Diablo II single player questions

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There are 3 ways that I know of:

1. Use a plugin mod. A plugin mod launches the game, but lets you do some nifty stuf with it, such as allowing for a shared stash between your characters, and adding pages to your stash so its effectively of infinite size. You need to get the right plugin mod for your version of the game. I use PlugY for Diablo 2 1.11, works flawlessly. Also allows you to scrap your skill points and start again if you like.

2. Second way is Atma, a muling program. Its an external program, you load up a character, or characters, and/or a stash file, and transfer items between them. Not as easy as a plugin mod I find, advantage is that it sorts them for you automatically.

3. Using a d2graphics.dll mod that allows you to have 2 instances of the game running. Basically, you do a small mod to the game, and start up the game twice. You then create a multiplayer game, between your two characters, and transfer items between them.

My recommendation: Method 1. Easy and pain free. Just find out what version you have (or upgrade to the version required by the DLL mod) and install the mod. Has some other cool benefits.

 

I personally use PlugY, and I like it because I can do all the switching in-game without. This plug-in can also increase your stash size to basically infinite, however you do have control over how much it increases. I've gone for something more reasonable without going all the way to millions of items, because I dislike having to constantly decide what to sell and what to keep. Another thing it does, as Proteus has pointed out, is allow you to completely reshuffle your skill and stat point assignments. I don't usually do this because it feels too much like cheating to me, but I do like being able to "test" a particular skill (just by seeing how much its benefits increase as you sink points into it) before deciding if I want to start investing real points into. The disadvantage of PlugY is that you can't use it with the latest version (1.12) but as I don't (and can't) play online I don't really care.

A "run" in the Diablo terminology is when you go back to a place you've already mapped and explored and do this place (or usually just the boss in it) repeatedly, by doing the section, saving & quitting, then loading the game and doing it again, since all the monsters (and the boss) will have respawned. There are some notorious runs because they yield specific advantages - the Countess in Hell is popular because (as Aldeth has discussed) she can drop up to 3 high-level runes (if you're really lucky). Another popular one is Mephisto because he can drop the highest level items and is easier than other runs that give the same type of treasure, and finally Hell Baal is the only way you can gain experience once your level hit the 90s, so people trying to reach level 99 have to do Baal runs (killing Baal over and over).

Congratulations on beating the game! If you think your Paladin is now all-powerful and can defeat anything, try taking him into Nightmare mode and get ready for a big surprise

 

I'll try PlugY straight away. Looks like the one I need.

As for "runs" - that's pretty much what I thought they were. I guess my confusion was the benefit involved. I often do multiple Tribal Council, Andarial and Mephisto runs for that reason, I'd just never thought of it in those terms. I always did those because Andarial always seems to drop at least 1 gem, and the Council and Mephisto always seem to drop really good schwag (often multile 'rares' in the case of Mephisto), which I just sell for gold. I always discounted going to the Countess, since I never got decent drops from her (in Normal mode) and her chest stays closed after you beat her the first time.

As for my Pally - I'm taking him on my first ever run through Nightmare as we speak! I'm just about to head to Tristram, and yes, I'm amazed at how much more challenging it is now. My cold-enchanted Rogue - who's been with me since the beginning - keeps getting killed, so I may do without her once I can hire a Desert Merc. But otherwise I'm doing pretty good. When I beat Baal, he dropped a unique shamshir (can't think of the name) which is the best weapon I've ever found in the game. However, I do die a lot - and since the map reverts to 'unexplored' when you save, backtracking is more tedious. Still, the challenge is fun.

Also - I've been using I've been using a cold-aura Zealadin build, which is the most successful build I've come up with to date. Though, now that I'm in Nightmare the cold enchantment isn't quite as useful it seems, so I'm pairing Zeal with Fanatacism. The increase in attack speed alone is worth it, and the damage bonus isn't anything to cry about either.

 

See even though you didn't know the word "run", you'd already grasped the concept pretty well Meph is a good one to run for items, at any difficulty level. The reason you're discounting the Countess is that it's only really worth it on Hell, where she can drop any rune. On Normal she'll only drop the low-level ones and Andariel can probably drop better ones (with my Pally I got a better rune from Andariel).

You'll notice that Aldeth was arguing for a Cold Zealadin just a few days ago in this thread. He's taken him all the way through Hell so it's definitely a good build; I'm personally planning on doing the same. Just pay careful attention to where your skill points are going, especially keep an eye on synergies. Sacrifice and Resist Cold synergise with Zeal and Cold Aura respectively, so if you've not put any points into the synergies this may be why you're having trouble in Nightmare.

Cold enchantments generally lose potency as you move into the higher difficulties, but even on Hell the freezing effect of the Sorceress spells was tremendously useful. Don't discount them outright. You may need to put points into another type of attack (maybe Vengeance?) or aura (Fanaticism seems like a good one). I've not gona far enough with the Paladin yet so the others will be able to give better advice.

 

There is no point in doing the Countess prior to Hell. She only drops high runes at that difficulty, and the experience points for the run are not high enough to take the time to run her on earlier difficulties.

Or, you can start a game in Normal difficulty and hire a merc from whatever Act you like. New merc hires are always within 5 levels of your character's current level - it doesn't matter what level you were when you last visited the Act. Now, the only thing is if you what an Act II merc, the aura they come with are different depending on the difficulty you are in. If you want a might merc (a popular choice for a Frostadin), they are only available in Nightmare difficulty, so you will have to wait until you get there.

Hexfire perhaps? It's a awesome weapon for a sorceress, because it raises all of her fire skills, and since it has "ignore target defense" as a mod on it, it means regardless of what you attack you have a 95% chance to hit something everytime you swing, even though you're a measley sorceress. (All to hit percentages are capped at 95%.) However the ignore target defense will help your character as well, especially once you get to hell difficulty and even paladins start having some attack rating issues.

Actually, if you have holy freeze on, that should be doing waaaay more damage than fanaticism. Once you have maxed Holy Freeze and its synergy, Resist Cold, that aura will add over 700 cold damage per hit (not per zeal cycle - per hit in the zeal cycle), meaning it can potentially add up to 3500 damage per zeal cycle. Fanaticism cannot touch that. Plus, fanaticism only increases your physical damage. Starting in Nightmare, and frequently in hell you will encounter creatures that are immune to physical damage, and you will aboslutely need a strong elemental attack to take them out.

 

Good. To. Friggin'. Know. Now I feel dumb for dropping my last 3 level-ups into Fanatacism. I haven't been synergizing very well, either (not at all, actually). Poop.

Oh well, I'm only level 34, so all is not lost. But still. Poop.

Heh, poop.

 

Wouldn't say noob. That's a term reserved for jerks anyway.

 

I seem to be getting better drops from Mephisto on the default settings rather than /players8. Is there any reason for this, or is it just a matter of weird luck?

 

It is likely luck. I would be very wary to judge your overall item finding ability and comparing /players1 verus /players8 after just a few runs. You would need to do hundreds of runs to really be able to notice a difference, and that's because there is a luck element to item finding. You can run Hell Baal on /players8 with 500% magic find, and still not get anything of value dropped. Conversely you could run Hell Baal on /players1 with 50% magic find and get two or three great items. However, just because such a scenario has the potential to happen, it doesn't mean that you should play with the anticipation of it happening. In the long run, a higher player setting and/or a higher magic find percentage will yield better items.

I hardly played at all this weekend, but my paladin (now level 80 in Act III Hell) found the armor for Tal Rasha's set (the uber set for a sorceress). I don't think I've ever found this armor before in all my time playing D2. The base item is "Lacquered Plate Mail", and given the infrequency that you see that base item drop, gives you an idea of how rare a set of that base item is. But I was happy with my one find.

 

Noob question: players 8? How do you set the game to be 8 players? Do you jus tplay by yourself on a game mode meant to handle 8 players (and therefore is 8 times as hard)?

Give a cripple crab a crutch.

 

Push enter to talk, type /players 8, and hit enter

Or, /players 4, or 5 or whatever. Max is 8. What this does is simulate having more than one player in your game. Normally, in a multiplayer game, the monsters experience and hitpoints (not damage) are scaled up with more players. This lets you get that without having more actual human players in the game. Its good for getting experience faster, although obviously monsters are tougher. Players 8 wont make give the monsters 8x the hitpoints, I think its about an extra 450% though so its quite a lot.

It also decreases the no drop chance, so there will be more items, but not necessarily more magical items.

 

I believe every player beyond the first increases a monster's life and amount of experience for killing it by 35%. So it will cause you to level noticably faster if you play on players 8.

One point in which I disagree with Proteus is that increasing the players WILL increase the number of magic items you receive. By having more items drop, you get more of all types of items dropping. The PERCENTAGE of magic items dropping will be the same as on Players1, but since more total items are dropping you will see an increase in all item types.

 

I think that's what Proteus meant with "not necessarily magic items". It increases the chance of all drops but keeps the same proportion of magic to mundane items.

I'm having quite a bit of fun with /players 8, as the increased hit points of the monsters makes for a good challenge. I shudder to think how things will be on Hell difficulty!

 

If that is the case, then I apologize for the misinterpretation.

 

@Ziad

Thanks, that is what I meant.

EDIT:

No worries Aldeth! Really not a big issue. Could have been more clear I suppose.

 

If it makes you feel any better, the 3 points you have in fanaticism are not completely wasted (that's not to say it was a good idea). You will run into cold immune creatures as well. Just like physical immunes that require you to have elemental damage as part of your attack skills to cause damage, cold immunes take no damage from cold. You can set up fanaticism as a hotkey, and switch from holy freeze to fanaticism when fighting cold immunes, when the cold damage won't do you any good. The increased speed and damage from fanaticism will take the cold immunes down quicker.

Note also, that it is possible to encounter an enemy that is immune to cold and physical damage (two immunities are possible in hell difficulty - three immunities are not). There is no magic solution to this as a frost zealot who really doesn't have much of a third damage type. Your options here are extremely limited. You can try to get a point in the skill vengence and make the best of it, or have a high elemental damage on weapon switch (but not cold obviously!) and combine using that weapon with the aura holy fire or holy shock (I recommend getting one point in each of those skills).

If you can get your hands on a 4-socket scepter, there's the cheap rune word "Holy Thunder" using the runes Ral-Ort-Tal-Thul. (So you get all the runes except thul just by doing the act V quest from Larzuk.) Tons of lightning damage on the weapon itself, and a very nice +3 to holy shock aura. As a bit more of an expensive rune word option, there's "Cresent Moon", using the runes Shael-Um-Tir. You probably have found tons of Tir runes, and probably a Shael or two, but it will be difficult to find an Um prior to hell difficulty. This is also a high lightning damage weapon, and it comes with the odd attribute "-25% to enemy lightning resistance".

 

@Aldeth

Holy Thunder is Eth Ral Ort Tal - there is no Thul in it. Check out: http://www.d2tomb.com/rune_words.shtml

My advice when you see a cold and physical immune monster - run. You will only see them in Hell difficulty anyway, and really, one less treasure drop wont make all that much of a difference. If you really need to kill that particular monster, save and exit and hope the monster spawns with different immunities. Monsters can never be immune to more than two elements (including physical), and act end bosses are never immune to anything as far as I know.

Incidentally, Ral Ort Tal in a 3 socket shield makes ancient's pledge, which is not a bad runeword. A much better one, IMHO, is Rhyme - Shael Eth. It gives you my favourite modifier - Cannot be Frozen. Note that Cannot be Frozen does not protect against a Holy Freeze aura like that of Duriel's, but its still useful.

 

My bad - that's what I get for not looking a runeword up and attempting to cite it from memory. Of course, this makes the runeword even easier to make. It's more difficult to get a 4-socket scepter than the runes!