Most survivable MFer in hell?

Most survivable MFer in hell?

Hey guys. I'm tired of being slaughtered in hell while trying to magic find. Could anyone reccomend to me the most survivable (yet still efficiant, or whats the point) mf character/build? I could really use some advice here!

 

Summon Necromancer can have quite a bit MF and still survive. I recommend this build:

http://strategy.diabloii.net/news.php?id=509

It's one of my favorite builds. With maxed corpse explosion he can clear the pit in no time.

If you go the sorceress route make sure you make a good balance between MF and survivability. I recommend Tal's Set if you can afford it (that's what my MF sorc is using, and she does everything Andy, Meph, Pit, Ancient Tunnels with little problems).

 

Hammerdins!

Not the most MF for a character, but besides my summon nec...I think my hammer with his mercy can take out the best demons Hell has to offer :thumbsup:

 

Meteorb with max block can do most runs, but not the fastest boss-killer:
http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=254070

(Cheap) Equipment:
Ptopazed shako
wealth or skullders (tals armor)
(isted) Occulus
2*nagel
chance guards
war travs
rhyme grim shield (shael+eth)
tals belt or upd goldwrap
tals amu or MF amu
(mf charms/gheeds)

(2*tals for killing speed)
(or 3*tals for additional killing speed, sacrificing some MF)

You'll want plenty of +life charms for this one as most stats go to dex.

Countess-runs
andys (for str as you'll have used most stats on dex for blocking)
spirit shield
magefist (upd)
war travs (again for +str)
vipermagi (for fcr and +skill)
ravenfrost (dex and cannot be frozen)
soj
occulus or better
=8 fps
3*tal and 35fcr spirit will also get you the 8 fps (105 fcr)


act 2 merc-holy freeze
insight (eth col voulge, cryptic axe.. )
andys/gaze/Ptopazed shako/stealskull Ptopazed
stone or MF armor if str reqs allow

It's probably not the best but great fun, cheap and versatile!

Was hoping I'd managed to write this before somebody mentioned hammers and skellies. Darn

 

Hammerdin:

Equip:

Shako 'pt'
Enigma
Gheeds 40

Merc:

3 isted Tomb reaver
Shako 'pt'
Stone armor.

Maybe not the most mf, but decent enough to have more chance of finding better items.

 

i tend to make char to run one target and not general MF since i play SP i use the following


hammerdin - Very surivible finds it easy to get lots of res with pala shilds

LFzon - pindle runner this char found compleating the game a little hard but since then she has become a realy good pindle runner

Lit sorc - countess runner has not died much telewalking as the fastest BP make her hard to hit on the way down.

IKWW barb - i use him for pit/thresh he survives like hell with about 200% mf he get some nice drops

Less survivable chars

Windwalker - i am trying to make it into a baal runner with limited success

Frenzy barb - want to make him a thresh runner but his life is a little low

that the sum up of me and my MFing chars

SR

 

I would also recommend you pick a particular type of magic finding runs.

If you intend to do:

- Mephy/Andariel runs, I'd recommend a Frozen Orb/Meteor sorc outfitted as described earlier.

- Pit/Ancient Tunnel runs, I'd recommend any good pvmer, bone necros work well, perhaps a frenzy barb. You don't need MF on this character so go nuts here.

- Pindle runs, I'd recommend a Holy Bolt/Sanctuary paladin. You can get pretty decent MF on this character and running pindle is cake. Not a very versatile build, but a fun character to play, nevertheless.

- Baal runs, I'd recommend a hammerdin with Enigma. With good killing gear you can still easily pull 300MF on character equipment and with good charms and a merc you can easily pull 500MF+ on the killing blow for baal.

 

I think summoners have the hands down edge on survivability. All they have to worry about is resists and health. Beyond that initial barrage of elemental attacks, curses and skellies will take care of any threat leaving plenty of room for MF gear. They lose the advantage of being able to get a huge MF boost from their mercs since the skellies are most likely to land the killing blow, so maybe not the best option for quick boss runs if you can't get a summoner's MF to 450+ Also, I've never seen any build knock down hell cows like a summoner.

Hammerdins have impressive gear and defensive options and make great boss/superunique killers if you have Enigma. Without enigma, the skelliemancer still beats them out for survivability vs. hordes of enemies and skelliemancers are greatly enhanced by enigma as well.

Sorcs I would reserve for preenigma normal/nightmare/Hell Andariel runs, but really don't kill very fast in later Hell without the kind of godly gear that frequently comes at the expense of MF. Their primary advantage is lots of nice MF gear and the innate ability to teleport.

Barbs, I have less experience with. They can get collossal amounts of life and a ton of MF gear, but they're obviously lousy for any run that runs a high risk of running into Oblivion Nights so that rules out Diablo and Baal Runs and they also have a lot of trouble with those exploding bone fetish things, which rules out Meph runs unless you're content to howl constantly which would slow you down big time. They're also not so hot against hordes of skeletons so certain parts of Act I, II, and V will be pretty undesirable for Barb runs.

IMO, everybody's first MFer should be a skelliemancer. For socketable searching, go Poison/Skelliemancer. After running around in circles for like 5 minutes with a meteorber just to kill one herd of cows I was shocked and amazed to see how fast those cows dropped with my poiskello. Just a couple seconds to that first corpse explode and the battle is over in the fraction of a second it takes to cast another one.

 

If you're good at playing sorceresses, make one for running Hell Andariel and Hell Mephisto if you can pull it. Especially if you're low on the essential uniques that you need. You probably get the best variety of stuff from Hell Mephisto, and the gold you get can be put into gambling on circlets or amulets. Pretty decent MF gear can be bought with just Pgems so toss some together and do some runs.

If you are looking to increase your wealth, a skellymancer would be a good choice, especially for pits and cows. I hear corpse explosion works wonders in the cow level. If you already have the basic gear and are looking for socketables, etc then go this route.

If you're rich make a hammerdin with enigma. If you can't afford enigma wait on this one.

 

Great info guys. I am currently torn between a trap assassin, a hammerdin, and a summon necro (all 3 are in their 30's). All of them are a blast to play. And I am not twinked what so ever (those are my highest characters on the ladder).

My point is that I still havent decided yet, and thanks again for the great information!

 

If you're not rich yet, the Sorceress is definitely the fastest way to improve your condition. MF Sorc (Meteorb) are way cheaper to equip than all the other chars.

Good luck

 

i am big fan of the sorc and i can say summoner is by FAR the best character to servive anywhere, the summonss draw fire leaving you to free to equip res or mf gear or whatever yyou need to servive.

but the full blizzard sorc running meph is maybe the best way to get items to start with but enless you know your doing thay are harder to servive with. just keep eye open for dolls and fana partys of monsters

 

Hm...
This topic attracted my attention... I am so bored of my hammer mfer. Hes got eni ,hoto etc and can survive almost everywhere but hammers are getting me bored
What would you suggest as an alternative?
Maybee a Windy? Or would the skeliemancer have less survival problems?
And if u suggest a necro, can a Summoner/CE nec handle 8ppl games? and especially cows, can he get em down fast enough in big games?

Btw. is there a big difference in the cows drops between solo-8ppl games?

Thx, Kert :uhhuh:

 

I'm doing a lot of cow runs lately, sometimes solo, sometimes in 8 player games, and I must say, cows drop more in 8 player games. (Not exactly better, but more. more gold, more white items, you name it.)

/Col.Kurtz

 

My first ladder char is always a Meteorb Sorc (a good low level set combo for MF is partial Arctic and Partial Tancreds giving close to 200%mf and because the def of partial Arctic scales as you level my Sorc was wearing it until she scored a Tal armour), but after thousands of Pit and Pindle runs, and around 840% MF, she is in serious danger of retirement now. I play on Asia where items like Enoobma cost an absolute fortune (1 Ber rune is around 25 Ist), so any build that relies on that is out of the question.

So I made a Trapsin recently, just for something different. I have a few loaned items and these probably make a lot of difference (my fade resists aren't so good with the +2 Dancers, and they suck without them but I never really have a problem, if I didn't have those trap GCs tho I'd be in trouble) but I run Baal with her. Gloams are never a problem because despite all advice to the contrary I have a near maxed Fireblast which takes out LI's in 3-4 shots. She isn't particularly strong, with only 8k traps in her best gears, but she does her job admirably. I (obviously...without Enoobma) don't tele but clear my way to the throne, sometimes clearing all three levels before I get there. The only real problem I have is when Lister spawns Fire/Light immune but Mindblast and my Holy Freeze merc takes care of that. After Lister is dead I swap out Mara and Shadow Dancers for my godly eth 49wt and a 35% +2 traps ammy and wipe out Baal. Sometimes he can take awhile because he doesn't seem to like my asn and goes crazy with all the tentacles (diverts traps) and mana burn (can't cast) and constantly casts his clone (more trap diversion and extra mana burn grrr). I have found more uniques and set pieces in just a couple of weeks from doing this than I have from Pindle and Pits in months.

My Trapsin wears pTopaz Shako, 22% Nagel (too lazy to xfer 30% lol), 35%/+2 Traps ammy, eth 49%wt, 37% Gheeds and 2-3 6% mfsc (again too lazy to xfer the 7's) and 26% Chance Guards (I really should do an mf transfer...) so that's around 255%mf.

 

Well it all depends on what gear you can give to your MFer. I personally vote for the good ol' meteorb :thumbsup:. Mine is able to Baalrun solo in a 8-players game without any problem (or whatever place she wants), but then again she has all high-end stuff. A cheaper alternative would be a summoner necro (very fun character to play with CE, I really like this one), or a hammerdin (I once tried one, but spamming hammers is definitely not my playstyle).

 

+mf is second to kill speed. All in all it's better to have a char with only 200 or so mf (wealth, Ptopaz stealskull or shako, upped goldwrap, maybe a decent nagel, rhyme or chance guards) who kills everything quickly, doubly so for boss runs. After 100 the increase starts to slow anyway, by the time you've got 600 you've only got 400 or so. It's not items/monster that counts, it's items/unit of time.