Introduction:
Cold sorceresses are very good for magic-finding, dueling, or just as all-around characters. Cold sorceresses are also very easy to use, as opposed to Fire and Lightning sorceresses.
So you have chosen or are interested in crafting your own blizzard sorceress. Maybe you've seen one in action before, dueled against one, or what have you. Nonetheless, you are likely reading this guide because you have some interest in building one. Either way, welcome to the Walkthrough.
Now, the blizzard sorceress can deal insane amounts of damage. However, there is one drawback you may or may not be aware of, which is the fact that the blizzard sorceress can of course only do one element, which is cold. The only other attack you will likely have at your disposal is Static
Field, which can shave off 25% of the enemy's HP per hit, but cannot kill.
In dueling, the blizzard sorceress packs a punch. But needless to say, you'll need some help in PvM in Hell mode and even some parts of Nightmare.
If you still feel like building one of these powerhouses despite the obvious drawbacks, feel free to keep on reading.
On the other hand, if you wish to build a Frozen Orb sorceress, I provide little blurbs here and there on what steps you need to follow, because for the most part, things are the same.
Which is right for you?
Figure I'd drop this in somewhere.
If you are just beginning the game and want to build a sorceress, I'd highly suggest building an orber. They can hold their own in duels, not to mention regular play. Orbers have very good crowd control, so that makes them good support characters should the need arise.
Blizzard sorceresses, however, require a bit more skill to use. Blizzard only concentrates on one area, rather then splitting off in a million different directions. Therefore, you need to use Blizzard carefully. But the additional hassle comes with a reward--Blizzard can do over 1,000 points of damage, allowing it to pack a punch.
If you are really advanced, have one or more sorceresses and are chomping for more, I'd suggest going for a Lightning/Fire build.
Objective of the guide
The objective of this guide is quite simple, which is to help you make yourself a lean, mean, blizzard-slinging machine. If for some reason you follow this guide down to the last step and don't have such a sorceress as the result, feel free to email me and complain, but I ask one thing: If you want to complain, please provide constructive criticism to help me improve the guide.
And lastly, thank you for taking the time to read this guide. Let's begin.
Skill/Stat Spread
NOTE: I will only list the skills you are putting points into. If it isn't listed, don't bother with it.
-Skill Tree: Lightning-
Skill---------------Points
Charged Bolt 1
Lightning 1
Telekinesis 1
Teleport 1
Energy Shield 1
-Cold-
Skill---------------Points
IceBolt Max
Frozen Armor 1
Frost Nova 1
Ice Blast Max
Glacial Spike Max
Blizzard Max
Shiver Armor 1
Mastery Max
Notes:
You are putting points into the lightning tree for Teleport and energy shield mostly, Teleport for it's ability to move you quickly in duels, and Energy shield so you can take an increased number of hits. The ones that need to be maxed in the cold tree are synergies of Blizzard and thus increase its power. Mastery will cut your opponent's cold resists, enhancing damage.
Orb Sorc notes:
In this case, you only want to max your Cold Mastery, Orb, and Ice Bolt. On the lightning side of things, this build can go two ways: Max Teleport so that it will only take 1 Mana per cast (And thus, your mana will recharge AS you teleport, pretty good), OR you could max Energy Shield (And be a
fast-moving tank, but have LOTS of Mana potions on hand for this build). It all depends on what you want.
Stat Point Spread
The most typical stat spread for Blizzard sorceresses:
Strength: As high as needed, but keep as low as possible. If you can get away with keeping it around 40-50, that'll be excellent.
Dexterity: Like strength. Keep it as low as possible. 51 is good, as it allows use of the Spectral Shard, the main weapon of choice for Duelists.
Vitality: Every point that isn't going into anything else should be put into Vitality. By around Level 70, you should be edging close to 1,000 Life (With +life equipment).
Energy: Try not to put ANY points whatsoever into this stat. AuralFire and Anticitizen (Orb and Blizzard sorcs, respectively) both have 50-70 into Energy because I think that's a pretty good comfort zone. It really depends on where you are comfortable, but a common rule is no more than 70 at the
most.
Orb sorceresses can follow this same stat spread. Nothing different between the builds, though you *might* want to nudge the energy up a bit if you decide on maxing Energy shield.
Alternate Take
The Stat Spread
Strength: Leave at 35. No more than that.
Dex: You should be able to boost this via equipment. I don't know the equipment as well as I used to, so I cannot modify the equipment section as such. Don't go over 35 (Without equipment).
Vitality: Same as above (Put as much as possible into this.)
Energy: None here. Unless you are going to nudge Energy Shield past Lv. 5.
The Skill Spread
For the Blizzard Sorceresses (sorry, Orbers), you'll want to max your five skills in this order.
Ice Blast, Blizzard, Cold Mastery, Ice Bolt, then lastly Cold Spike.
Leveling Walkthrough
All the planning in the world won't get you past the one, classic element that is in every RPG known to man: The level grind.
Fortunately in Diablo II grinding isn't too hard--that is, if you have some help out. There are different ways you can go about this.
1. You can grab a friend's sorceress with maxed Enchant, buy a Bow, and just shoot down enemies in difficult places for massive XP.
2. Once at level 20, just find a good friend with a powerhouse Orb sorceress and run the cow level with them. Once at 25, up the ante to Nightmare cows.
3. Do Hell Chaos Sanctuary runs. Be aware that a Barbarian with Battle Orders, and a Paladin with Blessed Hammer are pretty much required for these.
Pretty much following those in order will get you to the high levels just fine. However, I'll give some more detail into following these steps.
-1 to 20-
You'll either be flying solo or having the assistance of a chanter for this one. If you have a chanter assisting you, skip to Stony Field.
Otherwise, you'll be alone with Fire Bolt and not much in the way of firepower. What you'll probably want to do is gain about 5 levels in Blood Moor, then move to Cold Plains until Level 10, Then keep moving on until you get to the Stony Field.
Chanted people joining us at this point should have a bow of sorts and a newly-cast enchant.
At this point, you can kill things in this area, slowly working through Act I until you get to Level 20. You can also get a rush through Act I and level in Act 2, making it easier on you. Either way works fine, but if you insist on sticking with Act 1, level in the Catacombs. Anything before that and you'll be moving backwards.
By the time you hit 20, you should have an Ice Bolt that is pretty well leveled, with one point each into Blizzard's prerequisites.
-20 to 50-
At this point, you'll want to join a Cow game--that is, someone running the cow level. Here are some tips on joining a good cow game:
1. Find one that has a number attached to it. This means it's been running for a while and is most likely a good run.
2. Pay attention to the game times. If the game's been running any longer than 5-10 minutes, wait for them to start another game or find another run.
3. Try to stay in private games with tons of friends. More people = more XP. Private runs work better because you don't have to worry about some bozo wasting the cow king and ruining your character.
Once you get to 30-ish, you'll want to complete Normal and head for Nightmare cow runs. After that, when you are around 45-50, Nightmare Chaos Sanctuary is a good place to do some solo leveling.
By now, you should have a decently leveled Orb/Blizzard which should be more than enough to carry you through easily. Just don't take too many hits.
-50 to 70-
You should do Nightmare Chaos runs until around 60 or so. When you get there, get to Hell Act 2 and run through the desert killing things (In full games, preferably). You should be able to hit 70 easy doing this.
-70+-
Once you hit 70, it's pretty straightforward from here. Just do Hell Chaos runs until you hit your desired level. I stopped at 80, though it certainly is possible to go further. May luck be with you.
The "Sora":
I figure I should cover this, since you are likely to be doing it a LOT, especially if you happen to be the only sorceress and/or the highest level sorceress of the Chaos run you happen to be in. It's a technique called the "Sora", and what it means is to teleport very rapidly to the center of
Chaos Sanctuary, cast a Town Portal, and duck and cover while your team clears the area.
Obviously, you'll want to keep some things in mind.
1. ALWAYS, ALWAYS make sure you have a MAXED tome of Town Portal on you. I cannot count on two hands how many times I teleported, and lo and behold, no town portals. Worst. Feeling. Ever.
2. Always have full rejuvenations on hand, if possible. If not, keep a healthy dose of Mana/Health potions. Slots 1, 2 should be health, 3, 4 being mana.
3. Most importantly, have a barbarian cast Battle Orders on you before you begin. You'll get a skill boost, HP/MP boost, and Stamina boost. You can certainly attempt to sora without, but it's very risky.
Orbers: Do the same thing as your blizzard brethren.
Recommended Setups
Obviously the skills and stats were the least of our problems. Now we have to figure out what kind of equipment we are going to use. The good news is that you'll likely get this stuff from some caring people as you build up your levels. Don't trip too hard on this stuff until you get to level 70-ish.
Equipment note: "Priz" is the term used by many b.net players for an item that has multiple resistances. Such items are usually purple in color, and are worth a LOT in trades.
Note on armors: The same armor should be used across both builds (MF and Duel)
Also, on any rare stuff, you should try to keep the strength/dexterity requirements as low as possible.
Remember the golden rule of the Sorc:
DEFENSE DOESN'T MATTER. Because if some Barbarian Whirlwinds you, you are
likely not going to survive. Unless, of course, he only *grazes* you.
Magic Find Gear
Helm: Tarnhelm
Defense: 8-11
Required Level: 15
Required Strength: 15
Durability: 18
+1 To All Skill Levels
25-50% Better Chance of Getting Magic Item
75% Extra Gold From Monsters
NOTE: You'll want a 50% Tarnhelm, preferably.
Armor: Rare
10-24% Faster Hit Recovery
Cold Resists 9%+
Fire Resists 9%+
24-60 to Life
Shield: Priz*
20-30 to Cold, Fire, and Lightning resists
Faster Block Rate
Enhanced block rate
Weapon: Gull
One-Hand Damage: 2 To 19
Required Level: 4
Durability: 16
Adds 1-15 damage
100% Better Chance of Getting Magic Item
-5 to Mana
Gloves: Chance Guard
Defense: 27-28
Required Level: 15
Required Strength: 25
Durability: 16
+20-30% Enhanced Defense
+15 Defense
+25 To Attack Rating
25-40% Better Chance of Getting Magic Item
200% Extra Gold From Monsters
+2 To Light Radius
Boots: Rare
% to Magic Find (Varies greatly)
% to Cold Resist and Fire resist
30% Faster Run/Walk
Belt: Goldwrap
Defense: 34-36
Required Level: 27
Required Strength: 45
Durability: 18
12 Boxes
+40-60% Enhanced Defense
+25 Defense
10% Increased Attack Speed
30% Better Chance Of Getting Magic Items
50-80% Extra Gold From Monsters
+2 To Light Radius
Rings: 2x Nagelring
Magic Damage Reduced By 3
+50-75 To Attack Rating
Attacker Takes Damage of 3
15-30% Better Chance Of Getting Magic Items
Amulet: Rare
% Magic Find
% to Cold and Fire resists
+ Life and Mana (Not needed but preferred)
Dueling Build
Helm: Rare helm
10% or 20 faster hit recovery
20+ to Life
Cold Resist 20%+
Fire Resist 20%+
Armor1: Hawkmail (For dueling Cold-based Sorceress)
Defense: 109-122
Required Level: 15
Required Strength: 44
Durability: 36
+80-100% Enhanced Defense
10% Faster Run/Walk
15% To Max Cold Resist
Cold Resist +15%
Cannot Be Frozen
Armor2: Rare (For everything else)
24% Faster Hit Recovery
Cold Resist 20%
Fire Resist 20%
50+ to Life
Shield: Priz*
20-30 to Cold, Fire, and Lightning resists
Faster Block Rate
Enhanced block rate
Weapon: Spectral Shard
+10 to All Resistances
50 to Mana
50% Faster Cast Rate
55% to Attack Rating
Gloves: Frostburn
+10-20% Enhanced Defense
+30 Defense
+5% Enhanced Damage
Increase Maximum Mana 40%
Adds 1-6 Cold Damage
Alternate Gloves: Magefist
Boots: Rare
30% Faster Run/Walk
10% faster hit recovery
+20 to Mana
Cold resist and Fire resist
Belt: Rare
10% Faster Hit Recovery
30+ to Life
Cold Resist
Fire Resist
Rings:
10% Faster Cast Rate
Cold resists and Fire resists
+Mana or +Life
Amulet: Rare
+1 or 2 to Sorceress Skill Levels
10-20% to all resists
+Life or +Mana
The reason I suggest two armors on hand for duel build is because the
vast majority of Sorceresses out there are cold elemental. If you have
Energy shield plus a Hawkmail, Frozen Orb sorceresses won't be able to
even touch you while Blizzard sorceresses can't OHKO you unless you stand
in their blizzards.
Zen and the art of Dueling
Of course, once your build is near complete, you are going to want to
make yourself known on battle.net. Quick way to do that is to win
duels.
As far as the sorceress goes, you have one key skill in duels.
Teleport. Never duel without it. A sorceress without teleport is a dead
one.
Unless of course you are trying to build a low-level dueler. But if that's
the case, you probably would'nt want to be reading this guide.
Another note I'd like to add: It helps TREMENDOUSLY if you remap your
skill keys to other keys on your keyboard. For example, I have my F1-F4
keys mapped to Q, W, E, and R, so I can switch skills quickly, while
having my mana potions just a key away. The F-keys are the worst
possible skill keys for the sorceress. Try dueling with them once, and
you'll see how cumbersome it is to quickly switch between blizzard and
teleport.
You can also download a hack that will put blizzard on your left-click.
But if you do that, it makes you a cheating scumbag, and if you did stuff
like that, you probably wouldn't be reading this guide. Thus, I will
NOT be posting the instructions on how to install or get this hack.
Again, another thanks to Patrick for this one:
The Frozen Orb break point. Orbers out there can get higher damage if they are able to catch their opponent in the break point of the orb, or, right at the final part of it, where it splits off. Anyone caught dead center in this will take full damage.
PvP Damage Reduction
Another point I should mention is the fact that in PvP (Player vs. Player), your skill damages are reduced by 75%. The reason is obvious why this is, but in case you don't get it, it's because the skills are too tremendously powerful for dueling. You'd be getting one hit kills as characters' life rarely goes above 2000. Two hits with blizzard = instant death.
Sorceress vs. Hammer-Paladin
This will be a tough fight. You'll have to stay as far away from the 'din as possible, since his hammers may not be in range, but he can be stepping on your heels in a matter of seconds. Hammerdins also make use of a glitch commonly known as sync, which will cause you to lag for a few seconds, giving him the perfect window of opportunity. Staying far away from him is a good way to avoid falling victim to this technique.
Also, it should be known that those hammers do about 9,000 damage per hammer, so two will probably kill you if not one.
As far as offense, you'll just have to drop random blizzards and hope he walks into one. Getting close enough to drop a blizzard right on him might be too risky, unless he's reloading on mana.
Note: It would seem that having Diablo II in Direct3D mode will totally nerf the synch glitch. At least for me it did. If someone could confirm this, it would be helpful. See contact.
Orbers: You can just fire in their general direction and you'll likely score some hits. Be careful still.
-Sorceress vs. Fist Of The Heavens-
Another variant of the paladin, this one attacks with a lightning bolt which homes in from the sky, making it nigh unavoidable. I myself would just avoid all fights with FoH dins. If you must, however, equip yourself with MAXIMUM lightning resists. FoH dins have Conviction, which weaken your resists quite a bit. You can try and stay away from the din, but his FoH is a surefire hit. Once he casts it, you are going to get hit, like it or not.
To kill it, you'll have to go kamikaze. His FoH has quite a range, so you'll have to kill him before he kills you.
Orbers: Just get close and start going nuts with Orb.
Sorceress vs. Barbarian
Very easy if the opponent has no Hawkmail. If he does, this is going to be a really long fight.
Most BvS types have a Hawkmail, some points in Natural Resistance, and are really speedy to catch up with you. Your most effective weapon against these types is already neutralized (freezing). So it's normally an uphill battle.
What you need to hope for is that the barbarian does something called a "WW lock". This means that the Barbarian is stuck in a whirlwind going towards you. This will give you speed advantage so you can blizzard him to death. However, even if you manage to reduce his life to zero, he'll
still be spinning towards you. Be careful--he can still damage you. Just run until he stops and dies.
UPDATE: There is a glitch I discovered that would allow the Barbarian to "teleport", for lack of a better term, right onto your heels, causing you some pretty good damage. If you built your sorceress well though, you should be able to survive it and teleport safely away.
If he doesn't lock you, just use the houses and rocks in Blood Moor to try to slow him down a bit, dropping blizzards in the middle of these obstructions. He'll likely take some damage one way or another.
Orbers: Try to catch the barbarian in the Orb's break point if you can.
Also, don't bother dueling a Barbarian with hawkmail. It's almost an
instant loss.
Sorceress vs. Amazon (Bow)/Necromancer
I group the Necromancer and Bow Amazon because they are almost exactly
alike. Both use attacks that will home in on your position, and you'll
need to evade effectively while getting a good shot in.
You have to avoid their projectiles while trying to score a hit.
Unfortunately, this isn't easy at all. You have to get right next to
them, and hopefully drop a blizzard on them. Meanwhile, the
Necromancer/Amazon is probably taking this window of opportunity to
pump you full of Bone Spirits/Guided Arrows. If you are REALLY good,
you can teleport; quickly hotkey to blizzard, cast it, and quickly
switch back to teleport and run for it before you take too much damage.
And for dueling these types, FASTER HIT RECOVERY IS A MUST. Both
attacks, when they connect, will cause you to flinch for a second,
allowing a full army of arrows/spirits to bombard you, thus killing
you. The trick here is to WALK AWAY from being hit, not TELEPORTING.
Teleporting takes a fraction of a second to do, and in that small
window of time, another arrow or spirit can connect, causing you to
flinch again...and again...and again until you are dead.
One thing to note, however--The Amazon's Guided Arrow travels somewhat faster than the Necromancer's Bone Spirit.
Orbers: You have it a bit easier. Just try to get close and let an orb flyat them. Hopefully you'll hit.
Sorceress Vs. Javelin Amazon
NOTE: See the Hackers section of the dueling chapter for some important info on dueling Javelin Amazons. If, after checking that part out, you are SURE its OK, then read on.
First thing's first. Put a LOT of distance between you and the Zon. Because once that Javelin connects with your sorceress, I can guarantee an instant death, since like Bow Amazons, those javelins cause a massive flinch when they hit. And since Javelin Amazons have immense
attack speed, your chances of survival are close to nothing--unless, of course, you have a 3-topaz shield and a Sparkling Mail.
Now most duelists aren't stupid. They know you are a blizzard sorceress, and they aren't going to run directly at you. Therefore, you are going to have to predict where they are going to be, and drop a
blizzard and hope they run right into it.
Another strategy, if you are the kamikaze type, is run right up to her, blizzard her before she can jab you, then as she recovers, pump her full of ice blasts, and hope she dies. This assumes she has crappy hit recovery and has no Hawkmail on, of course.
Sorceress vs. Sorceress
This one has nothing to it, really. SvS mostly consists of teleporting around like mad trying to avoid getting hit. This warning deserves to be repeated twice--have LOTS of mana potions on hand.
Make sure you activate Energy Shield, and have a full belt of mana potions. This is going to be a long fight.
Mainly the thing to do is to teleport madly around the map and drop blizzards everywhere at random. Hope the sorceress manages to teleport right into one. This is pretty much your only hope against other blizzard sorceresses. Another thing to keep in mind with blizzard sorceresses is that you should ALWAYS stay away from any blizzards; even you think they are your own. The opposing sorceress may have dropped one in the EXACT same location.
Fire sorceresses are a different story. Keep away from their fireballs, as those are highly lethal. Teleport right past, drop a blizzard, run. Rinse and repeat as necessary. Also, those fireballs have splash damage. If they even come CLOSE to you, you'll be severely injured, if not killed. So
be careful.
Frozen Orb sorceresses are easy. If your sorceress is buff enough, you can take a load of frozen orbs before you actually come close to dying. Just run right into it, blizzard the hell out of her, and be done with it. Make sure you don't get caught in the Orb's break point, and you should be fine.
Lastly, Lightning. This should be really easy for sorceresses with energy shield. Just have tons of mana on hand. Energy Shield absorbs 100% lightning damage; so all damage goes to mana. Isn't that nice?
Hackers
You may come across some characters that are doing things not humanly possible. Such things include Sorceresses dropping blizzards at an alarming rate, some who have blizzards that drop automatically each time the sorceress teleports, and sometimes, when you are about to kill
someone, their life refills automatically.
These can sometimes be attributed to hacks, or in the case of the latter, Rejuvenation potions.
One hack I described earlier is probably responsible for the fast casting of spells. Someone puts Blizzard on their left click and Teleport on their right. There isn't an easy to tell who's abusing this
dirty trick; you'll have to be observant.
The next one is the chicken module, which has someone both open a portal and return to town when hostility is expressed, life gets too low, or some other condition. Instead of returning to town, the user
can also choose to exit the game. This is clearly a way of the person covering their behind from a dueling loss. I would avoid dueling in this case.
Another one that I have seen in action is known as TMC/FC. FC stands for "far cast". I have no idea what TMC stands for.
What these hacks do is grant the user max cast speed and max hit recovery, in the case of TMC. In the case of FC (Which is used by almost all javelin amazons in hell), the user gets a far-ranged attack,
even with close-range weapons. All the person needs is for your little blip to show up on the automap, and you are vulnerable to this hack.
What I'd do is refuse to duel with any javelin amazons. Most, if not all, exploit this trick.
Another trick I've seen takes advantage of Energy Shield. I've noticed that in town, sometimes, my energy shield will make that arcing effect that indicates you are taking damage. In effect, my mana would begin dropping at an alarming rate and not recover. My life, however, remained untouched. I don't see this one in widespread use yet, but if it does become used widely, beware.
Yet another one that i've seen, and even been accused of using is the aimer. This allows you to blizzard people two screens away, not even in your field of vision. There's a legitimate technique that looks like aimer, so you'll have to be observant.
Said technique is called the name lock. Try mousing over someone who's hostile to you. You notice how their life bar shows? Well, if you hold down the right mouse button (command-click for your Mac users out there), you'll lock them, or your blizzards, as long as you hold down the button, will continually cast over the person you locked until they move far away. its hard to explain it, but it exists, and it is a legitimate technique that is sometimes pegged as cheating. Don't get me wrong, there ARE actually aimer programs which require no effort to use.
The last and dirtiest trick I know of is the Baal Hack. This hack allows those who have Expansion installed (But choose to play Classic characters) to go to Act 5. This cannot be used directly against you, but it helps people get to unfair levels. Therefore, dueling in Hell is
highly discouraged.
Parties
Sometimes you may find yourself in a partied duel. These can get hairy pretty quick as there are usually two or even three sets of enemies against each other. Sometimes, two people may declare one person on your side to be dangerous, and focus all their efforts on one person. Sometimes, more than you'd like, that unlucky soul is you.
As far as putting together a good duel party, you will always want a barbarian on your side with Battle Orders. This will boost your health/mana, skills, and defense.
I can't predict what characters are in your roster, or the opponent's, so I will just offer some general tips on team duels.
-If things get too crazy for you to handle (Two people ganging up on you), try to lure them toward a teammate for them to take down. Or if you don't have any teammates alive, then try using the structures in Blood Moor to your advantage. An example is to use a house to take down
a paladin in a Necro-Paladin vs. Sorc-Barbarian setup. The house will shield you from the hordes of bone spirits while you work on the paladin. Only when the Necro decides to move around a bit will he have a clear bead on you.
-An opportune time to grab a kill is when your opponent gets confused. Say your opponent just dodged your teammate's whirlwind. There will be some confusion on the opponent's part--a perfect time to pump a Blizzard/Orb into them.
-If you have a Necromancer on your team, have him use his bone walls to
choke up your opponents. Have him prison the other team and make them
lambs to the slaughter for everyone else on your team.
Player-Killers
People may use the acronym "PK" to refer to dueling. I use it, however, for the act of killing someone who doesn't want to duel.
Pretty much, idiots are everywhere. Power-hungry idiots who have nothing better to prove that they are more powerful than you, and therefore will crash your game by hostiling your party and picking you off one-by-one.
Sometimes this happens in Hell Chaos runs. Sometimes it'll happen in Normal. It doesn't matter. You need to be prepared.
So, PK. In Hardcore these idiots are especially feared, as death is permanent. I'll offer some general advice in dealing with PK:
-If partied, stay together. Remember, "United they come, divided they fall." If you stay apart, that enhances the chances of the PK being able to pick off your party, one by one. Of course, this is all moot if you decide to Town Portal and wait it out in town.
-If you have another, more powerful character, bring it in.
-Flood the entrance that you think the PK is going to enter the area from. They'll likely lag majorly, giving you a chance to deal some massive damage, or die from all the spellcasting. Either/or.
If you decide to take up a sword and fight back, read the dueling section. However, most of the time, you aren't in a Blood Moor-type area, but rather a cramped area like the catacombs.
Use this to your advantage if you should have Teleport handy. Especially versus classes that cannot easily move from room to room, this will give you a great vantage point.
I think, though, MFitz had the best advice ever in dealing with PKs. That advice is always assume the PK knows your exact location. Either through a double-agent in your party, or even a maphack. But always assume the worst case scenario, and you'll be fine.
Magic find and You
Assuming you have your Magic find gear, we can go magic finding. This is the act of repeatedly killing bosses for Rare/unique items. The bosses you can kill are the big four: Andariel, Mephisto, Duriel and Diablo.
Many only go for Andariel and Mephisto. In Nightmare and Normal, you are more than capable of taking Diablo as well.
In my experience, however, I notice that in Hell difficulties, Andariel gives significantly better finds than Mephisto does. Maybe its just me, but that's what i've seen.
Before we begin seriously MF-ing, there are some critical points that need to be taken into account:
1. Teleportation. When you Teleport, be careful of packs of enemies. Whenever you teleport into an enemy, walk away a bit, THEN Teleport. Otherwise they will continually hit you, causing you to flinch, and thus, die before you get a single teleport off.
2. Because of reason 1, I'd invest a point into shiver armor. This will causes enemies to flinch from hitting you instead of you flinching from being hit.
3. If you go to a populated game, I'd recommend staying unpartied and not using town portals. Why? Some people hate MF-ers and will hunt them down if they are discovered ruining their game.
4. In Populated games, difficulties are significantly higher because the more people in a game, the higher the monster difficulty. Be careful. Just because you could handle Diablo in your private game DOES NOT mean you can in a public game.
5. Have lots of patience and self-control. The first few times, you will likely botch the run and die. It happens. Sooner or later, it becomes natural, and you'll be magic finding like a pro.
6. It should go without saying, but be courteous. don't kill Andariel when someone else needs the quest as well. Only kill bosses if everyone is past that point, or its a dueling game.
7. This should also go without saying, but more people = better drops.
8. There's a myth going around that says if you get Baron/Baroness status, you will get lesser drops. Don't know if this is true, but it wouldn't hurt to exercise caution.
Let's begin with the individual strategies for the bosses. (These can also be applied somewhat to quest games, however, this guide assumes you are flying solo when you do this.)
PROTIP: If you are playing Single player, type /players x (where x is numbers 1-8). This will increase enemy difficulty, AND net you better drops.
Andariel
In Normal and Nightmare, Andariel isn't much of a threat. She can be slowed with cold, giving you even more of an advantage. Her poison shouldn't hurt too badly, just be sure to stay out of her melee range.Beware, however. The two poison attacks she has can stack, so you'll have two spells of poison, which will drag your life down pretty quick.
(In hell, Andariel cannot be frozen, and her poison hurts immensely. I'd recommend, as crappy as the item may be, holding on to a Venom Ward (Unique Breast plate) for Andariel runs.)
Before you run up and get Andariel to begin giving chase, however, I'd take care of all the riffraff in the area; The Dark Ones, Zombies, and Misshappen's (The latter can really ruin your day).
When Andariel is chasing you, the best thing to do is run away while spamming blizzards in her direction. You can also teleport around her so she stays in one place trying to draw a bead on you, thus taking more damage from your blizzard. Orbers can exploit this trick for some MASSIVE damage.
In Normal, Andariel doesn't drop very good items. In Nightmare and Hell, it depends. Some days she drops a lot of rare/unique items, and some days she doesn't drop anything but gold.
NOTE: There's a new type of MF out there on battle.net that I should cover called the "virgin Andariel killer". In a nutshell, this build is rushed to Act 1 Hell, joins games that already have Andariel done, and kills her. The effect is that Andariel's quest is never done. People believe that if you don't do Andariel's quest and kill her, she drops 5 rare items on a constant basis. I haven't tested this, but that's what I'm hearing.
Duriel
Most people skip Duriel. On good days, though, Duriel drops some decent stuff. I've gotten a Spectral Shard and Frostburns off of him once.
Best way to tackle him is to keep a distance. His cold aura will drain your mana quick if you are using energy shield. If you aren't using a Hawkmail, you'll also have to deal with the effects of cold, so running by foot may not be an option. Use teleport when you can.*
(*- I should mention that while you are getting pummeled by the cold aura, Teleport is totally broken. don't try it if you are too close.)
Handle Duriel like you handled Andariel. Just don't get too close, as that aura is painful. By the way, Duriel has no ranged attacks. So keep your distance, and it'll be hard for him to hit you.
Mephisto
This fight is easy. That is, once the Council is out of the way.
First off, you'll want to go around to the left or right of the area. Take out all the council members in the area. If you decide to take the right path, beware, as that council member has mana burn.
Once that's done, here's what you do. You know that bloody river that separates you from the red portal in this room? You get Mephisto to give chase, and then you teleport to the other side of the bloody river. If you do it right, Mephisto will be struggling to get to you.
However, he still has ranged attacks. Move away until you can barely see him in the corner of your screen. At this point, he should just squirm in position, and cannot attack you or get you at all. From here on, it's an easy, safe kill.
Orbers have it tough. You guys actually have to get in there and dance with Mephisto if you wish to kill him. Best of luck to you.
Diablo
Before you get to fight Diablo, you have to deal with his three little buddies: The Grand Vizier of Chaos, Lord De Seis, and Infector of Souls. It goes without saying, but that's because I'm saying it: Don't attempt Diablo in Hell without a Paladin partied with you.
Lord De Seis should be your main worry. There's a chance in every game that he will be immune to cold, thus screwing you up. Unless you have a friend that can take care of him, you'll have to make a new game.
Once the Three are taken care of, Diablo pops out. Best way to pump some pre-emptive blizzards/orbs into him is to teleport back to the center of the arena once you activate the final seal. Keep spamming blizzards/orbs over the center and you'll get a few hits in before he's able to move
away.
Diablo has three ranged attacks: a lightning inferno (hurts a lot, even in Nightmare), a fire wall (weak) and lastly, sends a ton of flames creeping towards you (also weak). Get too close and he'll backhand you, which will slow you unless you have Hawkmail equipped.
The rule of the thumb here is to just keep moving. You don't need to teleport. Just plain running should get you out of Diablo's ranged attacks. When you see a break in his pattern, stop and drop a blizzard/orb on him. The only reason you should get within melee range is to use static field on him.
