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Lightning Sorceress build

Lightning Sorceress is a classic build for high damage. It becomes more versatile with the introduction of the Crack of the Heavens (aka the lightning sunder grand charm).

Character stats

• Strength: A total of 156 with all gears/charms to weild the Monarch shield with Spirit runeword.
• Dexterity: None.
• Vitality: All other points.
• Energy: None.

Skills

Add 20 points to each of the following skills:

• Charged Bolt (synergy skill to increase the damage of Lightning and Chain Lightning)
• Lightning (main attack skill)
• Chain Lightning (main attack skill)
• Nova (synergy skill to increase the damage of Lightning and Chain Lightning)
• Lightning Mastery (synergy skill to increase the damage of Lightning and Chain Lightning)

Add 1 point to each of the following skills:

• Warmth (increase mana regeneration).
• Static Field (quickly reduce enemies’ life).
• Teleport (faster movement).
• Frozen Armor (increase defense).
• all necessary passby skills.

Add all remaining points to

• Static Field

Remarks:

1. Lightning has much higher damage at very low mana cost compared to Chain Lightning, however, the former can only attack enemies along the line of the lightning travels while the latter can jump to nearby enemies when travelling for area damage. It is more cost-effective to use Lightning more often than Chain Lightning. This requires a good positioning of the character when attacking a group of enemies.

2. Player should cast Static Field a couple of times to reduce enemies’ life before casting Lightning and Chain Lightning skills.

3. This build does not have enough skill points to invest into Energy Shield and its synergy skill.

Gears

• Shield: Monarch shield with Spirit runeword: +2 All Skills, +35% Faster Cast Rate, +55% Faster Hit Recovery, +35% Lightning/Cold/Poison Resistance, +112 Mana.

• Helm: Griffon’s Eye for its +1 All Skills, +25% Faster Cast Rate, and –20% Enemy Lightning Resistance. Socket a lightning facet for an additional –5% Enemy Lightning Resistance.

• Gloves: Rare gloves with good amounts of lightning, fire, and poison resistances. Additional strength, life, and mana are very useful.

• Belt: Arachnid Mesh for +1 All Skills and +20% Faster Cast Rate.

• Armor: Skin of the Vipermagi for +1 All Skills, +30% Faster Cast Rates, +35 All Resistance. Add one socket and a Lightning Facet for -5% Enemy Light Resistance. The armor can be upgraded for higher defense.

• Rings: Stone of Jordan on both hands, each providing +1 All Skills, 20 mana, and +25% Maximum Mana.

• Boots: Rare boots with Lightning, Fire, and Poison Resistances. Additional +30% Faster Run/Walk Speed and +10% Faster Hit Recovery are very useful. Poison Length Reduction and Half Freeze Duration are also useful attributes.

• Weapon: Crystal Sword or Broad Sword with Crescent Moon rune word for its –35% Enemy Lightning Resistance. This is a low-cost rune word weapon with huge enemy lightning resistance reduction.

• Amulet: Caster amulet with +2 All Sorceress Skills, +7% Faster Cast Rate, and some resistance on Lightning (most important), Fire, and Poison. Strength and life/mana are very useful attributes.

• Switch Weapon and Shield: Crystal Sword or Flail with Call to Arms runeword to bump all skills by 1 and life/mana for 60%+, and Monarch shield with Spirit runeword to increase the skill levels on Call of the Arm.

• Inventory: Sorceress Torch, Annihilus, Crack of the Heavens grand charm (the Lightning Sunder grand charm), 7 Lightning Skill grand charms with life or Faster Hit Recovery, All Resistance small charms with life or Faster Hit Recovery to make 65% Faster Hit Recovery, and max out Fire/Lightning/Poison resistances, and more life the better.

Remarks

1. +21 skill levels: +1 from helm, +2 from amulet, +1 from armor, +2 from shield, +1 from belt, +2 from rings, +3 from Torch, +1 from Annihilus, +7 from skill charms, and +1 from Battle Command on Call to Arms.
2. -65% enemy lightning resistance: -25% from helm, -35% from weapon, and -5% from armor.
3. +117% faster cast rate: +25% from helm, +30% from armor, +35% from shield, +20% from belt, and +7% from amulet.

4. Weapon and amulet alternative: Can also use a one-hand magic sorceress orb with +3 lightning skills, +10% faster cast rate, +3 lightning or chain lightning (and +3 lightning mastery if possible), and two socketed lightning facets. However, this alternative is a lot more expensive than Crescent Moon with arguably a little higher damage. Since the sorceress would have reached +120% Faster Cast Rate, the player can use Mara’s Kaleidoscope for its +2 All Skills and +30 All Resistances. The total reduction on enemy lightning resistance would be only -40% then.

5. Crescent Moon and Phoenix combination: the benefit is that there will be enough life and mana regeneration due to the Redemption Aura from the Phoenix runeword. To achieve +117% faster cast rate, the sorceress needs the Magefist gloves, a ring with +10% faster cast rate, and a caster amulet with +12% faster cast rate. This setting keeps -65% enemy lightning resistance, but with much lower lightning skill levels. It is generally sufficient for an 8-player game, and thus is still a good build with much less worries in survivability and supply.

6. Magic orb and lightning facet armor combination: The magic orb with +20% faster cast rate can be combined in use with an armor with +100 life and 4 socketed lightning facets. This build has -55% enemy lightning resistance, but needs to find enough mana and resistances on amulet and gloves.

7. Ormus’ Robes instead of Skin of the Vipermagi: The former has 2 more skill levels on either Lightning or Chain Lightning, but loses 1 skill level on all others and 35 all resistance. Hence, the Skin seems to be a better choice.

Mercenary

Use Act II Mercenary with Prayer Aura and the following gears:

• Weapon: Ethereal Thresher/Giant Thresher/Great Poleaxe with Infinity runeword for its Conviction Aura.
• Helm: Ethereal helm with high defense and the Cure runeword for its level 1 Cleansing Aura to reduce poison length and curse duration.
• Armor: Ethereal armor with high defense with the Chains of Honor ruenword for boosting all resistance and life leech.

Remark: The combination of Andariel’s Visage and Fortitude runeword can be an alternative for high defense at the cost of losing the Cleansing Aura.

Summary

• Attack: Cast Static Field 2 to 3 times and then Lightning and Chain Lightning to clear out. This build has -65% enemy lightning resistance and needs +117% Faster Cast Rate.
• Survivability: The Fire, Light, and Poison resistances should be maxed out to 75%. The Cold resistance is at a high level over 30%.
• Supply: Mana should be generally enough by not using Chain Lightning too frequently. Life can be slowly regenerated by the combination of Prayer Aura and Cleansing Aura from the mercenary.