Lightning sorceress

[Thedutchjelle]

So I made a sorceress, she is lvl 29 now already.
I am specializing in the lightning skills, i will max chain lightning (my main spell) and lightning, but then?

Should i also max charged bolt? Or lightning mastery? I have one point in Thunderstorm.. but it's somewhat.. lacking?
I put a 2-3 points in warmth btw.. i found that i always had no mana :\

--This is what Azn posted in the "I've rerolled" topic..
In my opinion, Lightning Sorceress is the strongest Sorceress’s out there. There primary spell, Lightning, can easily be accessed at level 12 (earlier then the other Elemental spells) and receives the second most synergy bonuses. There secondary attack, Chain Lightning, can easily waste a group of enemies before they even touch you. Unfortunately, if you want to build a Lightning Sorceress, it will have to be pure light if you want to obtain the most damage. This leaves you vulnerable to Lightning immune monsters. The build looks like this:
20 Charged Bolt
20 Nova
20 Lightning
20 Chain Lightning
20 Lightning Mastery
1 Static
1 Telekinesis
1 Teleport
7 Energy Shield

I dunno. It sounds okay, but i'm not sure about energy shield.. won't it suck away my mana at light(ning)speed? I never used it before you see..

Advice plz kthx :)

[PrestonBurke]

So I made a sorceress, she is lvl 29 now already.
I am specializing in the lightning skills, i will max chain lightning (my main spell) and lightning, but then?

Should i also max charged bolt? Or lightning mastery? I have one point in Thunderstorm.. but it's somewhat.. lacking?
I put a 2-3 points in warmth btw.. i found that i always had no mana :\

--This is what Azn posted in the "I've rerolled" topic..


I dunno. It sounds okay, but i'm not sure about energy shield.. won't it suck away my mana at light(ning)speed? I never used it before you see..

Advice plz kthx :)
Well you don't have to max out all the lightning skills if you don't want to, but i like to to get the highest damage possible. You can skip a synergy to improvise for another skill which you think would be better.

Energy shield is a great skill, and i found that it had saved me from many 1 hit deaths. But if you are surrounded by monsters, lets say Hell Bovine, it may be more dangerous to you to have Energy shield on.

It isn't as big of a mana drain as you may think, it just really ends up to the persons playing strategy.

What are you skills currently? If you are thinking about maxing out both Chain Lightning and Lightning here are some notes:
Maxed out Chain Lightning with no synergy will hit 9 times with 427 damage.
Now with lightning synergy it will deal 792 damage.
However Lightning deals 1126 and costs 10.5 mana less than Chain lightning. Thats pretty decent.
Lets add Nova Synergy: (Why Nova? No reason, it provides the same Synergy bonus as Charged bolt which is 8% to Lightning. I just perfer Nova because it seems a bit more useful. Synergy bonus to Chain is reduced to 4%)
Lightning - 1176 Damage
Chain - 1112 Damage

Thats 60 points total to max out three lightning skills. That leaves 50 skill points to do whatever you do. So you don't have to max out the lightning skills, but they will do better damage. Lets see how these 1k damage spells fair up.

So i did a Baal run on nightmare difficulty with the same stats i mentioned. I had no stat altering items, just pure high defense stuff.

The first two waves of Minions were easily dispatched. The Travincal wave was tougher because there leader had a natural lightning resistance, so your lightning damage was reduced. The last two waves were agonizing pain because the the lightning damage was simply not enough, they did damage, but not enough damage.

When fighting Baal, i did 50 casts of Lightning up close, the damage was only a fourth of his health. It would have been easier to use Static first, then Lightning at the end.

Lets say you max out the Charged Bolt synergy:
Lightning Damage:2366 Damage
Chain Lightning Damage: 1433 Damage

As you can see, the Synergy really does improve the damage of the lightning spells. But lets say you don't want to max out the synergy, but instead max out lightning mastery. So lets go back the basics:
Assuming you have 1 point in every lightning spell, and maxed out both Lightning and Chain lightning:
Lightning: 1126
Chain Lightning: 792

Now lets max out the mastery:
Lightning: 2837
Chain Lightning: 1996

Wow, thats a big improvement in damage right there. Thats a lot stronger than maxing out the synergy, and you use only 60 skill points right there. So you don't need to max out every lightning spell to get high rolling damage. With 50 points left, you could invest in a secondary skill to combat immunities. But for fun lets see what damage you can do with Synergy and Mastery:
Lightning: 5963
Chain Lightning: 3611

Whoa! The damage has nearly doubled! From 3k without synergy to 6k with synergy and 2k without synergy to 3.5k with synergy. Add 5 remaining points into energy shield and you get a 45 percent damage reduction, (50 percent if you have 7 total in Shield, just subtract one from Lightning storm).

So yeah, that was fun calculating damage, but might be a bit confusing since i didn't organize it that well.

[Thedutchjelle]

Okay, let's see...

I have level 5 warmth (I found that i ALWAYS ran out of mana so i boosted it),
lvl 6 charged bolt,
lvl 1 telekinese,
lvl 1 teleport,
lvl 6 lightning,
lvl 10 Chainlightning,
lvl 1 nova,
lvl 1 Static,
lvl 1 thunderstorm and i just got one point in lightning mastery.. she's lvl 30 now.
I think i'll stay pure lightning, i have a very decent ice-mercenary that usually deals more damage than me (He has no mana restrictions..).
Using secondary skills seems a bit to much for me :P

And lightning looks so kewl!
Thanks for your help.

[Aqo]

Using only 42 points to max Chain Lightning and Lightning Mastery would result in a chain lightning that deals 4-1147 damage.
There's no point to invest in Lightning if you're going to use Chain Lightning, as Chain Lightning is superior. The mana cost is irrelevant, with only a few points to Warmth and some +mana after each kill items, Chain Lightning will drain your mana at a regular rate. When facing lots of spam-mobs, you'd even be able to make it make your mana go UP.

Take note that the user of Chain-Lightning will probably want to have a staff that gives +3 to chain lightning, and amulets and rings that add up to at least +3 to skills, which would result in a Chain Lightning that gets +6.
With that +6 (and +3 to Lightning Mastery), you get a Chain Lightning that deals 4-1658 damage (again, for only 42 points).
With 12 points into Charged Bolt (which you'll be using in early-normal), and the set of items mentioned, your Chain Lightning will do 6-2334 damage using 52 points. All the rest could go to ?ES, 1Tele, 1SF, and then either fire or frost.

[Neo]

Note It is best to use Energy Shield when one has maxed Telekinesis, this reduces the amount of mana taken from being hit ES active. Slvl 16 TK equals only 1 point taken, as opposed to 2. Slvl 20 makes that .675 taken per hit (I think).

Also note; CL is deceptive, since it hits multiple targets, it may actually do more damage depending.

Personally I would probably move to drop Nova, and max out TK, so my ES would be worth it. On top of this, I would look into getting some good Sorceress items that give +skills (Occulus, etc...) on top of that, if you want to completely decimate and unleash the full power of a Light Sorc, get an Infinity in a low level polearm and equip it yourself. The -% to enemy light resistances works for you, as does the awesome yummy Conviction.

-Neo

[Thedutchjelle]

Note that it is a single player char..

I've just found out about the '/players 8' command. Went from lvl 30 to lvl 40 at lightning speed.

But now im stuck at those goddamned ancients.. the first attempt ALMOST succeeded, i picked them off from a distance while they were gang-banging my mercenary, but then that throwing-axe one (morwlick or something) kept running around and i had no potions. It ended after 15 minutes, when my thunderstorm ALMOST murdered him, but i misclicked and got decapitated by his infinte supply of axes T.T

Next attempt will involve a lot of running and yelling at my computer. Or more potions. :P
---OR i turn the /player 8 off. I just think about that now. XD

[Aqo]

One useful trick is dropping a lot of potions on the ground before the fight if you're having trouble with running out.

[Thedutchjelle]

One useful trick is dropping a lot of potions on the ground before the fight if you're having trouble with running out.

I would never have though of that! Thanks :)

-It wasnt really necesary after all, wth the player 8 turned of, they went down quite fast.

[PrestonBurke]

'/players 8' command.
Afraid i don't know what that command is, Care to explain?

[Dayoh]

Afraid i don't know what that command is, Care to explain?

Its a cheat, it gives all the monsters a x8 muliplyer.

[Neo]

its not a cheat :p

-Neo

[Thedutchjelle]

It simulates a 8 player game while playing single player, making all monster harder to kill, but also makes you gain more experience. It REALLY helps alot, i have nearly no problems with the thougher monsters but the extra exp made me lvl up so fast :)

I wonder though, does it also makes more gems drop at the hellforge quest?

[Aqo]

Gems always drop a lot there.

[Thedutchjelle]

Just killed baal and finished quest 1 act 1 of nightmare..

Baal was a wussy, i static-ed him 5 times and then a barrage of chain lightning murdered him. He dropped some crap loot (a unique sword i already had >_<'), but the plated belt he gave me was nice..

Now i just keep finding stupid paladin set items and uniques, while the sorceress jared stones i find usually suck or are for the wrong skill tree.

Am around lvl 48 now, seeking for a good place to lvl up.

[Aqo]

Am around lvl 48 now, seeking for a good place to lvl up.
Act I: The Cloister.
Act II: That mystical realm.

[Thedutchjelle]

While making my way to the cloister, i also did some of the quests.

I so goddamn hate lightning enchanted stuff. Not only is it near immune for my spells, the infinite charged bolt lvl 9985230 crap they have like kills me instantly, even though my lightning resistance is fine.
I just got killed thrice in a row by some stupid random archer that had cold and lightning enchantments, i lost so much gold for buying new potions and resurrecting my merc that i just got to pissed of and stopped :\

[Neo]

Fire and Cold enchanted monsters also DEAL fire and Cold damage. Which means high elemental damage, plus a chilling effect. Plus archers just seem to kick all kinds of butt.

Most of the time, 75 light resistance can stop the LEs from hurting to bad, but a TGod's can completely negate them. Personally I miss the MSLE monsters...

-Neo

[GenocideAlive]

My fire sorc is now L65. I beat Normal and Nightmare.

However, I have +6 to fire skills in items (giving my fireball ~3000 dmg) and am pretty much ready to quit on Act I Quest I of Hell. All monsters now have an immunity, and thus I am generally wasting my time. Big time. 33% of all of the act's monsters are immune to fire magic. Of course, it's the swarming kind that can be ressurected.

I'm wondering why I didn't spec Cold skills, so that this wouldn't be a problem. I used a merc to finish off fire resistant mobs at the end of Nightmare, but by the time I get to Hell proper they're probably going to have 2-3 resistances a piece. I'm guessing I just need to play with a gayass Pally and uber everything I see. I think I'd rather cut my wrists.

And BTW dutch, you've wasted 4-5 skill points out of your sorc's build already. T_T
Warmth is a skill you put one point into for purposes of its 30% mana at L1. After that, managing your mana with pots and proper point spending should eliminate your mana problems. If it doesn't, you need to stop wasting so much mana on overkills. In nearly any scenario, you're going to need those points for damage.

I got to L40 and had 20 pts fireball, 20 pts firebolt, 1 pt Warmth, 1 pt TK, 1 pt teleport. It's all you need. I'm now L60-something and have 20 ball, 20 bolt, 20 fire mastery, 1 pt tk, 1 pt tele, 1 pt inferno, 1 pt firewall, 1 pt blaze, 1 pt Static, At next level up, I'll put a point in Meteor and it will give me +1000 dmg to my fireball/bolt spells because of synergies and skill boosting items.

[Thedutchjelle]

Overkill? You mean those 300 lvl-23-chain-lightnings on that fallen werent necessary?

Oh well, i can live with 3 skillpoints wasted.. My mana drains just to much, i hate to go back every 5 sec because i depleted my inventory.

I think i will put some more points in static though, it's an awesome spell but with this range i kinda have to hug the monster to hit it.

[Neo]

GA it is still possible for you to get a cold skill -- for instance Frozen Orb. However you would need to go back to doing Nightmare Baal runs (?) or similar to level until level 70-75ish.

Also if you haven't, going back to get any missed skill point quests can help.

-Neo

[PrestonBurke]

Overkill? You mean those 300 lvl-23-chain-lightnings on that fallen werent necessary?

Oh well, i can live with 3 skillpoints wasted.. My mana drains just to much, i hate to go back every 5 sec because i depleted my inventory.

I think i will put some more points in static though, it's an awesome spell but with this range i kinda have to hug the monster to hit it.
Whats your Energy level? I have not heard of having that big of a mana drain on any Sorc character.

[Neo]

Most energy problems can be fixed with either a few sources of "+10 mana after each kill" also, remember that the more mana you have (ie: from frosties, charms, etc...) can also help a lot with mana troubles.

-Neo

[GenocideAlive]

IMO, a lot of your problems revolve around the fact that you're trying to spell crap to death as a Sorc. Honestly, I don't think you should bother with too many spells as a Sorc until L20-25. Weapons and armor function just fine without having to screw up your stats, and it gives you a nice boost to money stores when you can sell a lot of your mana pots. Beginner staves are way overpriced, and they are hella expensive to repair when you whack a monster with them.

Once you get up in levels, the auto-adds to your mana stores from leveling up will mitigate a lot of the problems you were having. And sorry if I jumped down your throat about your "wasted" skill points, that kind of stuff really bugs me for some reason or another.

[Thedutchjelle]

My current Energy is around 150, but my actual mana is somewhat higher thx to some nice charms.

Meh. I'll try to get more +mana and i'll try not to overkill :D