How do you survive higher difficulties?

[markus_zhang]

Hi experts,

This is an extremely fun mod, but I found that after level 9 of Nightmare the game became barely playable. Usually there are a couple of unique bosses which are Hasted + Immune 2-3 and can be barely hurt by the 4th magic, and they kill my sorcerer in just two seconds.

I'm now level 32, all resistance maxed with 600+ mana. I'm wondering if I need to grind considerably for higher difficulties? Thanks!

BTW where can I find more info on crafting? They all need gems, but I have no idea where to obtain them.

[Wendigo]

Documentation, including all recipes for crafting, can be found as a download link in the first post of this thread:
http://awake.diablo1.eu.org/diablo-1-hd ... t1211.html

Recipes are found as normal drops during the game. They show up as a gold-russet color; you need to find each individual recipe and some of them are the rarest items in the game.
You get the gems and other items needed for crafting by using the Anvil of Fury next to where the blacksmith stands once you've found it. A screen pops up and you select the Salvage option to turn your unused magical goods into gems, etc. Those gems, for some reason, cannot be traded between players, so you want to designate one character as your smith and have him cull all future items. Even when you do not need the gems for crafting, those gems sell for significantly higher values than the items they come from, so you want to always salvage once you've gotten the option to.

Sorcerers do become more difficult as the game progresses, topping out somewhere deep in Hell and/or Torment until you start getting the top-tier gear to combat the absurd resistances of some of those bosses and champion packs. You will have to refine your strategies as you see fit, but here are some of the more common tips and tricks you can use:

1. Obviously, grinding for levels and gear, especially staves which lower enemy resistances, will take the edge off. You can also hope to pick up stuff that will increase your spell level on certain key spells, which I'll get into below.

2. Golem is your best friend. It deals physical damage and I have often beaten all-immune creatures by simply sitting in a corner, rocking back and forth, while re-summoning Lumpy to do the dirty work until I hear the distinctive "crunch" sound and know I need to cast him again.

3. Apocalypse and Meteor Cluster deal physical damage on top of their elemental damage, and Bone Spirit.. well I don't know about Bone Spirit but it often hits enemies it shouldn't. Teleporting around a corner and experimenting with these spells, as well as trying your hardest-hitting spells in conjuction with the skill Elemental Drain, will let you wear the monsters down.

4. You don't have to kill everything. Simply avoiding the toughest monsters with Teleport or resetting and hoping you don't get those monsters again are very much acceptable options.

Additionally, you can always just start a different character. Each class has different "rough patches," places in the game where it becomes very hard for them to move forward, but those rough patches are different for each class. Sorcerers start very strong, but around where you are they start getting weak; a Barbarian for instance, however, starts off a lot weaker but has no problem with those all-immune packs once they get there, so they can go deeper and hopefully scout out some better gear for your Sorcerer to help bump him over this speed bump. Then later on hopefully your Sorcerer will return the favor. Sorcerer is the only class entirely dependent on spells so any other class will do, although maybe not a Necromancer so you aren't fighting over equipment.

Hope that helps!

[markus_zhang]

@Wendigo

Thanks for the help! I didn't expect Sor to be more difficult at the moment, so that's the problem I guess. Grinding does help a lot, and I found that the treasure cave, with the secret tunnel, is an excellent place to grind and MF.

You mentioned Staves, but they are two-handed, would that give defense a hit? Or is it a better tradeoff? I noticed that with 200 AC the monsters are still hitting me with every hit, not sure if 400 helps or not.

I also found Golems to be more powerful than they are the original game. They probably won't defeat triple immune by themselves, but serve as excellent meat shields.

The "different class" approach makes sense. I did collect a lot of equipment for other classes.

BTW is there a way to shield poison bolts? They are especially painful and Poison enchanted uniques usually mean dying a lot. I'm not sure if magic resistance helps (already maxed), but the knock-back effect is painful.

[Wendigo]

As a rule of thumb, yes, it should be easy to sacrifice AC and Block Chance for better killing on a sorcerer. Your plan A should be to avoid getting hit in the first place and letting Lumpy take hits for you with Mana Shield as your backup, and killing everything that even tries to get into swing distance. Once you've found a staff that makes your spells more offensive, you should at least try it out. You can always go back if you don't like it, after all.

And yeah poison. I asked the same question:
http://awake.diablo1.eu.org/acid-t1957.html
Nothing makes me reset and reroll the dungeon levels faster than a glowing pack of those devil dogs no matter what class I'm playing. Essentially they have a very high damage variance and the acid pools can stack insanely quick so you can find yourself in a situation where the goggles do nothing before you even know it. The only plus side is they have a slightly shorter range than most ranged attacks so you can usually stay out of their reach until you've figured out a way around them.

[SkyrosX2]

@markus_zhang

Since the original Diablo, my favourite class has been Sorcerer. I've played it more than anything else. I think I can give you a few tips (some of them I actually learned from Wendigo, lol; hi there, Wendigo!)

1-All you attribute points should go to Magic. ALL. If you are not doing this since the beginning, playing with Sorc will be harder. You should rely on your gear (specially rings and amulet, which only require clvl -character level- to be equipped) in order to have enough Stenght to use a good armor, belt and helmet.

2-I have never seen a Sorc do better with Shield and Sword than with a good Staff.

3-I beat Hell Difficulty with my Sorc. Some bosses were tough, but Diablo was easy. I was level 43 when I did it, and I did not need to grind for experience a lot, maybe just a couple levels.

4-I also did not have other chars to help my Sorc. He was my first char. So it is doable, if you play right (Torment Difficulty is hundreds of time harder, and do require support from other chars, unless you wanna spend hundreds of hours grinding with the Sorc by himself).

5-There is a quest that gives +1 for Guardian Spell. There is another quest that gives +1 for Golem spell. You should NOT COMPLETE these quests right away; SAVE THEM up to when you have got these spells on level 12 (or, at least, 11) just by reading books. Then you go back to each difficulty, complete the quests, and get the spells to their maximum level of 15.
5.1-If you don't do this, it will impossible to have the spells maxed out because the books require a stupid amount of Magic.
5.2-If you get the spells to level 11 by reading books and then complete the quests in each of the 4 difficulties, you get them to level 15. BUT if you get them to level 12 by reading books, then you can get them to level 15 by completing the quests in the 3 first difficulties, and you can play on Torment with the spells already on max level.

6-This video shows how Sorc can handle Torment difficulty:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPV1TIx2Y3s

It is basically what Wendigo sair: Bone Spirit, Meteor, Apocalypse, Golem, Teleport.

But this is still a distant future for you; you can beat Hell Difficulty with Chain Lighting, Guardian, Blizzard, and the proper gear, of course.

Hope I helped! =)