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Oct 6 2018 01:34am
Hi,

I'm new to D2, playing a currently level 54 sorceress. Mainly doing cs runs in nm solo or in hell with friends who introduced me a little bit to how to level fast. (To get to know the game, I'm also playing a hardcore Amazon all by myself, doing all quests VERY slowly :-)) It would be great if someone could answer the following (probably noob) questions:

(1) Which armor is better: Haevenly Garb or Twitchthroe? According to my google search it seems a lot of people favor Twitchthroe because of the 75% block rate I get (with a 50% shield). However, I hate using mana pots every 10 seconds so I do like the 25% mana regeneration of Haevenly Garb. Also, I have the feeling I can anyway avoid almost any attack right now by running around all the time (plus the mana can regenerate while running) :-) So wouldn't that make HG much better? Or will I require the 75% block rate once I solo in hell?

(2) Do faster/fastest cast rates stack? I.e. if I have one item with 50% and another with 20% do I get 70%? Or is fastest = 50% = the maximum I can get?

(3) I read that static-orb was quite popular in the past but now people put only 1 point into static. Why? Wouldn't it be much easier to solo hell if I can static the monsters a few times and then hit an orb, and repeat? (Which would make it harder to avoid enemy attacks though :-))

(4) People say that for an orb sorc I should max ice bolt, but it only adds +2% per level. Wouldn't it be better to invest the skill points somewhere else instead? Same for cold mastery, I would leave it on 1, especially since it does only affect resistances and doesn't increase the overall damage (like fire mastery).

(5) Some people recommended that I shall get "Magefist". Is there any chance someone has these gloves and doesn't need them? :-) I'm new to the game, so right now I have nothing to offer in return, but I'm only playing this sorceress in classic, so if I should every find some cool non-sorc-stuff you'd like to have, it's yours, I promise! Europe classic softcore non-ladder.

Thanks!
Sara

This post was edited by Sarazon on Oct 6 2018 01:35am
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Oct 6 2018 03:52am
1 twitch is better

2 yes fcr stacks

3 some ppl still make static sorcs. its consierable

4 points into cm means less enemy cold res which is more dmg on your orb

5 magefist are a pretty common drop. shouldnt be hard to get them
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Oct 6 2018 08:34am
Quote (Ehrenmann @ Oct 6 2018 10:52am)
1 twitch is better

2 yes fcr stacks

3 some ppl still make static sorcs. its consierable

4 points into cm means less enemy cold res which is more dmg on your orb

5 magefist are a pretty common drop. shouldnt be hard to get them



This
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Oct 6 2018 05:24pm
Quote (Sarazon @ Oct 6 2018 08:34am)
Hi,

I'm new to D2, playing a currently level 54 sorceress. Mainly doing cs runs in nm solo or in hell with friends who introduced me a little bit to how to level fast. (To get to know the game, I'm also playing a hardcore Amazon all by myself, doing all quests VERY slowly :-)) It would be great if someone could answer the following (probably noob) questions:

(1) Which armor is better: Haevenly Garb or Twitchthroe? According to my google search it seems a lot of people favor Twitchthroe because of the 75% block rate I get (with a 50% shield). However, I hate using mana pots every 10 seconds so I do like the 25% mana regeneration of Haevenly Garb. Also, I have the feeling I can anyway avoid almost any attack right now by running around all the time (plus the mana can regenerate while running) :-) So wouldn't that make HG much better? Or will I require the 75% block rate once I solo in hell?

(2) Do faster/fastest cast rates stack? I.e. if I have one item with 50% and another with 20% do I get 70%? Or is fastest = 50% = the maximum I can get?

(3) I read that static-orb was quite popular in the past but now people put only 1 point into static. Why? Wouldn't it be much easier to solo hell if I can static the monsters a few times and then hit an orb, and repeat? (Which would make it harder to avoid enemy attacks though :-))

(4) People say that for an orb sorc I should max ice bolt, but it only adds +2% per level. Wouldn't it be better to invest the skill points somewhere else instead? Same for cold mastery, I would leave it on 1, especially since it does only affect resistances and doesn't increase the overall damage (like fire mastery).

(5) Some people recommended that I shall get "Magefist". Is there any chance someone has these gloves and doesn't need them? :-) I'm new to the game, so right now I have nothing to offer in return, but I'm only playing this sorceress in classic, so if I should every find some cool non-sorc-stuff you'd like to have, it's yours, I promise! Europe classic softcore non-ladder.

Thanks!
Sara


Quote (Ehrenmann @ Oct 6 2018 10:52am)
1 twitch is better

2 yes fcr stacks

3 some ppl still make static sorcs. its consierable

4 points into cm means less enemy cold res which is more dmg on your orb

5 magefist are a pretty common drop. shouldnt be hard to get them


yeah pretty much this. i wouldnt go with Magefist tho. id rather take irathas set combined with Spectral Shard, The Ward, Twitch and 2 Fcr rings. will give you max res, high blockchance and 70fcr. next fcr breakpoint would be 105. everything between 70 and 105 is useless. cast speed will stay at 70 until you reach 105.

in nm and hell cold mastery equals orb damage. i always go with 16 points so you will get -100 res including Battle Orders buff from a barb.

ice bolt isnt needed 100% i often go with a mix of orb+cm, firewall+ fire mastery and static.
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Oct 8 2018 06:20pm
You could write him a bit more detailed answers..

Twitch is better because the 25% block outshines nearly every other armor, especially when you play PvM (player vs monster).
With a 30/20 shield you can reach so called "max block" (75%). This is incredibly useful as you teleport around.
When compared to heavenly garb twitch also gives some hit recovery, what is useful for every char (read about hit recovery breakpoints below)/

For faster cast rate you should search for "fcr breakpoints" (faster cast breakpoints), they show you how much fcr items you need to put on your characters to allow them to actually cast spells faster
https://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Breakpoints
in "classic" diablo (so without Lord of Expansion add on) most sorcs go for 70fcr, more is not needed

People write you about static sorcs, but no one told you that in hell difficulty monsters can have immunities (so for example: monster immune to cold cannot be killed with cold spells). This means that you will have to skip some parts of the game, since you simply cannot kill some monsters.
In fact some can be dual immune (say: cold + fire) although this happens rarely. Some people like orb+static, others like orb+firewall (+1 point in static). In my opinion most of those "two spell" sorcs kind of suck.
If you want to search for items (= "mf for items") best is to stick to one element, say frozen orb and just skip areas where you cannot kill. A frozen orb sorc can clear Andariel and Mephisto. She cannot do Diablo on her own.

Some monsters have cold resistance (similar to how players can have gear that increases their resistance). Your cold mastery removes it from them. As far as I remember you do not need more than level 17 cold mastery in Player vs Monster, since monsters do not have more resitance than that, so rest of points are wasted. In fact you could have say: 15 points, because a +2 skill amulet will give you 15+2 = 17
If you have a sorc without points into ice bolt and one without you would feel the difference.

Magefist is generally free starter item, but you can use spectral shard and 2 rings with faster cast rate, or amulet with faster cast rate to achieve 70 fcr. Easiest to do this with magefists obviously.
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Oct 8 2018 07:30pm
I WORE garbthis season but havent really played much in a month, and only andy, meph run.good because sorc doesnt need str more than 42 , try and get shard w dex gear or add dex ... garb can tele act 2 hell esay. TwitchI usually drop, if there were cs runs than prbly mage plate dual res fhr ... u shud just get blizz as its like 2.5k dmg .. fcr dual res rings can be mf'd, magefist? Depends on ur res gear , I dont wear atm, but if ur hesitant to get dex ok?
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Oct 9 2018 05:11am
Thanks for your answers! Thanks dropship for considering the "beginner" aspect :-) Where do I find the information if a monster has some magic resistance? It's not written when I hover over it. Do ALL monsters have resistances in hell?

Last but not least: Did I get it right that monsters can drop down to a miminum cold resistance of -100, so even if I encounter monsters that do not have any cold resistance (= 0), putting points into cold mastery would still increase the damage I deal? Therefore, cold mastery is not just useful against cold resistant monsters but against all? And since cold mastery has +100% at level 17 this is the recommended skill level?

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Oct 9 2018 07:55am
Quote (Sarazon @ Oct 9 2018 12:11pm)
Thanks for your answers! Thanks dropship for considering the "beginner" aspect :-) Where do I find the information if a monster has some magic resistance? It's not written when I hover over it. Do ALL monsters have resistances in hell?

Last but not least: Did I get it right that monsters can drop down to a miminum cold resistance of -100, so even if I encounter monsters that do not have any cold resistance (= 0), putting points into cold mastery would still increase the damage I deal? Therefore, cold mastery is not just useful against cold resistant monsters but against all? And since cold mastery has +100% at level 17 this is the recommended skill level?


The only source for classic monster informations would be the gamefiles themself i think... i dont think theyre the same as in the expansion (monsterlevel is different for sure. dont know about resistances), but you can take a look into the mosters in the expansion here:

http://classic.battle.net/diablo2exp/monsters/

In hell almost all monsters even have an immunity (100 or more of a resistance), but also have a weaker resistance (more or less :D ). also if a rare monster is enchanted (like fire enchanted), they get more of that resistance. the act bosses are never immune. thats why a sorceress is so good to farm items. you can teleport through all the immune monsters right to the act boss and kill him easily with static :D

yes resistances can drop below 0. up to -100 at the max.

its recommended to have 17 cold mastery including all +skills you get from your gear or the Battle Orders shout from a Barbarian (gives +1 to all skills).


if your read some through the link i posted you can also read about breaking immunities in the expansion :D . not possible in classic tho :D

This post was edited by Wingman93 on Oct 9 2018 08:03am
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Oct 11 2018 03:52pm
Quote (Sarazon @ Oct 9 2018 11:11am)
Thanks for your answers! Thanks dropship for considering the "beginner" aspect :-) Where do I find the information if a monster has some magic resistance? It's not written when I hover over it. Do ALL monsters have resistances in hell?

Last but not least: Did I get it right that monsters can drop down to a miminum cold resistance of -100, so even if I encounter monsters that do not have any cold resistance (= 0), putting points into cold mastery would still increase the damage I deal? Therefore, cold mastery is not just useful against cold resistant monsters but against all? And since cold mastery has +100% at level 17 this is the recommended skill level?


You cannot bring monsters below -100% damage, so more points are not needed - you should stay at level 17 (or whatever was the level that gives 100%). This allows you to "save" few points that you can put into other skills.
Also remember that later on you can get a +2 skills amulet that will give you +2 to all sorc skills (or a worse amulet will give +1).

(the -resist is useful versus other players though, because they try to get as much resistance as possible, but if you are a fresh player you will probably get slaughtered by other players)

This post was edited by dropship on Oct 11 2018 03:52pm
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Oct 11 2018 08:45pm
Quote (dropship @ Oct 11 2018 02:52pm)
You cannot bring monsters below -100% damage, so more points are not needed - you should stay at level 17 (or whatever was the level that gives 100%). This allows you to "save" few points that you can put into other skills.
Also remember that later on you can get a +2 skills amulet that will give you +2 to all sorc skills (or a worse amulet will give +1).

(the -resist is useful versus other players though, because they try to get as much resistance as possible, but if you are a fresh player you will probably get slaughtered by other players)


BRO prett much every monster in hell mode has some base cold resist... at least the ones that matter. Level 17 cm is dumb
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