Diablo II single player questions

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Finished Act II last night with my druid - level 24, now able to use Bonesnap, so all is good. I did however, realize that my projected equipment list does not include any mana leech equipment, which was a bit of an oversight on my part. Meh - I'll find a mana leech ring eventually - my skills are not mana intensive until I get to around level 30, and start using Fury as my main attack.

EDIT: I'm still deciding if I should put an Um in my Stormshield. I have a couple of Um runes, but Um is a very useful rune for a couple of runewords I really like - Crescent Moon spring immediately to mind. I'm just not sure I can justify a rune of that quality for an extra 3% resistance to all.

I'm planning on using Duriel's Shell with this character as well - good resistances, and it will give me +15 strength towards equipping Stormshield - far and away my highest strength requirement. Of course, Stormshield gives +30 to strength, so I'll be a pretty buff druid once I'm fully equipped - my strength will be at a minimum of 186 - although 45 of that will be through items.

 

I'm actually surprised that you didn't have a Demon Limb (and would have been even more surprised is you didn't have a Bloodletter) yet. It's a very good weapon. Level 23 Enchant not only greatly increases damage, but also attack rating. Some characters even use it on their weapon switch, because Enchant effects all your weapons. This was the weapon I used to solve my paladin's attack rating problems. I put in on my switch, cast Enchant, then switch back to my scepter.

The only downside is the enchant charges are extremely expensive. When you bring your weapon in for repairs, it costs 10,000gp per charge spent. However, at level 23 Enchant has a duration of several minutes, so you can usually get by with only using one or two charges per run. It's not a great weapon switch for a barbarian, as you will probably want two echoing weapons. It's more of an alternative choice if you want to specialize in maces and still use a shield.

Bloodletter is excellent for normal difficulty, and will even serve you well throughout Nightmare. The damage just isn't there once you get hell difficulty, but by then you'll meet the level requirement for better equipment. Keep in mind that as a gladius, it doesn't have great range, but it is a very fast weapon. Also, you may want to consider equiping both of them, and getting the cumulative +5 bonus to both WW and Sword Mastery. You don't need the double swing skill to dual wield weapons, so there is no skill point waste in doing this.

 

I've now reached Act V with my druid and so far, so good. The problem you run into with a fury druid is that your main skill cannot be selected prior to level 30. The upside is that one of the other skills that you need is lycanthropy, so this skill is usually maxed by the time you can invest in fury.

As such, I have developed a step-wise advancement for this character. At the start, I just used a couple of low level set and unique items to get this character going. He was equipped with Bloodrise and Twitchthroe to get started. When I hit level 24, I switched to a two-handed weapon - Bonesnap - because druids get a speed bonus when using mauls, so it's a "fast attack speed" weapon with high damage for the early going.

I switched again when I hit level 34 - I'm now using Dark Clan Crusher (the unique cudgel that gives decent damage, +2 druid skills, and not much else) along with the set item Moser's Blessed Circle for the block bonus and the resistances. I'll only be using this setup for a relatively brief while though, because at level 38 I can upgrade the weapon to Fleshrender, the unique barbed club with the following stats:

+130-200% Enhanced Damage
Adds 35-50 Damage
+50% Damage to Undead
20% Deadly Strike
20% Chance of Crushing Blow
25% Chance of Open Wounds
+2 To Druid Skills
+2 To Shape Shifting Skills (Druid Only)
Prevent Monster Heal

Since my skills are focused nearly entirely in the shape shifting tree (and the only ones outside it will be primarily be for synergy purposes) this represents an upgrade in both weapon damage and skills. I may consider upping this to the elite version, but I think I need to hit level 70 to meet the level requirement. Future upgrades will occur at level 41 when I'll start using the armor Duriel's Shell, level 42 when Jalal's Mane (+2 all skills, +2 shape shifting, +30 resist all) becomes available, level 47 when I'll switch my shield to a prismatic hyperion of deflecting, and finally at level 73 when I will use stormshield.

However, now I may change things up a bit. Instead of using Duriel's Shell, I may instead go with the runeword Rain:

Runes: Ort + Mal + Ith (all of which I have on hand)
5% Chance To Cast Level 15 Cyclone Armor When Struck
5% Chance To Cast Level 15 Twister On Striking
+2 To Druid Skills
+100-150 To Mana
Lightning Resist +30%
Magic Damage Reduced By 7
15% Damage Taken Goes to Mana

Obviously, this would replace Duriel's Shell:

+160-200% Enhanced Defense
+ (1.25 Per Character Level) 1-123 Defense (Based On Character Level)
+ (1 Per Character Level) 1-99 To Life (Based On Character Level)
Fire Resist +20%
Lightning Resist +20%
Poison Resist +20%
Cold Resist +50%
Cannot Be Frozen
+15 To Strength

And I'm pretty undecided here. Duriel's Shell has better resistances, gives a bonus to life, and with the +15 strength it will save me some stat points for hitting the 156 requirement to use Stormshield (and the cannot be frozen mod is nice too). It will also likely have a higher defense, although that will be somewhat dependent on which armor I use for the runeword.

On the other hand, Rain will give me +2 to all druid skills - and don't forget that as a fury druid, that boosts Fury, Lycanthropy, and Werewolf - so really three skills in active use (as well as Werebear and Fire Claws for my backup attack). With over 100 more mana and the 15% damage goes to mana modifier it means I can probably get by with no mana leech. Fury only requires 4 mana per use, and the time between castings should be enough to replenish the mana cost. (Don't forget, the bigger your mana pool, the faster you recover mana). I like the chance to cast cyclone armor, although the level 15 twister is physical damage, so I probably have that covered already.

As far as what kind of armor I could use for the runeword, I will have a pretty extensive list. I need 156 strength to use Stormshield, but Stormshield has a +30 strength mod, so really any armor with a strength requirement of 186 or less is doable. (So that means any normal or exceptional would work, and all of the elites except Hellforge Plate, Lacquered Plate, Shadow Plate, and Sacred Armor.) So there are some high defense options on the table. However, since there is no +% defense on Rain, I'm not sure if that's a large advantage. The other thing I'm concerned with is my resistances. With Rain and Stormshield, I should be in good shape with both cold and lightning. Not so sure on fire and poison.

What do you guys think?

 

help !

how do you convert a character saved as a 1.10 back into a 1.07 kind of character, please ?

i already tried with atma and hero editor, but without success

 

For defense, I will probably not have enough defense in wolf or druid form to have any reasonable shot of avoiding getting hit. I probably will not exceed more than around 1500 in defense (stormshield is over 400, Jalal's mane is over 200, figure another 200 from boots, belts, gloves, and dex bonus, and even in really good armor, I'm not going to be able to squeeze more than about 600 out of my body armor). When it bear form, maybe, because of the serious %def boost you get in bear form.

Armors come in three weights - light, medium, and heavy. Light armor is no run/walk penalty, 5% for medium, 10% for heavy. You also suffer stamina drain 5% and 10% faster, respectively.

I don't have a Raven Frost, and while I would like the cannot be frozen attribute, I do not consider it essential. However, Duriel's Shell is the only piece of projected equipment that has that mod.

Yes, but stormshield has base modifiers for %resist cold and lightning, and will only get the 19%/22% from socketing for poison and (more importantly) fire. Having 20% resist all from Duriel's Shell would help.

I have no idea how to convert characters to an older version - it's normally only done from an old to a new.

 

The potential for having not-so-great fire resistance is one of the things that is pushing me towards Druiel's Shell, as 20% is better than nothing. The other option I considered was Goldskin (stashed with one of my other characters) - which is probably my favorite of the normal unique armors - it comes with resist all 35%, which can only be potentially matched by Skins of the Vampermagi (if you get a perfect one, but anything from 20%-35% is possible). However, I would lose out on the extra life that Duriel's Shell provides, and the +15 strength is a very attractive mod as it saves me three levels worth of strength investment.

The resistance issue is one of the major downers of using Stormshield. You get +60% cold resistance, +25% lightning resistance, but nothing for poison and fire. If I have about 40% fire resistance on the armor and shield combined, I can probably get reasonably close to maxing out my fire resistance. My projected end game equipment does include a decent amount of resists - I know for sure I have +30 resist all from Jalal's Mane, a resist all +14% grand charm and another +15% resist all on my rare amulet (in addition to resistances it gives me +1 druid skills, +9 dexterity, and +50 life). If I perfect diamond Storm Shield (I cannot justify an Um for 3% resist all, and Um Duriel's Shell (for some reason I completely overlooked this option), I'm not in terrible shape. That would give me 120% fire resistance - add in two Malah quests and the -100% hell penalty, and I'll have 40% fire resistance, so I'll need to pick up 35% between my boots and gloves - which is definitely doable, as I was only planning on using rares for them anyway.

I lack the armor for Aldur's set, but I have everything else. The armor is shadow plate, and it's the only elite piece of the set. I also seem to recall that the level requirements are quite high for the armor - 70-something. The druid helm actually isn't that uncommon, as it's only the exceptional version of the helm with the ram horns, and can be found as early as Act II nightmare.

This is all moot though, as it would not address the problems I have. First of all, the only fire resistance you get with the set is the +50% complete set bonus. I will concede that since the set consists of just four pieces (druid helm, body armor, weapon and boots), that there are still a ton of items slots (most notably the shield) where you can get additional fire resistance.

But the other issue is that the set is geared towards an elemental/summoner hybrid, and is quite ill-suited for a pure shapeshifter. For starters, the weapon can at best be considered mid-range. It's a jagged star (the exceptional version of the marning star), and while it does give you both mana and life leech, it's base damage is just 60-95. There are three open sockets on the weapon, so you can customize it to some degree, but there's nothing you can do to greatly increase the physical damage output, and you won't get any crushing blow unless you're willing to spend a Ber rune.

The other thing is that it doesn't that many +skills to the shapeshifting tree. The only item that gives a bonus to shapeshifting is the armor, which is +1, and then the complete set gives +3 to all. So using the complete set will net just +4 to shapeshifting, and I'm getting +4 to shapeshifting from Jalal's Mane alone (and another +3 from the Fleshrender).

So I suppose the next quesiton is what do I socket, and what order to I socket them? It's pretty clear that the one non-essential socket is Jalal's Mane. However, I may want to use my normal difficulty socket on Duriel's Shell, as that comes online at level 41, so it will be usable in nightmare. While I do not think I will have any difficulty maintaining max resistances in nightmare, the only way I can get them for hell is if I use my normal and nightmare socket quests on Duriel's Shell and Stormshield, respectively. (There's no point in socketing Stormshield in normal, as I will have my nightmare quest available to me before I hit the level requirement to use Stormshield.

 

Now that I finally got all three of my fantasy football drafts out of the way, I finally managed to get back to D2. I finished Normal last night, and I'm currently at level 40. I plan on waiting until I hit level 42 before starting nightmare, as that will allow me to meet the level requirements of several pieces of equipment - Duriel's Shell at level 41, and Jalal's Mane plus all of my shapeshifter grand charms at level 42 (some of those grand charms are really nice in that they add elemental damage to boot). So by waiting two more levels, I'll be able to add +7 to the shapeshifting tree.

The only downside to throwing three grand charms in my inventory (and a 4th when you count the +14% resist all grand charm that's already in there) is that I'm probably going to be devoting over half of my inventory space to charms. I carry the Horadric Cube with me, so it isn't THAT bad as that gives me three more columns of inventory space, but I think I'll only have about 4 columns of space in my inventory. On the other hand, this isn't a mf character - and it never will be if I socket everything towards resistances - so it's not like I'm going to have tons of goodies to pick up either. I can leave most blue items on the ground.

The other thing that occured to me is that I'll have most of my primary end-game equipment on by the time I start Nightmare. I have Fleshrender equipped already, and the only possible modification I may make to the weapon slot is to up it to the elite version. I don't think there is any weapon in the game that is going to give me +4 to shapeshifting. I will definitely not change from Jalal's Mane either - the only other druid helm that can get you to +4 in the shapeshifting tree is Cerebus' Bite, but that would cost me 30% resist all, and only give me 7% life steal in return. I'm also pretty set with Duriel's Shell - with bonuses to resist all, life, and strength, I cannot think of a better option. My amulet is outstanding - +1 to druid skills, 15% resist all, +50 life, +9 dex and even a little mf (don't remember exactly, but less than 10%). The only thing I could theoretically acquire that would be better is a +2 to druid skills amulet with similar stats, but that's an extremely rare find/gamble.

Most of the other items that may change would only be for minor improvements - my boots, belt, and gloves are all rares focused on resistances, although they also give other specific bonuses like attack speed, mf, and life. Since they are all rares, it's certainly possible that I may change them out for a better rare with slightly improved stats, but it is unlikely that the will be major upgrades. Which leaves the shield. I'm still using Moser's Blessed Circle for now, but I have another interim shield on the list before I reach the requirements for Stormshield. When I hit level 47, I have a Glorious Hyperion of Deflecting socketed with two perfect diamonds waiting for me.

I have decided against using my socket quest on anything at this time. I think I can maintain max resistances on nightmare without socketing Duriel's with an Um, and I'm not going to be able to use Stormshield throughout Nightmare anyway, so there's no point in socketing that yet. If I wait until I'm ready to enter hell difficulty, I can determine if I'm actually going to NEED to spend the Um to get my resistances maxed. While I can spend the Um if I need to, Um is high enough of a rune that I wouldn't want to waste one if I don't have to, and if the rest of my equipment can get me there, I'll probably go that route.

What about you, dmc? Are you a maul whirler yet? Or did you go for a different weapon type?

 

Still 100 degrees out there? (I guess in southern Cal you don't get much of a winter though.) We actually just hit a cold spell on the east coast. The highs this week have been in just the low 80s, after highs in the 90s the previous week. Although in Maryland, September is still summer most years.

The unique maul with the level 24 requirement is absolutely Bonesnap, and it will serve you well. What it lacks in weapon speed, it makes up for in damage - and weapon speed isn't all that important when you can kill everything in a single hit. It's 40% crushing blow is also great for making short work of bosses.

Dual wielding Bloodletters is also a good idea - you effectively have a level 6 whirlwind as soon as you hit level 30, which is actually pretty decent damage for normal. You may actually want to hold onto Bonesnap as a weapon switch for bosses, as Bloodletter doesn't have any crushing blow on it.

 

Okay this is getting unbelivable. I got my fourth unique ring and it's again a ravenfrost! Now I don't mind having a few extra but I've got exactly four unique rings since I started to play again and each one has been a ravenfrost, there are only so many I need. Well atleast I get to choose the one with the best attack rating if need be. Otherwise I scored tal rashas amulet, which is nice but really does not help my sorc with the resistance issue quite on the contrary.

I also got the unique mithril cord which giver 40(!) to vitality and 13% damage resistance. I'm wondering if it's better than the string of ears. The 40 to vitality is obviously massive but then it lacks other useful properties and gives no leech.

 

i once got barthuc's chop-chop for my assassin but strangely its stats are way below the ones presented for this cuthroath, it's a real shame

i was wondering, is there anyone here who plays with a version previous to 1.10 ? if not how do you manage playing 1.10 or later in single player, its difficulty is insane !!

 

i play 1.11b to get the PlugY plugin, and i tend to play mostly on /players 8 to increase the difficulty even further.

i feel that once you've got basic equipment for lvl 1-20 for various characters (sigons set is awesome here) or other various low lvl sets and uniques it gets pretty easy to lvl up early on and kill through most of nm as well.

late nm and hell is where it get's tough and you need to have a good plan for skills, combat, and equipment or else you wont get far

 

thank you for your answer

which area do you recommend for a lvl 79 assassin to gain xp ?

 

the pits in act 1 i think, otherwise baal running is not that bad either, if you can do it relatively quick that is

 

Allrighty, found wizardspike and took care of the chronic lack of resistance with my sorc with one swing. Also killed Diablo and found the pretty awesome andariel's visage. The -30% to fire resistance is a bit painful but otherwise this item is solid gold except for the insanely high level requirement(83!). Still I'm thinking about starting a (cross)bowazon and this one is solid endgame stuff for her.

EDIT: How come the pits is a good site for expirience for higher level characters these days? One would imagine that the monsters in act I won't give decent expirience to characters above 80.

 

at has a good exp/easy-to-kill-stuff ratio AFAIK and has chance of good drops because the area lvl is high

and kudos on andy's visage