General Solo Item-Finding Sorc?

[songexe]

I'm an old hand to the game, but I haven't played in about two years, and I've decided to see what's new in the world of Diablo II. As such, I need to make some sort of MF/item-finding character. Ideally, she would be able to solo most common areas in Hell mode (including Meph, Andy, Countess, Mausoleum etc., though solo Baal runs might be pushing it). Currently, I'm starting fresh and have no new items, so everything I get I'll be using.

I've considered a few options, but wanted to get some input:

The "HC Orb/Blind Teleporting Cheap MF" guide gave me some ideas on using ES/Orb, but going one tree severely limits other areas in the game I can run, though the benefit it I don't really need super-equipment, and it's fast and efficient (but it only does one thing...)

Then, I considered an Meteororb build, which is a decent option, except I think you need slightly better items to pull this off than with the Orb/Blind Tele guide.

Recently, I've also heard that CL/Orb sorc (or lightning/orb sorcs in general) are also a great option that give flexibility to fight in areas around the game, but I haven't really explored this option that far (there is also less written in terms of guides/strats to read about on this type of build).

Currently, I'm thinking my items will go like this (all which are pretty cheap):

Armor: Skin of Vipermagi
Weapon: Wizardspike and 2 x PDiamond Mosers
Weapon 2: Gull and Rhyme Shield
Belt: Tals
Boots: War Travs (how expensive are these now?)
Gloves: Magefists
Helm: Tals (I dont think I can afford a Shako....)
Rings: Whatever I happen to find...
Amulet: Tals

All opinions are welcome :)

[Doppel]

Cheapest runeword to make that will greatly help you is spirit, you can switch to gull/rhyme when you make bosskill. (better and maybe even cheaper then wizardspike)
War travs can be quite expensive, you can find some nice rare mf boots yourself whenever you can't afford travs yet.
Would also use chanceguards and goldwrap wich are very cheap (unless perfect).
Insight on merc will keep your mana high. (again pretty cheap to make)
Although tals combo isn't bad either, think tal amu can be quite costly though.
For res i would just fill your inventory up with res charms and if its a nice viper (wich are worth quite a bit, but you can also find it yourself) then put a res jewel in it (by the time you reach hell, you probably got atleast one 13+ res jewel)

[sirpoopsalot]

I would say that Meteorb & CL/FO are about the same for item-dependencies. Meteorb is a little faster and more offensive, but CL/FO is a little better with crowd control (but has a slightly lower kill-speed). Both will work (as will just about any two-skill/two-tree build).


For equipment, Doppel's listed a lot of the good foundation items. Use the search tool for threads started by 'Thyiad', and one of them will be 'Thyiad's Twinky Tips' (or something like that) - she lists a lot of very good, very cheap equipment to help get just about any build started.

[songexe]

Thanks for the replies guys. The one thing about Spirit is that it doesnt give as much + resists as wizzy/mosers.

Does anyone have any good guides/readings for CL/orb or Meteorb? I'm mostly concerned about skill and stat point allocations -- I can figure out items myself.

[AnimeCraze]

The old guides in the stickies still work, though most people optimize for fire ball damage on meteorb, which changes the skill allocation a little.

This guide explains how to optimize fire ball damage:
http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=485416

[songexe]

Any reason people are optimizing for FBall instead of Meteor?

[illestkhmai]

Any reason people are optimizing for FBall instead of Meteor?

Faster, much.

[songexe]

Less damage though, no? Not playing d2 for a while has got my head confused :P

[sirpoopsalot]

not really - you'll cast ~3 fireballs in the time you can cast one Meteor. Then throw the 2-seconds until Meteor hits on top of that, and Fireball will be slightly better on damage (but will take significantly more mana).

FYI, the name Meteorb is a little of a misnomer - most Meteorbs focus more on Fireball than they do on Meteor (except when running bosses).

[songexe]

Yes, but the whole point of this character is to run bosses -- I dont need it to do much else. Maybe a rush here or there, but that's it.

FYI: A friend of mine has given me an occy + some other stuff. I'm wondering if I should use Occy + Spirit or Occy + 2Diamond Mosers...

Also, I get the feeling that I should be optimizing for maxblock instead of pumping into vita -- is this right?

[squiggle]

If it's to run bosses

Don't worry about meteorb.

Just go pure orb or even blizz

But i say orb.

Yes go max block.

[diabloegghead]

CL/ ORB Sorcs are easy to play and can do all areas in hell with little or no problem. Max out FO, Lighting, Chainlighting, LM, and CB with 1 point in everything else. Dont go the way of max blocking because a sorc should never get hit or as few times a possible. Max your life and little or no points into mana.Go for Max block if u play HC.

[songexe]

I've already started on an meteor/orb build (ie. optimizing for meteor instead of fball, since I'm doing boss runs). Now I have a few other questions:

Merc: Which one? A friend has (generously) given me an 'Insight' Polearm, so I'm thinking something Act 2, but I have no idea which one to get. Holy Freeze used to be popular, but with Orb I dont know how useful it'll be.

Also, 2xPdiamond Mosers will give me a ton of resists, but I'm afraid it wont give me enough %block, which'll mean I'll have to pour points into dex. Does anyone have any experience with using this shield with a sorc?

[AnimeCraze]

Either holy freeze or prayer. Holy freeze can slow cold immunes, while prayer will double heal (because of insight).

I personally use spirit shield for 105 FCR, so I have no experience with mosers.

IMO, optimizing for fire ball is more useful even if doing boss runs, as you can spam fire balls between meteor or orb anyways.

[songexe]

AnimeCraze: How do you hit max res then? Are you Wizzyspike'ing or using and Occy/Eschutas, etc.

If I just end up maxing all of Meteor/FBall/FMast, will it really matter what I'm optimizing for? I know FBolt is a synergy of both, but by that time, more synergies will give me diminishing returns compared to points in Mast, no?

[AnimeCraze]

I use full Tal's and spirit. With anni + torch (and a fire resist jewel in the orb) I easily hit maxed resist without needing charms.

It does matter, you put a few points into fire bolt instead of mastery. The thing is, optimizing for fire ball gives maximum fire ball damage, with slightly less meteor damage, while the other way gives much less fire ball damage (something close to 1k on my sorc).

[carlossantana]

Hello,
I use occy and mosers w/ 2xpd
My act 2 merc uses insight so no points in energy
no dex points either...

She has one use for me... take out pindleskin really quickly (blizz sorc)
she doesn't have any problems with andy either

those are really the only ones i run other than sewers when I get bored...
she's a killer in cow level too if you play her right and time your blizz

as stated before... don't get hit with your sorc so you do not need higher chance to block
guess it depends on playing style but if i was going for higher chance to block I'd run an enchantress... and follow up by getting mauled in hell

[iomanip]

yeah, IMO, it isn't worth getting max block with PvM sorcs, simply because it requires a dex-heavy build. If using Spirit monarch (base block for sorcs is 42% i believe) you will have no points to put into vita..

Go max vita and enough dex for equipment.

peace

[songexe]

But vita points are so useless for sorcs. At 2 hp/point, 4 levels of points into vita will only give me 2 small charms of vita worth of life.

[AnimeCraze]

I argue the opposite. Because it's so low, that's why it's even more useful. You don't have that much HP to start with, you want every bit of it when you are teleing through souls.

[songexe]

The other problem is that I probably will be getting hit every so often while I'm teleporting to Andy/countess/Meph, etc.

[AnimeCraze]

There are tricks to avoid getting hit too often. To start, don't tele into the middle of a pack. You can ensure that by hugging the walls and taking slightly smaller steps.