Help with low level sorc (lvl 23)

[adamkm]

Help with low level sorc (lvl 23)

Hi Guys

I played D2 about 3 years ago, got a barb to about 80 and quite. Playing again i have a javazon to 26 which i found incredibly strong solo.

Im now trying a blizzballer sorc (i dont have blizz just yet till 24 ofc). I have evenly distributed points into cold and fire trees with enough to get teleport and telekenesis.

Fireball is about level 7 and glacial spike is about 3-4 ? or so... It seems incredibly hard to kill end of act mobs, i struggled with the act 1 boss and i have to die about 10 times on act 2 boss to kill her. Im clearly doing somewthing wrong.

I use fireball, spike and teleport. (mage armour too cant remember name at moment)... i open with spike to freeze, a few fireballs, teleport, spike, fireball, teleport... and go on like that, but innevitably she will catch me and i die. Almost all my points are in Vitality, 10-15 or so in strength because i decided to use a shield and a 100% MF dagger since the staffs at this level are so apparently useless. My other gear is just +1 mana on kill and the usual crap that you'd expect 2x level 24 characters to have found by this stage (i have no twink gear, barb was deleted long ago).

so my question is, is this character really going to be shining later on when i get to use blizzard or am i going to be seriously struggling ? i expect if something doesnt change Nightmare is gonna be really stressful dying so much (never died other than act bosses) and hell will be impossible...

Also this is on /players 1 !! I must be doing something wrong ha.

Also i see people saying they use telekenesis to hold monsters in place.. how do you do that ? doesnt have an effect for me (its only level 1 though ??) cant even pick up shields with it.

Im a bit curious as to how i should be distributing my points early on too, i can only see end point distribution and most guides have not been updated since 1.10 or 1.11

Im on Patch 1.13

Thanks alot for reading, any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers !!

Adam

 

[Knarlfist]

Re: Help with low level sorc (lvl 23)

Diablo 2 is kinda different now than it used to be, especially after the introduction of 1 Re-Spec per act, and Tokens to re-set all of your stats/skills. It's not just for making a full change on the build of your end-game characters, it also changes the way many of us choose to level up. It's just a fact that some skills shine in the early levels (and in Norm Diff), and often times those skills suck in late NM and Hell, and other skills come into their own.

I know it doesn't seem intuitive to not level up/play/learn the build and skills you will be making the character into at higher levels, but for those awkward early stages it is much wiser and more fun to use a build temporarily that will let you power thru.

What I recommend is going to Act1 and shop Anya until you get a 2 socket staff with some nice extra mods on it (like maybe Firebolt, Warmth, Static, or a cold Armor). Build yourself a Leaf Runeword, use your first Act Re-Spec to re-set your skills, and go full Fire for now. Put in some Warmth, pump Fireball until it won't let you add any more points, and then put the rest in Firebolt. For stats, pump quite a bit of Energy... later on you will probably be using a Token and going with no Energy, but don't worry about that for now. The combo of Warmth Energy and the stat boost from Leaf, is gonna give you the ability to spam Fireball with it's nice splash dmg and the great chance it has to keep the mobs you hit in Hit Recovery so they stop advancing on you.

Don't forget to start making all the other cheapo runewords as well, that will help you become ultra strong for your level. Things like Stealth, Insight for your merc in the first 4os Polearm you can find, and perhaps a Lore helm if you get the extra runes. Eventually you will also want to find a 4 socket Broad Sword and make a Spirit Sword, at later levels you can adjust your Str to 156 and make a matching Spirit Monarch Shield. By then you might be high enough lvl to have access to the upper tiers of skills (especially Cold Mastery), and you can re-spec back into Blizzard and things will be much easier by then.

HTH.

 

[adamkm]

Re: Help with low level sorc (lvl 23)

Knarlfist thank you very much

I think i've probably made it 100 times harder for myself already. Excited that i saw the respec quest for the first time, i used it at about level 18 after i read up on sorc guides (was just gonna play it my own way) so followed a personal path to achieve an end game build i'd read... so now im pretty much stuck with this until nightmare act 1 ? Doh !!

Thanks for the heads up on the runes though, didnt realise the rune words went so low level !! thought keeping the 100% magic item was a good idea to find myself better stuff but the stats on the Leaf word look too good to miss. Shame i have probably more than half my talents in the Cold tree already.

Im guessing the telekenesis spell has to be higher level to be able to hold mosters ?

Thanks !

Adam

 

[Knarlfist]

Re: Help with low level sorc (lvl 23)

To be honest I don't know that many people that use Telekinesis to stun mobs... normally that is only done if you are a single Element sorc that needs merc to kill Immunes, and their merc just isn't geared/strong enough to survive long enough to effect that kill. Not that it can't be used that way, it's not very common :O

These days I start over so many characters, that getting to lvl20 is like a blink for me. If I were in your shoes, I would be tempted to just make another Sorceress and quickly do the Den of Evil and Save Cain. Then join some multiplayer "Trist" runs, you could be level 20 in an hour or 2. Then you can do both: make the changes to full Fire AND get that first re-spec back.

It's not do or die, but it's always nice to have all 3 re-specs as spare. I wouldn't call Tokens hard to obtain, but they definitely take some time to gather up... time you might rather wish to be actually playing.


p.s. The ladder runewords available these days are just sick. Double Spirit, Lore, Leaf, Stealth, later on maybe the sorc oriented Enlightenment... screw trying to find super rare uniques. If you do some gambling/trading and get an Amulet and Circlet with either +2 all skills or +3 to your main tree, you could be easily looking at +10 skills when combined with these easy to make runewords, and Insight on your merc will mean endless spamming, endless Teleporting ;-) It's insanely sweet.

 

[BKC]

Re: Help with low level sorc (lvl 23)

Hi m8 you can always replay the other tombs until you hit 24 or 25 and get some points in blizzard and static. Dont forget to buy a merc (it saves you a bit of time) and equip him with some items (the o key as in ooooooh) life leech and resists will help him a lot!

blizzard will deal a good deal of damage on that level (some call it OP even) so you should be fine for that part and static will just consume duriels health to about 50% (nice only half the ammount of HP to hack through ^^) start with a blizz static static static bliz, tele bliz tele, bliz tele he never can reach you...