Guide: CB/FW-Tank-Sorc




  1. Introduction
  2. Skill point distribution
  3. Stat point distribution
  4. Equipment
  5. Teddyskills
  6. Hireling
  7. How to play this sorceress
  8. My sorceress


1. Introduction

This guide describes a more defensive sorceress in the CE-Mod. She blocks the enemies in first row while attacking with Charged Bolt and Firewall. These two skills are just perfect to attack, because Charged bolt has the best effect at point-blank range because many of its 34 bolts (maximum) hit their target.
The extreme damage from Firewall will be very effective when the enemies remain in one place (in close combat with the sorceress)

2. Skill point distribution

Each levelup, we gain 2 skill points. Quest rewards add an additional 24. At level 100, this sums up to 222 (plus 1 for each Potion of Farnham) skill points to distribute.
All in all, we can max out at least 7 skills then.

Cold skills

Shiver Armor
This skill boosts our defense enormously. However, one point is enough; other skills have a higher priority.
Recommendation: 1 + The remaining points in the end

Lightning Skills

Charged Bolt
Available at level 1 and our primary attack skill. To reach a good amount of damage in the end, it needs to be maxed out.
Recommendation: 30

Static Field
Really important for stealing the big Bosses the most of their life. The range is sufficient with +skills from items.
Recommendation: 1

Telekinesis
In the CE-Mod, the synergy effect from Telekinesis on Energy Shield is even more extreme than in normal 1.10: at level 30 the Energy Shield only uses 12.5 mana points to absorb a blow of 100 damage.
Recommendation: 30

Lightning
Increases the damage of Charged Bolt by 6% for each invested skill point.
Recommendation: 30

Teleport
Ideal for placing yourself directly into enemy mobs :), reposition the hireling or travel long distances in short time.
Recommendation: 1

Energy Shield
REALLY important skill. Although the percentage increases not very much in the higher levels, it is really effective to push this skill up to level 40 (with +skills). Level 35 gives 90% damage reduction, but Level 40 gives 95% (maximum) damage reduction which results in a bisection of damage.
Recommendation: 1+ so that it is exactly level 40 with +skills

Lightning Mastery
An extreme boost of damage results from this (more than +750% for my sorceress)
Recommendation: 30

Fire skills

Warmth
Invest one point and have a solid mana regeneration (+400%)...
Recommendation: 1

Blaze
Increases the Firewall by 8% for each skill point and burns a quite long time. Another thing you can do with Blaze, is to lay out nice areas of fire e.g. where Baal's minion would spawn (it deals around 32000 damage each second)
Recommendation: 30

Firewall
For we bind the enemies, they remain in the Fire Wall and receive a huge amount of damage (with good equipment and some skill charms you can reach over 100k)
Recommendation: 30

Fire Mastery
As for Lightning mastery: This skill gives a LOT of damage ;)
Recommendation: 30

All in all, you still need the following pre-requisites: Ice Bolt, Frozen Armor, Ice Blast, Chain Lightning, Inferno

3. Stat point distribution

We start with the following attributes:
Strength: 12
Dexterity: 25
Vitality: 13
Energy: 35

Each Level, the sorceress receives +1 to life, +2 to mana and +1 to stamina.
Each point in vitality results in +2 to life and +1 to stamina. Each point in energy gives +2 to mana.

The stat points are distributed as follows:

Strength: as much as you need for the equipment. If you want to use the Stormshield, you need 156 strength. This can be reduced by wearing items with +strength and by using Oil of Skill with the shield
Dexterity: if you want to use maxblock, invest just as much as you need for it (Calculator). Otherwise, invest enough points to carry your equipment (e.g. 136 for Azurewrath)
Vitality: the rest...
Energy: this sorceress does not work with base energy of 35. The Energy Shield uses up quite much mana when facing the really big mobs which deal heavy damage. I recommend 100 points to invest; this way, my sorceress has 1400 mana with items. And it is still no enough :(

4. Equipment

You should aim for the following:



Die Uber-Uniques sind sicher an vielen Ausruestungsplaetzen die beste Wahl, da aber nicht jeder welche hat (ich auch nicht ;) ), ist hier die alternative Ausruestung beschrieben, mit der man auch auf eine sehr starke Zauberin kommt.

The uber uniques are maybe the best choice on the most equipment slots, but not everyone has them (neither does me ;) ), so here I describe an alternative equipment which will make a very strong sorceress, too.

Helm:
Level 15: Tarnhelm - +1 skill is really nice in the beginning
Level 27: OrtSol (Lore) - into a nice magic circlet
Level 29: Peasant Crown - life, mana, +1 skill
Level 51: LemIstIo (Delirium) - into a nice magic circlet gives +2 skills in addition to the attributes of the circlet (just gamble one with faster cast, resistances or +skills - depending on what you need at the moment)
Level 62: Harlequin Crest - perfect. Much life and mana, 10% damage reduction (compensates the socket maximum of 2, because 8% are equal to one Ber rune) and MF

Amulet:
Level 1: The start amulet
Level 15: The Eye of Etlich - +1 skill so you are not dependent on the start set anymore, thus you can use other weapons
Level 67: Mara's Kaleidoscope - +2 skills and up to 30 resistances make this amulet indispensable except you own the uber amulet ;)

Weapon:
until you reach level 55, pick up every orb and see if it is better than your current one. I don't like The Oculus, because you get teleported around just when you found a nice position to block the enemies
Level 55: KoVexPulThul (Heart of the Oak) - 3 skills, resistances, mana and life replenish are really good.
Level 57: AmnRalMalIstOhm (Call to Arms) - now we can give ourself +5 skills as well as more life and mana. Of course, this is put in the second slot along with a +1 skill shield (Sigon's shield or Lidless Wall)
Level 85: Azurewrath - filled up with Zods, it will give +7 skills. Wow. 9 Attributes are a nice add and if you get bored, you can attack the enemies with the sword itself ;) (until act 2)

Shield:
Level 29: ShaelEth (Rhyme) - gives -until you use the Stormshield- quite good resistances
Level 73: Sturmschild/Stormshield - 35 physical resistance and about 500 defense speak for the Stormshield. If you use a different shield, you will eventually have problems to reach 50% physical resistance, because 35% are equal to more than 4 Ber runes. But the other free sockets are needed for Um runes.

Armor:
Level 17: TalEth (Stealth) - faster run speed, 25% faster cast as well as 15% mana regeneration are the best choice for this level
Level 29: Skin of the Vipermagi - +1 skills, 30% faster cast, 20-35 all-resistances are very useful attributes for our sorceress
Level 63: DolUmBerIst (Chains of Honor) - +2 skills, 65 resistance and +20 strength are the optimum for this sorceress. Though Enigma gives 2 skills too, it has no resistances. If you use the Stormshield, you can use every armor up to 136 strength, most suitable would be one with the suffix "godly" for this gives an additional 100%-200% defense.

Gloves:
Level 9: Bloodfist - 40 Life are useful just in the beginning because you can forget about vitality in the beginning and start investing energy
Level 23: Magefist - +1 to fire skills, some mana regeneration and 20% faster cast will be the optimum even in the end
Frostburn can be used from level 29 on, if you have real mana problems. But in the end, it has almost no effect. 2 Stones of Jordan as well as Battle orders give enough mana. By the way the other attributes are useless compared to Magefist (no fire skill and no faster cast)

Rings:
Either you use the Stone of Jordan twice or you use the Bul-Kathos ring. I think, the stones are more practical, because +300 mana make more sense than +100 life (my sorceress)

Belt:
Level 7: Lenymo - Just right for the mana problems you have with every sorceress at the beginning.
Level 20: Nightsmoke - 10 resistance-all and mana are quite good.
Level 36: Gloom's Trap - gives some life and mana, but reduces the lightning radius by 3 ;). And it is always too low in the dungeons :).
Level 80: Arachnid Mesh - +1 skills, 20% faster cast (important!) and some mana --> optimum

Boots:
Level 5: Hotspur - 15 life and 45 fire resistance comes in very useful in the beginning
Level 32: Wasserwanderung/Waterwalk - the boots with the most attributes (15 dexterity and 22.5-32.5 vitality). For we need many attributes, we just use it. An upgrade for some more defense would be a good idea (you got the strength anyway...)

Sockets:
Weapon and the two rings are filled up with Zod runes to get +8 skills. Then, you put 3 Zod into your amulett and your shield to reach 95% maximum resistance. The other sockets in the shield are filled with Um runes, because they have the best effect here (+22). Put some more Um runes or 15%-res-all-jewels into the other sockets (belt and helm) until you reach 95% resistance-all in hell (take account of the resistance charms like Annilihus)

Charms:
An Annilihus is essential, therefore, go and kill Uber Diablo until you get a +5 skills version with good resistances. The other charms should comlete your resistances up to 95. You also need some faster hit recovery to avoid stunlock, because you get hit very often.

5. Teddyskills:

I do not like the teddiskills, because I don't want to get dependent of them to have my problems in the next version.
But some skills come in very handy ;) :

if you get the 4 blocker skills, you have a small zoo which protects you and your hireling in a passive way by dragging many hits to itself. I did not test them yet, but I think, they will survive very long at this high level.

6. Hireling:

The hireling should mainly kill fire- and lightning immune enemies.
The hirelings from act 1 or act 5 are not a good idea in my opinion, because they do not support us in any way.
The act 3 hireling (ice) freezes the enemies and gives a third element of damage as well as (if you buy it at hell) a conviction aura which makes him a good choice. I did not test it yet, though. Good equipment for him should have many +skills.
If you decide for an act 2 hireling, there are multiple possibilities:
Defiance: Boosts your defense up and with Doom he also freezes the enemies which makes him survive very long.
Holy Freeze: Does not need Doom, so he can also equip a weapon with %-chance to cast Decrepify (The Reaper's Toll) or one with even more damage than Doom (although Doom already deals a lot of damage)

7. How to play this sorceress

At the beginning, you should fight from distance, especially against the dragons. But you should test your qualities as a blocker, which increase with good resistances and an Energy Shield with at least 60%. The advantage of close-combat is, that the close enemies die at first because they get hit by most of the bolts.

Skill point distribution:
Generally: as you can put one point into any prerequisite, you do so.
In the beginning, every point goes into Charged Bolt as well as 1 point into Warmth. From level 12 on, you can put points into the synergy of Charged Bolt, Lightning. At level 18, you put one point into Firewall to have something against lighning immune. At level 30, you put one point in Fire Mastery and Lightning Mastery and max out Lightning and Lightning Mastery. When you did this, you continue at Firewall and Blaze. At the end, the last points go to Telekinesis (and Energy shield until you got level 40)

Problematical areas/enemies:

Duriel normal:
When not in a party, you will have some problems with him. A solution that takes some time is to cast Blaze and run large circles until he is dead. Or you can (if you have Teleport already) cast Charged Bolt until he gets hit, then teleport behind him. This way he gets hit twice by the bolts. The simpliest tactic is to place yourself right under him and cast Charged Bolts, because they will deal extreme damage in this close range.

Maggot Lair generally:
Charged Bolt works not good in here, because it hits the walls instead of the monsters :(. Just teleport to level 3 and clean Coldwurm's chamber normally.

Chaos Sanctuary hell:
Without a hireling (Iron Maiden), this is a torture, because many monsters are fire immune, many are lightning immune and some are even both. You kill somewhat slow.

Ancients hell:
Not really a problem if you know how:
Before you activate the altar, put a Firewall through 2 of them and play around with Blaze. After you activated the altar, run in circles and shoot at the ancients until they are dead. If you are good at laying the Firewalls, you speed up the whole process.

8. My sorceress

Skills:



Charscreen:



Equipment:



Weapon: Azurewrath with 6 Zod
Helm: Harle with 2 Um
Amulet 30-res-Mara's with Zod
Shield: Stormshield with 2 Um and 2 Zod
Armor: Etheral Godly Archon Plate with Chains of Honor --> 2300 defense
Gloves: Magefist
Rings: 2*SoJ with Zod
Belt: Arachnid Mesh with 2 Um
Boots: upgraded Waterwalk
Charms: 5-skill-Annilihus, resistance-charms, a lightning skiller (yes I still need more), 24% faster hit recovery and a teddy with Conviction