Diablo II: Matriarch Malice

Note: Proper post from a previous one.

Well I recently restarted. This means of course I need a magic finder, so introducing Malice the Meteorb sorceress. She's my very first Meteorb as I normally build a lightning sorceress for magic finding purposes. Wanted something different this time around.

Playing softcore, thankfully. Had I not then Malice's journey would have ended in the Normal Blood Moor, I kid you not. Right at the beginning of the Cold Plains was a pack of 3 Champion Brutes that Flaive attracted my way by shooting at them (and missing I might add). Very tough characters for a level 6 sorceress with purely starting gear and a one point static field/firebolt. Without a merc to distract them I tried to get in close enough to static them a bit, and got too close. A quick stunlock second later Malice was dead, my earliest death ever.

After that auspicious start Malice made good progress through Normal with no other close calls or really interesting issues. Picked up Frozen Orb just before dealing with Mephisto so from then until Nightmare it was a cakewalk.

However Nightmare gave me some problems. Apparently the Diablo gods knows I've restarted and therefore threw as many bosspacks at me as possible, normally in pairs. This lead to a death in the Dark Wood. A might enhanced bosspack of spearwomen snuck up on me under the trees, didn't see them until Malice was sprawled on the ground. Another death to a super fast lighting beetle bosspack in Act II didn't help my confidence in this build much (or my abilities). However everyone seems to swear by it so I stuck with Malice. She started to slow down considerably in the Kurast areas of Act III, but slowly and surely got to Mephisto. Used the tried and true tactic of leaving the mercenary as bait for the boss. Mephisto killed the merc but at the same time Malice was able to static field him a lot. This lead to several minutes of Malice running circles around Mephisto throwing Frozen Orbs. Same tactic used on Diablo and Baal (with some meteor thrown in).

Hell ended up being as long as I expected, even when run at /p1. Of course the first three bosses Malice encountered were fire/cold immune but after that they got more manageable, but FI/CI guys still showed up regularly. Didn't help that she was wearing her magic find gear until Act IV as I forgot it was equipped (explains why her resistances were negative). Once this was corrected she did a bit better until Act V, where every drop was picked up for gold in order to pay for mercenary resurrections. Must have resurrected him at least 50 times in Act V alone. Oddly enough, the regular monsters gave Malice more trouble than the act bosses, both Diablo, Baal and Baal's Minions fell very fast, with Baal requiring 30 seconds tops, and the Ancients were only rerolled twice due to receiving dual fire/cold resistant opponents.

One thing to note is that the WSK did give one of the nastiest monster grouping possible. Dolls and Gloams backed up by Horadrim Ancients. :yikes: A lot of cat-and-mouse was played to draw monsters away from their packs to deal with them in 2-3 sized groups.

Statistics (before equipment)
Level: 82
Strength: 92(72)
Dexterity: 30(25)
Energy: 66(35)
Vitality: 273(268)
Life: 765
Mana: 342
[100 Stat points unused]

Resistances
Lightning: 75
Fire: 73
Cold: 35
Poison: 66

Skills
Fire Mastery, Fireball, Meteor, Frozen Orb: 20
Cold Mastery, Static Field, Teleport, Warmth: 1

Equipment
Helm: Tarnhelm
Armor: Skin of the Vipermagi
Weapon: +2 Fire skills, 20% FCR, 39% Fire Resist Orb
Shield: Lidless Wall
Belt: 22% Light Resist, 9 Str
Boots: 30% Light Resist, 29% MF
Ring1: Nagelring 29%
Ring2: Cold Resist 30%, Poison Resist 28%, Light Resist 5%, 30 Life
Amulet: Maras 30%
Switch: Gull Dagger, Mil's Orb

Mercenary
Helm: Vampire Gaze
Armor: Griswold's Heart
Weapon: Kelpie Snare

Charms (picked up every one I found with resistances): Poison Resist - 50%, Fire Resist - 28%, Cold Resist - 17%, Light Resist - 31%, Mana - 58, Life - 15

Noteable finds: Maras (H Mephisto), Vipermagi (NM Andariel), Lidless Wall (NM Mephisto), Vampire Gaze (rack in NM Durance Lvl 3)

Malice will be used to run Mephisto and Pindle mostly, with maybe some Baal thrown in since he was so much easier than expected. Thinking the next character might be a Plague Javelin Amazon, as I never got to finish my first one as she was a tournament character.