Diablo II single player questions

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I agree with dmc on all points.

From a pure survivability factor, the necro rules supreme. Once you have your army up and running, you're basically invincible, because in order for you to die, you have to be hit, and in order to be hit, they have to get through your army. Since a necro can go all-out in terms of magic find, they are among the best magic finders in the game.

Regarding the dex/vit debate, I also agree. That's why I said if you don't already have gear that will allow you to go the max block route, that it's easier to go with max life, as max life is not gear-dependent.

Finally, dmc and I show that there's no "correct" choice when it comes to the debate - both of us had sorceresses, he went max block, I went max life, and we both were able to finish hell difficulty without too much trouble.

 

My experiences with a max block sorceress were a bit different. Granted, the items I used weren't as good and my play style is more aggressive, but I think going for max block also means you should also get your block recovery rate up.
Staff enchantments today seem to be pointing towards tri-elemental mastery, no? Though apparently they're still not working as well as the devs planned.
From experience, globes with +lightning only seem hard to find when you're actually looking for them.

 

That's usually the case :-)

I can agree with both the max block and max life route, although to me, it looks like it's a question of playing style and personal prefference. I could go with the max block route, but it would depend on my build. If I, for example, would build a Nova sorceress I would be closer to all the critters and max block could be a good choice.

For now, I'm sticking to the max life route. I haven't had the chance to play yesterday and today won't be different. Maybe tomorrow.

 

I have not noticed this, and there is nothing in the game code for drop mechanics that would indicate this should happen. In determining what spells you get with a staff (or any item that gives bonuses to specific skills, regardless of whether it's a staff, orb, necro head, scepter, etc), there's nothing in the game code that makes one skill tree be chosen preferentially over the other. For example, if the game decides to drop a staff with three different bonuses to specific skills, and the first mod it selects is from the fire tree, it doesn't make the second or third skills selected more or less likely to come from the fire tree.

In fact, AFAIK, the only limitations you'll see with specifc spells on staff drops are based on the level of the monster dropping the item. You'll never have a monster in Act I Normal drop an item with a spell that would require you to be level 18, 24, or 30 to normally cast. Similarly, by the time you get to Hell difficulty, you would be unlikely to get an item that gave a bonus to a level 1 skill.

With the advent of synergies, tri-elementalism went the way of the dodo (it was the way to build a sorceress before that). The same patch that introduced synergies (I think it was 1.09, but not entirely sure) also greatly increased the life total of all the monsters in the game, and unsynergized spells lacked the power to kill stuff on hell difficulty. A lot of my game knowledge comes from my many trips to the diabloii.net forums (I think it's now diabloiii.net, and you can select diabloii fromt he drop down box), and builds featuring tri-elemental sorceresses are simply not used anymore. If you don't synergize your spells, instead of getting a character that is good at everything, you'll get a character that is good at nothing.

No matter what character you play, you can really only hope to maximize four different skills. (Technically, it's possible to maximize five skills, but it would require reaching an extremely high level, and some of the skills not having (m)any prerequisites.) To sorceresses advancing to level 80ish, the only real decision is whether you want to max out two skills in two different trees, or (more commonly) max out three spells in one tree, and a single spell in the other tree. The former method gives you two decently powerful attacks, while the latter gives you one very powerful attack, and a functional backup attack.

EDIT:

True - but you do want a single point in Nova. It's a boss killer. You run up to the boss, spam Nova like crazy, and then get the hell out of dodge while chugging a full rejuvenation potion.

 

I have and I do use it, but it's only effective with a high FCR. This applies for the whole sorceress build, but especially for low point skills to be usefull in my opinion.

 

I agree with that too, but Nova is unique in regards to skills that you invest just a single point in. It's just as effective in terms of damage output at level 1 as it is at level 30. The only thing more points do is increase the area of effect. And while a one-point Nova requires you to get a heck of a lot closer to a boss than you'd like, the risk is usually worth it, even if it means you die in an effort to accomplish your goal (which is certainly possible even if you have fcr gear).

 

Well, dying is no stranger to my sorceress, so that's not an issue perse

I'll testrun Nova against Andariel when I can, just to look how it reacts.

 

Yes - Static Field!!!

 

Oh damn, you're right

The discussion began about Nova though, but I knew what Aldeth meant.

Sorry for the mix-up

 

I meant for the unique staves. Some of them grant +% damage or -% resistance to all elements, or a +3 to each elemental mastery on top of a +x to all skills, or add a +x to skills from each of the different trees.
Maybe they were just designed like this so they work with any sorc type, but this would make them wholly inferior to orbs (which are much more specialized). Somehow it doesn't make sense for Blizzard to make a whole item class that is inferior to another.

 

Actaully, I think you are exactly correct - many unique staves have all three elemental properties so they can be used by any type of sorceress. The only point of disagreement I have is your comparison to orbs. By far the two most popular orbs in D2 are the Oculus and the orb from Tal Rasha's set, both of which gives bonuses to all three trees.

 

Dual weilding Ali Baba's is a tried and true barbarian MF tactic. The damage output of the weapons is poor, however, so you usually just keep them on switch, and take the boss down to a sliver of life before switching. For best results, you're right, you'll have to insert runes in the sockets, and the rune is a fairly pricey one - Ist.

Most barbs only use the Ali Baba's on boss fights though, when you won't be using find item anyway, and when you can still be under the effects of a boosted BC/BO/Shout from the echoing weapons. The normal tactic is to keep the Ali Babas in your stash, and return to town just before you fight the boss. Cast BC/BO/Shout with your echoing weapons right before you switch to Ali Baba's. One BC/BO/Shout is cast, you'll retain the +6 bonus from the echoing weapons until the duration runs out, and most bosses can be dispatched before that happens (at high levels the duration is several minutes). Go kill the boss, and then switch back to echoing weapons.

 

My javazon - who is actually now a javazon, as she uses a javelin more than a bow now, finished Act II Normal.

The only downer here is I'm wasting some skill points, as I've never done a javazon before, and I'm not sure what I want as my melee attack. So I'm basically putting a point into everything in the jav/spear tree to see what I want my backup, melee attack will be. (The throw skill is obvious, and since all the lightning based melee attacks only give a 1% synergy to the throw attack, there isn't an obvious choice.)

 

I'm planning to start a new necromancer alongside my sorceress.

I'll continue to play my sorceress as my main character, but look forward to playing a little bit of necromancer too when I need a change of scenery

The necromancer will be a Skelliemancer. Back when playing 1.07, I had a lot of fun with that build and want to play one again.

Aldeth, how is your javazon doing? Any thoughts about your melee attack yet?

 

Well, I know it's either Lightning Strike or Fend. I'm not sure which yet. The only bad part was I had to dump a point in every skill on that Tree to open those two skills. I haven't played since finishing Act II a couple of days ago, so nothing new to report.

 

So, actually, Waheed is affraid of the wimpy pink ray of death? And that makes him...?