Hell Ancients

[tripsu]

Having trouble defeating the hell ancients. I'm a fireball/orber. I have full tals and using a spirit monarch. My fireball damage is right around 4500-5000.
With the monarch I have 1040 life/910 mana.

I guess my question is, how can I beat these guys? I just found a stormshield today so I was thinking of using that for the 35DR. Would that help much because when they hit me it hurts!!? Also, any other suggestions besides my stormshield question would be greatly appreciated.

Oh, since this is my first character I'm trying to get through the game solo so I don't just want to have someone do them for me.

thanks

[tripsu]

Sorry!!! Meant to post this in sorceress thread! Any way for me to move it there?

[strikeamatch]

Having trouble defeating the hell ancients. I'm a fireball/orber. I have full tals and using a spirit monarch. My fireball damage is right around 4500-5000.
With the monarch I have 1040 life/910 mana.

I guess my question is, how can I beat these guys? I just found a stormshield today so I was thinking of using that for the 35DR. Would that help much because when they hit me it hurts!!? Also, any other suggestions besides my stormshield question would be greatly appreciated.

Oh, since this is my first character I'm trying to get through the game solo so I don't just want to have someone do them for me.

thanks

there is a request help thread, an off topic thread, and a community forum (link w/ the jump to forum at bottom of page) for this type of post.

sorc's tend to suck at ancients without super gear, so... good luck.

keep in mind this game was not meant to be played solo (easily)

[soonborn]

what kind of merc do you have?

[mephiztophelez]

keep in mind this game was not meant to be played solo (easily)
yes it was meant to be played Solo.

D2 can be played solo and untwinked, in hardcore. many, many players have guardian'd all sorts of oddball, untwinked builds that played their way through the game (you know, actually collect the bits for Khalims Will). it's a challenge, it means being patient, it means playing with some care and caution rather than a mad, headlong rush straight into every fight.

that said, Hell Ancients is one of the toughest fights any solo player can attempt. a Fire Enchanted Ancient goes off with one hell of a bang.

[tripsu]

what kind of merc do you have?

A2 nightmare merc. He dies fairly fast.

Any sorcs who have done it that can help me though? Like what equip I should use as a sorc? My big question is spirit monarch or SS.

thanks

[Hector]

You seem to have a good amount of Mana and Life. Your Mana should allow you to Teleport pretty a lot before running out, so do it as much as possible. Keep Teleporting to bring merc with you, and Orb them. Keeping the non cold immunes slowed is essential, once they are dead, deal with the cold immune. I'd use Spirit for faster casting, because teleporting out quickly is more important, as it helps both your defense (escaping) and attacking (quick casting damage), unless your resists are really bad and you need SS. Do you have max block or not?

Fireballing is usually hard because you will have no time to stand casting for long. Instead, cast Meteor on your own feet and run in a way to lead them to the Meteors or the fire that burns on the ground. Teleporting back and forth works nicely. I assume you have Meteor as it is a synergy to Fireball, but if you don't then use Fireball but do Teleport a lot.

Last but not least, once you start a battle, run around check the Ancient's magical attributes before seriously engaging them. If you think it looks too hard, just open a TP to stop the battle and spawn them again until they come with the mods you can deal better with.

[AnimeCraze]

Insight merc, and tele like mad. If it is a laggy game, remake. The key is that you and your merc should not be hit at all.

[tripsu]

thanks guys, i'll try the mad teleporting trick. Will let you know how it works.

[BildBenny]

You can reroll the Ancients' bonuses if they're proving too difficult. Activate the altar and summon them, tele around avoiding them, verifying what modifiers they have. If you realize they're just too much, just tp back to town and back again. When you return they'll be unsummoned. Rinse and repeat, until you decide they're doable.
I did them all alone in Hell the other day with an Assassin using only Fire Traps, although I was lucky the first time around. :)

[strikeamatch]

yes it was meant to be played Solo.

D2 can be played solo and untwinked, in hardcore. many, many players have guardian'd all sorts of oddball, untwinked builds that played their way through the game (you know, actually collect the bits for Khalims Will). it's a challenge, it means being patient, it means playing with some care and caution rather than a mad, headlong rush straight into every fight.

that said, Hell Ancients is one of the toughest fights any solo player can attempt. a Fire Enchanted Ancient goes off with one hell of a bang.

i would disagree... the game was set up so that certain situations are impossible solo. your solution i would bet is to exit and reroll the map. a valid way to solo thru the game, but not how it was intended to be played.

consider the standard rpg format: some friends get together, set up a group, and play. the group is mostly selected to complement each others strengths and weaknesses.

now consider the fact that this is a multiplayer online game as well... pretty obvious that the two go hand in hand.

uber gear or super patience will get you thru solo, but that is a personal quest not something intended.

sorry to spam your thread... cheers.

[SSoG]

i would disagree... the game was set up so that certain situations are impossible solo. your solution i would bet is to exit and reroll the map. a valid way to solo thru the game, but not how it was intended to be played.

I've never run into a situation that was impossible solo. I think perhaps that you are tossing out the word "impossible" too lightly. Could you tell me what situation, exactly, you think is impossible to solo?

Now, there are some *BUILDS* that are impossible to solo with. For instance, a Blade Sentinel/Psychic Hammer/Dragon Flight Assassin. I seriously doubt such a creature would be capable of beating the game. Likewise, a Ravens/Carrion Vine/Cyclone Armor/Arctic Blast Druid is pretty much doomed from the start. With that said, a well designed build (PJ/LF/FA Javazon Hybrid, Hammerdin, Fireclaws Druid, Hydra/Orb Sorc, Lightning Trapsin with BFury and Fireblast, Summoner Necro, War Cry/Berserk Barb- to name one from each class) could definitely solo any situation it could ever possibly run into. Some would be harder than others, of course (some combination of Dolls/OKs/Gloams/Horadrim Ancients in the throne, for instance), but none would be truly "impossible".

[Eilo Rytyj]

Your life seems a little low, and your mana seems a little high. Did you invest points in Energy? I've found, that with that gear, you can still get 600+ mana with no Energy, and you can then squeeze a little more life out from higher Vitality, perhaps another 100-200 more life. Insight on your merc from level 27 onwards helps out drastically with your mana situation when you're going with a no-energy build.

Your damage looks OK, but it could be better. I've found that maxing Fire Bolt before Fire Mastery is better for Fire Ball damage. You can get 1k to 1.5k more Fire Ball damage by simply maxing Fire Bolt first. Your Meteor damage doesn't suffer too badly either, it will still be a 10k+ behemoth. The only real loss is the damage of the residual fire left behind by Meteor is considerably less, but that is usually only a bonus rather than something you'd rely on. Fire Ball is your main fire killer.

Perhaps it's too late to remake your Sorc. I'm currently in the process of completely remaking my Meteorb when I found out the thing about Fire Bolt.

Do you use Magefists as well? They're a must for this build too. You need them to get to 105%+ FCR.

Another thing, are you actually running at 105% FCR? I feel it's a must for an easier life as a caster Sorceress. Your evasive teleporting reflexes are better, your damage with Fire Ball is better (spammage ftw), your general killing speed is much better if you're casting at 8 frames as opposed to 9.

[tripsu]

I'm using Frostburns right now. Thats why my mana is higher. I'm moving towards trying to get 105 FCR but this is my first character so I have to deal with what I can find and trade with it. Right now I'm focusing the little wealth I have on trying to eventually get hopefully 3 fire skillers and an anni to help out my fire damage a lot. Those right there should give me about another 1-1.5k damage.

And yes, I've been going the fire bolt route.

Thanks for the help.

[AnimeCraze]

i would disagree... the game was set up so that certain situations are impossible solo. your solution i would bet is to exit and reroll the map. a valid way to solo thru the game, but not how it was intended to be played.When 1 smiter can take out uber trist with crappy gear, you know the game can be soloed. As for map rerolling, you don't need to do it much for some classes at all (think summon necro). Besides, why else would they have created SP mode?

[PFS]

i would disagree... the game was set up so that certain situations are impossible solo. your solution i would bet is to exit and reroll the map. a valid way to solo thru the game, but not how it was intended to be played.


I see you have not seen Superdaves thread in the Amazon forum yet...