Diablo 2 Guide: Lower Kurast running Sorceress

Since the discovery of ‘easy’ Ber runes at Lower Kurast, many hours have been spent in what otherwise would have been just another stretch of land on the road to the Lord of Terror. Many different character builds have been commissioned, the intent of this guide is to present the ultimate Lower Kurast running Sorceress, for faster, safer, easier looting, for glory!

Every item in this guide being available at Hell Mephisto or for perfect gems at the trade forums, this guide is for everybody. More expensive items will not make it any better, expensive charms will only decrease the sorceress’ ability to cary large amounts of cargo and reduce her effectiveness. But let this introduction be; the build:

Contents

• What you get
  • 105% faster cast rate
  • almost maxed resistances to all elements
  • max block
  • 50% damage reduction
  • free teleporting
  • 40 square cargo hold
• Skills

• Stat points

• (lvl 90: 460 stat points)

  Strength 126/76*2
  Dexterity 210 for max block
  Vitality 124/159*2
  Energy 0

  *2 The first number will let you equip the Stormshield without strength-bugging, the second requires a bugging setup.

• Equipment
• Code:

  DRreshpmanastatskillfcrfhrMreg*5
  HeadHarlequin Crest1001,5lvl1,5lvl22000
  Neck Mara's Kaleidoscope020-300052000
  Torso Skin of the Vipermagi020-3500013000
  Right Arm Wizardspike07501,75lvl0050015
  Left Arm Stormshield35*40000000
  Right Ring 10 fcr01000001000
  Left Ring 10 res all ring000000000
  Belt String of Ears10-1500000000
  Verdungo's Hearty Cord10-15030-400000100
  Feet Marrowwalk0000*100010
  Gloves Trang-Oul's Claws0*400002000
  
  TOTAL50+130*2*3751101025
  *for items with variable stats, rounded up averages were used for totals.
  
  *1Marrowwalk has 10-20 to str, 17 dex, also +10% mana regeneration
  *2Depends on belt and clvl
  *32,25 clvl
  *4Other resistance on gear:firecoldlightpoison
  Stormshield060250
  Trang-Oul's Claws03000
  Anya's quests30303030
  subTOTAL301205530
  TOTAL145235170145
  TOTAL perfect gear (PG)170270195170
  total in Hell difficulty451357045
  total in Hell difficulty PG701709570
  *5Mreg is extra mana regeneration

  You will have 4 socketable items, 3 socket quests available. As you can see in the table, the character is very low on Faster Hit Recovery, a wise choice may be a Shael rune somewhere, table below. For kicks, laughs, and further damage reduction, Sol runes may be added at will. Notice that these options do not include the weapon socket. Another option is using the sockets to maximize resists or mitigate the effects of lower stats on gear.

  The Stormshield must be socketed with a Hel rune for greatest effect, see:

  Code:

  blockdexstrtotstatpts sav
  Stormshield 7367179156335
  +eld74163156319-16
  +hel67179133312-23
  Stormshield 8067195156351
  +eld74178156334-17
  +hel67195133328-23
  Stormshield 9067217156373
  +eld74198156354-19
  +el67217133350-24
  Stormshield 9967237156393
  +eld74216156372-21
  +hel67237133370-23

  An optional switch, for faster running could be a Crainte Vomir or a Harmony bow, for faster run/walk from the ship of Meshif to the Way Point.

  Hit Recovery Rates – Sorc and conveniently Act 2 merc’s. (Faster Hit Recovery / Frames per Hit-recover)

  Code:

  FHR059142030426086142280
  FPH15141312111098765

  table courtesy of RTB

  Final note: This gear is not an actual build-breaker. Lower Kurast is one of the easier areas in the game, especially after you have killed the High Council at Travincal; half of the Kurastians will run at the sight/smell of you. You are free to take this ‘guide’ as a character report with a ludicrousity tumour, I will not be offended. It is more or less my take at a specific problem, combined with a tad of a tendency to write things up.

• Mercenaries
• A2 or A5
  Helmet: Delirium runeword. Chance to cast Confuse and Mindblast: love it.
  Armour: Gloom runeword. Chance to cast Dim Vision, 45 res all: love it too.
  Weapon: Kelpie snare. Slow monsters 75%: love it also.
  Weapon: Any sword with damage and leech: you’re safe enough anyway.Any level 90 mercenary will be able to handle Lower Kurast, this is just overkill, but what the hell… Safest merc setup for the price. For A2 mercenaries I assumed the aura would not activate (consistently) during a run, so pick your pick (normal merc for better stats), maybe something nice for questing or multiplayer.
• Lower Kurast: The Deal

• So, what is so special about Lower Kurast? As mentioned in the foreword, it is a prime place to find high runes. Ber being the highest rune being available from objects (chests, corpses, stashes, logs) in Lower Kurast, many people have done ‘chest runs’, to get some peculiar results.

  Check out the Item Generation Tutorial by Warrior of Light and Urlik’s Rune Finder’s Guide for details on the mechanics of item generation in general, chest drop mechanics in particular, for the here and now let it suffice to state that certain drop patterns get favored by superchests. Superchests being special objects which drop large amounts of items in a single drop, they can be found in Lower Kurast in the area by the campfire. It is possible to get a map with 2 campfires, so with the static maps in Singleplayer, that is what you should be looking for.

  Code:

  RunepXItem 1Item 2Item 3Item 3
  [URL="http://img157.imageshack.us/img157/7930/deadbobberkm0.jpg"]Ber[/URL]p8ArbalestGothic PlateFull HelmVambraces
  Surp8Grand CrownStudded LeatherWar Axe
  [URL="http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/5678/screenshot038tz1.jpg"]Lo[/URL]p3Balanced Axe
  Vexp8CrossbowLarge Siege BowThrowing SpearWar Sword
  Istp8Broad axeHighland bladeHyperion spear+2 more
  Istp8Balrog spearGlaiveHelm+4 more

  Screenshots from deadbob (Ber), Phosheez (Lo)

  As you can see, should you see an Arbalest accompanied by a Gothic Plate and a Full Helm, look for the Vambraces and a Ber. There is some evidence the [/players X] command influences rune drop patterns, therefore it is advised you run on [/players 8]. A Lo rune has been found on [/players3]. With the massive Lower Kurast running done at the Single Player Forum from diabloii.net there has been no sighting of a Lo from superchests on [/players 8] although with the low odds for runes, the evidence is not yet conclusive it cannot happen.

  Also note that Ist has 2 different drop patterns. There is reason to believe the number of drop patterns increases as rune value decreases, as Io has 14 reported drop orders.

• Lower Kurast Running: The Process

• Get a map with two campfires, then hit the superchests, save and exit. Options you have are to hit the Way Point and go to A4, to be closer to the starting Way Point in the next game. Do not neglect the other objects (normal chests, stashes, logs, corpses) either, as they can drop runes too, as well as charms, jewels and flawless gems. Your runtime should be <1 minute, from the moment you hit the “Single Player” button until the “Save and Exit”. A wise man once said: “Don’t expect Ber in 10 runs.” and he was right. Expect about 7 000 runs before anything significant shows up. That’s a lot of time spent, high runes are not for the lazy.

  On a sidenote, with a grand total of 50 MF and little killing power, combined with the horrid drop tables of the monsters in Lower Kurast, it is not worth your wile to kill them. Leave them alone, only take snapshots, on your way out please do not forget the tourguide.

  Now you should be good to go, Good luck, Soldier!