Lightning sorc in Hell - It's hell indeed

[Dagaz]

So, I've been playing Diablo 2 single player only since spring now and I've made a pretty good zeal paladin and WW barbarian (L90 and L86) with fury druid on the good way to end hell act V... I have some experience in playing bone necro etc. However I am having extreme difficulties playing lightning sorc.
I know that there are n builds out there that do all the work for you, and yes, I've been experimenting a little, but still … I have no idea why y am having such difficulties on hell with my lightning sorc (L 86). I guess I'm missing something, but don't really know what.



Gear:
Shako (I also have Griffon's Eye (+12/-19) but I find Shako much better)
Skin of the Vipermagi (res24) (as backup for +all res I use Smoke)
Lidless Wall (with P diamond)
Magefist (upped)
Tal's belt and amulet
War Traveller
2xSoJ
The Oculus
(+ one lightning GC; the only one I've made; I'm cursed with + Traps; today I've managed to made one for the third time in last month or so)


Stats:
C. bolt, lightning, lightning mastery & blizzard maxed;
static filed, telekinesis, teleport, cold armors, cold mastery, warmth - 1


Merc:
act 2 defense (hell)
Insight
Duriel's Shell (upped from my early necro experiment)
Vampire Gaze


As primary skill I use lightning with blizzard for lightning immune creatures. (Before I've respec I've used chain lightning as primary attack and things were even worse.)


___
The main problem I find with my sorc is that I feel very uneasy playing it. She feels extremely fragile and it also takes forever to do some damage. Sure, I can run pits (lightning immune archers can be (and are) a problem), but to take on – for example – hell Meph, is playing with death and each run requires at least one return to town.


So there it is. My problem on the paper (well, screen)... Can anyone offer me some good advice? About gear, style of play … Anything. Will sure appreciate it. Thanx!

[DiabloGame]

You need this http://diablo.wikia.com/wiki/Infinity_Rune_Word the lvl 12 Conviction aura from this weapon (that your merc wears) it breaks lightning immunities so the pits "light immune archers can be a problem" they no longer light immune with your Merc Aura..and if you get a Griffons Eye http://diablo.wikia.com/wiki/Griffon's_Eye should be better.

With these 2 items you should notice difference alone. I dont have much experiance with single player, but i love light sorcs on Bnet. This is a expensive but kind of standard build.

Griffons Eye + 5/5 Rainbow Facet Light Die
COH (chain of honor RuneWord) Armor
Maras Amulet
Spirit Shield with 35% Faster Cast Rate
Hoto (heart of the oak runeword)
WT50 (War Traveller boots)
MageFist Gloves
Arachnid mesh Spiderweb Sash
Rings you can have Soj (stone of jordan or BK Bul kathos)
And then inventory i use 2xtomb / Keys / Anni / Torch / 5x Light Skiller with life / then fill invent with what ever small charm you want but i leave the end 2 columns of invent free to pick up items

Then Merc: Infinity weapon / Andariels Face Helmet / Fortitude for Armor
Now this is expensive on B.net and imagine hard to do on Single player but this setup works well.


If you wanted a cheaper Set up you can always try:
Shako + socket light Rainbow Facet
Tal Amu
Tal Armour
Tal Belt
Occu + socket light Rainbow Facet
Spirit is better but guess lidless is ok
2xsoj or Bk
Magefist or chanceguard40

then Merc: Infinity Weapon is always a must...it just makes all light immunes go bye bye...and that makes your life so much easier...

CHeap alternative to Fortitude runeworde is Treachery for him good IAS
Cheap alternative to Andys Face helm is.....Gaze? crown of thieves for leach life? not to sure

[Dagaz]

Thank you!
Well, yes; I guess Infinity would really do the trick, but I still have to live to see one Ber let alone two. Playing on single player and not trading (however I do use GoMule), I mostly have to make-do and improvise a bit.

I have another question regarding helmets. My Griffon's Eye is far from perfct (-19/+12), but from what I read everyone is perfering it to Shako. Strictly damage-wise speaking: is Griffon's (-19/+12) really so much (or at all) better than +2 to all skills Shako?

(But, yey! I found my second lightning skiller today )

[Black Lotus]

Strictly damage-wise speaking: is Griffon's (-19/+12) really so much (or at all) better than +2 to all skills Shako?

If this is your ONLY source of -res from Griffon, +2skills really suck. Lets think you've just broken lres immunity of monster and it has ~90resistance. With -19lres from Griffon it is gonna have 71. More than 2.5x damage increase. If it has 0 resistance, you've still getting 20% of dmg increase with only -res modifier on one item.

[Dagaz]

Thank you! However ... Calculations ... I always needed additional explanations in math What exactly do you think with 2.5x damage increase? I mean from 90 to 71 lres ... How does 2.5 fit into this? Thanx.

[Namtar]

Thank you! However ... Calculations ... I always needed additional explanations in math What exactly do you think with 2.5x damage increase? I mean from 90 to 71 lres ... How does 2.5 fit into this? Thanx.

At 90% resistance, your spell is doing only 10% (100-90=10) of its listed damage. At 71% resistance, it's doing 29% (100-71=29) of its listed damage. 29% is 2.9 times greater than 10%.

[Dagaz]

Right. Now I get it thanx again

[Quingu]

Light sorc can use crap gear, except one thing: Infinity on merc. Basically, you can use whatever you want and with Infinity you will be doing fine. You can be geared to max, but without Infinity, you will struggle.