Guardian Orni

[Evah]

Guardian Orni

After a year without playing D2, I'm back. With most RL problems settled down, I can afford to play again.

And here is my first char since August-'07. In order to recollect and restore my playing skills I created a Sorceress (it's better to start witn an easy character, isn't it?).

I made some twinking. First of all, I decided to use my 30% Death's Fantom (it has been collecting dust in my stash since I got it from Pindle about a year ago). This was pretty much the only descent item for a sorc I was able to find in my stashes. I also twinked this char with rare mana/fcr rings, 'Rhyme' shield, Gheed's, Tal's mask and Kelpie (both for my moron).


So, stats, skills and equipment:

Orni
Sorceress (Hardcore, Vanilla, 1.11 - goin' to upgrade to 1.12 soon)
76 level

strength: 60/60
dexterity: 180/206
vitality: 195/195
energy: 35/35
defence (with aura): 1494

Health points: 621
Mana: 381

Resistances: 53/59/75/2

Lit skills:
nothing wondrous here, usual 1-pointers (static and tele)

Cold Skills:

Shiver Armour: 1/8
Ice Blast: 20/27
Glacial Spike: 20/27 916-975
Cold Mastery: 1/8 55%
Ice Bolt*: 3/10

Fire Skills:

Fire Wall**: 2/7
Meteor: 20/25 3282-3458
Fire Mastery: 11/16
Warmth: 1/6

*i'm going to level Orni up a bit, so skill-pts will go here.
**initially I was thinking about a Fire Wall+Glacial Spike build, but then i thought that Meteor (which is much more easy to control) would deal pretty much the same amount of damage over time. By the moment I decided to go Meteor, I had already put 2 points into FW instead of 1.

Equipment:

Glacial Circlet
Defense: 22
Durability: 35 of 35
Required Level: 45
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 72
Fingerprint: 0x1fdae167
+3 to Cold Skills (Sorceress Only)

Storm Necklace
Amulet
Required Level: 53
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 57
Fingerprint: 0xd221e837
+10 to Mana
+16 to Attack Rating
Regenerate Mana 5%
Fire Resist +20%
Lightning Resist +27%
Cold Resist +20%
Poison Resist +20%
38% Extra Gold from Monsters
6% Faster Cast Rate

Stealth
Breast Plate
'TalEth'
Defense: 68
Durability: 50 of 50
Required Strength: 30
Required Level: 17
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 23
Fingerprint: 0xfb2a1518
+6 to Dexterity
+15 to Maximum Stamina
Regenerate Mana 15%
Magic Damage Reduced by 3
Poison Resist +30%
25% Faster Run/Walk
25% Faster Hit Recovery
25% Faster Cast Rate
Socketed (2: 2 used)

Visceratuant
Defender
'Um'
Defense: 109
Chance to Block:  60%
Durability: 68 of 68
Required Strength: 38
Required Level: 47
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 94
Fingerprint: 0x1b4aa838
+118% Enhanced Defense
+30% Increased Chance of Blocking
All Resistances +22
+1 to Sorceress Skill Levels
30% Faster Block Rate
Attacker Takes Lightning Damage of 10
Socketed (1: 1 used)

Death's Fathom
Dimensional Shard
One-Hand Damage: 30 to 53
Durability: 50 of 50
(Sorceress Only)
Required Level: 73
Orb Class - Slow Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 86
Fingerprint: 0x180ffddf
Fire Resist +25%
Lightning Resist +26%
+3 to Sorceress Skill Levels
20% Faster Cast Rate
+30% to Cold Skill Damage

Coral Demonhide Sash of the Mammoth
Defense: 29
Durability: 12 of 12
Required Strength: 20
Required Level: 24
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 43
Fingerprint: 0xc34e65e9
+31 to Life
Lightning Resist +30%

Raven Frost
Ring
Required Level: 45
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 61
Fingerprint: 0x6b9ec490
+19 to Dexterity
+40 to Mana
+154 to Attack Rating
Adds 15-45 cold damage over 4 seconds
20% Cold Absorb
Cannot Be Frozen

Havoc Hold
Ring
Required Level: 24
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 32
Fingerprint: 0x8c49be36
+1 to Dexterity
+53 to Mana
+15 to Attack Rating
Fire Resist +30%
10% Faster Cast Rate
Level 1 Ice Blast (22/22 Charges)

Magefist
Light Gauntlets
Defense: 24
Durability: 18 of 18
Required Strength: 45
Required Level: 23
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 59
Fingerprint: 0x6cbe1841
+23% Enhanced Defense
Regenerate Mana 25%
+10 Defense
Adds 1-6 fire damage
20% Faster Cast Rate
+1 to Fire Skills

Blood Tread
Light Plated Boots
Defense: 47
Durability: 18 of 18
Required Strength: 50
Required Level: 22
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 59
Fingerprint: 0x759474d1
Fire Resist +20%
Cold Resist +30%
78% Extra Gold from Monsters
Half Freeze Duration
12% Chance to cast Level 4 Nova when struck
+38 to Defense (Based on Character Level)

Good old Life Tap charged wand on swap ))

Charms summary:
mana +94
life +45
cold res +50
lit res +41
fire res +6
and some GF and MF from Gheed's

The gear is quite imbalanced (especially in FCR terms...). I just wanted to kill Hell Baal ASAP so I didn't spend time choosing/crafting items.

Mercenary:
Razan
Normal, Defensive.

Equipment:

Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest
Death Mask
Defense: 130
Durability: 19 of 20
Required Strength: 55
Required Level: 66
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 66
Fingerprint: 0x6fd62061
+60 to Life
+30 to Mana
+45 Defense
All Resistances +15
10% Life stolen per hit
10% Mana stolen per hit

Shaftstop
Mesh Armor
Defense: 599
Durability: 33 of 45
Required Strength: 92
Required Level: 38
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 59
Fingerprint: 0x91f27c41
+60 to Life
+180% Enhanced Defense
+250 Defense vs. Missile
Damage Reduced by 30%

Kelpie Snare
Fuscina
Two-Hand Damage: 80 to 147
Durability: 31 of 35
Required Dexterity: 25
Required Strength: 77
Required Level: 33
Spear Class - Normal Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 58
Fingerprint: 0x42bf2896
+10 to Strength
+164% Enhanced Damage
+30 to Minimum Damage
+50 to Maximum Damage
Fire Resist +50%
Slows Target by 75%
+95 to Life (Based on Character Level)

From the very moment I got Glacial Spike, the game was a breeze. AoE + 100% Freeze + no delay = both strong and safe PvM sorc. I can't remember any monster in Hell that I couldn't kill in 6-7 spikes or 2-3 meteors. Both skills worked surprisingly well either as a combo, or as independant sources of damage.

When I reached NM Meph, I decided to make some runs. They were extremely rewarding: within ~20 runs I got Shaftstop, Magefist, Silkweave, WWS, Tal's Orb and a whole bunch of normal uniques and sets (sold to Ormus).
No other notable finds in NM except a Ravenfrost from a gloam at the Frozen River. Hellforge gave me Shael.

Hell was much easier than I expected. When I left NM, my level was 68 or so and I had 500-ish spike and 2000-ish Meteor. However, monsters were dieing quickly. Everything non-CI was frozen and shattered. Everything non-FI was smashed and fried. I made another stop: I levelled up till 73 in Pits and Tower. Pits gave me nothing but exp. Countess was extremely generous. She probably handed me all her Els and Elds -_-.
At level 73 I changed Tal's Orb to Death's Fantom. With this lil' toy, spike damage raised to 900 and Meteor damage increased to 3k. So I tele'd through A3 (no finds) and A4. Hel from Hell Hellforge. Neat -_-. 10 minutes later, a fingermage in Chaos Sanctuary dropped a Lem. Diablo gifted me with a Viscer (socketed it with an Um from my stash) which was actually a nice alternative to Rhyme.
A5 had no notable drops/events. Ancients were easy (though I had to cover the area with a layer of blue potions before touching the altar). Baal's minions didn't pose any threat to me, even Lister's pack (Freeze!!).
Baal himself was killed rather quickly. He dropped a Blood Crescent -_-.

Orni's future is quite clear - /p8 LK chest runs (some day, I'll get a Ber). After a bit of levelling, of course.

 

[grumpyskeeper]

Re: Guardian Orni

Congrats on your guardian and welcome back to the the game.

Sorc is the only char I can play with confidence atmo but I got a hammerdin that perhaps could be my first guardian. Either that or my fireball/frost nova sorc. Funny talking about posibly having a guardian here when not so long ago, I kept running away from blaze and was annoyed why it kept following me even aftr all the badies were killed. I even have to make an overseas call to dune and ask him why. Obviously, that made him go rotfl his ao!

 

[Merlin The Wizzard]

Re: Guardian Orni

First off, I sincerrely compliment you on your english! If you grew up in Belarus, then your mastery of the language is total! Your text reads like it was writtent by a well educated english person!
Second off, congrats on the guardian! I find it amusing that I keep struggling to get my HC chars even into hell, whereas some of you just say 'it's better to start easy... so here is my Guardian!'

 

[Drystan1]

Re: Guardian Orni

Congrats on the Guardian! :thumbup:

Visceratuant
Defender
'Um'

:shudders: An Um instead of a Pdiamond? The resistance isn't much different, but so much cheaper. (Don't worry, I've done similar things. )

I call merc hax! 3x Tal's Horadric Crests - same fingerprint? How'd ya manage that one? Hehe. sarcasm: ) What were his armour/weapon?

Good luck with the LK running, and big congrats again.

 

[Evah]

Re: Guardian Orni

@Grumpy
Running away from blaze) That must have been funny))
*edit* just another idea. One should make a fishy and play hide-and-seek with skellies ~_^
@Merlin, tnx :girly: *shyyyyyyy*
Pretty much any guardian is a struggle... but this sorc seems to be an "easier" char that a... mmm... untwinked titan 2h martyr.
@Drystan
Oh, crap. I was writing this post late at night, so I was a bit inattentive. Corrected. Shaft (dropped by NM Meph) and KS (dropped by my dusty stash).

Thank you all for your replies:cloud9:

 

[Elfie]

Re: Guardian Orni

Welcome back, sweety! It's been a while since we were discussing our chars on DII.net. Hope you'll countinue your marvellous playing and teach me something new and interesting as you always did.
Gratz on the Guardian! She was a really quick job.:thumbup: