Landau's MF Blizzard Sorc

[Landau14]

Landau's Ultimate MF Blizzard Sorc

Introduction
Until Landazar's guide is back up again I thought I would try to make my own first guide, just to see what it's like, get some comments and maybe learn a thing or two. Guessing I will probably edit this quite a few times. Anyway, back to the subject-

1. The MF Blizzer
2. Stats
3. Skills.
4. Gear
5. Merc
6. Places to Mf
7. Strategy
8. In conclusion

1.The MF Blizzer

My first Europe ladder char was a blizz MFer and currently she's lvl 87, twinked and allowed me to get a godly Hdin and on working Smiter. If you follow this guide you'll have 4-5k blizzard damage, 1-1.2 k GS damage and something about 2k life. Sorceress is an obvious first choice for an MFer for its teleporting abilities and the Blizzard sorc is an excellent choice since it doesn't require godly gear to be effective and one of the fastest runners in the game and even its perfect gear doesn't cost that much. Yes, you will have problems with immunities but this build is for getting rushed and just MFing, not soloing hell. If you want to do that, get a hammerdin.

2.Stats

As always:

Strength: enough for gear. 2 choices here- 156 with gear for spirit or none to 70 for lidless.
Dex: none. I don't max block, I think it's usless for this type of sorc
Vita: Everything
Energy: None. Yes, none.

Mana problems:
A lot of people are frustrated that you don't put any point in energy, but trust be, in higher level you'll have enough mana. If you're still having mana problem get your merc an Insight.

3.Skills

That's pretty straight forward as well:

1 point into warmth
1 point into telekinesis
1 point into teleport
1 point into frozen armor (the best armor for this build. Period)
1 point into Frozen Orb (my choice for rushing, it's not must)
5 Cold Mastrey (should be maxed in the end)
Max blizzard
Max Glacial Spike
Max Ice Bolt
Max Ice blast
Put as many points in Cold Mastery- this should be last

Skills Confirmation

I love GS. is a great crowd control for its awesmoe radius and huge freezing time effect and allows to keep the monsters in the blizzard area and thus killing them much faster. FO is my choice for rushing, which is my favorite thing in the game, so it's up to you if you want to invest 1 point there or not. I chose Ice bolt before Ice blast because Ice bolt is a synergy for FO, which makes rushing easier. It doesn't really matter since they give the same amount of % as a synergy for blizzard, you can choose either one. I chose Ice blast over Cold Mastery since CM gets bonuses from +skills while Ice blast doesn't and CM becomes useless against normal monsters after a certain level.


4.Gear

Important note: Best MF setup for an MF sorc is 3 pieces of Tal Rasha's set- armor, ammy and belt, because the partial bonus of this set is a huge +65% mf bonus along with the already build in MF bonuses on the armor and the belt. So I'll be giving this as a main option but also alternatives for someone who doesn't like Cookie Cutters, or is going for huge MF.
Only other thing to care except for MF is FCR which allows you to teleporting very fast. Try to reach the 105 bp for best effect.

Helm: Shako
Reason: great helm and quite cheap. Provides mana, life and +2 skills. Really try to get this one since it's pretty common. Socket it with P.topaz for extra mf.
Alternative: as I said, really try getting this one, but you can use Tran helm, 3 P.topaz helm and Tal's helm for the full set bonus.

Armor: Tal Rasha's
Reason: Reason stated above. Socket it with P.topaz for greater MF.
Alternatives:
*Skin of the Vipermagi- takes a back sit to no one with amazing mods. This should do perfectly until you get the 3 Tal Rasha's pieces
*Skullder's Ire- for crazy mfers. Biggest mf bonus you can find.*
*Chains of Honor- decent choice, but really not needed*

Weapon: The Oculus
Reason: I personally hate this one because its random chance to teleport mod, but most players uses it for its amazing +3 skill bonus along with life and mana bonuses. Socket it with either Ist, Facet or anything you need (fal for STR bonus, for example).
Alternatives:
*Wizardspike- My favorite weapon. Allows you to reach the FCR breakpoint very easily and offers huge resists
*Heart of the Oak- it's much more expensive than oculus and much better suit your hammerdin or Bone necro, but it's an amazing choice. Get as much resist as you can.
*Tal Rasha's swirling crystal- for the full set bonus. Sure, less MF, but for strong belivers in the "too much MF curse" like me, it's a cool looking and sweet option.

Shield: "Spirit" runeword in a monarch shield
Reason: great resists, FHR and +2 skills. What else can you ask for? Only problem it requires 156 str for a monarch. You call if you want to go this route or not
Alternatives:
*Lidless wall- the only option if you going the no STR route. +1 skills, FCR. Socket it with Um for resists

Belt: Tal Rasha's
Reason: the second best mf belt you can wear (after goldwrap) and gets you the set's partial bonus. Gives huge dex bonus as well
Alternatives:
*Arachnid's Mesh- if you're not going Tal Rasha's that's the best belt there is out there for casters. For its price it's really not needed for this build
*Goldwrap- huge mf bonus. Upgrade it for 16 slots

Boots: War Traveler
Reason: Mf, Mf, Mf.
Alternatives: doesn't really matter here. WT is the best, but you can wear WaterWalk, Tearhaunce- whatever works for you

Gloves: Chance Guards
Reason: again- Mf, Mf, Mf.
Alternatives:
*Megafists- if you need the FCR bonus to reach the breakpoint and some mana along with +1 to fire skills (warmth). Much better than trangs
*Frostburns- If you really need some mana boost. I don't recommend it though

Ammy: Tal Rasha's
Reason: partial set bonus
Alternatives: if you're not going Tal Rasha you can wear whatever you want. From a rare ammy with MF to Mara's

Rings: Raven Frost+ Nagelring
Reason: MF from Nagel and cannot be frozen and cold absorb against meph from Raven.
Alternatives: Nagel+Nagel (more MF) Nagel+Wisp (some Light absorb)

Weapon Switch: you can either go with CTA+lidless/spirit or with a "last hit mf bonus" of a Gull dagger+Rhyme. I would suggest the first one, but not everybody has the "money" to get a CtA.
Inventory try to get Gheed's, it really great along with as many 7% mf small charms. Also try to get anni and torch. If a sorc torch is too expensive, you can try a necro/assa/barb torch just for the resist and attributes bonuses.

4.Merc

The Merc is not a big part of the Mf blizzard sorc. Personally, I don't use a merc. However, for those who does this section is for you. Two choices here. The most common and my personal favorite is the A2 defensive Merc with might aura. However, there a new generation who uses the A2 prayer merc as well. The defensive one has Holy Freeze aura which help A LOT with teleporting especially in the durance of hate, while prayer merc increase life regain. Anyway, whichever one you choose the gear should be the following, ethereal items always preferred, from best to worst. IMO the second option is the best because you don't really need a merc for this build.

Helm: Andariel's Visage-> Vampire Gaze-> Crown of Thieves
Armor: Fortitude->Stone-> Duriel's Shell/Shaftstop
Weapon: Infinity-> Insight-> Bonehew/Tomb Reaper

5. Place to MF

Mephisto- The best place to mf IMO. Take the durance lvl 2 WP and tele until you find the lvl 3. Beware of the dolls, for they are fast as they are annoying. When you reach lvl 3 you can use the moat trick to kill Meph easily, although you don't really need it.

Pindle- the super unique boss just outside the read portal Anya opens up just for you. Blizzard sorc is a great Pindle runner. Just tele to the entrance, throw some GS to the up end of your screen and blizz them till they're dead. Pindle might be cold immune so beware. Also important note DON'T COMPLETE NILATHAK'S QUEST (4TH QUEST) AND GET THE HALLS OF PAIN WP OR ELSE YOU WILL LOOSE THE RED PORTAL AND YOUR FAST WAY TO GET TO PINDLE!!

Andariel- she's pretty easy as well. Take the catacombs lvl 2 WP and tele until you reach lvl 4. NOTE: Andariel will not come until you step above those big pillars. So clear all of the monsters in the chamber (none of them are cold immune except uncommon uniques, which you just avoid), cast some blizzard in the top of your screen and then step up. Andy's melee attacks and poison are a real pain so just run and blizzard here.

Ancients Tunnels- take the lost city WP in A2. There's a trap door somewhere there. The big bonus in this place is that it's lvl 85 area so the monsters can drop everything and there are no cold immune monster except uniques, which can be easily avoided. However, I mfed the AT a lot and found nothing. Well, not nothing. I found Tal's helm. Lucky me, ha?

6. Stragety

That's pretty easy. Blizzard.
Get your blizzard as you right lick spell and GS as you left click. Shoot GS to freeze monster and then blizz them. The advantage in blizzard is that you can cast before you actually see the monster and then they walk straight to their icy tomb.

7. In Conclusion

I hoped you liked the guide and it helped you out. I just wrote it to see what it's like. So comments are very welcome

[dieuglydie]

nice guide. Only thing i saw was the fcr bp for sorcs is 105, not 125.

[Dargad]

A cool guide, much like my current Sorc. :D A couple of things, though.

-You completely forgot about Ice Blast, a rather crucial synergy to Blizzard. (and it's Glacial Spike, not Galactic :rolleyes:)
-In the Important note about MF before the equipment selection, you talk about MF on a shield... what shield ? You mean Tal Rasha's armor ?
-Socketing Oculus with Um gives Chance of Open Wounds, and we don't want that.
-Your defensive merc/Might/Prayer/Holy Freeze explanation is confusing... You could clear it up a bit.
-Infinity is near useless on a Cold Sorc. Very very few cold immunities are broken by the Conviction, and Mercs don't usually stand well against Bosses anyway.
-Technically, you can kill Nihlathak all you want. The thing that closes the red portal is completing the quest AND getting Halls of Pain waypoint.
-Another MF place to add is Mausoleum, in the Burial Grounds in Act1. Easy monsters, area level 85 and no cold immunes either.
-I personally find that Ice Blast is more useful between Blizzards than Glacial Spike, as it does about 2 times the damage.

[Landau14]

Thanks for the inputs I knew I made a lot of typos.
but:
-Glacial Spike is not good for the damage, but for the awesome freezing effect even in hell which is a great crown control (because it also has radius) and keeps the monsters in the blizzard area.
- yeah, I meant Armor. My bad.
- Never tried the Mausoleum, so I can't recommand it. but if I might add this up.
- You mean Pindle? Didn't know you need the wp as well, thanks.
- I know infinity is crap, but it break some of the immunes. It's something nevertheless.
- LOL. you abosulutly correct. what was I thinking? um.. I shold be ashamed of myself..

Thanks again.

PS- As I said I think merc is usless on this type of sorc after a lot of playing with both ways. But fair enough, when I have the strength I'll clear that section up a bit.

[Dargad]

I would suggest against adding points in Ice Blast last. I'd max Cold Mastery last, for a very simple reason.

For this example, lets say you deal 4000 damage with Blizzard and lower enemies' resistance by -115%. You attack 2 different monsters: Mephisto with 75 Cold resistance, and a Plague Bearer from Ancient Tunnels, with 0 Cold resistance.

Mephisto takes 5600 damage. (-40 resist)
the Plague Bearer takes 8000 damage. (-100 resist)

Now you have the chance to add 5 hard point in either Ice Blast (+25% damage to Blizzard) or Cold Mastery (-25% Cold resistance).

If you went with Ice Blast (base 5000 damage, -115 resist)
Mephisto takes 7000 damage. (-40 resist)
the Plague Bearer takes 10 000 damage. (-100 resist)

If you chose Cold Mastery (base 4000 damage, -140% resist)
Mephisto takes 6600 damage. (-65 resist)
the Plague Bearer takes 8000 damage. (-100 resist)

The difference isn't that big for the Boss, but it's still there, and only shown with 5 points. -resistance is better against monsters with positive resistance, but +damage% is more effective against monsters with negative resistances. Since at level 18+ Cold Mastery all monsters you can damage have negative resistance, +damage% is better to increase your damage.

Additionally, +skills to Cold Mastery don't benefit against monsters whose resistance is already reduced to -100%, like alot of the regular monsters you'll fight.

You should have enough of a couple of points in Cold Mastery at the beginning, for it gains effectiveness with +skills, whereas synergies don't. But as soon as everything else is maxed, go ahead and max Cold Mastery.

[Landau14]

Heard of it once, but never bother to do the math. Also, CM is good for GS and FO.
NVM, if you're math is correct, I'll guess I'll go with your route.

PS- check the edit. Good?

[Dargad]

Very good, but Cold Mastery is mentioned twice in the Skill Placement section. ;)

Errr... three times actually.

[Landau14]

lol. 2 times for a reason (first time 5 points & second- max), third was a mistake.Edited.

[HIV-Positive]

i would say runeword Splendor is better for this build.

[dainbramage]

Shield: "Spirit" runeword in a monarch shield
Reason: great resists, FHR and +2 skills. What else can you ask for?
FCR? Oh, wait... :p.


As always, include a list of build goals.

Adequate guide as far as the 3-piece tals build goes, though I'd write something about getting through hell in the first place (as opposed to MFing specific bosses). Also, Duriel's shell > all in terms of merc armour choice. The CBF will add about as much damage as fort when you're against anything with cold damage (and most CI's will have cold damage), and it's infinitely cheaper. Also, infinity isn't that helpful as it doesn't break many cold immunes, and you already have cold mastery.

On another note, IMO full tals > 3-piece tals. The +15% cold damage will make your kill speed higher than with partial tals, it'll be easier to survive, and MF is massively overrated anyway (especially for a char who will primarily run andy, mephisto and pindleskin). Also, aldur's boots go really well with a spirit shield.

[Skullcaptain]

Nice guide, I will bookmark this.