Melee Sorceress [1.3]

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Solfege
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Engersion wrote:Do you think Lightning + Poison would be better suited at least until you get some decent gear?

With the removal of Frost Armor I don't really see much of a point in investing in the Cold Tree outside of Snow Queen, especially when Ice Elementals just straight up die in most cases. The extra defense and Maximum life don't seem comparable to the passive mitigation and active mitigation offered by Poison tree in terms Vengeful Power and Miasma. The downside is there is more micro involved with managing Miasma.

Once you have access to decent gear then Vengeful Power loses its attractiveness. At that point Snow Queen becomes a much better option. Although I'm wondering if Miasma alone is worth investing in the Poison Tree at least until the final bosses where you'll have dedicated gear anyway.


Probably. Like I said, it looks good on paper, but I haven't tested it yet this patch. I've started testing on a Poison/Lightning build now.

The %DR from Vengeful Power is hard to beat early on, and the Max Life you get is the same as you'd get with 25 points Snow Queen. Plus, you'll still have the Avoid and TCD from Warp Armor. Snow Queen's flat defense does synergize nicely with Warp Armor's TCD (and later, Baneblade's %Bonus Defense), but that can be simulated with ED MOs and/or Ith Runes when you need a boost. About the only thing Ice Elementals would bring to the table is a cheap, spammable summon for when you need a distraction (e.g. Ennead). As far as Miasma needing more micromanaging from the player, I don't think it would be much more burdensome than using Ice Elementals now.

Later on, Force Blast makes Miasma obsolete in terms of active DR. Yeah, you gotta do the BRC to get it, but it's just such a great skill, especially now that it's a nova.

Tbh, Poison/Lightning could work all the way to the end. The main difference between Poison/Lightning and Lightning/Cold is just the type of defense. With Poison, you'll take damage more often, but the damage you take will be reduced. With Cold, you'll take damage less often, but the damage you do take will be greater than without the extra %DR. It's just a personal choice really. But that's the great thing about Melee Sorcs: you can build them in many different ways.
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Dreamhunter
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And what about Fire/Lightning or Fire/Poison tree?
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Solfege
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Sure, they can work too.

With the Fire tree, you're using Life+sustain as a primary form of defense. This makes Fire a tougher sell for Early-Game because Living Flame needs some investment before it starts to get good. That said, it may not be as bad for melee early on thanks to LF's boosts this patch. And once you get to clvl 90, Baneblade's native LoA works as a nice supplement to LF's regen.

I haven't done a full playthrough of either Poison/Fire or Fire/Lightning this patch, but I did do some End-Game testing with these specs. Test Sorc is clvl 121 with End-Game gear and full Charms, minus Void Charm and upped Trader's Chest (b/c I never do Void or Zorun Tzin). Here are the results so far:

Poison/Fire:
It's been surprisingly amazing, as long as you don't mind a little extra skill switching. It still hasn't been super fast at clearing tougher Uberlevels such as Fauzt, but I've been facetanking both Fauzt and Viz-jun in Dest, and the most Life I've ever lost is half a globe (b/c fire mines in Viz-jun). No moon cookies required. Tbh, this patch is slowly making Poison/Fire one of my favorite specs for both melee and casters.

Fire/Lightning:
Hasn't been as good as Poison/Fire in my tests, but it's still a totally viable spec. Though Avoid is a superior defense mechanic to DR, overall survivability suffers a little with this spec. You don't have enough points to boost Moonstrike+Fusillade+LF to the same levels while still getting the highest possible Avoid from Warp Armor. So you'll need to make some tough choices when it comes to skill point distribution. This means either sacrificing some damage (Moonstrike, Firedance), versatility (Fusillade), or survivability (Living Flame).

With Melee Sorcs, it's not so much about pure Armor Class defense. It's more about layering different types of defense mechanics in the most efficient ways you can based on how you want to play. I simply chose the Armor Class defense route for this guide because it's a simple concept that's easy to understand for many new players (based on the feedback I got when I was rewriting the guide for M2017).



Edit:
I've added preliminary Skillplans for Poison/Lightning and Poison/Fire melee builds to the "Quick Note For 1.3 Players" section of the guide, in case anyone wants to try them out for themselves.
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Dreamhunter
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First of all, thanks for the answer, second thanks for explaining everything straight and true. I have not played it all the way to the end but poison/fire seems likely be the best combination in my opinion.
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Solfege
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Np. Hope it helped.

I'm running both a Poison/Lightning and a Poison/Fire build untwinked from the beginning so I cam make a better comparison between my top 2 choices. Tbh, I've been surprised how evenly they've performed so far.

Have you made it to Mid-Game or early End-Game yet? I'm curious how Poison/Fire performs this patch with mid-game gear while doing some of the heavy Phys damage Ubers such as CoL, TA, and Toraja.
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Dreamhunter
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No, i'm still on terror, playing javazon as my main character, gave up on assassin (: when i have time i will try to get to destruction and gain some charms with sorceress (:
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Hiehvorak
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May i know why only put 5 point on Vengeful Power?
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HechtHeftig
I paid 10$ for this.
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Hiehvorak wrote:May i know why only put 5 point on Vengeful Power?


Because its defensive use is the best with 5 points. 5% DR base +3% DR per baselevel. It's capped at 20 DR
Ntf1015
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Is LC2 worth doing with this build?
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Solfege
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Not really.