The Nova/Energy Shield Sorceress

[®@þþ3¬]

The Nova/Energy Shield Sorceress

Introduction

Ahh, a Nova sorceress (sorc). Leans back and thinks about the good 'ol days of 1.09. Those where the days. Back then a well-built Nova sorc could compete with a Lightning Fury (LF) amazon (zon) about who could clear the Cow Level fastest. This guide is about Nova. Back then you could combine Nova with Frozen Orb (FO), but that isn't the case today. FO will be too weak in it's own so we will focus on Nova with the benefits of Energy Shield (ES). This guide is designed for Player vs. Player (PvP), but this build can easily be used in Player vs. Monster (PvM).

Stats

YAY, the statpoints section. This is one of the places where this build differs from most other builds. This is quite the opposite of ALL VITALITY sorcs. You read it right. No points spend in vitality!

Strength
You don't want to spend more than nessecary. For this build 81 or 91 (depends if you can get a hold of some ethereal (eth) Sandstorm Trek (Treks))

Dexterity

Zip, zero, zilch! And for the slow people outthere. None, nada, nothing!

Vitality

As metioned above you shouldn't place even a single point in Vitality.

Energy

So where does the rest of the points go you might wonder. Well, they go here!

Skills

Cold

I don't recommend spending anypoints here. Some people invest skillpoints in a cold armor. Since sorcs are so low on defence (def) the bonus from a cold armor is minimal so it won't help you much when going up against a melee character anyway.

Lightning

This is where you should spend nearly all of your skillpoints.

Nova - 20
Lightning Mastery - 20
Thunder Storm - 20
Telekinesis - 20*
Energy Shield (ES)** - 20
Teleport - 1
Static Field - 1
Charged Bolt - 1
Lightning - 1
Chain Lightning - 1

Fire

Only one skill needed here. The skill that every sorc wants to invest atleast one skillpoint into. You probably already guessed it.

Warmth - 1 (Leftover skillpoints go here)

* - Hard points invested in Telekinesis lessens the amout of mana each damage takes.

** - You should only invest ponts here untill you have level 40 ES

Breakpoints

So, now it's time to equip our sorc, but before we do so let's look at the Faster Cast Rate (FCR) and Faster Hit Recovery (FHR) breakpoints (BP) for the sorc. There is different BPs for a sorc when casting Lightning/Chain Lightning, but fortunatly that doesn't apply when casting Nova.

FCR --- Frames
0% --- 13
9% --- 12
20% --- 11
37% --- 10
63% --- 9
105% --- 8 <--- Our goal
200% --- 7

FHR helps you to quickly to get back to what you where doing when you have been hit.

FHR --- Frames
0% --- 15
5% --- 14
9% --- 13
14% --- 12
20% --- 11
30% --- 10
42% --- 9
60% --- 8
86% --- 7
142% --- 6

Now we know the BPs we can start equipping!

Items

Since this build is FCR dependant you can't do much variation in gear.

Helm

Griffon's Eye: What else can you ask for? This helm is made for those chars that rely on lightning (except trappers, but that's not interesting now :P)

Armor

Ormus' Robes: Look for one with +3 Nova.

Skin of the Vipermagi: Since resistance is utterly unimportant you dont need a 35 res one. Mdr helps more then res actually, he he.

Weapon

Infinity: Yeah, this build uses a two-hand weapon. The Conviction aura lowers the resistance on player/monsters which means that you will deal more damage. You will want to make this in a weapon with low reqs. Make it in a normal Voulgue er similar.

Gloves

Magefist: We want this for the 20% fcr. The +1 to fire skills and the 15% mana regeneration or small bonusses. Magefists are better than Trang Oul's gloves in this case because ES before resistances meaning that you won't need resistances, except poison which overrides ES.

Belt

Arachnid Mesh: This is the belt that almost every caster is looking for.

Boots

Sandstorm Trek: As mentioned above poison damage overrides ES so we want to keep our poison resistance as high as possible and what other than Treks can help with that?

Amulet

Crafted Amulet: This is probably the hardest itemslot to equip. In order to reach 105% fcr you need 20% fcr from your amulet. You can craft a ring that also offers +2 sorc skills and stats, but those are very hard to come by/very expensive!

Ive gone with an amulet which gives 10 fcr. Then i have to equip a 10 fcr ring too to reach 105% fcr.

Ring #1

Stone of Jordan (SOJ): It doesn't get any better. No wonder this is probably is the most sought after ring in the entire game.

Ring #2

SOJ or rare ring: If you can' manage to get a 20% fcr amulet you can get one with 10% fcr and make up for the loss in fcr by equipping a 10% fcr ring. If you on the other hand come by a 20% fcr amulet you should equip another SOJ since SOJs stack.

Charms

Annihilus: This little beauty needs to further introduction.
Hellfire Torch: The Annihilus' older brother.
Sparkling Grand Charm: Fill up your inventory with these.
Small charms: Look for sc's that adds stats you need, mana for example.

Charms are a great way to achieve a higher FHR BP. Since you don't need life you could look for +1 Lightning skill charms with 12% fhr or mana sc's with 5% FHR.

Weapon 'switch'

Call To Arms: This is the most used weapon switch in the entire game. Get in there and join the rest.

Shield 'switch'

+1 Skill shield: Since we don't have the strength to equip Spirit we will equip the next best thing. A shield that adds +1 skill (Lidless, Sigon's or Splendor). If you make Splendor you can equip a shield that suits you. I prefer a Spiked Shield.

Mercenary

You shouldn't use this guy in PvP, but as for PvM he is a great buddy to have by our side. Hire an act II normal Combat mercenary (merc).

Helm

Andariel's Visage: This beauty increases the number of attacks your merc does per second. If you socket the helmet with a 15 IAS/fire res (to negate the -30 fire res on Andy's) he will go up a BP.

Armor

Fortitude: A great merc armor. Make it in a high defence ethereal armor.

Weapon

Insight: When you use the meditation from Insight together with Prayer you get an amazing life/mana recovery. You will NEVER die!

Thanks

I big thanks to all those who share their knowledge so I can get a bit wiser. A special thanks to Als for his ES FAQ.

[Taurean]

Have someon got a final damage output here? I'm thinking about making this build.

[Taurean]

Done making this build a long time ago now ^_^

Really great build, i'm very surprised. Several things that makes this a viable build.

I for my part use 200% fcr setup. Mainly because i wanna save time getting from place to place.

What's really great about this build is, when you use nova, you stun the enemies around you, continually! This in most cases, make you and your merc invincible!

Since either you or your merc will be using Infinity, you can easily take out burning souls. Nova is very easy to mark the range with, which means you're learning quickly how to keep out of enemies range and still take them.

It's also great because Nova penetrates the enemy! It's the funniest thing in the game to teleport into a pack of monsters and use Nova like no tomorrow!

[Zxmafia]

lol so taurean what set up do you use for the 200%fcr?? cuz im thinken bout maken this build after i make my anti caster sin

[Taurean]

Griffon's eye = 25%
Eschutas temper = 40% (Tip: Wizardspike gives 50%)
Skin of the vipermagi = 30%
Spirit = 35% (25 - 35%)
Magefist = 25%
Crafted amulet = 18%
Dual 10% fcr rings = 20%
Arachnid mesh = 10%

=
203% fcr

Your teleport is insanely fast, so is your nova as well ^^ This goes for any skill except those with cooldown, and lightning\chainlightning.

[Zxmafia]

hmmm then just have infin on a merk but for pk thats gonna take down the effectivness of the build wont it also will you comment on my kicksin build n give some advice

[Taurean]

I have no clue on assassins ... sry.

[Zxmafia]

damn lol i think its a pretty solid build il let you know how it goes when i build her agian havent played since 1.11 so yeah and im new to this thing wats the credits for??

[uchiha_stasezz]

i build this sorc too..
but i'm still lvl 47..

when i use this skil (Nova), i look the enemy got a stun or like confuse... but one i don't like this build, when i met a uniq monster / a pack of monster with have a range (like archer skelaton), i difficult to defeat the enemy... my merc can't hold the arrow from archer.. lol

[Taurean]

Originally Posted by uchiha_stasezz

i build this sorc too..
but i'm still lvl 47..

when i use this skil (Nova), i look the enemy got a stun or like confuse... but one i don't like this build, when i met a uniq monster / a pack of monster with have a range (like archer skelaton), i difficult to defeat the enemy... my merc can't hold the arrow from archer.. lol

Excactly that. The stun effect keeps them occupied. You'll get stronger in time and then any archer pack won't be a problem.