Blizz sorc and /p8 baals

[Dunedain]

I wanted to make this blizz sorc my first lvl 99 and just had a few questions on how to make it through the baals.
I planned on full tals for the easy resists, + life and mana, but it does lack some power. Is full tals the way to go?
Rings - should i use my bk and soj or go with more survivability, something like a wisp projector and raven?
How many cold skillers am i gonna need?
How do I handle the cold immune skeletons on the second wave - leave it on players 1 through the wave and let my merc kill them, or can a merc handle them on players 8?
I was actually considering not using an act two merc. Thinkin maybe an act 5 merc with doombringer, andariels and shaft. I hear they regenerate life faster than act 2 mercs, would he be reliable?

Thats about all the questions i have for now.

[Indemaijinj]

Well, tackling the Minions of Destruction on /players 1 is what I do with my necromancer.

I also assume you have plenty of crushing blow on your mercenary. It helps a lot.

[Dunedain]

The minions wont be a problem. They arent cold immune and fall pretty fast to a good damage blizzard. I also dont think its a good idea to do baals for xp if youre gonna put it on p1 for the minions, they give as much xp as most of the other rounds combined.

As for my merc, i just need him there as a tank and to kill some weak little skeleton mages. For me, damage isnt in his job description.

[LitmusDragon]

I did several P8 Baal runs to go from level 92-93 with my pure Blizz sorc so I can offer some experiential advice.

I found that it definately helped to switch to /players 1 for the second wave of minions. Just remember to switch back afterwards! :bonk:

You're not losing a lot of XP by doing this wave at /players 1. Most of the XP from the minions comes from the 4th and 5th wave as you're probably aware.

Lister can spawn CI, and seemed to do so often. In these cases I use Static Field and then Telekinesis to help out my Merc. The KB from Telekinesis works on Lister. If he spawns Teleport or Extra Strong in addition to CI, you may be better advised to park him somewhere.

For gear I was using: Ondal's Wisdom, Kira's Guardian, Snowclash, Mara's, Stone of Jordan, and Skullder's Ire for a little MF. I'm not sure about the rest of the equipment. A max block Sorceress would probably be better suited to this kind of run; mine was pure Vit so it didn't matter than I was using the Ondals so much. If having a decent block rate I would have went with a shield instead.

I didn't have full Tal's or I might have used that instead.

My merc was Act 2 Defiance and used Andarial's, Eth Reaper's, and Eth Stone Dusk Shroud. A HF merc would probably be better suited overall (particularly for dealing with Lister).

No opinion on the Barb merc, I havn't used them much.

[grogs]

I wanted to make this blizz sorc my first lvl 99 and just had a few questions on how to make it through the baals.
I planned on full tals for the easy resists, + life and mana, but it does lack some power. Is full tals the way to go?
Rings - should i use my bk and soj or go with more survivability, something like a wisp projector and raven?
How many cold skillers am i gonna need?
How do I handle the cold immune skeletons on the second wave - leave it on players 1 through the wave and let my merc kill them, or can a merc handle them on players 8?
I was actually considering not using an act two merc. Thinkin maybe an act 5 merc with doombringer, andariels and shaft. I hear they regenerate life faster than act 2 mercs, would he be reliable?

Thats about all the questions i have for now.
I have a pure Bliz sorc who is sitting 150 odd runs from 98 (I've completed a little over 2000 runs with this character). They are more than capable of running Baal in very quick order.

My equip:

Harley (with 15 resist jool)
Tals amulet
Tals armour (P topaz)
Snowclash
Death's Fathom (socketed with 5/5 Cold facet for 32% cold ED)
Spirit Monarch
SoJ x2
Wartravelers

and Bonehew (HelHel) on switch (for PMH and CE)
EDIT: You'll need to pick up gold during your runs, it costs around 60000 to repair the CE charges, I ususally get 3-4 runs out of the 30...... I'd hate to think how much I've spent on repair costs.........

Damage is ~7600 with a fully synergised Bliz, with only 1 cold skiller.

Runs: /p 1 for the first 2 waves - at higher lvls they give you next to no exp anyway (a little over 5000exp for both at 97). Cast bliz at achamel and once there are a couple of corpses switch and 1-2 CE's will destroy the skellies.

/P8 for the next 3 waves (park lister if he's CI - I draw him to the left rear of the throne then pin him to the wall with Telekenesis until Baal laughs, tele to Baal and he'll go into his portal).

Kill Baal @ /P 3 as he gives you the same exp no matter what /P setting (3 to 8 :thumbsup: ), or don't kill him at all until lvl 97 - 98 as it'll be much quicker.

Runs take me anywhere from 3 - 4 minutes, the thing that will slow you down is vampires in the throne. If there are mixed monsters, np - kill the non CI, and lure the vampires over, static to half and CE, If there are (Vampire) boss packs save and exit (it'll be much quicker)

Finally you'll want an act 2 merc - for no other reason than to use kelpie snare (upgraded) - it'll make Baal a ***** cat.

[Dunedain]

Thx grogs, informative stuff. Lmao CE from bonehew...how the hell did you think of that :lol:

I dont see myself getting a fathom anytime soon, i cant even afford the tal ammy atm. I take it your resists were fine without the full tals, so i can ditch the idea of 10x cold skillers to make up for damage. thx again :clap:

[grogs]

Thx grogs, informative stuff. Lmao CE from bonehew...how the hell did you think of that :lol:

I dont see myself getting a fathom anytime soon, i cant even afford the tal ammy atm. I take it your resists were fine without the full tals, so i can ditch the idea of 10x cold skillers to make up for damage. thx again :clap:
IIRC Nightfish came up with it. Resists are not that flash really, in the mid 30's for most with the exception of lightning (up to 75 with mf charms with second mods)