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Help fellow gamers to defeat Diablo and his brothers. Send your gaming strategies to the webmistress, and we'll post them here.
General Strategies
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| Sorceress Strategies Hey all, i've been reading advices and all of them are good. except for the skill Charged Bolt. Now i know people would gladly disagree with me, but CHARGED BOLT IS AWESOME!!!! I use this along with Frozen Orb in ACT4 HELL DIFFICULTY!!!! and it works. All monsters would fall when u use this skill 3-4 times at their direction. Just avoid the immune to lightning monsters with frozen orb. Now to get this lvl of charged bolt u need 40 skill pts. 20 to lightn. mastery and 20 to charged bolt. This method has been tried and true, so use it!!!!! Back to Top | I have a fair strategy for sorceress. SUPPRESSIVE FIRE. Get fireball skill to about 8-10 and mass mana. Then get a hireling that specializes in c.q.b. and just sit back away from the hot zone and lob fireballs all day long. Also works for clearing hallways before walking down them. BansheeRazer 26 level Sorc..... Back to Top | I have been reading alot of strategy guides on how to develope a sorceress. Some suggestions are excellent and others are not. I have a lvl 75 sorceress and she is bad! I have started another sorc recently and i am going to create her a little different than the other one. I will not try and tell you that a certain combination of spells are the best or atleast better than any other combination; nor am i going to tell you where to put your skill points for maximum effciency. Well thats not true; because its absolutely necessary that you max warmth or atleast put 15 points into it. And the sooner the better. Its my opinion that there are only two types of strategies that are imperative in the developement of any character that you choose to play; but especially so with the sorceress. First, have loads of fun playing the game, creating and experimenting with your sorceress. Try every combination of skills that comes to mind and all of the tactics you can conceive, read about or are advised to do. If you are not having fun playing a sorc or the game then it doesn't matter what you do it wont be good. The second bit of wisdom I'm going to pass on to you is as important as the previous bit of strategy. Maybe more so? How ever you develope your sorceress she MUST BE VERSATILE!!! I honestly believe that Hell level is when you begin to really play the sorceress. In normal as well as nightmare almost all or any elemental will kill just about any of the bad guys. Not so in Hell. Cold spells that you have been using with great sucess against certain critters may not do you any good in hell. It may be necessary to use lightning or fire. You will have to determine which works and what doesn't. You will also have to be able to switch with a quickness. If you are not versatile and have put all your skill points into one type of elemental then you are doomed! Don't bother going to Hell( heh heh). Oops, sorry but ther is one more bit of wisdom necessary for you to digest. Even if you are the most versatile sorceress in the realm, it will be necessary to develope all of your immunities as much as possible. If not, you will be doomed again and wont have much fun. Dont go to Hell(heh heh heh). Back to Top | I have read pretty much everything on sorceresses. Everythin I read seems to be wrong. I have made quite a few sorcs and I believe I have found the best strategie. It goes as folows.My best sorc was lvl 99. Stats: str = 110 (Yes, I know, it's alot), dex = 50, vit = 50, ene = all the rest. It is good to get you're strength up fast because you will need it for a good armor before you can really rely on your skills. Skills: warmth lvl 20, firewall lvl 20, fire mastery lvl 5, meteor lvl 0!, enchant lvl 0!, hydra lvl 0! frozen armor lvl 1 (only armor, others at 0!), frosen orbs lvl 20, ice masterie lvl 0! mana shield lvl 9, thunderstorm lvl 20, ligth masterie lvl 5 All other skills should be set at 1, only to get all the required skills. these stats are base stats and will go alot higher with equipement. (I have a lvl 27 firewall and warmth....). You need to be lvl 99 and have completed all the quests to get these skills. I say you should get firewall or orbs up first, It will help alot in normal or nigthmare. I only use magic find equipement, I am at 450%.Do not rely on equipement to make you stronger, rely on you're skills only when you reach lvl 30. I beat hell when I was lvl 45 or so, rather easily too. mastering in only one element will mean you're doom in hell. I say that ice and fire are the best but static, teleport, mana shield are essential. Thunderstorm will help alot because you only have to cast it once and then it keeps on hitting. You are able to do multiple attacks like that. Matriarch Rei_Freeze (I started out as an Ice sorc. ^.~) Back to Top | Ok I have played with a sorceress for quite some time now and i have to say some off the strats above are really clever but some off them are shit. I mean I wont take advice from sombody who only has a lvl 60 or below sorceress. Now if you want my advice on creatin a damn good sorc then you need to: Learn 5 important skills you need fire wall (might suck to control but some badass damge), frozen orb (best skill for sorc dueling and any imune to fire monsters), warmth (of coures all sorc need this skill no matter what), enegy shield (becuase you need help when it comes to defense), and thunder storm (always good skill for duelin etc.). Now You also need to put about 10 in all Masterys to give each some extra damage (with + skills if wanted). Then if you think your skills are tuned just right get some bad ass equipment. Like myself i use some ornate plate armor, magefist gloves +1 to fire skills, nice extra walk/run boots, stone rings of jordan or some +to resists or mann rings, a tarnhelm or any other +1 to skills helm, sigon shield or better, good orb +2 to skills,and a nice ammy preferbaly + to skills. Now you might night find them right away so if you want them either trade over b.net or get some good magic find stuff. Then you'll have one badass sorceress like me. Matriach Ravensorceress, lvl 75 Back to Top | I was reading this and I thought a few words of wisdom would help. The Fire Wall is the way to go. At a skill level of just 10 it does over 800 damage, which makes it easy as pie to kill Diablo in under a minute (I timed myself!). A couple spare points into Frost Nova and a Cold-casting hireling from Act 3 are good to take on basic fire-immunies. I have no idea how I'm gonna deal with the Grand Vizier of Chaos in Nightmare, but give me time and a nice staff and he'll be taking a dirt nap very soon. As for when I'm roaming around smiting the normal baddies, I love to use my socketed staff (two sockets) that adds 3 to Blaze and Fire Wall, but it gets better. I filled the sockets with the Tir and Ral runes, making the Leaf staff, a must-have for any self-respecting Fire Sorc. +3 to all Fire Skills, and an extra +3 to Inferno, Warmth, and Firebolt. Factor that in with the staffs original stats and you've got a weapon that'll make the Minions of Destruction wet themselves. Back to Top | TO BECOME A PERFECT SORC ,in d2exp version 1.09, there are many immunities even the normal creatures in hell. in the past the well-known cold-sorc would be the unbeatable or maybe the barbs ... but now with the immunities, a cold-sorc would not even survive in hell diff... coz many creatures would not be affected by frozen orbs or blizzards ( blizzard sucks men... with the duration reduced from 20+ to 4 secs p.s not the company Blizzard) So what a so called perfect sorc to be would be a fire/ice sorc ... with skills maxed in warmth(maybe 14 would be suff), frozen orbs, fire wall, fire mastery it would give you a very perfect sorc with some points to teleport and energy shield as it is a must for ALL PERFECT SORC to have energy shield... For the char points i would advise you to add @ the beginning alot to energy coz in the later parts of the game when you are at lvl 50+ one energy point would give you i think abt 3 to 4 mana... definitely more worth it then dex and vita ... Let me introduce my Sorc lvl 74 currently( in the process of increasing its lvl...) She has 20 points to frozen orb, fire wall, 15 points to warmth, 12 points to fire mas , 3 points to cold mas, 1 to tele, 4 energy shield, and 1 to other req skills like blizzard and telekenisis. she is currently adding skill points to fire mas to max it... she has curently 163 str coz she is using a quartuplet socketed monarch (elite kite shield) so need 156 str. str is the second attribute that i would add other from energy when mana don't seem to be a problem when your warmth is near max so str enables me to wear "good" stuff that increase my skills and resistance... this sorc is so called "perfect" becoz it can kill any creature easily in hell diff . eg. my sorc can kill any creature with frozen orb quickly mass killing ... if they are immune to cold like the enslaves then use fire walls they are crazy , 7000 damage every second ... frying them instantly ... with energy shield, nightsmoke (unique belt) , some other magical items , my sorc only take 30% of the actually damage coz the others goes to mana... giving my much advantage... with teleport , creatures could not even reach you so easily , by just shooting orbs at a range they would be killed quite quiclkly, even not they are tremendously slowed down and you can take your time to kill them... items ? what should i use ... i would advise you to use a shield the adds resistance, manymany, liek the rune word ancient pledge, or a triple or quart socketed perfect diamondsto max your resistance in hell to once again lower your damage dealt to you... helm i am using a tarnhelm ( unique helm ) or a resistant cap like the unique sallet, its rather good as it gives a good amount of resistance to all except poison... Sojs or stone of jordons is a must for sorc as it adds skills to all and increased the max mana... bye 25% which is alot... for sorc esp... if you still need more mana, frostburns would be a ideal choice or other unique stuff, boots should be tearhunch or something with faster or fastest run/walk. sorc should use a one-handed orb and adding 2 to sorc skills (archangel orbs ), armor i recommend Goldskin ( unique full plate mail ), nightsmoke is also a must for sorc then lastly with a good amulet of +2 to sorc skills and some other stuff... in the end should get +6 to all sorc skills coz 2 from Sojs 2 from amulet ( which can be transmuted by putting one rare item to be improved in this case a rare amulet , a perfect skull, a Soj. it gives rather good stuff adding skills lvls to chars.. ) and 2 from orbs if you are good enough +8 to all would not be diff with tarnhelm and silks of the victor. all this skills help to increase many low lvl skills like warmth and energy shield that you would not want to max but needed to put at least 3 to 5 points... this will make life easy and fun although in 8 player games in hell diff with many cool skills like teleport and frozen orb lvl 74 sorc "telemaniac_gal" Back to Top | pvp sorc ok u max orb max cold mastery get armth up high enough so u won't run out of mana doesn't mean maxing always. get your ts high along with light mastery. get your mana to like 600 u don't need anymore with sojs and frosts thats easy. life high as possible. for dex and str u should get items that add to resist and dex or str.don't waste your points in str by putting 100 points in it to get to use silks. dex is needed only for using culwins or shard. use a 3 diamond shield. boots need to add to resist, mana, str, dex or resist u don't NEED fast run walk with a sorc u have teleport but running fast is useful. Back to Top | Here is a bit of advice for newbies. I just red that many peoples were thinking that the best sorceress is the one using only fire spells. I think that in fact the ice-lightning sorceress is better. During first levels you just put everything in warmth, and then all you have to do is to put max points in frozen orb, ice blast, and some points in static field, and in teleport, two stats wich can be very usefull. Its easier to defeat Duriel by using the field, then teleporting on the other side of Tal Rasha's chamber, then using the field again... and finish him with the orb or the ice blast. A good sorceress needs to have lot of mana, but stength mustn't be neglected, so just make something like 2str, 1vit, 2ener. Later, when your strenght will be hight enougth you can make it 3ener, and 2vit. Sorceress lvl 73 Back to Top | First, I'd like to tell everyone something that they must remember... DONT LISTEN TO ALL THE INFO ON THIS PAGE!! I'm telling you, if you do, you'll drive yourself insane before Diablo can say his usual threat. Half of the people on this page (no offense of course) are trying to manipulate YOUR character! Don't let it happen! Sorceresses are awesome characters, mostly because there's so much stuff to try out and so much fun to have!! =) Fire, Ice, Lightning... their all good! Give them all a shot! You form your Sorceress as your personality is... how you feel about the game! The Sorc is such a good character that it can win in most instances =) So for your sake, and probably my own too, I'm going to TRY my best to be un restricting of your character. I'd like to say that when you start out, it is best to have a main attack. You don't HAVE to. That's just my opinion. Again, I want to stress for you to take time to explore and find your OWN best quality. I myself used Charged Bolt, simply because it killed a lot of people at a time, especially when I was mobbed by monsters (not a good idea, but hard to avoid anyway). Plus, I was jumpy when I started out so if I started firing towards anything there was SOMETHING usually hit. CB helped me in the Arcane Sanctuary because by the time I got to the Summoner, he was almost dead. He was kinda... er... killed by stray lightning ~_^ hehe. However, some people like Fire Bolt better. I remember that attack from Diablo 1... I didn't like it much, too limited in attack. But I suppose it would be good for a beginner. And for Ice, most people use Ice Bolt Same as FB i think, only cold and it makes enemies slow down. Again, it depends on your view. Now it's time I have to emphasize something really hard... and as much as I hate doing this, I know I have to... because its just such an important tip: WARMTH!! This is the only part i'm going to manipulate ur view if it is different... WARMTH is sOoOo important it's not even funny. Now think logically for a second. You maxed out on your favorite powerful attack, and used all ur skill points for that instead of warmth. You cast it once. Your mana dies. Now what do you do?!?! PLEASE PLEASE for Diablo's sake of fighting a worthy adversary, USE YOUR WARMTH!!! You are a SORCERESS! You can't do anything without fast acting mana!!! Now that that's finished, I'll move onto a couple more tips. When you get to higher levels, you may ditch your first main attack. I didn't, because Charged bolt was still so helpful in the middle of many minions, and not only that but it was really powerful already. If I were you, I would not put so many in ur first main attack if it were not Charged bolt... Only one or two so you can start building to a better skill. But I'm not you. It's just some advice =) Some good spells to use are the Chilling/Shiver Armor... always cast one before you enter a fighting area, that's my attitude... It works very well. Also, cast all of your area spells when you go fighting~ such as Thunderstorm, Blizzard, Static Field, etc etc. People say some of these dont work well... I personally think they do. By the time you reach the higher levels... well you will have developed your own thinking =) By then, you should just follow ur instincts! And have fun! Heh. Oh yeah. One more tip. Ice arrow is awesome for hired recruits... it slows down ppl trying to attack you. My recruit was so good by the time I reached Mephisto, he kept the monster still while I took him out quick. IN fact, he was the one that dealt the death blow... heh cuz I was catching my breath and mana and he just kinda kept shooting that arrow =) kinda burst when i wasnt looking... oh well... i beat him after that many more times anyway =) Okay taht's the end to this one then... just remember, DONT BE MANIPULATED!! It's your character. You ahve the most say in it =) Misti Back to Top | i have a lvl60 and rising fire sorceress on v 1.07 expansion...due to the patch, some skills are more valueable than others... for one, i have found that hydra is VERY useful. MAX IT OUT ALONG WITH FIRE MASTERY! You can cast it round corners where the enemy cant see you...and the bolts, each one will be doing im guessing round 500 dmg...each. thatz not bad for the range and versitility they have. they've saved my @$$ on countless occasions. in regard to other skills, i have found firewall virtually worthless. i have found few enemies that are stupid enough to stand in that one place long enough for it to do damage. also for those dang fire immunes, get a good level frozen orb and at least a few on cold mastery.get teleport. it is a necessity.(you can pop over a wall drop a hydra and run back to safety) get a high level warmth. as for stats, keep strength and energy at about the same lvl till both are 100, then concentrate on getting your vit and energy up, energy being the bigger priority.(under ideal circumstances a good sor. should be able to keep her distance from melee attacker using teleport and deal a lot of damage from a distance...)there it is... it worked for me DarkMageOfFire-lvl60 fire sor. Back to Top | This is for you LOD players, the strategys above are all very LONG and all say either use fire or cold, this is bs. You don't have to make a fire or cold sorc. If you want to make a light sorc (like me) the best thing is nova, i know that at first chain lightning or thunder storm sounds better at first but they are 1-100 and never become more then 3 min dmg, this is very unrelyable. With 20 nova and 20 light mastery (light mastery increases dmg in LOD, not reduces cost) u can do about 600 dmg with each nova, this doesnt sound much but heres the thing....it has no casting delay, and it damages EVERYTHING around you. So with enough mana and fast cast rate items u can cast nova after nova after nova.At lvl 20 nova costs 34 mana. This is means 600,600,600,600,600 dmg, i cancast ALOT of these, more than ten. 6000 dmg all around you in 5 secs. Howabout that? PrOn_Chauntea lvl 54 lightning sorceress Back to Top | Attention!!!! I will tell you the recipe for making a perfect fire sorc. For your stats: 2 st, 0 dx, 1 vit, 2 energy....... keep on doing that until your strenght gets to 75 (for sigons shield), which is around lvl 28. Then carry on by adding 2 vit, 3 energy. By doing this my sorc had 75 strengh, 25 dex, 900 life, and 2000 mana.(i'm telling you 2000 mana is already enough with the cast delay) For your items: i suggest: 3 to fire sorc cornet, 2 to sorc ammy, 2-3 sorc skills orb or staff (or leaf staff, 3 to fire skills, but two handed), skin of the vipermagi, sigons shield, frostburn, anyking of belt (nightsmoke) and boots with faster run walks (terehunch or sanders), two soj. For your skills: 1 on warmth, 1 on inferno, 1 on blaze, 20 on fire wall,20 on fire mastery, 1 on charge bolt, 1 on lighting, 1 on chain of lightning, 1 on telelkinesis, 1 on teleport, 1 on energy shield, 10 on static, 1 on nova, no more than 10 on both thunder storm and lightning mastery, 1 on frozen armor, 1 on ice bolt, 1 on ice blast, 1 on frozen armor (nnnnoooooo chilling armor!!). DO NOT EVEN BOTHER TO PUT POINTS IN THE ONES THAT I DIDN'T MENTION, CAUSE IT IS A WASTE! YOU ONLY NEED THESE SKILLS: firewall, fire mastery, teleport, energy shield, static, frozen armor. THE REST IS JUST TO GET THESE IMPORTANT SKILLS. lvl 94 fire sorc zodian-w Back to Top | Firstly, if you decide to concentrate on cold spells, don't put too many skills on Ice Bolt. I put 5 or 6 hard earned skill points into it, and then i realised there was no point. Ice Blast is far better, and you only have to be Level 6 to get it. So rather than wasting points on Bolt, put 1 or 2 there, and wait till you get the better version. In the meantime, you're free to develop Warmth (sorceresses need Mana), Static Field (limited range but good damage), and perhaps an armour of some sort. I also found with the Smith, that although he has a lot of health, patience will allow you to overcome him. With a few healing potions, a decent weapon, and ice blast, you can slow him down, race in for a few quick hits, use a potion, and race back out again. It doesn't take too long. Finally, the countess is really easy, and for limited effort, you can become a great deal richer. Ryan (level 12 sorceress) Back to Top | A great strategy for the sorceress is the Hydra Sorc. While the hydras dont do as much damage as alot of the other soceress skills, they shoot ALOT really quickly and they aim themselves (so you can run around, grab items, heal, or use another attack while your hydra buddies are kickin ass). You gotta be a pretty high level to get the hydra sorc to her full potential though. Start out like any sorc; you'll want a dozen give or take points into warmth, a few in static (for bosses) teleport, frozen armor (optional but i like it) energy shield (optional but i recomend) thunderstorm (also optional). Once you have got all these skills covered, conserve any remaining points until you reach level 30. Now put one point into fire mastery and dump the rest in hydra each level you gain. Rember to try to max the hydras before fire mastery. If you advance far enough you may want to branch off to a different skill tree for a secondary attack (for those pesky fire immunes). Frozen Orb is a safe bet but using the combonation of glacial spike, static field, and a good rouge or barbarian hireling to finish them. Blizzard is also fun as a secondary attack though you'll most likely be busy pouring the points in hydra and f mastery. All in all, the hydra strategy is one of the most entertaining strategys in the game and is also very eeffective in both duels and versus the monsters (even in nightmare and hell modes). Enjoy! *Seanchadith Back to Top | OK people most of you have probably screwed your sorceresses up, so im here to fixem. I curently have a level 63 COLD sorc on the US realm. COLD is the key, cold spells are the best even though fire does more damage. IF you have ever dueled with a fire sorc you get R-A-P-E-D. No matter how high you are. So def go cold. Max warmth or at least get 15 points. dont put more points into any cold spell except orb, mastery, and maybe glacier. Put 10 into static field and 1 into teleport and telekenieis. Equipment use tarn, rare +1 sorc ammy, specral shard, 3 p diamonds sheild, for armor you can use a lot of things... Heavenly Garb, or Goldskin but i just use a rare 418 ancient armor. tearhaunch, rare belt with fastest hit recovery, 2 rare rings that add to mana and resist, and frostburns. Some people say walless or sigons but that leaves your resists at -50 in hell which gets you killed real fast. SOJS are ok but again you are sacraficing resist which are really important for a good sorc. NOw for the stats put 100 strength to use a good rare ancient armor or goldskin. 51 dex for specral shard. At least 75 vitality. and The rest to energy. Ive got 175 points into energy plus shard adn frosties with that ive got over 700 mana recovery at 300 percent. You wont run out of mana. And finally we have covered stats skills and what to wear, now how kill those damn barbarians. ITs really easy actually. IF you run they follow... YOu orb them a few times there dead. JUSt dont get hit byt WHirwind other wise youll be dead before you hit the ground. thanx for listening to my stradegy Baroness DafishofJazz lvl 63 cold sorc Back to Top | There is an easy way to kill Andariel And Duriel With a sorceress. All you have to do is have blaze as one of your spells early on. when you approach and andariel cast blaze, she will come at you so run, she will get singed by blaze. if you lure her out into where you kill all of the little dark ones, just run around the pool of blood and dead bodies with blaze and andariel will chase and be burned. Same with Duriel, run around the outer edge of the area with blaze cast. Axxe LvL 77 Sorc: (MageBabe) Back to Top | Just an addition to all the tips... I started life as a Sorceress - had hacked the demo to death as a Barbarian - and of course just dived in with both feet; without reading all the (mostly) handy stratagems. Thus, I started Act III at a tender Lev 19... ~not~ something I would do again! I've found it best to revisit earlier areas at least once; the experience alone makes it worthwhile. I also learned the hard way not to waste my gemstones - my char specialises in a lot of magic item finding eq - and I blew about 6 or 7 gems before I found out you could transmute them with a Cube. The Arcane Sanctuary is a good place for re-stocking the gem supplies though... in one pass I took about 5 flawed gems of various flavours. The Summoner was no challenge at all - I just ran at him full pelt and melee'd seven shades of Shatner out of him... (isn't ~enchant~ fun!) Duriel was/is by far the hardest challenge - some 8 or 9 deaths later - I just ran around in circles while throwing ~Nova~ around like mad - ~Shiver Armour~ helps here because it slows him down for those few vital seconds. Anything else I can think of? Um... keep a spare weapon, in your cube/backpack/stash - I also have spare boots/gloves that I use in place of my Fortuitious stuff when the going gets rough - and ~Nova~ or ~Frost Nova~ are brilliant for getting out of big groups of enemies! Oh, yea, I also use a melee weapon + a gemmed shield - keeps me alive a lot better than a staff does... Erzappen, lev 21 Sorceress (aka Aethir) Back to Top | This is only good untill the 1.09 patch comes out. Put 20 points in Fire wall Put 20 points in Fire Mastery Add some + to skills items and you'll be doing 3000 to 7000 damage!!! thats 3k to 7 k!! Put a few points in Cold spells for those nasty immunes as well. You can go solo in 8 player Hell games over b.net with that little strategy. Fire Wall will proabably get nerfed in the next patch :D Back to Top | Ok, first off, I have noticed that NOBODY gives any sorc strats here. All they say is get tarnhelm, 2 Soj, frostbruns, umes, etc etc. That is not very helpful, Im pretty sure every newbie knows about all the good equipment. What needs to be said here, is what stats and what skill to put your points into. I personally did a 2str, 0 dex, 1 vit, 2 eng. Thats what I did till like level 20, then I changed it to meet my equipment needs. With that str and vit, you should be pretty well off, for the most part. I also highly suggest being a fire bug. That is ONLY FIRE spells, that is, until you can get thunderstorm pretty high. I suggest, maxing warmth, maxing firewall, maxing fire mastery, and getting hydra kinda high. you will be doing like 10k damage with all that stuff. I know, I love it. People hate me online, but i dont really care. OH, static field, get to like lvl 10 (with or with out + skills) oyu need it, its a very powerful spell. I think thats all I m going to say for now, maybe some peeps will take after my example and post about strats instead of equipment.... Seana_Loreana lvl 82 Fire Sorc Back to Top | Most of the strategies I've read have been heavily dependent upon rare, if not impossible to find items. This is not necessary. With just a little foresight and strategy, you can have an incredibly killer character who will *enjoy* having great items (because you will find them) but who will not be *dependent* upon these items. The big thing to remember is that you're playing a sorceress. Wisely played, these characters are incredibly powerful. Badly played, you're convinced you have the biggest wimp going. The important thing is to keep the character out of hand-to-hand combat, keep resistances high (because if they get a good fry in, you're generally done for), be able to run fast (and/or slow your enemies down) and don't be a 'one-spell wonder' -- by all means, pick a specialty group, but have a spell in the other two spheres for backups, because you *will* run into baddies that will be resistant to your favorite spell. Tips for equipment are as follows: First, save those skulls. Skulls, in a helm, add to *both* mana and health regeneration. I started by just putting a couple of chipped ones into a sturdy skullcap, but I recommend saving up and making two perfect ones and finding a really good socketed item to put them in (or finding a really nice helm and having it socketed at the end of the expansion act.) For example, I'm now using the wraith crown visor I got socketed. The skull gives health regen and mana regen, and the item itself reduces poison length by 75%, gives 19% poison resistance, 32% lightning resistance, 21% fire resistance and +16 to life. With just *one* flawless skull, life regens at +4 and mana regens at 12%. This one item makes it very easy to add a ring, add an amulet, or gloves or what have you and come up with a nearly perfect resistance in almost anything. I happened to hang onto the wraith visor, but there have been several other really good helms that had this kind of variety. But if you *don't* luck into something that good for a while, keep reading. If you do, what follows is icing on the cake. If you don't, don't sweat. Keep an eye out for an Angel amulet. Right now, I'm using the Angel's Amulet of the Colossus, which not only gives a +1 to *all* skills, but also gives +56 to life. I don't recommend the angel staves -- there are too many other good ones out there that give you more. Next, build ring and amulet 'sets' for different resistances. I keep them in inventory, and when I see some particular baddy is hurling something or the other, I'll beat a hasty retreat, change off my normal rings and amulet (which is the aforementioned angel amulet, the angelic halo ring and the doom turn ring) and charge on in fully resistant to whatever he's doing. At the present time, I have an amulet and two rings for fire, lightning and cold. I also made a scintillating amulet for backup, in case I run into a double-team spell strategy, and I have the Death Touch gloves, which aid tremendously with poison. (Basically, if she gets hit by poison, it just puffs around her and is gone instantly. Great for when Baal starts playing tricks on you, and you can laugh in Andariel's face.) That may sound like a lot of hardware to haul around, but you can stow it most of the time. The trick is to figure out fast what your enemies are throwing, beat a hasty retreat via portal, and swap your jewelry. Takes two seconds and you can handle whatever they throw at you -- *without* sweating it too badly if you get killed. Also, hold onto those staves that give you both resistances and bonuses to certain spells. In the expansion, you can swap between weapons, and I swap between the Salamander and a plain old cobalt short staff (26% cold resistance, +3 glacial spike, +2 fireball, +1 blizzard) that I bought off one of the NPC's. The Salamander kicks up my fire resistance and if I start getting low on mana, I can retreat, hold onto it, and watch that +2 to fire skills kick up my warmth and mana regen. Very nice. I also have the amber battle staff of brilliance stuck back in my stash, with additional lightning resistance and bonuses to glacial spike, but I haven't had to use it in quite some time. Also, in the expansion, when you swap weapons, it will pull up the spell you were last casting with it. I keep the Salamander and the hydra spell linked, and the glacial spike spell and the cobalt staff linked. Does wonders. As far as training goes, train in warmth early on, supplement with skull helms. I chose to train at least once in each skill, then focused on those skills which I found to be the most helpful. The area of effect spells (nova, frost nova) are incredibly helpful at low levels, because they hit a lot of critters at once for a reasonably low mana per critter cost. From levels 12 to about 20, I used a lot of lightning -- that is, lightning and chain lightning. I know a lot of people recommend charged bolt or static field, but the first isn't accurate enough for my taste and the second requires getting critters too close to my character for easy retreat -- I like to kill from a distance rather than melee range. After about 20, glacial spike has been my very best friend -- not only does it do incredible amounts of damage and can hit multiple opponents if they're close together (which, if you're a wily sorceress who retreats and lets her enemies clump together, you can do easily), but it stops them dead in their tracks and slows even special fast guys down to manageable levels. I don't need to tell you the obvious benefits of having an enemy that's frozen in place-- not to mention six or seven at a time. Last but not least, glacial spike also has one very good thing about it when fighting those creatures that get raised -- a creature killed with spike MELTS, and can't be raised. ;) For backup, I use blaze, very occasionally firewall or fireball and since about level 30, the hydra. The hydra is GREAT for creatures that use area of effect spells (i.e. Baal's draining waves) -- move out of range, drop several hydras between you and the baddy, and let them spit while you stay safe. It also works well for strongly anti-magic critters that kill you multiple times before you can kill them (i.e. Duriel at the end of act II). Drop a few hydras down and let them keep spitting while your corpse is rotting...eventually, you'll win out. The hydra also works really well if you know you've got close quarters beyond a door and can't get in without being swarmed. Stand outside with the door open, toss a few hydras in, keep them at the door to bottleneck it, and presto, dead critters. Also, if you're not sure if a place is infested, cast a hydra inside. If it starts spitting, you know you've got something and to be prepared. Phoenix -- Level 68 Sorceress Back to Top | I currently have lvl 51 sorc, lvl 42 barb and lvl 27 assassin. I just bought the expansion set and realized that things that were really good in Diablo II is not THAT important in the expansion pack. first, I have cold sorc. I have frozen orb at MAX (24) and 11 at cold mastery. I was using shard and some fastest cast rate rings and ammys till I bought the expansion. I bought expansion, I travelled in act5.... I got a +3 sorc skills orb.... the thing is that u dont really need shard, cause there's no point of getting fastest cast rate.. there's a cast delay on spells that sorcs use the most... (firewall : delay 4 secs...... frozen orb : delay 1 sec... blizzard : delay 4 sec....) unless u wanna use fireball or glacial.. u dont really need fastest cast rate cause u wont be able to cast them without hasitation.... moreover, if u have warmth at MAX like myself (skill lvl 24)....... your mana does not go down easily.. cause while u wait for the casting delay, your mana comes max again.. so I have about 600 mana, and after I get to near 1000, i'll put stat points into vital and some into strength.. I 'm using goldskin and tarnhelm..... if I dont need that much mana, I 'll be able to use the silks of the viktor. there's a good thing though.. because there's a casting delay for the frozen orb, its damage went up. my lvl 24 frozen orb's dmg is over 310 and if u max blizzard, u have over 500 dmg.... anyways, sorcs are still strong... just saying that my point is.. dont just look for things with fastest cast rate.. look for something with +??? to energy or +??? to all skills.... I play on UsWEST realm anyone wants to play with me, mail me at [email protected] u gotta have expansion set..... I have tons of uniques for anybody.... account : *SoulOfThee characters : GlazingStaves lvl 51 sorc FallOnYourKnees lvl 42 barb JW_Conjurer lvl 16 druid HugeAssAssIn lvl 27 assassin whisper me on WEEKENDS.... anybody welcome who has expansion set... Back to Top | i wouldn't listen to these people if you want your own sorc. i am starting a game over my lan internet connection with a mate, i am fire he is ice and we will work together everywhere. we both totally specialize in our fields apart from warmth. this may not be the best strategy but i don't care. i will force myself to live without static field and teleport and shiver armour, thats around 5 skill points i can use on something else. and so will my mate. we will be different and that we can exploit as we work as a pair no one will beat us because i think we all agree that ice and fire moves work very well. i can pound in the damage while they are frozen. that is my goal, simple as that and all you have to do is work towards your goal and your sorc will turn out great. i will say one thing about equipment, +skill point stuff works wonders as far as powering up your lesser skills before the big ones come along, so you can put those skill points on things you need later LIKE warmth. Psycho_G Back to Top | I don�t know if I have a good sorc or not but the fact is that I have a lvl 66 ice sorc. I think ice sorc is the best because only ice spells cuold freeze and slow enemies, howeever u cannot forget skills like warmth, teleport, telekinesis(very useful in multiplayer). Like other Diablo II characters your sorc must focus her skill points in some few abilities I think that you need to put to the maximin at least 2: frozen Orb and Warmth. You must also put points in static field ( I had a frined who has a sorc without this skill and he told me he couldn�t kill Duriel in normal difficulty) teleport, energy shield( not as good as the old mana shield but it can save you from loosing XP a lot of times) shiver armor (your armor will increase from 500 to 800 with only 4 points on this skill.) don�t spill your precious skill points in glacial armor its worse than shiver armor, ice mastery (until the ice piercing is 65), one point in lightning mastery is useful, I also think you can put some points in blizzard, but frozen orb is much better. You also must remember that you are a sorceress, not a barbarian, you must walk toe to toe, and don�t worry if you have to run away or save and exit (believe me, being killed in hell difficulty means lost abut 1000000 of XP) Respect the inventory i would have to have at least 1 soj or 1 archangels amulet. I think that Goldskin is the best armor (+30% to all resistances 232 defense) and for the gaunlets with no doubt frostburn(+40% to all MANA, means having 600 of mana instead of 400), i don�t know if wearing a shield is a good idea but if u think like me lok for an archangel�s staff (don�t worry about the ability bonuses). Alex Baroness Tsaktar lvl 66 Back to Top | 1 - After grabbing a staff which put blizzard up 3 levels, and using blizzard, i have found that is isn't especially good, unless you are willing to put a lot of valuble skill points into it. Work with other cold spells. Ice blast is my personal favourite, which i have on level 13. I'd leave out Glacial spike which, like blizzard, needs quite a few skill points for it to be any good. Frozen Orb is a good attack though, especially useful in act 3 (Nightmare) with all those annoying flayers running around. Aim the main orb at their shaman, fire, and quickly change to a lower spell. This means that (hopefully) the shaman will shatter, while all the flayers are slowed, which means you can go in a whack them with your lower spell. i reccomend ice blast, lightning or fire ball, or some spell that you have at a decent level. 2- maxing out warmth and getting static field to a high level is a good plan. Maxing out warmth will just regenerate your mana so fast. And a mate of mine who maxed out static field killed diablo with it, and he couldn't even see diablo, he was off screen. That's the range it has. Static field is a must for killing any of the bosses, from Andariel to Baal. It cuts down their life so fast. What i do, is make sure all the minions are dead, and then distract the boss with a mercenary, while i zap em with static field. it works so well except on diablo, who kills the merc too quickly. a very good couple of spells there. 3- Investing in the cold armours isn't such a bad idea either. put one point into frozen armour, and then get shiver and chilling armours good. i reccomend level 5 for shiver armour, and level 3 for chilling, which should be good enough, unless you want to get them higher, by all means go for it. 4- Cold and Fire masteries are very useful, especially in Nightmare and Hell mode. Forget Lightning, as lightning is the worst tree i feel, and the only spells worth bothering with are static field, telekinesis and teleport. The masteries are very useful, cold will pierce ure enemys defence to cold, which can mean the difference between a kill and being killed. Fire will put the damage up on your spells, and if you take a spell like meteor, you can cause massive damge. Invest points in them. 5 - A pice of equipment that gives you fast cast rate or fastest cast rate is definetly needed, as past act 2 (normal) you are going to be relying a lot on spells, and if you can get them out quicker, then that will make your life easier. Slayer Akila (41) Akira (12) Back to Top | This will be a fire sorc and u will need a hell load of mana and maxed warmth I will use firewall as my main skill damage is the higest for any spell 20 + maxed fire mastery is 800 damage and I would ude hydra as my second skill even though alot of people say it sux it maxed out + fire mastery maxed is 100 damage per shot (for a lot of mana though)*ice_blink John Back to Top | THE best sorc you can get is the following: First, max out warmth, but while you're doing that, get all the prequisites for orb. ( ice bolt, ice blast, etc) At about lvl 13-15 get static field (only one!), 'cause you need it for Andariel. (and all the other bosses) You'll end up with everything done at lvl 25. Keep all the skill points you get from there, until lvl 30, when you'll put 1 on orb and 1 on cold mastery. Keep the skill points, don't use it! when you're lvl 31 put those 2 up again, and repeat this, until your skill points run out. Then you'll only have the necessary skills, which are warmth, orb and cold mastery. For Stats: Strength: 70-80 (I recommend you put up to how much goldskin needs, I can't remember now, so please excuse me) Dex: NONE Vit: NONE Energy: ALL THE REST For Items: Armor: Goldskin (because of 30 all resist) Shield: Wall of the Eyeless Boots: Something with fastest running (eg. Vidalock's ...) Gloves: I recommend Frostburn, but you can choose The rest: don't really care You need: Fastest cast rate and hit recovery Mana steal 1-3 + sorc skill lvls James Back to Top | Most notably every sorceress should have 1 to telekinesis, so that you can magically pickup items that are out of reach, which could be a golden ring that drops when your firewall kills a minion while a barb is up from bashing on it. It's yours as much as his. and with telekinesis you can as far back as you need and easily pick any item on the screen giving you a great advantage. Be careful to not abuse the ability or you will find yourself with a team full of people that hate you and will lead you into deadly situations hoping for your death. This hasn't happened to me, but I'm sure it's crossed the minds of many. The second spell a every sorceress needs is teleport. This is very useful when you see an over whelming group of minions are coming at you. It also gives you the ability to flee an area when your stamina is down. Another side benefit is when your fighting in a group and the doorway becomes clogged, you can teleport right thru the door or wall straight into battle. Being an aggressive sorceress with 475 armor and 135 str, I'm a mix between sorceress and barb :). I'm used to hearing sorceress being very low on str and high on mana. This has not been a major issue with me. I can see advantages and disadvantages of both. It's important to have 1 cold spell. At least 1 to the frozen armor spell, which raises your defense and helps when your surrounded by minions by freezing them, which gives you time to act. The shiver armor spell is a bit nicer but I think it's over all a waste of skills as it does very little damage. I've heard a lot about frozen orb and I'm sure it's a nice ability, but it a lot of prerequisites and I've not really needed it. Although I have wasted a few spells on some fire skills, I've done a pretty good job. Fire blast?, Fire Ball are somewhat useful early on but are completely useless in nightmare and hell levels. I wouldn't waste more than 1 to easier of them. I consider them prerequisites. My main attack is firewall for maximum damage. Before the patch my 11 to firewall (+2 from staff) released around 400 damage per second, after the patch is does over 1100 per second. This is very powerful but has to be compensated by the new spell casting delays that the 1.08 patch adds. I've started replacing my boots and gloves & rings with fast cast rate and whenever possible fast hit recovery. The biggest different I've noticed between normal->nightmare->hell is the ability of the enemy to stun you so that you can't escape or cast spells against them. Those zombies that move so slow seem to be able to reach out more than their body length to grab and shock you. If you don't have fast hit recovery, your going no where and soon your dead. The second most useless skill is blaze. I have 9 to blaze(+2 from staff) and it does pretty good damage. I believe it's around 200 per second, which is nice since you use it while retreating or in conjunction with firewall. It's important to go back and see what died in your blaze. I've seen other using blaze, and while minions are dieing in their wake, I'm seeing rings, magic armor, etc falling to the ground. This would be sad if a golden nagal ring fell to the ground, just to be pick up by someone else or lost when you exit the game. I use to rely on inferno a lot, which works well in normal and nightmare, but I find that I don't like to be that close to the enemy in hell, so it rarely gets used and I now wish I didn't have it. Meteor is useful when you know there are minions on the otherside of a doorway. You can use it to bash them to death without every opening the door. Just aim the meteor at the door and it does damage to minions on both sides, which is very helpful when your in a tomb and 15 skeletons/corpses are on the otherside of the door. I'm cleared whole rooms this way. A not so powerful but very useful skill is hydra, which I highly recommend, especially if your doing it alone. The hydra can be cast up a head, through a door, and is especially useful when you enter a room to find a lightning charged minion from hell. You can quickly cast a few hydras and jump back through the doorway. It might take a while, but dieing and loosing your experience is no fun and wastes a lot more time trying to recovery the lost experience. I also use hydra to see which direction the minions are. If I cast one in each direction, they will fire on the enemy giving me an idea of where they are. Becareful though, the minions don't waste time on the hydras, they come looking for you instead. In closing, I want to mention that I have 20 to warmth, which makes the mana come back quickly, so I don't have to worry about having 400-600 to mana like I see others with. I have only 199 to mana, and I carry a several extra mana's with me. I rarely runout and it's simple enought to find more. I was currently putting all my new skills into fire mastery but I'm thinking that I need to develop lightning because of the new patch and the immune minions. I feel quite weak being a level 44 sorceress and getting slautered left and right because of immuned minions. Before the patch I, it would of only been a few more days of playing before I finished hell. I don't see me finishing hell anytime soon now, unless I ride on the backs of others. Good Luck BreakerII Fire Sorceress, Level 44 Back to Top | Equipment If you ask me. I say that the best equipment that a sorceress can have is a Tarnhelm it's because +1 to skills and magic find. +1 ammulet with fastest cast rate because you need the skill point and the best place for fastest castrate. Culwen's Point because it's the only weapon a sorceress can have that adds to skills and the faster blocking rate is quite handy. Sigon's shield because of the high blocking rate and + to skills. Now GoldSkins if you ask me is the best possible armor for a sorceress because of the 230 defense and +30% to resistances because a sorceress needs them resistances because they shouldn't take the melee attacks. Frostburns because it adds +40% to mana, some say that magefist is best because of +1 to fire skills and 25% to mana, but the fact is, that the more mana you have the faster it regenerates and a sorceress needs all the mana they can get, Tearhaunch boots because you need the resistances and faster run/walk. Nightsmoke because of the resistances and the 50% of damage goes to mana (incredibly useful). Now what I recommend for rings is nice rare resistance rings, some say that stones of Jordan are best because of the increased mana and + to skill point, now that's good too but leaves your resistances for nothing because with all the other equip. I mentioned your resistances will be 50% and in hell difficulty your resistances are minused by 50% so leaving nothing but your rings to fall back on. Character Points What I recommend with your character points is that get 80 str. in the beginning, no more because Goldskin s requires 80 str. 45 dex so you can use your Culwen's point. Now after you get your str. and dex. up to what they should be, just pump the rest of your character points into vitality and energy (a sorceress can ever have too much mana). It's that simple. Skill Points Now as for your skill points. I would say get your warmth up to the level 15 naturally AT LEAST! I say only level 15 at least because with all your equip that I recommended your skills will be increased by 4, so that's saying when you put the first level into any spell, it is already level 5, now imagine that. Get warmth up to level 15 or higher before you hit level 29! Because at level 29 you should save that skill point so when you hit level 30 you have 2, one goes to orb the other goes to cold mastery. Now you want a good level cold mastery because of the piercing, so if they have 20% cold resistance and you have 55% cold piercing, it's like they are getting hit with -35% cold resistance. Think about it. But as before you get that high, you need other spells, the first spell I would recommend is static because it is a great spell. Now I only put 1 skill on this one so making it level 5 with all my equip, now I learned that perhaps it would be much better to have that higher for obvious reasons. There are just 3 things in lightning that you would want. Teleport, thunderstorm, and mana shield. I say teleport because it will be your best friend when you find yourself somewhere when you prefer to be somewhere else. Thunderstorm because if your out of mana, out of potions, and previously casted it, it does some nice damage and can get you out some tight spots, but it is not all that great and if you don't want to spend all the points towards getting thunderstorm that's fine, put them towards warmth. And mana shield because when you take a hit, and you're in nightmare or hell, chances are your dead. But with mana shield it is like you have 500 hit points with 200 life and 300 mana. Get all the cold spells, all of them. Now don't put more than 1 skill into anything besides glacial ice, orb, and cold mastery, even though it may seem like a good idea at the time, it's not in the long run. Now as for fire skills, they can be handy but cold spells are just so much better than fire so why would you waste your skills in 5, so just get warmth, and only warmth. And of course, this is all just in my opinion, if you want to make your own adjustments to what your character is, that's fine, if you plan to learn by yourself, also fine it makes no real difference to me. Zak. Back to Top | I believe that the character sorceress is the most fun out of all of the chars to choose from. They aren't the greatest char to start with because they have a small margin of error before you can screw them up. I recommend you start a barb as your first char because they are a very forgiving char. Most of the time your first of a type of char will suck as my first sorc did. I spread the skills out way too much. my first advice is to first build a "starter" sorc to about lvl 25 or so. you get the basic feel and needs of the sorc by then and what you did wrong with it. But hopefully with this advice you wont need a starter sorc. First you have to decide what type of sorc you will be (fire, cold, lighting). I would recommend to start with a cold sorc. they are probably the most popular type out there and in my opinion the best. But you cant just have all cold spells you need the basics. Max warmth (lvl 20), at most and I repeat at most lvl 10 static field. At this lvl it reaches to the edge of the comp screen and if you get higher you cannot hurt monsters you cant see so its pointless beyond lvl 10. Static field you don't have to have but it helps against stone skins and such. Some sort of mana shield is good(energy shield is the best i think). Some skills you should only put 1 into. These are; Teleport(useful if you get stuck in a gang bang); Telekinesis(good only for multiplayer cuz you can grab items from a distance b4 others do); and basically any other skill that will not be a main skill. You should always pick 1 main attack and stick with it (thats key). I use glacial spike. i find that blizzard is not very effeitive and to much mana. I would get orb as your first lvl 30 skill. Although it costs a lot of mana by lvl 30 you should have the right items, which i will go over later, and enuf mana to use it orb. Now for the items. The items arent the main thing for a sorc so dont worry if you cant get these. Gloves: Magefist or Frostburn Boots: Fastest Run/Walk helps to have magic find Cap: Tarnhelm (the highest mf you can get), howltusk, or Infernal Cranium. Armor: Heavenly Garb Rings: 2 soj Ammy: +1-2 sorc skills primistic(all resistances(to make one with the cube add 1 perfect gem of each kind except skull and any amulet(this will not give you the 1-2 to sorc skills tho))) Weapon: Jang Bong war staff or Spectral Shard Shield: Wall of the eyeless Belt: Deaths Gaurd sash(i gambled this today for 2300 gold with my lvl 7 zon =)) or goldwrap with the items listed above you shouldnt need to much in dex/str Strength:Minium of 35 but i have 50 Dexterity:51 to be able to use spectral shard but min of 45 Vitality: 75 work your way up slowly (in nightmare and hell you will be thankfull you have the vit) Mana: Absolute Minium of 100 but i think thats way too low (Im still working up to this but im lower lvl) A few other strategies are.... Always use some sort of mana armor. Always have some rejuv or mana potions on you incase you run out. Magic Find is a good thing to have as you will be finding rares and sets all the time to sell trade or use. Use your presets (F1 F2 etc...) keep in handy a good secondary attack (static field). Some combos... Fire wall/blaze and gspike. gspike, static field static field static field static field, finish off with gspike. Freeze then metoer. A tip in fighting those dirty flying/whirlwinding bastard barbs, Try to be lvl 30 to have orb which works the best on them and if they come flyin at ya teleport out of the way then gspike there ass from the second they land stat field works well to considering that they cant run out of the way of it as long as they r in your screen. I prefer the stategy Teleport gspike/static field teleport gspike/static teleport gspike/static etc. etc. any more questions my e-mail is [email protected] and no im no trading my items. Ice_Fenix Back to Top | Starting off as a sorceress can be quite hard, Especially in Act 1 where you have to use weapons and hand to hand combat, as you dont have any decent spells, and as the sorceress is quite poor in these areas, it can be tough. Basically: 1: U need to choose spells wisely. Cold spells are most important i find, with a few exceptions. If you can freeze/slow down an enemy you have little chance against, then your job becomes easier. I recomend putting your first point into ice bolt, and working down the tree. although you will want to put at least 5 points into warmth and 1 into static field. warmth is a very definite must, it will do wonders for your mana recharge rate, and static field is the best weapon for taking down those bosses. i used it against diablo, very good. it takes a third off the enemy's life. Once you have 1 point in ice bolt, build up warmth until you are at level 6, then put one point into static field, and after that, work on your ice blast. this will make short work of enemy's through to act 3. i put mine to level 10. when you are in act 2, shiver armour is a good idea. dont bother with freezing armour, shiver is better. get it to about level 3 and it will prove very useful. then u can do wot u like. i found meteor very useful, and blizzard is good too. i havent really bothered with the lightning skills, except static field. 2: when imbuing, i reccomend a shield, armour or a helm. the sorcerress is going to rely on her spells consistently in later levels, and an imued weapon is not so useful with her strenght and dexterity. although while you are starting out, putting many of your skill points into strenth is a good plan. many of the decent shields, helm, and armour require strength levels of 60 or more, and while you have little or no spells, putting your mana up isnt really worth it. worry about that later. when you are in act 2, you shud start worrying about life and mana more. 3: hiring out mercs can be a lifesaver for the sorcerress. the rogues i find arent very good, but the mercs in act 2 and 3 are decent, and while they go up and fight the enemy hand to hand, you stand behind and unleash spells on them, thus avoiding hand to hand which is not the sorceress's strong point. 4: once you have a strenght that allows you to have decent armour and shields, put all points into your life and mana. my sorc has double the amount of points in mana than she has in dexterity, the reason being that because you use spells dexterity isnt that important, and having a high life and mana rating is so useful when you have spells like meteor which can drain mana fast. 5: dont be afraid to RUN AWAY. when there are too many enemys, run. leave a few ice blasts and leg it, this will slow the enemys down while you escape to a way point or town portal. well i hope this strategy has helped all those sorcs out there. Dame Akila (level 27) Back to Top | the bestway for sor is to play as a fire or ice sor, as i find electric sor are hard to use even in the first act against blood Raven.A ice sor must hav to following at lvl 12: 1 icebolt,1 frozen armor,1 frost nova(to slow enemy),2 ice blast,1 shiver armor,7 to warmth(1 skil point from Akara when U complete the first quest)after you have all this, continue to add to warmth until lvl 18 when you get Glacial Spike(2 skill point on this) andadd more to warmth till you get lvl23,save it up for chilling armor and blizzard andgo for warmth till lvl 20warmth and you find no more "i need mana" coming out of your charactor.find a staff which have teleport and no monster can kill you Back to Top | Ohh my God!!! Most of these Strategies are made by newbies! Let me tell you a reasonable sorce strategy. If your lucky enough to have these items: 2 soj, mage fist, treads of cthon, tarn or infernal cranium(20% Damage taken goes to Mana All Resistances 10%), nightsmoke, twitch (Increases chance of blocking, +15 to Defense, +10 to Dexterity,+10 to Strength,Slight attack rate increase), Shard, wall of eyeless and an amulet with at least 1-2 skill, fast cast and prismatic. For your stats: Strenght-35, Dexterety-45, Vitality-75(ppl say sorce don't need life but they do, they still die even with mana shield and night smoke and cranium or howltusk) best to have lots of life, Energy-150 min but i recommend to be more. With these right stats, you are sure to be able to use all the items listed above. Twitch specialty is that it blocks higher and that means in chaos sanctuary you can block those annoying multi colour flying shit thrown by oblivion knights. Also the 10 dex and 10 strenght is just to much. Make this type of sorce and you will see what I mean. If you think you have tons of mana like 1000 or more without soj, replace soj with fast cast rings with some mana and resist. The most godly and possible amulet for sorce is 2+ skill, 10% dmg goes to mana, 5 replenish life, prismatic, 30%+ magic find(sorce are the best magic finders, better than barbs with over 300% magic finds) and with 50 or more mana add or life. Just another thing, 10% dmg goes to mana means if you get hit by 100 dmg, 90 is reduce to your life and 10 is reduce to your mana. Just an explaination to the newbies who thinks you gain mana if you get hit. I don't care what skill you take but i recommend you max warmth. if you wanna use orb max it also ice mastery(it increases your dmg by lowering resistance) decide what spell that you would use for the rest of the game and you actually use a lot. Don't be taking all the spell for sorce, thats stupid and waste of skills. I my self have 3 sorceress, one ice(orb), one fire(meteor)(if you think ur and expert use try it), and one lightning(nova). This doesn't mean i took only one type of skills, i always take static and mana shield and warmth of course and lightning mastery to lower cost. Few use lightning sorce cuz they don't know what spell to use but i think nova is the best there is in lightning skill with static. With lightning sorce you have the options of maxing warmth, nova, static and mana shield. I think lightning is kinda easy compare to fire only using maxed metoer and with max fire mastery, don't take enchant and hydra! waste i say. Well i can't think anymore.So that is all. If i ahve time i would tell more detail about a successful sorce. Fire Sorce - lvl 78 Ice Sorce - lvl 82 Lightning Sorce - lvl 67 Back to Top | Master Blizzard(and or)Frozen Orb Ice masistery if posible.For begginers you should get about lvl6-7 Ice Blast(very useful from act1-2 normal.I know this isn't much but i can't think of anything else to type......I am am playing a new lvl16 sorc.(P.S. if you try to pk me i'l frigen get my lvl 98 sorc so watch who you pk)... Back to Top | To all the Sorceress( Sor ) players who are having trouble beating Claw Viper Temple level 2 .Let's talk about Normal mode. Fire Sor/Ice Sor in Claw Viper Temple level 2. First of all, you need to level up your fire/ice Sor at level 18, and have teleport available. Please save your level 17 skill point. place it into Glacial Spike(ice sor) or Firewall( fire Sor) when you get up to level. For both ice/fire Sor, You need to buy a staff that contains +1-3 Glacial spike, then get ready to kick some sneaks... when you enter Claw Viper Temple level 2, get up 4-5 radius, as soon as see those Sneak Minions, Use ur Glacial Spike to freeze them and place some Firewalls, or just use Glacial Spike to finish the minions. If Frankskin( the boss) cause some lighting trouble for you, and stop your G/S or firewalls now, Use teleport and get to the Altar, which you can keep those minions below the Altar( Is that amazing? Only Sor can do this!!!), now you can place more fire walls and keep shoot out G/S. If the lighting bolts coming to u, teleport away. when the lighting bolts are disappear, go back to the Altar and do G/S or firewall again. In nightmare mode, ice Sor is even easier. Use Frozen orb to slow them down, get to your Altar Stage again, sing some frozen orbs to your sneak audiences. Fire Sor needs some well placed Firewalls before go up to Altar, and firewall again after she gets up to Atlar. Back to Top | THIS IS THE ULTIMATE SORCERESS GUIDE.... ALL YOO NEED TO KNOW IS IN THE FOLLOWING... READ CAREFULLY, ITS LONG BUT STATES THE FACTS. i started my sorceress about a month ago and currently its at lvl40. She is COMPLETELY unstoppable. I use Ume's Lament for my wand ( made for a necro, but still does fastest cast and adds +40 to mana ), and I use a 47% tarn helm ( very rare ), heavenly garb for my armor, wall of the eyeless for my shield, +1sorc skills fast cast amulet or a prismatic Sorceress amulet, 2 soj's, magefist for my gloves, and nightsmoke for my belt, and threads of cthon for my boots. THIS is the ultimate sorceress. +4 all skills,+1 fire skills (warmth), +50% mana, +20 to all resist, 3 fastest cast and 1 fast cast, +55% regeneration mana ( not including warmth ), 50% damage taken goes to mana, +5 str, +5dex, +5 mana points after each kill. All this only requires a mere 45 strength. Some people might suggest frostburns but that -*thenewguy69 xPaulceResSx - Lvl40 Cold/Lightning Tweaker Sorc. Back to Top | If you ask me. I say that the best equipment that a sorceress can have is a Tarnhelm it's because +1 to skills and magic find. +1 ammulet with fastest cast rate because you need the skill point and the best place for fastest castrate. Culwen's Point because it's the only weapon a sorceress can have that adds to skills and the faster blocking rate is quite handy. Sigon's shield because of the high blocking rate and + to skills. Now GoldSkins if you ask me is the best possible armor for a sorceress because of the 230 defense and +30% to resistances because a sorceress needs them resistances because they shouldn't take the melee attacks. Frostburns because it adds +40% to mana, some say that magefist is best because of +1 to fire skills and 25% to mana, but the fact is, that the more mana you have the faster it regenerates and a sorceress needs all the mana they can get, Tearhaunch boots because you need the resistances and faster run/walk. Nightsmoke because of the resistances and the 50% of damage goes to mana (incredibly useful). Now what I recommend for rings is nice rare resistance rings, some say that stones of Jordan are best because of the increased mana and + to skill point, now that s good too but leaves your resistances for nothing because with all the other equip. I mentioned your resistances will be 50% and in hell difficulty your resistances are minused by 50% so leaving nothing but your rings to fall back on. Character Points What I recommend with your character points is that get 80 str. in the beginning, no more because Goldskins requires 80 str. 45 dex so you can use your Culwen s point. Now after you get your str. and dex. up to what they should be, just pump the rest of your character points into vitality and energy (a sorceress can ever have too much mana). It's that simple. Skill Points Now as for your skill points. I would say get your warmth up to the level 15 naturally AT LEAST! I say only level 15 at least because with all your equip that I recommended your skills will be increased by 4, so that's saying when you put the first level into any spell, it is already level 5, now imagine that. Get warmth up to level 15 or higher before you hit level 29! Because at level 29 you should save that skill point so when you hit level 30 you have 2, one goes to orb the other goes to cold mastery. Now you want a good level cold mastery because of the piercing, so if they have 20% cold resistance and you have 55% cold piercing, it's like they are getting hit with -35% cold resistance. Think about it. But as before you get that high, you need other spells, the first spell I would recommend is static because it is a great spell. Now I only put 1 skill on this one so making it level 5 with all my equip, now I learned that perhaps it would be much better to have that higher for obvious reasons. There are just 3 things in lightning that you would want. Teleport, thunderstorm, and mana shield. I say teleport because it will be your best friend when you find yourself somewhere when you prefer to be somewhere else. Thunderstorm because if your out of mana, out of potions, and previously casted it, it does some nice damage and can get you out some tight spots, but it is not all that great and if you don't want to spend all the points towards getting thunderstorm that s fine, put them towards warmth. And mana shield because when you take a hit, and you re in nightmare or hell, chances are your dead. But with mana shield it is like you have 500 hit points with 200 life and 300 mana. Get all the cold spells, all of them. Now don't put more than 1 skill into anything besides glacial ice, orb, and cold mastery, even though it may seem like a good idea at the time, it's not in the long run. Now as for fire skills, they can be handy but cold spells are just so much better than fire so why would you waste your skills in 5, so just get warmth, and only warmth. And of course, this is all just in my opinion, if you want to make your own adjustments to what your character is, that's fine, if you plan to learn by yourself, also fine it makes no real difference to me. Dianna Back to Top | I have a level 36 soreceress. So don't take me too seriously and only follow guides to egt an idea of what u should do. THere ae only 5 skills u need. Teleport, warmth, frozen orb, static field and shiver armor. It is true. Glaciel spike became useless. It freezes the monsters for too short. IN hell mode that is. about 3/4 of a second. Slowing them down is much more usefull. Because by that time u will have fastest run boots. All the spells the soreceress has won't be able to do enough damage in multiplayer to kill monsters. The only way to kill then is use static and than frozen orb.Beleive it or not frozen orb lvl6 does more damage to monsters than lvl12 glaciel. especially great. Not waisting you skills oints means u can have lvl lvl 9 static(don't need it higher) and lvl 15 warmth. I was also surprise when i was the one to kill the lighning enchanted boss for a barb who was higher level than me. Like 8 levles higher. I juts kept teleporting and doing static. Never lost one hp. than finished it off. Another thign i noticed is i keep swithching back and forth with my rings. I have to resistance rings and a soj. Sometimes the resistance is much more helpfull than soj. Can u beleive that? Well i should have never gotten soj. Instead get frostburns gloves. Or soemthing that i have: some resist and 34%magic find. I also stopped dying alot whnen i started to wear sigon's shield. Too bad i can't find a very good wand. The best i found so far is fastest cast rate.if u play single player than u wouls use a totally different strategie. Anyways there is no point in getting much higher damage by choosing fire mastery. All u will need is a way to slow down mosters, staic filed them, and finish them off with your main spell. By doing this u will discover that u don't need that much mana. and at about lvl 50 or so u wuill be able to raise strenght and vitality, maby dex too. Well that's my strategie. Happy killing diablo to all of u! Mike Back to Top | Sorceress- Most items that are good for her are uniques. Here's a recommended list: 1) Goldskin or Heavenly Garb- Goldskin is like the best sorc armor ever... basically cuz of the 30% resistance to all (resistance is VERY IMPORTANT for sorcs). Sorcs don't need a high 880 def. armor. First, it would waste stat points to wear them. Second, shiver armor (best magic armor for sorcs) increases def by so much anyways. Heavenly Garb is the second best. It provides 10% resist to all and 25% mana regeneration. Either of them is good. People just prefer goldskin more. 2) Frostburn or Magefist- for gloves, chose one of these. I don't really care what other people say but I recommend frostburn. It's weird, but although it does not say, wearing frostburn increases your mana AND regenerates mana faster than magefist for some apparent reason, even though magefist has both +1 to fire skills and 25% mana regeneration. But for the long run, both is equally good. 3) Tarnhelm- Best for sorcs due to the +1 to all skills mod. Howltusk and Face of Horror works, but... tarn is better. Howltusk requires too much strength and Face of Horror does not have enough mods (but the 5% resistance to all is good). 4) Tearhaunch or Treads of Cthon- Fast running speed is essential for sorcs. Both boots are great, but I think Tearhaunch is better because of the resistances. 5) Staff or wand/shield or dagger/shield- If u go with staff, good luck. First, u need to find a good staff (+2 to sorc skills and fastest cast rate), which is HARD. The iron jang bong isn't that good. It'll work for beginning sorcs but sux in hell. wand/shield is best for some reasons. The shield provides block against attacks (but has to be a good shield). The wand provides fastest cast rate and mana additions. w/s is great for dueling, especially amazons. Shield selections are few. Only two shields work fantastic for sorcs: wall of eyeless, or sigons. Wand is umes lament. d/s sorcs are good, but the only dagger that's good is spectral shard, and that wastes dex points, although shard does have good resistance. 6) 2 sojs and 1 eye of etlich, or some rare ammy that + to sorc skills- for obviously reasons (if u don't know, cheack the mods on soj and eye). Back to Top | I created an ice sorceress on west, at about lvl 15 or so, i realized that i had made a mistake. The enemies were too strong for hand to hand combat and my mana regeneration was way too slow. I decided to try a different approach. After taking a look i realized that each skill tree had skills that are much more powerfull at the levels that you get them. For example, ice blast is good at lvl 6 but you have to wait a long time to get glacial spike, lvl 18. But once you hit level 12 you could get fireball or lightning, both of which are usefull, and lightning does massive damage when you get it. But I didn't have the skill points to throw into a bunch of skills, so I decided that i would pump up only warmth until i could cast as much as I want. I saved up every gold piece so when i reached a level i could buy a staff that added to lightning or whatever. This had 2 major benefits. 1) I had a lot of warmth and could cast more spells. 2) I didn't have to wait for long spans of time to get the next spell. This tactic worked great, I had one point in static field, and used whatever spell my staff gave me to finish my enemies. Once I had maxed Warmth I put skill points into the prerequisites. Once I had my main spells i switched from the staves to shield and scepter with fast cast or something usefull. And don't ever let anybody tell you that you only need one point in static field, this is by FAR the most powerfull spell in the game, doing MASSIVE DAMAGE for very LOW MANA COST. I can cast static and hit Diablo off the screen, and he is dead in less than a minute when he gets hit with a Thunderstorm. I currently have a lvl 50 sorceress on west in Hell who is doing great with a level 10 static field. Kiith_Talone Back to Top | Well i finally decided to just started by Sorc bout a 2 weeks ago... and she is BADASS.... i have magefist gloves, tenymo sash for my belt, tearhaunch for boots, 2 fast cast rings dat add some other goodies such as resistance and str with mana, a prismatic sorc amulet, heavenly garb for my armor, a fastest cast wand ( Shard (a unique blade) is what im looking for ), wall of the eyeless as my shield, and a 47% magic find tarn helm.... this is the ULTIMATE sorceress right here. with all items i get 3 fastest cast with 2 fast cast, 25% to all resist, and MUCH much other resists, +2 skills, a good amount of defense, and 55% mana regenerations... ( and you also have warmth dat adds even more mana regeneration ), +5 str and +5 dex from boots and finally you get +5 mana after each kill. All this requires only 45 strength. SOME people might say you want to put on frostburn, but those gloves requires 60 str. Back to Top | the best thing to do with a sorc is to get a lot of items that raise skill points then try to get fastest cast items such as an umes or an iron jang bong and also u should raise ur strength but only enough to use silks and goldskins around 100 strength is sufficient, also max out skills that r most importent to u frozen orb is strong as hell but it eats up ur mana at higher lvls so u should only put in at most 10-15 skill points ice glacier u should max out as same with ice mastery u can put points into fire skills and lighting skills i reccomend hydra and fire mastery also firewall lighting skills i would reccomend thunder shield and the bolt aura type thing lastly if u have plenty of money dont be afraid to gamble, since skull caps r cheap for gambling gamble several of em eventually ull prolly get tarnhelm. Back to Top | ok most of the ppl are DUMB! if u want a perfect sorc read this! ok all u need is 45 str! wear tarn(+1 skills) heavenly garb (regenerate mana 25% 10% all resists) umes ( fastest cast +40 mana ) wall of the eyeless ( fastest cast +5 mana per kill ) magefists (fastest cast regen mana 25% +1 fire skills ) nightsmoke (+20 mana 50% dmg goes to mana and +10% resists ) treads or any other rare boots with fasest run walk and other mods ... treads are easy to get . 2 sojs ( 1 soj does +1 skill lvls increas max mana 25% and +20 mana good ring!) and a rare +1 or +2 sorc amulet with +mana ) for skills get 1 ice bolt 1 frosts nova 1 ice blast 1 glacial spike 1 blizzard then get max frozen orb. for fire dont get ANY EXCEPT WARMTH at the start dont go strait for max warmth! u dont need it till lvl 30+ get it to like 15 and mage fists and garb regen ur mana! for lightning just get 1 in teleknisis 10 natural points into static cause its best sorc skill and 1 in teleport and the prerequisists for teleport . ALL U NEED IS 45 STR! NO DEX! 60 OR MORE VITALITY AND THEN GO ALL MANA Back to Top | I dont know if anyone will like this strategy but it has worked for me. First off, I think the key to a good sorceress is good equipment...especially in the beginning. I started with 2 sojs, eye of etlich, iron jang, and treads. As you level, put skill points on warmth. You wont need to put attribute points on energy yet since ur sojs increased ur mana a lot. Put them on strength until u get to 71, then put on detex until u get to 45. Then you can put them on energy. Use hevanly, wall of eyeless, and culwins. If you want the fastes casting possible, focus on a wand with fastest cast, and use magefists. If you have all of the above, you get 5 extra skills, so if you put one on say...blizzard u get 6. This way, u wont waste skill points trying to get a spell up high enough to do damage. It isnt much, but it is a good start to a decent sorc. Enjoy Back to Top | The sorceress is probably the best character in the game. Although she is somewhat lacking in hand to hand combat in comparison to the barabarian, her projectile and mass killing abilities make up for it. In the begining (levels 10-20) i spent a lot of my skills researching different techniques but concentrated on frost nova and inferno. Freeze'um then roast'um was my technique but now i found some new skills that are even better. Chain lightning is one of my favorite spells now because it RIPS through huge groups of guys even better than the novas. The glacier move is also good to upgrade because it completely freezes them to the point where they remain motionless. As i haven't done the moves like hydra, blizzard and tempest, i can't really coment on how good they are but i'm willing to bet that they kick ass. Good Hunting to the rest of you sorceresses or sorceri, whatever it is. Ski6020 Back to Top | To build a powerful sorceress for newbies and advance, you must first learn the fundamental fighting ability of the sorceress. When you acquire your very first skill point put it first on warmth, after that get the ice bolt. Put ice bolt on the left mouse button and fire bolt on right. Practicing and mastering the use of F keys to use different magics. Doing combo with the sorceress is fun. When you improve throughout the game do combos, on non-moving enemies I usually do "Blizzard-Firewall-Meteor combo". On moving enemies I do "Blaze-Blizzard-Meteor combo", why? Because they are moving and sorceress usually run and keep the distance why not lure them to your very own path of death! See them walk in your path of fire while slow because of blizzard, showered with meteor. Though it needs space, and when I get in to this point I circle around if the room is thight. If your are wandering in dungeons or walking around the plains cast any of the ice armors, combo it with thunder storm. Frozen armor is good for beginning sorceress, alternate shiver and chilling armor because they're very different. Shiver is for melee while chilling is for enemies that shoots , like archers. When you acquire teleport put it in F4, and customize your very own F key setup. I disagree on single element sorceress, prioritize cold, then fire then lightning. When I say prioritize, I mean the usage of the elements. The distribution of the skill points is all up to you, and I won't give my personal "distribution of skill pts." for instant powerful sorceress. If you're fighting a boss don't be intimidated, you're a sorceress and show him who's boss. Do the combos and you'll slay them in no time! Like they said "Keep your friends and your enemies closer!" Know thy enemies. E-mail me for questions, comments and suggestion but I won't reply non-sense. [email protected] -=warlock=- Back to Top | I know the best way to get the best sorceress: don't take the first one you create.Personaly I have 4 sorceress (not very high level but...) my best is only level 27 but I will teach you my trics.1) You have only 3 lightning spell to get:static field , teleport and telekinesis (to get teleport), all the others lightning spell suck , don't take them.2) Try to survive the longer as possible with low level spell to keep skills points for better spells at level 24 and 30, just take fireball, firewall and glacial spike with higher level.3) the Hydra is only useful on boss don't put a lots of skills point into that.4) Meteor is very pwerful in duel and boss I suggest you to put a lots skills point in that.5) Put a lot of skills points in the mastery when you are at level 30, it's very useful.6) Blizzard is the best way to kill a bunch of enemy at the same time, put the most oh the skills point in that it's the best spell.7) Ice orb is very pwerful put a lot of points in that but keep your blizzard at an higher level because ice orb is only useful when you are surrounded because it will kill only the first line of the bunch.8) Finaly, don't put a single stats points in dex the soceress don't need dex because with yhe ice armor you can get a good def , anyways the sorceress is rarely touch by enemy when you know how the use your spells correctly. Magik-Valkyrie/sorceress/level 27/battle.net USEast Back to Top | I WILL TELL YOU HOW TO BUILD THE PERFECT SORC. I have read the strats, and i would have to disagree with spreading your skills. Yes you will need skills from all three trees but only a few will be emphasized. For offense max out frozen orb and cold mastery. THIS is the way to go, forget hydras and meteor storm, because you cant really control your attack. Secondly, for bosses get static to around 10 for range. Put 1 into shivering armour and max out warmth. also start building on your mana shield once all the above are met. Now let us move onto your stats.... 80 for strength to wear goldskin (best sorc armor for resist) none into dex, 50 into vitality, and the rest into mana. Items, use goldskin, frostburns (magefist for pk hehe) 2 soj, fastest run/fastest hit recovery boots, or treads of cython, also use plus 2 ammy when u reach a high enough level. Finally, staves are good but in the long run u want a fastest cast wand like maelstrom or even ume (spec shard is good too, but then u would have to waste some skills into dex when u can get the cast rate by wands) shield use wall of eyeless or sigon's for duels against amazon, well there u have it perfect sorc. Geniuz88 Back to Top | i have a some great tips for u guys.All u really need is some skills im talking about now.frozen orb is a must it kicks assssssss and teleport,static field,fire wall ,cold mastery,fire mastery and warmth is a must no matter what u do this skill is just a must. Some tips for wearing is silk of victor,nightsmoke,spectral shard,tarnhelm,sigons shield.2 soj,1 good +2 skill amulets,frostburn.and any fastest run/walk boots so good luck and get ready to kick asssssss!!!! niker89 Back to Top | I have been playing DII for awhile now and I have a high level necro. I was getting bored of him so I decided to create another character, a sorceress. I traded for several good items with my necromancer and transferred them to my sorceress. After some trial and error I have found the perfect combination of items for nearly any sorceress. The are: Spectral Shard, Tarnhelm, Goldskin, Prismatic +1or+2 sorceress skills prismatic amulet, 3 perfect diamond tower shield, Nightsmoke, 2 SOJ's, Frostburns, and Treads of Cthon. This combination of items gives you +4 to 5 skills, Fastest cast rate, Fastest walk/run, 50%stamina drain, 50% damage taken goes to mana, Maximum Resistances ALL in HELL,+90% mana, and +50 mana. The Beauty of this combination is that most of the items are unique and they have no required level, meaning you can equip them very early. Thanks for reading Major_Doom Back to Top | Killing the bosses (Andariel, Duriel, Mephisto, and Diablo) is one of the easiest thing to do in Diablo II. I have had 2 sorc. (I killed my fire sorc and play with Nasty-BiatchIII on USEast (Cold)) Fire sorc's may have really high damage, but they are too easy, and get rather boring after a while. Ice sorc's are good, usefull, and good... Anywayz, back to the bosses Andariel ~*~*~*~ Blaze her, stop, shoot her with some sort of cold spell and start blazing again, keep on doing this and she WILL die. (kill her minions first) Duriel ~*~*~ Duriel is (was?) hard with my fire sorc because he was just too fast. however, cold sorc's can kill him very easilly by blazing and using glaciel spike (use this as your main attack) or on nightmare and hell, use orb or blizz, they have higher damage. but make sure you keep on blazin' Mephisto ~*~*~*~ it doesn't matter how you do it, but get mephisto in the other side of those river things (teleport?) and blast him with something. I found that metior (lvl2) was taking him down too slow to be worth it, so i took out my lvl1 blizz. and took him down REALLY FAST! all you have to do is dodge him attacks and blast him with high (lvl5?) blizz and you are sure to beat him. some people use fire wall, but i've never tested it, so maybe firewall AND blizz? that might work... Diablo ~*~*~ I have only gotten to Diablo 1nce, with my fire sorc, & i have to say that max lightning resist is a MUST!!!! 25 fire resist is enough, but with max lightning, you can just stand there IN HISLIGHTNING!!!! :) i used blaze and metior, and it would have helped a lot if i had had some nice spells to cool him off with (so that he would have been in the metiors longer, and the blaze) then just run around in circles until he stops to shoot you, that's when you haev to use a potion, and blast him with some spells of your own. I hope this guide has helped, and if it didn't, look at someone elses guide, because mine won't really help you... i'll try to post something here when i beat the game on hell, then i can give you advice that will really help. All i have to say about skill pts, don't waste them, and warmth is a must!!!!! (but never 4get the blaze (lvl 5 or 6) and don't waste time in single player unless you are expirementing with new skills/spells... :( USEast Cold Sorc. Nasty-BiatchIII (current lvl 19) <-------needs sojs... Dame Lanfear (single player lvl 32) Back to Top | I would like to add my 2 cents worth for your strategies page. Firstly, a little background on me. I play on USEast and only closed characters. I have not played any other character yet other than the sorceress. My sorceress is currently at level 70. I will not take items into too much consideration here as personal preferences vary but I will touch on certain characteristics as I progress. When I first started my sorceress it was apparent right from the start that she is weak and vulnerable so the first priority is defense. Shiver armor is the sorceresses best defense and should be selected as soon as it becomes available. The Sorceress is all about mana and without it she's helpless so i don't need to stress how important warmth is. This is one skill that the player should try to max out. Know your enemy! All the monsters have their own unique fighting style and weaknesses. Being able to predict and anticipate their moves is a huge advantage. I have witnessed many sorceresses just running in then dying because they never anticipated the outcome. The monsters are dumb and are usually fairly easy to take out without taking a single hit. I do not think a successful sorceress can concentrate on only one skill tree, not only is it difficult but it's just plain silly. If you have skills available then you should use them. As you progress through the skill trees you will notice that you have to add a point into prerequisite skills to obtain the skill of choice. Do not forget about those skills as they DO come in handy at times thoughout the game. Lots of sorceresses rely only on the spells they assign to their function keys. Cold v lightning v fire???Why not use them all? You think by spreading your skill points around will weaken the spells you want?? This is true if you rush in and try to kill everything in the first 5 seconds. It is also true if you put them in skills that do not need the boost AT THAT TIME. For example, if your warmth is at level 8 but you are not suffering from mana loss then do not put the next point into warmth... that will have absolutely no short term benefit to you but you could have put that point into static field which would have instantly reduced the lives of all monsters by 25%. So, distribute your points on the things you find are inadequate and life threatening. Unable to freeze 12 monsters at once with your glacial spike is not grounds to add the point into glacial spike. Use your spells wisely and do not insist on playing them as others do. Experiment with them. Hold down your shift key when using glacial spike for instance. Not only will you stand and cast but you can direct the spike to hit walls and trees etc and it's splashing effect will reveal monsters you may not have known were there. Another good example is using firewall at your leisure. It is especially effective against such dumb monsters as skeleton archers, who will stand and wait around a corner for you. Lay down the wall, they won't move and you don't take a single hit! Too easy. When you advance and you are able to add points into the masteries, I would reccommend doing so. Fire mastery is a huge boost to all your fire skills, all at the same time. The same goes for the cold pirecing effect against cold resistant critters. As far as lightning mastery is concerned, the only benefit it has is a reduced mana cost. I find this useless. By the time that mastery becomes available, you should have enough mana anyway and seriously, who would cast enough lightning spells to run out of mana anyway??? I would add that point into static field to increase it's radius. Speaking of static field, some people claim that maxing it out is a must. I disagree strongly with this. My reasons are these and correct me if I'm wrong... 1) I can't SF a monster if it isn't in my line of sight. 2) My level 7 SF reaches the edges of my screen so I see no point in taking it further. Now for the other points...Put lots and lots into energy! The others are not so important but do not neglect any of them. At level 70, my sorceress has a mana orb of 850 or so. This is not very big for a sorceress of this level but with warmth maxed out I never run out. Therefore I am able to add points into life, strength and even dexterity without sacrificing mana. A good successful sorceress will need points in all. You cannot survive without any of them, including dex. A sorceress needs items and items have restrictions so add points only to meet the requirements to use the items and only if the item is obviously better than what you already have. Try not to rely on items to boost your attributes to meet the requirements of other items. Doing this will probably leave you dependant on that item and you will not be able to replace it without having to replace the boosted item. Makes sense?? Look at it this way... You found a kickass crown but you don't have the strength to wear it so you get a belt that adds strength. You now have the strength to wear the crown but you are stuck with that belt, even if you find a more suitable belt.... not good! Items and how to use them best. I think that resistance items are all you will need unless you intend to play against other people, then resistances are not so important, but thats another topic. If you can keep your resistances maxed out through the three difficulty levels then you will find that it will be easy. Any other added modifications are all bonuses. Do not use items with high defense just because they have high defense, this will slow you down as most high defense items are heavy. You will also need a minimum of one item that increases cast rate and +1 to skills items are always a bonus but don't sacrifice resistance for the +1. Below is a list of my items which I am currently using for Hell difficulty: Goldskin - 30% resistance to all is a must although it's heavier than I would like. Tower Shield with 3 perfect diamonds - average of 50% resistance to all! Can't beat that! Spectral Shard - fastest cast rate, 10% resistance to all and +50 to mana Tarnhelm - +1 to skills, 43% magic find and 75% extra gold... This was my first unique item and without it I wouldn't have gotten my other stuff so easily!! Magefist - +1 to fire skills (warmth), fastest cast rate (yes they do stack) and regenerate mana 25% Belt - anything better than my previous belt!! I'm using a rare 5% life regen, fastest hit recovery with a few more minor mods. Boots - Nothing special, uniques don't really cut it. My current rares have fastest run / walk, fastest hit recovery and minor mods. Rings - Stone of Jordan, 2 of them - Each has +1 to skills, increase max mana 25% and +20 to mana Amulet - Rare +2 skills, poison reduced by 75%, 12% fire resist, 49% poison resist and +12 to dex! (sorry, not for sale) I have tried other combinations but find the above to be a perfect balance in Hell. To finish off, keep in mind my following rules to success: 1. Dress for the occasion (Resistances!!). 2. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer (Know the monsters well). 3. Don't rush, take your time! D2 doesn't have a time limit. ( I used the sewers only in act 2 Hell to level up from 60 to 65). 4. Don't rely on items, they are bonuses to your already existing skills. (This is my attitude). 5. Have a great deal of FUN!!!!! Thanks for allowing me to speak my mind. All of the above is based on one solitary character through experience and no outside influence was involved. I welcome any questions or comments but will not respond to criticism as this character is still going strong and will make level 99 without changing a thing! -India Back to Top | I found a lot of the advice given in the Diablo II book I bought, and also some advice given by characters like Cain, are not really helpful. Cain says use fire on Andariel, but your webpage gave me more useful information (that she has 50% resistance to fire AND cold), and I found (thanks to your info) that for the sorceress, cold worked a lot better on Andariel. It keeps her off long enough to do the job. More tips for sorceress vs. Andariel: Don't go in the double doors, pick off the lessermonsters first, let her follow you into the room next to the stairs, so that you canescape up the stairs if things get desperate. You can even do a town portal (safer from upstairs) after she has taken 50% damage and come back to find her with about the same amount of life left. Press the "R" key before you start so you can run away with only the mouse (fingers free for potions). You are likely to need to recover from poison upstairs unless you have resistance. ACT II, the Arcane Sanctuary, I am sorceress again: The book says the Summonermonster is tough, and to get cold resistance. Maybe they played only the betaversion. Because you will get roasted long, long before cold is a problem. It's all those guys around him with the fire attacks. After I maxed my fire resistance, the Summoner was easy and I killed him with cold blasts in about 5 seconds. peebles
Back to Top | When I first started to play this game, I made many failing characters. After awhile, after reading guides and playing I figured out that the best character is sorceress. But there stood the question: what mastery should I choose? Well I thought about it and chose "ice mastery". It was the only one with defensive spells and it would slow down enemies, so you could kill them before they reach you. It was very easy for me to finish normal mode and I got to act 3 nightmare. That's when it happened! I was on battle net with my brand new lvl 4 sorceress which I was going to use for experimenting. I so this game called" I can hack you", so I decide to check if it was possible. Well to my amazement, they hacked me to lvl 50 with maximum skill lvls. So I went to single player to check it out. First I checked what damage the spells did. After looking is saw something that meant I wasted my time in playing with an ice sorceress. The spell "fireball" did 680 damage with lvl 20 fire mastery! You see, Fire mastery upgrades the damage your fire spells do. So the damages were humongous! I never even knew something that strong was possible in Diablo2!... So I to the blood moor to kill some monsters. But the second any of my spells hit the monster my whole computer froze. So I erased her.(this just proves you should never cheat, good thing it wasn't my main character) But now I knew all this time I wasted on a failure that would not be able to fight on nightmare! I didn't just make up this story it's true. If you don't believe me send an email to [email protected] . So if you are thinking about making an ice sorceress, think again. Ice is only good in the beginning, but if you want to have the biggest damage in the world use fire! Right now I have lvl 10 fire sorceress, and its so boring to go trough everything again. And just to think about all that time I spent trading for jordan ring, and ammy+1 skills. So get warmth fireball, static field, teleport, blaze, firewall, meteor, hydra, and fire mastery. That is all I have to say. THANK YA'LL FOR LISTENING. 8-) Back to Top | I have had diabl 2 since last christmas and I am good at it. I suggest when you first start your sorceress to level up warmth and one other thing alternating. I have a lvl 25 sorceress and when I saw how long it took to regenerate my mana. I went for help. I looked on the skill tree and there was warmth, it regenerates mana faster. So I started a new Sorceress and I put things in to warmth my first 10 lvls. Also if you are a sorceress who is planning to wear heavy armor this is what I put my stats into.strength, strength, energy, strength, energy, energy, strength, strength, and the rest was alternating strength and energy and now my new lvl 20 sorceress is awesome. Also, if you are a newbie I suggest being an ice sorceress. And then when you get better you can go on to fire or lightning. I just got the game so I am a newbie to so I am an ice sorc but if you don't want to take my advice, well that, FINE!!! Back to Top | Im currently playing at a fire and ice sorceress right now and i'm in nightmare level, so here's my strategy; for your stat points you get 5 points on each level up so put 2 in energy cuz you'll be needing lot of mana for your spells, 1 point for vitality and 2 points for strength since you will not be putting some points in your dex don't expect that yur defense will rise so you need to pump some points into strength to wear those hardcore armors. i suggest u should get yurself a Heavenly Garb light plate because of it's high defense and regenerate 25% of yur mana (lucky for me diablo left me this armor when he died), and put some points into frozen armor at least as many as you can or until +50%, this will help out for your defense to go up a little, as for offense always chose fire skills like the fireball don't throw points into firebolt you'll be wasting points instead get yurself a staff that adds 2-3 to fire bolt then lose it when already learned fireball. Don't throw points into inferno and firewall, instead put your points into warmth,fireball,meteor and of course my favorite the BLAZE! have u ever heard about the hit and run tactics of a hand to hand combat character? well as for the sorceress there is the run and run tactics w/ the help of blaze skill it really worked on duriel even there's only a little space and it worked on andariel,hepasto,izual and in the cow level too! just do blaze, run, stop when they're far from you fireball them, and again, of course it did'nt work on mephisto and diablo but meteor sure will cuz they always stay on one place casting spells on you while you stall them and cast meteor on them again and again but don't put too many points on meteor just a few points cuz u will not always need them, instead max out fireball, its like a bazooka in the world of diablo II, then work on the run and run tactics with blaze al least ll 3-5 and get a boots that increase yur speed and adds to stamina. well I hope my strategy works on you but know this, you should come up with your own style, this site really helped me alot when I was a newbie Dame Lisandra (Lvl 29 Fire and Ice Sorceress) Back to Top | OK. Here what I got on a perfect sorceress. Many people don't realize this and thinks this is a waist of points but for a sorceress, ENERGY (MANA) is the most important thing. Without mana a sorceress is useless! AND with lots of mana regeneration will be faster. So just put enough points in strength and dex so that the sorceress can use her armor, etc. The rest of the time just put points into ENERGY. Another thing! I DO NOT recommend that a sorceress as ur first character. The sorceress is hard to raise and good items are the only way for a sorceress. Start with a barbarian cause a barbarian requires less items to be good. Use that Barbarian or any other character you want and find items that is useful to your sorceress. I just got enough items to start my sorceress. She is level 28 right now with 455 mana. She is wearing a SOJ (stone of jordan), Frostburns, Tarnhelm, Shard, Goldskin, and a nice ring, shield, and boots with nice mods. Things like these really helps! USEAST REALM's Wolf_87 Back to Top | Im not the best but im pretty good. if u dont like to carry a dagger like spectral shards use like a unique item called magefist, its really useful. if u wanna use a +2 staff or use like culwens point with a sigon shield because magefist has fastest cast and +1 to fire skills and my favorite reason is 25 mana reg if u combine it with civerbs icon or arcannas sign then dump ur skill points into warmth ull be able to use those preciouse mana potions or rejuv potions when its really an emergency. my mana recharges fully i have a lvl 31 sorc with 277 mana it recharges really fast!! and as 4 armor try getting a heavenly garb do anything to get it and if u cant just wear like a full plate mail (u wont need that much def anytime soon!) but in nitemare or hell u should use goldskins (for the resist things) then if u decide to put points in strength look for a ornate plate (usually look for a ! 900 def one) as for jewlery use eye of etlich until u get civerbs or arcannas amulet as 4 rings u should definetly use stone of jordans lots of peo have doubles so it shouldnt take u long to get one and as for boots u should use sigons sabot and belts i dont really care about belts but look for a mana related thing. Ok last thing is where to put those pesky skill points? dump em into warmth very needed and i know its cheap but put points into frozen orb and hydra i personally dont use novas but if u like to use it put 5 points in frost nova (ur rings and weapons should raise the frost nova to 9 its weak but great for multiplayer put at least 9 in frozen orb to raise it to 13 u can kill most other players that are lvl 37-40 in 2-4 hits!! as long as u have high def or able to out run other people i cant run from barbs becaus of there run skills so i stand and just use frozen orb to kill them thats all the information u have for! u and i wish u good luck in diablo!! SSMusashi6088 Back to Top | When starting out as a sorceress I suggest putting a point to warmth every other level till its at lv 5 or 6. Then if you like to be in massive combat with lots of little guys, then I suggest working on the ice blast and when you get glacial spike don't bother putting a point to any of the other ice attacks that freeze. The glacial spike comes in handy when your trapped or surround by minions and the boss is behind or attacking you. It'll freeze multiple minions and multiple kills too, it may not freeze the boss but it slows him down enough for you to finish the other for a 1 on 1 with the boss hehe. That strategy worked great for me throughout the game except on diablo, mephisto and most of the big guys. A good strategy to do on guys that are all around invincible(resist everything,extra fast, extra strong types) just run around with fire behind you. Lead them into walking on it and they'll die slowly but eventually, plus you won't get hit that often or killed so fast but I advise the first thing you do is open a portal just in case you do and if you run out of stamina. =) Enjoy! Ken Back to Top | I'm known as CaoCheebai on the Asian Realm and i'm currenntly using a level 31 Soceress. Using a Soceress is not as difficult as it seems if you allocate the skill points correctly. For your stats points do not waste them also! For a soceress, you only have to put your stats points into Strength, Vitality(don't put too many), Energy(alot!). I have 121 points in Strength(magic bonuses added) to carry heavy armour. I currently wear Goldskin Full Plate Mail, got it from trading. Do not put too many points into Strength if you do not intend to carry heavy armour. Some points into Vitality is a must so you won't suffer from a quick 4-5 hit death in Nightmare. But do not put too much points into Vitality as a Soceress has Energy Shield skill which helps to absorb damage. Most of your stats points should be into mana. Mana is like fuel for your Soceress to function...no mana...you're dead. I'll talk about skill points now...the most crucial...where to allocate the skill points. NEVER PUT MORE THAN 1 POINT INTO A SKILL YOU WILL NOT USE IN FUTURE!!! This is the mistake of many people as they waste many points into low level; low damaging skills. Most people I've seen build up a Ice Soceress, concentrating on the Cold Skills. Put only 1 point into your cold skills except blizzard, glacial spike, frozen orb, cold mastery. These are wide area damaging skills. Do not put more than 2 points into blizzard and glacial spike!! Find staffs that adds +2 or +3 to blizzard or glacial spike...you do not really need these skills in high levels. Save the points for frozen orb and cold mastery when you reach lvl30. A high level frozen orb and a high level cold mastery is devestating!!! The other points put them into warmth, teleport and energy shield(optional), thunderstorm(optional). A Soceress needs warmth to regenerate mana quicky so I advice to put as many points into Warmth. Every point in warmth is worth it! A soceress needs to teleport esp if you get swarmed or in Player vs Player. Put 1 point into teleport. Static field is very important as it can reduce lives of many enemies. Pump 9-10 points into Static FIeld. Thunderstorm and energy shield are optional as these skills are not too bad but unless you have too much points left. Now I'll cover items a Soceress should use. Try to get Heavenly Garb, Goldskin, Silks of the VIctor for armour. Get Tarnhelm Skull Cap(+1 skills), Frostburns Guantlets or Magefists.Get a +2 skills amulet if possible. Get 2 stones of Jordan if possible. For weapons there are many variations. It really depends on what kind of weapons you would want to use. For a soceress get Spectral Shard for the fastest cast rate or Culwent's point(you have to pump up your dex to use it!). Get Sigon's Guard or a tripple perfect diamond gemmed Pavise. Do not waste your diamonds on a tower shield as Pavise is much better. In trend now is also Wall of the Eyeless. Get Vidala Fetlocks for the fast walk/run. My Soceress is currently wearing Goldskin, Frostburns, VIdala Fetlocks, Tarnhelm, +1 skill amulet, 2 rare rings and a staff(+2 sorc skills, +3 thunderstorm). These are the items many Soceress use so it really depends in what you want to use, and if you disagree with me its fine :) To be a Player Killer, you want to kill other people not get killed yourself. Have as many points into Frozen Orb and Cold Mastery. I have 5 points each in cold mastery and frozen orb. Have about 10 points in Static field, some points into Thunderstorm. You need Teleport most of the time. The basic way to PK is to Static, Orb, teleport, static, orb,orb,teleport. Your thunderstorm will deal some damage too. Nothing can reach you when you teleport! Not even guided arrow or bone spirit can reach you. You can take on anyone, anytime. The only time i've died is when I lagged. I hope this guide will help you guys!! Thanks for reading!!! ^_^ CaoCheebai Back to Top | the best things that benefit a sorc are the following: tarnhelm for your helm, any +1 skill ammy with fast cast rate, spectral shard is so baddass for a weapon, heavenly garb for the regenerate mana, wall of the eyeless for your shield because it has faster cast rate, and 5 to mana after each kill, lenymo is a good belt, frostburns is a must for gloves, and tearhaunch for boots. thats what i use for my sorc and shes pretty badass. BigD172000 Back to Top | Sometimes it is quite hard to manage your sorceress. Where to put your skill points? What equipment should you look for? Here are my personal tips: OFFENSIVE SKILLS: First you have to decide what spell will you use most to attack. Some may choose hand-to-hand combat but one will get harder to hit someone (when you have only 30-ish Dex at level 20). Spells almost always hit. So pick a spell you want to use as a MAJOR "WEAPON". I would suggest one to use FIREBALL (FB) at the start coz you can attack a close group of enemy in one shot. Put 5 points in FB in Normal and you can finish it quite easily. But against some stronger UNIQUE MONSTERS and BOSSES you need something more than FB. FROST NOVA (FN) is quite a good one to pick. It can slow down enemies when you are surrounded and then escape. it also can push back those Leapers in Act 2 and slow them down. But 1 point in FN is enough and more you put in this is a waste. You will get some +1 skill stuff in the game later to boost them up.STATIC FIELD (SF) is also a must to sorceress. It makes life much easier. Put 2 or 3 points in it to enlarge the radius of your SF. I would suggest you put 1 point in GLACIAL SPIKE (GS). It can freeze all those enemies and sometimes break them into pieces. However, I've notice that if a creature is "broken" they drop no items. (Can someone check that as well?) I will use it when the enemies are too strong. UNIQUE MONSTERS AND BOSSES cannot be frozen and so FN can do the job. LIGHTNING and CHAIN LIGHTNING (CL) sounds good to use. But the "1 to xxx damage" thing is horrible when you are surrounded by enemies. 1 point in CL is enough. Use it to trace some other "hidden" enemies while attacking others. But don't rely on it EVER! I found BLAZE useful in the whole game (including Hell). Most enemies tend to follow you . Leaving a path of flame on your way and hell they go! But the FIREWALL thing.....well I suggest 1 point in it. It deals high damage "per second" but there is the question: Will enemies just STAND THERE FOREVER AND LET YOU GRILL THEM??? NO! Only shamans and magic-user will stand there using magic but they usually have high magic resistant...So as METEOR. Enemies will NEVER WAIT TO GET GRILL! If you insist, put one poin in it and that's it! BLIZZARD (BD) is a good spell in use. It can slow down enemies and deal reasonable damage. Also, you can cast several BD on the same spot and those creatures will just suffer MORE! However, it drains too much MANA. For Normal Games put only 1 point in it and add some more later in Nightmare and Hell. Don't put more than 5 points in it coz it doesn't worth the point. you will find BD less useful in the game later. DEFENSIVE SKILLS: WARMTH is a must for all sorceress. It speed up your Mana regenerating speed. Max it out and you will see the benefit of it! SHIVER (SA) and CHILLING (CA) ARMOURs are great. They attack enemies while defending your sorceress at the same time. I would suggest you use SA when melee-ing and CA when attack in range. Some of you may notice that SA deals more damage than CA at the same level. So you may want to develop your SA more by putting more points into it. CA is just a reserve. ENERGY SHIELD (ES)....emm...it would only be useful when your MANA regenerate fast enough. 5 points is the maximum you want to put in ES. Adding one more beyond that only absord 3% more. Use those +1 skills items to boost that up later. TELEPORT is important as it allows you to escape quickly and it helps in Act 2 and 4. 1 poin is enough. If you want you just need to put some in LIGHTNING MASTERY to reduce mana cost. MASTERY SKILLS: Now when you are in Nightmare, check which skills you use most. It will become obvious to invest your skills in mastery. But I would suggest you put 1 point in each mastery first as the benefit is huge with those +1 skill items... Misc. skills: FROZEN ORB...worth a try but 1 point is enough. It drains too much MANA and doesn't worth it for its damage is not as high as other spells. NOVA...is that a laugh when you have FN? THUNDERSTORM...well it only shoots once per 1.5 second (almost)...it doesn't help much... HYDRA...1 point is enough if you feel lazy clicking. But it can be helpful to kill some tough enemies off. EQUIPMENTS: Sometimes magical items are more useful than uniques. Don't think Unique items are the "Top" items. In fact that's not the case. For NORMAL: Weapon: stick to your staff at the beginning until you find a better one. It is cheap, neat and nice. Helm: Use a Tarnhelm when you can gamble one in ACT 2. It gives a nice +1 to all skills. Otherwise go for something about + Mana/Steal Health. Amulet: Go for some +Mana/Steal Health/Fast Cast amulet. Boots: Fast walk? Treads of Cthon (unique) or Vidala's Fetlock (set)? Gloves: If you want to be RICH go for CHANCE GUARD (unique) or something that giv you extra gold found. Otherwise, go for something that gives you +Mana/Regen Mana/... Belt: LENYMO (unique) is a good one to gamble for. Otherwise use a belt with 12 storage and + Mana/Regen Mana Shield: If you hold a one-handed weapon then get a shield with high blocking rate. (Tower Shield?) Armour: get a Full Plate Armour with something Mana-related. For NIGHTMARE: look for the following items in you don't have it in NORMAL game: "+1 to sorceress skill" (i.e. Angelic)War Staff or "+2/3 to your favourite magic" War Staff LENYMO (unique belt) "Angelic" amulet of ... "Frostburn" (unique glove) Treads of Cthon (unique boots) OR Vidala's Fetlock (set boots) You should start to mix several FULL REJUVENATION POTION with 3 health potion + 3 mana potion + 1 gem (a cheap one will do) with your amazing HORADRIC CUBE!!! If possible gamble for GOLDSKIN (unique armour). Silk of the Vector (unique armour) isn't worth it in the game later. Stone of Jordan!!!! (unique ring) For HELL: "Archangel's" Rune Staff AND Spectral Shard (unique dagger) a RARE Mesh Belt that gives resistant to everything. Goldskin if you haven't got one yet. Forstburn if you haven't got one yet. "Archangel's" amulet of ... a perfect-diamond-gemmed Tower Shield. ANOTHER Jordon ring! (try to trade on battle.net. Someone will spare you one if you begged them...) It should be fine to finish the game with all these. To equip all this you have to have 80 in STRENGTH. The Dex. thing is just a joke for Sorceress... Patrick (Embros Lv 42 Europe Open) Back to Top | Well, since there isn't anyone really bothered to write any simple hints for the sorceress... let me try. I've been using the sorceress for a long time now... and I think it is one of the easiest single player character to use... Anyway, I've read quite some strategy guides, etc, with the suggestion of items, etc. They suggest so many items, you'd probably get confused and don't know what to choose... Here's a simple suggestion... (only applicable to high level sorcs... ie.: Level 55 above.) Use a gemmed (Perfect Skeleton) crown / grand crown. Use a 3 Perfect diamond gemmed Tower Shield. (Pavises are out the sorc's league). Use the Spectral Shard. ( it's incredibly powerful!) and keep the Culwen't Point as a backup. Use the Goldskin. (Silks of The Victor is for Nightmare and Normal). Get the Frostburn and forget about any other gloves for the rest of the game. Get 2 stones of Jordan. Beg, steal, gamble, trade, do whatever it takes to get them. When you hit level 67, do whatever it takes to get a +2 skills Amulet. Otherwise, use one which gives +1 skills, adds mana & or increase Cast rate. Use a Demonhide Sash. Imbue it, and hope for Fastest Hit Recovery, +life/mana, and +resistances. Use Battleboots (when you're strong enough to ditch Vidala's or Treads). Imbue them also. ( Hope for Fastest Hit Recovery, Fastest Walk/Run and the rest are similar with the sash.) For lower level Sorcs, use the best items you can find that you can use. (e.g, Culwen's Point(when enough Dex) other wise a good staff will do, Gemmed Crown, Socketed 3Diamond Tower Shield, Vidala's Fetlock, Eye of Etlich and Heavenly Garb.) For skill points, here's the simplest/least strategy involved investment. Really important skills : Warmth, Firewall, Blaze (low levels), Glacial Spike, Static Field, Energy Shield, Teleport, Fire Mastery, Cold Mastery. Max out Firewall & Glacial Spike Increase Warmth and Blaze to a fairly powerful level. A few points into E.Shield is good. (3 to 5) 1 point to Teleport. 2-4 points in both Cold & Fire Mastery Increase blaze to level6 in the early levels. Static Field.... add about 6 points. (this are just the base points. Once you get the right items, you'll get about +4 skill points to everything. Them you can dump skill points into whatever you like. I won't explain playing styles...they can be easily found in guides or developed as you play. But, the simplest will have to be Firewall + G.Spike. Works on all freezable enemies. Otherwise, Static Field + Teleport + G.Spike on stronger foes. Keep moving and you'll crush Diablo or whatever the hell there is. (except for the bloody Council....) Mizuno Ami (level 63 sorc). Back to Top | This is my Strategy for Sorceress in Act II (Normal). Leapers: Use Frost Nova (FN) when you fight against them in the Desert. It can push them back and slow them for a while. I've got Lv1 on FN and it work pretty well. If combined with Lightning or Chain Lightning (CL) it works better. Scarab Demon: They are tough and strong. Use FN then CL to kill them. You have to prepare several Mana and Health potions and some rejuvenation potions handy. Hit and run strategy will be a good idea for low level Sorceress. Greater Mummies: Since they can raise undead, it is a good idea to kill it first. However, you can always find that all these Skeleton and Zombies blocking your way. It seems obvious to use magic like Glacial Spike (GS) to break them then kill the Greater Mummy. There is one thing I've notice about this. If the emeny is frozen then broken (like GS) usually there will be no item or gold dropped behind after their death (death of the undead???) If you are those who want to collect items from monsters try not to use GS. My advice would be: use FN x5 then CL x alot. This may drain your mana very quickly but skeletons and Mummies tend to drop mana potions (in my game) so I don't think it will be a problem. Claw Vipers (and their Temple): Many of you may notice that Claw Vipers can be killed in one shot by CL. I only got Lv2 in CL and I can wipe out the Temple easily. There isn't many Greater Mummy or undead around so it should be quite easy to finish this quest. However, for the lightning enchanted Viper, I think it's best to use FN to slow it them use Static Field (SF) until it's Health is under 1/4. My Static field is Lv 5, just far enough to avoid those charged bolts and on the other hand, damaged it. CL would be a good idea to finish it, or GS can do the job neatly. (Unique and boss monster will drop items, for sure, no matter how they are killed) Arcane Sanctuary: There are loads of Vampires and Goatman in this area. DON'T get in until you are Lv 24 and have BLIZZARD (BD) handy!!! When you are there, keep using BD. Your Warmth skill should be able to recover your mana at a decent rate by now (my warmth is Lv7 and Blizzard Lv1) and Vampires tend to drop Mana potions (and rings). BD won't freeze enemy but can slow them when they are under the BD. you can cast several BD on the same spot because this skill can overlap each other, dealing more and more and more... damage. CL can be a nice finishing off magic. Summoner: There is no quick way to finish him off by using magic. Have your chilling armour on and have a Town Portal (TP) handy. you may got kill for a few times before you can kill him. Use BD and SF several times then run away. Come back if you gain full health. If you got killed get into the Sanctuary through the TP. You should be fine with that. Duriel: Due to the lag time, you may be killed as you enter the chamber. Make a TP and have your chilling armour ready. Although Duriel is cold resistence, under the BD it will STILL be SLOWED. Keep using BD and SF and you should be fine. (Have mana potions ready as it would be a long battle) Equipment: By the end of act 2 you should already have 2/3 unique items and several other rare items. Try to get a decent staff with +2/3 on your favourite magic (Mine was a +2 to CL and +2 to FN) At higher levels you may want to have a weapon that gives you + All Resistant / +1 to all skills. I have a Soul Harvest (Sycthe) which gives me +20 to all resistant. Patrick Back to Top | sorecersses use static field on all bosses, it takes all their points down, no matter where you are in game, rips apart diablo, killed him in ten hits, barely got hurt. and if you want to gamle and get uniques, attach manald ring and nagel ring, then you can get more uniques MarkerxBx Back to Top | i found you can get diablo to follow you up to the top of the map near where the single seal is, he wont go past the steps. this is good if you are a scorceress as you can dodge the lightning attacks and fireballs and kill him with hydras. it takes a bit of time in nightmare but i did it with lev 6 fire mastery and lev 6 hydra. the more hydras you can cast the better so mana potions can be helpfull to keep the heat on him. low numbers of hydras do little damage but 10-20 hydras and you can see his health drop:) bignose Back to Top | An easy way to kill Mephisto with a Sorceress: Requirements: Firewall (the higher the level the better) and Teleport Go to Mephisto and lure him to one of the rivers of lava. Teleport across it. Use a fire wall and run. He will stand in the fire wall. Go back and use it again. Repeat untill he's dead. Joni Back to Top | I have used a Barbarian and a Sourceress, two very different characters, and have had great success with both. I find that the key is to specialize in one or two things, if you spread your skills around too much you end up with a character who has alot of good looking spells and attacks,but they cannot scratch the hide of a fallen. My Sourceress is my main character now, so I will write up a few of the things I have found. Sourceress: Choose your main offensive spell right at the beginning. This will probably be fire ball, glaciel spike or chain lightning. I recommend fire ball, becuase fire mastery increases your spells damage. You will also have to pick a back up offensive spell from the same three, but you will only really start developing this after about level 32. The reason you have a back up spell is because of those monsters you will come up against with resistances. I rocommend glaciel spike, because cold mastery reduces monster resistance. Later on, you will also find that this combo of offensive spells will help alot with mosters that are risen. All you do is fire in a glaciel spike followed by a fire ball, and all that is left is some broken ice to raise. Now for the defenseive spell. Sourceress' are always running and firing from a distance, and the best spell to have on your right click is cold nova. This is used just as a slowing down technique, so you can turn and fire your fireball into the whole blue herd of unlucky monsters. The only need to upgrade this spell is to keep the cold time up from normal to nightmare to hell. These spells, and the right items, eg. fast run/walk boots, frostburn gloves, arch-angels amulet, stone of jordan, and a staff that adds to some of your important spells, aswell as items which add to your resistance. You will keep your didtance and dish out damage with out being touched. Xalah Back to Top | |
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