Sorceress in hell.. advice needed

[Kalimora]

Well the most important thing to do is respec and max lightning mastery. It's big.
Then run mephisto to get an Arachnid mesh..
Try to hit 117 fcr breakpoint ( for lightning )

Im at 101FCR now, guess I could drop change guards and put on trang ouls or magefist..
But my MF, not counting native mf is 192 atm..
Thats a bit low for Mfing?
Though with the native 100, its 292.. unless i misunderstood that whole thing.

I could also go farm up to level 93, shouldn't take too long.
Where is the best exp to be had? Cows didnt seem that great, ancient tunnels seemed better.
I could respec back to full blizzard and clear those on p8, pretty fast.

Isn't it better to run just baal, as i already lack so much gear, and he can drop it all?
I would run him on p1 though..

Just got 2x Festering Essence of Destruction..
Gonna go kill the others to get 2 from them aswell, so i got the respecs ready.

[magicrectangle]

Im at 101FCR now, guess I could drop change guards and put on trang ouls or magefist..
But my MF, not counting native mf is 192 atm..
Thats a bit low for Mfing?

Believe me, hitting the 105 teleport breakpoint and 117 lightning breakpoint is way, way more important than the MF from chancies.

[zaphodbrx]

You can get the best exp from Baal runs, be advised though, he doesn't drop great items very often.

[Kalimora]

Believe me, hitting the 105 teleport breakpoint and 117 lightning breakpoint is way, way more important than the MF from chancies.

I will slap on magefist and give it a run and see

You can get the best exp from Baal runs, be advised though, he doesn't drop great items very often.

I guess I need to put up the playersettings..
Im level 89 atm.

This build is highly capable, I see that at least, even if I don't get much out of it.

Its very very nice to just fling away some chainlightning and clear out the room..

This is all players1 ofcourse.. I manage to clear out andariel, mephisto, diablo and baal in 5minutes.. Done it like 20 times now.. Only diablo is stingy on his essences..

This never was as easy with full blizzard, blizzard/fireball or any other..

And yes, I noticed baal doesnt drop much good..

Its mainly rare/magic items..
Got myself a facet, though ofcourse it was cold

Edit: My killpower went up a bit with magefist on
I can actuall do cows at p7 now, its not great, but i kill fast enough to kill my merc alive most of the times..
Another 2-3 skill levels and it should run fluidly, or just well.. respec and max lightning resist, i will try that soon
just need D-boy to drop some powder

[magicrectangle]

Its very very nice to just fling away some chainlightning and clear out the room..
...
I can actuall do cows at p7 now, its not great, but i kill fast enough to kill my merc alive most of the times..
Another 2-3 skill levels and it should run fluidly, or just well.. respec and max lightning resist, i will try that soon
just need D-boy to drop some powder

Just checking, but you are using lightning, not chain lightning, against cows, right?

Chain lightning is good against sparse groups. 2-4 guys spread out, or whatnot. Lightning is vastly better against big / closely packed groups.

[Kalimora]

Just checking, but you are using lightning, not chain lightning, against cows, right?

Chain lightning is good against sparse groups. 2-4 guys spread out, or whatnot. Lightning is vastly better against big / closely packed groups.

Good of you to check, and ya, i mostly use chainlightning.

I have been testing a little to see if lightning hits more targets, and ive come to my own conclusion that it must..
But your input here now sparked me on to using lightning full time!

I will try this tomorrow, thanks again for solid advice to this noobie!

Until now, ive mostly used chainlightning..
which ofcourse does vastly less damage than lightning..

strange how something just lies on the edge of realization, and needs a kick to totally fit in..

-E D I T -

Lightning seems to work way better when there are groups stacked yeah
But sometimes for merc to survive better, and in that way provide more stability, less downtime and more progress.. Its better to use chainlightning.

Either way, this probably will change when i finally get some lightcharms or facets/griffons and damage go up.

On a side note, i did the level 89-93 run.. Im no able to craft amulets.. yay!

During my levelspre on baal i got pretty much nothing, snowclash and skullder's ire..
A few hellracks.

But i did get this one.. :
Ghoul Torc
Amulet
Required Level: 67
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 99
Fingerprint: 0x32ee043f
+4 to Energy
Fire Resist +31%
Lightning Resist +9%
8% Mana stolen per hit
+2 to Sorceress Skill Levels
Level 5 Frost Nova (32/32 Charges)

After I tried crafting a few times, I rolled out this..
Death Eye
Amulet
Required Level: 52
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 93
Fingerprint: 0xa66c058c
+16 to Mana
Regenerate Mana 7%
All Resistances +11
Adds 1-2 fire damage
19% Faster Cast Rate
+2 to Lightning Skills (Sorceress Only)

Actually got no idea which to use.. I dunno if the regen i get from +2 in warmth i get will be felt, or if i want to loose out on the 31% fire res.
The amulets would kinda balance eachoter out on charms i need to wear to have 75 res on everything..

I guess ill go out and farm more rals/amethysts and keep trying.
I got like 50 jewels more atleast

[Kalimora]

A little annoying that the main page doesnt show end post beeing edited

Anyhow.

I just did andariel for 2x sojs and 1 tal rashas amulet.

Its time to get that blasted arachnid mesh..
And griffin's eye.
I was thinking of doing both pindle and meph at once. but i think im loosing out time every run... compared to if i ran them separatedly.

So, im thinking I should respec from lightning, to full blizzard again, and moat meph.
Im wearing full MF, my base mf is 544.. add the native 100, and we are talking 644..
Should be plenty. This however means im not exactly mr hotshot when it comes to damage and survivability.

I use hoto+spirit to take mephs hp down, then swap to alibaba and splendor for the last few lightning bolts.

Im full lightning atm, and my merc is suffering from die-alot.
Infinity is nice at meph, but the 50k and having to resurrect him at times is annoying.
i run meph at players7, so sometimes my merc gets hit for 50% hp(not using CTA on these runs)
I got a lot of rejuv pots, but feel they are a bit wasted here.

Any advice to how to make the merc more survivable?

He is using stone, infinity and tal rasha now, resistances maxed.


So, I guess I'm going for meph first, arachnid mesh has a decent drop off him, with my current mf
Drops from: Mephisto (Hell) [ Information ]
Level: 87
TreasureClass: "Mephisto (H)"
Magic Find: 626%
Player Bonus: 4

Item: [COLOR=#A09868]Arachnid Mesh[/COLOR] (qlvl 87)
Basisitem: Spiderweb Sash (qlvl 61)

Chance: 0.1301235% (1:769)

Hopefully I can get it fast

My own gear are unmodurated.. skullders ire, chance guards(38%mf), wartravellers(47%), 2x nagelring(30%), harlequin crest(50%mf) crafted amulet with 21% mf. and goldwrap.
got a few +7% mf small charms. and my gheeds.

My luck has been bad with grand charms, got no lightning skillers, but 4-5 cold skills.

END question.
(i got 5 reset-tokens)
Full blizzard faster than full lightning?
I think blizzard would be faster, if i exclude merc. but no clue.

Thanks!

[magicrectangle]

Nothing kills meph faster than full blizzard.

[Kalimora]

Yeah, I went with full blizzard. However meph is stingy with his drops.
Though I did get 3x harlequin shakos today.. took me forever to get my first.. now I have 5..

He has so many drops to choose from.. its probably gonna take a while.. i got 2 spiderweb sashes so far..

Edit..
Anyone ever tested out if the weaponswap right before kill only works if you cast a spell (the killing blow) with the new weapon-set?

Like, if i spam blizzards with my hoto/spirit shield, then swap to alibaba and splendor, and just watches him die.. I wont get that extra 110-ish MF in the calculation?

[zaphodbrx]

Nice crafted amulet Will come in handy if you go for 200 fcr build. Shame it's not a perfect 20 though.
Full blizzard will always kill Mephisto much faster than anything else. But you may have trouble with cold immune Pindleskin.
One tip by the way, switch your merc gear to damage reduction ( eg. shaftstop+rockstopper ) while running mephisto, because mephisto can't be leeched but DR is very effective against him.

I never did learn how to moat mephisto. I just tp right up to him and static then blizzard.

Anyone ever tested out if the weaponswap right before kill only works if you cast a spell (the killing blow) with the new weapon-set?

Like, if i spam blizzards with my hoto/spirit shield, then swap to alibaba and splendor, and just watches him die.. I wont get that extra 110-ish MF in the calculation?

Yes it works.