Anything Goes D2 Lounge!

[Jamie]

I did some NM Andy Runs, on my now level 57 HC Sorceress(just started HC) and didn't anything super special from her, so I decided to advance to get to NM Mephisto. I just did returned the Gidbin or Gibdin or whatever its called and Ormus gave me a nice little ring!

I'm happy with my progress and am excited to get to NM Mephisto for a minute. I planned on this being a Blizzard Sorc eventually, but I started Fireball and then Meteor, as I find those to be the best for early game. I have kept her Fire for now.
617 Life/337 Mana/68FCR(65 is closest BP)/2k Fireball/4.2K Meteor with my Spirit/Rhyme on. It has been easy going so far, not much in the way of danger and with Rhyme, Stealth and Spirit and decent life, I can teleport with no issues. My resists are FR90(Hotspur)/75CR/75LR/70PR. My Merc is a great tank with Insight Halberd, Face of Horror and 369Def/24FHR Ancient Armor. I will be very careful during Trav, as I don't have much experience with the Fire Enchanted bug. EDIT: Now my resists are 90/75/75/75, as I found an 18 all resist amulet and I could swap that for my 10FCR/10LR I needed to max LR and help with FCR and I put on the ring I pictured below to max resist and get back to 68 FCR and put on the 18 All Resist Amulet. I know none of this is super special or anything, but I am enjoying building the Sorc slowly with the best gear I can get in each area and having good stats early on.

No idea when or if I am going to switch to Blizzard. I'm guessing I will if NM Mephisto doesn't die fast enough for me or when I get to Hell Mephisto, as I know Blizzard drops him far faster than Meteor/FB and moating will likely be the method I use to take down Mephisto.

I thought I would give a slight update and mainly I wanted to share the ring Ormus gave me, as it is pretty nice and I don't have much on Hardcore yet. I would have preferred Fire instead of Poison, or even Cold, but I can't complain, especially with the level requirement and incase I do Hell Andarial later on, with the convenience of her being glitched.

 

[Jamie]

@Vildecor I must have glossed over this earler. When you quest glitch bosses, MF actually still plays a role in the drops? I had always been told from long, long ago that when you quest glitch Andy or say Mephisto, that the quest drops aren't influenced by MF.

Unless I was playing Classic at the time and was told it doesn't matter, as rare drops are desirable anyway. But I could have swore that quest drops weren't effected and whenever I play Expansion and run a quest glitched boss, I never bothered tweaking MF. I always just made the character as efficient as possible because I thought MF was useless. Maybe I was given bad information or it was just a Classic thought process that I carried over to XPAC.

Also, why doesn't the Fire Enchanted Explosion/Bug hurt Mercenaries? They don't get hit with the FE Death? Because it seems CE and LE hurts them, at least I think.


So as far as my HC Sorcy progress. I got to LK in A3 and called it a night last night. I have a LK Map that only has 1 L shaped section with 3 super chests or special chests or whichever those are called lol. I haven't looked into what runes and items can drop from NM LK, so I don't know if I will bother to reroll the map and do any LK Runs. I did find a Combat Skiller in LK (Barbarian ), so I saved a couple Grand Charms to maybe roll later and know that I am now in the Skiller Range, so that part would be nice from chests if I could land some Cold or Fire Skillers. I guess I will check what runes can drop if I don't see it here quickly, because I think I am going to pick up from last night now.

I didn't want to go any further last night, being tired and wanting to do Travincle while I'm alert. I am scared of the FE Bug that I have heard so much about, but haven't really dealt with in a long time on HC. I looked up and found the radius of it, and an Amazon with a War Pike can kill Geleb Flamefinger OUTSIDE of the FE range on Normal and Nightmare, but not on Hell. The radius is only slightly larger on each difficulty, so with a Sorceress and hoping my Merc will stay alive, I should have no problem staying far away if I am paying attention to what I am doing. That is my last barrier to getting to NM Mephisto and being able to hopefully get some decent Uniques and maybe some things like Tal's Pieces.

Off I Go.

Update: Mephisto Down, Trav was a joke, Mephisto doesn't go down so fast with Fire Skills, something I am sure we have all noticed since 1.10 came out. Fireball and Meteor are great for Andarial and for getting through Normal and Nightmare with reasonably priced skills and the ability to wrack their damage up, while keeping mana costs low, especially after your first Insight.

This could be the point that turning to Blizzard is the thing to do. I haven't came across any problematic immunes throught NM Act 3, but my Merc should be able to take care of those. My Insight is only in a Halberd, so his damage isn't outstanding. I give him Enchant and he does 336-675 max damage, 310-638 before Enchant. But he is set up to take up space and damage for me. A high damage/24 FHR Ancient Armor and Face of Horror Mask. This has peen probably the worst untwinked run as far as Damage Jewels go. So although I have a 3 socket Crown and a 4 Socket Gothic Plate/3 Socket Armor with +10 Strength, I don't have much to help him boost damage.

The jewels have been mostly minimum and the best Max has been a +9 Max, the rest like 3 or lower lol. I did find a +14 Minimum Damage "Scarlet Jewel of Bliss". I don't ever really remember finding Minimum Damage Jewels over +10 Minimum, so I was surprised when I found it. But making an Armor or Crown with Minimum Damage Jewels, one a nice 14 and the rest random mediocre or crap ones that I wouldn't want to mix with my +14 Min one. Plus adding Minimum Damage isn't going to really be useful for immunes. But Static and Telekinesis and MAYBE switching from Prayer to Might at some point, and probably finding a much better 4 socket Polearm before immunes become problematic, will probably solve my problems. So although some people prefer multi-elemental, especially untwinked, I always have preferred the straight Blizzard approach with my Merc finishing immunes I can't avoid or that have to die. Static+Telekinesis Lock and a decent damage Merc has always done me well.

All of my gear is viable for a Fire or Cold Sorceress, the only thing strictly Fire is a +1 Fire Amulet I have no intentions of using lol. So I think the time has come so I can take down Mephisto much faster in NM and eventually in Hell. I just hope to get a better Insight Polearm soon, as the Meditation Aura far outweighs the value of using a different high damage Polearm and having to pound Mana Pots.

Not sure if anyone is actually interested in these updates on my first HC Character in years and my run at it, so I may just be wasting space in here and annoying people lol. But if people enjoy reading about people's advances through the game, as I do, I hope you are enjoying mine. And I really love any and all advice people send. Although I think I know more than the average player and have been playing since 7th or 8th grade(on and off in spurts), about 15 years ago, there are tons of things I still don't know and a ton of people who know way more than I will ever know! So responses are great. Especially the questions I asked above about does MF affect quest drops on bosses and Mercs getting hurt or not, by FE or FE bug.

Maybe someone will want to start a HC char with me one day

 

[Vildecor]

@Jamie - MF still increases chances for S/U for quest-bugged Andy.

FE death explosion does not deal damage to mercenary. At least that’s the info dug up from the link a few posts back. Same reason doll explosions don’t do damage to them.

 

[Jamie]

The Armor Rack next to NM Mephisto on my HC Sorc, drops Serpentskin Armors every few runs. I am happy to see that and hope it pans out.

 

[Jamie]

I just beat NM Baal on my HC Blizzard(was fire up until the end of NM) Sorc. She is level 76 and I have been doing Nightmare Mephisto, Pindleskin, Eldritch and occasionally Shenk mixed in and also some Baal Runs I will start to focus on more, as Pindle's XP wears off.

Although I have played a million Blizzard Sorces, it has been awhile since I have made one and I have a question that I couldn't find a great answer to on the internet. Where should I have my Cold Mastery at as I move on each step of the way? I have Blizzard, Ice Blast and Glacial Spike maxed and 6 on Ice Bolt. I have 10 base points to Cold Mastery, which makes it level 14 (85% Resist Pierce) with my main gear setup at the moment, which will be switched around quite a bit as I progress forward. None of my gear is end game or even close to it.

So 85% cut into resistances. I can look up the resistances of each boss, which is mainly the part that I want to be set at a good spot at, but I am not 100% sure how low you want them to be for Blizzard. What I want to make sure of, is that I distribute points between Ice Bolt and Cold Mastery in the most effective way to dish out the most damage. As soon as I get confident enough to quest my way get to Hell Mephisto and teleport to him each run, I plan on focusing on him. I may do glitch Andy Hell runs for awhile also. For the time being, I will be focusing mainly on Nightmare Mephisto and Baal.

I have 1 extra skill point and plan to level a bit as I do NM Baal Runs, so I am wondering if I am already high enough with 10 base points into CM (85% with +skills) for now and should add my points to Ice Bolt, or if I should keep adding to CM and if that will equate to more damage to monsters and NM Meph/Baal for now and Hell Andy/Meph soon.

EDIT: I accidently hit "HELL" out of a habitual reaction, gained throughout the years and years of D2 lol. So I guess I will just bother with working on Hell, since my map that allowed me to reach NM Mephisto in like 4 teleports is gone . I planned on staying in NM until I at least found some upgraded gear from Mephisto, seeing how each run took what seemed like 15 seconds. I moved some gear around and I can have max 90/75/75/75 resists in Hell with a 3x PDiamond Gothic Shield. It would be 61/48/43/44 with Rhyme in place of the Diamond'd Shield. On weapon switch I have an Alibaba, with a LR and CR jewel, and Rhyme. That yields me 61/62/54/44 resists, so not bad. I can also get over 300 MF on weapon(Alibaba) switch and keep resists relatively high. At least in Nightmare, I could have 75 all resists and have well over 200 MF with no switch and over 300 on switch.

I have 841 HP and 372 Mana(Insight on Merc). Low defense and only 8% Block with Diamond Gothic Shield and 17% With Rhyme/Alibaba. My stats with gear are, 95 Strength/52 Dexterity/286 Vitality/72 Energy, with 27 Stat Points unused. I don't now how hard Hell is going to be, so I really am tempted to pump all, or almost all of them, into Vita. But I am worried about needing Strength or Dex down the road for an item, like Spirit/SS/Whistan's/Wiz Spike/Aldur's Boots/War Trav's or other items that I might come across and then be sitting without the stats to use them. I have only used one reset so far, so maybe I should just Vita and not worry about it, as I still have 2 freebie resets before I will ever need a token. Plus those resets don't matter if I die lol.

I know Hell gets a lot tougher than the previous two difficulties, almost at an exponential rate. So I am quite nervous now. Especially when I get to Durial and extremely when I get to Council. I hope I get some better gear along the way through A1 and A2.

I still wish I had a better memory on where my Cold Mastery should be, for most effective killing of regular monsters in Hell and of Bosses in NM and Hell. I may have to end up going back to Nightmare anyway and rolling maps, as the only 'Insight' base I was able to find, playing all the way through level 76, was just a non-ethereal Halberd. Really need an upgrade on that, before I can rely on my Merc to kill Cold Immunes. Might even have to change the Merc from Normal Prayer to a Nightmare Might for the damage against the Cold Immunes. I love the Prayer, but every Blizzard Sorc I ever make, I always use a Might Merc on Cold Immunes I can't ignore or skip and static/telekinesis them up against the wall.

 

[Jamie]

It appears people are now bored with my Hardcore Sorceress or are annoyed with my updates on her and my questions and ask for advice lol. I can stop posting so much about her. I just like discussions, versus looking up old threads and info from years and patches ago that don't exactly answer my questions and not having the opportunity to be completely specific and having a back and forth. The old posts are usually not exactly what I am looking for.

Is it because I am annoying and making long posts? Is it because of the wrong thread? Should I have done a thread just on this Sorc or on all my characters?

Sorry for sounding like a whiner LOL

 

[dkn]

It appears people are now bored with my Hardcore Sorceress or are annoyed with my updates on her and my questions and ask for advice lol. I can stop posting so much about her. I just like discussions, versus looking up old threads and info from years and patches ago that don't exactly answer my questions and not having the opportunity to be completely specific and having a back and forth. The old posts are usually not exactly what I am looking for.

Is it because I am annoying and making long posts? Is it because of the wrong thread? Should I have done a thread just on this Sorc or on all my characters?

Sorry for sounding like a whiner LOL

No way! I just got done reading your updates and enjoyed them.

I've played many cold sorc's over the years, but I forget how Cold Mastery works, sorry.

If you'd like to switch to HC I can give you starter gear or we can play untwinked. I was going to wait till 2020 to start my spear/polearm ww barb or my lightning Tal Rasha sorc, but I'd be happy to start them early to play with you.

Keep the updates coming!

Edit* just realized you said Hardcore Sorc. I thought you played SC Jamie? My 66 Necro just killed NM Diablo tonight!

 

[Jamie]

Well I found an arrangement of my items to make my HC Sorce have 90/75/75/75 resists, 990 life and 416 mana. Very low defense and 10% chance to block. I may go a block build later on when I can get maybe a Stormshield or something. I did find a Whistan's, but I need resists from my shield desperately right now.

Since I took Stealth off, my FHR no longer hits the 86%, 7 Frame Breakpoint and I have to settle with the 60%, 8 Frame Breakpoint. I'm not sure if that will be a severe hinderance teleporting and moving around. I hit the 63%, 9 Frame FCR Breapoint and have been practically the whole time I've been playing her. The 105%, 8 Frame FCR goal, will be a ways out, unless maybe I find a Vipermagi sometime soon. I am fine with the 63%, although pretty much every sorce I ever play is the 105% BP. I am not sure if being HC, I will use a Spirit Monarch down the road, or look towards something like Stormshield and play more defensive. If I use Spirit, the 105 will obviously be easy to hit.

I just found a second high end Raven Frost from Hell Andarial. I have a map where I encounter not a single monster, other than the occasional one or two on the third level, and the trip to level 3 Catacombs is THREE teleports and the trip to level 4 is ~7 teleports. So the map is wonderful and it drug me back in to doing Andarial Runs, especially since I got two Raven Frosts and many other unique rings and set amulets to drop. Also have had several rare Spiderweb Sashes drop. I assume that means I can land Arachnid's? I don't even have one of those on my Softore characters that I have been playing for a long time and have some pretty rare items and decked out characters lol. One of those items that eludes me for some reason. I jinxed myself this trip to test the exact amount of teleports to Andarial, and the level 3 had monsters that are never there, the lightning ball shooters with might aura and then I landed in another boss pack trying to avoid the terrifying ones I first encountered. That was the only time that happened in all the runs I have done, so really weird and ironic.

My laptop is having fits and when I first got on a little bit ago, I did an Andy Run and the computer completely froze with my Merc having a sliver of life and me within range of Hell Andarial on Players 3. I couldn't ctrl alt del or alt F4 or anything my way out of it, so I held down the power button until it shut off and prayed nothing happened. I got back on terrified and opened D2 and my Sorceress was still sitting there alive! It turned out that the game that froze, didn't register at all. I used 3 vitality stats in town when I joined the game and they were still unused in the new game. So Thank God some computer disaster didn't destroy all my slow, time taking work I have been doing on this HC Sorceress. I stopped playing Hardcore on B.net a long time ago (I play no bnet anymore), even though I loved it, because my internet was just far too unreliable and I was not going to be having deaths due to the internet and something completely out of my control.

The internet and phone service issue I deal with where I live, is it what got me to this place in the first place and turned me into a Single Player guy, where i still can play and talk with a community of players. And the people here are aren't trolls, rotten kids, thieves, cheaters, botters, etc. that you have to deal with on bnet. Another main reason was that playing legitimate and wanting a game free of bots, dupes, hacks, dueling programs was always a desire of mine. People would argue with me that those hacks I listed make D2 a better game and I couldn't handle their stupidity anymore lol. I still really wish I had good internet out here though

So, I finally took off Stealth for my attempt at going through Hell, and made an interesting Armor that I am wondering if anyone else has made before lol. Here it is:

The rest is:
3PDiamond Gothic Shield/33%FCR Spirit Long Sword(worked perfectly for the 63%BP )
Magefist
Hotspurs
'Lore' Circlet
238/19 Raven Frost
10%FRC/2 Strength/8 Energy/3 Mana/28%LR/30%PR
18% All Resist/1 Energy Amulet oops: wanted max resists and this is all that does it)
Rare Plated Belt:14% Cast level 5 Nova when struck/71%ED/14 Strength/26 Life/12 Mana/29%FR

Gear could certainly be better for playing through Hell, not the greatest of luck so far. I have found an Ist and an Um though. I have some scattered mid runes and tons of low runes. Maybe I can find some runewords with an Ist and/or Um that will make a good improvement. But I definitely don't want to waste them yet. It's the only part I have been lucky about, other than maybe my FCR ring and Raven Frosts.

My Mercenary is a huge problem. I went to do Radamant to get an extra skill, he was cold immune, after static and using constant telekenisis to pin him on the wall, it took my Act 2 Prayer Merc like 10 minutes to finish him. The problem is i have only found ONE viable Insight Weapon so far, and it is a Halberd and he has a Crown of Theives for the 11%LL and a Goldskin to keep his resists up. I have mainly been using him as a tank for me, but now as cold immunes are starting to regularly pop up, I am going to need more. I turned him into a Might Merc for a minute (I usually use Might Merc on my Blizz Sorces for easy immune killing), but I really missed the prayer and wanted it back. I badly need to find an Insight Base for him that is worth a damn. I could switch up his weapon to a non Insight, but I do not want my Meditation to go away. So it's kind of a dilemma. Maybe I will go back to Nightmare and do cows or check certain areas for a better base that does good damage.

My main mission is to get to Mephisto in Hell, so I can do massive amounts of runs on him and get all the gear I need to finish out the game and to level in higher level areas and LK for runes.

I guess that is all for today. I really wanted to show my funny armor I used to max resists and wondered if anyone had done that before.

 

[pharphis]

I think max block is a scary crutch in HC, personally. At least for sorcs

 

[dkn]

Jamie, your sorc looks awesome!

 

[Jamie]

@pharphis I have not made a max block or an energy shield or both together on a sorceress, in a LOOONGGG time. Even on Hardcore I had been going Vita builds ever since 1.10 came out. You feel that going Block Build is a bigger threat to die than the Vita build? Do you feel Stormshield is a poor option for a Sorceress as well, going Max Block or Vita? I am curious to hear all opinions and what you think about it.

@dkn thanks dude! I like her, even though the gear is somewhat underwhelming at this point. My NM Andy, NM Meph, NM Pindle/EdlritchShenk, NM Baal and Hell Andy runs have been strange. I have found quite a few Tulwars and a lot of good melee uniques, tons of lower sets and uniques, 2 really high end Raven Frosts, a 11% Tal's Belt just recently, a few crappy Nagelrings, several really nice Necromancer Wands, Zon Items and other class items, BUT I just can't seem to find caster material, particularly Sorceress Gear, other than a Viscerataunt Shield, which isn't useful to me at all right now lol.

No Vipermagi, Peasant Crown, Occulus, Wizard Spike, Moser's, Suicide Branch, War Travs, Waterwalks, Nat's Boots, Trang's Gloves, Skill Amulets with the resists I need, just a +1 Sorc Rare Amulet with only +4 Resist, a +2 Cold Skill Magic Amulet. Only skiller of any kind has been a Fire Skiller, after I respec'd to Blizzard lmao. In fact, the charm finding has been extremely underwhelming. So bad, that I have had to use charms like a 21 Life/11% LR GRAND Charm, 8 Life/8%LR LARGE Charm, 6 Life/7% CR Large Charm, a 1-2 Cold Damage(lol)/3% CR Small Charm and some other crappers, just to get my resists all squared out. I only have a couple average, at best, resist or resist/life charms. And I had to ditch some FHR Charms and my Stealth, so I am at the 8 Frame 60% FHR BP, instead of the 7 Frame 84% FHR BP I have been at for almost the entire trip up to now. I am not sure how much those BP differences really play a role, combined with blocking chance and speed as I Teleport. Teleporting is the only time I am really worried about getting physically hit. I would love to hear from the experts on that type of stuff.

The main problem, by far, is my Mercenary that does no damage with his 'Insight' Halberd. I used to play classic a decent amount, so I have no problem getting by without the best uniques/sets/runewords, but I can't kill any cold immunes in Hell with what my Merc is using. Even switching from Prayer to Might did virtually nothing, so I went back because Prayer is a beautiful thing to have, especially while running Hell Andy.

I want to power my way to Hell Mephisto, but I don't know how to possibly get there and especially past the council members, if my Mercenary takes 10 minutes to kill Radamant after static and me telekinesising him into a wall, on what I am pretty sure was players 1. Unless I slipped up and left players 3 or 8 for some reason, but I am almost positive it was P1 and even if it was 3 or 8, it was absurdly slow and low damage. And I haven't found any good damage jewels to use in his Armor and Helm, plus I need the Goldskin and Crown of Thieves to keep him alive with resists and high leech. I really don't want to lose Meditation or lose Prayer or lose both, I have just been really unlucky on finding things that I specifically need lol. I need a 4 socket polearm that packs a punch.

Looking back, Radamant may have had the stone skin or whatever mod raises their life/defense outrageously and that could have played a role. He kills P1 monsters out in Act 1 fine in Hell. But Radamant scared me badly, thinking of trying to go to areas with cold immunes everywhere, strong packs, and especially TRAV is terrifying even without that issue to deal with.

My Prayer Merc, at level 78, only does 349-685 damage >< When I made him Might, it really only made it up to around a thousand I believe. So really making him Might doesn't really do much right now.

My decision now lies on continuing to run Hell Andy on P3 and hope for some decent Sorceress gear to drop, going back to NM and doing Nightmare Cow Runs hoping to find a new base for Insight and possibly some NM Meph Runs OR trying to power on through A2, where I have only done the first quest so far and have only that first Waypoint.

I would need to find somewhere what polearms can drop in NM and if the item level of them would be viable to get 4 sockets in the cube, or possibly 4 sockets in a Larzuk Quest, but I don't think I will get that desperate to use waste a hole punch like that, on an untwinked character. Those will be held for probably something like Death's Fathom, Shako or Nightwing and either a Vipermagi with perfect resist or Blizzard Ormus, if I don't plan for CoH or Enigma long run, or for a Stormshield or a certain shield if I don't go Spirit. I don't think I will use one on Merc, even if I found something like an ethereal Andy's Visage or Reaper's Toll, unless I go CoH/Enigma/Spirit and only need a hole for Fathom+Shako/Nightwing's. I think Reaper's is meant for Melee Characters anyway, so if I did get lucky I would probably move it off her and stick with Insight/Infinity down the road. But ironically on my first sorce on softcore, when I started up for the second time on this SP forum(hard drive crash ruined first round), I found 35 resist Vipermagi at end of Normal I think it was and Um'd it once I got an UM and then found Death's Fathom in the area beyond Pindleskin(Halls of Pain or Vanquish I think it's called?) before I even had one Shako, before the 3 Tal's pieces I planned on using and other common things I needed lol. First one ever found. And I also found an Eth Reaper's Toll almost instantly when I got to Hell Mephisto. I don't foresee that happening ever again lol. So my socket quests will probably sit around for months or years lol.

Can I find a good base to roll or find already with 4 sockets in NM Cows? Like any Elite Bases or even Exceptional ones that could be found ethereal and roll 4 sockets or come with 4 sockets or even non ethereal I would be fine with. I just really need my Merc to do damage. That is a HUGE hinderance to me moving on in Hell, unless I want to respec for the second time ( I started fireball/meteor and switched to Blizzard in middle of Nightmare), and I don't really want to use my 2nd respec, knowing I will need to use my last one to go back to Blizzard once my Mercenary is full strength. But if I can't get any damage going on my mercenary soon, I feel like I am almost going to be forced to turn to a Fireball/Meteor/Frozen Orb Sorc. And another problem with that, is that I want to be Blizzard when I get to Hell Mephisto, for the super effective moating trick. Blizzard takes Mephisto down just sooooo much faster than Meteor does and the moat trick is so wonderful when you are still weak, particularly Hardcore, and want to have a safe way of gathering up good loot, fast.

Sorry my posts are always so long and repetitive, but I would LOVE advice on what the best route from this point on is. I am level 78, in Act 2 Hell with only Radamant Quest done and have almost no way to take care of Cold Immunes. So MF, NM Cows, other areas to MF in Hell that I could find a 4 os Polearm Base with High Damage? I don't really want to lose my Andy map and go back to NM for Cows, but I guess it isn't that big of a deal. Is Crypt or Mausoleum maybe good places to look for a better Insight Polearm Base for my Merc? Plus aren't those areas very high level areas, where lots of high level items can drop? If I remember correctly, either the CRYPT or MAUSOLEUM, or both, were places that were very doable for Blizzard Sorceresses or cold characters.

QUICK EDIT BECAUSE OF FUNNY: While killing Countess, because I couldn't remember what the name of the one that wasn't the Crypt was, she dropped me a 19 life SC. So I finally got a good charm to use lol. Good thing I couldn't remember Mausoleum! I started going into Crypt, on P3, and so far all Lightning Immunes and a Grand Charm(haven't got it yet) and Twitchthroe Armor dropped just inside haha. Little late for the Armor, but nice to have if I ever decide to twink a HC char. I had to throw this in there.

Thanks for any feedback, D2 encyclopedias!

 

[pharphis]

I don't have any hard stats or reasoning behind it, but I always go max vita + some energy shield (usually 1-5 points, depending on + skills and how many synergies you need)

I almost never go max block. I also almost never use stormshield! Just spirit, normally.

 

[Jamie]

@pharphis Energy Shield always terrified me because of the situations where your mana pool gets instantly drained and you can't teleport and/or get stuck or block locked in a group. I also have always read that Telekinesis hard points were more beneficial than the Energy Shield itself. Since I haven't made an ES Sorce in probably over a decade and don't look into it, I don't remember how the Energy Shield works and how Telekinesis plays a role into it as a synergy. Especially considering it doesn't mention how it benefits Energy Shield on the skill page lol.

I hate those synergies that they don't explain at all what they do in the Skill Tree. But I know I could just go to D2Wiki or search Google and figure it out. I just always prefer to have exact conversations with people on here about specific D2 topics, as I can get the exact questions answered that I have trouble finding through search sometimes and it is must more enjoyable to go that route, where you can have a back and forth and get really specific with certain scenarios. That is why I love this place, everyone here is so knowledgeable. Go to jsP for assistance and good conversations and all you get is trolls that spew fake information or rude comments or get told to go use Google. That is unless you use the sports forums on there or non D2 related ones. This place is wonderful

 

[Vildecor]

From Arreat Summit:

Each point in Telekinesis makes Energy Shield's damage absorption more effective. By default, for each point of damage absorbed by Energy Shield, 2 mana points are deducted - a 200% ratio. Each hard skill point in Telekinesis makes Energy Shield 6.25% more effective. For example, with 8 points in Telekinesis, 1.5 mana points are deducted for each point of damage absorbed - a 150% ratio. With 16 points in Telekinesis, one point of damage absorbed equals one point of mana loss - a 100% ratio.

This is also quoted in the first stickied post in the Sorceress forums: How to make Energy Shield work for you which also discusses different setups and strategies in using Energy Shield.

 

[dkn]

So, I've always played HC. I currently have just over 1,000 items in my item stash about 500 runes/gems.

My 11 year old is interested in playing with me but wants to do SC. His behavior has been off the charts so tomorrow I'm buying him his first laptop for us to play through SC together.

I'm going to make him a profile on here and announce when I give him gear. I think I'm going to switch to SC so we can play together as he was impressed with full Sigons hahaha

I know its frowned upon to go HC -> SC - but just how much so? Ultimately playing with him trumps forum rules, but he thinks the way we trade and follow rules is pretty cool and may want to trade and post in the future, so, we're just making sure we're good to go!

 

[Jamie]

@dkn I believe moving HC items to SC is allowed, although I believe a lot of people are against that. I know I certainly am against moving items around between HC and SC and don't participate in it. If you are going to do it, I would definitely declare it. It might knock you out of some trade pools, I am not sure. I would be uncomfortable getting items that have moved from HC > SC. Moving items from SC > HC is definitely not allowed. I think either would be super cheesy. But if you are allowed by forum rules to go Hardcore to Softcore, than it's your decision. I'm not sure what got that allowed in the first place, as it doesn't really match with any theme of D2, online or single player.

I actually am to a point where I almost always prefer playing untwinked. It makes it more how the game was meant to be played and you never know how the items are going to pan out and you have to have some strategies and plans lined up. Twinked, you can just roll through the game with virtually zero resistance, even on player 8. At least to where I am now.

But if you are going to start playing D2 with your young son and he is new to the game, I would recommend starting over fresh with new things so he can appreciate all of the new, early items and fresh things that go with the game. I remember my favorite memories being when I was starting over and seeing items, that now look like garbage, but then seemed really awesome and special and longing for items like an IK Maul or something stupid, because of how high the damage looked to someone starting out fresh.

Definitely start him out on Softcore though. Hardcore can be a pain for veteran players. He would likely get eaten alive on any patch after 1.09 on Hardcore. In fact, he would probably get eaten alive anywhere until he learns all the tricks and nuances of the game. There is just soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much information to learn about D2. And when you think you've learned it all, you realize there are tons of sets of numbers and breakpoints and frame rates and range and things that are behind the scenes that you don't know about until you look them up or read about them. A game that can take forever to actually understand the game to a high degree.

 

[Dagaz]

I'm about to make Doom runeword in either Berserker Axe or War Spike. Are repair costs really that hish as I've read? I intend to use it on Frost Zelaot.

 

[DariusTriplet]

But if you are going to start playing D2 with your young son and he is new to the game, I would recommend starting over fresh with new things so he can appreciate all of the new, early items and fresh things that go with the game. I remember my favorite memories being when I was starting over and seeing items, that now look like garbage, but then seemed really awesome and special and longing for items like an IK Maul or something stupid, because of how high the damage looked to someone starting out fresh.

Definitely start him out on Softcore though. Hardcore can be a pain for veteran players. He would likely get eaten alive on any patch after 1.09 on Hardcore. In fact, he would probably get eaten alive anywhere until he learns all the tricks and nuances of the game. There is just soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much information to learn about D2. And when you think you've learned it all, you realize there are tons of sets of numbers and breakpoints and frame rates and range and things that are behind the scenes that you don't know about until you look them up or read about them. A game that can take forever to actually understand the game to a high degree.

+1 to all of this. Part of why I've enjoyed playing Classic so much is how new and fresh it all feels; finding a set/unique for the first time, fighting act bosses when you don't have great gear, and trying out new skills are one of the best parts of the Diablo experience. I'd definitely play through untwinked for the first few passes, or maybe start from nothing and set gear aside for future characters

Starting on SC is also a good idea; it'd be crummy for your son's character to die because he didn't know about Dolls, Amp Damage, Souls, etc.

 

[dkn]

Thanks for the replies

We're about to start untwinked Softcore. I only have him every other weekend so I'll create a progress thread for all of you to follow!

 

[Luhkoh]

Since I finally have the map I'm gonna stick with for mfo, I decided to craft some caster ammies and reroll some gc's today. Crafted 85 caster amulets. The only notable one was a 2 barb 6 fcr 39 life 16 light res one that I will probably use on my zerker during mfo! A few 2 pally skills but no 10 fcr. And a few with 15+ fcr but none were 20fcr and none were +2 skills.

During the portion of the crafting that i did on my untwinked 99er sorc, I had to farm pindle a few minutes for gold, and found a 28 to life skiller (hexing )

I then rerolled 37 gcs on my untwinked 99er sorc. Got 2 light skillers and one MA skiller. Very nice. I now have 4 light skillers on her and I expect they will get used at lvl 98

Next was 95 gc rerolls with my twinked characters. I got a java skiller with 28 life! I now have 7 java skillers total (more than any other) and 4 of them have life on them (18, 26, 26, 28). Then got 2 pcombs, 1 pnb, and 1 trap skiller. This was wayyy above the expected number of skillers and they were all useful! Time well spent.