Introduction

The goal of this short guide is to build a cheap and very effective magicfinder, thats able to kill andy, keybosses, meph,
shenk, eldrich & pindle without any problems.

Some items are ladder-only, but are smallchange in nl also. The build is possible in any realm.

We're using the lightning tree to do the damage, combined with a act2 nm combat merc that takes care of the lightning immunes.


Skills

Cold Tree:

1 Point into Frozen Armor (nice def bonus)

Fire Tree:

1 Point into Warmth (mana regeneration)

Lightning Tree:

20 Charged Bolt (synergy to Lightning and Chain Lightning)
20 Lightning (main attack against bosses, combined with static field)
20 Chain Lightning (main attack against mobs)
20 Lightning Mastery (huge light damage boost)
1 Point into Telekinesis (needed for Teleport)
1 Point into Teleport
1 Point into Static Field (use it for bosses to cut half their life off in a blink of an eye)
Rest goes into Nova


Equipment

I won't list item variations here, cause the ones i have in use are the only ones that fit into this build, are cheap and do an excellent job.

Headgear
Shako - socketed with a perfect topaz (74% mf, 2 skills, 2 attribues, mass life and mana, damage reduce - godly.)

Amulet
3 Lightning Skills Amulett (life add would be sweet)

Primary Weapon
Occulus - put an 'ist' rune in it. 3 Skills, 30fc, 20 vitality, 30 to all resis and 80 mf makes this a godly choice.
25% chance to cast level 1 teleport when struck - can be useful, but could also end in getting ported into a really dangerously position, try to avoid getting hit anyways by teleporting all the time.

Armor
Skin of the Vipermage - put an 'um' rune inside. aim for best resistances. up to 50 to all resis, 30fc, +1 skill and magic damage reduce makes this the one and only choice for this build.

Primary Shield
Lidless Wall - socket a perfect amethyst inside for resistance add. +1 skill and faster cast rate makes this one the right choice.

Gloves
Chanceguards - Nice MF and Gold boost.

Belt
Arachnid Mesh - 1 skill, faster cast, increased mana. godly. slows target by 10% is also really helpful since u dont want to let the minions reach you too early.

Boots
Wartravelers - nice mf boost

Rings
- Nagelring with highest MF stats possible
- Magic Ring with 10fc and best possible resistances (15@ is maximum). Those arent expensive and really do their job.
- Nature's Peace. You will need this one if you plan to kill Nihlatak in your mf-runs. Explained later.

offhand Weapon
Call to Arms in a crystal sword or flail. +1 Skill, life and mana boost makes this a weapon you shouldn't miss.

offhand shield
Lidless Wall - again, +1 skill for better battle order level.

Inventory
- Sorceress Torch with best stats and resis u can afford.
- Annihilous with best possible stats.
- Gheeds Fortune
- MF Smallcharms (use as many as u like)
- Resistance Charms (the amount of them depends on the stats of the items above. Every Resistance has to be 75 on hell since you only have about 2,3k life with this build and are not able to tank anything)


Merc
Open a game in nightmare difficulty, go to act 2 and buy a combat mercenary. The might aura lets him do serious damage.
Helm: Tal Rasha Mask - Lifeleech and 15 resistances makes this the perfekt choice
Weapon: Insight - get an etheral one. best choice is eth colossus voulge. With this item equipped, you will never run out of mana again.
Armor: Duriels Shell - Resistances, Life and Strength makes this one a godly low-cost armor. Try to find an ethereal one and upgrade it.
Once the merc died, you are forced to re-buy him as soon as possible. After that the Meditation Aura (Insight) will mostly be disabled. To reactivate it, just open the mercs inventory and re-equip the Insight Weapon.


Statspoints

Strength: Just put enough into Strength to be able to wear your Wartravelers.
Dexterity: None
Vitality: Rest
Engergy: None (You wont need it because of the Meditation aura from Insight and a point into warmth)


Gameplay

Countess:
When teleporting down, always check the area around the level's entrance first. Its so disappointing to have revealed the hole level before noticing the stairs down are three steps away from the entrance, which happened really often to me :E
When you're down in the 5th level, teleport inside the countess' room and switch to static field immediately, cast it about 3 times and start chain-lightning until everybody is dead. It often happens that there are lightning immunes, which have to be taken down by your merc.
To do that, teleport to the room right or left to the countess' room and let them walk through the door one by one and let your merc do the rest.

Andy:
There are always lightning immunes behind the big door to Andariels Room. Just teleport behind her throne and spam chain-lightning and some static fields until she's dead (when u see her, switch to lightning)
When she dies, the lightning immunes are also gone.

Summoner:
He is fast food. Nothing to explain here.

Mephisto:
You will find the entrance to the durance of hate level 3 fastest, if u teleport clockwise.
Mephisto isn't much of a competition. Just static-field him a few times and then switch to lightning. Your merc does great work here by blocking Meph so he wont attack you mostly.

Shenk, Eldrich & Pindle:
Just spam chain-lightning until everybody is dead.

Nihlatak:
This is the hardest part for your little sorc. Replace your Nagelring by a Nature's Peace. "Slain monsters rest in peace" - Nihlatak wont be able to do corpse explosions on the dead minions, which kill you really easy.
Try to teleport as much as possible and especially keep away from those vipers' powerful multi-attacks.
Simply teleport - chainlightning - teleport - chainlightning... until its cleared.
One stupid situation comes up when Nihlatak is lightning immune and has stoneskin. Your merc will do the killing, but watch for corpses since not all of them are redeemed by your ring.


Overview

With this build you will

- have above 400 mf

- reach the 105fc frame (110 with all items actually)

- have full resistances in hell difficulty

- be able to make really fast runs

- do 24k lightning damage & about 9k chain lightning damage to have a brilliant killspeed





I hope you enjoyed reading this small guide. If you have questions, feel free to pm me

Regards,

nordic

This post was edited by n0rdic on Jul 20 2008 04:05am

Perf amethysts add def to shields, not res.

And that merc setup might not even have enough str to use a CV, depending on his level. Better to use something else, even a Partizan is decent enough to work.

Isted occy and um'd viper don't exactly smack of "budget" build to me, but that's just my opinion (I play mostly ladder).

Light sorcs just aren't cheap builds by nature. Fire sorcs, and especially cold sorcs, can be much more effective at very little cost.

Otherwise looks mostly decent. But it could be better imo.

Update

Use a perfect saphire in the Lidless Wall, not an Amethyst Sorry for that typo in the Equipment section.

If u cant afford an Ist rune, just use anything else that gives u adds like life, mana, maek etc.
Compare it with using more mf charms if u feel like lacking mf points.

Also dont use a foliant of townportal but place scrolls of townportal in one of your belt slots to save space in the inventory.

Use a second fc ring instead of Nagelring to reach the 117 fc frame while casting lightning spells if u want to. (you will have 120 then actually)

This post was edited by n0rdic on Jul 20 2008 04:46am

You need 117 to reach the next break on lightning spells im afraid ;P

yup
didnt take care of the changed fc frames while casting lightning

That's right but who cares in the 117 frame @ pvm?

117% is only needed for stun and that means in pvp

It's a gz guide imo

i like it =)

thinking of AtMiS' post, replacing the arach by a goldwrap. would be one skill less but 30% more mf. Aiming at 78fc then, which is still enough for magicfind chars imo. this would also stick more to the topic 'lowcost' char.

This post was edited by n0rdic on Jul 20 2008 06:11am