There is a lot I still need as well. Working 6 days a week right now leaves me unable to play for hours on end. Among other life situations… 
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Farm NM Andy and Meph until you come up with some decent stuff like an SoJ (Andy) or Magefist gloves… Trangs are also acceptable gloves but Magefists are better for the Mana Regen and +1 fire skills.
Make a Smoke armor for both you and your merc, find a 2os anything with around 400+ def.
Also, make spirit sword and shield, try to find a white monarch and use the Larzuk quest to 4os it and make spirit… find a crystal sword on normal cows and use larzuk to 4os that as well… make another spirit… those two items alone will carry you through Hell mode EZ.
After that find a 4os flail or just find a white flail in NM or Hell and again, Larzuk it… find a friend and have them rush you to Larzuk on a mule / throw away character so you don’t waste your main characters socket quests for when you’re alone and find some GG item like Shako or Tal’s Plate and want to socket it… make a Heart of the Oak with the flail and replace the Spirit Sword with it… this is literally what I did.
After that all I can say is max your fire mastery out completely and spam the hell out of fireball. Use orb and put like 10 points in to cold mastery.
I was running a Blizzball sorc until Hell then switched off to Lightning, I have a level 89 Lightning Sorc now that can solo Baal, the only area I can’t do is Chaos Sanctuary…working on trying to find 2 x Ber runes to make Infinity and perhaps find a griffons eye… also want to find a Lo rune to make fortitude for the merc, he’s still wearing Smoke, Insight and a Vamp Gaze… I wanna Cham his Vamp Gaze and my own Shako but can’t find Cham either… game is still new… so plenty of time to keep plugging away at it… just set goals for yourself and try to focus on upgrading slots one at a time.
Right now I’m running:
Shako, Tal’s Plate, Spirit Shield, Hoto, Arachnid Mesh, SoJ, Raven Frost, Magefists, Maras.
I only traded for the Arachnid Mesh and the Vex rune to make Hoto… everything else was self found.
Thanks for all the help guys! Esp. Lt Butcher, the gear drop was super appreciated and helpful. I’ll be sure to pay it forward when I can!
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I do appreciate the generosity but honestly, I think it would’ve been better for him to learn to handle the Hell difficulty through some trial as gearing up from zero is part of the game experience. There is no guarantee that he will meet another generous player when ladder starts.
But good to see some nice players around.
Edit: If you can’t move an inch in Hell, it’s wise to farm NM Meph for gear. Also, Mausoleum has no cold immunes, mobs are rather slow and it’s Lv 85, so you can grind there for both exp, elite item bases (Elite pole arm for Merc and Monarch base for your spirit) and if you are really lucky, some runes. Eventually, you should be able to move on to Andy. If you can join a party, try to get to Ancient Tunnel in Act 2 and eventually Meph. If you can’t get help, just gear your self and Merc enough that you can teleport through the acts.
Do NM Baal runs until minimum 75. My 2nd sorc i kept there until 79. Also, see if you can get a Nef and LUM to make smoke. Stealth isn’t really good enough for Hell IMO.
My first sorc was the same as yours. Max Orb, Max Meteor then FB. Unless you have high FCR fireball works just fine for most cold immunes. 10 hard points to FM and i think 17 to CM.
Oh, and if your Merc isn’t high enough, go back a few acts and walk him around. I went to Hell with him at like 65. Took ages to level. Took him back to Act 2 and he gained like 5 levels in 30 mins. He should have at least Insight. Armor can be w/e high def/resistance you find. Obviously if you can give him a smoke as well it will really help. Even just giving him the Stealth will help a little.
Level to 85. 71 is too low.
Although it will take ages, you can upgrade the runes to high runes over time with gems, basically where I’m at while waiting for a LO rune to drop 
I got 5 characters around lvl 80 and have been running hell baal and diablo for a while, and I JUST got my first vipermagi xD RNG is a bïtch, all my characters were running about the same gear as threadmaker described. Stealth, lore, rhyme this kind of stuff.
Depends on what act you’re on.
As for me, I’m doing Tristam runs to build levels and get gear.
I get your logic for sure, but honestly just being pointed in the right direction and KNOWING what to look for is very helpful. Now that I can get some experience I think I’ll be fine next time around.
Runewords for sure … im doing hell a1 with a lvl 57 bonemancer …
Ive recrafted some runeword into better armor tho and bonemancer is magic thus less immunity packs :s
I believe 156 strength is the correct amount for the spirit monarch shield, just wanted to correct that so people do not under stat themselves for it
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Use either RalOrtTal or 3 Pdiamond shield instead of Rhyme. Try to get Smoke armor instead of stealth. Get some more levels. While you do all that you should be able to find some more upgrades. I started hell at around 73 with gear similar to yours and it was okay - not fast but doable.
Don’t worry about using your last respec. You can farm or trade for more respecs when you get strong enough to beat hell. Try using either Fireball / Orb (that’s what I beat hell with) or firewall / orb builds. Both are great and immunities are not a problem.
i was in the same boat on my first char.
priority is working on decent reses and life pool even if it screws your damage
eventually i got a bunch of resist/survivability stuff in stash for the next chars that have to go through the same. its only kinda tough on the first char of the season
I have 4 characters that have fully beaten the game. For every one I farm Baal until level 75 no matter what. He has the best loot pool for you IMO. You could argue farming Hell andariel is better but it is a long run or tele. I also farm this alone so the loot is all mine and I get as much Magic find as I can. Trust me all the Baal runs will get you some decent gear.
Do you already have “Spirit” runeword in weapon and shield? Also your merc will destroy hell in a Goldskin, Tal Rasha’s Mask, and Reaper’s toll. Get the merc a 4 socket thresher and make insight in it until he can equip the Reaper’s Toll unique. He is physical so that will get you out of not being able to kill mobs that have double immunes which is rare but does happen.
I use 156 STR so i can equip a 4 socket monarch with "Spirit: runeword in it. The Strength is 156 I just checked on my Spirit Monarch.
Tip 1: Don’t get hit.
GG you beat D2.
Farm nightmare, everything yoiu need for hell is there.
Just respec to full Blizz and one shot everything. If it’s immune teleport past it. Ggez
No, not really.
All you need for hell is 2 spirits and an armor/helm to stick ptopaz’s in to get started.