those 20 runes, the area is too hard for your skill / your gear / your level. A 10% failed run rate is the maximum I allow in a MFer that has the absolute worst gear I can find. On better geared runners, I have lower tolerances (My MF blizz sorc doing Andy / Duriel / Meph / Ancient tunnels on hell fails around 1 per 1000 games.)

Why Ancient tunnels (Trap door in lost city, act2), you ask? Because it is alvl85, the highest in the game. This level is shared by:

Act 1 The Pit
Act 1 Mausoleum
Act 2 Maggot Lair Level 3
Act 2 Ancient Tunnels
Act 3 Sewers Level 2
Act 3 Forgotten Temple (In Upper Kurast)
Act 3 Ruined Fane (In Kurast Causeway)
Act 3 Disused Reliquary (In Kurast Causeway)
Act 4 River of Flame
Act 4 Chaos Sanctuary
Act 5 The Worldstone Keep
Act 5 Throne of Destruction
Act 5 The Worldstone Chamber

However, all of these areas barring Ancient Tunnels can spawn cold immune mobs. I will repeat this; Ancient Tunnels cannot spawn mobs with cold immunity, and thus you can kill everything (champion packs still can though). If you have a particularly strong merc or are very well kitted, the other areas are worth attempting as well.

Barring these areas, "named" mobs like Diablo, Baal all have their own drop tables that are much better than the surrounding areas (of course). Mephisto especially has an excellent drop table for equipment; with a 54/80 chance for each of his 7 item drops rolls to roll a piece of equipment. Andariel has excellent ring / amulet drop rates.

As a general rule, if you are not farming areas, farm "named" mobs with good item drop tables: Andariel, Mephisto, Pindleskin are good examples of these.

If you cannot MF on Hell, never fear. MFing on NM is still an excellent way to get items and running Andariel / Meph / Diablo / Baal is trivial even for a poorly equipped sorc at ~lvl60-70.

1.4PS: Playstyle notes
Now into the actual meat of a sorceress guide. Different people have different play styles and thus should build and equip differently. There is no single build that is best for all play styles and skill levels.
If you are not comfortable with hotswapping weapons or use a prebuff on switch instead, do not follow my advice on weapon switches for during runs.
If you have high latency or bad reactions, a dex/block build will not help you so do not bother with it.
If you are bad at noticing blood mana getting cast on you, do not bother with full energy ES builds.
And so on and so forth. Basically common sense: choose what suits your playstyle.

If you are not prebuffing (The act of switching weapons and casting buffs before a run), use your switch weapon and shield for extra MF: Use your main weapon/Shield for damage output and just before a boss or champ dies, switch to a MF set and kill it. This way, you get high MF kills at the kill speed of a high damage build.

How to play Blizz sorc: Left click is glacial spike, right click is blizzard. Spam both as fast as you can at clumped targets. If they're immune, spam static field and make your merc work.

1.5IT: The gear!
Here, I will list possible items for different playstyles and different budgets - (I live in a cardboard box, I'm on a budget, I am middle class, My toilet is made of gold).
Head:
Shako (+50%MF)or Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest | Ist'd Shako | Ist'd Nightwings Veil | 5/5die Cold facet'd perf Nightwings Veil
Thats right, ignore those sexy 2skills/20fcr/etc diadems and coronets, cause they ain't worth it here. Your damage output is limited by the fact that blizz has a static casting delay, so making it do extra damage with Nightwings is more important. Ist'd Shako gives 75%MF and that is sexy.
Amulet:
+3 cold skills amulet | Tal Rasha's Abjudication | Mara's | Perf Mara's
If you couldn't afford lunch today, get a magic amulet with +cold skills and cry yourself to sleep. Tal Rasha's is decent if you go for the set, and mara's as always trumps.
Weapon:
Occulus | Tal Rasha's Swirling Crystal or a low Hoto| Any deaths fathom | 5/5die Cold facet'd perf Deaths Fathom
The Occulus is cheap and gives nice stats. The random teleporting is horrible though, so only use this if you have no choice. Tal Rasha's is only decent if you are going for the sent bonus, otherwise use a low Hoto (Heart of the Oka runeword). Some people swear by Doom (the runeword) but it is fairly bad for PvM and MFing.
Shield:
Sigons | Lidless wall | Any spirit in any shield | perf Spirit in Monarch
Sigons and lidless give +1 to all skills. Decent in a pinch (typically meaning you just started a new ladder). Spirit is the way to go though.
Switch weapon:
This is where playstyle matters a lot.
Use a call to arms runeword for prebuffing.
Or, use a 2xIst'd (+60%MF)blade of ali baba | 6xIst (+150%MF)1 handed weapon for extra MF (switch to this for final hit on boss mobs for the MF boost without sacrificing damage output)
Switch Shield:
Use any +2 skills shield for prebuffing (typically a poorly rolled spirit).
Or, use a Rhyme runeword (+25%MF)| Splendour runeword (+25%MF)| 4xIst Shield (+100%MF) for MF switch.
Body Armour:
Perfect topaz'd Skullders (+147%MF at lvl 99) Ire or Tal Rasha's Guardianship | Ist'd Etheral Skullders ire (+148%MF at lvl 99)| Ist'd Ormus robes with +blizz and high +cold damage | Chains of Honour in an Archon Plate
Everyone and their mother can get a skullder's ire. With an Ist in it, it provieds the highest MF of any armour in the game, for very little cost. However, its defences are low and Ormus' and CoH give far more damage.
Belt:
Snowclash | Tal Rasha's fine spun cloth | Arachnid mesh | perf Arachnid mesh
Fairly obvious. Snowclash is cheap, arachnid mesh slightly less so.
Gloves:
Magefist or Frostburn
Both of these are cheap as hell, the fcr on magefist isn't needed but the +1 to fire skills improves your warmth which is nice.
On the other hand (ha!) frostburn give a 40% bonus to mana, which is huge, especially if you build ES.
Boots:
Anything | Anything with faster run / walk or FHR | War Travelers (+40-50%MF)| perf War Travelers (+50%MF)
Rings:
Anything with +mana and/or +MF | 2x Nagelring | Stone of Jordan + perf Nagelring | 2x Stone of Jordan
Charms:
Cold skiller GCs, Cheeds, anni, sorc torch, 7%mf small charms. The normal lot.

If you are taking any of Tal Rasha's set, take three pieces. That will give you +65%MF. Otherwise, the set pieces are not worth it.
For any unique or set item, socketing it with an Ist will add +25%MF.

Now, for your merc:
Helm:
Anything | Vampiric Gaze | low Andariels Visage | perf etheral Andariels Visage
Weapon:
Insight in anything | 15+med aura insight in anything | 15+med aura insight in Elite/exceptional polearm | 17med aura in eth Colossus Volgue
Not much choice here. The mana regen aura is too good.
Armour:
Skullders ire (because if the merc gets a kill, his mf is added to yours) | Shatfstop | Stone runeword | Ethereal Fortitude runeword
Your merc needs defences. Get the most defence you can (note: afford it AND equip it. Too many times I have seen people roll nice insights in a CV then to realise they cant have it equipped because their merc has 30str too little) and you can't go wrong.

1.6SS: Skills and Stats
So, you have had a look through the items and worked out a build that you can afford.
Tack on all the charms you can and tally the +str from all your items.
Subtract (12+this) from the str required for your highest requirement item. This is how many points you put into strength.

Now, take a good hard look at the numbers in your life globes and mana globes. If you want these to be large, ignore dex. IF AND ONLY IF you are comfortable with low health amounts and low mana amounts should you touch dex, and in that case pump it until you reach 75% block rate. Some people like max block builds, others don't. Entirely up to you. If you are not sure about whether this is the right thing to do, then it is not the right thing for you to do.

There are two schools to Sorceress survivability. The first is a large health pool. The second is a large mana pool and using energy shield to take damage to mana instead of health. I don't care which you use; it is entirely personal preference (If you are forgetful enough that you don't recast ES when it runs out and you went for the mana build, uninstall the game). Choose whichever you want (vit or energy) and pump it with every single point you have remaining.

And now for skills. This is fairly easy.
1 into prerequisites as is needed.
1 into Static Field.
If you chose to max energy / mana instead of vit, put 20 points into Telekenesis (TK). This is because each point in TK reduces the damage taken by mana : damage avoided from health ratio. Bonus points in TK have no effect, only the 20 "hard" skill points.
1 point into Teleport
1 point into ES
1 point into Warmth
20 into Cold Mastery
20 into Blizzard
20 into Glacial spike
1 into each of the three cold shields (they synergise for duration and effect)
Any remaining points, split across ice blast and ice bolt.

Now, you may be fretting about having damage of only the Cold type. Won't cold immunes be an issue?
Nope. Spam static field and let your merc kill them if your massive cold resist pierce doesn't break the immunity.

3.0IP: Important things to know about
3.1FM: Framelocking
If something hits you, your character goes into a response animation. This animation is either a "hit" or "block" animation depending on whether your shield blocks it or not. You can’t cast spells or move whilst this animation occurs. If something else hits you during this animation, you begin a new response animation. If this repeats, you get framelocks and cannot cast spells or move (other people use different names for this, but I like framelocking). If this happens, sorceresses typically die as our defences aren't super high in comparison to barbs / paladins and if we can't cast teleport to get away, we get mown down. Fetish packs are the prime cause of this.

3.2BP: What is a breakpoint?
Diablo 2 doesn't use set amounts of time for animations or spell casts to occur. Instead, a number of frames are used for the animation: less frames = faster animation. Breakpoints are the amount of FCR / FHR / etc that are required to reach the next lowest frame amount. This means that for FHR (as an example) both 20%FHR and 25%FHR will take 11 frames but 30% will take 10, and thus the extra 5% FHR to get from 20% to 25% is worthless, but the 5% to get from 25% to 30% is not.

So, when building a character, aim for equipment that just meets the breakpoint you wanty, and do not waste items on providing past the breakpoint.

3.3IM: Immunities and breaking/piercing them
Everything (players included) in Diablo 2 has a resistance to each of the 4 elements (as well as physical, but let’s ignore that here). 0 resistances = Takes the damage stated on the skill. 100% resist = Immune and takes no damage. -100% resist = takes double damage.
For any resistance below 100%, a conviction aura, lower resist wand, infinity aura or COLD MASTERY will do exactly the amount of resist piercing it says, and will remove that amount of resists, to a limit of -100%.
For any resistance above 100% (immune) they will work at 1/5th effectiveness. So a 102% resist monster when confronted with -100% resist from cold mastery will lose 20% resist and go down to 82%. Now, they can be damaged with cold.
Most cold immune monsters sadly have ~150% resistances and thus require a whopping 250% pierce. Which is absurdly high.

Feel free to let me know if I missed anything.