Tal Rasha Sorceress Build Guide D2R 2.6

Tal Rasha sorcs are ideal ladder starters. They mainly excel at Boss farming, as the set provides very nice magic finding bonuses, but you will be able to deal with any game content other than Uber Tristram. Most Tal sorcs use cold skills, such as Blizzard or Frozen Orb.

Teleportation with a Tal Rasha sorceress can be quite quick. The build is easily able to reach the 63% FCR breakpoint. Tal Rasha gear can be found early in the season, so if you are looking for a farmer character with good MF potential, a Tal Rasha sorc is the best candidate.

With the introduction of the Sunder charms, immunes no longer cause any problem. As cold mastery further reduces monster resistances, you will pretty much one-hit almost anything you attack. The survivability of the build is quite good, as you can put plenty of skill points on Frozen Armor and Energy Shield.

Gameplay

Attacking skills:As a Frozen Orb build allows you to have greater survivability than a Blizz sorc, I prefer to use it as the main attacking skill. It has huge damage on a very wide area, you will be able to clear monsters quickly by casting just a few Orbs. You can also go with Blizzard, which can deal up to 16k damage and pretty much one-hit anything, but your survivability will suffer.

Movement:Teleport is by far the fastest way to move. Try to reach the 63% FCR breakpoint by wearing Magefist or Trang Oul gloves, or dual 10% FCR rings. Reaching the 105% FCR breakpoint is also possible, but you will need FCR rings, 20% FCR gloves and a crafted 15%+ FCR caster amulet.

Survivability:Tal Sorcs are quite sturdy, they have good survivability. If there is a barbarian around who can provide you Battle Orders, you should be able to deal with any area safely. Try to get a Call to Arms as a switch weapon so you can cast Battle Orders on yourself. Always have Frozen Armor and Energy Shield casted on yourself, and have both healing and mana potions, or rejuvs available so you don't run out of either. Make sure to have 75% all resistance on hell difficulty. If you play on Hardcore, wearing a Stormshield can be very beneficial as it gives you big block and defense bonuses, while also providing 35% Physical resistance.

Party and Solo play:Playing a Tal Sorc in a party is the same as Soloing. If there are paladins around, you might want to follow them in case they have an active Conviction aura. Necromancers can also boost your kill speed by casting Lower Resist on enemies. You will be able to quickly kill monsters even at a higher player difficulty.

Magic Find:The main purpose of the build is Magic Finding, so not too surprisingly it has very high % MF. The Tal set provides 168% MF, and you can wear magic find shield, gloves, rings and boots in addition to MF charms. The maximum magic find % you can reach is around 800%. While having high MF, the built will still be able to farm quite efficiently.

Breakpoints:For detailed breakpoints, check out this guide.

Stats

Strength:Have 156 strength in total to be able to wear a Spirit Monarch, 4*Isted Monarch, or a Stormshield

Dexterity:Put just enough points on it to be able to wear your items..

Vitality:Put all the rest of your available points on it.

Energy:Don't put any points on it

Skill Points

Fire Skill Tree:

• Put a point on Warmth

Lightning Skill Tree:

• Put a point on Energy Shield's prerequisites
• Max out Energy Shield

Cold Skill Tree:

• Put a point on Frozen Orb's prerequisites
• Max out Frozen Orb
• Max out Cold Mastery
• Max out Ice Bolt
• Lastly, max out Frozen Armor

Tal Rasha Sorc Gearing Options

Helms

• Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest

Amulets

• Tal Rasha's Adjudication

Body Armors

• Tal Rasha's Guardianship

Weapons

• Tal Rasha's Lidless Eye

Shields

• Spirit Monarch ➤ The highest damage shield choice.
• Stormshield ➤ The best defensive choice.
• Lidless Wall ➤ Use it if you don't want to invest a lot in strength.
• Rhyme runeword ➤ A decent budget ladder starter.

Switch Weapons

• Call to Arms ➤ Almost doubles survivability with Battle Orders, every build needs a CTA.
• 6*Ist Crystal Sword ➤ When killing bosses, switch to it for +150%MF at kill.

Switch Shields

• Spirit Monarch ➤ Boosts Call to Arms' Battle Orders and Battle Command
• Lidless Wall ➤ Use it if you don't want to invest a lot in strength.
• 4*Ist Monarch ➤ When killing bosses, switch to it for +100%MF at kill.

Rings

• The Stone of Jordan ➤ The best ring for damage.
• Raven Frost ➤ Great for survivability, grants cold immunity.
• 10% FCR Rare Ring ➤ If you don't reach the 105% breakpoint, I suggest using FCR rings. With resistances, they can be great for defense too.
• Nagelring ➤ A good Magic Finding choice.

Gloves

• Magefist ➤ The best offensive gloves.
• Frostburn ➤ Provides a huge mana boost, great for Energy Shield.
• Chance Guards ➤ The best Magic Finding choice.
• Trang-Oul's Claws ➤ Grants 20% FCR like magefist, and also great for cold resistance.

Belts

• Tal Rasha's Fine-Spun Cloth

Boots

• Triple resist 30% FRW boots ➤ The best choice for survivability
• Sandstorm Trek ➤ One of the best choices for survivability, especially if ethereal.
• Waterwalk ➤ Another great choice for survivability
• War Traveler ➤ The best for Magic Finding.

Charms

• Annihilus ➤ A must have item for every build.
• Sorceress Hellfire Torch ➤ Another must have item.
• Cold Sunder charm ➤ Another must have item to remove immunities
• +1 to Cold skills grand charm ➤ If you can afford it, try to have them with +life. +FHR
• + All resistances small charm ➤ If you can afford it, try to have them with +life.
• + Life small charm ➤ If you can afford it, try to have them with +mana.
• + Cold resist small charms ➤ They help to compensate for the fire Sunder charm

Sockets/Jewels

• Cold Rainbow Facet ➤ The best choice for damage boosting.
• Ist rune ➤ The best choice for Magic Finding.
• Um rune ➤ Use it for allresist boosting if needed.
• Thul Rune ➤ Use it to boost fire resist
• Perfect Diamond ➤ Can use it instead of Um runes in shields and helms.

Mercenary

Have an Act2 mercenary with Holy Freeze aura for crowd control.

Ethereal items don't lose durability if your mercenary wears them, so having ethereal item bases for each gear slot is preferred due to the increased defense on armor items and increased damage on weapons. In many instances ethereal items that are great for mercenaries will be much more expensive than non-ethereal ones.

Mercenary gear:

Helm

• Any 3 socketed helm with 3 perfect diamond ➤ increase mercenary resistances and survivability
• Tal Rasha's set helm ➤ a decent choice
• Vampire Gaze unique helm - ➤ another decent choice
• Guillame's face set helm - usefulness ➤ only use it with high merc defensive abilities
• Andariel's Visage unique helm ➤ the best helm choice

Weapon

• Insight runeword ➤ provides meditation aura so you never run out of mana
• Bonehew unique weapon ➤ simply a good choice
• Tomb Reaver unique weapon ➤ the highest damage choice
• The Reaper's Toll unique weapon ➤ great for both offense and defense
• Infinity runeword ➤ the best choice for offense

Body Armor

• Treachery runeword ➤ great for both defense and offense, a budget choice
• Fortitude runeword ➤ the best choice for both defense and offense

Ladder Starter / Budget Tal Rasha Sorc Gear

Tal Rasha Helm ▬ Tal Rasha Amulet ▬ Tal Rasha Body Armor ▬ Tal Rasha Weapon ▬ Spirit Monarch Shield ▬ No Switch Weapon and Shield ▬ 10% FCR Rings ▬ Trang-Oul's Claws Gloves ▬ Tal Rasha Belt ▬ Rare Boots with resistances ▬ Life, Mana and Resistance charms ▬ Perfect Diamond Item Sockets

Best Tal Rasha Sorc Gear

Tal Rasha Helm ▬ Tal Rasha Amulet ▬ Tal Rasha Body Armor ▬ Tal Rasha Weapon ▬ Spirit Monarch Shield ▬ Call to Arms Switch Weapon ▬ Spirit Monarch Switch Shield ▬ 10% FCR triple resist Rings ▬ Magefist Gloves ▬ Tal Rasha Belt ▬ 30% FRW triple resist boots ▬ Annihilus ▬ Sorc Hellfire Torch ▬ Cold Sunder charm ▬ +1 Fire Skills, +Life, + Cold resist and +Mana Charms ▬ +5/-5 Cold Rainbow Facet Item Sockets

If you'd rather skip farming you can quickly buy gear at Rpgstash's D2R Store.