Diablo 2 Magic Find Sorceress Guide

Magic Find Sorceress Guide

Introduction

Once geared sorceresses make excellent magic find characters in both Softcore and Hardcore because they have the Teleport skill without the Enigma runeword and because they're easy to stack magic find on. The popularity of sorceresses has however raised the prices on Sorceress items like Tal Rasha's Set, Sorceress Torches, and Sorceress Skill Charms. It's recommended that you have a Call to Arms (Amn Ral Mal Ist Ohm) to increase your life and a source of Oak Sage for survival in both Hardcore and Softcore.

Softcore Magic Find Lightning Sorceress

Lightning Sorceresses are the high end magic find Sorceress option that has the most expensive gear. The Infinity runeword on your mercenary breaks most lightning immunities which is the biggest draw to the build and Lightning is also excellent at bosses.

Softcore Recommendation: Lightning Sorceress

Stats: Enough Strength for equipment, enough Dexterity for capped block, all remaining points in Vitality, and 0 Energy.

Skill Points:

20 Lightning

20 Lightning Mastery

1 Shiver Armor

1 Teleport

1 Thunderstorm

1 Static

1 Warmth

All remaining points in synergies for Lightning

Hardcore Magic Find Frozen Orb and Fire Ball Sorceress

Frozen Orb and Fire Ball Sorceresses are flexible with immunities without Infinity to lower the resistances of enemies, are great at surviving Chaos Sanctuary in Hardcore because of screen wide chills, and kill bosses within seconds once well geared.

Hardcore Recommendation: Frozen Orb and Fireball Sorceress

Stats: Enough Strength for gear, enough Dexterity for capped block is recommended when using a high block shield like Whistan's Guard shield, all remaining points in Vitality, 0 Energy

Skill Points:

20 Frozen Orb

20 Ice Bolt

20 Fire Ball

20 Fire Bolt

1 Fire Mastery

1 Shiver Armor

1 Teleport

1 Static

1 Warmth

Enough in Cold Mastery to reach -100% enemy cold resistance including with the Conviction Aura from an Infinity runeword weapon

All remaining points in Meteor which is a Fire Ball synergy

Magic Find Sorceress Gear

Main Weapon

The Oculus (Ist'd for 30% magic find) - Gives +3 Sorceress skills, 30% faster cast rate, all resistances +30%, and 80% magic find.

Shield

Whistan's Guard (Um'd) - For its hidden 87% block rate in Hardcore or Rhyme Shield (Shael Eth) in Softcore for 25% to all resistances, increased block chance, cannot be frozen, and 25% magic find.

Weapon Switch

Call to Arms (Amn Ral Mal Ist Ohm) - Gives up to +7 to Battle Orders and +7 to Battle Command combined with a Lidless Wall shield for +1 to all skills because you'll gain more life from Vitality without going for 156 Strength to use a Spirit shield.

Helmet

Harlequin Crest (aka Shako) - Gives+2 to all skills, 10% reduced physical damage taken, high life and mana, and 50% magic find.

Body

Tal Rasha's Guardianship - Gives 40% cold resist, 40% fire resist, 40% lightning resist, high magic find, and 10% faster cast rate.

Gloves

Trang-Oul's Gloves - Gives 20% faster cast rate and 30% cold resistances for Lightning Sorceresses or you can use Magefist for +1 to Fire Skills, 20% faster cast rate, and mana regeneration on Frozen Orb/Fireball Sorceresses.

Belt

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

Feet

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

Amulet

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

Ring

Nature's Peace - Gives level 5 Oak Sage for more life, monsters rest in peace, up to 30% poison resist, and prevent monster heal.

Ring 2

Use a high magic find ring like Nagelring in softcore and use a Dwarf Star when playing hardcore for 15% Fire Absorb and 40 life.

Charms

Hellfire Torch for +3 Sorceress Skills, Annihilus for +1 to skills, Gheed's Fortune for up to 40% magic find, Cold Skill Grand Charms with Life or Lightning Skill Grand Charms with Life, resistance charms with life, and 7% Magic Find Small Charms.

Mercenary Type

Act 2 Holy Freeze Mercenary

Mercenary Weapon

Infinity (Ber Mal Ber Ist) - Gives level 12 Conviction Aura which lowers enemies resistances. Use a weak Infinity base in hardcore when teleporting to Mephisto to avoid the death explosions of the exploding dolls. A weak base is also important when fight Nihlathak in hardcore because the monsters rest in peace modifier (which keeps Nihlathak from using his high damage corpse explosion) doesn't work when your mercenary gets the kill.

Mercenary Helmet

Ethereal Andariel's Visage (Ral'd) - Gives +2 to all skills, 10% life leech, -30% fire resistance, and 30 strength. Ral gives 30% fire resistance but you can also use a 30% fire resistance jewel with other great modifiers.

Mercenary Armor

Ethereal Fortitude (El Sol Dol Lo) - Gives 300% enhanced damage, all resistances +30%, high life per level, 5% to maximum lightning resistance, and a 20% chance to cast level 15 Chilling Armor when struck.

Budget Mercenary Weapon

Ethereal Insight (Ral Tir Tal Sol) - gives level 17 Meditation Aura which gives very high mana regeneration. You should once again use a weak base in Hardcore when doing Mephisto and Nihlathak for surviving exploding dolls and corpse explosions.

Budget Mercenary Armor

Duriel's Shell - Gives all resistances +20%, 50% cold resistances, life per level, 15 strength, and cannot be frozen.

Budget Mercenary Helmet

Tal Rasha's Helmet - Gives 10% life steal, all resistances +15%, and 60 life.

Note: You will reach the 63% faster cast rate breakpoint which is important for Teleport with the 30% faster cast rate from The Oculus, 20% faster cast rate from Tal Rasha's set bonus, and 20% faster cast rate from your gloves. If you plan on playing a Lightning Sorceress you can also use one 10% faster cast rate magic find ring for the 78% faster cast rate breakpoint for Lightning.

Magic Find Runs

Mephisto

Mephisto can drop high value items like Herald of Zakarum, Shako, War Travelers, Stormshield, Arachnid Mesh, Verdungo's Hearty Cord, Arreat's Face, Andariel's Visage, and most of the common high level unique items 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 Pit, 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 unique items, and the highest level runes in the game. The Ancient Tunnels is a better place to magic find as a Sorceresses than The Pit because the monsters are slower moving and have better immunities. 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 and has a significant chance at dropping high runes from monsters. Fire/Cold hybrid Sorceresses do well in Chaos Sanctuary in Hardcore and Lightning Sorceresses are great once you have the Infinity runeword on your mercenary. Chaos Sanctuary is, however, a dangerous place to magic find on Hardcore difficulty and you have a chance of dying by doing repeated solo magic find runs. I highly recommend using a Frozen Orb and Fire Ball Sorceress for Chaos Sanctuary runs in Hardcore difficulty 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. Make sure you 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 if 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 Stone of Jordans, War Travelers, Herald of Zakarums, and Shakos 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.

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 much higher magic find than a magic find Barbarian. From the looks of it Chaos Sanctuary seems to have the best drops in the magic find runs above. This sample includes drops from Andariel but once you have excellent gear Mephisto and Chaos Sanctuary runs are typically better options for magic finding.

And that's all for the Magic Find Sorceress Guide. You can also check out the most popular crafted items here Crafting Guide.