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This guide is a catch all for Light Sorc's @ 49. You will find the specifics for the ESLight Build and Vita Light Build here.
(note: Nova is not a viable PvP build @ 49)
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Light sorc's @ 49 come in 2 forms: ESLight, relying on energy shield while dealing damage, and VitaLight, with higher damage at the expense of tankability. Neither build has been very common over the years, compared to an ESFB that is a perfect all round killing machine, or ESBLizz that is ideally suited to Team V Team matchups. However Light sorc's have both their uses, and Champions. Unlike most Sorc's, A Light Sorc needs 117FCR to reach its max breakpoint, which hinders the use of spirit sword in both builds. Instead, Suicide Branch for ESBuilds and a Rare Orb for Vita Builds is the way to go.

Benefits of Light Sorcs - Few items @ MLD that grant + Max Light Resistance and/or + Light Abosrb, only 1 anticlass - Assassins.
Attributes of ES Light build: Decent Damage, Good Range, Decent tanking power vs a host of builds, but weak vs builds utilising the Item Thundergods Vigor (+Max Resistances and + Light Absorb)
Attributes of Vita Light build: Amazing Damage(even vs Thundergods Vigor), Good Range, Ideal for Sorc V Sorc but needs good resistances and fragile vs certain builds
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Break Points:

FCR: Always have 117 FCR

ES Light attains 117 FCR in the following manner: Suicide Branch (50fcr), Viper (30fcr), Craft Belt (7fcr), Circ (20fcr), Amulet (10fcr) = 117 FCR
Vita Light attains 117 FCR in the following manner: Orb (20fcr), TO Gloves (or magefists) (20fcr), Belt (10fcr), Viper (30fcr), circ (20fcr), Amulet (17fcr)

FHR: Without spirit, I usually aim for the breakpoint below 86FHR, which is 60FHR
Both Light Sorc Builds attain 60FHR in the same manner: Belt (24FHR), x2 Charms 1Light 12 FHR (24FHR), x1 jewel in gear with 7FHR and x1 5FHR small charm = 60 FHR

A note on FHR: As MLD duels are extremely fast compared to LLD or HLD, due to damage to life ratio, having alot of FHR is not a must. In duels were you will be often hit, it pays to have enough FHR. In duels were you die in 2-3 hits, its not needed as much
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Stat Placement:

ES light
Str for gear (60 for frostburn build, 53 for eth frost + whitstans build)
Dex for max block (100 I believe with whitstans)
Energy: All remaining points here. Energy Shield is your life after all
Vita: Nothing!

Vita Light
Str for gear (60 for frostburn build, 53 for eth frost + whitstans build)
Dex for max block
Energy: Nothing!
Vita: All remaining points here
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Gear:

When it comes to gear you really dont have to switch too many items. Whitstans for maxblock (vs Melee), Lidless vs elemental. ES Builds dont NEED a cold res setup, but benefit from one, whereas Vita Light Sorc's NEED a cold res setup. A typical Cold Res Setup would be a Kite Shield of the Tiger, 3 sox 30life base, with x3 20 life 30 cold res jewels in it. = 90 life, 90 cold res. Alternatively or in addition, a 3light, 20 fcr and x2 jewels with str + dex + 30 cold res. Its possible to attain a Thundergods Setup (vs Trappers) but its not for beginners and very item dependant. Better to try to snipe him, get your ally to kill him, or jump him when he's away from his traps.

The only real areas of variance are: Belt, Amulet and Orb. All other items are standard.

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Weapon(s):

ES Light: Suicide Branch socketed with a stat jewel
Vita Light:Rare/Magic as close to : 3 Light, 3 Light Mastery, 3 Lightning, 3 Thunderstorm, socketed with a stat jewel



Switch

ES Light: Memory 9ES + 3CA+3Ench(for allies). You use the memory to cast Energy Shield, thereby saving points as you dont have to put any hard points into it. In short, your build is based on this item
Vita Light:Insight. Your not mana based, but in longer duels you will need to replenish mana since your pool is pretty low

Armor

1. Vipermagi. Can be socketed with a Pskull, a PSaphire or a stat jewel. There is no better armor

Boots

Both Builds:
1. Waterwalks. 15dex, 65life, 5max fire res. all in all some very good mods here. Unbeatable in my opinion.
2. Craft 40mana 10fhr 5max mana 10regen + adds. (30 cold res is nice)

All in all I find that WWs are simply unbeatable for either Light build. I feel Crafted Boots are best on a Blizz sorc that needs the additional mana. Rare boots don't offer any benefits to my mind.

Gloves

ES Light: Frostburns. We are ES build, we want as much + % mana as we can get
Vita Light: ThrangOul Gloves. 20FCR and 30 Cold Res. If you have room in your stash, put magefists there
Note: I personally find that its too hard to get cold stack elsewhere to not use TO as main gloves on Vita Light

Amulet

A note on Amulets. As far as I am aware, there are no old amazing pre-patch amulets on europe for any MLD class build. That means that its still possible for the best Amulet to drop, and thus there is a relative level playing field in terms of quality. In terms of ES Builds, a rare to my mind appears to be the best choice, whereas a craft one with 17 FCR appears to be the best choice for a Vita Build

ES Light: 1. 2Light 10fcr + 7x + mana + adds. the more good adds, the better, adds can be str/dex/life/res etc. you generally wont be swopping your amulet
Vita Light: 1. 2 Light 20fcr + adds. Its possible to use just a 10fcr Amulet, but it will mean that you will need to incorperate a FCR ring in your build, which will weaken your character



Armageddon Fletch in the picture above is specific to East Non-Ladder. There is nothing similar to it on Europe. 2 Sorc, 20 FCR, 18 Str, 55Life, 59Mana, All Res 23. Yes, Amazing.

Rings

1. Both builds: x2 SOJ's. Unbeatable in terms of Mana and Damage

Optional: A Raven on Vita build vs Cold Sorc's

Shield

1. Whitstans "Shael" or 9 dex/15 all res jewel (or a rare/craft)
2. x3 Lidless. 1 with Cold Res, 1 with Light Res and 1 with Fire Res
3. 3 sox Kite of the Tiger with x3 Cold Res Jewels

Circlet

1. 3 Light 20fcr 2 sox. With the right jewels this magic Circlet is to my mind unbeatable compared to a rare. A Light sorc needs as much damage as possible and cannot afford to lose any damage from any part of its gear (items & charms)

Optional: 3 Light 100 life 2 sox in stash for when you don't need maxblock and can use lidless instead

Belt

Both Builds: As close to: 24fhr 10fcr 60 life 20 mana 30 cold res as you can find



This post was edited by ferdia on Feb 8 2015 06:09pm

Invent:

Both Builds:

x8 1 Light 30 life skillers.
x2 1 Light 12 FHR Charms.
x9 20/17's (19/17's are good too!)
x1 5fhr 17 mana

The key here is damage and mana. You cannot afford to use less then 10 Skillers or not use pure mana on your charms, for either build. Fire and Cold are different. Light needs 10 skillers though.
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Skills:
1 Point warmth
1 Point Thunderstorm (on the Vita Light build try to get Thunderstorm from Orb)
1 Point Teleport
Max Charged Bolt
Max Lightning
Important: All remaining points should be distributed evenly between Chain Lightning and Lightning Mastery sothat they are the same level of skill. Doing otherwise equals less damage.

A ES Light should be doing close to 13K with Lidless
A Vita Light should be doing close to 19K with Lidless
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Your ES Light Sorc should now look similar to this:

MAXBLOCK:



LIDLESS SETUP with 3/100 AMULET:



This post was edited by ferdia on Feb 8 2015 06:09pm

Your Vita Light Sorc should look similar to this:

MAXBLOCK:


note that I need more Dex as i'm not using whitstans and my Str + switch gear allows me to wear thundergods on Vita Setup

LIDLESS SETUP with 3/100 AMULET:



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Congratulations! You have made your Light Sorc. Before going into detail for each class matchup please note: When in doubt, take your time vs your opponent, Your build has strengths and weaknesses that you will need to learn. All builds can be difficult to beat when used by an experienced player.
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Bowazon:

There are various schools of thought for this matchup, but as a Bowa player I find that a Light Sorc player that continually telestomps is on the right track. Always use 75% block when vs a Bowa.

The alternative (and also viable) strategy is to aim from mid range (you will need to learn your range) while avoiding GA. Warning: This needs a lot of practice!

PlagueZons, Java's:

Avoid getting poisoned/Fury'd and the match should be straightforward. Attack from middle distance. Take your time.

Note: Versus (manual) FC'ers, know your lightning range, stay out of their screen, and aim. Alternatively, teleport in, fire and then quickly teleport 2 screens away

Barbs & Shape Druids:

The ability for both of these classes to have mass life AND use Thundergods Vigor means that this duel is going to be long, especially if you are ESBuild. I would recommend an ES Light player to put on additional FCR at the expense of mana in order to wear an Orb in order to increase your damage output to break the effects of Thundergods Vigor.

Sorceress

A general rule of thumb: If your the better player, Telestomp them. If they are better, North shoot. If your vs Blizz, try to always stomp. If your ES and he's Vita, be careful when Telestomping. If your Vita and he's ES, don't be careful, just kill him xD

Assassin

Note: When dueling all types of Assassin, the last thing you want them to do, is cast a trap and then Dragon Flight you. Avoid this at all costs.

Assassins are in general, your worst matchup. Keep your distance at all times and try to prevent them Dragon Flighting you.

Necromancer

I feel that this is one of your easiest matchups. Necro's benefit from Fire Golum and easy to attain +Max Fire Resistance vs Fire whereas they are in deep shit vs Namelock Blizz and the damage output from Light Sorc's

Paladin

Libby

Never telestomp. Learn his play style and try to get ahead of him. Thunderstorm will sometimes help you by breaking his ability to turn invisible. Yes, Paladins can turn invisible, we call them dissappearadongs xD

Charger/ Smiter / Zealer / VT

Chargers have to get right on top of you to hurt you. Treat them like a Barb, but faster. Usually the Charger will Namelock charge you – this is a prime opportunity to teleport once and namelock light, teleport back and repeat before teleporting away. Good Chargers pack a huge punch, so be careful.

Smiters don't have to namelock you, and smite with Open Wounds does serious damage. Keep your distance.

V/T's are a breed apart. You need to be close enough to hit them but far enough away not to get smited. Unlike every other type of Paladin you face they have an auto-targeting attack in FOH. Try to telestomp them when they are FoH'ing and keep your distance when they are charge/smiting.

This post was edited by ferdia on Feb 8 2015 06:11pm

Finally a note on Circlets:

While the below Circlet looks amazing, its not. a 3Light 20FCR is simply better on the basis that with jewels its matched evenly vs this rare and in terms of Lightning sorc's, +1 Light is simply better. You cannot afford to do less damage with a rare circlet. There would be an argument for using a similar Fire or Cold Circlet for their respective builds, but not for a Light Sorc. Light needs ALL the damage it can get and a 3/20 2sox is almost unbeatable anyway (for all types of sorc). Weighing the actual cost into the equation I would only consider a similar Circ for Fire or Cold if IN ADDITION to the below combined stats it also had 30 FRW. The Circlet below in fire or cold would be considered a trophy. For the record, This is the only light circlet I have seen in a decade that is on a par with a 3 / 20 / 2 sox. Good RARE circlets for MLD are very hard to find as they will always need to beat a 3/20/ 2 sox, and thats harder then it looks.



In the event that this picture one day expires, the stats are: 2 Light, 20 fcr, 7fhr, 23ed, 24str, 6dex, 24 life, 88 mana.
A 3 20 2 sox Circ, with jewels equates to: 2Light, 20fcr,7fhr,17str,17dex,30life,8 energy,66mana,all res 9

In terms of Level 30 Dueling, Light Sorc's are not nearly as strong as Cold or Fire Sorc's, which makes them extremely rare at that level.

I purposely left out mentioning Maxed Thunderstorm builds. Maxing Thunderstorm will make you completely overpowered vs certain classes, but weak against others. Invariably though it will create a a big dislike of your character from your opponents who invariably will either put on Thundergods Vigor, or get their assassin to kill you. 1 Point Max in Thunderstorm please!

Energy Shield Explained : http://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=3448795

HLD Guides:
http://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=3498104
http://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=5407374
http://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=7750987
http://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=7668864
http://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=7591366
http://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=20439691

This post was edited by ferdia on Feb 8 2015 06:27pm

Beautiful guide Ferdia Why doesn't nova work at 49 well? I had thought about a nova sorc as my first char

damage too low, too close to certain builds, their damage too high.

Great guide yet again

Feel free to add anything to it lee, same goes for you Kenni, when you read this xD
Joolt

In terms of gear I cant add anything. As you have listed everything and gone through it with a fine tooth comb. However, might be worth mentioning tele stomp with cb vs sorcs and bowies is very affective sometimes when they dont predict it. I wouldnt do this everytime though as it will become to predictable.

Hi broy