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Diablo II- Blizzard Sorceress Guide
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Diablo II- Blizzard Sorceress Guide
Diablo II 1.1x Cold elemental Sorceress Walkthrough
Author: Chris Turpin A.K.A itoilet9
Last updated 8/25/08
v2.0
*********************
**Table of Contents**
*********************
I. Update logs
-Guide-
1. Introduction
1.1. Which is Right for You?
1.2. Objective of this guide
1.3. General Tips
2. Skill/Stat spread
2.1: Leveling Walkthrough
3. Quests
3.1: Act I
3.2: Act II
3.3: Act III
3.4: Act IV
3. Recommended Setups
4. Zen and the art of dueling
4.1: Player-Killers
5. Magic Find/Bosses
6. Suits read here (Legal)
7. Contact
-----------------
---Update Logs---
-----------------
*2.0
-Adding a ton of things.
-Messed with the layout.
-Adding a section on the quests.
-Massive cleanup.
-Added more reader stuff, credits given where appropriate.
------------------
---Introduction---
------------------
First off: Welcome to version 2.0! Lots of things have changed. Read the
update log for more info on those changes.
About the guide: I wrote this back as a Blizzard-only guide last year, but
decided to expand it into Orb Sorceress territory as well with little
side-notes about them.
Well, as of version 2, I think I've succeeded into expanding that section into
a full on guide, rather than little blurbs.
Still, I haven't lost focus of the core of the guide, the Blizzard sorceress.
I've added new stuff there, and I've also added some stuff on completing the
quests on each difficulty. Seeing as the Blizzard/Orb sorceress is a
single-element build, you need to be prepared.
So, what's this guide about anyway?
I'll tell you: It's for building a dueling build sorceress. This isn't PvM.
This is Pure PvP here. While the PvP sorceress can hold their own in PvM, PvM
builds are usual dual-elemental, and as such, can hold their own much better
in a PvM environment because of the reduced threat of resistant enemies.
You can use these in single player, as I do sometimes, but mainly the focus of
this guide is to help you, the reader, build up a spell-slinging powerhouse,
as well as a duelist. With the techniques contained in this guide, you won't
be the best, but you'll be far from the worst.
Also, WARNING: DO NOT USE THIS GUIDE FOR EXPANSION. You have been warned.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++Which is right for you?+++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Can't decide which Sorceress you'd like to build? Maybe I can answer your
question for you.
If you are just beginning the game and want to build a sorceress, I'd
highly suggest building an orber. They can hold their own in duels, not to
mention regular play. Orbers have very good crowd control, so that makes
them good support characters should the need arise.
Blizzard sorceresses, however, require a bit more skill to use. Blizzard
only concentrates on one area, rather then splitting off in a million
different directions. Therefore, you need to use Blizzard carefully. But
the additional hassle comes with a reward--Blizzard can do over 1,000
points of damage, allowing it to pack a punch.
If you are really advanced, have one or more sorceresses and are chomping
for more, I'd suggest going for a Lightning/Fire build.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++Objective of the guide+++
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
My objective in this guide is to have every reader who follows this guide be
equipped with a ass-kicking, blizzard/orb-slinging sorceress. Also, said
sorceress should at least be able to hold their own in duels, and be usable to
a degree in single-player games, and be able to be self-sufficient.
That being said, please don't get on my case if you followed my guide, yet
still cannot do a Hell Chaos run on your own. Trust me. That'll never happen.
If you have a legitimate complaint, or some constructive feedback, please do
drop me a line at the contacts section. I'd greatly appreciate it.
Thanks!
++++++++++++++++++
+++General Tips+++
++++++++++++++++++
Before we get started, there's a few things I'd like to say that should
immensely help you out in the world of Diablo II.
1. Make friends on battle.net. Make friends with people high up, who are
well-known and somewhat respected. Then learn from their technique. This is
how you will move up through the ranks. Enter duel games. Observe duel
techniques.
2. Friends also will help you out with equipment needs, as well as leveling
assistance and backup.
3. Don't smack-talk unless you can back it up. Good way to get a negative
reputation online quickly. Then you won't be able to level in peace anymore
without some idiot flipping the hostile switch.
4. Begging for items is bad form. Make friends and mooch off of THEM. That's
what friends are for. (Just kidding.)
5. Watch out for clans. Most of the ones I've run into on Battle.net tend to
be aggressive. That isn't to say all of them are, however. But if you are the
odd one in a game, leg it. Quickly.
-----------------------
---Skill/Stat Spread---
-----------------------
Skill point time! Do note that I'll only be listing the skills you absolutely
need here, and how many points you need for each. If I should have forgotten a
prerequisite, grab that along the way, and drop me a line and let me know,
please!
##############
#Skill Spread#
##############
Blizzard sorceresses should follow this...
Lightning:
Skill---------------Points
Charged Bolt 1
Lightning 1
Telekinesis 1
Teleport 1
Energy Shield 1
Cold:
Skill---------------Points
IceBolt Max
Frozen Armor 1
Frost Nova 1
Ice Blast Max
Glacial Spike Max
Blizzard Max
Shiver Armor 1
Mastery Max
And for Orbers, here's yours.
Lightning:
Skill---------------Points
Charged Bolt 1
Lightning 1
Telekinesis 1
Teleport Max or 1, depends on variant
Energy Shield See below
Cold:
Skill---------------Points
Ice Bolt Max
Frozen Armor 1
Frost Nova 1
Ice Blast 1
Glacial Spike 1
Blizzard 1
Frozen Orb Max
Mastery Max
So, as you may ask, why are we dropping points in to skills that AREN'T
Blizzard/Orb? Good question. That's due to Synergies, a mechanic that was
introduced in 1.10. Synergies allow skills to do more damage than usual,
powered by bonuses granted by other skills.
Don't get what I mean? Hover your mouse over Blizzard, and you'll see
at the bottom of the skill description what skills that Blizzard gets
bonuses from. In this case, Ice Bolt, Blast, Glacial Spike, etc.
Most of the skills you are putting one point into are nothing but
prerequisites and should just be ignored. However, the two that stand out from
that category are Energy Shield and Teleport, which both are insanely useful.
########################
#Skill Point Break Down#
########################
Before we can really mess around with the skill points, let's see how much
we exactly have to screw with.
Let's assume your character is going to top out at Level 80. That means,
not counting quests, you have roughly 79 skill points to allocate.
If we do all the quests, I believe we have around 4 skill points per
difficulty extra. That means 12 extra skill points. (I know I am probably
wrong here--This is just a rough estimate.)
Each skill takes 20 points to max out. So, let's break it down:
Blizzard Sorceresses:
91 points starting (Assuming all quests done, all difficulties)
Take off 20 for Ice Bolt, Ice Blast, Glacial Spike and Blizzard. That's 80
down.
Mastery will set you back another 20, which is already over our limit.
So here's what you'll probably want to do. You should definitely get
teleport (one point only in this case) as a top priority. That'll make the
difference between life and death in a duel. Then focus on whatever skill you
didn't max (Blizzard's synergies, Mastery)
Orbers have it better. There are only THREE skills you guys need to max,
meaning your build SHOULD be done around level 65-70 or so. Orb, Cold Mastery,
and Ice Bolt are all you need to max. that means you can blow off skill points
into giving your sorceress additional perks. See below for details.
#########################
#Orb Sorc build variants#
#########################
There are a couple of ways you can go if you have an Orb sorceress, since
you have more skill points to screw around with.
Warmth/Teleport: You can split your remaining skill points between Warmth
and Teleport. This will cause Teleport to have a lower Mana cost, and
Warmth will boost your mana recharge rate. This will decrease your need for
mana potions.
Maxed Teleport: This will also reduce Teleport's mana cast down to 5 per
cast, resulting in your mana recharging or breaking even with each cast of
teleport. Both are good, and decrease your reliance on mana potions. Keep some
on hand in case, though.
Maxed Energy Shield: Better have a lot of mana potions on hand for this
one. You can become a tank with this, as the better part of the damage
dealt to you will go to mana.
Dual Elemental: You can drop some points in another element, if you so
wish. You'll probably be extra weak in the secondary element, but it'll still
help if you are on your own.
###################
#Stat Point Spread#
###################
You have about 400 stat points to spend throughout the life of your
sorceresses, assuming you stop at level 80, and you don't do the stat point
quests.
All sorceresses can follow this stat spread and even the stat spread under
Alternate Take. Lightning, Cold, Fire, you name it...
Strength: As high as needed, but keep as low as possible. If you can get
away with keeping it around 40-50, that'll be excellent.
Dexterity: Like strength. Keep it as low as possible. 51 is good, as it
allows use of the Spectral Shard, the main weapon of choice for Duelists.
Vitality: Every point that isn't going into anything else should be put
into Vitality. By around Level 70, you should be edging close to 1,000 Life
(With +life equipment).
Energy: Try not to put ANY points whatsoever into this stat. AuralFire and
Anticitizen (Orb and Blizzard sorcs, respectively) both have 50-70 into
Energy because I think that's a pretty good comfort zone. It really depends
on where you are comfortable, but a common rule is no more than 70 at the
most.
################
#Alternate Take# (Thanks Mr. Gilsdorf)
################
The Stat Spread---
Strength: Leave at 35. No more than that.
Dex: You should be able to boost this via equipment. I don't know the
equipment as well as I used to, so I cannot modify the equipment section as
such. Don't go over 35 (Without equipment).
Vitality: Same as above (Put as much as possible into this.)
Energy: None here. Unless you are going to nudge Energy Shield past Lv. 5.
The Skill Spread---
For the Blizzard Sorceresses (sorry, Orbers), you'll want to max your five
skills in this order.
Ice Blast, Blizzard, Cold Mastery, Ice Bolt, then lastly Cold Spike.
++++++++++++++++++++++++
++Leveling Walkthrough++
++++++++++++++++++++++++
So, if you play on battle.net with any amount of frequency (and especially
given the Ladder reset that JUST happened) you'd notice that people are able
to get their characters from level 1 to level 80 REALLY fast. How do they do
this?
Mainly, it consists of three steps, as follows:
1. Enchant. People buy a Bow, have a friend use a Sorceress' Enchant skill on
them (Granting massive damage to weapons), and go into Stony Field, killing
off powerful enemies for massive XP.
2. The Cow level. Once people get to Level 20 by doing the above, people run
the Cow level numerous times to gain INSANE amounts of XP.
3. Chaos Sanctuary. If you are in your 50s or 60s, you'll probably want to do
this in nightmare. Otherwise, Hell. This is the undisputed best way to level
up.
If you can remember these three steps, you'll be able to hit level 80 in no
time flat.
#########
#1 to 20#
#########
You'll either be flying solo or having the assistance of a chanter for this
one. If you have a chanter assisting you, skip to Stony Field.
Otherwise, you'll be alone with Fire Bolt and not much in the way of
firepower. What you'll probably want to do is gain about 5 levels in Blood
Moor, then move to Cold Plains until Level 10, Then keep moving on until
you get to the Stony Field.
Chanted people joining us at this point should have a bow of sorts and a
newly-cast enchant.
At this point, you can kill things in this area, slowly working through Act
I until you get to Level 20. You can also get a rush through Act I and
level in Act 2, making it easier on you. Either way works fine, but if you
insist on sticking with Act 1, level in the Catacombs.
By the time you hit 20, you should have an Ice Bolt that is pretty well
leveled, with one point each into Blizzard's prerequisites. Orbers should have
Ice Bolt near maxed, moving right along toward Orb. Both builds should
consider moving towards picking up Teleport around now.
##########
#20 to 50#
##########
At this point, you'll want to join a Cow game--that is, a group of people
running through the cow level.
1. Find one that has a number attached to it. This means it's been running
for a while and is most likely a good run.
2. Pay attention to the game times. If the game's been running any longer
than 5-10 minutes, wait for them to start another game or find another run.
3. Try to stay in private games with tons of friends. More people = more
XP. Private runs work better because you don't have to worry about some
bozo wasting the cow king and ruining your character.
Once you get to 30-ish, you'll want to complete Normal and head for
Nightmare cow runs. After that, when you are around 45-50, Nightmare Chaos
Sanctuary is a good place to do some solo leveling.
By now, you should have a decently leveled Orb/Blizzard which should be
more than enough to carry you through easily. Also, you should at least have
Teleport by now. If you are going for the Orb build, your Ice Bolt should be
maxed.
##########
#50 to 70#
##########
You should do Nightmare Chaos runs until around 60 or so. When you get
there, get to Hell Act 2 and run through the desert killing things (In full
games, preferably). You should be able to hit 70 easy doing this.
#####
#70+#
#####
Once you hit 70, it's pretty straightforward from here. Just do Hell Chaos
runs until you hit your desired level. I stopped at 80, though it certainly
is possible to go further. May luck be with you.
Now's a good time to introduce a technique you'll be using a lot in hell Chaos
runs--the "sora":
The Sora is where a sorceress will teleport to the center of the chaos
sanctuary, stop at the middle of the pentagram, and drop a Town Portal for the
other players waiting at town to take. This involves a bit of risk. If you
die, forget getting your corpse back. You'll have to rejoin the game.
Obviously, you'll want to keep some things in mind.
1. ALWAYS, ALWAYS make sure you have a MAXED tome of Town Portal on you. I
cannot count on two hands how many times I teleported, and lo and behold,
no town portals. Either you have to rejoin the game, or you'll die. Either is
NOT GOOD.
2. Always have full rejuvenations on hand, if possible. If not, keep a
healthy dose of Mana/Health potions. Slots 1, 2 should be health, 3, 4
being mana.
3. Most importantly, have a barbarian cast Battle Orders on you before you
begin. You'll get a skill boost, HP/MP boost, and Stamina boost. You can
certainly attempt to sora without, but its about ten times as risky as usual.
------------------------
---Recommended Setups---
------------------------
Obviously the skills and stats were the least of our problems. Now we have
to figure out what kind of equipment we are going to use. The good news is
that you'll likely get this stuff from some caring people as you build up
your levels. Don't trip too hard on this stuff until you get to level
70-ish.
Equipment note: "Priz" is the term used by many b.net players for an item
that has multiple resistances. Such items are usually purple in color, and
are worth a LOT in trades.
Note on armors: The same armor should be used across both builds (MF and
Duel)
Also, on any rare stuff, you should try to keep the strength/dexterity
requirements as low as possible. Remember the golden rule of the Sorc:
DEFENSE DOESN'T MATTER. Because if some Barbarian Whirlwinds you, you are
likely not going to survive. Unless, of course, he only *grazes* you.
#################
#Magic Find Gear#
#################
Helm: Tarnhelm
Defense: 8-11
Required Level: 15
Required Strength: 15
Durability: 18
+1 To All Skill Levels
25-50% Better Chance of Getting Magic Item
75% Extra Gold From Monsters
NOTE: You'll want a 50% Tarnhelm, preferably.
Armor: Rare
10-24% Faster Hit Recovery
Cold Resists 9%+
Fire Resists 9%+
24-60 to Life
Shield: Priz*
20-30 to Cold, Fire, and Lightning resists
Faster Block Rate
Enhanced block rate
Weapon: Gull
One-Hand Damage: 2 To 19
Required Level: 4
Durability: 16
Adds 1-15 damage
100% Better Chance of Getting Magic Item
-5 to Mana
Gloves: Chance Guard
Defense: 27-28
Required Level: 15
Required Strength: 25
Durability: 16
+20-30% Enhanced Defense
+15 Defense
+25 To Attack Rating
25-40% Better Chance of Getting Magic Item
200% Extra Gold From Monsters
+2 To Light Radius
Boots: Rare
% to Magic Find (Varies greatly)
% to Cold Resist and Fire resist
30% Faster Run/Walk
Belt: Goldwrap
Defense: 34-36
Required Level: 27
Required Strength: 45
Durability: 18
12 Boxes
+40-60% Enhanced Defense
+25 Defense
10% Increased Attack Speed
30% Better Chance Of Getting Magic Items
50-80% Extra Gold From Monsters
+2 To Light Radius
Rings: 2x Nagelring
Magic Damage Reduced By 3
+50-75 To Attack Rating
Attacker Takes Damage of 3
15-30% Better Chance Of Getting Magic Items
Amulet: Rare
% Magic Find
% to Cold and Fire resists
+ Life and Mana (Not needed but preferred)
###############
#Dueling Build#
###############
Helm: Rare helm
10% or 20 faster hit recovery
20+ to Life
Cold Resist 20%+
Fire Resist 20%+
Armor1: Hawkmail (For dueling Cold-based Sorceress)
Defense: 109-122
Required Level: 15
Required Strength: 44
Durability: 36
+80-100% Enhanced Defense
10% Faster Run/Walk
15% To Max Cold Resist
Cold Resist +15%
Cannot Be Frozen
Armor2: Rare (For everything else)
24% Faster Hit Recovery
Cold Resist 20%
Fire Resist 20%
50+ to Life
Shield: Priz*
20-30 to Cold, Fire, and Lightning resists
Faster Block Rate
Enhanced block rate
Weapon: Spectral Shard
+10 to All Resistances
50 to Mana
50% Faster Cast Rate
55% to Attack Rating
Gloves: Frostburn
+10-20% Enhanced Defense
+30 Defense
+5% Enhanced Damage
Increase Maximum Mana 40%
Adds 1-6 Cold Damage
Alternate Gloves: Magefist
Boots: Rare
30% Faster Run/Walk
10% faster hit recovery
+20 to Mana
Cold resist and Fire resist
Belt: Rare
10% Faster Hit Recovery
30+ to Life
Cold Resist
Fire Resist
Rings:
10% Faster Cast Rate
Cold resists and Fire resists
+Mana or +Life
Amulet: Rare
+1 or 2 to Sorceress Skill Levels
10-20% to all resists
+Life or +Mana
The reason I suggest two armors on hand for duel build is because the
vast majority of Sorceresses out there are cold elemental. If you have
Energy shield plus a Hawkmail, Frozen Orb sorceresses won't be able to
even touch you while Blizzard sorceresses can't OHKO you unless you stand
in their blizzards.
------------
---Quests---
------------
If you play on LAN parties, or have no friends on Battle.net, you may find
that you have to go it alone on the quests. In this section of the guide, I'll
try to help you as best as I can on the quests.
Note: Since I'm recalling about 90% of this from memory, I may be totally off
base on some things. Also, I will not be reposting boss strategies here. Those
are in section 6 if you need them.
+++++++++
++Act I++
+++++++++
Note, I'll be mentioning the level you should be at in this format:
9/10/11
That means that the level you should be at for this quest is 9 for Normal, 10
for nightmare, and 11 for Hell, in this example. These are just rough
estimates of where you should be at.
First act. Woohoo. Grassy area most of the time.
##########################
#QUEST 1: THE DEN OF EVIL#
##########################
Levels: 1/30/50
Quite simple. Head out into Blood Moor, locate the Den of Evil, and kill all
the monsters in it. Not hard at all.
Normal Notes: You should be able to do this solo on your stock Staff and Fire
Bolt. Switch off to Ice bolt should you level, however.
Nightmare: You should have Frozen Orb/Blizzard now. Cakewalk.
Hell: You'll need someone to help you with this, or a half-decent melee
weapon. You will probably run across some zombies, which are cold immune.
Reward: 1 Skill Point
######################
#QUEST 2: BLOOD RAVEN#
######################
Levels: 6/35/55
Talk to Kashya, who'll tell you to hunt down Blood Raven in the Burial
Grounds. Go to Blood Moor, looking for the only exit out, which will be going
to Cold Plains. Be sure to grab the Waypoint, and search for the Burial
Grounds. If you've entered the Stony Field, you've gone too far.
NORMAL: This might be a bit of a problem. Blood Raven can summon zombies,
which do pack a punch should they get too close. Not only that, but her fire
arrows hurt like hell, and trying to catch up with her to pump a few IceBolts
into her seems like an all-day affair.
Carry lots of Mana potions. Lots. Not to mention Health potions and some Town
Portals. Don't be afraid to portal out if you need to.
Just simply gun for Blood Raven, not worrying about the riffraff she summons.
If, and only if the legions of undead become troublesome, take some time to
pick them off.
Nightmare and Hell notes: At this point, you should have Frozen Orb/Blizzard,
and she should be easy to pick off.
Reward: A useless mercenary.
##########################
#QUEST 3: SEARCH FOR CAIN#
##########################
Levels: 10/38/59
NOTE: Quite an important quest. You'll need this one to create Cow games of
your own.
Go to the Dark Wood, which is past the Stony Field (Via the Underground Pass),
get to the Tree of Inifuiss, get the scroll, take it to Akara. Then return to
the Stony Field, go to the strange-looking stones, and activate them in the
order presented on the scroll. Hey, look! Tristram!
NORMAL: Proceed slowly, being sure to steer clear of the cow corpses. They
explode, dealing damage. If you wish to get Cain (Center of Tristram) and run
out, you can do so. If you wish to explore, watch out for Griswold. His
physical attacks can curse, not to mention his physical attacks hurt badly.
NORMAL and NIGHTMARE: Same thing.
Reward: Free identification from Cain! Nice. Also, you'll get a Rare Ring from
Akara.
NOTE ON QUEST 4: I'm skipping on the FORGOTTEN TOWER because it's a useless
quest, only nets you some gold, and that's about it. Not much to say on it.
#############################
#QUEST 5: THE HORADRIC MALUS#
#############################
Level: 15/38/59
Get the Quest from Charsi. You have to go to the Jail (Follow the Dark Wood to
the Black Marsh, then from the Marsh to the Tamoe Highland, and then from
there to the Monastery Gate and the Outer Cloister, grabbing waypoints along
the way.)
You'll want to be in the Barracks. Continue wandering around, killing stuff,
being sure to set up Town Portals every so often. When you hear a deep voice,
that's telling you that you have found The Smith. Deck out of there like your
life depends on it!
ALSO: Make sure you clear all previous rooms of riffraff before engaging the
Smith, if you can. Makes things easier.
ALL DIFFICULTIES: Keep some room between you and him, and don't hesitate to
use the Portal to go back to town for a refuel. His melee attack packs a
punch, and will hurt you quite a bit. Just keep your distance, using your most
powerful attack at your disposal (Orb/Blizzard/Ice Bolt depending on
difficulty).
You'll get a one-time Imbue for your trouble. DO NOT USE THIS UNTIL LATER ON.
###################################
#QUEST 6: SISTERS TO THE SLAUGHTER#
###################################
Level: 20/40/60
Continue down to the Jail from the Barracks. You'll have to go through two
levels of Jail, then the Inner Cloister (Waypoint!), then four levels of the
Catacombs (Level 2 Waypoint, don't forget it!). On Level 4, you'll have to
engage a ton of enemies before engaging Andariel herself.
Nothing's different for Nightmare and Hell. There should be no Cold Immunes
down here.
And with that, act one is DONE.
++++++++++
++Act II++
++++++++++
A desolate desert...This act will drive you nuts, which is why most people
usually try to rush through it as soon as possible.
This really consists of two quests--one is to deal with Radament, the other to
collect the Horadric Staff, drop into Tal Rasha's tomb, and deal with Duriel.
##########################
#QUEST 1: RADAMENT'S LAIR#
##########################
Levels: 20/40/60
First quest! You'll want to do this one for the skill point it nets you.
First off, talk to Atma, who will tell you some sad tale about Radament. Where
is this idiot? The Sewers, of course.
There are two entrances to the Sewers. One up towards the entrance to town
(depending heavily on how your map was generated) and one at the docks.
Use the one at the docks. This will put you next to the steps down to Sewers
level 2. Continue down to you happen upon a army of undead and Radament. (Oh
yeah, be sure to get the Waypoint!)
His army of Undead can be quite difficult to deal with, since he can revive
the undead unless you shatter them into little frozen shards with Ice Blast or
Ice Bolt.
(By the way, if you are in Nightmare, you should have Orb/Blizzard by now. Use
it excessively. No muss, no fuss.)
Once the undead are mostly out of the way, you can focus on Radament. He has a
pretty strong ranged attack, and his melee attack hurts badly. So keep your
distance, and keep moving.
(If you are in hell, you are probably going to need the services of a friend,
as there might be cold immunes down there that will ruin your day.
Once done, you'll get a Book and a Horadric Scroll. Read the Book and you'll
get a Skill point. Take the Horadric scroll to Cain, and...
##########################
#QUEST 2: THE REST OF 'EM#
##########################
Levels: 20-30/40-50/60-70
Pretty much every other quest can be lumped into this.
It's one of those linear quests as well, meaning there's effectively only one
place to go. You start at the Rocky Waste, and end at the Valley of the
Snakes.
-The Horadric Cube- (Only do this if you DO NOT HAVE ONE.)
For the Cube, we'll need to go to the Halls of the Dead, which is in the Dry
Hills. To get there, just go from the Rocky Waste to the Dry Hills, being sure
to get the waypoint in the Dry Hills.
There's also a Waypoint in the Halls of the Dead. You may want to get it. I
didn't.
The Halls of the dead are a pain to get through. Behind every door it seems,
there's a huge cluster of enemies, assisted by Greater Mummies (The ones who
look like Radament, and CAN revive undead), which makes for a difficult time.
The best advice I could give you on this is choke the enemies on doorways, so
the flow of enemies is stemmed a bit.
Anyway, once you get to Level 3, expect one last cluster of enemies before
cracking the chest with the Cube in it. Town-portal back to town, talking to
Cain, and then using the waypoint to go back to Dry Hills.
-The Staff of Kings-
So, let's continue. You DID get the Dry Hills Waypoint, right? Good.
Continue on to the Far Oasis (get the waypoint!) from the Dry Hills. You are
looking for a small cave called the Maggot Lair. Enter it.
If you haven't come across them already, you probably will now. Beware the
Dung Beetles, who will emit lightning if you strike them. This lightning hurts
badly, and if you have it on, will drain your Mana due to Energy Shield.
Beware.
On Hell, cold Sorceresses will have it bad, as the Maggots are cold immune.
You can teleport right past them. Don't run out of mana, however.
Anyway, continue going on until you reach level 3 (or 4?). You'll know you've
hit the right spot when you see a gigantic maggot named Coldworm the Burrower.
On Nightmare and Hell, there's nothing you can do about him, for he's cold
immune. Just pop open the chest, nab the staff, and run.
Return to town via Town Portal, and talk to Cain, and Drognan.
-The Viper Amulet-
Return to Far Oasis via the waypoint. Time to continue on.
Continue through the Far Oasis until you happen upon the Lost City. At some
point, the entire scenery will go dark, and your light radius reduced to nil.
Town portal, and talk to Drognan, who will give you Quest 3. Return to the
Lost City, grabbing the Waypoint.
Now proceed through the Lost City, before finally entering the Act's final
Desert-y area, the Valley of the Snakes. Enter the only place here, the Claw
Viper Temple.
Be careful in here. The Claw Vipers have a charge attack that WILL stun you.
When a ton of them do it in quick succession, it could easily mean game over.
Have tons of potions at the ready.
(Hell Sorceresses should teleport right through this. Most of the monsters in
here are Cold immune.)
You'll finally get to the bottom, and there will be a TON of Claw Vipers, and
a central altar. Teleport to the Central Altar if you can, bust it open, take
the amulet, and deck out of there.
Otherwise, you'll have to fight it out. Get up on the Altar if you can, as the
Claw Vipers can't get up there.
Head to town, Talk to Cain. Then put the Staff of Kings and the Viper Amulet
in your Horadric cube, and Transmute it. WHOOM! Horadric Staff! Talk to Cain
again. Then talk to Drognan, and lastly Jehryn. Now, you'll enter the Harem,
which is a barrel-full of fun, trust me. (Sarcasm intended.)
-The Arcane Sanctuary-
So descend into the Harem, tagging the Waypoint along the way. Keep descending
the levels until you hit a weird looking portal. This will take you to a
platform seemingly floating in space. Welcome to the Arcane Sanctuary.
There are four different ways to go, and sadly, unless you possess a maphack
or something like that to show you the way. Otherwise, the only way is trial
and error.
Be careful in here. The Wraiths can drain your mana quickly, almost resulting
in instant death. Some enemies even have ranged attacks, and can fire at you
from the safety of another platform.
Sooner or later, you'll happen upon the big cheese himself, The Summoner. You
best deal with him quick, as his attacks hurt badly. Town portal before
engaging him. He has a Glacial Spike that he loves to use quite a bit, and it
will roughly shave off half of your life if your resistances are not so great.
After he's finished, read the journal, and travel through the portal to the
Canyon of the Magi. Get the waypoint sitting right in front of you.
-Duriel time-
So pop open your quest log, and you'll see the symbol for the true Tomb of Tal
Rasha. Wander around, wasting enemies until you find the symbol that matches
the one in your quest log. Those in Nightmare/Hell can probably just teleport
around until they find it.
Anyway, after wandering throughout the Tomb, you'll find an Orifice. Stick the
Horadric Staff into this, which will cause a force to blast through the wall.
Go through the wall, and engage Duriel!
After he's defeated, explore the Tomb, and you'll find Tyrael. Talk to him,
then talk to everyone in town. Talk to Mesheif, and head for Act 3.
+++++++++++
++Act III++
+++++++++++
Welcome to Act 3, the Kurast Jungle. This will be a TOTAL NIGHTMARE if you are
soloing this Act. Most people rush it. As such, I'm going to have to play
through this entire act by myself. I'll detail how to get a rush through this
section until I am able to get through this act. (Probably version 2.1)
Anyway. Here we go.
#########
#QUEST 6#
#########
So, let's start out with the guns blazing. Get your friend to take the
waypoint to Travincal, being sure to get the waypoint yourself.
Make your way to the right, moving until you happen upon the Council (you'll
know it when you see them), letting your friend lay waste to them. You can't
get too far, or you won't get the quest. Stay close to your friend. If you die
near the Council, just stay dead until the quest is done.
When the quest is over, talk to Cain. Have your friend portal you to the
Durance of Hate 2 Waypoint, grabbing the waypoint. If you have teleport, just
teleport to the stairway leading to level 3.
Once here, you've got three groups of Council to deal with.
One's going to be at the center of the room as you head towards the center.
Take him out, and his lackeys with Frozen Orb/Blizzard (You SHOULD have it
already). Now you got two more groups, one to the left, and one to the right.
Take them both if you wish, or just head one direction, taking one of them
out. Then go for Mephisto, who should be towards the top of the map.
Once he's wasted, head through the BIG RED PORTAL in the center of the room.
++++++++++
++Act IV++
++++++++++
Almost done!
You've only got three quests to do here. Let's make it quick. You should be at
level 40, 60, or 75 for this. (normal, nightmare, hell, respectively.) In
hell, you shouldn't be alone.
#########
#QUEST 1#
#########
DO THIS QUEST! You get two skill points, PER DIFFICULTY.
So, Tyrael wants you to hunt down Izual and hand his behind back to him. No
problem, we'll do just that.
If you have teleport and a lot of mana, you might just want to skip over the
first area and directly to the Plains of Despair. (It's the second area from
the Pandemonium Fortress)
Otherwise, just work your way slowly across the first part of Act 4 until you
reach the Plains of Despair. Be patient, as it's quite difficult. No matter
what difficulty you are on, you should have your build's main skill right now,
so use it. Orbers have it better here because of the good crowd control.
Blizzers, not so much.
You'll know when you come across Izual. He has a TON of monsters surrounding
him. Lure them away and take care of them, as they'll make your life extremely
difficult if you let them stick around.
Once the riffraff is wasted, it's time to take Izual himself down. He boasts
quite a bit of HP, not to mention that his melee attack packs a huge punch,
and it *will* slow you. Stay far, hitting him with your Orb/Blizzard.
It may take a while, but he'll fall. Be careful, once he dies, he'll let go of
a quite damaging Frost Nova.
Talk to him, portal to Town, talk to Tyrael and get your skill points.
Thank you very much.
#########
#QUEST 2#
#########
Assuming you are attempting this in the same game as the last quest, head back
through the town portal, this time looking for a waypoint. Grab the waypoint
to the City of the Damned.
The waypoint should be directly adjacent to some stairs leading to the RIVER
OF FLAME. Take them.
Now...there are two ways you can go here. I've found that if you go West,
you'll end up finding the Hellforge. It's not always true, but it works.
Now, one way to tell if you've gone out of the way is if you come to the River
of Flame waypoint. You are about to enter the Chaos Sanctuary. Turn around and
take a different direction.
You'll know you've reached the hellforge when you hear Hephasto the Armorer
say something. He'll come up fast on you, so keep your distance.
Imagine the Smith with a difficulty bump. A significant one at that.
Take care of the riffraff surrounding him first, trying to sneak in a hit or
two on Hephasto himself, being sure to keep your distance from him. He packs
quite a punch.
Once the enemies are taken care of, focus on Hephasto himself. He should fall
pretty quickly. Once that's done, pick up the Hellforge Hammer and equip it.
Walk up to the Hell Forge, click it once to place Mephisto's Soulstone on it,
and begin attacking it with the Hell Forge Hammer to break it. Boom. Tons of
gems for you.
#########
#ENDGAME#
#########
Time to show Big D we mean business.
If you already got the River of Flame waypoint, take it now. Otherwise, find
your way to it, grab it, and proceed past it.
This is basically a maze you have to navigate through. Use your main skill to
blast through all the enemies here, occasionally using teleport to bypass the
maze if you have it.
Once you get to the doorway of the Chaos Sanctuary...this is where it begins
to get difficult.
The Oblivion Knights are not to be underestimated. The melee ones are pretty
weak, but their magic-using counterparts are not. They can curse you and use
elemental magic against you. Be careful, as they do have the Lower Resistances
curse, and their magic will hurt quite badly, especially so if you are cursed.
If you begin losing too much HP, back off until the curse wears off.
I'll now split this quest into three subsections:
GRAND VIZIER OF CHAOS-----------
(West Side)
Pop the two seals at the west to release Vizier. He spawns with a ton of
ghosts as well, who cast slow-moving lightning bolts at you. Be careful,
getting hit by a ton of these at once will very likely kill you, if not drain
your mana, AND do significant damage to you.
Orbers have the crowd-control advantage here. Go nuts.
Blizzard sorceresses should only be concerned with ghosts coming directly at
them or directly attacking them. Once enough are cleared, only then begin
attacking Vizier himself. He should fall easily.
LORD DE SEIS--------------------
(North)
This one isn't so easy. More likely than not, he'll curse you with a Decripify
spell, making you slow down, and your defenses will fall, making you easy prey
for his Bone Spirits and his melee army.
Begin dropping Blizzards on the melee Knights closest to you, making an effort
to move out of range of Seis himself. Orbers should begin spamming orbs toward
Seis. You'll likely knock out a ton of melee knights in the process.
You may require help for this one, as Seis MIGHT be Cold immune.
INFECTOR OF SOULS---------------
(East)
This one is a little hard. When you pull the final seal, be careful exiting,
as a gigantic cluster of Venom Lords will probably descend on you if they
haven't already.
Teleport out of there if you can, if only to give you some breathing room.
Then begin to work on the Venom Lords. You'll want to kill off the Venom Lords
before working on Infector himself.
By then, Infector should be easy-cakes.
DIABLO-------------------
(Center)
*See Magic Find section for boss info*
--------------------------------
---Zen and the art of Dueling---
--------------------------------
So once you've completed the game, three times over...you may ask yourself,
"What is there to do...I'm bored!"
After leveling up your character quite a bit, most people do PvP. That
is--Dueling. This section is here to help you out by giving you some pointers
in dueling.
There's one constant rule among sorceress dueling: "A sorceress without
teleport is a dead one." Never duel without teleport. NEVER. It's a quick way
to lose. The only exception to this rule is LLD (Low Level Duelers).
You may want to switch your skill hotkeys to something more convenient to your
potion keys (Which cannot be changed, IIRC). Mine are Q, W, E, R for the first
four skill hotkeys. Whatever's comfortable for you.
If you are playing an Orber, keep in mind of the Orb's break point. Right when
it explodes, if you can catch an opponent in the epicenter of the explosion,
it'll do insane damage. (Credit Patrick G. for this one)
######################
#PvP Damage Reduction#
######################
"Why aren't my 2k Blizzards killing these idiots in one hit!?" You may be
asking. When Blizzard designed Diablo II, they thought about it, and this made
things a bit unfair. So when you are engaged in a duel, your damage toward
other players is cut by 3/4, or 75%.
Otherwise, your blizzards would be one-hit kills, and no one would want to
duel. Ever.
##############################
#Sorceress vs. Hammer-Paladin#
##############################
This will be a tough fight. You'll have to stay as far away from the
'din as possible, since his hammers may not be in range, but he can be
stepping on your heels in a matter of seconds. Hammerdins also make use
of a glitch commonly known as sync, which will cause you to lag for a
few seconds, giving him the perfect window of opportunity. Staying far
away from him is a good way to avoid falling victim to this technique.
Also, it should be known that those hammers do about 9,000 damage per
hammer, so two will probably kill you if not one.
As far as offense, you'll just have to drop random blizzards and hope
he walks into one. Getting close enough to drop a blizzard right on him
might be too risky, unless he's reloading on mana. Orbers can just go crazy
here. No accuracy involved.
Note: It would seem that having Diablo II in Direct3D mode will totally
nerf the synch glitch. At least for me it did. If someone could confirm
this, it would be helpful.
###################################
#Sorceress vs. Fist Of The Heavens#
###################################
Another variant of the paladin, this one attacks with a lightning bolt
which homes in from the sky, making it nigh unavoidable. I myself would
just avoid all fights with FoH dins. If you must, however, equip
yourself with MAXIMUM lightning resists. FoH dins have Conviction,
which weaken your resists quite a bit. You can try and stay away from
the din, but his FoH is a surefire hit. Once he casts it, you are going
to get hit, like it or not.
To kill it, you'll have to go kamikaze. His FoH has quite a range, so
you'll have to kill him before he kills you. If you are playing Orber,
remember to catch him in the epicenter of the orb! The faster you kill him,
the better.
#########################
#Sorceress vs. Barbarian#
#########################
Very easy if the opponent has no Hawkmail. If he does, this is going to
be a really long fight.
Most BvS types have a Hawkmail, some points in Natural Resistance, and
are really speedy to catch up with you. Your most effective weapon
against these types is already neutralized (freezing). So it's normally
an uphill battle.
What you need to hope for is that the barbarian does something called a
"WW lock". This means that the Barbarian is stuck in a whirlwind going
towards you. This will give you speed advantage so you can blizzard him
to death, as he will come at you with reduced speed. However, even if you
manage to reduce his life to zero, he'll still be spinning towards you. Be
careful--he can still damage you. Just run until he stops and dies.
UPDATE: There is a glitch I discovered that would allow the Barbarian
to "teleport", for lack of a better term, right onto your heels,
causing you some pretty good damage. If you built your sorceress well
though, you should be able to survive it and teleport safely away.
If he doesn't lock you, just use the houses and rocks in Blood Moor to
try to slow him down a bit, dropping blizzards in the middle of these
obstructions. He'll likely take some damage one way or another.
Orbers shouldn't even bother if he's got cold-resist gear on. It's basically
an instant loss.
########################################
#Sorceress vs. Amazon (Bow)/Necromancer#
########################################
I group the Necromancer and Bow Amazon because they are almost exactly
alike. Both use attacks that will home in on your position, and you'll
need to evade effectively while getting a good shot in.
You have to avoid their projectiles while trying to score a hit.
Unfortunately, this isn't easy at all. You have to get right next to
them, and hopefully drop a blizzard on them. Meanwhile, the
Necromancer/Amazon is probably taking this window of opportunity to
pump you full of Bone Spirits/Guided Arrows. If you are REALLY good,
you can teleport; quickly hotkey to blizzard, cast it, and quickly
switch back to teleport and run for it before you take too much damage.
And for dueling these types, FASTER HIT RECOVERY IS A MUST. Both
attacks, when they connect, will cause you to flinch for a second,
allowing a full army of arrows/spirits to bombard you, thus killing
you. The trick here is to WALK AWAY from being hit, not TELEPORTING.
Teleporting takes a fraction of a second to do, and in that small
window of time, another arrow or spirit can connect, causing you to
flinch again...and again...and again until you are dead.
One thing to note, however--The Amazon's Guided Arrow travels somewhat
faster than the Necromancer's Bone Spirit.
Orbers: You have it a bit easier. Just try to get close and let an orb fly
at them. Hopefully you'll hit.
##############################
#Sorceress Vs. Javelin Amazon#
##############################
NOTE: See the Hackers section of the dueling chapter for some important
info on dueling Javelin Amazons. If, after checking that part out, you
are SURE its OK, then read on.
First thing's first. Put a LOT of distance between you and the Zon.
Because once that Javelin connects with your sorceress, I can guarantee
an instant death, since like Bow Amazons, those javelins cause a
massive flinch when they hit. And since Javelin Amazons have immense
attack speed, your chances of survival are close to nothing--unless, of
course, you have a 3-topaz shield and a Sparkling Mail.
Now most duelists aren't stupid. They know you are a blizzard
sorceress, and they aren't going to run directly at you. Therefore, you
are going to have to predict where they are going to be, and drop a
blizzard and hope they run right into it.
Another strategy, if you are the kamikaze type, is run right up to her,
blizzard her before she can jab you, then as she recovers, pump her
full of ice blasts, and hope she dies. This assumes she has crappy hit
recovery and has no Hawkmail on, of course.
Orbers know what to do here. Just spam it in their general direction. If they
are hacker-zons, you'll be dead before you know it, in this case.
#########################
#Sorceress vs. Sorceress#
#########################
This one has nothing to it, really. SvS mostly consists of teleporting
around like mad trying to avoid getting hit. This warning deserves to
be repeated twice--have LOTS of mana potions on hand.
Make sure you activate Energy Shield, and have a full belt of mana
potions. This is going to be a long fight.
Mainly the thing to do is to teleport madly around the map and drop
blizzards everywhere at random. Hope the sorceress manages to teleport
right into one. This is pretty much your only hope against other
blizzard sorceresses. Another thing to keep in mind with blizzard
sorceresses is that you should ALWAYS stay away from any blizzards;
even you think they are your own. The opposing sorceress may have
dropped one in the EXACT same location.
Fire sorceresses are a different story. Keep away from their fireballs,
as those are highly lethal. Teleport right past, drop a blizzard, run.
Rinse and repeat as necessary. Also, those fireballs have splash damage. If
they even come CLOSE to you, you'll be severely injured, if not killed. So
be
careful.
Frozen Orb sorceresses are easy. If your sorceress is buff enough, you
can take a load of frozen orbs before you actually come close to dying.
Just run right into it, blizzard the hell out of her, and be done with
it. Make sure you don't get caught in the Orb's break point, and you
should be fine.
Lastly, Lightning. This should be really easy for sorceresses with
energy shield. Just have tons of mana on hand. Energy Shield absorbs
100% lightning damage; so all damage goes to mana. Isn't that nice?
#########
#Hackers#
#########
You may come across some characters that are doing things not humanly
possible. Such things include Sorceresses dropping blizzards at an
alarming rate, some who have blizzards that drop automatically each
time the sorceress teleports, and sometimes, when you are about to kill
someone, their life refills automatically.
These can sometimes be attributed to hacks, or in the case of the
latter, Rejuvenation potions.
One hack I described earlier is probably responsible for the fast
casting of spells. Someone puts Blizzard on their left click and
Teleport on their right. There isn't an easy to tell who's abusing this
dirty trick; you'll have to be observant.
The next one is the chicken module, which has someone both open a
portal and return to town when hostility is expressed, life gets too
low, or some other condition. Instead of returning to town, the user
can also choose to exit the game. This is clearly a way of the person
covering their behind from a dueling loss. I would avoid dueling in
this case.
Another one that I have seen in action is known as TMC/FC. FC stands
for "far cast". I have no idea what TMC stands for.
What these hacks do is grant the user max cast speed and max hit
recovery, in the case of TMC. In the case of FC (Which is used by
almost all javelin amazons in hell), the user gets a far-ranged attack,
even with close-range weapons. All the person needs is for your little
blip to show up on the automap, and you are vulnerable to this hack.
What I'd do is refuse to duel with any javelin amazons. Most, if not
all, exploit this trick.
Another trick I've seen takes advantage of Energy Shield. I've noticed
that in town, sometimes, my energy shield will make that arcing effect
that indicates you are taking damage. In effect, my mana would begin
dropping at an alarming rate and not recover. My life, however,
remained untouched. I don't see this one in widespread use yet, but if
it does become used widely, beware.
Yet another one that i've seen, and even been accused of using is the
aimer. This allows you to blizzard people two screens away, not even in
your field of vision. There's a legitimate technique that looks like
aimer, so you'll have to be observant.
Said technique is called the name lock. Try mousing over someone who's
hostile to you. You notice how their life bar shows? Well, if you hold
down the right mouse button (command-click for your Mac users out there),
you'll lock them, or your blizzards, as long as you hold down the
button, will continually cast over the person you locked until they
move far away. its hard to explain it, but it exists, and it is a
legitimate technique that is sometimes pegged as cheating. Don't
get me wrong, there ARE actually aimer programs which require no effort
to use.
The last and dirtiest trick I know of is the Baal Hack. This hack
allows those who have Expansion installed (But choose to play Classic
characters) to go to Act 5. This cannot be used directly against you,
but it helps people get to unfair levels. Therefore, dueling in Hell is
highly discouraged.
###############
#Partied Duels#
###############
Sometimes you may find yourself in a partied duel. These will get very nasty,
very quick. You have to be prepared.
As far as putting together a good duel party, you will always want a
barbarian on your side with Battle Orders. This will boost your
health/mana, skills, and defense.
I can't predict what characters are in your roster, or the opponent's,
so I will just offer some general tips on team duels.
-If things get too crazy for you to handle (Two people ganging up on
you), try to lure them toward a teammate for them to take down. Or if
you don't have any teammates alive, then try using the structures in
Blood Moor to your advantage. An example is to use a house to take down
a paladin in a Necro-Paladin vs. Sorc-Barbarian setup. The house will
shield you from the hordes of bone spirits while you work on the
paladin. Only when the Necro decides to move around a bit will he have
a clear shot.
-An opportune time to grab a kill is when your opponent gets confused.
Say your opponent just dodged your teammate's attack. There will be
some confusion on the opponent's part--a perfect time to pump a
Blizzard/Orb into them.
-If you have a Necromancer on your team, have him use his bone walls to
choke up your opponents. Have him prison the other team and make them
lambs to the slaughter for everyone else on your team.
++++++++++++++++++++
+++Player-Killers+++
++++++++++++++++++++
People may use the acronym "PK" to refer to dueling. I use it, however, for
the act of killing someone who doesn't want to duel.
Pretty much, idiots are everywhere. Power-hungry idiots who have nothing
better to prove that they are more powerful than you, and therefore will
crash your game by hostiling your party and picking you off one-by-one.
Sometimes this happens in Hell Chaos runs. Sometimes it'll happen in
Normal. It doesn't matter. You need to be prepared.
So, PK. In Hardcore these idiots are especially feared, as death is
permanent. I'll offer some general advice in dealing with PK:
-If partied, stay together. Remember, "United they come, divided they
fall." If you stay apart, that enhances the chances of the PK being able to
pick off your party, one by one. Of course, this is all moot if you decide
to Town Portal and wait it out in town.
-If you have another, more powerful character, bring it in.
-Flood the entrance that you think the PK is going to enter the area from.
They'll likely lag majorly, giving you a chance to deal some massive
damage, or die from all the spellcasting. Either/or.
If you decide to take up a sword and fight back, read the dueling section.
However, most of the time, you aren't in a Blood Moor-type area, but rather
a cramped area like the catacombs.
Use this to your advantage if you should have Teleport handy. Especially
versus classes that cannot easily move from room to room, this will give
you a great vantage point.
I think, though, MFitz had the best advice ever in dealing with PKs. That
advice is always assume the PK knows your exact location. Either through a
double-agent in your party, or even a maphack. But always assume the worst
case scenario, and you'll be fine.
------------------------
---Magic find and You---
------------------------
Assuming you have your Magic find gear, we can go magic finding. This
is the act of repeatedly killing bosses for Rare/unique items. The
bosses you can kill are the big four: Andariel, Mephisto, Duriel and
Diablo.
Many only go for Andariel and Mephisto. In Nightmare and Normal, you
are more than capable of taking Diablo as well.
In my experience, however, I notice that in Hell difficulties, Andariel
gives significantly better finds than Mephisto does. Maybe its just
me, but that's what i've seen.
Before we begin seriously MF-ing, there are some critical points that
need to be taken into account:
1. Teleportation. When you Teleport, be careful of packs of enemies.
Whenever you teleport into an enemy, walk away a bit, THEN Teleport.
Otherwise they will continually hit you, causing you to flinch, and
thus, die before you get a single teleport off.
2. Because of reason 1, I'd invest a point into shiver armor. This will
causes enemies to flinch from hitting you instead of you flinching from
being hit.
3. If you go to a populated game, I'd recommend staying unpartied and
not using town portals. Why? Some people hate MF-ers and will hunt them
down if they are discovered ruining their game.
4. In Populated games, difficulties are significantly higher because
the more people in a game, the higher the monster difficulty. Be
careful. Just because you could handle Diablo in your private game DOES
NOT mean you can in a public game.
5. Have lots of patience and self-control. The first few times, you
will likely botch the run and die. It happens. Sooner or later, it
becomes natural, and you'll be magic finding like a pro.
6. It should go without saying, but be courteous. don't kill Andariel
when someone else needs the quest as well. Only kill bosses if everyone
is past that point, or its a dueling game.
7. This should also go without saying, but more people = better drops.
8. There's a myth going around that says if you get Baron/Baroness
status, you will get lesser drops. Don't know if this is true, but it
wouldn't hurt to exercise caution.
Let's begin with the individual strategies for the bosses. (These can
also be applied somewhat to quest games, however, this guide assumes
you are flying solo when you do this.)
PROTIP: If you are playing Single player, type /players x (where x is
numbers 1-8). This will increase enemy difficulty, AND net you better
drops.
##########
#Andariel#
##########
In Normal and Nightmare, Andariel isn't much of a threat. She can be
slowed with cold, giving you even more of an advantage. Her poison
shouldn't hurt too badly, just be sure to stay out of her melee range.
Beware, however. The two poison attacks she has can stack, so you'll
have two spells of poison, which will drag your life down pretty quick.
(In hell, Andariel cannot be frozen, and her poison hurts immensely.
I'd recommend, as crappy as the item may be, holding on to a Venom Ward
(Unique Breast plate) for Andariel runs.)
Before you run up and get Andariel to begin giving chase, however, I'd
take care of all the riffraff in the area; The Dark Ones, Zombies, and
Misshappen's (The latter can really ruin your day).
When Andariel is chasing you, the best thing to do is run away while
spamming blizzards in her direction. You can also teleport around her
so she stays in one place trying to draw a bead on you, thus taking
more damage from your blizzard. Orbers can exploit this trick for some
MASSIVE damage.
In Normal, Andariel doesn't drop very good items. In Nightmare and
Hell, it depends. Some days she drops a lot of rare/unique items, and
some days she doesn't drop anything but gold.
NOTE: There's a new type of MF out there on battle.net that I should
cover called the "virgin Andariel killer". In a nutshell, this build is
rushed to Act 1 Hell, joins games that already have Andariel done, and
kills her. The effect is that Andariel's quest is never done. People
believe that if you don't do Andariel's quest and kill her, she drops 5
rare items on a constant basis. I haven't tested this, but that's what
I'm hearing.
########
#Duriel#
########
Most people skip Duriel. On good days, though, Duriel drops some decent
stuff. I've gotten a Spectral Shard and Frostburns off of him once.
Best way to tackle him is to keep a distance. His cold aura will drain
your mana quick if you are using energy shield. If you aren't using a
Hawkmail, you'll also have to deal with the effects of cold, so running
by foot may not be an option. Use teleport when you can.*
(*- I should mention that while you are getting pummeled by the cold
aura, Teleport is totally broken. don't try it if you are too close.)
Handle Duriel like you handled Andariel. Just don't get too close, as
that aura is painful. By the way, Duriel has no ranged attacks. So keep
your distance, and it'll be hard for him to hit you.
##########
#Mephisto#
##########
This fight is easy. That is, once the Council is out of the way.
First off, you'll want to go around to the left or right of the area.
Take out all the council members in the area. If you decide to take the
right path, beware, as that council member has mana burn.
Once that's done, here's what you do. You know that bloody river that
separates you from the red portal in this room? You get Mephisto to
give chase, and then you teleport to the other side of the bloody
river. If you do it right, Mephisto will be struggling to get to you.
However, he still has ranged attacks. Move away until you can barely
see him in the corner of your screen. At this point, he should just
squirm in position, and cannot attack you or get you at all. From here
on, it's an easy, safe kill.
Orbers have it tough. You guys actually have to get in there and dance with
Mephisto if you wish to kill him. Best of luck to you.
########
#Diablo#
########
Before you get to fight Diablo, you have to deal with his three little
buddies: The Grand Vizier of Chaos, Lord De Seis, and Infector of
Souls. It goes without saying, but that's because I'm saying it: Don't
attempt Diablo in Hell without a Paladin partied with you.
Lord De Seis should be your main worry. There's a chance in every game
that he will be immune to cold, thus screwing you up. Unless you have a
friend that can take care of him, you'll have to make a new game.
Once the Three are taken care of, Diablo pops out. Best way to pump
some pre-emptive blizzards/orbs into him is to teleport back to the center
of the arena once you activate the final seal. Keep spamming blizzards/orbs
over the center and you'll get a few hits in before he's able to move
away.
Diablo has three ranged attacks: a lightning inferno (hurts a lot, even
in Nightmare), a fire wall (weak) and lastly, sends a ton of flames
creeping towards you (also weak). Get too close and he'll backhand you,
which will slow you unless you have Hawkmail equipped.
The rule of the thumb here is to just keep moving. You don't need to
teleport. Just plain running should get you out of Diablo's ranged
attacks. When you see a break in his pattern, stop and drop a blizzard/orb
on him. The only reason you should get within melee range is to use
static field on him.
-----------
---Legal---
-----------
Okay, here's the deal.
I don't mind if you use this guide on your website one iota. But I do
ask that you at least email me and tell me where it is that it's going
to be posted. That's all I ask.
I do ask also that you do not take sections of this guide out and mash
them together with other guides. If you want a section, just take the
whole thing.
And if you use this guide on your site, it is YOUR responsibility, not
my own, to keep tabs on the updates. I will post my latest revision to
GameFAQs, so that will be where you can get the latest and greatest. If
I get complaints that a site is using an outdated version of my guide,
I will just peg it on the Webmaster. Like I said, not my fault.
And lastly, I believe in credit where credit's due, meaning do not say
you wrote this guide when you didn't. I am the original writer--please
respect that.
-------------
---Contact---
-------------
If you wish to contact me about updates, corrections or anything,
please do so at the following:
Email: itoilet9@gmail.com
AIM: itoilet9
Blog at http://phorium.wordpress.com.
Things I'd like to see are new dueling techniques I haven't discovered,
weird glitches that should be exposed, or other tips of the sort.
And I ask that you email me with somewhat good grammar. I don't want
messages that look like "hey u liek teh game lolz". I appreciate a
well-typed-out message very much.
Also. Yes-I have GTalk. Don't message me unless you have something you need
to say. I appreciate "Your guide rules!" messages every so often. But I
don't really have time for small talk...sorry.
++++++++++++
++Websites++
++++++++++++
Because I want to keep a handle on the websites that I have so far sanctioned
to have this guide hosted on their websites. I'm not really against people
hosting this on their site, hell, I won't even be too mad if someone does this
without emailing me. But I want readers to know that if a website isn't listed
here, they HAVE NOT agreed to keep the guide updated, and as such, you may be
using an outdated version.
Here are the sites that have committed to keeping the guide updated:
-www.supercheats.com
-www.gamesradar.com
And I'd like to part with a nice thank you to you, the reader, for
reading this guide, Death_Angel01, tiger_lotus, and a few others on
battle.net for the experience it took to write this guide.
Also: Thanks again to Patrick Gilsdorf for some additional insight.
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