Undead Stygian Doll Versus Teleporting Sorceress

Teleporting Sorceress is dead!

Seriously, I just wanted to rant a bit about these little jerks.

I've changed my finding Pattern--which I got bored of--to hit all the bosses,

Key bearers,

Travincal, and whatever zone is currently Terrorized for the moment in a round.

I'm a bit happier playing this way, even though it takes forever still, because there is more to do and more variety.

However, these little jerks have my teleporting characters carefully walking around certain maps.

They suck! What do hardcore players do? Tuck in to a hireling, hope for the best, and then never return to certain maps?

Are the dolls an issue because your merc is killing them before you can TP away? Use weaker weapons (Kelpie,

Woestave, etc) so that he doesn't have the damage to one shot them.

In the zones that they spawn, I walk extra carefully with my HC chars. I will also sometimes equip my merc with a weaker weapon (as also suggested above). I will often avoid them, but sometimes it's relatively easy to leash them onto your merc. Specifically in

Baal's Throne Room. The

Key is to slow down and be aware of surroundings, think about where you've been, check your blind spots, and don't be afraid to just nope out. That being said, once they're leashed onto your merc, it should be able to take them down with you at a safe distance.

Two easy solutions:
1) Get geared up so they don't just immediately blow you up anymore when your merc does take one out

2) Move your merc's weapon to your inventory while teleporting down -> no dmg -> no dolls getting 1shot along the way -> no explosion to worry about

Stormshield (and other Damage Reduced by % Items) helps a lot.

If I remembered correctly, the explosion upon Death of doll is physical damage, the amount is full hp based on doll type, for Stygian doll is around 3k to 6k hp hell lever depending on player number.

TL;DR: I'm doing quite a bit better against them now. Thanks.

I didn't want to remove the ethereal

Colossus Voulge made Insight I have off my hireling just to get through a couple of maps; it is the only one I have with a level seventeen aura. I'm confident I'd somehow sell it. Swapping out did work; it just takes a bit longer to swap than just taking the map a little more carefully for me.

I tried swapping out three bits of equipment--

Belt, gloves, and

Helm--for stuff with higher defense in various ways. They said "Oh, how cute." and exploded me to Death anyway. Did you folks have something particular in mind? Or just generally bumping physical resistance with defense and reduction?

I've since practiced only Durance of Hate for a bit keeping a few things in mind as if Karn Liberated was over my shoulder: teleporting backwards into a safe area if I'm surrounded by them on teleporting, throwing my Desert Mercenary at them without me getting involved, and baiting them to run full throttle into my

Hydra while I scamper.

My suggestion is if you are not teleporting none stop, then whenever you encounter the doll, all you need to do is to move a little away from your merc, like one click of mouse left

Key. The explosion range is fairly small, you may get one hit, then you are safe to kill them.

if you are concerned about the L17

Meditation and cannot live w/o it, get a cheap 4 socket pole for the Insight as a back up for areas with dolls.

That's what i do. at least your merc would not 1 shot any if u tele into a pack. All it takes to 1 shot you is amp dmg curse on you with the splash.

Reading through that I was wondering why my necro did not have that issue as well.

Then remembered that wonderful spell that I cast even without thinking of it:

Bone Armor is just so practical !

End of topic diversion.

What kind of sorc are you using and what gear do you have?

I use a

Hydra/

Frozen Orb combination.

Most of my gear is great but not specific; I can't afford the 2/20

Circlet I want for example going instead for a standard

Harlequin Crest.

If I could get https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner/ to give me a link that I could actually share, I'd post everything.

I'll try to get back to you soon, and thanks for your interest.

[Edit]
https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner/7f0206va
[/Edit]

When built -> Save/Load tab -> Save specific set should give you the link.

I had already built the character, but I could not get the link for whatever reason, but I reloaded and saved and the link now works. Thanks.

I run

Mephisto with my Smiter Paladin because he's largely unaffected by them. I've even smited them and had

Life Tap proc.

I've tried farming Durance with my Zon wearing an Enigma. It's almost like the damn things are hitching a ride. My Zon is usually good for a single round, but not if she's hit by more than one mob in a row. So for now I will stick with the Paladin.

I looked at your build and your problem is lack of cast rate. 30 FCR is a recipe for doll food. You really need 63 FCR minimum for teleporting and 105 is the breakpoint to hit if you can get there without giving up too much.

pyropy wrote: 1 year ago

I looked at your build and your problem is lack of cast rate. 30 FCR is a recipe for doll food. You really need 63 FCR minimum for teleporting and 105 is the breakpoint to hit if you can get there without giving up too much.

What this man said, 30 FCR with 0 FHR and without

Frozen Armor vs dolls is not good idea.
Looks like you play none ladder or offline, a few things I'd like to discuss with you:
1st: You have

Frozen Orb /

Hydra build, I'd say 1 hard point into

Cold Mastery is enough to deal with fire immune mobs. The rest of points can be put into

Fireball or

Ice Bolt.
2nd: Move that 1 point in

Nova to

Frozen Armor - freezing mob is quite helpful for your situation.

+1 on FCR/FHR. Rhyme is cool but as you have the strength to use Spirit on swap, use Spirit on both sides. It brings you FCR (try to get a 35 one but check the breakpoint, I don't know by heart the sorc ones - according to above you need at least 33, re-roll if needed) AND FHR, you need both.

If you need a

Monarch there are some for free as of now :

trade/monarch-t1239183.html

trade/monarch-t1258444.html

30 FCR is too low.
At least 63 FCR. I recommend 105FCR.

You can reach easily 105FCR by replacing somme MF for FCR.
At this time on both L and NL, unique items don't have much value. You don't need to stack that much MF.

A boring answer: do not

Teleport. Or at least do it sparingly and carefully. Do not tele across walls, as you cannot see what monsters are on the other side. Also do not tele the entire screen in open areas - you don't see the monsters behind the screen edge. Make shorter, but safer "jumps" instead.
This advice applies for any area, not only those with dolls. Ordinary zombies can be as deadly, if combined with Cursed, Extra Strong and

Fanaticism (or a similar nasty mix of modifiers) and you happen to tele into the middle of such a pack. Sure, it will slow you down, but better slower HC char than a dead one.