Advantages over Meteorb are relatively quick access to these 'final' spells, serious DPS from Blizzard, a tweakable fire spell, and a large number of synergies for your '+X to All Skills' items. Cast the Blizzard between you and the oncoming horde, then follow up by tweaking Fire Balls on any stragglers.

BlizzBall - Blizzard/Fireball combination.Other variants on the 'fire and ice' theme include:

FO also has only one synergy (besides CM), and it's not very powerful, so you'll find that FO becomes much less powerful (relatively) beginning about Act V Nightmare. The biggest problem with this build is that both of your primary skills have a cooldown, which throttles back the amount of pain you can inflict over time. High-hit-points enemies like bosses are generally handled by having your hireling toe-to-toe it with them while you alternate FO and Meteor. Large groups of monsters with no immunities can be given a one-two punch of slowing them with FO, then slamming a Meteor into the mob (hopefully centered around your hireling and not you). The trick is to lead the target with the Meteor most guides say to basically cast it on yourself as you retreat, and watch them walk into it (for thousands of points in damage). The basic tactic is to FO everything that isn't cold immune, and Meteor everything that is. You'll also want a decent hireling as a meat shield the most common choice is an Act II Defensive merc, because their Holy Freeze aura will slow even Cold-immune enemies. This build maxes Frozen Orb, Meteor, Fire/Cold Masteries, and as many synergies as possible (mostly on Meteor FO's only synergy is rather weak). A dual-tree Sorc is typically your best bet, and you can usually get away with select skills from all three.Īs another answer mentions, the MeteOrb build is the best choice for a Sorc looking to be independently effective through Hell difficulty. By the end of Act V Normal, you will have faced at least one powerful Cold-immune (Frozenstein, and Duriel in Act II also has high Cold resistance in Normal and is immune in NM/H) and several immune monsters in the gauntlet that you face when confronting Baal. You cannot survive even Normal difficulty with a Sorc that focuses on one skill, at least not without help (and help is rare in D2 nowadays most have moved on to D3).

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