Sorceress
by Hellbringer
special thanks to Charis for giving me mucho inspiration :+)
to Jarulf, for his perfect guide
and probably some others. (you know who you are)

Class: Rogue
Tag: SRCS

Introduction

A far descendant from the sisters of the sightless eye, her tribe (the Azure Eye, i see Azure as something magic) lives in the north-eastern lands. Where it has been harassed by a tribe of cruel, corrupted male sorcerers (the Chezar, from Cheater ;+), severely tainted by chaos, for decennia. Raping the rogues, razing their settlements, and disturbing their holy rituals. The sisters found that their traditional bows, that they mastered so well, didn’t work against these powerful magic users. And so the decision was made to battle magic with magic. After the tribe’s finest warriors reached adulthood they’d leave their tribe, and travel to the current region of trouble (in this case, Tristram) to train their magic skills and fight, for the light.

You are a young sorceress, and travel to Tristram to train your magic skills, and kill Diablo and save the world while you’re at it (hey, can you think of better training than killing big D himself?) In the beginning you may use your old short bow, that you have used all your youth to hunt for prey. But after you’ve learned firebolt or lightning you should let fall your bow, and start focusing on your training.

Rules

First you should max magic, then you should put at least 2 points in vitality every level. Note that dexterity is almost entire useless, since you don’t need to hit or blocking, and thus only the AC change matters. And the only important strength values are 20 and 30, for quarter- and war staves respectively, and you already start out with 20 strength. Best would be to first max magic, then vit, then 2 lvls strength, then max dex, then strength.

Items

Armor
Only typical magelike armor that doesn’t hinder your movements may be used, including capes, cloaks, and robes. Yes, you got that right, no Naj’s Paper Plate. The Rainbow Cloak and Wisdom’s Wrap are allowed, Nightscape isn’t.

Helms
Only caps and skull caps. Thinking Cap is allowed.
Crowns are allowed after Lazarus is killed, and Royal Circlet only after 1st dot.

Jewelry
Not allowed if it has a forbidden suffix.
All unique rings are allowed.

Weapons
In the beginning you can use your bow (and ONLY your bow!) until you’ve learned firebolt. Then all that’s allowed is a staff. (no Angel’s/Arch Angel’s just yet, you’ll have to deserve that.) You can only use staffs with spells on it that you’re already allowed to use. And that includes uniques, no uniques are allowed in the beginning, you’ll see which ones get allowed in the training part.

Enchantments
Feel free to use disallowed gear as "reading glasses," just don’t use ‘em in combat.

Very useful are the +magic, +vitality, +all, +mp, +hp and +res lines. Also useful may be -taken damage, extra charges (plentiful/bountiful), and faster hit recovery (balance/stability/harmony), and maybe +durability (of structure/of the ages).

NOT allowed are light radius modifiers (the dark/the night/light/radiance), -magic, and -vitality.

Shrines

No (potentially) mana lowering shrines allowed, including fascinating, ornate, sacred and goat shrines, and cauldrons. (DUH, like you would use ‘em otherwise. :+) Fountain of tears is also a no-no, Sorceress’ don’t like depending on fate. The Sorceresses are hygienic, for as far that’s possible in the dungeons, so they won’t drink from blood fountains. Purifying springs, on the other hand, are allowed.

Spells

As a descendant of the sightless eye, a Sorceress of the Azure Eye is best at aiming things. For this reason, she will almost exclusively use linear/bolt spells for offensive. Spells can be learned at anytime, even if you can’t use ‘em yet. Below are listed the spells you can use, and when you can first use ‘em.

Training Spells | Subquest Spells | Always Allowed
Healing (Apprentice) Lightning, Town Portal (Scout) Fire Ball (Defender) Stone Curse, Mana Shield, Fire Wall (Warrior) Flash (Demon Huntress) Golem(Sorceress) | Teleport/Phase (Spirit Absorption) Guardian (Test of Cannabis) Heal Other (Protector) | Firebolt Holy Bolt Telekinesis Identify Resurrect Infravision

Training

Deer Huntress
You start out as a Deer Huntress, your first quest is to learn firebolt. * Get the book as a birth gift, or search lvl 1 until a book is found. After you’ve learned firebolt you become an apprentice.

Apprentice
As an apprentice, you should bring your firebolt up to at least level 3, learn heal, and bring your magic attribute up to 40. Now you’ve got enough magical knowledge to survive as a scout in your tribe’s defense forces. (In other words, you earn the title "Scout.")

Scout
Any Sorceress that wants to stand any chance in serious battle, needs knowledge in both fire and lightning elements. You already have minor firebolt knowledge. The next step is to master lightning.

The best place to train with Lightning is in lower church/catacombs. You must slay 6 of the following 8 bosses (and their packs) using lightning in order to gain acceptable experience with it:

- Moonbender (blink, lvl 4)
- Pulsecrawler (Shadow Beast, lvl 4)
- Foulwing (Gloom, lvl 5)
- Wrathraven (Blink, lvl 5)
- Deathshade Fleshmaul (Stone Clan, lvl 6)
- Deathspit (Acid beast, lvl 6)
- Blightfire (Fire Clan Archer, lvl 7)
- Baron Sludge (Mud Man, lvl 8)
- And (required) Firewound the Grim (Magma Demon, lvl 8)

The final requirement to become a defender is Town Portal, which you need to be able to retreat to your tribe’s Capital quickly might it come under attack. You’re also allowed to use Thundercall (composite staff) now.

Defender
Now it’s only a few small steps to become a warrior. First of all, you’ll need a heavier fire attack spell; that lousy firebolt wont do much against the inhabitants of the caves or hell (some don’t even notice it!), as well as to the Chezar.

Learn Fireball up to at least lvl 2. The next step is to perfectionize the magical and improve the vital sizes of your body. That fireball wont help if you don’t have the mana to cast it, the magic to aim it (it takes more than the sister’s 6th sense), or the vitality to stay alive long enough. (magic should be maxed, vitality upped to 60) Now comes the time when you’ve got to do the warrior test.

Killing the creatures that each rule one quadrant of the caves will earn you the notable rank of Warrior, and your power will be enough to storm Hell itself.

- Brokenstorm (Red Storm, lvl 9)
- Blackstorm (Obsidian Lord, lvl 10)
- Bluehorn (Frost Charger, lvl 11)
- Lionskull the Bent (Black Knight, lvl 12)

Warrior
Hell is full of powerful melee monsters that’ll take any chance they can get to come close to and slice’n’dice you. To prevent this, stone curse should be learned ASAP. This spell however, probably won’t always be able to save you. If the enemy gets close, you’ll need Mana Shield to protect you. If even this defense fails, there’s no other option than to use the "Restart in Town" enchantment. The problem with this is, the enchantment isn’t able to teleport your gear back with you. To be able to recover your gear effectively, telekinesis should be learned, if you haven’t already, that is.

Also, you’ll need something more effective against those hard-to-hit witches than fireball, thus, firewall should be learned. Now it’s time to prove what you’re worth by stirring some shit up (by lack of better expressionary means of the writer ;+) in the higher hell regions.

Let it be known that a creature killed when stone cursed will take almost 5 times as long to regenerate as a creature killed under ‘normal’ conditions. To show Diablo you’re coming for him, 4 of the 6 most important bosses of hell should be killed. These are Blackskull (Balrog, lvl 13), Witchmoon (Snow Witch, lvl 13), Dreadjudge (Magistrate, lvl 14), Graywar the Slayer (Doom Guard, lvl 14), Stareye the Witch (Hell Spawn, lvl 14) and Steelskull the Hunter (Steel Lord, lvl 14).

Now, with the chaos being even worse than normal in upper hell, a small window of opportunity opens to strike Diablo were it hurts: Lazarus.

Demon Huntress
Once again you’re hunting, though not deer this time, but demons. Know well that Lazarus has access to a large army of Azure Drakes, that he often lets patrol around his personal quarters. These Vipers are hard to kill for the Sorceress, and the slightest loss of concentration might cause her to get swarmed. The only effective spell now will be flash, so learn it to as high a level as possible! Laz’s officer of guard is called Bloodlust, and since she needs no sleep, she will always be present patrolling somewhere on lvl 15. You’ll need to kill her before taking Laz if you don’t want entire hell to come protect him.

If you can’t get Laz after getting her, you’ll need to kill her again next time. In Laz’s chamber you’ll find the Arch Bishop himself, his personal guards Blackjade and Red Vex, 4 advocates, and 2 Hell Spawn messengers. To create the chaos you need to break the protection of the magic portal, you’ll need to kill them all. Now find and enter the portal before Diablo is able to lock it again. The time has come to face Diablo himself. You now are allowed to use crowns.

Elite Huntress
Diablo’s general is called Sir Gorash, a powerful melee fighter and a nuisance for Spellcasters. Nevertheless, he’s still very dangerous when alive, so kill him. Diablo himself should be taken on with Holy Bolt, which will cause him to take longer to regenerate, and make the humiliation of once again being beaten even greater.

After killing Diablo, your basic training is complete, and you finally earn the title Sorceress. You also earn the right to have your personal golem house cleaner, and wear the Royal Circlet. By killing him on Nightmare difficulty, you earn the right to fulfill an important role in the even more important holy rituals of the Azure Eye, and are called Sorceress Templar, you are now allowed to use Angel’s staves. By killing him on Hell difficulty, you become a Sorceress High Templar, and can use Arch Angel’s staves.

Subquests

1) Undead Slaying
Holy bolt is an immensely important spell for a sorceress, since it’s the only truly effective spell against the Chezar’s undead creations. To truly master it, an entire horde of enemies should be killed with it. 5 out of the following group:

Bonehead Keenaxe (Corpse Axe, lvl 2) Boneripper (Skeleton, lvl 2) Deadeye (Skeleton archer, lvl 2) Brokenhead Bangshield (Corpse Captain, lvl 3) | Skullfire (Corpse Bow, lvl 3) Blackash the Burning (Burning Dead Archer, lvl 4) Madeye the Dead (Burning Dead, lvl 4)

3 out of this group:

Rotfeast the Hungry (Zombie, lvl 2) Soulpus (Zombie, lvl 2) | Goretongue (Rotting Carcass, lvl 3) Rotcarnage (Ghoul, lvl 3)

And these two must also fall: Shadowdrinker (Horror Captain, lvl 5) and King Leoric (big bony man, lvl 3).

When the last of your opponents has fallen, you earn the title Exorcism Priestess. When completing this quest on Nightmare difficulty, you’re called Exorcism High Priestess, and on Hell, Arch Exorcist.

2) Spirit Absorption
Although the Sorceress can magically absorb the powers of any teleport or magic book (learn the spell ;+) anytime her magic attribute is high enough. However, she then isn't always just yet able to use it. Her body can’t handle the magical and natural powers that show up with magical replacement as well as the Sorcerers of older tribes. In order to obtain the resistance against any side effect, she must absorb the magical energies of the following 3 bosses and their packs: Dreadjudge (Magistrate, lvl 14), The Vizier (Cabalist, lvl 15) and Lazarus (Advocate, lvl 15). (You can count the 4 advocates in Laz’s room as his pack.)

You must absorb their energy by killing them with an of the bat/vampire weapon. After completion, you can also use Naj’s Puzzler (long staff) and Gleamsong (short staff).

3) Test of Cannabis
The war god of the Azure Eye is called Cannabis. This god is charged to protect those few that have proven worthy of protection. To prove your skill to him, you should do a full clear of hell without returning to town. (Return only to recover gear extra stored in town.) After this test is complete, Cannabis will watch over you in the form of his symbol, a three-headed dragon, (you can use Guardian) and you become a protégé of Cannabis.

4) Protector
(Multiplayer Quest)

Like the Amazon’s guardian quest, your goal is to venture into the dungeon with a fellow Sorceress (of lower clvl and rank), and watch her back. Only provide backup when needed. Let the young one do as much as possible by herself. Let her take all quest bosses by herself (you may help with the pack though), and any found useful items you can both use should go to her. After completion, you earn the title Protector, and may use heal other. (No, you CAN’T use "The Protector" now... :+)

Tips

In the beginning of your career, you wont have much mana to play with, and only low, inefficient spells. For this reason, don’t venture beyond lvl 2 until you’ve reached around lvl 7-8, unless you’ve been really lucky on book finds.

Also, don’t spend your mana on fallen ones and zombies to much, take them out with a good kick. Enjoy your melee life now that you still have it, and save that mana for scavenger or captain types.

Don’t spend that hard earned money on those heal other books, you might find out Adria starts offering quite good books almost immediately, and it would be nice if you could actually buy one or two.