I've been playing Diablo II singleplayer and nonladder for years, and I think I'm going to play in the Ladder this coming time around. I play solo a good deal of the time, and I've never actually gotten a character into the 90's, which I'm shooting for this time around.
I played D2 few years ago. Recently I started play again old games like Baldurs Gate saga etc and wanted to try again D2. But I cant decide between Lightning sorc or Summoner necro. I heard summoner necro can play even naked but Im afraid this will become boring after awhile. On the other hand Im afraid Lightning sorc will have hard time vs immune monsters (single element). So any advice about this two classes? Did you get bored with necro? Or how to deal with immune monsters as single element sorc? Whats better option for first build on the account (as i said I played few years ago but I dont remeber much so i consider myself as new player)?
I'm iffy about Sorceress builds, because my F-keys are not fully functional 100% of the time.
I usually go Lagromancer, (lots of skellies) but I have literally all the viable equipment, even ladder equipment, on my lvl 85 one, so I'm looking for something different.
My zealers never work out, I don't know why. (I can never find a good enough weapon I think)
I'm not sure what to even DO with assassins. They just don't seem like good characters, I can never follow through with them.
I've literally never touched druids. Seriously.
My primary concern here is mfing (Magic-finding)I want to get lots of gear that's viable for other ladder characters I make. Uniques usually, sets are often too niche and mercurial for my liking.
Trent Hawkins
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TheNeeooTheNeeoo
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3 Answers
So you are a druid and you want to use him for Magic find.For Magic find it's best to use Spells for damage and wear Items with Magic find on it. If you are a bear with a 2 hand weapon, you have a lot of life and damage but no space to wear mf items.
So my suggestion is :
Hurricane Druid
Skill setup :
The last one to max is Cyclone Armor since it only gives a longer duration of your Hurricane and not more damage.
Stats :
Stats are easy to set, if you wear a one hander and a shield, try to reach a good block rate. Skill as much str. as needed to wear your armor. and the rest goes to vitality.All in all it should be around this at level 99 :
this is what you skill, not what u have in the end.
Items :
Since you said you want to play solo and I don't know if you trade with someone I chose some cheaper and some expensive items.
Rings :
Amu:
Helmet :
Shield : - Lidless Wall / Moser's Blessed Circle + 2 perf. diamons in it. - Stormshield or later a monarch with 4s for the same runeword as in your weapon with same stats.
Gloves :
Boots : - Something with 40% runspeed to have some fun. Or rare one with resists + magic find.That's up to you.
Belt :- Tal rasha belt for MF or later Spider web for +1 and 20% cast rate. Before that you can take what you find with MF life and resists. Faster hit recovery is as well nice!
Charms :
1*1 charms = 20 life / 5 all resi / 14 mana / 7% mf2*1 charms = keep the ones with +5 stats on it, thats max per slot.3*1 charms = +1 elemental skill
of course annihilus and gheeds unique charms are perfect to have but not easy to get in beginning.
MERC
For merc you always want to have an Act2 Merc with a big weapon. Etheral 4 Socket weapon with Insight in it would be good to have for a mana regen aura. Whatever Poleaxe you find with 4 sockets you can use at first just to get the aura.
runes you need : ral tir tal sol , easy to find. min level for insight is 27 i guess.(I write all that from my head just to let you know..)
Act 2 Merc with Defense aura would be good to begin with. Later a2 on nightmare. depending on the weapon you have for him. As soon as you have a big etheral weapon for him, get the damage aura merc. So he kills the cold immunes on hell..
you know what :
I offer you a Teamspeak or Skype conversation, since I could write tooooo much here and I don't really know if you have the chance to trade with someone, have a d2 trade forum account or have friends who can give you better items, or if you really play solo without ANY other players in party. Or if you are always alone in game. That all changes something. From merc decsions to skill priorities.
RayofCommandRayofCommand
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If you are iffy about Sorceress builds, I'd recommend trying out Hammerdin(Paladin with Blessed Hammer as damaging skill).
However, it might be quite expensive. The items that you will need:
So at level 80 this set up will provide you:
On a switch you should have:
Switch should only be used to pre-buff yourself. Do not butt yourself if you run with a decent Barbarian, their shouts will be better anyway.
C# Static Field
Skills:
Blessed Hammer is your main damaging skill. Before 1.12 or 1.13 there were almost no monsters with immunity to it, since 1.12 or 1.13 there are just a few(still a lot less than with immunity to cold/fire/lightning).
Use holy shield to get some toughness and increased block chance. 1 point if enough, put more points into there after you have maxed out other skills
Concentration is you main damage buffing aura. Use it while casting Blessed Hammers
Vigor is a synergy to Blessed Hammer. And a nice skill to have while you are in town to run a lot faster
Blessed Aim is another synergy to Blessed Hammer
Your merc:
Personally I always use a Combat Act II merc from Normal difficulty(somewhy they are tougher than from Hell) and I always try to equip it with:
Stats:
Windows live mail won t start. Click the start button (the round windows logo in lower left corner of screen). We haven't decided yet, what to do when it rains.2.
Do not forget, that when you level up, your block chance will be re-calculated. So before throwing all points into Vitality, buff yourself, look at your block chance and add a few points into Dex to get 75% again.
A quick recap:
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Sorceress builds are pretty good. I am an Orbballer and she can solo NM Andy at level 50, Mind you, her gear isn't the greatest yet. Orbballer you need to spend most of your stat points into Vit, with 100 strength and toss a few points in Energy now and then.
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The key skills to max with an Orbballer are Fire Ball, Frozen Orb, Cold Mastery, Fire Mastery. Putting some points in warmth is recommended, and then making sure to have the placement of the points to get those skills. I recommend also maxing Cold Bolt, for the synergy but you don't need to. You also should drop a point in Telekinesis, Static Field and Teleport. Early on, you are a pot whore(you need to use ALOT of Mana pots) later on, as warmth gets up a little, and you find better gear, your Mana will get lightened, so you can do more. The Frozen orb is your star, it'll wipe out most of the mobs. The only time you need something else is for Cold immune monsters, which is why you max fireball.
Vemonus
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stokesystokesy
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged diablo-2 or ask your own question.
I've tried creating (with character editor) a longish series of characters for Diablo II's
Is it hopeless, or am I missing something? The difficulty keeping a sorceress alive with the kind of build that just mows through levels on easier difficulties, compared to a much less buffed paladin or necromancer, is dramatic.
I've used the character editor to create characters with different skill trees, even 'impossible' ones, but with only money for items.
Edit Originally the question asked about nightmare difficulty, which is indeed easy. I meant hell difficulty. Fortunately, most of the answers tackle hell difficulty.
Alti
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4 Answers
You cannot survive even Normal difficulty with a Sorc that focuses on one skill, at least not without help (and help is rare in D2 nowadays; most have moved on to D3). By the end of Act V Normal, you will have faced at least one powerful Cold-immune (Frozenstein, and Duriel in Act II also has high Cold resistance in Normal and is immune in NM/H) and several immune monsters in the gauntlet that you face when confronting Baal. A dual-tree Sorc is typically your best bet, and you can usually get away with select skills from all three.
As another answer mentions, the MeteOrb build is the best choice for a Sorc looking to be independently effective through Hell difficulty. This build maxes Frozen Orb, Meteor, Fire/Cold Masteries, and as many synergies as possible (mostly on Meteor; FO's only synergy is rather weak). You'll also want a decent hireling as a meat shield; the most common choice is an Act II Defensive merc, because their Holy Freeze aura will slow even Cold-immune enemies. The basic tactic is to FO everything that isn't cold immune, and Meteor everything that is. The trick is to lead the target with the Meteor; most guides say to basically cast it on yourself as you retreat, and watch them walk into it (for thousands of points in damage). Large groups of monsters with no immunities can be given a one-two punch of slowing them with FO, then slamming a Meteor into the mob (hopefully centered around your hireling and not you). High-hit-points enemies like bosses are generally handled by having your hireling toe-to-toe it with them while you alternate FO and Meteor. The biggest problem with this build is that both of your primary skills have a cooldown, which throttles back the amount of pain you can inflict over time. FO also has only one synergy (besides CM), and it's not very powerful, so you'll find that FO becomes much less powerful (relatively) beginning about Act V Nightmare.
Other variants on the 'fire and ice' theme include:
Pretty much all of these will give you a formidable build for Hell difficulty.
To this basic stew of fire and ice, you typically add two skills from the Lightning tree. Teleport (which requires Telekinesis) allows you to get around the map very quickly, including across chasms and moats, and is pretty much a must for boss runs (repetitively creating new games on B.Net to kill the same baddie over and over for item drops) including the popular Mephisto run, which requires exploring the largest single dungeon floor in the game (Durance of Hate Level 2, Hell difficulty). It's also useful for 'kiting'; staying in front of a large, powerful enemy who has to get close to do the most damage. Static Field is also a powerful friend for enemies with high hit points and resistances; it takes a flat 25% off of the HP of any enemy in range that isn't fully Lightning-immune (think of an enemy like Diablo, with 1,000,000 HP, and imagine executing an attack that takes off 250,000 HP in one blow).
Now, don't go crazy putting points in either of these. Neither skill benefits much from maxing it; Teleport's mana cost goes down, while Static Field's radius increases. In building your character, you'll be looking for as many '+X To All Skills' items as you can get your hands on, like the Skin of the Viper Magi, an Oculus or Death's Fathom, and/or a Memory or Heart of the Oak runeword staff (Heart of the Oak, while expensive, is one of the few runewords that makes wielding a staff instead of an Orb and shield a smart choice), and in addition to buffing your primary skills, these items will give you a significant return on the one point each that you put in these Lightning skills.
I've seen Cold-Lightning combos work as well; FO/Nova is an extremely powerful crowd-control build, combining the slowing power of the Orb with a zero-cooldown omnidirectional lightning spell. Less powerful against bosses than Meteorb, because the cost per cast of Nova is too high to just be hitting one enemy for around 200 damage, and the nature and cooldown of FO makes it less useful against a single enemy. Chain Lightning, or just plain ol' Lightning, is also a popular skill to mix with a primary Fire or Cold spell, but I find these to be too temperamental; their minimum damage is 1, basically halving their average damage and making them very unpredictable, reducing your ability to 'fire and forget' as you can do with most other spells.
Just remember that in Hell difficulty, virtually everything has at least one immunity, and the most common one especially in Act I is Fire. Focusing on a single skill tree is a sure-fire way to invalidate your build beyond Nightmare, but at the same time, a jack-of-all-trades build typically can't do enough damage to last long either.
KeithSKeithS
The most versatile sorc build I've come across is the Meteorb sorceress (meteor and frozen orb). Whenever I start fresh on a ladder this is my first character. She can get through hell with minimal gear. Here is an example skill build for a sorceress starting nightmare: lvl 40 Meteorb Sorc
The dual elemental damage allows you to handle a majority of mobs with only the dual fire/ice immune giving you trouble. As Blem said, having a merc with good physical damage is key to handling these packs. If you don't have a decent merc, just avoid them.
As far as keeping her alive, make sure you pump vitality (no energy and just enough str and dex to use the gear you want) and use teleport liberally. You shouldn't be letting monsters reach melee range and you should keep as few ranged monsters in line of site as possible.
tQuarellatQuarella
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An important part of having a caster in nightmare/hell is having a good hireling to take out the once you can't yourself.
Personally I preferred frost (frozen orb or blizzard) build, then with 1 point static field you should be able to take out most packs, with frozen orb build you can even put some points in fire tree to cover all 3 types of damage, something like this, with some +skill can help your hireling.
That being said some times you should just ignore some packs and run around them if possible, the reward for killing a really hard pack that you can skip will most not be worth it compared to what you could have killed in the same time somewhere else.
BlemBlem
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Here is my blizzard/lightning build, with firewall for enemy immunity. I have used this build to run all bosses on hell, in under 10 minutess per run.
Skills
Stats
Advice
merc act 2 nightmare ethier holy freeze if mobs giving u trouble or might more hitpower merceth andysassasin armour shael,thul,lem gives fade for resist and iaseth ca/cv infinity or insight
sorcmarasshako soc ist for mf um for res sol for dr you deciderings 2x sojs as mana is life soj gives great boostbelt arac 1 to skill and slows enemy ie mobs swarming youboots war travs mfgloves frostburn for manaarmour cohsheild spirit/ non ladder stormshield with um or perf dimaondwep eth occy soc with light facet
user106385
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Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged diablo-2 or ask your own question.I played D2 few years ago. Recently I started play again old games like Baldurs Gate saga etc and wanted to try again D2. But I cant decide between Lightning sorc or Summoner necro. I heard summoner necro can play even naked but Im afraid this will become boring after awhile. On the other hand Im afraid Lightning sorc will have hard time vs immune monsters (single element). So any advice about this two classes? Did you get bored with necro? Or how to deal with immune monsters as single element sorc? Whats better option for first build on the account (as i said I played few years ago but I dont remeber much so i consider myself as new player)? Comments are closed.
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