Melee Sorceress

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High_Elf
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@Solfege Hello, good day~~
Thank you for making this guide and very detailed about
sorry for my dumb question because i'm new here
i have tried this build but still confuse with a lot of the Abbreviation in this guide, can i have the list of the Abbreviation,
► Show Spoiler

i hope my english didnt fail me, because its not my first language

Best regards~~~
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Taem
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What is the purpose of Jah runes in Starhawk? Each rune increases damage minimally, like 4-5 points. You'd get more bang for your buck with +Max damage. However... adding +element damage jewels seems to do significant damage increase. With Jah, I don't really see any difference. So, what is the reason in the guide for chosing Jah in Starhawk? Also, with Steel Punisher build, the damage seems lacking. I had most of the recommended setup with MOs and runes and jewels and compared to other classes I've played, the damage seemed okay. Don't get me wrong, her survivability is outstanding, it just the damage was not what I expected. Is that typical? Finally, does the elemental damage when going Starhawk leech with life and mana steal? Or is it wasted going elemental?

Edit: the single target cold skill zeal clone... Forget name, glacial torrent?.... Works so much better on bosses, omfg!! Would it make sense to 1-pnt that skill for bosses? Bec ause that is where her damage seems to be lacking IMO. Maybe I'm not using my skills right?
Siosilvar
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1 pointing glacial torrent doesn't make any sense, it scales completely differently than everything else you have. And it doesn't work anything like zeal? It's a spell damage nuke tied to an attack, closer to clod Charged Strike than Zeal. Cold sorc is better than melee sorc at the moment because that skill is so strong, but it's still a different build.

Not sure what "+ element damage jewels" you're thinking of... spell damage boosts your character sheet number but does nothing for your actual damage. LCS is scamming you unless you mean Demonstone Blood or Farsight Globe.

% leech applies to physical weapon damage only. Build's got so much life on attack it's not a big issue.

And yeah, physical build's damage is a bit low nowadays.
Siosilvar
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High_Elf wrote:@Solfege Hello, good day~~
Thank you for making this guide and very detailed about
sorry for my dumb question because i'm new here
i have tried this build but still confuse with a lot of the Abbreviation in this guide, can i have the list of the Abbreviation,
► Show Spoiler

i hope my english didnt fail me, because its not my first language

Best regards~~~


mid/late game stats and skills:

Attributes
enough Strength for gear
everything else in Dexterity

Arcane
1 Immersion
1 Arcane Torrent
1 Raven Familiar

Melee
30 Moonstrike
1+ Bladestorm
15 Fusillade
1 Arcane Sustenance
0+ Premonition

Mastery
1 Melee Devotion
5 Tenacity (or 10 Endurance, or 3 Meditation)
10 Specialization

Coven
25 Warp Armor
1-6 Nova Charge
10 Vengeful Power
1 Hive

Reward
15 Baneblade
5 Symbol of Esu
1 Force Blast
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Taem
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Siosilvar wrote:1 pointing glacial torrent doesn't make any sense, it scales completely differently than everything else you have. And it doesn't work anything like zeal? It's a spell damage nuke tied to an attack, closer to clod Charged Strike than Zeal. Cold sorc is better than melee sorc at the moment because that skill is so strong, but it's still a different build.

Not sure what "+ element damage jewels" you're thinking of... spell damage boosts your character sheet number but does nothing for your actual damage. LCS is scamming you unless you mean Demonstone Blood or Farsight Globe.

% leech applies to physical weapon damage only. Build's got so much life on attack it's not a big issue.

And yeah, physical build's damage is a bit low nowadays.


Interesting. Thank you for your responses! The elemental jewels to which I am referring I crafted for my cold sorc all have +spell focus, +2-4% cold damage, +% physical damage, and some with +flat dex and +% dex.
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Taem
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Hi, for Nova Charge to give full dex to energy bonus, it needs 6 points to reach 50%.

Had you considered Snow Queen over Vengeful? Veng gives 8% life and 20% physical Dr which is outstanding, but other than that, it's not very useful. Snow queen gives slightly more life, and more importantly, boosts your defense to extreme amounts giving you the maximum 5% chance to be hit. Now idk whats better, only theory-crafting, but if there are other sources if DR, this seems like a very good option to me. Thoughts ?

Also, base on the response in the short question thread on Moon strike, if using Starhawk, points should be added to the two elemental skills of moon strike because it adds -20% enemy cold, which equates to hundreds if not thousands of added damage per strike!
Siosilvar
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I run Snow Queen while leveling for the flat defense but it's not as important as the 20% phys resist later on. With Snow Queen I have 400k defense, with Vengeful Power I have 250k... the phys res covers that gap. Don't forget that you're also saving 15 points you could put elsewhere, including into the life mastery.

Definitely agreed on the IED and cold pierce passives for Starhawk.
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Solfege
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Haven't had time to check in here recently. Been really busy irl.

High_Elf wrote:.

Images on the forum don't always show up for me either. I don't know why.

An updated "abbreviations" section is a very good idea. I'll add an info card when I have time.

Taem wrote:.

I'll try to address your questions and/or add to some of the stuff Siosilvar already posted. Sorry for wall of text.


Starhawk
Starhawk isn't meant to be a long-term weapon choice for Phys builds. It's only listed as a temp upgrade for Shaula to make Dunc farming faster if you haven't yet completed the Set. I added it b/c playing SSF in 2.0 is fucking brutal, and you may not complete the Set until very late into the game (I was clvl 134 before I finally completed the damn thing).

I used Jah Runes in Starhawk b/c:
> You can find them or upgrade to them w/o much effort.
> Higher Phys damage = more leech when using Fusillade.
> I didn't see a reason to waste time and valuable ACs crafting jewels for something that's not intended to be used for very long.

Maybe P-Emeralds would be better, but I didn't care enough at the time to try them.

And in case you're wondering why I added IED instead of ED MOs to Starhawk, I didn't want to ruin it and have to spend untold hours/days/weeks farming for a new one in case I wanted to use it for an Elemental build.

Steel Punisher
Being disappointed with Steel Punisher's damage output is normal. It's been a common complaint from players for a long time. Melee Sorc damage in general has never really been that great complared to a lot of builds. And in 2.0, although survivability is better, overall damage output at every stage of play is noticeably lower compared to previous patches.

Leech+Elemental
Afaik, leech doesn't work with Innate Elemental Damage b/c it's not converted damage. So if you go Elemental and you feel like lack of leech is hurting your survivability, switch to a Fire/Lightning spec.

Glacial Torrent
It's probably great for a Cold Sorc, and you may get it to work decently for a pure Cold-based Melee Sorc, but at 1 point and w/o Paradigm Shift+Cold Blooded, it's slower than Bladestorm against bosses. I think it would need some investment to really be effective (e.g. more points, dedicated gear to boost damage, etc.), and I'd be concerned that diverting resources to boost Glacial Torrent just for bosses may leave you vulnerable in other areas. That said, I don't discourage anyone from trying stuff out.

Snow Queen vs. Vengeful Power
Cold/Lightning is great for Early Game leveling, but it's not that impressive by the time you hit End Game. When you take stuff like CtB, Avoid, LoMA, leech, Phys Res, and Melee Devotion into account, there's no need for 400k-500k defense. Anywhere from 130k-350k defense is generally enough (depending on spec). Otoh, +8% Life right out of the gate and +20% native Phys Res are useful from beginning to end. And although everyone just kinda dismisses the Crushes Attackers thing, every little bit of extra damage dealt to an enemy helps.

More braodly though, Poison/Lightning is balanced and effective enough that players can do pretty much everything with a single spec (plus, the extra skill points give them the freedom to experiment with other skills or nix Meditation and dump points into a more expensive mastery later). And since this guide is, and has always been, written for people new to Median, I don't wanna confuse already overwhelmed new players by recommending multiple specs at different stages of play (e.g. Cold/Lightning -> Fire/Lighting). I've tried that in some previous versions of the guide. It wasn't well received.



Edit:
Abbreviation list added at the beginning of the guide (under a spoiler tag).
Edited by Solfege 2 years.
High_Elf
Dark Huntress
13 | 0
Siosilvar wrote:
mid/late game stats and skills:

Attributes
enough Strength for gear
everything else in Dexterity

Arcane
1 Immersion
1 Arcane Torrent
1 Raven Familiar

Melee
30 Moonstrike
1+ Bladestorm
15 Fusillade
1 Arcane Sustenance
0+ Premonition

Mastery
1 Melee Devotion
5 Tenacity (or 10 Endurance, or 3 Meditation)
10 Specialization

Coven
25 Warp Armor
1-6 Nova Charge
10 Vengeful Power
1 Hive

Reward
15 Baneblade
5 Symbol of Esu
1 Force Blast


Ahhh thankyou~~~


Solfege wrote:An updated "abbreviations" section is a very good idea. I'll add an info card when I have time.

Nice, thankyou~~~~
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Taem
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Solfege wrote:.


Yes, I just wanted to comment that you were right on everything! I'm clvl 130 now and completed most ubers by myself. Still using Starhawk as, from what I have seen, the damage (in 2.0) really outshines pure physical damage when combined with +elemental damage and -enemy resists. I may have full melee set, but I'm also extremely satisfied with my toon so far. You were right that with high-block, 50% DR and as much -physical damage as you can get, mid-to-high defense, and 20% avoid, the build can really shine in ubers! Other than Astrogha and Xazax, I haven't struggled with any of the ubers yet.