Melee Sorceress

juniperleafes wrote:New to melee sorc, what is the interaction between Moon Strike and Bladestorm? Why are there two melee skills? Do you keep alternating between them?

Moon Strike gives you a buff for about 10 seconds. Fusillade shoots a whole bunch of swords and gives you a buff for maxblock + %mana on melee attack. Bladestorm is filler DPS.

juniperleafes wrote:New to melee sorc, what is the interaction between Moon Strike and Bladestorm? Why are there two melee skills? Do you keep alternating between them?

Sort of.

Moonstrike sucks as an attack, but the buff it gives you boosts damage to all WDM skills. So you just use Moonstrike to activate the buff, then switch to Bladestorm as your main skill and drop a Fusillade when you need extra damage. You only need to switch back to Moonstrike to reactivate/refresh the buff.

The easiest way to play is to bind Fusillade, Moonstrike, and Bladestorm to keys right next to each other. Then, you can basically just hold RMB and roll your fingers across the keyboard every few seconds.

So the idea isn't to spam Fusillade?

juniperleafes wrote:So the idea isn't to spam Fusillade?

I'm not sure that a 4-5ish second cooldown skill can be spammed.

juniperleafes wrote:So the idea isn't to spam Fusillade?

It's not the intent, but you usually end up keeping a Fusillade active all the time anyway. You'll often need the extra DPS from Fusillade because Bladestorm's DPS drops significantly when multiple targets are in range. And the extra Mana sustain from Arcane Sustenance helps keep Mana Shield active, especially when you're taking tons of spells to the face.

So does Spell Focus do anything for melee sorcs?

Nothing I'm aware of. It might boost elemental oskills. Idk if it affects elemental procs though.

Do you think it's better to farm Duncraig for a Lachdanan instead of Fauztinville? Lower lvl mobs but sacred drop bias? I managed to get a unique Banded Plate to drop in Fauztinville but it was a Zann Prodigy ;_;

juniperleafes wrote:Do you think it's better to farm Duncraig for a Lachdann's instead of Fauztinville? Lower lvl mobs but sacred drop bias? I managed to get a unique Banded Plate to drop in Fauztinville but it was a Zann Prodigy ;_;

Yeah, you're fine farming only Dunc for Lachdanan's. Even though Dunc isn't as good as it used to be, it's arguably still the best place to farm SUs/SSUs.

Quick first impressions based on patch notes.

Everything in the guide should still be applicable for 2.3 (except the Astrogha fight). Some updates will need to be made to reflect certain changes, but idk when/if I'll get around to it.

THE GOOD

Bladestorm, Fusillade, and Cold Blooded got minor buffs.
Attack Ground should open up new bossing strategies, but more importantly, hopefully AG can speed up slow af farming by making oskills such as Spiral Dance actually worth using. Here's hoping.

THE MEH (for now)

Not sure yet what to think of Determination and Fatal Focus (new passive skills). At a glance, they seem uninspiring and convoluted (much like Premonition). Maybe they'll make End Game phys builds viable again. :shrug: Just give Melee Sorc a warp strike already and call it a day.

THE BAD (maybe)

Not sure how smoothly Mooncall (formerly Moonstrike) will actually play. If it’s yet another generic buff you have to stop and recast every 2 to 30 seconds, it could be clunky and annoying, especially while leveling.

TL;DR
I expect Melee Sorc will still be a perfectly adequate utility build that nobody will play.

ETA (post-release)

Mooncall
Really annoying to use, especially while leveling. It's a short-duration castable buff with no melee component that requires you to actually "melee" a target in order to cast the buff (or Shift+Click to cast, which is just casting with extra steps). Who thought this was a good idea?
Determination+Fatal Focus
So far, not really seeing the benefit of going this route. These skills are obviously meant for Phys builds, but you have to gear your Sorc as an Ele build in order to get any kind of Defense bonus from Determination. So, if you wanna go Phys in End Game and take advantage of all that sweet DS from Fatal Focus, you're still stuck using "suboptimal" Ele gear instead of using actual Phys-focused gear if you want enough Defense to make up for losing 40% CtB. Stupid.

ETA 2 (post-2.3.1 update)

Determination
Changed in 2.3.1. Now gives Base Defense based on Phys damage multipliers, which makes a lot more sense.

Quick test in Scos with Determination+maxed Fatal Focus and some Phys gear (End Game Base Kit, but using

Steel Punisher

Steel Punisher
Warp Blade (Sacred)
One-Hand Damage: (172 - 187) to (332 - 358)
(Sorceress Only)
Required Level: 100
Required Dexterity: 400
Item Level: 120
Dexterity Damage Bonus: (0.13 per Dexterity)%
Area Effect Attack
Spiral Dance: +300% Bonus Magic Damage
15% Chance to cast level 25 ATMG Sentry on Melee Attack
+(1 to 2) to Sorceress Skill Levels
Adds 40-100 Damage
(15 to 20)% Life stolen per Hit
+(170 to 200)% Enhanced Damage
10% Deadly Strike
Physical Resist 10%
Socketed (6)

,

Dervish of Aranoch

Dervish of Aranoch
Kazarghand (Sacred)
Defense: (5959 - 6735) to (6832 - 7722)
(Sorceress Only)
Required Level: 100
Required Dexterity: 550
Item Level: 105
5% Chance to cast level 6 Claw Tornado on Striking
40% Attack Speed
(5 to 20)% Life stolen per Hit
Stun Attack
Weapon Physical Damage +30%
+(115 to 143)% Enhanced Defense
20% to Dexterity
-20% to Energy
+1000 to Life
Socketed (6)

, and

Lightforge

Lightforge
Kite Shield (Sacred)
Defense: (4144 - 5055) to (5252 - 6315)
Chance to Block: Class%
Required Level: 100
Required Strength: 550
Required Dexterity: 559
Item Level: 105
Gematria
(Bonus for each Socketed Great/Elemental Rune)
+5% Physical Resist
-5% Elemental Resists
+25% Bonus to Defense
1% Chance to cast level 10 Thunder Hammer on Striking
-10% Movement Speed
+(100 to 150)% Enhanced Defense
+(500 to 1000) Defense
+(1000 to 2000) Defense vs. Missile
+(30 to 50) to all Attributes
+(30 to 50) Life after each Demon Kill
Socketed (4)

w/4x Earth Runes). Note: this is not necessarily gear I'd recommend. It's just some gear I happened to have in my stash at the time.

Damage
Single-target DPS was slightly lower, but overall clearspeed felt roughly the same or slightly better.
Survivability
Roughly the same or slightly better overall, but Ele attacks seemed more dangerous. Defense increase wasn't phenomenal (went from ~200k to ~300k), but the extra LL+Phys Res seemed to be a decent counter to losing Mana Shield and having only 10% CtB (22% with Premonition, b/c I don't have enough points to max it yet).

TL;DR
Mooncall is annoying.
Determination+Fatal Focus aren't game-changers, but they will make End Game phys builds more viable.
The melee tree has become an overcomplicated mess.