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A few PVP Sorc Builds
I’d like to post for comments/criticisms on my variations of a few of the 1.10 Sorceress builds out there:
“Cookie Cutter†= ‘Diabloesq’ term overcopied builds, require no “skill†due to being overpowered.
THE ESHIELD / ORB PVP SORCERESS
Strengths:
Huge damage to those who don’t stack cold resists and/or absorb
No need to aim Frozen Orb, just teleport around and shoot
Huge resistance to physical and magical damage
Very strong vs. monsters, as long as damage isn’t from powerful elemental attacks or mana burn bosses
Weaknesses:
Dies quickly to open wounds and poison
0.5 second delay after casting Frozen orb before you can teleport again
Orb is completely ineffective to those who stack enough cold resists.
No attack for Cold Immune Monsters
Basic Stats & Skills
Frozen Orb: 20 pts
Cold Mastery: 20 pts
Ice Bolt: 1-20 pts (adds up to 40% cold damage)
Other Cold pre-reqs: 4 pts
Energy Shield: 0-20 pts
Telekinesis: 20 pts
Teleport: 1-20 pts (see discussion below)
Other Lightning pre-reqs: 3 pts
Warmth: 1-20 pts
Strength: Enough to hold all your equipment.
Dexterity: Base or enough for 75% blocking with your shield
Vitality: NONE (what do you think this is? a pvp character?)
Energy: Everything else.
Energy Shield: You might actually think you need skillpoints here, but you don’t. If you use a memory staff (+6 to +9 energy shield depending on the base # of eshield skills the staff has), then you can easily reach 70-74% energy shield without the three extra prerequsite skillpoints needed. High energy shield is still extremely useful for negating physical and pure magic damage, but only low eshield is needed for your most difficult duels, high damage elemental attackers.
Ice Bolt: Adds 2% to 40% to your % cold damage multiplier. This is multiplied to the % cold damage from equipment and facets, so it is generally useful if you don't wear any %cold damage gear, but almost worthless if you already wear a lot of % cold damage gear to begin with.
Increased Mana regeneration / Warmth decreases the time required to regenerate your mana pool from empty to full:
If you have 2500 mana or more, you will gain more mana per second by placing all extra skillpoints into Warmth, and leaving teleport at level 1 (and letting +skills increase it)
If you have less then 2500 mana, you will gain more mana per second by placing all extra skillpoints into Teleport until Teleport reaches level +24 (1 mana per cast), and then any extra points beyond that into warmth.
0% regen: 2 minutes
100% regen: 1 minute
200% regen: 40 seconds.
300% regen: 30 seconds.
400% regen: 24 seconds.
500% regen: 20 seconds.
Obviously with a mana pool twice the size, you'll regenerate twice as much mana per second. Since all characters have an base 100% mana regeneration, 300(400%) increased regen is twice as much as 100(200%), and 500(600%) is twice as much as 200(300%).
Equipment:
Equipment must achieve the following goals: 63% or 105% cast rate, +Cold Damage, +skills, FHR, +life, and +mana.
Sockets: 5/5 Cold facets
Charms: 10 coldskills + life/mana SCs. Skill charms do not provide much damage, but provide cold piercing, so if you don’t have extremely good skill + vita charms and can sacrifice a bit of cold piercing, extra life-mana charms may help.
Helm #1: Harlequin Crest (50 str req)
(+2 skills 1-148 life based on clvl, 1-148 mana based on clvl, 10% DR)
Helm #2: Nightwing's Veil (96 str req)
(+2 skills, 8-15% cold damage, 10-20 dex)
Amulet #1: Tal Rasha's Amulet (+2 sorc skills, +50 life, +42 mana, 33% lightning res)
Amulet #2: Rare/Crafted +2 Sorceress skills[/b]
(with possible mods of +stats, +cast rate +poison resists, +replenish life, +life, -DR, -MDR, +mana, +damage to mana)
Amulet #3: Mara's Amulet (+2 skills, +5 all stats, 20-30% all resists)
Weapon #1: Death's Fathom (+3 skills, 20% cast rate, 15-30% cold skill damage, fire/light resists)
Weapon #2: Any other +3 1h weapons (Heart of the Oak Flail, Oculus, Eschuca's Temper)
Alternate Weapon #1: Memory staff with a +3 Energy Shield Staff. (+9 energy shield buffing)
Alternate Weapon #2: Call to Arms with a +1 skills shield. (Battle Orders)
Shield #1: Whistan's Guard (87% blocking)
Shield #2: Lidless Wall (40% blocking, +1 skills, 10% max mana, 20% cast rate, +10 energy)
Shield #3: Sanctuary Runeword Tower (64% block, 20% FHR, +20 dex, 7 MDR, 50-70 all resists)
Armor #1: Ormus's Robes (10-15% cold damage, +3 warmth, 20% cast rate, Regen Mana 10-15%)
Armor #2: Vipermagi (+1 skills, 30% cast, MDR 9-13, 20-35% all resists)
Armor #3: Enigma (+2 skills, +0-74 strength, 5% max life, 8% DR, 15% damage to mana)
Gloves #1: Frostburn (40% mana boost)
Gloves #2: Magefist (20% cast rate - not recommended unless needed to reach 8 fps)
Gloves #3: Death Hand (50% poison resists, 75% Poison length Reduce)
Belt: Arachnid's Mesh (+1 skills, 5% max mana, 20% cast rate)
Boots #1: Silkweave (10% max mana) - Huge boost to your mana pool
Boots #2: Sandstorm Trek (91 Str Req, 20% FHR, 40-70% poison resists, +10-15 Str, +10-15 Vita)
THE ESHIELD / FIREBALL PVP SORCERESS
Strengths:
Huge damage per second output with Fireball
Strong PVM against non-fire immunes
Very difficult to resist, Hotspur, dwarf stars, guardian angels not often used.
Fire charms assist warmth, which improves mana regeneration.
Weaknesses:
Dies quickly to open wounds and poison
Difficult to aim, only random fireball bolts will often hit. Better when combined with multiple attacks.
Basic Stats & Skills
Warmth: 1 pt
Fireball: 20 pts
Firebolt: 20 pts
Hydra: 1-20 pts
Meteor: 1-20 pts
Fire Mastery: 20 pts (LAST skill to max)
Energy Shield: 0-1 pts (need skillpts for synergies)
Telekinesis: 20 pts
Teleport: 1 pt only
Strength: Enough to hold all your equipment.
Dexterity: Base or enough for 75% blocking with your shield
Vitality: NONE (what do you think this is? a pvp character?)
Energy: Everything else.
Meteor vs Hydra: Fireball damage is already huge, you really don’t need a ton of fireball damage to do well in PVP. Vs monsters, and especially Baal runs, meteor is extremely helpful, but if you want a variety of attacks, Hydra + Fireball is quite effective, if much more skill intensive.
Energy Shield: You might actually think you need skillpoints here, but you don’t. If you use a memory staff (+6 to +9 energy shield depending on the base # of eshield skills the staff has), then you can easily reach 70-74% energy shield without the three extra prerequsite skillpoints needed. Only put a skillpoint here if you want to use CTA on weapon switch instead of a Memory staff.
Equipment:
Equipment must achieve the following goals: 63% or 105% cast rate, +skills, FHR, +life, and +mana.
Sockets: Fire damage facets are worthless for fire sorceresses. Use Shael runes for FHR vs trappers, or Sur runes for the +mana boost.
Charms: 10 fireskills + life/mana SCs.
Helm #1: Harlequin Crest (50 str req)
(+2 skills 1-148 life based on clvl, 1-148 mana based on clvl, 10% DR)
Amulet #1: Tal Rasha's Amulet (+2 sorc skills, +50 life, +42 mana, 33% lightning res)
Amulet #2: Rare/Crafted +2 Sorceress skills[/b]
(with possible mods of +stats, +cast rate +poison resists, +replenish life, +life, -DR, -MDR, +mana, +damage to mana)
Amulet #3: Mara's Amulet (+2 skills, +5 all stats, 20-30% all resists)
Weapon #1: Heart of the Oak (+3 40% cast, 20 repl life, 10 dex, 15% max mana)
Weapon #2: Wizardspike (lower damage, 50% cast, huge mana boost + resists)
Alternate Weapon #1: Memory staff with a +3 Energy Shield Staff. (+9 energy shield buffing)
Alternate Weapon #2: Call to Arms with a +1 skills shield. (Battle Orders)
Shield #1: Whistan's Guard (87% blocking)
Shield #2: Lidless Wall (40% blocking, +1 skills, 10% max mana, 20% cast rate, +10 energy)
Shield #3: Sanctuary Runeword Tower (64% block, 20% FHR, +20 dex, 7 MDR, 50-70 all resists)
Armor #1: Vipermagi (+1 skills, 30% cast, MDR 9-13, 20-35% all resists)
Armor #2: Enigma (+2 skills, +0-74 strength, 5% max life, 8% DR, 15% damage to mana)
Gloves #1: Frostburn (40% mana boost)
Gloves #2: Magefist (20% cast rate, +1 fire skill damage)
Gloves #3: Death Hand (50% poison resists, 75% Poison length Reduce)
Belt: Arachnid's Mesh (+1 skills, 5% max mana, 20% cast rate)
Boots #1: Silkweave (10% max mana) - Huge boost to your mana pool
Boots #2: Sandstorm Trek (91 Str Req, 20% FHR, 40-70% poison resists, +10-15 Str, +10-15 Vita)
THE ENCHANT SORCERESS
Strengths: Enchant: 3000+ fire damage for new chars, 300% attack rating, 15-20 minute + duration
Weaknesses: Pure Support Character, difficult to level
Basic Stats & Skills
Warmth: 20 Pts
Enchant: 20 Pts
Fire Mastery: 20 Pts
Teleport: 1 pt
(I prefer to get a skillpoints in frozen orb for normal clearing assistance, but any other skills will work)
Strength: Enough to hold all your equipment.
Vitality: Everything else.
Helm: +3 Fire skills Circlet / Shako
Amulet: +3 fire skills magic amulet / any +2 skill amulet
Armor: +3 Enchant Ormus / +2 armor (COH, Enigma)
Weapon: +3 enchant +3 fire skills Staff (magic) / +3 orb with sigons/lidless
Gloves: Magefist
Rings: 2 sojs / 2 BK rings
Belt: Arachnid Mesh
Boots: Anything
Charms: 10 fireskill
Bottom charm row (and/or belt rows): 10 single TP scrolls
Leech Gear:
Level 2: +3 str large charms (for meeting str requirements without using stats)
Level 3: Hsaru's boots/belt (AR + 20% R/W)
Level 6: Death's Gloves/Belt (30 % IAS)
Level 12: 2 Angelic Rings + Angelic amulet (12 replenish, huge AR, +75 life)
Level 13: Cow King Boots (30% R/W, 20 dex)
Level 14: Raven Claw (Explosive shots)
Level 16: Twitchthroe (20% ias, FHR, +10 str and +10 Dex)
Level 20: Sanders’ Boots (40% R/W, 100 AR, +5 str, +10 dex)
Here's the fastest way to get leveled up in my opinion:
1) Get rushed to act 5 normal, get all the act 1 wps, and act 2 canyon of the oasis
2) Find a 5-8 player game in normal where people aren't leaving the game immediately. Act 2 "quest" games work well for me
3) Get enchanted, have your enchant sorc leave the game (should last 15-20 mins)
4) Stay in Act 1 till about level 12-13, and kill boss monsters whenever possible.
Keep your character level within +- 5 levels of the area levels listed here.
Blood Moor: 1
Cold Plaines: 2
Stony Field: 4
Dark Wood: 5
Black Marsh: 6
Tamoe Highland: 8
Jail: 10
Catacombs: 11-12
For example, don't go to the cold plains after level 7 or so, but also don't go to the tamoe highland before you are at least level 3-4, besides the obvious difficulty of killing faster more dangerous targets.
5) Once around level 12-14, or so, clear the entire Canyon of the Oasis area and all the tombs until you reach level 20. Especially after getting an explosive bow, you'll level up here very fast.
6) At level 20 do normal ancients.
7) For levels 21 on, do normal cow games by yourself with enchant. You can level in one normal cow game (with 4 people in the game) from level 21-25 in about 3 minutes, and get maybe 2-3 levels per game afterwords till it starts slowing down in experience. If people are in the cow level partied with you and leeching (since they can't usually kill, you get usually 1/2 or 1/3rd the experience)
Or if you can find a good normal baal run series, after level 25-26 or so do normal baal runs up to level 40, immediately stop normal, get rushed to nm, and do nm baal runs from 40-60 (you can do nm baal runs up to 71-72 or so if you don't find excellent hell baal runs)
Final Notes:
I’m often asked for the most powerful “PVM†or monster slaying sorceress build. There are several variations that come close, but my current favorite is a paladin build:
http://strategy.diabloii.net/news.php?id=515
“You have ….. wrong!†Don’t blame me, I wrote this up in about 2 hours late Saturday night in response to a former 1.09 friend asking me about the changes in 1.10 sorceresses.
“Why no lightning sorceresses?†Check the Strategy Compredium. Note the current number of PVP sorc guides (0), and then note how many of the PVM guides deal with the Lightning tree (5/5)
Besides, lightning sorceresses are not cookie cutter, and second, Soepgroente already did a very decent job here:
http://strategy.diabloii.net/news.php?id=563
Of course he forgot about memory staves with 1 pt eshield, which in my opinion gives you a much more well-rounded sorceress then either of the two builds he mentioned, and he forgot that the 115% fcr bug was one of the few bugs actually fixed in 1.10, but I’ll forgive him for that
EDIT: Note I used the "RUSH" terminology here. Rushing in my opinion is only useful for building pure PVP characters or rebuilding a ruined character to get slighly better stats in certain areas. Never rush a non-PVP character, it will ruin your enjoyment of the game and you'll never gain the proper appreciation of how to use that character properly.
I’d like to post for comments/criticisms on my variations of a few of the 1.10 Sorceress builds out there:
“Cookie Cutter†= ‘Diabloesq’ term overcopied builds, require no “skill†due to being overpowered.
THE ESHIELD / ORB PVP SORCERESS
Strengths:
Huge damage to those who don’t stack cold resists and/or absorb
No need to aim Frozen Orb, just teleport around and shoot
Huge resistance to physical and magical damage
Very strong vs. monsters, as long as damage isn’t from powerful elemental attacks or mana burn bosses
Weaknesses:
Dies quickly to open wounds and poison
0.5 second delay after casting Frozen orb before you can teleport again
Orb is completely ineffective to those who stack enough cold resists.
No attack for Cold Immune Monsters
Basic Stats & Skills
Frozen Orb: 20 pts
Cold Mastery: 20 pts
Ice Bolt: 1-20 pts (adds up to 40% cold damage)
Other Cold pre-reqs: 4 pts
Energy Shield: 0-20 pts
Telekinesis: 20 pts
Teleport: 1-20 pts (see discussion below)
Other Lightning pre-reqs: 3 pts
Warmth: 1-20 pts
Strength: Enough to hold all your equipment.
Dexterity: Base or enough for 75% blocking with your shield
Vitality: NONE (what do you think this is? a pvp character?)
Energy: Everything else.
Energy Shield: You might actually think you need skillpoints here, but you don’t. If you use a memory staff (+6 to +9 energy shield depending on the base # of eshield skills the staff has), then you can easily reach 70-74% energy shield without the three extra prerequsite skillpoints needed. High energy shield is still extremely useful for negating physical and pure magic damage, but only low eshield is needed for your most difficult duels, high damage elemental attackers.
Ice Bolt: Adds 2% to 40% to your % cold damage multiplier. This is multiplied to the % cold damage from equipment and facets, so it is generally useful if you don't wear any %cold damage gear, but almost worthless if you already wear a lot of % cold damage gear to begin with.
Increased Mana regeneration / Warmth decreases the time required to regenerate your mana pool from empty to full:
If you have 2500 mana or more, you will gain more mana per second by placing all extra skillpoints into Warmth, and leaving teleport at level 1 (and letting +skills increase it)
If you have less then 2500 mana, you will gain more mana per second by placing all extra skillpoints into Teleport until Teleport reaches level +24 (1 mana per cast), and then any extra points beyond that into warmth.
0% regen: 2 minutes
100% regen: 1 minute
200% regen: 40 seconds.
300% regen: 30 seconds.
400% regen: 24 seconds.
500% regen: 20 seconds.
Obviously with a mana pool twice the size, you'll regenerate twice as much mana per second. Since all characters have an base 100% mana regeneration, 300(400%) increased regen is twice as much as 100(200%), and 500(600%) is twice as much as 200(300%).
Equipment:
Equipment must achieve the following goals: 63% or 105% cast rate, +Cold Damage, +skills, FHR, +life, and +mana.
Sockets: 5/5 Cold facets
Charms: 10 coldskills + life/mana SCs. Skill charms do not provide much damage, but provide cold piercing, so if you don’t have extremely good skill + vita charms and can sacrifice a bit of cold piercing, extra life-mana charms may help.
Helm #1: Harlequin Crest (50 str req)
(+2 skills 1-148 life based on clvl, 1-148 mana based on clvl, 10% DR)
Helm #2: Nightwing's Veil (96 str req)
(+2 skills, 8-15% cold damage, 10-20 dex)
Amulet #1: Tal Rasha's Amulet (+2 sorc skills, +50 life, +42 mana, 33% lightning res)
Amulet #2: Rare/Crafted +2 Sorceress skills[/b]
(with possible mods of +stats, +cast rate +poison resists, +replenish life, +life, -DR, -MDR, +mana, +damage to mana)
Amulet #3: Mara's Amulet (+2 skills, +5 all stats, 20-30% all resists)
Weapon #1: Death's Fathom (+3 skills, 20% cast rate, 15-30% cold skill damage, fire/light resists)
Weapon #2: Any other +3 1h weapons (Heart of the Oak Flail, Oculus, Eschuca's Temper)
Alternate Weapon #1: Memory staff with a +3 Energy Shield Staff. (+9 energy shield buffing)
Alternate Weapon #2: Call to Arms with a +1 skills shield. (Battle Orders)
Shield #1: Whistan's Guard (87% blocking)
Shield #2: Lidless Wall (40% blocking, +1 skills, 10% max mana, 20% cast rate, +10 energy)
Shield #3: Sanctuary Runeword Tower (64% block, 20% FHR, +20 dex, 7 MDR, 50-70 all resists)
Armor #1: Ormus's Robes (10-15% cold damage, +3 warmth, 20% cast rate, Regen Mana 10-15%)
Armor #2: Vipermagi (+1 skills, 30% cast, MDR 9-13, 20-35% all resists)
Armor #3: Enigma (+2 skills, +0-74 strength, 5% max life, 8% DR, 15% damage to mana)
Gloves #1: Frostburn (40% mana boost)
Gloves #2: Magefist (20% cast rate - not recommended unless needed to reach 8 fps)
Gloves #3: Death Hand (50% poison resists, 75% Poison length Reduce)
Belt: Arachnid's Mesh (+1 skills, 5% max mana, 20% cast rate)
Boots #1: Silkweave (10% max mana) - Huge boost to your mana pool
Boots #2: Sandstorm Trek (91 Str Req, 20% FHR, 40-70% poison resists, +10-15 Str, +10-15 Vita)
THE ESHIELD / FIREBALL PVP SORCERESS
Strengths:
Huge damage per second output with Fireball
Strong PVM against non-fire immunes
Very difficult to resist, Hotspur, dwarf stars, guardian angels not often used.
Fire charms assist warmth, which improves mana regeneration.
Weaknesses:
Dies quickly to open wounds and poison
Difficult to aim, only random fireball bolts will often hit. Better when combined with multiple attacks.
Basic Stats & Skills
Warmth: 1 pt
Fireball: 20 pts
Firebolt: 20 pts
Hydra: 1-20 pts
Meteor: 1-20 pts
Fire Mastery: 20 pts (LAST skill to max)
Energy Shield: 0-1 pts (need skillpts for synergies)
Telekinesis: 20 pts
Teleport: 1 pt only
Strength: Enough to hold all your equipment.
Dexterity: Base or enough for 75% blocking with your shield
Vitality: NONE (what do you think this is? a pvp character?)
Energy: Everything else.
Meteor vs Hydra: Fireball damage is already huge, you really don’t need a ton of fireball damage to do well in PVP. Vs monsters, and especially Baal runs, meteor is extremely helpful, but if you want a variety of attacks, Hydra + Fireball is quite effective, if much more skill intensive.
Energy Shield: You might actually think you need skillpoints here, but you don’t. If you use a memory staff (+6 to +9 energy shield depending on the base # of eshield skills the staff has), then you can easily reach 70-74% energy shield without the three extra prerequsite skillpoints needed. Only put a skillpoint here if you want to use CTA on weapon switch instead of a Memory staff.
Equipment:
Equipment must achieve the following goals: 63% or 105% cast rate, +skills, FHR, +life, and +mana.
Sockets: Fire damage facets are worthless for fire sorceresses. Use Shael runes for FHR vs trappers, or Sur runes for the +mana boost.
Charms: 10 fireskills + life/mana SCs.
Helm #1: Harlequin Crest (50 str req)
(+2 skills 1-148 life based on clvl, 1-148 mana based on clvl, 10% DR)
Amulet #1: Tal Rasha's Amulet (+2 sorc skills, +50 life, +42 mana, 33% lightning res)
Amulet #2: Rare/Crafted +2 Sorceress skills[/b]
(with possible mods of +stats, +cast rate +poison resists, +replenish life, +life, -DR, -MDR, +mana, +damage to mana)
Amulet #3: Mara's Amulet (+2 skills, +5 all stats, 20-30% all resists)
Weapon #1: Heart of the Oak (+3 40% cast, 20 repl life, 10 dex, 15% max mana)
Weapon #2: Wizardspike (lower damage, 50% cast, huge mana boost + resists)
Alternate Weapon #1: Memory staff with a +3 Energy Shield Staff. (+9 energy shield buffing)
Alternate Weapon #2: Call to Arms with a +1 skills shield. (Battle Orders)
Shield #1: Whistan's Guard (87% blocking)
Shield #2: Lidless Wall (40% blocking, +1 skills, 10% max mana, 20% cast rate, +10 energy)
Shield #3: Sanctuary Runeword Tower (64% block, 20% FHR, +20 dex, 7 MDR, 50-70 all resists)
Armor #1: Vipermagi (+1 skills, 30% cast, MDR 9-13, 20-35% all resists)
Armor #2: Enigma (+2 skills, +0-74 strength, 5% max life, 8% DR, 15% damage to mana)
Gloves #1: Frostburn (40% mana boost)
Gloves #2: Magefist (20% cast rate, +1 fire skill damage)
Gloves #3: Death Hand (50% poison resists, 75% Poison length Reduce)
Belt: Arachnid's Mesh (+1 skills, 5% max mana, 20% cast rate)
Boots #1: Silkweave (10% max mana) - Huge boost to your mana pool
Boots #2: Sandstorm Trek (91 Str Req, 20% FHR, 40-70% poison resists, +10-15 Str, +10-15 Vita)
THE ENCHANT SORCERESS
Strengths: Enchant: 3000+ fire damage for new chars, 300% attack rating, 15-20 minute + duration
Weaknesses: Pure Support Character, difficult to level
Basic Stats & Skills
Warmth: 20 Pts
Enchant: 20 Pts
Fire Mastery: 20 Pts
Teleport: 1 pt
(I prefer to get a skillpoints in frozen orb for normal clearing assistance, but any other skills will work)
Strength: Enough to hold all your equipment.
Vitality: Everything else.
Helm: +3 Fire skills Circlet / Shako
Amulet: +3 fire skills magic amulet / any +2 skill amulet
Armor: +3 Enchant Ormus / +2 armor (COH, Enigma)
Weapon: +3 enchant +3 fire skills Staff (magic) / +3 orb with sigons/lidless
Gloves: Magefist
Rings: 2 sojs / 2 BK rings
Belt: Arachnid Mesh
Boots: Anything
Charms: 10 fireskill
Bottom charm row (and/or belt rows): 10 single TP scrolls
Leech Gear:
Level 2: +3 str large charms (for meeting str requirements without using stats)
Level 3: Hsaru's boots/belt (AR + 20% R/W)
Level 6: Death's Gloves/Belt (30 % IAS)
Level 12: 2 Angelic Rings + Angelic amulet (12 replenish, huge AR, +75 life)
Level 13: Cow King Boots (30% R/W, 20 dex)
Level 14: Raven Claw (Explosive shots)
Level 16: Twitchthroe (20% ias, FHR, +10 str and +10 Dex)
Level 20: Sanders’ Boots (40% R/W, 100 AR, +5 str, +10 dex)
Here's the fastest way to get leveled up in my opinion:
1) Get rushed to act 5 normal, get all the act 1 wps, and act 2 canyon of the oasis
2) Find a 5-8 player game in normal where people aren't leaving the game immediately. Act 2 "quest" games work well for me
3) Get enchanted, have your enchant sorc leave the game (should last 15-20 mins)
4) Stay in Act 1 till about level 12-13, and kill boss monsters whenever possible.
Keep your character level within +- 5 levels of the area levels listed here.
Blood Moor: 1
Cold Plaines: 2
Stony Field: 4
Dark Wood: 5
Black Marsh: 6
Tamoe Highland: 8
Jail: 10
Catacombs: 11-12
For example, don't go to the cold plains after level 7 or so, but also don't go to the tamoe highland before you are at least level 3-4, besides the obvious difficulty of killing faster more dangerous targets.
5) Once around level 12-14, or so, clear the entire Canyon of the Oasis area and all the tombs until you reach level 20. Especially after getting an explosive bow, you'll level up here very fast.
6) At level 20 do normal ancients.
7) For levels 21 on, do normal cow games by yourself with enchant. You can level in one normal cow game (with 4 people in the game) from level 21-25 in about 3 minutes, and get maybe 2-3 levels per game afterwords till it starts slowing down in experience. If people are in the cow level partied with you and leeching (since they can't usually kill, you get usually 1/2 or 1/3rd the experience)
Or if you can find a good normal baal run series, after level 25-26 or so do normal baal runs up to level 40, immediately stop normal, get rushed to nm, and do nm baal runs from 40-60 (you can do nm baal runs up to 71-72 or so if you don't find excellent hell baal runs)
Final Notes:
I’m often asked for the most powerful “PVM†or monster slaying sorceress build. There are several variations that come close, but my current favorite is a paladin build:
http://strategy.diabloii.net/news.php?id=515
“You have ….. wrong!†Don’t blame me, I wrote this up in about 2 hours late Saturday night in response to a former 1.09 friend asking me about the changes in 1.10 sorceresses.
“Why no lightning sorceresses?†Check the Strategy Compredium. Note the current number of PVP sorc guides (0), and then note how many of the PVM guides deal with the Lightning tree (5/5)
Besides, lightning sorceresses are not cookie cutter, and second, Soepgroente already did a very decent job here:
http://strategy.diabloii.net/news.php?id=563
Of course he forgot about memory staves with 1 pt eshield, which in my opinion gives you a much more well-rounded sorceress then either of the two builds he mentioned, and he forgot that the 115% fcr bug was one of the few bugs actually fixed in 1.10, but I’ll forgive him for that
EDIT: Note I used the "RUSH" terminology here. Rushing in my opinion is only useful for building pure PVP characters or rebuilding a ruined character to get slighly better stats in certain areas. Never rush a non-PVP character, it will ruin your enjoyment of the game and you'll never gain the proper appreciation of how to use that character properly.