Early Meteorb Trouble - Help?

[TheLoneHawk]

Howdy!

Solo Singleplayer/1.12a/RRM/RWM

I am having an immense amount of trouble with my new Meteorb sorceress. I am following Sasja's Meteorb Guide (3 ed) pretty much to the dot. I am currently level 18 and still stuck in Act I normal! Ahhhh! I am on the Andariel quest and I can't even get to the Catacomb's WP!

I am using Khalim's Will and a bunch of rares for gear. I am not purposely playing untwinked, I just don't have any items. So I live with what I find eh?

Stats;
Level: 18
Strength: 60
Dexterity: Base.
Vitality: 40
Energy: Base.
( 5 Unused stat points. )

1 Skill Point in;
Ice Bolt
Ice Blast
Frost Nova

Telekenesis
Static Field
Teleport

Firebolt
Warmth
Inferno
Blaze
Fireball
( 5 Unused skill points. )

Health: 132
Energy: 84

My mercenary isn't providing much assistance either... She is basically an extremely weak melee char at the moment. I am doing what the guide says: Frost Nova then melee the frozen baddies. Really isn't working out. All it takes is a single swarm of Dark Ones and I am down for the count. It is ridiculous. I honestly don't know what I am doing wrong. It seems like there isn't an alternative. Grr. Even after I switch to /players 1, the WP is unreachable. The WP isn't even my big goal. How am I suppose to beat Andy!?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[CallMeTheSpelunker]

Well, maybe you could find a better melee weapon than Khalim's Will? I don't know, is that a 1-40 or 1-25 weapon?

I would recommend outfitting your merc with a 3os Hunter's Bow, filling the sockets with *emerald* *emerald* *sapphire*. That way, it's sexy green, maximizes damage, and chills to boot!

I would also place extra emphasis on Static Field. If you can somehow maneuver that spell into groups of monsters without taking much damage, your merc will most likely take the rest of the baddies down with the bow. It may be slow going, but your merc is free damage and can be more powerful than you if you're saving skill points, so plan around her.

If all else fails, you can mana-pot spam and teleport around until you find it! OR, if you know you will boost a synergy to Meteor or Frozen Orb later in the game, why not just cave in and boost it now? However, it shouldn't come to that, if you use Frost Nova and Static Field correctly.

[TheLoneHawk]

Well, maybe you could find a better melee weapon than Khalim's Will? I don't know, is that a 1-40 or 1-25 weapon?

Khalim's Will
One Hand Damage: 1 - 15
Durability: 10 of 30
Fingerprint: 0x9e9d52ef
Item Level: 1
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
+40 to Attack Rating
+1 - 40 Lightning Damage
6% Life stolen per hit
6% Mana stolen per hit
50% Increased Attack Speed
150% Damage to Undead Those are the stats for Khalim's Will. Do you have any recommendations for better items? I will see if I can trade for it somehow...

I would recommend outfitting your merc with a 3os Hunter's Bow, filling the sockets with *emerald* *emerald* *sapphire*. That way, it's sexy green, maximizes damage, and chills to boot!

I will take your advice on the merc weapon. Would chipped gems work?

If all else fails, you can mana-pot spam and teleport around until you find it!

I did end up doing that, now I just have to beat Andy. :P

[sirpoopsalot]

You might as well spend your unused points into Fireball, cast it if you get in danger, and drink some mana potions when your mana runs low (sapphires in armor & helm, and tir runes in shield & weapon help your mana too). When you don't need the spell to survive, save your mana and stick with melee (at this point, use Fireball as a defensive helper primarily). Static Field is a great, great tool for Normal difficulty too - especially on bosses, champs, and swarms.

FYI, levels 15-30 are the hardest for most sorcs - even the ones with great gear slow down a little bit, but especially the ones with crappy gear can have a hard time. Stick with it and you'll be doing better before long.


Tip for when you get to Act2: For at least this act (and for much/all of Act3) you can hire a dessert warrior and hide behind him while he does most of the killing. If you don't have a good weapon for him yet, start saving your diamonds for some cubing - with 5-10 attempts with the following horadric cube recipe, you can usually get something your merc can use to help you along, at least for a couple of acts.


Diamond (any quality) + 1 Staff (any type and quality) + 1 Kris (any quality) + 1 Belt (any type and quality) = Savage Polearm Class Weapon
ivl = 50. The polearm will always have the Savage prefix (66-80% Enhanced Damage) and has a chance at getting a suffix as well. The polearm will be one of the following, selected randomly: Bardiche, Battle Scythe, Bill, Halberd, Lochaber Axe, Partizan, Poleaxe, Scythe, Voulge, War Scythe (put another way, any normal polearm or any exceptional polearm other than Bec-de-Corbin and Grim Scythe).

<--- that and a crafted Blood helm/armour for some life leech, and you've got a ready-made tank (even if he's not extremely powerful, he'll be sturdy & reliable most of the time, and able to kill most things eventually).

So if I'm playing with poor gear (or untwinked) I save all diamonds, and use rubies for any Gem shrine I come across, and let my merc do the bulk of the work.

[Shanksie1337]

Throwing vendor Jav's is also not a bad way to soften up the mobs without spending any mana. Granted Andy and the Catacombs may be a bit too high an area for this, maybe as suggested you should spent the skill points now into a synergy that will be able to speed you up now without wasting skill points.

[TheLoneHawk]

Thank you guys oh so much for the advice. I will be after that Savage Polearm as soon as possible. I am going to bust my butt trying to kill Andy. If I don't succeed, I might be in the MP forums asking for a little rush. Heh. Thanks guys.

[Scudstorm]

Drink an Antidote potion before engaging Andy. It will boost your poison resist by 75%.

Remember, she has -50% fire resist. Use that to your advantage.

[sirpoopsalot]

For Andy, simply get as close to her as you can quickly (teleport is nice), and spam static field while drinking a potion or two. In ~2 seconds you can bring her down to ~5-10% life with static field. Then a fireball or three to finish her off.

She'll be dead before you know it, and when she dies she takes all of her on-screen minions with her.


(If you want a practice run or two to try it out first, go from the Inner Cloister waypoint into the center of the Cathedral and try it on the skeleton-mage boss that's always there).

[TheLoneHawk]

Oh my goodness! I forgot completely about Static! Errr! The frustration must of clouded my mind. Pfft. Anyways, Andy is dead, onto Act II! Thanks. Hopefully I won't be posting in this thread again. Thank you guys.

[Socialism]

The logic behind the dual-tree sorceress is to combat immunity in hell... not normal.

All my points would have been in Fire Ball until normal Baal runs and Frozen Orb came along. Treat it as you would a reset!

[mrfoof]

I figured I'd post here rather than start a new thread.

At this point, I'm looking to prepare for Diablo and Baal, so I can move on to Nightmare sooner rather than later. As some background, I beat D2:LoD years ago, and never really played on the Ladder before. I'm playing now while in-between jobs. I'd consider myself a very casual player that's only now starting to delve deeper into the game.

I'm level 29, Meteorb. Here's my current stats and build, both unbuffed(buffed). I currently have 11 points saved up.

STATS Level - 29
Strength - 55
Dexterity - 70(73)
Vitality - 55
Energy - 45
DETAILED Attack Rating - 401(589)
Defense - 212(450), 62% chance to block, 27% FHR, -2 magic damage
Stamina - 147(179)
Life - 192(230), +3 Replenish
Mana - 111(176), +2 per kill, +10% FCR
RESISTANCES Fire Resistance - 85
Cold Resistance - 49 (Half Freeze Duration)
Lightning Resistance - 9
Poison Resistance - 73 (Duration Reduced 75%)

COLD SPELLS Ice Bolt - 1
Ice Blast -1
Frost Nova - 1
Glacial Spike - 1
Blizzard - 1
LIGHTNING SPELLS Static Field - 1
Telekineses - 1
Teleport - 1
FIRE SPELLS Fire Bolt - 1(7)
Warmth - 1(7)
Inferno - 1(7)
Blaze - 1(4)
Fireball - 1(6)
Fire Wall - 1(4)
Enchant - 1(4)
Meteor - 6(9)

My Mercenary is Act II, Defensive. He has about 420 life, 60 Cold Resist, all other resists capped at 75. He has 10%FHR, 25% poison length reduction. With enchant, his damage is 60-102. He's still using a 3-socket Brandistock I bought in Act II, which is socketed with a Sapphire and two Skulls for some cold damage and 6% leech. With his aura up, he has about 1,050 Defense rating.

----- ----- -----
Right now, things are good. I popped one point into Enchant to mostly buff my Mercenary, and now he almost never misses. I primarily can just cast Blizzard, Teleport to get him into position, and I use Fireball to pick off annoying casters such as Oblivion Knights, which can whittle down my Mercenary if they go unchecked. Most monsters don't survive long enough to justify using Meteor, though the ones that do most certainly receive one. I use Blizzard mostly for the chill effect and the fact that it starts instantly.

Mephisto is a joke. Duriel was a joke when I fought him at 24, though I'm not entirely sure how to determine which tomb he's in now.

In terms of gear, I've only a few decent items, which is expected since I've been running solo, untwinked (from scratch!) and haven't done any trading...
A +2 Fireball Gnarled Staff which I created the Leaf (http://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Leaf) Runeword for
Nokozan Relic (http://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Unique_Amulets#Unique_Amulets), invaluable for Diablo
Stormguild (http://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Unique_Shields#Normal), in the event I get caught unable to Teleport
Death's Hand (http://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Death%27s_Disguise#Weapon_Notes), which is fantastic for Andariel
Yes, my Lightning Resistance for Diablo is terrible, however I have a charm, ring, and a circlet that actually put me beyond the cap. Yet the issue is I'd rather not have to rely on these (outside of the charm) as much, and take better advantage of gear without sacrificing resists, and being able to MF with no real risk.

I now have enough strength to wear Crowns and Field Plate, so I'm looking for these which are worth socketing with Ral and Ort runes, so the rest of my gear can focus on Skills, Life and Mana. Unfortunately all my runes 'poofed' when attempting to transfer them to a mule, so I'm back to the beginning in terms of doing Countess runs.

My big concern however is my Mercenary, particularly his weapon. I've tried creating Savage Polearms but never got anything decent. The big issue I see now is just getting 15% resists to cap him for Normal difficulty, but really it's getting a combination of both high damage, and solid Life Leech -- which realistically requires some sockets. I'm really looking to get his base damage much higher, but still be able to socket his weapon with some Amn runes to get his leech around 14%, making him a far sturdier tank.

Without resorting to specific items or incessant gambling, what are some good ways to fill these gaps in my gear?

[mrfoof]

UPDATE: Well, he's dead.

At Level 30 I said "Eh, whatever, give this a shot". My mercenary died pretty quickly, because I forgot about the massive bonus Diablo has against minions. I ran around casting Meteor then Frozen Orb whenever he stood still. He tagged me a few times in melee when I was chain-casting Static Field, but that's about it. He fell over dead after about a minute.

-----

Then I noticed at Level 30 is apparently the minimum CLvl for vendors to sell Light Plate. After some waypoint-warping in Harrogath, I was able to get a 2-socket Field Plate (with +3 DEX) and a 2-socket Crown (with +8 life) fairly quickly off of Larzuk. I also managed to get an Enhanced Damage, 7% life leech, 1-socket Halberd for my mercenary, tripling his damage.

That apparently was the solution to my gear troubles -- hit level 30.

[Addict]

Yeah your life will be much easier now that you've hit 30. Put a pt into cold mastery & pump every point into frozen orb...it will destroy everything in your path all through nitemare