Introduction to the Guide

The Sorceress class is one of the more fun classes to play in Diablo 2, and usually one never gets bored of playing a sorceress. Given the various skill trees in fire, ice and lightning, there are plenty of opportunities to explore and try variants. However, few people can play a sorceress well, and the fragility of a sorceress makes it altogether a different playing experience as compared to other classes let alone the differences of playing one in hardcore and softcore.

The purpose of writing this guide is to promote the Sorceress class primarily in Hardcore, but also extends to Softcore. Looking at the ladder, one can see that the Sorceress class is one of the weakest classes. This guide is written for new hardcore sorceress players, but even experienced sorceress players can find invaluable information here and fine-tune their playing style.

Over the course of this guide, I will assume that you are reading it chronologically starting from Hp/Mana Balance first and down. Many concepts such as that of the EHP (effective HP) concept will be first introduced and used in subsequent sections hence it is advisable to read the aforementioned section first. I will also assume that you are building a sorceress for the purposes of leveling it up to a respectable level in hardcore (around 75), and not one meant for PKing and duelling.

For this purpose, this guide will give advice on how to build a sorceress with adequate defenses and maximize longevity with safety being top priority. If you feel some of these defenses are extra and you can do without it (such as 3D tower shield instead of WotE, or more hp and mana at the expense of fast cast), feel free to do what you want. This is a guide after all, but do keep it mind that lag can occur anytime and anywhere and it is still better to cover all bases than to be sorry later on.

Throughout the guide, I will be using level 75 as a target as well as for general comparison purposes. Why I chose level 75 to be of a respectable level is because if you get a character to lvl 75, you have shown to me that you know how to exp and you know how tedious it can be. It also shows that you have been through many different circumstances and have a lot of gameplay hours under your belt, including many situations involving lag, disconnects and monsters as hard as MSLE, Hephasto, etc and you are able to handle them.

Extremely hard variants such as a lightning-only-no-warmth sorceress are different. Due to the additional challenges and restrictions imposed on the variant play style, a respectable level would then differ. Is a level 55 lightning sorceress more respectable (I'm talking about respect, not skill) than a level 75 standard orb sorceress? Perhaps so, but even then, it is hard to compare apples to oranges. However the level 75 would have more gameplay experience. If someone has more experience, then maybe they are worth listening to. It is this that people generally use, that being of a higher level equates to being more skillful (which is untrue) and thus deserve more respect.

After level 75, the experience penalty kicks in and leveling up is an exponential process, each level taking a lot longer than the previous one. Whether a player is more skilled or not between a level 80 and 90, I would regard the level 90 as simply having a lot more time, patience and luck to survive through any disconnects and lag, and that both players probably have around equal skill level. On these 3 basis, I set my respectable level at 75, that if you are level 75 or above, I can assume that you are a skilled player. Getting to level 75 is not too hard, but not too easy either. People can get lucky all the time, and the only way to separate the newbies from the experts is how long they last before they die; level 60-75 is when this starts to happen.

What determines the skill of a player is more a function of what he does and how he thinks when he encounters certain situations and how he planned his character. A lightning-only sorceress is tough to play and takes a lot longer to level, but with some luck and skill, it is still possible to attain high levels. Certainly, the level of a character is a major determinant to the skill of a player but beyond level 75, it is no longer an accurate gauge. I would then classify everybody above level 75 of the same class as being more or less equally skilled in that class.

Where whole extracts are copied from other guides and sections are contributed by other players, the relevant acknowledgements will be given next to the heading of the sub-section.

If you have any information and opinion you would like to share, please do email in and let me know. As long as your argument is reasonable, I will add it into this guide. May this be a growing guide, and let us make it one of the best. This guide is hosted at several other locations, the most updated version with news updates can be found at the original website at http://home2.pacific.net.sg/~xinhuan/hcsorc/index.html.

Main Differences Between a HC and SC Sorceress

There are many things that make a HC and SC sorceress vastly different because HC and SC have totally different focuses. The best SC sorc is probably a 10 vitality sorc tweaked to near max who goes for leveling speed and probably solos. In HC the focus is totally different as death is permanent. Most HC sorcs have at least as much vitality as energy and are focused a lot more for cooperative play, a near max static is definite.

SC sorceress tend to run steppes and plains because it is quick, monsters have not much resists to lightning, and its quick exp for a solo sorceress. However in HC you'll frequently run chaos or the river because it is more linear (keep stuff in front of you and therefore safer) and higher exp mobs. This means that the HC sorceress will definitely need max or near max resists whereas the SC sorc usually cares squat about anything but lightning resist.

To get these max resists while also having a high life and some bit of hit recovery equipment, a HC sorc will frequently have a much slower cast rate than a SC sorceress as cast rate really isn't as important as staying alive. Sorceress often party in HC, thus one can actually stand still and static, without having to be on the run all the time where fast cast is more important.

Good equipment is much harder to come by in HC. Good equipment in SC is generally considered very good in HC, very good equipment in SC is godly in HC. Much equipment is lost into the HC void when players die unlooted and timeout. With this difference, the HC sorceress would have much greater difficulty in balancing resists, fast cast, mana and hp and even finding such equipment in the first place. A SC sorceress on the other hand could already have godly equipment (more players play SC, plus the fact that good items are almost never lost in SC, and that there are few HC players in Hell difficulty, equipment quality in SC must be higher) and could afford to use a Sigon Shield as resistances are catered for from other equipment for example.

The only SC sorceress that could even come close to comparison with a HC sorceress would be a PvP and PK oriented sorceress, where hp is important. However, such a sorceress would obviously care less about anything but cold resists in a duel or hunt. Even a PK sorceress has to consider how he himself has to survive with certain skills meant for PK only while leveling up.

For HC sorceress that does solo, you will see a lot more blizzard sorceress in HC because of the lower mana cost whereas most SC sorcs have 1400 to 1800 mana so mana isn't an issue. A good estimate of the hp and mana of an average HC sorc at level 75 is about 650 hp and 900 mana, with maxed resists and 3 points of fast cast.

HP/Mana Balance

In Hardcore where death is permanent, it is quite obvious that having a high hp is very important. However for a sorceress, this poses a problem because a sorceress also needs mana. And a lot of it. So how much hp and mana should a HC sorceress have? This goes back to the basic problem of how to allocate stat points. Where a SC sorceress might throw all 5 stat points into energy per level up, a HC sorceress will have to balance her needs between hp and mana. One also needs to consider the effective hit points one has, after considering the effects of energy shield. Below are information that will give you a greater insight into building a HC sorceress.

Stat Points Allocation

More often than not, players in hardcore will try to maximize their hp, and only invest just enough Str and Dex to use their best/desired equipment, and throw the rest into Vit. For a sorceress, the Str required is 75 in order to use a 3D-tower shield. To use a Shard, you will need 51 Dex, but it is often better to leave Dex untouched at all at its base 25 and use a wand/scepter with fastest cast and mana.

In the first 30 levels, it is advisable to pump Str/Vit/Ene in a 2/2/1 ratio until you reach 75 Str, and thereafter Vit/Ene in a 3/2 ratio. Opinions will differ on this, and depending on how twinked the sorceress is, one can even go all out for 75 Str first before ever touching Vit and Ene. More of this issue will be discussed in the Leveling Up 1-30 section (Page Two).

It is good to plan ahead what equipment you want to use in the future. For example, if you plan to use Twitchthroe which adds 10 Str and 10 Dex, you would only need to increase your Str to a base of 65, and even less should you have other hand-me-down equipment from previous characters and friends.

The common practice is to obtain 75 strength after items to wear a 3D-tower shield, leave Dex alone at its base of 25, and after that put points in Vit and Ene as desired. How much of each is discussed in greater detail below, along with how much Energy Shield a sorceress should have. 80 Str is also acceptable to wear a Goldskin. Also, it is advisable to get 75 Str before you enter Nightmare difficulty and suffer resist penalties.

You need to get energy early in the game or you will keep running out of mana. The best ratio of Vit to Ene is probably somewhere between 1:1 and 1:2, lean more towards Ene if you find you keep running out of mana and more towards Vit if you find yourself going below 2/3 hitpoints often.

Once you have enough mana to solo Act 4 Hell comfortably, feel free to pump Vit for the rest of that character's life. Or perhaps you might prefer to think like Psycho, where once you get enough hp to withstand most one-hit kills (Heph, at least 3 waves of MSLE bolts, etc), you pump mana all the way since you are guaranteed a death should you ever disconnect while soloing, whether you have 100 more hp instead of 100 (165 with one SOJ and Frostburn) mana.

Many sorceress including me have no less than 200 Vit by level 75. Of these people, some put everything in Ene thereafter while others maintain a 2/1 ratio for Vit/Ene. Many other sorceress differ in opinion and instead have a 1/2 ratio for Vit/Ene. Usually, this will also depend on the equipment. Suppose a sorceress wears a Frostburn and one SoJ, one point in Vit gives 2 hp while one in Ene gives 1.65 mana. A +20 hp ring would give 20 hp while a +20 mana ring would give +33 mana. Given such a situation, if a sorceress decided to use equipment that concentrated on adding hp, then 1/2 ratio for Vit/Ene would work, while another sorceress concentrating on mana equipment would then prefer a 2/1 ratio of Vit/Ene. Both sorceress would then end up with roughly the same amount of hp and mana even though their Vit/Ene ratio is drastically different, typically about 650-700 hp and 850-900 mana.

The EHP Concept

Energy Shield (ES) is an important skill because it extends the hp of a sorceress by using her mana as part of her hp. For the ignorant people out there, ES takes double mana damage, meaning that if your Energy Shield is at 40%, and you take 100 damage, you will suffer 60 hp and 80 mana (not 40 mana as you might have imagined). This is the high cost of using your mana as part of your hp. Just how much high should a sorceress' ES be then? If it is too high, you will run out of mana quickly when you take damage, while if it is too low, you are not maximising your effective hp.

In this part of the guide, I will introduce the EHP (effective HP) concept and form the basis framework allowing for comparisons to be made between equipment that add various amounts of hp and mana. The EHP concept will be used throughout the rest of the guide, so read carefully.

First, some terminology:

Next, I'll state some obvious formulas. Suppose a monster hits you for D amount of damage:
You will suffer (2ES%)(D) mana.
You will suffer (1-ES%)(D) hp.

Ideally, my EHP is highest when my ES% is such that when D damage is done to me, both my hp and mana reaches zero at the same time. Thus M/H = (2ES%)(D) / (1-ES%)(D). Simplifying the equation (the D is cancelled, and the ES% is brought to the same side), you get ES% = M/(2H + M). Your EHP = H/(1-ES%). Substituting ES% into the EHP formula, you get EHP = H + M/2.

What happens if my ES% is higher than the ideal ES%? I'll introduce a new variable ES2% where ES2% > ideal ES%. Since my ES2% is higher, my mana will be drained out completely first, before my HP drops to zero. After which ES automatically deactivates and whatever hp I have left after that is the remaining damage I can take.

Maximum damage I can take to reduce my mana orb to zero is M/(2ES2%). Taking M/(2ES2%) damage, I will suffer M/(2ES2%)*(2ES2%) = M mana and (1-ES2%)(M/(2ES2%)) hp. I will be left with H - (1-ES2%)(M/(2ES2%)) hp and zero mana after taking M/(2ES2%) damage. Hence my EHP = H - (1-ES2%)(M/(2ES2%)) + M/(2ES2%). Simplifying this, EHP = H + M/2, the ES2% cancels each other out. Thus is the prove that your EHP is the same no matter what your ES% is above the ideal value of M/(2H+M).

What does this imply? Suppose James the Sorceress has 310 hp and 800 mana. His ideal ES% = 800/(2*310 + 800) = 0.563 and his EHP = 310 + 800/2 = 710. As long as his energy shield is 56.3% or higher, his effective hitpoints is always 710. (Suppose his ES is 60%, he will take 666.66 damage before his mana reaches zero, and he will have 43.33 hp left = 710 EHP).

Now suppose he was soloing and fighting monsters, his hp is still full, but his mana orb is about half full and he suffers a timeout. He has 310 hp and 400 mana. At these values, his ideal ES% = 400/(2*310 + 400) = 0.392 and his EHP = 310 + 400/2 = 510. No matter what his ES% is above 39.2%, his effective hitpoints is 510 in this case. However, his mana orb isn't always half full, it could be full when he suffers a disconnect! Thus his ideal ES% is still 56.3%. When his mana orb is half full, whether his ES% is 56.3% or 39.2%, his EHP is still 510.

The flaw in all the above is that it does not take into account mana regeneration. I assume all the damage is dealt to you in ONE hit or over a extremely short period of time. This is realistic (from playing experience as well) as the only damage that really matters happens in very short intervals. If I was dying slowly, I would drink a potion and teleport/TP away. Dying quickly, by definition happens very abruptly. Such events include being hit by Hephasto or Might enchanted monsters, waves of MSLE bolts and more. Hence time and mana regeneration is irrelevant in these cases.

The one case where time becomes a factor is during a timeout, a disconnect. Mana would regenerate over the course of the timeout. Suppose I take 15 seconds to timeout (the widely believed value), my ideal ES% would be then ES3% = M2/(2H + M2), where M2 here is equal to the max mana you have plus a little bit more from regeneration in 15 seconds. And where M2 > M, ES3% is obviously larger than ES%. In the above example, James ideal ES% is 56.3%, in order to compensate for mana regeneration in a timeout, I would add a few more % to this value, maybe to at most 60%. M2 can be estimated quite easily if you wanted to calculate ES3%.

What if you have already brought your ES% to a level way beyond your ideal ES%? If EHP remains constant no matter what value ES% is above the ideal value, it doesn't really matter right? Wrong, because I'll rather hp and mana both hit zero at the same time, than mana hitting zero before hp, so that in whatever short amount of time I have when I get swarmed, I may still have enough mana to teleport out. And when I do manage to teleport out, I'll want my ES to be still active, because mana is regenerating, and I do not wish to spend that half second recasting ES.

One can argue that with maxed warmth and a bit of lightning mastery, you can regen enough mana to teleport out, even if your mana orb is empty. However, if what is swarming you includes mana drainers (e.g someone tipped the Vizier Seal right on top of you) you will not regenerate any mana at all. On top of that, you are not guaranteed that your very first cast of teleport will succeed, should you get hit and enter hit recovery animation. By the time you cast your second or third, your mana would be dry should ES% be way above ideal ES%. This also applies to waypoint traps and stair traps you need to teleport away from being swarmed. Saving and Exiting negates all these arguments, but that's a different issue altogether.

Attempting to bring ideal ES% up towards whatever ES% we already have means to get more mana. But on the other hand, looking at the EHP formula, EHP = H + M/2, you notice that our EHP increases by 2 per one Vit, and only 1 per one Ene. Suppose a Frostburn and one SoJ is used, adding max mana by 65%, then one Ene will increase EHP by 1.65. Whatever skill points above ES3% is wasted. It is better to just dump all in Vit, once a desired amount of mana is acquired, such as 900, where you'll be able to play comfortably with no mana potions. (Not enough mana? Static more, Orb less, Same result.)

Going back to James' sorceress, does he have enough hp? This topic is about hp/mana balance after all. 310 hp 800 mana gives him a EHP of 710 at 56.3% ES (11 skill points). If he had 400 hp and 650 mana instead, his EHP is 725 at ES% = 44.8% (6 skill points). Here comes the tradeoff: Would you rather have 5 skill points elsewhere at the cost of having less mana to play with?

Still, ES% should not be calculated on current hp and mana values. It should be calculated on your estimated values of hp and mana at level 75, wearing equipment that you plan to get to maximize EHP. The 310 hp 800 mana should not be a current value to base on at say level 40, since he may not actually have found the SoJs he intended to wear yet. In general, ideal ES% tends to fall as one gets higher in level.

Things get slightly more complicated when you consider in the effects of Nightsmoke and Vulpine equipment. Suppose James wears a Nightsmoke. Over the course of the 310 hp damage he will take in order to die, Nightsmoke will generate 310 * 0.5 = 155 mana. In other words, James mana is increased by a virtual amount equivalent to H*C when he takes his EHP amount of damage, where C is the conversion rate in decimal. Hence the new formulas are ES% = (M + H*C)/(2H + M + H*C) and EHP = H + (M + H*C)/2.

Wearing Nightsmoke thus gives you more EHP by H/4. This is as good as extending your HP by 25% of your vitality. Consider the differences using Nightsmoke and a rare plated belt which adds 50 hp 30 mana and 25 fire, 25 lightning resists. Assume the popular one stone, one frostburn combo and that the Sorceress in question has 600 hp without wearing either belt.

The 50 hp on the rare belt gives: 50 EHP
The 30 mana on the rare belt gives: 49.5 mana = 24.75 EHP
The 20 mana on the nightsmoke gives: 33 mana = 16.5 EHP
Nightsmoke gives an additional EHP of (600*0.5)/2 = 150 EHP

EHP given by rare belt = 50 + 24.75 = 74.75
EHP given by Nightsmoke = 16.5 + 150 = 166.5

Thus the nightsmoke gives about 90 more EHP than the rare belt at 600 hp, allowing you to survive possibly one or two more hits. Is this a good tradeoff for having one less row of potions and 16.5 less mana? If a player is able to obtain resists from elsewhere other than the belt, I believe this IS a good tradeoff and Nightsmoke is better, rarely do we use potions to the point where the belt is nearly empty.

Nightsmoke has a handy -2 (physical) damage as well against Diablo, as well as 10% resists all itself compared to the 25% fire and 25% lightning on the rare belt. Of course, these EHP numbers will vary from belt to belt and on the hp of the sorceress. The rare belt used in the above example was a rather good belt described, yet we find it inferior to Nightsmoke in terms of EHP. Suddenly, Nightsmoke isn't all that bad after all. However, using Nightsmoke means the ideal ES% would be about 5% higher than without Nightsmoke, or about 2 levels of ES. The tradeoff here also involves 2 skill points for 90 more EHP, and possibly more if the sorceress has more hp.

But WAIT! There is an insidious flaw in all the above arguments about how Nightsmoke extends EHP by H/4. The above assumes that the mana generated by Nightsmoke (and Vulpine items) are completely used up by ES. At C = 0%, having a ES% higher than the ideal ES% doesn't affect EHP because all the mana is used up completely by ES, but when using Vulpine items, when the ES% is above the ideal ES%, your mana will run out faster first. ES will deactivate for the remaining hp left when mana hits 0 while the Vulpine ability continues to generate mana. This portion of mana that is generated is not used by ES at all! Thus, Nightsmoke doesn't really extend EHP by H/4, but rather a value less than that (and above zero) most of the time.

Restating the obvious formulas, suppose a monster hits a sorceress for D amount of damage:
You will suffer (2ES%)(D) mana.
You will suffer (1-ES%)(D) hp.
You will gain (1-ES%)(D)(C) mana.
So you will suffer (1-ES%)(D) hp and (2ES%)(D) - (1-ES%)(D)(C) mana.

The sorceress' mana will deplete when she takes M/((2ES%)(D) - (1-ES%)(D)(C)) * D = M/((2ES%) - (1-ES%)(C)) damage. The mana that is generated over this damage by the Vulpine ability is equal to M/((2ES%) - (1-ES%)(C)) / D * (1-ES%)(D)(C) = M/((2ES%) - (1-ES%)(C)) * (1-ES%)(C) = M/((2ES%)/((1-ES%)(C%)) - 1). So the EHP is extended by M/((2ES%)/((1-ES%)(C%)) - 1) / 2 = M/((4ES%)/((1-ES%)(C%)) - 2). Let's call this amount of EHP extended by the Vulpine ability VHP. Only when ES% is equal to the ideal ES% of (M + H*C)/(2H + M + H*C) will VHP be at the maximum of H*C/2, and for the case of Nightsmoke only, H/4. The more a sorceress' ES% is higher than his ideal ES%, the nearer his EHP is to H + M/2.

Again, the ability to convert 50% damage to mana lengthens our EHP by up to H/4. While playing the game one will not want to get hit at all, this ability would then be next to useless, but when one does get hit for HUGE damage such as by Hephasto, this ability is more than useful in providing the additional EHP one may need to survive the damage. If such one-hit huge damages does not exist at all, then Nightsmoke is probably the lousiest belt a sorceress can ever have.

But Vulpine items do not respond to just any kind of damage. Vulpine items return mana only from melee attacks. Therefore, Vulpine items will do nothing against Archers, Oblivion Knights, or Diablo's lightning attack. However, since most melee attacks are physical attacks, one could also think of Vulpine items as working against physical attacks only (although you still have to keep in mind that ranged physical attacks would be an exception).

Some people will claim that Vulpine items should be worn because they provide "virtual HP". The idea is that because they return mana, and mana is needed to fuel ES, the mana generated by Vulpine items can be thought of mana that will go towards saving HP through the continued use of ES. In way, this is true. But it needs to understood that Vulpine items do not always activate, but rather, activate only when melee damage is taken. Because it is very difficult to predict what proportion of the damage you will be taking will be melee damage, it is difficult to do any kind of realistic quantitative analysis of the Vulpine effect thought of as "virtual HP". Making such an analysis even more difficult is the realization that only some of your Sorc's mana is meant for use with ES, whereas the rest is used for spells, and there is no clear way to quantitatively differentiate between these two imaginary mana pools. Sometimes you will need all of your mana for your ES to save you from a bad spot, sometimes the Vulpine effect is irrelevant (and thus, of less value) since you did not take enough damage to really need any help from such items. Because there are so many variables involved when using Vulpine items, I will not attempt a quantitative analysis of Vulpine as "virtual HP". It is simpler, and more to the point, to think of Vulpine items as something that helps to keep your ES alive. The ultimate value of Vulpine items in that role is determined by many things.

(Extract from VenomousVixen's Complete Sorceress Guide)

Looking at Act 4 alone, the area most players level up in, the only monsters that deal any significant non-melee damage are Burning Souls, Maw Fiends (Corpulents and Corpse Spitters), Abyss Knights, Oblivion Knights and Diablo. All the rest inflict melee damage, and even then, all the above named monsters do inflict some form of melee damage when in close proximity except Oblivion Knights. Act 2 is another area most players level up in, similarly the only monsters that inflict non-melee damages are Burning Dead Archers (Horror Archers), Burning Dead mages (Horror mages), Radament, Slingers (Spear Cats, Night Slinger, Hell Slinger) and Night Lords (Dark Lords). It can be clearly seen that most monsters in the game inflict melee damage, and those that doesn't can generally be dodged quite easily. Think to yourself how much more often do you suffer melee damages over non-melee damages before considering how useful Nightsmoke is in extending one's EHP; quite often, a solo sorceress would find a Nightsmoke more useful than a party only sorceress would.

However, if you played your sorceress correctly and only level in areas that have slow moving monsters and few ranged/elemental attackers (as what all hardcore sorceress do anyway), then Nightsmoke is quite obviously a better choice over a rare belt. Think of what monsters you usually meet in the Sewers, Far Oasis, Lost City, Ancient Tunnels, Palace and in Act 4.

Similar, using this concept of EHP, one can see that the effects of Frostburn adding 40% to maximum mana effectively increase EHP by an amount equal to half of the mana added by Frostburn. At level 75, Frostburn adds about 200 mana or otherwise (assuming a base of 500 mana after other items) and this equates to roughly 100 EHP.

Below is a summary of all the equations:

Graph made in Graphmatica for Win32 v1.60e

If you are confused by the complicated looking graph, take notice of only the WHITE lines. Since ES is only applicable between 0% and 100%, that's where the white lines lie, between 0 and 1.

Case 1: When damage-to-mana conversion is at 0%, EHP rises up along the curve then becomes flat and parallel to the x-axis (ES%-axis).

Case 2: When damage-to-mana conversion is at 50% (Eg. Nightsmoke equipped), EHP rises up along the same curve, and rises beyond when it was at 0%, up to a tip. EHP then falls along the other white curve.

Conclusion

Again, as a general guide, the average level 75 HC sorceress has about 650 hp and 900 mana wearing one SoJ and one Frostburns. These are good values for a newbie sorceress to base on and work towards. This gives an ideal ES% of 40.9%, so ES% should be at 43%. If Nightsmoke is used then ideal ES% is 45%, so ES% should be at 46% or 49%. Once you have obtained a comfortable amount of mana to play with, throw everything into hp. The goal is thus to maximize EHP after reaching a nice amount of mana.

The EHP concept relies on the basis that damage that comes slowly does not matter; you'll drink a potion. Damage that comes quickly over an extremely short amount of time is the one that matters, thus EHP is the thing to maximize in HC.

EHP Calculator (Not working with Netscape)

Skills

How to allocate skill points is a commonly asked question, but there is no correct or wrong answer. How a player wishes to allocate his skill points is his own customization of his character. Here, I can only point out the usefulness of each skill and how applicable it is to hardcore.

There are generally 3 types of spells, Finishers, Utility and Prerequisites. Here in this guide, I will go through the spells in this categorization instead of the normal ice/lightning/fire categories for easier comparison. I will not be specifically comparing which spell is better than another, for such questions, it is better posted in a forum and asked, although if you would like to see it here, you can your article. ;+P

Being in hardcore, it is recommended that you get at least one skill that chills the enemy. Also, note that certain spells are not party-friendly and these should also be considered when you allocate your skill points.

A sorceress can aim to have one finishing spell only, or build up two finisher spells. If a sorceress only intends to have one finishing spell, usually he will end up with a few extra skill points by the time he reaches level 75 which can be thrown into the masteries and other utility skills. For example, a sorceress that has 20 in Orb, 20 in Static, 20 in Warmth, 6 in ES, 6 in Cold and 4 in Lightning Mastery and 8 prerequisites still has a couple of skill points left to allocate at level 75 which probably can be thrown into Cold Mastery.

A sorceress that however intends to obtain 2 finishing spells would require more prerequisites and at least 10 skill points in the second finisher, ending up in about 15 points in each finisher and have insufficient points to max either finisher. Otherwise the player can also aim for a strong maxed finisher and a weak minor finisher. The advantage would be quite obvious if the 2 finishers are 2 different types of elemental damage but the player would also have to allocate skill points into both skill masteries.

Fire, Cold and Lightning

Looking at the 3 main types of elemental attacks in general, it is noted that the Poison elemental attack has been generally left to the Necromancer (non-sequitur). Anyway, here are the main advantages and disadvantages of each of these skill trees.

Fire spells rely on huge damage that quickly burns up the enemies. A maxed Firewall and maxed Fire Mastery can do well over 800 max damage and is the spell with the most damage. However the drawback is that the casting cost of high level fire spells are usually high and causes an obscene amount of lag, especially on old video cards.

Cold spells are comparable in damage to that of fire spells after considering in the effects of cold mastery and the fact that more monsters have higher fire resistances than cold resistances (which also means cold mastery need not be so high). However the other advantages of cold spells over fire are obvious, apart from doing damage, cold spells also chill the enemy as a defensive side effect and illuminate them blue, separating minions of necros from enemies. Cold spells are not as sprite intensive either and the only spell that might cause a bit of lag would be Frozen Orb, although thick Blizzards may cause visual problems behind it. On top of all that, chilling spells destroy 20% of all corpses, rendering Shamans useless.

Cold Spells chill/freeze durations are halved in Nightmare and quartered in Hell difficulties. Note also that some monsters such as Oblivion Knights, Grotesques and their young and all unique monsters have an innate ability to half freeze/chill durations just like the same attribute that may appear on amulets and rings.

Lightning spells are very weak in damage compared to the other 2 skills trees. Only Nova and Thunderstorm (actually Telekinesis and Charged Bolt as well) has increasing minimum damage and this makes lightning spells very unreliable in terms of dealing constant damage. 2 of the spells, Chain Lightning and Lightning have a casting frame rate of 23 (there is 25 frames per second) and cannot be reduced by fast casting equipment due to the nature of the spell of traveling/bouncing lightning. The Lightning mastery tries to make up for this by making lightning spells cheaper to cast so you can cast more of it to average out the damage. Generally this route is not taken as it is impractical, given the high lightning resists of most monsters on top of low average damage. Already static field is the spell that can do more damage than most other spells.

Quite obviously, cold spells is the route to take, especially to a player who has never played sorceress before. If you decide to take 2 trees, it should be preferably cold and fire. Of course, lightning-only sorceress are completely possible (and there ARE such sorceress on the ladder) but they are much harder to play and take longer to level up. Consider it like the difference between taking a bus and a cab.

Finisher Spells

Finishers are spells that do damage that are large enough to do a killing blow on the enemy monsters. There are many such choices but the more effective ones are the spells that have an Area of Effect (AoE) and are capable of damaging many enemies simultaneously. As such it can be deduced that Frozen Orb, Blizzard and Meteor are usually more effective than Glacial Spike and Thunderstorm.

Some finishers have a duration, such as Blizzard, and Thunderstorm, once cast, these spells do damage passively in the background while you can cast other spells such as static field. Such an ability make them more useful as well and it is no surprise why Blizzard is one of the best sorceress soloing spells, combing both abilities and the capabilities of cold damage with a moderate casting cost.

Frozen Orb has traditionally been one of the best spells for the sorceress because it can do damage to most monsters on the screen at the same time, just like the Chain Lightning in Diablo 1. It still remains as one of the best spells as it's cold duration is also decent, losing only to Frost Nova.

Each ice shard thrown off by the Orb deals the stated damage. A less known fact of Frozen Orb is that once it passes through a monster or bone wall, it has no effect even though the animation on screen shows otherwise. If you fire a Orb through a monster standing next to you, you will probably damage it once with the first ice shard and once the orb flies through it, all subsequent ice shards released has no effect. The best way to aim with Frozen Orb is thus to aim at a vector slightly off the monster from a distance so that the Orb flies by the monster and explodes next to it. This maximizes the amount of ice shards that will hit the monster for maximal damage.

Frozen Orb is the preferred spell when partying with Necromancers as it does not cause much lag on top of whatever lag the minions are already causing.

The main drawback of Frozen Orb is it's high casting cost. The tip here is to cast less Orbs and more Static Fields and the effect is usually the same. Instead of casting Orb, SF, SF, SF, SF, Orb, Orb, Orb, Orb, he player should cast Orb, SF, SF, SF, SF, Orb, SF, SF, SF, SF, Orb, Orb. This uses a lot less mana and achieves the same effect of killing the monsters.

Blizzard is well known for the best sorceress soloing spell and I will not go through how it works or how it is used here. Besides being stackable, having a high duration, chills enemies and is passively doing damage once cast, it has a moderate casting cost to boast.

The major problem with Blizzard is it is extremely hard to see through and these visual effects more than irritates other players when they can't see what they are targeting. Blizzard is extremely useful to cast over yourself in areas with Leapers.

At first sight, Glacial Spike is an extremely valuable spell because it is able to freeze multiple monsters in its tracks for 1.2 seconds at level 1! It fact, it IS the finishing spell that carries a sorceress from level 18 onwards until she gets his finishing spell of choice.

Glacial Spike has a cheap casting cost and freezes enemies for decent damage. However it's AoE is too small compared to other spells like Blizzard and Frozen Orb. Many players fail to realize that freezing and chilling durations are halved in Nightmare and quartered in Hell difficulties and this is the major problem even with a maxed out level 22 Glacial Spike. Freezing for barely a second in Hell, unless you spam cast Glacial Spike, it is impossible to execute the Spike/Static combo. Some monsters such as Oblivion Knights and Grotesques have an inherent ability to half freeze/chill times and this will cause further problems.

Even so, Glacial Spike is still a useful spell to hotkey to save another players life. It is highly recommended that you bind Glacial Spike to left click so that when you accidentally click on a monster while moving, you do not actually move to it and melee but instead freeze it momentarily.

Firewall is renowned as the spell that causes the most FPS lag especially at high levels. Although it does the most damage, it actually requires practice to cast it properly so that the monster walks through it's length.

There are 2 main ways to use Firewall. Collect a few monsters (chill them preferably) and cast firewall in an asterisk pattern. Run around the perimeter of this asterisk of fire, keeping the enemy monsters inside. While running, cast static field every 2 steps or so. This technique is called kiting, and is similar to using blizzard.

The second method is to cast stacks of Firewall in a direction parallel to the direction the monsters are coming from so that they walk through the whole length of it. Naturally, this requires practice to cast.

Blaze is a interesting version of Firewall, how it is used is simply to lure monsters and run away making them chase you. If you run fast enough, you can double back and stack the blaze and add firewalls in.

Blaze is mana efficient, and you can easily kill stuff without static when you use it. With a 5 stack doing say 1300 raw hp per second, you do not need that much static, hence tweaking is irrelevant. Because it is so mana efficient, you can seriously back off on warmth. This combination of lower points in static and warmth means you have more free points for a complementary spell designed to go after things which do not chase.

Firewall in a blaze package sees limited usage, thus the usual lag problems associated with a firewall sorceress are not there since you are only casting say one or two firewalls on that animator or shaman. The same goes for meteor.

There is currently a mini-guide for building a Blaze sorceress in Hardcore by Lok at the Lurker Lounge.

Casting Meteor requires some practice of the timing since it lands about 2 seconds after you cast it. It is rather effectively since it hits and impacts for a large amount of damage before starting to do fire damage.

The drawback is that Meteor kills the FPS rate and many players would have experienced it in the Ruined Temple or Durance of Hate as the groups Night Lords rain meteor on you. Meteor is more effective if there is a tank for monsters to attack so that they will not move out of the Meteor and you will not have to predict where the monster moves in 2 seconds. However the FPS drawback makes it not a very party friendly spell so be sure to ask if they mind if you cast it lot.

Hydra is currently bugged where Fire Mastery is not affecting the damage dealt even though the spell description and character screen says otherwise. Hydra is not effective unless it is cast in large groups above 10 and this drains a sorceress mana quite considerably.

Hydra does have its specialty uses such as using it to scout ahead of you and casting it into rooms before you enter it. It is also useful against offscreen Oblivion Knights and LEBs. However, the fact that Hydra requires 4 prerequisites puts many sorceress off from learning Hydra.

When one hydra is cast, a 3-headed dragon sprouts out from the floor and each head will spit about once a second at a nearby enemy. Even though one hydra will produce 3 firebolts each doing the base hydra damage (without fire mastery), note that many of these firebolts will miss as the monster moves, unless it is moving towards the hydra.

These 2 spells are not as effective as the finishers discussed above because of the 23 frame rate casting speed (you do not want to be cast locked on the spot). Where you can cast one Chain Lightning per second, you can also cast perhaps 2 to 3 Static Fields per second and probably end up doing more damage.

Chain Lightning only bounces back and forth monsters when they are near one another and damage dealt to each successive monster is halved, while Lightning deals the same damage to everything in a straight line from you. If you are unlucky and get a low damage roll for your initial first hit with your Chain Lightning, the rest of the subsequent hits will do potentially less damage, making it an extremely unreliable finisher.

Nova is not used except by the occasional lightning sorceress. Its radius is not very big and actually requires the sorceress to go near the monster to do damage. To use nova effectively, a high level static field is needed to reduce the enemy hp to a reasonable level killable by Nova when the monster moves next to you.

This is a all-or-nothing skill and in most players' opinions, it's a useless skill. It misses nearly all fast moving monsters and hits slower moving ones 2/3s of the time. It does pathetic damage at level 1 and fires once every 4 seconds or so but does an average of 150 damage every second at level 20. At level 25, Thunderstorm can potentially do 200 average damage every 0.6 seconds, assuming every shot hits.

However the large lightning resistances of the enemy and the unpredictability of which monster would be hit next (if it hits at all) makes 20 skill points an utter waste. By right, it would be useful if it hits the monster with the least hp, but sometimes it targets that trapped soul. Although it could potentially give a off a warning sound when an enemy is approaching, casting a high level static field once or twice also achieves the same effect.

VV has tested Thunderstorm and found some potential bugs with Thunderstorm, mainly those regarding the rumours that Thunderstorm will not hit monsters that are standing next to a wall. His findings can be found at a post in the Lurker Lounge forum here.

Reader has sent in the following comments on Thunderstorm: "TS is NOT useless. You must view it as a passive skill, like shiver armor, NOT as a finisher. Use GS left click, FO right click, and TS on at all times as a passive skill. The damage TS deals is high, both min and max, and it strikes faster and faster as you put more skill points into it. I have it at lvl 18 with one of my characters, Yarana, and it strikes once in two seconds, compared with something like once in six seconds at lvl 1. I don't know how fast it will hit at really high lvls, but my guess is that it will strike more then once each second at lvl 25 (which is my goal), if the speed increases at the same rate as before. The randomness of TS is not really a problem as it is just a passive skill, a bonus. Against bosses it is also very good, as you will hit the poor bastards for huge amounts of damage when they are the only target."

Even so, many players would prefer spending the 21 skill points (including 1 prerequisite) elsewhere such as on Warmth, Static, Masteries, etc.

Utility Spells

Utility spells are spells that usually serve one purpose only and usually they are specific in nature. Some of them are very useful, and most only require one skill point in it, any more will be wasted.

Static field is the uber spell of the sorceress, much like how Whirlwind is the uber skill of the barbarian. Even though it is possible to build sorceress without static field, such a sorceress would be highly ineffective in terms of contributing to a party and the extra length of time and mana needed to kill a monster would increase the risk of leveling up.

Prior to 1.04 patch, A level 14 static field was sufficient to cover the whole screen including the corners due to a programming error. A level 9 or so static field was able to touch the 4 main cardinal points of the screen. In v1.04, a level 16 static field is required to just cover the north and south sides of the screen and a level 18 static field to include the corners.

A reader has sent in information that a level 10 static field (v1.05b) is now sufficient to cover the entire screen, including the corners. Another reader has also sent in the range of a level 18 static field and its radius is an ellipse, about 1.5 screens in radius in the east/west direction, about 1.00 screens in radius in the north/south direction. The diagonal is about 1.25 screen in radius. The range of static field isn't really elliptical though, it's a pure circle. It looks elliptical on screen due to the top down angle view of about 60 degrees from the normal parallel to the plane. Comparing the radius of static field of v1.05 against v1.04, the radius is double in v1.05 than in v1.04 for any level of static field.

It is recommended that a sorceress gets at least a level 16 static field so as to be able to hit nearly everything he can see on the screen. Getting it higher is also viable since the area covered actually increases quadratically. Besides being able to static a LE or MSLE from offscreen is a boon; it allows you to detect the presence of such a monster from a distance before you are actually in the danger zone of the LE.

Static field is a spell with increasing returns, since the area covered increases quadratically with the same incremental increase in radius per level.

Energy Shield is extremely important for a sorceress as it extends the lifespan by absorbing some of the damage into mana in the 1 to 2 ratio. How high Energy Shield should be is discussed in greater detail in the HP/Mana section along with the EHP concept.

For those of you who intend to use a staff that has +3 to ES or something similar to save skill points at the early point of a sorc's life, it has been discovered that Energy Shield (and Holy Shield) uses the skill's current level (not your caster level). That means that every time you are hit, the game checks the current level of the Energy Shield and uses that value. However, the cold armors do not do this, your caster level determines the spell's defense boost, where it remains until it is recast or runs out.

This spell is used to pick up items, open doors, kick barrels and jugs, open chests, etc. It can also be used to stun an enemy and push them back, similar to the knockback effect of a weapon. This second ability of telekinesis is often overlooked, and some players actually use it on teleporting monsters to prevent them from teleporting. Quite obviously, one point is enough in this skill.

This is one of the best spells of the sorceress. Get it as soon as you reach level 18. It is an escape spell as well as a mode of transportation, much like the leap attack skill of the barbarian. However, this spell is not user friendly when it is laggy, so if you are trying to escape from monsters in lag, it is usually better to simply run away.

There is only one location in Diablo 2 where you cannot teleport to a place out of your direct line of sight: Tal Rasha's Chamber. Again, only put one point in this skill. With enough warmth and mana at the higher levels, you actually gain mana while casting it, not forgetting lightning mastery.

Frost Nova will be one of your best friends until you obtain Blizzard or Frozen Orb. At a very cheap casting cost, it chills everything in a radius around you for quite a long time, keeping you safe. Get into the habit of always chilling your enemies before doing anything, especially since sorceress have low HP and slower down the enemies by half is a very good idea.

How much warmth to get is a highly debatable topic, some sorceress get by with only 7 points in Hell difficulty Act 4, while others recommend maxing it out. This is usually a preference, difference is play styles among people. Some people do not mind waiting around for mana to regenerate while they kick baskets, jugs and open chests and pick up items, while others want to move on as fast as possible.

How much warmth is needed also largely depends on whether you solo or party. A sorceress tends to use more mana when soloing, so a higher warmth is needed. If you intend to party only, then a lower warmth is needed.

Given a choice to put a skill point into either say Frozen Orb or Warmth, ask yourself whether you are constantly running out of mana. If so, put the point in Warmth, putting it in Frozen Orb will only increase its casting cost further.

For some reason, tons of mana potions drop in Act 3 and 4, but not in Act 1 and 2. These mana potions can and should be used whenever your mana drops to 30% or so. Some players do not like to use mana potions and do not keep any in their inventory, while others hoard them. It is interesting to note that when you have 1000 mana, a 200 mana Super mana potion is not probably going to heal much mana though, unless critical mana healing (double mana healing) occurs. This chance is Ene/4 up to 200 Ene and follows a diminishing curve beyond 200 Ene.

I recommend getting Warmth to at least 15, and max warmth if possible, as doing so allows you to play off the top of your mana orb. Should any disconnect occur, you would still have a large mana pool to absorb damage instead of having little mana, reducing the effectiveness of Energy Shield. Also, a maxed warmth and 900 mana just balances the mana drain caused by a Strangler's homing missile.

It is advisable to get at least one of the three cold armors, if not more for the side benefits of having extra light radius and some defense. Frozen Armour freezes the enemy when they attempt to melee you, Shiver Armour chills (and does negligible damage) to the enemy that attempts to melee you, while Chilling Armour does nothing to melee attackers, and shoots back a pretty ice bolt (which will probably miss) at a ranged attacker that hits you.

Theoretically, a good sorceress will never be hit by melee attacks, hence Chilling Armour should be used, but in actual reality, this is impossible to achieve with lag on Battle.net. Shiver Armour provides the most defense bonus of all the three armors, but this is probably not important.

In Nightmare difficulty, freeze and chill length are reduced by half, while in Hell difficulty it is reduced to 1/4. This makes Frozen Armour unviable in Nightmare and Hell Difficulty, what use is freezing the enemy for 1/4 seconds in Hell? Still, Frozen Armor is relatively useful in Normal difficulty.

Shiver Armour damages the enemy when they attempt to melee you, this is probably important with respect to leapers that leap away from you when they get damaged. The chill length is one second (at any skill level) in hell, long enough for a sorceress to teleport out of a stun lock.

I recommend using Frozen Armor in Normal and Nightmare difficulties and Shiver Armour in Nightmare and Hell difficulties. Again, one point in both of these skills are enough.

Fire mastery increases the damage of all your fire spells, except Hydra. Fire Mastery does not affect Hydra in anyway even though the stated damage in the description and character screen says so otherwise. (When you get slain by a player's Hydra, it says "is slain by Hydra" and not "is slain by Player".)

Cold Mastery reduces the cold resistances of enemies to your cold damage spells by the stated amount. Suppose the enemy has 30% cold resistance and your cold mastery is at 50%. When you do cold damage to this monster, for the purposes of your damage, the cold resistance of the enemy is reduced to 15% and not to -20% as you might have imagined. This means that Cold Mastery does not do anything to monsters without cold resistances and it is not as useful as you think.

Lightning Mastery reduces the casting cost of all your lightning spells, but the only lightning spell with casting cost of any real concern is static field, since everyone would be chain casting it. Your mana should be increasing while you chain cast static field.

All 3 masteries have very high diminishing returns after level 9 hence it is not recommended to go beyond level 9. Suppose you do 2% more fire damage to a monster, this is probably reduced to 0.5% with enemy maxed fire resists. Suppose you reduce 2% more cold resistance of a monster, if the monster has 75% cold, you would reduce it's resistances by a mere 1.5%. If you do 600 damage with a frozen orb, assuming 4 shards of 150 damage hits, that's about 9.5 damage more only. The skill point would have been better spent in static field or warmth, unless you have nothing else to invest it in.

I recommend getting Lightning Mastery to level 4 (after items) so that the casting cost of static field is reduced to 5 mana. I do not recommend getting either of the other masteries past level 9.

Prerequisite Spells

Prerequisite spells are just that: prerequisites for other spells. More often than not, you will not ever want to place more than 1 skill point in it because these skills at high levels still do not do enough damage to substantiate the skill points used.

These remaining spells are Ice Bolt, Ice Blast, Charged Bolt, Firebolt, Inferno, Fireball and Enchant. These spells being prerequisites are only useful somewhat to a point not past Act 2 of Normal difficulty, and are highly ineffective in Nightmare and Hell difficulties with increasing resistances and hp of monsters.

I will not go into how these spells can be used effectively for the first 15 levels or so with the appropriate staves that add levels to the same skills. If anybody would like to do this for me, you can .