1.4 cold sorc skills (2nd tree fire?)

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jasiunas
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Whats the primary single target killer for cold sorc?
I'm playing fire+cold in hell 105 lvl. For now I use FlameStrike for single target. Out of fire and cold trees both Flamestrike and Pyroblast seem efective as single target killers, but in cold tree Abyss is uncomfortable to use and not as effective and Frigid Sphere doesnt feel strong enough for single target.
Should I practice Abyss or Frigid sphere for single target?
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Solfege
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Abyss. Supposedly, it's one of the most powerful spells in the game (if not the most powerful). But the enemy needs to be stationary for it to really be effective. That's where your IEs come in. You can summon a few on top of bosses to hold them in place.

Regarding the Fire spells, you can get away with using them early on, but they're not gonna be very effective by end game w/o investment. Pyroblast has amazing potential, but there are just too many issues with how the fire splash works (or doesn't work, in a lot of cases) and certain boss mechanics that make it useless against most bosses later on. Flamestrike is good, but will need some investment and +FSD/-EFR gear to make it great.
Krusha
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Abyss is easily the best, don't cast it right on the target but instead let the ring(s) hit them.

melts early bosses rather quickly. maxed it on my cold soso and it works great
Captcha
Mangler
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Searching around the forums, the older posts say Abyss is a 'one point wonder'. It doesn't look like it had any changes for a long time but it seems the change from monster immunities to absorb makes it ok to have just one type of damage, so it makes sense to max Abyss now?

It is clunky to aim though and some bosses move just a little bit even when they have IEs on them, which takes them out of Abyss's damage rings, but as said above, any other tree needs investment into fire damage and pierce so maybe it's the only way to go.

P.S. The other summons from the melee tree are weak; only useful when you need a lot of bodies to get in the way of damage for a short time - they die fast. I'll probably spec them out when I re-spec. IEs get stronger as you put more in FS (do minion resists work for IEs?).
men4ce
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Captcha wrote:P.S. The other summons from the melee tree are weak; only useful when you need a lot of bodies to get in the way of damage for a short time - they die fast. I'll probably spec them out when I re-spec. IEs get stronger as you put more in FS (do minion resists work for IEs?).


Pretty sure they do, there's no reason minion resists shouldn't work. Also make sure to look out for minion damage as it converts to cold spell damage by md/4 (up to a total of 100% csd). Cold sorc can craft some very op jewels right now with 2 sd + 2 csd + 15 md for a total of 7% (or 8%, depending on how it's rounded) cold spell damage as long as you benefit from the IE aura.

Also, I wonder how a max block ice/cold caster sorc with 50% dex to energy conversion would fare :idea:
Kylrath
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Tried Kabraxis with abyss and frigid sphere. Unfortunatelly it was an epic failure. smax abyss damage 3800.... Not to mention i cant really target with it , when he is teleporting on me and loads of skeletons bust my ass..
Other bosses are pretty easy. Dunc and teganze cakewalk, with cold/poison. Only had problem with Kabraxis, Bat guy from Teganze and Kingdom of shadows.
Tried out fire aswell , seems even more powerful.
Habacalva's Legacy
Habacalva's Legacy
Eagle Orb (Sacred)

One-Hand Damage: 35 to 36
(Sorceress Only)
Required Level: 100
Required Dexterity: 171
Item Level: 105
Dexterity Damage Bonus: (0.11 per Dexterity)%
Flamefront: +5 Maximum Projectiles
-(11 to 25)% to Enemy Fire Resistance
-50% to Lightning Spell Damage
-50% to Cold Spell Damage
-50% to Poison Spell Damage
+(8 to 15) to Living Flame (Sorceress Only)
+(8 to 15) to Pyroblast (Sorceress Only)
+(8 to 15) to Flamestrike (Sorceress Only)
+(8 to 15) to Flamefront (Sorceress Only)
Socketed (2)
is something i dont have , but still strong.
Aari_
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Kylrath wrote:Tried Kabraxis with abyss and frigid sphere. Unfortunatelly it was an epic failure. smax abyss damage 3800.... Not to mention i cant really target with it , when he is teleporting on me and loads of skeletons bust my ass..
Other bosses are pretty easy. Dunc and teganze cakewalk, with cold/poison. Only had problem with Kabraxis, Bat guy from Teganze and Kingdom of shadows.
Tried out fire aswell , seems even more powerful.
Habacalva's Legacy
Habacalva's Legacy
Eagle Orb (Sacred)

One-Hand Damage: 35 to 36
(Sorceress Only)
Required Level: 100
Required Dexterity: 171
Item Level: 105
Dexterity Damage Bonus: (0.11 per Dexterity)%
Flamefront: +5 Maximum Projectiles
-(11 to 25)% to Enemy Fire Resistance
-50% to Lightning Spell Damage
-50% to Cold Spell Damage
-50% to Poison Spell Damage
+(8 to 15) to Living Flame (Sorceress Only)
+(8 to 15) to Pyroblast (Sorceress Only)
+(8 to 15) to Flamestrike (Sorceress Only)
+(8 to 15) to Flamefront (Sorceress Only)
Socketed (2)
is something i dont have , but still strong.


I was able to do Kabraxis by spamming ice elementals on him to keep him stationary while I blasted him with Frigid Sphere and Twilight Havoc on CD.
Wasn't super fast, but got the job done reliably. You still have to watch out for the poison flamestrike thing and move when you see it under your feet.
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Mangler
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Good plan Aari, most builds seem to have to do this by running in circles - hard to do that and use skills that you need to aim so good to know that spamming IEs works. Did you have a lot of minion resists on your gear?

Also interesting that Kylrath says fire seems more powerful - I can imagine FF for aoe and FlameStrike for single target are good with +fsd/-efr and faster and easier to aim than the cold equivalents. But how did you get on having no tanky summons? If you don't max Frozen Sphere I expect your IEs would be weak - as bad as the Blade Spirit guys in the melee tree - the worst thing about ele sorc in the past was having to re-cast summons all the time.
Diaco
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Captcha wrote:Good plan Aari, most builds seem to have to do this by running in circles - hard to do that and use skills that you need to aim so good to know that spamming IEs works. Did you have a lot of minion resists on your gear?

Also interesting that Kylrath says fire seems more powerful - I can imagine FF for aoe and FlameStrike for single target are good with +fsd/-efr and faster and easier to aim than the cold equivalents. But how did you get on having no tanky summons? If you don't max Frozen Sphere I expect your IEs would be weak - as bad as the Blade Spirit guys in the melee tree - the worst thing about ele sorc in the past was having to re-cast summons all the time.


Running FF sorc with Habaclava, using cold for secondary tree. With 10 points in frigid sphere the IEs survive just fine in most uber areas up until 125
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Mangler
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Cool. I'm wondering if fire is a better way to go now. Shame in a way - I like cold sorc in principle, especially if it can freeze things (although this one can't).

You just use FF - or FS for single target?
What gear have you been using btw?