Melee Sorceress [1.3]

Thank you very much for this guide, but I'm confused... The description for Moonstrike says to Buff at all times with "Increases Max Life and damage for a short time. Keep this active at all times whenever in combat." Except in-game, Moonstrike is an Attack and is clearly differentiated in the UI from something like Hive, which the game states is a Buff. I'm trying to understand why I'd put 30 points into Moonstrike when Bladestorm or Wraithsword seem so much better.

Am I missing something? Should I still be putting more than 1 point into Moonstrike? I apologize if this has already been answered.

Edit to add: Also, is Wedding Dress of the Zann still the best chest armor, given the change (?) to Moonstrike above? Zann buffs Moonstrike, but Ennead's Bane adds flat +Sorc Skill Levels, which seems broadly more useful especially if Moonstrike is no longer the build's primary attack.

Edit 2: Wait, so Moonstrike also is a buff while being an attack? So, I want to max points into Moonstrike and then use that to boost the damage of my normal attack (Bladestorm, right?)? If this is the case, is there any visual indication of when the buff ends? I'm already approaching my limit as far as hotkeys with this build and having to constantly switch to Moonstrike to regain the buff seems difficult... But hopefully I'm missing something and the rotation is simpler than it seems.

Any advice is appreciated.

The guide is up-to-date for patch 1.3

Hive functions basically like a spell, dealing supplemental Poison damage. It doesn't add anything to your attacks. But Moonstrike buffs Phys damage to all your melee skills as long as it's active. And maxed Moonstrike will buff Wraithsword+Bladestorm more than maxing the skills themselves.

Maxing Wraithsword is pointless b/c, for some reason, the extra flat Phys damage doesn't seem to be factored into weapon damage multipliers (i.e. EWD, +Phys Damage, etc.). Maxing Bladestorm seems like a good idea at first, b/c it reduces the Phys-to-Magic conversion ratio. But that can be accomplished with Skill Points. And putting Base Points into Wrathsword and/or Bladestorm increases Mana cost to often unmanageable levels.

Edit:
Yeah, you got it regarding Moonstrike. It's both an attack and a buff.

There are these little white things that float above your character's head when Moonstrike is active. When they disappear, the buff is gone.

As far as hotkeys, you really only need to switch among 3 most of the time: Moonstrike, Fusillade, and Bladestorm or Wraithsword (depending on the situation). Hive is just for supplemental damage, so don't worry too much if you forget to reactivate it. Familiar you'll only summon once per life. Blade Spirits are helpful early on and in certain situations, but you'll barely use them by End-Game. And Force Blast you'll only use in a few situations.

Edit 2:
Fixed some grammar errors.

Thank you very much for the help! I appreciate the explanation, there's a lot of stuff to unpack in there that I probably never would have noticed by playing the game. I'll stick with your build and go with Zann + Moonstrike. Thanks!

Any Gear Setups for late game and or endgame merc? would be nice to know

im a new player follwoed your guide and my sorc is rocking already insane good guide!! maybe i have no clue on what i have to put on my merc cuase i got lagg of game experience. Got the A3 merc u receommend early in your guide

PureBlunt wrote:Any Gear Setups for late game and or endgame merc? would be nice to know im a new player follwoed your guide and my sorc is rocking already insane good guide!! maybe i have no clue on what i have to put on my merc cuase i got lagg of game experience. Got the A3 merc u receommend early in your guide

Merc gear list is under a spoiler tag in the "Mercenaries" subsection of "Core of the Build." Just CTRL+F "Mercenaries" to take you to the subsection, then click "Gear" to expand the spoiler.

Solfege wrote:
PureBlunt wrote:Any Gear Setups for late game and or endgame merc? would be nice to know im a new player follwoed your guide and my sorc is rocking already insane good guide!! maybe i have no clue on what i have to put on my merc cuase i got lagg of game experience. Got the A3 merc u receommend early in your guide

Merc gear list is under a spoiler tag in the "Mercenaries" subsection of "Core of the Build." Just CTRL+F "Mercenaries" to take you to the subsection, then click "Gear" to expand the spoiler.

I did that but my Merc sais only 600 dmg ;D has he hidden light dmg? or did i just roled wrong items? weapo has 35% light spell dmg in a sacred crystal sword

Thinking about starting Sigma with this build. Any notable changes in patchnotes that may affect this guide in general?

GraveEternity wrote:Thinking about starting Sigma with this build. Any notable changes in patchnotes that may affect this guide in general?

As far as I can tell at this time just by reading the patch notes, I don't think there will be major issues beyond the Walkthrough and Ubers sections being out of date due to content changes. Obviously, this could change once we actually start playing.

As far as the build itself, melee was nerfed a slightly, but it may not be noticable with the broader changes to the game.

That said, it looks like starting out as melee may be tough. No Griswold's Treasure means no early access to The Warped Blade until you can find/make it (though it's unclear what this "item" is that you get now and how/if it may affect this build's gameplay). And since you can't gamble Warp Blades until clvl 17 (I think), you won't even be able to play as melee until then.

With a few exceptions not related to this build, Runewords haven't changed, so Mid-Game should be fine.

I think End-Game may be a bit chaotic, since it's not yet known what SUs exist. And I'm not sure how effective The Mysteries (Melee Sorc Set) will be anymore. A big part of that Set was Crushing Blow, and all bosses are immune to it now.

tl;dr
If you follow the guide, just use it as a general overview for now and make adjustments as needed. I'll most likely start Sigma with this build just so I can get this guide updated asap.

So far , Bosses are Crushing Blow immune as you say
so how exactly that will effect on the speed of boss killing and how can this char maintain this change?
and i know that it'll be a bit hard to update that change as there is a new system of SU's classification , but i'm sure you'll figure it out , and also , when game releases , re-check on mid-game gear and farming gear
Thanks for the awesome Guide

I think the CB thing will mostly affect players trying to complete the content using only the Set. I'll probably rework other gearsets to focus even more on DS and flat Phys damage than they already do (I'm interested in trying these new flat Weapon Damage MOs). CB for general farming (not Charm farming) should still be fine, but I can't say for sure.

Mid-Game is always a pain for this build b/c there aren't any good RW weapon options. But yeah, I'll continue to tweak and test things as I play. I have a feeling I may be underestimating how much rewriting I'll have to do. :-D