I’ve been spending quite a bit of time checking out guides, video etc on sorc builds particularly when it comes to leveling. Using the D2 planner I put the following together for a Frozen orb/FB 1-40 starter build with the ability to continue on maxing orb through NM.
Please feel free to critique but if you think it sucks and I suck at least give compelling reasons why!
3 things I want to accomplish here.
Fun build, I’ve always been partial to Frozen orb sorc
Viable
No respec needed at least until more end game stuff.
Skill point allocation Orb/FB 1-40
Firebolt
Den Icebolt
Lvl 3 Warmth
4 and 5 save.
At level 6 frost nova, static, ice blast
7,8,9,10,11 Save
Level 12: 1 into inferno, blaze, FB, and teleK
2 points saved
13 FB
14 FB
15 FB
Rad Save
16 FB
17 FB Make stealth
18 FB, glacial, firewall and teleport
Zero points saved
19 FB - Make leaf. Gnarled staff
20 FB
21 FB
22 FB
23 save
24 Blizz/meteor
25-29 save
Level 30 with izual 8 points saved
1 into orb, 1 into Cold Mastery 1 into fire mastery
5 points saved
30-35 1 into Orb and 1 into Cold Mastery
Zero points remaining
35-40 all into orb
Level 40 (or earlier) begin to move into spirit, insight, lore, ancient pledge etc
I’m really not a fan of using Meteor, so I’m just going to skip it entirely. It saves a few points in its pre-reqs which can be diverted to Firebolt to make the first couple levels a bit easier and buff fireball when you get it at 12. So, unless you just enjoy using Meteor or really want to moat Meph, it’s something to consider.
I’m going fire/cold as well, but will be going strictly fire through normal, respecing into frozen orb in nm and begin building firewall in act 5 nm with a single point in fire mastery. As soon as I’m through hell, I’ll go strictly cold.
Def going off memory here but I almost feel like going pure cold always worked for me. Mastery pierce immunes and my merc would hold it down. Ontop of that Static is insanely strong.
Keeping your build in mind though because it looks really interesting. My route is usually blizzard but this looks better for clearing.
I plan to build a firewall and orb sorc.
1 point to the requirement and the one-point wonder skills.
13 points to Firewall until level 30
level up Orb starting from level 30.
Any extra goes to Cold Mastery until it reaches level 10~12
Afterward, maxing out Firewall and Fire Mastery.
respec to frozen orb at 30
After that just max out Orb, CM, Ice Bolt and farm NM bosses for a while, before progressing to Hell. But first get a few points in Firewall or some other fire skill and 1 Fire Mastery for CI’s.
I ended up going with a modified version using less skill points as I went a long and saving more to be able to pump into orb and cm at the same time with each other. Only 32 but so far so good
I didn’t play Diablo 2 for ages, but taking a look at my notes back then apparently my build for Hell was cold+lightning - I see 20 points in Ice Bolt and Frozen orb and 20 to Chain Lightning and Lightning Master. I don’t know why I got the impression that I chose that becuase of the immunities. Anyway that was like 20 years ago so I might suck balls now Playing the beta I noticed I had real problems with cold only at the beginning. But if I get it wrong I can reset one time my skills, so that’s good
As soon as you get frozen orb start maxing it. Secondary skill meteor or hydra or lightning, pick what you fancy. Make sure you stick 1 point in Static Field, Warmth and Teleport. Use Leaf until you switch to Frozen orb, then Run the countess to make Stealth, Lore and Insight (for Holy Freeze merc from act 2 nightmare). Put Ancients Pledge in a shield. When you get to nightmare countess it should be easy enough to make Smoke and possibly switch to Rhyme on the shield, or not if you prefer ancients pledge.
I farmed nm in d2lod earlier this year and found a lot of pre-rune word BIS gear pretty quickly.
was having a bad time now and can’t find much… and now I ruined my build (im pure lightning) and I can’t respec. soooo now im making a cookie cutter paladin like everyone else
Cold Mastery RIGHT NOW DOES Break Immunities for Cold Spells. People have stated its either a bug or now intended due to it specifically NOT stating it isn’t supposed to break immunities. People have said back in D2 Classic that CM was actually bugged and supposed to break immunities but the bug was never fixed (like many other bugs). In D2R they fixed a lot of the old classic bugs.
But as of right now, CM DOES BREAK IMMUNITIES (it does not remove the cold immune tag since its only on a spell level for the caster, not for everyone.
would make sense that cold mastery would break some immunes, but not others later on in higher acts because their resist levels are too high for CM to break it.
i mean… itt lowers enemy resistances to cold right?.. just like how infinity and lower resist lowers enemy resistances.
Playing the beta I noticed I had real problems with cold only at the beginning. But if I get it wrong I can reset one time my skills, so that’s good