Stuck on my Meteorb, help please

[Bernoulli]

Hello, I'm new to the forum but I've been reading it for a little bit. I followed the Meteorb guide and currently I'm L83 and I'm stuck. My equipment isn't all that great since this is my first char since I started playing again (my old chars expired but they weren't that high anyways). My main problem is that I'm not strong enough yet to do Meph, Pit, Baal runs to get good items and my MF is pretty low. My Meteor does around 4000 damage and my fireball around 2000. As far as my EQ goes, I have Tal's mask, this odd cuirass that someone let me have (~680 def), Visceratuant? shield, some orb that gives me +skills and some strong boots and ok gloves. I have nagelring ring and some ring that gives me resistances. I think another problem is that my resistances are all negative (around -30, -40, -15, -30). It's so hard to find someone that will help me out and when I try to trade the stuff I've found for items I need everyone leaves. hehe.. I guess that means what I have is worthless when asking for Shako or Tals armor. Anyways, any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance. (sorry for the long post)

-Bernoulli

[VTbbman]

Welcome to the forums :howdy:

I too ran into this problem, but at a lower level. I got to about 78 and got stuck because NM baal runs were giving me very little experience and I couldn't get through hell. What I did first was get a merc (act2 def-normal) and leveled him up to my level over the period of a few days (NM cows works well between merc lvl 45-70). After that, I started doing NM meph runs to try and to get some decent gear, mid-level or higher. You don't need a lot of MF to do mephisto runs, just a lot of patience. After a while, you'll find better stuff and/or trade for better stuff. I am now lvl 86 and still going and I normally MF on hell difficulty by doing mephisto, andy, countess, pits, pindle. I rarely run into any problems with my merc to tank for me. Hope this helps.

~VTbbman

[pedro11]

I agree with VTbbman about getting yourself a decent merc, if you are dieing alot a defiant merc might be best or a HF merc, for the resists Wizard Spike and Mosers with 2 x P diamonds the FCR on Wizard Spike will help your teleport if you hit one of the Breakpoints, you should be able to get both at the trade forums

Pedro

[Bernoulli]

Alright, I'll try levelling my merc. Where should I level him?

[melianor]

Alright, I'll try levelling my merc. Where should I level him?
Look at this lvling table:
http://strategy.diabloii.net/news.php?id=512
That can be used for you Merc too. When you are lvling a Defiance (Defensive Merc) Merc from Normal you will notice that its very hard to get him from his initial lvl to ~lvl25. After that its a breeze.
The difference between a normal and hell defiance merc is in statpoints and life, though the difference is not that high. If it gets too tiresome for you, you could get one in Hell too ;)

Also, concerning your problems. Mephisto in NM is good enough for tradeables. I did it that way with my first Meteorb. Concerning Mercs, from whta i remember the Meteorb build from sasja strongly suggests using a Merc! Without a Merc its very painful since playing your Meteor gets hard and not very convinient.
Use Frozen Orb more and when trying Hell Meph be sure to have at least 63% FCR for Teleport and dont forget about Static to bring him down to half of his life!

[Bernoulli]

What's FCR?

[melianor]

What's FCR?
FCR = Faster Cast Rate. Without at leat 63% FCR you will not reach the breakpoint to teleport fast enough so you can escape possible melee/ranged attackyou might encounter when you teleport down to Mephisto for example :)

[Bernoulli]

Ohh... yeah, I always run into problems like that. I end up teleporting between a group of monsters and get butt ***** :surprise:

[melianor]

Ohh... yeah, I always run into problems like that. I end up teleporting between a group of monsters and get butt ***** :surprise:

FCR helps there, also Shiver Armor, since it freezes on attack and not hit, also if you get hit then FHR (Faster Hit Recovery) is great. But you might not be able to get it all in your gear. Enough FCR + Shiver Armor and you are usually on the safe side.

[ayoko]

Survival will be tough in hell with negative resistance. I think you should farm in NM for some charms/rares/crafting gear to get your resistance up. I'm do recommend wearing a naglering with that resistance if you have a rare/craft ring with good resistance available (especially lightning).

[ayoko]

Typo - I "do not" recommend.

[Furinol]

A tip for targetting with meteor -I am sure many know this- drop the meteor in front of the baddies and then when they are close pop a fireball or two on them. That makes most beasties stop long enough to catch the rock :)

[Ulric]

Good way of getting some nice equipment is to do NM Meph and Baal runs. Even though you won't get any EXP, you can get still find decent items and money for gambling and you can do it while wearing high MF equipment. Also try using your imbues on Circlets and Tiaras. I got a +2 Sorc with resist, life, Mana and Fast Walk that way. Even if you can't find Moser you can use rhyme or 3 socket shield with 4 pdiamonds to get some needed resist. Personally, I first made a Paladin to do MF in Hell to get equipment for my Sorc. Its lot easier to build Paladins for Hell with their shields.

goodluck

Ulric

[Tanatus]

Well resistance is that what killing you.... Somethat cheap solution (temp) - make a "smoke" rune armor no skill boost but nice resistance also make a "lore" rune word for helm (+30 lighting resist/+1skills) - personaly then evern I had to start untwinked sorcs I was always starting my career with 2 cheap to make items - Stealth for armor and Lore for helm. I also recomend try burn a lot of cash for ring gambling untill you get something along lines 10FCR/resist all/life or 10FCR/resist a lot couple elements/12%MF. Not foget to gamble for boots as well - they easy comes with +plently resist/faster run/some MF. As for belt look after nightsmoke not expensive but yet provide resistance, huge bonus to damage to mana (50%). Also look after large charms with mode like 25+life/13+resist to element (those arent expensive to get) or 10+life/11 resist to element small charms (those could be more costly)
As for merc I suggest for time been get one with holy freeze aura from NM act2 and keep it till you will able craft rune word "doom"

[Vec2267]

Four suggestions:

Get a merc as others suggested. Use teleport to save him if necesary, or glacial spike to freeze.

Try to tag along with groups rushing through hell. They'll appreciate your killing power. Just stay behind the melees. If they are chickens and run at the sight of the first monster, find a different game. Getting the Anya quest will help your resists a lot. If you are playing SC, just wait till you gain a level, gamble your money away. Then it won't matter if you die.

Trade perfect gems and low level crafting runes (Rals are very popular) for mid level items. Look in the trading forums here and you'll find numerous threads with people looking for the above. You can probably get Skins of the Vipermagi for 10-20 gems. Wizspike for <10. That should solve your resists problem. Frosties and the fire gloves (forget name) are < 5. Put a P Diamond in your shield. Throw flawless gems in a mule and cube them up.

Gamble.

[Bernoulli]

Hey, I was just doing hell meph runs (I can do them 90% of the time by having him get stuck but the other 10% a few of his minions notice me and i'm pretty much done for.) Anyways, I recently got REALLY lucky and got a Stormshield from meph. What should I try trading it for? Or should I keep it? My str right now is 120 and it req. like ~150 or something. What do you all recommend?

[melianor]

Hey, I was just doing hell meph runs (I can do them 90% of the time by having him get stuck but the other 10% a few of his minions notice me and i'm pretty much done for.) Anyways, I recently got REALLY lucky and got a Stormshield from meph. What should I try trading it for? Or should I keep it? My str right now is 120 and it req. like ~150 or something. What do you all recommend?
As your Str is already so high you might just aswell shoot for it. How high is your Dex? Is it high enough for max-blocking with SS?
With a Hel in SS or some items that give you additional str you will be able to wear it soon.

[Bernoulli]

Str: 110
Dex: 145
Vit: 160
Ene: 75

Oh, and I just got Griswolds armor... what should I trade it for?

[melianor]

Str: 110
Dex: 145
Vit: 160
Ene: 75

Oh, and I just got Griswolds... what should I trade it for?

shield str block dex/lv LV30 LV50 LV80 LV99
------------------- --- ----- ------ ---- ---- ---- ----
Stormshield 156 67% 2.24 83 127 195 237

Look here for Dex req, not sure what lvl you are now. But i guess you will have problems getting maxblock with the dex you have. If you cant reach max-block with SS i'd rather go with one that requires less str/dex and put the rest into vitality!

Griswolds Shield (if that is what you mean) is worth alot.
Pick what you might need, not sure if you would get somethign like Tal's armor though. Maybe Arachnid Mesh though for example.

[Bernoulli]

Oh, I mean Griswold's Armor (umm gothic plate or whatever it's called :P)

[melianor]

Oh, I mean Griswold's Armor (umm gothic plate or whatever it's called :P)
Not worth alot.... ;)

[Bernoulli]

Hehe, i just got Occy and Mavina's bow for my SS... I think that barb knew less than what I know about trades. :p

[Tanatus]

Well SS worth a lot more then Occy+Mavina bow ..
SS it the best defensive shield in game for any class but paladins - I'd trade it at least for tal's ammy or ammy+ something more from tal's set (like orb)

[Bernoulli]

Oops, oh well.

[SoCal44]

Griz's armor is basically worthless (few PGems on Ladder), but IMO isnt a bad MF armor for your merc. 3PT the sockets and its not too shabby.