As a new player, I feel lost

So I have a character at 107. A Poison/Fire Sorc. Iv blown through all three of my Akara respec's (Yes I know there are other ways to respec but after like a week and a half of playing I'v yet to see one of these items drop) trying to find something that can get me past A2 Hell. I flew through the game until A1 Hell. After realizing I was way too squishy and it was too expensive to keep using merc I decided to use my last respec to drop most points in Dex and switch from staff to dagger/shield. My poison damage dropped from ~22k to 9k but I was able to stay alive long enough to suicide rush Andy and get into A2.

What is the progression in this game? Do I need to go back to NM and farm something? I assume I have all the charms available to me so far. I have a stash full of shrines and really not sure how to use them correctly. For instance, in my situation as poison sorc do I need to find a sacred weapon with poison related stats on it already then use Shimmering shrine to add more poison stats? Iv thought about trying one of the tanky Barb builds but i'm not sure what still works in Sigma and the tank barb builds require so much micromanagement one of the guides has you download autohotkey... This isnt something I want to do. Trap Rat turns the game into a right click simulator so I would like to avoid that also.

Can you please give me direction on my sorc and Median as a whole. What should I be doing at this point to progress further into Hell.

My Sorcs Gear
Weapon:

Acidburn

Acidburn
Kriss (4)
One-Hand Damage: 6 to 7
Required Level: 6
Required Dexterity: 43
Item Level: 10
Dexterity Damage Bonus: (0.11 per Dexterity)%
+1 to Sorceress Skill Levels
+1 to Druid Skill Levels
15% Hit Recovery
-(8 to 10)% to Enemy Fire Resistance
-(8 to 10)% to Enemy Poison Resistance
Fire Resist +(21 to 25)%
Poison Resist +(21 to 25)%
Socketed (1)
One-Hand Damage: 12 to 13
Required Level: 24
Required Dexterity: 71
Item Level: 31
Dexterity Damage Bonus: (0.11 per Dexterity)%
+2 to Sorceress Skill Levels
+2 to Druid Skill Levels
25% Hit Recovery
-(13 to 15)% to Enemy Fire Resistance
-(13 to 15)% to Enemy Poison Resistance
Fire Resist +(31 to 35)%
Poison Resist +(31 to 35)%
Socketed (2)
One-Hand Damage: 17 to 19
Required Level: 43
Required Dexterity: 146
Item Level: 51
Dexterity Damage Bonus: (0.11 per Dexterity)%
+3 to Sorceress Skill Levels
+3 to Druid Skill Levels
35% Hit Recovery
-(18 to 20)% to Enemy Fire Resistance
-(18 to 20)% to Enemy Poison Resistance
Fire Resist +(41 to 45)%
Poison Resist +(41 to 45)%
Socketed (3)
One-Hand Damage: 20 to 23
Required Level: 52
Required Dexterity: 292
Item Level: 77
Dexterity Damage Bonus: (0.11 per Dexterity)%
+4 to Sorceress Skill Levels
+4 to Druid Skill Levels
40% Hit Recovery
-(21 to 23)% to Enemy Fire Resistance
-(21 to 23)% to Enemy Poison Resistance
Fire Resist +(46 to 50)%
Poison Resist +(46 to 50)%
Socketed (3)

(

Dubhdroiacht

This is what I used before switching to all Dex)
Shield:

Destroying Angel

Destroying Angel
Small Shield (4)
Defense: (59 - 65) to (112 - 123)
Chance to Block: Class%
Required Level: 2
Required Strength: 27
Required Dexterity: 34
Item Level: 1
+50 Poison Damage over 2 seconds
+(6 to 10)% to Poison Spell Damage
-3% to Enemy Poison Resistance
Attacker Flees after Striking (4 to 5)%
+(12 to 23)% Enhanced Defense
Poison Resist +(21 to 25)%
Requirements +10%
Socketed (1)
Defense: (229 - 248) to (363 - 392)
Chance to Block: Class%
Required Level: 20
Required Strength: 60
Required Dexterity: 55
Item Level: 31
+150 Poison Damage over 2 seconds
+(16 to 20)% to Poison Spell Damage
-6% to Enemy Poison Resistance
Attacker Flees after Striking (8 to 9)%
+(35 to 46)% Enhanced Defense
Poison Resist +(31 to 35)%
Requirements +20%
Socketed (3)
Defense: (581 - 621) to (880 - 941)
Chance to Block: Class%
Required Level: 37
Required Strength: 227
Required Dexterity: 124
Item Level: 51
+300 Poison Damage over 2 seconds
+(26 to 30)% to Poison Spell Damage
-9% to Enemy Poison Resistance
Attacker Flees after Striking (12 to 15)%
+(58 to 69)% Enhanced Defense
Poison Resist +(41 to 45)%
Requirements +30%
Socketed (4)
Defense: (858 - 914) to (1287 - 1371)
Chance to Block: Class%
Required Level: 46
Required Strength: 490
Required Dexterity: 278
Item Level: 77
+600 Poison Damage over 2 seconds
+(36 to 40)% to Poison Spell Damage
-12% to Enemy Poison Resistance
Attacker Flees after Striking (16 to 20)%
+(69 to 80)% Enhanced Defense
Poison Resist +(46 to 50)%
Requirements +40%
Socketed (4)

Helm:

Glowskull

Glowskull
Crown (4)
Defense: (164 - 187) to (248 - 281)
Required Level: 10
Required Strength: 26 to 29
Item Level: 19
+(6 to 8)% Bonus to Poison Skill Duration
+(4 to 6)% to Poison Spell Damage
-3% to Enemy Poison Resistance
+(41 to 60)% Enhanced Defense
Poison Resist +(16 to 25)%
(11 to 20)% Bonus to Defense
Requirements -(11 to 20)%
Socketed (1)
Defense: (561 - 620) to (785 - 868)
Required Level: 28
Required Strength: 50 to 56
Item Level: 36
+(11 to 13)% Bonus to Poison Skill Duration
+(10 to 12)% to Poison Spell Damage
-6% to Enemy Poison Resistance
+(81 to 100)% Enhanced Defense
Poison Resist +(36 to 45)%
(21 to 30)% Bonus to Defense
Requirements -(16 to 25)%
Socketed (3)
Defense: (1272 - 1392) to (1754 - 1920)
Required Level: 46
Required Strength: 165 to 186
Item Level: 67
+(16 to 18)% Bonus to Poison Skill Duration
+(16 to 18)% to Poison Spell Damage
-9% to Enemy Poison Resistance
+(101 to 120)% Enhanced Defense
Poison Resist +(56 to 65)%
(31 to 40)% Bonus to Defense
Requirements -(21 to 30)%
Socketed (4)
Defense: (1911 - 2076) to (2614 - 2839)
Required Level: 54
Required Strength: 306 to 349
Item Level: 85
+(18 to 20)% Bonus to Poison Skill Duration
+(18 to 20)% to Poison Spell Damage
-12% to Enemy Poison Resistance
+(121 to 140)% Enhanced Defense
Poison Resist +(66 to 75)%
(41 to 50)% Bonus to Defense
Requirements -(26 to 35)%
Socketed (4)

Gloves:

Vilehand

Vilehand
Leather Gloves (4)
Defense: 6 to 8
Required Level: 1
Required Strength: 25
Item Level: 1
+(3 to 5)% Bonus to Poison Skill Duration
+(6 to 10)% to Poison Spell Damage
Poison Length Reduced by (31 to 35)%
Socketed (1)
Defense: 70 to 75
Required Level: 17
Required Strength: 50
Item Level: 31
+(0 to 1) to All Skills
+(6 to 8)% Bonus to Poison Skill Duration
+(11 to 15)% to Poison Spell Damage
Poison Length Reduced by (36 to 40)%
Socketed (2)
Defense: 176 to 184
Required Level: 34
Required Strength: 175
Item Level: 51
+1 to All Skills
+(8 to 10)% Bonus to Poison Skill Duration
+(16 to 20)% to Poison Spell Damage
Poison Length Reduced by (41 to 45)%
Socketed (3)
Defense: 243 to 258
Required Level: 43
Required Strength: 350
Item Level: 77
+1 to All Skills
+(11 to 13)% Bonus to Poison Skill Duration
+(21 to 25)% to Poison Spell Damage
Poison Length Reduced by (46 to 50)%
Socketed (4)

Belt:

Moonwrap

Moonwrap
Sash (4)
Defense: (16 - 18) to (20 - 21)
Required Level: 1
Required Strength: 25
Item Level: 1
5% Cast Speed
+3% to Spell Damage
+(18 to 29)% Enhanced Defense
Lightning Resist +(11 to 15)%
Cold Resist +(11 to 15)%
Socketed (1)
Defense: (119 - 129) to (131 - 141)
Required Level: 17
Required Strength: 50
Item Level: 31
15% Cast Speed
+9% to Spell Damage
+(41 to 52)% Enhanced Defense
Lightning Resist +(21 to 25)%
Cold Resist +(21 to 25)%
Socketed (2)
Defense: (331 - 353) to (370 - 395)
Required Level: 35
Required Strength: 125
Item Level: 51
25% Cast Speed
+15% to Spell Damage
+(64 to 75)% Enhanced Defense
Lightning Resist +(31 to 35)%
Cold Resist +(31 to 35)%
Socketed (2)
Defense: (493 - 524) to (542 - 576)
Required Level: 43
Required Strength: 250
Item Level: 77
30% Cast Speed
+20% to Spell Damage
+(75 to 86)% Enhanced Defense
Lightning Resist +(36 to 40)%
Cold Resist +(36 to 40)%
Socketed (2)

Boots:

Wake of Destruction

Wake of Destruction
Greaves (4)
Defense: (90 - 102) to (135 - 152)
Required Level: 9
Required Strength: 17
Item Level: 19
+(4 to 6)% Bonus to Spell Focus
(10 to 40)% Movement Speed
+(11 to 13)% to Physical/Magic Spell Damage
+(6 to 8)% to Fire Spell Damage
+(6 to 8)% to Poison Spell Damage
+(24 to 40)% Enhanced Defense
+(21 to 25) to Energy
Requirements -20%
Socketed (1)
Defense: (333 - 369) to (462 - 512)
Required Level: 27
Required Strength: 33
Item Level: 36
+(7 to 9)% Bonus to Spell Focus
(10 to 40)% Movement Speed
+(15 to 17)% to Physical/Magic Spell Damage
+(10 to 12)% to Fire Spell Damage
+(10 to 12)% to Poison Spell Damage
+(58 to 75)% Enhanced Defense
+(26 to 30) to Energy
Requirements -25%
Socketed (2)
Defense: (854 - 930) to (1152 - 1254)
Required Level: 44
Required Strength: 158
Item Level: 59
+(10 to 12)% Bonus to Spell Focus
(10 to 40)% Movement Speed
+(19 to 21)% to Physical/Magic Spell Damage
+(14 to 16)% to Fire Spell Damage
+(14 to 16)% to Poison Spell Damage
+(92 to 109)% Enhanced Defense
+(31 to 35) to Energy
Requirements -30%
Socketed (3)
Defense: (1274 - 1378) to (1713 - 1853)
Required Level: 52
Required Strength: 272
Item Level: 85
+(13 to 15)% Bonus to Spell Focus
(10 to 40)% Movement Speed
+(23 to 25)% to Physical/Magic Spell Damage
+(18 to 20)% to Fire Spell Damage
+(18 to 20)% to Poison Spell Damage
+(109 to 126)% Enhanced Defense
+(36 to 40) to Energy
Requirements -40%
Socketed (4)

Ammy is +skill
Rings are kind of junky, mostly resists and +stats
Sockets consist of mostly resist gems and some Sol runes

I'm in the exact same situation myself, I'm running a Pounce/Greathunt Amazon who relies on high dps (30k seems high to me) and life steal. I'm fully geared up with a good combo of T4 Uniques, capped resists @ 78% and 170k defence, but I don't know how to improve my character enough to complete act 2 without suicide rushing bosses.

I'm happy with my damage, but my life/mana leach and defence seem way too low for this part of the game. I don't know how to approach crafting better gear or what places you should farm.

Well your gear isn't really good for Hell.

Did you orb your gear? Having +defense and damage reduction on ring+amulet does alot in term of defense.
Is your TU at lvl 4? If not go upgrade it (don't forget the rune when you upgrade it otherwise your gear will be garbage).

Does your skill build make sense? If you are unsure go check old builds they are still revelant in term of skill planning for a caster sorceress.

And the last part is go check the Tiered Unique page and the Runeword page, your gear isn't really good for a poison/fire sorceress (take your time to read it otherwise you'll hit a wall each time you build a character)

P.S. If you lack gold for orbs go farm A1 cavern or A2 dry hill for Grubbers!
P.S.S Go read the crafting guide too you need to understand how to use shrines to get gear beyond TU.

Check out some of the older guides, althought not all of the details are correct to Sigma the basics are the same. I followed one of ChuckNorris guides which gives you a basic skill build and gear (with stat priorities) as well as early game tips. There is a crafting guide as well that is very detailed. You can search the forums or google and either of these will come up.

You will need to farm Meph and Nith in normal, cube the uniques for shards then crystals. Once you have about 15-20 crystals you can create the required tiere uniques you need and upgrade them to tier 4 (this is also covered in the crafting guide) this will get you to A5 hell. Check out the new 2H Barb guide for 100+ details

SirJean wrote:Well your gear isn't really good for Hell.

Apparently.

Did you orb your gear?

I wasnt aware you could orb anything but glorified items to be honest.

Having +defense and damage reduction on ring+amulet does alot in term of defense.

Ok will do.

Is your TU at lvl 4? If not go upgrade it (don't forget the rune when you upgrade it otherwise your gear will be garbage).

Yes all my TU's are lvl4.

Does your skill build make sense? If you are unsure go check old builds they are still revelant in term of skill planning for a caster sorceress.

Well I read a guide on a Poison/Fire sorc and since immunes are removed I basically removed all the actual fire attack skills and took only the passive and buff skill from fire tree to buff damage and HP (Living Flame and Firedance). Poison absorbs definitely arent a problem as I have quite a bit of negative poison resist on my gear so they melt all the same. The issue is more so being so squishy. So clearly I need to sacrafice some poison gear for some defense gear but, what kind? Other TU's? Shrine crafted stuff?

And the last part is go check the Tiered Unique page and the Runeword page, your gear isn't really good for a poison/fire sorceress (take your time to read it otherwise you'll hit a wall each time you build a character)

As my build is essentially a poison build I focused on mostly all poison gear. The gear I chose was solely based off me picking items from the TU/Runeword page.

P.S. If you lack gold for orbs go farm A1 cavern or A2 dry hill for Grubbers!

Cool didnt think about this. I do remember Grubbers dropping lots of gold.

P.S.S Go read the crafting guide too you need to understand how to use shrines to get gear beyond TU.

I have and I understand what the shrines do to items but I dont understand which items specifically I need to use them on. Do I find SR/SU's that are aligned with my build and then shrine them to make them better? Or do I need to find an item then reroll its stats a lot to get what I like THEN shrine it a bunch?

DrunknSticky wrote:you can create the required tiere uniques you need and upgrade them to tier 4 (this is also covered in the crafting guide) this will get you to A5 hell. Check out the new 2H Barb guide for 100+ details

All my TU's are lvl4. Is it common for TU4's to carry you into A5? I figured since I was having issues that the problem was that I need to start getting rid of my TU's and switch to crafted items to progress further in Hell.

P.S.S Go read the crafting guide too you need to understand how to use shrines to get gear beyond TU.
I have and I understand what the shrines do to items but I dont understand which items specifically I need to use them on. Do I find SR/SU's that are aligned with my build and then shrine them to make them better? Or do I need to find an item then reroll its stats a lot to get what I like THEN shrine it a bunch?

As he said you may want to go read the crafting section again, but basically you find a SR of the item you want, it doesn't have to be anything in particular, just choose one that you want based on the requirements or defense etc... Then cube it with a shrine, and it will randomize the modifiers, and most the time you gotta re-cube it with the shrine over and over until it ends up with the modifiers you actually want.

And since the items modifiers all get randomized it doesn't matter if the item was good for your build to begin with because it will all be randomized anyway.

Then after you are somewhat happy with the random modifiers you can use magic orbs to add in certain modifiers that maybe missing, like if the result had everything you wanted except the defense is low, you can Magic Orb some bonus defense and you have a final product.

Botelebaal wrote:
DrunknSticky wrote:you can create the required tiere uniques you need and upgrade them to tier 4 (this is also covered in the crafting guide) this will get you to A5 hell. Check out the new 2H Barb guide for 100+ details

All my TU's are lvl4. Is it common for TU4's to carry you into A5? I figured since I was having issues that the problem was that I need to start getting rid of my TU's and switch to crafted items to progress further in Hell.

I dont have as much experience as many others on these forums but I've had success getting to the end of hell with tiered uniques on my char and merc while following a build in each of my walk throughs ao far. If you're geared with TUs and still struggling it may be that your build requires a better gearset before excelling or is weak again single targets/crowds

Botelebaal wrote:
DrunknSticky wrote:you can create the required tiere uniques you need and upgrade them to tier 4 (this is also covered in the crafting guide) this will get you to A5 hell. Check out the new 2H Barb guide for 100+ details

All my TU's are lvl4. Is it common for TU4's to carry you into A5? I figured since I was having issues that the problem was that I need to start getting rid of my TU's and switch to crafted items to progress further in Hell.

Regarding Shrines here is an example for a poison sorceress :

Let's say you want to make your own pair of gloves :
Item -> Any (Rare) Sacred Leather Gloves (Require 454 STR) if you have more STR you can get another pair otherwise keep the leather gloves since they have the maximum sockets for gloves and the lowest STR requirement.

Shrine -> Shimmering for the -enemy poison resistance and the +poison spell damage (or another shrine if you lack cast speed/energy spell factor for example (spiritual/eerie).

Cubing -> Use the shrine with the pair of gloves to get 4 random affixes (since it's a ilvl 99 item) + the 2 fixed properties of the shrine
For that part you want to have a good roll on the fixed properties and decent affixes from the randomness of the cubing
Ex : You can roll +2 sorceress skill on a pair of gloves (check the affixes section for more info)
Ex : You can roll -15 enemy poison resistance on a pair gloves
In theory for this part you could get -15 enemy poison resistance from randomness and -5 enemy poison resistance from the shrine.

Blessing -> Once you are happy with your base item (good shrine + good affixes) you can bless your item with the same shrine + 1 arcane crystal to increase the shrine bonues.

Mystics orbs -> Add mystic orbs bonues to your pair of gloves until you reach your level (each orb add +4 required level and you can only put 5 of the same mystic orb)

Lucky bonus -> Cube your item with an oil of luck and you might get the +20% enhanced defense and/or the damage reduced by 1%.

Jewels -> This section is too long to explain but you can craft your own jewels to put in your pair of glove (which have 4 slots)
SUPER IMPORTANT TO SOCKET YOUR ITEM FIRST BEFORE USING MYSTIC ORBS
(If your jewel is a higher level than your item = the item level will be the same as the jewel (pair of gloves is lvl 42, jewel is lvl 63 = pair of gloves is now lvl 63)

Voilà you have your own crafted pair of gloves that should be good enough until you get SSU gear!

This is my first median ladder and I've been pretty casually playing a fire poison sorc as well although I'm focusing fire and splashing poison. I've been able to pretty easily do all dungeon/rifts up to medium(lvl 118 now) here is what I've been using :

Max flamefront, living fire(the +life fire passive), bladespirits, familiar.
Points into vengeful power until it maxes at 20% dr,
1pt in rest of poison, fire, arcane, melee tree, symbol of essure, black road skill, the elemental dmg at full life passive.
Extra skills pts distributed as you see fit.

Stats str and DeX for gear rest energy.

Gear: t4 unique : Jared stone, bone helmet, tower shield, ancient armor, belt, 'ath' boots. Socket for resists and fhr, fcr orb Rings /Ammy rare with +skills and life, honorific gloves

Mo for %ed and %Tcd, fhr, cast speed.

As a sorc I found I had great dps but was squishy you cant stand still, use act4 merc and bladespirita to tank
As I said this setup allowed me to get attention 115 challenges easily. Can farm k3k and ta quite fast.

Sry for bad formatting wrote this on mobile