Magic Find Sorceress Guide

Introduction

Once geared sorceresses make excellent magic find characters in both softcore and hardcore. They're popularity has however raised the prices on sorceress gear such as Tal Rasha's Set, Sorceress Torchs, and Sorceress Skill Charms. You will also want to have Call to Arms for Battle Orders and a source of Oak Sage for survival in hardcore.

Mephisto

Mephisto can drop Herald of Zakarum, Shako, War Travelers, Stormshield, Arachnid Mesh, Verdungos, Arreat's, Andariel's Visage, and most of the common high level uniques that are available in the game. There are still several items that Mephisto cannot drop like Tal Rasha's Armor, Immortal King's Armor, and Griffon's Eye to name a few and that's where the Ancient Tunnels and Chaos Sanctuary come in.

Ancient Tunnels

The Ancient Tunnels can drop every item and rune in the game similar to The Pit. This includes Tal Rasha's Armor, Immortal King's Armor, Griffon's Eye, the highest level uniques, and the highest level runes in the game. The Ancient Tunnels is a better place to magic find for Sorceresses than The Pit because the monsters are slower moving making it a safer place to magic find on Hardcore. Something else that is fun to note is that there are no cold immune normal monsters inside the Ancient Tunnels.

The Forgotten Tower

Sorceresses can make their way through The Forgotten Tower quickly with Teleport. The Countess will on the average drop two runes between Ist and Pul every one hundred runs. The Countess can drop up to Ist on her rune table drops but, has an extremely low chance of dropping up to Lo rune from her normal monster drops.

Chaos Sanctuary

Chaos Sanctuary has the highest level drops in the game from Diablo and has a high chance at dropping high runes. Fire/Cold hybrid Sorceresses do well in Chaos Sanctuary as do Lightning Sorceresses with the Infinity runeword on their mercenary. Chaos Sanctuary is, however, a dangerous place to magic find on hardcore difficulty and you have some risk of death by doing repeated solo magic find runs. I would highly recommend Frozen Orb/Fire Ball Sorceresses for Chaos Sanctuary in hardcore for the screen wide chills on enemies.

Nihlathak

Nihlathak has a low drop chance for items and is really only worth farming for Destruction Keys but he can drop every item and rune in the game. You should equip a Nature's Peace Ring for the "monsters rest in peace" modifier to prevent Nihlathak's corpse explosions. You should also remove your mercenaries weapon or equip your mercenary with a low damage Insight because the "monsters rest in peace" on the Nature's Peace Ring won't work when your mercenary is the one getting the kills.

Key Farming

The Countess, the Summoner, and Nihlathak have about a 10% chance to drop a Terror Key, Hate Key, or Destruction Key. You can trade the keys or you can use three sets of keys to start the Uber Tristram event. Completing the Uber Tristram event rewards you with a Hellfire Torch that has +3 to skills, up to 20 all resist, and up to 20 to all stats.

Andariel

Andariel can drop the Stone of Jordan, War Travelers, Herald of Zakarum, and Shako in hell difficulty making her a great magic find boss that is much easier than some of the other magic find options which matters especially in Hardcore difficulty.

Fire Ball and Frozen Orb Sorceress

Fire Ball and Frozen Orb Sorceresses are flexible with immunities, excel at Chaos Sanctuary, and kill bosses within seconds once well geared making them great for playing the game when there are immunities.

Recommendation: Fire Ball and Frozen Orb Sorceress

Stats: Enough Strength for gear, Enough Dexterity for capped block or none if using a Spirit shield, all remaining points in Vitality, 0 Energy

Build:

20 Frozen Orb

20 Ice Bolt

20 Fire Ball

20 Fire Bolt

1 Fire Mastery

1 Shiver Armor

1 Teleport

1 Static

Enough in Cold Mastery to reach -100% enemy cold resistance including with the Conviction Aura from the Infinity Runeword.

All remaining points in Meteor which is a Fire Ball synergy

Magic Find Sorceress Gear

Main Weapon: The Oculus for plus skills, faster cast rate, and high magic find.

Shield: Whistan's Guard for a hidden 87% block rate in hardcore and a low stat requirement or Spirit Runeword for Softcore

Weapon Switch: Call to Arms (Amn Ral Mal Ist Ohm) and a Lidless Wall or Spirit Runeword Shield (Tal Thul Ort Amn)

Helm: Harlequin Crest (Shako) - +2 to all skills, high life and mana, and 50% magic find.

Body: Tal Rasha's Guardianship - 40 cold resist, 40 fire resist, 40 lightning resist, 88% magic find, 10% faster cast rate, and 65 mf.

Gloves: Magefist - +1 Fire Skills and 20% faster cast rate.

Belt: Tal Rasha's Belt - 15% magic find, 20 dexterity, and Tal Rasha's set bonus which give 10% faster cast rate and 65% magic find.

Amulet: Tal Rasha's Adjudication - +2 Sorceress skills, 50 life, 33 lightning resist, and 65% magic find from the set bonus.

Ring: Nature's Peace - Level 5 Oak Sage, monsters rest in peace, 21 poison resist, damage reduced by 7, and prevent monster heal.

Ring 2: High magic find ring like a 30% Nagel or a Dwarf Star (for Chaos Sanctuary/Nihlathak) which has 40 life and 15% Fire Absorb.

Feet: War Travelers - 25% faster run walk, 50% magic find, 10 Strength, 10 Vitality, and 15-25 base weapon damage.

Charms: Fire or Cold Skill Charms with faster hit recovery or life and/or resistance health charms.

Mercenary Weapon: Infinity (Ber Mal Ber Ist) for level 12 Conviction or Insight (Ral Tir Tal Sol) for level 17 Meditation Aura.

Mercenary Helm: Andariel's Visage - +2 Skills, 10% life leech, and 30 Strength.

Mercenary Armor: Duriel's Shell - Cannot be Frozen, strength, and resistances (no Fortitude to avoid killing dolls on Mephisto).

Note: You will reach the 70% fcr breakpoint with the 30% from The Oculus, 20% from Tal Rasha's, and 20% from Magefist.

Sample Drops From 300 Runs of Andariel - Time to Complete: Less than Two Minutes

Herald of Zakarum (current value: Gul)

Gheed's Charm (current value: Um)

Duriel's Shell

Shaftstop

Dwarf Star

Tal Rasha's Belt

Tal Rasha's Mask x2

Rockstopper

Trang-Oul's Gloves

Lidless Wall

Carrion Wind

Perfect String of Ears (current value: Ist)

Mal Rune

Moser's Blessed Circle x2

Raven Frost (current value: Pul)

Tal Rasha's Amulet (current value: Gul)

Sample Drops From 300 Runs of Mephisto - Time to Complete: Less than Two Minutes

Duriel's Shell x2

Arachnid Mesh (current value: Vex)

Gore Riders (current value: Pul)

Bartuc's Claw

Guardian Angel

Baranar's Star x2

Waterwalks

Soul Drainers

Boneshade

Tal Rasha's Mask x2

Dwarf Star

Rockstopper

Arkaine's Valor

Skin of the Vipermagi x2 (current value: Um x2)

Sample Drops From 300 Runs of Ancient Tunnels - Time to Complete: Less than Three Minutes

Um Rune x2

Sur Rune

Immortal King's Chest (current value: Gul)

Pul Rune x2

Arkaine's Valor

Leviathan

Blade of Ali Baba

Barbarian Combat Skill Grand Charm

Skin of the Vipermagi (current value: Um)

Sample Drops From 300 Runs of Chaos Sanctuary - Time to Complete: Less than Three Minutes
Gul Rune

Sur Rune

Ist Rune

Arachnids Mesh (current value: Vex)

Immortal King Maul x3

Tal Rasha's Mask x3

7% Magic Find Small Charm w/ 31 Attack Rating (current value: Ist)

Arm of King Leoric

Immortal King's Helm x2

10% Faster Cast Rate Ring w/ 11 All Resistance

Oculus (Um)

Skin of the Vipermagi (current value: Um)

7% Life Leech, 6% Mana Leech, Attack Rating Rare Ring.

High Tri-Resistance Magic Find Boots

Carrion Wind x2

Trang's Gloves

Stone of Jordan (current value: Ohm)

40% Magic Find Chance Guards (current value: Um)

Stormshield x2 (current value: Gul x2)

Gheeds Grand Charm (current value: Um)

Immortal King's Gloves x3

Kira's Guardian (current value: Pul)

Infernostride

Magefist

Wizard Spike

Raven Frost x2

Gore Riders (current value: Pul)

Blade of Ali Baba

Duriel's Shell

Note

All runs were done with about 400 magic find as a Sorceress which can stack more magic find than a magic find Barbarian. From the looks of it Chaos Sanctuary seems to have the best drops of the above runs. This sample includes drops from Andariel but you also have the option of skipping Andariel for more Mephisto and/or Chaos Sanctuary runs. High Value Items include: Sur Rune x2, Gul Rune, Ist Rune, Mal Rune, 2 Um Rune, 2 Pul Rune, Arachnid Mesh x2, 7% Small Magic Find Charm / 31 Attack Rating, Stone of Jordan, Stormshield x2, Immortal King's Chest, Raven Frost x3, Perfect String of Ears, Dwarf Star x2, Skin of the Vipermagi x4, 40% Magic Find Chance Guards, Gore Riders x2, Kira's Guardian, Tal Rasha's Amulet, Herald of Zakarum, Gheed's Grand Charm x2, and a Barbarian Combat Skill Grand Charm.