Sorc Solo Uber Tristram - A Poor Man's Method

[xniteman]

Well, firstly, a thousand thanks to DreamOfWinter's comprehensive guide here: http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=490206. I didn't know this was possible before reading his posts.

I had a pure blizzard sorc at around lvl 50 when I saw DreamOfWinter's guide, which I made after a 2-year break from BNet. I then decided to follow his guide and convert my character to a hybrid similar to his (20 fewer pts wouldn't lower my blizzard dmg too much anyways). Now I'm at lvl 90 with a similar skill setup with his, and, however, much worse equipment (haven't done much MF/key runs yet).

It was yesterday that I was finally able to make a dream diadem, and I started to wonder, would I really need all those expensive equipments (Infinity/CTA/Eternity, etc) to do the ubers? After a lot of tries today, it is clear that, although difficult, it is certainly doable with very basic equipments!

Following are my equipments:
Helm: Dream diadem
Armor: Vipermagi
Amulet: Rare +skill/+AR amulet
Gloves: Laying of hands (for the IAS and 350% damage to demons)
Belt: String of ears (LL/DR)
Ring1: Ravenfrost
Ring2: Crafted ring with +AR/LL
Shoes: Marrowwalk

Weapon1: Passion
Shield1: Stormshield
Weapon 2: lvl2 LR wand
Shield2: none

Charms: 3 plain skillers (2 cold, 1 lightning), various +life/mana/resist (esp. lightning and cold)/poison dmg charms.

Merc equipments:
Kelpie Snare (Slows target)/Griswold's/Thieve's

Against Duriel/Izual/Diablo/Baal:
Basically I cast life tap on them, then lower resist, static them, and then melee and blizzard them to death. It's quite similar to what DreamOfWinter did, just that I don't have infinity, so LR is needed to effectively static.

Against Lilith/Meph:
I switched to a caster setup, with the following exchanges in equipments:
Amulet: switch to a +3 cold skills blue amulet
Rings: switch to +10% FCR rare rings
Gloves: switch to Magefist
Weapon 1: switch to +2 cold skills/+2 blizzard rare orb
Shield 1: switch to Lidless wall for Lilith, a rare shield with +78 Lightning resist and +56 other resists (2 Perfect Diamonds) for Meph

Now without Eternity, I used the lvl 33 Bone Prison charges in Marrowwalk to hold the enemy, and spam blizzard/ice blast to do the hunt. I just need to cast Bone Prison every 10-15 seconds, and neither Lilith nor Meph could ever get free! I had to return town once to restore the charges while fighting Meph, but that's it. I'd think it's easier than using Eternity (although costs more gold), since I don't need to kill some Urdars first.

This build really rocks as baal runs become so easy with just one dream, lol.

[Eilo Rytyj]

How are you going to cast both Life Tap AND Lower Resist? you can only have 1 curse active at a time.

You've got no mention of Crushing Blow in your gear. You'll take FOREVER killing them without it, even after you've got them down to 50% with static.

Your merc will die. Within a minute, too. Don't count on your merc to do anything except run up to the ubers and get eaten.

You've also got no way to stop their life regen. They'll heal from almost dead to full health in less than a minute. Blizzard and Dream will not deal enough damage. Smiters/other melee characters use Open Wounds and/or Poison damage to stop their regen, or just Poison damage in the case of Summoner Necros (Poison magi).

Baal runs may be easy, but the ubers are a completely different story.

[TarnishedHope]

Impossble.

For one, your resist and CB aren't enough. That alone can mean certain death in Ubber Trist.

[xniteman]

How are you going to cast both Life Tap AND Lower Resist? you can only have 1 curse active at a time.

Oh, forgot that, so my life taps were wasted... No wonder why I gulped so many full juvs...

You've got no mention of Crushing Blow in your gear. You'll take FOREVER killing them without it, even after you've got them down to 50% with static.

I have no CB, unfortunately. And yes, it takes quite some time, not forever though.

Your merc will die. Within a minute, too. Don't count on your merc to do anything except run up to the ubers and get eaten.

For the melee part, I'll take their attack (I have max block and 49% DR), so my merc is OK. For the caster part, Lilith/Meph is busy fighting the bone prison, so my merc can live. However, he indeed doesn't help much.

You've also got no way to stop their life regen. They'll heal from almost dead to full health in less than a minute. Blizzard and Dream will not deal enough damage. Smiters/other melee characters use Open Wounds and/or Poison damage to stop their regen, or just Poison damage in the case of Summoner Necros (Poison magi).

For the melee part, I have poison damage, which stops their life regen. Lilith/Meph is difficult, but I have enough blizzard/ice blast damage to slowly reduce their life.

[xniteman]

Impossble.

For one, your resist and CB aren't enough. That alone can mean certain death in Ubber Trist.

Oh, forgot that I used a different shield (with some resist) for Meph, along with my charms I had about 50 Lightning resist and 20 cold resist (and cold absorb from Ravenfrost) after reduced by the conviction aura of Meph, which was enough for me to live.

[sirmessbu]

Did you actually beat the 3 ubers already or are you planing to do it with the suggested setup?

This thing seems pretty unreal to me. I am not trying to call you a liar or anything btw.

[xniteman]

Did you actually beat the 3 ubers already or are you planing to do it with the suggested setup?

This thing seems pretty unreal to me. I am not trying to call you a liar or anything btw.

Yes, I have done this already...

What's so unreal to you?

[dreamofwinter]

Nice job and welcome to the world of the melee/blizz sorc. As you noted, uber trist and baal runs will never be the same, but nevertheless I'm impressed that you managed to pull it off with such cheap gear. Can you post this on Youtube or the the equivalent next time you make a run? You can use the trial version of SnapIt8 and video capture while playing D2 in window mode. C'mon, we all want to see... :)

Kelpie snare is an underestimated merc weapon that's great for fighting ubers or versus Baal -- the 75% slow plus some cold damage just makes them move like they're on molasses. I also like the idea of using bone prison instead of revives to hold Mephy in one place and I'll be checking it out.

In my later uber runs I also switched to laying of hands instead of dracs for melee, and just used life tap charges on the marrowwalks, which were more dependable. The extra enhanced damage versus demons also makes meleeing the ubers much easier, by increasing the amount of life you leech back with each hit. I stopped using Eternity and instead switched to Harmony in a demon crossbow; it also has revive charges, plus it gives you the option to shoot at Meph from a safe distance. Combined with a source of open wounds (dracs will give you 25%), this will halt Mephy's uber regeneration, without which he dies -extremely- fast. You gotta see this for yourself sometime. Not bad for a rune word that sets you back Tir Ith Sol Ko...

Oh, and if you're on US East, look me up. :smiley:

--dreamofwinter

[xniteman]

Umm, tried again with an Act 1 merc using Riphook(30% OW) in the caster setup, now Meph/Lilith becomes much easier, no need to return town now.

[xniteman]

Nice job and welcome to the world of the melee/blizz sorc. As you noted, uber trist and baal runs will never be the same, but nevertheless I'm impressed that you managed to pull it off with such cheap gear. Can you post this on Youtube or the the equivalent next time you make a run? You can use the trial version of SnapIt8 and video capture while playing D2 in window mode. C'mon, we all want to see... :)

Kelpie snare is an underestimated merc weapon that's great for fighting ubers or versus Baal -- the 75% slow plus some cold damage just makes them move like they're on molasses. I also like the idea of using bone prison instead of revives to hold Mephy in one place and I'll be checking it out.

In my later uber runs I also switched to laying of hands instead of dracs for melee, and just used life tap charges on the marrowwalks, which were more dependable. The extra enhanced damage versus demons also makes meleeing the ubers much easier, by increasing the amount of life you leech back with each hit. I stopped using Eternity and instead switched to Harmony in a demon crossbow; it also has revive charges, plus it gives you the option to shoot at Meph from a safe distance. Combined with a source of open wounds (dracs will give you 25%), this will halt Mephy's uber regeneration, without which he dies -extremely- fast. You gotta see this for yourself sometime. Not bad for a rune word that sets you back Tir Ith Sol Ko...

Oh, and if you're on US East, look me up. :smiley:

--dreamofwinter

LOL, I didn't see this when posted my last message.
And yes, the 30% OW from my merc makes Meph/Lilith a lot easier now:)

Umm, not sure whether I should capture the whole battle, since it's quite long... Duriel/Diablo/Izual are still difficult as their physical attacks are really powerful, and it takes a lot of full juvs to survive them.
At least I need to gather up some full juvs before my next run, lol.

And oh, it should be easier next time since I just got a sorc torch in my last run:)