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 CLICK ME TO JOIN THE DISCORD SERVER  TABLE OF CONTENTS General Information
Thread Guidelines Release What's New? Class Information
Amazon Assassin Barbarian Druid Necromancer Paladin Sorceress Mercenaries Mechanics Quests and End-Game Content
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
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?
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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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 |
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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: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: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:code:- 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 |
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Sep 23, 2021 03:35
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VanillaGorilla posted:This is cool for PC but does not do much for me on Xbox, which is also having some real issues. My educated guess is that you'll need to change the region your Xbox Live account is in, and might require you to buy the game for that region
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Sep 24, 2021 23:33
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Flavahbeast posted:WOOPS gj
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Sep 25, 2021 05:37
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Mr Scumbag posted:I ended up hating skele mages by the end of my time with D2. I think you're better off going with Raise Skele/Skele mastery, Blood golem and CE. At least that's what I remember doing and had a good time with it. Skeleton mages are fuckin useless. The skill doesn't provide any synergies either. Just get the point so you can get to Revive and never think about them again.
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Sep 26, 2021 12:58
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gradenko_2000 posted:the loot gods have blessed with with a Sol rune - what's the best/easiest way to get a 4-socket polearm for Insight, even if I was willing to burn a Larzuk reward on it? Find a polearm in nightmare difficulty that can get four sockets, then try to roll four sockets on it in the cube. Ral, Amn, a perfect topaz, and a plain quality polearm (etheral or not) and pray. I recommend an exceptional polearm like a partizan or battle scythe. I got mine on the first try.
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Sep 27, 2021 09:22
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KrunkMcGrunk posted:what's the best way to get a 4 os shield and 4 os polearm, other than larzuk? Use the Horadric Cube recipe. The base item has to be plain quality (not superior or low quality) and can be ethereal. Ethereal items work better for mercenaries because items equiped by a mercenary don't lose durability. Items that drop in normal cows have an item level just high enough to roll with four sockets, but you have to either burn your Larzuk quest on it to get them or try the Cube. All items that drop in normal with sockets can't be more than three. Tal + Thul + perfect topaz + body armor Ral + Amn + perfect amethyst + weapon Ral + Thul + perfect sapphire + helm Tal + Amn + perfect ruby + shield Star Man fucked around with this message at 16:11 on Sep 27, 2021 |
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Sep 27, 2021 16:08
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commando in tophat posted:How are these horadric cube recipes even figured out? Was it written in manual? (I don't remember). I find it hard to believe that someone slapped random crap into cube and some of it worked The Arreat Summit is the strategy website by Blizzard, where all this information typically comes from, as well as other research into the game through sata mining. It was all solved a long time ago. Also: Star Man provided these helpful links in the OP posted:LINKS
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Sep 27, 2021 16:27
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I seem to rember just casting Amplify Damage and lightly tapping Corpse Explosion making places like the Maggot Lair a hell of a lot more bearable. Bone Spear would also help.
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Sep 27, 2021 16:33
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commando in tophat posted:I'm just more interested on how should a normal player without loving with game files or going to the internets even figure it out by playing the game? Same for rune words. I only remember that old dude in act 5 told you if you place 3 runes he gave you in correct order into correct item type, it will do something (lol, i replayed campaign a lot of time back in the day and never got it correct). You don't. Chatting with Cain about it will tell you the recipe to convert arrows to bolts or bolts to arrows and that there's a whole lot of recipes out there to discover. Blizzard North didn't provide the recipes for runewords for a time. They wanted things to be discovered, but no one figured them out, so they just provided them.
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Sep 27, 2021 16:43
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lol sorry I meant for this post to be in another thread
Star Man fucked around with this message at 16:34 on Oct 1, 2021 |
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Oct 1, 2021 16:24
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lol I meant to post that in another thread. But probably yes to all of your questions.
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Oct 1, 2021 16:34
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 I'M RICH
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Oct 11, 2021 21:42
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There is a hidden cost to equipping a mercenary with Infinity--needing Call to Arms to make up for the mana you're losing. Or just chug mana potions Star Man fucked around with this message at 03:56 on Oct 15, 2021 |
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Oct 15, 2021 03:06
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codo27 posted:The lobby being left as-is-but-worse from 20 years ago is one of the biggest sources of shame for this remaster. Not so much as a god drat filter. Better not complete Baal on your 25-35 lvl character because then all you will see, if any at all, will be nightmare games. Its pathetic. You can click the gear and filter by difficulty.
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Oct 18, 2021 16:30
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BattleMaster posted:Given that defense is a nearly useless stat, when I am making armor or helmet runewords should I just use the first thing that drops with the correct number of sockets instead of holding out for a better thing? Assuming that all other things remain equal or don't matter a whole lot, like requirements. It Depends™ You can make runewords in whatever the gently caress base items you want. Low-level poo poo like Stealth doesn't matter a whole lot because you're going to move on to something better and ditch it to your next character, give it away, or sell it to a vendor. Breast plates are just a better starting point for low-level runewords because they can be shopped for in act II normal from Fara, and it's not hard to also get one that's superior quality. If your character is a caster, then armor value isn't that big of a deal because you're playing either a sorceress or something that has to wear Enigma. Let's talk about Enigma and assume you have the runes and want to make it. Body armor and shields have a hidden weight class to them that is light, medium, and heavy. Medium weight armor penalizes your walking and running speed and drains your stamina faster, and heavy armor has a bigger penalty. Armor and shields that are medium and heavyweight also have higher strength requirements compared to everything else in their class. Lightweight armor and shields are preferred for making runewords in because it's a penalty you don't have to include. Strength in Diablo II doesn't do very much besides determine what kind of armor you can wear and what kind of weapons you can hold. It increases damage from physical melee attacks ever so slightly, but the boost is so little that it's not worth consideration. So its only real use is for putting on your armor and weapons. Thus, there is also a preference for items with low strength requirements for making runewords, so those stat points can be used on vitality instead. Dexterity also suffers from this same problem, but dexterity is also used to calculate your block chance, so there's more use out of putting stat points into it to reach a higher block chance. Superior quality is always preferred because the enhanced defense uses the maximum value the armor can roll with to multiply from. Here's a list of base items that are typically used for Enigma:
Light plate (41) - Requires more strength to wear than a breast plate, but it also provides a little more defense. Mage plate (55) - The exceptional version of a light plate. More than double the defense rolls on these than they do on light plates, and the strength requirement isn't very high. Dusk shroud (77) - The lightest elite-class armor in the game. Archon plate (103) - Has the highest defense of all lightweight armors in the game, but also the highest strength requirement. It's not an insane amount of strength to reach, but if your goal is to have the highest level of defense you can get while also using lightweight armor, this is the preferred base item. Enigma is a bit of a special case because one of its mods adds a value of strength equal to 75% of your character level. Having just enough strength to wear a breast plate and the added value from Enigma's mods can be enough to wear the rest of your equipment. Typically, runewords made in body armor prefer to be made in archon plates because of their high defense to maximize stats like enhanced defense. In the case of Enigma, I've made it in an elite armor like a wyrmhide before because it's not a lot more strength to wear that instead of a dusk shroud. Weapons used to make runewords also take into consideration the requirements to wield them. Caster runewords like Spirit and Heart of the Oak are made in the lowest class of items that can get the number of sockets needed for them. A crystal sword has the lowest strength requirement of all swords in the game that can get four (up to six) sockets, so they're the preferred sword for Spirit. A broad sword needs a little more strength, but they can only get up to four sockets, so they're good to use if you're going to use up a Larzuk quest reward to get a four-socket sword if you found it in nightmare difficulty or in normal cow level. Flails are used for the same reason for Heart of the Oak, but they also need a little bit of dexterity as well. Call to Arms is always made in a crystal sword, flail, or double axe. Runewords for melee weapons and bows use weapons with the highest possible damage, with some exceptions. Berzerker axes are generally the best case for one-handed weapons, but phase blades are in consideration if the runeword can only be made in a sword (it's the only one-hand sword that can get five or six sockets).
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Oct 18, 2021 20:39
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Jay Rust posted:Getting pretty annoyed at the online build guides that have inventories full of excellent charms Don't be. They're the fully optimized ideal of those builds, but outside of something like PvP they're impractical.
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Oct 19, 2021 01:02
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Acer Pilot posted:
Get a single point in Enchant and a single point in Fire Mastery. Make your mercenary big and strong. Then cram any points you gain after that into Ice Bolt.
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Oct 21, 2021 04:34
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Enigma isn't wrong for a sorceress, but it feels like a waste when you could give that to any of your other characters.
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Oct 26, 2021 04:38
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Lamebot posted:new baal run loot strat to beat controller looters: drop a bunch of junk items before baal dies. lol I saw this in a series of Chaos runs today
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Oct 27, 2021 01:26
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You can make gloams less of a problem if you're playing as an amazon and have a point in Slow Missiles. It's funny watching their lightning bolts move so slowly that they never go very far before dissipating.
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Oct 30, 2021 15:13
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crondaily posted:A white bone wand with +3 to bone spear is a great starter bone Necro weapon as you can put the White runeword in it after using the socket quest reward and have +8 to bone spear on your wand. Or just spend ten minutes refreshing Drognan's inventory in normal act II by running in and out of town. He can sell grey bone wands with +3 Bone Spear and other mods with two sockets
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Nov 1, 2021 17:34
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I've only noticed the absolute slowdown in experience because a good Baal run series is so hard to come by. I could bear getting to level 93 by joining Baal and Chaos runs hosted by a bot, but they're just so sparse and badly ran right now.
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Nov 26, 2021 05:12
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Bold Robot posted:drat, that’s a really good swap weapon then. What’s the best base for it? Crystal sword, double axe, or flail. A crystal sword and double axe have the same strength requirement (43). A flail needs slightly less strength, but some dexterity to hold (41 strength, 35 dexterity). You're never going to actually swing with it, hence the preference for these low-requirement weapons. The base item being ethereal doesn't matter on anything except for the flail, where the reduction in dexterity will be just low enough that any character with any quality of Hellfire Torch or some dexterity charms can hold it without investing points in dexterity.
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Dec 9, 2021 07:27
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crondaily posted:Alot of people use a base opposite their main, so if they're running hoto in a flail they'll use the double axe so visually they can tell if they're in swap or main gear set. Then use a double axe, but no one seems to ever do that.
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Dec 9, 2021 17:32
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Mercenaries have lower stats if hired in nightmare difficulty and even lower stats if hired in hell difficulty. I hope Blizzard just does away with that if they're going to have all six auras on act II mercenaries available in nightmare and hell.
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Dec 17, 2021 06:22
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gradenko_2000 posted:I'm like 80% sure that a pre-D2R patch equalized all of this, but don't quote me on that. I picked this game up in 2005 right before 1.11 dropped. If it was not like this at one time, it was before patch 1.10.
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Dec 17, 2021 06:44
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Snazzy Frocks posted:Has there ever been a use for offensive potions You can play red light green light with a throw barbarian
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Dec 18, 2021 16:06
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Mustached Demon posted:Jokes on you, I'm enjoying the crap out of D3. My not-paladin rides around on her horse while barrels of nails fall from the sky. What isn't to love about that? It's different.
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Dec 18, 2021 20:55
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I managed to get a blizzard sorceress to level 96 once in 2009, just to totally maximize crafting amulets. It was just high enough of a level to max out all of my sybergies with blizzard and start a path toward speccing into enchant. It's probably not worth going that deep into it.
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Mar 11, 2022 02:39
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Ornery and Hornery posted:A 4 socket monarch dropped while I was mindlessly grinding sewers under lost city and I was happy. Boy howdy though I’m many levels away from having the strength to equip it. Could easily finish hell act V to beat the game before leveling up strength to the point of using it. Just burn a respec with Akara and put in the points until you have 156
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Mar 30, 2022 06:22
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Apr 1, 2022 21:14
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Thunder Sheep posted:When you get a D1 style quest drop in d2 There were several items in that drop, but Alt+Print Screen doesn't go well with this game
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Apr 2, 2022 07:03
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You don't bother with a second element. Jab's physical damage is your second damage type. Nor do you put additional points into Jab. You just have to peck things to death with it. Star Man fucked around with this message at 18:51 on Apr 6, 2022 |
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Apr 6, 2022 08:03
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Ethics_Gradient posted:Getting a bit ahead of myself (currently getting my arse handed to me by random uniques in Stony Tomb), but been dreading it since Normal: what strategies are recommended for a Hammerdin taking on Hell Duriel? Down a bunch of thawing potions to max out your cold resistance and just go ham on Duriel until he drops dead. --- I am also planning on updating the OP of the thread this weekend about the new patch and some other information. I plan on writing a guide on how to choose items to use for your runewords and what to burn your socket quests on (hint: unique and set items or superior quality items where you need the maximum number of sockets, use the cube on regular quality items and pray).
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Apr 15, 2022 04:36
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SuperKlaus posted:I hear Find Potion synergizes Find Item now? No.
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Apr 15, 2022 18:28
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Meteor is a synergy for fireball first, a spell you cast second, or really third. You'll drop a meteor on something stationary and big like a boss or a big mob of monsters if you get a chance to, but you'll be feeding them fireballs and frozen orbs afterward.
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Apr 22, 2022 15:59
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Good Citizen posted:I haven’t played in a bit and SEO spam is keeping my dumb rear end from finding a quick answer. Is there a list of what new items/runewords are ladder only and what new stuff is available in nonladder? It's all in the patch notes. gradenko_2000 posted:the new runewords already work in single-player offline: https://old.reddit.com/r/diablo2/comments/u5nrk3/psa_24_ladder_runewords_already_work_in_single/ Ladder-only runewords worked in single player way back in 2004 in patch 1.10. This is intentional. The ladder-only runewords from 1.10 were all made accessible for online play when D2R launched as a quality of life improvement.
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Apr 26, 2022 04:45
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| # ¿ Apr 24, 2024 10:23 |
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Josh Lyman posted:Is there a Discord or chat channel for forming groups for the ladder reset? Star Man posted this as the very first line of the OP in September posted:
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Apr 28, 2022 23:22
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