Diablo 1 on GOG?

[haphazard1]

More adventuring through hell levels on normal. My warrior's magic is now at max (for what that is worth, being a warrior ). Experience is accumulating nicely, and he is nearing level 28. Several more spell books were found or purchased; he is getting close to the limits of his current magic reading gear to gain more levels for most spells. He would like to find a couple more fire wall books, to keep boosting the duration.

I think it is time for him to attempt facing normal Diablo. He is still gaining XP so he could continue what he is currently doing for a while longer. Finding a bit more magic resistance would be helpful; that is the lowest of the three at 17%, which worries me for facing advocates. Fire and lightning resist are over 50% so not as much concern there.

[shallow_thought]

Going slow for the newb. Down to the cats, still at risk of dying very quickly to any mistake. I've put all my points in magic so far, which will be great if I can eventually find/afford a book of Mana Shield.

[haphazard1]

I do not know how you are playing your sorcerer. What spells have you found so far? Some points in dex can be very useful for improved to hit chance and block chance if you are doing much melee.

How much mana does your sorcerer have? Probably more than my max magic warrior with all his gear.

[T-hawk]

The fireball spell from advocates is the dangerous part, not the melee-range magic-damage Flash spell. That said, magic resistance is important in general, for the blood stars from witches.

[haphazard1]

The fireball spell from advocates is the dangerous part, not the melee-range magic-damage Flash spell.  That said, magic resistance is important in general, for the blood stars from witches.

A vortex lord was kind enough to drop an obsidian amulet. For one tile of inventory space, I am happy to carry it and swap to it when I really need the increased resistances.

[shallow_thought]

I do not know how you are playing your sorcerer. What spells have you found so far? Some points in dex can be very useful for improved to hit chance and block chance if you are doing much melee.

Pretty much slinging firebolts. I got holy bolt, which was useful against the undead in the church levels, heal, town portal and just bought lightning, which I probably need to try out more, as I think it can hit more than one enemy at a time? Otherwise my AoE is limited to a staff of inferno ... which at least does 4-8 damage when wacking weak enemies, which has saved on mana a bit. Now I'm in the cats I don't expect to be doing much wacking though.

I need to dig into the details, but firebolt (lvl 2) claims to do more damage than my other spells (lvl 1) by a margin. IIRC it scales with clvl while most spells scale with slvl only, which might explain it.

[KingOfPain]

Don't underestimate to power of the earlier(lower lvl) spells such as Charged Bolts, an AoE spell.
Here is something worth looking through, a guide from 3 vets no less, BONUS!

A Study of CB - Moriah, Nystul and KingOfPain

[haphazard1]

Having different offensive spells available is very useful, depending on what the monsters you are facing resist. My warrior does not do much offensive magic except an occasional fire wall, so I would have to check the guide for most enemies.

Good luck on getting a book of mana shield!

[haphazard1]

My warrior has spent some time in normal hell and some in nightmare church and catacombs. Some variety is helpful to keep things fun. With his magic maxed out and boosted by his standard combat gear to 93 (reading gear takes it to 143), he has started using some offensive magic for difficult situations. Almost like he is an actual hero who knows spells and stuff! He stone cursed Leoric -- wow that is a powerful spell. Expensive mana cost so he can not use it for anything but the toughest enemies, but very useful to have it available. He was also fireballing groups of horror archers; that was much more fun than getting shot full of arrows while hunting them down one by one. On nightmare they do some pretty nasty damage in large groups. Burning dead archers would need something else, obviously. Chain lightning, maybe? More expensive than fireball, hmmm, maybe just lightning? The graphic for lightning implies a pretty wide effect along the line of attack -- can it hit mulitple enemies?

Found a few more spell books, and also one of the shrines that boosts all spell levels by one while reducing one spell. The RNG was kind, he lost a level in inferno and picked up levels in all the key spells (stone curse, fire wall, fireball, teleport, etc.). His luck with spell books and shrines has been pretty good, really.

The big find for the session was an ivory helm of the stars, +10 to all attributes and 37 percent magic resist. Low magic resist was a major problem, especially against witches and their blood stars. Now all three resists are over 70 percent.

Random thought of the day: counselors are really annoying, with their vanish and reappear elsewhere act.

[shallow_thought]

I've been using Lightning to clear groups of Fire Clan archers - it seems to hit multiple targets. Still relying on Firebolt (which scales with Magic stat - not clvl as I said above) as my default: I hadn't realised just how quickly it casts if you really need to kill a mini-boss. Seems to be basically as fast as you can click.

I also now have one level in each of Firewall and Charged Bolt. On those occasions when I can get them aimed right they seem pretty effective - and they should get even better if I can find more books. Just picked up a staff of Stone Curse, so I get to play with that too ...

Still die in seconds if I get stun-locked by horned demons and don't react properly, but with the odd scroll of Mana Shield for emergencies, I'm beginning to see why some people think the sorceror is OP.

Except that I've just run into a level (8 or 9) with a 50-50 mix of Fire Clan archers and Familiars, so am having trouble flicking between fire and lightning fast enough.