The 17 cold mastery myth comes from the fact that res can't go below -100 and so for monsters with 0 cold res more than 17 cold mastery is useless. However many monsters have more than 0 cold resist including all act bosses so you should max cold mastery. If you are using firewall and have a decent mana pool (2 sojs) you could try maxing warmth instead of tele as it is a synergy for firewall. It isn't as effective at conserving mana but can work. I sometimes rush on my chant/orb sorc and she never needs more than a belt full of mana potions per difficulty. Just an example, I don't think chant/orb is ideal for rushing lol.