Fire Wall + Frozen Orb viable?

Just trying to build something that isn’t Meteorb, which I’ve played before and just didn’t care for at all.

Cold Tree
20x Ice Bolt
1x Frozen Armor
1x Frost Nova (p)
1x Ice Blast (p)
1x Glacial Spike (p)
1x Blizzard (p)
20x Frozen Orb
1x Cold Mastery

Lightning Tree
1x Telekinesis
1x Teleport
1x Static Field

Fire Tree
20x Warmth
1x Inferno (p)
1x Blaze (p)
20x Fire Wall
1x Fire Mastery

Thoughts on the viability of this?

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Max out Fire Mastery 1st will give you more damage.

I am also going to build a Firewall Orb sorc later if they don’t fix the Cold Mastery. Right now, Cold Mastery can break immunity just like Lower Resist or Conviction

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Yeah, I don’t like building based on a bug that will very likely be fixed. There are quite a few so we can likely expect a patch soon. (Looking at you, map overlay bug. That is just infuriating as a teleporter.)

Firewall melts enemies if you can get them to stay in one place. Just plowing through hell atm (solo SF offline).

If I’m Meteorb would it make sense to switch to Orbwall? Kill speed right now is kinda slow for me, but this is my first hell character so idk how fast things should die. Lvl 74 A3

Probably not, I’d save the respec. Meteorb is very good too.

I hate Meteor for anything that isn’t a boss. I can cast Fire Wall to my immediate left or right and let enemies walk through the flames.

In response to what was said earlier, extra points into Fire Mastery have hugely diminishing returns, don’t they? And with +skills it’s almost not worth maxing I thought.

You can use a character planner to check the damage but in my case putting points into fire mastery resulted in more damage than into warmth.

Nope, each level is increased by an additional 7%. There are no diminishing returns on Fire Mastery.
http://classic.battle.net/diablo2exp/skills/sorceress-fire.shtml

People don’t max Fire Mastery 1st when using fireball because each level of synergy gives an additional 14% for fireball. However, Warmth only gives an additional 4% which is lower the 7%.

People don’t max Cold Mastery is because -100% cap back in the D2.
Now, Cold Mastery can break through the immunity. It is up to your prefence.

Try to get to -100% for Cold Mastery.
In the guide, they usually put 1 point because it is base on overpowering endgame gear. You will need around 10~12 for the budget gear.

Also, you don’t need high FCR that much. 37% is okay-ish and 63% should be good enough. FCR doesn’t increase OrbWall sorc damage. However, it will help to tele around.

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I leveled with Firewall, and found it quite useful and kills things very fast. it’s currently my go-to for fire damage when my Orb can’t do the job.

it’s a bit more finicky in placement them meteor, but hits instantly, and stuff melts. I would practice a bit early on. I leveled my sorc through act 3 and 4 with nothing but my merc, frost nova, and firewall (leaf staff). it was slow since I didn’t have much mana regen, but I didn’t die and it was very good practice placing my FW.

I loved firewall, huge damage for small investment.

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I walked through hell, ancients, baal with frozen orb/firewall, then went back and got all the quests I had skipped since my firewall was much more leveled. I love frozen orb. It’s such a fun skill. It works great even on consoles. I just wish it had more synergies and I wouldn’t spec out. Eventually I specced into Blizzard once I was through the content so I could farm specific areas more quickly.

I don’t know about one point in cold mastery. I would swap that. Put one point in fire mastery and get cold up to -100% before putting more into Fire Mastery, but only after Firewall is leveled. And I don’t see much benefit of 20 points in ice bolt at 2% damage per point, but I guess if this is endgame then you gotta go for it.

Switched from Meteorb to orb + Wall. Strongest sorc Ive had in 20 years. Absolutely melt everything with firewall. Wouldn’t go back. Max FO. Cold mastery aim for 27ish after skills. Firewall. Fire mastery. Points to end in warmth

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Hey,
I just started this build, I’m lv 75 with 8 remaining skill points (and aim to go up to 85 max), what should I boost first ?
I’m currently with ::
Frozen Orb : 20
firewall : 20
Warmth / Fire Mastery : 5
Ice Bolt / Cold Mastery : 5
All prereq + static/teleport

I know I shouldn’t put point in Ice Bolt (only 2% synergy), but too late…

Should I first put Cold Mastery to 17 (including +skills) first ?

Thanks a lot !

You are missing 8 skill points by my count? 4 if maybe hell quests not done.
I’d use one of your respecs to tidy up if I was you.
Order for me for my above post. Orb → CM → Firewall → Fire Mastery → Warmth

Actually I have just respec :sweat_smile:
I really wanted that points in warmth (i just got Insight but my merc is perma dead in Hell).
Its ok if i only miss like 4 points somewhere.

You are right as I said I still have 8 points to spent (+ Izual quest later).
So i will put 10 to 11 hard points to CM to get around 17 (-100) and then all in Fire Mastery.
Nothing more in Ice Bolt.
Thanks

I am using an Orb+FWall sorc, with 20 on Lightning and 1 on LMastery. The Lit helps my Merc if I encounter a cold/fire immune boss and in 1 player mode the damage of all my spells are more than suficcient. :slight_smile: I even tried it with my friend in Hell cows and while it is certainly not a Furyzon, the damage is still good enough. But the main point is to cover 2 main element types, plus half of the third type to extend my merc’s physical damage, so I can kill all mobs without skipping any of them.

Thats nice yes.
How many points did you put in both Fire/Cold Mastery ?

Rather than hard-following a specific build, it is better to start off with the basics and fine tune it while testing it against mobs. What I did for this sorc:

  1. 1 pt on support skills (Teleport, Warmth, etc…), then maxed out FOrb and 1 pt on CM.
  2. As I respeced from full Fire into this build when started Hell and I had something like +6 all skills, I just went out from town and started killing mobs with orb, just to see how effective it is.
  3. I wanted at least 3k Fire damage, so I started leveling up FWall (plus 1 pt in FMastery) up to about 2k and started using it to see how much do I need to be effective in Act1. I did not need to max it, but thats because of my playstyle. Maybe you will need it. This is why I highly recommend to test instead of blindly follow a guide.
  4. Same for Lightning, 1 pt on LMastery and then Lightning. As this is a support spell, I tested it with my Merc’s damage, so even though I am a guitarist I did not want to “solo” with it. :smiley: It has a bit more than 1k damage, but I think it is good enough.
  5. I had a lot of pts left and I did not spend them. I started going through Hell and when my main spells lacked of damage I put 1 pt on them as needed.

Hope it helps!