CL/FW Electric cooker sorc

[Harleyquin]

I thought up this build today, instead of the regular dual-tree builds using a cold spell I've decided to make a build that's tougher to play sans mercenary but which might prove challenging for seasoned sorc players.

Skill distribution:
5-14 Charged bolt
20 Lightning
20 Chain Lightning
20 Lightning Mastery
1 Static Field
1 Telekinesis
1 Teleport
1 Inferno
1 Blaze
20 Firewall
10-20 Fire Mastery

Stat Distribution:
Strength: Not more than 156 with gear for stormshield max block players, otherwise enough to use gear
Dexterity: Max block or nothing
Vitality: Everything else
Energy: Base (Learn to drink blue potions)

Recommended gear (I don't play BNET, players who do can look up the overpowered and unrealistic runewords themselves)

Helm: Griffon's eye or Shako
Armour: Chains of Honour or Vipermagi for 117fcr
Weapon: Oculus or Eschuta's temper
Shield: Lidless wall non-block or good block shield like stormshield
Gloves: Magefist, Trang claws or Frostburns
Belt: Arachnid Mesh, Nightsmoke, Credendum, Good rare belt
Boots: Silkweave, War Travellers', Good high-resist FRW rare boots
Amulet: Mara's, Tal's, Crafted Caster amulet
Rings: Dual 10fcr rare rings or your choice of raven frost, SOJ, BK ring etc.

Recommended Mercenary: Holy Freeze (The slowing down of monsters is good)

Weapon: Any high-damage polearm or spear preferably with life leech
Armour: Duriel's Shell, Leviathan, Shaftstop, any high-def, high res armour
Helmet: Vampiregaze, Andy's Visage, Tal's mask, rockstopper

Playing strategy: Character plays like a lightning sorc so lots of FCR, +skills and -enemy lightning resistance is always good. Lightning immunes are held in place by mercenary and slowly cooked under firewall. Dual fire-lightning immune monsters are TK-stunned while mercenary finishes the job. Can use moat trick thanks to firewall.

Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome.

[peterpaulrubens]

You've got a LOT of skill points listed there. A realistic build usually finishes up with about 95 points.

I would forego Chain Lightning and max Charged Bolt. And, I would put a point into Glacial Spike. It will be useful vs. LIs that you want to hold still in your firewall.

So, your build would look like:
20 Charged Bolt
20 Lightning
20 Lightning Mastery
1 Static
1 TK
1 Teleport
1 Blaze
1 Inferno
1 Warmth (why not?)
1 in at least Frozen Armor, if not all three sorc armors
rest in Fire Mastery

[sirpoopsalot]

I have one of these that's level93 (I play SP too). ChainSmokin was my first sorc actually, and did a ton of Countess & Pindle runs before retiring about a year ago. Overall, it's a solid sorc, and nice to take a break from a generic build. Here's my experiences:

1. I went with 1 point FM, and the extras in a CB. I agree with peterpaulrubens that you have a lot of skill points planned (fyi, it'll take you until lvl89 just to get to the minimum amounts you have listed). If you want to play on higher /players settings, you might want to throw a few more points into FireMastery - I found that FW is adequate, but a little slow sometimes with high-life monsters.

2. I see the point of Glacial Spike for helping FW, but IMO it's unneccessary - if you get a merc that can tank, he'll provide all of the 'hold-monster-still-ability' that you really need for Firewall. I'm not saying GS is a bad idea, just that it's not critical.

3. You'll find that Firewall is an adequate substitute for FO (as a backup skill), but the ease of aiming FO, plus the chilling/slowing factor, can make things with FW a little more 'interesting' at times.

4. For equipment I had a +3CL Ormus Robes, but I'd probably use Vipermagi if I did this again (still no CoH). I went max-block with a Stormshield, but now I'd probably use an upgraded Viscertuant, or maybe a no-block/spirit approach if I needed FCR. Your points about FCR, -ELR, and +skills are valid - throw in a reasonable amount of resistances for defensive balance, and you'll do well enough with whatever equipment you choose.

5. Speaking of FCR, 105 is a reasonable point to aim for, simply because you won't have as much chilling/slow as many other sorcs, so teleport as a defensive skill can become a little more critical - and the 105 FCR breakpoint helps.

6. The Maggot Lair (act2) and most of act3 were the only areas that were slow progress. You can either load up on FCR and teleport through, or get used to aiming Firewall if you want to clear most/all monsters. Otherwise, there aren't a lot of bottlenecks progressing though the game.

7. Good luck & enjoy.

[Harleyquin]

I should have included warmth, an oversight on my part. That reduces one point off fire mastery or charged bolt. I always plan my characters to level 99 so that I don't miss anything. I'm aware that the maggot lair and the majority of Act 3 will be a real pain but there's where the mercenary comes in.

At least I know the plan is viable but needs a lot of skill involved in gameplay.

[Darkflight]

Like peterpaulrubens, I would strongly suggest that you skip Chain Lightning and use Lightning as your main lightning skill. This opens more points to Fire Mastery and Charged Bolt to power up Fiew Wall and Lightning.

My build would be:
20 Charged Bolt
20 Lightning
20 Lightning Mastery
20 Fire Wall
20 Fire Mastery
1 Teleport
1 Static Field
1 Warmth
Prerequisites with 1 point: Telekinesis, Blaze, Inferno.
Requireing 106 Skillpoints. The last 4 can be used to get Shiver Armor.

Your gear seems solid, but aim for 117 FCR.

[Harleyquin]

I don't understand the recommendation for charged bolt over chain lightning. My sorc has to get in close to get most of the bolts to connect making her more open to attack. Chain lightning on the other hand allows for safe spamming a good distance from monsters.

[peterpaulrubens]

I don't understand the recommendation for charged bolt over chain lightning. My sorc has to get in close to get most of the bolts to connect making her more open to attack. Chain lightning on the other hand allows for safe spamming a good distance from monsters.

There's a couple of reasons for my recommendation of Charged Bolt over Chain Lightning:


Chain Lightning doesn't kill all that well without full synergies.
Chain Lightning is only really good in wide open spaces. Charged Bolt is great up close. The terrain determines if it's "wide open"... YOU determine if you're "up close".
Monsters won't sit in your Firewall if you're teleporting all over the screen. Both Charged Bolt and Firewall support "pitched battle" tactics, whereas your proposed tactic is more of a "run'n'shoot" style.
Chain Lightning is worthless vs. bosses. Charged Bolt, however, is THE boss killer of the Lightning tree (IMO)
Charged Bolt doesn't suffer the terrible FCR breakpoints nor the silly minimum damage of Lightning/Chain Lightning.


My basic move was to namelock-firewall a monster, teleport on it, blast it with Glacial Spike (maybe, depending on monster type etc), and then start spamming Charged Bolts. That kept monsters in my Firewall, it gave me minion stack with my merc, it let my merc attack who I wanted, and it gave me monsters that were at best frozen solid from GS or at worst drastically slowed from my merc's Holy Freeze. And then it put all my firepower on just a few monsters to kill them quickly.

Honestly if you want to stay away from monsters and spam Chain Lightning than I would use Frozen Orb instead of Firewall. It's hard as hell to play a run'n'shoot game and still kill with Firewall unless you are just super freaking great at aiming Firewall to get it to lay down the direction you want it.

[Harleyquin]

Exactly how close must a sorc be next to a monster for all the charged bolts to connect? This is a very different playstyle from my CLORB sorc so I have to familiarize myself with it.

[sirpoopsalot]

It's hard as hell to play a run'n'shoot game and still kill with Firewall unless you are just super freaking great at aiming Firewall to get it to lay down the direction you want it.

Actually, with a tanking merc, it's quite easy (but not really what I'd call 'run&shoot').

1. Once the monster(s) see you (and charges towards you), teleport away from the monsters - this is to position your merc. Usually a good distance to 'jump back' is about 2/3 of a screen.
2. The merc will charge towards the monsters. You will stand still, or run back a couple steps if you're too close.
3. Place the FW where the merc and monsters 'collide'. The monsters will stand in the FW while getting spanked by your merc.
4. Monsters die. Rinse, lather, repeat.

... this is a hell of a lot easier to target than trying to get a monster to run 'along' your firewall. Obviously, it makes the merc a critical component of your FW strategy as well.

****
Personally, I like the 'hit-everyone' aspect of CL better than CB for this build. CL isn't a fast killer, but it's effective enough to put a lot of monsters into hit recovery, which means you have good crowd control. With enough +skills you'll some extra bolts bouncing around too, so a lot of monsters will get hit 2-3 times. As a result, CL's overall damage isn't always negligible (sp?).

However, it's mostly a matter of personal preferrence. Both skills are entirely viable with moderate twinking.