Welcome to SP forums. I wish I had something witty to add to help in your quest to understand this masterpiece of a game, but alas, I don't. So, I'll sit in the corner with my Guiness and let the experts teach you the ways of the force.
I just killed a yellow named guy in the cave, I think its name was Cold Crow or something, and I picked up a yellow named scepter. It has a whole bunch of bonuses, and the scepter's named "Rule Blow". I died like 5 times trying to kill this guy. I die, hit ESC, spawn back in town, waypoint teleport, and rush to where I died, picking my own corpse (how morbid is that?) and emptied my mana bar worth of ice blasts at the guy. I die again, and rinse n' repeat. It must have taken like 100 level 5 ice blasts to kill him.
Any nasty surprises like that in the next few areas? Or was he the hardest guy for a while?
Congratulations! ColdCrow is one of the hardest monsters to beat early in the game because of her cold enchanted arrows. The scepter you have is rare, rare items spawn randomly through out the game from monsters and are noted by the yellow color. The second quest requires you to look for the Burial Grounds just off the Cold Plains. Follow one of the roads. If the road you take shows entering the stony field, it's the wrong one. This quest requires you to kill another ranger but she's usually fire enchanted, so it shouldnt take a lot of time. Then you get your first mercenary. Outfit her with a bow and some armor.
Coldcrow is definitely one of the meanest bosses in the early game. Next boss that's her equal in nastiness is Pitspawn Fouldog, in ... uh, jail lvl 2?
Rakanishu (around the Stonehenge looking rocks where the portal to Tristram is) can be tough too due to his LE sparks - take care when you find him (in the Stony Field).
But, ColdCrow is probably toughest for a cold Sorc due to her resistance to cold damage (and those hurty ranged attacks).
Made my way to the Burial Grounds, and man, Blood Raven was hella fast. More than half of my ice blasts missed her entirely as she zigzagged all over the place. I died to her once and came close a few times. I can't wait for AoE spells to blanket areas so fast enemies like her will take damage. Finally killed her and nice lighting bolts covered the whole screen. Pretty cool death animation.
I now have a girl following me around everywhere, so thats my first merc. I know I will get a better merc in Act II. That brings me to my next newbie question- three actually.
1. If I dismiss this merc, is she gone forever, or can I hire her back with the items, levels, stats, etc. intact?
2. Where can I see the merc's skills? All I see are her equipment (blank at the moment) and her attribute stats.
3. What's the best Act II merc for a Sorc, specifically fire / ice Sorc? Might, Defiance, Prayer, or Holy Freeze merc? I was told about these in a thread I made yesterday in the Community forums before I was referred to this single player forum. I was also told to not use Act V barb merc.
1. Take her items when you want to hire a new Merc, or else you will lose the items. She basically disappears.
2. You should notice what type of arrow she fires. That is the skill that she uses. She also uses a little light-up spell that lowers defenses of the monsters. You cant see what her skill levels actually are.
3. I would say Prayer if you are making the runeword Insight in a polearm. For normal, I would suggest either prayer to heal yourself faster or Defiance to boost your defense. Blessed Aim doesnt really work with a sorc. Once you get into nightmare, it depends on if you want the Merc to kill stuff or help you by slowing monsters. Might is great for the Merc to kill monsters if you equip him properly. Holy Freeze helps by slowing down the fast monsters.
Be sure to have at least one point in Static Field, as that will reduce bosses' health to a sliver in seconds (its damage scales with the hitpoints of your targets).
ad 1. You cannot "dismiss" mercs, but if you hire a new one, her equipment will be gone.
ad 2. A rogue merc (your "girl") fires either Cold or Fire Arrows. You should be able to tell that pretty easily. Furthermore, she uses Inner Sight to lower defense of monsters, which is completely useless for an elemental sorceress, but will make her hit more often in higher difficulties. You might want to get her a bow as soon as possible. Shop for a 3 socket Hunter's or Long Bow at Charsi's, then put chipped gems (topazes, rubies, sapphires, emeralds) into it. With that, your rogue can finish most of Act I and II by herself.
ad 3. Most sorceresses go with Prayer (double healing when combined with the Meditation aura provided by the Insight runeword, which you will be able to obtain very easily in Nightmare difficulty). Might is an option if you want to increase damage of your merc (it won't increase your elemental damage) but only available in Nightmare difficulty. Holy Freeze could be an option for Hell since it slows down Cold Immune monsters; again, only available in Nightmare difficulty. Act V mercs aren't the best choice for sorcs because they tend to attract a lot of monsters by their aggressive AI. You can get a very powerful Act II merc very easily by gambling for a Poleaxe with an "enhanced damage" modifier in Act II.
I just checked my skill screen and it says that level 1 static field will "weaken enemies by 25%". Does this mean one casting will remove 25& of their max HP? Meaning 4 casts will kill anything? Or is it based on total HP remaining?
I read that holy freeze can help my sorc a lot by slowing enemies down for blizzard / meteor to hit easier, or crowd control with fireballs. Also, how much health regen does Prayer give? I currently have a belt that gives *6 health regen, and I regen roughly 1 HP every second. I know that mana regens as a % of your total mana pool. Does HP regen work the same way or is it different?
My rogue merc girl fires fire arrows cuz I saw red fiery arrows, so thats nice. Her fire arrows can supplement my level 6 ice bolts (I made level 11 by killing Blood Raven).
Static field is based on current hp, so 4 casts wont kill everything. Also, it has a cap in nightmare and normal difficulties. It won't reduce a monster's hp when it reaches 33% hp in nightmare and 50% in hell.
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