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What is your starting class?
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Star Man
Jun 1, 2008

There's a star maaaaaan
Over the rainbow
:siren::siren:CLICK ME TO JOIN THE DISCORD SERVER:siren::siren:





TABLE OF CONTENTS

General Information

    Links
    Thread Guidelines
    Release
    What's New?

Class Information

    Overview

    Amazon
    Assassin
    Barbarian
    Druid
    Necromancer
    Paladin
    Sorceress

    Mercenaries

    Mechanics

Quests and End-Game Content

    Act I
    Act II
    Act III
    Act IV
    Act V

    The Secret Cow Level
    Uber Diablo (Dclone)
    Hellfire Torch
    Sockets

Diablo II is the sequel to Blizzard North's Diablo, released in June of 2000, becoming the fastest selling PC game sold during that period. It was followed up with an expansion pack in 2001 entitled Diablo II: Lord of Destruction.

In 2017, Blizzard released a remastered version of StarCraft: Brood War with updated high resolution graphics and widescreen support. A remastered version of WarCraft III released in 2020. A remastered version of Diablo II was officially announced in February 2021: Diablo II: Resurrected, with development by Vicarious Visions, who developed the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2.

Diablo II: Resurrected will be available on PC, now with controller support. It will also be available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

LINKS

The Arreat Summit - Blizzard's official Diablo II website. You will find just about everything you need to look up here.
Maxroll.gg - Expanding from their Diablo III, Maxroll has set up a new section of their website that covers strategy and build guides for Diablo II. Here you'll find build rankings, suggestions on what items to use for runewords, build and playstyle guides, and information about mechanics and items.
D2Planner - A character planner on Maxroll.gg. Input your character's current build in here or theorycraft a build to get an idea of what kind of damage your character can do, what level your build is complete at, and your mercenary's stats.
Horadric Goon - The goon Discord server for all flavors of Diablo II

THREAD GUIDELINES

    This thread's exigency is to foster discussion about the game, playing it, asking for advice, and overall celebratory of it.

    Diablo III's circus of a launch and its gradual improvement did not go over very well and some people still feel pretty strongly about it after almost ten years later and about things with the game in its current state. You can like or dislike that game, this game, or Path of Exile or whatever ARPGs do it better or worse for you, but keep that discussion to their respective threads. No one cares if Path of Exile is actually better in the Diablo II thread.

    If you haven't heard, Activision Blizzard is in a lot of loving deep poo poo right now with the SEC investigating them over sexual harassment crimes and the State of California is investigating them over labor disputes. Quite frankly, they deserve every iota of criticism going their way. However, how you as an individual feel about playing a game made by a company that's ran like a frat house is entirely up to you. If spending another cent on a product by Activision Blizzard is beyond the line in the sand that you've drawn yourself, then don't do it. If playing the games you've paid for already is something you feel like you need to stop doing, then uninstall their software and walk away for a while or do what it takes to have your account permanently taken away from you like turning your login to unrecoverable gibberish or getting it banned. I don't want this thread to become another Blizzard death thread. If a discussion is going to get deep into it, please take it there.

RELEASE

Diablo II: Resurected will release on 23 September 2021. Blizzard has made the launch times available across the globe with a map.



WHAT'S NEW?

    Diablo II: Resurrected will be playable in the new 3D graphics that are layered atop the original 2D graphics. Players can switch between graphics mode on the fly to their preference.

    You can kill the Cow King and not be locked out of reopening the portal. Get to cow tippin.

    Players on legacy Diablo II and players on Diablo II: Resurrected will be playing in separate ecosystems. The console versions

    Some bugs have been fixed, but Blizzard/Vicarious Visions is keeping a light touch on what they will be fixing because of the game's code being a constellation of issues. The two that have been fixed are the ethereal bug that doubled the damage or defense of ethereal items when upgraded in the Horadric Cube with sockets. The other was a lesser known bug where the assassin's traps would be counted as unique monsters, thus lowering the number of boss packs seen in a game. Other bugs such as the next hit always misses bug (making attacks like zeal and fend miss all of their hits if a hit, block, or evade happens during the attack) are still there, but they may be fixed in the future.

    The game is launching in non-ladder mode. Ladder will be implemented eventually, but all of the ladder-only runewords and items will be available in non-ladder play.

    Players of the Windows version will be able to play with a controller instead of a mouse and keyboard, but navigating the menus and picking up items will function as if they player is using a mouse, so you may find yourself needing to use the mouse for finer movements.

    You will be able to import your characters from single player of the legacy version to Diablo II: Resurrected. Just copy the character files from the directory you have them saved in and paste them into the single player character directory you have the remastered game installed in.

    Gold on the ground is now automatically picked up by walking or running over it, a feature lifted from Diablo III.

    An advanced tab in the character screen will show you stats such as how many extra ranks of skill levels you have from equipment, magic find, and other stats.

    The stash has been increased to be the same size as the vendor inventory for all of your characters, and a larger shared stash tab to make transferring items between characters much easier.

    Support for mods is still an open question. Be prepared for mod support to end up being pretty minimal to outright nonexistent. You'll want to keep your old CD keys of Diablo II around if you prefer to play the game with the features of mods like Project D2, Eastern Sun, Path of Diablo, or Slash Diablo.

Star Man fucked around with this message at 15:05 on Dec 25, 2023

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Star Man
Jun 1, 2008

There's a star maaaaaan
Over the rainbow
CLASS INFORMATION

You are able to create a maximum of eight characters per account in Diablo II. New to Diablo II is the option to create a character for hardcore play. A hardcore character cannot interact with characters in "softcore" mode. A hardcore character that dies will stay dead and cannot be revived. In multiplayer games, you can opt for your body to be looted by party members in the event that you die. The items in your backpack, stash, and on your mercenary will be erased, but you can still save what you were wearing by playing with others.

Single player characters cannot be played with in Battle.net games. There you will have a separate roster per account. Creating an account is free and easy, so you can have as many characters as you want as long as you can keep track of your accounts. Single player characters can be played with in LAN games and on open Battle.net.

Exclusive to Battle.net play is the option for a character to play on the ladder server. The ladder server was introduced in 1.10 in 2004 and there were prizes for the player that could reach level 99 with a character first in softcore and hardcore. Those contests are long gone, but getting on the ladder may still be something a diehard community is still interested in pursuing. Diablo II: Resurrected allows access to the items and runewords that were restricted to ladder only on the non-ladder server. The legacy version of Diablo II will still keep ladder-only items and runewords to the ladder server.

All classes have their own set of skills to use. For every experience level that a character gains, they will gain five stat points to spend and one skill point to spend. Each class has three skill tress with active and passive abilities to spend points on. To advance through the tree, you will need to spend at least one point in a requisite skill in order to unlock others. Spending points on your character stats and skills are semi-permanent. They can be reset after completing the Den of Evil and speaking to Akara once per game difficulty. After that, they can only be reset with an item that you must craft from ingredients dropped by act bosses. It is best to plan out what you want to do with your character before spending points on it.

Each class not only plays differently, but benefit from certain stats in different ways. Every time a character gains an experience level, they will gain a little bit of life and mana in addition to the five stat points and single skill point to distribute. The stats that you can distribute points in are:

Strength - increases melee attack damage. Higher strength will allow your character to wear heavier pieces of armor.

Dexterity - increases attack rating, armor, block chance, and ranged attack damage from weapons. Higher dexterity will allow your character to wield certain types of weapons.

Vitality - increases life and stamina. Classes gain different amounts of life per point of vitality. Increased stamina will allow your character to run greater distances.

Energy - increases mana. Classes gain different amounts of mana per point of energy.

These stats are sub-stats that can be influenced by your main stats and the points that are acquired by spending stats and from items and skills:

Damage - displayed here is the damage of your left and right mouse button skills. Strength and dexterity will slightly boost the physical damage to skills that use your weapons. Skills that are cast spells benefit from items that boost the level of that skill being used, class skills, or all skills.
Attack rating - the chance that an attack with your weapon will deal damage to an enemy. Attack rating is only necessary with weapons. Cast spells ignore attack rating and armor.

Defense - the chance that you will be hit by an enemy's attack. Attack rating can be increased with higher dexterity. Do not confuse defense rating with resistances.

Block chance - By mousing over your armor, you can see the chance you will be hit by a physical attack and the chance to block. Shields come with a block chance depending on the type of shield and your class. Your character level, increased block chance, and dexterity are used to calculate the chance you will block a physical attack.

Stamina - the yellow bar at the bottom of the screen is your stamina. More vitality will increase it. The stamina meter runs down as your character runs if you have that toggled on and will refill when you stand still or are walking instead of running. This matters for maybe the first ten levels and afterward you'll never worry about it again.

Life - run out of life and you die, simple as that. Unless you need to spend stat points to increase your strength or dexterity to wield or wear items or increase your block chance, you will spend all of your points in vitality to gain more life.

Mana - the resource you will spend to use your skills. Never spend points in energy to increase this stat--ever. There is one sorceress build that will benefit from points spent in energy to increase mana, but gaining more mana to keep using spells and abilities will come from mana leech and items that increase your mana pool.

The maximum character level is 99. Reaching level 99 is a very time consuming task and you will lose a percentage of your accumulated experience every time you die in nightmare and hell difficulty (but you can never level down). Once you reach level 85, you will be more or less at maximum level for most of your needs for your character. Reaching higher levels is only really necessary to max out your skill synergies, gambling and crafting items, and occasionally to equip certain rare or crafted items.





Amazon guide at the Arreat Summit
Amazon overview on Maxroll.gg

Homeland - Skovos Isles
Skill Trees - bow and crossbow, spear and javelin, passive
Class-exclusive items - amazon bows, amazon spears, and amazon javelins


Starting Attributes

Strength - 20
Dexterity - 25
Vitality - 20 (+3 life/+1 stamina per point)
Energy - 15 (+1.5 mana per point)

Hit points - 50 (+2 life per level gained)
Stamina - 84 (+1 stamina per level gained)
Mana - 15 (+1.5 mana per level gained)


Amazons are masters of archery, spear fighting, and javelin throwing. They are also capable of dodging and avoiding attacks with little warning and can even summon avatars of valkyries to aid them in combat. The most potent build for amazons centers around the skill Lightning Fury. Other popular builds use Cold and Freezing Arrow and Poison Javelin.





Assassin guide at the Arreat Summit
Assassin overview on Maxroll.gg

Homeland - none
Skill Trees - martial arts, traps, shadow disciplines
Class-exclusive items - assassin katars


Starting Attributes

Strength - 20
Dexterity - 20
Vitality - 20 (+3 life/+1.25 stamina per point)
Energy - 25 (+1.75 mana per point)

Hit points - 50 (+2 life per level gained)
Stamina - 95 (+1.25 stamina per level gained)
Mana - 25 (+1.5 mana per level gained)


Assassins are mage killers that target mages that have gone rogue. They utilize traps and martial arts to eliminate their targets and utilize abilities that make them resistant to the magics of their targets. Assassins can be built around being a melee class or as a caster. Their most powerful build uses the Lightning Sentry and can destroy scores of monsters as quickly or more so than a lightning sorceress. Keep in mind that the speed that assassins lay their traps is based on their attack speed rather than their casting speed. Assassins also have the unique ability to open locked chests without keys. Assassins can dual-wield assassin katars, but no other type of weapon.





Barbarian guide at the Arreat Summit
Barbarian overview on Maxroll.gg

Homeland - Northern Steppes, Mount Arreat
Skill Trees - combat, war cries, masteries
Class-exclusive items - barbarian helms


Starting Attributes

Strength - 30
Dexterity - 20
Vitality - 25 (+4 life/+1 stamina per point)
Energy - 15 (+1 mana per point)

Hit points - 55 (+2 life per level gained)
Stamina - 92 (+1 stamina per level gained)
Mana - 10 (+1 mana per level gained)


The barbarian tribes that live in the Northern Steppes are unparalelled in combat. Their uniting cause is to protect the summit of Mount Arreat from those that try to reach the Worldstone. Barbarians are a melee class and make effective tanks. They gain more life per point of vitality than any other class. Barbarians are excellent party members and can boost the survivability of the entire party with their warcries by casting Battle Orders. There is also the option to build a barbarian around his warcries and make him a short-range casting class. Barbarians are able to dual-wield any kind of one-handed weapon they can carry and two-handed swords (with a damage penalty).





Druid guide at the Arreat Summit
Druid overview on Maxroll.gg

Homeland - Scosglen
Skill Trees - shapeshifting, summoning, elemental
Class-exclusive items - druid pelts


Starting Attributes

Strength - 15
Dexterity - 20
Vitality - 25 (+2 life/+1 stamina per point)
Energy - 20 (+2 mana per point)

Hit points - 55 (+2 life per level gained)
Stamina - 84 (+1 stamina per level gained)
Mana - 20 (+2 mana per level gained)


The druids are a splinter group of the barbarians, eventually settling in Scosglen after they broke off. Druids utilize the powers of the natural world and call the aid of nature spirits, animals, and can use the power of natural disasters to do their bidding. Druids can also opt for a melee build by transforming into a werewolf or werebear. Popular builds for druids utilize wind-based skills or focus on the raw power of their werewolf transformation.





Necromancer guide at the Arreat Summit
Necromancer overview on Maxroll.gg

Homeland - Eastern Swamps
Skill Trees - necromancer shrunken heads
Class-exclusive items - summoning, poison and bone, curses


Starting Attributes

Strength - 15
Dexterity - 25
Vitality - 15 (+2 life/+1 stamina per point)
Energy - 25 (+2 mana per point)

Hit points - 45 (+2 life per level gained)
Stamina - 79 (+1 stamina per level gained)
Mana - 25 (+2 mana per level gained)


Necromancers seek to bring balance to life and death. Their abilities allow them to revive the dead for a short while and combat the forces of the Burning Hells. Necromancers can also utilize their poison and bone magics to fight monsters and hex enemies with curses that reduce their resistances to the elements or confuse them into fighting each other instead of you and your undead army. Necromancer builds focus on either creating a powerful army of the undead or on their poison and bone skills.





Paladin guide at the Arreat Summit
Paladin overview on Maxroll.gg

Homeland - Kurast
Skill Trees - combat, offensive auras, defensive auras
Class-exclusive items - paladin shields


Starting Attributes

Strength - 25
Dexterity - 20
Vitality - 25 (+3 life/+1 stamina per point)
Energy - 15 (+1.5 mana per point)

Hit points - 55 (+2 life per level gained)
Stamina - 89 (+1 stamina per level gained)
Mana - 15 (+1.5 mana per level gained)


Paladins are holy warriors that have splintered from the Zakarum church after it succumbed to the corruption of Mephisto. Paladins are powerful melee attackers and increase their potency with holy auras for themselves and their allies. Although paladins are primarily a melee class, the most popular paladin build is a casting build that is built around Blessed Hammer.





Sorceress guide at the Arreat Summit
Sorceress overview on Maxroll.gg

Homeland - none
Skill Trees - cold spells, lightning spells, fire spells
Class-exclusive items - sorceress orbs


Starting Attributes

Strength - 10
Dexterity - 25
Vitality - 20 (+2 life/+1 stamina per point)
Energy - 35 (+2 mana per point)

Hit points - 40 (+1 life per level gained)
Stamina - 74 (+1 stamina per level gained)
Mana - 35 (+2 mana per level gained)


Every seven years, the Zann Esu seek out seven-year-old girls who have the potential to be powerful sorceresses. These young girls eventually become masters of the arcane arts and wield cold, fire, and lightning spells with unprecedented skill. Their most valuable asset is their ability to teleport, making them the best class out of the box that can rush new characters through the game and reach locations very quickly. The most powerful builds only utilize cold or lightning skills, but until you can get the equipment that allows your sorceress to focus on a single skill tree, it is best to use a cold/fire or cold/lightning build.

MERCENARIES

In all acts but act IV, you can hire a mercenary to aid you and your party in combat. Mercenaries can only use certain weapons and wear only a helmet and piece of chest armor. Equipment that a mercenary uses will not use up durability, so they are best equipped with ethereal items. When a mercenary dies, you can have them revived in town for a fee. Be very careful if you decide to hire a different mercenary because the old one's equipment will be erased.

In the legacy version of Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, mercenaries hired at a higher difficulty level would have lower base stats. This is no longer the case in Diablo II: Resurrected.

Rogue scout (act I) - rogue scouts are members of the Sisters of the Sightless Eye, who are a splinter group of the amazons and the same order that Diablo 1's rogue comes from. Rogue scouts will use either Cold Arrow or Fire Arrow and Inner Sight in combat. Rogues can equip bows that all classes can use.

Desert mercenary (act II) - desert mercenaries are the guards of Lut Gholein. They are the most popular mercenary choice because they all use an aura. Desert mercenaries are the exception to the rule that you should only hire a mercenary in normal difficulty because in nightmare they have different aura options than they do in normal and hell difficulties. Normal/hell desert mercenaries will use either Prayer (combat), Blessed Aim (offensive), or Defiance (defensive). Nightmare desert mercenaries will use Thorns (combat), Might (offensive), or Holy Freeze (defensive). Desert mercenaries can use spears and polearms as weapons.

Iron Wolf (act III) - the Iron Wolves may wield a sword and shield, but they are in fact spell casters. They will rarely swing their swords and instead cast lightning, cold, or fire spells, so it's best to give them a sword geared for casting spells instead of attacking.

Barbarian (act V) - the barbarians of Harrogath can be hired to aid you in combat. There are two fighting styles that they can use. Barbarian mercenaries that use Bash and Stun can equip a single one-handed sword or a two-handed sword. Barbarian mercenaries that can use Frenzy can equip two one-handed swords or one one-hander and a shield.

MECHANICS

All seven classes benefit from certain item affixes in different ways. Melee classes typically benefit more from increased attack speed while casting classes benefit more from faster cast rate. All seven classes will gain benefits from these boosts, but can only get so much. The tables provided detail how much of a certain stat is needed to get the most out of them for every class.

Attack speed

Because there are so many different kinds of weapons and they all have different attack speeds depending on your class, it can't be listed in a small table. Use that calculator to determine your attack speed for your character.

The following links provide tables that plot out the number of frames it takes for an effect to happen and the amount of that stat you will need to reach those breakpoints.

Blocking mechanics

Breakpoints and animations

Star Man fucked around with this message at 05:28 on Feb 19, 2023

Star Man
Jun 1, 2008

There's a star maaaaaan
Over the rainbow
QUESTS AND END-GAME CONTENT

The way Diablo II is played is that once you beat the game for the first time, that character can then play the game again in a new game+ mode called nightmare. Nightmare difficulty is harder than normal, but you will gain more experience in nightmare, get quest rewards a second time, and access to better equipment. Beat nightmare difficulty and you can access hell difficulty. Hell difficulty is the hardest game mode, but you will get all of the quest rewards a third time, even more experience, and a chance for the best items in the game to drop.

The following sections are concerned with what places to run in order to farm items. Some places in the game are best farmed for certain kinds of items such as runes or jewellery. For these notes on the places to farm and for everything else, assume that it is all taking place in hell difficulty.

ACT I

Act I Guide at the Arreat Summit

The Countess - located at the bottom of the Forgotten Tower. Take the Black Marsh waypoint and search for the tower in this region. The Countess will drop at least one rune, from El to Ist, every time you kill her. Any other runes that she may drop can be as high as Lo. The Countess is also where you go to farm for Keys of Terror.

The Pit - Pit runs are a good place to find plain items and socketed items for runewords and a great area for magic find runs in general. The Pit is found in the Tamoe Highland and best reached from the Outer Cloister waypoint. Just follow the path and you'll see the entrance to the Pit.

Andariel - Andariel is the act boss and is a great source of unique jewellery. She is in the lowest level of the Catacombs and thusly the Catacombs Level 2 waypoint is the fastest way to reach her.

ACT II

Act II Guide at the Arreat Summit

The Arcane Sanctuary - the Arcane Sanctuary can be reached through its own waypoint. Defeat the Summoner and he may drop Keys of Hate, but reaching him is difficult. The sanctuary has four paths and the Summoner is at the end of one of them. Should you reach one of the dead ends, crack open all the chests in the area for a chance at high-end items to drop--even runes as high as Cham.

ACT III

Act III Guide at the Arreat Summit

Travincal - the Council members all drop very large piles of gold, so it's a good place to go to for some quick cash. Travincal has its own waypoint.

Mephisto - if Mephisto isn't the most popular boss to kill, he is certainly the easier of the two best options. If you are playing with a ranged character, you can put the blood moat between you and Mephisto to keep him from being able to attack you. Just watch out for the Council members in the room. Mephisto is best reached from the Durance of Hate Level 2 waypoint. Travel along the edge to find the stairs to Mephisto.

ACT IV

Act IV Guide at the Arreat Summit

The Chaos Sanctuary - the best place to level up a character that has been glitch rushed into hell difficulty. Just stay out of the way of the player clearing the area and the monsters in the area. Diablo will appear once all five seals are activated and is a good boss to kill for good drops and can drop any item in the game. Diablo on normal difficulty is supposedly the best monster to kill to get a Stone of Jordan.

ACT V

Act V Guide at the Arreat Summit

Shenk and Eldritch - these two super uniques are very close to each other. Going northwest from the Frigid Highlands waypoint will lead you to Eldritch and going southwest will take you to Shenk. Both of them are easy kills so include them on your magic find runs.

Pindleskin - another super unique that can be reached very quickly so long as you have the red portal to Nihlathak's Temple open in town. Killing Nihlathak will close the portal and your easy access to Pindleskin (and a place to quickly raise skeletons if you're a necromancer), but...

Nihlathak - Nihlathak is the boss you have to kill in order to get Keys of Destruction. His chamber is home to the tomb viper, whose attack is bugged and will stack damage so quickly that you'll die in a couple of seconds if you stand in the cloud. Not to mention that Nihlathak will cast Corpse Explosion on dead monsters to kill you. Blow up the corpses before he can if you are playing with a necromancer or remove the dead bodies with a paladin's Redemption aura or wear a Nature's Peace ring to eliminate the problem. Nihlathak can be reached from the Halls of Pain waypoint.

Baal - getting to Baal is a bit of a long affair. Once you reach his chamber from the Worldstone Keep Level 2 waypoint, you will have to fight five waves of enemies before you can fight Baal himself. Baal can drop any item in the game and is also one of the few monsters that are worthwhile to kill once your character has reached a high enough level.

THE SECRET COW LEVEL

The easter egg to end all easter eggs. Originally thought to be an April Fool's joke, the secret cow level is an acknowledgement by Blizzard of the rumor that clicking the cow in Tristram in Diablo 1 repeatedly would take you to a hidden level. Clicking on any of the dead cows in Tristram in act I will cause them to explode and damage you, so don't do it. If you want to reach the fabled secret level, you'll need some things to get there.

All you have to do to get to the cow level is to beat the game on the difficulty you are trying to reach the cow level on. Once you beat the game, you will need Wirt's Leg, which is always found when looting Wirt's body in Tristram. Once you have the leg, all you need is a tome of town portals. Put both of these items in the Horadric Cube and transmute them in town in act I to open the portal. Inside you will find a legion of polearm-wielding cattle out for revenge for their tortured friend from Diablo 1. As you go, you will face the Cow King himself. The Cow King is immune to lightning damage and is the boss of this realm.

In the legacy version of Diablo II, killing the Cow King will check off the hidden seventh quest in act I as being complete for you and anyone else in the area and you and anyone else in the area will not be able to create a portal again, so don't kill the king if you want to come back. This feture was removed from Diablo II: Resurrected and players can kill the Cow King and reopen the portal for that difficulty level as many times as they want to.

The cow level is good for two things. In normal difficulty, this is the best place to level up a character from level 24 to level 25. Why level 24 is the bitch level is beyond me, but considering how experience yields are calculated, this is the one place in the whole game that you can get easy experience when you are at level 24. The cow level in hell difficulty is also similar to the Pit and other area level 85 zones so you can come here for white and socketed items for your runewords. Public cow level games are also pretty good places to go in nightmare and hell for some quick experience if you end up in those difficulties earlier than you intended to be in.

Moo!



UBER DIABLO

D2R Clone Hunters Discord Server

Way back when, duped items were everywhere and Blizzard tried to find a way to curtail item duping. Stones of Jordan were the currency of Battle.net, before the first ladder season in 2004. In patch 1.10, Blizzard created an event where players could sell their Stones of Jordan to vendors, and if enough rings were sold to vendors on a server using the same IP address, the screen would shake and the message "Diablo walks the earth" would appear. Uber Diablo, or Dclone, would drop a single item, the unique charm Annihilus. It's a powerful charm and highly sought after. There is no build in the game that doesn't utilize Annihilus, it's that good if you can get it.

In Diablo II: Resurrected, patch 2.4 made the elusive charm much easier to obtain. The Uber Diablo event is now triggered on the entire region that Stones of Jordan are sold on. If players are pooling their resources on the North American server, then Uber Diablo will spawn in all active games in Hell difficulty on the North American servers. Communities have emerged that are dedicated to spawning and hunting Uber Diablo. You can even change the region that your game is played in on the Battle.net launcher in your game settings between North America, Europe, and Asia to get in on an Uber Diablo walk in that region, and community members can even help you kill Uber Diablo so you can get your Annihilus. They're raining from the sky at this rate.

Killing Uber Diablo will reward you with the unique small charm Annihilus. This is a very powerful charm with the following affixes:

code:
Required Level: 70
+1 To All Skills
+10-20 To All Attributes (varies)
All Resistances +10-20 (varies)
+5-10% To Experience Gained (varies)
Uber Diablo drops only a single charm, so it's best to hunt for him in a private game if you are on a server that's about to spawn him. You can only have a single Annihilus in your character's possession and cannot store extras in your stash. For a time, trading an Annihilus was impossible through the trade window (you could still drop it and another player could pick it up), but trading it was enabled in 1.11 in 2005.

HELLFIRE TORCH

The Hellfire Torch is a similar item to the Annihilus and highly sought after. Getting one doesn't require being on the right server at the right time, but it is still a process to get one. As you play, you might come across special keys dropped by certain bosses. These keys open up portals to areas that will provide the keys to another realm where the Hellfire Torch can be obtained.

You will need three keys to open the portals. They are the Key of Terror, the Key of Hate, and the Key of Destruction. They are dropped by the Countess, the Summoner, and Nihlathak. It is best to get three keysets, because you will need three sets of keys to get all three organs in one run. Once you have the keysets, you can transmute then in the Horadric Cube in town in act V to open up portals to get the organs. Inside these portals are beefed up monsters and a boss that carries the organ. Lilith (uber Andariel) holds Diablo's Horn and is in the Matron's Den. Uber Duriel holds Baal's Eye and is in the Forgotten Sands. Uber Izual holds Mephisto's Brain and is in the Furnace of Pain.

Once you have all three organs, transmute them in the Horadric Cube to enter Uber Tristram. There you will find all three of the Prime Evils with very high stats and many powerful monsters. Defeat all three of them and a single Hellfire Torch will drop from the final Prime Evil killed and a Standard of Heroes for ever player in the game. The standard is nothing more than a trophy for your efforts, but the real prize is the Hellfire Torch, which has the following affixes:

code:
Required Level: 75
5% Chance To Cast level 10 Firestorm* On Striking
+3 to Random Character Class Skills (varies)
+10-20 To All Attributes (varies)
All Resistances +10-20 (varies)
+8 To Light Radius
Level 30 Hydra (10 charges)
Hopefully it will roll the skill bonus for your class or one you play with. Otherwise trade it for something good. Like Annihilus, you can only have on Hellfire Torch on your character and cannot keep extras in your stash.

Good hunting.

SOCKETS, RUNEWORDS, AND YOU: A guide to choosing the best base items for your runewords and how to get them

- Links

Sockets guide on Maxroll.gg
Base items guide on Maxroll.gg
Runewords guide on Maxroll.gg

It's the start of a new ladder season. You're frustrated because you need a crystal sword with four sockets so you can put together Spirit and have a powerful midrange weapon for your character while you claw your way through nightmare and hell difficulties. Maybe you've used your socket quest rewards with Larzuk on normal and nightmare difficulty to socket base items for Spirit and Insight, but you got lucky and got an early Harlequin's Crest. Do you socket it with your character's third socket quest reward or save that for the monarch you need for a Spirit shield?

This guide is to help you understand what base items are good to use for making runewords with, what your socket quest rewards are better spent on, and how to find those base items.

SOCKETS

- Introduction

All helmets, body armor, weapons, and shields can roll a number of sockets on them if they are plain or superior quality and if they are ethereal. These items, or base items, can roll with a number of sockets from one to the maximum number their item type can get. They will have a grey name on the ground and in your inventory (but so do ethereal items whether or not they have sockets). Weapons can have up to six sockets, but not all weapons can roll up to six sockets. Helmets can have up to three sockets, but not all helmets can get three sockets. Body armor and shields can get up to four sockets, but not all body armor can roll up to four sockets.

Depending on the difficulty level, act, and other factors such as monster level and treasure class, items that can drop with higher numbers of sockets don't start dropping until certain points of the game. If you are looking for a crystal sword to make Spirit in, you will never find that sword naturally in normal difficulty. But if you picked up that crystal sword in the Secret Cow Level while you were leveling up to level 25, there's still a method to get four sockets in it.

Magic (blue), rare (yellow), crafted (orange), unique, and set items can all have sockets. Magic, rare, and crafted items have a chance to roll a number of sockets on them as one of their random mods. Unique and set items have sockets as one of their preset mods, but some of them have a random number of sockets that they will drop with.

- How to find socketed items

Kill everything in sight, open up every chest and barrel you come across, and turn over every loose rock, loose tile, and bedsheet you find.

Depending on the item you're looking for, specific places are more exploitable for finding desirable socketed items or base items to imbue with sockets.

-- Vendors

For your first character in the ladder season, you can look to vendors in acts I and II in normal difficulty for socketed items. They will never sell you a base item with more than three sockets, but Akara in act I and Drognan in act II can sell you staves with two sockets that have +3 to Warmth, Firebolt, or Fireball for you to create Leaf with. Fara in act II sells weapons and armor with sockets, and is a good resource for a two-socket superior breast plate to make Stealth. Drognan is your best resource for a two-socket bone wand with +3 Bone Spear for a White wand.

-- Farming

Whether you are hunting for base items to socket with the cube recipe or Larzuk, or get lucky and find an item of superior and/or ethereal quality with the desired number of sockets, there are some choice places to look for them.

--- Normal difficulty

The rush for a Spirit or Insight is real at the start of a new season, and they're such a game changer once you have them. Base items can only drop with a maximum of three sockets, no matter what the item quality level is. Even if a crystal sword is item level 26 or higher, if it dropped in normal difficulty, it can only roll up to three sockets instead of four. There is still a way to imbue an item with four sockets using either the cube recipe or Larzuk. Item level 26 and higher items can be found in most zones in act V. Abaddon (a dungeon in the Frigid Highlands), Arreat Plateau or any point thereafter in act V, or from the Secret Cow Level. The runes needed to make many of the season starting runewords like Spirit and Insight are hard to come by in normal difficulty without getting lucky with your normal Hellforge drop. It's better to wait and start hunting for socketed items in nightmare difficulty.

--- Nightmare difficulty

The beginning of act I in nightmare difficulty is the soonest that you can find items that naturally drop with four sockets. This is the best place to start looking for four-socket crystal swords and polearms for Spirit swords and Insight polearms. The runes to make those runewords are easier to come by from farming the Countess in the Forgotten Tower.

--- Hell difficulty

The natural limit of sockets on items can be found here. At this point in the game, this is where you'll be hunting for the highest level base items such as berserker axes, archon plates, phase blades, and threshers. Many of those highly sought after items can only be found in area level 85 zones. The Secret Cow Level is also a good place to find many of those items for its density. If your character is level 83 or higher, any monster in a terror zone in hell difficulty is prime to drop those highest level base items.

Recommended places to go are:

Act I - The Pit, the Secret Cow Level
Act II - Stony Tomb, Ancient Tunnels
Act III - Arachnid Lair, Swampy Pit, the six temples in Kurast Bazaar, Upper Kurast and Kurast Causeway
Act IV - River of Flame, Chaos Sanctuary
Act V - Abaddon, Pit of Acheron, Glacial Trail, Infernal Pit, the Ancients' Way, Worldstone Keep

- How to create socketed items

-- Larzuk

Besides finding them naturally from drops, all items that can get sockets can be modded with sockets as a quest reward from Larzuk in act V after defeating Shenk, the Overseer. Larzuk will add the maximum number of sockets to any item without sockets in it already:

Low quality items - Cracked, crude, damaged, and low quality items can get the same number of sockets as their regular and superior quality versions based on their item level.
Normal and superior quality items - Larzuk will add the maximum number of sockets the item can have based on its item level and type.
Magic items - One or two sockets randomly. If the item can only get one socket, it cannot roll for two sockets.
Rare, crafted, unique, and set items - Larzuk can only add one socket.

--- When should I use Larzuk to socket my items?

At the beginning of the ladder season, players are starved for a four-socket crystal sword or four-socket polearm they need to make Spirit or Insight. These items cannot be found naturally at all in normal difficulty. Finding a plain crystal sword or polearm in nightmare difficulty or in the Secret Cow Level in normal difficulty is good enough to get those four sockets from Larzuk. But is it worth burning your quest reward on things you can pick up off the ground?

I would recommend saving your Larzuk quest reward for unique and set items and superior quality items that don't have sockets for which you need the maximum number of sockets. Thul, Amn, and Sol runes are not frequent drops in normal difficulty, even in the Secret Cow Level. You have to rely on getting lucky with your normal Hellforge drop to score one of those runes, and running the Countess in normal difficulty can only get you up to a Ral rune. In nightmare difficulty, the Countess can drop Thul, Amn, and Sol runes. Cows in normal difficulty can drop those runes as well, but you'll get them much faster through Countess runs in nightmare. And if you're going to hunt for the base items in nightmare difficulty, at that point, you can start finding exceptional polearms like a partizan for your mercenary instead of using a normal class item like a poleaxe for more damage.

It's all fake video game items and it has no real consequence of how you get your first four-socket crystal sword. The only cost is your time. You can exercise patience and wait to find that crystal sword or polearm and gamble on getting four sockets with the cube recipe and save your Larzuk quests on more valuable items. Or you can use up your Larzuk quest rewards and make another character to get rushed through the game to get your unique and set items socketed after you've burned your starting character's quest rewards on a crystal sword, polearm, and monarch at the cost of your time.

-- The Horadric Cube

The Horadric Cube can imbue a base item with a random number of sockets. The recipe can't exceed the limit on sockets of the item based on its item level, so no four, five, or six-socket crystal swords found in act I of normal difficulty. The Horadric Cube cannot add sockets to low quality or superior quality base items, but it can add sockets to ethereal items. If the base item can only have one socket, then it will get one socket. In legacy Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, a bug will double the ethereal bonus on weapons and armor when using the socket recipe, but this bug was fixed in Diablo II: Resurrected.

Recipes:

code:
Ral + Amn + Perfect Amethyst + normal weapon = socketed weapon
Tal + Amn + Perfect Ruby + normal shield = socketed shield
Ral + Thul + Perfect Sapphire + normal helm = socketed helm
Tal + Thul + Perfect Topaz + normal armor = socketed armor
The odds of how many sockets the cube recipe will add are:

code:
Maximum 2 sockets: (1) 1:6, (2) 5:6
Maximum 3 sockets: (1) 1:6, (2) 1:6, (3) 2:3
Maximum 4 sockets: (1) 1:6, (2) 1:6, (3) 1:6, (4) 1:2
Maximum 5 sockets: (1) 1:6, (2) 1:6, (3) 1:6, (4) 1:6, (5) 1:3
Maximum 6 sockets: (1) 1:6, (2) 1:6, (3) 1:6, (4) 1:6, (5) 1:6, (6) 1:6
BASE ITEMS

- Introduction

What items to use to create your runewords in might not be apparent on first look. Sacred armor has the highest defense of any armor in the game, but it's extremely heavy and requires 232 strength to wear. Not all items are ideal for putting together runewords, and builds that you may come across will recommend certain items to use as your base item, and you'll notice a pattern that they only ever use the same handful of base items. The reason for this is because of the stat requirements needed to equip those items and what kind of damage or defense values they have. A casting character does not need a heavy conquest sword to make Spirit with because they will never swing that sword at an enemy in melee, but a lightweight crystal sword will do the job. You can stuff whatever runes, gems, and jewels you want into your socketed items, make whatever runewords you want, and no one can do anything about it. It's fake video game junk, who cares. Build that Enigma in a damaged gothic plate that you managed to get Larzuk to imbue with three sockets. No one can stop you, but you will probably get made fun of for it.

Key: S is strength, D is dexterity, L is level requirement, O is the maximum number of sockets

-- Weapons

Weapons occupy two niches--casting and melee. Casting weapons will never be used to attack with directly, instead offering bonuses to casting speed and skill bonuses. Weapons used for melee need to have high attack speed and high damage output.

--- Normal weapons

Crystal sword (S43, L1, O6): The sword with the lowest strength and level requirements that can get up to six sockets. It requires no dexterity to wield. This sword is perfect for any runeword that can be made in a sword and attacking with it in melee is never necessary. Perfect for Spirit and Call to Arms.

Flail (S41, D35, L1, O5): Heart of the Oak can only be made in a flail, knout, or scourge. Since you'll never be attacking in melee with Heart of the Oak, you will use a flail for its lower strength requirement. Flails are also good for Call to Arms, but unlike a crystal sword or double axe, it does require a little dexterity to use. An ethereal flail will have its dexterity requirement dropped to 25, which is the starting dexterity value for the amazon, necromancer, and sorceress. The assassin, barbarian, and paladin have a starting dexterity value of 20, so will need a source of dexterity from points or items. A high enough Annihilus or Hellfire Torch or combination of both will get around this. Also used for the runeword Black by smiters for the flail's high attack speed and low requirements until they can make Grief or Last Wish in a phase blade.

Double axe (S43, L1, O5): There aren't many runewords that a casting character would need an axe for. For a necromancer using a Beast runeword, the double axe has the lowest strength requirement of any axe that can have five sockets. Because it has the same requirements as a crystal sword, a double axe is also good for Call to Arms. Sometimes players prefer to use a different weapon to be able to tell their Call to Arms apart from their primary weapon, so the double axe can be a visual aid to use so you know that you need to swap back to your primary weapon and shield.

--- Elite weapons

Phase blade (S25, D136, L54, O6): The only one-handed elite sword that can get six sockets. Its damage is worse than a berserker axe's and trades the berserker axe's high strength requirement for a high dexterity requirement, but what sets the phase blade apart from the berserker axe is its higher base attack speed and indestructibility.

Berserker axe (S138, D59, L64, O6): The strongest one-handed base item. It's slower to swing than a phase blade, but the damage makes up for it. A solid choice for Grief and Last Wish if you prefer the higher base damage of the axe. Any runeword that you make for a melee character that uses one-handed weapons will prefer a berserker axe if it can't be made in a phase blade or weapon with staff mods, such as Beast, Breath of the Dying, Death, or Doom.

-- Armor

Body armor and shields have weight classes that will affect your walking and running speed and stamina drain. Light armor does not incur a penalty to your movement speed or stamina drain. Medium armor will incur a 5% speed penalty and drain 50% more stamina. Heavy armor will incur a 10% speed penalty and drain 100% more stamina. For anyone sporting Enigma, this doesn't matter all that much, but the strength requirements for middleweight and heavyweight armor and shields are much higher than lightweight armor.

--- Normal armor

Breast plate (S30, L1, O3): The first piece of armor with three sockets you can find. A barbarian with no added points in strength can wear a breast plate right away. They can be purchased from Fara in act II normal, and can often be found in superior quality. This is the best base for Stealth on a new character. For a eleven more points in strength, you can use a light plate instead for more defense.

--- Exceptional armor

Mage plate (S55, L25, O3): Mage plates hit a sweet spot for requirements and their defense. They're a very solid base for any runeword that requires three sockets, have the highest defense of all lightweight exceptional armor, and has a lower strength requirement than a dusk shroud. They're a common base for Enigma. A paladin can wear a mage plate without any points invested in strength with the unique charms Annihilus and Hellfire Torch. A combination of them that adds thirty points in all attributes will be enough for a paladin to wear a mage plate. A barbarian only needs a combination of twenty-five points, an amazon and assassin need thirty-five points, and the druid and necromancer will likely need some additional sources of strength unless they have both an Annihilus and Hellfire Torch that each have a perfect twenty points in all attributes.

--- Elite armor

Dusk shroud (S77, L49, O4): All elite armor can have four sockets, and the dusk shroud is the lightest elite armor available. If you want the additional defense and can tolerate the additional strength requirement over a mage plate for two or three-socket runewords, this will be a solid choice. A wyrmhide or scarab husk offers more defense for a higher strength requirement without exceeding the required strength for an archon plate.

Archon plate (S103, L63, O4): An archon plate has the highest defense of all lightweight armor in the game. Its required strength value of 103 is reachable without a major investment in points to strength when combining bonuses from charms and other equipment. If you want to max out what you can get with defense, the archon plate is the best choice.

-- Helms

Helms don't have the weight classes that armor and shields do, but there is a subcategory of helms called circlets. Circlets require no strength to wear and only have a level requirement. They can't reach the level of defense of regular helms, but their lack of strength requirements can make them desirable if you are playing with a low strength character. Helms are more open ended in what you can use for runewords since the strength requirements are probably going to be lower than what you need for your armor or shield, but certain items make for better choices to make runewords with. Barbarian helms and druid pelts have staff mods, so you'll want to use those instead for the additional boost in skills.

--- Normal helms

Circlet (L16, O2): A circlet requires no strength to wear. It offers more defense than a cap, but has a minimum level requirement. A coronet offers more defense and is also limited to two sockets, but has a higher level requirement.

--- Exceptional helms

Grim helm (58S, L25, O3): Offers the highest defense of all exceptional helms. The strength requirement isn't very high. You'll get better defense from a grim helm than a diadem if you're interested in having more defense. A death mask has a slightly lower strength requirement, but lower defense.

--- Elite helms

Diadem (L64, O3): Highest defense of all circlets and can have three sockets. A tiara functions the same, but with just a little lower defense.

Bone visage (S106, L63, O3): While not the highest defense in the elite class of helms, it doesn't have the massive strength requirement of a corona for not a lot of gain in defense. A demonhead only requires four points less in strength, but the gulf isn't as wide as it is between a death mask and grim helm.

-- Shields

Shields have the same weight classes that armor does. Light shields are always preferred over the heavier weight classes because they typically require less strength for the same number of sockets. Necromancer shrunken heads are considered shields, but can only ever get up to two sockets, so they're not used very much. If you're playing a necromancer and want to use a two-socket runeword, use a shrunken head as your base item for the staff mods.

--- Normal shields

Kite shield (S47, L1, O3): Higher strength requirement than a large shield, but it won't penalize your movement speed or stamina drain. Either a large shield or kite shield is good for Ancient's Pledge on your first character, but it's probably better to just save those runes for Spirit or Insight when you start the season.

--- Exceptional shields

Grim shield (S58, L25, O2): This is your best bet for a two-socket shield to use for Rhyme or Splendor.

--- Elite shields

Monarch (S156, L54, O4): The lightest shield in the game that can get four sockets, and the strength requirement is still massive. Paladins have paladin shields that have significantly lower strength requirements and come with all resistances. Only use a monarch for four-socket runewords in a shield; a troll nest is better for two and three-socket runewords in shields.

Troll nest (S106, L57, O3): Use a troll nest for any runewords that require two or three sockets. The strength requirement is significantly lower than it is for a monarch, and it has a better base block chance too.

--Class-specific base items

Besides class-specific items such as amazon bows or paladin shields, some base items only ever come into contention for specific classes.

--- Amazon

Matriarchal bow (S87, D187, L39, O5): The base attack speed is faster than a grand matron bow, but has lower damage. The attack speed will matter more to you for Strafe and Guided Arrow than it does for Multishot, but this may be a matter of preference.

Grand matron bow (S108, D152, L58, O5): Slower to fire than the matriarchal bow, but does have a higher potential damage. It's easier on the dexterity requirement than the matriarchal bow, but does require more strength.

Hydra bow (S134, D167, L63, O6): If you ever want to put together Breath of the Dying in a bow, this is your best bet. A colosssus crossbow deals more damage and doesn't have the high requirements of a hydra bow, but the Hel rune in the runeword drops the requirements by 20%, making it easier to wield the hydra bow for its better attack speed.

--- Assassin

Feral claws (S113, D113, L58, O3): Not much about it. Feral claws have the highest damage potential of all claw weapons that can get three sockets. They can come with staff mods, so use feral claws with skill bonuses relevant to your build.

-- Barbarian

All barbarian helms can have up to three sockets and up to three staff mods with +1-3 skills. You're always going to want one of those skills to be Battle Orders, and the other two skills will be whatever your build leans on. It does not at all matter which helmet you use, so long as you have the strength for it. A jawbone cap has the lowest requirements, but more defense will come with higher strength requirements. Delirium in a barbarian helm will net you up to +5 in the staff mod skills.

--- Druid

Just like the barbarian, druid pelts can have up to three sockets and up to three staff mods with +1-3 skills. The wolf head has the lowest strength requirement, but as long as you have the strength for the pelt, it doesn't matter what it is you actually use. Delirium in a druid pelt will net you up to +5 in the staff mod skills. Metamorphosis in a druid pelt can yield a net of up to +8 to the staff mod skills in the pelt.

--- Necromancer

Wands can roll with staff mods to necromancer skills. Up to three staff mods can be affixed to the wand with +1-3 skills. Bone wands are a common choice for White wands because wands with +3 to Bone Spear and two sockets can be bought from Drognan in act II normal. +3 to Skeleton Mastery is also desireable for summoners that use Bone Spear as a secondary skill, netting +7 to Skeleton Mastery. The best wands for White will have secondary skills useful for your build, such as Bone Armor, Corpse Explosion, Poison Nova, or Clay Golem. Not all wands can have two sockets, so don't waste your time on wands, yew wands, burnt wands, and polished wands.

--- Paladins

War scepter (S55, L1, O5): This is only ever used with Call to Arms. Very rarely, a scepter can get a staff mod with +1-3 Holy Shield. The boost to Holy Shield makes it an excellent base for Call to Arms for a paladin that can get a greater defense boost. They're so rare that you're unlikely to ever see one, and they are extremely valuable. If you ever come across a war scepter, divine scepter, or caduceus with a Holy Shield staff mod, you would be better off to sell it.

Sacred targe (S86, L47, O4): Of the elite paladin shields, the sacred targe has the highest base block chance and the lowest strength requirement. No matter what your paladin's build is, there's almost no better shield to use as a base for runewords. Paladin shields roll with enhance damage and attack rating or all resistances. The preferred mod is always all resistances, and they can go as high as +45 to all resistances.

Vortex shield (S148, L66, O4): What sets the vortex shield apart from the sacred targe is that it has the highest possible Smite damage. An ethereal vortex shield is the best option to make Exile, which will lower the strength requirement down to 138 and has self-repair. The higher defense also makes the vortex shield a reasonable choice for other runewords if you can tolerate the higher strength requirement.

--- Sorceress

For an early ladder sorceress, a two-socket staff with +3 to Warmth and +3 to Firebolt or Fireball is a huge boost to damage with a Leaf staff. These staves can be bought from Akara or Drognan in normal difficulty. The affix for +3 to Fire Skills works on all classes with fire skills, not just the sorceress's Fire Skills tree.

Four-socket staves with +3 to Energy Shield are ideal for the runeword Memory, netting +9 to Energy Shield. One with secondary skills for buffing like Frozen Armor add to its potency.

-- Mercenaries

Mercenaries do not use up the durability of equipment, meaning that ethereal items will never wear out while in use by a mercenary. Ethereal items come with a 50% bonus to damage or defense and have their strength and dexterity requirements lowered by ten points.

--- Act I rogue mercenary

Matriarchal bow (S87, D187, L39, O5): The base attack speed is faster than a grand matron bow, but has lower damage, but this may be a matter of preference. Aim for +3 to Bow and Crossbow Skills to maximize your mercenary's cold or fire arrow damage.

--- Act II desert mercenary

Exceptional polearms: Any that can get four sockets will be your best bet for your first Insight polearm. Never build Insight in a normal polearm, the loss of damage isn't worth it.

Colossus volgue (S210, D55, L48, O4): The colossus volgue is the heaviest polearm in the game. Even with the reduction in strength by ten points, it still has an extreme strength requirement of 200. The upside to this is that the colossus volgue maxes out at four sockets and has the highest potential damage of all polearms. If you can get your desert mercenary's strength high enough to wield a colossus volgue, it's a solid choice for Insight and Infinity.

Cryptic axe (S165, D103, L59, O5): The second-highest damaging elite polearm and comes with a significantly lower strength requirement than a colossus volgue. It even has a better attack speed. The cryptic axe has the better damage, but is slower than the thresher and giant thresher at attacking. Because of the rarity of these items and how hard it can be to find a polearm that has four or five sockets, is ethereal, and has a superior damage bonus, any of the elite polearms that can get four or five sockets will suit you well.

--- Act III Iron Wolf mercenary

Ward (S185, L63, O4): Only worth considering making Spirit in if you want to max out your Iron Wolf's defense from a shield and have the strength to do it. Otherwise, put an ethereal monarch to use on this guy.

--- Act V barbarian mercenary

Cryptic sword (S99, D109, L61, O4): A newcomer in the 2.4 patch was the runeword Plague. Barbarian mercenaries can proc the Lower Resistance curse from the runeword. A barbarian mercenary that can dual-wield will be proccing Lower Resistance regularly with Frenzy. There is an argument to using a phase blade as the base item instead for a faster attack speed, but you will lose out on damage.

Star Man fucked around with this message at 16:24 on Mar 23, 2023

Kazvall
Mar 20, 2009

Most Excellent OP, OP.

Good Citizen
Aug 12, 2008

trump trump trump trump trump trump trump trump trump trump
I have a 4 hour zoom meeting beginning the same time this releases so you better believe I’m gonna be skelemancing with my camera off

Bobson Dugnutt
Jan 1, 2020

Nice OP.

Going to start with a Zeal Paladin myself.

Judge Tesla
Oct 29, 2011

:frogsiren:
I've never played D2 but have put hundreds of hours into D3 and probably none of that knowledge will translate backwards to here, but I look forward to bumbling around on the PS4 version when it unlocks.

Suburban Dad
Jan 10, 2007


Well what's attached to a leash that it made itself?
The punchline is the way that you've been fuckin' yourself




Good job Star Man.

jiggerypokery
Feb 1, 2012

...But I could hardly wait six months with a red hot jape like that under me belt.

can people on the retro client play with resurrected players?

coelomate
Oct 21, 2020


jiggerypokery posted:

can people on the retro client play with resurrected players?

Nope, resurrected is going to effectively be a new patch. Totally separate online experience and at least slightly different "rules."

That Italian Guy
Jul 25, 2012

We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.
Do we know already if the Andariel bug has been patched or is Resurrected going to include all the glorious meta-stuff from LoD? Or in general: do we have patch notes for the new "patch"?

EDIT: for the unaware/new players, LoD had a bug that increased the chance to find high sought after items when killing the Act 1 Boss (after defeating her, you can immediately town portal back to town, talk to Warriw (the npc that gates you to Act 2), get to act 2 and save/quit. This way, you always get the "killed this Act Boss for the first time" boost to MF whenever you kill her, forever.

That Italian Guy fucked around with this message at 12:58 on Sep 23, 2021

aparmenideanmonad
Jan 28, 2004
Balls to you and your way of mortal opinions - you don't exist anyway!
Fun Shoe
Thanks for the new OP - lookin' good.

The d2.maxroll.gg guides and character builder are very handy. Very much so if, like me, you never played D2 with respecs. You can actually use those dead-end skills that are only good in even early normal difficulty! I'm looking forward to taking advantage of them and not having to rely on mooching XP in BAALS_BALLS_69 to push my end-game perfect builds to level 65+.

That Italian Guy
Jul 25, 2012

We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.
Going for a Sorceress as first character, since it's easy enough to farm stuff for her to demolish Mephisto and other usual suspects with teleport/frozen orb.

Judge Tesla
Oct 29, 2011

:frogsiren:
From the perspective of a D3 player, it's going to be funny going back when the only points of reference for the Demon Lords are Belial and Azmodan, so seeing actually threatening demons will be nice.

That Italian Guy
Jul 25, 2012

We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

Judge Tesla posted:

From the perspective of a D3 player, it's going to be funny going back when the only points of reference for the Demon Lords are Belial and Azmodan, so seeing actually threatening demons will be nice.
This kinda depends on if you think someone getting killed while their initial combat quip has not ended yet can be considered threatening :v:

EDIT: I guess Duriel exists.

gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

HELL SERPENT
Lipstick Apathy

That Italian Guy posted:

Do we know already if the Andariel bug has been patched or is Resurrected going to include all the glorious meta-stuff from LoD? Or in general: do we have patch notes for the new "patch"?

EDIT: for the unaware/new players, LoD had a bug that increased the chance to find high sought after items when killing the Act 1 Boss (after defeating her, you can immediately town portal back to town, talk to Warriw (the npc that gates you to Act 2), get to act 2 and save/quit. This way, you always get the "killed this Act Boss for the first time" boost to MF whenever you kill her, forever.

I believe the devs confirmed that the Act 1 boss drop/loot bug would deliberately be allowed to persist

Martman
Nov 20, 2006

If it's that easy to do it, while also being easy to fail to activate it by not having read about it, they should just... make her always have that bonus. But oh well.

Also, very disappointed my chosen starting class of Goku is not one of the poll options

That Italian Guy
Jul 25, 2012

We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

Martman posted:

If it's that easy to do it, while also being easy to fail to activate it by not having read about it, they should just... make her always have that bonus. But oh well.

Also, very disappointed my chosen starting class of Goku is not one of the poll options

I suspect this game is going to be full of small idiosyncrasies regarding weird quirks of the game that have been deliberately left in it to appease returning players' lizard brains.

Martman
Nov 20, 2006

I'm down for all kinds of quirky silliness, but it just seems particularly rough when it'll be people locking their character out of something permanently for no good reason. You only get one chance to "activate" the bug per difficulty, right?

Judge Tesla
Oct 29, 2011

:frogsiren:
It might be worth mentioning any quirks like this for completely new D2 players, as there's going to be a lot of people playing on the console side who won't have touched it previously.

That Italian Guy
Jul 25, 2012

We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

Judge Tesla posted:

It might be worth mentioning any quirks like this for completely new D2 players, as there's going to be a lot of people playing on the console side who won't have touched it previously.
Forgot to say that an easy way to see if the bug has worked is to kill her a second time - if she drops gold or consumables the bug didn't work.

Aside from the previously mentioned Act1 Boss bug, the only other one that I remember by heart is the "untargetable" mercenary bug - your Merc can't be targeted by melee monsters and will be ignored by them - that is rather useful if you are playing a solo single element Sorc on Nightmare/Hell, since you'll run into Element immune monsters. This is particularly useful against fixed Element immune monsters (uniques that always spawn with a specific immunity).

The bug is quite easy to trigger. The video shows how to do it (57s timestamp in case it doesn't work):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cin5y92UPio&t=57s

Deofuta
Jul 7, 2013

The Corps is Mother
The Corps is Father
Feeling unbelievable amounts of hype going into release day. Managed to convince several friends who have played D3 and POE over the years to try out the original heavy hitter. Going either Meteorb or Blizz on my first character, and rocking Hammerdin with the friends when they have the time to get on. Cliche options to start but Sorceress just feels so, so good with enough FCR.

External Organs
Mar 3, 2006

One time i prank called a bear buildin workshop and said I wanted my mamaws ashes put in a teddy from where she loved them things so well... The woman on the phone did not skip a beat. She just said, "Brang her on down here. We've did it before."
If you aren't playing something with particle effects then what are you even doing here.

That Italian Guy
Jul 25, 2012

We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.
I would also add as a general advice to new players!

There is an Act1 miniboss The Countess that has an high chance to drop runes when killed. The best chestpiece you can craft for...almost every single leveling character is a runeword one called Stealth. You just need any chest piece that you can wear with 2 sockets and the runes Tal+Eth. It gives +25% Movespeed, Cast speed and Recovery and it's a huge QOL item on your first character.

As another general advice, craft an Ancient Pledge shield (3 socket shield, 3 runes Ral+Ort+Tal that you receive as a quest reward during Act 5) at the beginning of Nightmare Act 1 (or end of Normal Act 5 - whatever store/drop provides the best socketed item). Each difficulty increase will lower your baseline resistances and you need the bonuses provided by this shield to survive Nightmare.

In general, you can create a new game to have a peak at the stores when you are looking for socketed items for Runewords (also when you're looking for Magic items with specific bonuses, like boots with +Move speed or wands with +Casting speed). Remember that you can't create Runewords on magic/rare items with sockets! Only "normal" ones - gray name - will do.

External Organs
Mar 3, 2006

One time i prank called a bear buildin workshop and said I wanted my mamaws ashes put in a teddy from where she loved them things so well... The woman on the phone did not skip a beat. She just said, "Brang her on down here. We've did it before."
The fact that weird melee runewords usually have some wildly rare rune in them has never ceased to frustrate me. Meanwhile a caster can get by with spirits and it's basically fine for 90% of the game.

smug jeebus
Oct 26, 2008

That Italian Guy posted:

Remember that you can't create Runewords on magic/rare items with sockets! Only "normal" ones - gray name - will do.
Well poo poo, that's good to know, thanks

gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

HELL SERPENT
Lipstick Apathy
can you still do the "/playersx" command in D2R?

zooted heh
Oct 16, 2005

str8 mercin burgers my nigga
Does the Andariel bug only work on offline characters?

That Italian Guy
Jul 25, 2012

We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

zooted heh posted:

Does the Andariel bug only work on offline characters?

For everyone , afaik.

zooted heh
Oct 16, 2005

str8 mercin burgers my nigga

That Italian Guy posted:

For everyone , afaik.

If thats the case do I have to redo the bug everytime I kill her?

Sand Monster
Apr 13, 2008

zooted heh posted:

If thats the case do I have to redo the bug everytime I kill her?

If you bug her the first time, it's "permanent" from then on -- i.e. she's on farm status if you bug her.

CBD Corndog
Jun 21, 2009



gradenko_2000 posted:

can you still do the "/playersx" command in D2R?

Yep, you can do /players8 and get the full experience.

Only on PC though, there's no chat support on consoles so no /playersX support

E:Turns out if you scan and repair the install it decrypts (or downloads the final exe, whatever) and you can launch the game

:negative:

CBD Corndog fucked around with this message at 15:33 on Sep 23, 2021

queeb
Jun 10, 2004

m



starting with a sorc because teleport is the best.

then maybe a trapsin because that bug is fixed

KrunkMcGrunk
Jul 2, 2007

Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit.

its 11:02 blizzard!! where's my game!!! this is a slap in the faaaaace!!!!!!!!

SpaceBanditos
Aug 29, 2006

Did you hear maracas?
^^^ What this fine goon said.. Need those remastered pixels...

KrunkMcGrunk
Jul 2, 2007

Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit.

oh i guess i needed to restart the bnet client

Padical
Nov 29, 2004
Every time I played this game as a kid I would go with barbarian or necromancer. I'm going to try something new this time around, so what are the most fun paladin and sorceress builds?

bemusedchunk
May 10, 2021
anyone got the switch version? i just need confirmation that its not 100% broken before I can jump in with a druid bear power top build.

Harry Potter on Ice
Nov 4, 2006


IF IM NOT BITCHING ABOUT HOW SHITTY MY LIFE IS, REPORT ME FOR MY ACCOUNT HAS BEEN HIJACKED
The skellies I'm raising look fuckin amazin

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ultrachrist
Sep 27, 2008
gonna wait to see if I can pick this up used some time down the line, but was absorbing some nostalgia looking at gameplay. I was curious what the PS4 trophies would be and there's one for leveling a hardcore character to 99! Wasn't reaching 99 an insane grind in the og version? I remember something like... you hit the late 80s, maybe early 90s and then it takes weeks.

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