Diablo II single player questions

If you're making Heart of the Oak, make it in a one-handed mace. Having it in a staff may be easier but you really need a shield for a Sorceress - not for the defense but for other modifiers, especially resists. Speaking of these, if you love a challenge then go into Hell difficulty (especially the later acts) with a Sorceress without max resists. If you prefer to have a chance of surviving, make sure all your resists are at least 50%, 65% or above is preferable (and if you can get them to 75%, don't hesitate). You will be hit by random damage, a lot.

 

I would go with both Heart of the Oak and Chains of Honor, and IMO it isn't even a hard decision. That will give you max resists, which I agree are necessary in hell. I agree that Enigma would be a better choice if resistances were not an issue, but they are. And it's not like Chains of Honor is so much of a lesser armor than Enigma that you're sacrificing a ton of other stuff to use it. They both have the same +2 skills (which is definitely the best stat in either piece of equipment) and you do get a small boost to MF when you go with Chains.

The CoH/HotO combination also gives you significant increases in both dexterity and strength, which should translate into more vitality. Combined, it will be +27 to replenish life, which is significant. And while 8% damage reduction isn't huge, it's not bad either.

On to the skills of HotO. Raven is pretty much useless. It summons five ravens that attack different creatures (or the same creatures if there are fewer than 5 on the screen). Upon attack, they do a little bit of damage, and blind the target (peck the eyes out?), so they wander around aimlessly and don't attack. The blinding effect does not work on Act bosses, uniques, or champions, and since you kill stuff fairly quickly, blinding regular monsters isn't really necessary. So it definitely is of limited use, and more of a novelty spell than an actual battle strategy.

Oak Sage is a whole different story though. Oak Sage when cast summons a spirit that gives significant bonuses to life. Level 1 is +50% life, with an additional +10% for each level beyond the first. So Level 4 Oak Sage will give you +80% life, and that pushes HotO even further ahead of Oculus. The only word of warning is that Oak Sage is a summoned minion, and thus, it can be killed. It gets the same bonuses that summoned skeletons get as you increase the difficulty, so it can survive in inghtmare and hell, and it does a pretty good job of staying out of harm's way. However, it can be killed, and you will lose your life bonus until you recast it. (Note: The Oak Sage being attacked is not always a bad thing. While you don't want to lose the life bonus it provides, if an enemy is pounding on the Oak Sage it means that it isn't pounding on you.)

EDIT: I have been thinking about some additional equipment for my barbarian. Since I'm not using a shield, my resistances will be a bit low, so any +skill equipment that will up my Natural Resistances will help. I'm probably going to be using the Harlequin Crest, and I also may use Seraph's Hymn amulet. I never was particularly keen on this amulet, as all it does is give +2 to all skills, but for a barbarian, that increases resistances, damage, and all my war cries, so perhaps not a bad choice.

With 1 invested in Natural Resistances, +2 from the helm and amulet, and another +1 from Battle Commands, that will get my Natural Resistances up to level 6. That's not too bad, and since it's a skill with diminishing returns, it may not even be worth investing further in it after that point.

The other thing this set will give me is an effective +11 to the war cries skill tree. (I'm assuming that I will eventually get my hands on two +3 echoing weapons.) So with just one measly point in find item, it will be level 12, and the war cries that I will use a lot like battle orders and shout will be at level 31. Shout will give +400% to defense, and battle orders will give +125% to life and mana. Not bad at all...

 

I have a decision to make. In looking through my inventory of saved items, I found I have a unique barbarian helm - it's called (I think) "Demonhorn's Edge" or something like that. This actually is a hard decision now between this helm and Harlequin Crest.

To review:

HC:
+2 to all skills
+2 to all attributes
+1.25 life per clvl
+1.25 mana per clvl
50% magic find

DE:
+3 to Warcires
+2 to Masteries
+3 to Combat Skills
+10% Increased Attack Speed
+3% life steal
Attack takes damage of 61

The advantages of the HQ are the bonuses to life, mana, and magic find. For a barbarian, the bonus to life is important, the bonus to mana is not so important, so long as you have some mana leech. Magic find is also nice to have. I'd probably socket a perfect topaz in either helm, so there is a 50% difference either way.

The advantage of DE are mostly with the skills. The bonus to Masteries is the same either way, but I get an extra +1 to my warcries and my combat skills. The 10% increase attack speed would only help me if I use some other increase attack speed gear. I need to get a total of 60% increase attack speed to whirl at maximum speed, so a 10% IAS on the helm would still require me to use 3 shaels in my weapon. You can never have too much life leech as a melee character, so the 3% life leech is nice. Finally, while I don't usually look for "attacker takes damage of X" gear, 61 certainly seems to be a lot.

I'm really not sure. I don't know if having more life and magic find is worth an extra level in all of my combat skills and warcries. And that is really what the decision boils down to. I can get life steal on tons of different equipment slots (especially with the blood recipes), so it's not essential to get it on the helm. The IAS is of no use on it's own without other gear, and while attacker takes damage of 61 certainly seems like a lot, this is a high defense build, designed to avoid getting hit, so something that requires you to get hit to active the effect may be of limited use.

Also looking at Seraph's Hymn last night, I had forgot that in addition to granting +2 to all skills it gives considerable bonuses to attack rating to both demons and undead, which comprise the majority of creatures in the game, and virtually all of the "tough" creatures, including all of the Act bosses, so that's a winner all around. I still think it's strange that the attribute on the amulet is to grant +2 to paladin defensive auras, as I am not aware of many paladins that use defensive auras for anything other than synergies.

 

That's a tough one. Normally I'd go for +skills over anything other than resists, but bonuses to life, man and MF is a good combination. However I don't think it will make such a big difference in the end, when it comes to life. At level 60-70 your Barbarian will probably have life close to 1000, or more if you're thrown a lot of points into vitality. Will an extra 70-80 points in life make any difference at all? If this was a Sorceress I would say every point counts, but not for a melee Barbarian with high defense and lots of life leech, which from what you say is the build you're going for. In this case the additional point to both your Warcries (in other words, more life and mana from Battle Orders) and stronger main attack (Whirlwind) is more than enough compensation for the MF that HC provides. I would go for Demonhorn's Edge.

 

That is the way I'm leaning - and do not forget that barbarians DO get bonuses to resistances for points in their mastery tree, through the passive skill nautral resistance. I already know that I have +2 with whatever helm I go with, and another +2 from the amulet, and I'll have +1 from battle commands. So with just a one point investment in natural resistances, it will have an effective level of 6, which is good for 40-something resist all (if I had to guess I think it's 44%).

The only thing I'm on the fence on is that the +life you get from HQ is more than what you listed. For ease of math, at level 80, HQ would give +100 life. However, with my projected level of BO at 31, that would be a +125% bonus, meaning it would turn out to be +225 life.

That said, you are correct that it is not at all unreasonable to project a life pool of a barbarian of over 1000 base, meaning it would be more like 2250 with battle orders active, and that's enough to survive anything short of getting iron maiden cast on you mid-whirl, so perhaps even an additional 225 life isn't a big deal.

 

The extra skills are certainly on trees that I use - certainly not like extra +skill to a paladin's defensive aura tab. I will primarily use WW on the combat tab, but it will also add to berserk. And an extra +1 to war cries is also worth it, as you probably use more skills from that tree than any other tree. (The most used skills would probably be the masteries tree, because they are passive, and thus are in continual use, and since you use a combat skill every time you attack, war cries are probably your most infrequently cast skills, yet you probably use more of them than the number of skills you use on other trees. You obviously cannot max all of them, and so anything that gives a bonus to that tab goes a long way. Finally, some war cries are like passive skills in that you will be continually under thier effects - you will always have things like Shout, Battle Orders, and Battle Commands active.)

I also checked out the level and strength requirements for that helm. The level requirement is 61 (which is almost exactly the same as HQ's 62), while the strength requirement is significantly higher at 151. It will be my highest strength requirement piece of equipment (previously it was the armor at 140). So if I'm investing that kind of strength, I better be damn sure I want to use it.

I was starting to get a little concerned about my stat requirements (remember that the spear requires 163 dexterity), but after contemplating it for a while, I realized that there are many barbarians out there that are using one-handed weapons in combination with Stormshield. Stormshield has a strength requirement of 156, and certainly at high levels you would need at least 163 dexterity, if not more, to maintain max blocking.

Barbarians start with 30 in strength and 20 in dexterity, so I'm looking at a maximum outlay of 264 points to meet the strength and dexterity requirements of my equipment, assuming I don't use any gear that gives +strength or +dexterity (which I probably will have some, but it's impossible to predict exactly how much). Anyway, since I'm going to need to reach my stat requirements by level 67 (when I can use the upped Yari), that's 66 level ups, and presumably I will have done the Act III Black Book quest twice by that point, so 66*5+10 = 340. So assuming a maximum outlay of 264, it leaves me with 76 to put into vitality, which means I'll have a relatively smallish vitality score at level 67 (you start with 25, so with the 76 to devote to vitality it will be 101).

The good news is that after level 67, at which point I'll still be in nightmare, ALL of my remaining earned stat points will be able to go into vitality. The only downside is that while my barbarian isn't dying a lot, I'm really getting beat on and chugging healing potions, even with 6% life leech. That's because at each level up, I'm donating 2 points each into strength and dexterity, and just one point into vitality. Battle Orders will eventually leave me with a pretty good sized life pool, but until I get that skill up to level 10 or so, I'm making due with a rather small life pool.

EDIT: There is one small flaw in my plan for this character. I currently lack one of the two runes I need to up the Hone Sudan to an elite weapon. It's the higher of the two you need - I think it's a Pul. I certainly have found runes higher than a Pul, I just have never found a Pul. The good news is that I have two each of the three runes preceeding Pul, so I don't necessarily have to find a Pul - any of the three preceeding runes would allow me to upgrade to a Pul, and I'm hoping to find any of them by the time I hit Level 67 (and all of those runes are available in Nightmare difficulty, including the Hellforge).

 

There are a couple of reasons for this, actually. First of all, a circlet is in a commonly selected treasure class, so there's a pretty good chance of that TC being picked and a circlet being dropped. However, the second and potentially more important reason is that there are no other sets where a circlet is part of the set, so if the game picks a circlet, and the magic check comes up with a set, you are getting Naj's. That's also the reason why Isenhart's Case (the armor) drops with such regularity. Breast plates are in a common TC, and the only set that has a breast plate as the armor is Isenhart's.

Conversely, there are several types of belts, gloves, weapons, boots, rings and amulets that are common among several sets, and the really rare set items may not have other set options to be selected, but come from TCs that are selected very infrequently.

Some examples: Say the game selects an amulet for a drop, and the magic check determines it's a set item. The game has multiple options here, although not all are dropped with the same frequency. When a set amulet is dropped, by far the most likely result is that it's from the Angelic's set. Tal Rasha's Adjudication drops with less frequency, and Telling of Beads drops the least frequently.

(Author's Note: At least that's how it works in most people's games. I must have a bugged copy of DII, because my game is evidently coded to NEVER drop Tal Rasha's Adjudication.)

Another example: Take the Immortal King's Soul Cage (body armor). It's sacred armor, and it is the only set sacred armor in the game, so if the game decides to drop a sacred armor, and it's a set, it will always be the IK's Soul Cage. However, sacred armor is in TC87, and thus the game selects this TC to drop from very irregularly, so even though it's the only choice, you rarely see this piece of the set.

 

It very well could be. However, you should have had dozens of Angelics drop by this point. Whenever the game decides to drop a set amulet, the chance that it's Angelics is nearly 80%.

For endgame equipment, I would agree, simply because very few sets have great pieces of equipment for every item in the set. There is almost always at least one piece of equipment in the set that is lackluster. However, in order to get the set bonus, you need to use the entire set. On the other hand, I think sets are great for low and mid-level characters.

There are a few exceptions when comparing sets to uniques. As you already mentioned, all of the class-specific sets are extremely powerful, generally because there is no "weak link" in the set items. While the specific bonuses vary, all of the class specific sets have these two bonuses: +3 to all skills, and +50% resist all. You usually get additional +skills and additional resistances on each individual piece of equipment. Generally, a completed class-specific set will give you somewhere between +5 to +7 for individual skill tabs, and at least +100% resist all.

Here's the IK set as an example. Once completed, you get +5 to the Masteries and War Cries tabs, and +7 to the Combat Skills tab. Assuming you place a single point in Natural Resistance, just from wearing the items in the set, a barbarian will have the following resistnaces:

185% to fire
157% to cold
188% to lightning
167% to poison

Which means you'll max out everything if you rescued Anya each time you did Act V.

Unfortunately, beyond the class specific sets there are only a few good ones. Orphan's Call is definitely quite powerful - although the caveat with that one is that it doesn't come with a weapon (and I think it may be the only weaponless set). With the weapon slot open, it makes it usable for any melee character.

I agree, but they are also ridiculously harder to acquire. Look at low long you have been playing on players 8 to generate what rune wealth you have. And I would hazard a guess that you still are not even close to acquiring the runes you'd need for the ladder-only runewords. (I know you play on single player, but there are mods that allow you to make ladder-only runewords in SP.)

I'm also not convinced that it's completely accurate to compare runeword to non-runeword items, as runewords are acquired through steady accumulation of lower level runes, while uniques and rares come from a lucky one-time drop. It's difficult to say which ones are "harder" to acquire, and when talking about the best equipment, actual stats versus likelihood of acquiring said item must be factored in.

And you completely left out rare items. Unless you are looking for modifiers that are only available on specific set and unique items, a rare can put any unique item and most runewords in the game to shame. Weapons can come with over +300% damage (if they get, for example, both the cruel and master's prefix), can get life and mana leech, various resistances (although not resist all) and can come with up to +2 to all skills for a barbarian or paladin, or up to +3 to all skills of a particular tree for a paladin or barbarian. The same can be said of rare gloves for the amazon and assassin, or rare mace class weapons for the druid.

I think you are correct on both counts here. I cannot think of any of the set belts or boots that give +skills or crushing blow. In the case of belts, I'm pretty sure Arachnid's Mesh is the only belt of any kind with +skills on it. However, I think that there are a second pair of unique boots that give crushing blow. I'm pretty sure it's the exceptional version of light plated boots, and I think they are named Gore Riders.

 

You're right with Gore Riders. I think the reason I went with Gore Riders over Goblin Toe with my CB paladin, was because Gore Riders also came with Deadly Strike and Open Wounds, and since I had other CB equipment on my character, I didn't go all out with the boots for CB. The one piece of equipment that my paladin would greatly benefit from is the unique scepter, Heaven's Light. In addition to having another 33% CB, it has -25% target defense and +2 to all paladin skills. That would be da bomb.

It's strange how certain people have trouble finding certain things. To build on your SoJ example, I've found a bunch of SoJ, but I haven't found a Raven Frost since the ladder reset a year ago - and you probably have a ton of them lying around.

 

The other thing with Raven Frosts (and why you would only keep one or two) is they are one of those uniques with variabale stats, and highly variable stats at that. There is a wide range in both the dexterity and attack rating bonus you get. (Even moreso when you consider that dexterity effects attack rating.) The difference between a poor Raven Frost and a good one is quite significant.

 

I just started diablo II again on single player in order to waste some time on the rainy days. I used to play quite a lot in multiplayer some years ago but I don't have my accounts left and gave away my items. I also don't want anything to do with Diablo II multiplayer these days since even back then the game was basically full of cheats and I don't expect it to have been improved.

In any case I started with a druid, making it a werewolf and taking skills in fury, bear companion and Heart of Wolverine.

On the item department I've invested heavily on finding magic items. I was very lucky when I killed Baal on normal since he dropped me ali baba's tulwar, an excellent magic finding sword which gets better with levels and provides decent damage. I also filled its sockets with amn and shael runes to improve it. I have Hands of Brook as my gloves, providing a valuable dual leech allthough they are quite bad on other departments. My belt is a rare heavy belt and provides very little of value and is something I'm looking to upgrade the same goes for my shield which is a rare tower shield, I'd love to get Sigon's Shield as a drop. My boots grant 22 magic find, my rings add 8 and 15 respectively, one of them providing minor resistances. Both of them would require some improvement. My helmet is a rare dual socketed bone helmet. I have inserted it with two perfect topazes to further improve my magic finding ability.

On the armory department I shift between the unique breastplate and the unique scale mail, their name escape me right now but the other provides exceptional protection against poison and the other against cold, making Duriel/Andariel easier and hopefully helps me avoid death in either case. (I just successfully and quite easily dispatched Andariel).

Currently I'm level 47 and just beginning act 2 on nightmare. I spent some time levelling on act 5 before beginning the nightmare difficulty level, but now I'm doing okay allthough the low defence rating is starting to show. Luckily my bear companion is able to take most blows while I just deal the damage.

I'll probably be posting updates when my character develops further.

 

That is very nice - an exceptional unique from normal Baal is unusual. I wasn't even sure if he could drop any but the very lowest level exceptional uniques (not that a tulwar is that high up on the excpetional unique list). Still, it's the only weapon I'm aware of that comes with +mf per level, and as such, it's probably the best weapon for magic finding in the game. A lot of people keep it permanently (even on hell difficulty) as thier second weapon. They use their main weapon for most of the stuff, but when they have almost killed a boss monster -taking it down to just a sliver of health left- they switch back to Ali Baba for the killing blow and the mf boost.

You may as well. Socketing quests are only limiting when you are just starting out, as you may waste one on something that you thought was "end game" equipment, only to find that you got something better later on. You inventory of saved items has progressed to the point that you'll know what equipment you'll be using from the beginning, so you won't needlessly use your socket quests on items you won't be using long term.

I'm assuming you already have socketed Stormshield - if that is your primary shield. However, so long as you intend to make some use out of both shields, then you may as well do what you can to maximize your resistances. (Out of curiosity - has your rune wealth progressed to the point that you are willing to spend an Um in a shield (as opposed to a perfect diamond) for an extra 3% resist all?)

For the imbues, there's really only one thing you would want to use them on, and that's headgear - specifically tiaras and diadems. Charsi adds +6 to your character level when she does the imbue, and the magic item modifier on tiaras and diadems (13 and 19 respectively) will mean that those items will exceed level 90 in item level and can get any possible modifier on them, including +2 to all skills.

The reason that you don't see a lot of people using their imbues on high level weapons and armor is because the resulting item has high strength and/or dexterity and/or (most importantly) level requirements. Even if you have a character build in mind that can make use of a high level item, it's possible to imbue an armor and get something with a minimum level required of 90, which needless to say isn't a particularly practical item. On the other hand, circlet class items have low level requirements relative to their modifiers (I've never seen a +2 skills tiara or diadem - or any other tiara or diadem for that matter - with a minimum level requirement above the low-70s, and most of them are in the 60s.)

EDIT: My barbarian finished normal yesterday. Later last night, just for the heck of it, I took my paladin out, and a funny thing happened. During my sorceress's career she had collected a few sharp charms which she had passed on to him, and he totally kicked ass last night. Breezed through Travincal and got to the way point in the Duarance of Hate without dying. (The merc still dies on occassion, but we're working on that.)

I may continue on with the paladin for a bit. As I mentioned previously, I need a Pul rune (or one of the two runes preceeding Pul) in order to get my upgrades in order for my barbarian's weapon, and since I have an un-done Hellforge quest with my paladin, I may as well do it.