Sorc defense question

Do Sorcs need to "cap" armor as well, or is the game balanced around Sorcs having only Energy Shield?

I'm only in act 2 now and I feel extremely squishy with all gear just giving energy shield. I have the early energy shield passives, but in the last zone where the chapter boss resides, I'm constantly seeing my HP either full or 50% of 0%, and it's always a burst so quickly I don't have time to react.

Thinking back, the moment I get swarmed (and Sorcs get swarmed all the time with how fast the smaller mobs are and how rare movement speed is, I'm still wearing the +10% movement speed shoes from chapter 1 I think, because I've just not seen any other pair with movement speed.)

Oh and this is even with the unique chest that converts part of mana regen into life regen.

So I'm thinking maybe Sorcs are supposed to get some armor as well?

I suggest you stop playing. Doing that little damage with sorc wont make you survive when you come to T5 mapping. Just abandon this character and play those hot cakes build while its not too late.

Its officially become rubbish job for sorc since yesterday nerf.

Anyway, there is a risk because some SB from GGG will try to make your life harder and nerf those hotcakes.

Good luck.

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kumogakure#7381 wrote:

Do Sorcs need to "cap" armor as well, or is the game balanced around Sorcs having only Energy Shield?

I'm only in act 2 now and I feel extremely squishy with all gear just giving energy shield. I have the early energy shield passives, but in the last zone where the chapter boss resides, I'm constantly seeing my HP either full or 50% of 0%, and it's always a burst so quickly I don't have time to react.

Thinking back, the moment I get swarmed (and Sorcs get swarmed all the time with how fast the smaller mobs are and how rare movement speed is, I'm still wearing the +10% movement speed shoes from chapter 1 I think, because I've just not seen any other pair with movement speed.)

Oh and this is even with the unique chest that converts part of mana regen into life regen.

So I'm thinking maybe Sorcs are supposed to get some armor as well?

Boss fights are supposed to be more reliant on your skill to dodge and avoid incoming hits, most of their combo being slower slams. I haven't played top side of the tree yet, but you could look into things like block, or using flask to recover ES if you don't have enough recovery for your ES. Also ignore the other guy, he's weird

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kumogakure#7381 wrote:

Do Sorcs need to "cap" armor as well, or is the game balanced around Sorcs having only Energy Shield?

I'm only in act 2 now and I feel extremely squishy with all gear just giving energy shield. I have the early energy shield passives, but in the last zone where the chapter boss resides, I'm constantly seeing my HP either full or 50% of 0%, and it's always a burst so quickly I don't have time to react.

Thinking back, the moment I get swarmed (and Sorcs get swarmed all the time with how fast the smaller mobs are and how rare movement speed is, I'm still wearing the +10% movement speed shoes from chapter 1 I think, because I've just not seen any other pair with movement speed.)

Oh and this is even with the unique chest that converts part of mana regen into life regen.

So I'm thinking maybe Sorcs are supposed to get some armor as well?

Sorcs didn't die yesterday because of the patch. One skill got nerfed. I know you didn't ask this but I want you to know there are plenty who will still play Sorc and find great success with it. You do need to know some classes will accel at certain Endgame content and others will be less capable. There will always be one that is better at something than another. It's unavoidable.

I run 162% rarity as of today and i found a charm that gives 20% more for rares and uniques. I run T5 and T6 Maps full if I have them. I've played PoE 1 since launch and I've learned a lot and some of that carries over into this game especially crafting and gearing a character and how to get "power spikes".

TO answer your question Energy shield is nice, but you cannot rely on it alone. The trick is to pick up Some Health on your gear as well. Good Sorc gear will generally have Max ES, Flat ES and some Health or mana. That will fill the prefixes. Mana cannot be ignored. You have to find the balance that works for you for max mana, mana regen, health, and energy shield recharge rate. My Energy shield recharge rate is above 180%(Almost all of it is from the tree except two jewels).

Energy Shield recharge rate is very important. When I get hit mine starts recharging in 1 second. I have like 2200 ES and 1200 Health roughly in T5 - T6 maps right now.

Some map modifiers are going to be difficult depending on your build and you can expect to lose the map quickly. Being stunned will be a problem and the lower your resistances are the more damage you will take.

Chaos resistance is also very important as Chaos damage will hit hard especially if you have low res. It always has been one of the most expensive stats on good gear. Increasing the value significantly when trading for it. Chaos Innoculation can be a solution to needing Chaos res but you generally don't take that until you have a Huge amount of ES. I can tell you now, sometimes a monster will hit me for all my ES and some life which if you had Chaos Innoculation from the passive tree would be the end of the map from a One-Shot. I think playing without it for a while is ideal since life flasks can recharge life and you can run/kite 1 second and health is nearly full and ES is building up over 200 a sec.

With so many players its important you have currency to trade and get the best items for your level. It's worth noting any +1/2 level to all spell skill or +1/2/3/4/5/6 to Cold/Fire/Lightning skills are an absolute staple to more dps. There will be nothing better.

Sorc is so good right now IMO. By the end of the weekend ill have a video up about Rarity and a build guide that would more than likely help you with your Sorc. You may want to play a different skill than I do but the guide will cover things you need to know and understand. If you went armor that means you have to get STR on your tree and possibly gear, which will cripple the build. You want gear that requires less not more, so you can have some open slots to do things like Rarity, Resistances, or even more DPS which you won't need as you gain skill :)

I could go on and on but this isn't the place for it.

Thanks for the replies.

Yeah I don't have a problem with bosses at all, it's always the fast-moving swarms that kill me. I referred to the last zone where the boss is but I was actually meaning to talk about the trash on the way to the boss.

With swarms, they would continually interrupt my actions and it sometimes becomes hard to move and I would see my ES deplete in chunks, then my Life disappears in chunks after that.

I'll try farm some health gear items and see how it goes then.

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kumogakure#7381 wrote:

Thanks for the replies.

Yeah I don't have a problem with bosses at all, it's always the fast-moving swarms that kill me. I referred to the last zone where the boss is but I was actually meaning to talk about the trash on the way to the boss.

With swarms, they would continually interrupt my actions and it sometimes becomes hard to move and I would see my ES deplete in chunks, then my Life disappears in chunks after that.

I'll try farm some health gear items and see how it goes then.

have you tried ice nova for surviving those swarms?
Freeze+knockback and roll out of there.

Early on Sorc finding +life, and resistances is just as important as sources of energy shield. Early on it might be helpful to run some source of armor or a shield but armor capping shouldn't be necessary.

Late game I see a lot of sorcs running a shield for the block, it adds a lot of survivability. I'm currently at over 4k energy shield and 60% block chance in T15 maps without any major source of armor or evasion and my survivability feels great.

i just got to end game the loot thad drop for me was soo bad thad my energy shild is low my hp is lwo dps low and now the nerf ice buiild i cant ifen clear first map in end game i keep die and i dont have any dmg

Sorc survival is trash tier. You won't be running breach any time soon. Don't plan on doing much delirium either. You can kill a few packs but if you push too fast you will just fall over when poison hits you or a cultist bow mob nukes your ass with chaos damage. Or you get stuned for a second, or frozen, or 5 mobs sneeze in your general direction.

I can kill all the bosses no problem, but soon as you hit a breach you are DEAD AF and theres nothing you can do about it. Good fuckin luck.

Thanks for the additional replies.

Tried Ice Nova + Unleash (for double knockback and more freeze buildup) and had limited success. Then I realized the real problem is how much more ranged damage there is in the last zone of Chapter 3, compared to previous content.

There's the jumpers who can come at you from almost outside of the screen, then there's the spear throwers, and it doesn't help that I'm playing Firewall+Spark that makes it hard to see anything.

I didn't really get to try a shield because I splurged all my gold on two vendor pieces that vastly improved my health and energy shield.

That, combined with a slight improvement to my build, taking Mana Tempest after leveling up, as well as getting lucky with a Sigil of Power staff craft giving me +3 to Lightning Spells, I'm now melting through all those trash packs (as well as the boss lol).

So all in all, I'd say it is mostly a case of outdated gear. I guess if I was getting more currencies, I would have been more willing to keep my gear up to date. Can't blame me for wanting to save those Exlated Orbs for endgame when I'm getting maybe 2 or 3 per Act at most.

Again, thanks for all the replies!