In this final section, I answer some sorceress questions that I have seen asked quite often in public chat channels and discussion forums. These sorts of questions are partly what led me to write this guide in the first place. The reason why my answers here are so short is because the reasoning used in giving the answers has already been sussed out in the many pages above.
What spells should I get?
There are many different kinds of sorcs you can create. Thus, there is no single right answer to this question. The safest and most practical skill plans involve at least one offensive cold spell, which is used for slowing down the monsters. As you become more skilled at playing the sorc class, you might try to forego Cold and get instead only Fire and Lightning. You can even try do without skills that are usually considered necessary, such as Warmth and Teleport. As for specific recommendations, read the Skills section to get an idea of what the different spells do, what their pros and cons are, etc.
Should I hoard my skill points and wait for a great level 30 spell?
This strategy may work well for some other classes, such as an amazon waiting for the Valkyrie skill, but you will always have a good place to invest your skill points until you start to specialize (in which case, there will no longer be a question of where and when to invest). You want to have SF with a decent radius. You can always use faster mana regen, so Warmth is always an option. Getting a strong ES is a good idea too. Among these three skills alone, you will always have a good place to invest a skill point if there is any question of where it should go, to say nothing of the points you need to spend in prerequisites to get the higher-level skills you will want when they finally become available. You can hoard your points, but certainly there is not any need to do this, and you run the risk of having a very weak sorc in the meantime. The only reason why you would consider such a strategy is if you already had in mind well in advance which high-level spell(s) you want and you think you can survive until then.
Is it better to have one spell at level 20 or two spells at level 10?
You are probably asking this question because you have two spells in mind that you use often and you want to know whether to (a) invest heavily in one first before turning your attention to the other, or (b) invest into both equally. This is not so simple a question to answer. You should not simply do the damage math for (a) and (b) and go with the results. The reason is that some spells do not just deal damage, but have functional aspects as well. Your cold spells at high levels can do pretty good damage, but monsters are slowed by them no matter how many points you invest, and the slowing effect is, after all, why you like cold so much. Since you are likely to be using cold spells quite often, I would recommend putting enough points into your favorite monster slowing spell so that the monsters are slowed for a useful enough duration. Once you can keep the monsters slowed for long enough, you are free to invest heavily in whatever spell(s) you use to deal your main damage. If the cold spell that you use to slow the monsters is also your main damage dealer, then there is no question of which spell to invest further points into. If you are not using cold spells, then what you need to do is make a prediction regarding which of the two damage-dealing spells in question you will be using more than the other. If there is one that is used more frequently, then that is the one to specialize in. If you use both spells equally as often, then barring other factors, specialize in the one that would be dealing the most damage. If that spell also happens to have a higher mana cost than its alternative, do not worry about that, since mana regen is always something you can address later.
How many skill points should I have in Warmth?
Read the sections on Skills, Mana Regeneration, and Combat. Yes, answering the question is that complicated.
How many +skills items should I get?
Considering how important skills are to a sorc, the benefit of +skills items can be tremendous. But you do not need these items in order to build a powerful sorc, so I recommend making sure that your needs are covered before trying to stock up on +skills items. Do you have good resistances? Do you have enough HP to survive? Do you have enough mana for the spells you use? These are some of the issues that you need to take into account before blindly rushing to get skill bonuses. A good rare helm can be better for you than Tarnhelm, depending on your circumstances. In any case, getting at least an additional +2 or +3 skills is a very good thing, even if only to boost skills that have diminishing returns after a certain point. This would save you skill points that would be better spent elsewhere, such as investing in a primary damage spell. The only item that is uncontroversial, in terms of +skills issues, is a staff. The main purpose of a staff is to boost skill points, so clearly, a staff user would want to end up with a staff that gives +2 to all skills, not just +1. To learn more about the value of +skills items, go to the Skills section.
What is the best staff?
Usually, it is a rare staff that gives +2 to all skills, an additional +3 to your favorite spell(s), and has useful modifiers such as improved spell casting rate. (See the Items section to find out what kinds of properties you can expect to find on staves.) If you want to carry a staff, do not despair if the staves you find in Normal difficulty seem a bit weak. The best staves do not start appearing until Nightmare difficulty.
What is the best weapon/shield combo?
This question probably does not have a definite answer. Sigon's Shield is great until you get to Hell difficulty, where you will probably need a diamond shield to make up for the resistance penalty. Either shield is fine with any one-hand weapon, so I will not bother to consider specific combinations of these items. The question then reduces to: What is the best weapon? For an answer to that question, read the Items section.
When should I make the transition from using a staff to using a weapon/shield combo?
This can depend on many things. If you find yourself taking too many hits from the monsters, then you may be forced to go to weapon/shield very early. Many people just like the extra defense anyway, which is fine. If you can keep your staff, the advantage is that you can buy staves that beef up the spells that you like. The idea would be to get a staff that gives +2 to all skills and an additional +3 to your offensive spells. This could make your spells much more powerful so that you can kill the monsters faster. Since a dead monster cannot attack you, some people reason that the best defense is a good offense. If you are intent on eventually switching away from a staff, one strategy is to keep your staff until you find a sword and/or shield that you really like, and then make the transition. Another strategy is to wait until you no longer have a need for the Fire Bolt spell on your initial staff, and just get rid of the staff then. But there is no one right answer to this question. There are plenty of high-level sorcs out there who use only staves. Rare staves can have loads of magical properties on them, making them quite attractive.
Should I get a gemmed helm?
Probably. Since mana regen is one of your biggest concerns early on, a skull or sapphire helm will help out a lot. There will not be a lot of great headgear to wear anyway until you start finding good rares at around level 30 or so. Once you start finding high-quality rares and uniques, you will need to decide for yourself whether you want to ditch the gemmed helm. You probably will, once you find something nice enough to replace it. In the meantime, a gemmed helm is very useful.
Which is better: Heavenly Garb, Goldskin or Silks of the Victor?
Of these three, Silks is usually the least valuable. It requires 100 STR, which is quite a bit for a sorc. You would likely have to use up stat points on STR, when they could have been used elsewhere. The +1 skills bonus would be less noticeable the higher the level of your sorc, because of skill point investments. The only exception to this generally negative appraisal is if you have decided to build a sorc who uses many +skills bonuses in order to get certain spells well past the 20-point investment limit. But keep in mind that you will never need spells that powerful in order to beat the game.
Garb does +25% mana regen, gives +10% to all resistances, and requires only 41 STR. If you plan to use a shield, then you will likely be getting more than 41 STR. If you are not getting a shield, or if you can get one with a reduced STR requirement, then using Garb would allow you to save stat points, which can be valuable. The main bonus on Garb is the +25% mana regen. This is very good if you badly need improved mana regen abilities. But for many sorcs, the +25% mana regen and the +10% resistance will not be missed very much at higher char levels, as the overall quality of your other items improves and you have larger amounts of mana.
Goldskin gives +30% to all resistances, but requires 80 STR and is "heavy" armor. It is hard to find an item, outside of a diamond shield, that will give you the excellent resistances that Goldskin can. The 80 STR is high for a sorc, but since many players get as much as 75 STR anyway in order to use a tower shield, the 80 STR needed for Goldskin is less of a problem than it might at first seem. The real drawback to Goldskin is the stamina drain because of its relative heaviness. To deal with this problem, you either have to use Teleport more often than you might otherwise, or else you want to get boots that affect stamina (such as Vidala's) or stamina drain (such as Treads).
It seems to me that good rare armor is usually more useful than Silks or Garb. Good rare armor might possibly be chosen over Goldskin as well, but if it were, it would be mainly because the rare armor offered something like a high +HP bonus and a few weaker resistances, while being much lighter than Goldskin. In fact, this is one of the best outcomes you can have when you imbue mage plate. Letting Goldskin be your "gold standard", try to obtain rare armor that can beat its overall usefulness.
Which is better: Frostburn or Magefist?
As usual, the answer to such a question is: it depends. For a sorc, the primary advantage of Frosties is that it gives a massive increase to her max mana. This in turn gives a proportional increase to her mana regen rate. It is fairly common for a sorc to be able to reach at least 500 max mana when starting out Hell difficulty. Adding Frosties would immediately boost this to 700. Such a large difference can be used to support frequent use of mana-hungry spells such as FO and Hydra. But if your battles are not especially mana-intensive, then all that extra mana would not be needed.
Magefist offers increased spell casting speed, +1 to Fire skills, and +25% to your mana regen abilities. Basically, what this item gives you is +3 to Warmth and +1 to the other Fire skills that you use. While the overall mana regen ability of Magefist is not as good as what you would get with Frosties over the long run, it is still very useful. If you are specializing in the Fire tree, then Magefist is probably the better of the two gloves, since it also adds to the potency of those spells while increasing the rate at which you can cast them. These two factors usually outweigh the somewhat stronger mana regen ability of Frosties.
It is not so easy to decide between these two pairs of gloves if you are not specializing in the Fire tree. Some people will outright choose Magefist simply because of the casting rate bonus. But if your spell use requires massive amounts of mana, then you need to have mana in the first place before worrying about how quickly you can drain it all. Mana-hungry spells tend to favor the use of Frosties. Spells that are cheaper to cast tend to favor the use of Magefist. One thing to keep in mind if you are playing in large multi-player games is that SF will often be doing much of the work. Since that spell is quite cheap, and casting it more quickly is obviously to your advantage, Magefist would be the better choice. If you are playing in games with few players, then Frosties will allow you to clear areas fairly quickly, simply through the brute force method of casting a lot of powerful spells in quick bursts.
How much mana should I have?
There is no way to really know how much mana you will be needing because it depends on things like how efficient you are when doing damage with your spells, which spells you use, what your mana regen rate is, and so on. In any case, here is one rough guideline (there may be others), in case you have not yet decided what you will be using for your primary offensive spells: Act4/Normal difficulty = 250+ max mana, Act4/Nightmare = 500+, Act4/Hell = 750+.
How much HP should I have?
There is no way to know how much HP you will be needing, because it depends on things like how good you are at avoiding hits, whether or not you are using ES, how much damage the monsters can inflict, and so on. In any case, here is one rough guideline (there may be others): Act4/Normal difficulty = 100+ HP, Act4/Nightmare = 200+ HP, Act4/Hell = as much as 300 HP, and the more the better.
Is it possible to build a melee sorc?
Yes. To find out more, read my Melee Sorc Guide.
This section was last modified: October 16, 2000.
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