Maybe I just can't solo

[Narthon the Bold]

Maybe I just can't solo

I got back into the game a couple months ago and the first character I built was a Meteorb sorc, theoretically to magic find and to twink my future characters and those of my friends. I've gotten to act 2 hell and have hit a wall. I'm constantly dieing from burning dead archers in the sewers. I've tried running the pit some, but I usually don't get very far before a cold immune, fire immune unique blocks my path. As I said, I just started and am by no means rich.

The Character:
Level 78
Str 102
Dex 115
Vit 222
Energy 36

Fireball 20 (26)
Meteor 20 (26)
Fire Mastery 12 (18)
Frozen Orb 20 (24)
1 in warmth (7), cold mastery (5), static field (5), teleport (5), prerequs

Hell resists with equipment
fire -20
cold 10
lightning 7
poison -20



Equipment:
Tarnhelm w/Ptopaz
Que-hegan's Wisdom w/ Ptopaz
Magefits
Waterwalk
Ravenfrost
Dwarf Star
Spirit Phase Blade
Ancient's Pledge in a large shield (26% chance to block total)

Crafted Sharkskin Belt
def 36
10% chance to cast level 3 nova when struck
10% fcr
10% hr
1 life
14 mana
regen mana 4%
1 light radius

Crafted Ammy
12% chance to cast level 4 charged bolt
+1 fire skills
15% fcr
11 mana
Regenerate mana 6%
All resistances +12

GC 28% Cold Resist
LC 14% fire resist
SCs:
7% cold resist
7% lightning resist
5% FHR 6% Lightning resist
5% fhr 20 defense
2x 5% fhr
15 life

Merc:
Act 2 Holy Freeze
Level 78
Steal Skull
Hwanin's Refuge
Husoldal Evo

he does ok except against undead or when he decides to attack a wall and gets pin cushioned by archers.

I don't think my equipment is terrible, and I don't know what to do at this point. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I play E/SC/L account narthon

 

[Borje]

Re: Maybe I just can't solo

Well First off, there are a few basic things to be considered before ever planning on putting MF on your char:

Do you hit the 63% FCR BP (preferably the 105%) looks like you are.
Are your res ok? here the answer is no.. you need to get your resistance up! An easy way to do that is to get a Tals Mask or a Pdiad shield.

The second thing is not that good though. First off: You have choose a strange weapon for your spirit Sword. Phase Blades need 136 dex and since you haven't got a good blocking shield that dex is wasted. Now that you have put all those sex points in it you might as well get a shield with decent blocking. good and cheap choise would be Shael+Eth in Grim (or bone) shield/tower shield. This will have 60+% chace to block which will help you add a little safety, it also has 25 res and some MF. Another great choise for the cheap chars is getting the set Round Shield Whistans Guard. It has the highest block percentage in the game! Socket it with a PDiamond for some Res!

I know this could be out of your pricerange but try to get a Torch, and even though sorc torches are best they are also very expensive. Get a Barb/sin/whatever cheap torch you can for the added 10-20 stats and res!

Also, don't be afraid to put more than one point in Cold Mastery, with really good equip 1 point is enough but when you have less than +16 skills there is nothing that's gonna increase your killing speed against anything thats non Cold Immune as much as a few points in CM!

Before you get your res up and a secent block shield (Shael eth or whistans) I would recommend you to stay in Countess runs, NM Baal runs and other lower areas. Get some decent gear, finish the game, do some hell baal runs to level up to 85+ and then rock some pit runs.

Oh, What is your merc using? The goals for an A2 merc is: Life Leech (most important!), A high dmg polearm (try to get an eth elite 4 os and mace insight - couple with a normal Combat merc and you have a max blockers best friend!), %damage reduction (whatever you can get, enough LL and he'll survive anyway), resistance (try to hit 75). Note that when running the countess you need a merc capabale of dealing at least some dmg since she is allways Cold immune and Fire immune. her life, however is very low, so just Fire Ball her cold immune minion pack and static field her down to 50% and your merc should have her dead in a few seconds! note that the Countess is very profitable to run since she drops Keys of Terror too which are easily traded for runes once you have a couple!

Good luck and feel free to ask for more advice if you need them! =)

 

[Narthon the Bold]

Re: Maybe I just can't solo

Thanks for the help. I went with the spirit because it was easy for me to find a trade for, and I'll pass it down to the Pally I play with friends eventually. I figured I'd go with max block with the dex.

My FCR is currently at 120%

I edited the first post to add my merc info. He is able to kill the countess in hell, but I would like to improve him.

I've been using that shield since normal and know I really need to improve it. I just haven't found anything worth throwing pdiamonds in yet.

 

[John Remedy]

Re: Maybe I just can't solo

That's a nice ammy.

If you have some PDiamonds to spare perhaps it would be worth putting one in the best shield you have? Just an idea.

Borje has suggested a lot of good practices that I use myself (especially the Rhyme runeword).

 

[Narthon the Bold]

Re: Maybe I just can't solo

I am pretty happy with the ammy, it only took me about 5 craft attempts to get it too.

 

[Borje]

Re: Maybe I just can't solo

For max block you need a good base shield. Just throwing PDiamonds in a random shield won't cut it if you plan on max block. However, there are some nice options, the ones I've allready brought up. Other nice options ar Viscerataunt (mind the spelling) and Mosers. Come to think about it, mosers will probably be your best bet, it's cheap and has 25% res all and two sockets. Fill these with pdiamonds and you won't have problem with res anymore. Mosers comes to it's full potential when you up it - costs a Lem rune - which wil lincrease the blocking quite a bit!

If your FCR is at 120 you have the possibility to free some item slots up. For instance, the belt can be changed for any belt with res on, good examples are Credendum and IK's belt. Both which can be traded very cheap.

Besides spending your wealth on getting a random torch I would advise you to aim for a Skin of the Vipermagi armour, a low res one won't be expensive and will still give you at least 20 res and another 10% FCR.

 

[guface]

Re: Maybe I just can't solo

the fire archers do fire damage. Getting fire resists would be a very good idea. Borje has outlined most of the ways to improve. I would add the following: trade. For a few perfect gems you can get some very nice low level items like vipermage and a cheap assassin torch or something to shore up those reses. All it takes is some adventuring and you should be able to find lots of flawless gemmies around the place.

Check out the trade forum here.

 

[sirpoopsalot]

Re: Maybe I just can't solo

I'm not seeing how you have 120 FCR... I see 90-100:

Que-hagan's: 20
Magefists: 20
belt: 10
ammy: 15
Spirit: 25-35

... unless I missed something.


Borje's tips are spot-on (as always), and guface's suggestion on trading for a few things makes lots of sense too. Primarily, most sorcs need 3 things from their equipment to do well: Resists, FCR, and +skills. It's important to not neglect any of those, but I usually focus on them in that order. Everything else is usually supplimental to those 3 things. As the others have pointed out, your resists should be better.

Vipermagi and Moser's would be a really good start, and along with the cheap torch seem like the best upgrades to pursue first. Natalya's or Aldur's boots also have some better stats for your needs, and would probably fit you better than Waterwalks - or you could probably trade a rare pair with decent triple-resists for quite cheap (if they don't have FR/W and/or FHR).

That would get your resists boosted quite well, and would allow you to focus on getting the 105 FCR breakpoint next (if your Spirit sword and the Vipermagi doesn't already put you there). For that, I think the Dwarfstar or Ravenfrost would be the thing to swap, since neither really adds much to a Meteorb sorc.

And after that, you'd likely want to boost your +skills and/or +mana some. Harlequin's Crest is probably a little more expensive than some of the other options, but for the cost it's entirely worth it. You could also focus on getting a better polearm for your merc too (Insight in an elite polearm or Reaper's Toll - even non-ethereal would probably be upgrades). More damage for your merc = more leech = better survivability.


Strategically: It's often helpful to use teleport to spread monsters out. It's kindof hard to do with the archer's, but against swarms it's invaluable to 'string them along'.

Also, getting a few levels will decrease monster's chances of hitting you and your merc. I've noticed many of my sorcs suddenly become safer to play when they get 4-5 levels above the monsters they're facing (and the merc will survive better too). For example, in the pits the monsters were 7-10 levels above you and your merc. That gives them a big boost on their chance to hit you and your merc, and it gives your merc a big penalty on his chance to hit them (your spells are auto-hit though, so it doesn't affect your offense). Contrary to that, yesterday I tanked Lister (level88) for ~4 seconds with one of my level92 sorcs, and he didn't hit me once.

For gaining levels, I think Countess is a good target for where you currently are. You might get a decent rune if you're lucky, and you should get a few keys as trade-bait too.

 

[Narthon the Bold]

Re: Maybe I just can't solo

You are right about the faster cast, I'm only at 100%, I must have been reading the rw on the waterwalk as fc.

I guess I'll head over to the trade forums and start shopping for a mosers and a vipermagi. I'd love a harliquin's crest, but I don't think I can afford it yet.

Thank you all for the help.

 

[Narthon the Bold]

Re: Maybe I just can't solo

Ok, if I up the mosers, do I need to do it before I put the diamonds in it, or can I put the diamonds in and keep them when upping it. (I am very rune poor).

Also, should I forget about the spirit and buy an occulus instead?

 

[VoX Dei]

Re: Maybe I just can't solo

Haven't read all posts so I don't know if anyone already suggested it. You should ditch that ravenfrost. Being frozen doesn't affect cast rate so you can attack or run away (tp) at same speed when frozen/not frozen.

 

[BobTheWarrior]

Re: Maybe I just can't solo

Ok, if I up the mosers, do I need to do it before I put the diamonds in it, or can I put the diamonds in and keep them when upping it. (I am very rune poor).

Doesn't matter, upp'ing the item will not remove whatever is in the sockets.

Also, should I forget about the spirit and buy an occulus instead?

Up to you on this one. The 25% ctc teleport mod on the Occulus can be helpful or frustrating. I, personally, don't like it for questing or area running, the ctc will trigger and 1) throw off my aim 2) bring my merc back to me, disengaging him from the enemy 3) potentially put me in a bad spot. IMO, since you can already equip the spirit, stick with it.

 

[Blazelight]

Re: Maybe I just can't solo

Haven't read all posts so I don't know if anyone already suggested it. You should ditch that ravenfrost. Being frozen doesn't affect cast rate so you can attack or run away (tp) at same speed when frozen/not frozen.

Really? i feel like a comlete idot now having a ravan equiped the last month!
But i feel allot slower when frozen, this just between my ears? :jig:

And a second thing.

This forum really rocks, is quite a long time ago i saw a forum where people actually helped instead of the :

USE THE SEARCH BUTTON NAAB stuff.

Really good too see :thumbup:

 

[Blazelight]

Re: Maybe I just can't solo

PS if your beef is with archers, stir clear of occu, its seems the trigger allot more with ranged attacks (guess with them being peercing or summing)

Have you considerd Tal rasha set btw? changed the game for me.

It is rather easy to get, belt mask are free.
Armor and wep, might cost you pul a piece but are quite common, so you might be able to trade em for other stuff.
Amu is the hardest part.

BUT if you complete it you will have,

GREAT resist, decent MF (i have 125% on switch wich is GREAT since the set bonus will still aplly) good hit recovery, and a silly glow wich will become anyoing after awhile hehe.

(edit read the post and thought, hmm i can add some more info )

 

[guface]

Re: Maybe I just can't solo

tal's set, the armor is usually the most expensive part. Goes for ~um to pul on ladder. Amu ~ pul and others go for pgs.

 

[Narthon the Bold]

Re: Maybe I just can't solo

I was looking at the Tal's set, it does look good, but I don't know that I can afford it, ever. I certainly don't have a Pul and doubt I'll ever find one.

 

[Blazelight]

Re: Maybe I just can't solo

Hehe screw finding one

Here is what you do, you do your hellforge quest on hardest difficulty, make sure you repair the hammer before you hit the stone, you get a fat rune, and trade that for the compleet set

Are you on ladder?

 

[Borje]

Re: Maybe I just can't solo

Repair the hammer? That sounds like nonesence to me..

Well, do countess runs! That will net you the ocasional pul+ rune but more importantly low runes and keys. Keys are more or less currency on ladder. And just to give you a hunch about lower runes value Rals are around 20 vs Pul on EUScL and Amn/Sols are 10-15 vs pul. Try to gather Spirit packs (Tal+Thul+Ort+Amn+Hel) don't forget the hel, they are the hardest part of the pack but once you've done a lot of Countess runs you will have Dol runes that can be cubed to a Hel, Dol runes have very low use..Ofc all the spirit runes can be traded separatly!

EDIT: Also, you don't happen to have made a typo with that realm of yours because if you're on EU I could give you an Tal Amu for free =)

 

[sirpoopsalot]

Re: Maybe I just can't solo

Repair the hammer? That sounds like nonesence to me..

It's almost as effective as standing on your left foot under a gibbous moon and crowing like a rooster when you pop the forge. That's gotten me a Gul every time so far.


In case that wasn't clear, I'm being sarcastic. It IS nonsense that repairing the hammer affects the rune drop from the forge.

 

[VoX Dei]

Re: Maybe I just can't solo

Really? i feel like a comlete idot now having a ravan equiped the last month!
But i feel allot slower when frozen, this just between my ears? :jig:

And a second thing.

This forum really rocks, is quite a long time ago i saw a forum where people actually helped instead of the :

USE THE SEARCH BUTTON NAAB stuff.

Really good too see :thumbup:

Just noticed you're new here. Welcome to the forums!

Again: casters do not need a CBF source. Cast rate is the same when frozen/not frozen. However, running speed is affected. Which is not a problem since sorcs have teleport (tp).