It might be difficult to find a "Kill Baal" game. Most are xp runs (i.e. just Baal minions will be killed) and even if you find somebody who wants to solve the quest, many people don't like L1 characters in Baal runs.
I just soloed my classic meteorb sorc past act 1 hell at L58. IMO you don't need a hammerdin for rushing HF dummies.
I skilled him as follows (prereqs not mentioned):
(1) 1 into warmth, teleport, static (you can static enemies to a sliver in nightmare and hell as well) and frozen armor as soon as possible.
(2) Invest into fireball until you have to save points to be able to meet prereqs for meteor and frozen orb at the minimum level.
(3) At L30, 1 point into frozen orb, cold mastery, fire mastery. Then invest into orb (will make you win 99% of all nightmare fights and 50-75% of all hell fights).
(4) Max meteor/fireball/fire mastery, whichever results in the most fireball damage. My sorc in the mid of this stage.
(5) Rest into cold mastery.
As there aren't many +skills items, you might want to invest further points into teleport, static or warmth. I recommend doing that after step 4 or as soon as your character is good enough to rush HF dummies to act 2 hell, whichever comes first.
It's a good idea to start a couple of nm Andy runs and as soon as Meteor isn't that bad anymore, nm Meph runs as well (using the moat trick) while you are at step 4. After finishing nm, make one or two dozens of nm cow runs to gain levels. If you level the hard and honest way, a sorc and her equipment should be good enough to start hell at L50 and you get decent XP there as well.
Stats:
(1) Invest into strength until you have 60. That's enough to wear 90% of any useful equipment.
(2) For each point in vit, invest 2 in energy until you are satisfied with your mana pool. Then put points into vit exclusively. Remeber that this is a rusher, so he must be good at teleporting and a big mana pool helps a lot.
Invest nothing into dex because blocking is what's displayed for the shield. Blocking isn't affected by dex in classic.
My equipment is far from complete, but that's what I already have (all self-found):
Tarnhelm for questing, 3 PT mask for MF
Staff with 20%fcr and +x on teleport for teleporting to the target of my current "operation", 3 PD shield and no weapon (yet) for situations involving a lot of elemental attacks, Salamander for everything else
Rare demonhide armor with fhr and res
Frostburns
Rare belt with 4 potion rows, res and fhr
Rare boots with res, and a little frw
Plain fcr ring, fcr ring with res (I have been a little unlucky with rings yet)
+1 sorc skills amu
Equipment I'm looking for:
Tarnhelm (already have it)
Spectral Shard, Gull
Silks of the victor
Magefist
Better rare belt
Better rare boots, perhaps Tearhaunch
Better fcr rings (res most important) - I wouldn't say no to a Soj, however
Rare +sorc skills amu or Eye of Ettlich
Don't invest too much time into MF, muling or trading for the "perfect" equipment. It's enough if the character can beat hell Andariel to rush your HF dummies. If he dies from time to time, who cares ?
I admit that I'm quite a newbie with respect to classic, but I know how and where to learn what I need to know. So if you think there are flaws in my build or my future plans, please let me know.
