any tactics or spell combinations might be insightful as well

thanks in advance

Hmm... that was probably not very useful to you, I hope someone else can give some better advice.

This is a good resource to start with.

-Grokadin

Since you're only investing points in one tree, you'll want to make use of thunder storm. It's a good spell and you'll have the points to spare. Use of energy shield to increase survivability is highly recommended since you'll have no ability to chill or freeze monsters.

For a finisher, some LO sorcs use Nova, which, after staticing, can easily do the job, but you have to be close. Lightning and Chain Lightning are both untweakable (possibly to change in the Xpack, though, so it's something to keep in mind), but you don't always need to cast fast, and you'll have at least a point in each as pre-reqs anyway.

Charged Bolt can do a lot of damage, but you need to invest a lot of points for that.

As far as stats go, no lightning spells are expensive to cast except for Nova, and you'll likely not be draining your mana orb dry with it, so you can devote more stat points to Vitality, which you'll need, because you have no cold abilities. Lightning Mastery lowers the cost of all your spells anyway, and a few points in it (with an extra +1 or +2 from items) can really cut the costs dramatically.

Mobility is important for a LO sorc. Fastest run boots, don't wear heavy armor, and you may even choose to forego a tower shield in favor of a lighter shield, sockted with 3 perfect diamonds, combined with twitchthroe to keep your block % up. Teleporting to the other side of terrain features has helped my LO sorc a lot. That failing, teleporting (particularly with a few points of fastest cast) is faster than running, and very cheap with mastery.

The bane of a LO sorc is lightning resistant-monsters, since they'll take a lot more statics to drop far enough to finish off.

Then again, I was just reading through the Lightning Skill tree at Chaos, so maybe I was thinking of making a Telekin post but just never got around to it.

No-Doze and a Research Paper do strange things to one's mind :}

-- Seraph

after calculating this out i can see why chain lightning is not used at all in D2. i know the calc's arn't precise but they're done to adequite specs. please feel free to chime in with flames, support and other

First : it can't hit fast movers. Its as if the bolt has a little delay from when it targets to when it actually hits, such that the monster can move out of the way if its fast enough. For this reason TS doesnt work well vs. leapers, and anything fast that is chasing you while you are retreating.

Second : I've noticed that sometimes a monster can be in a spot that is apparently immune to TS, and the bolt will fall on it 2 or more times in a row and not do any damage. If I move and let the monster chase me to a new location then usually it can be hit by TS again. Note this is versus non-resistant monsters with a leveled up TS (I think level 6), so its not an issue of the TS just not doing much damage. At level 6 with no light res it should do 51 damage minimum, which I should easily see.

Even with these problems, I think its a handy skill, and if you are going Light Tree only its definitely a useful skill to level up. It does the most damage per hit of any light skill, so its almost a requirment to have it just because of that.

BTW people have already mentioned this in other replies, but Light only is really terrible in act4/hell, if you plan on getting her that high. I tried it once with a char trainer, it took me several minutes to kill one Cliff lurker, and that was with all light skills maxed.

I got my Sorcy through by spreading points around . . .
-6 to Static Charge (area covers enough of the screen to be an efective starter) and any further levels can come from items.
-Thunder Storm. Cast before engaging it won't drain you in mid-battle (vitally important).
-Energy Shield. Just a point here and there as long as you can maintain the drain without running dry. The drain's seldom a problem here though.
-Chain Lightning. I actually built this up. Works nicely as a finisher against a pair of enemies and chomps away the Unraveller and Mummy Sarcophagus problems on Act 2 better than anything most other things I've tried.
-Nova. I went minimal here, just 1 point. I might yet build it. I use it for emergencies only - Think fast melee cats (Act2) and melee Soul Killers (Act3) that pack attack in rapid style and large numbers.
-Teleport. 1 point. a flick back on the scroll wheel w/ right-click and she gets 'the hell outa' dodge!' Utility Skill number 1# in my book.

And there was a chance find of a rare Morning Star with +1 Mana per kill!!! Mana Steal, Damage, Attack Rating, Poison . . . A beautiful sidearm when life is up, mana down. I'm still hunting for Wall of the Eyeless for her though. That's my pick for quintessential LO Sorcie item.

Heed the Song of Battle and unsheath the Blades of War