We’ll also point out that the reason we keep mentioning the Blizzard Sorceress despite eliminating her from contention is due to the simple fact that the Meteorb Sorceress and the Blizzard Sorceress are only a respec away - nothing says you can’t play through the game as a Meteorb Sorceress, and when you’ve attained whatever progression you care to, switch to Blizzard Sorceress to farm Mephisto. At least, reaching Act 5 isn’t too difficult. Alas, the Meteorb Sorceress isn’t quite as proficient, but Meteor still does the job well enough, and between Fireball and Frozen Orb, getting through Hell difficulty should only be a moderate chore. This makes her an ideal character to farm mid-tier gear with. There are several reasons for this, but it should be pointed out that the Blizzard Sorceress absolutely demolishes Nightmare and Hell Mephisto, even with starter gear. It won’t afford them the same sort of protection the Summonmancer has, but it’s far, far better than the nothing the Sorceress has. At least the Elemental Druid has Cyclone Armor (to reduce elemental damage), Oak Sage (too boost max Life) and perhaps some one-point drops in Wolves and/or Grizzly. The Meteorb Sorceress is fairly squishy, too, and would be disqualified if she didn’t have an ace up her sleeve (we’ll get to this in the Kill Rate section, below).

Since the Necromancer’s Corpse Explosion skill and the similar effect produced by the Death Sentry trap are both character’s most effective means of clearing areas, and since bosses tend not to be immune to any damage type, making the Assassin’s variety redundant, the Trap Assassin in many ways plays like a squishier Summonmancer. The Trap Assassin has a more varied offense, than, say, the Summonmancer, but while the Summonmancer is more limited offensively, he’s got eight (or more) skeletons running around, drawing aggro, and forming walking barriers that keep the Necromancer safe - not to mention a golem and perhaps a mercenary. This is where the Trap Assassin falters, at least for new players who don’t have all kinds of fancy unique items and runewords to equip them with. The Poison Necromancer is also greatly affected by this, and while poison immunes are relatively uncommon, they’re not uncommon enough in key areas to make them easy to recommend. This all but eliminates Auradins (Paladins specializing in Holy Fire, Holy Freeze or Holy Shock) and the Blizzard Sorceress, as the damage types they rely on are too commonly resisted. You can use mercenaries to deal some of this damage, and some classes, like the Paladin, can always try to fall back on melee, but ideally you want a less-common source of damage, or better yet, two sources of damage. Enough so that the idea of progressing through the game with one of these elements as your primary source of damage is almost a non-starter. Enemies that are immune to one of the three core elements - fire, cold and lightning - are fairly common. It’s by no means easy to kit out a caster in top-tier gear, but they’ll largely kill fine without such gear, and this gives them a huge advantage in farming their way up the gear ladder.Īssuming you don’t have a group to play with, however, things get trickier, especially in Hell difficulty, where almost every enemy you encounter will have at least one immunity. After this, +skills items will account for much of their damage, as well as the odd unique/set item that boosts spell damage. A caster’s damage is determined by the Skill Points they invest into their damaging skill(s) and any synergies. Yes, their damage output is affected substantially by gear, too, but their baseline is much, much more reliable than a warrior’s. If you don’t get the weapon you need as you play through the game, you’ll have to stop and farm enemies until you do… with, might we add, the insufficient gear that’s impeding your progress.Ĭasters on the other hand have it relatively easy.

If you’re a new player, you probably don’t have a stockpile of good mid-to-late game weapons to use, meaning your prowess will be affected by the vicissitudes of RNG. Your damage output is almost entirely dependent upon the weapon you have. If you want to play a warrior - here a colloquial term for any character who seeks to kill critters by hitting them with a weapon of some description, either ranged or melee - there’s an obvious snag.

Diablo 2 resurrected characters