Nova sorc cta question

A little strategic question:

For my

Nova sorc i decided to use cta stave with +es and +any Ice armor. It looks like the bases are quite rare and therefore pretty expensive, about 6 to 15

Jah starting.

Right now i have a selffound base, 5soc, +2es and +2ts. Would be good for cta aswell, but then i need to put one hardpoint into

Frozen Armor (thats the first one?).

She will be fully skilled then with lvl 95 (20 hardpoints into static,

Nova,

Lightning Mastery,

Telekinesis and

Energy Shield).

So my question is, try to find/buy a stave with +es and +armor, or just use the one i have and "waste" one hardpoint into the armor.

The runes for cta are not that expensive now, but still i am not rich so dont want to make a cta in an afterwards useless base.

I wouldn't change +1BO for +1ES (you can reach lvl95 ES with 5skillers and +3 amu without an ES CTA). I'd say if you don't have a +3ES base you're better off with CTA+lidless (even if you have its arguable).

Baron_G wrote: 1 day ago

A little strategic question:

For my

Nova sorc i decided to use cta stave with +es and +any Ice armor. It looks like the bases are quite rare and therefore pretty expensive, about 6 to 15

Jah starting.

Right now i have a selffound base, 5soc, +2es and +2ts. Would be good for cta aswell, but then i need to put one hardpoint into

Frozen Armor (thats the first one?).

She will be fully skilled then with lvl 95 (20 hardpoints into static,

Nova,

Lightning Mastery,

Telekinesis and

Energy Shield).

So my question is, try to find/buy a stave with +es and +armor, or just use the one i have and "waste" one hardpoint into the armor.

The runes for cta are not that expensive now, but still i am not rich so dont want to make a cta in an afterwards useless base.

I like Staff CTA because it's different. And it's feasible, you are making a trade off between more offense for less defense.

Since the bases are so expensive, you will also want to reroll until you get at least a 6 BO.

The downside is, it is hard to sell since it's expensive, niche, and not really better than the standard. (It's primarily different)

I'd check if there are people selling their CTA staff. Most will want crazy prices for their good/perfect rolls. But I also found a 5 BO 3ES for 3

Jah: https://traderie.com/diablo2resurrected ... ion=Europe

Might be good enough?

Edit: I would use the base you have. Having only 2 ES compared to 3 is not that huge and 1 skill in FA is not wasted. Lvl 95 is quite doable. It's the 4 points "wasted" in ES that are annoying.
And you have TS on top which won't do much damage but it looks nice.

I agree with @uuee . A high level

Nova sorc with good clear (lots of +skills) maxes out ED easily (95%). I rather take the extra life and do not forget that a CTA plus

Lidless Wall also gets more Mana than a staff CTA (because there is no shield), so more Life+Mana is better than 1, 2 or 3 extra points in ES. For a mid-level Sorc (around level 80) that might be different. But I would not buy a very expensive base for a staff CTA. A high level

Nova sorc can also easily spare a point in

Frozen Armor, no problem and

Frozen Armor remains to be the best of the three armor choices, in my opinion.

mikelessar wrote: 1 day ago

I agree with @uuee . A high level

Nova sorc with good clear (lots of +skills) maxes out ED easily (95%). I rather take the extra life and do not forget that a CTA plus

Lidless Wall also gets more Mana than a staff CTA (because there is no shield), so more Life+Mana is better than 1, 2 or 3 extra points in ES. For a mid-level Sorc (around level 80) that might be different. But I would not buy a very expensive base for a staff CTA. A high level

Nova sorc can also easily spare a point in

Frozen Armor, no problem and

Frozen Armor remains to be the best of the three armor choices, in my opinion.

It's not about having more points in ES, it's about saving all hard points in ES and the way to it so that you can max

Nova + all synergies at lvl 94/lvl 95 (with FA) instead of at lvl 99.

I'm pretty sure that OP is aware of the advantages and disadvantages of standard CTA vs. Staff CTA and he was asking for advice in the base.

There is also no right or wrong, it's more offense vs. more defense and it's a matter of play style of which you prefer. Maybe Baron just wants to try something else and not run the same standard build like anyone else? Also, staff CTA looks better

uuee wrote: 1 day ago

I wouldn't change +1BO for +1ES (you can reach lvl95 ES with 5skillers and +3 amu without an ES CTA). I'd say if you don't have a +3ES base you're better off with CTA+lidless (even if you have its arguable).

And i have to add, don't waste your resources rerolling on a +2ES base, as getting +6 bo may take longer than you think. It took me 19 tries to roll one in my +3 ES Staff.

Btw The +Armor means +1

Thunder Storm in the long run, as you will have everything else maxed out after a certain point

Tip: Use

Recipe: Normal Quality Weapon of Same Type on any cracked/crude/whatsoever

Rune Staff you come around. Has guaranteed 5 OS on

Larzuk and may spawn with +3ES after reroll

Just for my own education, why is everyone talking about lidless as the secondary slot item rather than a Spirit shield? Doesn't the Spirit give you more + skills? Or is it to avoid the STR requirements?

Tanot wrote: 1 day ago

Just for my own education, why is everyone talking about lidless as the secondary slot item rather than a Spirit shield? Doesn't the Spirit give you more + skills? Or is it to avoid the STR requirements?

Yup, Spirits strg reqs are too high. With

Energy Shield, the additional energy is superior to 1 allskills

Blubbalutsch wrote: 1 day ago

uuee wrote: 1 day ago

I wouldn't change +1BO for +1ES (you can reach lvl95 ES with 5skillers and +3 amu without an ES CTA). I'd say if you don't have a +3ES base you're better off with CTA+lidless (even if you have its arguable).

And i have to add, don't waste your resources rerolling on a +2ES base, as getting +6 bo may take longer than you think. It took me 19 tries to roll one in my +3 ES Staff.

Btw The +Armor means +1

Thunder Storm in the long run, as you will have everything else maxed out after a certain point

Tip: Use

Recipe: Normal Quality Weapon of Same Type on any cracked/crude/whatsoever

Rune Staff you come around. Has guaranteed 5 OS on

Larzuk and may spawn with +3ES after reroll

Nice one, will try remembering this!
Do you know the odds for getting 1-3 ES? And how many cracked rune staffs drop?

vued wrote: 1 day ago

mikelessar wrote: 1 day ago

I agree with @uuee . A high level

Nova sorc with good clear (lots of +skills) maxes out ED easily (95%). I rather take the extra life and do not forget that a CTA plus

Lidless Wall also gets more Mana than a staff CTA (because there is no shield), so more Life+Mana is better than 1, 2 or 3 extra points in ES. For a mid-level Sorc (around level 80) that might be different. But I would not buy a very expensive base for a staff CTA. A high level

Nova sorc can also easily spare a point in

Frozen Armor, no problem and

Frozen Armor remains to be the best of the three armor choices, in my opinion.

It's not about having more points in ES, it's about saving all hard points in ES and the way to it so that you can max

Nova + all synergies at lvl 94/lvl 95 (with FA) instead of at lvl 99.

I'm pretty sure that OP is aware of the advantages and disadvantages of standard CTA vs. Staff CTA and he was asking for advice in the base.

There is also no right or wrong, it's more offense vs. more defense and it's a matter of play style of which you prefer. Maybe Baron just wants to try something else and not run the same standard build like anyone else? Also, staff CTA looks better

Yes, getting ES on a CTA staff means you can get quicker to 95% ES but you sacrifize 1 BO from the Lidless (=Life and Mana). That's the trade you're doing. It's worth it if you are below level 95 AND the base is good, +2 or +3 ES and ideally also with

Thunder Storm,

Frozen Armor,

Warmth or

Teleport., otherwise I would not do it.

Thx so much for the answers. I have now a 3/6/4 cta with lidless and 1 point in

Frozen Armor. The +1 in bo is not to be ignored. So it works ok. But vued is right, its tempting to safe the points in ES and also TS looks nice (does it do anything at all?).
I will try to reroll a cracked stave like @uuee described.
And yes, it also looks nice to have the stave

Still i am concerned about the odds rolling a good cta. Only did it once with above outcome. Same luck with Infinity, one roll and -54. Guess i will not have a 6/6/x the second time

Baron_G wrote: 1 day ago

Thx so much for the answers. I have now a 3/6/4 cta with lidless and 1 point in

Frozen Armor. The +1 in bo is not to be ignored. So it works ok. But vued is right, its tempting to safe the points in ES and also TS looks nice (does it do anything at all?).
I will try to reroll a cracked stave like @uuee described.
And yes, it also looks nice to have the stave

Still i am concerned about the odds rolling a good cta. Only did it once with above outcome. Same luck with Infinity, one roll and -54. Guess i will not have a 6/6/x the second time

Even a 2BO CTA increases life a lot, esp. if you got +all skills on gear. Anni, arach,

Shako, Mara's, viper, ... they all boost your BO. I would roll that staff and accept the result, whatever it might be. Since the base is not too valuable with only 2ES, it's a free chance to get something cool out of it.

The problem with TS is that it only hits single targets and not too often. But with full synergies (

Static Field) and maxed light mastery it should be around 2-4K damage per second with you bonus skills, which is a nice bonus for boss fights but less than each

Nova cast.

TS can also be nasty, e.g. when it kills dolls in front of you.

vued wrote: 1 day ago

Do you know the odds for getting 1-3 ES? And how many cracked rune staffs drop?

Not that high, but non-zero worth trying your luck, as the investment is quiet low. Same goes for rolling cracked

Preserved Head to get +3

Skeleton Mastery +3 Summon

Skeleton btw

Blubbalutsch wrote: 23 hours ago

vued wrote: 1 day ago

Do you know the odds for getting 1-3 ES? And how many cracked rune staffs drop?

Not that high, but non-zero worth trying your luck, as the investment is quiet low. Same goes for rolling cracked

Preserved Head to get +3

Skeleton Mastery +3 Summon

Skeleton btw

Do only preserves heads work or any shrunken head?
Can it also roll 3

Bone Spear 3

Bone Spirit? The iLvl is 25 after repair, right?

vued wrote: 22 hours ago

Do only preserves heads work or any shrunken head?

Only

Preserved Head work because the base's itemlvl doesnt allow skills beyond lvl 1.

Bone Spirit may roll on any elite shrunken head afaik, but using preserved heads increases the chance getting +3

Skeleton Mastery and +3 Summon

Skeleton by a lot.

Blubbalutsch wrote: 1 day ago

Tip: Use

Recipe: Normal Quality Weapon of Same Type on any cracked/crude/whatsoever

Rune Staff you come around. Has guaranteed 5 OS on

Larzuk and may spawn with +3ES after reroll

How does this work? Doesn't the Normal Quality item received using this recipe have ilvl=1, and aren't the allowed staffmods restricted by this new ilvl=1 ? How can it roll a Tier-5 skill like ES?

forums/question-about-staff-mods-ilvl-a ... 09136.html

What am I missing?

Because

Rune Staff has lvl req 25 and therefore staffmod with up to lvl 25 (doesnt exist) skill level are possible. Try it urself.

War Staff, on the other hand, will only get lvl 1 skills