Orballer Sorceress Guide

The Orballer Sorceress
By Jstylish

Hey guys,

I'm just writing up this guide to share a more diverse build that a Sorceress can do rather than focus on a single, powerful element. In this guide. I'll cover its weaknesses and strengths, along with gear setup for both Killing Power and Magic Finding. Oh, can't forget about Stat Distribution and Skill Tree build right?

The Orballer - Their Focus

The Orballer focuses on two main skills:

• Frozen Orb
• Fireball

By utilizing both skills, the DPS can almost be frightening. Aside from that, they cover more ground than a Sorceress who focuses on a single element but their killing power isn't as powerful. This means you can switch up from Frozen Orb to Fireball, or vice versa if you've met an immunity to either element. The only time your Mercenary will come into major play is when you've met both a Cold and Fire Immunity on a single monster~ aside from tanking purposes. With all of this, you're also open to even more Magic Finding areas regardless of Immunity.


Stat Distribution

This section will be brief but quick. Like many or all Sorc builds, you never shove a point into Energy no matter how much you think it might benefit you. Your Stat Distribution should look something like this:

STR: 95 *Your highest STR requirement will be from War Travelers.
DEX: Base or till 75% Block Chance *Depends on your preference.
VIT: All of the points! *Have lots of health and stay healthy!
ENERGY: Base *Very unnecessary, all of your Energy is given through gear itself.


Gear Setup - Both Cheap and Expensive

So here's a nice setup that I've developed for those who are playing Solo or gradually building up with just friends. This is also assuming that you're not grabbing freebies from anyone on the way to your Gear Setup. I'll start with the cheap version for those who are aiming for Optimal Gear in Nightmare or less:

* This is assuming you have Resist Charms and have done Anya Quest for additional Resist etc

• Head Piece - Runeword Lore / Peasant Crown / Rockstopper Sallet
• Body Piece - Runeword Stealth / Runeword Smoke / Skin of the Vipermagi
• Belt - Goldwrap
• Rings - Manald Heal + Nagelring's / 2x Nagelrings
• Shield - Runeword Rhyme / Runeword Spirit / Moser's Blessed Circle (2x P.Diamond Socket)
• Amulet - Rares with Resist and or +1 Skills for Sorc
• Boots - Waterwalk / War Traveler's *War Traveler's are more optimal and should be replacing Waterwalk if the chance is given.
• Gloves - Frostburn's / Chance Guard's / Magefists *Personal preference.
• Weapon - Crystal Sword Runeword Spirit *If you don't have this yet by the time you're done with Nightmare, there is something wrong with you.

For the "Expensive" section, this will be a bit more towards Killing Power rather than an "Almost Strict" Magic Find setup. This is due to the fact that we're on a 10x Drop server, so the OPTIMAL Magic Find % can be changed a little bit and still be optimal.


-** I'll finish the rest of it later, since I kinda ran out of time writing this up **-

 

Ahahah
Are u mad?

 

LOL actually he is not - this is almost exactly the build I use in Classic. Obviously the gear limitations are far greater in Classic but I am pretty much able to Solo through Hell with this. THe Mobs that are both Fire and Cold Immune get hit with Static and Lightning storm. Aah on that point I take 1 point in all the light skills to make use of the ES and Lightning Storm as opposed to the pathetic defence offered by the Cold Tabs.

 

Unfortunately, I can't edit posts. So I'd like to ask if a Forum Moderator or Administrator can merge this post with my original post so it doesn't look like a total mess :x
Anyways, moving on to the topic at hand. Here's the Expensive Setup with more gear towards Killing Power and Survivability:

• Head Piece - Harlequin Crest Shako + Um Rune *For additional Resist while still maintaining a fair amount of Magic Find %
• Body Piece - Skin of the Vipermagi Upped & Perfect + Um Rune *This is literally your Best In Slot. has FCR so... Can't argue with that.
• Belt - Goldwrap / Arachnid Mesh *More Magic Find % or Killing Power, up to you.
• Rings - 2x Nagelrings / 1x Nagelring + Stone of Jordan / 2x Stone of Jordan *Same thing as the belt, Magic Find or Killing Power.
• Shield - Runeword Spirit Monarch / (Secondary) Runeword Spirit Monarch *This is also your Best in Slot shield.
• Amulet - Mara's Kaleidoscope Perfect or Near Perfect *+2 to Skills and All To Resist, what more can you ask?
• Boots - War Traveller's *Best in Slot
• Weapon - The Oculus / Runeword Heart of the Oak / (Secondary) Runeword Call to Arms *Oculus is great for Magic Finding, HoTo gives you more Survivability and Killing Power with more FCR and Resists. Call to Arms is for self or party buffing.

Questionable Alternatives:

Skullder's Ire - The Magic Find mod is exceptional here, but the problem is that it gives too little in terms of surviving. Yeah, high defense rating but you have to be hassled to slap an Um Rune + some extra resist gear or charms just to keep up with what this armor lacks. Also no FCR.

Ormus Robes - Too much of a hassle to find the perfect Ormus for an Orballer. Besides, you're an Orballer. You utilize both Frozen Orb and Fireball, the Skill Mod only gives +3 to ONE particular Sorceress Skill. Stick to Vipermagi's, it has resistances anyways.

Tal Rasha's Lacquered Armor - No, just no. There's far more optimal options than using anything Tal Rasha related.

Nightwing's Veil - I chose not to add this because of losing -50% Magic Find from not using Harlequin Crest. However, you can use this if you can supplement Magic Find Charms. I cherish my Inventory Space too much to make up for the 50% that I could lose.


Skill Distribution - WHERE DO I PUT IT!?

This will be really short and easy to follow along with a few explanations, just make sure you max or put oone or a few points into these skills:

ICE TREE

20 - Frozen Orb
20 - Cold Mastery
1 - Frozen Armor

* Pretty self-explanatory, you're just trying to pump up Frozen Orb's Damage and getting Frozen Armor for some extra defense.

FIRE TREE

20 - Firebolt
20 - Fireball
20 - Fire Mastery
1 - Warmth

* You're nailing the synergy and the mastery to reach over 5,000 Damage Fireballs, the one single point into Warmth is for a small bit of Mana Regen that will increase as you obtain more gear with +Skills.

LIGHTNING TREE

1 - Telekinesis
1 - Teleport
1 - Static Field

* Static Field for dropping huge health bars. Teleport for quick travelling, and... screw Telekinesis.



-** Next section, I'll cover MFing areas, strategies and Mercenary Gear Setup. I ran out of time again <3 **-

 

Hopefully a mod will help you to straiten out the interrupted guide. I apologise for my part in that .
Regarding your skill placement:
Cold: I'm almost certain you don't want to bother with "cold mastery" and if I'm wrong, I'd like an explanation. I have always put the points into the Orb Synergy namely "Ice Bolt".
Fire: I go with max Fire Ball, then Max Meteor (Great as a primary attack while you spam away the fireball)

Also a note of when to put points into which skill may help people out a lot as well.

 

The reason why I chose Cold Mastery vs. Ice Bolt is because the Synergy with Ice Bolt is only a mere 2% per point. Cold Mastery shreds Cold Resistance and does its damage there even though its not calculated throughout the entire Cold tree. You're increasing the damage by shredding the resistance by 5% per point starting at 20% in Cold Mastery.

As for Meteor, the build turns into a Meteorb rather than an Orballer who specializes spamming short cast spells in quick succession while utilizing the end-point explosion of Frozen Orb. Your tree will have to be moved around for better optimization and balance between Cold and Fire. Getting Meteor as an Orballer is just a waste of points in the end, since you have to pick up other skills before obtaining Meteor vs Fire Mastery, which is automatically unlocked at 30. You'll be short handed in the Cold Tree if you go down Meteor just to synergize Fireball.

Also, if you're going to use Meteor and Fireball, just be a Fire Sorceress. This guide focuses on an Orballer who strictly focuses on Fireball Spam and End-Point Frozen Orb.

** I made a miscalculation about Cold Mastery in my statement, it's 5% per point starting at 20%. Regardless, my statement about Cold Mastery vs. Ice Bolt Synergy has not changed.

 

can you explain this?

thanks

 

Meteor + Fire Mastery vs. Fire Mastery without Meteor Synergy Explanation

Sorceress build

So, I've looked more into this and I've done the calculations myself while letting the Skill Calculator doing the calculations for me. The link above is the original build for an Orballer, which is set for this guide only. That is with everything that is necessary maxed with optimal damage. If you take a look at Fireball's total damage without skill items and such, it caps at 2.2K Damage. Which is normal for a said Orballer without anything.

Let's take a said scenario where you decide to max Meteor as well;

Sorceress build

That link shows someone who is willing to attempt to max Meteor as a Synergy and some attempt to putting a point into Meteor. As you can see, you're lacking points in Meteor with all 99 Skill Points + some from Quests. Also, the total damage of Fireball is now dropped from 2.2K to 1.4K. Potentially, you can fix this by giving up points from Cold Mastery and then some more but doing so will cost your killing power in the Cold Tree.

Here's another scenario, one who has a liking for Thunderstorm and Energy Shield protection:

Sorceress build

I'm not sure if this is Coldet's build for an Orballer, but I'm sure it's close. Here's the problem about this build as far as I can see, it has TOO much power in Fire. You've lost almost half of your Cold based killing potential since most of your End-Point Frozen Orb's damage comes from Cold Mastery. Yeah, you have 100 damage more than the original Orballer's Fireball which is 2.2K but you sacrifice way too much. There's also a bit of a problem putting Meteor and Frozen Orb together with the inclusion of Fireball~ and that is Cast Time, Cast Rate and Hotkey Switching. Your Fireball is most likely going to be on your left click, and then you're going to be switching through Meteor and Frozen Orb consistantly just to make an attempt of optimal damage. You also have to include switching to Static in some or most situations.

I'm still looking further into this bee tee dubs, but my tummy requires food <3 I will add more info later.

 

Hi Jstylish

I have a few corrections to show.
Your Meteor version v My Version - Note that I have put 1 point into Fire Mastery and Maxed Meteor instead of Fire Bolt.
Your Fire Ball = 1431 v My Fire ball 1819
Your Meteor = 2538 v My Meteor 3434

Ok your link for the Thunderstorm version is the same as the Meteor ( I think you forgot to update the Link on the Skill planner before copying it)

Now My build incorporates ES with Thunderstorm - Yes this costs you an extra 7 points, But I find that they are points very well spent, especially when you start adding gear that gives you added skills. A sorce is naturally not a tank and can not take hits. the problem is that she will get hit from time to time, especially when spamming the static. I just do not like the Cold tree's defences so I accept the cost of 4 skill points. And then .... The Cold/Fire Hybrid is really great 98% of the time. There are however several Boss Mobs that are both cold and fire Immune. Ok you can static him to 50% and then stand back while your mercenary digs away at him or you could help. In Classic there is no mercenary in act 4. Fortunately though you can Static his life down to 1% and watch as Thunderstorm does the rest. Easy justification for the 3 points.

This is the actual build I use - Please note that for comparison purposes I am also using the 99 points
ES+Thunderstorm Version with Points into Meteor V Points into Fire Mastery and no Meteor
Meteor + Fireball = 1722 v Mastery + Fireball = 1902 a reasonable difference, However I have the added benefit to throw in the odd Meteor (3667 Damage) amongst Large Mobs with mixed immunities while spamming the Frozen Orb.

As a matter of interest I specially made a FireOrb character in LoD just to test this and at level 82 with an under equipped Mercenary she was able to 100% clear CS twice in under 15 minutes. This may not be the kind of speed a Light Sorce with infinity can obtain but I feel it is still respectable.

BTW - thank you for the Skill tree planner - It is extremely useful

 

Okay, I no longer feel like I'm puking out all of the things in the world~ so I can actually respond. There is still no point in adding Meteor to an Orballer's skill tree, it completely changes the purpose of the build. Like I've said plenty of times, all of the Orballer's DPS comes from Max or Near Max FCR Fireball Spam and End-Point Frozen Orb. Your Left Click is Fireball, and your Right Click is obviously going to be Frozen Orb. You can't possibly tell me that you're willing to drop your DPS, calculating Cast Speed, Cooldown, FCR, teleport reposition and such just to include Meteor into the build. Not only that, Fireball lost its damage by nearly 15%. As for Thunderstorm, it's still pointless to put in a point into. Yeah, you can calculate +Skills into it, but it does nothing but a mere... maybe 200 damage since there's no points in Lightning Mastery and you have to wait for it to proc. So yeah, you're only gaining about what? 200 extra damage, regained from the 15% of total fireball damage that you've lost along with the fact that you have to literally sit there and wait for TS to strike. It doesn't even end there, you have to calculate total resistances too. It's not 75/75/75/75 in terms of resistances, it's actually in higher numbers such as 125/125/50/0 (Conviction Theory proves this). You have to calculate that damage in Hell as well. So ultimately, you're not even doing 200 damage. You're doing much less than that.

Also, your Merc is meant to take out Dual Immunities. That's why powerful, cheap Runewords exist in Ladder LoD (My Runeword Black Flail for my Smiter can back up this statement). My Merc does over 6,000 damage with a Sup Eth. CV Insight along with Crushing Blow Damage and Critical Damages +Skillers from additional gear. This covers EVERYTHING that I need to take out Dual Immunities. I static, they finish them off with very little wait time.