Post by xIrenexAdler on Sept 20, 2013 20:22:24 GMT -8
So, since the DN forums can be kind of intimidating and nothing there is really compiled for this cap, I decided to take some time to write out a variety of gear and skill builds that can be used, as well as an explanation of why certain things are the way they are.
To keep the size of this thread down, I'll be using the gear simulator and DNArmory for generic builds (keep in mind that only certain things in these builds are REQUIRED for group situations since both branches of the sorc tree's are used as pure support in that regard) that have been posted throughout the forums.
The first thing to keep in mind is that these skill builds are just suggestions. If you have skills you prefer to use (with a few rare exceptions) feel free to change some of the sp around to accomodate that. The gear, however, is a little less loose in terms of how you build that. Because the sorceress class is just so weak in general, defense wise, certain things need to be done to accomodate that, mostly for DDN since for the most part your defense won't be a huge issue for the rest of the normal content.
So I'm going to start with the skill builds. Some skills are required to be accepted into group parties, but will also help improve your dps for solo players.
Elementalist Builds
So starting with the pyro, this is the build I actually use on my pyro.
dnarmory.com/skill-calc?i=3-17-35-60#qPYxCD5D5HZc--ubminP
So keep in mind, regardless of which elementalist you go with, your main role will be to keep up two layers of ice stack as frequently as you possibly can. This means you will have to know how to ice stack, as well as have the three skills that provide ice layers in your arsenal.
All this means really is that you need to max glacial spike, glacial freeze, and the ice ulti, as well as have the ice skills (can leave them at lvl 1) so that you can decrease the ice resist and increase how long your ice layers last.
Other than that, your skill build is your own I would recommend not putting SP into inferno. The damage is negligable at best, and the skill is better at creating distance in mobs and debuffing fire resist than actually doing damage. I instead put the SP into ignite which, while only hitting once or twice, hits HARD. I've seen it hit 200k a few times when criting, and the rest of the time it hits 75k-109k.
Now for Ice Witch
dnarmory.com/skill-calc?i=3-17-36-60#qPSM5NRfbs97eXbSCaTP
So this build needs a little more explaination, despite what it may seem. I'll start with why get things on the fire tree. Fire shield and hot rod are extremely good for an ice witch to get. First of all, fire shield over ice shield because ice shield does absolutely nothing to help your ice stacking (neither adding layers nor increasing your debuff) and you are better off with the burn from fire shield.
Next, hot rod is easily the better of the 32's that elementalists get. It provides better dps for both classes on the same CD. Since there is no point in getting ice shield, just don't bother getting these two. Get the fire ulti, (this plus shield provides some seriously intense SA which can be a life saver), and then just use the duel ulti system and get the ice ulti that way.
Additionally, this is why you get pheonix strike and ignite. Pheonix strike provides extremely good bursts of damage per bird and followed by ignite can be an instant mob wipe.
Now, shifting over to the ice tree, we can start with why you get ignite over shatter. Shatter breaks your layers of ice. In both group and solo play this is not something you want to do. The ice layers increase over all dps since one layer increases damage by 50% and two layers increases dps by 100%. Ignite, on the other hand, just removes the burn damage which you can recreate fairly quickly when you get an opening for it.
The only other thing that really needs explaining is not maxing ice shards. This has to do with Icy cold field. The way ICF works is that, with it's ex, it can create a layer of ice. However, this layer/debuff will be destroyed by icy shards/other ice skills if those skills are leveled as high or higher than ICF. So all other skills on the ice witch tree need to be lower than ICF.
Other than that the build is relatively self explainitory; level your skills that will make ice layers as high as you can and make sure the skills you intend to use are at either lvl 6, or lvl 11since those are the levels that skills get major damage boosts.
Mystic branch
Chaos mage
dnarmory.com/skill-calc?i=3-18-38-60#iMJe92SdD1GxV2Z.lcTP
So, regardless of which class you go with, make sure to max your mirror and tech that and max fast forward. Those are the only two skills that mystics are taken along for instead of a different dps class.
Otherwise, I would recommend getting nine tail laser just for the fact that it does extremely good dps. Otherwise, I can't say much. I still wouldn't recommend using sp in black hole or gravity crush. They are really just meant to disable mobs, not do damage.
War Mage
dnarmory.com/skill-calc?i=3-18-37-60#iPLr7DbrbMBd5.39lyTP
Again, mirror maxed and teched and max fast forward. Those are the only requirements for the class. However, spectrum ray is a great skill that war mages have and once teched reaches lvl 11 for the damage boost.
The only other thing I suggest is getting comet, at either lvl 1, lvl 6, or lvl 11. The reason for this is that comet breaks most SA, which is extremely useful, and lvl 6 increases the aoe of the skill. Any higher than that and you should just bump it to lvl 11, and at that point you are really just choosing between orbs and comet. Again, I just prefer orbs. You could also put sp into both time dodge and gravity spark, but its not really going to do much for you unless you are going to pvp as well.
Gear Builds
So I'll be putting up two seperate links here. The first is going to be for non raid, group and solo gear. This is for people who aren't particularly interested in doing the raids like DDN (it will be the hardest raid I have heard and so far is unsoloable, even in the memorials, but shhhh rumors).
04zone.com/dnsea/953090506
So the way this is set up is there are two sets of gear for each class. There is the more easily affordable, non raid, easy to obtain set. The second set requires some raiding of GDN, but no worries, that's super easy now so you shouldn't have a problem outside of finding a party to raid with ^-^
Class orders in gear simulator:
Smasher = War Mage
Majesty = Chaos Mage
Elestra= Ice Witch
Seleana= Pyromancer
I would suggest running your mouse over each piece of armor to see how it's suffixed, but the general rule is int/will suffix or int/sturdy or LG if you are an ele since shield provides a LOT of SA making will not nearly as useful to them.
The gear simulator is great for most things, however, it doesn't let me tell you that most sorces are going to need 2-3 sets of weapons. Yup, you heard me. Multiple sets of weapons, PARTICULARLY if you want to solo a lot.
Now, you saw the usual set up in the simulator. For all classes but war mage it's double int. However, if you intend to solo, get yourself a set of life giving weapons. Why, you ask? Because life giving weapons are very useful, where life giving armor is not. The double life giving weapons gives you hp most of the time, each YOU hit a monster, not when the monster hits you. Therefor, it makes soloing both nests and the abyss dungeons many times easier since, when you are low on hp, you can just switch out your weapons for a few minutes, throw down some poison, watch your hp go back up, and then switch back to your usual weapons.
Now, this second piece of advice is more for eles. I would recommend in addition to getting the life giving weapons set, that you get a vigor (spirited)/adorned set to switch into so that you can gain most of your mp back in a few minutes without having to buy a lot of pots. In addition, you will be able to keep your shields up pretty much all the time.
And to be honest, I actually don't want to go recreate those builds 4 more times, so for your raid gear, I'm just going to tell you this: change your body and legs from into to vit for boost of hp and defense. For the greatest boosts, use the advised lgrade sets for this. It'll boost your damage and your vit.
Now, as for skill crests.
Pyro:
glacial freeze: freeze duration
Hotrod: dmg
fire shield: mp reduction
Magma ball: dmg
Ice Witch:
glacial freeze: freeze duration
ICF: dmg
hotrod: dmg
fire shield: mp reduction
Chaos Mage:
Triple Orbs: Dmg
Nine Tail Laser
Mirror CD or Teleport: CD
Comet: Dmg
War Mage:
Nine Tail Laser: Dmg
Laser Cutter: Dmg
Spectrum Ray: Dmg
Mirror: CD
To keep the size of this thread down, I'll be using the gear simulator and DNArmory for generic builds (keep in mind that only certain things in these builds are REQUIRED for group situations since both branches of the sorc tree's are used as pure support in that regard) that have been posted throughout the forums.
The first thing to keep in mind is that these skill builds are just suggestions. If you have skills you prefer to use (with a few rare exceptions) feel free to change some of the sp around to accomodate that. The gear, however, is a little less loose in terms of how you build that. Because the sorceress class is just so weak in general, defense wise, certain things need to be done to accomodate that, mostly for DDN since for the most part your defense won't be a huge issue for the rest of the normal content.
So I'm going to start with the skill builds. Some skills are required to be accepted into group parties, but will also help improve your dps for solo players.
Elementalist Builds
So starting with the pyro, this is the build I actually use on my pyro.
dnarmory.com/skill-calc?i=3-17-35-60#qPYxCD5D5HZc--ubminP
So keep in mind, regardless of which elementalist you go with, your main role will be to keep up two layers of ice stack as frequently as you possibly can. This means you will have to know how to ice stack, as well as have the three skills that provide ice layers in your arsenal.
All this means really is that you need to max glacial spike, glacial freeze, and the ice ulti, as well as have the ice skills (can leave them at lvl 1) so that you can decrease the ice resist and increase how long your ice layers last.
Other than that, your skill build is your own I would recommend not putting SP into inferno. The damage is negligable at best, and the skill is better at creating distance in mobs and debuffing fire resist than actually doing damage. I instead put the SP into ignite which, while only hitting once or twice, hits HARD. I've seen it hit 200k a few times when criting, and the rest of the time it hits 75k-109k.
Now for Ice Witch
dnarmory.com/skill-calc?i=3-17-36-60#qPSM5NRfbs97eXbSCaTP
So this build needs a little more explaination, despite what it may seem. I'll start with why get things on the fire tree. Fire shield and hot rod are extremely good for an ice witch to get. First of all, fire shield over ice shield because ice shield does absolutely nothing to help your ice stacking (neither adding layers nor increasing your debuff) and you are better off with the burn from fire shield.
Next, hot rod is easily the better of the 32's that elementalists get. It provides better dps for both classes on the same CD. Since there is no point in getting ice shield, just don't bother getting these two. Get the fire ulti, (this plus shield provides some seriously intense SA which can be a life saver), and then just use the duel ulti system and get the ice ulti that way.
Additionally, this is why you get pheonix strike and ignite. Pheonix strike provides extremely good bursts of damage per bird and followed by ignite can be an instant mob wipe.
Now, shifting over to the ice tree, we can start with why you get ignite over shatter. Shatter breaks your layers of ice. In both group and solo play this is not something you want to do. The ice layers increase over all dps since one layer increases damage by 50% and two layers increases dps by 100%. Ignite, on the other hand, just removes the burn damage which you can recreate fairly quickly when you get an opening for it.
The only other thing that really needs explaining is not maxing ice shards. This has to do with Icy cold field. The way ICF works is that, with it's ex, it can create a layer of ice. However, this layer/debuff will be destroyed by icy shards/other ice skills if those skills are leveled as high or higher than ICF. So all other skills on the ice witch tree need to be lower than ICF.
Other than that the build is relatively self explainitory; level your skills that will make ice layers as high as you can and make sure the skills you intend to use are at either lvl 6, or lvl 11since those are the levels that skills get major damage boosts.
Mystic branch
Chaos mage
dnarmory.com/skill-calc?i=3-18-38-60#iMJe92SdD1GxV2Z.lcTP
So, regardless of which class you go with, make sure to max your mirror and tech that and max fast forward. Those are the only two skills that mystics are taken along for instead of a different dps class.
Otherwise, I would recommend getting nine tail laser just for the fact that it does extremely good dps. Otherwise, I can't say much. I still wouldn't recommend using sp in black hole or gravity crush. They are really just meant to disable mobs, not do damage.
War Mage
dnarmory.com/skill-calc?i=3-18-37-60#iPLr7DbrbMBd5.39lyTP
Again, mirror maxed and teched and max fast forward. Those are the only requirements for the class. However, spectrum ray is a great skill that war mages have and once teched reaches lvl 11 for the damage boost.
The only other thing I suggest is getting comet, at either lvl 1, lvl 6, or lvl 11. The reason for this is that comet breaks most SA, which is extremely useful, and lvl 6 increases the aoe of the skill. Any higher than that and you should just bump it to lvl 11, and at that point you are really just choosing between orbs and comet. Again, I just prefer orbs. You could also put sp into both time dodge and gravity spark, but its not really going to do much for you unless you are going to pvp as well.
Gear Builds
So I'll be putting up two seperate links here. The first is going to be for non raid, group and solo gear. This is for people who aren't particularly interested in doing the raids like DDN (it will be the hardest raid I have heard and so far is unsoloable, even in the memorials, but shhhh rumors).
04zone.com/dnsea/953090506
So the way this is set up is there are two sets of gear for each class. There is the more easily affordable, non raid, easy to obtain set. The second set requires some raiding of GDN, but no worries, that's super easy now so you shouldn't have a problem outside of finding a party to raid with ^-^
Class orders in gear simulator:
Smasher = War Mage
Majesty = Chaos Mage
Elestra= Ice Witch
Seleana= Pyromancer
I would suggest running your mouse over each piece of armor to see how it's suffixed, but the general rule is int/will suffix or int/sturdy or LG if you are an ele since shield provides a LOT of SA making will not nearly as useful to them.
The gear simulator is great for most things, however, it doesn't let me tell you that most sorces are going to need 2-3 sets of weapons. Yup, you heard me. Multiple sets of weapons, PARTICULARLY if you want to solo a lot.
Now, you saw the usual set up in the simulator. For all classes but war mage it's double int. However, if you intend to solo, get yourself a set of life giving weapons. Why, you ask? Because life giving weapons are very useful, where life giving armor is not. The double life giving weapons gives you hp most of the time, each YOU hit a monster, not when the monster hits you. Therefor, it makes soloing both nests and the abyss dungeons many times easier since, when you are low on hp, you can just switch out your weapons for a few minutes, throw down some poison, watch your hp go back up, and then switch back to your usual weapons.
Now, this second piece of advice is more for eles. I would recommend in addition to getting the life giving weapons set, that you get a vigor (spirited)/adorned set to switch into so that you can gain most of your mp back in a few minutes without having to buy a lot of pots. In addition, you will be able to keep your shields up pretty much all the time.
And to be honest, I actually don't want to go recreate those builds 4 more times, so for your raid gear, I'm just going to tell you this: change your body and legs from into to vit for boost of hp and defense. For the greatest boosts, use the advised lgrade sets for this. It'll boost your damage and your vit.
Now, as for skill crests.
Pyro:
glacial freeze: freeze duration
Hotrod: dmg
fire shield: mp reduction
Magma ball: dmg
Ice Witch:
glacial freeze: freeze duration
ICF: dmg
hotrod: dmg
fire shield: mp reduction
Chaos Mage:
Triple Orbs: Dmg
Nine Tail Laser
Mirror CD or Teleport: CD
Comet: Dmg
War Mage:
Nine Tail Laser: Dmg
Laser Cutter: Dmg
Spectrum Ray: Dmg
Mirror: CD