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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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!!!

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

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!

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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. 👍

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

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

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

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

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 :)

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

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

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

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

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).

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

Really helpful video, very insightful

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

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

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...

Great research, well done bro well done.

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

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.

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.

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

I watched these live! Was fun.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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?

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. RU-vid literally read my mind exactly.Also thank you for the great video! Lots of useful information

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.

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

Man I loooove the intro and outro jams

good stuff man, keep it up!

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...

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

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.

Love the thumbnail and nice video bud !

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

Anyone remember when there was no cool down on orb?

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

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

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.

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.

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?

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

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

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.

Cooley, can you tell me if these Chars can transfer into PvP chars? i used to Frozen orb pvp sorc back in the day, sounds like a Orb sorc would have the best transition if its still viable or if pvp will even be a thing. only difference would be instead of firewall maybe frozen armour? etc?

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.

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

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.

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.?

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.

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

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.

great vid!

I have a question which is can you get an item Upped on non ladder in D2R?

Are these builds viable before reaching lvl 75? Lets say at level 40 while doing nightmare and leveling?

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.

i would like to hear your opinion on a Trapsin for Pindlerunning. with Burst of speed it saves time running in town. with lightning sentry and death sentry it kills pretty fast, also mind blast works well for pindle mob control

hey cooley, what do you think of orb baller with full tals and phoniex shield, infinity and only 20 into orb 4 cold speels let me know please!