Showcased below is the vital equipment and stats for Matriarch ZeldaSamedi, my first character to successfully defeat Baal on Hell Mode. This was achieved on the USEast Realm of Battle.net, on the Diablo II Ladder. Zelda is a pure Fire Sorceress, modeled after the same Sorceress that I played while beta testing the Diablo II 1.10 beta patch. While she is capable of wiping out mass amounts of monsters, her main concern is Fire Immune types which are either avoided or defeated by her allies or her Hireling.
Zelda's stats focus mostly on her Vitality and Energy to keep her alive and maintain a mana pool large enough to satify her spellcasting needs. She affords only enough Strength points to equip her gear, and spends no points in Dexterity since it is not a vital Sorceress attribute. After I felt I had achieved a large enough mana pool to sustain my spells, I dumped my remaining points into Vitality to up this fragile Sorceresses life points(HP). To the right is a screenshot of Zelda's Character Screen.
Just under 600 HP may seem like a lot, but the monsters of Hell have been true to Blizzard's word. They are powerful, and the right combination of stats on an enemy can easily take Zelda down in a single blow. Skillful merc positioning and the use of her spells is enough to defy death on countless occassions, but not necessarily all.
Zelda's resistances to various elements were not all that great. This screenshot was taken from Hell, where there is a -100% penalty against character resists. All three quest rewards for Malah's Resistances Scrolls had been used prior to this screenshot. Her Mediocre equipment can't cover all bases, but it was enough to prevent excessive element damage.
What Zelda lacks in defense, she excels in offense. She uses two primary fire spells: Fire Ball and Meteor. After Synergies and Fire Mastery, she dishes out over 6,000 with her Fire Ball and about 15,000 with her Meteor. Both are utilized in tandem to bring swift death to her enemies. More on her fire skills later.
The Mana Pool was interesting. It took a while to balance out Zelda's mana regeneration with her spell usage. Now, she never runs out of mana unless she is attacked by a monster with Mana Burn. When this happens, she simply backs off and quaffs a Full Rejuvenation Potion and shes ready to go.
While other character classes rely on brute force, divine intervention, or skill with specific weapons, Zelda makes use of her elemental magic training to defeat her enemies. Specifically, she uses the fire element. Some spells in the other elements are used for their convenient applications, but fire remains as the 'element of choice' for combat. Below is a layout of the three Sorceress element trees and the point values that Zelda has assigned to each skill.
Most of my points were invested in Fire, specifically along the lines of Fire Bolt, Fire Ball, Meteor, and Fire Mastery. A point in Chilling Armor and Cold Mastery were put in to give Zelda a defense bonus when she needs it. A point was put into Telekinesis as a prerequisite to Teleport, possibly the most non-combat skill in the game. There is a single point in Energy Shield, which is added due to my Sorceress Orb having +1 to Energy Shield on it. More on my equipment below.
Zelda's equipment is by no means godly. Being a ladder character, she lacked any possible way to recieve previously found godly equipment. Ladder, so far is devoid of hacked items. The economy was fresh when I began, so there would be no outfitting or 'twinking' of the first ladder character. This would later change when I started other characters. :-)
2/27/04 Update: Zelda is now level 87, and I've included her latest equipment changes below. She uses two bundles of items now, her Magic Find gear and her Battle gear. The items on the left are the gear Zelda used to defeat Baal. The equipment going down the middle is her current battle gear, and the equipment to the right is her MFing gear.
4/20/04 Update: The final update, Zelda is currently level 91. I've put the finishing touches on her gear (battle/MF). I hoarded up some runes to upgrade her stuff, as well as make new gear for her merc. Also: Added new section. The Spoils of War, showcasing the ultimate victory the most destructive foe in the game.