On Equipment
I provided the bare minimal breakpoints of what I feel will make you safe (FCR/FBR etc) when blind-teleporting. It's up to you to find a combination of equipment that works for you; there are too many combinations to list - I've put in a few cheap / popular ones - and when you start throwing in things like: "I have full Tals!" and "I have Enigma BP lolz!", you've bypassed the scope of this text.

On Lightning
No, that's silly. If I were learning to play hardcore using a guide, I'd wait until I were pretty used to hell hardcore before making tweaks/changes. Get familiar with the territory before you start construction, basically.

On Insight[b]
Insight on a mercenary is great for leveling up. It's not an endgame gambit choice. This isn't a "do Baalruns" build; this is a survive-the-journey-to-Hell-Mephisto-and-kill-him-easily build. Explained already. Recap: teleporting to Mephisto ad infinitum will eventually run you into a fast-hitting heavy-damaging manaburn pack. This means your mercenary will die. If you rely on him for transport (i.e. no infinicast teleport), you will die too. Not might -- will.

[B]On Geniuses

genius + unable to read guide + popular assumptions based on zero experience = moron

ES + manaburners + infinite teleport = zzzz drink mana potion, continue teleporting


You can skirt around with "what if x y and/or z situation/setup" or "keke lolz sorcie no need block, ranged caster so never gets hit!" statements all you'd like, really. Unfortunately, like the thousands before you, you'll eventually discover that deviation from the basic premises of this tried/tested/true guide will result in a dead sorceress.


Thanks, everyone who actually read through -- for your wonderful comments. May you all teleport forever.

This post was edited by Sunforge on Jun 8 2008 11:31pm

mm i like this guide, ima gona make one on my secret acc so i can get rich gear come behind without all of my friend begging for it >.<

I totally agree: this is not a "DO BAALRUNS" build. Still, using Iratha set (PRubied helm), Spirit Crystal Sword, Stealth Armor, Rhyme shield, 10fcr plus resi ring, another resi ring, resi boots, a lot of resi charms I actually levelled my sorc from 73 (my first Baalkill) to 84 safely doing solo Baalruns with my Insight Poleaxe - Duriel - Tal mask Act 2 Norm Prayer Mercenary. Hell Baalruns are slow but safe: Blind-Teleport to the Throne Room next to Baal and look arond what type of monsters are there - if too many cold immunes: Mission Impossible, Save&Exit, this is about 40% of the cases, that's why it is slow. If there are easy monsters, FrozenOrb like mad and intelligently reposition the merc with Teleport. My lifebulb never reached the white spot in the middle. The fighting tactic is slightly different: You should clean the thone room AND the entrance to it (you should have a resting place and you should kill the Ventar and the Lister wave one by one so you need a place to retreat), approach the wave, if ONE attacks and the merc charges: teleport back 1-2 yards four or five times to reposition him, then sweetspot them one by one. Baal is a joke: HellMephisto easily kills the Insight-Prayer merc BUT HellBaal CANNOT if you reposition him intelligently and sweetspot like mad. I can say about 20-30 minutes time is a HellBaalkill at lvl73, and 12-15min at lvl84 (not very efficient, but since it is my first hardcore character, I'm sure it worths the time invested . By reaching that level you will surely have the MEPHIKILLER equipment from self-loot (or even better, e.g. self-found Shako, Annihilus - like I did) and simply change the Prayer Merc to the Defiance Merc and start those notorious 1-2 minute Mephikills, Andykills and be rich like a Rockefeller

I totally agree: FOR MF KILLING MEPHISTO in hell, your mentioned equipment (wizzy-viper-viscera etc plus Kelpie with Defiance merc) is the tried, tested, and surely the best cheap version.

But for levelling 27-84: Prayer-Insight Merc, Iratha set, Spirit Crystal Sword, Stealth Armor, Rhyme shield, resi stuff is superior and cheaper version I think. Normal Baalkills, Nightmare Questing, Nightmare Baalruns are just like a walk in the park 85 allres in hell, 63FCR, 80FHr, 40Fbr, 75%Block, and not only Teleport is endless (even when merc killed!) but FrozenOrbing is also Endless (if merc alive - that's why the lowest possible dmg Insight is recommended - to tank 3-4 IronMaiden self-hit - that is enough for finding a safe place to townportal home)!!! And: high-level Prayer is not a negligable help keeping you alive! This is Hardcore... OKOK, MF sucks, but we are levelling, not MFing!

INSIGHT voulge or poleaxe IS NOT USED FOR THE ENDLESS TELEPORT! IN HELL, 3-4 MANA TELEPORT IS A MUST FOR A LOW-BUDGET HARDCORE SORCERESS FOR KEEPING ALIVE! INSIGHT MERCENARIES ARE KILLED REGULARLY IN HELL! If you are stupid to rely on the Insight for endless teleport - YOU WILL BE KILLED SOONER OR LATER FOR SURE!!! FAST-HITTING MANABURNERS ARE QUITE FREQUENT (e.g. BAAL is one of them), if you cannot teleport away REST IN PEACE IDIOT, go back to softcore and learn how to play Diablo2!

After reaching lvl 84 I used this sorc for Self-Levelling my other Hardcore Builds on the ladder (CowKiller FuryAma, GF FrenzyBarb, Countess-killer Light Soso, Trapper Assa, Nihlatak-killer Conc Baba, ÜberSmiter etc - of course all these chars are heavily twinked, because the Mephikiller Soso finds nice equipment for them all ). Chaos cleaning for Diablo kill is about 25-30 minutes with my Insight version, but after you have a nice FuryAma it is much faster For those who don't know: Self-levelling: Open the passworded game with the char to be rushed, dabble around for 5 minutes (to permanent the game), after that: leave, join with this sorc, clean the map and NEARLY do the Quest - then rejoin with the rushed char again, finish the boss/do whatever you have to and Quest is done: OK if you don't have friends to rush you Very useful for pure chars who have Impossible Missions in hell...

I must say the HARDCORE ORB/TELEKINESIS BLIND-TELEPORTER MF SORC is my favourite character (I never use hacks, not even maphack, I play totally legitly with only one CD-key)

THANK YOU VERY MUCH Sunforge! This is the best guide I have ever read! 10/10 for sure!

Some more help for those who want to reach Hell Baalruns with this dirt cheap sorc:

How to clean Hell Chaos? After killing HellMeph (around lvl75, I did it lvl 71but I know my sorc well...) go into the portal, Blind teleport to the two Waypoints, activate them, then search&kill Izual (Black Souls & Gloams look frightening but they are VERY EASY to FrozenOrb to death, because they shoot those manaburning Lightnings slowly, you should dodge them and sweetspot them with well-timered Frozen Orbs - THIS NEEDS SOME PRACTICE FIRST!!! preferably in softcore!!! some deaths are guaranteed first, but Insight Merc provides you with Endless FrozenOrbing so after some practice, Black Souls will be the easiest monsters to clean in the Baal Throneroom as well...), after that, look for the Hellforge: don't hesitate to restart game if monsters are tough, after some tries you will find an easy combination for sure (no coldimmunes - easy job), After that, the tough part: The Cold-Immune Oblivions! - the case is similar to that of black souls: they are easy to kill AFTER SOME PRACTICE in softcore, separate the sword guys from the cursers, they are fire immunes so easy to Orb them, if merc IM-ed: Teleport away to a safe spot and Townportal to home - to heal the merc - when sworders are killed, just teleport next to the curse-casters, they can only cast DECREPIFY if you are too close, so Merc is only in danger if ANOTHER curser casts IM on it - then escape again, TPhome etc... back, when next to them: Static them to half and 1point Lightning them until Merc does the job... IMPORTANT: THE TEMPTATION IS HIGH TO SPEND 1 POINT IN LIGHTNING MASTERY, BUT DEFINITELY NOT WORTH DOING!!! 1BASEPOINT LIGHTNING WITH 1BASEPOINT LIGHTMASTERY IS BULLSHIT IN HELL EVEN WITH MANY PLUS SKILLERS! I AGREE TOTALLY WITH SUNFORGE - DONT MAKE CHANGES TO THE CORE BUILD!!!!!! The other two monster types are not cold immunes - easy job with intelligent Orbs and merc repositioning, only super minion group leaders maybe, but the same strategy applies to them, time-consuming for sure, but after 25-30 minutes Diablo is killed, and you can rest a bit, then enter the portal, and start Act5:

Blind-Teleport through all the map (105FCR is recommended), and then: those Ancients. They look frightening, but they aren't actually if you are clever enough. Don't hesitate to make a townportal (and restart the quest with a reshuffle of their mods) if they are too dangerous. If Talic or Madawc is ColdImmune: restart the quest immediately, if any of them is Might or Fana aura enchanted or Manaburner: restart also, if you find an easy combination of mods (eg. Stone skin, Teleport, Magic Resistant, Immune to fire, Immune to Poison, Holy Fire-Blessed Aim-Holy Shock Aura enchanted are all warmly welcome ) separate them and kill them one by one, let Korlic last, because he is ALWAYS cold immune. Talic can be staticed to half life then sweetspotted with FrozenOrbs nicely, Madawc is light immune so dont try to static him!, just FrozenOrb until he drops. Tactic against Korlic: static to half life, then start hitting with the Spirit Crystal Sword! from close! and the merc should also attack him but from a distance (because Crystal Sword has a much shorter range than an Insight voulge or poleaxe: this means that stupid Korlic WILL ATTACK YOU AND NOT YOUR MERC) - easy job, because your Insight-defended EnergyShield will absorb damage faster than Korlic can deal it and the Prayer aura from merc will constantly heal your life - so you won't be in real danger: Both the red and the blue bulb will be safe. After some minutes Korlic will also drop and you can start HELLBAALS And with a dirt cheap sorc

I recommend this for anybody who likes challenges: FEEDBACK WELCOME!!! If you know a better idea how to manage in Hell with this sorc don't hesitate to let it be known ...

sorry for posting into this thread again and again but I LOVE THIS SORC

QUESTION: if there were a competition among HARDCORE, SOLO, NO-TWINK, NO-TRADE, NO-HACK, SELF-FOUND ONLY players, and the winner would be the one whose character guardians (kills hellBaal) first, would this sorc have a chance to win it? What is a REAL, POSSIBLE time for completing the game? Does anyone have experience? How many hours are needed starting from zero to complete the HellBaal Quest? Of course, in a real-life ladder situation, after completing several hundred NMBaal, hellMeph, hellAndy kills, we can trade for the badly needed Wizzy, Viper, Viscera, Kelpie etc. because trading for these is much easier than self-found them, and we find other classes' expensive equipment quite probably before we find what we need...

DOES ANYBODY HAVE EXPERIENCE ABOUT IT? ABOUT HOW MANY HOURS DOES IT TAKE TO FINISH HELLBAAL STARTING FROM ZERO IN A HARDCORE SOLO SELF-FOUND ONLY SITUATION?

Honestly, good lord.

Solo and untwinked, no sorceress can stand a chance vs. other classes in a speedrun; just think: summoner, javazon, hammerdin, trapper, etc. are cruising through with low-cost skills at level 6.

Realistically, unless you've got the stones to dump 5 into static field early on, 1-30 will take a long, long time. If you're playing true-untwinked and aren't obsessed with "perfect" characters, fill your inventory with blues, and luck out on some gear and sapphires you can likely finish normal solo untwinked in under 5 hours (maybe? this is a rough estimate; I don't see the point of playing solo when I'm playing ONLINE). Act 3 will be irritating as hell, as always.


I've done level 1 to guardian with a team of 8 untwinked (ladder reset and otherwise) in +-10ish hours. Aiming for 6 hours this reset. I figured out a new group strategy which I'll share depending on how successful we are. :>

Appreciate your enthusiasm in posting; don't apologize for good intentions.

Thanks for the comments folks.

This post was edited by Sunforge on Jun 14 2008 08:34pm

thats really great
if i wasnt such a soft cock id make one, but when i see that death message i want to break my computer

i used this build almost identically to kill meph and it was beautiful. never have i had such a cheap character do its job so effectively. my goal for the reset is to get the gear to make another as soon as possible. great guide