Orb-sorc

Grimar · Post by **Grimar** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 1:26 pm

will a sorcerous focusing in only orb with synergies work??

i am currently playing the fireball-sorc, and plays a bit LAN. a friend of mine want one to, but it will suck with 2 fireballs, so we was thinking about cold.

Casserole · Post by **Casserole** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 11:33 pm

Frozen orb used to be the king of sorc cold spells. But since 1.10 and synergies, it has lost some of it's popularity. This is probably due to the fact that it only has one synergy (ice bolt). Ice bolt in of itself isn't a good skill and only lends 2% increased dmg to orb with each point placed in it. Also, people use blizzard much more than before because it's synergies are quite good. Blizzard has 3 synergy skills and each of these adds 5% increased dmg.

Frozen orb is still a decent skill, especially if you are spreading your skill points thin and can't be bothered with synergies, but I prefer Blizzard anymore.

I just ran a comparison of the 2 skills. Frozen orb with 20 points in it and 20 into ice bolt has 366-387 cold damage per ice shard. Blizzard with 20 points in it and its synergies does 2280-2476 cold dmg. Now keep in mind that you will need 82 skill points to max blizzard and it's synergies, so you won't have many skill points to place elsewhere.

C Elegans · Post by **C Elegans** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 2:36 am

Grimar, I can only add to what Casserole already said. You will do fine through Nightmare with an FO (Frozen Orb) sorc, but in Hell, monsters will regenerate faster than your FO hits them. If your friend is a pure Fire sorc, two nice options which I have tried is FO/CL (Chain Lightning) and Pure cold Blizzard sorc as in Dottie's guide.

FO/CL is a build I really like because even if I almost always play with friends, I also like to have a char which can solo the game at Hell. A single element sorc may be good for certain boss runs, but I hate doing boss runs, I do areas instead, and then you need more than one element.

FO/CL is more equipment demanding than the Meteorb to kill really fast with, but she works just fine with average equipment as well. There will be more clicking and spamming of spells than with the Meteorb since the Meteorb has two timed skills. Since your friend is Fire it is perfect for you to be Cold/Lightning, and if this sounds interesting I can post a guide later today (must work now). If you want to start trying this build immediately, put 1 points in all the prerequisite skills for CL, 1 point in Warmth (this is a mana intensive build, so look for a Wizardspike) then all the prerequisites for FO - that way you can't go wrong.

Grimar · Post by **Grimar** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 6:43 am

thanks! Btw it is me who is a fireball sorc, not my friend...

the FO/CL sounds interesting and good, and it would indeed be very nice if you posted it! didn't know that Orb had so few synergies..

Noober · Post by **Noober** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 8:24 pm

Orb is probably the best, non-synergised offensive spell availible to casters. The most popular PvP build certainly is FO/ES (Energy Shield). I've previously made a FO/CL with 'godly' equipment and I belive it reached 17K CL. I might be able to help you with that after I finish that Wind Druid guide.

Casserole · Post by **Casserole** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 2:13 pm

I really prefer a sorc that has skills from 2 trees, since monsters in hell are usually immune to one type of damage (physical, cold, poison, fire, lightning, magic). Skills from all 3 sorc trees will probably spread you too thin in 1.10, but skills from 2 trees works nicely. The hell immunity problem can also be avoided if you play mulitplayer with others to cover your weaknesses. I have played in a group of 4 that consisted of 3 sorcs specializing in one tree each and a paladin to use conviction and meditation (and be a meat shield too). This kind of multiplayer setup works very well.

C Elegans · Post by **C Elegans** » Mon Apr 04, 2005 10:35 am

@Grimar: Sorry for the delay with the FO/CL sorc build, I hope to post it tomorrow...being without internet at home has some problems

but I hope to be able to post it from work tomorrow night. If you and your friend has already started playing with this build, just follow the instructions in my post above. After having taken all the prereqs for CL and FO, max out FO, it will take you through Nightmare.

@Noober: I never played the FO/CL to very high lvl, so perhaps we can make a joint effort, I don't know what the best equipment would be, and what is the best way to spend your skillpoints after lvl 80-85 or so.