Cold sorceress build variations

Sorceress
1

Hello folks,

I’m looking for a bit of advice from sorceress experts. Mine died a long time ago at level 91 (closed Battle.Net, account expiration, rest in peace), and was using Frozen Orb and Nova at the time (game version 1.09 so no synergies).

I was reading a few guides from different websites (including the all-new and already great d2.maxroll.gg), but I’m still considering build variations from what is commonly found.

So what do you guys think of:

  • Frozen Orb + Hydra (is hydra good enough to take care of the remaining cold immunes?)
  • Frozen Orb + Fireball
  • Frozen Orb + Meteor
  • Frozen Orb + Nova
  • Blizzard and nothing else (probably max damage due to huge synergies, but leaving the cold immunes to the merc + static field).
  • Anything else that would be interesting to consider?

Thanks a lot for your ideas and advice on this.

2

Hydra is garbage sadly. I would go Fireball.

3

Frozen orb + energy shield/telekinesis . Frozen orb tank is pretty amazing and fun.

1 Like
4

There’s only one decent option for fire if you want a dual elemental damage. Use firewall.

4 Likes
5

Ya, if you want duel damage types that’s probably the best match up. I personally rather go pure with one element and rely on a merc for immunities.

6
  • Cold/fire is statistically the most efficient dual-element Sorc build.
  • Just about any popular combo works, be it fire/cold or cold/fire, along with any 2 meta skills from either tree. It’s mostly about preference vs efficiency.
  • Blizzard-only is what you run when you are done leveling and MFing only.
  • Frozen orb is the cheapest skill to run in terms of points, but Blizzard scales far better at max level.
  • Blizzard/Fireball is my favorite, since it scales the moment you get Leaf early game and you don’t really need to respec as you level up.
  • Meteor, Hydra, and Firewall are all viable but not optimal.
  • Lightning is obviously best endgame, but the most common immunity in Nightmare and Hell, so without Infinity you run into problems.
2 Likes
7

Thank you all for your answers. I will probably try a Frozen Orb / Fireball sorceress. It’s seems easy to level and viable end-game at the same time.

I would love lightning, but as you said, it requires Infinity to be efficient. Considering I’d like to try a lightning javelin Amazon and maybe a lightning trap Assassin, I may keep my sorceress cold.

8

Im debating this as well. I almost always make a Cold variant to MF with early and start running Hell Mephisto. But with the Necromancer being my Fav character of all time I might go there instead.

I always liked the Frozen Orb /Hydra with Tals set, torch, and Anni I was able to run all the areas I was interested in. Countess, Meph, Pindle, Baals, Shenk - and that other guy up top ??

I tried a Wind Druid on Open Beta and wasnt really feeling the power, probably due to having crap items. So Im probably gonna go Cold Sorc to start - either FO/Hydra or Blizzard/Fireball … Hope to eventually work into a tals set which is ok for a dual element sorc…

9

I finally changed my mind and would like to try a Frozen Orb / Firewall sorceress instead.

After reading more guides on the topic, Firewall is more powerful and requires less points to be efficient so it frees up skill points for something else (+its synergy is Warmth which is always great to have and actually used, while a Fireball sorceress would use Fire Bolt as synergy and never use it.

The only downside is that it can take a bit of time to get used to the Firewall skill so that the monster remain in the fire, but I’m almost sure it’s something I can handle properly after a while. Also, it’s a bit harder to start because these interesting skills once again aren’t available at first. But it’s ok, the game is easy enough on early normal mode.

1 Like
10

Just blizzy my guy.

Most effective farming build for general hell farming.

11

my blizz / chain hybrid i use this every ladder start to mf hell

20 ice bolt (synergy with orb and blizz)
20 blizz
1 orb (the 1 pt orb combined with synergy may not seem like a lot but it really helps with norm and nm runs and can kill mobs such as the ghosts in hell chaos that are off the edge you can’t hit with blizz)
1 cold mastery
1 frozen armor

20 lite mastery
20 chain lightning
1 tele
1 static
x lightning (rest of points here)

1 warmth

12

So Im playing D2LOD until the Sept 23rd…

Just rolled a Chain Lightning / Frozen Orb sorc and its working really well into late NM and Baal runs at lvl 71… Iv’e never tried it in Hell though so I dont know if it will work - havent seen many cold/lightning immunes so far in NM…

13

Cold / Fire sorc
This is by far the strongest dual elemental sorc I’ve ever played.

– Cold Skill Tree –

  • Blizzard - 20
  • Glacial Spike - 20
  • Ice Blast - 20
  • Frozen Armor - 1
  • Ice Bolt - ( This depends on how much damage you want on your blizzard. I find that a 5k blizzard works very well for even up to players 8. )
  • Cold Mastery ( Just enough for 100% , nothing more seems to matter in 99% of the content )

–Lightning Skill Tree–

  • Static field - 1
  • Telekinesis - 1
  • Teleport - 1

–Fire Skill Tree–

  • Firewall - 20
  • Warmth - ( This depends on how much damage you want on your firewall. Around 6k dmg firewall performs amazingly and you will be surprised just how fast you melt Andy & Diablo. It even performs well against Meph. )
  • Fire Mastery - 1 ( Warmth gives more damage per point than Mastery when you have at least +10 to all skills. )

–Gear, no skiller charms–
Helm - Shako
Chest - Viper Magi
Amulet - random +1 sorc skills
Weapon - Occy
Shield - Spirit
Gloves - Chanceguards
Rings - Random FCR + resists
Belt - Tals
Boots - random resists / mf / movement
Sorc torch

My current sub par build damage =
Blizzard : 4.5k
Firewall : 6k

With better gear, 5k Blizzard / 7k firewall is EASILY achievable. I can farm everything in the game with this on players 8.

Of course any good merc gear will further assist but that’s without saying, just like getting the pre-reqs to the skills you need.

Enjoy :smiley:

2 Likes
14

Warmth gives 4% damage while fire mastery gives 7%? Or am I missing something.

15

idk it works this way but… it does… I thought the same thing but warmth appears to be granting a greater benefit

16

I threw the skills into a calculator and it shows more damage with fire mastery, so I’m unsure how warmth can outplay it, seems odd.

17

are you using d2.maxroll.gg ??
If you max Firewall only - then swap between maxing either fire mastery or warmth, you gain more damage from maxing warmth. ( assuming you have at least 1 point in each already) approx 600 more max end dmg.
I don’t know why though… the maxroll will also show you actual DPS instead of just “raw damage”

18

Yeah I used that, this is what I got:

20 Firewall, 20 Fire Mastery, 1 Warmth
https://imgur.com/BZpIdOs

20 Firewall, 1 Fire Mastery, 20 Warmth
https://imgur.com/tBK36HY

19

won’t let me see load the images even with copy/pasta.
I currently have a total of +12 to all skills.
Can you try to mimic the gear and see if you have the same outcome?
Even with better gear than what I currently have equipped, it still shows warmth doing more.

20

Yeah when you add +10 skills it adds more, but if you have no skills, then fire mastery does more. The only thing that I can come up with now is that somehow fire mastery and synergies calculate differently? Idk tbh. Need someone with the knowledge here. :smiley: