Diablo 2 Fallen Classes: The Sorceress

[Flix 5,167]

Read more detailed info on the SacredWiki page for The Sorceress.

Character: Sorceress
Orientation: Magic
Aspects: Fire Spells, Cold Spells, Lightning Spells

Lore: The Sorceresses are on a quest for the "perfect" magic in its purest form. They feel that the other disciplines of magic are haphazard, and have instead chosen to focus strictly upon elemental magic. They mold the base elements into whatever magical forms they need - threatening all other magic disciplines with obsolescence. The Sorceresses believe that it is through the search for perfection that they will attain ultimate purity and ascend to their destined role as the most powerful mages in Ancaria. For centuries they have studied in secret, perfecting their art and biding their time until they will face their greatest challenge, either proving the purity of their magic or fading from existence.
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Aspect: Fire Spells


Fire Bolt - The Fire Bolt is among the first cantrips a young Sorceress must learn before travelling out into the known world. Gathering a small amount of elemental energies, the Sorceress hurls darts of pure fire at those who would seek to injure her.

Fire Bolt will feel very similar to Ancenstral Fireball. However modifcations allow for many more bolts as shown by the pictures. You will have give up increased power, splash damage, and target seeking to acheive that many bolts however.


Inferno - Using this spell, a Sorceress can reach into the depths of her being and issue forth a gout of fire, incinerating any opponents standing within its reach.

As you can see, Inferno now launches a flamethrower-like fire stream from the Sorceress's hands. This new version is adapted from the Temple Guardian's Furious Emblazer, with new sound fx and animations.


Meteor - Reaching out to the heavens, the Sorceress calls down a falling star to strike her adversaries. This flaming ball of rock deals explosive damage to the target and leaves a patch of fiery burning earth behind, reducing large areas to cinders.

It plays very much like the original Meteor. You cast it, there's a slight delay as your hear the Meteor crashing down to earth, then it hits and explodes and sets the ground on fire.



Enchant - Upon learning this skill, an experienced Sorceress has the ability to imbue a weapon with the power of fire.

Just as in D2, this temporary buff will add fire weapon damage and boost attack rating and speed. This will be the skill of choice for Sorceresses wishing to go into melee combat.


Warmth (Buff) - If a Sorceress wishes to truly become a formidable spellcaster, she will pursue this talent. By collecting the essence of the ambient heat in the surrounding air, she can convert this energy into the mystical force that powers her spells. In this way, she recovers more quickly from her magical exertions.

Warmth takes the place of Grand Invigoration as the buff that boosts regeneration and has no regen penalty. Its modifcations are mostly fire-oriented however.


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Aspect: Cold Spells


Ice Bolt - One of the first spells a novice of the frigid elements learns is the power to summon crystals of pure freezing energy. When hurled at her enemies, these bolts subject their targets to freezing pain and impaired movement.

There is little difference here from Frost Flare, which fit the bill so well I saw little need to make many changes.


Glacial Spike - Shards of ice that inflict massive cold damage and explode to freeze nearby enemies. The Sorceress who wields this spell will find herself often treading over the shattered and frozen remains of her opponents.

The concentration of spikes is much more dense than Glacial Thorns. The second picture shows the widest spread, the first is a more typical focused blast.


Blizzard - With the invocation of this spell, entire hordes of enemies are left chilled or dead, drowned in a hail of ice. Wretched survivors of this wintry storm can do little but crawl and lament their fallen kin before they, too, succumb to the cold.

Take note that, like the D2 spell, enemies must be hit by the falling hail stones to be damaged. Blizzard is not a blanket area of effect spell like Raging Nimbus.


Frost Nova - An expanding ring of ice and frost radiates outward from the Sorceress. Swarming melee attackers will find themselves the surprised victims of a vicious, chilly assault.

A nova that causes ice damage and ice DOT, with freezing effects.
    

Shiver Armor (Buff) - This icy shield both protects the Sorceress and deals an icy blast to any attackers, numbing them with cold, searing pain. Those seeking to engage the Sorceress shall soon feel the icy bite of their folly.

Defense boost, ice armor, and pulses of ice damage to nearby enemies are the base effects. Mods will allow reflecting missiles and freezing effects, among other things.


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Aspect: Lightning Spells


Lightning - This spell allows a Sorceress to summon the very power of the heavens and emit a tremendous surge of electrical energy. Creating a channel of lightning directed at her target, she cuts a swath through her opponents with pinpoint accuracy.

This was adapted from Baneful Smite, which had a bit more appropriate look than Cobalt Strike (the Amazon will get an altered version of that spell). Mods allow for powerful chain lightning effects (up to 4 chains).


Nova - With this attack the Sorceress creates a wave of electrical energy radiating from her fingertips, bathing all nearby enemies with its destructive force. This spell is ideal for defeating melee opponents who swarm too closely.

Players of Enhanced Spells will recognize this as Thaumaturgic Nova, with a few changes.


Telekinesis - With this skill a Sorceress can reach out with her mind and manipulate distant objects. By manipulating the Ether that permeates the world, she is able to send her attacks to knockback distant enemies.

Developed from Mind Strike, this spell will damage opponents in a small area with 100% chance for knockback.


Teleport - A Sorceress trained in this arcane skill has the ability to traverse the Ether, instantly rematerializing in another location. Without the aid of soulstones or portals, she may teleport anywhere within her immediate vicinity. Though not suitable for larger distances, a Sorceress can make good use of this spell for evading capture, or to reach otherwise inaccessible areas.

Teleport will feel much snappier and smooth than Shadow Step. The cooldown and post-teleport delay are removed.


Energy Shield (Buff) - Sheathing herself in pure energy, the Sorceress walks fearlessly into the fray. So long as she can maintain her concentration over this magical buffer, she diverts harmful magical energies and absorbs physical harm into her store of Mana.

The High Elf now has an Energy Shield. She will have the Energy Shield Lore skill available to boost it.


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Dev Notes:
The challenge of building the Sorceress was not finding or creating good spells, but narrowing down the large amount of elemental attacks to get them faithful to the D2 originals. There are several designs that were removed because there was just no room.

Fire Ball
If I had more room, I would have liked to give the Sorceress Fire Ball, a large and powerful attacks with a splash zone on hit. It remains a spell only for Dragons.


Fire Bolt ver. 2
This version uses the enemy fire balls, which are somewhat closer to the original D2 design. I decided against it because they are less impressive, and the player can learn to fire these bolts anyway with Magic Staff Lore. I chose not to use the little ice ball projectiles fired by staffs/enemy mages for Ice Bolt, and for the same reason.


Inferno old version
This was Inferno's design from the first release up until Beta 7 when I changed it. Despite my love for the spell fx, it would not reliably hit enemies, often causing no damage at all.


Inferno old version # 2
This version was introduced in Beta 7. It was an adaptation of the Dragon Mage's Eternal Fire, and played very similarly. It was replaced with the current "flamethrower" version in Beta 8.


Inferno ver. 3
This is the "Burning Fields" fire breath used by dragons. It was an impressive flame blast worthy of the spell, however the flames issued forth from the Sorcreress's feet instead of her hands. Also, the blast itself did no damage, but was just a fancy pre-effect before the actual burning-ground area of effect. It remains a spell only for Dragons.

 

Ice Nova old version

Prior to v13, Ice Nova was based on Icy Evanescence, inflicting ice area of effect damage in a persistent radius around the Sorceress for a duration. This was eventually discarded in favor of the current, more faithful rendition.

Ice Dragon
The boss Narmuil can summon a flying blue dragon that launches a tremendous ice ball, causing wide area of effect ice damage, similar to Dragon Strike. I had originally thought it could be used for Frost Nova, or the Druid's Arctic Blast, but despite looking very cool, ultimately there was just no place for it.


Lightning Spells
There are many more lightning spells that I adapted from enemy spells, but there was just no room to add them. Fear not, though, because the Amazon ended up getting many of them in her Storm Combat aspect, as you will see.

[Flix 5,167]

New character designs: The Sorceress


Beta 0.4 will unveil the new design for the Sorceress. She has a new face (courtesy Silver Fox), and darker tanned skin, but she can be made to have fair skin at character creation if desired.


Her default gear is simple: top, skirt, boots. No tattoos, no jewelry. The Sorceress has a more mature look compared to the High Elf.


She has a completely new selection of hairstyles. Three were made by Silver Fox, and three by Pesmontis. Her hair now has a wider range of color, from shock white to raven black.










Armor Designs
The High Elf got a lot of attention in Wardust's Serious Textures Mod, and we were able to bring many of the changes into D2F. Silver Fox and I spent a lot of time ironing out the texture glitches and making sure everything looked right.
Links go to the original designs on the Wiki for comparison.

Cloth Armor
5th pic is Christmas Set


Leather Armor


Iron Armor


Generic Armor


Magic Armor


Special Armor
4th pic is Glimborin's Garments of Mutation


Pearl Armor
4th pic is Celadrhil's Pandemonium, focused on Fire Spells aspect
5th pic is Armaments of the Nine Hells, also focused on Fire Spells aspect


Diamond Armor
4th pic is Faladal's Blizzard, focused on Cold Spells aspect
5th pic is Frozen Gems, also focused on Cold Spells aspect


Raven Armor
5th pic is Adornments of the Ancestors, focused on Lightning Spells aspect
6th pic is Mage of the Spectrum, also focused on Lightning Spells aspect



The recent CM Patch additions were not changed: Lara's Glad Rags, Children of Asha, and Range Array, although the skin was adjusted to match the new base skin.


Currently no new gear is planned for the Sorceress, but that may change if Silver Fox returns to the project. The Sorc does get a new wand in the next release: The Oculus.

Edited February 27, 2016 by Flix

[Flix 5,167]

Mini-Set Redesigns

Unlike full armor sets, mini-sets are typically 3-5 pieces that aren't focused on any particular aspect. Unfortunately, many are assembled of random mismatched pieces, which I think is a missed opportunity to showcase the standard sets. All random armor, from junk to rare, actually belongs to a visually coherent "set" of armor (such as leather, iron, cloth, etc.). Now the pieces of the mini-sets match each other better. I also changed some unique armor piece designs so they're not shared by set pieces. I know some players choose their armor not just on function but also appearance, so hopefully this will help make the mini-sets more appealing.

These changes don't apply retroactively. Only new copies of the items that drop will be changed. So if you already have copies or get them from the downloads section they will still be the old designs.

Sorceress


Sorceress mini-sets were all completely overhauled, as they all used pieces from the Pearl, Raven, and Diamond sets, which are already used for two full sets each (Celadrahil/Nine Hells, Ancestors/Spectrum, Faladal/Jewels).

• 1st pic: Ashes of Perdition - now uses pieces from the new snake-skin leather set.
• 2nd pic: Vestments of Innocence - is now all white cloth.
• 3rd pic: Garments of the Storms - the green huntress skin was the overwhelming fan favorite when I designed all the Children of Asha armors. Now it's used for this mini-set. I changed Helmet of Storms into Boots of Storms for some variety.
• 4th pic: Velaria's Heirloom - now uses pieces of the golden iron armor.
• 5th pic: Virgo's Revenge - now uses pieces of the magic armor.

Edited February 27, 2016 by Flix

[Flix 5,167]

Fire Wall replaced with Meteor

Early on I posted this picture of Fire Wall:

 

Which is pretty misleading now because it's impossible to get this effect anymore. A single casting of Fire Wall is more like a column or pillar of flame raining down in a small area. Increasing the range only makes a wider radius, not a wall, and the visuals do not change. The above picture is several castings of Fire Wall lined up in a row, which eventually had to be made impossible since people would just cast the spell over and over in the same spot making it vastly overpowered.

 

In short, I'm abandoning this spell as a failure. And I'm replacing it with a different D2 spell, Meteor. It's faithful to the original D2 spell and accomplishes a similar goal as Fire Wall by causing area of affect fire damage.

 

Reaching out to the heavens, the Sorceress calls down a falling star to strike her adversaries. This flaming ball of rock deals explosive damage to the target and leaves a patch of fiery burning earth behind, reducing large areas to cinders.

 

Here are some GIFS of Meteor in action:

 

 

 

It plays very much like the original Meteor. You cast it, there's a slight delay as your hear the Meteor crashing down to earth, then it hits and explodes and sets the ground on fire.

 

[Tharkun 40]

Woooow! This is amazing!

I'm super hyped for the next release!

[Dragon Brother 619]

Awesome! You make it hard not to re-install the game sometime flix...

[gogoblender 3,206]

Flix, these pix are just amazing!! I can't believe this is the same ole Sacred 2 beneath the terrific glam, slam and genius pouring in... I've spent my morning just going over the pix and angles of these new interpretations, bravo friend

 

gogo

[Flix 5,167]

Inferno redesign

 

Inferno is a spell I keep reworking and reworking. Now I think I've finally got it right. Thanks to some advice from dimitrius154 on the scripts and animations, this new version of Inferno is the most faithful yet to the original D2 skill. It will appear in the upcoming Beta 8 release.

 

 

As you can see, Inferno now launches a flamethrower-like fire stream from the Sorceress's hands. This new version is adapted from the Temple Guardian's Furious Emblazer, with new sound fx and animations.

 

These are the new modifications for Inferno. I'll update the Wiki after the release of Beta 8.

 

Licking Flames - Adds a good chance for fear (50% + 0.5% per level).

Smoldering - Increases the chance to trigger the burning secondary effect (35% + 0.5% per level).

Immolation - Inferno inflicts double damage when enemy health falls below 35%.

Wildfire - Increases the chance for critical hits by 35% + 0.5% per level.

Fury - Adds more base fire damage to Inferno (32 + 16 per level).

Cremation - Slows enemy movement, attack, and casting speed by 40% + 1% per level.

[gogoblender 3,206]

The stream of fire looks amazing!!

 

gogo

[Tharkun 40]

Amazing work Flix!

Cannot wait to incinerate some bad guys with that!

[Tharkun 40]

Hello Flix!

The new inferno looks and feels great! But one thing, it has a range way way longer than what the spell fx looks like.

PD: dim vision works and looks amazing!

[Flix 5,167]

Hello Flix!

The new inferno looks and feels great! But one thing, it has a range way way longer than what the spell fx looks like.

PD: dim vision works and looks amazing!

Thanks. The range of Inferno is identical to that of Furious Emblazer. The animation gives the appearance that the flame is shorter than it is because of the way she waves her arm. Also Combat Art Range +X% will extend it even further but the visuals won't change. It's just a shortcoming of the fx. If I could extend the flame fx, I would. But I'm not reducing the range.

[Tigerbiten 3]

Fantastic mod, I'm very impressed.

I've a slight quibble with the meteor spell, it looks very nice but .........

Because it come in at a shallow angle, it's almost useless to use it in dungeons as it tends to hit the tops of walls and not the mobs.

I see the same effect in some canyons and on some slopes as it hits the ground before it hits the mods.

Yes it's possible to run around to get it to work most of the time.

But depending on the shape of the ground and how far you can move, some mobs are unkillable with this spell.

Is there any way to easily mod the spell so the meteor drops vertically, I think it will make the spell more useful.

Thanks .........

[Flix 5,167]

Thanks for trying the mod!

I don't have that fine level of control over the meteor's trajectory, sorry. I wish I did. It's the same complaint people had about the Dragon Mage's spell, Dragon Strike. And I'll let you in on a little secret: Meteor is just Dragon Strike with the Dragon made invisible so it looks like the fireball is just falling from the sky.

[deogo 2]

The one promising brief invis/invulnerability (wiki says 4 sec) doesn't seems work at all

[Flix 5,167]

On 10/22/2017 at 7:13 AM, deogo said:

The one promising brief invis/invulnerability (wiki says 4 sec) doesn't seems work at all

Vanish, Wisp, and Explosion modifications of Teleport are all non-functioning as of right now. Crazy that no one noticed or reported it before now.  This will fixed in the upcoming v.10 of D2F.  All 3 modifications will work as intended.  And as an added bonus, because of changes in CM Patch 1.60, they will all have visual FX confirming that they work.  The Explosion mod causes a loud damage explosion, the Vanish mod causes the Sorceress to become briefly insubstantial (like with Cascading Shroud) and the Wisp mod has rotating shields around the Sorceress indicating Damage Mitigation.

Another change upcoming in the next release:

Energy Shield: Percent of Damage Diverted to Shield scales more slowly.  It was reaching 100% too quickly.

[gogoblender 3,206]

Thanks for giving Sorceress back her game!

 

gogo

[Flix 5,167]

Upcoming Sorceress changes in D2F v12

The Sorceress has remained fairly stable throughout mod development, with the exception of Inferno and Meteor getting total redesigns.  Compared to all the other characters, the Sorceress is probably the closest to her original Sacred 2 counterpart, and hasn't needed a lot of tweaking.

•  Telekinesis: Bronze mod "Memory Loss" replaced with "Crushing Blow."  This is because it was discovered that regeneration time penalties don't work against NPC's.  Crushing Blow will reduce enemy hitpoints by 20% in v12, making this a very desirable effect.
•  Enchant: Duration increased to 110s. Cooldown increased to 120s. Now increases weapon damage % as a base property.  A melee Sorceress has enough of a challenge without having to recast Enchant constantly.  I also added an innate boost to all weapon damage.
•  Class quest "Settlement From Beyond the Grave" now drops the Ring of Swirling Mist instead of a random ring.  This is the standalone class quest where the Sorceress helps raise the specter of a departed family member. A class specific reward seemed in order.
•  Class quests "Orc Trouble" (Light) and "The Office Near the Orcs" (Shadow) now drop The Oculus as a reward.  This is about the midway point of the long chain quest for the Sorceress.

More about the Sorceress class quest:

The quest is much the same at its core.  Overall it has been fleshed out and given more detail and vibrancy, with more references to the Sorceress's identity as a member of a highly regarded exclusive mage clan rather than as a High Elf.  The main change comes at the beginning.  Originally the High Elf owed a debt for tuition at a mage college, which gets her embroiled with the DeElfici family.  This doesn't jive with the lore about the Zann Esu mage clan actually paying the families in return for the young Sorceress joining their ranks.  So, I've changed up the initial catalyst for the Sorceress needing money, and explained the absence of her parents at the same time.  Also since I couldn't replace the male tutor and students with females in the opening cutscene, I explained that scene as being a test where the Sorceress must defeat mages from a rival school.

From there it proceeds along the similar lines, with the Sorceress either fending off treachery and assassinations by the DeElfici family (Light Path), or the much more interesting Shadow Path where she infiltrates and undermines the DeElficis.  Overall I had some fun giving the Light and Shadow versions of the Sorceress more distinct personalities.

 

[gogoblender 3,206]

Quote

 

More about the Sorceress class quest:

The quest is much the same at its core.  Overall it has been fleshed out and given more detail and vibrancy, with more references to the Sorceress's identity as a member of a highly regarded exclusive mage clan rather than as a High Elf.  The main change comes at the beginning.  Originally the High Elf owed a debt for tuition at a mage college, which gets her embroiled with the DeElfici family.  This doesn't jive with the lore about the Zann Esu mage clan actually paying the families in return for the young Sorceress joining their ranks.  So, I've changed up the initial catalyst for the Sorceress needing money, and explained the absence of her parents at the same time.  Also since I couldn't replace the male tutor and students with females in the opening cutscene, I explained that scene as being a test where the Sorceress must defeat mages from a rival school.

From there it proceeds along the similar lines, with the Sorceress either fending off treachery and assassinations by the DeElfici family (Light Path), or the much more interesting Shadow Path where she infiltrates and undermines the DeElficis.  Overall I had some fun giving the Light and Shadow versions of the Sorceress more distinct personalities.

 

This part of your information, the background and "story" resonates with me most.  It is quality prose and paints with precision the distinct positioning of these mages.  It is important how granular this has to be to and its execution is spot on giving motive and reasoning to the "whys" of their in-game motives. 

:respect:

 

gogo

[Flix 5,167]

Found another last minute bug with the Sorceress.  At some point the VFX for Ice Bolt got reverted back to vanilla.  I changed the impact FX of both Power Strike and Ice Bolt as detailed in this post because they used to be identical.  This was waaaaaayyyy back in v5.  At some point, probably when updating the mod for CM 1.60 I lost this change.

Never fear, Ice Bolt impact will again be icy instead of sparky in v12.  Before/after:

[Flix 5,167]

Sorceress Changes in v13

As with the other characters, most changes are centered around balancing combat arts and modifications.  However Frost Nova did get a complete redesign.

• Fire Bolt: Increased regeneration time. Chance for area damage from "Explosion" scales more slowly.
• Inferno: Corrected the effective range so that it matches the VFX. All modifications now scale more slowly.
• Meteor: Range scaling reduced on base spell, but range from "Scatter" now scales. Chance to stun from "Petrify" scales more slowly.
• Enchant: "Wither" now reduces opponent's total armor resistances, rather than increasing fire sensitivity.
• Frost Bolt: Increased regeneration time.
• Glacial Spike: Increased regeneration time. Decreased total damage by 30%. Chance to freeze from "Bite" significantly reduced.
• Blizzard: Critical chance from "Nimbus" increased and scales more quickly.
• Frost Nova: Spell and all modifications are completely reworked to be true to the original D2 spell (see forum or Wiki).
• Shiver Armor: Damage radius slightly increased.
• Lightning: Chance for weaken scales more slowly.
• Nova: Increased regeneration time. No longer debuffs opponent movement speed. Base range slightly reduced but range from "Expansion" now scales with level. Damage/DOT from "Blast" and "Afterglow" are increased. Chance to Stun from "Paralyze" increased to 30%.
• Telekinesis: Increased regeneration time. Chance to stun from "Stupefy" scales more slowly.
• Energy Shield: Shield Absorption now scales more slowly. Improved the Energy Shield Mitigation values (including "Intercept").

 

Frost Nova is now a true nova spell like it was in original Diablo 2, instead of being like Icy Evanescence.  Official description:

An expanding ring of ice and frost radiates outward from the Sorceress. Swarming melee attackers will find themselves the surprised victims of a vicious, chilly assault.
Cold Damage Over Time: 5.0/s + 2.0/s per level
Chance for Freeze: 30% + 0.3% per level

These are the new modifications:

Hypothermia - Increases opponents' sensitivity to cold damage by 15% + 0.1% per level.
Freeze - Decreases opponents' movement speed by 20% + 0.5% per level.
Glacial - Increases the base cold damage inflicted by 50%
Ice Field - Increases the radius of Frost Nova by 50%.
Deep Frost - Increases the cold damage over time by 50%
Conservation - Decreases the regeneration time of Frost Nova by 50% + 1% per level.

   

[Tharkun 40]

Hey Flix, congratulations on the new release! I'm getting hooked on playing sacred again.

That new ice nova fx looks awesome but for some reason it leaves black untextured patches.

https://imgur.com/Kfgbd3B

Is this a glitch or could it be a graphics card problem? I have fully updated to cm patch 1.60, uninstalled and deleted the old version of d2fallen before installing the new one and started a new character.

Thanks as always!

[Flix 5,167]

1 hour ago, Tharkun said:

Hey Flix, congratulations on the new release! I'm getting hooked on playing sacred again.

That new ice nova fx looks awesome but for some reason it leaves black untextured patches.

https://imgur.com/Kfgbd3B

Is this a glitch or could it be a graphics card problem? I have fully updated to cm patch 1.60, uninstalled and deleted the old version of d2fallen before installing the new one and started a new character.

Thanks as always!

Wow I've never seen anything like that.  

Does the spell look normal when it casts?  And then the textures of nearby objects become black?

Do you have PhysX turned on?  What about the texture quality level in the options menu?

[Tharkun 40]

Yes, it does look normal, but once the wave disappears it leaves nearby objects completely black.

PhysX off, texture quality default, graphics setting custom (low).

Do I need elite textures?

Edited January 26, 2020 by Tharkun

[Flix 5,167]

Try turning PhysX on.  I'm not sure what other options you might try to adjust.  It shouldn't require elite textures.