Help! I'm getting owned :(

[SaikaiDreams]

Level 76 Meteorb sorc, playing singleplayer, 100% legit. This is my first singleplayer character, however, so I have no tweaked out equipment, just using what I find as I go.

I'm pretty much just getting owned in Hell, as is my merc. It just took 1-2 frusterating hours running The Pit to go from 75 --> 76.

Skills:
20 Fireball
20 Meteor
11 Fire Mastery (currently maxing this)
20 Frozen Orb
1 Cold Mastery
1 Teleport
1 Static Field

Base stats:
STR - 90
DEX - 25
VIT - 260
ENR - 35
(I have 55 points to spare but I'm not sure what equipment will come, will I need more strength, etc.)

Now here's the embarassing part, equipment:
Peasant Crown (+1 all skills)
The Spirit Shroud (+1 all skills)
The Oculus (+3 sorc skills)
25% MF Amulet
Viscerataunt (+1 sorc skills shield)
Goldwrap
Frostburn
29% MF Boots
21% MF Nagelring
24% MF magic ring
and one 12% MF grandcharm

Merc's Equipment:
Peasant Crown
magic dusk shroud (833 def)
The Meat Scraper

Since I followed guides, I don't think skills are the problem, I think it's mostly equipment. Like I'd love to get rid of those MF rings for questing/leveling for instance, but I really haven't found any alternatives worth my time, save one or two +# energy rings or something maybe. I've run NM Meph and Andy at least 200 times (no exaggeration) and basically what I have equipped is the best of what I've found, so I thought I'd move on to Hell, but damn...ouch. Help!

[Dennis_KoreanGuy]

SP is an awesome way to really enjoy the game away from all the current dupes/lags.

I would start pumping Cold Mastery. Orb with a decent lvl CM is very effective PvM. I wouldn't have maxed FB but put a bit of points into CM first.

Nothing to be embarassed about such gear. I myself have tried to get into SP and have ended up playing with much, much worse gear on a mfer.

Suggestions; try getting a +2 Sorc or even +3 single tree amulet. And a Magefist. Try using fcr rings or whatever else you may need to reach 70% fcr.

Get a Tal mask for merc if you can. Or a Blackhorn if you're heavily into meph'ing, since LL don't work with him anyways. Duriel's Shell definitely, CBF + psn protection helps greatly against both Andy and Meph.

[AnimeCraze]

Ditch the spirit shroud and get stealth armor. You need way more faster cast rate if you don't want to embarass yourself vs the enemies in hell.

[SmiterMcZealot]

Make a spirit in a monarch. It's worth it. If you're RWM anyway

[Bjorgin]

Make a spirit in a monarch. It's worth it. If you're RWM anyway

That *would* involve dumping every single spare point he has into strength, and still doing so even after hes levelled a couple. That's the catch with spirit, it's a godly caster runeword but the only options available to sorcs are items with high str requirements, this is even more of a problem when you're playing untwinked.

OP: Your gear isn't that bad! You at least have the occulus which is a brilliant start, and you have some +skills which are definately better than no +skills.
I agree with making a stealth runeword... I love using that armor when levelling my casters, it's pretty damn good!

Do you post in the single player forum?

[SaikaiDreams]

Thanks for the replies. Definitely going to look into Spirit and Stealth runewords. Truth be told, I've never made a runeword before, lol. What's armor should I socket/runeword? Also I've always wondered this, but never bothered to try: if I find a good, non-magic armor, but it has 0 sockets, can I socket it in Act 5 three times, one for each difficulty setting? Or once you manually socket an item, it probably can't be manually socketed again, right?

[zebulin]

Thanks for the replies. Definitely going to look into Spirit and Stealth runewords. Truth be told, I've never made a runeword before, lol. What's armor should I socket/runeword? Also I've always wondered this, but never bothered to try: if I find a good, non-magic armor, but it has 0 sockets, can I socket it in Act 5 three times, one for each difficulty setting? Or once you manually socket an item, it probably can't be manually socketed again, right?

Larzuk won't add sockets to an item that has so much as one socket already in it. The item has to be totally lacking sockets.

The good news (sometimes) is that larzuk will always add as many sockets to a white unsocketed item as that item could hold so you know exactly how many sockets you're going to get in advance.

For stealth larzuk will only be able to provide the socketed armor you need for armors that can hold at most two sockets.

The cube recipie can be a good alternative to larzuk if you won't miss the rune and gems too much and don't mind the gamble on number of sockets it will give to the armor you want to use.

[Thyiad]

Hello there.
I play SP too - RWM and Vanilla. From my experiences, I can make the following comments:

Resistances are much better than MF. I don't know what your resistances are and I am far to lazy to work it out but if they aren't decent you WILL get frelled in hell.

Secondly, I am a fan of Smoke armour for the resitances, but I agree that you will need at least 63% fcr. If you haven't got it, get it. Whether that be rings, ammys or Stealth.

You MUST get CM up to at least 17 after +skills. You are going to meet a lot of FI things in hell and Orb isn't exactly the quickest killer in Hell anyway. Without that CM you are dead meat.

As for Spirit Monarchs ... My first Blizzballer used an Upd Vicey for max block. All of my other sorceresses went max life. It feels safer to me. One of my characters has max life with spirit monarch AND enough dex to use Wizardspike; oddly enough she is my 200 fcr Meteorb. Unless you are RWM and have a 4 os Monarch, I wouldn't bother too much about Spirit. You can hit 63% fcr with Skin of the Viper/Magefists and fcr rings ammys. 63% is enough if you are sensible.

Now wander over and say hi in the SPF!

[hoi]

I think it's your merc. Playing without one makes a sorc in hell scary. He is supposed to draw fire so you have the time to kill stuff in safety. Almost anything else won't work when you are untwinked

However his gear isn't even close to that. You might have forgotten about him since u do alot of mephruns (no use there) but he is more important in hell that any of your gear... Bottom line buff ur merc instead of you (cause he REALLY sux) or your going nowhere... And make sure u get the Frozen Aura or Defiance one.

[AnimeCraze]

For stealth armor, I would just go to act 2 normal and shop for a 2 socket one.

[windwingwind]

I'm in a very similar situation as yours, just that I dont even have the peasant crown and occy. What I am doing now is just MF nightmare andy and baal and hope for somethings good drop.

[SaikaiDreams]

Yay, I made stealth and then happened to find a +10% fcr ring, so I've hit 65% (is this the limit/any more is useless?).

Any tips for leveling? I've been doing Tristram over and over, it's decent xp it seems, much better than The Pit anyway.

[Bjorgin]

Yay, I made stealth and then happened to find a +10% fcr ring, so I've hit 65% (is this the limit/any more is useless?).

Any tips for leveling? I've been doing Tristram over and over, it's decent xp it seems, much better than The Pit anyway.

Keep pumping away at the fcr %. 65 is decent, the next breakpoint is 105% fcr, so head for that.

[Vegetall]

IMO.... i dont know why everyone cares about FC so much, i mean its playing style, resistances are what to go for, i been playing for about month now with over 2 years off... luckly i met a real nice person that gave me some good stuff
and i have found some decent gear also...shako is about it but still

occy
shako
tals ammy
tals armor
2x nagles
25% fc spirit
some cheap rare mf boots

i know its better set up and its just breaking teh 65% and i havent had a problem playing only problem i ever have is down in nik in hell, other then that i can do everything and so go for resistances and fc secondary, and moat trick mephy in hell if u can and u should even with that gear be able to destroy andy with fireball i only have metor maxed and i can take her down fairly quick, if you just run them ur exp will go up with the little mf u have u will still find some stuff... just IMO

[SaikaiDreams]

Just checking Arreat Summit's runewords information, and it says Spirit is a Ladder-only runeword, and can't be used in singleplayer. Is that true?

[zebulin]

Just checking Arreat Summit's runewords information, and it says Spirit is a Ladder-only runeword, and can't be used in singleplayer. Is that true?

Yes they won't work in single player.

However, RWM allows you to use any ladder runeword in single player and it is accepted here alongside ATMA as one of the few mods permitted by players intending to trade or MP here.

Here's a link to it.

http://www.twilightdesert.com/d2/mods.html

[AnimeCraze]

IMO.... i dont know why everyone cares about FC so much, i mean its playing style, resistances are what to go for, i been playing for about month now with over 2 years off... luckly i met a real nice person that gave me some good stuffFaster cast = more fireballs per second = more damage. Also, if you can perfectly dodge all attacks, who needs resists? :wink3:

[Bjorgin]

IMO.... i dont know why everyone cares about FC so much, i mean its playing style, resistances are what to go for, i been playing for about month now with over 2 years off... luckly i met a real nice person that gave me some good stuff
and i have found some decent gear also...shako is about it but still

occy
shako
tals ammy
tals armor
2x nagles
25% fc spirit
some cheap rare mf boots

i know its better set up and its just breaking teh 65% and i havent had a problem playing only problem i ever have is down in nik in hell, other then that i can do everything and so go for resistances and fc secondary, and moat trick mephy in hell if u can and u should even with that gear be able to destroy andy with fireball i only have metor maxed and i can take her down fairly quick, if you just run them ur exp will go up with the little mf u have u will still find some stuff... just IMO

A fast teleport is defense and resistance in itself.