Just posting this for you guys to MAYBE get some ideas...
Softcore 1.13 Ladder Start GuideHello all! What you are reading is a new, dirt cheap guide for the 1.13 ladder reset, which you might find helpful if you play from scratch. The main thing different here in 1.13 as you all probably already know, is the stat/skill respec feature which we plan to abuse a lot
This char is best if used in a team, although it can solo hell when it reaches a certain point in development. It is intended to kill bosses with the highest possible mf speed/cost ratio available at the ladder beginning.
What do we need:A sorceress --- Nothing new here. Teleport will give the speed that other classes simply can never match at the beginning of the ladder.
Respecing --- For the optimal results, we will need to adapt to different situations
What we do not need:Expensive equipment --- This sorceress is playable with items you will not only "most likely" find, it will be played with pretty much any items
Lightning skill tree --- Without high-end gear, it simply sucks. The only skills you will use from this tree will be teleport and static field.
High defensive capabilities --- With some practice, you will gain enough skill to solo every good mf area with no block, shit defense, and constantly negative resists.
Optimization:There are a few viable builds for a naked sorc, all with their pros/cons. Fire (fast, many immunes on bad places), orb (very slow), meteorb (average speed with crap gear), blizz (fast, problem with immunes). This is designed to end up as a pure blizz build, but will use fire in the start. Also, there are areas in game which are referred to as "level 85 areas". Well, you don't need them
You need to maximize the mf/time ratio, and you will do that by killing only a few monsters. The good thing with blizz sorc though, is that she can farm many good areas if she wants too, including chaos and baal.
Normal difficulty:Stats --- About 30~40 into str, split all other stat points between vitality and energy.
Skills --- Pump fire bolt until you get fire ball. One point goes into warmth, telekinesis, static and teleport. You can put more than one point into static if you want to minimize the dying from getting too close to a boss, or into teleport if you find its mana cost too high. Even the most retarded build can do normal, so it's generally not a problem to dish out enough damage. All the remaining points will go into fireball.
Merc --- Any
Equipment --- The perfect
weapon would be a Leaf staff of course. This is very easy to make since you have a ral from the rune quest and...well, tir runes are just everywhere. Ral is expendable because it is the only rune from the act 5 rune quest that is not used to make a Spirit
As for other equipment, wear anything you want to. Try to hit 20 or 37 fcr breakpoint. An extremely good low level armor is Stealth runeword (if you have tal runes for spending). Fhr is useless cause you will die if you get hit anyways
Tir runes for mana after kill is a good option to socket, gems will cover everything else.
Strategy --- Any
Nightmare difficulty:Stats --- Add a little into str and dex, you might need dexterity to wear the Spirit sword later. All the rest go into vita, energy is not needed anymore.
Skills --- Max fireball, split the remaining points between meteor and fire mastery. As a general rule synergies > mastery, but the less +skills you got, the more mastery should be chosen over synergies.
Merc --- Act 2 defensive merc is the ideal for this sorc, so as soon as you get to act 2, choose him. Uses holy freeze.
Equipment --- The first thing you should make is a
Spirit sword, in crystal or broad sword is gg. In the worst case scenario, you should have 25% fcr from it and enough fhr to not worry about fhr lock. The other thing is Stealth, with some much needed fcr. After that, mf finally becomes the main focus of the build. You will most likely not have any unique mf items, so try to get
rare or even magic blue mf gloves / boots. 63% fcr is the breakpoint you should try to get, try to get some fcr on rings (or one ring if your Spirit has 28%+ fcr). No matter if that mod is the only good one the rings have
Make an insight for your merc, preferably in an exceptional polearm.
Strategy --- Farm Countess for runes, Andy or Meph if you want since some good stuff can drop even on nm. Farm cows for socketed stuff. You should have spirit sword (which doesn't require dex to wear) and insight for hell, and a couple of runes too. After you do Baal, go back to normal and respec your sorc. Don't lurk in nm for too long...
Hell difficulty:And so, as your sorc enters Hell, the first thing you are going to do, is re-stat and re-skill her. From equipment, you should have at least a spirit sword, stealth armor and 63%+ fcr on yourself, and an insight on merc. You can farm butt naked if you want, but these are the items that really make the job much more easy.
Stats --- Pump strength up to 156! Yeah, it's kinda huge number, but don't worry much about that. After all, you can respec the shit out of your sorc any time you want to! All the rest goes into vita. Energy is not needed this time, Insight should take care of the job.
Skills --- Put one point in warmth, telekinesis, static and teleport. Then max blizz, cold mastery, ice blast, ice bolt, glacial spike. In that order. Blizzard is your #1 killing spell, but since it has a delay, you'll use ice blast in the meantime. Glacial is just bullshit, both as a spell and to some extent as a synergy.
Equipment --- The worst possible starting equipment on hell should be 25% fcr Spirit sword, 25% fcr Stealth armor, 1~2 magic fcr rings, magic gloves and boots, helm stuffed with topazes, some 4 x belt and any amulet and shield. Your merc should have Insight and any armor and helm.
Strategy --- Complete the game so you can run
cows. At least the only thing easy to find in the beginning of the ladder is a team
After that, kill the damn cows until they drop a monarch usable for another Spirit. I know that it sounds hard, but actually it is not, I did the math for you here:
chance of a cow on hell dropping a white monarch.....1:5052
cows to kill to have a chance > 50% to have a monarch dropped.....3502
cows to kill to have a chance > 75% to have a monarch dropped.....7003
cows to kill to have a chance > 90% to have a monarch dropped.....11632
(you can calculate the number of kills with a formula n=[log(1-c)]/[log(1-x)], where x is the drop chance by one monster (in this case 1/5052), and c the decimal percent of the needed total drop chance (for 75% c will be 0.75), n is always rounded up)
Considering that you probably kill at least 100 cows per run, the monarch should drop relatively quick. Socket it and make another Spirit
You will probably find an elite polearm that can be used for another Insight here.
The next part is getting you some better equipment, at
Andy and
Meph.
Andy --- Once in Catacombs level 2, teleport counter-clockwise (to the right), the exit is in most cases that way. In Catacombs level 3 the location of the exit to level 4 is completely random. Once in level 4, killing Andy should not be a problem, she is extremely retarded and the fuckers there are never immune to cold.
Meph --- Take the waypoint to Durance and teleport clockwise (to the left). Teleport straight to Meph, moat trick is doable but not very much needed, just blizz him and spam ice bolt in the delay time. Or drink a couple of thawing pots for the extra 50% cold res if shit hits the fan...
These two will drop a lot of stuff, much of which can be used right away. Any helms with life leech (stealskull, crown of thieves, vamp gaze, tal's helm) or with resists (rockstopper, nat's helm) go to your merc. Many armors can either be used by your merc (rattlecage, goldskin, duriels, shaft) or you (viper, que hegan). But the most important items that could drop, are for the so called "mf switch" (gull, ali baba). Keep these on switch and use them when you see a boss low on hp. The mf bonus from them will help a lot to increase your drops. One other thing you should get after this "starting" mf is the 105% fcr breakpoint. You will most likely find some fcr gloves (magefist or trang's) anyway. As soon as you have 105% fcr and your merc has some life leech helm (tal's is your best chance for now) and res armor (duriels most likely), you will be able to farm
Countess and
Nihlathak as well.
Countess --- Teleport clockwise (to the left) in Tower cellar levels 1 to 4. Once in level 5, you should be able to easily make a stand in one of the rooms next to the one Countess is in. Get rid of any non cold immune monsters and teleport into her room. Countess and her minions are all cold immune, but your merc can now dispose of them quite easily, use static if you want to help him out a little. Watch out for a Shael rune (1:28 chance of dropping, 39 Countess kills if you want more than 75% chance to have it), when it drops, use it to make a Rhyme shield for your mf switch.
Nihlathak --- There are three existing maps of Halls of Pain. Learn them as this will make getting to Nihl's level a 20 seconds job. Once in Halls of Vaught, the situation looks like this:
http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/5336/mapho.jpg
There is a certain picture on the wall, about the same color as in my drawing, that appears only in one location of these four. The wall it appears on is showing the correct way to Nihl. If you notice vipers, get the fuck out of there as fast as you can.
Once you get to him, you will notice that the minions around him are always cold immune. And that is a GOOD thing, because you can't kill any of them by accident, which means no corpse explosion for him
Just blizz him, you don't exactly need a fast namelock to do it. Just blizz, then run around like a pussy, then blizz again. In 2~3 he will be dead. If he is cold immune, merc can still kill him, just lure his minions and let the merc kill them one by one. Corpse explosion can't exactly kill the merc, and with enough life leech, nothing there will. It can oneshot you though, so watch your back, and ALWAYS have a tp behind you!
You can't farm Pindleskin because the red portal closes once you get the Halls of Pain waypoint (and you shouldn't give a fuck, Nihl is way better), Pit, Mausoleum, Ancient tunnels are easy but probably not worth it.
Now what:Never drop your fcr below 105%. Sacrifice anything, but you must have a 8 fpc teleport at all times. Your merc will own with Insight, Tal's helm and Duriels shell, better eq will not be needed for a long time
Also with easy rune farming, remake Spirits until you have at least 60% fcr on them combined. That and Stealth will give you 85%, leaving only 20% more to have the 105% fcr bp. Probably the best way is wearing a fcr gloves and 3 x ptopazing the helm, or wearing a topazed 20 fcr / mf helm with some other gloves. Always use the mf switch on Andy and Meph, it's insanely helpful. Once you get good items you can respec to meteorb if you want, or if you raise resists and mf to a decent level, you can allow yourself to drop fcr to 63%. But I don't deal with good gear. So have fun and good luck in the next ladder!