Sorc blizz/orb

Hi,

I'm running a blizzard/orb sorc as I did 20 years ago. I'm having trouble desciding what to equip it with, as to now the forb is my main skill.
Currently I have

Shako, lidless, skin of viper, and hoto. I'm considering to change to coh/Enigma, shield for Spirit and

Shako for nightwing. However, now there are some nice unique jewels from ancients to socket the

Shako, viper and lidless with. Say I socket my

Shako, viper and lidless with a cold jewel. How would this compare to equiping the runewords? I mostly see guides recommend the runewords but this will be of the cost of increased dmg. What do you think?

Also, how are the single uber bosses (the ones from keys) managable with a cold sorc? I know

Tristram is a no-go

Also, I consider respecking it to something else I have never tried like lightning

I believe you can only equip one of the new jewels at a time , so possibly the viper for more damage.

You would be better off running blizzard solo, with

Ice Blast in between Blizz casts for supplementary single target damage. FOrb is a waste of skill points.

You would want to run as close to perfect as poss Nightwing with as close to as perfect as poss Protectors Frost jewel socketed.

You want a +3 Blizz

Ormus Robes with the +15% Cold Skill Dmg, socketed with a perfect -5%/+5% Cold Rainbow Facet.

Spirit

Monarch no brainer.

You want to run

Death's Fathom also with a Cold Rainbow Facet.

I run Arachnids Mesh, Perfect Mara's and 2x SOJ with this.

Cold Sunder charm and +Cold Skill grand charms. Anni and Torch obvs.

I have a separate set of MF gear in my stash (

Shako with

Ist, Oculus with

Ist,

Tal Rasha armor with

Ist,

Goldwrap,

Chance Guards, War Travs, Perfect Gheeds, etc etc).

There are several ways to build a cold sorc, not only one.

Between Cold and Lightning that's a matter of preference : lightning is quicker but more glass cannon in most uses, cold is in general cheaper to build up to a very functional use.

As for the rest, if you want something super perfect, cas84's advice is certainly good, but expensive, you may also prefer something full mf or full efficiency or more an allrounder... options are numerous.

Blizz / Orb can still work, for example.

Let us know your way to play and we can answer better

Also, let us know what charms you already own, how much "effort" and rune value you want to put into making the build better.

Finally, for mini Ubers,

Duriel and

Izual should be fine if well geared.

Lilith is way stronger though - usually better build a dedicated, even cheap Pally for Ubers works better.

Personally I think

Frozen Orb is an awesome skill. I've always found it to be one of the most visually satisfying skills to watch in the game. Is it stronger than blizzard, no? Is it arguably cooler looking and a more active playstyle, I would say yes. I made a

Frozen Orb/

Meteor+

Fireball build and I really enjoyed it. You really don't need Infinity or a sunder to make it work initially. Obviously having those things would make it even stronger.

I believe my build used:

Death's Fathom/HOTO
Spirit shield

Ormus Robe with high cold percent (preferably with a + to skills that is helpful for your build)
Viper Magi is also super solid

Shako for MF or Nightwing for damage. I personally like the look of the nightwing on a sorc, it looks ridiculous, lol

The rest of the gear is pretty open to what you have available. Looking to get as much +to skills as possible along with as much cold amp as possible. Another option I have toyed around with was Doom, which, I feel, isn't talked about enough with a cold sorc. With its massive penetration to cold (40-60) it can really help with going against Ice immunes if you don't have a sunder/Infinity. The only downside is that it does not have FCR on it but you can make up for that elsewhere in the build and achieve breakpoints. Additionally it is a bit expensive to craft for some. Definitely worth considering if you are looking or something different.

Light sorceress is super fun as well but without sunder/Infinity it can be a bit limited in terms of what it can run effectively. Most people that run this spec that don't have the aforementioned items typically target farm specific areas that are free from light immunes. Much like using Doom on a cold spec,

Crescent Moon can be a good option and isn't super expensive. When you get your sunder/Infinity it can help to deal significantly more damage to light immunes once their immunity is broken due to the high lightning pen it has on it (-35 I believe, which is guaranteed). I think overall it is a pretty big bang for your buck in terms of what it costs versus what it provides. If you were able to find a

Griffon's Eye that would make this build even more potent.

Overall, I would say play what makes you have the most fun with. Sure, each class has a BEST build in terms of efficiency, damage, farming, etc. but are they fulfilling when you play them? For some people the answer might be yes, for other old heads like me that play, the answer might be been there done that. I find that I more enjoy the experience of playing a build versus how quickly I can mop the floor with enemies. For example, a riftsin is a super fun spec for Assassin but it is a bit taboo versus other assassin builds. Who doesn't love a sin that can shoot frozen orbs?!

At the end of the day, it is up to personal preference and can sometimes come down to the gear you have available to use for building something. Hope this helps! Let me know what you end up going with!

This is what i run before RotW:
https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner/oa18is0u

Protector's Frost, renewed sunder and

Opalvein ring could improve the build (might change to Enigma + rare trires

Boots along with those) today, however I'm fairly sure that blizz orber needs Doom, since there are not enough points to max

Cold Mastery.

Never tried mini ubers with her, so i cannot comment on that.

uuee wrote: 1 week ago

This is what i run before RotW:
https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner/oa18is0u

Protector's Frost, renewed sunder and

Opalvein ring could improve the build (might change to Enigma + rare trires

Boots along with those) today, however I'm fairly sure that blizz orber needs Doom, since there are not enough points to max

Cold Mastery.

Never tried mini ubers with her, so i cannot comment on that.

Nice setup

Instead of

Frozen Orb I use

Glacial Spike (for crowd control) and

Ice Blast (for bosses) in combination with Blizzard (and I have

Cold Mastery maxed out).

Pre RotW I went with the following gear:
1x

Harlequin Crest with

Perfect Topaz
1x

Mara's Kaleidoscope
2x

The Stone of Jordan
1x

Trang-Oul's Claws
1x

War Traveler
1x Chains of Honor

Archon Plate
1x Spirit

Monarch (35 FCR)
1x

The Oculus with an

Ist
1x

Arachnid Mesh
6x Cold Skiller with 30-32 to Life
1x

Cold Rupture (-70CR)
1x

Gheed's Fortune
7x SCs with 7MF (plain), can be swapped with Life/Mana SCs if I switch to

Nightwing's Veil and/or do Cows
1x SC 5FHR/8CR (to reach 60FHR and max CR)
1x

Annihilus (19/19/9)
1x Torch (18/20)

With RotW I now changed to the following items for more killspeed while keeping 105 FCR and having still all resistances capped:
1x

Harlequin Crest with

Rainbow Facet: Cold Death (-5/+5) OR

Nightwing's Veil (+15) with

Rainbow Facet: Cold Level-up (-5/+5)
1x

Death's Fathom (+30/30/30) with

Protector's Frost (-10/+8)
1x

Opalvein (+5/8/3/2)

A2

Prayer Merc:
1x

Andariel's Visage with

Ral
1x Fortitude in ethereal

Sacred Armor (thinking about switching to Chains of Honor for more Aura boost)
1x Insight (lvl17) in non-ethereal

Thresher

With this setup I am still at 240MF

I also have a Doom with -54 but I actually never used it because below the 105 FCR breakpoint I cannot play anymore
I am really satisfied with this build and it feels very well balanced (without

Nightwing's Veil my Blizzard is at 12017-12449) Of course my Mosaic Assassin melts way faster, but keeping up those charges is really a pain in the ass when you want to pick things up and check them

I also like

Ice Blast much better as a secondary over

Frozen Orb.

justinman114 wrote: 1 week ago

I also like

Ice Blast much better as a secondary over

Frozen Orb.

Ice Blast for bosses \ single targets. Orb is synergie of

Ice Blast, therefore it's quite strong on a blizz\orber.

uuee wrote: 1 week ago

justinman114 wrote: 1 week ago

I also like

Ice Blast much better as a secondary over

Frozen Orb.

Ice Blast for bosses \ single targets. Orb is synergie of

Ice Blast, therefore it's quite strong on a blizz\orber.

Yeah but you are losing out on a synergy for blizzard, or

Cold Mastery. To each their own though, I'm sure it works just fine. I just like tossing blizzards everywhere and blasting in between.

Thanks for all the advise, right now I have pretty good resistance. It feels like I will have not so good resistance with the gears proposed. Am I overthinking the resistance? A sorc shouldn't need that much? But I mostly play solo so maybe I need a little bit more then if you play group?

My cold sorc preference is Blizz/Orb/Spike using Doom. Highly survivability with capped resistances and 105 fcr. Plenty of power for the 3 player games I usually run and the Doom keeps it from bogging down with broken cold immunes. To hit your resistance

Cap, get a good vipermagi, a good res torch and anni, a good maras, trang gloves and a good pair of rare

Boots. Use small charms to fill in any remaining gaps. I like a

Prayer/Cure/Insight merc with this setup.

Gheed's

Belt can be a useful bridge until you get to your final gear.