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.
The only diablo 2 char that i got to a modest level is a hammardin. i mean theres a reason that everyone and there brother has one, its just so efficient at doing what it does. I think without enigma its still very effective, almost nothing has high resistence against it and the damage is extremely consistent compared to other builds.
For single player 1.13, I believe a zealot will get you VERY far. Either that, or a summon necro.
However summon necro plays extremely slowly so keep that in mind.
Simple PvE build:
20 zeal 20 sacrifice 20 fana 20 holy shield free points in resist lightning, defiance, blessed aim, and/or one-point wonders in every aura.
Don't use vengeance or holy freeze based zealot. Those suck. If you want holy freeze just get a merc
This may cheat a little bit, but all you need for an end-game weapon, is a Crescent Moon.
Crescent Moon 3 Socket Axes/Swords/Polearms Shael + Um + Tir 10% Chance To Cast Level 17 Chain Lightning On Striking 7% Chance To Cast Level 13 Static Field On Striking +20% Increased Attack Speed +180-220% Enhanced Damage (varies) Ignore Target's Defense -35% To Enemy Lightning Resistance 25% Chance of Open Wounds +9-11 Magic Absorb (varies) +2 To Mana After Each Kill Level 18 Summon Spirit Wolf (30 Charges) It has incredible PvE powers due to the static, and it is pretty easy to get except the Um (but still easy enough as it drops from Countress in hell. Now just socket it inside of a 3os phase blade or cryptic sword (others are OK too, but will be slower...). Also do not use axes because paladins with axes do not look cool
If you keep reloading the hellforge quest or do a lot of countress, you might be able to get more than one mid-high rune. In that case you can build a Duress, Gloom, Stone (all require Um) or a Prudence (will be hard).
Anyways, I believe it would be very easy to get the following setup before entering act2 hell and beyond:
Rhyme shield (requires Shael) on paladin shields with +resist automod Crescent Moon (requires Um), or Honor (requires Sol) Duress (requires Um) or any kind of armor with 600+ defense, or Peace (requires Shael, Peace gives your paladin a Valkyrie... very useful in PvE) Magic/Rare circlet +resist, life, leech, etc. or some kind of unique helm if you are lucky.
I'm playing a summon-y hybrid-ish druid that looks something like this:
20 Heart of Wolverine 20 Spirit Wolf 20 Feral Wolf 20 Grizzly 1 Poison Vine 1 Werewolf 1 Rabies
and of course all the prereqs.
Rabies will help you deal with PI and of course your 3 Dire Wolf thingys or your massive bear help your merc kill all the guys and keep them off of you and such.
Kind of like a summonmancer just slightly different with cooler dudes tanking for you (at least, imo).
Paladin: start off with smite/zeal. as you progress, the new patch gives you respec options. I'd eventually switch into a hammerdin (blessed hammer + synergies with concentration on = tons of dmg). this guy is really gear dependent, so run the countess for the runes to make runewords
druid: were-something. I usually favor werebear because of the health bonus (being single player + no help and all).
I actually recently started playing Diablo 2, and I got three lvl 85 in SP (wow what a fucking waste of time).
I have: Summoner nec Zealot Hammerdin
Summoner nec was by far the easiest character to clear everything. Your skeles actually do decent damage with max mastery and skills. Some people like dec, I like amp, but regardless, you get a very nice boost with these curses when using CE. You can get rid of any PI on monsters with amp, so Hell isn't too difficult to clear.
Zealot was a lot harder for me because I didn't have good gears. I tried to MF quite a bit in NM, and didn't begin doing hell until I was lvl 74 I think. Even then, Hell was hard. I too, ended up using a crescent moon in a Phase Blade (very nice weapon with the static field casts).
Hammerdin was impossible for me. It was hard to level up, and it was hard to get gears. I eventually gave up and opened an editor and gave myself some godly runes for hoto, enigma etc. I found hammerdin really fun though, with the tele and BH spam
On August 14 2010 13:24 Cambium wrote: I actually recently started playing Diablo 2, and I got three lvl 85 in SP (wow what a fucking waste of time).
I have: Summoner nec Zealot Hammerdin
Summoner nec was by far the easiest character to clear everything. Your skeles actually do decent damage with max mastery and skills. Some people like dec, I like amp, but regardless, you get a very nice boost with these curses when using CE. You can get rid of any PI on monsters with amp, so Hell isn't too difficult to clear.
Zealot was a lot harder for me because I didn't have good gears. I tried to MF quite a bit in NM, and didn't begin doing hell until I was lvl 74 I think. Even then, Hell was hard. I too, ended up using a crescent moon in a Phase Blade (very nice weapon with the static field casts).
Hammerdin was impossible for me. It was hard to level up, and it was hard to get gears. I eventually gave up and opened an editor and gave myself some godly runes for hoto, enigma etc. I found hammerdin really fun though, with the tele and BH spam
Yeah, if you edit yourself godly gear, a Hammerdin is the easiest class to solo Hell with, mainly because there's only one enemy naturally immune to magic that doesn't get affected by Blessed Hammer's ignore immunity for demons/undead.
They're the big beast things in the Act 3 Temples. Seriously. Only things naturally immune :/
On August 14 2010 13:24 Cambium wrote: I actually recently started playing Diablo 2, and I got three lvl 85 in SP (wow what a fucking waste of time).
I have: Summoner nec Zealot Hammerdin
Summoner nec was by far the easiest character to clear everything. Your skeles actually do decent damage with max mastery and skills. Some people like dec, I like amp, but regardless, you get a very nice boost with these curses when using CE. You can get rid of any PI on monsters with amp, so Hell isn't too difficult to clear.
Zealot was a lot harder for me because I didn't have good gears. I tried to MF quite a bit in NM, and didn't begin doing hell until I was lvl 74 I think. Even then, Hell was hard. I too, ended up using a crescent moon in a Phase Blade (very nice weapon with the static field casts).
Hammerdin was impossible for me. It was hard to level up, and it was hard to get gears. I eventually gave up and opened an editor and gave myself some godly runes for hoto, enigma etc. I found hammerdin really fun though, with the tele and BH spam
Yeah, if you edit yourself godly gear, a Hammerdin is the easiest class to solo Hell with, mainly because there's only one enemy naturally immune to magic that doesn't get affected by Blessed Hammer's ignore immunity for demons/undead.
They're the big beast things in the Act 3 Temples. Seriously. Only things naturally immune :/
I'm pretty sure that patch 1.13 changed it so that bh doesn't ignore the immunity of demons and undead.
On August 14 2010 13:24 Cambium wrote: I actually recently started playing Diablo 2, and I got three lvl 85 in SP (wow what a fucking waste of time).
I have: Summoner nec Zealot Hammerdin
Summoner nec was by far the easiest character to clear everything. Your skeles actually do decent damage with max mastery and skills. Some people like dec, I like amp, but regardless, you get a very nice boost with these curses when using CE. You can get rid of any PI on monsters with amp, so Hell isn't too difficult to clear.
Zealot was a lot harder for me because I didn't have good gears. I tried to MF quite a bit in NM, and didn't begin doing hell until I was lvl 74 I think. Even then, Hell was hard. I too, ended up using a crescent moon in a Phase Blade (very nice weapon with the static field casts).
Hammerdin was impossible for me. It was hard to level up, and it was hard to get gears. I eventually gave up and opened an editor and gave myself some godly runes for hoto, enigma etc. I found hammerdin really fun though, with the tele and BH spam
Yeah, if you edit yourself godly gear, a Hammerdin is the easiest class to solo Hell with, mainly because there's only one enemy naturally immune to magic that doesn't get affected by Blessed Hammer's ignore immunity for demons/undead.
They're the big beast things in the Act 3 Temples. Seriously. Only things naturally immune :/
I'm pretty sure that patch 1.13 changed it so that bh doesn't ignore the immunity of demons and undead.
On August 14 2010 13:24 Cambium wrote: I actually recently started playing Diablo 2, and I got three lvl 85 in SP (wow what a fucking waste of time).
I have: Summoner nec Zealot Hammerdin
Summoner nec was by far the easiest character to clear everything. Your skeles actually do decent damage with max mastery and skills. Some people like dec, I like amp, but regardless, you get a very nice boost with these curses when using CE. You can get rid of any PI on monsters with amp, so Hell isn't too difficult to clear.
Zealot was a lot harder for me because I didn't have good gears. I tried to MF quite a bit in NM, and didn't begin doing hell until I was lvl 74 I think. Even then, Hell was hard. I too, ended up using a crescent moon in a Phase Blade (very nice weapon with the static field casts).
Hammerdin was impossible for me. It was hard to level up, and it was hard to get gears. I eventually gave up and opened an editor and gave myself some godly runes for hoto, enigma etc. I found hammerdin really fun though, with the tele and BH spam
Yeah, if you edit yourself godly gear, a Hammerdin is the easiest class to solo Hell with, mainly because there's only one enemy naturally immune to magic that doesn't get affected by Blessed Hammer's ignore immunity for demons/undead.
They're the big beast things in the Act 3 Temples. Seriously. Only things naturally immune :/
I'm pretty sure that patch 1.13 changed it so that bh doesn't ignore the immunity of demons and undead.
i vouch that. but keep in mind that hdins got holy bolt available, so the undead ones among the magic immunes can still be taken down quite comfortably. and actually almost all the magic immunes are either animals or undead.
imho the easiest way to go is starting off with a zealer, then respec into hdins once u reach lvl 30. (the missing redemption means u wont be able to keep up in mana before lvl 30, so going for the hammer between 18 and 30 wont help too much...)
then just do nm countess runs until u find the runes for spirit sword and shield (u can put it into a lowish pala shield to have it available immediately, hdis dont have to wait for spirit shield until they got 156 str like the other classes), an ort + sol helm (unless u already found a peasant crown) and that one armor... dont remember the name or the runes...ah smoke: nef + lum, gives good def and tons of res. alternatively, u could go for stealth (tal + eth) which gives frw, fc and some mana regen.
once u got this stuff, u will have plenty of mana, plenty of fc, plenty of fhr, plenty of res and at least +5 to all ur skills. from there on, its easy sailing till the end on a hdin.
As an aside, for someone who hasn't played since 1.10, what are the big changes that have been made with 1.13 and what have been the major effects? Apparently there's a way to respec? I'm guessing a bunch of other skill changes, any that have been really game changing?
On August 14 2010 15:07 theonemephisto wrote: As an aside, for someone who hasn't played since 1.10, what are the big changes that have been made with 1.13 and what have been the major effects? Apparently there's a way to respec? I'm guessing a bunch of other skill changes, any that have been really game changing?
blessed hammer no longer ignores the resistances (and thus immunitites) of undeads and demons, but with hdins boasting some 18+ in skills on their standard bn gear, they can easily take down wave 2 with their merc and holy bolt. the other areas are irrelevant anyway (mummies in the tombs in act2 etc.)
iron maiden and lower resistance curses were removed from the oblivion knights, making melees much more viable on hc and for doing cs runs in general. they still are worse at it than hdins or sorcs, ofc.
for each act1 q1 that u solve, u can respec ur char once, which frees up all the spent stats and skill points. on lod, u can also get additional respecs by some new items that the act bosses now drop from time to time. cubing these will result in an item that can be used to respec. so in lod, u can respec ur chars infinitely.
the minions in uber tristram dont give exp anymore, so ubertrist exping is gone.
afaik these were the major changes, the other stuff was minor, like adding synergies for hydra (ofc they still suck) and stuff like that.
I think I'll go with frost zeal this time around. I remember doing a similar build, but it was pre-synergy days and used it for speedrun, lvl 20-ish act 4 on nightmare was pretty damn tough...
People love to play normal builds, but i never play through the game without doing something unorthodox/fun and challanging.
Heres some builds i like:
Tankazon Uses no javelins, bows or spears. I personally use 2-handed swords or 1-handed axes/swords Bowasin These are actually viable in pvp if you got the right gear(me and a friend made one each before and they were surprisingly good), but when you use these for pvm you get high venom/BoS and use a bow to kill. (NOTE: You aren't allowed to use lightning traps in pvm, but fire traps are fine) Tank Basically a barbarian with really high defence and hp wielding a shield. They are good in Hardcore but kills a bit slow since you will be concentrating on having high hp and blockrate above damage. Throwbarb Really fun characters, are viable through the game. Only problem they have are crowdcontrol but they have quite good damage output if you get lucky with drops. Singer These will need pimped gear to be effective but nontheless. These chars are quite cool since they yell at their enemies until they die. You will want 2x Wizardspikes and good +skill, mana and fcr gear. Having dual +1-3 warcry spears on switch for buffing helps alot. Enchantress A sorc that has insane elemental damage output, you use a Phase blade with the runeword Passion in it (Dol+Ort+Eld+Lem) for the +1 Zeal. With that weapon you will attack very fast and make this character viable. After that you get maxed Enchant, Warmth, Fire Mastery. If you will use elemental damage charms or dual dreams/dragon runewords you should max Lightning Mastery aswell. The Masteries give a huge boost to the respective elemental damage. I've seen sorcs with up to 70-80k damage and their characters wasn't perfect either
These are some from the top of my mind, bet theres more fun chars but i can't remember any right now >_<
On August 14 2010 21:28 KinosJourney2 wrote: People love to play normal builds, but i never play through the game without doing something unorthodox/fun and challanging.
Heres some builds i like:
Tankazon Uses no javelins, bows or spears. I personally use 2-handed swords or 1-handed axes/swords Bowasin These are actually viable in pvp if you got the right gear(me and a friend made one each before and they were surprisingly good), but when you use these for pvm you get high venom/BoS and use a bow to kill. (NOTE: You aren't allowed to use lightning traps in pvm, but fire traps are fine) Tank Basically a barbarian with really high defence and hp wielding a shield. They are good in Hardcore but kills a bit slow since you will be concentrating on having high hp and blockrate above damage. Throwbarb Really fun characters, are viable through the game. Only problem they have are crowdcontrol but they have quite good damage output if you get lucky with drops. Singer These will need pimped gear to be effective but nontheless. These chars are quite cool since they yell at their enemies until they die. You will want 2x Wizardspikes and good +skill, mana and fcr gear. Having dual +1-3 warcry spears on switch for buffing helps alot. Enchantress A sorc that has insane elemental damage output, you use a Phase blade with the runeword Passion in it (Dol+Ort+Eld+Lem) for the +1 Zeal. With that weapon you will attack very fast and make this character viable. After that you get maxed Enchant, Warmth, Fire Mastery. If you will use elemental damage charms or dual dreams/dragon runewords you should max Lightning Mastery aswell. The Masteries give a huge boost to the respective elemental damage. I've seen sorcs with up to 70-80k damage and their characters wasn't perfect either
These are some from the top of my mind, bet theres more fun chars but i can't remember any right now >_<
Most of these won't work at all in single player if you actually have to get your own weapons.
I don't advocate doing single player runs to get Ums, uniques, or whatnot. Technically if you're willing to do that, you might as well just edit in the appropriate weapon and save yourself some time, and once again this kind of kills the game. For untwinked (i.e. single player runs), don't play with an "I need this item" philosophy, use a make do with what you have philosophy.
Hammerdins is only hard till 18. Then your save up points (you did save up points, right?) allow you to level both concentration and blessed hammer and your damage increases quadratically. Did you guys tweak/rush all your characters or something
tbh playin` single player its really boring ... so i suggest u get some friend/friends to play with via hamachi or i prefered to play on private servers with x10 xp till 90 and x5 till 95 this way its not so boring and also higher drop rates.
Speaking about unorthodox builds, my friend's father had a pala and he got 1 point in each skill (this was pre-LoD mind you) and he was doing quite fine. I've had a lot of success with concentration + shouts barb too (no ww at all) and it was a very fun character to play with. For more hardcore builds I tried necro spellcaster (didn't invest a single point in summons) and of course, godly pre-LoD, not so great after that, thorns pala. Right now I miss the ever cool necro with blood golem + iron maiden. That was some serious badass char.
@ PainBall: I don't mind boring. I don't have much time to play anyway. I just enjoy the simple 1-quest/day with killing every mob out there, explore entire map etc. Just like when I first played it, except a bit slower.
Yeah the first times I played and watched my dad play, he didn't max out any skill levels and we did just fine, mind you a lot slower, but we weren't twinked or cheating so it was a lot more challenging and fun.
I don't know if it's possible to play just 1quest/day though
*Edit* haven't used it myself, so can't Q&A it. Also heard that it allows strange things such as hitting monsters way beyond aggro range with spells D:
I love single player, but can't ever do the grind unless I'm a Sorceress. You cannot possibly beat the game on Hell with any character unless you're finding some awesome items; which means you're realllllly lucky; or you MF.
The Blizzard sorceress is really powerful, and you can usually skip the cold immunes in hell that you don't want to fight. Unfortunately, Mercenaries are pretty worthless without Rune Words.
Here's my current build:
Lvl 91 98 Strength 25 Dex 382 Vitality 35 Energy
Items: The Occulus - Swirling Crystal Harlequin Crest - Shako Lidless Wall - Grim Shield Chance Guards - Bracers War Travelers - Battle Boots Tal-Rasha's Guardianship - Lacquered Plate (what a find) Tal-Rasha's Fire Spun Cloth - Mesh Belt Tal-Rasha's Adjucation - Amulet Stone Ring of Jordan - Ring Rare resistance ring
My favorite character is a conc barb because theyre invincible and can clear any area in the game solo (literally anything lol). Because concentrate is uninterruptible, it really makes a joke out of bosses and the harder areas of the game. While you hit things with Concentrate, you'll block attacks and because its uninterruptible, you won't get a block animation. When baal does his frost wave thing, you won't move because concentrate is uninterruptible. Because its a melee attack, you can crushing blow every boss to death (find goblin toe asap). I can solo hell nihlathak on hardcore and not even worry. It's a versatile build because you don't really need to put points anywhere to succeed.
On August 15 2010 00:56 Ghin wrote: My favorite character is a conc barb because theyre invincible and can clear any area in the game solo (literally anything lol). Because concentrate is uninterruptible, it really makes a joke out of bosses and the harder areas of the game. While you hit things with Concentrate, you'll block attacks and because its uninterruptible, you won't get a block animation. When baal does his frost wave thing, you won't move because concentrate is uninterruptible. Because its a melee attack, you can crushing blow every boss to death (find goblin toe asap). I can solo hell nihlathak on hardcore and not even worry. It's a versatile build because you don't really need to put points anywhere to succeed.
On August 14 2010 21:28 KinosJourney2 wrote: People love to play normal builds, but i never play through the game without doing something unorthodox/fun and challanging.
Heres some builds i like:
Tankazon Uses no javelins, bows or spears. I personally use 2-handed swords or 1-handed axes/swords Bowasin These are actually viable in pvp if you got the right gear(me and a friend made one each before and they were surprisingly good), but when you use these for pvm you get high venom/BoS and use a bow to kill. (NOTE: You aren't allowed to use lightning traps in pvm, but fire traps are fine) Tank Basically a barbarian with really high defence and hp wielding a shield. They are good in Hardcore but kills a bit slow since you will be concentrating on having high hp and blockrate above damage. Throwbarb Really fun characters, are viable through the game. Only problem they have are crowdcontrol but they have quite good damage output if you get lucky with drops. Singer These will need pimped gear to be effective but nontheless. These chars are quite cool since they yell at their enemies until they die. You will want 2x Wizardspikes and good +skill, mana and fcr gear. Having dual +1-3 warcry spears on switch for buffing helps alot. Enchantress A sorc that has insane elemental damage output, you use a Phase blade with the runeword Passion in it (Dol+Ort+Eld+Lem) for the +1 Zeal. With that weapon you will attack very fast and make this character viable. After that you get maxed Enchant, Warmth, Fire Mastery. If you will use elemental damage charms or dual dreams/dragon runewords you should max Lightning Mastery aswell. The Masteries give a huge boost to the respective elemental damage. I've seen sorcs with up to 70-80k damage and their characters wasn't perfect either
These are some from the top of my mind, bet theres more fun chars but i can't remember any right now >_<
Most of these won't work at all in single player if you actually have to get your own weapons.
I don't advocate doing single player runs to get Ums, uniques, or whatnot. Technically if you're willing to do that, you might as well just edit in the appropriate weapon and save yourself some time, and once again this kind of kills the game. For untwinked (i.e. single player runs), don't play with an "I need this item" philosophy, use a make do with what you have philosophy.
Hammerdins is only hard till 18. Then your save up points (you did save up points, right?) allow you to level both concentration and blessed hammer and your damage increases quadratically. Did you guys tweak/rush all your characters or something
Why is it so hard? Just do nightmare forge multiple times and you will find the Um. It makes the rest of the game easier.
Of course, even without that kind of twink, a zealot is still viable (for example, if you want resist, just find a paladin shield with +resist automod and make Ancients' Pledge or socket with pdiamonds). You just have to be more lucky if you refuse to "run" stuffs.
On August 15 2010 00:30 Moosey wrote: I love single player, but can't ever do the grind unless I'm a Sorceress. You cannot possibly beat the game on Hell with any character unless you're finding some awesome items; which means you're realllllly lucky; or you MF.
The Blizzard sorceress is really powerful, and you can usually skip the cold immunes in hell that you don't want to fight. Unfortunately, Mercenaries are pretty worthless without Rune Words.
Here's my current build:
Lvl 91 98 Strength 25 Dex 382 Vitality 35 Energy
Items: The Occulus - Swirling Crystal Harlequin Crest - Shako Lidless Wall - Grim Shield Chance Guards - Bracers War Travelers - Battle Boots Tal-Rasha's Guardianship - Lacquered Plate (what a find) Tal-Rasha's Fire Spun Cloth - Mesh Belt Tal-Rasha's Adjucation - Amulet Stone Ring of Jordan - Ring Rare resistance ring
On August 15 2010 00:56 Ghin wrote: My favorite character is a conc barb because theyre invincible and can clear any area in the game solo (literally anything lol). Because concentrate is uninterruptible, it really makes a joke out of bosses and the harder areas of the game. While you hit things with Concentrate, you'll block attacks and because its uninterruptible, you won't get a block animation. When baal does his frost wave thing, you won't move because concentrate is uninterruptible. Because its a melee attack, you can crushing blow every boss to death (find goblin toe asap). I can solo hell nihlathak on hardcore and not even worry. It's a versatile build because you don't really need to put points anywhere to succeed.
physical immunes?
You generally get a point into Berserk and you can switch to it for PI's or you can level it up so you get the synergy with Concentrate (+1% magic damage per level of Berserk).
The items you listed are ridculous. It would take an untwinked character 50-100 hours to find all of those.
They're not that ridiculous. Aside from tal's armor and maybe reaper's toll, nightmare meph and then hell meph should provide them all in not too long of a time.
But if you're going to mf with a sorc, you may as well be playing on bnet.
On August 15 2010 00:30 Moosey wrote: I love single player, but can't ever do the grind unless I'm a Sorceress. You cannot possibly beat the game on Hell with any character unless you're finding some awesome items; which means you're realllllly lucky; or you MF.
The Blizzard sorceress is really powerful, and you can usually skip the cold immunes in hell that you don't want to fight. Unfortunately, Mercenaries are pretty worthless without Rune Words.
Here's my current build:
Lvl 91 98 Strength 25 Dex 382 Vitality 35 Energy
Items: The Occulus - Swirling Crystal Harlequin Crest - Shako Lidless Wall - Grim Shield Chance Guards - Bracers War Travelers - Battle Boots Tal-Rasha's Guardianship - Lacquered Plate (what a find) Tal-Rasha's Fire Spun Cloth - Mesh Belt Tal-Rasha's Adjucation - Amulet Stone Ring of Jordan - Ring Rare resistance ring
Good luck, have fun! If anyone wants to D2 but is bored with it, PLEASE check out Median's mod located earlier in this thread. It's amazing.
Trapsin beats hell ez with shitty gears.
And lol, the OP specifically stated "SP build" in the title. The gears you listed are good enough to be low-tier PvP gears (Occulus, Shako, and Lidless are good enough to be mid to top tier even). By the time you get around finding all of them Hell is prolly finished lol.
On August 14 2010 21:28 KinosJourney2 wrote: People love to play normal builds, but i never play through the game without doing something unorthodox/fun and challanging.
Heres some builds i like:
Tankazon Uses no javelins, bows or spears. I personally use 2-handed swords or 1-handed axes/swords Bowasin These are actually viable in pvp if you got the right gear(me and a friend made one each before and they were surprisingly good), but when you use these for pvm you get high venom/BoS and use a bow to kill. (NOTE: You aren't allowed to use lightning traps in pvm, but fire traps are fine) Tank Basically a barbarian with really high defence and hp wielding a shield. They are good in Hardcore but kills a bit slow since you will be concentrating on having high hp and blockrate above damage. Throwbarb Really fun characters, are viable through the game. Only problem they have are crowdcontrol but they have quite good damage output if you get lucky with drops. Singer These will need pimped gear to be effective but nontheless. These chars are quite cool since they yell at their enemies until they die. You will want 2x Wizardspikes and good +skill, mana and fcr gear. Having dual +1-3 warcry spears on switch for buffing helps alot. Enchantress A sorc that has insane elemental damage output, you use a Phase blade with the runeword Passion in it (Dol+Ort+Eld+Lem) for the +1 Zeal. With that weapon you will attack very fast and make this character viable. After that you get maxed Enchant, Warmth, Fire Mastery. If you will use elemental damage charms or dual dreams/dragon runewords you should max Lightning Mastery aswell. The Masteries give a huge boost to the respective elemental damage. I've seen sorcs with up to 70-80k damage and their characters wasn't perfect either
These are some from the top of my mind, bet theres more fun chars but i can't remember any right now >_<
Most of these won't work at all in single player if you actually have to get your own weapons.
I don't advocate doing single player runs to get Ums, uniques, or whatnot. Technically if you're willing to do that, you might as well just edit in the appropriate weapon and save yourself some time, and once again this kind of kills the game. For untwinked (i.e. single player runs), don't play with an "I need this item" philosophy, use a make do with what you have philosophy.
Hammerdins is only hard till 18. Then your save up points (you did save up points, right?) allow you to level both concentration and blessed hammer and your damage increases quadratically. Did you guys tweak/rush all your characters or something
Why is it so hard? Just do nightmare forge multiple times and you will find the Um. It makes the rest of the game easier.
Of course, even without that kind of twink, a zealot is still viable (for example, if you want resist, just find a paladin shield with +resist automod and make Ancients' Pledge or socket with pdiamonds). You just have to be more lucky if you refuse to "run" stuffs.
And how would you do multiple forge quests in single player?
On August 14 2010 21:28 KinosJourney2 wrote: People love to play normal builds, but i never play through the game without doing something unorthodox/fun and challanging.
Heres some builds i like:
Tankazon Uses no javelins, bows or spears. I personally use 2-handed swords or 1-handed axes/swords Bowasin These are actually viable in pvp if you got the right gear(me and a friend made one each before and they were surprisingly good), but when you use these for pvm you get high venom/BoS and use a bow to kill. (NOTE: You aren't allowed to use lightning traps in pvm, but fire traps are fine) Tank Basically a barbarian with really high defence and hp wielding a shield. They are good in Hardcore but kills a bit slow since you will be concentrating on having high hp and blockrate above damage. Throwbarb Really fun characters, are viable through the game. Only problem they have are crowdcontrol but they have quite good damage output if you get lucky with drops. Singer These will need pimped gear to be effective but nontheless. These chars are quite cool since they yell at their enemies until they die. You will want 2x Wizardspikes and good +skill, mana and fcr gear. Having dual +1-3 warcry spears on switch for buffing helps alot. Enchantress A sorc that has insane elemental damage output, you use a Phase blade with the runeword Passion in it (Dol+Ort+Eld+Lem) for the +1 Zeal. With that weapon you will attack very fast and make this character viable. After that you get maxed Enchant, Warmth, Fire Mastery. If you will use elemental damage charms or dual dreams/dragon runewords you should max Lightning Mastery aswell. The Masteries give a huge boost to the respective elemental damage. I've seen sorcs with up to 70-80k damage and their characters wasn't perfect either
These are some from the top of my mind, bet theres more fun chars but i can't remember any right now >_<
Most of these won't work at all in single player if you actually have to get your own weapons.
I don't advocate doing single player runs to get Ums, uniques, or whatnot. Technically if you're willing to do that, you might as well just edit in the appropriate weapon and save yourself some time, and once again this kind of kills the game. For untwinked (i.e. single player runs), don't play with an "I need this item" philosophy, use a make do with what you have philosophy.
Hammerdins is only hard till 18. Then your save up points (you did save up points, right?) allow you to level both concentration and blessed hammer and your damage increases quadratically. Did you guys tweak/rush all your characters or something
Why is it so hard? Just do nightmare forge multiple times and you will find the Um. It makes the rest of the game easier.
Of course, even without that kind of twink, a zealot is still viable (for example, if you want resist, just find a paladin shield with +resist automod and make Ancients' Pledge or socket with pdiamonds). You just have to be more lucky if you refuse to "run" stuffs.
And how would you do multiple forge quests in single player?
Cntrl+alt+Delete after you see what drops i think. and you choose whether you like it or not ;D
if u were serious with that statement, u shouldnt give any advice on d2 as u obviously got no clue. occulus and lidless top tier pvp gear, omfg.
something i can recommed for players who want some singleplayer fun is to make a ww barb in classic. they rape in classic, and dont require any gear besides a snap and a source of ll and ml.
since there is respec now, u can start off with some double swing and conz to get to lvl 30 without too much trouble.
The rest of the points are up to you - traps/helper/whatever. You run super fast, so exploring is easy and fun. You kill super fast, so progression is good. You attack super fast, so life steal and you never die.
You don't need weapons, just boots, so equip a wand, as they always have Life and Mana steal. Shield also keeps you alive longer.
On August 14 2010 21:28 KinosJourney2 wrote: People love to play normal builds, but i never play through the game without doing something unorthodox/fun and challanging.
Heres some builds i like:
Tankazon Uses no javelins, bows or spears. I personally use 2-handed swords or 1-handed axes/swords Bowasin These are actually viable in pvp if you got the right gear(me and a friend made one each before and they were surprisingly good), but when you use these for pvm you get high venom/BoS and use a bow to kill. (NOTE: You aren't allowed to use lightning traps in pvm, but fire traps are fine) Tank Basically a barbarian with really high defence and hp wielding a shield. They are good in Hardcore but kills a bit slow since you will be concentrating on having high hp and blockrate above damage. Throwbarb Really fun characters, are viable through the game. Only problem they have are crowdcontrol but they have quite good damage output if you get lucky with drops. Singer These will need pimped gear to be effective but nontheless. These chars are quite cool since they yell at their enemies until they die. You will want 2x Wizardspikes and good +skill, mana and fcr gear. Having dual +1-3 warcry spears on switch for buffing helps alot. Enchantress A sorc that has insane elemental damage output, you use a Phase blade with the runeword Passion in it (Dol+Ort+Eld+Lem) for the +1 Zeal. With that weapon you will attack very fast and make this character viable. After that you get maxed Enchant, Warmth, Fire Mastery. If you will use elemental damage charms or dual dreams/dragon runewords you should max Lightning Mastery aswell. The Masteries give a huge boost to the respective elemental damage. I've seen sorcs with up to 70-80k damage and their characters wasn't perfect either
These are some from the top of my mind, bet theres more fun chars but i can't remember any right now >_<
Most of these won't work at all in single player if you actually have to get your own weapons.
I don't advocate doing single player runs to get Ums, uniques, or whatnot. Technically if you're willing to do that, you might as well just edit in the appropriate weapon and save yourself some time, and once again this kind of kills the game. For untwinked (i.e. single player runs), don't play with an "I need this item" philosophy, use a make do with what you have philosophy.
Hammerdins is only hard till 18. Then your save up points (you did save up points, right?) allow you to level both concentration and blessed hammer and your damage increases quadratically. Did you guys tweak/rush all your characters or something
Why is it so hard? Just do nightmare forge multiple times and you will find the Um. It makes the rest of the game easier.
Of course, even without that kind of twink, a zealot is still viable (for example, if you want resist, just find a paladin shield with +resist automod and make Ancients' Pledge or socket with pdiamonds). You just have to be more lucky if you refuse to "run" stuffs.
And how would you do multiple forge quests in single player?
Cntrl+alt+Delete after you see what drops i think. and you choose whether you like it or not ;D
On August 15 2010 11:05 seppolevne wrote: Make a kicksin: 20 Dragon Talon 20 Burst of Speed
The rest of the points are up to you - traps/helper/whatever. You run super fast, so exploring is easy and fun. You kill super fast, so progression is good. You attack super fast, so life steal and you never die.
You don't need weapons, just boots, so equip a wand, as they always have Life and Mana steal. Shield also keeps you alive longer.
I just completed Diablo II Classic in patch 1.07 (was the earliest patch I could get running on Vista..). I used an orb / fireball sorc. No need for any gear Finished at lvl 52
On August 15 2010 00:30 Moosey wrote: I love single player, but can't ever do the grind unless I'm a Sorceress. You cannot possibly beat the game on Hell with any character unless you're finding some awesome items; which means you're realllllly lucky; or you MF.
The Blizzard sorceress is really powerful, and you can usually skip the cold immunes in hell that you don't want to fight. Unfortunately, Mercenaries are pretty worthless without Rune Words.
Here's my current build:
Lvl 91 98 Strength 25 Dex 382 Vitality 35 Energy
Items: The Occulus - Swirling Crystal Harlequin Crest - Shako Lidless Wall - Grim Shield Chance Guards - Bracers War Travelers - Battle Boots Tal-Rasha's Guardianship - Lacquered Plate (what a find) Tal-Rasha's Fire Spun Cloth - Mesh Belt Tal-Rasha's Adjucation - Amulet Stone Ring of Jordan - Ring Rare resistance ring
Good luck, have fun! If anyone wants to D2 but is bored with it, PLEASE check out Median's mod located earlier in this thread. It's amazing.
lol such bull, you can beat the game with any character even with shittier items. just be ppatient. you're not supposed to rape whole screens of monsters effortlessly you know.. wtf
On August 15 2010 00:30 Moosey wrote: I love single player, but can't ever do the grind unless I'm a Sorceress. You cannot possibly beat the game on Hell with any character unless you're finding some awesome items; which means you're realllllly lucky; or you MF.
The Blizzard sorceress is really powerful, and you can usually skip the cold immunes in hell that you don't want to fight. Unfortunately, Mercenaries are pretty worthless without Rune Words.
Here's my current build:
Lvl 91 98 Strength 25 Dex 382 Vitality 35 Energy
Items: The Occulus - Swirling Crystal Harlequin Crest - Shako Lidless Wall - Grim Shield Chance Guards - Bracers War Travelers - Battle Boots Tal-Rasha's Guardianship - Lacquered Plate (what a find) Tal-Rasha's Fire Spun Cloth - Mesh Belt Tal-Rasha's Adjucation - Amulet Stone Ring of Jordan - Ring Rare resistance ring
Good luck, have fun! If anyone wants to D2 but is bored with it, PLEASE check out Median's mod located earlier in this thread. It's amazing.
lol such bull, you can beat the game with any character even with shittier items. just be ppatient. you're not supposed to rape whole screens of monsters effortlessly you know.. wtf
You're telling me that you can beat hell with a Item Find barb? I wasn't saying that the ONLY character you can beat hell with is an Ice sorceress (I beat it in mid 80's, but continued MFing and having fun up to 91), but that's the only character I enjoy enough to make that grind.
On August 15 2010 00:30 Moosey wrote: I love single player, but can't ever do the grind unless I'm a Sorceress. You cannot possibly beat the game on Hell with any character unless you're finding some awesome items; which means you're realllllly lucky; or you MF.
The Blizzard sorceress is really powerful, and you can usually skip the cold immunes in hell that you don't want to fight. Unfortunately, Mercenaries are pretty worthless without Rune Words.
Here's my current build:
Lvl 91 98 Strength 25 Dex 382 Vitality 35 Energy
Items: The Occulus - Swirling Crystal Harlequin Crest - Shako Lidless Wall - Grim Shield Chance Guards - Bracers War Travelers - Battle Boots Tal-Rasha's Guardianship - Lacquered Plate (what a find) Tal-Rasha's Fire Spun Cloth - Mesh Belt Tal-Rasha's Adjucation - Amulet Stone Ring of Jordan - Ring Rare resistance ring
Good luck, have fun! If anyone wants to D2 but is bored with it, PLEASE check out Median's mod located earlier in this thread. It's amazing.
lol such bull, you can beat the game with any character even with shittier items. just be ppatient. you're not supposed to rape whole screens of monsters effortlessly you know.. wtf
You're telling me that you can beat hell with a Item Find barb? I wasn't saying that the ONLY character you can beat hell with is an Ice sorceress (I beat it in mid 80's, but continued MFing and having fun up to 91), but that's the only character I enjoy enough to make that grind.
i dunno, but you said
You cannot possibly beat the game on Hell with any character unless you're finding some awesome items;
so i guess we both shouldn't have used the words 'any character'
perhaps item find barb would be harder looool but u know what i mean? you made it sound like only sorc was viable
one of my first chars in sp was a FA/strafe bowazon didnt' have any really elite items.. using goldstrike arch treachery armor some shitty gloves etc took me fuckin ages to beat hell but i eventually did it lol
I remember playing necro effectively up to hell with bonewall spam to CC (it even blocks projectiles), spamming that lvl30 homing spirit...thing to get a single kill and then starting a chain reaction with corpse explosion. So if you are looking for some exotic build... try it out
I made a shockadin back when I played D2. He was really good because I had a weapon with deadly strike I think it was called. So I maxed out holy shock and zeal. I also got one of the shield's (i forget which). But with deadly strike, I killed bosses in seconds.
It sounds absolutely awful to actually do one full-clear of everything though but it seems like it's a decent off-the-wall concept that can get the brain flowing into making all sorts of random-ass builds.
On August 15 2010 13:37 canucks12 wrote: I made a shockadin back when I played D2. He was really good because I had a weapon with deadly strike I think it was called. So I maxed out holy shock and zeal. I also got one of the shield's (i forget which). But with deadly strike, I killed bosses in seconds.
I think you mean crushing blow. Deadly strike won't help your shockadin much.
procazon is probably the best bet if you don't want to worry about item drops much. you just need an atmas, or any number of cast on strike items and a bit of patience.
It sounds absolutely awful to actually do one full-clear of everything though but it seems like it's a decent off-the-wall concept that can get the brain flowing into making all sorts of random-ass builds.
I did a boxing tournament once, everyone had to make a barb and could only use fists, would clear and beat normal in hardcore then have a single elimination tournament afterwards to find the best boxer lol. The whole idea was to load up on charms and gear that boosted fist damage, like +elemental or thorn type effects.
On August 16 2010 01:55 itsben wrote: No one mentions windy druid? It has cold and physical damage so not much immune.
high mana consumption, very low dam output without many +skill items, rather tedious to level to 30, not few of the ci//pi monsters in hell happen to be ci/pi dual immune.
not really a good build for playing singleplayer imho.
So I'm thinking of doing a slight challenge for myself, I just need a little help rounding this idea out. I plan on making my most recent sorc a SP enchantress. I think it would be fun to play the sorc in a "Battle Mistress" role compared to how I'm used to playing her. I will be doing HC to add a little bit to the challenge (and because SC just gets boring after awhile T_T). Here is what I have planned right now:
20 Warmth 20 Enchant 20 Fire Mastery 20 Shiver Armor (or another one?) 1 for Tele/Static and for all prereqs Rest Cold Mastery?
And what merc should I go with to help against the widest array of enemy immunities? At first I thought A3 light merc, but then realized that Fire/Light res monsters would be a real pain in the pa-toot. Then I thought of A3 cold merc, since Fire/Cold res monsters could at least be Staticed down to half health. After that I would have to smack them with whatever weapon I can grab.
Of course an A2 Merc of some sort could also work, but I'm not quite sure if he would be superior to the Cold A3 merc. However, he would also benefit from my enchant for extra killing speed on monsters that I don't have problems with but I'm more concerned about those that will be major pains .
As far as stats go, I'm planning on: Strength: Enough for gear Dexterity: Enough for 75% CTB Vital: All the rest Energy: None (obviously ).
So I guess what I'm asking is: what merc should I use? Do you guys see any skill changes that would make the game slightly easier? I really don't want to be a caster who sometimes melees, I want to be a meleer who might sometimes cast.
wow i havent thought about this for ages. paladin hammer build is quite good as it does magic damage and kills pretty much everything. i personally loved the barbarian whirlwind & leap build where i'd just whirlwind, leap away and repeat.
On August 16 2010 10:08 hasuprotoss wrote: So I'm thinking of doing a slight challenge for myself, I just need a little help rounding this idea out. I plan on making my most recent sorc a SP enchantress. I think it would be fun to play the sorc in a "Battle Mistress" role compared to how I'm used to playing her. I will be doing HC to add a little bit to the challenge (and because SC just gets boring after awhile T_T). Here is what I have planned right now:
20 Warmth 20 Enchant 20 Fire Mastery 20 Shiver Armor (or another one?) 1 for Tele/Static and for all prereqs Rest Cold Mastery?
And what merc should I go with to help against the widest array of enemy immunities? At first I thought A3 light merc, but then realized that Fire/Light res monsters would be a real pain in the pa-toot. Then I thought of A3 cold merc, since Fire/Cold res monsters could at least be Staticed down to half health. After that I would have to smack them with whatever weapon I can grab.
Of course an A2 Merc of some sort could also work, but I'm not quite sure if he would be superior to the Cold A3 merc. However, he would also benefit from my enchant for extra killing speed on monsters that I don't have problems with but I'm more concerned about those that will be major pains .
As far as stats go, I'm planning on: Strength: Enough for gear Dexterity: Enough for 75% CTB Vital: All the rest Energy: None (obviously ).
So I guess what I'm asking is: what merc should I use? Do you guys see any skill changes that would make the game slightly easier? I really don't want to be a caster who sometimes melees, I want to be a meleer who might sometimes cast.
you should use Passion runeword for ur sorc. enchanted zealing sorc = SICKKKKKKKKKK
On August 16 2010 15:41 CruS wrote: Do what I did the last time I gave D2 another shot - try to complete the game in SP (I did it on B.net but solo) with every class naked. In hardcore.
Here is one clip of Andariel I gave up on recording due to hdd space lol.
Yeah, beating Andy naked with the least item-dependant class there is. Congrats.
By the way, did they change the drop rates in this game recently? I'm doing full clears, just passed the Radament, raided Rakanishu and Countess in A1 a couple of times and so far I have not found a single set or unique item... Usually in A1 you found this winter set quilted armour, unique buckler and set sash... WTF?! If I won't find a single Sigon's shield during A3 I will be very disappoint...
Also, could someone enlighten me how to improve the graphics? It looks fine on screenshots:
But when actually playing the game, the health & mana globes look absolutely dreadful...
On August 16 2010 15:41 CruS wrote: Do what I did the last time I gave D2 another shot - try to complete the game in SP (I did it on B.net but solo) with every class naked. In hardcore.
It sounds absolutely awful to actually do one full-clear of everything though but it seems like it's a decent off-the-wall concept that can get the brain flowing into making all sorts of random-ass builds.
lmao that thread is epic
i clicked on that link and... was drawn in. read it all (well mostly just superdave's posts) absolutely amazing.
I went through a less-played-builds phase in D2 like 2 years ago.
Nicest thing I found is a furysin. Uses blade fury as main skill.
Max venom, death sentry and maybe shadow warrior (or master if you prefer). Get some fade, BoS, cloak of shadows and mind blast. As equipement, crushing blow is your friend. Cresent moon would be quite good. Shaefers hammer works. One handed weapons get 3/4 damage. Adding a Tiamats Rembuke and your damage would be quite ok. Try to get some enchant from somewhere (like a demon limb switch or those hellmouth? gloves) for the enchant.
Another possibility is a meleemancer. I tried making a GrimReaper, which was quite nice. Max dim vision and a necromancer using scythes. Fun times
On August 14 2010 21:28 KinosJourney2 wrote: People love to play normal builds, but i never play through the game without doing something unorthodox/fun and challanging.
Heres some builds i like:
Tankazon Uses no javelins, bows or spears. I personally use 2-handed swords or 1-handed axes/swords Bowasin These are actually viable in pvp if you got the right gear(me and a friend made one each before and they were surprisingly good), but when you use these for pvm you get high venom/BoS and use a bow to kill. (NOTE: You aren't allowed to use lightning traps in pvm, but fire traps are fine) Tank Basically a barbarian with really high defence and hp wielding a shield. They are good in Hardcore but kills a bit slow since you will be concentrating on having high hp and blockrate above damage. Throwbarb Really fun characters, are viable through the game. Only problem they have are crowdcontrol but they have quite good damage output if you get lucky with drops. Singer These will need pimped gear to be effective but nontheless. These chars are quite cool since they yell at their enemies until they die. You will want 2x Wizardspikes and good +skill, mana and fcr gear. Having dual +1-3 warcry spears on switch for buffing helps alot. Enchantress A sorc that has insane elemental damage output, you use a Phase blade with the runeword Passion in it (Dol+Ort+Eld+Lem) for the +1 Zeal. With that weapon you will attack very fast and make this character viable. After that you get maxed Enchant, Warmth, Fire Mastery. If you will use elemental damage charms or dual dreams/dragon runewords you should max Lightning Mastery aswell. The Masteries give a huge boost to the respective elemental damage. I've seen sorcs with up to 70-80k damage and their characters wasn't perfect either
These are some from the top of my mind, bet theres more fun chars but i can't remember any right now >_<
Most of these won't work at all in single player if you actually have to get your own weapons.
I don't advocate doing single player runs to get Ums, uniques, or whatnot. Technically if you're willing to do that, you might as well just edit in the appropriate weapon and save yourself some time, and once again this kind of kills the game. For untwinked (i.e. single player runs), don't play with an "I need this item" philosophy, use a make do with what you have philosophy.
Hammerdins is only hard till 18. Then your save up points (you did save up points, right?) allow you to level both concentration and blessed hammer and your damage increases quadratically. Did you guys tweak/rush all your characters or something
They work, but doubtfully in 8 players though.
I hate single player since its so easy with normal builds, most people make sorcs/hammerdins/WW barbs/wind druids which is incredibly easy and you get no entertainment value out of it (atleast in my opinion).
Now im gonna play D2 myself, this thread got me in the mood
It sounds absolutely awful to actually do one full-clear of everything though but it seems like it's a decent off-the-wall concept that can get the brain flowing into making all sorts of random-ass builds.
lmao that thread is epic
i clicked on that link and... was drawn in. read it all (well mostly just superdave's posts) absolutely amazing.
That thread was fake, Superdave admitted to faking it all
On August 16 2010 20:48 NeoLearner wrote: I went through a less-played-builds phase in D2 like 2 years ago.
Nicest thing I found is a furysin. Uses blade fury as main skill.
Max venom, death sentry and maybe shadow warrior (or master if you prefer). Get some fade, BoS, cloak of shadows and mind blast. As equipement, crushing blow is your friend. Cresent moon would be quite good. Shaefers hammer works. One handed weapons get 3/4 damage. Adding a Tiamats Rembuke and your damage would be quite ok. Try to get some enchant from somewhere (like a demon limb switch or those hellmouth? gloves) for the enchant.
Another possibility is a meleemancer. I tried making a GrimReaper, which was quite nice. Max dim vision and a necromancer using scythes. Fun times
A lot of the standard builds that are not heavily gear reliant, such as trap assassin, various sorcs, hammerdin, summon necro, would work SP. One of the more non-standard ones that I've never seen anyone do in multiplayer, but seems to be quite popular in SP is the so-called "fishyzon" which is a freezing arrow/lit fury hybrid
Max Lit Fury Max Freezing + its damage synergy + optional stuff like valk/decoy
It's a nice 2-element build that can hold its own with bad gear, but be ready to chug them mana pots down
i read this thread and installed d2 again, when i reached charater selection i realised i have probably done every build possible in this game and i couldnt pick any of them lol
I've pretty much used Zons my whole D2 career, I would definitely recommend that. Some thoughts:
1) Insight eliminates the need for pots so you can pump your other stats (notably VIT). These are low runes too, so very easy to get that up and running.
2) You are gonna need Maxed CS (and it synergizes with LF anyway) for bosses. FA is more for souls, and other LI...but yeah if you run into an LI/CI, then the only thing you got left is Jab. Kelpies works in a pinch, so they are moving so slow you can take your time.
Of course if you run into a Pi/LI/CI, run like hell haha.
If you're going untwinked and you don't have the best gear in the world, Insight won't regenerate fast enough. You'll still have to chug mana pots mid-battle. It's great for refilling between battles though
Also, isn't Insight a bnet RW? So he'll need to install the Runeword Mod to allow it to work on SP
Also if you wanna go pally, using a zealot based around holy freeze/shock can work. You'll need some not-terrible gear to survive, but you can atleast do decent damage with a bad weapon
You could also consider using this as a weapon: Crescent Moon 3 Socket Axes/Swords/Polearms Shael + Um + Tir 10% Chance To Cast Level 17 Chain Lightning On Striking 7% Chance To Cast Level 13 Static Field On Striking +20% Increased Attack Speed +180-220% Enhanced Damage (varies) Ignore Target's Defense -35% To Enemy Lightning Resistance 25% Chance of Open Wounds +9-11 Magic Absorb (varies) +2 To Mana After Each Kill Level 18 Summon Spirit Wolf (30 Charges)
Um is the hardest to find, but if you've done some hellforge quests, they'll turn up sooner or later
On August 17 2010 01:20 Purind wrote: If you're going untwinked and you don't have the best gear in the world, Insight won't regenerate fast enough. You'll still have to chug mana pots mid-battle. It's great for refilling between battles though
Also, isn't Insight a bnet RW? So he'll need to install the Runeword Mod to allow it to work on SP
Also if you wanna go pally, using a zealot based around holy freeze/shock can work. You'll need some not-terrible gear to survive, but you can atleast do decent damage with a bad weapon
You could also consider using this as a weapon: Crescent Moon 3 Socket Axes/Swords/Polearms Shael + Um + Tir 10% Chance To Cast Level 17 Chain Lightning On Striking 7% Chance To Cast Level 13 Static Field On Striking +20% Increased Attack Speed +180-220% Enhanced Damage (varies) Ignore Target's Defense -35% To Enemy Lightning Resistance 25% Chance of Open Wounds +9-11 Magic Absorb (varies) +2 To Mana After Each Kill Level 18 Summon Spirit Wolf (30 Charges)
Um is the hardest to find, but if you've done some hellforge quests, they'll turn up sooner or later
Haha, I already have my frost/zeal pally, but I guess I'll respec him as soon as I reach NM A2 (to get HF merc) to fanaticism/zeal, 20 in sac, at least 1 in vengeance (because fuck you, immunes!) and rest in shield. Will work better imo.
And as far as the weapon goes, I was thinking about something like this:
Thul + Io + Nef
Character Level: 35 Clubs, Hammers, Maces 3 sockets
+120% to Enhanced Defense 40% Chance of Crushing Blow +200 to Attack Rating Adds 3-14 Cold Damage for 3 seconds +10 to Vitality 15% increased Attack Speed Magic Damage Reduced by 2 Level 4 Corpse Explosion (12 charges) Knockback
Don't really like the knockback, but 40%CB is nice.
And a question for all you D2 fanatics here: - mercs have unlimited mana, right? - how do the %dmg taken goes to mana items work on them? Are they being treated as %dmg reduction or they don't work at all?
Clay Golem - 1 Golem Mastery - 1 (GG Life on Infinity Iron Golem) Summon Resist - 1 (Hits extra 1% Resist, Put last 6 points here)
Poison and Bone Skills: Teeth - 1 Corpse Explosion - 20
Curses: Put 1 into All
Ok now youll be done spending skill points around 80ish.. I recommend rest goes into either mages (I dont use mages) or when I play I go Iron Golem and Golem Mastery (Infinity iron golem with faith merc = gg)
However for soloing your gunna want to get a act 2 Might merc... (You have to get him in nightmare otherwise he will have thorns. He is the "Offensive" merc)
Then for gear your gunna be looking to shop +skeleton wands look for necro heads with decent mods... You can solo naked if need be...
Playing... Ok first off.. Curses...
Set your hotkeys as follows
F1 Amplify damage F2 Life Tap F3 Confuse F4 Attract F5 Lower Resist F6 Corpse Explosion F7 Clay Golem F8 Raise Skeleton F9 Revive
Amp damage is for killing your first corpse Life Tap is to heal your merc/skeletons Confuse Attract is for bosses and large groups.. Seperate and destroy Then whenever a monster dies.. Lower resist and Corpse explosion...
Keep your clay golem up at all times...
Also your gunna be constantly looking for a
Harlequin Crest, Marrow walks, Mage fists (Counts as +1 Corpse Explosion) or trangs, Also Demon Limb has Enchants which makes your skeletons 2x as strong...
With proper use of curses.. You can solo hell naked...
Hey, this thread got my D2 fever going again. So I played a Zealadin through all my life in SP only, he is around lvl 85 or sth.
But I wanted to ask you, if there's some good Amazon melee with fend guide around? So what is the TL on Diablo? And is a melee zone viable(and fun) without uber-gear?
On August 17 2010 02:14 Mavkar wrote: Hey, this thread got my D2 fever going again. So I played a Zealadin through all my life in SP only, he is around lvl 85 or sth.
But I wanted to ask you, if there's some good Amazon melee with fend guide around? So what is the TL on Diablo? And is a melee zone viable(and fun) without uber-gear?
Fend is bugged and sucks hard. If you wanna play a Amazon go with the Javelin skilltree and spec Lightning skills. You want to use Lightning Fury(crowd control),Charged Strike(insane damage vs single targets, tears bosses to pieces in seconds) and 1 point Jab for immunes.
Also put points into passive skills too, 1 point atleast in all passives is useful.
On August 17 2010 01:08 eSen1a wrote: i read this thread and installed d2 again, when i reached charater selection i realised i have probably done every build possible in this game and i couldnt pick any of them lol
bring on d3 :D
This pretty much sums up my situation as well : /
Am I really gonna make another "fast run/walk" paladin? :0 Don't get me wrong, he was quite epic.
There have gotta be some new builds to try, I really last played in 1.11.
On August 17 2010 01:48 Manit0u wrote: Haha, I already have my frost/zeal pally, but I guess I'll respec him as soon as I reach NM A2 (to get HF merc) to fanaticism/zeal, 20 in sac, at least 1 in vengeance (because fuck you, immunes!) and rest in shield. Will work better imo.
And as far as the weapon goes, I was thinking about something like this:
Character Level: 35 Clubs, Hammers, Maces 3 sockets
+120% to Enhanced Defense 40% Chance of Crushing Blow +200 to Attack Rating Adds 3-14 Cold Damage for 3 seconds +10 to Vitality 15% increased Attack Speed Magic Damage Reduced by 2 Level 4 Corpse Explosion (12 charges) Knockback
Don't really like the knockback, but 40%CB is nice.
And a question for all you D2 fanatics here: - mercs have unlimited mana, right? - how do the %dmg taken goes to mana items work on them? Are they being treated as %dmg reduction or they don't work at all?
Knock back is gonna be annoying. CB is really nice. No bonus damage will also be annoying. Might need some meph runs to find some not terrible unique weapon, though I'm not really sure what NM Meph gives and I'm pretty sure normal meph sucks
On August 14 2010 09:05 xmShake wrote: 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.
this... I never died on this guy lol, and SO EASY. walk into the room, spam amp dmg. wait 3 seconds corpse explosion 3 seconds later Room cleared.
Boss is probably harder, if you keep casting decreptify you should be OKAY. keep your might merc alive with pots is essential. Find a help that has life leech, it is essential. That or socket his polearm (a descent one) with a perf skull can get you by.
Also.. I gotta ask.. What patch are you going to be playing ? Makes a huge differance... Also if your just gunna play around check out http://shadowdiablo.com/ and also look into median. Which is a massive 3rd party patch that adds 1000s of items and changes the game completely.. Butt also is quite fun and helps with that staring at the character select screen trying to think up a new build that you never will... (I made a PvP char with all -Light radius once that would bring the enemies light radius to 0 didn't do much for damage but they couldn't attack... Everything has been done)....
Long time since i read through the thread, but according to the series of replies i think he actually did Act 1 but shooped the rest. It is humanly possible to do this though since he just spams a valkyrie and sits there letting it do the work(and hes allowed to use mercenaries, but they can only use cracked stuff).
Off-topic: My main account *Arbitur on Europe NL(both Diablo2 and SC) got deactivated earlier this year for NO reason. I messaged blizzards customer support and they told me that my account is fine. There goes 400-700 fg atleast of items, lots of it was products of many MF runs on my trusty hammerdin. >_< Got my second account left but its all half empty mules and trash accs, might try to restart from scratch on NL again when i feel like it :p
BTW, we should get a Diablo 2 discussion thread. But im doubting if theres enough interest.
On August 14 2010 09:05 xmShake wrote: 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.
this... I never died on this guy lol, and SO EASY. walk into the room, spam amp dmg. wait 3 seconds corpse explosion 3 seconds later Room cleared.
Boss is probably harder, if you keep casting decreptify you should be OKAY. keep your might merc alive with pots is essential. Find a help that has life leech, it is essential. That or socket his polearm (a descent one) with a perf skull can get you by.
Hell Baal killed my HC character specced this way (a moment of carelessness).
Anyway, let me change the question from the OP (as it seems that my brother is going to join me from NM on): What would be a dual-character fun (ie: fun not in the way you handicap yourself, but you enjoy the carnage) builds?
Some stuff we've been thinking through (necro is out of the picture since he's excellent addition to any team wih just amp dmg): 1. Pala/Sorc - sorc going all-out fire (max dmg) and pala going for conviction. 2. 2x Pala & A2 mercs totaling: fanaticism, concentration, blessed aim, defiance auras (sounds a bit imba since 2 palas with at least 1 skill in vengeance don't really care about any immune enemies)
Long time since i read through the thread, but according to the series of replies i think he actually did Act 1 but shooped the rest. It is humanly possible to do this though since he just spams a valkyrie and sits there letting it do the work(and hes allowed to use mercenaries, but they can only use cracked stuff).
Off-topic: My main account *Arbitur on Europe NL(both Diablo2 and SC) got deactivated earlier this year for NO reason. I messaged blizzards customer support and they told me that my account is fine. There goes 400-700 fg atleast of items, lots of it was products of many MF runs on my trusty hammerdin. >_< Got my second account left but its all half empty mules and trash accs, might try to restart from scratch on NL again when i feel like it :p
BTW, we should get a Diablo 2 discussion thread. But im doubting if theres enough interest.
im pretty sure that was sarcasm just like "maybe u should try a hammerdin without an enigma! .. wait no silly idea" and superdave replies something like "that would never work =\"
Jeez i have a really weird relation with D2, i think it is a really dull game, highly repetitive, mediocre griding stuff etc... but now after reading all this stuff i want to play again T-T
I have an 83 Zealidin in SP and i do 1500-2000 dmg per hit. I hit so fast the game graphics cant keep up and it looks like ima lvl 1. but i can see the health bar going down so choppy i know im hitting fast.
On August 17 2010 12:11 Boblion wrote: Jeez i have a really weird relation with D2, i think it is a really dull game, highly repetitive, mediocre griding stuff etc... but now after reading all this stuff i want to play again T-T
EPT
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