Charged boltress still hell capable?

[Jamie Kahn Genet]

Or not so much nowadays?

--
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

[Aulë]

On 9/6/2011 4:39 PM, Jamie Kahn Genet wrote:
> Or not so much nowadays?
>

Very much so nowadays.

[Jamie Kahn Genet]

Aul� <aule...@gmail.com> wrote:

Cool :-) I thought charged bolt might be too weak nowadays, with hell
being buffed so much.

[Aulë]

On 9/7/2011 9:17 AM, Jamie Kahn Genet wrote:

> Aulë<aule...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> On 9/6/2011 4:39 PM, Jamie Kahn Genet wrote:
>>> Or not so much nowadays?
>>>
>>
>> Very much so nowadays.
>
> Cool :-) I thought charged bolt might be too weak nowadays, with hell
> being buffed so much.

As is well known by some here, I play a CB sorc every ladder, making
Matriarch solo and untwinked without fail each time, and relatively
quickly. I even tried my hand at HC with her, before inadvertently
killing her in A4 Hell. She also uses Blizzard. Around level 80, she
has maxed CB, Lightning, LM, and Blizzard. She has one point in all
prereqs (except Lightning, which gets maxed last as CB's only synergy),
plus Warmth, Frozen Armor, and of course Telekinesis and Teleport.
Afterwards, I've been just pumping any additional skills into CM, which
just makes life easier. I've tried other avenues like Enchant and ES,
but having only 10 points in any other skill is not even really
mediocre, so it just seems wasteful.

All that said, Charged Bolt is weak, on its own, and without many
+skills, Hell is Hell. It really starts coming into real power after
around +10 skills, and the 105% FCR breakpoint is mandatory. However,
she has made Matriarch with as few as +5 skills. I also perform certain
teleportation acrobatics and utilize diverse PvM strategies based on my
experience playing her fresh after every reset (7 ladder seasons, now,
questing her all the way), and running her through many places in all
five acts over the remainder of a season. You may find it challenging
without that experience.

Best advice: use Blizzard and CB together, layering them to be one
dual-element spell: cast Blizz, then spam CB until Blizz timer is up -
repeat and rinse. You'll find that quite effective unless you're
dealing with LI or CI.

[Jamie Kahn Genet]

Thanks :-) I'll give it a go, though my mule app's (I'm SP) stash of
runes and items is still very low. Still, if she stalls I can always
play an alt - of which I've many. I never could just focus on one
character in any RPG.

[Marcel Overweel]

"Aul�" <aule...@gmail.com> schreef in bericht
news:4e67ff42$0$20914$9a6e...@unlimited.newshosting.com...

> On 9/7/2011 9:17 AM, Jamie Kahn Genet wrote:

>> Aul�<aule...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> On 9/6/2011 4:39 PM, Jamie Kahn Genet wrote:
>>>> Or not so much nowadays?
>>>>
>>>
>>> Very much so nowadays.
>>
>> Cool :-) I thought charged bolt might be too weak nowadays, with hell
>> being buffed so much.
>

> As is well known by some here, I play a CB sorc every ladder, making
> Matriarch solo and untwinked without fail each time, and relatively
> quickly.

True indeed.
A CB/Blizz sorc can solo the entire game.
The two biggest problems are diablo on normal and the ancients in hell.
Both or do-able though. You only need a good roll on the ancients
regarding their immunities.

Don't know if she is ever capable of killing dclone or ubers without
top of the line equipment. Tried the clone a few times with plug-y but
failed miserably every time. CB doesn't bite when casting it from too
far away and Blizz just doesn't seem to do much either when it's not
fully synergized.
Maybe, if the merc could survive a little bit longer it would be possible
alhough it will be a loooooong fight for sure.

Regards,
Marcel

[Aulë]

On 9/8/2011 4:29 AM, Jamie Kahn Genet wrote:
>
> Thanks :-) I'll give it a go, though my mule app's (I'm SP) stash of
> runes and items is still very low. Still, if she stalls I can always
> play an alt - of which I've many. I never could just focus on one
> character in any RPG.

Spirits are extremely easy to obtain, and you should pump enough into
Str to wield a Monarch, which is actually the toughest ingredient to
find. Also, Lore adds another point to skills, for a total of five easy
gimmes. Dual Spirits also manage the FCR quite well (up to 70%), so
hitting the 8-frame breakpoint is also not much of a challenge, with
multiple gloves and/or circlets giving 20% each, and a nearly infinite
supply of 10% rings and ammys.

I've never had one stall on me, but I'm mostly the opposite of you; in
RPGs I dedicate myself to learning the intricacies of the mage class
almost exclusively.

[Aulë]

On 9/8/2011 5:23 AM, Marcel Overweel wrote:
> "Aulė"<aule...@gmail.com> schreef in bericht

>
>> As is well known by some here, I play a CB sorc every ladder, making
>> Matriarch solo and untwinked without fail each time, and relatively
>> quickly.
>
> True indeed.
> A CB/Blizz sorc can solo the entire game.
> The two biggest problems are diablo on normal and the ancients in hell.
> Both or do-able though. You only need a good roll on the ancients
> regarding their immunities.

Even with a bad roll, salvation is only a TP away for another shot at
it. ;) I don't have a problem with D on normal. She has Blizzard by
Act 3, and after maxing CB, I pump Blizz and LM equally, and Blizz
handles him pretty well (after Static, which I think I omitted from my
previously-posted build spec).

> Don't know if she is ever capable of killing dclone or ubers without
> top of the line equipment. Tried the clone a few times with plug-y but
> failed miserably every time. CB doesn't bite when casting it from too
> far away and Blizz just doesn't seem to do much either when it's not
> fully synergized.
> Maybe, if the merc could survive a little bit longer it would be possible
> alhough it will be a loooooong fight for sure.

No chance of her taking down any of those. That's why I've also built
pallys the last few ladders, because those Annis and Torches are *huge*
boosts to the sorc.

[Marcel Overweel]

Op 8-9-2011 16:11, Aulė schreef:

> On 9/8/2011 5:23 AM, Marcel Overweel wrote:
>> "Aulė"<aule...@gmail.com> schreef in bericht
>>
>>> As is well known by some here, I play a CB sorc every ladder, making
>>> Matriarch solo and untwinked without fail each time, and relatively
>>> quickly.
>>
>> True indeed.
>> A CB/Blizz sorc can solo the entire game.
>> The two biggest problems are diablo on normal and the ancients in hell.
>> Both or do-able though. You only need a good roll on the ancients
>> regarding their immunities.
>
> Even with a bad roll, salvation is only a TP away for another shot at
> it. ;) I don't have a problem with D on normal. She has Blizzard by Act
> 3, and after maxing CB, I pump Blizz and LM equally, and Blizz handles
> him pretty well (after Static, which I think I omitted from my
> previously-posted build spec).

Yeah, that's the problem, last time I started investing points in Blizz
halfway through nightmare. Way too late in the game.

>> Don't know if she is ever capable of killing dclone or ubers without
>> top of the line equipment. Tried the clone a few times with plug-y but
>> failed miserably every time. CB doesn't bite when casting it from too
>> far away and Blizz just doesn't seem to do much either when it's not
>> fully synergized.
>> Maybe, if the merc could survive a little bit longer it would be possible
>> alhough it will be a loooooong fight for sure.
>
> No chance of her taking down any of those. That's why I've also built
> pallys the last few ladders, because those Annis and Torches are *huge*
> boosts to the sorc.

Been playing/experimenting again last monday (single player).
Luckely I had made a backup of all the important stuff before the system
went down for the third time in a row.

Had a mobo with that Intel sata3 bug, which I thought I could ignore
since those ports weren't in use.
Looking at it now, I think there were more problems with it.
Some things just didn't want to work. Crashes when closing Thunderbird,
some random lockups while doing simple things like playing mp3's, even
Logitech's latest mouse drivers didn't want to install anymore. And that
was the second time I installed windows on the same harddrive after that
first total crash when the SSD died.

Swapped the board for a 'lesser' one with a new chipset revision.
One lan port instead of two, no bluetooth, no additional onboard sata
controllers.

Thought, less hardware, less problems. Wasn't using these anyway.
So far, it seems to have cured all problems (crossing fingers and
knocking on the table...)

Anyway, killed hell baal with the sorc and tried a few cow runs.
Yesterday, a Soj dropped on the first run, today a Jah in the fourth.
Seems a good place to keep farming :)

It also gave me enough runes to cube a ko and a lem to upgrade the mercs
armor and a whole lot of gems now burned away for a li skiller.

Re-enabled the dclone event and gave it another try.
Loaded the whole inventory with purples and dropping them all over the
place before starting the attack. life tap wand on switch (for the merc)
The results were better than last time. Merc was dead in seconds but
this time, casting blizz and lightning as long as safety allowed it
before backing up and drinking potions, the life bar did move a bit :)

There's still much room for improvement.
Haven't yet found a Mara in SP, or any really good +skill Amu.
Armor is just a vipermagi. No skills on the second ring.
More skillers charms.
Mwe.. not giving up on that just yet.

Regards,
Marcel

[Aulë]

On 9/8/2011 5:51 PM, Marcel Overweel wrote:
>
> Been playing/experimenting again last monday (single player).
> Luckely I had made a backup of all the important stuff before the system
> went down for the third time in a row.
>
> Had a mobo with that Intel sata3 bug, which I thought I could ignore
> since those ports weren't in use.
> Looking at it now, I think there were more problems with it.
> Some things just didn't want to work. Crashes when closing Thunderbird,
> some random lockups while doing simple things like playing mp3's, even
> Logitech's latest mouse drivers didn't want to install anymore. And that
> was the second time I installed windows on the same harddrive after that
> first total crash when the SSD died.
>
> Swapped the board for a 'lesser' one with a new chipset revision.
> One lan port instead of two, no bluetooth, no additional onboard sata
> controllers.
>
> Thought, less hardware, less problems. Wasn't using these anyway.
> So far, it seems to have cured all problems (crossing fingers and
> knocking on the table...)
>
> Anyway, killed hell baal with the sorc and tried a few cow runs.
> Yesterday, a Soj dropped on the first run, today a Jah in the fourth.
> Seems a good place to keep farming :)

Lucky! Grats! (I *still* have never found a SoJ.)

> It also gave me enough runes to cube a ko and a lem to upgrade the mercs
> armor and a whole lot of gems now burned away for a li skiller.
>
> Re-enabled the dclone event and gave it another try.
> Loaded the whole inventory with purples and dropping them all over the
> place before starting the attack. life tap wand on switch (for the merc)
> The results were better than last time. Merc was dead in seconds but
> this time, casting blizz and lightning as long as safety allowed it
> before backing up and drinking potions, the life bar did move a bit :)
>
> There's still much room for improvement.
> Haven't yet found a Mara in SP, or any really good +skill Amu.
> Armor is just a vipermagi. No skills on the second ring.
> More skillers charms.
> Mwe.. not giving up on that just yet.

Aye, this ladder's been dismal for my sorc, too. No skillers, certainly
no skill rings, no Anni, no Torch. Was lucky enough to get a Skin and
Shako, with a couple Occy's thrown in for flavor. Can't even gamble or
craft a skiller ammy, and she's level 91! So, definitely room for
improvement, too, but no biggie if not. Just a worker bee, her.

:)