shes 78 currently. i do plenty of damage but im literally made of glass. if the merc isnt alive, its gg. hes getting better but like right now he just died 3x to one taps despite the beefy gear hes got on. hard to react to what ive been seeing.
i know it seems pretty noob, all this stuff im experiencing. but just to set the tone, im no slouch in gaming. ive taken HC SSF chars to endgame maps in POE and beat most the ubers there. A soulsborne player with a history of dominating pve and pvp there. for whatever reason this game is wiping me up though lol and its frustrating. i think the last time i played D2 i was a teenager and that was when it first launched back in the day, and back then i didnt have the inclination to want to do extra difficult content. i just played through the campaign once and was done, like most games.
i may try to respec for hydra if i can get my hands on a respec token
If you can respec, I’d go for something like this: ht tps://www.wowhead.com/diablo-2/skill-calc/sorceress/qptwz42578aYbzXtEyMtFbEtHyGejd
only 5 into cold mastery? seems like that wouldnt be enough to do any damage. like ive got 16 into it right now and it feels underwhelming
For dual specing into Cold and Fire you have to make compromises. Hydra is the main attack, with Orb there to handle fire immunes. Trying to go the other way round, with Orb as main and Hydra as backup, just doesn’t work as Hydra ends up too weak. Same for any Cold-Fire dual spec really. You have to pump Fire Mastery over Cold Mastery when doing Cold/Fire hybrid builds.
Mastery has no synergy, so you rely on +skills to pump up your mastery. At level 78 you shouldn’t have much problem getting at least +8 to skills if not +10 or more, so that 5 is more like 13-15. CM of 15 grants -95% res, which is the max effective -res you really need without Sunder charms. You can’t break 100% res anyway.
Its a skill issue not gear issue.
I use hotkeys f for teleport, g for primary skill, x for frozen armor, c for static field, d for telekenesis.
In terms of setup, using a 5 button mouse is very helpful. I use a 5 button mouse, in addition to the keyboard. Instant cast is a must, you can’t be trying to scroll through skills in the boxes, etc.
My 5 button is such that only the main left and right click can be held down for constant casting, so I have to use the keyboard for teleport and static field.
Z for teleport, X for static, shift to allow firing or left click without a target.
Left click Orb, right click Hydra. button 3 telekinesis. Button 4 frozen armor. Don’t need button 5 in this setup, but is usually my button to recast a summon, like Valerie, Bear or Golem, etc.
i think i only have like +6 or 7 to skills currently. still working on decent gear.
i thought sunders were supposed to break all immunes?
i only use left click for moving. right for orb, thumb 1 for portals for hot situations, thumb 2 for tele, mmb for weapon swap but i dont really need it. asdfg for me main skills where hydra, armor, fireball and static are. skill usage isnt really a crutch for me. the setup feels fine. im just super squishy, my merc as well. like im constantly yanking him out of combat if theres more than 3 or 4 mobs.
ive reached arreat summit with what i have for gear currently. its just extremely dicey getting around. and im a little concerned with how the waves for baal are going to go. bosses havent been an issue thus far. even diablo went down easy. but getting to diablo, as an example, with all those giga mobs around the seals in his arena was a pain. baal should go down easily. just need to get to him.
Edit: Baal has been eliminated. Hell mode complete. Not as bad as i was expecting. Though i imagine it would have been a lot easier with some actual gear lol