Tri-Sorc build?

[Tnf777]

I am looking for some information on a Tri-Sorc build for Hell games. Would enjoy being ablt to solo games in Hell level and not be too reliant on my merc.
Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

[Pigeon Poop]

Mmm. Odd request. A dual element Sorc does fine in Hell. I can't see a reason to go with 3 elements or melee, for that matter. A 3 element sorc wouldn't have a decent strong skill to kill anything in hell. With 2 elements you can do enough damage without any merc
to get you through. Although, why you would do without a merc is also questionable.

Just my opinion.

[saracen85]

looking at all the sorc skills, the obvious skill choices (ones that do not have synergies, just masteries) are frozen orb (cold), nova (lightning), firewall (fire).

you can max these three skills, and divide the rest of your remaining points on the masteries. it's skill intensive, so try and get as many +skills as possible.

i'm thinking of building one using a full tal's set-up. it seems that it's made for a tri-sorc =)

with decent +skills and skillers, you can get

400 average frozen orb damage
1.5k average nova damage
5k average firewall damage

all decent numbers imo =)

[Nosferatu]

Firewall sucks though, wouldn't FB work better? or are there to many synergies..?

[saracen85]

firewall's a good skill, it just needs experience in targeting them..
here's a good guide.. http://www.theamazonbasin.com/d2/forums/index.php?showtopic=54643

as for fireball, it's possible. whatever rocks your boat. but imo, fireball needs at least one max synergy to be effective.

[Pigeon Poop]

If I may, Saracen, I think I can improve your idea.

Instead of going with FW, use Inferno instead, saves 2 skill points and, even though it has warmth as a synergy, you will want to put at least one point there anyway. Inferno is controlable and it does massive fire damage and Firewall only works if the bad guys stand still.

You will need 6 points just to light up FO. Instead, use Galcial Spike, it only cost 3. It does decent damage without using its synergies and it stops any advance, short of a cold immune.

Also, Ligtning with Mastery is way more powerful than Nova.


So, this is how it would look:

Inferno =22
Glacial Spike =22
Lightning =21
Tele =2
Warmth =1
______________
68

10 each for Masteries is a total of 98 skill points which is achieved at level 86. Bonuses can only help.

Good luck with that build. Personally, I wouldn't do it. But, thats just me.

[saracen85]

@pigeon poop
can be done, but that way you'll only have 1 main killing skill (lightning) with 2 other weaker support skills from other elements.

Instead of going with FW, use Inferno instead, saves 2 skill points and, even though it has warmth as a synergy, you will want to put at least one point there anyway. Inferno is controlable and it does massive fire damage and Firewall only works if the bad guys stand still.
*inferno (without synergy) is pretty weak and worsened by the bug.
at 20 points with 1 fire mastery: 100-200 avg inferno fire dmg vs 1.6k avg firewall dmg, the answer is pretty obvious. and firewall dmg jumps much higher with +skills than an unsynergised inferno.

You will need 6 points just to light up FO. Instead, use Galcial Spike, it only cost 3. It does decent damage without using its synergies and it stops any advance, short of a cold immune.
*glacial spike may look good (the dmg is almost the same as frozen orb), but do note that frozen orb's shards spreads over an area and can hit a monster multiple times.

imo a tri-sorc is one that has 3 main killing spells of 3 different elements.

Firewall only works if the bad guys stand still.
anw, firewall doesn't need to be cast on an enemies standing still. if you're pro enough, you can cast it in the line where the monster moves on.. =)

[Tnf777]

I really think I am going to try this. I will let you know what skills I choose after I have her built. Thank you all for the tips and suggestions.

Ooo, and if anyone has some good gear ideas here would be the perfect time for them. I will be using Eschuta's Temper and gear similar to that to hopefully give me enough +damage and what not to over-compensate in the weakness of having no synergies

[saracen85]

important to note;
look out for -%enemy resistances for lightning/fire and +%skill damage for cold.

do consider the tal rasha's set. it has all the above-mentioned mods, and possible +2 to all elemental masteries on the orb =)

[Pigeon Poop]

Saracen:

I agree that setting it up the way I stated is a weak setup. I was trying to achieve the most with the few points that you have by lvl 86. I don't have a skill calc, but I do believe that a 3 element Sorc is certainly stretching the limits. The build demands expensive gear and a pile of charms to support it, not to mention an Anni and Torch. In my experience a 2 element char is more than enough. I use one daily for keys.

I don't dispute your findings, I know you know what you're talking about. I only disagree on the build due to, what I deem, a waste getting up a third skill. On the rare occasion you run into a creature that has both of your elements immune, let the merc deal with it, or, just run, (tele), if you choose not to include a merc, for whatever reason.

I will agree, however, that if one must build a 3 element sorc, then full tals, with a spirit monarch, is the only way to go. By providing skills, resist, + to all 3 masteries, FCR, MF, and defense, you can save room in your inv for the many skill charms you are going to need.

[saracen85]

well, tri-sorcs are usually novelty builds anw =)

[Veneteaou]

Actually, there are better things you can do than Tal's for these builds. Read this guide:

http://www.baronsbazaar.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=12079

[DarkPrinceLoki]

how about this for an archmage:
BLizzard or Frozen Orb, Thunderstorm, and either firewall, blaze or fireball. think thats possible?

[saracen85]

@darkprince
thunderstorm does pitiful damage. if you ever come across a fire/cold immune, you'll take a long time before it actually kills.

as for cold skills, people usuually build tri-sorcs around frozen orb due to less point investment. blizzard needs at least one synergy to be an effective killer. nonetheless, it's still a viable skill if you manage to skimp points off other elements.

as for fire skills, firewall/fireball would be the more obvious choices. but blaze is not a bad skill if you master it. there's a guide on blaze somewhere out there.. =)

[DarkPrinceLoki]

yeah i saw the blaze guide a long time ago, just dont remeber where. having blaze as a fire and forget type spell, with FO doing your main damage (i think most people use it as a main skill anyways just for the crowd control)lightning with mastery deals decent damage. but then again most archmages only deal decent damage. Firewall does sound interesting to use, ive have enough experience with my bone wall to use it quite well i reckon.

[saracen85]

imo blaze is not really the fire (pardon the pun) and forget type like firewall. you need to move around, make sure enemies follow you to maintain being on top of the fire etc..

[DarkPrinceLoki]

well FaF as in u cast it once and it works till the duration is over. kinda like thunderstorm.

[N V]

Why not use an avanger sorc. Just need to max fire and light synergies, and get cold mastery to a suitable lvl (most go for 17 in pvm it seems).

That leaves you with ton of options left, though having enchant would be a nice additional sourc of damage ;)

[saracen85]

@nv
then it'd defeat the purpose of making a tri-elemental sorc, ie a sorc that uses 3 of her own skills that are of different elements..

[dainbramage]

I had success with nova as the spammable skill, and firewall or orb as the timered skill. Its damage is low, when compared to Lightning it has similar damage over time (limiting ourselves to ~40 skill points in the lightning tree), but I prefer its spread (and it locks monsters in hit recovery better).

Firewall, while tricky to aim, is by far the strongest fire skill unsynergised, as it simply does silly amounts of damage. I had ~8k/sec rocking (I tanked myself, this in concert with nova dropped the majority of enemies before they completed their swing) without fire mastery maxed and with cheap gear.

[N V]

@nv
then it'd defeat the purpose of making a tri-elemental sorc, ie a sorc that uses 3 of her own skills that are of different elements..

It doesn't use 3 of the sorcs own spells, but it is a 3 elemental sorc ;)

To be serious though I would probably go with max light mastery and nova, frozen orb and either fire wall or fire ball depending on what you like. Probably best way of going tri sorc.

[7th Army V-Iota]

Just for kicks i did a lil test myself and i think the results are ok. This is at clvl90.
Stats
STR - None
DEX - None
VIT - ALL
ENE - None

Gear
Tal Set
Magfist
Lidless Wall
Waterwalks
2x SoJ
1x 5/5 fire facet
1x 5/5 cold facet
1x 5/5 lit facet

Misc gear
3x fire/+6str gc
3x lit/+6str gc
3x cold/+6str gc
20/20 torch*
20/20 anni*

*I hate adding STR to any of my chars, so i try to get 20/xx stats instead.

Skills
Cold Skills
Ice Bolt - 10(26)
Ice Blast - 1(17)
Glacial Spike - 1(17)
Frost Nova - 1(17)
Blizzard - 1(17)
Frost Orb -20(36)
Frozen Armor -1(17)
Shiver Armor -1(17)
Cold Mastery - 1(19)

Lit Skills
Charged Bolt - 6(22)
Lightening - 20(36)
Chain Lightening - 6(22)
Static Field - 1(17)
Nova - 6(22)
Telekinesis - 1(17)
Teleport - 1(17)
Lightening Mastery - 1(19)

Fire Skills
Fire Bolt - 1(18)
Fire Ball - 19(36)
Warmth - 1(18)
Fire Mastery - 1(20)

I was toying this in hell and found it amusing lol :D

[cobkillacalli]

nice

[DarkPrinceLoki]

my archmage set-up:

been playing around a little bit with a sorc that i have for MFing.
real cheap and efficent sorc that dosent require much skill to use. though the full build requires all 110 of the skill points to have decent tri element damage, the early stages are fun.

Skills to max:
Fireball + Firebolt
Frozen Orb
Chain-Lightning

1 point wonders:
fire, cold and lightning mastery
Shiver armor
Static field
Teleport
warmth

Lightning + prereqs: Everything else

what you want to do is start with your fire tree first, then cold, then lightning. off course you can also add in the 1 point wonders whenever you feel like it.

Using real cheap Equipment (my current equip too, untwinked!):
'Lore" runeword helm
Skin of the Vipermagi
Razorswitch Jo staff
Magefists
The stone of jordan
rare +1 sorc skill, 10% FCR ammy
rare 10% FCR ring
Talrasha's fine spun cloth (belt)
Infernostrides

total +skills: +5 to all, +1 to fire

I can hit the 8 frame 110% FCR breakpoint

Average Damage
Frozen Orb Damage: 348.5 per shard (16 shards)
Fireball Damage: 2026
Chain-Lightning: 614 per arc, 10 arcs total
Lightning: 766

now remember thats average damage

of course the more +skills you have the higher the damage will get. And if your lucky enough to have a full tal rasha's set, then you have it made. Its designed for an archmage.

[Veneteaou]

Tals set is okay, but not optimal gear for an archmagess. See, plus skills are the numero uno mod to look for on gear, and there are better ways to go about getting them:

- Shako
- Eschutas
- Arachs
- Enlightenment Runeword armor (+2 sorc skills, a million times cheaper than the other skill armors)
- Maras or a rare Ammy
- Magefists (+1 fire skills)
- Spirit shield

It isn't hard to hit 105% FCR with that setup.

[saracen85]

@veneteaou
problem with that set up is that it doesn't provide as much -enemy resists as the full tal's can..
don't get me wrong, plus skills is great.. it's just that -enemy resists are even better =)

the best non-tals set up should utilise as many facets/- enemy resists as possible since they are the ones that speed up kills.

as for enlightenment, i'm pretty sure skin of vipermagi is a million times cheaper than an enlightenment (waste of pul). what lacks in +1 skill is made up by resists, fcr and a possible socket.

[DarkPrinceLoki]

@veneteaou
problem with that set up is that it doesn't provide as much -enemy resists as the full tal's can..
don't get me wrong, plus skills is great.. it's just that -enemy resists are even better =)

the best non-tals set up should utilise as many facets/- enemy resists as possible since they are the ones that speed up kills.

as for enlightenment, i'm pretty sure skin of vipermagi is a million times cheaper than an enlightenment (waste of pul). what lacks in +1 skill is made up by resists, fcr and a possible socket.

and if you put sockets in the tal set you can get more -resists, one for each major skill.

[7th Army V-Iota]

and if you put sockets in the tal set you can get more -resists, one for each major skill.

Thats what i did:D

[rick randolf]

I rule!

[Veneteaou]

Do the math; Tal's is optimal for most dual-tree builds, but to maximize damage in all three you have to abandon it for +skills gear.

[saracen85]

Do the math; Tal's is optimal for most dual-tree builds, but to maximize damage in all three you have to abandon it for +skills gear.

tals: max +10 skills with -15% resists to fire/lightning, +15% dmg to cold. possibility of adding 3x more facets. 100++ resists. lots of bo-able mana/life.

uniques/rw combo (refering to your gear choice earlier): max +14 skills with possibility of adding 2x more facets. less resists. possibly more fcr.

i'm discounting the +%dmg on eschuta's since the tal's set itself provides +(1-2) to each mastery..

i'm not sure about you, but i gladly give up more +skills for -enemy resists..
so it's all about preference. having more damage on lcs or the intangibles.. =)

[Veneteaou]

I play on HC, where the ability to hit 105% and still have some choices wins out. Tal's set gives 50% total FCR, meaning you have to scrape another 55% from the shield, rings, and glove slots.

1 added Facet and the -resists for +4 to each spell and its mastery, as well as more FCR (I can hit 200%), and I can't see that being beaten. Keep in mind that those are also adding 4 levels of Enchant, Warmth, Tele, Static, Cold Armors, and any other skill you may have.

I don't want to have to do the math, but in order for Tal's to out damage my setup would require fighting monsters who have high resists in all three trees.

[saracen85]

but getting 200fcr would mean sacrificing a few gear choices thus losing a few +skills as well..

i still believe that optimality of a tri-sorc is pretty subjective..