Matriarch Amber, the Meterorb

[Aconite]

Hi,

Well, after getting frustrated with my max vit blizzballer I decided to start a new sorc in the quest for matriarchy... this time going max block, which I think suits my playing style better. Anyway, I found this character a lot easier than the blizzballer - perhaps the equipment had something to do with it, although probably due to the fact that the killing skills weren't as diluted as an evenly balanced cold/fire split of a blizzballer.

Lvl 82
Cold: 20 Orb, 1 Mastery
Fire: 10 Bolt, 20 Ball, 20 Meteor, 10 Mastery
Plus the usual utility skills
Resists in Hell: 66% to all.
Blocking: 75%
Life: 708
Mana: 558
FCR: 110%

Weap: Wizardspike
Shield: Upped Visceraunt with a pdiamond
Armor: 27% Vipermaji
Gloves: Magefist
Belt: Tal's
Boots: Tearhaunch
Helm: Shako with a ptopaz
Amulet: blue +1 sorc skills
Rings: Manald + rare 10% FCR, 5% Res all

No charms. Nothing on switch.

I'm trying to trade for Tal's Amulet, then I'll equip her with the full set and do some MFing and Baal runs. Wondering where I should spend any additional skill points - cold mastery or fire mastery?

This is my second mat since I restarted in January (yeah, I'm pretty slow :smiley: - real life gets in the way a lot) - my first was a witchyzon.

Hmm.... now to decide on the next project....

[tripsu]

May I ask why no charms? Not even any life or mana small charms?

Congrats! :thumbsup:

[kanonfutter]

Grats on the mat.

I guess they must be the ultimate in dinner transportable. First you freeze it for transport, then a quick barbecue to serve it.


Hi,

This is my second mat since I restarted in January (yeah, I'm pretty slow :smiley: - real life gets in the way a lot) - my first was a witchyzon.



That is scary. I restarted back in November or somewhat, and I still lull around in A3 normal.

[LoneBarb]

Grats on the Pat (oh, its Matriarch in fact :))
I also work on a Meteorb as my first 1.11 SP Mat

/off
I dont understand how playing D2 2 or 3 hours a day can trouble your real life. I dont get the "real life" thing at all - IMO you have your own life and live it as you want.. but thats another topic...
/off

[Aconite]

Thanks for the congrats. I had a lot of fun playing this character!


May I ask why no charms? Not even any life or mana small charms?

No important moral reason - just didn't have any spare (all on my witchyzon - she really needed them!) and didn't feel that I needed any.


I dont understand how playing D2 2 or 3 hours a day can trouble your real life. I dont get the "real life" thing at all - IMO you have your own life and live it as you want.. but thats another topic...


True. However, work + wife + baby > 3 hours of D2 a day... Maybe I should say non-D2 activities, rather than real life, as D2 is played as part of my 'real life'. :smiley:

[Ugla]

Congrats on the mat :flowers:
Do you use actually use meteor or prefer FB with your high cast rate?

[Aconite]

Do you use actually use meteor or prefer FB with your high cast rate?

I use meteor occasionally, but find that yes, I do prefer fireball at the 105+ FCR breakpoint - the stun/interrupt effect of fireball is great at that speed.

With my old blizzballer I was using glacial spike on pindle's minions to help out my merc, but now I find that fireball spam does a very similar job - locking them into the recovery animation until they die (only takes a couple of fireballs!).

Meteor definitely has its uses against big packs though.

[Mursilis]

Meteor definitely has its uses against big packs though.

And bosses.

Congrats on the Matriarch :thumbsup: Just finished one myself and she looks very similar. Do you find the max block useful in softcore/PvM, at least useful enough to dump all the points into Dexterity? Personally I've only gone max block with paladin builds up to this point.

[EnerSense]

Congrats on the Mat!:thumbsup: I have yet to make one of these. I just need to find the time.

[Aconite]

Do you find the max block useful in softcore/PvM, at least useful enough to dump all the points into Dexterity? Personally I've only gone max block with paladin builds up to this point.

Personally I prefer the max block route. I seem to die less often. Also, sorcs don't get a decent return for stat points invested in vitality so going max block makes sense to me (this comment might open a huge can of worms! :tongue: ).

My base strength is 84, dex 168, vit 223, energy 35 (base) at level 84 - so, I have dumped quite a lot into vitality anyway. An upped visceraunt and the 20 dex from Tal's belt makes maintaining 75% block pretty easy.

[Eric Xanthu]

I just Mat'ed a meteorb using a Tal's set I completed recently on my blizz sorc. I like her versatility for running areas, but I just cannot stand how slow I am at killing Baal's minions. Done any Baal runs, and if so, how do you handle waves 4 and 5?

[Darkoooo]

Yeah, I too have problems with my meteorb at waves 4 and 5. The 4th has a very high fire res and my fireballs can't do anything against them. The 5th is FI. And my Frozen Orb isn't powerful enough to kill them. My cold mastery is 19. I don't really think that Meteorbs are good Baal runners. They would probably be easier to kill with Death's Fathom and Nightwing's Veil but those items are too rare to find and too expensive to buy. As Eric said do you have problems with the last two waves?

[Aconite]

I haven't done any Baal runs except for the 1 to complete the game, and that was at /players1. Orb seemed OK for waves 4 and 5, although Lister spawned fire/cold immune so I had to park him near the entrance.

Once I finish re-equipping her (still need Tal's Ammy) I'll give it a go.