I'm have a lot of trouble keeping my low level Sorceress alive. And I mean seriously low level!
I can't even beat Coldcrow in the 2nd cave!
How do you keep low level Sorceress' alive?
How do you keep low level Sorceress' alive?
"A life is not important, except in the impact it has on other lives."
-- Jackie Robinson
Baruk Khazad! Khazad ai-mênu!
-- Jackie Robinson
Baruk Khazad! Khazad ai-mênu!
A lot of running and dodging. Kill some more monsters in the blood moor or the dark pit to gain some more levels and better equipment. Avoid packs of champions and uniques if you can (maphack can help with this - lets you see monsters on the minimap)
What skills are you using/planning on using? Right now the cold element is probably best (ice bolt, frozen armor). Slower enemies=less dodging.
Once you get to level 6 you can hit tough foes with a few bursts of static field to soften them up, apply the cold, and then perhaps switch to higher damage spell like inferno.
If you're so low level that you still have to use melee attacks, try to opt for an orb+shield setup rather than a staff, for more protection.
Once you wipe out Blood Raven you'll get the Rogue mercenary which should make your life a whole lot easier.
What skills are you using/planning on using? Right now the cold element is probably best (ice bolt, frozen armor). Slower enemies=less dodging.
Once you get to level 6 you can hit tough foes with a few bursts of static field to soften them up, apply the cold, and then perhaps switch to higher damage spell like inferno.
If you're so low level that you still have to use melee attacks, try to opt for an orb+shield setup rather than a staff, for more protection.
Once you wipe out Blood Raven you'll get the Rogue mercenary which should make your life a whole lot easier.
It's not so difficult to keep a low level sorceress alive, but it requires some patience. You certainly don't need to use illegal third pary software like maphack. If you play online on Battlenet, use of illegal software may get your account banned.
The key to keep an untwinked (ie without equipment you previously found with another higher level character) very low level sorc alive, is hit and run. You have to attack and then move away from the monsters and attack again and move away. You must avoid getting crowded, instead run and spread the monsters out so you take on only a few at the time. Since a low level sorc has very little mana and do very little damage with her spells, you have to hit the monsters with a physical weapon in the beginning. Don't bother using spells, other than a few (like frost nova if you plan to use cold skills).
Have you decided yet what build you want to make? Have you allocated any skill or stat points? It is crucial that you decide what build you want to make, because otherwise you may waste precious skill points on skills that will turn out to be useless at higher levels. For instance, you should absolutely not put any points in Inferno unless you plan to use a fire skill as one of your main skills. In order to survive Hell difficulty, your sorc will have to focus on a few skills.
The key to keep an untwinked (ie without equipment you previously found with another higher level character) very low level sorc alive, is hit and run. You have to attack and then move away from the monsters and attack again and move away. You must avoid getting crowded, instead run and spread the monsters out so you take on only a few at the time. Since a low level sorc has very little mana and do very little damage with her spells, you have to hit the monsters with a physical weapon in the beginning. Don't bother using spells, other than a few (like frost nova if you plan to use cold skills).
Have you decided yet what build you want to make? Have you allocated any skill or stat points? It is crucial that you decide what build you want to make, because otherwise you may waste precious skill points on skills that will turn out to be useless at higher levels. For instance, you should absolutely not put any points in Inferno unless you plan to use a fire skill as one of your main skills. In order to survive Hell difficulty, your sorc will have to focus on a few skills.
"There are in fact two things, science and opinion; the former begets knowledge, the latter ignorance." - Hippocrates
Moderator of Planescape: Torment, Diablo I & II and Dungeon Siege forums
If you still have problems at very low level you can try to pick up a thrown weapon whenever you find one. Your rate of fire will be quite poor, but it might be worth it since you don't have to get close to your enemies and most of them are very slow at this point.
While others climb the mountains High, beneath the tree I love to lie
And watch the snails go whizzing by, It's foolish but it's fun
And watch the snails go whizzing by, It's foolish but it's fun
-
Crenshinibon
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At the very least, you can redo quests or areas to gain more experience.
Like C Elegans said, you need to decide your focus, and the sooner you do, the better.
If you're playing on Battle.net, you could join some chapter one games and complete it with a group and if you're on U.S. East, you can ask me for help.
Also, don't be stingy with your potions. You'll be sick of seeing them all over the place soon enough. As for stat increases, the best you can do (not that you asked) is put a few points in strength (for armor), dexterity (for blocking with shields) and magic (for more mana and faster mana regeneration). Vitality doesn't help a sorceress, trust me. Hitting and running, or spamming your firebolt shouldn't give you any troubles at all.
Like C Elegans said, you need to decide your focus, and the sooner you do, the better.
If you're playing on Battle.net, you could join some chapter one games and complete it with a group and if you're on U.S. East, you can ask me for help.
Also, don't be stingy with your potions. You'll be sick of seeing them all over the place soon enough. As for stat increases, the best you can do (not that you asked) is put a few points in strength (for armor), dexterity (for blocking with shields) and magic (for more mana and faster mana regeneration). Vitality doesn't help a sorceress, trust me. Hitting and running, or spamming your firebolt shouldn't give you any troubles at all.
“The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially.”
Something to remember when deciding to put points into energy instead of vitality is that equipment that give more mana is easy to come by, but the same can not be said for equipment that gives life. Personally I never put any points into energy for this reason.Crenshinibon wrote:... and magic (for more mana and faster mana regeneration). Vitality doesn't help a sorceress, trust me. ...
While others climb the mountains High, beneath the tree I love to lie
And watch the snails go whizzing by, It's foolish but it's fun
And watch the snails go whizzing by, It's foolish but it's fun
-
Crenshinibon
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Dottie is correct, though sometimes it may be worth putting a few points if your equipment is less than ideal.
Vitality however, for a Sorceress, is a wasted attribute, as she gains one health point for every point you spend in vitality. You have items to take care of those problems, directly and indirectly, such as items that give to health, items that absorb damage, buffing items and of course your trusty Energy Shield (which can also be gained from an item).
Vitality however, for a Sorceress, is a wasted attribute, as she gains one health point for every point you spend in vitality. You have items to take care of those problems, directly and indirectly, such as items that give to health, items that absorb damage, buffing items and of course your trusty Energy Shield (which can also be gained from an item).
“The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially.”
Just to confuse Klorox even more, I am going to say that how to spend your stat points is entirely depending on build and personal playing style preferences. Unless you play a melee sorc, I think putting points in both vita and mana, is reduntant - with a few exceptions. Mind you, I am talking PvM (player vs monsters) here, not PvP (player vs player, dueling other human players) that's different.
First, you need to decide what build you want to make. Will you play alone? Then you need a suitable, well-equipped merc and you should probably focus on two skill trees, ie fire/cold or fire/lightning because monster immunities make it very tedious to play single element sorc on Hell difficulty. Or will you play in a team with other players? Then maybe you want to considerate a single tree build, and also consider what is useful and fun in the team context. Do you want a "fast and frenzy" type of character? Or do you prefer bombarding monsters with timed spells from a safe distance? Or even a melee build?
When you've decided about your build, it's much easier to decide how to spend stat points. For instance, a sorc that use lightning skills a lot is easier to play if you put some points in energy early in the game. A sorc that uses timed skills like Meteor, Blizzard or Frozen Orb does not need a huge, quickly regenerating mana pool so in those cases you can rely on mana from potions and equipment.
Points in vitality is a "luxury", and in one way it's a waste since the sorc only gets 2 points return in life for every vita points spent, but on the other hand most sorcs builds actually will end up having an excess of stat points and then vita is the most meaningful allocation of these points.
In my opinion, it's better to spend you points on dex and get a good shield, so you can have max block. Max block is much better than vita if you plan to teleport around a lot, like for MF runs. When you get hit, your character will go into a hit animation and it takes a certain time to get out, especially for a sorc who has bad hit recovery to start with. The only way to get out quicker is to have items with Faster Hit Recovery (FHR), but as a sorc you want to have skills, mana, faster cast rate and resists on your items, not FHR. With block on the other hand, you block the attack and that is much quicker. Exactly how quick is decided by the Faster Block Rate (FBR) on your shield, in any case it's much faster than FHR for a sorc. Base FHR for the sorc is 15 frames, base FBR is 9 frames. Besides, all shields that are good for a sorc in this game also have good block rate, so there are no wasted item slots there.
First, you need to decide what build you want to make. Will you play alone? Then you need a suitable, well-equipped merc and you should probably focus on two skill trees, ie fire/cold or fire/lightning because monster immunities make it very tedious to play single element sorc on Hell difficulty. Or will you play in a team with other players? Then maybe you want to considerate a single tree build, and also consider what is useful and fun in the team context. Do you want a "fast and frenzy" type of character? Or do you prefer bombarding monsters with timed spells from a safe distance? Or even a melee build?
When you've decided about your build, it's much easier to decide how to spend stat points. For instance, a sorc that use lightning skills a lot is easier to play if you put some points in energy early in the game. A sorc that uses timed skills like Meteor, Blizzard or Frozen Orb does not need a huge, quickly regenerating mana pool so in those cases you can rely on mana from potions and equipment.
Points in vitality is a "luxury", and in one way it's a waste since the sorc only gets 2 points return in life for every vita points spent, but on the other hand most sorcs builds actually will end up having an excess of stat points and then vita is the most meaningful allocation of these points.
In my opinion, it's better to spend you points on dex and get a good shield, so you can have max block. Max block is much better than vita if you plan to teleport around a lot, like for MF runs. When you get hit, your character will go into a hit animation and it takes a certain time to get out, especially for a sorc who has bad hit recovery to start with. The only way to get out quicker is to have items with Faster Hit Recovery (FHR), but as a sorc you want to have skills, mana, faster cast rate and resists on your items, not FHR. With block on the other hand, you block the attack and that is much quicker. Exactly how quick is decided by the Faster Block Rate (FBR) on your shield, in any case it's much faster than FHR for a sorc. Base FHR for the sorc is 15 frames, base FBR is 9 frames. Besides, all shields that are good for a sorc in this game also have good block rate, so there are no wasted item slots there.
"There are in fact two things, science and opinion; the former begets knowledge, the latter ignorance." - Hippocrates
Moderator of Planescape: Torment, Diablo I & II and Dungeon Siege forums
I would advice anyone who does not plan their build very carefully not to use energy shield, for the following reasons:
Energy shield absorbs damage before factoring in resistance. In addition to this the exchange rate between damage absorbed and mana drained starts out at 1 to 2, and can only be improved by hard points put into telekinesis. What this mean is that if you for example have only on point in telekinesis, use an energy shield of say 10, have 60% resistance against something that hits you for 100 points of damage you will take 16 points of damage and 114 points of mana. That is compared to the 40 points of damage and no mana loss you will take with no energy shield. Putting stat points into energy gives you mana at the same rate as putting stat points into vita gives you life, so if you are not careful you will spend equipment or skill points at something that does not give you much in return. You might argue that loosing all your mana is better than loosing your life but since loosing all your mana mean you will not be able to either teleport or strike back I believe that it is not a lot better.
Energy shield absorbs damage before factoring in resistance. In addition to this the exchange rate between damage absorbed and mana drained starts out at 1 to 2, and can only be improved by hard points put into telekinesis. What this mean is that if you for example have only on point in telekinesis, use an energy shield of say 10, have 60% resistance against something that hits you for 100 points of damage you will take 16 points of damage and 114 points of mana. That is compared to the 40 points of damage and no mana loss you will take with no energy shield. Putting stat points into energy gives you mana at the same rate as putting stat points into vita gives you life, so if you are not careful you will spend equipment or skill points at something that does not give you much in return. You might argue that loosing all your mana is better than loosing your life but since loosing all your mana mean you will not be able to either teleport or strike back I believe that it is not a lot better.
While others climb the mountains High, beneath the tree I love to lie
And watch the snails go whizzing by, It's foolish but it's fun
And watch the snails go whizzing by, It's foolish but it's fun
-
Crenshinibon
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Towards endgame, I usually find myself with a large amount of mana and a fast regeneration. Usually, absorbing most attacks doesn't drain the mana completely, and personally, I find it useful, though I usually do not put any points in it. From my experience, the attacks that largely drain your mana belong to Diablo, Baal and the Spirits. Even then, against the last one (in numbers), without a mana shield, you're as good as done, in the later difficulties at least.
In any case, you should have an inventory filled with Full Rejuvenation Potions to cover your escape. I believe that when using Energy Shield, the only type of attack that DOES go through and does take resistance into account is poison.
In any case, you should have an inventory filled with Full Rejuvenation Potions to cover your escape. I believe that when using Energy Shield, the only type of attack that DOES go through and does take resistance into account is poison.
“The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially.”
So, how high level of energy shield do you end up casting? and how many points do you put in telekinesis?
What do you mean by this? The part of the damage absorbed by your ES never takes resistance in account and the part that isn't always does. Or have I misunderstood what you are saying?Crenshinibon wrote: I believe that when using Energy Shield, the only type of attack that DOES go through and does take resistance into account is poison.
While others climb the mountains High, beneath the tree I love to lie
And watch the snails go whizzing by, It's foolish but it's fun
And watch the snails go whizzing by, It's foolish but it's fun
-
Crenshinibon
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- Joined: Wed Mar 22, 2006 5:35 pm
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I just meant to say that poison attacks are in no way affected by Energy Shield, so the sorceress, when suffering such an attack, wouldn't receive any reduction from the spell (she would still receive damage reduction through her poison resistance though).
My current sorceress is lightning oriented, so I believe that my shield is cast at around ten to twelve, with about the same number in Telekinesis.
My current sorceress is lightning oriented, so I believe that my shield is cast at around ten to twelve, with about the same number in Telekinesis.
“The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially.”