Untwinked Tips?

[Road Ratt]

Untwinked Tips?

I'm working on my 3rd untwinked character a blizz sorc, my first two characters were unsuccessful. I'm looking for some tips especially merc gear, my last characters merc couldn't take hell ancients and died in seconds (his gear - undead crown, honor in a thresher and duriels shell). I cube pgems and use them to reroll sc's for life, mf and resists. I cube all magic rings and ammys and I gamble for them. I mf as much as i can stand before moving on to a new area or difficulty. So, any tips about merc gear and anything else about untwinked play I should know?


Thanks, RR

 

[Noodle]

Sounds to me like you're going about things the right way. I found this thread to be helpful when getting past the Ancients with my Blizz sorc:

http://www.purediablo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=367436

Static will definitely be your friend, and Telekinesis can help keep the Ancients and Lister's crew off balance when they spawn CI so you can back them up against a pillar and let your merc jab away. Of course, teleporting him out of danger will be invaluable.

My initial SP character was of course untwinked, and I found an LS / DS/ FB trapper to be a very safe character. Cloak of Shadows and MindBlast were very effective crowd control tools, and would render gloams harmless. Not much of a killer in Hell at anything above /P1, but a very quick Pit runner.

Best of luck with your sorc - keep us updated on her progress!

- Noodle

 

[Fluffballer]

I'm working on my 3rd untwinked character a blizz sorc, my first two characters were unsuccessful. I'm looking for some tips especially merc gear, my last characters merc couldn't take hell ancients and died in seconds (his gear - undead crown, honor in a thresher and duriels shell). I cube pgems and use them to reroll sc's for life, mf and resists. I cube all magic rings and ammys and I gamble for them. I mf as much as i can stand before moving on to a new area or difficulty. So, any tips about merc gear and anything else about untwinked play I should know?


Thanks, RR

No character's skill allocatement can do as much damage as sacrificing your merc and using a "Strength" Kris can do. CB DESTORYS the Ancients. Use what equipment or minions you have to sliver them.

Based on what I've read in the community forum, I'm the only one who does this, but a solid strategy for hell ancients is to... ignore your skills (if you go max block {which you should think about}). Use ANYTHING to distract them, clay golem, merc, whatever, CB blow them to nothing, then kill them.

If you need to, sperarate them. Use Clegaw's Claws or some such slowing or a teleport amulet... something will drop or gamble... Draw them to one side then sprint or tele to the other side. You can kill them one by one then or TP and try again if you're in dire need.

 

[Insane Wayne]

Fluffballer's advice is right on the money, I've often used those techniques and beaten the Ancients, even with underpowered builds. Divide and conquer. No problem.

Get CB on your merc, it's much more important than raw damage. Use constant Life Tap charges to keep your merc alive.

 

[Road Ratt]

My initial SP character was of course untwinked, and I found an LS / DS/ FB trapper to be a very safe character. Cloak of Shadows and MindBlast were very effective crowd control tools, and would render gloams harmless. Not much of a killer in Hell at anything above /P1, but a very quick Pit runner.

My first try was a lightning trapper, I screwed it up though. I've never played untwinked before so I built it as I would build it on bnet with all my godly gear and didn't leave enough skills points left for FB to deal with LI's. My second try was a Dtalon/Trapper, that was a lot of fun but I couldn't get past hell ancients because my merc died too fast. It was a little slow killing in hell so I couldn't mf there either which really hurt a lot.

I use Static with my sorc all the time but have never used Telekinesis as it's not really needed on bnet with all the godly gear I can use, I will give it a try.

 

[sawm]

Farm Pindle for quite a while. I've parked my current untwinked blizzy at Pindle until she gets good enough gear for herself, and for a few characters I plan on playing next. Then do /players 1 for Ancients (should be, just make sure). Static, Blizz, tele. Let the merc poke away. gg.

 

[jiansonz]

I second Wayne´s advice about Life Tap. If the merc does good damage, it´s amazing what he can tank when Life Tap helps him.

However, it´s not work well if the Ancients have Stone Skin.