Diablo II Single Player Thread - 2

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That is highly advisable. As you said, pierce doesn't matter in boss fights, but ias and mf does. Act bosses are also the times where you'll benefit the most from added mf. I'd definitely throw goldwrap on before a boss fight - other than 4 extra potion slots, razortail isn't doing anything for you.

Well, if you got a lem, you're already a good chunk of the way there. 3 Lems = 1 Pul. In fact, I estimated you'd need about 12 runs to get what you need. You did 4 runs - 1/3 of my initial estimate, and even if you had no lems to start, you are now 1/3 of where you need to get to. Don't forget that Fals and Kos are also close enough in terms of upgrading that finding them gets you closer to a Pul too. (Well technically, any rune gets you closer, but the Tirs are so far away from Pul that they are essentially meaningless - you'd need several million of them to get to a Pul.)

 

Another thought just occurred to me regarding IAS. I find it odd that you can get IAS bp that are not multiples of 5. In the conversation we had above, I pointed out that you need 86% IAS to get to the 9/2 breakpoint on strafe using WWS. However, getting exactly 86% seems impossible, so that the breakpoint is essentially 90%.

All weapon speeds are multiples of 5. All items that give IAS are also in multiples of 5. It's not like there are charms you can get with a percent or two of IAS. What is the reasoning for having bp for weapons that are non-multiples of 5?

 

it is a bit weird yea,

if fanaticism gives + X5 to ias, it could be to limit the usefulness of that aura, but i doubt that that was what they had in mind, can't think of anything else though

 

It's been forever since I responded to this thread - I've been gone over a week on vacation to Williamsburg, Virginia, and Corrola, North Carolina. Totally hot this past week. Nearly every day it exceeded 100 degrees, including one day where it reach 108 degrees, which is totally ridiculous. It's not even fun to go to the beach when it's that hot.

I did a couple of more missions in Act I Hell with my necro last night. I rescued Cain and did the Countess (she dropped a Fal and Io - not bad!). I need to make a decision today as to whether or not I want to pick up Starcraft II. I'm thinking of waiting a bit a hear the reviews that come in, and for a couple of patches to be released that will make it more playable.

 

You evidently decided this after deciding to play a pure Kodiak. You know, it's not like you necessarily have to finish every character you start. In fact, if plain melee, one at a time killers are not your thing, then a Hunger Kodiak is one of the worst character choices you could have made. I recommended against the Concentrate Barbarian for you for the same reason.

If you're interested in playing a druid that has mass attack spells, then the elemental tree is where it's at. Since Armageddon is the only spell you can cast when shapeshifted, most elemental druids do not invest in the shapeshifting tree at all. There are two paths to take there - the fire path (which also has volcano in it that does half fire and half physical damage) - and the wind path for physical damage (although it does have hurricane which does physical and cold damage). Both paths are viable, and there are a ton of windy druid and fire druid guides to pick from. (Unfortunately, due to synergies, doing both is not a great option. If you want to hybridize the character, most guides recommend maxing out either Dire Wolves or Grizzly, as that only costs you 20 points, plus prerequisites.)

 

True to my namesake once again. Of course you can switch up midway through. Completely forgot about the respec option.

You'll probably have to change out virtually everything equipment wise. Most elemental druids don't enter melee combat, and thus they tend to not use heavy weapons or armor, and they almost always use a shield. Similar to necros and sorceresses, +skills gear is very important to a elemental druid, and you want to keep you strength investment to a minimum.

Furthermore, a lot of the druid-specific gear you have for your Kodiak is going to be of little use to your elemental druid. For example, you're almost certainly using Jalal's Mane (or Cerebus' Bite possibly) as your helm. For a fire or windy, you want Ravenlore, especially if you are going the fire route, as it gives -20% enemy fire resistance.

It's much the same with weapons. The ultimate weapon for a windy or fire druid is Earthshifter. It gives +7 to the elemental tree, and that's more than you can get with any weapon-shield combo in the game. I think you mentioned you didn't have that, so a not-so-bad alternative is its smaller cousin, Earthshaker. That's the unique battle hammer (so it's 1-handed), it has a much more user-friendly strength requirement of just 100, and some very attractive mods to go with it. Most importantly, it gives +3 to elemental skills. But it also has 30% IAS, knockback, and hit blinds target, which is exactly what you want to have happen when you do enter melee. It also has a ctc a level 7 Fissure on striking. While the level 7 Fissure doesn't give synergies to anything, it receives synergies from both Volcano and Molten Bolder, and so with those skills maxed, the fissure hits for several hundred points of damage.

Another option would be Dark Clan Crusher with its +2 to all druid skills. It also has a form of life leech on it - each demon killed gives you 15 life points.

Of course, if you have a one-handed Heart of the Oak available (only a flail or battle hammer class weapon would be possible) I'd take that over everything except Earthshifter.

For armor, I'd recommend Rain, but you already have Chains of Honor, and if the strength requirement isn't excessive, that's obviously the superior choice. If it is high defense armor (read: very high strength requirement), you're probably better off finding a 3-socket Dusk Shroud and making Rain - very useful armor for the cost of a Mal.

For the shield you have two options, and as always, it's a block or not to block question. Elemental druids that go for max block like Sigon's Shelter (the set shield) because it gives +1 to all skills with a huge base chance to block (64%). Whitstan's Guard from the Orphan's set is also popular for the highest base chance of blocking in the game (87%), but will do very little else for you.

If you don't want to go for max block, the most popular option is a Spirit Shield, if you have the ladder-only runeword mod. +2 skills, mana, and decent resistances. The reason this isn't the unanimous choice for a shield is that you need a four socket shield for the runeword, which means you'll need at least a monarch, which means you'll need to invest 156 into strength, which is a lot more than many elemental druids want to do.

EDIT: Oh yeah, there's also Aldur's set - duh. It's +4 to the elemental tree with all items equipped. With +45 to strength, dexterity, vitality, and energy, you need only invest minimally to your stats to meet the usage requirements. The armor is the heaviest piece, it requires 115 strength, but by equipping the other pieces, you'll already have +30 to strength, so 85 would be all you need to wear the armor in hard points. You'll also get a ton of mana and life with that set. It leaves the shield slot open as well, so you'll still have that to consider. Although, seeing as how you use the helm, weapon and armor slots, you could probably do a lot better than +4 elemental skills with runewords and uniques. Heck, Ravenlore, Earthshaker/HotO, and Rain are fairly cheap, and worth +8 right there. If you have a Earthshifter, you can get +12 to elemental skills from those three slots.

 

It's a pretty good guide, but I would recommend some changes to make it more suited for PvM. Here are my thoughts on the equipment and skills:

Weapon - Heart of the Oak - of all the 1-handed options, I like this one the best. The author recommends you make it in a flail instead of a scourge for the lower strength and dexterity requirements, but then he goes on to contradict himself in the latter parts of the guide with the other equipment suggestions. A scourge requires 125 strength and 77 dexterity. If you plan on using a Stormshield as he suggests, and go for max block, you're going to need 156 to equip the SS, and you're going to need around 200 dexterity for max block, so there's no way you wouldn't meet the requirements for a scourge anyway.

Armor - Enigma - duh. Obviously a better choice than Chains for a caster. And the +0.75 per character level to strength will help big time in allowing you to equip your scourge and SS. Assuming you made Enigma in something like archon plate (103 str req), then you would raise strength just enough to equip Enigma, and the strength bonus alone would raise your strength high enough for all the rest of your equipment.

Shield - Stormshield - not a bad choice at all. If you're not looking to max out your skills, it's fine. Spirit would give +2 skills, but would require you to forgo max block, or alternatively, you could split the difference between +skills and blocking and go with Sigon's shield. Stormshield is the clear winner in PvP. I think you have alternatives with PvM, but you won't hear me compalin if you go with SS.

Helm - Shako - I still like Ravenlore better. The only reason he likes Shako better is because he recommend Call to Arms on switch, which I do not, for reasons I'll detail below on my recommended weapon switch. I'd say Shako only if you're using it for the mf.

Belt - Arachnid Mesh - the obvious choice here, and I have no complaints with that selection.

Gloves - Trang-Oul's (from the set) - here is my first big disagreement. It seems the main reason for this pick is the FCR and some resistances it provides. FCR is critical in PvP, but more of a luxury than a necessity in PvM. Base cast rate is 14 frames, 40% FCR gets you to 8 frames, and you need to get all the way to 100% to get to 6 frames. In PvP, that could make a difference. For PvM, 8 frames is more than sufficient. Windy druids are very mana hungry builds. I'd think you would be much better served by chosing gloves that increase your mana or mana regeneration rate, especially playing with base mana, and therefore I'd say either Magefist or Frostburns are far superior choices.

Boots - Sandstorm Trek - again this choice seems to be dictated by the prevelance of rabies druids in PvP. Unless you're really hurting for poison resistance, I don't really see much upside in these boots. My first pick would be War Travellers, but I also like Aldur's, Infernostrides, Waterwalk, or even Tearhaunch better than his pick.

Amulet - Mara's - no problem here.

Rings - 2 FCR rings - again, I see no need to get to the 6 frames breakpoint, especially since for less than half of what you need to get to 6 you can get to 8. The 14 frames base rate is too slow - I agree with that. But getting to 40% FCR is easy without sacrificing other equipment choices, and in PvM 8 versus 6 is no big deal.

Unless things have changed, you still don't have a SoJ, which would be my first pick. You have a Bul-Kathos ring lying around maybe? I'd also like to throw out Wisp Projector as a choice, as it would give you Oak Sage, Heart of the Wolverine, and Spirit of Barbs for free, and would allow you to sink the points you'd otherwise spend for Oak Sage into a summons (see below).

Switch - I'd hold onto that high elemental damage phase blade if I were you. There's no such thing as a physical immune in PvP, but there is in PvM. The only non-physical damage component of your attack is Hurricane (cold damage), but that's going to be a tedious way to deal with physical immunes. You're going to have a high dexterity and therefore, a decent chance of hitting with your weapon. Getting your merc or summons to engage the enemy and then have you come in to help out (after casting Hurricane) is probably the best means of dispatching them.

Skills - no problem with the basic plan here. Like most windy druids, he maxes Tornado, Twister, Cyclone Armor, and Hurricane. Do not discount Cyclone Armor btw - it gets synergy bonuses to the damage in can absorb from all of the other skills. It both gets and gives synergies to the three other skills you're selecting. The only skill of that bunch that's picked exclusively for synergy purposes is Twister, as it does nothing that Tornado doesn't do better.

Which brings me to the summons. The advantage of using Wisp Projector for your spirit is that you can max a summons. Here is another big distinction between PvM and PvP. For PvP, you want a Grizzly for the damage it can absorb before dying. In PvM, Grizzlies are only better in boss fights. In almost every other situation, Dire Wolves provide better crowd control. The other nice thing is that points in dire wolves give a life synergy bonus to all other summons, whereas a girzzly gives a damage synergy bonus to your other summons. So a 20 point Dire Wolves with a 1 point Grizzly provide extremely durable summons.

 

The only other thing I can think of is a Raven Frost if you think you might be going into melee against physical immunes.

Now there's a winner. HotO+Spirit for regular casting, Switch weapon (Baranar's Star maybe?) + SS for melee. Have the best of both worlds. Not having a high block rate while not in melee is not a huge loss. Many missile attacks (the only thing you would typically have to worry about) are elemental in nature, and your cyclone armor will negate them.

I really think having a summons will be more beneficial than having a high level spirit, as spirits don't have very good AI, and have the habit of wandering into combat and dying. I think I may advocate for the dire wolves even if you don't have a Wisp Projector. You're going to get one point in Oak Sage anyway as a prerequisite, and there's really no big problem in recasting it.

A few more points:

It make take some time to get used to Tornados and Twisters. IIRC (it's been a while since I've tried a windy druid), they do not travel in straight lines, but they tend to zigzag across the screen, and have a random movement pattern. If you stand still and cast two tornados on the exact same spot on the screen, it is possible, even likely, that they will not follow identical paths. The secret is getting a lot of them out there all at once (as in hold down the button like with a FB sorceress).

You also may want to consider getting a different merc. Your spells don't get the boost from a might merc. You won't need a Holy Freeze merc, because hurricane does the same thing, and maxed out it only needs to be recast every 42 seconds. I can see some utility in a defiance merc, just because they are so durable.

How about a rogue? Give her a Kuko Shakaku or a Witchwild String, and she can supply you a decent second damage type.

Wait a second! That's it! I'm a genius I tell ya - how about a high elemental missile weapon on switch for your druid against physical immunes! Two spring immediately to mind:

Harmony - Tir-Ith-Sol-Ko (requires ladder-only runeword mod)

Level 10 Vigor Aura when equipped
+200-275% enchanced damage
+9 to Minimum Damage
+9 to Maximum Damage
Adds 55-160 Lightning Damage
Adds 55-160 Fire Damage
Adds 55-160 Cold Damage
+2-6 Valkyrie (varies)
+10 Dexterity
Regenerate Mana +20%
+2 Light Radius
Level 20 Revive (25 charges)

And I also like that you get a second tank in a valkyrie. A defiance merc, 3 dire wolves, and a valk sounds like a pretty damn good wall. You may have some attack rating problems though, even with 200+ in dexterity.

Hmmm.... But wait! We can get more gratuitous than that!

Hellrack
Colossus Crossbow
Two-Hand Damage: (89-105) To (254-300)
Required Level: 76
Required Strength: 163
Required Dexterity: 77
Crossbow Class - Slow Attack Speed
+180-230% Enhanced Damage
100-150% Bonus To Attack Rating
Adds 63-324 Fire Damage
Adds 63-324 Lightning Damage
Adds 63-324 Cold Damage
+20% Increased Attack Speed
Level 18 Immolation Arrow (150 charges)
Socketed (2)

Now we're talking! Sure 163 sounds like a lot of strength, but if you have Enigma in Archon Plate, you need 103 to put that on, at level 80 it will give you ... wait for it... +60 strength!

In addition to having more elemental damage than Harmony, it gives a big bonus to attack rating, and you can socket it eth-eth to give everything -50% defense. Genius! Genius I tell ya!

EDIT: Sorry for the stream-of-consciousness posting, but I have another idea - use both! Act I merc with Harmony bow, you with a Hellrack on switch. Act I mercs spam Inner Sight, which lowers enemy defense even further - you'll be hitting like crazy!

When you run into a pack of PIs, you summon a 5,000 life grizzly (attainable with 1 in grizzly and 20 in Dire Wolf) to just stand there and get beat on. You'll have hurricane active obviously, and you and your merc go to work on the PI pack with missile weapons.

 

Note - hire the rogue in Normal difficulty. I know it sounds dumb, but the game used to be set up in such a way that mercenaries hired early in the game became better later in the game than mercenaries hired in nightmare or hell difficulty. This was to incentivize picking one early and progressing with that one throughout the game. The downside was that mercenary level was tied to Act and difficulty level, so once you were in hell, if you wanted to switch mercenaries, you pretty much had to hire a hell mercenary, as the ones for nightmare and normal would be too low level to survive.

However, starting in 1.10, the level of mercenaries available for hire is now tied to your character level. All mercenaries will be within five levels of you. However, they left the old rule of normal mercenaries being able to cast all of their skills at level 20, whereas nightmare mercenaries were capped at 18, and hell mercs capped at 16. So unless you want one of the Act II mercs that are only available on nightmare difficulty (so holy freeze or might), there's never any reason to hire a mercenary in any difficulty other than normal.

Another note on Act I mercs - they can only use bows (not crossbows), they cannot use amazon specific bows, and they do not get any benefit from + to amazon skill level items (just like Act II mercs don't benefit from +paladin skill items), but they do get the bonus from items that say + to all skills.

You're talking about Edge:

Edge - Tir + Tal + Amn

Level 15 Thorns Aura
+35% Increase attack speed
+350% damage to demons
+280% damage to undead (that's a weird percentage to pick)
+75 poison damage over 5 seconds
7% life steal
Prevent Monster Heal
+5-10 to all attributes (varies)
+2 to mana per kill
Reduce Vendor Prices 15%

A nice bow to be sure, but I think that Harmony outshines it in every way (well except for the minimum level requirement of Harmony being 14 levels higher, but that's irrelevant for the purposes of your character). You're already going to be doing gobs of physical damage from your spells, so the better physical damage from Edge is not going to do much to make your character more versatile. I advocated for a Harmony bow, as you're getting 165-480 elemental damage per arrow. Anything that isn't physical immune is going to be taken out by your spells.

The main purpose of your merc would be for physical immunes. An Act I merc would be a source of supplemental elemental damage (she would use Harmony), as well as a source of Inner Sight, which is really good at higher levels, espcially since as a druid, you won't be getting any skill bonus using a bow, so making monsters easier to hit is essential. You also won't get the vendor price bonus if the merc has it equipped. If you want to keep it in your stash for gambling purposes, sure, but I wouldn't use it for any other reason than that.

If you go with Harmony on your merc, you may as well pick a fire merc, as they do more damage than the cold ones, and you'll already be getting a dual chilling effect from the cold damage on Harmony and Hurricane.

Do you have a Hellrack? I really think that is essential here. You need a bow that helps out your attack rating, and not only does Hellrack offer a decent bonus to that, it was two open sockets, which can be socketed eth-eth, to knock off 50% of a monsters defense, and that will be cumulative with Inner Sight. (I don't know offhand which one is calculated first, although I suspect it's IS).

The other thing here is I definitely think you want 1 point in grizzly and 20 in dire wolves. The merc will be hanging back with you, so you need something to engage the enemy. Besides, wolves give a life synergy to grizzly, so when you do want a beefy grizzly against bosses and other tough enemies, that skill layout will still allow you to get a high life grizzly. (It won't hit for much damage granted, but it will take a ton of abuse before dying.)

EDIT: In this setup, I think you're better off with a HotO/Spirit combo as your main setup while casting spells. That will maximize your damage from spells, and switch to bow against PIs, which you won't be casting spells against anyway.

EDIT2: And if you're going with a bow, a Raven Frost suddenly becomes an attractive option for one of your ring slots (or perhaps even both). It will boost AR dramatically, and add damage. Perhaps enough that you can go Eth-Shael, or even Shael-Shael in the Hellrack to improve speed.

 

I did a few more Countess runs last night - I'm still in Act II Hell. I have such a good Countess map that it is difficult to motivate myself to go to other areas. While I have yet to score one of the higher rune drops from the Countess, I'm getting a ton of stuff from the Amn-Lem range.

 

Hmm, I recall that I actually I never played Diablo II single player and there it is, right on the shelf (bought for completeness) ...

 

Ragusa - there is a wealth of information in this thread, and the responders to this thread (which is mostly me and dmc) can provide you with some tips and build suggestions, depending on which class you decide to play.

One word of early advice though - if you plan on playing the game with more than one class on single player, downloading ATMA is a must. ATMA allows you to transfer equipment between characters on single player. So if you're playing an amazon and find a great item for a sorceress, you toss it in ATMA, and then when you decide to play a sorceress, said item is there waiting for you.

 

I look at this thread every so often and realize how much the game has changed since I last played it (before LoD was even released), and think it might be worth playng again (assuming I bought LoD first). And then I remember the jungle portion of Act 3, and the desire to play disappears...

 

A common sentiment Splunge. Even die-hard D2 players like myself find Act III irritating. I have no explanation for why this is, but Blizzard essentially bought a roll of stamps and mailed this Act in. The entire first part of the Act, consisting of the Spider Forest, Black Marsh, and Slayer Jungle, are identical in appearance, and have identical monsters in each part. (The exact names of the monsters change to indicate stronger variations, but the base monster type is the same.)

The second part of the Act consisting of Lower Kurast, the Bazaar, and Upper Kurast are also identical areas, with idenitcal monsters in each area to boot there, too. The only place where there is any variation throughout the Act is Travincal, and the Durance of Hate.

When you add to the fact that the XP output on that Act is low, and the quest rewards for that Act are the worst in the game (a potion that adds 20 life and a book that gives five measly stat points - whoop-de-freakin-do), it's not hard to see why it is so unpopular.

 

I could probably put up with Act 3 if I loved the other acts, but the reality is that I only found them to be OK. D2 overall just lacked the atmosphere of the original, and I found that this really took away a lot of the enjoyment for me. Plus come to think of it, I generally dislike games which lack a quicksave function; while this is less of a problem with D2 because your progress is saved when you die, I don’t think it was if you exit the game without saving at a portal, and in any case, you have to retrace your steps, which got tiresome.