best option for Infinity

[/quote]
Just out of curiosity, would you mind tell us your gear set up? To reach 105 FCR and 86 FHR at same time I mean.
[/quote]

To reach 105 FCR you have 2 options - either 10 FCR on the amulet or on a ring - besides the "standard" equipment - Viper,

Magefist, Griffon, Arachnid

To reach 86 FHR breakpoint (not using

Sandstorm Trek) - you need 6 x GC FHR + 10 FHR on

Boots + 1 x SC with 5 FHR getting a total of 87

d2jsp wrote: 1 day ago

BigD wrote: 1 day ago

Sorc with self wield Infinity is more of a glass cannon vs HoTo+Spirit with Infinity wielding merc, my experience anyways. And youre gonna lose alot of FCR & res vs HoTo+Spirit too. Might be fun and obliterate mobs quicker though, especially lightning immunes.

For lightning sorc on HC I prefer

Crescent Moon (for the -enemy light res) +

Stormshield and Infinity wielding merc, but that's just me. Feels less squishy.

Of course, it all depends on your playing style. I see you're using a Nintendo Switch. For me, playing in console mode is terrible, especially on hardcore mode. Even when playing on Steam Deck, I connect an portable monitor, keyboard, and mouse.

NovaES is an aggressive build, everything depends on your reaction and skill, correct positioning of the mouse cursor etc

It's not bad if you're used to playing on console, especially if you've done lots of other gaming on the switch. I grew up playing Playstation and Xbox and I played lots of Super Smash and other games on Switch here. Since last season I've only been playing HC.

You can sort of control how far you

Teleport using the analog stick. It's not as precise as a mouse cursor obvs but you get the hang of it.

In some ways console sort of lends itself to faster paced gaming, which is preferable for some builds.

retepnap wrote: 21 hours ago

I am a bit unsure if we have the same baseline, so I would like to put some more context into this:

1. P8 is the only "true" baseline - if you play P1 most of the time - then I dont really see the relevance in gear "debate" at all
2. DPS and thus clear speed is the "ultimate" goal here - combined with never dying and your merc never dying
3. There are only a few monsters / groups that can kill you - I hope we can agree on that - all of those requires FHR in most cases to effectively survive
4. Solo clearing Chaos and WSK in p8 games - since they hold the only monsters / groups that imo pose the biggest (and any?) threat to the

Nova build
5. Why are some of you "debating" playstyle? Telestomping combined with clear speed does not really give you any other way of style?
6. If your merc helps you with killing boss'es then I assume you are playing P1 games and that your DPS is way too low
7. Having higher def is ofcourse helpful - but claiming that the FHR from

Sandstorm Trek is enough makes no sense (keep in mind that the context is the above mentioned situations) 20 FHR gives you 11 frames - 86 FHR gives you 7 frames - thats the difference of dying easily or not at all
8. Life does not help you against blood mana - I know this migth end up in semantics but holding back attack is what ultimately "saves" you?
9. Asking why I have cold res just tells me that .... ugh My cold res mainly comes from +ALL RES gear - thats not the same as me pursuing it or even needing it?
10. My gear is flexible - I usually play with 59 fire res / 46 cold res / 75 light res / 55 poison res - but I can instantly change that to 59 FR / 24 CR / 75 LR / 75 PR
11. Mana, FHR, resistances, defence
11a The priority is not up for debate unless you play somewhere else than where it matters
11b First priority is Mana (the initial pool but definately also the regen) - Second is FHR (again, unless you play where it doesnt matter ofc) - Third is Poison resist and Lightning resist - the first because its annoying, not because you risk dying (with the exception of dolls, but thats a matter of skills imo) - Fourth is life and the remaining resists

12. Now, tell me in which situations you or your merc dies in the game (if you are not playing P8 games, then never mind)

And to those of you who still insists that

Sandstorm Trek is BiS and that 20 FHR is "enough" - how about we test it?

I challenge you to do 50 games each of clearing Chaos and wsk solo in P8 games - I will bring the stopwatch and coffins for you

I don't see how FHR helps outside of knockbacking mobs since you take 95% of the dmg to your mana, therefore you dont get FHRed until you mana dries. Chaos is not a threat at all (not even in p8. with 3K+ mana you can handle even infector just fine) WSK is a diff story. Souls needs attention, but I belive it is still the case for your build.

[/quote]

I don't see how FHR helps outside of knockbacking mobs since you take 95% of the dmg to your mana, therefore you dont get FHRed until you mana dries. Chaos is not a threat at all (not even in p8. with 3K+ mana you can handle even infector just fine) WSK is a diff story. Souls needs attention, but I belive it is still the case for your build.
[/quote]


You are wrong about every assumption you have made so far.

Ofcourse you can get

Stun locked before your mana pool runs dry - thats the game mechanic 1/12th threshold.

Ask

Lord De Seis how many

Nova sorc he has put into a coffin - he doesnt even have to spawn with might or fanatism aura - pure unluck will get you into the coffin very fast (assuming you ignore the importance of FHR).

Lets do the math?

Lets start with a

Nova sorc that has 800 life and 3000 mana (NOTE that in the case / situation of stunlock - it doesnt matter if you have 3k or 6k mana pool! - assuming you have the

Cap of 95% on your ES ofcourse)

With 20 FHR you will only reach the 11 framerate breakpoint - equivalent of 0.44 seconds.

7 framerates is 0.28 seconds - just for comparison

The _standard_ attack rate/cycle of most monsters is around 10 frames.

The threshold for putting you into a stunlock with 800 life is 67 damage to your lifepool !

Blood Lords and Death Knights can easily roll higher than the needed threshold.

Elite packs with might, fanatism or extra strong can exceed the threshold with 300 - 400 % and they wont ask your permission

To put that into perspective, if you have 11 framerates "to escape / attack" with and a pack of 3 monsters is hitting you (exceeding the amount of damage threshold ofcourse), just slightly out of sync - you will be put into a stunlock aka nodding your head 100% of the times.

We could continue this, but a pack of 5 souls ... well, I bet you already know what happens with 11 framerate getaway

So, I can mathematically prove that you dont play at the same level as the 86 FHR

Nova sorc does (without dying every now and then).

While you are playing russian roulette with your 11 framerate

Nova sorc - I have already cleared the screen or teleported to safety.

Let me see your

Nova builds in d2planner - i dare you

d2jsp wrote: 1 day ago

https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner/ae2910oe

My build that survives on TZ96-8ppl. He's not afraid of the dolls, and his

Cyclone Armor from Infinity will allow him to survive the fight against the souls.

Note the swap, I don't use Call To Arms, instead I carry Memory with

Chilling Armor and extra ES. I play with two windows and my GF/Mfinder gives me all the warcries.

I use almost the exact same build (merc too), with same sockets and same upp'd items. Only real difference is I use a 2/10

Caster Amulet.
I do use different charms.
Super fun build. I have no issues with p8 runs either.

uuee wrote: 14 hours ago

I don't see how FHR helps outside of knockbacking mobs since you take 95% of the dmg to your mana, therefore you dont get FHRed until you mana dries. Chaos is not a threat at all (not even in p8. with 3K+ mana you can handle even infector just fine) WSK is a diff story. Souls needs attention, but I belive it is still the case for your build.

I agree with you. In my opinion FHR on a, ES sorc just isn't needed. Are there monsters that can

Stun you regardless? Yes, blood lords for example. However, play intelligently around these auto-stunning monsters. Don't Leroy Jenkins yourself blindly. The amount of monsters where 5% of their attack (since 95% is absorbed with ES through a properly built sorc) can get through you

Energy Shield AND take out 1/12th of your life in a single attack, is so small its not worth the extra cost and effort to hit 86FHR in my opinion.

Personally I build my characters to handle 95% of the game with as much damage and speed as possible. For the remaining 5% of the game I just play intelligently. Never had any issues - sorc never dies.

But that's the great thing about this game. Its about each individual's play style and what is fun for them.
There will always be people who try to tell you your build is wrong if yours doesn't match their build. Do what you build fits your style and preferences. That's why I use Fortitude on my merc. I do a lot of

Key and essence farming with my sorc, meaning I kill a lot of bosses. I enjoy the extra damage fort gives my merc. Its worth the 16

Prayer aura he has instead of 18 from Coh. This set up fits my style. Could I have extra protected if he used Coh? Sure but its not worth the trade off in damage my merc does to bosses.

There will always be people who changes the narrative when things dont align with their perspective. The common sign is that they often contradict themself when presented with something they dont immediately understand.

They are also extremely stubborn or maybe something else

There will always be people that claims certain gear is BiS - even though they are not. And when presented with a better solution ... well ... sigh

We dont play at the same level - if that triggers someone so much that they have to change the narrative and thus the baseline of which they claimed to have the high Ground on in the first place - then fine with me - I can only advice players to the best of my knowledge and provide context beyond "subjective" oppinions based on ...

My build has 75 poison res _without_

Sandstorm Trek. It has 75 light res. It has 86 FHR.

Regardless of whether anyone "feels" like they need that or not - in regards to their playstyle, that is a better build?!

The fact that anyone would even try to defend that ... kinda proofs my initial point of views?

These people simply refuse to acknowledge any "evidence" - they talk themself out of it - typically changing the scenario.

My build doesnt care about how "intelligent" (all of a sudden?) that anyone plays - it will still be much better in _their_ hands - the pure stats is proof ?!

How would anyone ever argue, that having less resistance, less FHR is better? Sigh ?!

Cherry picking "situations" that fits someones build is not the same as comparing it based on facts.

retepnap wrote: 5 hours ago

There will always be people who changes the narrative when things dont align with their perspective. The common sign is that they often contradict themself when presented with something they dont immediately understand.

They are also extremely stubborn or maybe something else

There will always be people that claims certain gear is BiS - even though they are not. And when presented with a better solution ... well ... sigh

We dont play at the same level - if that triggers someone so much that they have to change the narrative and thus the baseline of which they claimed to have the high Ground on in the first place - then fine with me - I can only advice players to the best of my knowledge and provide context beyond "subjective" oppinions based on ...

My build has 75 poison res _without_

Sandstorm Trek. It has 75 light res. It has 86 FHR.

Regardless of whether anyone "feels" like they need that or not - in regards to their playstyle, that is a better build?!

The fact that anyone would even try to defend that ... kinda proofs my initial point of views?

These people simply refuse to acknowledge any "evidence" - they talk themself out of it - typically changing the scenario.

My build doesnt care about how "intelligent" (all of a sudden?) that anyone plays - it will still be much better in _their_ hands - the pure stats is proof ?!

How would anyone ever argue, that having less resistance, less FHR is better? Sigh ?!

Cherry picking "situations" that fits someones build is not the same as comparing it based on facts.

Might be because I play 1P with my

Nova ES sorc but I never got

Stun locked from 1/8 life pool.

Stun from vipers etc. is a thing though.

I'm surprised that you use 6GCs + 1 SC to hit the 86 BP. Wouldn't additional life be more valuable? Or getting it from items? For instance, why no

Sandstorm Trek if you value fhr so much?

Good questions vued

My

Nova ES journey began some years ago. My guess is that I have testet and played all combos you can think of - including the

Sandstorm Trek ofcourse.

I used a stopwatch (among others) to benchmark the progress

Sandstorm Trek offers really good stats, no doubt about that. But they lack light resistance which I claim to be more important overall than poison resist.

Never the less, I am able to run 75 light and 75 poison resist - and as you already know - in combination with 86 FHR.

Sacrificing 1 GC - but I run different setups depending on the areas (read: monsters i encounter).

My general would be 75 light res and 55 poison res (and thus not sacrificing a GC)

Maximizing DPS means you dont skip monster or play safe - I think that

Nova sorc begs for reckless play - since telestomping is all you do when clearing as fast as possible, but thats just me - With that in mind, killing monsters continiously is equal to higher DPS - the second you dont kill monsters (ie. skipping them or playing "slow/safe") - the DPS drops significantly.

I hope thats not rocket science

And btw - how often have you seen or heard players say "wtf just happened? I died in a few seconds"? (the question may be retorical in your situation since you play P1 games?) - however still something that I have seen / heard very often by

Nova ES players.

The answer is stunlock - the only true enemy for the

Nova ES (and many other builds for that matter, some suffer more than others ofc)

As you can already hear in this thread, no one seems to be bothered with the FHR issue - they are all doing "great"

To that I say alright alright alright I invite them to prove their builds capacity - none have taken the challenge though and the important notes I have made seems to be ignored at best - but writing about how great their build is and how "usless" FHR is - just summons up the level of which they play.

For "new" players - the FHR breakpoint will be the single most important "help" when playing

Nova ES sorc.

I have helped countless of players with this - maybe some of them can testify to the importance.

Back a few years ago, after the early stages of testing was done - I played with 7 x 45 life light skillers - this was a huge step forward when hunting the only few monsters that can get an old player like me, exited - there is simply no "joy" for me to play 99,99% overkill games anymore.

But the challenge was, that my resistances was too low - light resistance being the most important one in this context. And it still felt squishy - though I had around 1300 life and 3k mana pool. I could not figure it out and I was frustrated. I had a full mule with 20/5 - 20/17 and I tried many many combinations to try and "solve" the squishiness - I even tried a version with extra pts. in

Warmth - and that was surprisingly good, much better than expected - but like with all other things in the game, there are pro and cons.

So, a long story short - the stunlock is the only thing that poses a threat to the

Nova ES - the only way to solve this is with FHR - I already explained the game mechanics and again, its not rocket science to at least get a comprehension of why this is so important - regardless of what areas you play in.

As you would see by the calculations I made previously, a

Nova ES sorc with 800 life will suffer from 67 dmg to the life pool. It does not matter how much mana you have ! Players seems to be unaware or confused about this - it has nothing to do with anything but the level (95%) on ES and NOT the mana pool itself.

This is why you wont benefit greatly with a substancially extra amount of life when chasing those monsters that can actually kill you in the game - they simply make too much damage and thus rendering the 45 life skillers utterly useless (or at least close to useless) - compared to the FHR breakpoint - if you dont hunt these few monsters, then you still dont need life skillers at all - if you do hunt them, then you need FHR more than you need life - this is really not up for debate, the numbers speaks for themself according to the calculations.

Among the physical hitters in the game:

Death Lords and Moon Lords with

Frenzy attack, have higher attack speed than the sorc recovery speed (assuming you dont care about FHR and just use

Sandstorm Trek to reach the 11 framerate breakpoint)

Urdars and Maulers have

Smite or crushing blow - they can

Stun lock you regardless of your amount of defense and or any percentage on a shield (not important for self wielding i know, but still relevant to include)

Tomb Vipers - they have poison clouds that deals physical dmg - they can trigger "FHR" several times per second.

In the category of monsters that have guaranteed

Stun/knockback

the

Smite attacking Urdars and some bosses

the knockback attacking Lister the tormented pack - can be ugly for a solo

Nova ES sorc - dont you think?

Also siege beasts and thorned hulks have this ability - just to include them - regardless of what act they are in

in the category ES bypassing damage you will find the main reason to max poison resist - Achmel the unraveler and ghoul lords and the "funny" one is blood mana curse - since you can potentially put yourself into

Stun lock

And souls? With their lightning bleed through you will want 75 light res on the

Nova sorc

I even tested 2 x 20 LA wisp ring and TG

Belt - just to be sure - that is an awesome combo if you want to play safe in P8 games - yes, you will suffer some DPS but it is really fun (in terms of giving the souls the f***** ) - my conclusion is that 1 x 20 LA wisp is sufficient (in combination with FHR breakpoint of at least 60)

It will be near impossible to reach 75 light res with

Sandstorm Trek - so, BiS

Boots will objectively be the Tri-Res

Boots (unless you can find another way to get to the 75 light res without sacrificing more than 1 GC) - and while you can have any oppinion on the subject - there is only 1 objective answer to that question. The resistance helps with the

Stun lock - and though it may be insignificant for the majority - for the endgame build it matters just as much as the skin type on the charms in the inventory, or the color of the jewels that you put into the gear

With 86 FHR and 75 Light res you will reach the ultimate defensive build aka

Nova ES meta build - regardless of how many

Jah runes it will cost you

vued wrote: 4 hours ago

Might be because I play 1P with my

Nova ES sorc but I never got

Stun locked from 1/8 life pool.

Stun from vipers etc. is a thing though.

It's 1/12, but either way, at player counts higher than 1, monster damage is increased by 6.25% per additional player. So at p8, monsters deal 6.25*7 = +43.75% additional damage compared to p1. Relatively compared to p3, monsters deal +27.7% damage on p8. This mostly affects physical attack damage, both melee and ranged, but there are some exceptions - some monster elemental attacks are affected, from what I've heard, but I haven't seen a detailed list (it might depend on whether the attack's damage is based on the monster's base attack damage, but I'm not sure).