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since, i've messed up, with making an mp character-game so i can play sp character-game on nm and hell difficulties, i've been working on a mp game-character sorcerer. been putting all my stats into magic. being a sorcerer, low lvl (~clvl 16 ? if i am rembering right), base vit, and hardly any good gear, i die very easily and frequently. it's a lot harder in mp with monsters having double life and no save. any unique monster can pretty much kill me in only a few hits if not 1 hit. i often think i can kill them, but they take much longer than i thought to die (mp=double life), and they kill me. its hard with u and monster having the same walk speed. i try to shoot n retreat, shoot n repeat, but its hard to do, especially when i get hit and also trying to heal myself, switching between spells and etc... and archers are death-warrant with no gear or life. in sp i can load and save and pause, but thats not the case with mp...and i have died so many times.....
i guess, i'm saying that a battlemage type is the way to go for me in the beginning at least. the problem is i don't ahve the str, life, or gear (not that i have the str to wear it anyways) to be-play as a battlemage. i'm currently playing as an artillarymage but its really hard and i die easily
any help or suggestions?
i'm aware that i might have to just keep re-doing the dungeons that i can do until i get enough decent gear (need +str gear as well to wear the gear. all stat pts went into magic, so i got base str) and i don't die
OR
is it best just to buy mana shield scrolls (i don't have it as a spell yet). will having mana shield completely solve my problems of dying easy ?
also, if anyone have any tactics to use?
also, what magic spells shoul i use? infravision or whatever for tactics or to plan tactics (hopefully, i understand the spell right) ??
also one last thing: what happens exactly when u die? it seems u lose some of your gold amount as punishment. anything else ? (i know u drop all your equiped gear and some of your gold)
You'll want Fireball and Chain Lightning as soon as you can get it, and obviously Mana Shield. Mana Shield will solve a lot of your problems, yes, because if you've been putting all your points into Magic as you say (and you should) you'll already have a fairly sizable amount of mana, and that means when you do get hit you won't take much damage so you won't get stun locked. For faster enemies that like to chase you, try a Stone Curse. Golem is also good at taking some aggro off of you. I've always felt this game has a difficulty curve that's like this: Warriors are easy in the beginning, difficult in the end. Sorcerors are difficult in the beginning, easy in the end (Advocates notwithstanding). Rogues are medium all the way. So once you build up a good arsenal of spells and have a deep mana reserve, which (obviously) comes with levelling, the game will get a lot easier. And yes, learning Mana Shield is a HUGE turning point for the Sorceror.
If you recognise that part of the problem is that you have rubbish equipment because you have no str, wouldn't the sensible thing to do be to put more points into str so you can fix up your gear? Having 300 mana doesn't help if you're dead when you still have 180 left.
Also learn to use lightning, that's one of my mainstay spells in the Cats, because it does quite good damage and doesn't use much mana like Fireball does (which also moves very slowly at low slvls).
I'd typically try to find a staff with mana shield charges ASAP, up until you can get a book. IIRC the books cost 16,000 gold which is kinda costly for that clvl, and they don't drop too often in the dungeons, but you'll get one eventually.
yep both of u guys pretty much "spelled out" my problems
unfortunately, i'm stuck with OUT any of the more advanced spells (only got weak page 1 of the book spells. NO fireball, lightning, chain lightning, or even mana shield or teleport. GRRR) and without any gear, EVEN IF I HAD the str to wear the gear (but i don't even have the gear).
do higher lvl spell books drop in dungeon or become available in town stores (the witch store. forgot her name, adria?) ??
and yes books are quite much too expensive for me right now. i've been jsut buying cheap books within at most 5k gold trying to raise my lvl 1 and 2 spells up to 15.
my gold is dwindling more and more as i use it for lvl 1 and 2 books and losing it from all the times i am dying...
mp is much harder to get gear for my weak sorcerer because to get gear-item drops in mp, your only source is special monsters...but with mp's double life and no powerful spells no life or mana shield or gear or str, those special monsters easily kill me first.
i'm stuck in dlvl 6-7 (catacombs) at clvl 16 and am not getting any experience anymore, and going lower is too dangerous for my sorcerer. i'm having enough trouble in dlvl 6......sp is much easier... this double monster life is much more challenging which i like but also causing my sorcerer headaches as u can see
and yes, i'm realizing that all into magic IS good for a sorcerer, BUT u NEED MANA SHIELD !!!
until u have mana shield its probably been beter to put into str so i could wear gear to keep me safe.
Rather than looking for high AC gear, try to find gear that has damage reduction on it. Even 3 or 4 DR can make a huge difference that early in the game. And remember that Adria keeps refreshing her inventory every time you leave town and come back, so you can just keep popping in and out of town until she finally coughs up a book of Mana Shield (just make sure you have the cash first ). You might consider running levels 3 and 4 again for extra cash, as well you can probably find some Creepy Shrines to boost your Str or Enchanted Shrines which are a godsend to ANY magic using character, and you're likely to find a fair amount of low-level books so you won't have to waste cash on them. You'll also get a decent amount of money for running the dungeons and the chance of you dying is slim.
I don't think I've ever had the problems you're having. But it seems to me that a big part of your problem is that you don't have any decent spells.
So, stop wasting your money on buying crappy firebolt, charged bolt or holy bolt books. A lightning book only costs 6,000 gold, so just save that amount up and keep running to Adria until she sells you one. You'll want to get it up to about slvl 3 or 4 fairly quickly, so the more gold you have, the better. Lightning books start to drop about cats dlvl 5, so if you're running 5 and 6 frequently you really should be getting some if you're doing full clears and getting libraries. Alternatively you could try and buy a staff of firewall/fireball/lightning, but I'm not sure if Adria sells plain white staves or not. Firewall is also a decent spell worth having especially if you're having difficulty staying alive (cast it in a corridor then run away and close the door), although lightning is generally more useful.
I also don't know why you claim you haven't found any good equipment, unless you simply sell everything that has too high a str req for you to use and so are kidding yourself into thinking that you haven't found anything good. You can get magical items off any monsters, not only bosses, not to mention chests as well. No one is expecting you to have obs/zod type of stuff, but you should definitely have 2 rings and an amulet by now (they could easily be very crappy and marginally useful, like +13% fire resist), and probably be wearing gear that is like +20 hp or +20 mana. But in any event, as a sorc equipment shouldn't really be a big concern anyway.
i really have so far (i haven't done many runs yet) NOT gotten much gear at all. i do have a decent armor that dropped. decent AC and good resists (at least for now). the problem is life or no mana shield and melee monsters or archer monsters or any special monster. but really not any other gear. maybe i'm jsut really unlucky (or i jsut need to start doing lots of runs)
your probably right that i need to build up my gold (since i'm near broke right now) and than keep runing the shops until i get good spells-books or even gear if need be.
i know the lvl 1 spell book buying is pretty stupid, but at this time (with all my short comings i have already listed) it was a way for me to do more damage (and cheaper spells in terms of mana), and i need more damage since the mp monsters with double life don't exactly die like they do-did in sp...especially the special monsters....dangerous...shivers...died so many times trying to take them on...
my exp with low level sorcs is that it's all about mana shield and some good spell books. Books seldom drop from monsters, which is why those bookshelf rooms in the church and cats are awesome. Other than that, Adria is your friend, and once you've got 6k or 8k or 11k, it's time to spend some boring time walking to and from her until you get a lighting or fireball or chain lightning book. spells don't scale up very evenly in D1; level 1 fireball is worth what, level 12 or 14 firebolt?
And yeah, books are expensive, but you don't need to buy them all, since most spells are useless. Eventually you buy them since you've got nothing else to spend gold on, but early on just buy firebolt, lightning, holy bolt. maybe charged bolt if you get a few levels of it, but if you're really skimping on gold you can get by with town portal scrolls.
Use staves too; if you find one with some useful charges, burn them up and recharge the staff. You get a staff with 60 or 70 charges you can get hundreds of casts out of it, saving you liters of mana potions, over time.
I'd do some serious harvesting. That is, to repeat the first 1-6 levels where Books and shrines are more prominent. I don't know if you're playing with HF or not. But, once you've seriously harvested the earlier levels and spells. I'd concentrate heavy on getting the spells mana shiled,Stone curse, Teleport,Firewall,etc.
I found that whenever you have a hall or door blocked with Barrels. Don't break them!!! Port over them and lure bad guys to them and port back over them. This is especially great for the heavy weights like the rhinos and such.
Actually. If you have them penned up this way. You can save mana by whacking them with a bow. I suggest a bow with speed(puts them into hit recovery time) or knockback to keep them away.
With all the areas where you have things like fences and lava streams. The bow can be a cheap way to lure baddies to select spots and then use a combo of bow and magic as needed.
Note. using a bow is another reason I allways go with Zodiacs plus a resist for jewelry.You get some serious needed stats and better gear qualifications.
Likewise. Stone curse a baddie in the doorway. Then toss firewalls and Guardians into the room for the rest.
Large area damage spells like Firewall,chain lightning,etc are your best friends when you have large groups of monsters in a tight fitting area like the doorway to the Chamber of bone.
there are so many in there even my Warrior likes to use Chain lightning to speed up the fighting. Hope that helps.
). You might consider running levels 3 and 4 again for extra cash, as well you can probably find some Creepy Shrines to boost your Str or Enchanted Shrines which are a godsend to ANY magic using character, and you're likely to find a fair amount of low-level books so you won't have to waste cash on them. You'll also get a decent amount of money for running the dungeons and the chance of you dying is slim.
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