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Diablo II single player questions

Discussion in 'Diablo 1 & 2' started by dmc, Jul 31, 2008.

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  1. Morgoroth

    Morgoroth Just because I happen to have tentacles, it doesn'

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    Yeah I know. Used to do that quite a lot myself. ;)

    Nightmare act2 still going on since I haven't played that much in recent days. However I did get goblintoe boots which are allways nice, allthough for now I think I'll keep the magic finding boots on since I have really no kind of trouble with the monsters in act II

    EDIT: Also a question for dmc. Are you using some mod that enables the ladder runewords and unique items? Personally I'm just using ATMA right now which is really helpful, especially in getting all those runes out of the way.

    EDIT2: Another question sprung to my mind too. Is the horadric cube able to to transform all three runes to a higher rune? I seem to remember that there were limits on this before as to how high of a rune it was possible to create with the cube.
     
    Last edited: Jul 27, 2009
  2. Aldeth the Foppish Idiot

    Aldeth the Foppish Idiot Armed with My Mallet O' Thinking Veteran

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    The rune upgrades are limited in single player and non-ladder games, and unlimited in ladder games. I think in single player and non-ladder you were allowed to upgrade all of the runes that didn't require a gem, and also all of the runes that required a chipped gem, which took you up to a Hel rune IIRC. However, I know for certain that dmc is upgrading all of his gems, so there is something he is doing that allows him to do this. (Doesn't ATMA let you do this?)
     
  3. dmc

    dmc Speak softly and carry a big briefcase Staff Member Distinguished Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!)

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    Actually, SP games allow rune upgrades all the way to Zod - don't know if this is the 1.12 patch or what, but that's never been an issue. I printed out the upgrade chart months ago and it sits on my desk at home - I've got over a thousand gems stashed away in ATMA just yearning to be used to turn runes into better ones.

    I don't have anything other than ATMA, as I never bothered finding something to enable ladder runewords -- they look expensive in the rune department. I was thinking about that the other night because I saw a thread extolling the virtues of the Spirit runeword for sorcs and, as I had no clue about it, I looked it up and saw that it was ladder only. Given that I am trying the max block route, it didn't look all that wonderful to me, but who knows.

    My life pool is around 700 right now, I have max block with Stormshield. Stormshield is socketed, although I have not filled it as I want to wait to both start hell and get Chains of Honor to see where my resists are. If they are close to max (and they might be), I'm thinking of skipping the Pdiamond/Um debate and maybe putting in something else, even as simple as an eld that will allow me to invest dex points in vit.

    I am at rune critical mass for Chains of Honor and was simply too tired last night to upgrade multiple runes to see if I reached the ones I need (have to remember to segregate out the runes needed for the armor, or I'll find that I have cannibalized a crucial rune to upgrade to the next).

    I am at level 77 and originally thought to run her to level 80, but I'm getting bored of that, so I will probably start hell this week. Alternatively, given that I am going to NY for a week starting next Sunday, I may alternate necro and sorc runs until I get back.
     
  4. Aldeth the Foppish Idiot

    Aldeth the Foppish Idiot Armed with My Mallet O' Thinking Veteran

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    One word of caution here - while an eld will add 7% to your blocking chance, it will never raise the base blocking chance of a shield beyond 75%. Stormshield has an extremely high block rate the way it is. While I don't know offhand what the exact percentage is for a sorceress, if it's base is already something like 73% (and it very well may be close to this number), an eld may not be your best option (if you don't need the resists, and you like the magic find ability of this character, you can consider an Ist).

    Level 77 should be more than adequate to start hell difficulty, even with the players 8 setting. Conventional wisdom states that you should not start hell prior to level 70, but that rule generally doesn't apply to sorceresses anyway, as they can "fake it" so to speak.

    Have you guys recently had any difficulty getting onto the diabloiii.net page? That's where I go for most of my information. The D3 page loads up just fine, but all the links to the archived D2 pages seem to be broken.
     
  5. dmc

    dmc Speak softly and carry a big briefcase Staff Member Distinguished Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!)

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    I think Stormshield is 65% blocking for a sorc, which is why I considered the eld.

    My links to diabloiii.net are broken too.


    Edit: I doublechecked - Stormshield is 67% blocking for a sorc, so the 7% would take it to just about the max allowed.
     
    Last edited: Jul 28, 2009
  6. Aldeth the Foppish Idiot

    Aldeth the Foppish Idiot Armed with My Mallet O' Thinking Veteran

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    Drat! Despite the age of the game, I actually find this quite strange. You see, diabloii.net used to be a stand alone site, but when Blizzard started releasing info on diablo3, they made a diabloiii wiki page with links to all the old diabloii.net information. The game may be old, but the latest incarnation of the site is not.

    In that case, it's a great idea, and definitely something to consider. I would still suggest that you make maxing resistances your priority, but assuming you can, then raising the base chance to block seems like a solid option. (Although I must confess that I have no idea how many points in dexterity it will save you. I don't know if an extra 7% chance to block means you won't have to invest any points into dexterity for the next few levels, or for the rest of the game.)

    Finished Act III Hell with my paladin last night, and didn't even die that much in the process. My only death of the evening was at the hands of a stygian doll (actually two of them that blew up simultaneously).
     
  7. dmc

    dmc Speak softly and carry a big briefcase Staff Member Distinguished Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!)

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    Generally, it takes 2+ points of dex for each blocking percentage point for the sorc, so the eld would save 15 or more dex points that could be put into vit. Again, this is conditioned on me starting Hell and seeing what my resists are. I checked and I am a few runes short of Chains of Honor, so I will run the sorc and necro a few times to assemble the runes, as the resists from that and from my other gear should go a long way towards max resists in Hell. If I am significantly short on resists, I will probably wait to get an um over the Pdiamond.
     
  8. Balle Gems: 19/31
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    my paladin has hit a huge stall as he can't seem to clear act 3, it might be because i don't have enough liveleech, i will check that out later but he's got like 4% as it is right now and about 90% in all res. and it seems to be light immune big guys with a ton of life that's killing him, he's also got 10% CB and it can't get any better.

    i am wondering about an alternate attack, i have quite a few unused skillpoints, about 20 i think.. so any thoughts on an alternate attack for him? it has'nt been nessecary(this can't possibly be the right way to spell this word???) until now, but as he is failing hard i am crying out to all of you
     
  9. dmc

    dmc Speak softly and carry a big briefcase Staff Member Distinguished Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!)

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    Necessary - you just got it backwards.

    Post a bit about the pallie to remind us what gear and skills your focus is, so we can offer advice.
     
  10. Balle Gems: 19/31
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    here's what's important

    zeal for 5/cycle
    max lightning aura and the major synergy resist lightning
    almost max resist
    max block and about lvl10 HS
    dammage: mostly light around 5k

    merc has plenty resist, frozen aura and decent gear, does araound 3k dammage, mostly physical

    i use the crescent moon runeword (important stats)

    -35% enemy light res.
    +35% ias
    7% ctc static field

    it also has about 150 phys. dammage on the base weapon

    mentionable items on pally:

    the weapon listed above

    rare tiara +2skills +3x str + 2x dex and +17 all res.

    and the guardian angel armor

    other items are mostly bad-medium rares mainly focused on res. and stats
     
  11. dmc

    dmc Speak softly and carry a big briefcase Staff Member Distinguished Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!)

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    Do you have a weapon switch that does some significant elemental damage other than lightning? If lightning immunes are taking you down, I would think that would help. Maybe one of those small charms that does 100 poison over a couple of seconds would help in cutting off monster heal (and adding a bit of poison damage, although that's deceptive, because the reset after every hit means you're not really getting the full damage from it).

    What are you storing in your belt? It may be that you need full rejuves more than super heals, as the rejuves are instant and the heals are not.

    I would also suggest that you add some life leaching, as I don't think 4% is enough. Your crushing blow could seriously use a boost as well. Do you have a crushflange handy? If so, I'd suggest putting that on your switch, going in and whaling on the guys that give you trouble (once your merc engages first), and then switching back to crescent moon after your CB knocks them down a bit.

    There are some interesting unique mauls that do nice CB, but I'm not sure of the requirements. In short, you probably want to find your weapon with the best CB and put it on the switch. Charms with non-lightning elemental damage can help as well.
     
  12. Balle Gems: 19/31
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    i have the big cool looking one with 40% CB, i might try to give it a swing, as i can also use charge with it, that might do the trick


    edit: and in my belt is mainly reju potions given by my necro as he doesnt use any

    and my belt is mavinas, a sucky belt but it is the best i got, so meh

    only problem with going switch weapons is that i can't hit anything, since my main weapon has ITD i haven't really planted anything in AR improving skills
     
  13. dmc

    dmc Speak softly and carry a big briefcase Staff Member Distinguished Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!)

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    Made Chains of Honor and started Hell tonight. All resists are max except poison, which is 56 -- have only 4 columns of inventory filled with charms (and the tome of TP). Therefore, I put an eld in the Stormshield. Life pool is 800.

    Decided to just play on players 1 for now, because Act I bores me and I'd rather not spend any more time in it than I have to (except for when I get to the pit).

    Put a Hexfire in the switch, haven't filled the Visceratuant socket yet.

    Once I finish Hell, I'll fill my inventory with +MF charms, but for now I want as much carrying space as possible. I intend to motor through Hell with this character.
     
  14. Aldeth the Foppish Idiot

    Aldeth the Foppish Idiot Armed with My Mallet O' Thinking Veteran

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    Balle,

    I would say that your weapon is acceptable. I don't know what weapon type you made Crescent Moon in, but if it has a base damage of around 150, that should more than do it when it comes to physical damage, once you add in the bonus you are getting from your strength, zeal, and (presumably) sacrifice synergy.

    The key for any character is to be able to do a decent amount of two types of damage, and for a holy shock paladin those damage types are physical and lightning. The trick is to balance the two so that you don't slow down too much when you run into lightning or physical immune monsters (even in mixed packs with both types present).

    My guess is that if you have 20 or so skill points lying around that you are lacking in one of those damage types. I would further surmise that since you say you are having problems with lightning immunes that your physical damage is not up to snuff, and you have not maxed out either zeal or sacrifice.

    Your lightning damage should be fueled by holy shock with the resist lightning synergy. With both maxed out, even if you don't have any +skill equipment, that should be doing in excess of 2000 lightning damage per attack.

    Your physical damage should be fueled by zeal with sacrifice as a synergy*.

    * You should do it backwards from what most paladins do - max sacrifice before maxing zeal. The normal strategy is to max zeal first, because it gives an attack rating and damage boost, and then max sacrifice. However, with an ignore target defense weapon, you would max sacrifice first because it provides a +12% damage boost, while zeal only gives a 7% damage boost. That said, zeal should eventually by maxed as well. (You made it sound like you only invested 4 points to get it up to five attacks per use.) The damage difference between a level 4 and a level 20 zeal with a 150 base damage weapon is 168 damage per swing X 5 swings per zeal cycle = 840 more damage per cycle. Which is a lot. And beacuse it's physical damage it's leechable damage, meaning you should also be leeching an additional 33 points of life back per zeal cycle even with just 4% life leech. (As an aside, more life leech is always better with melee characters, but 4% should be adequate. My holy freeze pally has 6% life leech, and does just fine.)

    You are having trouble killing lightning immunes as a holy shock pally, because you're losing more than half of your damage (unless you have a super high physical damage weapon, most shockadins do more lightning than physical damage). However, I'm assuming you are switching to some other aura when you run into lightning immunes. At the very least, if you've maxed out holy shock, you certainly had to spend at least one point in both holy fire and holy freeze. Even if it's level 1, it's going to add something to your attack, and something is obviously more than the zero you're getting from holy shock.

    ______________________________________

    dmc,

    I completely agree that if the only elemental resistance you don't have maxed is poison, that you don't need to do something silly like socket a stormshield with a perfect emerald. I think Hexfire is an excellent choice as a weapon switch (you can't beat +3 to all fire skills), and I'd say throw an eld in Visceratuant as well. (It's not like you cannot get rid of the eld later if you need to.)

    I love the bravado.

    ________________________________________

    Something very strange has happened to my frostadin - he stopped dying. I started Act IV Hell with him last night, and I got all the way to the River of Flame way point without any real difficulty to speak of. (Although I got a lousy Io as my Hellforge rune - damn it to hell.) It just goes to show how thin the line between a good character and an average character really is.

    The only thing I added to this character since I became frustrated and stopped playing him a couple months ago are a couple sharp and steel charms. He went from a pitiful hitting percentage to a decent one by raising the base attack rating by about 150 (which is multiplied by zeal of course).

    The Izual quest allowed me to max my sacrifice skill as well, so I have all of my four main skills maxed out. All remaining skill points will likely go into Salvation. It's only a 7% boost to cold damage, but it's the only thing left to invest in that will add anything to my attacks, as I will not earn enough skill points during the duration of the game to get an additional skill to a functional level.

    Tonight is the Pandemonium Fortress, although the Oblivion Knights will almost certainly slow me down compared to how I have been doing thus far. Once I get through that, with my 90% lightning resistance and physical damage reduction gear, I shall mock Diablo as I bask in his Pink Lightning Bolt of Death.
     
    Last edited: Jul 29, 2009
  15. Balle Gems: 19/31
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    ah great man! i knew i was missing something, will start pumping sacrifice when i get home from work!

    and it should solve most of my problems.

    when facing light immunes i usually switch to the might aura, so me and my merc does more dammage, but it just haven't been adequate lately, and i think this might solve it

    wil post when i get home
     
  16. Aldeth the Foppish Idiot

    Aldeth the Foppish Idiot Armed with My Mallet O' Thinking Veteran

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    Geez, if you didn't max out sacrifice, that's even worse than not maxing zeal. You could have been missing out on up to 342 points per swing or 1700 damage per zeal cycle with a 150 damage weapon (that's the difference between level 1 and level 20 sacrifice). That's obviously a huge amount, that will probably double your physical damage output. And might is a good call as a secondary aura.

    I hardly ever switch from my holy freeze aura, even against cold immune creatures, because even cold immunes are still slowed by the aura (they just don't take the damage). The only exception to this is those minotaur things that you run into in Act V that are dual wielding axes and have frenzy as their attack - for some reason they are unaffected by holy freeze. On the rare occassions that I do switch auras, I usually switch to holy shock.

    The other thing is it is usually smart to place a single point in Vengence in the combat skill tree. You will occassionally run into a boss that is both physical and lightning immune (or in my paladin's case phyiscal and cold immune), and Vengence will allow you to kill him.
     
  17. dmc

    dmc Speak softly and carry a big briefcase Staff Member Distinguished Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!)

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    I would hope that, after playing through hell with two characters and farming items to trick out this character to the point where she has virtually ideal gear, plus 75% blocking and, ultimately, a life pool of around 1000 when all is said and done (that doesn't inlclude the nice bonus one of the heart of the oak skills gives which seriously boosts the life), max resists except poison (which I really don't care about), and a merc with awefully nice gear too, Hell should be a relative cake walk starting at level 78.

    It took me roughly 10 minutes to clear out the first area and first dungeon, and that was mostly because I had to make a couple of trips to town to sell stuff. I know it gets harder, and I imagine the Ancients and Baal and his minions will ultimately be a pain, but this character does a boatload of damage and I plan on switching to Hexfire and having some lightning/poison charms for the few dual fire/cold immunes that I find. ITD on the weapon with decent damage level, plus the merc's crushing blow and the sorc's static charge will handle dual immunes rather nicely I would think, especially on players 1.

    So there. :grin:
     
  18. Aldeth the Foppish Idiot

    Aldeth the Foppish Idiot Armed with My Mallet O' Thinking Veteran

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    I was serious - I wasn't mocking you - I really did like the comment. In fact, I agree, if there is a character that can breeze through Hell with no difficulty, it would be a character like yours. But it's still bravado to say it before you've even finished Act 1.
     
  19. dmc

    dmc Speak softly and carry a big briefcase Staff Member Distinguished Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!)

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    I know you weren't mocking me. I just really think that Hell on players 1 is going to be a joke for this character. How hard a time did your meteorb have with it?
     
  20. Aldeth the Foppish Idiot

    Aldeth the Foppish Idiot Armed with My Mallet O' Thinking Veteran

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    There were specific instances that were problematic, but it wasn't that bad as a whole.

    Do NOT worry about any of the Act Bosses, including Diablo and Baal. I think Diablo may have killed my merc in the battle with that fire snake thing he casts, but his clumsy attacks are no match for a teleporting sorceress. The typical life span of a boss from the moment he appears on screen is definitely under one minute. (And I would ramp it up to Players 8 for better drops for the bosses - they really are that easy.)

    Do NOT worry about dual immunes, and you don't even need to help your merc if you don't feel inclined to do so. It's only the boss that will be dual immune - all of his pack buddies will be susecptible to one of your attacks. What I would do is kill everyone else, then run up to the boss and cast static field a few times, and the merc would do the rest.

    That said, there are a few tricky points if you intend to do everything, and a few battles were unexpectedly difficult. Coldcrow, the unique archer in the hole of the Cold Plains in Act 1, is a lot tougher than you'd think (but Blood Raven is not tough at all). She spawns extra fast and cold enchanted, and gets two more random modifiers, which if they happen to be something like multishot and extra strong will prove to be a very difficult combination, especially considering that she's not in any preset area of the hole, and you can run into her unexpectedly.

    Gloams in Act III and Dark Souls in Act IV, even with 75% lightning resistance are challenging. Stygian Dolls can be, if you accidently cast Frozen Orb into a pack you're standing right next to, although you can usually kill them at a safe distance. Durance of Hate Level 3 can be difficult, as the vampire things spawn immune to cold and the council members spawn immune to fire, so there's no quick way to take the far more dangerous council members out quickly.

    Finally, there are a few things that aren't just challenging, but are outright dangerous and will definitely kill you if you aren't careful. For example, Fangskin in the Claw Viper temple definitely has to be respected. Speaking of Claw Vipers, you'll also find them in the bottom level of Nihlathak's hideout, where they have their bone spear damage WAAAY ramped up, but I'm sure you've encountered that already. The fire-breathing blood lords that spawn when you open the southeast seal in the pandemonium fortress deal huge damage, maxed fire resistance or not. Teleport out of there, and try to break them up. Lister is extremely dangerous to your merc, but not so much to you. Unless you get unlucky, and Lister spawns extra fast, you can usually play keep away by teleporting. It's a long battle though, because Lister and Company ALWAYS spawn fire immune.
     
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