I started NM with only 15.5k to reach clvl 27.

CB @ 13, +3 from staff
Warmth @ 4
TS @ 3
SF @ 3
6 others @ 1

That -20% resists put my poison resistance into negative numbers! But I am still wearing -75% poison duration. I will see how it works before I panic.

My skill plan for NM was formed in the Blood Moor:
27: TS
DoE: Warmth (I was feeling it in the DoE)
28: CB
29: CB
30: LM (CB @ 15, Warmth @ 5, TS @ 4, SF @ 3, LM @ 1, 6 others @ 1)
Rad: CB
31: LM
32: LM
33: LM
34: LM
35: TS
36: TS
37: TS
Izual: CB x 2
38: TS

But if I ever feel underpowered I will add to CB instead!

The first thing I noticed was TS killing quill rats with one shot, and zombies 2-4, usually. So unless there were multiple QR's I concentrated on zombies. I made clvl 27 killing a zombie - it has been a LONG time since a zombie was worth that much experience! The second thing I noticed was a Gem Shrine! Right there in the first alcove I explored. I had not killed 3 QR's before I found it, and now I have a Flawless Sapphire. One more shrine will see me ready to socket a helm of some kind - I am hoping to find a regular helm, and make it blue. It will clash with my staff; maybe I can Terror some monsters with my wardrobe?

My first Boss, Star Maim, in the Cold Plain, was a FE/LE Corrupted Spearwoman. Ouch! Fortunately she was not Extra Fast, so I was able to run and shoot and dodge her bolts and keep my distance. She chased me from the entrance back onto the Moor, then when she died, she dropped NOTHING. AAAARRRGH! I found Arctic Furs somewhere else in the Plain. Useless past Act II Normal. Oh well. My gold is piling up, and I am considering running back to Act IV Normal to do some gambling! I have seen exactly ONE pair of gauntlets, and I do gamble on other gloves and some boots, but that is not enough. I even gambled an amulet the one time I saw it. I NEVER gamble amulets or rings in Normal - too expensive. Bish was TP in addition to MR. I can foresee some REAL trouble with TP/MR and TP/LE Bosses. I needed rejuves (both kinds) as well as super blues to do enough damage, for long enough, to kill him, but he did die.

The Cave Level 2 had a LEB/Spectral Hit Hungry Dead Boss. I spent a long time at long range shooting and dodging, and letting TS work. One note: Coldcrow, on level 1, was only CEB. I thought all Bosses received an extra enchantment! Oh well. She was still tough; her arrows did serious damage. She might have been Spectral Hit the way they zapped me!

I found Blood Raven to be . . . not a Boss! She had no abilities, other than her Fire Arrow. It was painful, of course, and she ran around a lot, but her army, being numerous enough to count as a crowd, was made irrelevant by CB. We danced, and eventually her army was thick enough to completely block my path. So I held down the button . . . and wiped it out! That easy. I cleared a path, and she started raising more while I blasted her at close range. That took her down quickly, and I even had time to destroy a few of her troops before they were removed. It might be more accurate to say my extra bolts destroyed them, but I continued casting just to see how many I could get *grin* .

Amplisa, Fire Arrow, joined me for the Mausoleum, and did well. But in the Crypt, an ES/MR/FE Skeleton wiped her out. There was also Star Pox, a CE/LE Skeleton, that ran me around for a while. I avenged her, but I was hoping for better, and I was so disheartened that after I finished the Crypt, I ran into the Field, grabbed the WP, and quit for the night. I am going to check monster levels, and probably do some leveling to make clvl 30 next time. That extra level of Warmth helped, but I want to try LM and see how it works.

I restarted after a minor break playing other characters, and the first thing I found, near the Field WP, was a gem shrine! That gave me a perfect sapphire, and almost the next monster I killed dropped a socketed helm. I decided Fate was speaking, so I finished the monsters I had awakened, and returned to town to play with my new treasures. I socketed first a perfect sapphire, then a perfect skull, and had almost perfect rolls. Regen Life +5, Mana +19, Regen Mana +24%. This is a keeper! I traded my Cobalt of Defiance, and quit for a while.

When I returned, I decided I wanted to free Cain. I only cleared from the Field WP to the UGP, then I started clearing again. I wiped out the UGP, which was full of Skel Archers, and used a lot of greater reds. I also used a lot of normal reds I found, to keep my life topped up. In the Wood, I was run around the UGP entrance several times by a Dark Spear LEB. Shortly after she died, Treehead appeared. Hmmm. Nice to have the Tree so close. On my return to the Field, I cleared it just looking for the Stones! I found a Gem Shrine too, and upgraded a normal diamond. Rak was hyper-fast, but no big deal as long as you keep your distance. I hired a Cold Arrow Merc, but Tristram was easier than I expected, if you discount drinking lots of reds from the archers{:) I finally lost her when we found Gris. There were too many targets for her, and she stood still while one of them beat on her.

My reward was marginal, but I kept it in case a combination of equipment made it useful. I then cleared the Marsh and quit for the night. When I returned, Act I was restocked. How nice. I jumped from WP to WP, clearing one section, then going ahead two, then back, hoping to find an optimum experience gain for clvl 27, and then clvl 28, but it seemed to be slow no matter what I did. I cleared from the Plain through the Wood, then went to the Marsh, the Pit, and the Tower. Has anyone been killed by the Countess after their first time? I had trouble with a Ghost Boss, and one Goat Boss ran me up the stairs several times and had me too worried to remember to catch a screenshot, but the Countess herself was a kitten. The Marsh also yielded another Gem shrine, and now I have a perfect diamond. I now carry a Sapphire, thinking when I get the D2X, I might socket a good rare helm and add mana/regen to it! I was very low on gems for cubing though, and I decided to do the Cow level after I cleared the Highlands and the Hole. I was JUST shy of clvl 29 at that point.

The portal took me into a cul-de-sac with the open end right next to the King's Pen! I wanted to leave him alive to generate some more gems, but it was very hard. Fortunately, he is a LEB, and once I left TS off I could shoot CB's around him. It took a while, but I was able to park him eventually while I worked my way around the Farm. I was right; CB is unmatched for herd, err, crowd control. One time when my mana was full, I deliberately woke 2 herds, then backed off a little and stood my ground while single-clicking CB at slvl 17. I never machine-gunned, and no Cow got close enough to swing! If you have done this level, you know how many cows there can be in a single herd, and I woke two! I destroyed both without moving or drinking. The next herd held a Holy Freeze Boss, though. Yuck! I ran from that one . . . very slowly. This also kept me from running out of mana, mostly, so it sort of balanced.

I got enough chips to keep me in full rejuvs for a while. I even cubed 3 just from the lesser blues that dropped. I also used one full rejuv. Remember I said I parked the King once? Well, about 2 town trips later I forgot and took the blue portal back. There were a LOT of cows waiting for me *grin* . That was the only time I was hit twice in a row, and it might have been three! I gulped a full rejuv and ran like crazy. All that saved me was I was not surrounded. I might not have been able to Tp out while being hit.

I left the King alive alive so I can milk *hehe* the level for gems.

I won't bore you with the leveling details. There were TWO archer bosses in the Cave level 2, one cursed, the other mana burn, and there is never quite enough room to avoid all their shots and get off your own. There was another archer boss, MS/CE out on the Plains, but there is plenty of room there and I took very few hits. I found myself relying upon TS to finish the two in the Cave, which is disheartening. I was hoping to be able to rely upon CB all the way through NM. But every style of Sorc has a tough foe (I do not count EF/TP since that one is bad for everyone!), and maybe I just need to switch tactics for a tough enchantment combination. I have also thought about getting Hydra; that would mean 3 wasted skill points, but it might be necessary for later survival.

I finally came up with a tactic that does not feel like cheating when fighting foes that cannot be allowed to hit me. This is usually an archer of some kind, but some of the Misshapen qualify. MS with Cursed, or LE, or Mana Burn(!) seem to be the worst. I HAVE to have some running room, though. I run an arc around them, long enough for them to shoot at me again, and when they do I run enough to dodge, then shoot one or two CB's, then run again, usually the way I came to avoid waking more monsters. I keep TS running, but this way I am indeed using CB, even if TS is doing much more of the damage than usual. Being hit brings different responses, depending upon the enchantment. I almost always drink a red. Cursed means no shooting unless I am completely safe from another hit, and mana burn means a TP to the healer! I refuse to waste the super blues on anything unexceptional. This means act bosses, super uniques, and Tp enchanted Bosses. Sometimes I will drink a partial rejuve for healing when I also need mana . . . and that is often enough that I never lose too many when I ÒSave and ExitÓ.

The next time I restarted, I cleared the surface from the Marsh into the Outer Cloister, and finally leveled up while clearing those areas. I celebrated by quitting for the night. I had been running into a LOT of Tainted types, and was getting tired of: 1) empty mana ball into monster, 2) TP to recharge, 3) repeat above 4 times to kill a boss pack. I had seen enough to last a long time, and I know there are more waiting up ahead. I am also out of gems to cube, and I think it is time for one more trip to *ahem* milk *hehe* the Farm of gems.

I ended the Farm with 3 more full rejuvs and another 7 gems, plenty for a while, I hope. It also had a new type of trap. The Cube creates a Portal straight into . . . the King's Pen! That was exciting. So is a tsunami. I ran like the wind, opened a TP, and left.

I found the Smith, too easily, as usual. He was LE! Aargh!

It was not particularly exciting, mainly tedious, until I ran out of stamina. It turns out that my Fastest Boots walking speed is a little slower than him, and I can just walk out of range of his swing. When I was running and shooting, he hit me once. Once I started walking, he always missed. I would like to make the point that I was not sprinting the entire time. I was running several yards, then turn to wait for him to appear around the (empty) box we were circling, shoot, and repeat. So it took a LONG time for me to run out of stamina. I did so when he sped up, after he was down to less than 1/4 life. At Max Lightning Resistance, that was a LOT of CB's and TS bolts! He finally died and I cleared through Jail level 1, securing the WP, and quit again. That fight took too long and wore me out. This Sorc is no longer easy with all the LR foes I seem to be finding.

Level 1 of the Jail had, for the second time, two hidden chambers! They are different sizes and within spitting distance of each other. Strange. I went on to level 2, which had a skel archer, MS/ES, who was a real pain.

ES meant one hit from him was HALF my life. I suppose I should be happy (hah!) he was not cursed, too. That fight took a long time. I never ran out of mana, but I did run out of red potions! I would swoop in, fire one CB, get hit, and run out. After a while I got good at swooping in, getting off a CB, then run a small circle back, but by the second swoop I would be hit again for half my life and have to run off and heal. I tried healing on the run, and almost died from all the arrow hits. Oh well. He died like all the rest. Pitspawn was a pain, err, I mean Cursed. But a few TP's for recharge took care of him, too. Level 3 was so boring I never took a picture! I had lots of Bone Mages shooting CB's one at a time at me. Even the BM Champs only shoot one. I shoot 18. Muhahahahah! Flamespike was another story. Once again I had to swoop in, TRY to shoot a minion at close range to kill it, then run away fast to avoid being killed while Cursed. I think I managed one run without him Cursing me. He was such a pain I decided to go all the way to the Cat 2 WP before stopping. The fighting in the Cathedral was lively, and Bone Ash was LE, so that fight was long, but not really a thrill. His list of enchantments almost ran off the screen!

Cat level 1 was no big deal, except for the FE/LE Shaman Boss. Level 2 had a nasty Tainted Boss and 2 Dark Shaman Boss packs. Both were difficult to target without taking fire from the entire pack, which was enough damage to be a serious threat. The second was stuck in a tiny room that was part of a cul-de-sac, so small I was drinking full rejuvs just to stand in the room! Some of his minions wanted to follow me, but because the passage wound around his room, they were within resurrection range the whole time. I finally hired a cold merc, only to find he had left his room! With only 2 minions within shooting range, he died so quickly my screenshot showed only a body! That was the final section of level 2, so I took my merc to level 3.

I swapped my Ltng amulet for MD-2 here, bringing LR to only 63%. But that was enough for the few Tainted on this level. Jantha did well, but a Banished Boss targeted her instead of me, and I frantically poured CB into him, to no avail. His death throes came while her death scream still echoed in the chamber. Sigh. I wiped out the rest of the level alone, including another Banished Boss.

I always forget to tool up for Andi's Poison. This time some of her poison was Serious, too. Even with -75% duration, I had to drink a full rejuv once! That was mainly because I had run out of reds on my belt. I actually opened inventory to drink one once while fighting her. With that nice pool, I had plenty of time. Her drop was magic Trellised and boots. The armor was Òenhanced defenseÓ and the boots were +2 light. A level 30? monster dropping level 5 magic. ARRRRGH! Act II, here I come! Bring on the (non-lightning resistant) monsters. Please!

The packs of Burning Archers in the Sewers were large enough to hurt. Well, so does slvl 14+3 CB! I usually had to drink one red while killing the first few, but one or two archers were minor. While clearing it I gambled a rare boots with 3 resists, but I would lose some fire resist, so I saved them for later. Rad was Mana Burn. What? Did I forget something? Naw. The bosses I encountered were not LR or TP, so they all died easily. Even the Huntress Boss was only FE. I lured out most of Rad's minions and disposed of them far away. When I returned, he was alone, and he only had time to revive one Burning Fire Mage. I turned briefly and blasted it, but I suppose I should not have bothered. Rad's mana burn hurt, but once I was close enough for him to breathe, it was no big deal. He did move around though, so I ended up drinking 2 super blues. He dropped a Large Shield of . . . light+1. Sheesh. What a waste. I added the point to CB, bringing it to slvl 15+3. While looking things over, I noticed SF @ slvl 3. I resolved to try to use it when I encounter large groups of LR foes like I did at the end of Act I.

In the Waste, I was greeted by first a Slinger Boss, then a leaper Boss. The Slinger died too quickly for a screenshot, but the leaper lingered. OTOH, I have fun with leapers. I enjoy watching them get hit with CB's and be pushed back, only to run forward . . . into a new wave *grin* . In large packs, one or two will leap over me, but that just means having to shoot two directions.

In the Stony Tomb, I relearned a lesson. LR melee foes cannot be shot down before they get to me! Ouch! 6 Horrors greeted me and almost trapped me before I could run past them. It took several minutes to kill this first group because I did not want to wake more monsters. There were a few burning mages throwing spells, but they were wiped out by the stray bolts (honest - I never actually targeted one!) and were never a threat. Level one had the usual Beetle Boss, Aura/LE, but he was rather slow. He did speed up once, but then reverted to an amble that was easy to avoid. Level 2 had a Horror Boss, ES/TP, but by the time I found him I had cleared plenty of room. I cannot call it running room because I never ran{:) He TP'd once, then I held down the button and he died before I could drink a blue. Creeping Feature was ES. Oh horrors! Err, no, not a Horror. Hardly worth mentioning except that I was enjoying a non-LR Boss for a change.

The Hills had a SH/EF Leaper guarding the entrance. EF meant he was hit 3 times by the same wave of CB! The vulture Boss was Cursed/EF, and his minions were certainly lively, and hardy. Unfortunately for him, I encountered him at the stairs between the two halves, and he managed to get stuck at the top while I blasted him from halfway down. Tastes like Chicken! I secured the WP, then quit for the night. When I returned, I cleared the upper half and prepared for the Halls. The entrance was almost empty. I finally founding a revived Boss, SS/LE, and we ambled around the square until he died. Level one had spear cats and bats as well as revived. Level 2 had a pack of spear cat Champs waiting at the stairs, but there were only 2. There were lots of Hollow Ones, though. Fortunately, their followers are slow, so I maneuvered around until I could blast the leaders, unless I was in a narrow hall. Then I led the followers away until they were out of range, and returned (not Returned{:) for the leaders. Level 3 was almost disappointing. All I found was a pack of Desert Wing Champs, and several small groups of spear cats mixed in with the usual mummy generators and decayed ones. During this I gambled Iratha's Cuffs with half freeze and CR 30%. I put them on and left Bloodfist as hidurare bait. I also gambled Bladebuckle . . . twice. I may be slow, but I do learn. The second time I kept it.

I moved onto the Far Oasis, and there were 2 Beetle Bosses and a Vulture Boss. One beetle was TP and something else but slow, the other was EF/MR. The Vulture was Spectral Hit/SS. They all died quickly to CB. I saved the Maggot Lair for later. My stash and pack are always full when I quit. I really do not need to lose 3 spaces to an unusable staff.

The upper half of the Lost City had leapers, Marauders, a few poison cats, and a single 2-pack of night hunters or something like that. I walked through picking up a few choice items and gambling away all my profits. The Ancient Tunnels had Marauders, Horror Mages (Ltng) and Plague Bearers. There was one PB Boss, ES/SS, and a TP/EF Marauder Boss. It seems the Marauder forgot how to TP, because by the time I had his life low, I had let FA lapse so he was hitting me for free, and I just out-gunned him. Strictly routine. BTW, lately I have been walking outside of town, only running when there are too many monsters to avoid otherwise, and at the same time I have been almost breezing through this part of Act II. Hmmm. I wonder if there is a connection? I will have to continue walking and see what happens.

The lower half had more poison throwers, which are no real threat except in bunches. Dark Elder was MR/CE plus something else, but above all else, he was slow. . I make clvl 32, making Lightning Mastery slvl 3 for 30% less mana cost. Next will be 35%, and I think I will hold there and max out CB. I entered the Valley with Iratha's half freeze gauntlets and ready, I hope, for Fangskin.

I expected the snakes to be harder. After all, their life has gone up considerably but my CB is not twice the slvl as I had in Normal. But sallys died in 2 CB waves, and even minions of an EF/FE died in 4. I thought Fangskin would be tough, so I brought a Merc. He survived the first 3 snakes, then Fangy showed up and swallowed him whole. Oh well. I walked around until I could see the altar and Tp'd up. Fangy was LE/EF/CE, but could not reach me, so I sprayed CB until she bought it. Curiously, there were NO non-snakes in level 2, so I had no real fight. Heck, Normal had been harder with Hollow Ones reviving skeletons right on top of me. I grabbed the amulet and dived into the Palace. There were no archers in the harem, so I breezed through to the cellar. There I found Horror fire Mages, and I still breezed through. But I wanted to quit, so I cleared it, found the WP (and a Portal Shrine - yahoo), and called it a night. I also gambled Sigons Wrap. Hmmm. Give up 10% to all resist for 20% fire and Life+20? I don't think so. I wanted the extra row, but not that badly. But now I have hope I can gamble a rare plated belt. Gloves are the priority, but when nothing else shows I gamble plated belts.

The second level had horror poison mages, and I continued on without pause. The third level finally had horror CB mages and a LE/EF Blunderbore Boss, which caused me to drink a super blue; thanks to a mana shrine next to that boss I only drank one. I did some TP'ing to recharge mana while fighting the horror CB mages. Fireeye was Holy Freeze/EF; what a combo! I had to stay well out of his way, running the entire time. Then he got stuck on the far side of a pile of boxes and I blasted him down to a sliver before he found his way around *grin* .

I made a big mistake. I did a quit and save without grabbing all my loot. I lost all but 3 gems, and all those amulets and rings I had been saving including MD-2, my gemmed helm, plus the Treads, Bladebuckle, and even Arcanna's skull cap. Oh Shit! Damn!

I decided to tackle the Maggot Lair since I now have plenty of room for the staff. Plus, I NEED to find some -MD, especially in an amulet. By the first level, Elzix had sold me some leather armor of MD-1, which would remove all my poison duration and most of my LR, but in the AS that will be minor compared to the Fire damage. I also gambled chain boots of fire 45%, which would lose my Fastest Walk but gain near max FR. Those are keepers unless something better comes along. I finished the Lair and started the AS with only a sliver to gain the next level. I made clvl 33 fighting the Ghoul Lord CE/MR Boss who pounced it the first quadrant. I leveled up as his life bar neared zero and my mana ball neared empty. Perfect timing, yes? I put the point into LM, for 35% less mana per spell! The Summoner had lots of GS for me, but not enough Life for himself. I moved into the Canyon and found bugs and cats. Nothing else, and no Boss/Champ pack, unless it was a Cat with very few minions and no enchantments besides EF, ES, or SS. Weird. I like champs and bosses for the neat stuff they sometimes drop *grin* .

Tomb 1 had Apparition Champs and a LE/Holy Fire Unraveller. The Boss took a long time and some full rejuves, and the champs chased me a long ways before I finally killed the last one. Tomb 2 had Gorebelly Champs, who hit VERY hard *grimace*, plus a TP/ES Unraveller who took 3 tries, a super blue, and 2 minor rejuves.

He hit VERY hard, and I wondered if I could survive one hit from Kaa. I soon found out, because this was Kaa's home. I was able to lure away the first 2 minions and kill them safely, but then I prodded Kaa into chase mode. He was MR/ES/MS/LE. The first star that hit me took about 3/4 of my life away, and I gulped a full rejuv. I then started my hit and run, and he started shooting Lightning instead of stars. Have you seen them on a Greater Mummy? They do not spread, so if his aim is good you cannot slip between them. Just like that, I was dead. They filled the corridor I was running down, and I was hit, and dead. Sigh.

Yenkabolta had the WORST equipment luck I have seen yet. When I died, I had NO gems for cubing despite 2 runs through the Cow level. I had been gambling for Magefist, Frostburn, Tarnhelm, and rare boots, and had none of them. I also had no gold. I had one rare Bone Mask, and Nightsmoke. That was it for decent rares. I was wearing one rare ring with 2 resists in the teens. The other was 20's fire resist. My staff was CB+3 with Magus, not even +1 mana. To keep my resists above 40% I could not wear any +Life items I had found, which might have saved me. Why didn't I carry a 3D shield, you ask? Because I am a Sorceress, and Sorceresses carry staves. Shields are for fighters.

Yenkabolta died at clvl 33, with CB @ 14, TS @ 4, Warmth @ 5, and LM @ 4. The LM made a big difference. I suppose ES might have saved me, but then I would have been killing monsters MUCH slower. My CB slvl was about right for NM, and TS was useful at slvl 4. What could have been sacrificed? Maybe SF, at slvl 3, could have been 1. I only used it for mummy generators anyway *grin* .

- Yenkster

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