Fire Ball Nova Sorceress Guide

Fire Ball* is your Primary Damage Skill. Use against all monsters except for those that are Immune to Fire. It shoots out a large fiery projectile following a straight path in the direction of your cursor. This projectile explodes upon impact, dealing Fire Damage in a small Area of Effect (AoE).

Nova* is your Secondary Damage Skill. Use against monsters that are Immune to Fire. It creates an expanding ring of Lightning that deals Lightning Damage to all enemies within its AoE.

Static Field* is great to use against Bosses and high Life, Fire Immune monsters. Each cast uses Lightning Damage to lower nearby monster Life by 25% of their remaining Life. This Skill can reduce monsters' Life to 1 in Normal, 33% of total Life in Nightmare, and 50% in Hell.

* Faster Cast Rate Skills (FCR)

Teleport* is an essential Sorceress Skill used for mobility. It repositions your Character and Mercenary to your cursor's position. Repeatedly cast it to cover long distances.

Telekinesis* allows you to use a Waypoint, enter a Portal, or pick up utility items (Potions, Scrolls, or Gold) from a distance.

Frozen Armor* increases your Defense rating and briefly Freezes enemies that strike your Sorceress. It doesn't work against ranged attacks.

Warmth* provides you with passive Mana Regeneration based on its Skill Level.

Fire Mastery* passively boosts the Fire Damage of Fire Ball.

Lightning Mastery* passively boosts the Lightning Damage of Nova.

* Faster Cast Rate Skills (FCR)
* Skills that do NOT utilize either FCR or IAS

While every Stat in the Desirable Stats column is useful for this build, we highlighted the Priority Stats in Teal so you can easily identify the Most Important Stats on them.

Hover over any Item to see a pop-out with the full Item description.

The areas below are efficient farming locations that make use of the build’s strengths. Other farming spots might not be as effective due to Immunities or bad layouts.

Act 1

Act 2

Act 3

Act 5

Your Mercenary serves an incredibly important role to the overall success of your build. They can be a front line tank, provide a pivotal Aura, and/or deal Physical Damage to kill enemies with Immunity to your Skill set.

Act 2 Desert Mercenary

Infinity, Might

Use a Desert Mercenary with Might Aura to deal with enemies that are Immune to your damage sources. Equip him with Infinity to reduce enemy Resistances and Defense with its Conviction Aura, drastically boosting damage. This Aura is also capable of breaking some Immunities, including both Fire and Lightning.

Mercenary Gear Options

Your Mercenary needs maximum Resistances, Life Leech, a high damage Weapon, and high Defense and/or Damage Reduction to stay alive reliably. Cannot Be Frozen is also a great stat for maintaining Mercenary DPS and leech. Ethereal gear is preferred since it doesn't lose durability. Gear Options at each Gear Level perform equally well in different situations; choose based on Farming Spots and/or personal preference.

The Mercenary is hard to keep alive until you have the minimum gear recommended in this guide. Remember you can drag Healing Potions onto the portrait, or shift + 1/2/3/4 to directly feed them a Healing Potion from your belt. The Mercenary also gains bonus Resistances from Thawing Potions and Antidote Potions.

If your Mercenary dies in battle, you can revive them from any of the Mercenary NPCs in each Act. This does come with an increasing cost, capping at 50,000 Gold. Keep that in mind and decide if the Mercenary is currently worth the cost.

General

• Cast Telekinesis on Waypoints to activate them, on Town Portals to get in or out of town, and on Red Portals to go through them. This allows you to travel through the game faster. Telekinesis can also be used to open chests and pop other clickables for loot.
• Before starting your Magic Find/Experience run, first cast Battle Command 2 times and then Battle Orders once using Call to Arms. Then cast Frozen Armor once. Refresh these buffs as soon as they expire (approx. every 2-3 minutes).
• Use Teleport to travel to your Farming Spot or between Elite Packs.
• Engage most Elite Monsters with Fire Ball. In Solo gameplay, it will usually take 1-3 casts to kill them.
• Engage Fire Immune monsters, such as the Devilkins in The Pit, with Nova in close range. Since Nova deals significantly less damage than Fire Ball, expect it to take anywhere from 3-10 continuous casts to kill an Elite.
• Teleport directly on top of Elites to add your Mercenary's damage to your own for quicker kills.
• If you have Infinity equipped on your Mercenary, use Teleport to reposition your Mercenary close to the enemies you are aiming for to benefit from reduced monster Resistances and broken Fire and Lightning Immunities via its Conviction Aura.

For Solo Gameplay:

• For maximum Solo-farming efficiency, target and kill Elite Monsters with Fire Ball or Nova, and then immediately proceed to the next Elite(s). Don't waste time clearing minions or regular mobs while playing Solo or /Players1 on Single Player.

For High Player Count:

• When encountering Fire Immune monsters with high Life, first cast Static Field 1-3 times at close range, and then finish them off with Nova.
• Against high Life monsters that are neither Immune to Fire nor Lightning, use Static Field before finishing them off with Fire Ball.

For Act Bosses:

• First cast Static Field 2-5 times in range of Act Bosses (such as Andariel) in order to weaken them down to or near the 50% Life cap (in Hell). Then proceed to finish the Boss off with Fire Ball.

Immunities

• For Unique monsters that are both Fire and Lightning Immune, "Telestomp" them with your Mercenary to kill them with his Physical Damage Jab attack. Alternatively, you can skip these monsters.
• You can also use Flame Rift to deal with Uniques that are Immune to both Fire and Lightning.

Optimal Loot/Experience Farming Strategies

• The Pit with 1 Player in the Game (Solo) - This build is specifically designed for Solo success in this Max Level Area. The Pit has universally low Life monsters that advantage this high mobility, hybrid build made for quickly executing Elites. Nova makes short work of hoards of Devilkins, while Fire Ball decimates most everything else. This specialized Sorceress smoothly alternates between these two Skills to efficiently farm this prime Farming Spot for all item types.

Breakpoints in Diablo 2 are the minimum values required to reduce the frames of an action. Below are the important breakpoints considered for this build. For more information on the mechanics involved, check out our in-depth Resource: Breakpoints.

Faster Cast Rate (FCR)

Faster Cast Rate speeds up your casting animation for spells. Aim for the 105% FCR Breakpoint. Note: FCR only controls the animation speed of the Character, and not any internal Cooldowns spells have.

Faster Hit Recovery (FHR)

Faster Hit Recovery increases survivability. Aim for at least the 60% FHR Breakpoint.

For all Hardcore gameplay, your primary focus is increasing your Resistances, Damage Reduction, Chance to Block and Maximum Life. This can mean sacrificing overall power level for a more secure playstyle.

The Fire Ball Nova Sorceress can become Hardcore viable with key changes to Gear and Stat Point allocation. Review the changes below before building this character in Hardcore, as some of these changes differ significantly from the Standard Build.

Gear Changes

• Damage Reduction: Equip Stormshield instead of Spirit. The % Damage Reduction and Increased Chance of Blocking granted by Stormshield both drastically improve your survivability. The pairing of Stormshield and Harlequin Crest achieves 45% Damage Reduction. There is no better way to keep your Hardcore Fire Ball Nova Sorceress alive.
• Faster Cast Rate: In order to achieve the 105% Faster Cast Rate Breakpoint while using Stormshield, it is recommended to use Wizardspike, Magefist, and an extra Rare Ring with Faster Cast Rate in place of gear shown on the Standard Build. Wizardspike additionally offers a great deal of Mana and Resistances which further improves survivability and quality of life, while Magefist also adds +1 to Fire Skills for Fire Ball.
• Stacking Resistances: Stack your Fire/Lightning/Cold Resistances beyond the default maximum values of 75 each (175 total in Hell). Stacking 85 additional Resistances in Hell completely negates the Conviction Aura of any Elite Boss or the Oblivion Knight's Lower Resist Curse. Beware of encountering both at the same time! Consider the primary damage type(s) of the monsters in the area you want to farm. Wizardspike accomplishes a great deal here. Boots, Jewelry, and Charms are also ideal sources of Resistances on this build.
• Faster Hit Recovery: Aim for the 20 or 30% Faster Hit Recovery Breakpoints with Charms and/or Boots to make up for losing Spirit. Faster Hit Recovery is not as important when going for maximum Chance to Block (75%). You mainly rely on the 48% Faster Block Rate Breakpoint attained by Stormshield socketed with a Shael Rune instead. 

Stat Point Changes

• Allocate enough Stat Points into Strength to wear Stormshield.
• Allocate enough Stat Points into Dexterity to achieve maximum Chance to Block (75%) while having Stormshield equipped.
• Put all remaining Stat Points into Vitality.
  
  See the "Hardcore" Build Variant below for additional suggestions and visuals.