Diablo II - How the Sorceress Ruined Diablo II PvP
by Tanis

After seeing the title of this article, you may be wondering "How exactly did the Sorceress ruin Diablo II PvP?" It's quite simple really. The rediculously overpowered Sorceress is easily able to trash any other character at a comparable level.

For example, take a battle I once participated in. It was of me and my clan of Druids, most of us were level 40 or so, against a level 40 or 50 Sorceress who was talking trash to us about how Druids suck. Long story short, we all rushed her from different directions, she used a bunch of Frozen Orbs, we all died. Rinse and repeat. If one Sorceress can beat up seven Druids, you've got a problem. And no, none of us were Elemental Druids.

Also, take a look at this. With Doombringer, level 20 Sword Mastery, and using level 20 Whirlwind, a Barbarian can do anywhere from 1512 to 2595 damage or so per hit. Sound good? Not after you remember that to do that kind of damage, not only does a Barbarian have to spend a good 34 Mana(95% of Barbarians can only do one or two Whirlwinds without potions, mana leech, etc.), but there's a good chance the Sorceress will just teleport out of the way and make 20 of his allocated skill points obsolete right there.

Now, for a Sorceress' best damages. With level 20 Fire Mastery and Fire Wall, she does 3377 damage....MINIMUM. That, even without any equipment whatsoever, is more than double what a Barbarian does with one of his best abilities. Add to that that a Fire Wall can be cast right in front of a charging Barbarian, or right where you think he'll land after leaping, and the Sorceress could just about trash even a Barbarian twice her level. And that's not even counting Frozen Orb, Warmth(Nearly infinite mana), and Static Field. Granted, with 75 Fire Resistance, that 3377 damage is reduced to a meager 844 damage....which is still enough to kill most Barbarians.

Blizzard did an even worse job of overpowering Sorcerers in Diablo(The Apocalypse Spell...nuff' said), so at least they've improved a bit. However, they still have a long way to go by anyone's reckoning.