Ideal build for rushing others (and myself)?

[krovak]

I decided to make some character(a sorceress?) who should be able to rush other characters to hell. I am used to play LoD a do not have idea which builds and skills are most powerful in classic. The character should be able to solo at least all necessary quests and should be able to do it fast(thus i assume using sorceress for teleporting). I have read several nice guides in these forums and found for example blizzard sorceress or orb sorceress but i am not sure whether a sigle element(cold) is suitable for this purpose. I am looking forward to your ideas:girly:

[Noite Escura]

If you don't need to finish Hell CS, the best option IMO is a dual elemental. Orb/Fireball or Blizzard/Fireball should do the trick.

[Akukami]

In my experience, an Orber Sorc rushes very well from Normal To Hell Andy. After that, some outside help is needed when dealing with Claw Viper Temple in Act 2, and of course, Hell CS has Seis who is always immune to cold, and Infector who sometimes spawns immune to cold. Like NE said above me, if you're not going to finish Hell CS, then an Orber is the way to go. However, if you decide to go dual element, then go for Orb/Fireball, or Orb/Firewall. I like the latter choice since you don't have any other synergies to level for Firewall aside from Fire Mastery. As for a Blizzer/FBall build, Blizzard is really weak without most of it's synergies maxed, and including Cold Mastery, that's 5 synergies to max. Your choice though.

- Akukami

[krovak]

Thanks a lot for your answers. I am glad to hear(read) that the sorceress i have already started making is not completely lost after all:smiley:. I now have following points spent in her skill tree: firebolt 5, fireball 14, warmth 1, meteor 1(+ prereq 3), static field 1, telekinesis 1, teleport 1, frozen armor 1, frozen orb 1(+ prereq 5). She is now lvl 30. In which skills should i put the points now? What to max first and which synergies are worth maxing? Thanks in advance for your possible further advice:idea:

[nickedoff]

From what I hear, 'tweaker' sorcs (20 Static, 20 Orb and syns) is the perfect character to rush through any difficulty, as long as you have enough energy and can take a few hits.

[krovak]

Is static field also limited to 50% of total monster life in classic hell? It would indeed be a great skill if not:rolleyes:

[McCain123]

Static is not limited in classic and the number one boss kill skill.
I have a very succesful rushing sorc in classic, that can rush 7 chars without much problems to act3 in hell where you can convert.

Her Skills:
20 Frozen Orb
20 Cold Mastery
1 Warmth
20 Fire Wall
1 Fire Mastery
1 Static
20 Teleport
1 in all prequisits

As you can guess, she is level 82 and I wouldn´t recommend to plan with a much higher level, as it will get pretty time consuming.

Her Stats are
80 Strengh
51 Dexeterity
Base Energy
Rest Life

She wears:
Tarnhelm
+1 Sorc Amu with some res
Goldskin
Spectral Shard
3 soc Tower Shield with 3 PDiamonds
Rare Belt with 24% fhr and some res
Ring with some res
Stone of Jordan ( lucky find while rushing )
Mage Fist
Rare Boots with frw, 10% fhr and some res

Important is that your resistancies are max or at least as close as possible, that you have some fhr and that you hit 63% fcr.

The tactic is pretty easy. Kill everything that is not cold immune with your Orb. Fire immunes are staticted down and toasted with Fire Walls. The hardes part of the rush is the Temple of the Vipers in Hell. Tele through to level 2 and stick to the walls so that less snakes charge into you. Tele right on top of the altar. If there are snakes, Static and toast them. Snakes can´t use stairs, so you don´t have to handle all, just the few, that might be on top of the altar. Things can get tricky, if there are a lot of skellies ( cold immune and can use stairs ) and the guys who revive them. In this case, there is a huge box on the bottom left of the level, where you can hide and engage opponents one by one. Tanking one is OK with this build, tanking five or more will get you killed. Since you are a rusher, definatly go for 20 points in teleport. Swallowing Blue pots is getting frustrating and you mana regeneration won´t be big enough even at 20 points in warmth. Don´forge to swallow a couple of anidotes before engaging hell Andy. Her poison hurts but at 85% res it is managable.

[fledgeling]

I would balance teleport with warmth
I am a big warmth fan btw

[WarlockCC]

She wears:
Tarnhelm
+1 Sorc Amu with some res
Goldskin
Spectral Shard
3 soc Tower Shield with 3 PDiamonds
Rare Belt with 24% fhr and some res
Ring with some res
Stone of Jordan ( lucky find while rushing )
Mage Fist
Rare Boots with frw, 10% fhr and some res

Don´forge to swallow a couple of anidotes before engaging hell Andy. Her poison hurts but at 85% res it is managable.
Very nice and complete mini-guide(the way I prefer rather then mile-long stories of how somebody's dog inspired them to use the yellow armor of brown bow.)
I wonder though about the poison res, I didn't spot Iratha's, Venomward or Jade Tan Do in your items, so how would you get 85% poison res ?
Afaik, bessides the temporary 50% to poison res, a antidote doesn't boost your max.

[HardkoreHarry]

I wonder though about the poison res, I didn't spot Iratha's, Venomward or Jade Tan Do in your items, so how would you get 85% poison res ?
Afaik, bessides the temporary 50% to poison res, a antidote doesn't boost your max.

Antidote potions do raise your max poison resist. Thaws do the same for your cold resistance.

[McCain123]

I would balance teleport with warmth
I am a big warmth fan btw

Warmth is nice, true, but if you get your teleport cost to 3 or below you can tele without loosing mana and since you are teleing 80% of the time I would always go for 20 points there.

I forgot 1 point in Cold Armor. But level 82 is correct. :wink3:

[krovak]

Thanks a lot for this awesome guide McCain. Now i hesitate whether to make a new sorc that you describe or to keep the one i have described above and use fireball instead of firewall. To be honest i have no experience with these spells since i have only played a lightning-sorc so far:undecided: If i am correct firewall has approximately 4x higher damage(assuming same number of points spent in it) BUT it has a casting delay and monsters must stand inside...

[McCain123]

Well, you have already put more than 1 point in Firebolt and a point in Meteor so you won´t get a maxed Fireball, wich won´t do to much damage. It doesn´t have to be Fire Wall, you could also go with Fireball, but having it not maxed is probably not a good idea and sacrificing the power of your Orb or your costs for teleporting isn´t aswell.
If you spend more than 3-4 hours playing a week I would probably rebuild your sorc, but if you are short on time, just bring your Fireball to 12+ Skills and try it.

I chose Fire Wall because of the way I deal with cold immunes. I usually tele on top of them, cast a Fire Wall and keep Static pressed afterwards. This works for me, if you play different Fire Ball may be better for you.

[Noite Escura]

I assume you use this procedure just for killing eventual immunes needed for going ahead and avoid most of them? I personally don't trust non-stop teleporting as I have a slow connection which always put me in trouble. In some cases I like to kill all the immunes around. That's why Fireball works better for me. You can do hit-and-run and even alternate with Orb against non C/F immunes.
@krovak: Your sorc is not totally lost, but the points you spent in Meteor and pre-reqs certainly will be missed later. Meteor is not useful in Classic.

[McCain123]

Of course I only kill what needs to be killed in a rush. Either because the monster is part of the quest, or because I need a free spot for the mule.

De Seis in nm has the habbit to be cold immune at times, as well as some of those pesky vipers that have to spawn exactly on the altar.

[krovak]

....I have a very succesful rushing sorc in classic, that can rush 7 chars without much problems to act3 in hell where you can convert...


My sorc is now lvl 51 and i just tried to do the first rush from act 1 normal to act 1 hell. Everything went smoothly but i was a bit diasppointed when i found out that my lvl 1 lord was converted to lvl1 slayer and he had to get through nightmare baal quest in order to proceed further to hell. Then i remembered these your words about act3 hell - do i understand it correctly that i have to finish act2 hell in classic to be able to convert the characters to champions directly?

Btw what is the fastest(and working nowadays) method to rush through act 2? Do i have to search for the staff & amu or is there some possible shortcut?

[CheeseRYummy]

Btw what is the fastest(and working nowadays) method to rush through act 2? Do i have to search for the staff & amu or is there some possible shortcut?

You can just get the amy, but you need someone else who has the full staff.

[McCain123]

My sorc is now lvl 51 and i just tried to do the first rush from act 1 normal to act 1 hell. Everything went smoothly but i was a bit diasppointed when i found out that my lvl 1 lord was converted to lvl1 slayer and he had to get through nightmare baal quest in order to proceed further to hell. Then i remembered these your words about act3 hell - do i understand it correctly that i have to finish act2 hell in classic to be able to convert the characters to champions directly?

As soon as your chars reach act 3 in hell, they will convert to champions and can continou in act 3 in LOD.
I haven´t found huge shortcuts for act 2 so far, but if you are mass rushing ( 7 guys 7 times ) then I use the very first game, so that everyone has the staff build and will stop at that point. Then everyone starts fresh chars and when we reach hell act 2 one guy will join with his staff char and do the Duriel Quest for all ( only he can take the TP, but all will get the Quest ). Since I created 7 chars with the complete staff in the very first game, you can do this trick 7 times.

[krovak]

... Since I created 7 chars with the complete staff in the very first game, you can do this trick 7 times.

LOL, that's clever! I'm not going to flood the world with high runes, so mass rushes like this are not exactly my target. Well, after all, why not?:grin: Anyway, is there some group of people who do this type of rushes for each other somewhat regularly? I find that constant user-switching quite inconvenient and would rather rush another person, when he(or she) could return me the favour right after...

Thanks again McCain, there is always something to learn from more experienced people:thumbsup:

[McCain123]

Of course I don´t play the 7 chars myself. I usually have one mule in this game and six free spaces for others ( normally my clan members ). For payment we handle it like this, that people with two mules, will give me one in every 3rd game, people with one mule are free. Nevertheless I get all the drops, which is a nice deal. Getting constantly questdrops in 8-player games is rewarding aswell.

[Edit] Try the player matchup forum for some arrangement with others.

[MarkN]

I've also got a lot of experience, I've rushed over 50 characters to hellforge in the past couple of weeks.

I made a 77 Meteorb sorceress, most of the time I could rush my mules to act3 hell just fine. The problem areas were the summoner area (melee goats, leeching casters, mana leech ghosts) where I sometimes got overwhelmed by the opposition, and the room before duriel was quite crowded with beetles and urdars from time to time.

The advantages of meteorb:
-pretty much no dual immunes
-hell andariel is a piece of cake

The disadvantages of meteorb:
-definite lack of damage in 8-man CS runs

The next time, I'll probably make fredsta54's orb/static/tstorm sorc instead.

[Noite Escura]

Meteor is rather difficult to use Classic. That's why I simply go Fball instead.

[MarkN]

When I say Meteorb I mean a sorc who uses Fireball as main spell and Orb as backup.

[Byrdie]

then that would be fball/orb?

[McCain123]

A little update, since I have done arround 20 more rushes with my sorc. In one single game De Seis was even dual immune ( cold / fire ) in nightmare, so using a Lightning Skill could be better for backup. On the other hand Fire Walls damage is pretty decent and handles cold immunes quickly. Two more dual immunes ( cold / fire ) have crossed my way in these rushes, but both could be ignored, as I didn´t need to kill them for quest or a free spot. I guess I´ll try a Orb/Nova Sorc to see, if she is more succesful in rushing.

[fredsta54]

A little update, since I have done arround 20 more rushes with my sorc. In one single game De Seis was even dual immune ( cold / fire ) in nightmare, so using a Lightning Skill could be better for backup. On the other hand Fire Walls damage is pretty decent and handles cold immunes quickly. Two more dual immunes ( cold / fire ) have crossed my way in these rushes, but both could be ignored, as I didn´t need to kill them for quest or a free spot. I guess I´ll try a Orb/Nova Sorc to see, if she is more succesful in rushing.

I dont think orb/nova would be more succesful. I think you should make a tri element sorc (kind of)

Orb/fwall just like your current, with a 1 pnt static/1pnt TS/LM with a few + skills... should work, no need for remake just lvl a lil







Fred

[McCain123]

I would need to level her to 88 to get 1 hard point in TS and LM and my 3 +Skills wouldn´t improve the damage too much. Should I find a second SoJ and trade for a +2 skill amu, this could be a viable option, but with my gear now I doubt, that the Lightning damage would be great enough to kill DeSeis. Apart from that level 88 in classic will take quite a lot of time, as Hell CS is a level 78 area and even Bosses with +3 to area level will get nerved once I hit level 87. Don´t know, if it is worth the effort.

[fredsta54]

I would need to level her to 88 to get 1 hard point in TS and LM and my 3 +Skills wouldn´t improve the damage too much. Should I find a second SoJ and trade for a +2 skill amu, this could be a viable option, but with my gear now I doubt, that the Lightning damage would be great enough to kill DeSeis. Apart from that level 88 in classic will take quite a lot of time, as Hell CS is a level 78 area and even Bosses with +3 to area level will get nerved once I hit level 87. Don´t know, if it is worth the effort.

Ive killed hell De seis with static/maxed telekenises, so i think you should be able to do it in nm with static/low TS







Fred

[Noite Escura]

I think that with less points to spare, Nova is better than TS in that respect.
This is what I'm planning for my tri-elementalist:
20 Orb
12 CM
20 Fball
20 Fbolt
1 FM
7 Nova
1 LM
1 Static
1 Tele
1 Warmth
6 Pre-reqs
complete by level 79.

[McCain123]

I think that with less points to spare, Nova is better than TS in that respect.
This is what I'm planning for my tri-elementalist:
20 Orb
12 CM
20 Fball
20 Fbolt
1 FM
7 Nova
1 LM
1 Static
1 Tele
1 Warmth
6 Pre-reqs
complete by level 79.

I´m pretty sure, that you don´t have too much trouble to kill with this skill placement, but for a rushing sorc 1 point in Teleport is horrible. Imagine my setup and stats on a sorc like that, I would have a manapool < 300 mana and a Teleport that costs me 21 mana / tele. Tele 15 times, swallow pot, tele 15 times, swallow pot is nothing that will make you feel comfortable while rushing.

A skill placement I could think of would be

20 Orb
5 prereqs
14 CM ( +3 skills = 17 = -100% )

20 Firewall
2 prereqs
1 FM

20 Teleport
1 Static
1 prereqs
8 Nova
1 LM

finished at lvl 82, although I would miss my Cold Armor. Drawback here is, that Andariel in Hell has 66% Coldresist and Duriel even has 95%. Three elements seem to either sacrifice too much killing power or costs for teleporting. I can´t however recall a monster that was immune to cold and lightning on my way to act 3 in Hell so Orb/Nova could be a better choice. If I find the time to level a sorc up, I will try it the Orb/Nova way. Orb/TS could get tricky, as you can´t select the target for TS and if it hits lightning immunes, it is wasted. Advantages would be, that you can keep static pressed, while TS finishes a single monster off.

[CoyoteKid]

Horrible ideas.
2 trees is challenging enough.

[tdlofcc]

I'm in the process of making a nice and viable rush sorc ... but I'm coming up short ...

I tried the FO / TS and its just not working.

Bosses perhaps work, but I did some act 2 hell testing ... and there are too many cold resist monsters there. TS did jack didly squat. Even with 2 monsters I did not get them to die. For the record I tested with /players2 ...

Orb is just THE easiest rush skill the sorc has. So I want to stick with that skills.
Synergies are useless IMHO, since you'll mostly be doing 2 player games, and you only need 17 mastery. I also went to lvl 15 tele. 10 mana is low enough. I also wanted like a level 10-15 static to bring life down fast.

Summing up skillpoints it would look like this: (wearing a +2 ammy)

20 Frozen Orb
15 Cold Mastery (17)

13 Static Field (15)
13 Teleport (15)

61 Skill points taken. I think that I will get this char to lvl 80, meaning I have about 30 points left for a second skill. After quest skill points ofc.

I tried Fireball, but with the low amounts of mana I have I'll still be chucking down lots of mana pots. Firewall is crappy to aim. Since monsters dont seem to want to stand still in a blazing fire ;)

[CoyoteKid]

Why all the points in tele?
One should do the trick!!!

[tdlofcc]

Why all the points in tele?
One should do the trick!!!

Have you read the entire thread ?
Alot in tele keeps the cost of teleporting down.

Since you'll be teleporting most of the time, it sucks to keep buying Mana pots.
I know *I* didn't like it.

[Kiwi Legend]

Why all the points in tele?
One should do the trick!!!

On an orber you have spare skills and maxing teleport makes it easy to go all vit sorc and have mana not be an issue allows teleporting to your hearts content.

[tdlofcc]

On an orber you have spare skills and maxing teleport makes it easy to go all vit sorc and have mana not be an issue allows teleporting to your hearts content.

Thats what I said ... but Teleporting to ones heart content ... sounds SO much better :D

[Noite Escura]

I´m pretty sure, that you don´t have too much trouble to kill with this skill placement, but for a rushing sorc 1 point in Teleport is horrible. Imagine my setup and stats on a sorc like that, I would have a manapool < 300 mana and a Teleport that costs me 21 mana / tele. Tele 15 times, swallow pot, tele 15 times, swallow pot is nothing that will make you feel comfortable while rushing.


Yeah, but as the context went from Rushing to Tri-element, I just thought of giving my approach :wink3:
As you feel comfortable with Firewall I would suggest what you already proposed, taking out some points from the Fire tree to Improve teleport. Though I would still not max it. I also think your "manapool < 300 mana" is a bit underrated if you play twinked.

[Kiwi Legend]

Thats what I said ... but Teleporting to ones heart content ... sounds SO much better :D

LOL
Maybe if yours was translated to dutch it would be like a poem? :P

[goomba]

it's not as fast, but when rushing I tend to use my laptop, plus desktop, and run two pcs.

I have an 88 din, an 87 mf baba, a maxed chanter (she just needs sojs) and an 88 blizzer.

between one, or more of those accounts I can self rush from lvl 1 thru hell CS in not very much time at all.

or, the chanter makes all levels of cows, so she can make, and then chant for levelling, or chant a new baba so he can kill in flayer as examples.

edit: I should have mentioned that all of my sorcs get static.

[tdlofcc]

I went for Orb, Static, Tele and Nova btw :)

Well, just added nova, level 62 now ... hoping to level her some more tonight.

[Byrdie]

Or you could just build a ES/Orber and have no mana problems when teleporting till your hearts content. While also carrying the trend of sorc rushers with the unbeatable Frozen Orb.

[tdlofcc]

Or you could just build a ES/Orber and have no mana problems when teleporting till your hearts content. While also carrying the trend of sorc rushers with the unbeatable Frozen Orb.

I tried that :)
I find I still need to mana pot. Especially when you land in a pack of baddies.

I got my rusher to lvl 68 now. 10nova and 10 lt mastery makes me kill cold immunes pretty well. After static ofcourse and in Nightmare.

Good think I can level her at least 12 lvls more. So I should be able to max Nova and add some to LM.