Since the Public Testing Realm (PTR) (see The Wait is Over -- PTR Patch 1.13)went live this week with Diablo II: Lord of Destruction patch 1.13, I decided to try out the Sorceress with her newly arranged skills, primarily Hydra and a build wired for it.
Her fire-based skills at first seemed changed enough to merit trying a fire-based build once more (I often avoid them and go with a cold-based or lightning-based build because of the lack of slowing effects or a huge impact from FCR that Lightning gets and skills like Meteor and Hydra do not):
Official Blizzard Quote:
Sorceress
-Firewall - Synergy receives 1% damage per point of Inferno and Blaze and 4% per point of Warmth.
-Blaze - Synergy receives 2% damage per point of Firewall and 4% per point of Warmth.
-Hydra - Increased base damage by 15% per rank.
-Hydra - Increased base speed of Hydra projectile.
-Hydra - Reduced cooldown by 25%.
-Lightning Mastery - Reduced overall effect by 15%.
So, I began by using the nifty instant level-up cheat that is active on the PTR to decrease effort in testing new characters (simply type level 99 in a game and press enter). I spread my points to invest in Teleport and its prerequisites and one point in Frozen Armor (for a significant bonus of defense). After that, I crammed them in to the Fire Spells skill tree, maxing Fire Mastery, Hydra, Fire Ball, and Fire Bolt.
As for my stat point investment, well, it was a bit odd to do. Normally, I save all of my stat points until I can wear my gear so that I don't waste a single point. In this case, I didn't have any gear saved up to look forward to, and since I had all my stat points available from using the instant level cheat, I decided to just cover my bases, so to speak, with 100 in STR, 200 in VIT, and 245 in ENG. The excessive amount in ENG was due to the fact that I had no gear that added a ton to ENG or Mana Regeneration and I needed to Teleport through Normal, Nightmare, and Hell difficulty modes.
Yes, if any of you recognize her name, it used to be my name here on DiabloFans. Kudos to you guys!
Normal mode was, of course, a cinch. As we all know, Normal doesn't even require gear. I could probably have played it naked and been completely fine. Of course, the allure of the gold cheat (typing Gold x in a game, where x is the amount of gold you would like to hold, so long as it doesn't exceed your carrying limit) brought me to gamble a ton for some interesting rare items. Item stats typically included FCR, Resistances, ENG, and +skill modifiers.
Nightmare mode was fairly easy, as well, aside from some fire immune baddies I met along the way, primarily in the Chaos Sanctuary, where Doom Knights, if I remember correctly, were immune to my fire-based attacks. Luckily, I had my smexy Act II mercenary Vikhyat by my side to defend me while I ran in circles like a dog with its tail on fire as the Doom Knights trailed me. After about fifteen minutes of that, and the help of some friends that popped in, I managed to finish the rest of Nightmare mode on my own with relatively little hardship.
The real problem hit me full-force in Hell mode, as I had been anticipating. The whole while I had been hoping that the Legacy team had tuned-down immune monsters in Hell to give elemental characters a fighting chance when poor. Of course, they were all still there, and I ended up scratching the entire build, despite the updates in casting delay and damage for Hydra, via the respeccing option at Akara after completing the Den of Evil quest.
Right now, I'm working on building-up a good lightning-based build, my personal favorite (still have an incomplete but somewhat in-depth guide here on our Wiki- hoping to finish it with the updates of 1.13). After that, I'm looking forward to a good session building an ultimate tank with the Druid as a Werebear, especially because of the upgrades Werebears got in the patch so far. Overall, the patch isn't everything I wanted, but there are some fun bits here and there to fiddle with and I'm making the best I can of it. Hopefully more will be fixed and added as progress on the patch continues in the PTR.
Her fire-based skills at first seemed changed enough to merit trying a fire-based build once more (I often avoid them and go with a cold-based or lightning-based build because of the lack of slowing effects or a huge impact from FCR that Lightning gets and skills like
Sorceress
-Firewall - Synergy receives 1% damage per point of Inferno and Blaze and 4% per point of Warmth.
-Blaze - Synergy receives 2% damage per point of Firewall and 4% per point of Warmth.
-Hydra - Increased base damage by 15% per rank.
-Hydra - Increased base speed of Hydra projectile.
-Hydra - Reduced cooldown by 25%.
-Lightning Mastery - Reduced overall effect by 15%.
As for my stat point investment, well, it was a bit odd to do. Normally, I save all of my stat points until I can wear my gear so that I don't waste a single point. In this case, I didn't have any gear saved up to look forward to, and since I had all my stat points available from using the instant level cheat, I decided to just cover my bases, so to speak, with 100 in STR, 200 in VIT, and 245 in ENG. The excessive amount in ENG was due to the fact that I had no gear that added a ton to ENG or Mana Regeneration and I needed to
Yes, if any of you recognize her name, it used to be my name here on DiabloFans. Kudos to you guys!
Normal mode was, of course, a cinch. As we all know, Normal doesn't even require gear. I could probably have played it naked and been completely fine. Of course, the allure of the gold cheat (typing Gold x in a game, where x is the amount of gold you would like to hold, so long as it doesn't exceed your carrying limit) brought me to gamble a ton for some interesting
The real problem hit me full-force in Hell mode, as I had been anticipating. The whole while I had been hoping that the
Right now, I'm working on building-up a good lightning-based build, my personal favorite (still have an incomplete but somewhat in-depth guide here on our Wiki- hoping to finish it with the updates of 1.13). After that, I'm looking forward to a good session building an ultimate tank with the