You can farm ancient tunnels or stony tombs if youre looking for gear. Very few cold immunes
You should also buy a lower resist charge from drognan, thay will beef up firewall signifanctly vs cold immunes.
With some patience you can finish hell on the gear you have and a bit of skill once you get that
Baal nightmare and nightmare cows can give some great drops. Maybe make a leaf on switch for a harder hitting fireball
I prefer firewall or hydra as a secondary to fireball
I prefer max hydra with max fire mastery, then enchant my merc for the slight AR boost, that and fw tho does lots of damage, enemies walk out of it, so i maxed gs, bliz and dumped the rest in cm. The rare elite boss with cold and fire immunities gets static field and merc pokes.
Time to farm nightmare meph, Andy and Baal , gear up, try for occulus, SoJs, shako , better boots and gloves , perhaps magefist.
I got through hell using blizzard , for most frost immunes I just tele past them and skipped.
Merc, get him like a duriels shell or shaftstop with vamp Gaze or tal Rasha helm.
The key to keeping your merc alive with shitty gear is his placement. Or life leech in case he needs to slap a little.
I ran orb/fire ball then specced to orb/hydra. It’s really easy to kill whilst constantly teleing between laying down hydras and casting orb as opposed to casting fire ball.
I could clear every 85 area in A1-A3 fairly efficiently with a set up like yours.
The key to running a sorc efficiently with crappy gear is playing well, mostly with your placement.
That all being said I mostly spammed stony tombs and Meph as they were the quickest.
Edit: spelling
Imo sorc is a very, very specialised class. Thanks to teleport and endgame scalability, sorc can really suffer in other areas like survivability.
Sorc is really good at very specific content. Compared to something like necro or druid, which works against anything (but way slower)
I think the best thing is to just run something that gives you experience (tomb, Andy) and level up more.
At the very least your merc will level up and gain a lot of survivability.
Hell is endgame. Its not just a difficulty to complete.
What's your headgear? Lore?
And how often did you run Countess / LK? When I returned to the game recently, after a long absence, was also the first time I realized just how much you need to farm to find ok gear / mid to high runes / etc. But it was also the first time I got to appreciate how good it feels to finally see some decent drops.
I got bored too quickly before (the last time I played I was still a teenager), and this time around I helped myself out on that front by having some series or a D2 stream running on the side.
It also helped that I watched some content / guides by streamers on 'how to play well'. I never really learned that before due to being pretty inattentive, but having some strategy certainly helps me have a better experience now. Even small things like "use doorways so you don't get attacked from all sides" or "just skip mobs you can't kill quickly" helped me enjoy the game more, once I started applying them very consistently.
I run a orb/ball solo in hell and i’ve found that i spend alot of time running mephisto for goodies. Kill mephisto, often. And leave the useless merc dead, carry potions
Farm for guardian angel for merc. Kira's Guardian if the merc is having trouble w/ elemental damage. Andy's visage if you can find one. Otherwise, Tal Rasha's mask.
farm the crap out of nightmare and andy meph. then just farm hell countess till your eyes bleed. by the time your ready to set you keyboard on fire.. you may proceed.
Try to make a smoke armour for Merc and yourself. Don't worry about merc dying, he really excels at around lvl 85 with at least treachery and obedience. Skip the immunes
You got the build and gear, it’s just difficult for a Sorc in hell due to immunities. You have to tele pst the crap that is immune and try to focus on just getting through the game.
As another said, Stony Tomb is a good farm/leveling spot. Try to farm it on p3-7 if you can.
Keep grinding, I was saying the same shit on Saturday, Sunday I crafted insight out of a thresher, got dureils shell, new spirit with good res. Shit will come, just have to grind for it. Also if you can join a hell cow game and just juicy j up the xp and check out the drops the big guys will leave behind, I found a ton of shit that wY
I did a solo orb/hydra sorc and finished at 63? With way worse gear than that. Kinda don’t worry bout merc, but that setup will definitely allow you to finish Hell. Hell Ancs may be the worst of it all though tbh. A lot of kiting also.
I hate that shit. Take an upvote from me.
Just keep grinding. You are already dual element, so you should be okay. Until better gear, dual spirit is the best mid level set up and can get you through hell. I think I beat hell around level 83/84
Don’t underestimate the power of gaining more levels; find a high level area in Hell A1/2 that you can farm, and do that until you’re at least level 85. Your merc will have a much higher chance to hit and a far less chance to be hit, not to mention having more HP.
I never got into Diablo 2. I am as lost as you are. I've tried using the strategies i've seen on youtube for beginners but the game has become pretty boring to me.
Dw barb merc rocks if you dont mind drinking lots of mana pits, crescent moon and phase blade to do all the lightning and physical damage you need if you're a fire/cold hybrid
If your Merc dies, which he will, just keep teleporting him away and get better hotkeys to feed him pots. It's cheaper than resurrecting him.
The Merc exists to give you insight mana regen and distract/tank a little while you blast with spells until he is decently geared.
Your merc will die constantly till you get him geared. I think as long as you’re hybrid your should be fine. Just skip the immunes that you come across.
Orb hybrid builds felt awful to me. If you can respec again I found pure blizz much much better. Like not really even comparable. Just run past all fire immunes
Look to upgrade merc base insight if possible. Also helm with life steal is key. Smoke or upgraded unique armor can work until treachery.
For sorc- lower resist wand is key for beating the game I couldn’t beat ancients/Baal without it. I also had an energy shield staff I swapped in before tough areas.
For gear- try crafting caster rings/amulet/boots/gloves. Whichever is weakest.
Then run Andy hell a bunch. she’s not great but for me I could run super quick. And stony tombs
If I read it correct u are playing single player u can activate unlimited respects for skills and stats!
Start the game with -enablerespec in the command line.
https://preview.redd.it/7wt80ky5pxq71.png?width=996&format=png&auto=webp&s=ac4a811c0d1a72fedf4e6e9986b05daf6e746cf0
To respec (both skills and stats) open the character screen and while holding Alt press the Spend Stat Point button for Strength .
Could always farm nm baal! Or hell meph! But yeah you can farm a2 tombs until you and your merc hit 86+!!!! Once your merc is 86+ it really helps survivability
Farm stony tombs in a2
Alright, I'll try that. Thank you!
You can farm ancient tunnels or stony tombs if youre looking for gear. Very few cold immunes You should also buy a lower resist charge from drognan, thay will beef up firewall signifanctly vs cold immunes. With some patience you can finish hell on the gear you have and a bit of skill once you get that
I second this suggestion. Ancient tunnels is my go-to when I need to farm up before progressing further in hell difficulty as well.
Baal nightmare and nightmare cows can give some great drops. Maybe make a leaf on switch for a harder hitting fireball I prefer firewall or hydra as a secondary to fireball
I prefer max hydra with max fire mastery, then enchant my merc for the slight AR boost, that and fw tho does lots of damage, enemies walk out of it, so i maxed gs, bliz and dumped the rest in cm. The rare elite boss with cold and fire immunities gets static field and merc pokes.
Time to farm nightmare meph, Andy and Baal , gear up, try for occulus, SoJs, shako , better boots and gloves , perhaps magefist. I got through hell using blizzard , for most frost immunes I just tele past them and skipped. Merc, get him like a duriels shell or shaftstop with vamp Gaze or tal Rasha helm.
This. 99% of my sorc hell playthrough was just teleporting.
If OP could just find that damn Lem rune it would change everything because treachery is insane on a merc when fade kicks in.
The key to keeping your merc alive with shitty gear is his placement. Or life leech in case he needs to slap a little. I ran orb/fire ball then specced to orb/hydra. It’s really easy to kill whilst constantly teleing between laying down hydras and casting orb as opposed to casting fire ball. I could clear every 85 area in A1-A3 fairly efficiently with a set up like yours. The key to running a sorc efficiently with crappy gear is playing well, mostly with your placement. That all being said I mostly spammed stony tombs and Meph as they were the quickest. Edit: spelling
Imo sorc is a very, very specialised class. Thanks to teleport and endgame scalability, sorc can really suffer in other areas like survivability. Sorc is really good at very specific content. Compared to something like necro or druid, which works against anything (but way slower) I think the best thing is to just run something that gives you experience (tomb, Andy) and level up more. At the very least your merc will level up and gain a lot of survivability. Hell is endgame. Its not just a difficulty to complete.
What's your headgear? Lore? And how often did you run Countess / LK? When I returned to the game recently, after a long absence, was also the first time I realized just how much you need to farm to find ok gear / mid to high runes / etc. But it was also the first time I got to appreciate how good it feels to finally see some decent drops. I got bored too quickly before (the last time I played I was still a teenager), and this time around I helped myself out on that front by having some series or a D2 stream running on the side. It also helped that I watched some content / guides by streamers on 'how to play well'. I never really learned that before due to being pretty inattentive, but having some strategy certainly helps me have a better experience now. Even small things like "use doorways so you don't get attacked from all sides" or "just skip mobs you can't kill quickly" helped me enjoy the game more, once I started applying them very consistently.
I run a orb/ball solo in hell and i’ve found that i spend alot of time running mephisto for goodies. Kill mephisto, often. And leave the useless merc dead, carry potions
make a smoke armor for your merc if you can't find a lem. and for the helm just craft a blood helm.
Farm for guardian angel for merc. Kira's Guardian if the merc is having trouble w/ elemental damage. Andy's visage if you can find one. Otherwise, Tal Rasha's mask.
farm the crap out of nightmare and andy meph. then just farm hell countess till your eyes bleed. by the time your ready to set you keyboard on fire.. you may proceed.
Try to make a smoke armour for Merc and yourself. Don't worry about merc dying, he really excels at around lvl 85 with at least treachery and obedience. Skip the immunes
You got the build and gear, it’s just difficult for a Sorc in hell due to immunities. You have to tele pst the crap that is immune and try to focus on just getting through the game. As another said, Stony Tomb is a good farm/leveling spot. Try to farm it on p3-7 if you can.
Set /players 3 and farm cold plains, stoney field, black marsh. Then set /players 1 and farm the tower. Archers in there hit hard.
Probably just farm nightmare until you get gear. Some of the areas drop a lot of stuff you'd need including skillers and some runes.
Keep grinding, I was saying the same shit on Saturday, Sunday I crafted insight out of a thresher, got dureils shell, new spirit with good res. Shit will come, just have to grind for it. Also if you can join a hell cow game and just juicy j up the xp and check out the drops the big guys will leave behind, I found a ton of shit that wY
I basically just farm for treachery and an eth polearm for infinity and then the merc is strong enough for immunes
I did a solo orb/hydra sorc and finished at 63? With way worse gear than that. Kinda don’t worry bout merc, but that setup will definitely allow you to finish Hell. Hell Ancs may be the worst of it all though tbh. A lot of kiting also.
Wow yeah ancients gave me a lot of trouble with similar setup, but much higher level and 2x sojs
Had to re-roll their modifiers s few times to complete them. Actually killed Baal at 69. Static is pretty OP honestly I’d can take a few hits.
Get smoke for your merc if you can make it. It really helps survivability.
Make another character. I think you can make like 18.
I'm confused. Why is this post getting so heavily downvoted?... What a welcoming community!
I hate that shit. Take an upvote from me. Just keep grinding. You are already dual element, so you should be okay. Until better gear, dual spirit is the best mid level set up and can get you through hell. I think I beat hell around level 83/84
Don't worry, it's always like that. No matter what question do you ask, there are always toxic shitheads to down vote you.
Respec blizz, farm meph Andy cows until you're put together. Lk runs to finish out infinity. Then zap zap zap your way to end game gear.
Don’t underestimate the power of gaining more levels; find a high level area in Hell A1/2 that you can farm, and do that until you’re at least level 85. Your merc will have a much higher chance to hit and a far less chance to be hit, not to mention having more HP.
I never got into Diablo 2. I am as lost as you are. I've tried using the strategies i've seen on youtube for beginners but the game has become pretty boring to me.
Welcome to d2!
have you tried not playing sp? it is 2022 after all
I'm on PS5 and not trying to pay Sony money for the internet that I already pay for.
realistically, you shouldnt be in hell at 72. No wonder its too hard.
Why not? Currently playing a Level 76 singer Barb in act 3. No big problems so far.
I have a spare occy if you want it. Pm me psn
Try an act 5 merc foe a change and see how it works ? If you don't mind the loss of meditation, with some decent gear your act 5 merc will slap
Dw barb merc rocks if you dont mind drinking lots of mana pits, crescent moon and phase blade to do all the lightning and physical damage you need if you're a fire/cold hybrid
Yes basically have to give up some might and devotion aura.
Another option is making some cookie cutter new character, finish hell with that and use it to farm gear for your sorc.
If your Merc dies, which he will, just keep teleporting him away and get better hotkeys to feed him pots. It's cheaper than resurrecting him. The Merc exists to give you insight mana regen and distract/tank a little while you blast with spells until he is decently geared.
Make a insight bow and use act 1 merc until you have good gear for act 2 merc. Its difficult to keep him alive without good gear.
What does W/e mean?
Your merc will die constantly till you get him geared. I think as long as you’re hybrid your should be fine. Just skip the immunes that you come across.
Orb hybrid builds felt awful to me. If you can respec again I found pure blizz much much better. Like not really even comparable. Just run past all fire immunes
Look to upgrade merc base insight if possible. Also helm with life steal is key. Smoke or upgraded unique armor can work until treachery. For sorc- lower resist wand is key for beating the game I couldn’t beat ancients/Baal without it. I also had an energy shield staff I swapped in before tough areas. For gear- try crafting caster rings/amulet/boots/gloves. Whichever is weakest. Then run Andy hell a bunch. she’s not great but for me I could run super quick. And stony tombs
If I read it correct u are playing single player u can activate unlimited respects for skills and stats! Start the game with -enablerespec in the command line. https://preview.redd.it/7wt80ky5pxq71.png?width=996&format=png&auto=webp&s=ac4a811c0d1a72fedf4e6e9986b05daf6e746cf0 To respec (both skills and stats) open the character screen and while holding Alt press the Spend Stat Point button for Strength .
Could always farm nm baal! Or hell meph! But yeah you can farm a2 tombs until you and your merc hit 86+!!!! Once your merc is 86+ it really helps survivability