Elelar, Ultimative Melee Sorceress - XVc Updates in Progress

sastasior wrote:TSW at lvl 112 and i just give up on this build.its fun to play on med game play but its take so dam long to collect all needed item.

What are you having issues with? I'm 106 in XVc, just hit A5, have everything but a weapon (chest isn't ceremonial or banded, but it will work), haven't bothered to actually upgrade any of my gear in ages (so still using TUs instead of the recommended RWs), and I'm not having any problems. If you're stuck at a certain part let me know what your hangup is.

ok so i hit some how lvl 120 and stop for while this char ( amazon fresh  for now)
I dont say this guide is bad its awsome. I got tree oh let say two issues
-Mana ermm i lost to much i dont know how refill it fast
-For my its alot laggy evry monster its just freeze for while screan to lol then i die
its not my PC maby the settings .
Gear what i use
-Warp Blade T6
-Cauldron
-Comaetho
-Crafted gloves
-Honorofic Boots
-Sash Truce
-Shield Cauldron eh mf% i hope its not broke
So im still serch for any kinda warp blade to make RW its just dont drop dohhhh.

1)  I've noticed my game lagging more with XVc compared to XIV in SP as well, so maybe that just has to do with the patch?  
2)  Don't forget that you can use a sacred Crystal Sword over the T6 Warp Blade.  You lose the AoE effect, but it will be a decent upgrade until you find a sacred Warp Blade.  My first sorc had to use a CS as she didn't find a WB until after being 120 for awhile as well, and the sacred CS was an upgrade over a T6 WB.
3)  Try farming Terror Dunc as sacreds have a higher chance of dropping in there (Dest Dunc is likely out of reach unless you've eaten a lot of skill point cookies).
4)  Truce is a damage reduction belt, so if you want to try for more damage see about rerolling/crafting a CtC disintegrate belt (up to you if you think you can sacrifice some survival for more damage).
5)  For mana try crafting Nih and On jewels.  I prefer primarily using Nih runes with only a few On ones but some people prefer On.  The nice thing about Nih is that they're still effective even on bosses, while On is really only effective if your AoE is killing the majority of enemies (the math comes out that in order for On to restore more hp/mp than Nih you have to kill three enemies for every one melee attack).  Also things that give "X% damage take goes to mana" help out a ton.  Witchmoon Amulet is an easy way to get this, but if you get lucky and find an SSU kiteshield it has it too (and is one of the best general purpose shields for the build).

EDIT: Oh and in regards to crafting jewels, make sure you're using ilvl99 ones and that you don't craft the same one more than 5 times. I don't think you can see ilvl on the servers, so first take your jewels to the Dest A2 dragon and reroll all of them once in order to set their ilvl to 99. From there you can craft them, but after 5 rolls don't use that jewel anymore for crafting (the ilvl drops so you won't get as good of bonuses). And when you keep jewels you want them to have higher end crafted bonuses (+6-8 hp/mp on striking in melee for Nih or +3-4 hp/mp on kill for On; with you being more concerned with the mp portion since you are more concerned about your mana).

I like The Banner of Duncraig on melee sorcs. With her wicked fast attack rate (with warped blades) Fortress will proc a lot.

grimjerk wrote:I like The Banner of Duncraig on melee sorcs. With her wicked fast attack rate (with warped blades) Fortress will proc a lot.

This is an excellent shield at lower levels and my lvl116 sorc is currently using a TU3 version of it (I've been lazy and haven't bothered to upgrade it while also not having an On rune to make the RW shield). Once you hit 100+ I prefer the RW given all of the bonuses it gives.

Really at lower lvls you can make almost any of the TUs work so long as you keep your weapon and chest upgraded (my sorc's current gear is kinda appalling since I want to see what I can get away with using). The main area where I think she struggles is the 80-90 range where you don't have your uberskill yet and the TUs are starting to show their age. But Baneblade gives these items a new lease on life until you can start getting into RWs and SUs.

Banner is awesome even endgame with any non starhawk setup until you get one of the better SSUs. I'm currently a fan of dryhten ealdor with atanna khan, but thats maybe the hipster in me talking.

Ignoring certain fights where you need heavy physical damage (kabraxis earth stone, certain yshari bosses, etc) I find the cookie cutter Starhawk+AotOR to be better. When doing a physical damage build I prefer Steel Punisher over Dryhten Ealdor with Attanna Khan. This gives you a good amount of LL and if stacked with other LL/LOSIM items can be very effective for certain tasks. But generally speaking I found Starhawk+AotOR the way to go.

In regards to Banner in endgame, it is going to depend on your other stats/gear. Starting off you're going to be short on str and survivability. The Wall of Fire gives a good chunk of str and survivability (especially if you properly reroll the base item, cube it with orbs, and then reroll the actual RW until it gets higher end bonuses) while still giving +1 to all skills. Now if you have other upgrades and charms but are lacking in damage you could use the Banner. One just needs to understand what they're sacrificing for that damage.

Skills – Before XV there wasn't much to talk about here, you used Bladestorm while occasionally buffing with Moonstrike and that was about it (throw in the Fire Dance if you went fire).  Given all the new skills and all the spell timers I figured it was time to add in something.  Note that unmentioned elemental spells can't be used while Baneblade is active and are highly situational (recovering a corpse, anti-melee enemy, etc).

Melee:
Moonstrike – This buffs both your damage and max hp.  The higher the lvl the longer the buff lasts for and the stronger the buff.  Given the points needed to make this useful it isn't very useful at lower lvls (at lower lvls you would need to use it practically every other attack to keep the buff up), but at higher lvls is a good place to dump points.  Some like to smax it, though I prefer to find a good balance between it and Fire Dance.
Wraithsword – While this is your primary skill, you shouldn't put more than 1pt in this skill.  It does 100% physical damage, so it is good with Life Leach builds, and something to remember when dealing with a physical immune mob.
Fusillade – This is your primary timered ability.  The more points you put into it the lower the timer goes, but also the lower the search range for enemies.  This is important because it is also your only ranged skill that you can use while under the effects of Baneblade.  Shoot for a timer around 8-9 seconds as this lets it be used fairly often while still helping it to keep it useful for ranged use.  It's also good for enemies that have Thorns aura.
Sword Spirits – These are great to lvl up at lower lvls, but less useful at higher lvls (both due to more +skills gear and because of how summons work at end-game).  These things have a good chunk of hp and benefit from all your passives, but unlike Ice Elementals you don't gain an additional summon for every point (though it does still go up).  Consider balancing points in these and elementals at low lvls, but only putting 1pt in it at lvl120 (barring certain ubers where you specifically want summons).
Bladestorm – This used to be your primary skill.  Given the damage nerf it received it is pretty much relegated to dealing with physical immune mobs since Wraithsword beats it for damage.  Oh and it's another 1pt skill.

Mana:
Immersion – This skill is useful right up until you get your Warp Blade from the Gift Box.
Familiars – Good skill.  Some people prefer to leave this at 1-5 and put points elsewhere, I prefer to put it up to 20 as this works for both hard point bonuses.  It also gives a larger total bonus than what it takes if you were to evenly pull the points out of other important skills (+6 all skills at the cost of 19 additional points).
Arcane Torrent – Pointless skill for a melee sorc.  Only put a point here if you're going further down the tree.
Mana Sweep – Great skill for those hurting for mana right up until lvl90.  Once you hit lvl90 this skill becomes useless for 99% of the melee sorcs out there.  Why?  Because you can't use the spell while Baneblade is active.  For the 1% or less that take something other than Baneblade you can keep using this skill.  For everyone else, there's no real reason in putting even 1pt in this once you respec at 90 (or higher if you're lazy).  Oh and this is timered, so unless you put enough points into it to remove the timer, it will be competing with other timered skills.
Antimass – This skill can be useful up till lvl90, but once you get your moon cookies there's no real point in using this skill; especially since your mana will be pretty low which means it heals for less.  As this is another timered skill you could find it unavailable when you truly need it due to using Mana Sweep/Fusillade/etc earlier.  On the bright side, this is usable even when Baneblade is active.

Fire:  This tree is about life bonuses and increasing your damage.
Living Flame – This skill gives life regen, an hp increase, and is crap at low lvls but awesome at high lvls.  Well not crap, but it doesn't stack up to other trees at low lvls combined with increasing gains skills being balanced around putting a lot of points into them, something you just can't do at low lvls.  Once you can put a lot of points into it the skill becomes insanely useful.
Fire Dance – This skill increases both your physical and elemental damage, but is a timered ability.  The more points you put into it the lower the timer goes.  This and Fusillade generally compete for clearing trash mobs, but generally you can drop this followed by a Fusillade when clearing larger groups (and should always drop this during boss fights).  Consider putting 10-15pts into it at higher lvls for the lower CD, though lower pts can work too.

Ice:  This tree specializes in survivability via flat armor bonuses, damage reduction, minions, and a bit of an hp increase.
Snow Queen – Great skill at low lvls and still useful at high lvls.  At low lvls it gives you great armor increases and synergizes with Warp Armor well if you pick up that skill; while at those higher lvls the hp boost is nice even after your armor outscales the armor buff.  Though that armor buff can still be useful when trying to recover a body.
Ice Elementals – I love these guys at low lvls.  First off they provide a good distraction to the enemy.  They also increase your armor by 3/2 (1.5 for those that don't know fractions, dunno why the game lists it as a fraction) while reducing damage you take by 25%.  You can also have up to 25 of these guys and you gain one per point until you hit the cap.  At higher lvls they are rather fragile though (unlike the sword summons).  Still useful for places like Toraja where you want summons, but to take advantage of them you're going to want items that increase their life and resistances.

Lightning:  This tree is primarily about survivability via TCD and avoidance, with a bit of energy increasing (which affects both mana and the damage of certain spells).
Warp Armor – This is perfect for melee sorceresses.  For every 2pts you gain 1% dodge, with it coming with a base 5% dodge.  It also increases your total character defense.  All around this is just a good skill that synergizes well with the spec and also with ice.
Nova Charge – Another skill that seems built for the melee sorc.  It adds 25% of your base dex (so the hard points) to your energy.  This in turn helps the mana problems and increases the damage of your spells (to include various CtC spells from gear) when you need to cast them (recovering your corpse, anti-melee enemies, etc).  This energy boost also self synergizes with Nova Charge's damage.

Poison:  Similar to the Fire tree, Poison is about increasing your HP and damage; but through different means.
Vengeful Power – This crushes your enemy (crushing blow), increases spell damage, and increases your max hp when you get hit.  It can be useful when you get a Starhawk since it does so much  elemental damage, but overall it's a bit lacking for the melee sorc compared to other passives.
Hive – Increases your energy by 25% of your vitality hard points.  Useful if you're dumping stat points into vitality, but generally the spec doesn't stack points in vit.  The poison damage can be nice, but like Vengeful Power, it doesn't really stack up compared to the useful active skills of other elements in my opinion.

Uberskills:
Baneblade – This is the melee sorceress uber.  It increases your damage, LOSIM, TCD, block chance, and velocity (velocity is your base movement speed prior to any “increased movement speed” buffs) at the cost of not being able to use spells (all previously mentioned elemental spells fall under the “buff” or “summon” categories and can be cast while Baneblade is active).  Some people at high end might prefer to take a different uber, but this is the primary uber for the melee sorc.
Witchblood – Increases your elemental damage when above 90% hp and gives life per kill.  First off this skill only really synergizes with Starhawk since your abilities don't naturally do elementa damage.  Secondly you will regularly go below 90% hp since you're in melee range of your enemy.  Not exactly a good choice for the melee sorceress but it gives you a bit of flexibility since it doesn't lock you out of spells like Baneblade
Chronofield – Reduces all speeds (movement/attack/cast) of the enemy caught in the field.  This can use a decent amount of mana for a spec generally low on mana, but it doesn't lock out of spells, has a decent duration, and has a pretty large radius (radius seems to be ~1.5 screens).  Thus you can use Mana Sweep to help offset the drain.  And since it lowers the enemy's attack and cast speed it helps with your survivability, though you don't gain any LOSIM or LAEK like the other ubers.

Challenge Skills:
Symbol of Esu – Moon Cookies.  These things were nerfed in XV to not heal as much hp/mp, but they are still awesome as they instantly heal it (unlike potions).  You only really need to put one point into them and then fill up 2-3 of your rows with them.  First row for me is always health pots since it cures poison and moon cookies don't, followed by two rows of cookies and the fourth row a utility potion (full rejuv, elixir, etc) for whatever I'm doing.
Force Blast – This skill greatly lowers enemy damage and has hard point bonuses for lowering enemy casting, but it is a massive mana hog to cast and it fires in a cone in front of you.  Oh and it can't be cast while Baneblade is active even though it debuffs the enemy and does no damage.  If you go Baneblade there's no real point in picking this up, but for those that don't go Baneblade you can use it followed by Mana Sweep to offset the large cost.

Skill Summary:  You will notice that there's two elemental survivability trees and two damage trees.  Starting off I prefer to go surv/surv, but as I get better gear I prefer to switch out a survivability tree for a damage one (I switch ice for fire).  It is all about balancing your damage and survivability since you don't want to take forever to clear areas, but yet you do zero dps as a corpse on the ground.

aknazer wrote:1.5 for those that don't know fractions, dunno why the game lists it as a fraction

My guess is to prevent confusion and keep people from thinking that it just adds 150% to their ED. Fractional modifiers are taken at the end of formulas.

A cookie for taking the time to update you guide.

XVc - Infernal Machine video added. Unlimited spawning enemies is possible in meh gear as a melee class!