Blizzard vs Orb Sorceress... Which one is better for Diablo 2 Resurrected (D2R)?

The age-old debate... Which version of the Cold Sorc is the best for early magic find runs!? You may be surprised to discover, that it depends much more on YOU! In this video, we talk about the different areas you can farm with a cold sorc and touch upon what the strengths and weaknesses of each version are.
Intro - 0:00
Farming Areas - 0:45
No Realm Down? - 1:06
Key Points - 1:40
Blizz Sorc Stats - 2:36
Blizzard Skill Tree - 3:09
Static Field & Frozen Armor - 5:12
Gear - 6:54
Mephisto Run & Moat Trick - 8:27
Mercenary - 9:21
Farming Chaos Sanctuary & Pindle - 9:46
Orb Sorc Stats & Advantage - 11:18
Skills - 12:24
Fire Wall / Orb - 12:54
Our D2R Build! - 13:54
Findings - 15:27
Twitch.tv/Coooley
Twitter @Coooley
After you get through the game with one of the sorc builds MrLlamaSC or DBrunski125 offers, you may want to diversify your experience! In that case, this is the perfect look into both types of cold sorcs. This ain't no MeteOrb or FireOrb Sorc guide. Not even Nova Orb! We use cold spells are our main attack; so we have to keep that in mind with this char. ES (Energy Shield) or Firewall are amazing choices for Orb!

[@KeinuSulttaani]

Random hot tip for frozen orb specifically if you want to make andy die faster from frozen orb. When she walks towards you, wait till she is quite close to you, cast frozen orb, wait till the orb is on top of her, then tele to her opposite side, so she will now turn around and continue walking towards you that direction but now the frozen orb is travelling with her on top of her and dealing max dmg the rest of the way.

[@TheAbstracTSniper]

That's a top tier strat my guy thanks!

[@user-cf5rr3lv6u]

Only firewall for Andy, no problem))

[@sepg5084]

@@user-cf5rr3lv6u yeah, i still use orb-wall after the latest patch.

[@VerninTheRat]

nice...thanks for the info

[@smy202]

I have to disagree with the static. You can cast a blizzard and then static a boss while Blizz is raining down and kill it way faster. Also against cold immune elites its very handy to tele to them and static while your merc beats them down too.

[@joocebocks8610]

I fully agree with your disagreement. I don't get why so many people neglect the fact that Static doesn't share a cooldown with skills like Blizzard or Firewall, making it an optimal filler skill against bosses, at least to spam between the first and second cast. Blizzard -> spam Static for half health, then a rotation of Blizzard -> spam Ice Blast -> Blizzard -> spam Ice Blast until dead will always be faster than a rotation without Static, unless your damage is high enough that you're killing the boss with 1-2 casts of Blizzard anyway without the added support. Nothing in the game increases boss kill times faster for a single point investment than Static, especially when on an early ladder budget farming build.

[@millerl0l71]

@@joocebocks8610 HE LITERALLY SAID THAT HE THINKS THAT TOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! " CAST BLIZZARD THEN CAST STATIC WHILE ITS RAINING DOWN " OPEN YOUR FUCKING EYES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@mrt6349]

@@millerl0l71 Angry much.

[@Adamn19]

@@joocebocks8610 cuz they’re bad at the game

[@ScrimshawAutomotive]

@@millerl0l71 He said he agreed with his disagreement, not that he fully disagrees. Perhaps you should take your own advice lol

[@Chonus]

frozen armor kinda helps those times when u accidentally tele into a mob

[@ragnazz136]

Frozen armor is a must

[@playortry999]

@@flyneco22 yah, if you've got the pre-reqs anyway, id say go shiver armor all day. The defense % bonus is really nice. ESP for hardcore players

[@victoriancu5661]

No, max block helps you when you tele into a mob, thats why I use rhyme with tower sheild. Vita stacking on a sorc is the mehest of meh.

[@Chonus]

@@victoriancu5661 I don't play hardcore, how much dex you gotta use, and how much fhr do u need so you don't stuck in the block animation?

[@BengaIaas]

@@victoriancu5661 wouldn't a Ko-Ko-Mal be better for that? Edit: or are we talking about a budget build?

[@KingJerbear]

Static field is one of the strongest skills in the game. It does lose some value in late game and hell difficulty, but for cold immunes and even bosses it's a no-brainer for me.

[@frostfire5208]

Agreed, as long as they aren't 100% immune static to open is really a lot.

[@Matthew-zs8nm]

Infinity merc makes static broken again.

[@Matthew-zs8nm]

@@DrAsmodis1 no, the sorc just needs warmth .. lol.. you don't have to multi tree when you are running infinity because lightning poops on everything... so you'll have extra points to max whichever ice armor you prefer and warmth without sacrificing too much damage... sorc only really needs insight when running energy shield and a damage to mana build

[@Matthew-zs8nm]

@@pwnmeisterage if you can get it in your budget... try infinity merc with dual dream and max out lightning mastery, you can static things down and let dream procs finish them off.. its pretty hilarious.. I've also done static/lightning novas builds in the past.. nova isn't as much damage as lightning or chain lightning.. but with static chunking everything down to a sliver, nova works well at cleaning up.. and it doesn't require as many synergy points as lightning, so you have wiggle room for ES and it's synergies. Tho, it's been a really long time since I've played vanilla d2.. been playing on the modded private servers for a long time so I may be getting builds confused.. but pretty sure static nova ES is 1.14 viable

[@MidgardGamesTV]

Nice guide as always Coooley. I typically start orb/fire hybrid while levelling then swap to blizzard once I reach act 3 hell. Then I’ll farm Andy, ancient tunnels, meph, and Pindle until i get an elite insight for my merc. That’s when I start farming chaos with the seal glitch and it starts raining HRs

[@TheNewbSauce]

What is the seal glitch??

[@1000Chefchen]

seal glich ?

[@PeaTearGriffon]

Great video. I always put a pt in static though. I definitely see your point but I love wiping half health off bosses in a couple clicks

[@GutoCmtt]

I don't get this part of the video. Static makes it quicker to kill bosses when in MF and in parties, if you are not playing static you are not doing your part. Against bosses, I use to teleport near it, blizzard and in between the cooldown I use field until it gets to half life, then I start blasting it in between blizzard. Of course this way you are more susceptible to dying, but you have to get the feeling of it. 1 point in other skills that have sinergy to increase blizzard damage isn't nearly as relevant as having this possibility. TL;DR: there was a point in the video, but it was a bad point and wrong.

[@t0rn]

Great content man. You’ve got me chomping at the bit to play again!

[@Iffy50]

This is a really great video! You really are using stuff I could make myself with what I find. Thank you!

[@Pruflas-Watts]

This video is amazing and exactly what I needed since my first character will be a MF Cold sorc to get my Main (Fanatic Zealot) and alt (Hammerdin) ready for regular PVM and PvP play. Thank you!

[@ktown1192]

Sup bro lol

[@jakoblarsen8505]

Ecxaxtly my strategy too

[@ianjohnson7688]

One point to note. I also did realm down testing and while it doesn't lock you out of the game for 15 mins by creating 20 games in an hour it does kick you back to the login screen. Shouldn't affect players at all but will affect bots.

[@puddlesmoker1673]

True, but i'm sure some asshat will come out with an auto re-join/create game script.

[@cagelexi8954]

Amazing content! As usual 👍. Another good (Yet uncommon) hybrid orb sorc is to replace your spirit weapon with passion, get fcr rings/ammy for the 110 and put the remaining points into enchant + fire mastery to quickly zeal single targets with fire damage. 👍

[@bartomiejsobieszek432]

Orb is for lazyass players like me, who put it on left click and mindlessly spam the left shift /alt button. Blizzard requires the use of eyes which can be tiring after long session of playing the game - not recommended for standard "one more run" Diablo player. This is a build for people who have family and kids in 2021

[@blacklabel130]

to me orb i played it like a bomb if you distance well the orb it splashed all the "ice nova" on a single target, blizz was like fissure of the druid but i dont get it, the hit pattern i never got the grasp of it tho fissure i had no problem and loving it.

[@ulysse1099]

😁

[@datt5698]

I use glacial spike and blizzard with an act 2 merc. Usually enough of a buffer for most enemies!

[@Wesmin]

Not sure if its lazier, to play it optimally you pay attention and make the final orb explode perfectly inside the mob for the bonus damage.

[@bartomiejsobieszek432]

@@Wesmin It does, but it works only once. Another attempts have reduced output due to repeated source of damage

[@mattmonroemusic90]

Yo this vid is great. Appreciate the content. I would strongly argue to take static field. Here's why. It's one point and creates a huge advantage when farming bosses. Especially Andy, Diablo, and Baal. I always spam static field on bosses and then my main spells when the damage falls off. Killing bosses is way faster with static field first then using your main cold skills.

[@Battlehammer333]

Also in a party that’s literally your main purposed besides tp

[@mrosskne]

if one hit from your main spell deals more damage than one cast of static at full monster hp, static is a waste of time

[@NathanPsprague]

Getting back into D2 since 2004 because of D2R. I have been watching tons of your stuff. Thanks for the content. You got a new sub from me. I hope all you D2 content creators blow up with D2R.

[@michaelbuffington4047]

Same here!

[@Coooley]

Thanks so much, Nathan! I appreciate that.

[@Grievance87]

@@Coooley Hey bro, much time passed since I played online and you´re obviously still part of that community. So there´s one question, as I won´t get D2r - how much % of the people are leaving for the remake, and do you think there will be a server shutdown for D2/enough ppl for a stable community in the near future? Thanks

[@danielkruk8524]

That was really informative for a Guy who's played D2 YEARS ago, super casually on top of that. Thank you. New Subscriber.

[@engladtur]

What an amazing and easy to digest video! Keep them coming friend

[@leifwenzel450]

Nice video 😊 I'm not a really sorc fan, Java is my class, but your guild is on point! :)

[@JFlynn1207]

I trust your expertise, but I think I'm gonna have to put that 1-point into static shock

[@brianmcleod5474]

Yea that was the stupidest advice in the whole video

[@jordyc4593]

Mind blowing to NOT to put a point in static 🤣

[@strider1237]

That was where I disliked the video. Static is literally one of the best skills in the game for bosses. How this person came across that and thought otherwise is truly beyond me.

[@JFlynn1207]

@@strider1237 To be fair Cooley said when you're going through the game you'll likely want static. I think the point is that once you have good gear in Hell static isn't as important.

[@strider1237]

@@JFlynn1207 I understand that but I still use static in hell when fighting Diablo or Baal and than swap to Blizz or lightning depending on which build I'm using. Yes, it's not as useful because you can't go past certain life % in hell mode, but still useful to spam a couple times and swap.

[@Ascendancy-]

earned my sub. easily. i pray for more of this type of content for D2R. i love how knowledgeable you are

[@tylerharris9674]

So awesome to see my favorite D2 streamer getting so popular! Congrats @Coooley! From your FIRST subscriber Bilbomega. Looking forward to slaying some nubs in pubs in d2r :)

[@Coooley]

You just made my day, brother! That means a lot. See you in D2R!!

[@fireong6376]

Static Field is absolutely a one point-wonder and you're silly for not taking it.

[@XingCollectables]

@rick it reduces the time taken to kill immune

[@seanharris7025]

Arguably the best skill in the game

[@NOlr249]

Agreed.

[@corruptfaith6674]

Only on budget builds. Once you get geared out stuff dies to fast.

[@insaneone86]

Shocking he said that! No Frost armor either!? Then again I am still early game! 🤣

[@coreysayre1376]

I like blizzard for farming certain areas, but I actually recommend a firewall/orb sorc (or meteorb) for that first playthrough. Blizz kils what it can much more quickly, but the firewall/orb and meteorb sorceresses have much more overall utility and will make that first playthrough into end game much easier before getting some nice gear.

[@Coooley]

Firewall does insane damage, even for just splashing the rest of your points into it...

[@coreysayre1376]

@@Coooley absolutely! You can easilly get a 600dmg orb with a 10-12k firewall by mid 90s with the gear youll find along that first playthrough, its really a fantastic first char.

[@coreysayre1376]

@@Coooley Also with the warmth synergy from firewall you can use runewords like obedience to bring your merc into endgame dps on budget runes because insight mana regen wont be necessary

[@sloth210983]

@@Coooley I remember waaaaaaay back in the day OrbWall was extremely meta but then it kind of fell out of favour for Meteorb and Blizzard once synergies were introduced. I havent played an OrbWaller in close to 2 decades but can only assume it would still work.

[@lumby5335]

i am thinking about going your idea aswell. it's prolly better then fireballs.

[@Jonny-DAK]

This one got you a sub bro I appreciate it. I never played sorc back in the day, and my first toon was an hdin. But i kept finding more and more sorc gear and was like okay, ill build one. So very cool to have a direction, thanks for the info buddy. GLHF

[@SsjVipertien]

dude i gotta say i been watching you for awhile now and i must say your intro music is what i need to hear at least 10 times a day i just love it lol, keep up the vids man

[@nicholasheath2473]

my favorites are always based mostly on nostalgia, so i have to say meteorb sorc. hybrid left over points into meteor for cold immunes. mostly from classic. i still used it on Lod to this day

[@REXS0L]

the thing is that a meteorb sorc is not really a cold sorc isn't she? most of the skill points are going to the fire tree, it's a fire sorc with frozen orb for AoE

[@felyndiira]

@@REXS0L It can be. I prioritize orb over meteor and only use fire spells to deal with immunes. For everything else I use max orb and even max cold mastery. It depends on what you use primarily; orb or meteor/fireball. The thing is that orb costs so few points that you're splashing a bunch of your points in other stuff anyway, so every practical orb sorc will have either heavy investment in fire or lightning. Unless you're using those points on energy shield instead.

[@alevensalor]

I just now realized I have not taken this game seriously enough for the 20+ years I've been playing it.

[@piotrjureczka7601]

Max ES orb sorc with some Top gear and tons of facets was one of my favs pvp chars I used to have

[@branimalYT]

Hey man! Great video as always, very informative and I appreciate the content. I did however want to mention, your mic ever so slightly sounded like it was peaking a bit in this one, maybe the gain levels are a little high? Just figured I would pass that along, take care and thanks for the useful D2R content!

[@FormueFokusTV]

If you press Ctrl + click you can add 5 clicks at a time when leveling up vitality. Saves a lot of time. Trust me.

[@bryanlee6065]

Note: Please for the love of god, do not remember incorrectly and use Shift instead of Ctrl, lol

[@yorkshirelad3133]

@@bryanlee6065 🤣 that's a build killer haha

[@juxyper]

If you do this in a respec you will ruin your build because it dumps all of your points into a single stat

[@WeirdGuy4928]

It could've been useful to mention that you can try to aim the frozen orb so that the ball explodes on top of the enemy so it gets it by all the bolts. At least against bosses it can speed things up.

[@christophluger793]

I think a lot of people see the "low" dmg in the sheet, not realizing it is per spike, so exploding one on a boss does great damage.

[@kevinmarins9473]

Nice bro! What got me to Like and Subscribe was the ending, when you said that As long as you're having fun. that's what matters! Keep it up bro nice video!!!

[@DaveBrix200]

Also worth highlighting the importance of making sure Frozen Orb explodes within your target, especially versus bosses. This takes some practice to gauge the distance, but will drastically increase the kill speed.

[@PlayJAKPlays]

Love how this vid is framed as which is best for your "PlayStyle" instead of "Which is best". Love that coolie gets how "different" players really can be. P.S. I love Frozen Orb for most of my Target Farming. (Also loving it because it's cheaper Skill-Point-Wise).

[@Iggybart05]

i'm an orb sorc through and through as well! i love it

[@LoudMiller]

Generally we ran Frozen orb with fireball instead of firewall. With high cast rate and good gear + synergies you get 2k fireball damage

[@vaelisiousantorus]

thanks for your service john boi

[@SilverSkitttleTV]

I went firewall cuz of this video but respec’d to fireball recently. So much more viable

[@synthesis9957]

Nice looking forward to d2 resurrected loving your channel hope it grows keep putting out content asap this game gunna be big again

[@Creederitis]

I watched these live! Was fun.

[@Bombtrackbart]

This is Blasphemy! The Blizzard Sorc, Static Field, and Mephisto Mote Trick Community demands retractions immediately!

[@brianmcleod5474]

Agreed anyone should put 1 point in static, quickest way to kill bosses and if that's the goal 1pt in static is a necessity.

[@jordyc4593]

Lmao I was like "uhh what" it's 1 point an static from day 1 has always MELTED bosses 🤣

[@Sweetguy1821]

I use static field so my blizz sor so I can have my merc farm the countess. It just ups his killing speed by a large margin.

[@lyndonbauer1703]

I agree, I kinda like teleporting to a boss, spamming a few statics then teleporting away and finishing off with blizzard/glacial/merc to finish the kill. The speed is great.

[@Unko-Q]

yup this os the way.

[@walkinzorochi9461]

Watched a few of your vids now, you have earned my sub, also I love the music you use.

[@makidian8120]

Great research, well done bro well done.

[@TTOTheTrueOne]

I dont know if it was mentioned: If you are playing on consoles, the auto aim does not always choose the best targets for Blizzard. Sometimes you want to aim ahead, for example to let cows run into a Blizzard, but you cant here. I felt Orb easier to use.

[@wilymane7600]

ya it aims for the furthest mob in the direction youre looking. i hated it with blizzard, but got used to it. just use it as soon as an enemy comes onto the edge of your screen.

[@squintygreeneyes]

came here to comment the same. if you are playing d2r on console, orb over bliazzard 500% of the time. same with a bunch of other skills that were meant to be clicked like firewall and meteor

[@cjdig86]

The idea on console is to throw a glacial spike first to freeze the mob, then cast blizzard. It works extremely well even on console.

[@drep1119]

Switch player here and hell yes this is true, sadly 😭

[@jprec5174]

Cooley you need to make more vids because you actually know what you’re talking about. Do one on barbs next.

[@Coooley]

Funny you should mention that... haha Been collectin' some duelin' footage :p

[@Damo20]

Really helpful video, very insightful

[@jonhansen9625]

good stuff man, keep it up!

[@Valariel]

Blizzard: more damage, harder to use, longer cast delay (1.8 sec) FO: lower damage, easier to use, larger aoe, lower cast delay (1 sec), and looks way cooler (IMO) Frozen orb is my preferred choice. The one second cast delay fits well with my stutter step playstyle and it hits enemies multiple times in a short window to compensate for its lower damage. For someone like me, who has issues aiming spells perfectly, if you cast a blizzard and you miss one or two mobs, they will rush at you and you are cast delay blocked for almost two seconds. You'd almost have to TRY to miss with Frozen Orb to not hit something. Another thing I like about FO: when I'm in a poorly lit zone, it lights up the whole room. This has revealed monsters to me that I didn't know were there and allowed me to get the drop on them. It's just a fun spell and looks fantastic in D2R.

[@Xener09]

Max glacial spike and have it on your left click or a quick swap and you can freeze mobs then blizzard them. And freeze mobs that blizz misses

[@kuvy0jhm00b]

I recommend Orb early on. It's just easier to deal with unlike Blizzard that takes a bit more work i.e. positioning and skill shots. Orb you can aimlessly just throw it around until mana is burnt up an also being able to put it on the left skill slot makes its that much easier too unlike blizzard which i believe you cant and is only allowed in the right skill slot. But once one has their skill switch down i recommend blizzard just because of the damage output it gives compared to Orb which falls off in Hell.

[@JamilThePimpLol]

Personally I think blizzard is better earlier on because it has more damage without a bit investment in gear. I’ve recently switched to frozen orb, ES and my damage is considerably lower with the same amount of gear I was using for blizzard

[@rs-hf8mz]

I like running pure blizz and actually keeping static field. I put reapers toll and tal helm on merc early ladder and can clear chaos with that setup pretty easy.

[@emmanuelrivera9656]

Today I found a great Diablo content channel. I subbed. Looking forward to your future contents when D2R comes out.

[@Coooley]

Thanks, Emmanuel! Welcome, man!

[@foxsox5046]

Friggin dolls are the only reason im a frozen armor nerd.

[@slappopotamus1001]

Dolls suck really bad. I have a lvl93 sorc and if you get a nasty pack of dolls with a curse or aura, four or five hits and she's dead, even with 2200 life. They are too quick and my build does not have enough fhr to get away. I have decided to avoid them all together.

[@SkillsBeyond]

I agree with you on most parts, but not the part about frozen armour... I agree that you don't want to stay close to an enemy, but when you are teleporting you sometimes accidently get into a group of monsters and if your FHR and FCR are too low (on mid gear budget), then you will want to freeze the enemies hitting you, so you don't get into perma FHR or block animations... so i would always put a point in frozen armour and in static as well (just for immunes and a few bosses like diablo) Still a good video though, but for new players the no frozen armour will suck while doing tele in areas...

[@callmejm3073]

Well now I know wish build to use Thanks dude. 👊🏽

[@MrSteve0311]

This little budget sorc guide is awesome. Most beginner players can access this and do it. Thanks.

[@bobnewkirk7003]

I would like to see what the average time difference was between the two builds. If it takes 15 seconds longer to kill Meph, that's more than a few runs lost over a 2-3h farm. also not mentioning a wand of LR was a missed opportunity on meph, I don't run him without it.

[@xPlaguefearx]

Meph is -100 res to cold sorc, lower res does nothing.

[@bobnewkirk7003]

@@xPlaguefearx Meph in hell has +75 cold rez, lower resist 1 drops cold rez by 31(2=37, 3=41) so by using LR you can offset the value of cold mastery you need to reach the max damage (-100) on meph. Using a wand of LR1 you would need -144 to - cold rez (CM 26) with no other - rez gear (facets). Whereas without you would need CM 32 to reach max damage on Hell meph. So if you can get to -175 total rez with LR you can move points to other skill synergies and boost your damage earlier. Using LR on meph always increases your damage until you have infinity (-85%), and +14 to skills, and at that point respecing to light is better than bliz.

[@BengaIaas]

Lower Resist will always be a damage increase, but it becomes less noticeable as you get +skills and your cold mastery gets higher.

[@bobnewkirk7003]

​@@BengaIaas so while I agree with you in 99% of use cases, "always" isn't technically right. Resistance cant go below -100 even with LR, so you can hit a very niche situation where with the infintiy runeword contributing -85%, you only need CM to get up to lvl 15 to get the remaining -90 to get hell meph to -100. But like I said before, if you have infinity you are wasting your time on cold imo. If you only put the 1 point in CM to unlock the skill you hit 15 with +14 to skills which is not all that hard to get. Blizzard is a pretty cheap build in that you really only require 80 points to max bliz and its synergies. So after you hit mid-80s you will have enough points that all the synergies will be 20 so moving points out of CM wont help your blizzard damage directly. There is also a high gear + high level breakpoint for without the infinity runeword, but its not worth going into as the math is the same. a lot of endgame builds will only do 1 hard point into CM, because with good gear you can have +16 to cold skills, or more, getting your CM to the -100 breakpoint. -100 is all you need for most non-bosses because unless they spawn naturally cold immune monsters will generally have 0 or low cold rez even in Hell.

[@AccordGG1]

Orbs damage is misleading. You can also maximize the orb damage by having it explode on the enemies. The more ice bolts that connect the more damage is dealt.

[@hanisrosli5484]

All i know, monster receive all each bolt out from orb when aim in pass through their body,like naruto rasengan😅

[@achillesfearless1796]

@@hanisrosli5484 RASENGAN !!

[@DorrianX]

Launch right around the corner do you have a best way to level the blizz sorc? a spec? when to respec? and a skill distribution breakdown? please

[@Fresh79999]

Great vid. I was thinking of going meteorb, but now might do the orb / firewall combo. Can you tell me how much base strength you're putting into this build?

[@Coooley]

156 total! Just enough for spirit

[@Kralnor]

Always favored a Meteorb Sorc as a starter build for a new ladder season. It swaps things around compared to your build by primarily being a Fire Sorc with Orb as a backup skill for FI's. You don't sink points into Ice Bolt but instead max Fire Ball, Meteor and Fire Mastery with leftover points going into Firebolt.

[@MollyRingworm84]

Thats a great starter build. My favorite starter build has always been a javazon cause they slay bosses with charged strike and slay groups with lightning fury. Once Im able to survive hell I join group games like baal runs and solo glacial trail then crystalline passage if Im able to finish glacial. Not only is it good xp and great drops but theres rarely lightning immunities. Its always felt like an overpowered build in my opinion and a fun play style.

[@mickpratt8327]

Never liked Meteorb because you can't guarantee a hit with either skill. FO Hydra is better. Or Blizz Hydra.

[@Kralnor]

@@mickpratt8327 Meteorb's main damage comes from spamming Fireball inbetween Frozen Orb and Meteor. Blizzard has a lot of synergies and really works better in a pure cold build. Those builds are viable but they're going to be slower at clearing than Meteorb.

[@Ulve124]

1 point in static and your 8 man groups will love you when killing baal or diablo though. And it's 1 point. :| My biggest gripe with frozen orb is that it doesn't scale with FCR. Weaving ice blasts between blizzards feels good and it ends up doing more damage i think. You just keep blizzard on right click and ice blast on left click. As you said cold immunes aren't really a big problem once you get insight in a decent eth base.. To each their own though

[@Coooley]

Static is GREAT for multiplayer play-throughs, don't get me wrong! Not so much, though, in AT, Meph, Pindle, or Diablo.

[@DairyElemental]

Orb and Blizz do benefit from FCR, just not how you'd think and it's almost entirely negligible. They are hard coded to have a delay, but FCR reduces the frames it takes to cast. Ex. Below for Blizzard 45 frame hard delay (1.8 sec) + 13 frames (base frame count a sorc with 0% fcr) = 58 frames or about 2.3 seconds With the aforementioned 105 breakpoint, 45 hard delay + 8 frames = 53 frames (2.125ish seconds) before next cast.

[@g3synth205]

Static is nice for when you run into a tough mob that is cold immune - at least you can cut the mob's health by half or so so your merc has less work to do.

[@papscarter]

I clicked Subscribe and thought "How dope would that be if I bumped him to 21k" and Booom - It happened. Already have seen plenty of your videos and I'm happy to bump you to 21k. Keep it up Cooley.

[@wjmba]

Great video! Thanks. What is your recommendation for leveling till respec: fire bolt or nova sorc?

[@Coooley]

Thanks, man! Fire is so powerful at lower levels...

[@munyul]

I haven't played the game in years ... that said, I remember 1 pt always goes in Static, the ability to remove 60% of any bosses life in about 2 or 3 clicks is just too cool, then finishing them off with Bliz. I also remember using energy shield, as seen in your background video at the end...

[@Fuffcat]

it also keeps scaling down way past 60%. about to 10% or less before it stops hitting. Also, you remember correctly. idk where all these "guide people" came out of the woodwork to monopolize on a 20 year old game as though they're experts but are giving sub par strategy..

[@hangmingzhang5067]

@@Fuffcat not subpar. this is a mf minmax build, you are not supposed to use more than 2 casts per group, static takes too long in this case and only really works for boss runs. but for the rest of us, yeah definitely that that sf, it bomb af.

[@Fuffcat]

@@hangmingzhang5067 Static is on alt hotkey for immunities. that's all. also the field is far once you're in endgame gear. but I recently discovered that the current patch of D2R is not the same as the last patch of the original D2 LOD. Whereby cold immunities are actually nullified in hell by the mastery skill above 150% - res. this wasn't the case before. So the cold sorc is now officially universally viable in the end game in addition to a lightning sorc with high infinity merc.

[@hangmingzhang5067]

@@Fuffcat welp, i just burned my last respec to turn light, so, fuck... i was enjoying blizz too, but i couldnt clear countess on hell and i need this sorc specifically to do that for the enigma so i can use another char...

[@Fuffcat]

@@hangmingzhang5067 there are other ways to drop a jah and a ber. pindleskin. the hole, the pit.. especially the pit. Countess runs alone will end up with a million t-keys and lots of frustration and dissapointment until (if ever) the _nt gang steps back into the fold for a new map/automated... "solution".

[@rainjuice5774]

if d2r actually could load between acts and even zones, faster than 10 seconds, that'd be great

[@bravefastrabbit770]

Get an (NVME)SSD man. Loads perfectly fine, 3-4sec max

[@kylemiller6765]

@@bravefastrabbit770 We need SSDs to load a 20 year old game in a reasonable time? Nah, I think this remaster has a lot of optimization left.

[@quwarq]

I needed to be told that my dream of budget OrbWall is not too silly. Thank you for doing so with an analysis!

[@kyu2813]

Awesome video again, but sorry I'm still gonna have to put 1 into static field haha. It's just good for rushing people and bosses/mobs in general. It's like a must.

[@dannedifyoudo]

Yeah, absolutely. It’s kinda nuts to avoid it

[@bjorntrollgesicht1144]

Oh dear, my ancient Orb/firewall/mana shield soso build!

[@Rencol666]

My favourite (lvl 99 build) is 46/21/43. I always wanted to make weird builds nobody is using and being able to solo everything. 20 ice bolt, 20 frozen orb, 1 cold mastery, 1 frozen armor (yes i do like 1 hard point into it because i often smoke shisha while playing and i can be quite derpy) / 20 telekinesis, 1 teleport AND memory staff in inventory (with +3 ES in the base you can easily have 15-20 lvl ES when you equip it and it works with passive telekinesis) / 20 warmth (dont judge me, i hate mana pots and it boosts firewall and energy shield, and saves you when you teleport into mana burn), 20 firewall, 1 fire mastery. With this setup you can have very beautiful OCD satisfactory build which has only 1 or 20 points into skills xD Anyway, this setup in endgame has around 800-900 orb, 135 cold passive, 14-15k firewall, 500% mana regen and maxed out eneregy shield. Works with full talrasha set + spirit monarch, soj, magefists, wartravelers / poor man endgame (occulus, shako, tal armor, spirit monarch, war travelers, arach, magefists, maras, sojs or even true endgame if you wanna derp around with such build. In both setups you have 105 FCR, very nice MF (especialy with topazes or ist runes) and with just any crap torch, anni and charms max all res and 86FHR

[@stoobydoobydoo]

That build is so bad I almost feel bad for you.

[@votpavel]

what flavor of shisha you been liking ?

[@Rencol666]

@@votpavel my latest favourite is dragon fruit, cherry, black currant - Red Rhino flavour by Maridan

[@votpavel]

@@Rencol666 nice, i stick with simple stuff like peach mango, its the brand that makes nice difference, and good charcoal,you put ice in the water?

[@Rencol666]

@@votpavel brand makes a huuuge difference, and so does coal. I wouldnt use anything else than blackcoco brand coconut shells charcoal heated on gas or electric stove. No smell, no altereation of flavour. Bad coal burns air "wrong" and you are poisoning yourself, leading to the legendary headaches inexperienced people are getting and wrongly attribute it to the tobbaco itself. And no ice in the water, it can damage the vase and can cause sore throat or even headaches too

[@sp00f34]

great vid!

[@dim953]

Man I loooove the intro and outro jams

[@wuzzle5261]

I'm extremely confused by how you justify not having a single point in static field. There isn't a single attack that hits harder, and even down to three casts is hard to beat, especially between orbs/blizzes.

[@Xaiborg]

It reduces some time to kill but reduces survivability. You have to get kind of close with low tier gear and 1pt in static. With this build you're trying not to get hit, so the time gained by static might not be worth the chance of being hit/killed from being too close.

[@GrahamMiao]

Don't be confused. That argument does not make sense. Put 1 point to Static Field, you won't regret.

[@Xaiborg]

@@GrahamMiao I always did put one point in, but found myself rarely using static in hell, as it wasn't worth getting hit. Your point, your choice :)

[@areoblast1]

Zeal light sorc hit harder, confirmed.

[@r.h.3084]

@@Xaiborg It's not that difficult to spam static for a sec then tele away.

[@peterjarzabek8318]

Coooley is one of the most underrated D2 KZbinr. The Content is just awesome. I learned so much about the Depth of Diablo 2, even as an "experienced" D2 Gamer

[@Coooley]

That was nice of you to say, man. THANK YOU!

[@dedmachine6534]

Just now, I was playing Diablo 2 Resurrected and I had youtube's landing page opened but I hadn't looked at it. Playing, I thought to myself, I wonder which is better to go for Sorceress.... Blizzard or Frozen Orb? Maybe there's a video I could watch for it. I went to type it into the search bar, and the first video recommended to me, BEFORE I had even searched for it yet was this one, just sitting right there in front of my face. KZbin literally read my mind exactly.Also thank you for the great video! Lots of useful information

[@Maty514]

Great job breaking down this build and also TESTING all the different builds on stream. That's a legit build for your typical starter cold sorc right there. Too bad I'm going barb xD

[@Coooley]

Thank you, brother! At least we'll be able to find Full Juvs in Normal ;) hahaha

[@Ashleymaul]

No 1 point into cold armor ! What about the archers! I also prefer using Insight+Energy shield, even with no telek synergy you are tankier and safer

[@Mike-om4tv]

Oof...

[@Diediepxl]

this build probably for softcore. if you're hc player, not giving a point into frozen armor would be a mistake. also energy shield too yes

[@smashinmelonz3301]

Anyone remember when there was no cool down on orb?

[@kyrusinek]

Ha yes and the main reason I initially made a Sorc as my main back in 2000.

[@felyndiira]

Frozen armor is amazing for me tele-ing through worldstone chamber. I'd sometimes tele into a mob pack and the freeze is often what saves me (that or occy teleport). It's useless against meph or tunnel runs, but I think it's a great end-game tool for just one point. Probably helps a lot more than that one point in spike. I use static as well against Diablo and Baal. They do take some time, and quickly nuking 1/2 of their HP is a good time saver.

[@kruggers1329]

Two times I tried making an orb sorc and both times I re-spec'd into blizzard... just fits my play style and feels stronger to me, especially b/c with cold sorcs I've mostly done meph or ancient tunnel runs.

[@DirtyDenimDealers]

Frozen Orb is so satisfying but Blizzards does way more damage. 🤷‍♂️

[@darkfocust2467]

WAY more

[@Chonus]

@@darkfocust2467 Waaaaay more, hell cows fucking suck with budget orb, i'll just make a javzon.

[@dormetheus]

Blizzards drop pretty slow. I liked the targeting aspect of Forb for fun factor. Also, Forb eats up less skill points, so you can diversify, blizzard is definitely locked into cold

[@phil2024x]

Truth. Old FOB without cooldown were incredible, unfortunetly we probably won't get it again. But if they buff the synergy with ice bolt to like to 7% it would make it incredible again even with cooldown.

[@Darkkillaz090507]

Agree orb don't have so much bonuses

[@UnrivaledPiercer]

Frozen Orb/Hydra hybrid will always be my Sorc build. Super mobile, dual element, no downtime between spells. It's not a master of anything, but it's definitely a contender for long term viability in any area.

[@stinky9067]

This is what I was thinking of trying, I never played one and it seems good, probably can farm nearly anywhere

[@jumbonuts382]

No downtime u say?? Have u even played FO/hydra before? They both have a cool down of 3 seconds so ur unable to cast them back to back :( . It's a slow combo sadly.

[@UnrivaledPiercer]

@@jumbonuts382 Yes, I have. Have you? If you had, you'd know that once you cast your Hydra, it continues to attack while you're casting orbs. Making the initial 3 second delay redundant. The whole idea is to stack damage using multiple hydras at the same time while you're casting orbs and occasionally refreshing the Hydras between every couple orbs. Hydra is a vastly misunderstood skill sadly. Inform yourself. Also because I can: you* you're*

[@jumbonuts382]

It's a slooooooooooooooow combo no matter what way ur looking at it that's it's never played. 3 seconds for each skill regards if hydra stays up. Sry Ur a noob this game.

[@jumbonuts382]

Ur better off with orb fire ball

[@energy8025]

You explained both of these builds very well. I agree. I've always been a Blizz Sorc. I love the damage. And I Baal run too much.

[@JobyD2]

Love the thumbnail and nice video bud !

[@Coooley]

I appreciate you, brother! Duels soon, please!

[@GodsProdigee]

"Spirit Sword, very important you all know why" Me: "Stares in confusion"

[@Metadaxe]

It has incredible stats for how easy it is to get.

[@tr0ninja147]

I find it completely strange that you have absolutely 0% magic find on any of your gear for a supposedly early magic find run build? ANY blue gloves, rings, boots, helm, amulet, hell even topaz helms + topaz armor, goldwrap or chanceguards, nagelring etc. There's no point in maxing kill speed if you have no MF at all. You have to find a balance early on. One of the reason why people cheese Mephisto is to maximize the MF without directly confronting him. Without MF, it's going to be raining blue items. This build is terrible for early Magic Find, no offense :) Get an armor with 4 socketed Flawless Topaz or better Get an Helmet with 3 socketed Flawless Topaz or better At least one blue ring with MF At least one blue ring with fast cast rate. Ideally, you can find blue rings with both stats Boots with MF can be bought at the blacksmith Gloves with MF can be bought at the blacksmith Before you get to a Spirit shield, Make a Rhyme runeword (2 socket shield / Shael + Eth) A few nightmare countess run should get you a Shael if you haven't found one yet 20% Increased Chance of Blocking 40% Faster Block Rate All Resistances +25 Regenerate Mana 15% Cannot Be Frozen 50% Extra Gold from Monsters 25% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items Once you get your hands on a monarch and use your Larzuk quest, you can rock the Spirit and swap for Rhyme for the killing blow. Amulet with MF As you farm gear, you can progressively swap pieces out and balance your MF/kill speed.

[@Clarkillustrations]

I was thinking the same thing. Skullder's Ire, tarnhelm, & gull dagger are also a few you should mention for early MFing, great items for that!

[@georgemartinovic661]

So what sorc build do u suggest to mf in NM and early Hell?

[@nathanmcleod9497]

@@georgemartinovic661 meteorb

[@NateBrotzman]

I always loved FO build going back to the vanilla D2 days before LOD, but with synergies it just gets left behind. Granted, blizzard works very well, and FO was awesome for chaos sanctuary and cows back in the day for screen clear. I think im so used to blizz sorc these days i forget how FO really felt, i dont even consider making it anymore.

[@dysfunction3375]

Thanks for the video I had to watch your video to decipher somebody else's video. Thanks for explaining why we pick what we pick.

[@treepizzle]

Meteorb is so strong for leveling and can do all end game content and farm mephisto. No brainer for me.

[@Rarediel]

I like firewall better for solo farming

[@JnEricsonx]

Dammit, this is making me wanna play again. Except I had to quit playing back in the day because I got to a point where my drops were utterly crap, nothing worth using that I didn't already have, or stuff I could trade with that everyone didn't have already. I nearly started buying stuff 3rd party online, and that's when I quit.

[@wildwest1832]

Good thoughts I would probably agree. Frozen armor and static while useful are points u probably dont need later on. I dont know its wrong to put a point into those though

[@daywalker3735]

I just really like how you made this super budget because I'm a noob and it kinda gets old seeing videos with gear that are just the ultimate best of the best lol

[@jdbaker82]

I've yet to see a green or unique drop from pindle in my entire week of playing this game so far seems terrible now

[@Cruor34]

I did 25 Pindle runs, 25 meph runs with 400ish MF. Pindle dropped ONE set out of 25 runs, 0 unique. Meph on the other hand, only 2/25 runs did he fail to drop a set or unique... yeah... I'm sticking to Meph/High Council. I remember Pindle being good 19 or 20 years ago but I guess hes nerfed.

[@midnightcasino]

Try MFing in games with multiple people, MFing by yourself it can be harder

[@CaptainFalcon333]

14:20 If you hold shift and click to put points in a stat, it will go up by 10 for each click instead of 1. Hope you see this.

[@adasdadasdasd6783]

False information. This will spend ALL points in the original which this is.

[@iGp0wn3d]

Is there any written guide for your d2r guide which you explain later in this video? Especially how I play through the guides and early game? any written down steps?

[@phil2024x]

Hi Cooley. Nice video. Wouldn't also be good enchant + warmth on Frozen Orb build so merc became even stronger against immunity ones?

[@Mediax5]

Don't listen to this guy. Put 1 point into static field. If you ever want to be able to farm countess or chaos then its incredibly useful. In countess you tele stomp the pack and spam static while your merc kills the pack, this increases the clear speed and mitigates the damage your merc takes in a countess kill by a ton. In chaos you tele stomp the oblivion knights and do the same thing. This allows your Merc to one shot the knights so you don't get shredded.

[@KevinCarlino]

Awesome guide! One quick observation -- think you might have miscalculated FCR? 35 from sword, 30 from shield, 25 from stealth, 10 from the ring, that's 100 FCR. Can actually get 105 super easily without needing trangs.

[@Coooley]

You're right. Think I meant to say "or" when I mentioned the other ring and the amulet. Good catch!

[@KevinCarlino]

@@Coooley makes sense, just wanted to call it out since you mention using Trangs as being needed for demonstration purposes and it may not be "starter" gear -- but it's not even needed :-)

[@spyrosvalkaniotis3805]

What about "Static Nova" build? Is it any good? Will you make any video covering it in the near future?

[@satoarpg3497]

Hi coooley, i love your content, specially the PvP (videos/recordings/guides/ content)! I recently started making content about ARPGs and as a big fan of D2, and specially PvP, i wanna make some videos in spanish about the game. I wonder if i can use some of your gameplays or highlighs in my videos to feature the variety of builds that you can use in D2. oc i'll credit you on the videos, and post the links on the description.

[@ghostwolfx]

frozen armor can help when you're porting through a zone quickly and land on top of some extra fast enemy who hits you once and puts you into FHR and since he's so fast, he's gonna continue to hit you, but not if he's frozen by that armor point. Can happen a fair bit in durance of hate tbh.

[@Parasmunt]

Anyone who says 'dont bother putting a point in frozen armor' is a fool. It is a great skill.

[@kramynke]

Question about the 135% mastery. Do you add these skill points with all your intended gear on with the +to skill points attb.? Or reach the 135% with no gear on? Thanks! If you were to ball park how many skill point you would need naked what would you say.?

[@thomasbaldwin6956]

Good video!

[@mtgsus]

I think frozen armor is still useful for teleporting. If you get hit, it freezes the target and you have more chance to keep teleporting instead of getting stuck in block or fhr mode.