Guide:Blizzard Sorceress v1.10, by Zhao Yue
Icy Veins Blizzard Sorceress Build
Contents
Introduction
Some of the benefits of a PvP Blizzard Sorceress are:
- She can do large amounts of cold damage from afar.
- Most players will be less likely to be protected against cold attacks. They will probably opt to have protection against the more popular damage types, namely physical, lightning and poison.
- Even if they try to put cold resistances on, you Cold Mastery will work to reduce that greatly.
- When not dueling, you can change your sorceress’s gear and do Magic Finding like a regular PvM Blizzard Sorceress.
Stats
- Strength: Enough to your heaviest piece of equipment. For instance, if you choose to a ‘Spirit’ Monarch Shield, you will use need to invest 156 points in strength.
- Dexterity: There are two options you can choose – have enough dexterity to maximize block or leave it at base to maximize life. I would advise you to maximize block to 75% to defend against any melee or arrow attack. However, shields with very low block rates are not worth investing in maximum block, as they would require an astronomical dexterity investment.
- Vitality: Put your remaining points in here, as this is your most important stat. More life means you last longer.
- Energy: High level sorceresses should not have mana problems with warmth, +mana from equipment and charms. Also, regular dueling rules ban teleport and using blizzard is not one of the more mana intensive spells. Don’t place any points here unless you absolutely feel you need that extra mana.
Speeds
Faster Hit Recovery
How much Faster Hit Recovery from equipment is required for each frame improvement?
- Aim for the 9 (42%) or 8 (60%) frame breakpoints.
FHR vs Frames:
- 0% - 15
- 5% - 14
- 9% - 13
- 14% - 12
- 20% - 11
- 30% - 10
- 42% - 9
- 60% - 8
- 86% - 7
- 142% - 6
Faster Casting Rate
How much Faster Casting Rate from equipment is required to drop down a frame?
- Teleporting is not permitted in Good Mannered (GM) duels. Also Blizzard is not dependent on faster cast, so improving on this stat is not needed. In public duels it's more useful, but still far from essential with Blizzard as your main skill.
FCR vs Frames
- 0% - 13
- 9% - 12
- 20% - 11
- 37% - 10
- 63% - 9
- 105% - 8
- 200% - 7
Faster Blocking Rate
How much Faster Blocking Rate from equipment is required to drop down a frame?
- Improvements to this come almost entirely from the shield.
FBR vs Frames
- 0% - 9
- 7% - 8
- 15% - 7
- 27% - 6
- 48% - 5
- 86% - 4
Skills
We will aim for level 85 to complete this build (although if you run Pindleskin, you can easily reach 90-92). With all the quest rewards completed, you should have 97 points at you disposal.
We will start off with the following skill selection which will use 83 skill points:
- 20 Blizzard – Your main offensive skill
- 20 Cold Mastery – Skill that boosts all of you cold-based spells by reducing the enemy’s resistance
- 20 Glacial Spike – Synergy to Blizzard
- 20 Ice Blast – Synergy to Blizzard
- 1 Frost Nova - Prerequisite
- 1 Ice Bolt- Prerequisite
- 1 Warmth – With +skills, a good source to regenerate mana
Optional placement for the remaining skill points could be:
- Static Field (1 point wonder): Excellent boss killing skill in PvM and makes Magic Find runs a lot faster.
- Teleport (1 point wonder + 1 point in telekinesis prerequisite): Very useful in getting around in PvM. Also if you happen to come across a PvP duel game with Bad Manner rules, this will help your sorceress immensely.
- Ice Bolt (Maximize): Put your points in here if you want to increase your Blizzard damage further.
- Chilling Armour (1 or Maximize): This armour give you a defensive bonus and also a chance to deflect (avoid damage from) incoming missiles, such as Fireball or Guided Arrow.
Equipment
My assumption in this section is that you are limited to the more common items through both running Hell Mephisto and moderate trades within the SPTF. But if you have a piece of equipment that would improve you build but is not mentioned here, by all means use it! For example, I would recommend a Harlequin Crest but if you have access to a Nightwing’s Veil, go for it!
Generally, the most important things we are looking for on equipment choices are:
- +Skills, +Sorceress Skills, +Cold Skills, +Blizzard
- Life
- Mana
- Damage Reduction
- Resistance
- Faster Hit recovery
Helms
Good Helmet choice:
- Harlequin Crest Unique Shako (+2 skills, life/mana per level, 10% damage reduce)
Other options:
- Peasent Crown Unique War Hat
- ‘Lore’ runeword
Amulets
Good Amulet choice:
- Tal Rasha’s Adjunction Set Amulet (+2 Sorceress Skills, +50 life, +42 mana, 33 lightning resistance)
Other options:
- Rare Amulet with +2 Sorceress Cold Skills and other desirable mods
- Magical Amulet with +3 Sorceress Cold Skills
- Telling of Beads Set Amulet
Weapons
Good Weapon choices:
- The Occulus Unique Swirling Crystal (+3 Sorceress Skills, +20% resist all, +20 Vitality/Energy)
- Wizardspike Unique Bone Knife (mana per level, regenerate mana +15%, increase maximum mana +15%, resist all +75%)
Other options:
- Suiside Branch Unique Burnt Wand
- Tal Rasha’s Lidless Eye Set Swirling Crystal (if you use this with another Tal Rasha Set piece, you get an item bonus of +1 Sorceress Skill)
- Special Note – if you decide to have dexterity at base, you are open to using a staff. Possibilities include:
- Chromatic Ire Unique Cedar Staff
- Razorswitch Unique Jo Staff
- Warpspear Unique Gothic Staff
Shields
Good Shield choice:
- Visceratuant Unique Defender (+1 Sorceress Skills, +30% increase block rate/faster block rate)
Other options:
- Stormshield Unique Monarch
- Lidless Wall Grim Shield
- Whitsan’s Guard Set Round Shield
Weapon Switch
Weapon Switch choices:
- ‘Insight’ runeword (Level 12-15 Meditation – unbelievable for mana regeneration)
- Staff or orb with +Chilling Armour (if you want to save points)
Armors
Good Armour choice:
- Skin of the Vipermagi Unique Serpentskin Armour (+1 Skills, +20-35% resist all)
Other options:
- Que-Hagan’s Wisdom Unique Mage Plate
- The Spirit Shroud Unique Ghost Armour
Gloves
Good Glove choice:
- Bloodfist Unique Heavy Gloves (+40 life, 30% faster hit recovery)
Other options
- Frostburn Unique Gauntlets
- Magefist Unique Light Gaunlets
- Crafted Caster Gloves
Belts
Good Belt choice:
- Snowclash Unique Battle Belt (+3 Blizzard, +2 Chilling Armour, +15 cold absorb, +15% maximum cold resistance)
Other options
- Gloom’s Trap Unique Mesh Belt
- Tal Rasha’s Fine Spun Cloth Set Mesh Belt
- Crafted Caster Belt
Boots
Good Boots choice:
- Alder’s Advance Set Battle Boots (+50 life, +40% faster run/walk, 10% damage goes to mana, +40-50% fire resistance)
Other options
- Waterwalk Unique Sharkskin Boots
- Silkweave Unique Mesh Boots
Rings
Rings:
- Ravenfrost (cannot be frozen, +20 dexterity, +20% cold absorb, +40 mana)
- Dwarfstar (+40 life, +15% fire absorb)
- Rare Ring with +life/mana, resistance
Charms
Charms:
- Plain Chilling Grand Charms (+1 Sorceress Cold Skills)
- Charms with life, mana or faster hit recovery
General Facts
Generally, when facing off against a melee opponent, you will want to have you character walk to preserve your 75% block and whatever defense you have. If you face off against a caster, you can run since spells ignore target defense and block.
A very useful tactic to use against opponents that run off screen is to click and hold the right mouse button over their character when you have blizzard selected on the right skill tab. This allows you to constantly shower blizzard over them, even when they are off your screen and will last until you release your mouse button. However you are stationary while you do this and can only move when you release your opponent. This is known as ‘Name-locking’.
You many notice that if you opponent wears cold absorb (ie. 20% from Ravenfrost), that his health bar will be reduced by a great amount on the first hit but will take reduced damage on subsequent hits. This is due to the fact that absorb restores life before damage is taken, so since your opponent has no damage take before the first hit, no life is restored.
Chance to cast teleport on the Occulus may be annoying to some people in PvM since when you are struck by a monster, you might be teleported into a monster grouping, putting you in greater danger. However, in PvP, you usually only face off against one other opponent so the chance to teleport away when you are being attacked may actually save you.
