It says only place enough pts into Str and dex as to wear your gear. To me this is very confusing cause for a new player - how do I know what that gear is going to be?
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Yeah, it’s tough. Most of those guides are for end-game, and assume that the reader is an advanced player or already has all the gear (including the pieces that give +STR or +DEX).
Probably the best you can do is look up some key pieces and note their requirements. You may wish to re-spec if you find that you have significantly over-invested into a stat.
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All items in the game have a base, and its easy to check on Arreat Summit for example what those bases require for str and dex.
A good plan is to expect that you should use normal bases for norm, exceptional bases for nm and elite bases for hell. So based on that, you can see what those require and plan around it.
You chose your gear first, then your stats.
That’s how you know.
If you don’t know the gear… just keep playing the game for fun and don’t take stats too seriously. 156 str should be max for any char.
I havent gotten any further then act 3 on any of my “fun” toons and never saw anything above 91. So hearing that has me in awe of what the later offerings may be
Check out leveling guides on d2.maxroll.gg they are very detailed and helpful. Generally you won’t need much str and dex for leveling and you can respec later for your final build. You can go up to 60 str to equip max potion slots belt, 10-20 into energy (or none at all) and most points into vitality. Maxroll guides also provide good leveling items so check their description what stats they require to be equipped.
When you respec for final build I agree it’s tough to calculate how many points to put in str/dex. Need to check items that you want to use and what they require.
Theres one thing I still don’t currently agree with. Not putting points into mana/energy. I have more points into mana then vitality. Why? I’m a sorc - I don’t have time to wait on replenishment. I need energy Now or I have to hide or die.
You say respec - I have saved mine. I usually do a respec at 24 but this time around I didn’t do fire and switch to ice. I went ice the whole way. I looked at maxroll’s suggestions as I usually do. Its a great site.
As soon as you get an insight on your merc mana becomes a non issue and all those points are pure wasted.
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Yeah, my understanding is that investing into Energy is usually reserved for an Energy Shield build.
That’s a min/max strategy because you profit more from a higher health pool than small increases in phys dmg / ar / def.
To give you a heads up, you can respec 3 times for free and afterwards with tokens you can farm.
Basic help.
First 3 row belt needs 25 str. This gets you through normal on caster, you can put 30 to 50 points if you are fine with your hp pool or when you reach nightmare and can equip a demonhide sash 4 rows 50 str req. Most caster don’t use max block until they have good gear, so don’t waste points in dex. Once you are at the point to have the need for dex you will respec anyway.
Melee profit a little more from dex and str but it’s still not as good as vita. But you need more stats for your weapons and armor. Depending on the class and builds you are using you want to use different weapons, some only need str others need both.
As melee I like to keep some spare points to stat if I find a nice weapon, but want to have around 100 str 80 dex 150 vita till late nightmare early hell.
You’ll really need that Vitality later on as Sorc is very squishy. With mana issues you just spam Mana potions and get an Insight on merc as mentioned.
I appreciate all the advice that I have been given. I did not know I could respec 3 times. I was saving my first one for mistakes I may have made.
I usually carry 2/3 mana and 1/3 vit potions and now that I have ( the ever so useful cube, even though it takes up 4 precious spaces ). I gain more or less from what I stash in it.
Can you see my toon if you have my name like D3 can?
I have Gorefoot, Hand of Broc, Ancients Pledge, Stealth. Pretty good I think for level 21. I am religiously following the Blizzard Maxroll guide. Oh I also made a 60% lightening and Fire resist cap I carry one or the other in my cube. I have the vipersong globe as well
In practice, I often have some stat charms that I slowly replace as I get nearer to my endgame gear.
While leveling, just put points into dex and strength as gear requires, put a couple of points into health every level, and save a couple of points when you don’t need to match new gear requirements.
It’s nice to have 50+ unspent points at level 40-50.
When your character reaches a higher level, like level 85, and you intend to play with that character farming gear and doing boss runs, you can start to min-max.
Look at your gear. What’s the highest strength and dex requirements?
Do you have a hellfire torch yet?
Put in enough strength to…
a) Match the strength requirement of your highest required strength and dexterity gear.
Safe strat.
b) Start putting in points for the lowest required item that adds strength or dexterity.
Then continue on for the next items, until you can equip everything.
Min-max strat.
Then dump the rest of the points into health.
Or, slightly safer, save 15-20 points just in case you want to change critical gear pieces.
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Thanks for your advice.
I found something today through maxroll .com under experience - how to increase your xp through altering the number of characters in a group, without actually having more people in a group. You type this in world chat - /players 1-8. Each additional fake character ups your xp by 50% xp.
I understand where you are coming from, but that is part of it. I often put more into strength (or dex sometimes) early on so I can carry anything that comes my way, then respec later on when I have it more worked out. Or you can always save a few points to have available as needed.
Yea, that’s a bit of an issue. Often as a you amass gear, it will have +stat points so you’ll need less over time. Of course, you get 3 respecs now so you can reallocate your stat points after you find end gear.
Generally you don’t need anything in Dex or Energy. Some melee and archers will need a slight amount of Dex. On your first run through you’ll probably ~100 pts in Str (with +Str getting you to 156 for a monarch) and you can put the rest in Vit.
Thats kinda where I am.I think I have finally figured this guy out - skills wise - this is my third try at a sorc. I have been following Max - but u also have to do what makes the game fun for you, and survability. so theres a balance I’m learning. Plus I havent even used my first respec. No reason to at this point. Wish this thing had a spell checker ))
For what it’s worth I’ve always ignored peoples advice on that and went 50-100 energy anyway on sorc just because it’s less annoying to deal with. I also typical put some hard points into TP to lower the cost so mana burners don’t make you unable to TP away.
End of the day, do what you like. Me I typically rock ~80 base energy, enough hard points in tp to get it down to ~ 1-7 mana per cast depending on build/regen rate, 86% fhr and 105% FCR with 156 str after gear. and rest vita.
Depends on what you are using the sorc for. I HATE TP’ing through Worldstone without some extra mana/low cost TP/lightning absorb. For farming AT it really just doesn’t matter as you’ll be rocking way more MF and will be less focused on the details.
People overestimate how min/maxy you need to be to do well in D2. I mean hell my Zon runs around with like 600 hp and resists ranging from -20% to 35%… and even then it’s not that hard to stay alive. Might die on her once every 12-20 hours of play.
I would say: Look at Arreat Summit. If you see a item you want be able to use, look at str requirements and dex requirement.
Tal rasha set have many items, the higest str requirement is 84 for torso armor. So no more than 84 str on a sorc is needed for full tal rasha set. But if you want a Spirit shield you need a 4 soc Light shield, so you need a Monarch shield and that need 156 str.
Lets say you want a wizardspike that require 75 dex.
Before you pump up to 75 dex., you can have some dex from other items, and even charms. So I would stay at least 20 under 75. For example the Raven Frost ring that almost everyone wants can give up to 20 Dex.
For blocking it is a little more complicated. You want to decide early if your character going for max blocking (max is 75 %) or not because the dex needed depends on your level also.
Main goal is to try go get as much points as you can in Vitality. Save at least one respec until you reached Hell and have some of the gear you think you will keep in end game. If you are lucky and get both Anni charm and torch you want to respec and put much less points in str and dex.
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