Please help a poor man beat hell

[salvbot]

Please help a poor man beat hell

I've created several characters using guides from this and other sites, but I keep running into the same problem: I get stuck in Hell difficulty.

The two that I've had the most success with so far have been,

Fishymancer necro took me like 5 mins to kill a pack of mobs, even during NM baal I had enough time to leave the keyboard and begin cooking dinner while skels were beating on him. (SAFE, BUT WAY WAY TOO SLOW, BORED TO TEARS)

Frost Zealot pally just got to hell act 1, and I was stunned to find that I could not clear the den of evil (eventually got it after many returns to town for repair and pots). The zombies are cold immune and hit me for like 1/4th my life! I'm using lots of Crushing Blow, maxed Holy Freeze, Resist Cold, Zeal, starting in on Sacrifice / Salvation too, still this is like 1.2k per hit not counting crush damage. (EXCITING TO PLAY W/ NEAR DEATH EVERY 5 MINS, BUT I CANT KILL A GODDAMN THING IN HELL)

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Please help!!

I started checking around on the sorc threads here because I figured that if I wanted to kill things in hell difficulty, a sorc would be my best bet, with their awesome damage and whatnot.

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Primary Goal: to be able to beat Hell difficulty while solo (yes I could do this with either of my previous chars, but I'm hoping you have a better solution)

Secondary Goal: decent MF runner (it seems like most sorcs will be decent at this though, since I can wear crappy MF gear and still do okay damage). If possible, I would like to be able to TP through durance 2 while only checking the minimap, for fast running (I dont know if this factors into the build at all, but it seemed like a good idea).

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I have started recently and have almost no gear, I have a tal's amulet and a snowclash belt, maybe a few rares in the bank, but nothing great. I hope to MF run to equip this sorc and my other characters, but remember I still want to be able to beat hell difficulty! (doesnt this mean no single tree builds?)

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I've considered meteorb for its dual element + meteor has great damage

Also considering blizzard and ummm... meteor maybe?? i dont know if thats viable

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Also of note, I am a hardcore ladder character!


Thanks in advance for any advice,

HELP ME BEAT THE GAME!!! THANKS
D:

 

[sirpoopsalot]

Re: Please help a poor man beat hell

What level were your characters when you got to hell? Both the fishy & the frost-zealot should've been ok, as long as your level was reasonable (and your resists weren't horrible). Also, were you in full-player games or something, since your killspeed should've been tolerable too, I would think...


For a sorc capable of going solo, many will recommend Meteorb. (sidenote: Meteorb is a misnomer - it's primarily a fireball sorc with FrozenOrb backup - Meteor is almost an afterthought used only for boss-runs). Meterob is definitely a reasonable option, but...

... since you're playing hardcore & ladder, I'd sacrifice a little of the Meteorb's power for a somewhat safer option: CL/FO.

With Chain Lightning you'll have good crowd-control in 2 trees, where the Meteorb only really has 1 (Frozen Orb). The power isn't that different from a Meteorb once you start mixing in Lightning, but you'll definitely be much more mana-dependent. However, equip your mercenary with an Insight (it doesn't even need to be in an ethereal and/or elite polearm, you just want the aura - I have an Insight Halberd that my merc can use at level27, and I love it). With the Insight, you won't have significant mana problems.

 

[Bad Boy For Life]

Re: Please help a poor man beat hell

That frost Zealot is definitly able to beat Hell, mine did and i`m even able to safly mf-run mephisto and to some extend bale (take`s somewhat to long). I only have 2 fears, explosive dolls and oblivion knights. I also was flabbergated the first time i hit hell, two things that really help:
- Get you`re resists up it helps immensly (smoke runeword nef-lum is an easy solution for resists)
- Get an solution for cold immunes (weapons with massive psychical damage or massive elemental damage mine is an Azurewrath it`s cutting to cold imunnes as a hot knife through butter)

On a side note: lowering enemy`s cold resistance also helps (hint: voice of reason rune word )