MF, and sparkling stuff?

[Resteppa]

I have been away for about 3 years and started playing again 2 weeks ago. I never really got as far as I am now and I have some questions..

I'm mfinding with my full blizz sorc at meph/council (sometimes andy) in hell, been getting some nice stuff but I havent really been getting the items I really want :). What other places for mf are there? (is it really worth mfinding in areas with just monsters? I mean isnt it better to do 6 meph runs than 1 run through an area with monsters). Another thing is that Im completely blizzard and level 87 now (so no way to get any other skills). I read alot about needing a merc, but what should I give him? he dies very often on me? am I to late getting the merc, becaus I hear its better to level the merc with you on your travels...

could someone help me on what to give him
* what kind of helm (how high def is good enough?)
* what kind of weapon (what kind of damage should it do??)
* armor, etc...

another question is, There seem to be little sparkling stars popping out of me, what is it? :smiley:


PS. another question... I get the being restricted from this realm pretty often, I heard its about joining games to fast.. but I'm only doing mephruns (I think blizzard inserted this for those bots advertising for stuff on their webshop. Why didnt they add a check to see if people gained any experience points in their last game. If they did that game wont be counted as advertising...)

PS2. sorry for my not so great english, i'm dutch and not a native american/englishman

[terpfan]

They changed it so that the merc is around your lvl when you hire him. So basically if you hire him now, you should be fine. There's a good guide in the sorc forums (under build guides) that has complete info about mercs. Sorry I don' thave time to type out a better response.

Also in re: to the ps, people used to do bot runs for the bosses (pindle etc), so checking to see if they gained exp wouldn't work..

[sic_of_it_all]

What other places for mf are there? (is it really worth mfinding in areas with just monsters? I mean isnt it better to do 6 meph runs than 1 run through an area with monsters). s better to level the merc with you on your travels...

could someone help me on what to give him
* what kind of helm (how high def is good enough?)
* what kind of weapon (what kind of damage should it do??)
* armor, etc...

another question is, There seem to be little sparkling stars popping out of me, what is it? :smiley:

PS2. sorry for my not so great english, i'm dutch and not a native american/englishman

Mfing can be done and act bosses. the pits are also nice to clean out. but if your afull cold char you can try doing mep, andi and pindle if he isn´t cold imune.

mecr: merc need ll. so try to give him a Vampiregaze
Grim Helm. if that is to mutch for you you can give him tals mask. for the armor you can try using Shaftstop. the dmg reduction is great. for a weapon i can´t help you beceause i don´t know what you got in your stach.

the sparkling stuff is shilling armor. or i of the 3 other spells that a sorc can do for more defence. you can find that skill at the left at the cold skills.

p.s my english isn´t thak great to. but what the heck. i´m dutch to so if you play nl give a shout if you need help. my acc are:
sic_of_it_all
sic_of_it

[Resteppa]

what is pindle?

[Darnoc]

Resteppa,

You can also look at the magic find guide stickied in the community forum; you will find listings of every area, what treasure classes can drop in them, and the probabilities of more desireable items dropping in them.

As for your merc, hire a act 2 holy freeze merc(defiance works well too). If you play ladder, get yourself a 4os polearm and put the insight runeword in it; it gives up to lvl 17 meditation(regenerates mana) which really helps sorcs alot. If you play nl, there arent as many options for polearm merc weapons, but a bonehew works; ethereal would be best though. If you have an extra Um rune and you're lucky enough to find a 3os elite eth polearm, put the crescent moon runeword in it.

[handofnaz]

Pindleskin is the Super Unique Returned found through the portal Anya opens to Nihlathak. The sparkles come from one of the three cold armors, or you might be wearing a Lawbringer runeword and might not know it :)

[Resteppa]

tried him 4 times now, always cold immune :S does this change? and did I have bad luck? or is he always cold immune :)

[Hrus]

tried him 4 times now, always cold immune :S does this change? and did I have bad luck? or is he always cold immune :)
No, he is Cold immune only if he spawns with magic resistant or cold enchanted mod. I use Blizzsorc to hunt him and in my experience he is CI with odds around 1:7. Four consecutive runs with CI Pindle - it's really a bad luck.
If he is CI - just kill the minions, use static field on Pindle and let your merc kill him. If it is needed, help your merc by using telekinesis on Pindle (keeping him in hit recovery).

For your merc, you should equip him according to your character. For example when hunting Meph, he needs a lot of damage reduction and slow is good for him too to be able to survive. Therefore I use Kelpie Snare, Shaftstop and Rockstopper on my Mephrunner. Meph is not leechable, so he lives quite good without LL, however LL helps a lot against other leechable monsters. Another option is Insight polearm that gives you unlimited mana. For Pindle, my merc uses high damage weapon to kill him quickly if he spawns CI.

[krischan]

The best way for a Blizzard sorc to kill Pindleskin is to have a merc and kill him from the entrance into the temple, i.e. at a spot where the roof becomes transparent for you. The merc will run towards Pindle+minions and hold them off you while you kill them with a few blizzards. Don't close on him and cast static, you will die too often.

If he is cold immune, just kill the minions and let the merc kill Pindle. Reaper's Toll, Gris armor with IAS jewels and Tal's helm is the standard equipment of my mercs and the one of my sorc dies perhaps once per 100 Pindle runs. Always have 50,000-100,000 gold in your stash, in case you have to revive hgim.

Pindle will be dead in 5-10 seconds if he isn't cold immune, while your merc might need twice as long if he is. In any case, he will be dead before the zombies in the garden have awakened, but that might not last that long anymore.

To add a little fun to it and to avoid realm down errors, you can visit the Ancient Tunnels below the Forgotten City in act 2 as well, a L85 area with no cold immunes. A few bosses can become cold immune, but a merc equipped as above can deal with any cold immune boss down there.

[Resteppa]

ok so basically I need a good defensive merc, with mana and life leach, and maybe some defensive skills that also work for my sorc.

also give hime a pole (not a sword and shield??)

[SirDooFuss]

ok so basically I need a good defensive merc, with mana and life leach, and maybe some defensive skills that also work for my sorc.

also give hime a pole (not a sword and shield??)

The only mercs that can hold a sword and sheild are the act 3 mages. They suck big time.

Use an Act 2 merc. they give paladin aruas according to the following list:

Skills: Jab, plus one of the following auras:
Combat (Normal): Prayer
Combat (Nightmare): Thorns
Combat (Hell): Prayer


Defense (Normal): Defiance
Defense (Nightmare): Holy Freeze
Defense (Hell): Defiance
Offense (Normal): Blessed Aim
Offense (Nightmare): Might
Offense (Hell): Blessed Aim


Allowed Equipment: Armor, Helms, Spears, Polearms, Javelins (but won't throw)

Holy Freeze would be a good choice, as stated previously. Defiance is my overall favorite.

Another thing about Pindleskin, he can drop really nice items but he is VERY stingy. He may drop nothing decent for many, many runs, then finally drop something useful.

Good luck!

[Resteppa]

I've been doing 12 runs to the ancient tunnels (or whatever they are called) underneath the lost city and found only 1 crappy unique, is this really a good place to magic find? :) and are the monsters really lvl 85? :) thanks

[SirDooFuss]

I've been doing 12 runs to the ancient tunnels (or whatever they are called) underneath the lost city and found only 1 crappy unique, is this really a good place to magic find? :) and are the monsters really lvl 85? :) thanks

Yeah, assuming you're in hell.:rolleyes:
It's just a combination of MF, speed of the runs and dumb luck.
Non realm single players have an advantage over us since they can do the /players 8 command and play like they're in an 8 player game. Imagine that! An 8 player game without an idiot in sight!!!:grin:

[Evrae Altana]

I've been doing 12 runs to the ancient tunnels (or whatever they are called) underneath the lost city and found only 1 crappy unique, is this really a good place to magic find? :) and are the monsters really lvl 85? :) thanksIt's not just the amount of MF you have or where you MF that comes into play. It's also how many runs you do. Turn those 12 runs into several hundred and you should see better results.

[Hrus]

Yeah, assuming you're in hell.:rolleyes:
It's just a combination of MF, speed of the runs and dumb luck.
Non realm single players have an advantage over us since they can do the /players 8 command and play like they're in an 8 player game. Imagine that! An 8 player game without an idiot in sight!!!:grin:
It sin't so big advantage in terms of MF. Most set and unique items will be dropped from bosses and champions and they drop allways 1 item, that doesn't depend on player bonus. So it's worth it to run it on low player settings, because runs are faster.