Maybe I just can't solo [Archive] - Diablo 3 & Diablo 2 Forums

Narthon the Bold

09-11-2008, 16:07

I got back into the game a couple months ago and the first character I built was a Meteorb sorc, theoretically to magic find and to twink my future characters and those of my friends. I've gotten to act 2 hell and have hit a wall. I'm constantly dieing from burning dead archers in the sewers. I've tried running the pit some, but I usually don't get very far before a cold immune, fire immune unique blocks my path. As I said, I just started and am by no means rich.

The Character:
Level 78
Str 102
Dex 115
Vit 222
Energy 36

Fireball 20 (26)
Meteor 20 (26)
Fire Mastery 12 (18)
Frozen Orb 20 (24)
1 in warmth (7), cold mastery (5), static field (5), teleport (5), prerequs

Hell resists with equipment
fire -20
cold 10
lightning 7
poison -20

Equipment:
Tarnhelm w/Ptopaz
Que-hegan's Wisdom w/ Ptopaz
Magefits
Waterwalk
Ravenfrost
Dwarf Star
Spirit Phase Blade
Ancient's Pledge in a large shield (26% chance to block total)

Crafted Sharkskin Belt
def 36
10% chance to cast level 3 nova when struck
10% fcr
10% hr
1 life
14 mana
regen mana 4%
1 light radius

Crafted Ammy
12% chance to cast level 4 charged bolt
+1 fire skills
15% fcr
11 mana
Regenerate mana 6%
All resistances +12

GC 28% Cold Resist
LC 14% fire resist
SCs:
7% cold resist
7% lightning resist
5% FHR 6% Lightning resist
5% fhr 20 defense
2x 5% fhr
15 life

Merc:
Act 2 Holy Freeze
Level 78
Steal Skull
Hwanin's Refuge
Husoldal Evo

he does ok except against undead or when he decides to attack a wall and gets pin cushioned by archers.

I don't think my equipment is terrible, and I don't know what to do at this point. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I play E/SC/L account narthon

Borje

09-11-2008, 16:24

Well First off, there are a few basic things to be considered before ever planning on putting MF on your char:

Do you hit the 63% FCR BP (preferably the 105%) looks like you are.
Are your res ok? here the answer is no.. you need to get your resistance up! An easy way to do that is to get a Tals Mask or a Pdiad shield.

The second thing is not that good though. First off: You have choose a strange weapon for your spirit Sword. Phase Blades need 136 dex and since you haven't got a good blocking shield that dex is wasted. Now that you have put all those sex points in it you might as well get a shield with decent blocking. good and cheap choise would be Shael+Eth in Grim (or bone) shield/tower shield. This will have 60+% chace to block which will help you add a little safety, it also has 25 res and some MF. Another great choise for the cheap chars is getting the set Round Shield Whistans Guard. It has the highest block percentage in the game! Socket it with a PDiamond for some Res!

I know this could be out of your pricerange but try to get a Torch, and even though sorc torches are best they are also very expensive. Get a Barb/sin/whatever cheap torch you can for the added 10-20 stats and res!

Also, don't be afraid to put more than one point in Cold Mastery, with really good equip 1 point is enough but when you have less than +16 skills there is nothing that's gonna increase your killing speed against anything thats non Cold Immune as much as a few points in CM!

Before you get your res up and a secent block shield (Shael eth or whistans) I would recommend you to stay in Countess runs, NM Baal runs and other lower areas. Get some decent gear, finish the game, do some hell baal runs to level up to 85+ and then rock some pit runs.

Oh, What is your merc using? The goals for an A2 merc is: Life Leech (most important!), A high dmg polearm (try to get an eth elite 4 os and mace insight - couple with a normal Combat merc and you have a max blockers best friend!), %damage reduction (whatever you can get, enough LL and he'll survive anyway), resistance (try to hit 75). Note that when running the countess you need a merc capabale of dealing at least some dmg since she is allways Cold immune and Fire immune. her life, however is very low, so just Fire Ball her cold immune minion pack and static field her down to 50% and your merc should have her dead in a few seconds! note that the Countess is very profitable to run since she drops Keys of Terror too which are easily traded for runes once you have a couple!

Good luck and feel free to ask for more advice if you need them! =)

Narthon the Bold

09-11-2008, 16:35

Thanks for the help. I went with the spirit because it was easy for me to find a trade for, and I'll pass it down to the Pally I play with friends eventually. I figured I'd go with max block with the dex.

My FCR is currently at 120%

I edited the first post to add my merc info. He is able to kill the countess in hell, but I would like to improve him.

I've been using that shield since normal and know I really need to improve it. I just haven't found anything worth throwing pdiamonds in yet.

Fast Eddie

09-11-2008, 17:14

That's a nice ammy.

If you have some PDiamonds to spare perhaps it would be worth putting one in the best shield you have? Just an idea.

Borje has suggested a lot of good practices that I use myself (especially the Rhyme runeword).

Narthon the Bold

09-11-2008, 17:30

I am pretty happy with the ammy, it only took me about 5 craft attempts to get it too.

Borje

09-11-2008, 18:30

For max block you need a good base shield. Just throwing PDiamonds in a random shield won't cut it if you plan on max block. However, there are some nice options, the ones I've allready brought up. Other nice options ar Viscerataunt (mind the spelling) and Mosers. Come to think about it, mosers will probably be your best bet, it's cheap and has 25% res all and two sockets. Fill these with pdiamonds and you won't have problem with res anymore. Mosers comes to it's full potential when you up it - costs a Lem rune - which wil lincrease the blocking quite a bit!

If your FCR is at 120 you have the possibility to free some item slots up. For instance, the belt can be changed for any belt with res on, good examples are Credendum and IK's belt. Both which can be traded very cheap.

Besides spending your wealth on getting a random torch I would advise you to aim for a Skin of the Vipermagi armour, a low res one won't be expensive and will still give you at least 20 res and another 10% FCR.

guface

09-11-2008, 22:19

the fire archers do fire damage. Getting fire resists would be a very good idea. Borje has outlined most of the ways to improve. I would add the following: trade. For a few perfect gems you can get some very nice low level items like vipermage and a cheap assassin torch or something to shore up those reses. All it takes is some adventuring and you should be able to find lots of flawless gemmies around the place.

Check out the trade forum here.

sirpoopsalot

09-11-2008, 23:47

I'm not seeing how you have 120 FCR... I see 90-100:

Que-hagan's: 20
Magefists: 20
belt: 10
ammy: 15
Spirit: 25-35

... unless I missed something.

Borje's tips are spot-on (as always), and guface's suggestion on trading for a few things makes lots of sense too. Primarily, most sorcs need 3 things from their equipment to do well: Resists, FCR, and +skills. It's important to not neglect any of those, but I usually focus on them in that order. Everything else is usually supplimental to those 3 things. As the others have pointed out, your resists should be better.

Vipermagi and Moser's would be a really good start, and along with the cheap torch seem like the best upgrades to pursue first. Natalya's or Aldur's boots also have some better stats for your needs, and would probably fit you better than Waterwalks - or you could probably trade a rare pair with decent triple-resists for quite cheap (if they don't have FR/W and/or FHR).

That would get your resists boosted quite well, and would allow you to focus on getting the 105 FCR breakpoint next (if your Spirit sword and the Vipermagi doesn't already put you there). For that, I think the Dwarfstar or Ravenfrost would be the thing to swap, since neither really adds much to a Meteorb sorc.

And after that, you'd likely want to boost your +skills and/or +mana some. Harlequin's Crest is probably a little more expensive than some of the other options, but for the cost it's entirely worth it. You could also focus on getting a better polearm for your merc too (Insight in an elite polearm or Reaper's Toll - even non-ethereal would probably be upgrades). More damage for your merc = more leech = better survivability.

Strategically: It's often helpful to use teleport to spread monsters out. It's kindof hard to do with the archer's, but against swarms it's invaluable to 'string them along'.

Also, getting a few levels will decrease monster's chances of hitting you and your merc. I've noticed many of my sorcs suddenly become safer to play when they get 4-5 levels above the monsters they're facing (and the merc will survive better too). For example, in the pits the monsters were 7-10 levels above you and your merc. That gives them a big boost on their chance to hit you and your merc, and it gives your merc a big penalty on his chance to hit them (your spells are auto-hit though, so it doesn't affect your offense). Contrary to that, yesterday I tanked Lister (level88) for ~4 seconds with one of my level92 sorcs, and he didn't hit me once.

For gaining levels, I think Countess is a good target for where you currently are. You might get a decent rune if you're lucky, and you should get a few keys as trade-bait too.

Narthon the Bold

10-11-2008, 00:14

You are right about the faster cast, I'm only at 100%, I must have been reading the rw on the waterwalk as fc.

I guess I'll head over to the trade forums and start shopping for a mosers and a vipermagi. I'd love a harliquin's crest, but I don't think I can afford it yet.

Thank you all for the help.

Narthon the Bold

10-11-2008, 13:10

Ok, if I up the mosers, do I need to do it before I put the diamonds in it, or can I put the diamonds in and keep them when upping it. (I am very rune poor).

Also, should I forget about the spirit and buy an occulus instead?

VoX Dei

10-11-2008, 14:47

BobTheWarrior

10-11-2008, 14:54

Ok, if I up the mosers, do I need to do it before I put the diamonds in it, or can I put the diamonds in and keep them when upping it. (I am very rune poor).

Doesn't matter, upp'ing the item will not remove whatever is in the sockets.

Also, should I forget about the spirit and buy an occulus instead?

Up to you on this one. The 25% ctc teleport mod on the Occulus can be helpful or frustrating. I, personally, don't like it for questing or area running, the ctc will trigger and 1) throw off my aim 2) bring my merc back to me, disengaging him from the enemy 3) potentially put me in a bad spot. IMO, since you can already equip the spirit, stick with it.

Blazelight

10-11-2008, 15:37

Haven't read all posts so I don't know if anyone already suggested it. You should ditch that ravenfrost. Being frozen doesn't affect cast rate so you can attack or run away (tp) at same speed when frozen/not frozen.

Really? i feel like a comlete idot now having a ravan equiped the last month!
But i feel allot slower when frozen, this just between my ears? :jig:

And a second thing.

This forum really rocks, is quite a long time ago i saw a forum where people actually helped instead of the :

USE THE SEARCH BUTTON NAAB stuff.

Really good too see :D :thumbup:

Blazelight

10-11-2008, 15:40

PS if your beef is with archers, stir clear of occu, its seems the trigger allot more with ranged attacks (guess with them being peercing or summing)

Have you considerd Tal rasha set btw? changed the game for me.

It is rather easy to get, belt mask are free.
Armor and wep, might cost you pul a piece but are quite common, so you might be able to trade em for other stuff.
Amu is the hardest part.

BUT if you complete it you will have,

GREAT resist, decent MF (i have 125% on switch wich is GREAT since the set bonus will still aplly) good hit recovery, and a silly glow wich will become anyoing after awhile hehe.

(edit read the post and thought, hmm i can add some more info )

guface

10-11-2008, 18:13

tal's set, the armor is usually the most expensive part. Goes for ~um to pul on ladder. Amu ~ pul and others go for pgs.

Narthon the Bold

10-11-2008, 22:09

I was looking at the Tal's set, it does look good, but I don't know that I can afford it, ever. I certainly don't have a Pul and doubt I'll ever find one.

Blazelight

10-11-2008, 23:43

Hehe screw finding one :D

Here is what you do, you do your hellforge quest on hardest difficulty, make sure you repair the hammer before you hit the stone, you get a fat rune, and trade that for the compleet set :P

Are you on ladder?

Borje

11-11-2008, 00:03

Repair the hammer? That sounds like nonesence to me..

Well, do countess runs! That will net you the ocasional pul+ rune but more importantly low runes and keys. Keys are more or less currency on ladder. And just to give you a hunch about lower runes value Rals are around 20 vs Pul on EUScL and Amn/Sols are 10-15 vs pul. Try to gather Spirit packs (Tal+Thul+Ort+Amn+Hel) don't forget the hel, they are the hardest part of the pack but once you've done a lot of Countess runs you will have Dol runes that can be cubed to a Hel, Dol runes have very low use..Ofc all the spirit runes can be traded separatly!

EDIT: Also, you don't happen to have made a typo with that realm of yours because if you're on EU I could give you an Tal Amu for free =)

sirpoopsalot

11-11-2008, 00:27

Repair the hammer? That sounds like nonesence to me..

It's almost as effective as standing on your left foot under a gibbous moon and crowing like a rooster when you pop the forge. That's gotten me a Gul every time so far. :D

In case that wasn't clear, I'm being sarcastic. It IS nonsense that repairing the hammer affects the rune drop from the forge.

VoX Dei

11-11-2008, 00:34

Really? i feel like a comlete idot now having a ravan equiped the last month!
But i feel allot slower when frozen, this just between my ears? :jig:

And a second thing.

This forum really rocks, is quite a long time ago i saw a forum where people actually helped instead of the :

USE THE SEARCH BUTTON NAAB stuff.

Really good too see :D :thumbup:

Just noticed you're new here. Welcome to the forums!

Again: casters do not need a CBF source. Cast rate is the same when frozen/not frozen. However, running speed is affected. Which is not a problem since sorcs have teleport (tp).

Narthon the Bold

11-11-2008, 00:43

I do have a few keys already, I'll keep running countess. I thought the countess keys were pretty worthless though, since they are easiest to get.
No, I'm on East/SC/L, not EU, thanks though.

As for "spirit packs": why the hel?

sirpoopsalot

11-11-2008, 01:52

As for "spirit packs": why the hel?

Because the runes are cheap enough (and the shields are rare enough) that they're easy to reroll for a good amount of FCR.

For example, a common setup for a sorc is full Tal's set and Magefists - that's 70 FCR. If you have a perfect FCR Spirit (+35) you can get the 105 FCR breakpoint without needing FCR rings. Anything less than 35 FCR and you need an FCR ring on top of the shield + Tal's + gloves...

MrBill

11-11-2008, 04:36

(1.) Your resists are FAR too low for Hell... I'm surprised you made it as far as you did, so take that as a compliment to your playing abilities! Personally I will never voluntarily play any character in Hell with resists less than '50' across the board (maybe 40 or so for Poison... but don't get tagged by Radament or a zombie in the Ancient Tunnels), but then again I only do Hardcore so if you're willing to sneak back and reclaim a corpse in SC once in a while, I suppose you could get away with less. However with negative or zero resists you are going to die a LOT, especially to boss and Champion type monsters with ranged elemental attacks (Gloams come to mind here...)

(2.) I'd suggest an Act 2 Normal (Prayer) Merc with an Insight (Ral-Tir-Tal-Sol) Runeword in any decent 4 socket polearm (a Bill or Halberd will do, but preferably something more damaging, say an ethereal Partisan or Bec-De-Corbin). The Merc's Prayer aura will synergize with the Meditation aura of the Insight, meaning that Waheed will be able to take a lot more punishment before he goes down.

For your Merc's armor, Duress is a good Runeword (but the Um rune can be expensive), so in a pinch, see if you can get him something like Boneflesh (up this one to a Templar Coat in the cube) or Toothrow for Open Wounds (an upped Rattlecage is useful for the Crushing Blow, too, but some players don't like the Monster Flee chance that it also has). You may want to craft a Blood hat for Waheed in the cube, so he has at least a little life leech and Deadly Strike, although remember this doesn't work against Undead, of which there are plenty in Act 2. (Stealskull is also good, so the hat isn't as important as the Insight.)

As an Orb / Meteor Sorceress, your best tactic in most cases is hit and run; teleport within range of what you're after, quickly fire an Orb or two to slow them down, then either let the Merc handle them or drop a Meteor on them. The second that it looks like the bad guys have you locked in their sights, Teleport away. You don't have a lot of hit points, so you will have to use better mobility to offset that limitation.

Good luck!

Cheers

Mr. Bil

Blazelight

11-11-2008, 12:19

It's almost as effective as standing on your left foot under a gibbous moon and crowing like a rooster when you pop the forge. That's gotten me a Gul every time so far. :D

In case that wasn't clear, I'm being sarcastic. It IS nonsense that repairing the hammer affects the rune drop from the forge.

Hehe your sarcasm was crystal clear, somebody told me that it helped, and if it does or not, i have gotten Mal,gul,gul,mal so im gonne keep doing it, hehe, but now will look at it as my lucky charm or something :thumbup:

Narthon the Bold

11-11-2008, 16:37

Well, I obtained and pdiamoned the mosers... and my resists are still terrible.

Fire -5
Cold 30
Lightning 22
Poison -5

I guess I should start shopping for a tal's helm and a torch. Anyone need junk jewels?

Borje

11-11-2008, 19:37

You put two pdiamonds in the Mosers? Strange you are still that low in res.. The next things you should look for is Skin of the Viper Magi, as high res as you can afford, but any will do..

Sin/druid torches are probably the ceapest so you should try for one of those!

Like MrBill said, try to obtain a decent Insight for your merc. If your merc is beefy enough to do some Countess runs with, do them and you will soon have the runes or runes tradeable for the Insight runeword!

You said you had a couple of keys, offer them along with your junk jewels and whatever perfect gems and runes you have and say you need those things and you will be fit!

Also keep a track of the FCR and make sure you hit 105%!

Narthon the Bold

11-11-2008, 21:29

Well. the mosers replaced the ancient's pledge in a large shield, which was my previous main source of resists, so it didn't make up much difference. I haven't done the resist quest in hell yet, maybe you were expecting that. I can't really get their anytime soon, since I'm solo and can't survive in act 2, let alone 5. I have the runes for an insight, just need to find a decent pole arm to put it in.

I have a bid in for a skin, hopefully it will go through. I didn't see and torches in my price range in on the trade forum.

Borje

11-11-2008, 22:25

Make a thread asking for a random torch - just take the ceapest with the best res =) you can also try to obtain a non-eth elite polearm (make sure it's got low enough str reqs) or an eth exceptional polearm, as suggested allready, from trading! Don't be shy, make your own thread and see if anyone got something - these shouldn't be that expensive..

Once you get the torch and the insight Aim to get pgems/runes/keys to trade for a Lem and a Ko to up your Mosers, after that it's time to stat for max block! Do you have any unspent statpoints? I just realized that uped mosers doesn't have the great Block% I thought, had it confused with uped Viscer. At lvl 80 you will need around 200 dex - if the dex for max block is remembered correctly:

dex=150*Clvl/ShieldBlock+15

anyone plz correct me if I'm wrong...

GL with that Vipermagi!

Narthon the Bold

12-11-2008, 01:24

I obtained the vipermagi and na ik belt, so with those, resists will be good. I feel funny making a trade thread with my low wealth, but I guess I will. Should I look for any eth exc or elite polearm and use a cube recipe to add sockets, or should I be asking for a 4 socket one?

I don't have any unspent statpoints, but I can dedicate whats left to dex if you think that would be useful.

Thank you again for all of your help. It is much appreciated.

Narthon the Bold

22-11-2008, 16:30

I found an ethereal bonehew from hell Duriel. The high damage and two open sockets make it seem like a very nice option, since I still haven't been able to find or buy an acceptable 4 socket polearm for my merc. What do you guys think, and what should I put in the sockets? ShaelAmn? AmnAmn?

I also found a toothrow, which I have put him in. He is surviving much better.

Borje

22-11-2008, 17:29

Eth Bonehew is a very nice item for your merc. What helmet is your merc wearing? does he gain any IAS or LL from it? The speed breakpoint for a merc with an Ogre Axe is 20 37 63 105. He is at the 20 BP since Bonehew offers 30 IAS. I would recomend you to put a Shael and a Amn in it. If you want to you can then put a IAS jewel in your helmet (get him Tals Mask) to hit the next BP. After that he should have no problems staying alive!

However it is very hard to compare this weapon to an Insight since insight is used to solve your mana problems. How is your mana doing? I mean the occasional pot isn't that big of a problem and if you have decent +skills you get pretty low teleport costs so teleporting to the countess (probably the longest teleport there is) wouldn't require that many pots... You could most likely get a pretty nice eth elite polearm if you traded that eth Bonehew away..

About the elite polearms CVs are the cheapest because they get 4 sockets from larzuk, but they are not ideal. They require 200 str when they are eth and that must be reached from items. Most used options (though perhaps out of price range) is Andariels Visage, Chains of Hounor and Stone. However there is a crazy awsome and cheap alternative: Lionheart Runeword Body Armour its spelled Hel+Lum+Fal and it holds these mods:

+20% Enhanced Damage
Requirements -15%
+25 To Strength
+10 To Energy
+20 To Vitality
+15 To Dexterity
+50 To Life
All Resistances +30

Yepp, it truly is amazing! :) The best item to put this in is an eth bugged (cube socketed) 3 os armour with the highest possible defence, but if you can't afford that just find some decent defence armour!

How are you sproting? What are your res like, how well are you doing and what level are you? Curious to see how well youa re doing =)

EDIT: Just think I should say that the IAS jewel in your helmet isn't a must, it's just if you feel like hitting the BP, he'll be doing fine with just ShaelAmn in the weapon.

Narthon the Bold

22-11-2008, 18:21

Work has been really busy, so I haven't had a huge amount of time to play in the last couple weeks.
I'll post my current stats so you can see how I'm doing.

All values are with equipment in hell:
Level 81
Str 127
Dex 155
Vit 249
Energy 36

Resist
Fire 52
Cold 75
Lightning 75
Poison 25

Skills
Fireball 26
Meteor 26
Fire Mastery 19
Frozen Orb 24
Cold Mastery 8

Equipment:
Spirit Phase Blade 35% faster cast
Tarnhelm w/ p topaz
Moser's Blessed Circle w/ 2 p diamonds
Skins of Vipermagi 29% resist all
IK Belt
Waterwalk
Magefist
Ravenfrost
Dwarf Star
Crafted Ammy +1 fire skills, 15% faster cast, 12% resist all 6% mana regen

Merc:
Level 81 Act 2 holy freeze
Fire resist 60% all others 45%
Stealskull (10% ias, 5% ll)
Toothrow
Ethereal 295% ED bonehew, 2 open sockets

I have no major mana problems, though I do drink mana pots often. "Infinite" mana would be nice, but I don't see it as a major need.
I am in act 3 of hell, have done no quests yet, but I'll be getting that bird shortly...

Kyrandia

22-11-2008, 20:10

If you use Fireball much more than Meteor (like most meteorbers do) then you should stop maxing Fire Mastery and put your next 10 skill points in Firebolt instead. The Firebolt synergy will increase the Fireball's damage more than Fire Mastery will. Use the skill calculator (http://diablo3.ingame.de/spiel/skills/calc/index.php?char=sor&lang=en) if necessary.

Narthon the Bold

22-11-2008, 21:50

I do find I use fireball more, but I use the Meteor on the bosses... I've been putting the points into cold mastery recently, as I use frozen orb a ton when doing countess runs.

sirpoopsalot

23-11-2008, 02:01

I do find I use fireball more, but I use the Meteor on the bosses... I've been putting the points into cold mastery recently, as I use frozen orb a ton when doing countess runs.

FYI, for Countess runs, level22 Cold Mastery (-125%) is the highest you'll want to go (including +skills from gear). Increasing CM beyond that point is a waste in Countess runs though.

Also, others may feel differently, but I support your extra investment in your cold skills. I found with my recent meteorb that although the fire skills were fantastic, I consistently wished for a stronger cold attack.

tnpdemon

27-11-2008, 05:34

Heh I don't wanna hijack your thread here, but I"m having the same problems.

Stats:
Lvl 81
Str 108
Dex 59
Vit 262
Energy 167

Hell Resists:
Fire -23
Cold -17
Light 61
Poison -23

Helm: Tal's Death Mask
Armor: Skulders with P topaz (I need much better armor)
Weap: Lidless Eye
Shield: Grim with Rhyme
Belt: Nightsmoke
Gloves: Ghoul Grip Bramble Mitts (crafted item)
Boots: Pain Nails Chain Boots (another thing I could easily up)
Two Nagelrings
Saracen's Chance Ammy

I've also got a 14 to attr/11 res hellfire.

Merc:
Duriel's Shell Cuiress, Hwanin's Splendor Grand Crown and a 4os bill with insight. He's got 64-75 across the board on resists.

I know the Skulders is dece for MF but not great for d, and I was plowin through Nightmare with CL/FO. Some of the 'better' stuff (Skulders, Suriels Shell, Lidless Eye, Helltorch and one of the Nagelrings) I got from a guy who just had clogged mules. It sounds like I need a Tal's Armor. What will that cost me? I'm sure pgems won't do, and shael is best rune right now, I do have some peices of IK on a barb I don't play much, and i've found a sigon's shield, gloves, boots and belt. I can't really even get through countess without gettin kicked hard a few times.

If you guys could shoo me in the right direction I'd appreciate it.