Chapter Two: Best of Times, Part 2

Sparka the Charged Bolt Mistress continues her march onward toward a meeting with fate: the death of Diablo by Charged Bolt. :)

Zap zap, zap, zap-zap-zap-zap! :)

When we last left Sparka, she had leveled up to clvl 15 precisely with the death of Andariel, after thoroughly clearing Act 1. Her Charged Bolt was at slvl 8 (11 with staff) and she boldly headed into the sewers, where there was more 0wNaGe. The undead fell before her like wheat before a scythe!

Zap, zap, zap zap, room clear. :)

At slvl 11, there are 13 bolts. They fan out fairly rapidly, then dance back and forth in a general straight line. No more of the gaps in the line that you see at lower slvls. Sparka would only completely miss a single target perhaps 0.3% of the time, unless it actually dodged by moving out of the path of doom. More often a target would take multiple hits and perish in one to three zaps. Each bolt that hits is then dissipated, but only three castings means 39 bolts, and they do wiggle and jiggle so that ones that miss a target may well hit the next target right behind that one.

Bottom line: the spell at slvl 11 is quite nigh completely reliable for hitting a particular target, and perhaps more so than either Lightning or Chain in that the damage is 6-8 or 7-9 per bolt, so a faceful of Charged Bolt at close range means a guaranteed 50 damage or so, and at longer range, 20-30, while Lightning and Chain sometimes do as little as 1 damage, and fairly often do less than 10, although this diminishes with higher slvls in those skills. The "frozen" time is also much less while casting, in that you can cast fairly quickly then MOVE, while with lighting or chain you are dedicated for several moments with each casting.

In this regard, the lightning tree spells each offer up their own strengths and weaknesses. Nova and Thunderstorm are the same way: strong in some regards, weak in others. Nova is fantastic on damage, but is short ranged and mana hungry. T-storm is not directly reliable, although it's more so at higher slvls.

Consider this: Lightning can be stronger than Chain in situations with large mobs. Chain is not peircing. It will hop around hitting up to five targets, then it's done. This is best in lag situations and where targets are spread out. Hit one and then the server will take care of hitting the rest. But... you can only hit five targets. Lightning is piercing and will hit every target it passes through. So if you can line up large numbers of targets, you can potentially do considerably more damage per cast with Lightning than with Chain, in that situation. How often do you find yourself facing a really large mob that chases you, where you can line them up? Not quite as often as facing small groups where chain can dance among them and hit them all.

On the other hand, Charged Bolt is good for both situations, and the total potential damage may be more than you think. Each extra slvl is adding one extra bolt to the casting. Also, damage per bolt is increased by 1 every other slvl (odd numbered). So at slvl 1, damage is 2-4 times three bolts, or an average of 9 damage per casting. At slvl 3, damage is 3-5 per bolt, with five bolts, or 20 damage average per casting. At slvl 11, damage is 7-9 per bolt times 13 bolts, or an averave of 104 damage per casting. At slvl 20, damage per bolt would be 11-13 times 22 bolts, for a total average damage of 264 damage per casting. You can also cast CB at about double the rate of Lightning and Chain, so this must be factored into your damage per second statistics, and into your strategical thinking. At slvl 20, plus 3 from staff, it would 13-15 per bolt and 25 bolts. Boosted higher with +skill items and you might see even slvl 27, with 15-17 per bolt and 29 bolts, for 464 average damage per casting.

In this regard, CB absolutely blows away its cousins, Fire Bolt and Ice Bolt. :)

The drawback is that the damage is scattered in all those little bolts. Only a fraction of them will hit a single target. Some will even miss at point blank range, though more than half will hit! At medium range, only a few will hit, but the spell is virtually just as effective at mowing down mobs as it is at killing off a single target. Lightning can mow down mobs, but only if they are lined up fairly well. Chain can pick off the frontrunners of a mob, but you get into troubles if the group is larger than about seven. CB shines brightest when dealing with really large mobs, although it's slow, so runners can be a problem.

By contrast, Nova is problematic in that it eats up so much mana. You'd need lots of Lightning Mastery and mana potions to make this one your main attack. You also have to get fairly close to your target, though not as close as Static at low or intermediate levels.

Thunderstorm is really cool in that it's a passive spell. Cast it and let it do its thing while you continue to use one of the other four lightning-tree attack spells as your primary offense (not counting Static, which is not a killer, but rather a cut-them-down-to-size attack form).

...

Playing Sparka has really opened my eyes to the untapped power of the Lightning tree. It seems to be a consensus that this tree "sucks" compared to the other two, but I've become convinced that it in fact does not. Sure, there's something to be said for stackable blizzards and firewalls, for hydra, ice orb and meteor, for blaze... but clearly the most powerful spell in the entire Sorceress arsenal is Static Field. And these other spells have strong potential. Consider this:

High level Lightning tree sorceress with some skill points pumped into Lightning Mastery, reducing the cost of all the spells, combined with a few points pumped into Teleport (yes, Teleport!) so that, combined with the L-Mastery, spell cost is drastically reduced, allowing the character to use teleport at will. Stack a medium level Thunderstorm running in the background along with a primary attack at maxed skill level in any of the four main lightning attack forms: Charged Bolt, Lightning, Chain, or Nova. A few points in Static, and a few in Energy Shield, perhaps a couple points in Warmth but not many, and at least one point in Frozen Armor... You only need enough time to teleport away. Rather than go for Shiver Armor, you could pump extra skill points into Frozen Armor and get the same defense bonus, if that was desired. Teleporting often and maximizing use of terrain would be the tactic.

Would this char be as strong as a high level cold sorc? Perhaps not. As strong as a high level fire sorc? Perhaps not. Or maybe... maybe she'd surprise you! :) Both Fire and Cold trees seem better suited to Lag. Fire offers Blaze, Fire Wall, Hydra and Meteor, all of which are lag-friendly with AoE or server-side assistance. And relying on Teleport is not especially lag-friendly! So that's a drawback for Realms play. However, both Charged Bolt and Chain have some lag-molifying effects, and T-storm is a fire and forget spell that you can use to supplement your primary attack form. The Lightning sorc can skip Warmth or leave it low slvl and instead pump Lightning Mastery, which is better than warmth in that it really juices up the lightning sorc with ability to mass cast and repeatedly cast, or even nonstop cast, in ways that the other two trees can never hope to match. You can make up for the lower damage by being able to cast more, cast longer, teleport around for longer, and use your head instead of relying on the spells to do the work for you (cold tree) or to do massive damage quickly (fire tree).

It does seem to me that for lightning spells to be effective, though, you almost need to commit to them exclusively. You could get Frost Nova at slvl 1 if you like, but frozen armor plus teleport could buy you the same escape time except from the worst sort of stairs traps... and even then, if you are quick and not lagging... and if you need a secondary attack, you could get firewall with only two skill points wasted, and pump it a couple levels for use on those rare cirumstances when you just can't hurt a target at all with electrical attacks (meaning Hell difficulty in some situations).

I started Sparka as a sort of experiment in underpowered skill path choices, like Thrower my throwing barb: something different. But Sparka is blowing away normal like it wasn't there, and there are still quite a few slvls to go in building her skill, unlike Thrower who nearly maxed his attack power in Act 2 with the arrival of Short Spears. Plus Sparka will get some help from T-Storm when it arrives. Looking at those damage numbers, I am fairly confident she will hold up through Nightmare, especially in single player where I can teleport and not have to wait on the server to actually carry it out. Hell difficulty... we'll have to see. :)

... ... ...

Radament was no match for Sparka. Zap zap zap, and he was dead. I used his skill book to pump Warmth to slvl 4, which is all that skill is ever going to get on Sparka. 66% faster than normal mana recovery... plenty good enough.

Zap Zap Zap, Rocky Waste clear. Zap Zap, zap zap, Dry Hills clear. In the Halls of the Dead, I got to finally see the raw power of my Charged Bolt in action. Mobs of skels, mummies, cats, bats... I'd take some damage trying to clear out greater mummies (mummy shamen, as I like to think of them) and the mummy makers... and this may be problematic in Nightmare and Hell. I will have to be more careful there about taking hits! Also, despite Sparka's raw offensive power, she is still a delicate sorceress and took a bit of a pounding now and then from missile attacks.

The Maggot Lair was interesting... and nasty. I had to get up close and personal with a bunch of stinky bugs. Ew. :) They'd spit foul gunk at me and mess up my skirt! I got so mad I beat one senseless with my staff in a show of... erm... crackling ill temper. :) There were no less than three different magic resistant bosses down there too, and they packed a mean punch. Had to use some potions, reds, blues, and mini purples. My spell did not shine its brightest under these conditions.

The Lost City and Ancient Tunnels were a study in the glory of mob eradication. Don't piss off Sparka! She gets into a real hissy and oh boy do the sparks fly then! ;) It's quite a show when she empties her entire store of mana. Her nickname is "Electric AK-47", whatever the devil that means. ;)

A Serpent's ring of Thawing proved just the ticket for the Viper Temple, and clvl 18 meant the arrival of Teleport, which utterly confounded poor Fangskin, who was dispatched forthwith, after which Sparka tossed her hair and coolly informed him, "You were an amateur. Next time try learning the WHOLE lightning skill tree if you want to keep up with me." She then wiped some snake ichor off her shoes and took the Horadric amulet back to town. :)

The Palace was filled with Lightning-resistant Horror undead. Yeah yeah. Zap zap zap, and they died anyway. :) The archers were mildly annoying, and one time Sparka really flew off the handle and was spraying sparks across their corpses long after they were all dead. Not sure what was going on there, but she seems to have a mind of her own, notwithstanding me the player, and dammit she was pissed about getting shot with all those lightning arrows. ;)

Arcane Sanctuary == utter and complete OWNAGE. My goodness, I almost pitied the poor things. They died quickly and in large numbers, and that is pretty much the whole tale there. Sparka did have high fire resistance, though: in the 50s. So that helped her cause. The Sanctuary is usually the first really dangerous area that characters encounter, however, Sparka sneezed once and killed 4 Hell Clan by accident with errant sparks, so you can imagine what it was like when she was *intending* to harm them. :)

Now in Tal Rasha's Tomb #6, Ancient Kaa the Soulless offered up a serious and life-threatening fight. This old bastage was by far the worthiest foe Sparka has faced: once again her nemesis of Lightning Enchanted, however also Extra Strong and Magic resistant, and resurrecting undead over and over to help out his cause, such that Sparka always had several of his peons after her while she tried to take him down. He was also pretty spry for an centuries-dead Horadrim. In the end, Sparka defeated him.

In Tal Rasha's tomb #5, an Apparition boss named Pit Shifted the Axe, and his crew, got into Sparka's face and forced her to open a can of Whoopass on them! Nasty nasty little ghosties! Bad! Now go to your room! :)

In Tal Rasha's tomb #2, there was an Apparition boss by the name of Plague Bite the Quick who had Mana Burn and was pretty fast. He caused some minor difficulty.

In the true tomb of Tal Rasha, there was an extra fast LEB beetle boss who packed a punch. Gray Venom the Slayer. Wow, he looked impressive, too, zipping across entire rooms in blink of an eye, and lashing out with a sharp claw. Ouch. Luckily he had little health and died in a could of quick zaps.

For Duriel, I got out my Garnet Large Shield of Deflecting and went in with 52% blocking. :) A couple of Static Fields and then a massive faceful of charged bolts and he was dead. He got in one good lick, causing me to use a full rejuv. Also used one small rejuv. And that was it! Duriel go squish! Ew. :) And when he died, smaller bugs poured out of him. Ewwww. :) So thick I couldn't get out of there without stepping on dozens of them. I would have trampled them all on purpose, but even Sparka's electric temper gives way to her revulsion of endless rivers of insect guts (oh GAWD the stink!) and she lit on out of there.

Duriel left her... a Goldwrap. Heh, the same unique belt that Thrower found at beginning of Act 3. Go figure. :)

Sparka likes to charge things, as you may imagine. So she has a greater affinity for credit cards and gambling than most other young sorceresses. ;) She really gets a charge out of gambling, too. ;) She finds the risk electrifying, and it provides a spark to her day. ;) She got out of Act 2 with about 130k in the bank and more than that spent on gambles, to no avail. Well, actually I did get one decent item: an Arctic Mitts. Not sure yet if I'll ever use it. I may, though, if I don't get some other cold resist items by the latter stages of Act 3.

Zap zap zap! :)

Sparka, clvl 22:

Charged Bolt @ 9 (12 if using staff)
Static Field @ 3
Lightning @ 1
Nova @ 1
Chain @ 1
Telekinesis @ 1
Teleport @ 1
Frozen Armor @ 1
Warmth @ 4
One point unused.

Str 55, Dex 25, Vit 30, Enr 75

Garnet Breastplate of Tiger
Short Staff of Alacrity (+3 to CB)
Garnet Large Shield of Deflecting
Chain Gloves of Tiger
Burgundy Chain Boots of Haste
Crimson Full Helm of Wolf
Crappy-@$h rings and a sad Rare amulet
Goldwrap

Belt was Drake's of Regeneration throughout Act 2, but no longer. Shield and staff obviously cannot both be used at same time. I'll stick with shield through the jungle, to block blowdarts, then go back to staff when I hit Lower Kurast.

- Sirian

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