Comments on Equip problems

[Dakonblade]

Hiho everybody , im new to the forums around here and honestly ive being playing Diablo2 for 1 month now on Bnet (now thats what i call late).Im playing ladder and in detest of expensive heroes (aka paladin) i have a druid a sorc and a barb at their 80s and decently equiped (Druid is soooo easy to equip).

After building a budget sorc with FO and FW and getting teleport to 1 mana i understood how stupid was i investing to FW.And teleport.I dont understand how people can manage keeping their merc alive in lvl 81.Mine has a duriel shell ETH,a good pike and no helm and honestly cant do the Frigid higlands WP.(excuse my lack of experience).

Now im rerolling a FO/CL sorc.Using the budget equipment i have on the other one.The items are :

HELed Wizzy,Umed SHako,SPiritshield,Ravenfrost,Nagel,Chanceguard,Go ldwrap,40%Wtrav,Skullders(topazed), ,+41mf amu,torch and gheeds and some MF and +lilfe SC ( i sell 7%mf since im poor).

The point here is having Max res , almost base dex,Base mana (and relying on shako,wizzy,spirit) and a decent cast rate (81% spirit+wiz).Im too unlucky finding a ring with cast+mf and a maras.

I have an occulus but without access to a better armor (i dont want viper since it loses +mf) cant find a combination of +mana and Res.

The built i intent to do is

20CL
20L
20LM
1 Charged,SF,TeleK,telep,warmth
=65

20FO
8 FM
5 prereq
=33

Finished by level 86 and putting the last points in FrostMastery.

I really like the spirit shield and honestly cant think a better one.The str requirement is minimal compared to this baby.I honestly would like your thoughts about the equipment.I dont like max block since i dont want to worry about blocking animation.Comments about Skill built are welcome too

[DayDream]

How much fcr does your spirit shield give?

Fo/cl does work but I prefer meteorb or pure blizzard with a strong merc when mfing.
If you go pure blizzard with your current gear(Vipermagi not skullders), you can clear hell baal as long as you have an elite polearm merc,duriels,whatever helm.

You could use oculus but I see it as a dangerous weapon in pvm because of the auto teleport.

Lightning / Chain Lightning / Inferno Faster Cast Rates
FCR % FPC
0 19
7 18
15 17
23 16
37 15
52 14
78 13
117 12
194 11

105Fcr to hit a good teleport breakpoint and 117 to hit a good light/cl one.

Wizardspike (50fcr)
Spirit (lets say 25fcr)
Vipermagi (30) You hit breakpoint with this.
Rest mf gear

There is no need for maxblock
What is the ravenfrost for? Swap it for another nagel ring.

If you could, get a tals belt instead of goldwrap
Although you lose 15-20mf, you gain 20dext(to use wizardspike) and 10mana and still have 10-15 mf from it

It isn't all about mf, survival and kill rate > mf.

[Borje]

The skill layout should be fine. However, the remaining points could perhaps be spent in a CL synergy. At skill level 17 cold mastery gives -100 res so after that it will only affect cold resistant monsters. You should allways get it to lvl 17 and I guess that is what the 8 points are for, but think about what monsters you wanna run, if you do meph only max it, otherwise, you should perhaps be better of increasing your lightning damge.

As for MF, after 250% MF the diminishing returns kick in so it gets less effective. If you do Mephruns you might just boost it as much as you can, but if you are doing area clears (Pits, Ancient Tunnels and the likes) you should rather get it up around 200-300 and after that focus on optimizing your killing speed and survivabillity, there is nothing as ineffective when MFing as dying.. Also, for boss kills, get a Blade of Alibaba/Gull dagger + Rhyme/Splendor shield on switch and change to for the final blow for another 100+ MF. For instance, that amu is cool, yes, but there are better amus that will get you better finds over time (by increasing your survivabillity/killing speed) look for skills, life, res and faster cast rate. Or you can keep the amu and use Vipermagi instead of skullders for added res and FCR. And just like DayDream said, change that raven, your casting speed is not slowed by cold so you don't need the Can not be frozen mod. As for the spirit, use it (!!!) it's great, but don't bother with block, since you would have to sink a whole lot of dex points to gain a decent block with it because of the low base block on the shield (47%). Change the belt to a tals belt, the minor loss in MF is not going to affect you that much, but the gain from this belt is going to help you. Once you gain some wealth try to get a hold of Tals amu+Armour for an excelent 3 piece set combo!

The trick to get your merc to survive is to give him life leech. You will most likly find a Tals helm pretty soon when mfing and it makes an excelent merc helm with 10 LL, 15 res all and +life. If you have a Lem rune, or can get one without breaking your budget (you say you're poor but you seem to have some budget and lems are not expensive), make a Treachery armour for your merc. It is the Assasins 1.11 rune word and will give 45 IAS (helps a lot, faster hits=more damage=more leece=better survivability) and a chance to cast Fade when hit. The Fade procing will give him 60 res@, 15% physical damage resist and a cool, transparent look :azn:. It's a great armour.

EDIT: Oh, you had an eth Duriels, that's good too. Pretty even to treachery so you may wanna stick with what you've got, howver you may be able to sell the eth Duriels for more than a lem, so if you feel the need for some economy this could be changed...

EDIT again: Welcome to the forums! =)

[Dakonblade]

The ravenfrost is used for the CBF .THought that lightning casting really messes up while being frozen.

So lets see.About Mf.

Topazed Viper=24
Shako =50
Wartraveler =40
Gheed =30
NAgelringx2 =60 ( 30 if i DO need Raven, plz someone clarify this)
Tal Belt =13
Chance guards=40
Amulet =40
Small charms =30

Total 327 Mf.With skullders its about 450 mf but losing to res and cast rate.

Spirit is +31cast rate and with wiz its 81%.(hmmm hitting 117% with a ring an d viperskin is very appealing now).

What would u chose?Im n dilema cause there is a great difference in MF.But with viperskin id feel safer for sure.Mephisto and summoner are a breeze even with alibaba+rhyme equiped but i havent tried Nithalak and countess still(without a merc,since i dont like these guys).

[Dakonblade]

HEy guys the last post was before seeing borjes answer.Thanks for the tips.U are so true about the alibaba+rhyme swap on mephisto.

Thanx again and when i roll the perfect grief u will be on top of my list :)

[Borje]

Well, like I wrote in my other post, the casting speed is not affected by being cold. The lightning cast is allways slower than your normal casting and it has nothing to do with being frozen.

Since you have that high MF the extra MF from Skullders will make a very small dufference so I'd really go with the Vipermagi and since you will just be a ring or amu away from the next breakpoint I'd go for it! Try to get your hands on any amu with skills and FCR and what ever mods you can afford, but I think even a simple blue with +1 sorc/10FCR would do you more good than that amu. But changing a ring is also viable since you can get some nice mods on them too!