Matriarch Sunny, CL/FO Sorc

Crudesash

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Feb 19, 2021
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So my 2nd character to finish the game in a week took a much faster route; I started this character about a month ago, when I was slogging with my barb. Unlike the Barb, killing speed was never really an issue. Survival however...

She started out as a Meteorb Sorc, based on the excellent guide by Sasja on this site, and once we got Frozen Orb, the game was a breeze from A4N to Hell A2. Here we hit a snag: Summoners. With Skellies immune to cold and summoners immune to fire, life was rough as I worked my way through the tombs. I could've done some restarting to get different mob groups, but instead I respecced to CL...and messed up the points, wasting a respec. I had used a respec earlier to reach max block, so now I was out of respecs but my build was set. While the pure damage of Meteor was missed, I liked the control of CL much better, but in truth the build felt less powerful this way. I was stuck though, so on we went.

Up until the Ancients, everything was going pretty well. Frozen Orb is amazing, and for the few CI's, CL did well enough. Merc was so weak at the time; the weapon was not yet upgraded, and I did not have Shaftstop on him yet. The Ancients were an absolute no go; he could not survive more than a hit or two, and I sure couldn't either. So I puttered around doing AT and Meph runs (got a great map, 2 ports and down), and then focused on the barb.

After I was done with him, I did some gear swapping and took the Ancients on again (this was yesterday), and after a few resets I was able to keep the merc alive with life tap and pots while I started whittling down their health. I focused on Korlic first (I wish it was a plan), and he died, but because I was not paying attention, so did the merc. Well, there I was; 5 Rejuvs, 1 Mana pot, 4 health pots and a dead merc. Talic was around 40%, and Madawc was around 80%. I almost pressed the TP...but I decided to try it; neither were CI, so it was FO to the end. What I found was that even with less than 10% FRW, I could easily kite them both; If Korlic had still been alive, this might have been impossible. So we danced the dance of slow death, and it went on for about 12-15 minutes. I would shoot an orb or two, then run, rinse and repeat. I didn't tele around since I didn't want to burn too much mana, and in all that time there was only one close call, when I got hit-locked for a second; but a rejuv and a tele got me clear, and the kiting resumed. eventually they were both dead, and I was on my way into the WSK.

There, moving was slow thanks to the ever popular witch/pit lord combos, but I just did lots of hit and runs, used life tap often, and eventually got to the wp. When I resumed today, I got much better group combos that were much easier to handle. Baal's minions were pretty easy, and the Baal fight was tougher than I would've thought; Static Field to whatever %, then lightning. Life tap kept the merc alive but at around 30% it became tight all of a sudden, almost died a few times to the appendages, but I hung in there, and down he went. Just like my barb, a bunch of useless rares were my reward.

In review...the Sorc was the counterpoint to my frustration over slow killing speed with the barb. Mobs just melted in most cases even though, as you'll see, I was not blessed with any great gear, but ST fights were harder due to the smaller health pool, lower defense, etc. With better gear, I'd perhaps do a lot of AT/Meph runs, and I still might thanks to the great map, but now my attention will turn to the next build...

An FA zon that is currently mowing down enemies in NM. Andariel looms and I have 1 Poison Resistance, should be fun. Thanks for reading!

End game stats (regular/geared), Level 84
STR 108/130
Dex 196/199
Vita 177/193
Energy 35/59
Life 897
Mana 415
Resists: 68/75/75/56

Skills: 20 in FO, CL, LM, 17 in Lightning, 6 in CM, the rest in pre-reqs and utilities.

Gear
+2 Cold skills Coronet w/18 Energy, 15 Resist All
Ammy with 46 Life/19 Resist All
"Spirit" Broad Sword, created mid nightmare, never found a better weapon, with a Life Tap wand on switch
Duriel's Shell (I used Lionheart for much of the game)
"Rhyme" Luna *a gift from my barb; I had a Rhyme Monarch on this character, but took the luna after the Barb beat Baal, and swapped in some items since I didn't need as much strength
Magefist
Crafted Vamp Belt, 7% FCR, 15% LR
Rare Demonhide Boots, 30% LR, 35% FR
Dwarf Star
Rare Ring with 40 Life and 37 Mana
Bunch of various resist & +Life charms, with 1 Lightning Skiller.

Merc:
Rockstopper
Shaftstop
Eth upped Meat Scraper, 115-596, 175% ED, 10% LL

No great finds of note, but I did find my highest rune ever with her, an Ist. Also, Andariel, Mephisto, & Diablo all dropped Essences.
 
Congrats! IMHO quite the feat with that FCR (below 63 according to my understanding)!

My CL/L FO sorc runs Countess for mid runes. You could give that a go if no other plans for her. I ended up preferring Lightning over CL. Did you try Lightning?
 
Congrats! IMHO quite the feat with that FCR (below 63 according to my understanding)!

My CL/L FO sorc runs Countess for mid runes. You could give that a go if no other plans for her. I ended up preferring Lightning over CL. Did you try Lightning?
Thanks! I did use it on single targets but if I was killing a pack and the unique was the last one standing I’d just finish it with CL.

I never really looked at the breakpoints or try to reach a certain level; I gambled a fair amount looking for gear improvements and some of my end game equipment was acquired that way, but no godly items in any case.
 
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