MFing Hell meph

[Change Thrower]

I am a hardcore level 77 sorceress with full tal rasha set and lidless shield. I have followed the mf meteorb with emphasis on cold damage guide. Except I have put no points into energy. My choice. Anyways, I am wondering if I should start trying to mf mephisto on hell difficulty. I have base dex. I was told that I should have max block to go down there. If that is the case then why did my guide (that recommended base dex) also recommend mfing hell meph? Please help! Thank you in advance.

[Hrus]

I do recommend MFing hell mephisto as soon as you can do that. Question is can you do that with your character? Well, you have to try. If you don't feel strong enough, lvl your character somwhere else first. (baal runs)

[Slaïne]

I have base dex. I was told that I should have max block to go down there. If that is the case then why did my guide (that recommended base dex) also recommend mfing hell meph?
Because your guide was written by a softcore player?

Other than Tal and Lidless I don't know what your equipment is, but it doesn't sound like a setup I'd feel comfortable running hell meph with at 77.

[Hrus]

I am sorry, I overlooked that you are hardcore. I have no experience about porting in HC, but I guess it could be really dangerous among dolls and urdars in durance... btw, why not Spirit whield if you went with base Dex?

[Change Thrower]

What is spirit wield? I am wearing full tal rasha set with two nagel rings, war travs and frosties.

[sirpoopsalot]

Spirit shield... I consider Lidless Wall to basically be "Spirit Junior." (because Spirit is better in just about every way).

In both cases, you should NOT block with these shields. Their natural blocking %'s are so low that they basically would require you to not spend anything in vitality to get near max block. And ~500 life in Hell is not a good way to play hardcore. Max block does not compensate for cutting your life in half, in my opinion.


I'm also not sure if you'll be safe for Meph runs in HC at level77, but you should be pretty safe with a reasonable amount of caution. Personally, since you have a cold emphasis, I'd probably stop at Ancient Tunnels and get ~5-10 levels first (that would allow you to invest more in Str so you can equip Spirit too). The monster types there are slower moving, and you don't have to worry about those annoying Dolls.

[Hrus]

Excellent post sirpoopsalot, thank you for explaining my typo. And for mentioning Ancient Tunnels. It's actually lvl85 area like Pits, so every unique item including rare TC87 goodies can drop there.

[SeCKSEgai]

Spirit shield... I consider Lidless Wall to basically be "Spirit Junior." (because Spirit is better in just about every way).

In both cases, you should NOT block with these shields. Their natural blocking %'s are so low that they basically would require you to not spend anything in vitality to get near max block. And ~500 life in Hell is not a good way to play hardcore. Max block does not compensate for cutting your life in half, in my opinion.


I'm also not sure if you'll be safe for Meph runs in HC at level77, but you should be pretty safe with a reasonable amount of caution. Personally, since you have a cold emphasis, I'd probably stop at Ancient Tunnels and get ~5-10 levels first (that would allow you to invest more in Str so you can equip Spirit too). The monster types there are slower moving, and you don't have to worry about those annoying Dolls.

Yeah max block wouldn't work - or would be too costly with the most used sorc shields. If you weren't in HC I'd say by all means you're set - but as mentioned, the risk you run into are the exploding dolls. I've had too many issues with lag to ever play HC, and all it would take is for a few seconds of packetloss for a pack of dolls to end all you've worked so hard for.