Melee Sorceress

I followed your old guide and have pretty much done all content and it was a breeze. This really is a strong build and honestly pretty fast farmer too. I clear Fautz and Bremm in a few minutes, literally cannot die even if I just go AFK sitting there.

Once I was able to get 50% DR without the poison passive I went lightning / fire with avoid passive.

Great guide and thanks for making your old one. The perfect build for someone who wanted to just check out all the content.

Solfege wrote:Rather than relying on high Armor Class Defense to avoid taking damage, you’re instead reducing incoming damage to a point at which you’re replenishing Life faster than you’re losing it. You’ll do this by using a multi-layered defense system consisting of passive and active damage reduction, Life regen, and Life sustain. High CtB will further boost survivability during times you can’t enter melee range.

Really enjoyable read, thank you for posting. I was curious about the above and wondered if you could expand a little? What exactly are you using to reduce incoming damage so much? I assume you get 50% DR and max resists wherever possible, but are you talking about more than just that? Some flat DR in some sources, perhaps? Of course Avoid and CtB help survival, but they provide chance-based mitigation similar to armor, without actually reducing the damage of a hit, right? Anything else I'm missing which is contributing to this mitigation? Thank you!

Followed your old guide too, it was a big help. Couldnt help but notice that in the Skill Breakdowns, Vengeful Power is supposed to be 15% life not 25% no? And at the end in the prep gear for runeword you mention T6

Is LoA or LL better in endgame? I dont remember the penalty for LL in hell. I mix both and doing fine at 117 but its starting to show that maybe i need to focus on just one? Thx.

Hrishi wrote:
Solfege wrote:Rather than relying on high Armor Class Defense to avoid taking damage, you’re instead reducing incoming damage to a point at which you’re replenishing Life faster than you’re losing it. You’ll do this by using a multi-layered defense system consisting of passive and active damage reduction, Life regen, and Life sustain. High CtB will further boost survivability during times you can’t enter melee range.

Really enjoyable read, thank you for posting. I was curious about the above and wondered if you could expand a little? What exactly are you using to reduce incoming damage so much? I assume you get 50% DR and max resists wherever possible, but are you talking about more than just that? Some flat DR in some sources, perhaps? Of course Avoid and CtB help survival, but they provide chance-based mitigation similar to armor, without actually reducing the damage of a hit, right? Anything else I'm missing which is contributing to this mitigation? Thank you!

probably force blast, extremely powerful screenwide aoe long duration -50% ennemy damage (busted skill).

On my side, I'm a bit lower dps with cold/lightning but got good def + 75% block + 50% dr still. Its a bit overkill on defense and so i'm considering either get Lorekeeper gloves for +firedance, or switch to fire for +hp and firedance. But i'd hate to drop lightning (avoid, tcd and ++++energy, which helps a lot for force blasting and not running out). Probably gonna try fire/lightning, but i'm not sure, i dont have a big base defense and ice also has hp... so fire/ice or fire/light, to be tested ! ^^

@igloosPat
Glad you enjoyed it.

@Hrishi
Thanks. Miasma and Force Blast both reduce the amount of Phys damage enemies do. There's also Mana Shield, which protects against both Phys and Elemental damage. But beyond early game, there are only a few places where it's helpful.

@Sheoldred
Thanks for pointing that out. Fixed. ^^

If you're an Elemental build, focus on LoA (LL doesn't work with flat Elemental damage). If you're a Phys build, you'll want a healthy mix of both LoA and LL--not only b/c Bladestorm's missiles leech, but there are many situations in which you don't wanna melee, so you'll be relying on Fusillade+LL to supplement your regen. With even a little LL, a single Fusillade can often regen you from near-death to near full health in about a second or so.

Wonderful guide just like your other one was. I used it pre Sigma for my first guy and I'm doing it again!

Beautiful guide! Hope to try this out!

Nice. Thanks for updating the guide. I'm currently playing melee sorc in mp(lvl 134). I've done almost all ubers without a problem(still working on void and laz, bought astro charm and sleep). What can i say melee is still decent both non-elemental and elemental. In case of phys build I can farm dunc and fauzt on p8 even without using force blast(thx to mana shield). Elemental sorc feels squishy tho still missing spirit walkers to reach better dr and second bmr(also lacking some resistances, need to get better repo charm). Dmg output is nice but still need more pierce(currently 100-120). Normal mobs melts even on p8, ubers due to higher resistances is better to do with non-elemental sorc. But there are exceptions when better to use elemental instead. What do you think about using shaad circlet or qor shield for some pierce? As for jewelry for phys build I'm using 2 emp glories and botsq. And for elemental tesseract and bmr. What umos would you recommend using in both builds?

Btw can't even imagine how much time it will take you to lvl up in sp without /players x. Gl anyway :-D

Thanks for updated guide

I’m lvl 127, only missing the witch Ubers, but I was wondering something :

I have 2 starhawk, the first 4/-35 res moed 15edX5 6 jah and a second 5/-31 clean

Wich one should I use for melee elem sorc ? What should be the mo/socket for the clean 5/-31 ?