Starting Out Fresh
So yesterday I booted up Diablo 2 after ages, thinking ‘imma test if fire or blizz sorc slaps harder now’. Grabbed my old character stash – total mess, half my runes gone. Dug through mules for five damn minutes just finding basic gear sets. Threw on Spirit sword and Ancient’s Pledge shield for both builds. Didn’t bother min-maxing since I wanted real-world testing.
First Round: Blizzard Sorc
Respec’d my level 85 sorc straight to blizzard. Hopped into Hell difficulty cows first. Man that glacial spike froze groups nice but… damn cold immunes popped everywhere. Had to skip like half the mobs. Teleported around like crazy avoiding archers while blizzard ticked slow damage. Took forever clearing one pack. Got impatient and ported to Ancient Tunnels. Cleared faster there til more cold immunes showed up. Barely survived by chugging pots nonstop.
Switching Gears for Fire
Next I hit Akara for another respec. Maxed Meteor and Fireball, dumped rest in mastery. Gear felt awkward – threw on dual Spirit for FCR but damage seemed low at first. Tested in Arcane Sanctuary. Fireballs zapped ghosts okay, but when casters shielded up? Useless. Switched to Meteor – damn delay sucked chasing wraiths. Almost died teleporting into fire enchanted packs. Finally tried Chaos Sanctuary – burned down non-immunes fast but Diablo stomped me when hydras ignored my fire resistance.
- Blizz pro: Frozen orb pierces walls nice
- Fire con: Meteor landing delay = instadeath vs souls
- Blizz con: Immunes everywhere in Hell
- Fire pro: Faster clear when no immunes
The Final Showdown
Ran Baal runs back-to-back timing clears. Blizzard took 8 minutes skipping half the waves. Fire sorc cleared faster (6 mins) but died 3x to Lister’s pack. Ended up rebuilding as hybrid – fireball for immunes, blizz for bosses. Wasted two Tokens of Absolution messing with skills. Conclusion? Fire’s faster if you’re rich and geared. Blizz safer for budget play. Neither felt amazing solo. Probably just roll Hammerdin next time.
