-Light res on Ethereal Infinity

Help me understand something. When making ethreal Infinity for merc what matters is enhanced Damage not the -% To Enemy Lightning Resistance, right? Or is there some use for this ability in this scenario?

Reason I'm asking is i made -55%

Eth Infinity and sold it for multiple Jahs even though it had only 280 ED. Is this people being focused about wrong thing and chasing "perfect" rolls or am I missing something?

PS Instantly after selling I made another -55/285, so I guess I'm not gonna complain.. ;D

Correct, the -% to Enemy Lightning Resistance is only applicable to the wielder.
The answer to your question also depends on the base. Did you roll it in an elite or normal base? I use an ethereal

Scythe (normal) base for my self-wielding Infinity sorc, for two reasons. 1) It looks cool to me using an ethereal weapon. 2) Slightly lower str/dex requirements.

But for an Infinity rolled in an

Eth elite base destined for a merc the -% to enemy light res really doesn't matter.

Correct the -res only counts if the character is wielding it not the mercenary but many people are ignorant of this.

Yup, it was (nonsuperior) elite base strictly for merc.

But I was wondering if actually self use is optional in this case and ok, I get the idea of it looking cool.
And the requirements are good point as well. Might try that for

Nova, when/if I start upgrading gear.

Then again I would imagine normal bases with -55res being priced highly not the elite ones, but hey, seems like this is just how it works as it wasn't stand alone deal from what I see

Technically, it does matter for the merc as well since it'll boost the

Chain Lightning proc but ultimately, the impact of that is minimal at best to the point where it should just be ignored and certainly never prioritized over ED.

As Xan pointed out, a fair few folks still seem to believe the -res on a merc does matter for the char running next to said merc which is simply not the case but doesn't stop folks from basing pricing around that.

Regardless of the base being elite or not though, most builds that would self-wield an Infinity can very well opt for

Eth as well, both for style and lower reqs, as Knapp pointed out. That's made possible by the fact that you don't lose weapon durability by casting

Nova and the like so an

Eth Infinity will still last you forever on your sorc (just as one example).
In that scenario, the ED then becomes irrelevant and it ends up being all about the -res.
And yes, it does apply to elite bases as well (albeit less common than normal) as some folks (like my silly self) refuse to use non-elite bases out of Principle.

In all reality building Infinity in a normal base instead of an elite base for self use is a silly idea and I've built quite a few in Scythes.
The str req for a

Thresher is 152, so a whole 4 points less than a

Monarch. If you get an ethereal

Thresher its even less (142). This throws my entire argument out the window on needing less str and dex since I still need 156 for a Spirit

Monarch on swap.
It comes down to cost. A 4os ethereal

Scythe can be had for a

Pul vs its

Thresher counterpart is a

Ber. Ironically, if the rolls are identical, the resale value is about the same regardless of base. But what you save in base cost you lose in flexibility, as you can't (well you can but...why?) give it to a merc.

Knappogue wrote: 2 weeks ago

This throws my entire argument out the window on needing less str and dex since I still need 156 for a Spirit

Monarch on swap.

Oh in this case I just followed some guide to forget Spirit and go with

Lidless Wall. I guess the difference is extra points into Energy vs one level of

Battle Command/Orders. And still if for whatever reason (MF) i would like to go Crescent Moon+Spirit then Enigma solves problem with low str

HaveANiceDay wrote: 2 weeks ago

Knappogue wrote: 2 weeks ago

This throws my entire argument out the window on needing less str and dex since I still need 156 for a Spirit

Monarch on swap.

Oh in this case I just followed some guide to forget Spirit and go with

Lidless Wall. I guess the difference is extra points into Energy vs one level of

Battle Command/Orders

I might have to test this out. See the overall difference in mana (since I run ES) between

Lidless Wall and Spirit

Monarch.

Or completely forget about CtA and go Memory on +3 ES and so on staff ?

Necrarch wrote: 1 week ago

Or completely forget about CtA and go Memory on +3 ES and so on staff ?

Hard to give up CTA, you can go for CTA in a +3ES staff.

I thought about it to keep it in stash and just pre-buff at the start of the game. Probably could be just a few seconds when I would get used to it.
Does anybody do that?

HaveANiceDay wrote: 1 week ago

I thought about it to keep it in stash and just pre-buff at the start of the game. Probably could be just a few seconds when I would get used to it.
Does anybody do that?

It wouldn't worth the hassle for me. Also, with a fairly standard setup (3\10 amu, 4 skillers in inv) you can already reach 94% ES on lidless+cta side.

You don't need a CTA. My sorc actually has 700 Life and 1600 Mana. This is more than enough. I can lead P8 Chaos parties without dying.

Heck, in the good old days (D2Lod) I would have given my right leg for these numbers.

uuee wrote: 1 week ago

HaveANiceDay wrote: 1 week ago

I thought about it to keep it in stash and just pre-buff at the start of the game. Probably could be just a few seconds when I would get used to it.
Does anybody do that?

It wouldn't worth the hassle for me. Also, with a fairly standard setup (3\10 amu, 4 skillers in inv) you can already reach 94% ES on lidless+cta side.

Here the trick might be getting out some skill points and put them into

Warmth of something?

DasNarf wrote: 1 week ago

You don't need a CTA. My sorc actually has 700 Life and 1600 Mana. This is more than enough. I can lead P8 Chaos parties without dying.

Heck, in the good old days (D2Lod) I would have given my right leg for these numbers.

And this is standard self wield Infinity? Those stats come from charms?

HaveANiceDay wrote: 1 week ago

Here the trick might be getting out some skill points and put them into

Warmth of something?

That could be an argument if you are really into minmaxing, and doesn't mind the additional time it consumes to prebuff.

HaveANiceDay wrote: 1 week ago

Here the trick might be getting out some skill points and put them into

Warmth of something?

Imho, as a nova sorc, you don't have spare points to put into warmth. Insight is the way to go.

HaveANiceDay wrote: 1 week ago

And this is standard self wield Infinity?

Yes.

HaveANiceDay wrote: 1 week ago

Those stats come from charms?

No. Most of my Mana is coming from Energy (over 400) and Frostburn. I am playing SSF 99% of my time, all my stuff is self found. The only thing I had to trade was the two Ber runes, because this ladder I suck in finding good runes. My build is far from GG. I am wearing Griffons, Tals Amu, upped Vipers, two rare rings, rare boots, arach, memory with +3 ES, +2 Chilling Armor, +1 Enchant. Two skillers, Gheeds, medium Torch, Anni, light sunder and some Life/Mana/resist charms. My resists are fire/light maxed, cold/poison around 15%. Merc is prayer with cure, treachery and insight. ES is level 39 and Nova is level 32. FCR is at 95, just working on a good crafted amu to finally reach the 105 breakpoint.