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EnergyShield FireBall sorc's (or ESFB's), kill just about every other 30 Build. They are easy to make, easy to equip, easy to play and do massive damage. They have no real weaknesses and with practice you can become unstoppable! The Build outlined below has won the most tournaments @ EU LLD from 2009-2021.
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Break Points:

Faster Cast Rate (FCR): always have 105% FCR.
Faster Hit Recovery (FHR): always have 86% FHR.

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Stat Placement:

Strength: 50 (Eth Frostburns should be your highest strength requirement Item)
Dex for max block: 90 (with Visceratuant Shield) On Euro we only allow up to 65% Block (80 Dex) as ESFB is considered super strong.
Vita: None, you are ES build
Energy: Everything else.

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Gear:

Unlike some classes, Sorc's don't need much stash gear. This allows you to join and duel vs everything. I personally try to have a Cold & Light Circ + Amulet and tokens to freely switch between builds on the day I want to duel. I also have various boot types in stash, and thats about it.

A Note on Replenish Life – On Europe we Cap Replenish life @ 10 for Sorc's on the basis that you are the aggressor. It is recommended that you always have some replenish life as, especially vs Trappers, it is quite useful. In the absense of Replenish Life from an Item, it is advisable to Pskull either your Circlet Or Viper (or both).

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A quick word on Circlet and Amulet – ESFB's are typically rated on how good their Circlet / Amulet is, noting most of the other gear is quite standard/easy to get.

Circlet:

Starter: 2 Fire 20 FCR
Intermediate: Aim for one with Mana, Like: 2 Fire 20 FCR 80 Mana
End Goal: 2 Fire 20 FCR 30 FRW 60 Life 90 Mana + Adds (2 Sox / Repl / Str / Dex / All Res)

Amulet:

Starter: 2 Fire 10 FCR 70 + Mana
Intermediate: 2 Fire 10 FCR Str/Dex/Repl 70 + Mana
End Goal: 2 Fire 10 FCR 60 Life 10 Replenish Life 90 Mana + Adds

Weapon:

Spirit. The standard Weapon is a Spirit Crystal, Long Sword or BroadSword. Eth for Style. Perfect Spirit is 35 FCR 112 Mana and 8 Absorb (cheaper to make one yourself then to buy a perfect one).

You dont want or need an Orb weapon. They are overrated. [ example: 2 Fire 20FCR 3 FB 3 Mastery] You lose critical FHR and FCR by using sucha weapon. (Vita Sorc's may consider Orbs).

Shield:

Visceratuant (Visc) – You dont need to socket the one on switch but the one on the Spirit side would ideally have the following jewel: 6 str 9 dex 15 mana + Damage to Mana (DTM) or Life. Other Jewels would be: 9 Dex 20 mana or 9 Dex 15 All Res or 9 dex 30 Cold Res.

Alternative Shield : Whitstans.

Switch

Starter: any Orb with +3 Energy Shield + Visc
End Goal: Orb 2 Light 3 Energy Shield and + X Cold/Shiver Armor + Visc

Armor:

ViperMagi - Can be socketed with a Pskull if you dont have any replenish quantity from your gear otherwise a 6 str 9 dex 15 mana + Life/Res/DTM Jewel.

No Other Armor Options.

Gloves:

Frostburns. Getting an Eth pair of Frostburns means you save 10 stat points. We are ES build, we want as much + % mana as we can get.

No other Glove Options.

Belt:

The only viable belts for our build are Crafted Caster Boots noting we want 86 FHR and 105% FCR and that Crafted Belts at Level 30 can grant up to 24 FHR and 10 FCR. These belts are made with the Horadric Cube Recipe : Magic Light Belt + Ith Rune + Perfect Amethyst + Any Jewel.

Kuk's all things crafting: https://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=37146632&f=143
Belarathon's fine tuning: https://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=83872358&f=143

The Basic Requirement is 24 FHR and 10 FCR

End Goal :

24 FHR 10 FCR 40 Mana 10 Regen Mana
24 FHR 10 FCR 20 Life 20 Mana 10 Regen Mana
24 FHR 10 FCR 20 Life 5 Replenish Life 10 Regen Mana

Replenish Life is the highest desired mod once you have 24 FHR and 10 FCR. This allows you to ditch using Pskulls (optional) and replace with a juicy 6str 9 dex 15 mana + add Jewel.

Rings:

x2 Stones of Jordan - We are ES build, we want as much + % mana as we can get.

No other Ring Options.

Boots:

There are actually quite a few boot options, and depending on playstyle / realm, a sorc can really have a wide variety of boots.

Cow King Boots/Sanders Boots
Rare (30FRW/10FHR/Dex/Mana/Res)
Mana Craft Boots
Blood Craft (Replenish Life) Boots

Cow Kings don't grant FHR thus you need to replace x2 Small Charms 15/12 with 5 FHR / 12 Mana if you want to maintain the 86 FHR Breakpoint.
Rare Boots can give you (stacked) resistances if you cant get it elsewhere, and similar to Cow Kings they also grant up to 30 FRW (craft boots cant grant that at 30).
In terms of Rare Boots - With Anya and Viper you already have 65 All Resistance, so its really the FRW that makes these attractive (more so on East where almost every class teleports).

Back to Cow Kings - You lose 30 Life and 19 Mana but gain 30 frw with Cow Kings vs Basic Basic Mana Craft Boots (10 FHR 20 Mana 5% Increased Mana). Note that Mana Craft Boots can also spawn with additional mods (including FRW, Res and PLR) which should be considered when determining what boots to use.

All Sorc's should have a source of Replenish Life. Most will start with a Pskull in Viper/Circlet (or both) until such time as they acquire it in Circlet/Amulet/Belt or Boots. In this regard you can craft Blood Craft Boots similar to Basic Mana Boots, i.e. 10 FHR 20 life 10 Replenish Life which would free up a socket for a nice jewel (such as 6 Str 9 Dex 15 Mana 30 Cold Res).

In Summary, If you dont have FRW from your circlet, or if you like 60/70 FRW, Cow Kings or Sanders Boots are a very strong choice for boots.

With Res not really being an issue, and the cap on Replenish Life on EU, and with really only sorc's teleporting around, my sorc's typically use Max Mana Boots.

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Invent:

x40 15 Life 12 Mana small charms.

You need 86 FHR at all times, so if you are missing FHR from Boots or Belt, get FHR there. If you have lovely boots missing FHR, use 2 charms 5 FHR 12 Mana. If you are missing a bit Res, get a Jewel with res, try to maintain x40 15/12's.

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Skills:

1 Point Teleport
1 Point Warmth
1 Point Fire Mastery
Max FireBall
All remaining points into Fire Bolt

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After all this you should be aiming to perfect your gear (this may take a long time) to get to 800+ Life, 2300+ Mana, 5+ Replenish Life, 86 FHR and 105% Faster Cast.
Congratulations! You have made a cookie cutter ESFB. You have built a monster, therefore go forth and crush your opponents!

Your Character should look something like this:

My Non Ladder ESFB:

My Ladder ESFB:

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East vs Euro

East allows higher levels of Replenish Life, FRW limits and the use of tele-staff on everything. Therefore there will be differences in builds / gearing and dueling strategies. There is no right or wrong here, its just different. This guide is based on Euro LLD but can also apply on other realms.

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Dueling Strategies:

I will be quite brief here. Broadly, Learn to namelock if you have not already, Practice makes perfect. try not to be predictable, unless predictable = you winning. There are alot of ways to play ESFB (Stomp, full Aggro, Mid Range, Long range. Each strategy is sound so if your ever in a spot, just mix it up. Move away from using left click for anything, as soon as possible.

Bowa

Namelock or simply Tele on Top (Stomp) FB and away. Repeat until one of you is dead. The 65% Block rule on Europe makes this duel a bit trickier then with 75% block (where you can repeatedly stomp until the amazon is dead).

PlagueZons

Attack from Middle Distance (in screen if you are good enough), dodging the plague's thrown at you. You can try Stomping after a Plague has been thrown as there is a cast delay

A word on Sorc v Sorc Duels

Learn to Namelock. Also a typical rule of thump – if your opponent is better then you, Northshoot. Northshoot is where you fire up in the knowledge that you are about to be telestomped. ES Cold and ES Light are both inferior in this matchup ( I would typically play Blizz or Light as Vita vs Fire ) in that in a straight up shootout FB wins. Cold and Light therefore will try to avoid a straight up fight unless they are miles ahead (and therefore its a chasing game vs them).

Blizzard Sorc's

This is a chasing matchup. Be sure you have Stacked Resistances (but you can win without, Energy Shield and high warmth is your friend here). Try to catch them with a namelock else learn to aim well. Cold Sorc's suffer from really slow mana regen so its quite easy to mana burn them. Be mindful of the tricky ones that cast Blizzards in the locations you teleport to while chasing.

Light Sorc's

This is also a chasing match noting you should be able to out-damage them. Try to catch them with a namelock. Light Sorc's are regarded as the weakest of the 3 Elements in pure Sorc v Sorc.

ESFB (Mirror)

Use everything you have learned. The better player (not the better equipped) usually wins these.

Assassin – Trapper

This can be considered one of the more tricky match-ups noting traps are auto targetting and eat up your mana pool. Try to tele arround, find an opening to jump on them and be patient at all times.

Necro

Attacking middle distance, stomp when you see them move, teleport away when they stop to spam spirits on you. Its similar to dueling vs a Bowa (except your shield does not block his spirits and his spirits are not as fast as guided arrow).

Tele Druid

These can be quite tricky, chase when you kill the zoo, snipe when you know the the direction they are coming from and stomp when the chance comes along.

Barbarian

Regarded as the worst Match Up. On EU the Barbs dont use teleport (telestaff) so instead they run around with Str Bug to mask their true location. Try to be ahead of them and firing into them (works for me).

Libby

This one requires patiance, you can utilise running as opposed to teleporting, i have had mixed results. Try not to stomp them unless you are feeling really strong.

Vs everything else, namelock attack and away works fine.
Finally, telekinesis can be quite handy at times, so try to include it in your repertoire in both 1v1 and Team matches.

Latest LLD Tournament with a history of previous tournaments and dueling results (to support that ESFB is STRONG): https://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=84744775&f=143

Special thanks to Chum with some fine tuning and Belarathon for the crafting topic and the discussion on Boot options.

This post was edited by ferdia on Apr 18 2021 10:35am

Good guide. I wonder what thinks of trappers?

Note that this is one of several guides that I will write this side of D2r with the view that it will be easier to lift and shift same over to D2r once we understand what works/no longer works in the new version of the game. The sooner LLD is up and running, the better the community will be, and having a comprehensive Guide section is just one part of that process.

use teleport
shoot fireball

don't die

pretty much that all right.

Keep in mind that I'm a shitty sorc player, but I've found that even with 600 ping, I can ear people on an esfb. Just keep moving and mid to long range spamming.

Zons that wsg to move are very rough for me to duel though. Again, im not a sorc player. I cant chainlock them because I have 10x their ping.

This post was edited by lld_mayhem on Apr 18 2021 10:34am

Nice guide man, sick fcr belt lol I know you have a baker's dozen of them though haha.

Solid guide. Good work

more examples of end game content (mostly expired, only demon horn is mine).



This post was edited by ferdia on Apr 18 2021 11:35am

For later in the year, incorperate (if/where applicable) that the character is Normal to Hell Rushed to avail of the + Skills/Stats/Res available from Normal, Nightmare and Hell.