Hi there. I've decided to give D2 one more shot while I eagerly await D3, especially that I've found a mod that doesn't modify any files and lets you play in widescreen and resolutions higher than 800x600. Anyway, back to my main question: Could some of you hardcore people, who were keeping up with this game for all this time (I know you're lurking around here) propose some builds for SP PvM? Something that works on hell... Right now I consider rolling a pala or a druid (tired of necro and don't really like the rest), so builds for them would be most appreciated (and don't you even mention the abomination that is hammerdin).
I'm asking this because it seems that most builds that you can find on the net are focused more on the gear than skills, and in SP you can forget about high runes and uber items in general, at least for the most part of the game, as all the items available to the character will be the ones obtained by it personally and without any hacks/cheats.
Max zeal, max sacrifice, max fanat, max blessed shield, max the all elemental dmg skill whose name i can't remember (don't need until PIs) Fun char, I like attacking really fast and this build achieves that. I also recommend a frenzy barb.
Skeleton summon+corpse explosion+clay golem+ decrepify. Slows all bosses down to like 1/4 speed and it's a generally good walking character for new players. You can feel free to loot, identify, plot on the map, with 20+ uber skeletons around you. They do get to be a pain in the ass in narrow corridors, but that's when you want to be using corpse explosion anyway, Works against everything but physical immunes, which you could probably get around with skele mages. IIRC this build has quite a few left over skill points and imo is pretty flexible about using whatever you want.
The guide explains it all better. I used to walk around nightmare in Ptopaz gear and in Hell with minimal +kill gear. Wasn't a problem up until act 4 hell but iirc they got another buff since I last played.
Summoning Necro 20 Raise Skeleton 20 Skeleton Mastery 1-5 Summon Resist 1 Revive 20 Corpse Explosion 1 in all the curses you want to use (Amplify Damage and Decrepify are the only important ones, but Dim vision, is pretty good too.)
You can put the rest where ever you want, most put them into clay golem / mastery. Just know that mages are terrible.
Get the Act 2 Nightmare offensive merc for might.
These guys can solo hell naked so you definitely don't need godly gear. Prioritize +Summoning/+Raise Skeleton/+Skeleton Mastery gear if you can find it.
I've mentioned in the OP that I'm tired of necro and then 2 out of 3 posts are about summoning necro (FYI I got to lvl 76 with one of those playing hardcore mode, also single player - teams are too unreliable). I'll think about this zeal pala. Although he needs quite a bit of good eq to be effective and iron maiden is going to rape him in act 4 (I remember how much trouble my friend had with his werewolf on hell, and it's basically the same thing)...
Sorry but summon necro is probably the most viable single player character. You could try a wind druid but you'll need two tomes of town portal for how many mana pot trips you'll be making. Hammerdins can be made untwinked but you'll end up kiting a whooooole lot until you get some moderately decent gear (+2 pala skill scepter at vendor, very expensive gold wise), that and death waits often at places like the scarab tunnels, and again mana pots.
Zealots are great, i used to melee pvp back in the day, but they aren't the fastest of killers in PvM. You'll need a lot of leech because your hits will be assigned randomly to everything within range. You tend to take more damage than you put out unless you have high level gear.
On August 14 2010 09:24 BadWithNames wrote: Sorry but summon necro is probably the most viable single player character. You could try a wind druid but you'll need two tomes of town portal for how many mana pot trips you'll be making. Hammerdins can be made untwinked but you'll end up kiting a whooooole lot until you get some moderately decent gear (+2 pala skill scepter at vendor, very expensive gold wise), that and death waits often at places like the scarab tunnels, and again mana pots.
Hammerdin dont require that much mana pots, just swap auras now and then (from Conc to redemption) and you'll get all the mana you need.
There's a bunch of builds you can easily beat the game with, in hell and untwinked: trapsins, talonsin, hammerdin, furyzon (with FA or Strafe backup), blizzballer, meteorber, summon necro, frost zealot, convictadin, ironbarb, etc.
I'd check the guides out, decide what you prefer between melee, ranged, minions or caster. OFC they will suggest uber gear, but the gear in itself is never mandatory, unless you're doing an item related build (auradin, pure lightning sorc, dreamer, yadayada..)
Depends on how far you want to go. I've gotten as far as act 4 hell with a fire only sorc and if you made a mixed element build hell act 5 might be possible, with luck. A sorc has the best dps/survivability without a lot of gear, and unlike the other chars you'll have a legitimate shot at good items because you can run nightmare mephisto in like 25 seconds.
Frenzy Barb with lifesteal is a shit load of fun, easy to play and very safe; the attack speed and dmg output is insane and so you pretty much can outheal just about any damage you take. You also have leap for getting out of those rare 'OH SHIT' moments. Phys immunes obviously become a pain in the ass, but those are hardly your major concern in SP Diablo!
Alternatively, lightning aura (Holy shock) pally! You can just about walk around and loot without attacking anything haha.
MAKE A FIRECLAWS WEREBEAR WITH 6xSHAEL PHASE BLADE
IT GOES LIKE THIS FAST
note: i took that vid when my bear was in nightmare but my point still stands, it can attack really fast. lolz
i played a LOT of singleplayer d2 so i have like 20 chars rfol i kind of regret wasting all that time -_- not only did i play a lot of SP d2 i also ended up playing tons of d2 on realm as well ffffffffffffffff
heres a list
first char to make mfing easier was a meteorb sorc heh
meteorb sorc dragon talon assassin (crushing blow fucking rapes) polearm ww barbarian full trang ouls set poison nova necromancer fury druid bowazon (lol this was so hard i used such a shitty bow ) full natalya's set phoenix striker assassin lightning sentry trapassin blizz sorc full Immortal king set ww barbarian max dimvision + bone spells necromancer (only 1 golem! and a rogue merc)
here's a list of the unfinished chars cuz i stopped myself frmo playing d2
fireclaws werebear (see above) fire traps +kick assassin (boring because fire traps suck dick and ended up relying on kicks lol) dual axe frenzy barbarian max fend amazon Voice of reason + conviction zealadin (rune word in phase blade gives chance to cast frozen orbs..combined with conviction = pwn) lightning fury zon (this is so awesome but so easy) holy shock zealadin
You can check out the diablo2 forums for better advice than you'd find here. I recommend diablo inc. They really know their stuff.
However I'd like to offer another suggestion. You can make up your own builds. If you play SP you can always use hero editor or Akara reward to respec. It might be fun to learn what builds work by yourself. Maybe you'll make a sacrifice pally and realize you do too much damage to yourself and end up getting a weaker item with high life leech. Or you'll do a chargedin and realize that you don't hit bosses or swarms well enough and decide to do a hybrid zeal charge pally. It's often more fun when you do stuff less optimally, it's more of a challenge, and you learn more.
note: i took that vid when my bear was in nightmare but my point still stands, it can attack really fast. lolz
i played a LOT of singleplayer d2 so i have like 20 chars rfol i kind of regret wasting all that time -_- not only did i play a lot of SP d2 i also ended up playing tons of d2 on realm as well ffffffffffffffff
heres a list
first char to make mfing easier was a meteorb sorc heh
meteorb sorc dragon talon assassin (crushing blow fucking rapes) polearm ww barbarian full trang ouls set poison nova necromancer fury druid bowazon (lol this was so hard i used such a shitty bow ) full natalya's set phoenix striker assassin lightning sentry trapassin blizz sorc full Immortal king set ww barbarian max dimvision + bone spells necromancer (only 1 golem! and a rogue merc)
here's a list of the unfinished chars cuz i stopped myself frmo playing d2
fireclaws werebear (see above) fire traps +kick assassin (boring because fire traps suck dick and ended up relying on kicks lol) dual axe frenzy barbarian max fend amazon Voice of reason + conviction zealadin (rune word in phase blade gives chance to cast frozen orbs..combined with conviction = pwn) lightning fury zon (this is so awesome but so easy) holy shock zealadin
6shael is not ideal. 4xshael 2x15/15 is the optimal setup
note: i took that vid when my bear was in nightmare but my point still stands, it can attack really fast. lolz
i played a LOT of singleplayer d2 so i have like 20 chars rfol i kind of regret wasting all that time -_- not only did i play a lot of SP d2 i also ended up playing tons of d2 on realm as well ffffffffffffffff
heres a list
first char to make mfing easier was a meteorb sorc heh
meteorb sorc dragon talon assassin (crushing blow fucking rapes) polearm ww barbarian full trang ouls set poison nova necromancer fury druid bowazon (lol this was so hard i used such a shitty bow ) full natalya's set phoenix striker assassin lightning sentry trapassin blizz sorc full Immortal king set ww barbarian max dimvision + bone spells necromancer (only 1 golem! and a rogue merc)
here's a list of the unfinished chars cuz i stopped myself frmo playing d2
fireclaws werebear (see above) fire traps +kick assassin (boring because fire traps suck dick and ended up relying on kicks lol) dual axe frenzy barbarian max fend amazon Voice of reason + conviction zealadin (rune word in phase blade gives chance to cast frozen orbs..combined with conviction = pwn) lightning fury zon (this is so awesome but so easy) holy shock zealadin
6shael is not ideal. 4xshael 2x15/15 is the optimal setup
note: i took that vid when my bear was in nightmare but my point still stands, it can attack really fast. lolz
i played a LOT of singleplayer d2 so i have like 20 chars rfol i kind of regret wasting all that time -_- not only did i play a lot of SP d2 i also ended up playing tons of d2 on realm as well ffffffffffffffff
heres a list
first char to make mfing easier was a meteorb sorc heh
meteorb sorc dragon talon assassin (crushing blow fucking rapes) polearm ww barbarian full trang ouls set poison nova necromancer fury druid bowazon (lol this was so hard i used such a shitty bow ) full natalya's set phoenix striker assassin lightning sentry trapassin blizz sorc full Immortal king set ww barbarian max dimvision + bone spells necromancer (only 1 golem! and a rogue merc)
here's a list of the unfinished chars cuz i stopped myself frmo playing d2
fireclaws werebear (see above) fire traps +kick assassin (boring because fire traps suck dick and ended up relying on kicks lol) dual axe frenzy barbarian max fend amazon Voice of reason + conviction zealadin (rune word in phase blade gives chance to cast frozen orbs..combined with conviction = pwn) lightning fury zon (this is so awesome but so easy) holy shock zealadin
6shael is not ideal. 4xshael 2x15/15 is the optimal setup
all you need for sp is a way to handle immunes, relatively high damage and item independence - namely abusing low runewords. if you plan on playing with spirit etc, hammerdin is the strongest (most comfortable) way, followed by fb/orb sorceress. if you play without ladder rws just pick a char and a way you would like to play him and we can go from there with advice. most builds are somewhat viable in singleplayer pvm since the game is pretty easy if you have a plan, just a class like paladin/druid still leaves several options and would be quite lengthy to describe in full detail.
EPT
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