Looking for a build that can beat hell as solo (no bnet, no good items)

[SoloHellPlz]

Hello, I decided to go back to having fun in DII LoD solo.

By that, I mean that I won't be using Bnet, won't be using ATMA, won't be farming for awesome items, won't be able to use bnet only runewords. And I'll be alone, PvE, with my very mediocre gear.

My goal is to be able to beat all 5 acts of hell with that build: it means I have to deal with all type of immunes.


Years ago, I finished hell solo with the following builds:
- Bonemancer (was far too easy tbh, bone wall op)
- Fishy/summon necro (far too easy˛)
- Whirlwind barb
- Cold zeal paladin
- Fire+Ice bowazon (that one was HARD due to not finding any good or socketed bows...)

And hit a wall in hell with the following builds:
- Just summon druid (went surprisingly easily all the way to hell with just a bear and nothing else, then it stops working)
- Pure fire sorc (then I remembered there are fire immunes in hell, FML)
- Blizzard sorc (turns out cold mastery doesn't remove cold immunity... FML again)
- Hammerdin (got bored, stopped)
- Offensive aura paladin (hilarious build, all I did was walk around and let enemies die to the auto damage, but it eventually got too tedious)
- Trapassin (it got FAR too tedious since I had too much invested in lightning and corpse explosion + low damage fire traps weren't enough for lightning immunes)


As you can see, I am one who doesn't mind wasting time and playing through retarded builds. All I want are builds that can finish hell.

Heard about a fire/ice hybrid sorc, how'd you play that one? (remember, bad gear, little to no farming, reaching hell around level 50-60 so not that many skill points to invest)
Also heard about a pure wind druid build, but I tried it and can't figure out how to get enough mana and mana regen to cast spells properly (I guess items are the key to that build). Thanks to whoever can fire ideas at me.

[Archone]

Why not combine Frozen Orb with Meteor? Dont max FO synergies, and you should have 2 elements that compliments eachother very well.

Long time slow with FO and hit hard with Meteor. Can kill almost everything in hell.


Peace

[Twibz]

Meteorb is an amazing untwinked build, i second that

[FredOfErik]

Meteorb is a pretty standard build as Archone says. Another variation could be a blizzballer (blizzard+fire ball or meteor).

Any zon build with lightning fury. I madea guardian with one who used Plague Javelin for back-up. For a bit more speed you could go with Frozen Arrow (fishyzon).

Personal favourite: Singer Barb. dual spirits for gear and then just rock on. PIs can suck. I used a lawbringer (relatively cheap) to deal with undead PIs and had basically no problems.

[SoloHellPlz]

How'd one build a meteorb sorc? 20 points in frozen orb enough dps to deal with fire immunes in hell? With terrible items and therefore a need for a big investment in energy and heat, is it still viable enough?

I'll give the lightning zon a try, I like the idea, seems like it has both great burst damage and crowd control. How often do you use your javelins though, do you just get one that has infinite stacks and use it as a secondary weapon?


Thanks for these ideas already.

[Twibz]

20 points frozen orb, couple in cold mastery, 20 fireball, 20 meteor, 20 fire mastery, 20 firebolt, then obviously in amongst that you want your 1pt wonders, warmth, static, teleport. Should be ok with sub standard gear and some careful gameplay.

With LF i recommend replenished javelins cos it eats em up.

[FredOfErik]

How'd one build a meteorb sorc? 20 points in frozen orb enough dps to deal with fire immunes in hell? With terrible items and therefore a need for a big investment in energy and heat, is it still viable enough?

I'll give the lightning zon a try, I like the idea, seems like it has both great burst damage and crowd control. How often do you use your javelins though, do you just get one that has infinite stacks and use it as a secondary weapon?


Thanks for these ideas already.

Meteorb: I don't no what you think heat is, but don't put points in energy. It only boosts your mana which isn't needed (can suck early game put the mor you lvl up the less of a problem it will be. As soon as your merc gets insight you won't have any problems (you'll need the RWM mod which allows ladder runewords in SP).

LF: LF really eats the javelins up, yes. Therefore you need some with "replenish quantity". Since your dmg won't depend on physical dmg a simple pair of magic javelins with this suffix can get you through the game. As you move on you can upgrade to nicer javelins (rares with dmg, leech, skills, replenish) and if you are lucky and decide to run NM meph for a bit your goal should be titan's revenge. Again, Insight for merc will do magic for you.

[khuzgan]

You don't really need insight for mana. It makes things alot easier, but a meteorb sorc is perfectly playable without. Any char I've played to hell has had drops of rings with 70+ mana on them. 2 of those and you have a manageable manapool if you use blue potions. Add in some charms with +mana (usually you will have a few by early hell, and usually if you have insight, you ditch them for other charms ) and you'd do more than fine mana-wise. You just have to play a bit more defensively and not rely so much on infinite teleport until your manapool is big enough.

[FredOfErik]

You don't really need insight for mana. It makes things alot easier, but a meteorb sorc is perfectly playable without. Any char I've played to hell has had drops of rings with 70+ mana on them. 2 of those and you have a manageable manapool if you use blue potions. Add in some charms with +mana (usually you will have a few by early hell, and usually if you have insight, you ditch them for other charms ) and you'd do more than fine mana-wise. You just have to play a bit more defensively and not rely so much on infinite teleport until your manapool is big enough.

Yes, need was a bad choice of word Extremely useful might be better.

[tnili]

You may want to give the Avenger a try. I finally beat Hell after years of owning the game and getting stuck in Act 1.