HC Baalrunning sorc

[Vectom]

Hello,

I would like to ask you, experienced guys, what would be the best possible build to kill baals minions fast and the proper gear for such build. This all in HC in 8 player games.

I was thinking about blizz build (either TK or max synergies - what's better?) or pure meteor (what's the build for this?). Would this be viable also for teleporting into the throne?

Any advice appreciated. Thx

Vect

[Superhal]

cold is generally the best, as only the skelli mages are always cold immune. lister's pack and colenzo are always fire immune.

jury is still out on energy shield/tk. i tried it with @10 in tk with 2 different characters, and at that point, it seems to work like old ES. i can tp through worldstone fine without it.

generally, for teleporting to baal, you want:
cold, fire, lightning absorb
75% block
45-50% phys damage reduce
75%+ resists

fcr is still being debated. i find 63% to be passable, but 105% is better. your main attack spell(s) won't matter here.

[Vectom]

cold is generally the best, as only the skelli mages are always cold immune. lister's pack and colenzo are always fire immune.

jury is still out on energy shield/tk. i tried it with @10 in tk with 2 different characters, and at that point, it seems to work like old ES. i can tp through worldstone fine without it.

generally, for teleporting to baal, you want:
cold, fire, lightning absorb
75% block
45-50% phys damage reduce
75%+ resists

fcr is still being debated. i find 63% to be passable, but 105% is better. your main attack spell(s) won't matter here.

Fine, I'll go the max blizz + i.blast + tk + cm + rest g.spike..1ES + 1warmth + 1static way...is that ok?

Gear would be:

Shako
Viper
DF
SS
Arachnid
2 SoJs
Frosts
WW
Maras

This with some runes and charms would make 75res all, 45DR, 70fcr. So what do you think? Is there a better gear setup for such build? Or even better blizz build?

Thx in advance

[Superhal]

i went max glacial spike first and then the other blizz synergies, as it is very useful for keeping melee chars (including your merc) alive.

you won't need the sojs/frostburns. it is better to have life>mana in case of mana curse. high synergy blizz doesn't need the extra skills.

i use wiz spike/magefists for 70% fcr. frees up a lot of slots.

you look short on resists, even with um in helm/armor.

i would go tgods instead of arachnids. gloams are easy with it, death without.

[melianor]

Found a huge improvement with 105% fcr, but you can do fine with 63% aswell.
Just like Superhall said, Cold seems to do very well at the Throne and your Merc can take care of the Skellies with the help of Telekinesis and StaticField.

Good about Cold at the Throne is also the fact that there will be less dead material for the Mummies to resurrect. Sometimes those resurrections can be a nasty surprise.

Meteorb works well too, though pure Cold-Sorc will kill faster.

[Vectom]

@Superhal:

Well, but you need mana to have something to be taken from if ES starts to work (in WS and throne all the time), don't you?

...and is maxing TK really necessary? Isn't the last blizz synergy more worht it?

Whatabout energy? Like 60 base?

I know I have many questions but you seem to know a lot about this stuff. So thank you again :)

[Superhal]

@Superhal:

Well, but you need mana to have something to be taken from if ES starts to work (in WS and throne all the time), don't you?

...and is maxing TK really necessary? Isn't the last blizz synergy more worht it?

Whatabout energy? Like 60 base?

I know I have many questions but you seem to know a lot about this stuff. So thank you again :)

just life>mana. if you raise your mana, add some vit or vita charms.

re: tk: still more research needs to be done. my next build will be fo/max ES/tk, so i'll probably post something here. so far, it seems that tk doesn't need to be maxxed for ES to be effective, but @10 pts minimum.

base nrg. lots of ways to boost your mana through eq/charms.

[Vectom]

just life>mana. if you raise your mana, add some vit or vita charms.

re: tk: still more research needs to be done. my next build will be fo/max ES/tk, so i'll probably post something here. so far, it seems that tk doesn't need to be maxxed for ES to be effective, but @10 pts minimum.

base nrg. lots of ways to boost your mana through eq/charms.

So max blizz, i.blast, gs, cm, 10TK, rest i.bolt right?

What merc for such sorc?

[WackenOpenAir]

About the Telekinesis.

Sure, ES might be usable at TK lvl 10, but:

at TK lvl 10, you will lose 1.38 mana per damage instead of 2, so that makes you lose 31% less mana.

If you go lvl 20 instead of 10, you will lose 0.75 mana per damage. That makes you lose 46% less mana then with 10 points.

In other words: The higher points are more effective than the lower ones. Same as with resistances where it is more obvious:

10 resist instead of 0 makes only 10% difference
85 resist instead of 75 makes 40% difference

Therefore, maxing is still a nice thing. This goes for TK, resist, blocking etc..

[melianor]

If you follow one path, follow it to the end to make it most effective.
Just like Wackopenair said this goes for all build types!
Trying to mix and blend and get away with half puts you on a pretty uneffective/unsafe side.

[Stiertje]

For Baalrunning there are a few things you need to consider, especially when you go for a single-element build;





For a Cold build;

Some of the meanest critters you can find in the Throne Room (not Baals Minions, the normal monsters) are Cold Immune. Oblivion Knights are Cold Immune, and since you need your merc to do some of the killing these can be a major pain in the behind (Iron Maiden)

Your merc will be best helped with an item that has "Cannot be Frozen" property. You definately need your merc to kill the Skelleton Mages in the second wave, and they do Cold damage. Cold damage freeze combined with Decrepify from Baal very quickly results in your merc being killed.





For a Lightning build;

Same as first for Cold build, there are some very mean critters that are Lightning immune (Souls) that may be very hard to get rid of by just relying on your merc.





For a Fire build;

Erm, just 1 Baalrun should make you see the impotence of a fire-based build in Baalruns. Don't get me wrong, Pure Fire can be very great, but with a pack of always fire immune Lister & Co you might want to reconsider.





So, from personal experience I definately wouldn't go for a Fire based build, since Lister is always Fire Immune. Also Knights are pretty hard on your merc, especially when you do not kill the accompanying Oblivion Knights fast enough. Pure Lightning and Pure Cold are quite viable, the last one more so because of it's potential awesome damage and the slowing effects. The Skelleton Mages require some extra work and some experience with only Cold. Lightning is only a little hard when you have Souls in the Throne Room, but apart from that it's quite OK. Personally I would go for Pure Cold (Blizzard) or a hybrid (Meteorb or CL/FO)

[R3V-pl]

So about TK if I have it on 1 skill put into and I have 9 skill from my stuff is it works like on 10 lvl or on 1lvl. Must I give there as many points as I want to work it ..

Sorry for ****ly eng :P

[decoy_sJ]

i agree..pure fire is VERY impotent for baal runs..but i ran hell baal quite often these few days (apart from keeping my HC pally alive :lol: ) and it CAN be done...

the way to the throne if u have a good enuff cast rate shd be v safe..if u see the death (?) lords just exit and create a new game..hp too high plus fire immune..

this is the way i do it..

1. clear the immediate area outside the INNER throne where baal is

2. kill kill kill till the venom lords

3. static them and let ur merc kill them

4. lure lister and gang out of the inner throne room and tele fast enuff back to baal..he will 'haahahhahaha' and go into the chamber.

5. baal = easy kill.

well..erm..tts how i do it..anyone got any better suggestions? :scratch:

[Stiertje]

So about TK if I have it on 1 skill put into and I have 9 skill from my stuff is it works like on 10 lvl or on 1lvl. Must I give there as many points as I want to work it ..

Sorry for ****ly eng :P

Telekinesis gives it's synergy to Energy Shield only for the hard skillpoints invested in it. +skill does nothing for a synergy bonus and it's like that for all synergy skills.

The only way you can get a synergy from +skill items is when you have not put any points in the synergy skill and wear an item that gives slvl x charges of that specific synergy skill. When you wear an item that grants that specific skill this will grant you the synergy bonus as if you invested the amount of skillpoints into that skill.

Ok, sounds a little weird, but it is a bug. It works on all items that give a specific bonus. Most of the time it's quite useless as in the slvl of the specific skill is too low, but sometimes it's quite notable. Many Necromancers make use of this bug, because there is an item that gives a higher synergy bonus to Bone Armour, Teeth, Bone Spear and Bone Spirit then normally possible with hard skillpoints. This is called the "Marrowwalk bug" since the slvl 33 Bone Prison charges on these boots give an slvl 33 synergy bonus, which would be slvl 20 max normally. Again, this ONLY works when NO skillpoints have been invested into the synergy skill (here Bone Prison)