That’s why people don’t do Duriel. Not only is it tricky to find him, his drops are crap thanks to the town portals.
Some people even got 5 town scrolls as a first quest kill, I’m not kidding.
My usual routine when starting Hell farming is Andy first until I get some gear that she can drop. Why not Meph?
Andy can be easily bugged, so her drops are like quest kill (No crap items like arrow/bolt), so for items that Andy can drop, she has a bit higher chance to drop them than Meph. Plus, teleporting around Cata is much safer for early budget sorc than Durance and Andy dies faster than Meph + some unique packs that you can kill, none of them immune to cold. She can drop nice stuff like Shako, HoZ, Skullders, Nagel, Highlord, Occy, Gheed, Magefist, Vipermagi, and Etc.
Once I feel like I got 60-70% of all items that Andy can drop that I need, I move on to Meph. He can drop stuff that Andy can’t drop like arach, and Andy visage (Very low), Mara, and etc.
Once I get most of the stuff I need from Meph, then it’s A85 area farming all the way.