Intro by Berrek

[Berrek]

First, the cliche, "I hope this is the correct forum for this post" statement.

Hi all just wanted to give an introduction. I havent played Diablo II since 2003 (started playing when it first came out in 2000). I lost the CD's a couple years back, somewhere in the attic when shifting things around, and a few weeks ago decided to go out and purchase it again. I've always had such fun playing it. Ive used these forums before, and I decided it was high time I joined the group.

In real life, I'm a student at community college studying to become a high school English teacher (no I am not a grammar nazi, nor will I be spell checking every little thing, haha, because I am lazy). I work part time at Giant as a cashier and basically anywhere else they need me each week. I also enjoy theatre and am currently active with the Barley Sheaf theatre in a production of the Scarlet Pimpernel.

I suppose thats basically it for my intro, and here is a quick breakdown of my character for anyone interested:

Classic SP DII: level 52 Meteorb sorc (first time at making one of these, based off a couple of the stickied guides.)

Base Bonus
str- 70 82
dex- 80 91
vit- 160 160
ene- 35 56

items worth mentioning:

pain weaver - rare long staff
+1 teleport
+1 meteor
+1 chain lightning
cold res 40%
light res 30%
fire res 38%
(for the extra tele/meteor point and resists)

Goldwrap - unique heavy belt
(for some magic find)

skills:
Fire tree:
1 into prereqs (for meteor)
1 Warmth
7 Fireball
18 Meteor (19 w/ staff)
8 Fire Mastery

Cold tree:
1 into prereqs (for frozen orb)
10 Frozen Orb
4 Cold Mastery

Lightning tree:
1 Static Field
1 Telekinesis
1 Teleport (2 w/ staff)

Currently completed Nightmare difficulty, and just began Hell. I am running Nightmare Act 3 and 4 still for the experience and speed (as Hell is still beyond me).

-Berrek

[goomba]

Currently completed Nightmare difficulty, and just began Hell. I am running Nightmare Act 3 and 4 still for the experience and speed (as Hell is still beyond me).

-Berrek

if you stick with the stick instead of a shard/wand + shield combo hell will more than likely always be beyond you.

there are some sorcs that will resort to use of a stick/staff for duelling in bloodmoor if they have a +2/fcr synergized staff but for the most part any successful sorc in classic is using either a wand+shield, or shard+sheild.

a couple of notable exceptions. there are a couple that have managed to find a sceptre that has fcr, str, and 1x rep on top of cold resist - they also have an ego, and like the style of carrying around a hammer :grin:

welcome back to D2. many of us have quit one or more times, and/or are looking to yet again for another break.

[Berrek]

hey thanks for the tips goomba. actually the thought of a sorc with a hammer sounds mighty sexy. I may have to try that out haha. Im going to start looking for a shield asap and get me some decent blocking.

im assuming i want fcr, +2 sorc some skills, etc. on a wand/shard? Just recently found a nice ammy with +1 sorc skills so I'm happy.

-Berrek

[zioth]

Wands don't have sorc skills, and the shard is a specific sword that sorcs use a lot, because it has +50% fast cast rate. The reason to use a wand is that a lot of them have good resists. In your other hand, you can pick up a 3-socket shield, and stick in perfect diamonds. That will raise your resists high enough that you won't have to worry about dying in hell every few seconds. :)

Another weapon you might want to look for is the Hellplague sword. It gives +1 to all fire skills, and can be wielded one-handed. It's also pretty easy to trade for. I think I have a spare myself somewhere.

[goomba]

Wands don't have sorc skills, and the shard is a specific sword that sorcs use a lot, because it has +50% fast cast rate. The reason to use a wand is that a lot of them have good resists. In your other hand, you can pick up a 3-socket shield, and stick in perfect diamonds. That will raise your resists high enough that you won't have to worry about dying in hell every few seconds. :)

Another weapon you might want to look for is the Hellplague sword. It gives +1 to all fire skills, and can be wielded one-handed. It's also pretty easy to trade for. I think I have a spare myself somewhere.

wands are increasingly popular for a number of reasons. the best of sorc wands will be:

20 fcr.
+energy
+mana
3x CR/LR/FR typically - some glitchers like psn resist for mephy/andy - (the pr is also usually a cheaper wand as people automagically go "pr ewww" )

with 20 fcr on the wand, you can still reach the 50 fcr brk pt without using magefists by getting 10 from each ring, and 10 from an ammy. alternatively one can still get to the 70 fcr breakpt by using magefists, both rings, and the ammy as well. even better no need to ever consider investing in dex - even from gear it's not necessary whereas the shard has a fairly high dex requirement requiring either high dex gear (one reason so many love twitchthroe is not only the blocking but 10 saved str/dex pts)

50 fcr is what most recomend as the absolute minimum breakpt for teleporting - I prefer 70 for rushing, and/or hell cs seal popping.