Looking for help with Sorceress

[d2lover]

For nightmare mephisto runs you can use Kelpie Snare and stuff like Goldskin and if you are lucky vampire gaze.

tho without finding Kelpie, I wouldn't revive merc at all

 

[d2lover]

Imo the best Infinity base is Thresher, or if you don't care about reqs Giant thresher.

(or 1.07 Thresher)

giant thresher has more min damage, but those reqs

for most chars the base is irrelevant, but for necro, those two are imo superb

 

[Kartongen]

So I think I really need to try to build an infinity. The question is what is the best base for it?

Ethereal threasher is the consensus if I recall correctly. But the runes for it will take quite a while to get. Consider starting a fun project to play besides the many LK runs needed for the infinity runes.

For help with the ancients, I will echo the suggestions of @Cattleya: swap one ring to a 10% fcr (even if it gives nothing else), reroll ancients if then spawn with something extraordinary and separate them best you can.

I would also recommend stacking an extraordinary amount of pots on the ground before I activate them. Like 10 belts worth, or more. Really helps to have the option to run (teleport) away and recharge. And buy a wand with lower resist charges to have as weaponswap. That will really help kill then once you got a separation. Also, use static field - but I suppose you are doing that already.

Lastly, best of luck. Ancients was definitely the hardest part for my first matriarch (an amazon, but still).

 

[Miron]

Regarding ancients, make sure to separate them as much as possible, teleport around the area (on the perimeter) until you manage to lure only one of them or at least without the ww one.
I would also suggest to get a life tap wand and use it to keep the merc alive.

 

[Goomba]

Thanks for all the advice everyone. So I beat the ancients and beat Baal on hell with help from a summoner necormancer. It was cool. Now I'm looking at making a pure lightning sorc. What base should I try to get for Infinity? I have a an ethereal colossus volgue with no slots. Will Larzuk be a 100% guarantee that I'll get 4 sockets? Secondly, do I really want to make Infinity in a CV?

I've never found a thresher or giant thresher ever. I've been running cows till the cows come home lol. Seriously though, how many hell cow runs do I need to do until I get an ethereal thresher/giant thresher with 4 sockets? It is really testing me running this over and over and over and over etc...

 

[Triple Helix]

I believe conventional wisdom may be ethereal thresher or ethereal great poleaxe for Infinity, both of which are guaranteed NOT to have 4 sockets from Larzuk, unfortunately. CV is guaranteed 4 sockets from Larzuk if it's the right ilevel, but it's very prohibitive due to strength requirement. I believe giant threshers are pretty rare and am not certain if they reach the needed speed breakpoint.

I've got the runes for Infinity and have run the cows so many times this week looking for a eth thresher or GPA with 0 or 4 sockets I'm dancing around cow paddies in my sleep. I have 2 4os non-eth threshers and 2 4os CVs, but don't want to settle for less than optimal on such a high rune investment. I've found a few of eth threshers from cows but have never rolled the right number sockets from the cube recipe.

The right base will drop with enough time and work, probably when least expected!

Edit: Meant Infinity, not Insight.

 

[frozzzen]

I'm not exactly sure why the Thresher is best conclusion is so prevalent, but here's some math for you. This is Insight damage and while there is difference in damage for Infinity, damage difference should be the same. Argument can be made that Threshers are better in case of Infinity because faster CB application, but on higher player settings I'm not sure that's worth consideration.

Now, bear in mind that these are 1.07 bases. There are couple caveats - Giant Thresher is better than Thresher in 1.10+ in terms of damage output, but requirements are a bit dicey. Same for Cryptic Axe vs Colossus Voulge. In 1.10+ CA is strictly better than CV.
For 1.07 bases Thresher > GT and CV > CA, but in general you are looking at weapons speed rather than weapons themselves.

GT and Thresher are -10
GPA is 0
CV and CA are +10

And from here you can check what endgame setups you want to run and what would be best dmg output and survivability for your merc.
Andy and Fortitude are clearly best items to compliment whatever weapon you carry, but some people use Treachery so it's here as option to compare, but it's not best.

Myself, I'm firmly in GPA master race camp because I like CBF on merc, but I do understand that Cham Andy isn't exactly cheap setup, but I'll leave it at that.

 

[snickersnack]

@frozzzen, as I recall, it's not just the better speed on thresher but also the fact that you can equip it a bit earlier without using strength gear. I made my Infinity in a GPA, but that's largely because I got impatient with racking in 1.07 (I probably should have spent some time racking before getting all the runes). When a newly minted character levels enough for the merc to meet the level requirement, the merc has to wear armor with strength for a few levels.

 

[Goomba]

My patience is almost at the point of quitting this game completely. I love Diablo 2 but cannot do another cow run or I'll rip my hair out. How do people do it? Seriously how do people do the same runs over and over and over etc??? They must have the patience of a saint. I'm so sick of low level items dropping on hell in level 85 areas. Do I need to be on offline mode and be doing runs at 8 players difficulty? I play online and do it on Xbox, however, I have never found a game with more than one or two people and I don't think they exist on the console. I DO NOT want to have to start over in offline mode but may not have a choice. The other problem is on players 8 I'd probably be too weak to do effective runs.

The runs I normally do are the pit, cows, lower trav for the chests, river of flame, and ancients way. Haven't found anything good anywhere. High level items never drop ever!

To those who found all the things I have never seen such as Herald of Zakarum, Arachnids Mesh, Andariel's Visage, Stone of Jordan, eth Shaftstop, and eth bases for Infinity and Enigma (and dont get me started on the runes), how in the world do you do it? I have put countless hours into this game, well over 20 a week and still can't find anything I need. Is my luck that bad? I'm tempted to go back to Diablo 3 so I can actually find good stuff once in a while cuz these runs are boring me to death.

 

[Kartongen]

I have never played D3, so I can't make a direct comparison to that, but in general D2 drops things quite infrequently. Most of my characters have historically ran with really low key gear. 1 or 2 nice items, supplemented by a rag-tag mish-mash of magics and rares. I think your expectations are set too high. Getting BIS (best in slots) in all positions is something that will probably take years. When I read item recommendation in a guide... Well I usually stop after 1-2 slots, cause it's all high tier stuff I might never get, and definately don't need to play the character. (And if I do need it, I will just play something else.)

Further, when you run something try to not focus on finding that one thing (or handful of things) - that will only make you disappointed, and miss all the other fun stuff you find. If I look for a Griphon's eye, chances are slim I will be happy. If I look for nice things in general in this spot that sometimes drops a Griphon's eye, I can more easily appreciate the bases that drop, the fun jewels I find, the rares with crap stats but fun/cool names.
This is a consequence of how our brains are constructed (I forget the name of the actual bias...), where we tend to see what we focus on. Focus on one item - you only see it not dropping and miss out on all the other nice things. Focus more on broadly (or keep an open mind), you will see all the pieces of silver even if you don't strike gold.

My ramblings above are unimportant though; here is my actual advice. Find a way to play the game that you enjoy, that is not based on RNG/drops or other external factors. If you don't enjoy pit runs et. al., running them will only lead to frustration. I have slim patience for things like LK/repeated meph runs etc. While I do run them occationally, I usually keep the number of runs low before I go do something I enjoy more. What I enjoy the most tend to be questing (at least from about normal A5 and onwards), and so I tend to start alot of new characters. That is what is most fun for me?

So please @Goomba, tell me: What do you think is most fun about Diablo II?

 

[Maltatai]

Here is my perspective of things (I think it's more of a point of view than actually answering the question):

I always play untwinked and HC and have frequently struggled to make every new character have an even simpler and mor efoolproof plan for his or her equipment. I basically base every melee character around the possibility to at least, at the very least, being able to kill anything with a Malice weapon, and everything quicker is just a bonus. Defensively, I tend to focus heavily on damage reduction and such items are realistically obtainable from simple gambling, not least when a character has just entered nightmare.

Items I have specifically looked for have been exceptional uniques at the highest, but then always for style points or to complete a specific build idea, never because I considered them mandatory just to get through hell. Mostly we're talking about normal set items or armour of a specific colour, so actually worse gear compared to what would be easy to find for an unrestricted character.

I notice that you seem to be very caught up in repeatedly running certain areas just for magic finding. Why is that? What is the goal of it? Do you feel you need the items to get new characters through the game or are you collecting items for the sake of collecting? For example;

To those who found all the things I have never seen such as Herald of Zakarum, Arachnids Mesh, Andariel's Visage, Stone of Jordan, eth Shaftstop, and eth bases for Infinity and Enigma (and dont get me started on the runes), how in the world do you do it?

What do you need those for, and is that end result really fun enough to warrant the massive magic finding effort? Wouldn't it be more entertaining to just get out there and play the game questing from start to finish? Let me underline once again that despite what the abundance of twinked characters may suggest, nothing of that is necessary to beat the game, not even remotely.

 

[Goomba]

I have never played D3, so I can't make a direct comparison to that, but in general D2 drops things quite infrequently. Most of my characters have historically ran with really low key gear. 1 or 2 nice items, supplemented by a rag-tag mish-mash of magics and rares. I think your expectations are set too high. Getting BIS (best in slots) in all positions is something that will probably take years. When I read item recommendation in a guide... Well I usually stop after 1-2 slots, cause it's all high tier stuff I might never get, and definately don't need to play the character. (And if I do need it, I will just play something else.)

Further, when you run something try to not focus on finding that one thing (or handful of things) - that will only make you disappointed, and miss all the other fun stuff you find. If I look for a Griphon's eye, chances are slim I will be happy. If I look for nice things in general in this spot that sometimes drops a Griphon's eye, I can more easily appreciate the bases that drop, the fun jewels I find, the rares with crap stats but fun/cool names.
This is a consequence of how our brains are constructed (I forget the name of the actual bias...), where we tend to see what we focus on. Focus on one item - you only see it not dropping and miss out on all the other nice things. Focus more on broadly (or keep an open mind), you will see all the pieces of silver even if you don't strike gold.

My ramblings above are unimportant though; here is my actual advice. Find a way to play the game that you enjoy, that is not based on RNG/drops or other external factors. If you don't enjoy pit runs et. al., running them will only lead to frustration. I have slim patience for things like LK/repeated meph runs etc. While I do run them occationally, I usually keep the number of runs low before I go do something I enjoy more. What I enjoy the most tend to be questing (at least from about normal A5 and onwards), and so I tend to start alot of new characters. That is what is most fun for me?

So please @Goomba, tell me: What do you think is most fun about Diablo II?

I'd say the most fun part of Diablo II is building a up a character through doing quests and playing the storyline. I just want my character to be able to own hell which is why I am trying to get endgame gear for my sorc. Hell is tough and dieing is such a huge setback in experience etc. I have a level 60 Paladin I may go back to except he just reached hell. I also have a Necromancer around 20 I could go back to. Maybe I need to start a new character otherwise.

 

[Kartongen]

[...]I just want my character to be able to own hell[...]

Ho boy do I recognise this. A few years ago, most of my characters got stuck when they entered hell. The difficulty just goes up so much. No shame in struggling, I must have (had) 20 characters who got stuck there. (About 3 per ladder for a few years.)

For all characters, gaining a few extra levels (e.g at NM pindle or NM baal) helps alot, at least against physical attackers. This probably helps more than gear.
For sorcs specifically, I feel mine always die in some 2-3 hits (or one from dangerous creeps), so the key is to use teleport A LOT. I still die a lot, but can move forward at a decent pace.

But if hell is still no fun, just park the character and run another through normal and nightmare. Or start a character with a dumb build, and see how many times you die/how far you get. (See my necro with only goldfind.) Main focus should always be fun.

 

[snickersnack]

@Goomba If the console player base really is as sparse as you say, I see two options:
1. Restart in offline. Magic/rune finding is often most efficient at higher /p levels, which you can achieve on bnet, but only if there are enough players. With what you've learned about the game playing on bnet, it wouldn't take you that long to get going offline. You might be surprised at how quickly you replicate your current progress.
2. Post in the community forum looking for a console group to play with; have you done that already? Having a group will benefit you in more ways than one, not the least of which is trading. I'd bet that you've found a couple of sets and uniques that are useless for your build(s) but which would be desirable to someone else.

I don't recall whether trading is something that you wanted to avoid, but if it isn't, then trading is one of the best ways to get items that you want. Suppose someone else is super lucky and they find a second (or third, or fourth) HoZ. What are they going to do with it? They'll probably want to trade it away for something that they haven't found. Have you tried looking for trades on console via the trade forums here?

If neither of those things seems appealing, I'd recommend starting some more characters and trying out some builds that aren't very item reliant. The fishymancer is a good example of this (original guide here). The fishyzon is one of my favorite builds and it doesn't really require anything to get started (original guide here). Either of those builds can roll around any map in Hell difficulty without much/any trouble, even untwinked (being familiar with low level runewords and crafting recipes makes a big difference). As others have pointed out, high end items are not needed to beat the game, but these two builds are especially good at dominating the toughest (lvl 85) areas.

Edit: Here is another option that may appeal to you, but it would be a hassle and cost money: since D2R has "cross progression," if you buy the PC version of the game, you can load up your existing bnet characters and go on the PC bnet lobby to find and make trades, then you can save and exit to load up your character to play on xbox. Like I said, that would be a hassle, but it's an option you have. [Someone correct me if I'm wrong about how the cross progression works.]