Diablo II single player questions

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I started the amazon last night. I'm not a javazon yet though. In the early going in the game, you cannot do much better than a longbow with three chipped gems for damage, easy purchased from Gheed. You one-shot kill everything, and until some of the higher damage javelins come on line, there's no real point to using anything else (not even a spear for the added damage).

 

Never posted in this subforum, but am long time Diablo player.

Started a PvM LightSorc some weeks ago and am having a blast! I never played a sorc this intensly before and am having a ball in Nightmare, lvl 39 right now. Lightning skills can be quite lethal!

Now, in preperation to going to hell, I read something about high level enemies having high lightning res. What are my options playing a Lightsorc in these kind of situations? Any tips you might have?

 

You'll need to spend points in a second elemental tree to deal with lightning immunes. That's the one drawback with sorceresses. You can't go with just one element. While you can chose any of the three elements as your primary attack, you need to invest in one skill from a different tree. With Lightning Sorceress, the cheapest option available to you will be cold. With a 20 point investment in Frozen Orb, you'll have a high damage spell that isn't dependent on synergies to deal with lightning immunes. Fire spells can do a lot of damage, but are heavily dependent on synergies to do so, and since you're planning on putting most of your points in the lightning tree, I would recommend cold as your backup attack.

You can, and in fact should, ignore the fire tree completely, with the exception of a single point in Warmth. You skill distribution should be 20 in Frozen Orb, all of its prerequisites, and a single point in Cold Mastery, with all of your other points dumped into the lightning tree, maximizing synergies. It's been a while since I've played a lighning sorceress, but if memory serves me correctly, you'll want 20 each in Chain Lightning, Thunderstorm, and Lightning Mastery. If you actually make to level 80 or so, any remaining points would be directed towards another lightning synergy. Offhand I don't know if Charged Bolt or Lightning Bolt is a better synergy for Chain Lightning and Thunderstorm (and it might depend entirely on which one you use more).

 

Aldeth, thank you for your thoughts!

I think I'll go with your suggestion and see if I can find some gear to help me up my cold damage as alternate gear option. I noticed the fire tree is heavily depending on synergies, as does the lightning tree. The skills lightning and lightning bolt (if I remember correctly) add 4-8% damage to chain lightning, which is a real mob killer. In turn, they add the same to lightning, which is my main boss killer. The mastery is a must either way. Rest of the points go into Thunderstorm.

Nightmare, once you get used to it, is fairly easy going for my LightSorc. She's doing fairly well on her own, and with the merc it's much easier.

I'm playing 1.12 now. Has anybody notice that a merc can disappear from your screen and map when it's close to your char? I noticed it every game that my merc sometimes "freezes" (the sprite doesn't move) and eventually just dissapears. I know the things get stuck somethimes or are "lost" in the battlefield if you outrun them far enough, but this is fairly new to me.

 

The merc thing does happen on occassion. The easiest solution is to use a scroll of town portal and go back to town - he usually reappears immediately.

You are correct that both the fire and lightning trees are dependent on synergies to get the damage up to truly impressive heights. With the fire tree the standard setup is to maximize Fireball and Meteor. The third choice is either maximizing Fire Bolt or Fire Mastery, depending on whether you are using Fireball or Meteor as your primary attack, respectively. With lightning, I think you are correct that Lightning Bolt gives a bigger synergy bonus to Chain Lightning, and if that is your primary attack, it would make sense to maximize Lightning Bolt before Thunderstorm, but it's been a long time since I played a lightning sorceress, so my memory on this may be a little fuzzy. The bottom line is you want to pick your primary attack (I'm assuming it's Chain Lightning), and pick the two other skills that give you the biggest synergies to your primary attack.

Cold, on the other hand, is almost always selected as the backup attack, because Frozen Orb is such a bargain for points invested. Initially, the damage of Frozen Orb looks low - it only does about 200 points of damage even when you get the skill to level 20. However, you have to realize that the damage listed by Frozen Orb is what each individual ice shard does. When you cast Frozen Orb it sprays dozens of ice shards all over the screen, and then explodes when it hits something, sending out dozens more. It is very likely that every creature on the screen will be hit by multiple shards from a single casting of Frozen Orb, and thus, the damage potential of that spell is well into the thousands (especially for a creature hit by a the Orb, as it will explode and send all of the explosion shards into it).

The bottom line is that selecting Fire or Lightning as your primary attack is mostly a matter of preference. The Fire tree does more consistent damage, while the Lightning tree has a higher ceiling in terms of maximum potential damage, but a lower floor in terms of minimum potential damage per casting. Cold is the superior choice for a backup attack, either way.

What mercenary are you using? You probably want something beefy up front that can take some damage while you get your spells off. I'd recommend either the Act II defensive paladin, or a barbarian from Act V.

 

Yeah, I figured that the merc would reappear if you portalled somewhere. It's just annoying ;-)

I haven't come around playing yet, but Frozen Orb sounds like a great alternate high damage dealer. Never knew the damage was dealt per spike! Nice potential!

Yes, I'm using a Act II defensive mercenary. He's equipped with The Tannr Gorerod (Pike), Tancred's Skull and some +def field plate (+/- 300 def). I know it's not much, but it works for now.

 

The current equipment on your mercenary is fine, because you don't need him to actually kill anything. The function of your mercenary is to have something between you and the monsters, and he only has to live long enough for you to get a few spells off. It's more melee characters who are fighting side by side with their merc that need top equipment.

One more thing - once you get to hell difficulty, most monsters are immune to something, and it's broken down pretty evenly, with about 20% of monsters immune to fire, 20% to cold, 29% to lightning, 20% to poison, and 20% immune to physical damage (a pain for melee based characters). Furthermore, it is possible for a unique creature to spawn immune to both cold and lightning (actually it's possible for a unique to spawn immune to any two damage types, so it's not like there's a combination you can pick with a sorceress where you'll always have something that will kill everything in the game). So regular Joe Monster will never spawn with two immunities, but the boss in the pack will get the immunity that all the rest of the regular monsters have, and can get a bonus immunity because all bosses on hell difficulty will get a bonus modifier. So it is possible on hell difficulty that your merc will have to take out a pack boss, because it will be immune to both your damage types. In such instances it is highly advisable that your sorceress take out everything else while he works on the boss.

 

I'm looking out for the +% to life equipment for my mercenary, but not much has come by yet. I'm looking into runewords for armor, but do not have enough runes yet.

The immunities uniques could be a problem, especially if I have to depend on my merc to finish the job. I find the AI of mercs lacking to say the least. My merc ran when fighting normal Diablo. That's what I would expect from a roleplaying perspective, but not when I'm depending on him as a buffer for myself No seriously, the AI/pathfinding somethimes looses it. As a result, my merc will walk away from the only enemy in the field, as was the case with normal Diablo. Nice thing when I'm up against the Ancients on Hell :S

 

Well, you may be looking a very long time for +% to life equipment, because I am not aware of such a mod being available. I cannot think of a single a single example. There is certainly +life equipment available. The smaller of such items (with the suffix "of the fox" for example) are available for very early in the game, and it goes all the way up to +100 life which is "of the whale"). There are also a slew of +vitality options, which raise life indirectly.

I have found that your best options for outfitting both your merc and your PC actually are damage reduction items (anything that says "damage reduced by X"). The best of these is "of life everlasting" which reduces physical damage by 25 per hit. Even on hell difficulty, most monsters don't hit for more than 100 damage - you or your merc die because you get hit by 10 of them in quick succession - not because any one single hit was particularly devastating. Such modifiers are available on all kinds of items, including helms and body armor that your merc can use. That works for phyical damage, and elemental damage can be greatly reduced by maintaining high resistances (highly advisable).

Having 75% (or more) resistance to lightning and a few pieces of damage reduction equipment will allow a character to stand in Diablo's Pink Lightning Bolt of Death (which does half physical and half lightning damage) and take virtually no damage! This is because the damage from the PLBoD is actually quite small - it's just that you get hit with it multiple times per second, but each one those individual hits has the damage reduced by X modifier applied to it, which reduces it to zero.

 

Shaftstop is excellent merc armor. Actually, for a lower life character like a sorceress, it's a good armor for the PC as well.

 

Hm, never thought too much about getting high damage reduction.

My LightSorc is level 43 now and up against nightmare Andariel. I've died the first attempt due to a swarm of Afflicted. Trying again soon to get my equipment back.

Seems you know much more about the game and the game mechanics then I do. Thanks for sharing that knowledge!

 

My Lightsorc defeated Nightmare Andariel today, turned level 49 and found some set items, 1 normal unique armor and a nice blue amulet with +1 sorc skills. That was a nice addition.

Did some Nightmare Countess runs and cleared the first quest of Act 2. Now proceeding to make the Horadric Staff.

 

Regarding +skill items - characters like the sorceress who don't have to enter hand to hand combat definitely benefit the most from +skill items. Obviously, all characters can and do make use of +skill items, but if you are a melee character, you have to use your weapon slot on a high damage weapon, and you have to use your body armor slot on a high defense armor. With a sorceress, any armor that gives +1 to skills is a solid choice, and their weapon almost ALWAYS gives + to all skills and/or +3 to specific, frequently-used skills.

With a sorceress, the only two stats you need to worry about in your equipment setup are damage reduction and getting high resistances. Once those two criteria are met, the focus should be in packing on as many +to all skill items as you can get. (Unless you're making a magic finder - which sorceresses can excel at - but that's a whole separate discussion.)

Just a few other tips - you should make an effort to get your point in cold mastery and frozen orb maxed by the time you complete nightmare. Since you're level 49 now, and you'll probably be level 70-something at the end of nightmare, you need to start working on those skills now if you haven't already. You'll start encountering lightning immunes in Hell from the very first Act, so you'll need it from the beginning, and cannot afford to let FO be the last skill you maximize.

Besides, a high level FO is extremely effective throughout nightmare, and if you raise it now, you'll actually use it against non-lightning immunes. It works great on the demon imps that teleport all over the place, simply because there's really no where you can hide with that spell. With my most recent sorceress character that was a fire-cold sorceress, even though fire was my primary attack, I probably used frozen orb as much as I did fire spells in nightmare. Fire didn't take over as my primary attack until I got to hell difficulty, when it just took too long to kill stuff with FO, unless it was immune to fire.

I am currently working on my javazon. I'm only at the end of Act II normal, and thus far, she really isn't even a javazon yet, as she still is using crossbows primarily. In the first couple of acts, the highest damage option for an amazon is actually a longbow with three chipped gems in it. I traded that in for a 3-open socket crossbow that I stuck 3 flawed gems in, and that's been my primary weapon, even though I'm level 21, and I haven't spent a single point in the bow/crossbow tree. (I should also point out that the three-chipped gem bow is an excellent option for sorceresses and necromancers in the early going as well, as you don't have the mana pool for that to be your primary means of killing things.)

 

Before I started posting here, my main focus was on getting as much life as I can, because when I do get hit, I'm toast. Now, my perspective has changed and I am looking out for those resistance and damage reduction equipment. My resistances are pretty bad now, with only lightning on 50+ now. Fire and poison are in the negative numbers, which isn't a good thing. I noticed my weakness fighting Nightmare Andariel, which took a long time with a couple of deaths. I can't count the times I portalled out to revive my mercenary and get new rejuvenation potions.

Regarding Frozen Orb. I spent my last points into the Cold tree and Frozen Orb has 3 base points now + 2 from a staff I found + 1 from an amulet. The staff is on my alternate weapon slot now. I'm planning on getting Frozen Orb at level 20 or higher as soon as possible and before I'm going to do Hell. This following your advice and in preperation for the fights I have comming with the lightning resistance enemies.

It has been a long time since I had the patients and time to play my character to Hell. Most of the time I quitted for some reason at the end of Normal or beginning of Nightmare. It's kind off tedious to do all the Acts over and over again, allthough when I'm actually playing it, it isn't so hard to have fun with it again. I'm also planning my next character, but for now I'll stick to the sorceress. I like her and it's too much fun right now :-)

 

Well, this gets into stat point allocation, and I must say your way of thinking (maximizing life) is one of the two prevailing viewpoints on how to build a sorceress. In that view, you spend a minimum number of points on strength. It doesn't do anything for a sorceress, since you never really enter melee combat, and so the only thing you need strength for is to wear your gear. Since most sorceress gear comes with modest strength requirements, most sorceresses have less than 100 strength points, even at hell difficulty.

Also, in the max life school of thought, energy investment is also kept at a minimum. A sorceress gets a 4 point bump to her mana pool at every level up, even without spending anything in energy, so most sorceresses don't pump energy much either. Some advocate even keeping your energy at the base level, and suffering through normal difficulty with a small mana pool. Even those who cannot tolerate such an option generally don't raise their energy past 70 or so.

Finally, if you're going for max life, dexterity should receive absolutely no points at all. There is no sorceress gear that has any dexterity requirement, and the only purpose of using a shield for a max life sorceress is for resistances - not for blocking.

Thus, the rest of your stat points go to vitality. Once you hit level 70 or 80, a max life sorceress will have over 300 in vitality, and will have near 1000 life points. This strategy allows a sorceress to take some hits on hell difficulty and live to tell the tale.

However, as I have alluded to, there is a second school of thought in how to make a sorceress survive in hell difficulty, and that school is the max block sorceress. Strength and energy investments are still kept to a minimum with this build type. However, in this build, you make a serious investment into dexterity. Your chance of blocking with your shield is based on your dexterity, and the amount of dexterity required to maintain the maximum blocking percentage of 75% increases as you level up. With this strategy, you try and find a shield that has a high base chance of blocking (which usually entails finding a shield with the "of deflecting" suffix) and investing around 200 points into dexterity. Everything else is placed into vitality, and you can expect a high level sorceress using this build to finish with about 100 in vitality. This strategy relies on the ability to block most incoming attacks, and thus your life pool doesn't need to be large, as you will rarely get hit.

As far as which school of thought is better, there is really no correct answer. However, the max life route is certainly easier. The max block strategy presumes you have a shield with a high block rate available to you, whereas the max life route does not have an equipment requirement. Furthermore, many of the shields that have a high base chance of blocking also come with significant strength requirements, so you may also have to spend more on strength than you were originally intending. Lastly, in using a shield, you would be limited to orbs for your weapon choice, whereas if you go shieldless, you can also use staves. In my opinion, unless you already have the necessary equipment on hand, the max life route (which you're already doing) is the more sensible strategy.

Regardless of which of the above strategies you employ, you want your resistances to be high - preferably at least 75%. That's pretty much non-negotiable once you reach hell difficulty. Regardless of how much life you have, your life expectancy in hell isn't going to be good if you're walking around with negative resistances. I usually go for the max life route in my sorceresses, but I DO use a shield. I don't care about the blocking percent on the shield though, I only look for a shield that has open sockets - at least 3 open sockets, ideally 4 (although those are hard to come by before hell difficulty). I then collect and use my horardic cube to make perfect diamonds, which I then insert into the shield. Each perfect diamond provides 19% resistance to all, so you can get 57% resist all from a shield with 3-socket shield, and 76% resist all with a 4-socket shield.

The same thing goes for damage reduction. More is better. There are two types of damage reduction gear: There is "damage reduced by X" and "damage reduced by XX%". These work cumulatively, so you can definitely mix and match here. The game applies the "damage reduced by X" modifier first, and then the percentage modifier second. So mixing and matching is good, as it gives you defense against all types of attacks. You want the percentage modifier against things that hit for big damage, like Udars and Frenzy Minotaurs, while the damage reduced by X is good for attacks that do continual damage, like Diablo's Pink Lightning Bolt of Death, and Claw Viper projectile tail attacks, where a decent level of damage reduced by X gear can reduce this damage to near zero.

Generally, nightmare should be the easiest difficulty level for you. On normal, you don't have access to all of your skills, and there can be tricky parts to get through. On hell, you encounter very dangerous enemies. With Nightmare, you have very well-developed skills, and get not so dangerous enemies, so most nightmare players have a easier go of it than they did in normal. The danger in nightmare, however, is to make wise skill point investments, as the decisions you make there will go a long way into determining your survivability in hell difficulty. You'll probably be around level 70 when you finish nightmare, but by the end of hell you'll only be mid-80s in level (reaching level 90 is nearly impossible). So you simply don't have enough skill points left in hell difficulty to overhaul your character if it's not up to the challenge.

And that's the challenge in nightmare. There are a lot of skill setups that work for nightmare, but not nearly as many in hell. Remember that skill points are the most precious commodity in the game. You can always find gear that can make up for some low strength or dexterity, and you can raise them by 5 per level if you need to. However, you are dealing with a finite pre-determined number of skill points. Assuming you can get to level 80-something and complete all the quests, you'll only have about 100 stat points to spend. So once you figure in prerequisites, you'll only be able to max out about 4 skills.

 

I get the dexterity route some people choose for their sorceress and in theory, it seems sound. I'll rememberd that one. For now, I'll stay and up my life.

Strength is around 65 right now, mostly from gear. Dexterity is base, vitality is around 250 (100 from gear) and mana is around 150 (50 from gear). All in all, I'm doing pretty well I think.

I'm now looking for resistanceboosters. I'll look in to the shield option, but I for that to work I have to find a globe with +lightning. That's gonna be hard.

 

Yeah, the shield is the easy part. Any 3-socket shield with a reasonably low strength requirement will do. Finding flawless diamonds that can be cubed to perfect diamonds are pretty easy to find as well. But you're right that you need to use an orb and not a staff.

Unfortunately, there aren't too many places where you can get a large percent resist all from a single item slot - and certainly none as cheap as the 3 perfect diamond shield. Other sources for large percent resist all would include things like runewords that require some of the very hard to find runes, and some of the very hard to find high-end uniques. So you have to hold realistic expectations about what you're going to find. Is it reasonable to expect you can find a 3-socket shield and 3 perfect diamonds? Yes. Is it reasonable to expect you're going to stumble upon some really high end runes? No. (More power to you is you do, but I've been playing D2 for years, and finding a rune higher than Gul is like a once-per-year occurance).