I’m finding Frostburn with the unique pants for %ch on freezing and %ch on frost nova on death is a viable synergy for killing stuff in W4. I’m running arc lash, but mainly for defenses since pure frost IMO is an invitation to get zerged by mobs. Ice shards when they hit frozen enemies do a lot of damage.
I’m level 93 and personally I don’t think any of our uniques are required. The closest one is probably raiments of the infinite but it gives up a lot of defense and makes teleport more offensive which can get you in trouble at times. Frost burn seems cool but you miss out on a huge + to skills. Pants are largely the same as raiments, it’s one of the biggest defensive slots and they’re not started particularly well for it. The weapons would be cool if we weren’t so reliant on lucky hit to keep us casting, also the huge - damage on charged bolt feels bad. Really it comes down to personal preference and play style.
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a side from shako, every other thing in sorc only unique category r dog pooo. you have maybe raiment that r some what usable in higher lvl dungeon. everything else will simply get phase out by lvl 80 with codex rare, u really cant use any of them past lvl 50 dungeon. too much damage and utility missing.
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Yeah there are always tradeoffs. With boosting lucky hit chance, large groups of mobs on W4 die in chain frost nova explosions, and I don’t have to worry about getting one shotted.
I’m still wondering how some of these videos I am seeing showing sorcs do like 200K+ damage every time their ice shards hit. I am wondering if that has more to do with level and paragon level than anything. I’m running 3 defensive skills - ice armor, frost nova, and teleport, with arc lash and ice shards as the primary damage sources. Unstable currents good for burning down bosses quickly and getting them into a stagger state.
So I am certainly curious what in the world some of these people are doing to get those kinds of numbers. I am at 75 and I can do “ok” in W4. Things die relatively fast but you all know how it goes in Diablo - things must die faster. 
I just posted this in another thread so I’ll just copy/past it here:
Except for Raiment sorc uniques are almost all garbage, with a couple being almost o.k., but still much worse than half-way decent yellows. Even Raiment falls off at higher NMDs when defense is needed. I average 4-6 unique drops a day and they all get sold. I don’t even to look at them anymore
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How the heck are you averaging 4-6 unique’s a day!? I think I’ve gone a week+ without seeing one.
Spamming Nightmare Dungeons and maybe mixing in Helltides. I think my record for uniques in a day doing just that was five.
I don’t think that any of the uniques are as much of a “must have” as some of the uniques are for other classes (with that I would also include Raiments and even the Harlequin Crest in here). Maybe future uniques or them giving us a D4 version of Tal Rasha’s Wrappings will change that but nothing in game rn is worth bending yourself backwards over.
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Frostburn’s Lucky Hit %, depends on your total lucky hit stats.
IceHeart Brais is a flat chance max at x%, but condition has to be met, enemies need to die when “frozen” than the X% for it to proc.
Both item when it proc it’s great, when they don’t, they are just deficient gear, because other stats on the items are mediocre.
Raiments of the Infinite are “guaranteed” gather n stun, the stun part also sync with other damage buffs like controlled, stunned etc, makes giving up some defense a choice to make.
If you have godly gear and are just speedfarming low tier NM and helltides some uniques can be good.
Raiment/Iceheart are really nice for applying immediate/delayed CC respectively, which makes things die faster especially when running an ice shards build. Frostburn can be OK if you are running a build that doesn’t rely on a core skill, since you are losing +4 to that skill. But you also lose an offensive aspect slot which translates to a 1.2x-1.3x multiplier depending on which one you are running.
If you are doing group play and are just a zDPS CC bot, I guess all three of those could be good choices.
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It’s not really fair to include shako in a must have list since it’s so rare. That being said if you get it you use it, it far outclasses any of the alternatives.
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I wouldn’t say any of them are “must haves” if anything almost all of them are a straight up loss over a regular item with well rolled affixes and a good aspect. Perhaps the only exception to that from the Sorcerer specific uniques is the Raiment. But even then it’s more of a convenience/crutch item than a necessity. From the general unique pool maybe the freezing gloves and the shield pants but again you’re giving up a lot to use them because they all have terrible inherent rolls that you can’t change. Then there’s the “Shako” which is unquestionably BiS but good lucky getting that. You’ll have better odds with the lottery, actually much better, lol.
Every single sorc unique is garbage, built in nerfs, let alone… you give up soooo much.
Only one worth anything is raiment and that only goes so far.
- Level 100
- 200% vuln damage
- 200% crit damage (plus ~97% from Destruction Glyph)
- ~95% crit rate on core skills (Elementalist’s apsect on amulet)
- 35% Control aspect
- Lots of +damage to close, etc. etc.
Teleport (stun) > Frost Nova (freeze) and I regularly crit for ~200-250k per ice shard. Add in another 35% from Binding Embers if I use Flame Shield and 250k+ per ice shard is common.
Having said that it’s a lot of effort compared to other classes…
It wouldn’t be worth including regardless of how rare it is. If it would also boost your passives like how the item description implies (and how it was in a previous instalment of this series) then things would be different but as it is rn nothing about it makes it a “must have” as it doesn’t change / improve anything about the class and its builds in a fundamental way.
None
Frostburn gloves are terrible btw
Imagine giving up aspect + crit + attack speed + 4 ranks of ice shards, for that
The pants are good between levels 50-70. But once you want to progress in nightmare you will have to stash these and move on to defensive pants
Raiment of the infinite is probably the main reasons why sorc cry about being so fraigle
We are already the softest class, but then you wear around a piece of armor that actually makes you take more damage, in the slot thats your most important defensive piece?
My chest slot that is by no means perfect:
10.3% damage reduction
20.9% damage reduction from close enemies
19.6% damage reduction from enemies that are burning
10.5% total armor
You take 25% less damage from crowd controled or vulnerable enemies
So i take that off and instead put on rainment that gives me no defensives at all and makes me take 3% additional damage?
Then im gona go cry on the forums that white mobs 1 hit me in Nightmare Dungeons?
Seriously raiment is the most overrated item in the entire game. Lets get that out the way now. Its fun, and its good. I use it for questing. I use it for helltides. Its fun
But its not suitable for hard content
Penitent greaves. What a missed opportunity
Would be good if it wasnt for completely dead stats
No ranks of frost nova
No mana cost reduction
Just too much to give up
Rogues will like this item more than sorcs
Now that thats all out the way, the only good unique i found actually worth the trade offs is not a sorc item at all….fists of fate, but only if you get a good roll. Seriously great item with a lucky hit build
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Yeah I am not keen on the Raiment Chest. Reliable CC is a form of defense in my mind which is why I try to get a reasonable amount of lucky hit % so they freeze more often and then have a chance to die with a frost nova. Frost nova specced to always make vulnerable, so even the mobs when they die with a frost nova, makes other mobs vulnerable, too. Packs die pretty well, but still, one of the main sources of the weakness of the class is cooldowns on defensive skills. I put points into %ch to reset a defensive, along with a head enchant and that does pretty well for having it available. But, I tell ya, stuff coming off the screen you can’t even see 1-shotting you isn’t fun.
Oh well.
If you like cc you will love fists of fate
Just daze and immobilize everywhere
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I find it highly doubtful that you would not immediately equip it on any build you found it on. It literally makes everything the sorc (or any class for that matter) does better in addition to having near ideal stats for the helm slot. If you think that it’s not good enough because passives don’t count as skills then that’s your opinion and we’re going to have to agree to disagree.
+1… I looked at a few of the other class uniques and was like WTF… Why do we get nerfs with uniques and the other classes are all plus with no negatives…
Dafuq?