Soloing Hell - Feeling like I'm doing something wrong

Mythmaker

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Jan 9, 2014
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Just registered here (and if I've committed some sort of unstated taboo in posting this thread, please tell me), and I wanted to ask something that's been bugging me for a long time, which is what exactly it takes to beat this game.

I played a lot of Diablo 2 some years back, but I eventually burnt out when I couldn't ever make it past Act 2 Hell. After trying and failing to be interested in Diablo 3, I came back to D2 and found it was still as fun as ever, and so decided to finally beat it. I finally completed Hell with an untwinked summon/CE necromancer, in the process burning through all of my enthusiasm. Beating the game that way was unbearable; getting through the Sand Maggot Lair was literally the work of hours.

Anyway, last month I decided to give it another try, and I really feel like I have to be doing something wrong. I tried to go with an untwinked Lightning Javazon, but was confounded by Act 2 Hell, again. My CL/Orb Sorceress didn't make it any further. I finally got bogged down with a Hammerdin and said screw untwinked. I respecced by Sorceress, Loaded her down with ~500 MF, and ground out some better equipment for my other characters. Not first-tier stuff, but way better than I'd had. That didn't do anything for my Javazon, who still couldn't get anywhere, but the Hammerdin made it all the way to the Worldstone Keep lvl2 before he got stuck.

No matter how carefully I move, or how methodically I work, I can't so much as reach the waypoint. There's always some stupidly-powerful unique pack, or a swarm of wil-o-wisps or undead fetish, or just a big pack of well-composed monsters, that manages to surround and kill me, even with a belt full of rejuv potions. I made it to this point, easy enough, but I just can't get past this.

I know it sounds childish and whiny, but is there some trick to this I'm missing or do I just seriously suck?
 
There's lots of tricks, and yes, you are doing plenty wrong. :) Don't feel bad though. D2 is quite complex to start with. It becomes easier though. I would ask you to be more specific, as you jump from sorc to paladin to necro to questing to MF'ing.

Firstly, if you want a very solid MF'er to get you items, get (respec - up to you,) a Sorc with Teleport and Blizzard+ (Cold Mastery = lvl 17.) From then, you could wail on NM Meph for some starter items, and even Hell Meph with budget items. If you die to either of those, learn the character. Mephisto usings a powerful Cold orb attack (Cold Resist + manually dodge,) fast Lightning (Lightning resists + manually dodge,) and a few lesser things. If using RWM (mod enabling B.net runewords - read stickies,) Insight polearm on an Act 2 mercenary creates wonders.

Please get more specific in what you would like to know - at least to start out with - do you first want help with the Sorc (Lightning/Orb,) MF'ing (Blizzsorc), finishing the Paladin (Hammerdin WSK lvl 2-4 + Baal) or another character?
Once you've decided, post some key stats found in the LCS - Listed damage, life, stat placement, and resists. Also, list WHAT is causing you problems. Are you dying instantly? What from? What are your tactics? Are you just standing there expecting things to miss you, or are you prancing around too much and luring more than you can handle? Can you kill anything? What are the details of the monsters that give you most trouble.

We could help you already with what you've asked, but you will get a dozen different replies, all essay length, scattered, and cluttered with (for you specifically in this instance,) useless details, tips and tricks that will simply overwhelm you at this stage. We will offer advice and tips, and also specific questions that will help narrow things down, but what you ask currently is way too open.
Also, items, as many here can pinpoint areas, untwinked even, which can be quickly improved upon. Either screenshots, or a GoMule (stickies) item dump (turns D2 items into a .txt file for posting to others.)

Welcome to the SPF! You've definitely come to the right place.
 
In general, use the area you have cleared behind you to string out and separate nasty boss packs, or just any large monster packs. It is much harder for 3 monsters to surround you than for 15 monsters. Doing it like this makes only the entrance part of new area really dangerous.

Have lots of life and resists. I generally do not set my foot in Hell with less than 900 or so life, or with resists (except poison) below 50%.

Amazons aren't the best crowd controllers, but a combo of a strong Decoy (and/or Valkyrie) and a well outfitted mercenary will usually let them hold the front long enough for the party to at least kill a couple of monsters before they get to surround you. Decoy and Valkyrie can be recast when they die and a mercenary can be fed potions (shift-click on a potion button); rejuvenation potions if need be.
 
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I guarantee you are doing something wrong if you couldn't get a Javazon through hell. More than likely, you dumped all your points into lightning fury/charge strike and their synergies and neglected to get the backup plague/poison javelin duo up before entering Hell. If you are willing to make another pass with a Javazon and follow this outline, I promise you will be able to beat almost every enemy (with the exception of some of the Lightning/Poison undead monsters in Act 5 Hell).

Start by just filling prereqs until you get Power Strike. Pump that to about 10, then work on Charged Strike until Lightning Fury Becomes available. Max lightning fury and charged strike, but don't touch any other lightning skills for now, as this is more than enough to plow through nightmare and early parts of hell.

By the time you reach mid nightmare (lvl 50~) start pumping plague javelin. I recommend bringing maxing plague javelin and then getting 10 points into Poison Javelin. With some +skills you can get the damage on Plague Javelin, your LI backup, up to 4K. This isn't going to kill quickly, but it will kill LI and will kill them safely, as you can throw and wait for things to die.

Once that is accomplished, you can start filling in the rest of your synergies as you need to. You'll also want to drop a point into your main passive skills like Pierce, Dodge, Avoid, ect. Valkyrie isn't necessary for this build, but some people like to put some points there. You can also scrounge up most of the decent gear in Nightmare:

Titans (or just a +2 Amazon skills javelin works)
Lore helmet
Rhyme shield
Peace / Vipermagi / Treachery / Stealth
+2 Spear skills gloves (+IAS is also nice, but rare)
+3 spear skill amulet
Your other gear is just to get your resists up.

Pump vitality as much as you can. Str and dex are only to equip your gear, and nothing else. No Energy ever.

This build is one of the most balanced in the game and can beat just about anything rather easily. It may not be THE fastest at anything, but it does everything pretty well. You will win with this if you take your time and build the character right.
 
There's lots of tricks, and yes, you are doing plenty wrong. :) Don't feel bad though. D2 is quite complex to start with. It becomes easier though. I would ask you to be more specific, as you jump from sorc to paladin to necro to questing to MF'ing.

Firstly, if you want a very solid MF'er to get you items, get (respec - up to you,) a Sorc with Teleport and Blizzard+ (Cold Mastery = lvl 17.) From then, you could wail on NM Meph for some starter items, and even Hell Meph with budget items. If you die to either of those, learn the character. Mephisto usings a powerful Cold orb attack (Cold Resist + manually dodge,) fast Lightning (Lightning resists + manually dodge,) and a few lesser things. If using RWM (mod enabling B.net runewords - read stickies,) Insight polearm on an Act 2 mercenary creates wonders.

Please get more specific in what you would like to know - at least to start out with - do you first want help with the Sorc (Lightning/Orb,) MF'ing (Blizzsorc), finishing the Paladin (Hammerdin WSK lvl 2-4 + Baal) or another character?
Once you've decided, post some key stats found in the LCS - Listed damage, life, stat placement, and resists. Also, list WHAT is causing you problems. Are you dying instantly? What from? What are your tactics? Are you just standing there expecting things to miss you, or are you prancing around too much and luring more than you can handle? Can you kill anything? What are the details of the monsters that give you most trouble.

We could help you already with what you've asked, but you will get a dozen different replies, all essay length, scattered, and cluttered with (for you specifically in this instance,) useless details, tips and tricks that will simply overwhelm you at this stage. We will offer advice and tips, and also specific questions that will help narrow things down, but what you ask currently is way too open.
Also, items, as many here can pinpoint areas, untwinked even, which can be quickly improved upon. Either screenshots, or a GoMule (stickies) item dump (turns D2 items into a .txt file for posting to others.)

Welcome to the SPF! You've definitely come to the right place.

Thanks for the warm welcome. :)

Since it's closest, I think the Paladin is my priority right now.

Stats:

View attachment 5177

Skills: Blessed Hammer and All Synergies maxed, 5 points into Holy Shield and 1 point each into Salvation Redemption, and Charge (plus pre-requisites)

Gear:

View attachment 5178

Mercenary is Act 2 Defiance, Level 83

Gear:

View attachment 5179

Strategy: For vanilla mobs or weak champions, I usually just run into the pack and spam hammers. For Uniques or strong champions, I try to either snag the main body with my mercenary and chop it up wtih hammers, or use charge to separate the leader from the pack to take it out first, then mop up. When things get dicey, and particularly against ranged enemies, I usually stutter-step to avoid projectiles and throw as many hammers as possible until they die or my merc distracts them. I use Salvation and Redemption during tougher fights when I need the edge in endurance, otherwise I keep Concentration equipped.

The problem I have is mostly just dying almost instantly. I can smash most of the mobs I come across pretty easily, but the ones I can't usually are on me before I can escape. Extra-fast+cursed, aura-enchanted+mana burn, etc.. Those, plus the undead fetish and wil-o-wisps usually kill me before I even know they're there. Maybe half of the time, I can make it to lvl2 alright, but I rarely make it more than a few yards further than the last time I died before I get jumped by something I can't handle. Maybe I'm just not fast enough, but the second I see my health-globe start to plummet, I reach for the escape key and try to escape, and I usually don't make it.
 
I guarantee you are doing something wrong if you couldn't get a Javazon through hell. More than likely, you dumped all your points into lightning fury/charge strike and their synergies and neglected to get the backup plague/poison javelin duo up before entering Hell. If you are willing to make another pass with a Javazon and follow this outline, I promise you will be able to beat almost every enemy (with the exception of some of the Lightning/Poison undead monsters in Act 5 Hell).

Start by just filling prereqs until you get Power Strike. Pump that to about 10, then work on Charged Strike until Lightning Fury Becomes available. Max lightning fury and charged strike, but don't touch any other lightning skills for now, as this is more than enough to plow through nightmare and early parts of hell.

By the time you reach mid nightmare (lvl 50~) start pumping plague javelin. I recommend bringing maxing plague javelin and then getting 10 points into Poison Javelin. With some +skills you can get the damage on Plague Javelin, your LI backup, up to 4K. This isn't going to kill quickly, but it will kill LI and will kill them safely, as you can throw and wait for things to die.

Once that is accomplished, you can start filling in the rest of your synergies as you need to. You'll also want to drop a point into your main passive skills like Pierce, Dodge, Avoid, ect. Valkyrie isn't necessary for this build, but some people like to put some points there. You can also scrounge up most of the decent gear in Nightmare:

Titans (or just a +2 Amazon skills javelin works)
Lore helmet
Rhyme shield
Peace / Vipermagi / Treachery / Stealth
+2 Spear skills gloves (+IAS is also nice, but rare)
+3 spear skill amulet
Your other gear is just to get your resists up.

Pump vitality as much as you can. Str and dex are only to equip your gear, and nothing else. No Energy ever.

This build is one of the most balanced in the game and can beat just about anything rather easily. It may not be THE fastest at anything, but it does everything pretty well. You will win with this if you take your time and build the character right.

I actually tried something like that with my last Amazon. I found the lighting immunities to be a pain, so I respecced and invested about 30 points into the poison skills. Part of the problem was that I couldn't get a handle on how to use them properly, but mostly it didn't seem to work fast enough to make much of a difference, especially in the places where I had the most trouble ( i.e. the Sand Maggot Lair). My current Amazon might be able to manage, if I twink her mercenary a bit, but she has other problems at the moment in the hit-recovery area that I'm still working on.
 
First off, don't use poison javelin. The damage looks nice, but it takes too long. Plague javelin has a cool down time, so there will be times you will be running around, waiting for it to kick in. I generally toss a plague jav at anything not poison immune and then start spamming fury or charged strike depending on how many enemies there are and how dangerous they are. Maggot Lair shouldn't give you too much problems, as the beetles have low life and die rather quickly from plague jav.

Hit rec isn't as big of a deal unless you are PVP. The javazon has nice passives and blocking to keep you from getting hit as much as some other builds, plus you should be doing most of your killing from a distance unless its a boss or single target.
 
I have next to no experience with a hammerdin, so I'll focus on the javzon.

Some people have suggested poison/plague javelin, and I just have to disagree. I think a point in jab is all that's necessary for LI's. You can use spirit, but I would recommend a tankier build until you have infinity. Stormshield is my personal favorite, but any of the high block shields will work.
 
Your gear looks fine enough by my standards for a hammerdin just wishing to beat hell. I'd swap the amulet though, as a source of teleport is really valuable and can save you in a pinch. Try gambling amulets until you get one with charges of teleport and some other useful mods. Also, given your lack of high defense gear, consider going with a holy freeze mercenary. It won't slow down frenzytaurs or stygan dolls, but most other enemies are affected by it and will not be as fast, giving you more time to react.
Also, check your block. If it's not 75% (max) with holy shield active, consider putting more stats into dex and/or getting a new shield with better block.
For general gameplay, advance in smal steps and be on your toes and even extra fast enemies are not too bad unless you get them in stair traps (a pack so close to the entrance of a new dungeon that you end up in the middle of it pretty much the moment you step down there). And as a hammerdin, avoid cramped up areas if you can, you don't want walls or other objects to block your hammers.
 
Also don't feel like you have to kill every single monster or boss pack. There's no shame in running past a particularly menacing group of monsters, even if you play soft core. You can also try rerolling maps to avoid gloams/willow wisps. Likewise, if you're playing on a high player settings, you may have to set it lower (no shame in this either!).

Additionally, what is your hotkey setup like? I use ',.pyeui for my skills (or for you QWERTY users, qwertdfg). This immediately gives you access to 4 skills (though I typically use q as my weapon switch) and allows you to change them very quickly, even in the heat of battle. Things getting too tough? Throw on vigor and run like hell and then switch back to an offensive skill when you're safe. This also literally puts your belt hotkeys at your fingertips; you can easily reach them quickly. I can never understand how some people play with the function keys. It blows my mind. Once you reassign these keys you'll never go back. I don't know how I ever survived on function keys.

Finally, it gives your thumb a nice, natural place on the space bar, which I find to be a much superior alternate to the, uh, alternate key (for showing items).
 
Also, you currently have 115% fcr. The paladins fcr breakpoints are 75% and 125%. This essentially means that you currently have 40% fcr that you do not benefit from at all. Consider either to use an fcr ring to hit 125% for faster hammers or to drop some of your gear (e.g. the magefists) for something that benefits you. Currently the only thing those gloves do for you is a bit of mana regen. If you have a pair of bloodfists, nice rares (resists/whatever) or even frostburns (if you have mana issues), switching them could improve your safety.
 
@Hammerdin

I would change some of his equipment first:
Helm-> Lore
Belt-> caster crafted belt or some rare belt with resists and life/mana
Ring->caster crafted ring (istead of dwarf) or some rare ring with resists and life/mana
Amulet->rare/crafted with skills and FCR/resists

I prefer having 125 FCR (you have 115 atm)

My tactic would be: cast few hammers, move back a bit, cast few more hammers, move back a bit…

The biggest problem is the wil-o-wisps, but they too move towards you in the end. Just move forward and back with (salvation/lightning resist on) until they come to you.
You can kill the magic immune mummies with holy bolt.
 
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Also, you currently have 115% fcr. The paladins fcr breakpoints are 75% and 125%. This essentially means that you currently have 40% fcr that you do not benefit from at all. Consider either to use an fcr ring to hit 125% for faster hammers or to drop some of your gear (e.g. the magefists) for something that benefits you. Currently the only thing those gloves do for you is a bit of mana regen. If you have a pair of bloodfists, nice rares (resists/whatever) or even frostburns (if you have mana issues), switching them could improve your safety.

Yikes, didn't even realize that. I swapped out my 10% FCR amulet for damage reduction, and forgot to adjust the rest of my gear. I don't have anything stupendous to replace them with yet, but I've enough gold to gamble something better if I have to.

I guess the question I have is which will show better dividends with my current setup in terms of staying alive: fcr or resistance?

Also don't feel like you have to kill every single monster or boss pack. There's no shame in running past a particularly menacing group of monsters, even if you play soft core. You can also try rerolling maps to avoid gloams/willow wisps. Likewise, if you're playing on a high player settings, you may have to set it lower (no shame in this either!).

Additionally, what is your hotkey setup like? I use ',.pyeui for my skills (or for you QWERTY users, qwertdfg). This immediately gives you access to 4 skills (though I typically use q as my weapon switch) and allows you to change them very quickly, even in the heat of battle. Things getting too tough? Throw on vigor and run like hell and then switch back to an offensive skill when you're safe. This also literally puts your belt hotkeys at your fingertips; you can easily reach them quickly. I can never understand how some people play with the function keys. It blows my mind. Once you reassign these keys you'll never go back. I don't know how I ever survived on function keys.

Finally, it gives your thumb a nice, natural place on the space bar, which I find to be a much superior alternate to the, uh, alternate key (for showing items).

In general, I try to avoid monsters I can't fight, but often those are the ones that can kill me before I know they're there, or are in an impassible position. I try to string them out and fight them one at a time, but I think my character is too slow for that to work well. As far as rerolling goes, I've either died in or rerolled at least 10 times, but the fact I have to trek through Ancients Way and Worldstone Keep lvl1 before I can get to lvl2 means it takes quite a while to find out whether there's something there I can fight. I'm thinking about rerolling the whole map to see if I can cut down the travel time some.

For hotkeys, I put potions/TP on "qwerty," and put the rest of my skills on "asdf" and "xcv."

a: concentration
s: holy shield
d: charge
f: redemption
x: holy bolt
c: cleansing
v: salvation

I don't usually vigor, since my character walks to improve blocking% and my character isn't that fast to begin with. Charge worked well enough for a while, but the way enemies in Act5 swarm makes it hard to escape.
 
Sounds like you have your hotkeys nicely set up. Good stuff! In terms of rerolling the map and having to trek through all that... you could always throw on vigor and run to the way point in Worldstone Keep level 2 (you even have Tearhaunch). Some may think that's cheesy, but if you're desperate that's always an option. I personally see nothing wrong with running past some enemies to get to a waypoint, especially if it's a critical one. You can always go back and fight the monsters if you feel the desire to do so. :)
 
@Hammerdin

I would change some of his equipment first:
Helm-> Lore
Belt-> caster crafted belt or some rare belt with resists and life/mana
Ring->caster crafted ring (istead of dwarf) or some rare ring with resists and life/mana
Amulet->rare/crafted with skills and FCR/resists

I prefer having 125 FCR (you have 115 atm)

My tactic would be: cast few hammers, move back a bit, cast few more hammers, move back a bit…

The biggest problem is the wil-o-wisps, but they too move towards you in the end. Just move forward and back with (salvation/lightning resist on) until they come to you.
You can kill the magic immune mummies with holy bolt.

That's pretty similar to my untwinked equipment, actually, which I found left me a little vulnerable. The way I had to position myself to use the hammers, I often had to expose my character to damage, and he wasn't tanky enough without the damage reduction on those items.

I'm not sure there's much point to raising my resistance. I still haven't done the Hell Anya quest, since my character is glacial when chilled which makes that quest annoying as all hell, but if I did my resistance would be 58/70/70/70. Not maxed, but pretty close. And really, with the resistance and damage reduction, the only elemental problems I have are cold enchanted (because my character is so slow) and gloams. And just as a point of curiosity, are those things bugged? Because it seems no matter how I stack my character, they can never stand up to that damage.
 
DR on an amulet won't do much for you aside from very niche uses like the vipers in nihl's chamber or if you go ALL OUT 100+ iDR then it will negate most things. It will take a small amount of dmg from tough hitters in the case of a 25 iDR amulet
 
Sounds like you have your hotkeys nicely set up. Good stuff! In terms of rerolling the map and having to trek through all that... you could always throw on vigor and run to the way point in Worldstone Keep level 2 (you even have Tearhaunch). Some may think that's cheesy, but if you're desperate that's always an option. I personally see nothing wrong with running past some enemies to get to a waypoint, especially if it's a critical one. You can always go back and fight the monsters if you feel the desire to do so. :)

It's something I've tried before, but it might have been that my character was too slow. I might have to boost my r/w a bit, and I have about 8 grand charms of inertia floating around on GoMule so it shouldn't be too hard. Really, the only reason I have the tearhaunch is for the resistances; I've an infernostride and waterwalk, and several Natalya boots.

I might give that a try and see if I can sprint to the waypoint; once I get there, rerolling maps and enemies would get a lot easier.
 
Ditch Vamp's Gaze. You can gamble a circlet with +Paladin skills, and you may even get lucky and get some other nice mods on it as well.
 
Just registered here (and if I've committed some sort of unstated taboo in posting this thread, please tell me), and I wanted to ask something that's been bugging me for a long time, which is what exactly it takes to beat this game.
It takes a bit of dedication, is all. Obviously, some builds are easier than others, and untwinked is always going to be slower than the twinked-to-the-gills style of play.

I finally completed Hell with an untwinked summon/CE necromancer, in the process burning through all of my enthusiasm. Beating the game that way was unbearable; getting through the Sand Maggot Lair was literally the work of hours.
Don't let this experience sour you on fishymancer/skellimancer characters. They are great at area runs, and the Maggot Lair, while a pain, is something you only need to do once per difficulty. It's not even hard, just annoying. To get through it quicker, unsummon most of your army, and just use your merc. By giving him a good weapon and supporting him with your curses (mainly Amplify Damage and Life Tap, if he needs it) and Corpse Explosion, it goes by pretty quick.

Also, do you know about the /players command? Hit [enter], type '/players8', hit [enter] again. This simulates more people in the game, which has a number of effects: monsters get more life, do more damage, tend to drop more items, and (this is the big reason) give more experience. You can set it back to /players1 in areas like the Maggot Lair, but keep in mind changing this setting doesn't affect monsters that have already been spawned (so use it before entering an area if you can). By playing on /p8 the whole time in Normal difficulty, I'm often level 30+ before facing Mephisto, depending how thoroughly I clear areas. This means less grinding for levels, but it also means your minions and merc will have an easier time, because the to-hit formula uses relative levels of attacker and defender. Basically, level up, and your minions/merc will hit more frequently and be hit less frequently.

Anyway, last month I decided to give it another try, and I really feel like I have to be doing something wrong. I tried to go with an untwinked Lightning Javazon, but was confounded by Act 2 Hell, again. My CL/Orb Sorceress didn't make it any further. I finally got bogged down with a Hammerdin and said screw untwinked. I respecced by Sorceress, Loaded her down with ~500 MF, and ground out some better equipment for my other characters. Not first-tier stuff, but way better than I'd had. That didn't do anything for my Javazon, who still couldn't get anywhere, but the Hammerdin made it all the way to the Worldstone Keep lvl2 before he got stuck.
I've never played a hammerdin, but Lightning Fury should be rocking the game through Hell and back. I'd go with Freezing Arrow as a backup skill; just keep a bow on your weapon switch. Nightfish has a nice guide, but the recipe is simple. Max Lightning Fury (big mobs), Charged Strike (small mobs and single targets), Freezing Arrow (lightning immunes), and Cold Arrow (damage synergy for FA). Keep your resists high, even on the bow switch (especially lightning resist, as you will use this switch for killing gloams in Hell difficulty). Load up on +skills gear, as it increases your damage output, get some piercing (from Razortail belt and the Pierce skill), and away you go. Physical damage on your weapons doesn't matter much at all.

No matter how carefully I move, or how methodically I work, I can't so much as reach the waypoint. There's always some stupidly-powerful unique pack, or a swarm of wil-o-wisps or undead fetish, or just a big pack of well-composed monsters, that manages to surround and kill me, even with a belt full of rejuv potions. I made it to this point, easy enough, but I just can't get past this.
The problem might be less in your skills, and more in your expectations. Hell difficulty is supposed to be hard. When playing untwinked, Normal can be tough (as opposed to dangerous) because your characters probably have weak gear and their skills are lower level and not heavily synergized. Nightmare is more dangerous, but also when your characters come into their skills and start finding good gear, so often you steamroll through. Then you hit Hell, and hit a wall.

Remember you need to be able to reliably inflict at least two types of damage to kill things in Hell, because of immunes. This doesn't mean you do one type and the merc does a different type. It means you need to do two types, and if you're lucky, the merc does a different type. Otherwise, you will need to skip some monsters. Some people are okay with parking monsters, but others (like me) like to be able to kill everything, at least in theory. The fishymancer does loads of physical (minions + merc + CE) plus loads of fire (CE is half fire) damage, and has curses to lower physical and elemental resists. A paladin can use Vengeance or one of the elemental damage auras, and has access to Conviction (and Sanctuary, for undead) to break resists as well. Other characters have their own solutions, whether they use skills or gear to deal with immune monsters.

Also, keep in mind crowd control. Some classes like the sorceress and paladin have poor crowd control skills, while others like the necromancer have excellent ones. A necromancer can cast Dim Vision to shut down gloams, a barbarian can use Howl to disperse the minions while he goes one-on-one with a boss- or just stun them with War Cry, and so on. If you have little or no crowd control, you need to make up for it by being able to kill crowds before they kill you, or you need good tactical control of the flow of battles (Teleport is a hugely advantageous skill here).

The problem I have is mostly just dying almost instantly. I can smash most of the mobs I come across pretty easily, but the ones I can't usually are on me before I can escape. Extra-fast+cursed, aura-enchanted+mana burn, etc.. Those, plus the undead fetish and wil-o-wisps usually kill me before I even know they're there. Maybe half of the time, I can make it to lvl2 alright, but I rarely make it more than a few yards further than the last time I died before I get jumped by something I can't handle. Maybe I'm just not fast enough, but the second I see my health-globe start to plummet, I reach for the escape key and try to escape, and I usually don't make it.
Try using even more integer damage reduction. Stick a Sol rune in your armor and helm (replacing the helm with Lore is good too). Gamble a circlet 'of life everlasting'. This will actually help a lot against archers, as their damage tends to come in the form of very fast small hits, rather than fewer, higher-damage hits. Make sure your chance to block is 75%. With Holy Shield, I believe the paladin blocks in a single frame, so make use of it. You might need to swap out Spirit for something with better block and/or resists. If you have the runes, Sanctuary is great (stick it in a high-resist paladin shield). The blocking is big, the resists are huge, and the fact it gives +20 dexterity means you save 20 points for vitality (=60 life). Sure, you lose out a bit on the offensive side, but as you've said, your problem is staying alive.

I actually tried something like that with my last Amazon. I found the lighting immunities to be a pain, so I respecced and invested about 30 points into the poison skills. Part of the problem was that I couldn't get a handle on how to use them properly, but mostly it didn't seem to work fast enough to make much of a difference, especially in the places where I had the most trouble ( i.e. the Sand Maggot Lair). My current Amazon might be able to manage, if I twink her mercenary a bit, but she has other problems at the moment in the hit-recovery area that I'm still working on.
Hit recovery, or dodge lock? If the amazon dodge skills kick in, they can lock you up, and it can be deadly against fast attackers, particularly fast ranged attackers. Since you can't speed up the animation for them, either skip them entirely (yes, this means going without any points in Valkyrie, but Decoy is a smarter minion anyways) or put in fewer points if dodge lock is the problem. In the guide I linked, Nightfish recommends against points here, and I'd agree, at least for the WSK. Those blowgun fetishes can put you in dodge lock in a heartbeat.

And just as a point of curiosity, are those things bugged? Because it seems no matter how I stack my character, they can never stand up to that damage.
I'm not sure if it's intentional or not, but their lightning bolts hit multiple times. If you can get some integer lightning absorb while keeping your lightning resist high, the lightning is harmless. Remember that absorb is better than MDR in most cases. MDR comes before resists, which means than at 75% resist, 10 absorb is worth 80 MDR. MDR is generally worthwhile only for a) a sorceress using Energy Shield, or b) someone packing on the PDR as well to exploit the PDR/MDR overflow mechanic. In the latter case, for attacks that do physical + magic damage (as many attacks in Hell do), damage gets reduced by the total of your PDR+MDR, provided you have some of each. For you, you'd get a lot more mileage from Thundergod's Vigor.

Oh, and do the Anya quest! Sure, it might be a pain, but you only need to do it once. Going from 60 to 70 will cut your damage (from that element) by 25%, which is huge. I do this quest in every difficulty for every character. Even if your resists are maxed without it, doing the quest opens up more gear flexibility.
 
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