Finally: 1.10 Cold/Fire Meph Sorc Guide

[Jason]

Aight, I have had several requests for this guide.
Now this isn't tested so build at your own risk.

The reason it isn't tested is because I have been working on my druid more than anything.

So here goes..

I'm writing this for a non ladder sorc..(because by now tons of people have the right gear on ladder anyways).

Also I am not basing this on uber rich bastards so that ladder people can use the guide too..its gonna be a skullder sorc.

STATS

Strength - 93
93 strength will do you fine. Skullders is 97 and Travs are 95.
Once you have a shako on you will ned 93 str for travs bacause of the +2 all attributes. Travs give 10 to strength taking you to 105 strength.

Dexterity - Base or 75
Leave this at base unless you plan on using wizardspike, in which case you put 75 points into dex.

Energy - 50
Most people leave this at base because of the gear they get adds to mana.
I say put 50 or so points into energy that way you for sure will not run out of mana.

Vitality - Rest of points
You want as much life as possible so crank all your points after getting the others set into here.

I usually even out my stats..getting strength up to 50 or so then lots into energy and vitality then working on them evenly.

Skills

Max Firebolt
Firebolt is a synergy to fireball, which will be one of your main skills.

Max Fireball
Fireball maxed with fire mastery and firebolt maxed will give you a good amount of damage ranging from 1k-3k depending on gear.

Max Fire Mastery
Adds extra fire damage..simply..nuff said.

Max Frozen Orb
Frozen Orb is going to be your cold skill backup main attack for fire immunes.

1 Warmth
After wearing all of your gear your warmth will jump in points thus saving you skill points.

1 Static Field
Most beneficial skill in a sorceress' use.

1 Armors/Tele
Most people commonly use energy shield, teleport, shiver armor, and thunderstorm. Well TS is ruled out cuz ur not maxing light mast..I suggest energy shield..its beneficial in many cases..tele gets you around fast in durance, and shiver armor shields you from taking damage.

Rest Pre-Reqs/Cold Mast
There are 8 or so pre-reqs in all. Cold mast helps a lot too.

For skills I usually max one skill until I can do the next, then max that skill until the next, and so on.. eventually evening them out.

GEAR

This will be based on a skullders armor setup.

Armor - Skullders Ire w/ PTopaz
Skullders is one of the best mf armors to use. +1 skills and MF per lvl.

Helm - Shako w/ Ber rune
Shako is by far the best helm for a sorc..MF or not.
It gives +2 skills +2 all attributes and tons of life and mana..not to mention 10% DR.
Ber adds to that DR %

Gloves - Frostburns, Magefists, or Chance Guards
Chance Guards For Good MF. Magefists For Faster Cast Rate or Frostburns for mana regen.

Belt - Glooms Trap
Increase Maximum Mana 15%, Regenerate Mana 15%, and +15 To Vitality..you can't beat it.

Boots - War Travs
MF, Vitality, FRW, and Strength..very good boots for a sorc..if you dont want to use travs, I suggest silkweaves for the mana.

Rings - Dual SoJ's
+1 Skills, Increase Maximum Mana 25%, and +20 To Mana by far the best legit ring for an mf sorc.

Amulet - Maras Kaleidescope or rare/crafted caster ammy
Maras for resists and skills..other two are good and very beneficial also.

Weapon -Wizard Spike w/ Resist Jewel - Occulus w/ Ist on Switch
Wizardspike offers excellent resists, cast rate, and mana.
Occulus has good mf..thus used for switch.

Both Excellent, Your Choice.

Shield - Stormshield w/ Ist
Good Resists and 30% DR..Can't beat it.


HOW AND WHERE TO MF

Mephisto
Mephisto is a good all around monster to MF off of.
When going for things such as Stormsheilds, Occys,Shakos,Etc. He Is One Of The Best. Although Not Best For 1.10 Items.

How To Mf Off Of Meph
Mf'ing off of meph is quite simple.
Once you get to him you should do the following:
1. Static 10 times
2. Frozen Orb On Left, Teleport On Right..Orb Him And Tele To Dodge Attacks.
3. You Kill Him!
or
1. Static 10 times
2.Orb On Left, Fireball On Right..Orb him to slow him and fireball him to deal great ammounts of damage..do these consistantly together.

Eldritch
Eldritch has proven to give very nice drops in hell.
I suggest doing him for quick Mfing and quick kills..he usually is cold immune..so use fireball.

How To Mf Off Of Eldritch
Basically
1. Static 10 times
2. Fireball Until he dies

Baal
Baal has the best drops in the game (IMHO).
With 0% MF he can still drop good items quite easily..and usually does.

How To Mf Off Of Baal
This is a bit tricky.
1. Kill all his god forsaken minnions -_-;
2. Static his ass 10 times
3. Orb Him And Fireball Him..Teleporting In Between Attacks
4. Finish Him Off With A Good Fireball

For All Bosses You Want To Weapon Switch At The Last Moment RIGHT Before They Die.

This guide was meant to be made for those of you fortunate enough to have good gear on ladder and for those of you making sorcs on non ladder.

Of course, non ladder sorcs can get WAY better gear..

 

[EEX_ca_aok]

w00t, I am soooo building one of these

 

[~Canuck~]

One alternative i have to offer, max meteor over fo, shop a LR wand, and when ever you meet a fire immune, LR them and it should just kill them.


*Note im not sure if LR is still supposed to negate immunities

 

[aleks77]

Whats a good Mercanary for this kinda Sorc?

 

[c9h13no3]

I like the guide. Just make sure you place an emphasis on resists. If you went with an occy + lidless build you'd be running on -20% res all at best, which isn't a very good idea.

Some tips on MF'ing couldn't hurt either. Make a few comments on the diminishing returns of MF, and point out some other places to run for good 1.10 items, because a lot of the new coveted stuff can't be dropped by meph. Add that stuff in and I think it'd be sticky worthy.


..... Now if only I could get some people to write guides for a character other than sorcs......

 

[Jason]

Made some changes..like it now?

 

[Bitchnuts]

I'm remaking my sorc based on your guide (with some minor tweaks of course) thanks.

My meteor/orb sorc really isn't working out. The orb is fine, does great damage, my meteor does around 2500 at the moment. But I've found it damn hard to get enemies to stay still long enough to make meteor an effective tool.

My current stats are as follows @ lvl75:

str: 150 (SS requires 156 right?)
dex: 66
vit: 104 (A little over 400 life, i know waaaaay too little, i die so easily on hell, can't do countess runs or anything)
energy: 190 (I think i put a little too much into mana, have about 500 mana. On this next build i'll put about 100 into her, save the rest for life).

 

[Ebay.God]

viz, i found a problem in your guide, sorry.


In your guide you need shako to ware war travs, and both to use skulders, while skulders and(i think) travs have a requirment of lvl 42, while the shako is 62, which is not good at all. I sujest putting 2 more stat points into str and getting to use them at 42, =P

 

[djnat]

Originally posted by ~Canuck~
One alternative i have to offer, max meteor over fo, shop a LR wand, and when ever you meet a fire immune, LR them and it should just kill them.


*Note im not sure if LR is still supposed to negate immunities

Sadly, it doesn't work. I've tried it, and a LR wand doesn't negate immunities to ALL the monsters that are immune to something, but it only works with a few monsters.
And when it works on those few monsters... they still have a f#&*ing high fire resistance and need tons of fireballs to be killed. So it isn't a good solution, also because every time you have to recharge the wand... it requires great amounts of gold. Too bad.

 

[aleks77]

Stupid noob question:

Where is Eldritch?

 

[Jason]

Frigid Highlands

 

[aleks77]

Instead of using fire mastery have you thought of trying meteor? thats what im doing, it adds 14% damage to fireball + its really useful. I hav meteor at max, fireball at max, firebolt at 10, and fire mastery at 8, and im doing 5000 damage with Meteor and 2.5k with fireball - and this is with only +1 from staff and +1 from circlet, nothing else. Before I added a +1 skill circlet my damage of meteor was 4500, it jumped by 500, you can imagine how good it will be with occy/shako/vipermagi/lidless/sojs

 

[Bitchnuts]

Originally posted by aleks77
Instead of using fire mastery have you thought of trying meteor? thats what im doing, it adds 14% damage to fireball + its really useful. I hav meteor at max, fireball at max, firebolt at 10, and fire mastery at 8, and im doing 5000 damage with Meteor and 2.5k with fireball - and this is with only +1 from staff and +1 from circlet, nothing else. Before I added a +1 skill circlet my damage of meteor was 4500, it jumped by 500, you can imagine how good it will be with occy/shako/vipermagi/lidless/sojs

I did the same thing with my previous sorc, but one thing i came to discover was that even though meteor does good dmg, it's damn near impossible to keep enemies in one place long enough to make use of it. It's really annoying trying to target them, unless you stand in one spot and take a beating for the two seconds it takes to drop.

 

[Diesel628]

For all you whoa say this strat doesnt work your newbs...My first charector i made was exactly like this in 1.10...It is the perfect build for a hell Mfer...Static the shit out of the cold immunes (Shenk & Eldritch) and then fireball em...about 3-4 fireballs later you get a Nice Drop With the right amount of MF...And also You can use orb/Meteor if you have a good merc to occupy shenk/pindle/meph/eldritch while u orb em to slow em down then meteor em...Great guide ViZ...It the Best Mf Build for Hell in 1.10

*I think It should Be a Sticky...But Whats my Oppion Mean?

 

[Punisher]

Once fire mastery gets to a certain point it stops giving over 14% fire damage doesn't it? So, wouldn't it be better to start putting points into meteor because it will give 14% to fire ball?

 

[c9h13no3]

Nvm what I just posted again. My first guess was right. Adding points to mastry is more beneficial. For this particular skill set.

 

[Kao]

OT: Could I get a comment on my Fire-Sorc build? I re-did it......and I still need suggestions....

OT: MY sorc is a little different. Instead, she is just straight FO + CM. She does 536 FO + -93 Resist Cold from the Mastery. That thing rapes meph in 4-6 FO's.

 

[M3_feelin_0wn3d]

question... why switch weapon before boss dies ??? if you have magic find higher on other weapon or shield ?? im using the tacs for item finding but my sorc is screwed already
max orb = sux at damage. only max 400 mayb 500 with all cold spells that it has...

 

[Punisher]

Originally posted by c9h13no3
Nvm what I just posted again. My first guess was right. Adding points to mastry is more beneficial. For this particular skill set.

So max mastery is better than max meteor?

 

[c9h13no3]

Originally posted by Punisher
So max mastery is better than max meteor?

It looks that way, yes. I think the math works out like so:

(Fireball Dmg * (1+Synergy Bonus))*(1+Fire Mastry Bonus)

So yeah, it ends up being better at high levels.

However, the math isn't EXACTLY that. There's been some talk in the diabloii.net statistics forum of fireball being bugged, but no1's been able to pin down exactly how yet.