View Full Version : Am I underleveled for Andy?
I'm getting my butt handed to me just trying to fight my way to Andy herself in nightmare mode. I finally get to her room and this pack of extra fast, mana burn, and probably other stuff champion <monster that shoots lightning balls out of mouth> come out, tears my merc to shred in a second, and almost kills me before I used a rejuv and teleported out. I used like 4 Rejuvs just to reach level 4 from the level 2 wp. Does this mean I should go level some more or something? I even have trouble against Diablo and Baal in normal (more against Diablo than against Baal) even with maxed out resists, but I can beat them with enough time.
I dunno, but I feel like I'm playing in a multiplayer setting even when I'm alone. the monsters always do horrendous amounts to damage to my poor sorc :cry: Can someone give me some tips? Keep in mind this is my first char so I have no equipment other than what I find.
Typically I go to nitemare at 50, hell at 75-80 depending on resistances and how well the character is playing. For nitemare andy make sure you have good poison resistance and some poison damage reduce. Make sure youve got some gear on your merc that keeps his defense and resistances up, along with a decent weap.
You can make some relatively inexpensive runewords for mercs with decent mods: Malice (ith el eth), Strength (amn tir) etc...
As far as you taking a lot of damage, use your merc to keep stuff off of you, let him tank and you be the damage dealer. Just worry about resistances and anything that pumps your skills. Defence will come as you find better items but if you can't survive to get better items, then there's no point.
I'd help you out but I don't have any characters on west of any significant lvl.
i like to go to nm about 42'ish as i can use certain items by then (hoz, occy, etc etc) depending on my build. and yea psn reduce and psn res is very crucial against andy as in nm u start off with -40 res.
I'm currently level 29. Against Andy herself I normally bring some antidote pots to help, but I'm just getting my butt kicked in general. Is this game designed so you must levlel grind a whole bunch after defeating Normal?
29 is low to be trying to do andy solo untwinked. You havent even hit your lvl 30 skills yet, which is where the fun truly begins. Try to get in with a group, join an andy for quest game. You could also just join full games and kill through the normal areas in act 1 nitemare. Or you could just do what the majority of ppl do and rush through letting other ppl do the work for you while you just leech experience.
I'm currently level 29. Against Andy herself I normally bring some antidote pots to help, but I'm just getting my butt kicked in general. Is this game designed so you must levlel grind a whole bunch after defeating Normal?
What about these baal runs I keep seeing? Maybe I can join one of those? But I can't see Normal games anymore :(
thats why I didn't suggest them for the simple fact you already went to nitemare. The easiest way would be to have someone on your friends list join baal games, that way you would know the game the person joined (on mutual friends lists the ppl are messaged the game that others join). Then you could just follow them into the baal games. You could also switch between a normal char, to see what games are up and then go back to your nitemar char to join the game you saw. The other options is to make the baal game yourself and hope a high lvl comes in, if you know someone have them run the games for a bit.
Otherwise you're forced to do nitemare stuff.
What about these baal runs I keep seeing? Maybe I can join one of those? But I can't see Normal games anymore :(
obiwansbane
05-09-2006, 23:58
my suggestion is just make ure own baal games and have someone else tele them for u lol... as for andy... u need at LEAST 1 more lvl... hit 30 put a point in frozen orb, and u will completely hax spam the hell out of the catacombs.... u will laugh and cry and jump for joy and laugh some more... but for now... get to 30 :smile:
obi's rite, if you have good skills distribution for either a bliz or meteor-orb, then you can do Andy nm solo. i usually start nm at level 30; however, it helps to have a good merc. act 1 merc with a 3 socket bow with perfect gems does a lot of damage ..and should last you until act III. then pick up an act II merc for the defensiver auras+meat sheild. also see if you can pick up a level 24 staff with 2-3 meteor skills..they should be available to you in act I of nm. with that staff its pretty much a cake walk thru andy :prop:
i normally go to nm around 35, then gain good exp in most areas of a1 while doing quests alone or with a small party, depending on gear
too much skill items actually make it harder for lower lvl sorcs, use too much mana and overkill some monsters
for a merc i use a5 (barb) with a high dmg eth 2h sword, high def armor and helm
obiwansbane
06-09-2006, 06:21
^^^ good point, but that all really depends, some people find the need for extra mana nothin much, just pump out the mana pots till u can get ureself an insight
but if u are having trouble i highly suggest more +skills as a couple of mana potions is a small price to pay rather than having to go bak pick up ure bod and try again
Evrae Altana
06-09-2006, 06:41
I'd level up to level 31, so you can stick a point in both Frozen Orb and Cold Mastery, unless of course, you have a spare point saved up.
I've got a spare point saved up. I can afford to put points in fire mastery, cold mastery, and frozen orb at level 30.
Currently my main weapon is a "Leaf" staff with +3 fireball +1 Shiver armor, and the rest of my stuff are magical or rares which aren't really that good. I do have this one unique amulet that grants +10 to max fire resistance, and I somehow manage to get maxed out resists in normal even without a shield.
But the strange thing is I still have trouble even in normal. Lister and his minions made me waste a LOT of gold on reviving my merc. Diablo's pink lightning hurts a lot even through my max lightning resist.
MY points distribution is basically a few in ice bolt to help woth frozen orb. Lots in Fire ball, lots in Meteor, one in Warmth, one in static field and teleport, and 1 in all the other prerequesites. My main spell is fireball at the momentbut I do use Blizzard against Fire immunes.
jiansonz
06-09-2006, 09:01
The hurt from Diablo´s lightning inferno is easy to explain. Half of the damage is physical and you have no shield. That equals major hurting.
How come you are so low in level? Even when I do not raise the players setting (I play Single Player, not raising the setting means you get the same XP as if you are alone in a game) or replay an area even once, I get to level 37 before Normal is over.
Well people give me waypoints, so I got to skip through about half of the jungle in act3, and I skipped some portions of act 5 as well.
krischan
06-09-2006, 11:18
I've got a spare point saved up. I can afford to put points in fire mastery, cold mastery, and frozen orb at level 30.
Very well. Do that at L30, then retry :wink3:
I'm not sure how useful FO is versus nightmare Andariel, but she has very bad fire resists (-50, in contrast to +50 versus the other elements and +80 versus poison which means fire deals triple damage in comparison to cold and lightning), so you might be more effective with a few well-placed fireballs, as soon as all the other monsters have been killed with FO.
Regarding equipment, defense rating is irrelevant. You need resists (poison in particular, as well as lightning because of the lightning ball monsters), +skills and FCR (breakpoints are 9%, 20%, 37%, 63%, 105% and 200%). Later in the game you should try to achieve 105% FCR for safer teleporting and better fireball spamming, but with an untwinked build, 63% are more realistic (fcr ring/ammy, Magefists, Stealth runeword, Suicide Branch, Spectral Shard).
I suggest doing some normal blood runs or cow runs, they should be easier than Diablo or Baal runs and still give good exp.
how do I do blood and cow runs? what exactly are they?
your level is simply too low, that's really all there is to it. you can't expect to get results if you're not willing to put in the time.
29 at nightmare andariel is just ridiculous. that basically means that you've been skipping pretty much anything and everything that you could.
it seems like your skill points may be spread too thin. as a caster you really want to maximize damage and take advantage of synergies. and regarding your mercenary...don't even use one at this point in the game. wait until you have some good gear for him/her and much higher skill levels before you even bother with one. the reason why i say this is because there's not much you can do at this point to support him/her, and as a result he/she will just keep dying and costing you a lot of gold.
when i was new i made a bonemancer and my a2 merc kept dying in late normal, eventually i had very little money. then i realized that i didn't even need it in the first place, and that i had wasted all of that gold for practically nothing, so instead of hindering my bone spells by wasting points in curses to help my merc, i simply got rid of him and my problems went away.
i imagine that there probably other reasons why you keep getting killed, but your character's level is one of the more fixable ones.
Evrae Altana
06-09-2006, 21:40
how do I do blood and cow runs? what exactly are they?Cow=Secret Cow Level=transmute Wirt's Leg (found in Tristram) with a tome of town portal in Act 1. Enter Portal and kill cows.
Blood=Bloody Foothills, the area right outside Harrogath
it seems like your skill points may be spread too thin. as a caster you really want to maximize damage and take advantage of synergies.
But if I go with all Fire, for example, how would I even get past Colenzo? He is always fire immune, just like hwo the mummy after him is always poison immune I believe. Don't I need two trees to fight immune monsters?
krischan
07-09-2006, 11:26
Make a dual element sorc, e.g. fireball+meteor+FO. There are very few monsters which are immune to fire and cold, e.g. the hell Countess, hell Eldritch (~50% chance) and a few random bosses and other super-uniques if you have bad luck. This is where your merc comes into play.
At L30 you put a single point into fire and cold mastery and from that point on invest into FO until it's maxed at L49. In nightmare you will have nearly no problems just by using FO, except for a few areas in act 5 and a few cold immune bosses. Then invest into fireball, meteor (they synergize each other) and fire mastery. The sorc forum might give you clues about which order is the best. Don't put anything into firebolt at this point. After that, you have to decide how much to invest into cold mastery and how much into further fireball/meteor synergies (firebolt is a synergy for both). I decided for cold mastery.
It's also a good idea to invest a single point into static field, teleport (a must !), warmth (a must !), frozen armor and perhaps energy shield at the earliest opportunity..
Make a dual element sorc, e.g. fireball+meteor+FO. There are very few monsters which are immune to fire and cold, e.g. the hell Countess, hell Eldritch (~50% chance) and a few random bosses and other super-uniques if you have bad luck. This is where your merc comes into play.
At L30 you put a single point into fire and cold mastery and from that point on invest into FO until it's maxed at L49. In nightmare you will have nearly no problems just by using FO, except for a few areas in act 5 and a few cold immune bosses. Then invest into fireball, meteor (they synergize each other) and fire mastery. The sorc forum might give you clues about which order is the best. Don't put anything into firebolt at this point. After that, you have to decide how much to invest into cold mastery and how much into further fireball/meteor synergies (firebolt is a synergy for both). I decided for cold mastery.
It's also a good idea to invest a single point into static field, teleport (a must !), warmth (a must !), frozen armor and perhaps energy shield at the earliest opportunity..
Weee.....I'm level 48 now, having killed Baal a few billion times (and finding only some mediocre stuff). Orb is almost maxed, and I can do ok fire damage I guess. I've got a Wall of eyeless which is great because with it I have 65% Faster cast rate, but my resists are sucking. Should I ditch the Eyeless when I find a 3 socket shield that can make Acient's Pledge?
or you you can find a two sock shield and make rhyme, which gives 25% mf i believe and resists.
http://onlinegamersguild.com/images/dii/rhymeshield.png
Weee.....I'm level 48 now, having killed Baal a few billion times (and finding only some mediocre stuff). Orb is almost maxed, and I can do ok fire damage I guess. I've got a Wall of eyeless which is great because with it I have 65% Faster cast rate, but my resists are sucking. Should I ditch the Eyeless when I find a 3 socket shield that can make Acient's Pledge?
fahartle
07-09-2006, 21:15
Oh man, grab thyself a spirit shield and you'll be smokin. Ancient's Pledge is passable if you can't get anything else, but you can trade for a clean Monarch shield and a Thul rune for PGems. The only hurdle is the relatively high strength requirement, but the +2 skills, FCR, resists, and a nice mana bonus is unbeatable (or at least it was a year ago when I was working on my sorc). Good to hear there are still new guys out there enjoying Diablo!!
unfortunately, I don't have any runes above Ort, so no fancy runewords for me right now :( Even my merc is still using store-bought magic polearms.
On the other hand, using a suicide branch together with a Ancient's Pledge shield is working really well together. I still have nice FCR when I add in my "Stealth" Wyrm hide armor, and decent resists in Nightmare. I have a set shield on switch that gives +20 mf.
Anyhow, how many sockets do I need for "Spirit" and what runes?
krischan
08-09-2006, 09:27
You need a nonmagical 4 socket shield. The lightest one is a monarch which drops in hell mode. I has a rather high str req for a sorc, but IMO it's worth to invest that much into str. You can buy one for a few pgems, just like the runes. If it's unsocketed, socket it with the Larzuk quest reward. It will get 4 then.
A few visits to the nightmare Countess will give you the runes needed for runewords like Spirit (Tal, Thul, Ort, Amn), Obedience (Hel, Ko, Thul, Eth, Fal - polearms, no spears !) and Insight (Ral, Tir, Tal, Sol - polearms, no spears !).
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