MF Sorc

[Slash]

Hey,

I've been lurking here for some time now, learning about the game and different characters and after playing around on single player I've decided that I want to build a MF Sorceress, mainly so I can get some good items online for both the sorc and future characters. I've read a few MF guides and plan to run both the pit and Mephisto in hell; I'm playing Diablo2LOD v1.10 (Europe Ladder) btw.

Skills

So far from reading other posts I've decided to max FO and CM, not sure whether it's worth IB or not for the synergy. Also I'm not sure whether I should be using ES or not, if so, how many points in TK? Then there’s teleport, I would use just the single point but I've read posts about maxing it, is it really worth the points?

FO - 20
CM - 20
IB - 20
ES - ??
TK - ??
TP - ??
+ Pre-Requirements

Stats

I'm not too sure which points go where, and another thing I had thought about was max block or not?

Equipment

From looking around the Arreat Summit and posts on this forum I've came up with these suggestions...

Shako - Socketed With P.Topaz
Skulders - Socketd With P.Topaz
Oculus - Socketed eventually with an Ist (any advise until I manage to find one?)
Rhyme Runeword - Not sure which shield to use
Goldwrap
2 Nagelrings
Not sure about the gloves/boots/ammy

But so far I could certainly be doing with some more resists :unsure:

Anyway thanks in advance, any advise would be appreciated :)

[Wyrm]

ES - ??
TK - ??
TP - ??
+ Pre-Requirements

For ES and TK I'd say 1. If you're going strictly MF, then beef up teleport to a high number.

I'm not too sure which points go where, and another thing I had thought about was max block or not?

Rapid teleportation somewhat negates block, personally I wouldn't put any points into dex at all. For str, just do whatever gets your equipment ready. Once that's set a 3/2 or 4/1 ratio on Vit and Ene (respectfully) should work fine. Since you're not doing HC, I guess you won't need as much Vit, but it's always good to have that stuff.

Skulders - Socketd With P.Topaz

If you don't want to worry about the str req, you can go with a "Wealth" (Lem+Ko+Tir) in a Breast Plate.

Oculus - Socketed eventually with an Ist (any advise until I manage to find one?)

Gull, the unique dagger. 100% mf

Rhyme Runeword - Not sure which shield to use

If you don't care about block, go for a buckler/small shield since they have little to no reqs.

Not sure about the gloves/boots/ammy

For gloves, Chance Guards are your best bet for a unique. Otherwise shop for a magic pair. If you're going to pump your str up to ~125 for the skullder's then you can use War Travelers, they've got mf and I think they have some resists.

For an ammy, if you get Tal's armor and belt, then adding the amulet will give you a total of 163-8 mf from the 3 pieces, which I think is more than you can get from the Skullder's, Goldwrap, and an ammy, until you get to a high enough level for the Skullder's to push you over Tal's. Tal's set will also give you a lot more in the way of resists than Skullder's &co.

[Bam-Bam]

If I were you, I would stay away from the icebolt, and invest points into another tree. I suggest putting points into fireball/meteor. They synergize each other, and provide a second form of attack when dealing with cold immunes. Fireball also gives you a spammable spell to throw on the left mouse button while shooting orbs. With a decent enough fireball, you can get a nice hit recovery effect that can help keep monsters off your back, as well.

You mention running the pit. Most of the time in the pit, you will find one or two of the base monster types to be cold immune. A second form of attack will be necessary there, if you want to take advantage of the high drops of all monsters found in the pit.

So, for a fireball/meteor/orb sorceress, I'd spend 20 in orb, about 11-17 in cold mastery (depending on +skills--I shoot for at least slvl17 after +skills are accounted), prerequisites in the other cold skills. Drop 20 into fireball and meteor, and points into fire mastery that you can spare from teleport, telekinesis and energy shield. One possible strategy for energy shield is to rely completely on +skills from a memory runeword staff, or from +skills on a staff or sorceress orb. A particularly nice staff for buffing energy shield with a switch weapon is the Warpspear unique Gothic Staff, which has +3 to sorceress skills, as well as +3 to energy shield, telekinesis, and teleport. Avoiding putting hard points in energy shield saves you up to four skill points (energy shield and the charged bolt, lightning, and chain lightning prerequisites).

As far as magic find items, Wyrm gave excellent suggestions. A wealth runeword is spot on, and a rhyme shield also helps blocking and gives some help to resists. I prefer using dragon shields (exceptional version of kite shield), but many folks love those ugly grim shields [shudder]. If you are lucky enough to put a few of the tal's set together (including the armor), you will be in good shape. If you are lucky enough to have the full set, you will have one powerful sorcie. Stick perfect topaz in the fugly mask and armor, and you will be off to the races (meaning you will need to make lotsa mules :P).

Good hunting!

[-Tempus-]

going with a 2 tree build would be best + a strong merc for ones you cant kill.

i like fireball more then meteor and high vit builds vs high mana and energy shield.

for the cold tree you could do a few different things

max icebolt, orb, cold mastery: that works well if you only want 1 attack, want to pvp some and only want to run cows. its a very good attack but any 2nd attack wont be very strong. you could go with firewall/mastery, nova/mastery or a low lev fireball attack.

max orb, 1 icebolt/mastery also works and will let you have more points for a 2nd attack. with so few points in cold tree you could max firebolt/fireball/mastery and even meteor

you'll also want 1 point in Static field, 1 point in warmth, 1 point in teleport. if you want to use energy shield then leave that at zero but then use a staff with + energy shield(best would be a +9 staff) doing thats a good idea since it takes 4 points to get lev 1 ES. if you want to use ES then a high lev TK since it will help ES more.

[Skie_M]

I've gotten several good reviews for this guide....

Skie_M's Magic Find Sorceress

She uses maxed FO and maxed FB, with 20 firebolt and split points between meteor/fire mastery to maximise fireball damage.

[mjagger]

As far as magic find items, Wyrm gave excellent suggestions.  A wealth runeword is spot on, and a rhyme shield also helps blocking and gives some help to resists.  I prefer using dragon shields (exceptional version of kite shield), but many folks love those ugly grim shields [shudder]. 

Tthe reason that people prefer those "ugly" grim shields imho is because of the low requirements,decent blocking And more importantly 2 sockets max which means that even when you use the cube recipie on a normal white grim shield it practically guarantees you 2 sockets

[lfd]

The reason that people prefer those "ugly" grim shields imho is because of the low requirements,decent blocking[right][snapback]65435[/snapback][/right]

Quite. Just some numbers to back this up; you need 58 strength for a grim shield as opposed to 96 for a dragon shield, grim shields can have much higher defence, and they have 12% higher listed blocking. That's already a no-brainer even before their maximum 2 sockets (for Rhyme or Splendor) is taken into account.

[whathuh]

Quite.  Just some numbers to back this up; you need 58 strength for a grim shield as opposed to 96 for a dragon shield, grim shields can have much higher defence, and they have 12% higher listed blocking.  That's already a no-brainer even before their maximum 2 sockets (for Rhyme or Splendor) is taken into account.
[right][snapback]65443[/snapback][/right]

Whenever I make a mf sorc, I like to get max block, as I tend to be a bit reckless. Also, pindle only uses phys attacks, so you have a 25% chance of getting hit. But anyway, I use a rhyme heater. Heaters (elite buckler) only have a str req of 77, max sockets of 2, and they have 22 base block (best in game is 24 from Tower shields and other big elites). This is much more useful than even a troll nest or grim shield, as you should already have 77 str from either skullders or tal rasha's, which are probably the optimum armors for mfing. If you are going to use a wealth breast plate, however, the ugly grim shields (or even small shield) will do nicely.