Unconventional Sorceress Build

I am creating a sorceress based around getting hit and returning damage. Planned skill point allocation is something like this:

-20 points shiver armour (main killer)

-20 points chilling armour (synergy but also to help deal with ranged attackers)

-20 points frozen armour (synergy)

-20 points cold mastery

-1 point glacial spike (with +skills should freeze enemies for a while whwn tactically needed)

-1 point teleport

-1 point warmth

-Rest into static field

I am planning on wearing 'bramble' armour to give me level 20 thorns and a level 13 spirit of barbs to go with it. Other items considered are a Carrion Wind Ring, Saracen's Chance Amulet, Blackthorn's Face Death Mask, Spike Thorn Blade Barrier, and Snowclash Belt.

Could this work in Hell? I figure static field can take down a decent amount of hitpoints, and there is a decent amount of damage returned with thorns and shiver armour combined. Any advice on getting this to work?|||What are you going to do about elemental damage? I'm pretty sure all those damage return skills and items only work for physical attacks.

Also, sorc isnt exactly tough, even max vit. Armor and blocking keep you alive but preclude returning damage. You wont have enough points to max out ES and TK to go that route. I'm pretty sure, even with all that and at half life from SF, monsters will end up killing you before you can kill them.|||I can't see this working, but hey, there's respecs now so might as well try it I suppose.

The trouble is that in order for a sorc to be at all durable, she needs high defense and block, but like droid says, that prevents enemies from hitting you, so you don't return damage to them.

You could focus on DR instead, crown of ages + stormshiled (no dex so you don't block much), but you'll still have pretty high def from shiver armor. I imagine you'll be standing there chugging potions while you wait for the monsters to kill themselves rather slowly. Your merc will do about 10 times as much damage as you.

Gloams and other casters you won't be able to kill at all, you'll just be hoping your merc can stab them to death before they kill him (or you'll teleport on past, I suppose).|||Some casters (fallen shaman, vampires) use melee attacks when at close range. For gloams etc, chilling armour does fire ice bolts back at elemental attackers. I could get those ie bolts up to about 500 damage against enemies with no starting cold resist.

A gloam on Hell has about 3000 hit points, I could take out 1500 with static field so then 3 lightning hits would return 3 ice bolts and that would be enough to kill a gloam. Nasty amount of damage to have to take but there is at least a killing method, unlike a pure thorns build.

Also, items which have 'chance to cast X when struck' still work on elemental attacks, and some of these deal noticeable damage (Carrion Wind Ring, Snowclash Belt).

Much better than 'damage reduced' would be 'damage taken goes to mana' items, as I don't believe they reduce damage returned. I desperately need some way of recovering health quickly though (redemption aura from pheonix shield, maybe?), as well as some items that increase my maximum health a LOT...|||Quote:




I'm pretty sure, even with all that and at half life from SF, monsters will end up killing you before you can kill them.




This. I don't see this working at all.|||Quote:








Much better than 'damage reduced' would be 'damage taken goes to mana' items, as I don't believe they reduce damage returned.




From The Arreat Summit:


Quote:




Damage Taken Goes To Mana

This can generate extra Mana as a result of being attacked. It does not reduce the amount of damage to Life but instead just adds to Mana.|||As magic got from the Arreat Summit website the damage taken goes to mana won't help you in this case. The only way those items would be beneficial is if you combined the build with energy shield as any damage that got past the energy shield would refill your blue bulb to fuel the shield, but the amount of mana you would gain would obviously be reduced so pretty much worthless.

Unfortunately this kind of build is more of a novelty (just like thorns) than functional due to the high monster hp in comparison to the damage output you'll have. I once ran into a guy who was going to use a build similar to this for low level dueling because he thought it would be funny to see people drop when they hit him, but I still didn't see how this would be that effective especially at low levels.|||You should go for it. People have defeated Hell Baal with weaker builds (naked, no skills, etc.). Skillfull playing trumps all else. Take a look at what Insane Wayne and SuperDave have accomplished, for example.|||If your goal is just to see if it can be done, by all means.

Heck, you can beat the game with just a crushing blow weapon.

But, if you want to actually enjoy playing long-term or magic finding, I'd flush that build asap.|||Quote:








Some casters (fallen shaman, vampires) use melee attacks when at close range. For gloams etc, chilling armour does fire ice bolts back at elemental attackers. I could get those ie bolts up to about 500 damage against enemies with no starting cold resist.

A gloam on Hell has about 3000 hit points, I could take out 1500 with static field so then 3 lightning hits would return 3 ice bolts and that would be enough to kill a gloam. Nasty amount of damage to have to take but there is at least a killing method, unlike a pure thorns build.

Also, items which have 'chance to cast X when struck' still work on elemental attacks, and some of these deal noticeable damage (Carrion Wind Ring, Snowclash Belt).





Gloams on Hell are LI, SF doesnt work on them :)

Also, I'm not putting much faith in a L10 unsynergized PN-when-struck in Hell, unfortunately...

But yes, with the right player any build is viable, if you just want to try it for S&G. I'd agree with the others, though, that this would likely end up where your merc does most of the heavy lifting. Of course, when your merc is drawing aggro, thats also going to decrease your ability to get hit and return damage, so you might want to run with an A1 merc.

Also something to think about is Baal/Meph, who do melee attacks only rarely, are unleechable in Hell for your merc, and who do seriously enhanced damage vs mercs.