Base Vit., no shield sorc...

[ElmoCorruptsChildren]

So I joined this pointless tourney for the sake of a challenge yesterday, and the rules are quite strict. It's HC, untwinked, vanilla D2. They demand that no stat points can be used in Vitality, that you absolutely cannot use a shield at any time, and using any form of "tank" will be penalized, meaning skills like Valk or Shadow Master or hiring any Act 2 or Act 5 mercs. My original thought would be to use a Sorceress who'd max Frozen Orb IF she gets to a high enough level... from there I was kind of stuck on getting her to that point. I have made it to the Jail by using a socketed bow so far, but... I have a feeling that unless I find mad rubies to up her life, I won't be able to Static Field act bosses without dying immediately, especially Duriel.

I'm asking for your opinion on what would be a logical and, more importantly, SAFE way to progress a sorc w/ these restrictions. I have a couple thoughts; shoot 'em down and tell me what's wrong with them, please, before I actually commit myself to anything.

1) Stay with the bow, start pumping points into enchant ASAP, and when it comes to Duriel just take shots while I can and tele away, using tons of TPs and probably staying safe.

2) Sink a point or two into Blaze and just make Duriel kill himself... but this is not so solid; since I'm not putting points into Vit., I'm not gaining much stamina. I'm holding onto a couple charms right now, and I can find a few more before then, but I'll still be TPing all the time.

3) Begin investing in a different skill; Lightning... Ice Bolt for synergies to Forb?... I have no idea.

Thanks for reading and responding. GL, all!

[k/t]

Well, they have no way of knowing if you put points in Vita or not, right? =:>
(That's supposed to be a devil, like on MSN). Here, this one then: :D

Yes, yes, honour system. In that case:

I was gonna suggest Blaze to kill Duriel, but you've already thought of that. Find a 2 socketed staff that gives +3 Blaze and make a Leaf out of it. Or even just straight +3 Blaze will do. (Make sure you do this alone, or Duriel will chase the other people instead of feeling the burn). Just buy 10 Stamina potions and you'll be fine. Determine their duration ahead of time so you can drink whenever the potion is gonna wear off.

What's the point of the tourney? Who can get the farthest? Save every rejuvenation potion you find and every gem so you can crank out more when needed. A lot of times I die because I get cheap with potions, even though I have a beltful of them and there are a ton on the ground.

Run, don't walk. Uh...useful tips...don't die? Can't go wrong with that. 3 socketed armor and 3 socketed helm loaded with P Rubies will ensure you probably won't die anytime soon.

As to skills...ES will keep you alive longer, but you need max TS, and in the meantime you'll be getting damage-dealing skills. Enchant sounds fine, since I think it's a safe bet that most of the tourney participants won't make it to Hell Baal. Frozen Orb will be a good back-up skill. I don't think Ice Bolt is worth it, just put a few points in Cold Mastery.

Get a Cold Arrow merc to slow monsters down.

This all sounds very nerve-fraying to me. :(

[Superhal]

that's why i don't like the sc tourneys. the rules can go into the pages and all of them involve self-inflicted ways to make the game harder. imho, they should just set an end goal (e.g. fastest to hell baal) and put up a fastest times list.

but, to the task at hand: it is quite possible to static everything to death in normal. i used to go with clegs set and static, getting the last blow with the tooth. (i used to call it "giving them the fang.")

imho, the easiest way would be to make 3 pemerald bow (i don't believe you can get one 4s at your level.) this can also kill normal baal and diablo.

the leaf staff is a good idea, but i don't like blaze. imho i would just take my chances on beating him to death with static. make a stealth armor, use fcr rings and amulets, and an fcr staff to get you to 65%. 1 pt frost nova (a pre req anyway for orb) supposedly works well in slowing him down. don't try to run around, use tele. standing against the wall will keep you from getting kb'd.

[essojay]

omg ECC j00 ch33t3r :lol:

I found fireball to be quite safe since it's fast, accurate, and deals a lot of damage. You might want to consider that in conjunction with Frozen Orb.

That makes meteorb sound so much like an original build that's never been done before. :p

[k/t]

The breakpoint is 63% FCR, not 65.

[MonsterSlayer]

I don't know if this is against the rules, but you could use extreme many points in energy and then when you reach level 24+ you should be pretty save I guess? Of course it'll require you making the runeword for boosting the shield and get some +skills to achieve level 40, but shouldn't be that hard.