Sorceror Weapons

[Mahida]

Thank you both for your replies, it looks very useful. I'll try a lot of miniquotes to make it obvious which part I'm answering:

There are generally two accepted ways to play a sorcerer in std diablo: tank and arty. The idea of a tank mage is to get high ac which allows you to tp into anything and start casting. It is the method I use, and is a very quick way to gain exp. although it is admittedly pretty boring.

I guess my way could be described as a combination of the most defensive elements from those two. I like the protection from (relatively) high AC, since monsters often do get close to me. I NEVER teleport blindly in uncleared areas. Actually I don't teleport much at all. Or use Stone Curse. My hotkeys are all for attack spells. I imagine I'll need to change that when I push towards Hell/Hell, but right now it works for me. I've experimented with changing the hotkeys if an entire dlvl if immune to fire or lightning. Not sure if I like it yet...

Tank mages require a high ac plate, so knowing your plate is crucial. If you have a high enough plate then add a stormshield and a high ac helm (generally royal circlet) and you are good to go (if your plate is truly high end you can forgo one of those). The fast block on the SS is helpful too. There are a number of issues you might face (in addition to finding the aforementioned helm and armor (it would be useful to know what you have)). The major one is getting resistance + getting enough strength to use the full plate (you need 90 str for a full plate - SS gives you 10).

I'm wearing a Saintly Plate (AC 43, +123%, Real AC 95, Req Str 65), and it is the highest AC I have found so far. Probably not what you call high AC plate though. I have a Jade Helm (+22%) and a Helm of the Stars(+11). This leaves my jewelry, but I have 20 of those so I'm not going to list it!
With a setup to max AC, I can push it to 175.

One other thing to remember, if you have no resistance to a certain attack then you will try to block the attack if you have a shield, and you will get stunned if you don´t block. This slows things down a lot, so it´s good to have at least a little resistance to everything.

Failing to block is not really an issue. The max setup mentioned above gives me perfect block vs. anything in Hell/Hell! At least as far as I can tell (174 Dex). My usual setup puts dex at 100-120. Not perfect, but enough to stop most hits, if blocking is possible. In any case I never go with zero res to anything unless I already know the monsters on that dlvl have no attack of that kind.

In the absence of Dreamflange, Wizardspike is actually pretty darn good. It would be #2 on my list. But that really depends on your playing style and the other equipment you choose. I don't really need much resistance from a weapon if I will be getting some from my shield, armor, and Thinking Cap. If you are going for high AC, then you could benefit more from the big resistance weapons. Emerald weapons are hard to come by, but obsidian weapons can be bought from Griswold, and 2 high obsidian items will get you to 75% resistance.

There is not much point in considering 2 handed weapons when you already have Wizardspike and nice shield options. But some people do like to have the most destructive fireball humanly possible, in which case the AA/Wiz has some appeal.

Ok, so Wizardspike is #2 and no point in buying an AA/Wiz staff. Yay! I've seen two at Adria so far without buying them and I was starting to wonder if it was stupid to refuse them. This clears my conscience, thanks!
I'll keep a lookout at Griz for Obsidian 1-handed weapons.

A lot of mages keep a second weapon to deal with triple immunes (especially the advocates on hell/hell 16). The main point of this weapon would be to deal as much damage as possible. Civerb's Cudgel is very popular for this. Or something along the lines of a king's sword of slaughter. Keep in mind also that if you depend on your main weapon for fire resistance (as you might with an emerald or obsidian weapon), you would need to adjust your level 16 setup to make sure you have high fire resistance with your high damage weapon.

I planned to avoid keeping high dam weapons so far, since I wouldnt need it till Hell/Hell. If I find a CC or King's/Slaughter then it's a definite keep, but anything less would just be taking up inventory space and annoying me for the time being.

This class is inherently very powerful once you get your magic built up and read a lot of books. Items are purely optional, even in hell/hell. Warriors don't have such a luxury! Once you've got the playing style down, it should be a walk in the park regardless of items.

So I keep reading. I did pick the class at random as I have almost always done whenever I'm creating a character in D1, D2 or anything similar. The only exception being if I've already played that class so much I want something new.