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Baroness Natsume
1.09 Classic Untwinked SC Frozen Orb/Thunderstorm Sorceress
I just like the name. It isn't from anything. Classic is like a whole different game; Natsume's only companion on her journey was a thunderstorm.
Stats:
Level: 61
Strength: 75
Dexterity: 55
Vitality: 230
Energy: 35 (81 with gear)
Life: 607
Mana: 437
Resists in Hell:
Fire/Cold/Lightning/Poison: 75/71/67/41 (the Hell resistance penalty is less in Classic)
Skills:
20 Frozen Orb
14 Lightning Mastery
13 Thunderstorm
10 Static Field
3 Warmth
1 Cold Mastery
1 Teleport
1 Charged Bolt
1 Lightning
1 Chain Lightning
1 Nova
1 Telekinesis
1 Ice Bolt
1 Ice Blast
1 Frost Nova
1 Glacial Spike
1 Blizzard
Gear:
Head: Mask with 2 perfect sapphires and 1 perfect skull
Amulet: Rare with +1 sorc, energy, fire resist
Body: Heavenly Garb (mana and resists!)
Belt: Rare with mana and resists
Gloves: Rare with resists and magic find
Boots: Rare tri-res mf fhr frw boots!
Ring 1: Rare with fcr, mana, resists
Ring 2: Rare with mana and mpk
Weapon: Rare Wand with mana, resists, fcr
Shield: Tower Shield with 3 perfect diamonds
Switch: Uh, no. This is Classic.
Charms: Absolutely none! This is Classic! My inventory was full of mana potions and Full Rejuvs.
Gear Printouts:
Notes:Code:----- Gemmed Mask Defense: 13 Durability: 11 of 20 Required Strength: 23 Required Level: 18 Item Version: Standard Item Level: 53 Fingerprint: 0xb0487ed1 +76 to Mana Regenerate Mana 19% Replenish Life +5 Socketed (3: 3 used) ----- Grim Heart Amulet Required Level: 34 Item Version: Standard Item Level: 57 Fingerprint: 0xa9a21db +17 to Energy +3 to Maximum Damage Damage Reduced by 4 Fire Resist +10% +1 to Sorceress Skill Levels ----- Heavenly Garb Light Plate Defense: 218 Durability: 45 of 60 Required Strength: 41 Required Level: 29 Item Version: Standard Item Level: 53 Fingerprint: 0x1d6edf20 +15 to Energy +100% Enhanced Defense Regenerate Mana 25% All Resistances +10 50% Damage to Undead +100 to Attack Rating against Undead ----- Grim Lash Plated Belt Defense: 8 Durability: 16 of 24 Required Strength: 60 Required Level: 13 Item Version: Standard Item Level: 32 Fingerprint: 0x4c5e0079 +1 to Life +18 to Mana Fire Resist +21% Lightning Resist +13% ----- Bone Grip Leather Gloves Defense: 6 Durability: 7 of 12 Required Level: 12 Item Version: Standard Item Level: 18 Fingerprint: 0x8d33b46a +33% Enhanced Defense Fire Resist +8% Cold Resist +15% 66% Extra Gold from Monsters 21% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items Half Freeze Duration ----- Beast Slippers Boots Defense: 2 Durability: 6 of 12 Required Level: 13 Item Version: Standard Item Level: 28 Fingerprint: 0xd85c95b5 Fire Resist +25% Lightning Resist +19% Poison Resist +24% 16% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items 10% Faster Run/Walk 10% Faster Hit Recovery ----- Skull Master Ring Required Level: 13 Item Version: Standard Item Level: 21 Fingerprint: 0xc83523fa +12 to Mana +2 to Minimum Damage Fire Resist +22% Cold Resist +17% 10% Faster Cast Rate Half Freeze Duration ----- Doom Grasp Ring Required Level: 22 Item Version: Standard Item Level: 49 Fingerprint: 0x8ebbb9bd +6 to Life +52 to Mana Magic Damage Reduced by 2 Cold Resist +6% +1 to Mana After Each Kill ----- Corpse Wood Burnt Wand One-Hand Damage: 8 to 18 Durability: 45 of 45 Required Strength: 25 Required Level: 26 Staff Class - Normal Attack Speed Item Version: Standard Item Level: 36 Fingerprint: 0xa9c89674 +14 to Energy +32 to Mana Lightning Resist +18% Cold Resist +16% 6% Life stolen per hit 20% Faster Cast Rate +2 to Life Tap (Necromancer Only) +1 to Bone Wall (Necromancer Only) 150% Damage to Undead ----- Gemmed Tower Shield Defense: 24 Chance to Block: 44% Durability: 48 of 60 Required Strength: 75 Required Level: 18 Item Version: Standard Item Level: 32 Fingerprint: 0x311e0c83 All Resistances +57 Socketed (3: 3 used) -----
This was my first 1.09 character, and also my first Classic character. This character is untwinked, and did no magic finding at all, although I did rerun areas for experience.
Right away, my normal strategies for LoD didn't work. There are no socketed body armors in Classic, and also no prefixes that give sockets. So no 3-socket ringmail full of topazes. No runes, either. You can't equip a merc in Classic, so my quest rogue was pretty useless and I didn't bother to keep her around. I was sad each time my quest reward merc inevitably died (and couldn't be resurrected! Talk about hard core!).
There is a Players 8 command in 1.09. This was pretty useful. I put points into strength early and shopped a socketed scepter to thwack things with. Frost Nova was handy to slow down enemies as I killed them one at a time in melee. Eventually, static field was added to the routine, but mana was a problem (you can't buy mana pots in 1.09).
I shopped a staff with Blaze for Andariel. She foolishly followed my flaming footsteps in circles until she died.
I put extra points into Static Field to increase the range. At times, I regretted spending the points that way, but the extra safety was worth it.
At lvl 18, I couldn't kill things in melee on Players 8 efficiently anymore. I acquired a 3-socket long bow and ran Act 1 Shrines until I had 3 perfect emeralds. The poison damage from that bow got me all the way to Nightmare, where I got Frozen Orb.
I needed lots of +mana gear to orb effectively. No merc of course meant no Insight (I've gotten so spoiled!). Sometimes I'd run low on mana potions and tp to town just to get healed to get my mana back.
In Classic, NM and Hell Duriel are both immune to cold. But static field has no cap. Static + health pots + Thunderstorm = win. It helps that Dex has nothing to do with shield block percentage in Classic. Natsume has 44% block chance with that tower shield.
NM Flayer Jungle was a great place to lvl on Players 8 from 42 to 50. With Frozen Orb maxed, I could kill just about anything (and many times, everything on the screen at once) after 2 or 3 statics.
I entered Hell at lvl 52. Corpsefire was Cold Immune, so I killed him with Thunderstorm (about 7 points in it, maybe less, 1 lightning mastery). That took a while. I decided that I would need a stronger Thunderstorm to progress through Hell, so I went back to gain more levels in NM.
I tried Players 8 NM Chaos Sanctuary, but that was slow. I used lots of mana pots on De Seis' giant pack of oblivion knights. The experience didn't even seem that great.
NM Cows on Players 5 however... That was amazing experience. The Cows in 1.09 Classic are not nearly as tough as the ones in later patches, and they give more exp and better drops, too! I killed cows until lvl 60.
That meant 13 Thunderstorm (I looked at the bolt frequency table to figure this out) and 9 Lightning Mastery. Those Thunderstorm bolts were killing Players 5 NM cows in 1 hit.
I found the 3-socket Mask and the Heavenly Garb while running cows. Both of those items were extremely helpful in solving the mana problems. Once I had over 400 mana, the 3 points in Warmth kicked in and I didn't have to drink quite as many pots.
The rest of Hell didn't present much difficulty. I knew from a previous Blizzard sorc (in 1.12) that almost the entire Claw Viper Temple is immune to cold, so I muled a Staff of Kings and a Viper Amulet from another character (who was in Normal... you can use quest items from other difficulties in 1.09). That's the cheesiest thing I've ever done in this game. I should probably go back and do the quest if I possibly can.
Static + Thunderstorm took out Cold Immunes just fine. The only Cold+Lightning immunes I encountered were 2 Oblivion Knight bosses in Chaos Sanctuary. I tried to kill them by shopping a staff with +3 to Firewall, but without my shield my resists were too low and I very nearly died. I was afraid that De Seis would be Lightning Immune and I would have to clear the whole Sanctuary over again, but he wasn't.
It did take a long time for my Thunderstorm to kill all those Oblivion Knights though. There were so many bone spirits on the screen that some of them were invisible. They didn't do invisible damage. Ouch. I had only 2 full rejuvs left for Diablo.
Diablo's Lightning Hose starts right at his feet even in Hell in 1.09 Classic. I was lucky to have lightning resist and quick potion reflexes.
Other than that, static plus a few frozen orbs took him out.
Deaths: 2
One to a Multishot Lightning Enchanted Archer boss in NM Countess' Tower, and one to a Fire Enchanted doll boss in NM Durance on Players 8.
Hellforge: Just gems! I intend to keep Natsume in Classic, so she did collect her Hellforge quest rewards.
Best Finds:
Probably the tri res boots and wand she is wearing. Also Tancred's Hobnails, which was a grailer for me.
Next: This character was made for HF rushing (I want Beta Bramble), so that's what I will do. I might also put on some magic find gear and look for a 1.09 Ravenclaw. If I get more levels, the points will go into Lightning Mastery, then Teleport for convenience. I should try Hell Cows and see how that goes.
Thanks for reading, and thanks to RobbyD (and the entire SPF) for the great guides to 1.09 and Classic!
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pharphis
Originally Posted by zaphodbrx
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