MF in the new ladder - where to gear up?

[Saboteur]

Hi there! Like for many, a nice a MF sorceress is a passion of mine in D2. Running it in hardcore mode makes it much more interesting, but of course you have to cope with the occasional loss - with the thought "the next generation will be even better..." in mind to carry you through.

However I'd like to avoid this loss for as long as possible, so I'm trying to build up with a low-risk regime of MF'ing. To this end, I've been pondering the question: Where would you MF to gear up for Hell?

I've climbed up to level 70ish and I've been living off the cheap ladder runewords that have carried me nicely. Otherwise my items and charms are utter rubbish - I'm running on sigon gloves / belts / boots for example. One of my rings is a blue 10% FCR ring! This is not the kind of gear you want to brave the horrors of Hell in. But nightmare mephisto seems to offer so little for all the numerous runs you have to put in, especially when my MF% is less than 100.

TL;DR: How to gear up for Hell safely?

 

[j0zsef]

I've started out a few days ago with a Mete-orb, and I'm in the same boots as you are. Not sure how to answer your question though.
I think gearing up for hell starts out slowly, but it will pick up sooner or later. I can currently do countess/andariel/council/meph/eldritch/pindle pretty safely, throwing Nihlathak in there sometimes. Rolled a second Insight for the merc tonight, plus found Magefist and 5% MF sc, and I'm happy with that.

In a nutshell: do what you can do safely, and work your way up, step by step.

 

[MYK]

Hi there! Like for many, a nice a MF sorceress is a passion of mine in D2. Running it in hardcore mode makes it much more interesting, but of course you have to cope with the occasional loss - with the thought "the next generation will be even better..." in mind to carry you through.

However I'd like to avoid this loss for as long as possible, so I'm trying to build up with a low-risk regime of MF'ing. To this end, I've been pondering the question: Where would you MF to gear up for Hell?

I've climbed up to level 70ish and I've been living off the cheap ladder runewords that have carried me nicely. Otherwise my items and charms are utter rubbish - I'm running on sigon gloves / belts / boots for example. One of my rings is a blue 10% FCR ring! This is not the kind of gear you want to brave the horrors of Hell in. But nightmare mephisto seems to offer so little for all the numerous runs you have to put in, especially when my MF% is less than 100.

TL;DR: How to gear up for Hell safely?

Nightmare Baal.

Almost everything you want can drop there, like: mid-range runes, XP, gold, rares & uniques.

 

[Whitering]

Nightmare Baal.

Almost everything you want can drop there, like: mid-range runes, XP, gold, rares & uniques.

Seconded, between him, his waves of minions you get plenty of drops. Best if you can bug him of course. NM Meph isn't hard and can drop a lot of nice loot as well, so if you can't do Baal, step back to Meph, super fast runs. Also good if you can bug him, but you are probably way too late for that.