Best sorc for rush?!

[ElrondMcEnz]

Hi everyone,

I am new here so please don't be to hard with me^^....:whistling:

I just started playing diablo 2 classic and I have one question. I want to build a sorc that can rush alone from norm to hell. I know how a orb sorc works but i am not sure which sorc is the best for rushs, because of the immune monsters -.-

So can u suggest the best sorc for rushs?!



thx... greetz

Elrond Mc Enz

[HegemonKhan]

sure no problem,

this is my "ultimate" (able to rush, mf, or kill) sorc:

stats:

100 str. 51 dex. rest into vit. (the 100 str let's u have all options of gear and the 51 dex is for using shard)

skills:

option 1:

(NOT able to deal with cold immunes, but otherwise is an awesome rusher)

20 orb, 20 cm (cold mast), 20 icebolt, 20 teleport, at least 1 pt into warmth, 1 pt shiver armor, 1 pt static, rest into wamrth.

option 2:

(ABLE to deal with cold immunes and it's cold damage is stronger than option 3, but it's damage (fire) is weaker than option 3)

20 orb, 20 cm (cold mast), 20 teleport, 20 ice bolt, 1 pt warmth, 1 pt shiver armor, 1 pt static, 1 pt FM (fire mast), rest into firewall or fireball (if fireball can do enough damage, it be better/easier for snake temple in act 2 than firewall)

option 3:

(ABLE to deal with cold immunes and it's damage (fire) is stronger than option 2, but it's cold damage is weaker than option 2)

20 orb, 20 CM (cold mast), 20 teleport, 20 firewall or fireball (if fireball can do enough damage, it be better/easier for snake temple in act 2 than firewall), 1 pt warmth, 1 pt shiver armor, 1 pt static, at least 1 pt FM (fire mast), rest into FM (fire mast).

gear:

rushing gear:

full iratha, darkglow, hotspurs, 3 p diamond socketed shield, shard, rare rings (10% FCR and resists).

mf gear:

full mf gear.

killing gear:

+skills and FCR gear.
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basically make an "orber" sorc with 20 into teleport (for the rushing part), and than if u wanna deal with cold immunes, do firewall/fireball or nova. for the most part fire damage is better than lit (lightning) damage.

"with fire and ice (cold) u can do ALL of d2" -HK

[FireMarshal]

When I use a sorc for rushing and Mfing, I personally prefer an Orb/Fireball Sorc. This would fall into Hege's option 3 category.

Some people prefer to use Nova+Static instead of Fireball. Static down to a sliver, and then spam Nova.

[HegemonKhan]

static doesn't work that well in hell difficulty with high lightning resistant monsters.

accoding to the wiki:

its link:

http://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Sorceress_Lightning_Spells#Static_Field

1. hell has a cap on static to at most reducing monster life half way. additional statics will not lower the monster's life less than half. (i'm not sure if this is true or not, and if reducing the monster's lightning resistance, overides the cap or not). same for nm, but not as severe. i forgot the amount for nm. see the wiki link.

2. at 0% monster lightning resistance, static takes away 25% of monster's current life. at 50% monster lightning resistance, static (i think) takes away only 12.5% of monster's current life. same is true in reverse. static can take away more than 25% if monster has negative resistances. i'm not sure if any of this is true or not. according to the wiki it is. see wiki link for actual info.

if this wiki stuff is indeed true (and it does seem to be, try using static and the other damage lightning spells in hell cs against vemonlords or oblivion lords who have high lightning resistance. NOT the skel warriors, they have little or no lightning resistance), than...

lightning skills have a disadvantage over fire damage, in that they are generally "weak". all except nova have a minimum of 1 damage, which makes them "weak" or "annoyingly weak". lightning doesn't reach the damage that fire can and doesn't stack like firewall/metoer can and in order to do good damage u usually have to have high FCR.

so... generally, lightning got "screwed" in d2 classic.

"with fire and ice (cold) u can do ALL of d2 classic" -HK

cold is the best elem damage. it is effective through 70-80% of d2 and it chills/slows monsters, which is good for survival.

fire is 2nd best (when paired with cold), because even though fire has the most limited use of all 4 elements (fire, cold, lit, poison), its use is 90% of the time for the few cold immune monsters, and as i said goes near perfectly with cold damage. "with fire and ice (cold) u can do ALL of d2 classic" -HK

even though lightning has more use than fire damage, it doesn't chill/slow like cold damage can and is generally "weak" due to the need for high FCR to make up for its 1-X damage (1 miminmum damage). the places is where it is limited are also the places, u need good damage to deal with, so that's a bad thing. also, few things are cold and fire immune.

poison...i don't have enough experience to adress poison.

[Lorg]

static doesn't work that well in hell difficulty with high lightning resistant monsters.

accoding to the wiki:

its link:

http://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Sorceress_Lightning_Spells#Static_Field

1. hell has a cap on static to at most reducing monster life half way. additional statics will not lower the monster's life less than half. (i'm not sure if this is true or not, and if reducing the monster's lightning resistance, overides the cap or not). same for nm, but not as severe. i forgot the amount for nm. see the wiki link.



Hege. Thats true on Lod not on classic :thumbup:

[HegemonKhan]

ah, it's only for LOD ?

both points or jsut one ? if just one, which ?

[Aditu]

1. hell has a cap on static to at most reducing monster life half way. additional statics will not lower the monster's life less than half.
in classic, static can lower the monster's life to about nothing (1 point(?) afaik) - also in hell.
from experience, i'd say it is quite a bit harder in hell - i don't know about caps or what; i suppose many monsters have some lightning resistance, and with life regeneration and all, i prefer to finish them off with fireballs instead of trying to "quarter" their already low rest-life until only one hit point is left :nod:

[HegemonKhan]

alright, so there's no difficulty cap,

but the lightning resistances of monsters do alter static's % damage ?

does the lightning resistances of monsters alter how much u can lower their life bar too ?

[fledgeling]

Static works in classic lol. Every mef glitcher uses static. Most sorcs in CS static diablo to kill him quickly O_o


When I rushed, I usually rushed 1-3 chars at most and the biggest problem seemed to be nightmare Lord de Seis, who could often spawn cold immune. I used to kill him with a combination of static and chain lightning (I had 1 point into static, 1 point into lightning mastery and a +5 chain lightning staff). Unfortunately it wasnt very effective; my sorc would often die in the process. Im not 100% sure, but I think that nightmare lord de seis can spawn both fire and cold immune at the same time, so perhaps one of the lightning skills should be chosen?

As for str, go as low as possible, you dont want 100str for silk IMO. But in general it doest matter that much (unless you wanna rush 7 characters).

btw. has anyone ever solved the PvM cold mastery problem? some people say that 17 (after +skills) is enough, others advise 20(without +skills).. personally I think 17 is enough, but no idea

[ElrondMcEnz]

Thanks guys, now I have a better view what i will do, probably i will make orb to my 1. killing spell and fireball as my second killing spell. so thanks a lot :)

[HegemonKhan]

Static works in classic lol. Every mef glitcher uses static. Most sorcs in CS static diablo to kill him quickly O_o


When I rushed, I usually rushed 1-3 chars at most and the biggest problem seemed to be nightmare Lord de Seis, who could often spawn cold immune. I used to kill him with a combination of static and chain lightning (I had 1 point into static, 1 point into lightning mastery and a +5 chain lightning staff). Unfortunately it wasnt very effective; my sorc would often die in the process. Im not 100% sure, but I think that nightmare lord de seis can spawn both fire and cold immune at the same time, so perhaps one of the lightning skills should be chosen?

As for str, go as low as possible, you dont want 100str for silk IMO. But in general it doest matter that much (unless you wanna rush 7 characters).

btw. has anyone ever solved the PvM cold mastery problem? some people say that 17 (after +skills) is enough, others advise 20(without +skills).. personally I think 17 is enough, but no idea
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the amount of str (and dex) depends on what u want your sorc to be able to do:

1. 100 str for silks for more damage (and cheaper teleport, more warmth, etc). but otherwise all those stat pts to get str to 100 is a complete waste.
2. 80 str for tanc armor for max mf gear. but otherwise all those stat pts to get 80 str is a complete waste.
3. 55 str for full iratha gear for good resists (with darkglow/hawkmail and hotspurs which u can wear easily because they all have a lower str req than the 55 str req iratha hat) for rushing (staying alive).
4. 51 dex for shard for rushing (more FCR=faster teleport) and FCR is also a major source of damage for some spells and/or faster static.

i recommend at least 55 str and 51 dex (as full iratha, darkglow/hawkmail, hospurs, and 3 p diamond shield make u near immune to elem damage which is really great as elem damage is the main threat in d2 and it's everywhere. AND the 50% FCR, 10% resists, +50 mana from shard is definately worth the 51 dex, especially if u wanna rush). if u wanna mf than get 80 str. if u wanna have more damage or +skills than get 100 str.
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seis usually isn't fire immune, as far as i can recall, though maybe i'm wrong.
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ya i remember reading about cold mastery. i'm not sure myself. if i remember right, from what i read about it long ago, people said that: the monsters which aren't cold immune (aka cold mastery is able to work on), only require slvl 17 cold mast to take them down to max - cold resist possible. not sure if this is correct or not. OR maybe the people were ONLY referencing mephisto's cold resistance, not all monsters. so maybe u only need slvl 17 for meph glitch running, but if u plan to do other monsters, u need slvl 20 cold mast (well it will give u more damage whatever).

however (based on my view):

1. more cold mastery (slvl 20 cold mast) is good, in case u got a hostile human character (which is pretty often in hell cs runs or where ever) u have to deal with.

2. also, IF u DO have a conviction paladin or low res necro with u, than slvl 20 cold mast is definately better than slvl 17 since when breaking immunity, the amount that conviction and low res can lower the resistance (beyond breaking the immunity) is severly reduced and hence now those 3 more cold mast (slvl 20 compared to slvl 17) comes in to help.

[Aditu]

but the lightning resistances of monsters do alter static's % damage ?
i'd suppose yes (some seem harder to static down than others) - but i don't know about the mathematics behind it.
does the lightning resistances of monsters alter how much u can lower their life bar too ?
No.


about the 17 or 20 cold mastery, iirc i've read that for killing the average monster hordes, 17 is fine, when mainly going for the uniques / bosses, 20 points into CM makes sense (break immunities).
and it is fun to play in party with a nec with max lower resistances :)

[Aditu]

Thanks guys, now I have a better view what i will do, probably i will make orb to my 1. killing spell and fireball as my second killing spell. so thanks a lot :)

i think there might be a certain level of fireball when putting points into meteor as synergy raises the fire damage of FB more than additional points into FB? (not sure though) (also, when dealing with several cold immune monsters around you, a meteor thrown in when staticking could finish all of them while you keep reducing their life with static.)
for fire mastery, some (few) points in it do make sense for sure - the damage gain gets less (less additional percent) though with more and more points. might be worth to calculate what's the best combination of fireball, meteor and FM to deal more damage with FB?


as for str with a sorc, i wouldn't go for more than 80 str -- 100 (for silks) is wasted IMO unless she is an enchantress.

[HegemonKhan]

cold mast does NOT break cold immunity at all.
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ONLY skills that can break immunities:

conviction: fire, lit, cold

lower resist: fire, lit, cold, poison

amplify: phys

decrepify: phys
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ignores (bypasses) immunity:

sanctuary: phys of UNDEAD ONLY
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ignores (bypasses) defense rating:

1. ignore target defense mod on gear
2. "autohit" skills like guided arrow or smite
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clvl to mlvl are ALWAYS factors in your to hit chance.
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ignores (bypasses) or breaks drain effectiveness (life/mana leech ability):

1. sanctuary: UNDEAD ONLY
2. life tap: no matter the monster or the difficulty, u ALWAYS do 50% life leech (this 50% from life tap WILL stack with life leech from gear) on monsters (and probably characters too).
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prevent monster healing (regeneration):

1. open wounds
2. poison
3. prevent monster heal mod on melee weapons
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cannot be frozen:

constant:

1. hawkmail
2. jade tan do
3. death belt
4. full hsarus

non-constant:

1. thawing potion

[WarlockCC]

Small note on breaking immunities.
Sanctuary breaks physical immunities for all undead in the radius.

[HegemonKhan]

cool, does that mean it breaks phys immune undead for everyone, everyone in party, or jsut the paladin ?

[WarlockCC]

I think it's for everybody, though this will require some testing to be sure.

[fledgeling]

Berserk is good to kill immune monsters too.
Use berserk on your rush sorc. Or conviction + lower resists.
Perhaps from your conviction runeword and the life tap wand.

[zaxien]

enough str for irath/ward
enough dex for shard
max orb
17 cm
max TS
1+ light mast
1 static
1 tele
1 warmth
rest split between ice bolt + light mast

you will still get screwed @ a3 hell unless you have a din or barb handy and I like to buff up my static's radius
this will easily take out nm seis (static + ts)
is a little tougher @ snakes but can be done with the right tele/static manuevers