Tempestsucks - Lightning/Cold Sorc

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Introduction


UPDATE : ignore Chronofield (it was nerfed, dont spec it )



WITH SET
Image

Crafted SETUP
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Welcome to my Lightning/Cold sorceress guild. This guide focuses on teaching you how to gear,spec and play a light/cold sorc. This is a pretty fun spec to play since it doesn't require that much skill switching(hotkeying) and doesn't really require extremely high end gear to be insanely good. There are 2 ways to spec , either Chronofield or Witch Blood. With Chronofield we get 50% slow against uber bosses , Witch Blood gives us more spell damage when we are at full hp and life after each kill. For beginners attempting some of the harder ubers, i would recommend chronofield spec as it makes alot of those ubers quite easier. Once you've got a hang and know how to do the ubers, you can go for witch blood max.

WHY USE THIS BUILD?


- Can farm all end game ubers easily
- High Defense (~200k+) + High Hit Points (~10k+)
- High Damage Reduction (25% from our set and 25% thanks to ice elementals)
- We get a teleport skill from our set (+16 to blink) woot!
- We have summons to tank for us

Core skills

Thunderstone: Our main uberboss-killing skill. We throw a rock that explodes into charged bolts on the ground.

Tempest: Our main skill we will use for killing large density places. It casts lightning bolts at all nearby enemies.

Warp Armor: Our passive from the thunder tree. It increases our total character defense and grants us avoid.

Shatter the flesh: this skill will mainly provide us huge crowd control, as it will freeze enemies. It also provides nice damages.

Snow Queen: Our passive from the cold tree. It gives us flat defense and gives us %max life.

Abyss: This skill is abit tricky to use if you don't know how to use it but is one of the most powerful damaging skill especially against bosses.

Ice elementals: Summons ice elementals with a freezing nova attack and they also give us more defense and 25% damage reduction.

Arcane Torrent: An energy wave that deals physical and magic damage based on our total mana.

Mana Sweep: This skill steals mana and damages enemies based on mana lost but has a timer.

Chronofield: This is one of our uber-skills. If we choose to spec in this way then this skill provides us with huge crowd control. It slows the movement and attacks of all enemies caught in the field.

Witch Blood: This is one of our other uber-skills. If we choose to spec in this way then this skill provides us with more spell damage when we are at full life and provides us with life after each kill.



Early Gameplay
Leveling with this build is not hard at all due to the fact that we get bonus defense from our passives, meatshields from ice elementals and pretty high damage output with tempest, thunderstone, shatter the flesh, abyss and arcane torrent.


Starting

Create your character, run to blood moor and get to level 5 for Level challenge 0 (info for this challenge is below). Now it's time for the Den of Evil, it's pretty easy since we are a ranged class.

By now we should be around level 10-12. Time to rush to dark wood and get the scroll of infuss so we can level up in tristam. Once we get to Tristam, we'll level in here until level 18 around. Use tempest/shatter the flesh on mobs and Thunderstone on Griswold. We can farm gift boxes to get all the uniques we need for leveling. Now let's keep going until we get to Andariel, honestly going through act 1 with this build is pretty easy,you won't die if you are playing it correctly.

We're in Act 2 now and we are level 24. Act 2 is where resistances start to matter alot especially in sewers. We need to make honorific gloves and boots and orb them with resistances. If you don't have enough gold, you can always farm those Grubbers in the Rocky Waste. With some gold amounts we should be buying a Meditation Candle and a Victim's Heart (sold by NPC's). Cube these two with magical leather gloves to make honorific version, same for our boots. Let's start leveling in sewers, spamming tempest, using shatter the flesh and summoning your elementals should make this a cakewalk for you.... We'll start going through act 2 now, there are 3 monsters that you should be aware of which are Daystars,Shredders and ice clan. Duriel is easy, just use thunderstone on him and he should die pretty quickly.

We're in act 3 now, nothing to say about this act except this is where we start skill switching because it is full of monsters with at least 1 immunity. Rush through this act and by the time you get to travincal you should be around level 36. Get to mephisto and he should die pretty quickly with thunderstone. Now we have the choice of farming mephisto to start upgrading gear or to just start leveling some more. If you didn't find all the uniques you need from the Gift Box then i recommend you farm mephisto until you find the item you need or just simply farm arcane crystals from him and make the item you need.

Act 4 is kinda annoying because we need decent damage to go through this easily and just like act3, we will encounter monsters with atleast 1 immunity. Anyways rush through the act, get to diablo and he should be fairly easy with ice elementals and thunderstone. You should be around level 50 after killing Diablo. It's time for the level challenge 1. Tran Athulua is not hard at all once you have your uniques and you've maxed snow queen and warp armor. All we will be doing is spamming tempest on amazons and using thunderstone on the bosses (except for the lightning immune one, we can use abyss on her). Congratulations you've got the sunstone of the elements.

Now it's time to rescue Anya because when we complete that quest, we get a scroll of resistances that we can cube with our sunstone of the elements. This act can seem tricky but it really isn't as long as you have your ice elementals up then you should no problems. Rushing through the act killing everything is fairly easy once you got a hang of the build. We should be at Baal now and we should be at level 55. We should have max resistances by now or else we are not paying attention to this guide. This fight is cake with max resistances. Baal is pretty simple aswell, just spam thunderstone on him.

REGULAR PATH (60-90)
If we choose the regular path, we will have both positive and negative sides. Let's start with the negative side: we are going to go through all terror, having same level as monsters, and the whole running will be harder, and most important, boring. The good side is, we will start finding cooler items: level 100 runes around act 2-3, sacred items, shrines, tier 5-6 items. We can start experimenting with crafts, and we can find tier 6 items to convert to uniques (you should have around tier 3 items by now). This will save a lot of tedious rerunning. There is no special strategy involved here: once again, we upgrade our items with the time, and kill monsters like we were doing before. You can choose between players 1 or players 8, this is entirely up to you. At start of act 1 terror, we should have already maxed resistances as usual, and be around level 60. We are going to go through act 1, and act 2, and we want to reach level 90, for the Level Challenge 2. At players 8 you should be able to reach around level 90 on Canyon of the Magi. After this we go back to lost city and complete the challenge, as usual, see below on how to defeat this challenge. However, before hitting level 90, we need to do the Ennead Challenge before level 80 as well. Once we hit level 90, and are around act 3, early game is completed.

UBER PATH FOR NOOBS (60-90)
You can take uber path no matter how good you play. Uber path has good side and negative sides. Let's start with the negative sides: we are sticking to hatred, this means, item drops will be limited to tier 3 in most cases, and we won't find runes higher than level 35 or similar. No perfect gems in most cases either. The good side is powerleveling, it gets exponentially easier and terror will be a breeze after this, as we will be overleveled thanks to hatred ubers. Additionally, it introduces us to the 'uberquests', which is an exciting topic for every newcomer, with brand new levels and monsters. As I mentioned before, we should be around level 60 by now, which means, with some effort, we could be wearing all tier 6 uniques. This will require a lot of farming, probably mephisto or hatred Tran Athulua. This is the 'time taking' part, because while on ubers, our leveling speed will be huge, but it's exactly making items what is going to consume all our time. Additionally, twinkers, aka players that receive gear from the heaven (high tier gear transfered from other characters) most likely choose this path too, and save all the trouble of farming for these items. So, if you're not twinking and you don't want to grind either, you should be choosing the Regular Path. Before following this part of the walkthrough, you might want to check every italic section below, be it an uberquest area or a challenge, to get more information about it. Once we got most of our gear, we first step into Kurast 3000 B.A. uberlevel (spider forest). We should be able to reach level 69 here with no problem, and get our class charm too (see: Ennead Challenge). Once this is done, we move to Island of the Sunless Sea (glacial trail). I can't remember exact max level for this uberlevel, but we should be able to reach around level 80. This one will require a mercenary, as most damage input from monsters is physical, so we need a few tanks. Now the most tricky part, and in this one, you will for sure need your ice elementals: Fauztinville (stony tomb). Most of the damage received here is physical, and there is a lot of stun and knockback involved too. By now you should really have all your gear to tier 6, and orbed with some extra defense too. At first it will start slow, but once we got some bodies to cast shatter the flesh, things will get easier and easier. You should do this until level 90. Once you did this, just rush through terror act 1 and act 2, in order to complete the Level Challenge 2. Kill Duriel, and there you finished early game!

UBER PATH FOR PROS (36-105)
If you consider yourself a pro you are probably not reading this. But if you're a noob, you can use this as a reference for what you're aiming too. First thing, you can start this path around level 35-36. This path is completely against normal gameplay and is overly focused on speedrunning through the game in order to complete a character in the fastest way. Once we reached act 3, at around level 36, we should already have elementally immune minions. We are going to give our mercenary tiered unique (TU) spetum, orbed with miasma on attack. First thing we are going to do is step into Kurast 3000 BA, until level 50, and we should get our Class Charm too. After this, we're going to quickly do Level Challenge 1. Now we're going back to Kurast 3000 BA, at players 8, so we can quickly reach level 70. With the obtained shards we are going to upgrade our body armor & staff only, because upgrading more would require farming, and this method is focused on being the fastest. At level 70 we step into Fautzinville, if you're following this path, fautzinville shouldn't be hard at all, as you know monster mechanics. Use some experience elixirs for the first levels, at around level 75 you can increase player count to 3, at 80 increase it to 5, and at 85 increase it to 7/8. Once we hit level 89, time to kill diablo, kill ancients for level 90, then rush terror for Level Challenge 2 in Lost City. We are going to take a different approach than the one suggested in the Challenges section, we're going to take a random item, like gloves, turn it into honorific and orb it purely with resistances. That way, we can beat the challenge with our tier 2-3 items with no problems. If we found a tier 5-6 item in our way, and if we have arcane crystals to spare, don't hesitate to improve your gear a bit. Time to go to act 1, this time to Duncraig (cave). We are going to hit level 104-105 here, and it shouldn't be too hard, even without gear. Core here is to enter and directly jump to main room, players 1 should be fine. Once we enter big room, we are going to gather monsters, use ice elementals as distraction if you get overwhelmed, once we got a big chunck of monsters in the big room, kill a few, and start spamming Shatter the Flesh like mad, once you're done with eating corpses, there should only be a few ice immunes left, take them down with tempest. Around one run should be enough to hit max level here. Afterwards, we kill Duriel, and we are at start of act 3 finished with early game.

Early Stats & Skills

Stats:
We mainly want to invest points into strength and dexterity to be able to wear gear. Right now energy doesn't give us that much of a boost but we can put all leftovers in energy.

Skills:

-Thunderstone (max)
-Warp Armor (max)
-Snow Queen (max)
-Shatter the flesh or Abyss
-Arcane torrent
-Ice elementals (leftovers)



Early Gear


WEAPON:
Staff of Roses
War Staff (6)

Two-Hand Damage: 81 to 106
Durability: 118
Required Dexterity: 202
Required Level: 54
+(3 to 6) to All Skills
+(46 to 50)% Bonus to Energy Factor
60% Faster Cast Rate
(11 to 12) to Blood Flash
Regenerate Mana (66 to 75)%
Fire Resist (46 to 50)%
Lightning Resist (46 to 50)%
(23 to 25)% Reanimate as: Knight of Death
(66 to 75) Life after each Kill
Socketed: 6


Best option for us here, we get resistances, faster cast rate, mana regeneration, + to skills, reanimate for meatshields and life after each kill.

BODY ARMOR:

Ennead's Bane
(Kazarghand)

Defense: (1141-2128)
Durability: 110
Required Dexterity: (225-211)
Required Level: 51
(Sorceress Only)
+(2 to 4) to Sorceress Skill Levels
30% Faster Cast Rate
-(36 to 40)% to Enemy Lightning Resistance
+(16 to 18) to Static Lance
+(241 to 280)% Enhanced Defense
+(36 to 40) to Dexterity
+(36 to 40) to Energy
Lightning Resist +(36 to 40)%
Requirements (-36 to -40)%
Socketed: 6


Really nice armor for us, we get + to all skills, faster cast rate, lightning pierce, flat dexterity/energy and we get lightning resist.

Gloves:
For gloves, we will be using honorific gloves orbed with all resistance, lightning spell damage and lightning pierce.

Helm:
For helm, we'll be using honorific again orbed with lightning spell damage, lightning pierce, damage reduced and resistances.

Boots:
For boots, we'll be using honorific again orbed with lightning spell damage, lightning pierce, damage reduced and resistances.

BELT:

Aerin Orbiter
Belt (6)

Defense: (1044-1390)
Durability: 43
Required Strength: 288 (199 - 137 - 95 - 65 - 45)
Required Level: 48 (40 - 31 - 22 - 14 - 5)
30% Faster Cast Rate
(27 to 30)% to Fire Spell Damage
+(27 to 30)% to Lightning Spell Damage
+(27 to 30)% to Cold Spell Damage
(131 to 150)% Enhanced Defense
+(36 to 40) to Energy
All Resists +(18 to 20)%
Magic Damage Reduced by (18 to 20)
Socketed: 2



We get faster cast rate, spell damage, flat energy, all resistance and magic damage reduction. good option for caster.

Amulet:
we can just go rare amulets with spell pierce, spell damage and + to all skills.

Ring:
we can just go for rare rings with spell pierce, spell damage and +to all skills.

Middle Gameplay
Going into Terror, we need to start picking up all the shrines we can find, especially eerie and ornate shrines, all base scared items, jewels and ZOD runes.
Act 3 terror isn't fun because of the density and grouped up especially when you get around the Kurast area. At this point all your gear should be Tier 6, except for your honorifics, we want to keep them at tier 1 for low requirements. Just keep collecting items that you think might be worth using like shrines, runes, scared items,etc. You should be around 110-115 at the end of terror. Getting to 120 is easy in any part of destruction, i recommend doing tristam with elixir pots.
Getting to act 5 destruction should be pretty easy with the suggested gear and skill plan that i provided earlier.

Middle Stats & Skills

stats:
we want to try and avoid putting stats into strength and just put points into dexterity to wear our gear and then all left overs in energy. You can try and get some of the basic charms first to save yourself points. I've given a brief explanation of each uber in the last section :D.

Skills:

http://skillplan.median-xl.com/planner?id=Z2EJ9iNN


MIDDLE GEAR

WEAPON
Elverfolk
Staves (Yul)

Required Level: 100
+(51 to 100) Energy Factor to Spell Damage
+(6 to 8) to All Skills
-(41 to 60)% to Enemy Fire Resistance
-(41 to 60)% to Enemy Lightning Resistance
-(41 to 60)% to Enemy Cold Resistance
-(41 to 60)% to Enemy Poison Resistance
(21 to 30)% Bonus to Energy
+750 Defense vs. Missile
All Resists +(31 to 50)%



We can go for this staff for the 2 element pierce(lightning and cold) or we can simply focus on lightning element and make a ornate craft for high lightning pierce and high lightning spell damage.

BODY ARMOR:

Ennead's Bane
(Kazarghand)

Defense: (1141-2128)
Durability: 110
Required Dexterity: (225-211)
Required Level: 51
(Sorceress Only)
+(2 to 4) to Sorceress Skill Levels
30% Faster Cast Rate
-(36 to 40)% to Enemy Lightning Resistance
+(16 to 18) to Static Lance
+(241 to 280)% Enhanced Defense
+(36 to 40) to Dexterity
+(36 to 40) to Energy
Lightning Resist +(36 to 40)%
Requirements (-36 to -40)%
Socketed: 6



Keep this, its still a very nice armor to have with that flat dexterity/flat energy and the spell pierce.

HELM

Eulenspiegel
Circlets (Thur)

Required Level: 84
+(31 to 50) Energy Factor to Spell Damage
15% Chance to cast level 1 Teleport when Struck
+2 to All Skills
20% Faster Run/Walk
20% Faster Cast Rate
(21 to 25)% Bonus to Dexterity
(21 to 25)% Bonus to Energy


Change this with our honorific helm, we get energy factor + faster run/walk + faster cast rate + bonus % to dex and energy.

Boots:
For boots, we'll be using eerie craft orbed with lightning spell damage, lightning pierce and cold pierce.

Gloves:
For gloves, we will be using eerie craft orbed with lightning spell damage, lightning pierce and cold pierce.

BELT:
Aerin Orbiter
Belt (6)

Defense: (1044-1390)
Durability: 43
Required Strength: 288
Required Level: 48
30% Faster Cast Rate
(27 to 30)% to Fire Spell Damage
+(27 to 30)% to Lightning Spell Damage
+(27 to 30)% to Cold Spell Damage
(131 to 150)% Enhanced Defense
+(36 to 40) to Energy
All Resists +(18 to 20)%
Magic Damage Reduced by (18 to 20)
Socketed: 2


we can keep this belt or we can go with another eerie craft with lightning spell damage, lightning pierce and cold pierce.

Amulet:
we can just go for a rare amulet with +3-4 to all skills, Lightning spell damage, lightning pierce, cold pierce.

Ring:
we can just go for rare rings with lightning pierce, lightning spell damage, cold pierce and +1 to all skills.

End Stats & Skills

Stats:
- Str : 0 points
- Dex : 0 points
- Vit : 0 points
- Energy : All our points :D
Once we get some of our basic charms this is the stat distribution we can use but before we get them just put in whatever points you need to wear your gear.

Skills:
http://skillplan.median-xl.com/planner?id=0K6qdKSY


End Game Gear:

WEAPON
Elemental Storm
Gnarled Staff (Sacred)

Two-Hand Damage: 117 to 124
Durability: 70
Required Dexterity: 109
Required Level: 100
Adds Dexterity Damage Bonus: (25/256 per Dexterity)%
+(151 to 200) Energy Factor to Spell Damage
+(8 to 10) to Sorceress Skill Levels
40% Faster Cast Rate
40% Faster Hit Recovery
+(41 to 50) to all Attributes
Increase Maximum Mana (21 to 30)%
Requirements -50%
+50% Damage to Undead
Socketed (4)

Energy factor + sorc skills + Faster Cast Rate + Faster Hit Recovery + flat attributes + mana increase and -50% requirements. Try to get the double mystic orb effect and orb it with life after each kill.

BODY ARMOR:
Elemental Fury
Kazarghand (Sacred)

Defense: (3993-5695)
Durability: 74
(Sorceress Only)
Required Dexterity: 467
Required Level: 100
+(4 to 5) to Sorceress Skill Levels
+(31 to 50)% to Lightning Spell Damage
+17 to Lightning Wall
(21 to 30)% Bonus to Energy
+(101 to 150)% Enhanced Defense
10% Chance to Avoid Damage
All Resists +(21 to 30)%
Requirements -15%
Socketed (6)

Sorc skills + Light spell dmg + Bonus % to energy + 10% avoid and resists= more damage and more defence. Lightning Wall o-skill is pretty fun to use, it's basically a lightning wall(duh lol) that u cast and everytime a monster goes past it , it takes lightning damage.

HELM
Elemental Clash
Circlet (Sacred)

Defense: (727-1022)
Durability: 10
Required Dexterity: 262
Required Level: 100
+(31 to 40) Energy Factor to Spell Damage
+(1to 2) to Sorceress Skill Levels
20% Faster Cast Rate
+(101 to 150)% Enhanced Defense
+(51 to 75) to Strength
+(51 to 75) to Energy
Lightning Resist +(31 to 50)%
Attacker Takes Lightning Damage of 250
Socketed (4)

Energy factor + sorc skills + Faster Cast Rate + flat str + flat energy. nice stats and pretty low dex req. Nothing to say about this.

BOOTS
Elemental Trance
Heavy Boots (Sacred)

Defense: (1002-1320)
Durability: 42
Required Strength: 246
Required Level: 100
+1 to Sorceress Skill Levels
15% Faster Run/Walk
5% Faster Cast Rate
40% Faster Hit Recovery
-(11 to 15)% to Enemy Lightning Resistance
(11 to 15)% Bonus to Energy
+(101 to 150)% Enhanced Defense
Requirements -50%
Socketed (4)

Sorc skills + Faster Run/Walk + Faster Cast Rate + Faster Hit Recovery + Light pierce + bonus % to energy and -50 requirements.

Belt:
For our belt, we are gonna be using an eerie craft with the zomg recipe. that way we have more then enough place on belt for Mystic Orbs and because it's a shrine craft, we get double Mystic Orb effect. Perfect stats on our craft would be +120 to energy factor, 20% bonus to energy, +40 energy and requirement level less then 40. Mystic Orb the belt with -Enemy Lightning resistance, +Lightning spell damage and -Enemy Cold Resistance.

GLOVES
Elemental Spirit
Leather Gloves (Sacred)

Defense: (677-855)
Durability: 25
Required Strength: 227
Required Level: 100
+(31 to 40) Energy Factor to Spell Damage
10% Faster Run/Walk
+(11 to 20)% to Lightning Spell Damage
+(101 to 150)% Enhanced Defense
+(31 to 40) to Strength
+(31 to 40) to Vitality
Increase Maximum Mana (21 to 40)%
Requirements -50%
Socketed (4)

Energy factor + FRW + Lightning spell damage + flat str + flat vit + mana increase. nice stats, no arugment.

Amulet:
Best option here would to go for rare amulet with +4 to skills , - enemy lightning resistance , +lightning spell damage , - enemy cold resistance.

Rings:
Best option here would go for rare rings with +1 to skills , - enemy lightning resistance , +lightning spell damage , - enemy cold resistance.


Why exaclty are we using the set? Well its pretty simple, the lightning set has really good benefits

Full Set Bonus:
With 2 or more set items:
+25 to all Attributes
With 3 or more set items:
+21 to Static Lance
With 4 or more set items:
50% Faster Run/Walk
50% Faster Cast Rate
With Complete Set:
+150 Energy Factor to Spell Damage
+6 to Sorceress Skill Levels
-25% to Enemy Lightning Resistance
+16 to Blink
+2500 Defense
+100 to all Attributes
Damage Reduced by 25%


Faster Run/Walk , Faster cast rate, +150 energy factor to spell damage. +6 to sorc skills, -25% lightning pierce, +16 to blink, flat attributes and damage reduced by 25%. This set has everything a lightning sorc wants and needs. With ice elementals we hit the damage reduction cap which is 50%.


More Expensive Options For Gear

WEAPON
Spire of Kehjan
War staff (Sacred)

Two-Hand Damage: 125 to 138
Required Dexterity: 150
Required Level: 100
Adds Dexterity Damage Bonus: (25/256 per Dexterity)%
+(101 to 150) Energy Factor to Spell Damage
Indestructible
+(8 to 10) to All Skills
20% Faster Cast Rate
(41 to 50)% Bonus to All Attributes
Replenish Life +250
All Resists +(31 to 40)%
+(201 to 250) Life after each Kill
250% Damage Reflected
Requirements -40%
+50% Damage to Undead
Socketed (6)

Really nice option for weapon, We get Energy factor, +Skills, Faster Cast Rate, Bonus to all attributes, Life regeneration, All resists and Life After Each Kill. Another option would be ornate shrine craft for high lightning spell damage.

BODY ARMOR:
Armor of the Old Religion
Ceremonial Armor (Sacred)

Defense: (8918-12397)
Durability: 116
(Sorceress Only)
Required Dexterity: 640
Required Level: 100
+200 Energy Factor to Spell Damage
+(4 to 5) to Sorceress Skill lvls
50% Faster Hit Recovery
+(51 to 75)% to Spell Damage
+(9 to 12) to Sacrifices
+(301 to 350)% Enhanced Defense
10% Chance to Avoid Damage
All Resists +(51 to 100)%
25% Reanimate as: Crystal Witch
+(101 to 150) Life after each Kill
(101 to 150)% Extra Gold from Monsters
Socketed (6)

Do i really need to say anything about this armor ? It's perfect for us. Energy factor, +Skills, Spell damage, High defence, 10% avoid, All resists, Life After Each Kill, we get a reanimate and we get sacrifices o-skill which we can use to get meatshields and help us use shatter the flesh on those lightning immunes.

HELM
Warlock's Brilliance
Coronet (Sacred)

Defense: (434-490)
Durability: 15
Required Dexterity: 327
Required Level: 100
+(0 to 3) to All Skills
+(25 to 30)% to Spell Damage
Increase Maximum Life 5%
+333 to Mana
Increase Maximum Mana 15%
All Resists +(21 to 25)%
Damage Reduced by 10%
100% Magic Find
Socketed (4)

Really nice helm here, we get +Skills, Spell damage, Life increase, Mana, All resists, 10% damage reduction and 100% magic find. Amazing helmet for us.

BOOTS
For the boots we are gonna go for an eerie craft with the zomg recipe, aim for energy factor to spell damage, %bonus to energy and flat energy. MO with -Enemy lightning resistance, -Enemy cold resistance and +Lightning spell damage. (Magic weapon/armor + magic amulet + magic ring → reroll item as level 1 magic item)= ZOMG recipe

GLOVES
Lamha Na Draoithe
Gauntlets (Sacred)

Defense: (1404-1872)
Durability: 53
Required Strength: 345
Required Level: 100
+150 Strength Factor to Spell Damage
+2 to All Skills
30% Faster Cast Rate
+(31 to 40)% to Spell Damage
+(251 to 300)% Enhanced Defense
+75 to Strength
-100 to Life
All Resists +(21 to 25)%
Requirements -40%
Socketed (4)

Really nice for casters, even though it has Strength factor to spell damage, since this is late game and we have all our charms, we will get a significant boost from these gloves. Really nice gloves in general. +Skills, Faster Cast Rate, Spell damage, All resists.

BELT
Ashaera's Armor
Belt (Sacred)

Defense: (1351-1403)
Durability: 43
Required Strength: 529
Required Level: 100
+(21 to 25) Energy Factor to Spell Damage
+(21 to 30)% to Spell Damage
+(11 to 15)% Bonus to Energy
+500 Defense
All Resists +(21 to 30)%
Damage Reduced by 10%
Socketed (2)

Honestly, eerie craft would be better since you can Mystic Orb with lightning and cold pierce but since we wanna hit the damage reduction cap, we kinda need this belt. This is pretty much like an eerie craft but you dont get flat energy and you dont have alot of Mystic Orb space. The stats on this are still nice.

Amulet:
Rare amulets are still our best choice late game due to the fact that we can get a high amount of pierce, spell damage and we get +(1-4) to all Skills or we can just use a black dwarf amulet

Rings:
Rare rings are still our best choice late game, same reason as our amulet. We get +1 to all skills, high amount of pierce and spell damage!

Sockets:

Jewelcrafting
Jewels simply outperform runes because we can get a bunch of different affixes on 1 jewel.
    + Life
    Spell damage ( we want 6% to Lightning spell damage)
    + to Attritbutes / % bonus to attributes
    Faster cast rate
    + Energy Factor to spell damage
it took forever to craft decent jewels (I guess i just have bad luck when it comes to crafting jewels).

the recipe for crafting jewels is = Any Jewel + Rune + Oil of Craft + Arcane Crystal/Shards → Rune + Arcane Shards (-1 amount) + Crafted Jewel, rerolled and added bonuses

Like i said earlier in the guide, when we get to terror we want to start picking up ZOD runes because when we craft with ZOD runes we get +(1 to 3)% to Spell Damage however one element can reach upto 6% as stated above. Before we start crafting, we need 250 crafting points to be able to craft zod jewels. Don't worry though you can make a separate set of equipment and Mystic orb it with crafting points to get upto 250.

Examples of decent jewels:
Image

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Runes
The obvious choice here is Ort runes because they give 5% to lightning spell damage.
Remember crafted jewels are not required to play this build, you can still get high damage output endgame with runes.


On-switch Weapon:

WEAPON
Shamanka
Long Staff (Sacred)

Two-Hand Damage: 112 to 116
Durability: 46
Required Dexterity: 203
Required Level: 100
Adds Dexterity Damage Bonus: (25/256 per Dexterity)%
Druid Morph
100% CtC lvl 25 Raven Flight when you Level-Up
+(3 to 6) to Sorceress Skill lvls
45% Faster Cast Rate
45% Faster Hit Recovery
+(41 to 50)% to Cold Spell Damage
+(41 to 50)% to Poison Spell Damage
+(41 to 50)% to Fire Spell Damage
+(6 to 16) to Bloodlust
Increase Maximum Life (31 to 40)%
Lightning Resist +(51 to 70)%
Fire Resist +(51 to 70)%
+50% Damage to Undead
Socketed (4)

This staff is what we want on switch when are doing uberbosses. Bloodlust basically increases your elemental damage for a duration. Socket this with 4x NIH runes for longer duration.

2nd Option for on-switch weapon

WEAPON
Sky Scorcher
Brandistock (Sacred)

Two-Hand Damage: (789-844) to (1578-1844)
Durability: 72
Required Dexterity: 460
Required Strength: 430
Required Level: 100
Adds Dexterity Damage Bonus: (76/256 per Dexterity)%
50% Increased Attack Speed
+(251 to 300)% Enhanced damage
50% Bonus to Buff/Debuff/Cold Skill Duration
Adds 400-(1101-1300) damage
Stun Attack
(21 to 30)% Life stolen per Hit
+(13 to 16) to Beacon
+100% Bonus to Summoned Minion Life
Increase Maximum Life and Mana (11 to 15)%
Socketed (6)

I use this when im farming Duncraig/Tran athuhlua. Beacon basically makes you faster and is amazing for farming. Socket it with 6x NIH runes.


ENEMY RESISTANCES:
Another stat worth mentioning is -x% to enemy y resistances. Monster resistance can go down to -100%. This means, if we have 100% Lightning pierce, a monster with 0 resistances would have -100 resistances, and you know what 100% means? double damage!. This applies after your total damage is calculated. In other words, enemy pierce will take into account the extra damage from energy, %spell damage, etc, and double it. So it's overall the strongest stat to increase your damage. We want to reach at least 199% Light pierce and at least 100% cold pierce. Bosses in most cases have resistances, heroic ones have mostly over 75% if they drop resistances, so if you deal 100 damage and he has 99% resistances, it will take one damage, but if you deal 100 damage and he has -100% resistances (having 199% pierce) it will take 200 damage, so your spells become 200 times stronger. Like I said, 100% is a must, and the rest is optional for faster boss killing (specifically heroics). I'm sorry marco but you explained it so well, i had to steal it.




UBERS AND EARLY CHALLENGES

Early Challenges

LEVEL CHALLENGE 0
We must be level 5 to do this challenge but don't worry it is very easy , you can just use forked lightning and kill it.

LEVEL CHALLENGE 1
We'll be doing this challenge at level 50. As long as we have high defence, this challenge will be a cakewalk honestly so i'd suggest to max snow queen and warp armor. Use tempest to wreck amazons and then Thunderstone on the bosses except for the Lightning immune one , we can use Abyss or Frigid Sphere on her.

ENNEAD CHALLENGE
This is one is really really easy once we are level 70, just get maxed out resistances and we are good to go. Use Thunderstone on totems and on necromancers and they melt. Nothing else to be said about this one , just summon your familiars and ice elementals.

LEVEL CHALLENGE 2
This challenge is pretty annoying but it's easily done by luring the mages one by one and killing them until only the boss is left.

THE BLACK ROAD CHALLENGE

Trial of Fear: Pretty simple. Summon the butcher, keep summons up and when he spawns the ring, make him go into it and then kill him and cube your class charm.

Trial of Greed: Nothing to say about this one, just collect 666666 gold and cube your class charm.

Trial of Contrition: Summon and then lure one by one and kill. Shouldn't be hard at all.

Trial of Knowledge: The hardest one out of all the trials. We can take this one very slow, kill mobs using tempest, shatter the flesh for cc and use arcane torrent for the neon fiends which are immune to lightning,cold and fire.

Trial of Blood: This one is abit tricky since we have to kill the ice priestess and thunder priestess 30 seconds apart. My method is clearing the ice room and leaving the boss alive and then teleporting over with blink and clearing the fire room completely and then going to the thunder room and clearing it and leaving the boss up and then luring her to the fire room. Now we kill the thunder priestess and blink over the wall and go to the ice room and quickly kill the ice priestess and cube your class charm.

MINIGAMES

Witch Queen: Pretty simple one, beware there will be witches in this level, so the best thing to do is move them around with ice elementals until u can get past them all. Then just kill the Countess or any of her minions to get the swirls.

Crowned: This one is also pretty easy, go into any area with witches except for the Countess' tower. Summon a ice elemental next and if it gets the special star before it gets killed then that's your witch. Go closer to her slowly and once u get the star effect just cube your class charm with a THUL rune.

Mirror Mirror: Also pretty easy, we can do this one on destruction to make it easier for us since Baal has a heroic shield, so simply summon your ice elementals and let them tank for you and use tempest on shardspawns. When you get the red swirls just cube your class charm with a LEM rune.


DUNGEON UBERQUESTS

CREATURE OF FLAME : [Easy] Avoid his beam thingy and Thunderstone should 1shot him

NFERNAL MACHINE : [Easy] Run down to it , chronofield and spam Thunderstone

DEATH PROJECTOR : [Easy] Spam Thunderstone , should die in 1-2 seconds

AZMODAN : [Easy] Teleport into main room , use chronofield and spam Thunderstone on him

RATHMA SQUARE : [Easy] Run to him , spam Thunderstone

CATHEDRAL OF VANITY : [Easy] Teleport in room, chronofield and spam Thundersonte on crystal ball should die instantly

TORAJA : [Easy] All mobs in this area are immune except for when they are hit by an Edyrem( summon we get from CFM). Ice elementals + edyrems = profit.


VIZJUN : [Medium] Faster run/walk is good here (SSSU Brandistock/Adrenaline Rush ring), chronofield mobs, get to boss and purify.

BRACHYCERAN : [Hard] Getting to him is such a hassle however we can craft a sorc armor that has acid fiends O-skill(they are poison immune) so we can basically ignore everything and focus on brach. When your fighting him, it would be nice to have shamanka on switch because it gives u druid morph so it gets u out of the worm curse thing he gives you (lowering your max fire resistances and slowing you). Spam Thunderstone and abyss on him , if you get lucky you can take him down almost instantly. If you feel like your in trouble or about to die , tp to town to avoid dying. Chronofield helps here. If you are still failing you can get 95% max poison resistance and stack 500% poison resistance.
Image

The Void : [Hard] don't try it

Startled Witch : [Hard] dont try this on sorc, u need open wounds and a way of applying it. just roll another char for this.



Summoning Uberquests

THE BUTCHER : [Easy] Summon ice elementals until he spawns the ring , get him into the ring and Thunderstone him.

THE BINDING OF BAAL : [Easy] Thunderstone ez

ASSAULT ON MOUNT ARREAT : [Easy] Thunderstone ez

AKARAT : [Easy] Spam Thunderstone ez

LORD ALDRIC JITAN : [Easy] Stay out of singularity range when guards die , spam Thunderstone.

ATHULUA : [Easy-Medium] Really nothing to this boss, chronofield her, Thunderstone spam until she dies. Avoid her attacks and gg

LEGACY OF BLOOD : [Easy] Summon ice elementals , wait for him to use wychwind and then Thunderstone spam , should be an instakill.

JUDGEMENT DAY : [Easy] We can use ice elementals here but they gain bonuses from our passives too(avoid+defence) which messes up with the dark nephalem summoning the bosses. Anyways u can still get lolsummons on your rings and spam summon them until one the bosses spawn , Thunderstone him, he should die in 1-2 seconds, nothing difficult about this. Another option is to summon ice elementals wait until one of the bosses spawn, kill him , get the charm, remake game and summon spam edyrems until u get both bosses.


KABRAXIS : [Medium] The 5 elemental seal are not difficult at all, just make sure you have a source of damage for each element. Light , Cold , Fire are easily done by respecing and so are physical and magic. Kabraxis is pretty simple, make sure you dont have summons up because when one of your ice elementals die , he spawns hell rats, annoying. anyways use chronofield to slow him. Thunderstone + abyss work wonders here. since we have -199 light and -100 cold its best to try and kill him with both.

BROTHER LAZ : [Hard] Laz is definetly possible as a sorc. Light/Fire spec for life+life regen+avoid, craft a crystal sword (not warp, they have aoe) with slow%. Chronofield is nice to have here since it slows laz making it easier for you. Get 100% open wounds here, easily obtainable through Butcher charm and ripstar ring.Stacking faster hit recovery and faster block rate is really good here. Also an easy way to clear the level from groupies and totems is to craft a staff with Avalanche O-skill. Keep the Avanlanche staff in your inventory so that if you die , u can just equip it and clear the level.
Image
Was trying out laz on sorc and suprisingly it was decent with chronofield.

ULDYSSIAN : [Hard] Most stages can be done on this sorc except the ones that require psn damage or magic damage. No point in trying uldy with this sorc because we have no way of applying open wounds. Roll another char like a sin or a bowzon if you wanna try uldy

SECRET: INARIUS' REVENGE : [Easy] Just avoid the deathstrikes they cast when they die, just use thunderstone and kill. If thats not working for you and u still dying, u can kite using Tempest until only Inarius is left then just thunderstone him.

SECRET: Zorun Tzin : [Medium] If your doing it on sp, it shouldnt be too hard, purify traps then use abyss+thunderstone and chronofield for slow, he should die pretty easily as he loses resistance rather often. If doing on realm, summon him and have one person to purify statues while you slow + kill him.

SECRET: MARCONECROX: [Hard] easily done, get SU Jared's Stone (Stone of the Skatsim) on switch for unholy armor , spam thunderstone on him . When he loses resist and u hit him , make sure you tp to town because he will start regen'ing his HP. To make this much easier , try and get a sin with phasebomb (he loses resist more often when he's phased).


Uberlevels

KURAST 3000 BA : [Easy] Nothing to be said about this uber, is really ez. Blink on top of totems , Thunderstone them , when Necromancers become vulnerable , blink on top of them and Thunderstone spam.

ISLAND OF THE SUNLESS SEA : [Easy] All you have to do is dodge Malic's attack. use Tempest to kill normal mobs and Thunderstone on bosses.

KHALIMGRAD : [Easy] Annoying uber because of those untargettable lantern things, otherwise everything is ezpz, use tempest to kill mobs and Thunderstone on avatars.

TRAN ATHULUA : [Easy] Avoid the arrows , use tempest on amazons and Thunderstone on bosses except for the lightning immune, use Abyss/shatter the flesh.

Terul : [Easy] Nothing really to be said about this boss , just spam Thunderstone on him , if your damage is high enough, he should die really quickly.


FAUZTINVILLE : [Medium] shatter the flesh + thunderstone + arcane torrent + mana sweep. Is really easy once u get the hang of skill switching.

GHOSTS OF OLD BREMMTOWN : [Easy] not much to say about this one, summon ice elementals so they can tank for u, teleport into a big pack tempest them to death. The dragon should take 2-3 seconds to kill with thunderstone.

KINGDOM OF SHADOW [Medium] : Moon cookies and ice elementals are your friends here. If you are using the Light set, then we will have 25% Damage reduction from that and another 25% from ice elemental's aura. Sky Scorcher (SSSU Brandistock) / Adrenaline rush are really nice to have here. Is really easy once you've attempted a few times.

DUNCRAIG [Easy] : Main farming spot <3 . Really nothing to be said about this, Avoid barrels , use tempest on mobs , shatter the flesh/abyss on light-immunes.
Image

YSHARI SANCTUM : [Medium] http://docs.median-xl.com/MXLU_vXVI_Doc ... yshari.jpg Here is the map, Follow the green pathway to get to the sub-bosses to collect the yshari set. Yellow pathway to get to the next level in this uber. Final boss is pretty straight forward once you get the complete 2 sets. You get one skill that damages the boss , one skill that damages the mobs and one skill that makes you invulernable for 5 seconds.


Heroic Levels & Bosses


BELIAL : [Easy] Pretty simple , clear the level , summon him , Thunderstone spam and pick up charm
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THE "EXTREMELY SECRET" COW LEVEL : [Easy] Keep summons up , use tempest and wreck them cows

BULL PRINCE RODEO : [Easy] Summon him , use the 90 degrees wall , chronofield for slow and Thunderstone spam his ass

Image

QUOV TSIN : [Medium] Alot of guides say to stack resistances and get element abosrb, no need for that. clear the level, summon him, chronofield him and Thunderstone spam until he dies, you might die a few times trying to kill him or you might get lucky and instakill him. We can also craft a staff with O-skill Avalanche and just cheese it like that, it could take a while though.


ASTROGHA : [Medium] Clear the level, summon her, chronofield her ass, then Thunderstone spam her. Doesn't matter if you kill statues and heal her just keep spamming until you kill. Again if you are lucky you can instakill. We can also craft a staff with O-skill Avalanche and just cheese it like that, it could take a while though.



NOTE: Most of these ubers are easily done without chronofield, chronofield just makes them easier.


I would like to thank Ben- for introducing me to this spec and helping me with this guide.
I would like to thank o_owningtime for giving me the motivation to play Median and basically being my mentor for most ubers!
I would like to thank MarcoNecroX for this amazing mod.

I hope this guide helps some of the more inexperienced players on median and i hope it teaches you something new about this spec/class.
any suggestions and feedback are greatly appreciated! :D
Edited by candyland 5 years.
candyland
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videos of most ubers will be posted soon
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Stealthmaster
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Nice one mate. Cookie for your sorc. :)

I recommend using Abyss against QT, as you won't stay in his line of sight at all. Considering the fact that QT can be easily detected by a sound he makes, this heroic can be easily farmed with your sorc hiding and spamming abyss behind an obstacle for a trophy/perfect charm instead of using T-stone while standing still.

Also, what skill did you use against Ultra Stone? Just curious. :)
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suchbalance
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First off thanks for writing this, it's always nice to see more guides being posted.

Now, some things I don't like:

- Levelling section mostly copy/pasted from the Tanya guide... Why write a full guide if you're going to be lazy about it?

- Big chunks of text need to be split into paragraphs so they are easier to read. If you are unsure where to do this - go for a new paragraph whenever you conclude a point or change topic.

- Midgame skill plans are using 134/134 points, all ubers completed and realm only amulet for +1. Not practical at all.

- Early game section item stats in quotes are mostly copy/pasted from Tanya guide yet again, with the wrong stats highlighted as a result (like fire spell damage), come on man that's just lazy. On the items that you picked out yourself (like TU Kazarghand) you don't highlight stats like +dex/energy that you mention as useful below the item.

- How much FCR should I be aiming for & why are we using a staff when we can get more defence with orb + shield? Should I bother with FHR? What should I MO each item with? What does energy factor do? All basic questions that should be answered.

- Endgame item stats in quotes have broken text colour tags.

- You don't explain anywhere how to actually craft a jewel.

- What's the point of recommending cheese for LC2... Please add paragraphs to BRC & Minigames sections. Also using maphack which is not allowed on some screenshots.

- Uber section is in general OK, but some places need more info (i.e. brach: atm it sounds like someone cleared up to boss and lured mobs away and TPd you in; laz) and others where you are unsure (i.e.void) are best left as "not attempted".



Other than that it's a fine guide and gets the job done. Hoping to see some work on the above points :)
candyland
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Stealthmaster wrote:Nice one mate. Cookie for your sorc. :)

Also, what skill did you use against Ultra Stone? Just curious. :)



i use ssu light plated boots with hail of stones o-skill then just go full physical spell damage gear and should be easy. Yes i know such huge gear dedication for 1 stone :D .
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I would like to thank Ben-


np
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evil_potato
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green text is hard to read against this light background
o_Owningtime
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quite some work gg !
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GTD
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wat about amnxis rw on staff ?
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kakaraposa
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You can teleport in yash sanct ^^
Just find the right spots XD