Diablo II single player questions

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Yeah I changed to the might mercenary. Gave me a boost of about 100 to damage on both sides. While not revolutionary, it's still useful. Do I want to keep mercenaries with me at all times, especially when fighting bosses? Do they have their own magic find if they actually manage to kill the boss or will only my magic find count? They aren't very efficent killers though so I guess it won't make that much of a difference.

EDIT: Nevermind, a quick visit to diabloii.wiki solved the magic finding question.

EDIT: Ooh goody, found a four socketed boneweave. Might consider topazing it up for magic find. A bit too high str requirement for socerers though but it would work with the druid.

 

It's working again? It was down for weeks.

In general, yes, it is worth bringing a merc along with you. Not only does your damage go up by 100, but he also does damage too. Merc are much more useful in regular battles - they suck against bosses. (Actually mercs get a double penalty when fighting bosses - they only do half damage when attacking a boss, and take double damage from a boss, so their life span against bosses can be short.)

Yeah, generally speaking you don't want to jack up a sorceresses strength that high just to get her into a 4-socket armor. Unless you were already planning on using some high strength gear like Stormshield. Heck, sorceresses play not to get hit - a 4-socket leather armor is just as useful for a sorceress as a 4-socket boneweave.

 

Well started my sorcerer some time ago and diid probably my fastest three acts to reach act IV in nightmare. Also improved my crappy belt situation somewhat by scoring tal rashas belt and string of ears. I'll probably give the string to my druid and keep tal rashas belt with my sorc.

 

dmc,

I would recommend against that build for you. However, it's not because the build isn't effective. It's extremely effective, and is, in fact, the very first build I ever used to complete the game on Hell difficulty, many many moons ago.

The build focuses on extremely high defense, and is a very safe build. You and your merc (who also benefits from battle orders and shout) are practically indestructible. You actually don't get hit that much by regular monsters in hell, and even if you do, since you and your merc are walking around with 3000+ life points, it doesn't really matter. However, if it's a very slow character - Concentrate is a one-at-a-time attack skill, and it will take you a long time to clear areas.

I think the Concentrate Barb is an excellent build for a first character. With their Find Item skill, they are adequate magic finders (not nearly as good as a necro or sorceress, but much better than any other melee based character), and with their high survivability combined with not requiring great equipment to deal decent damage, they are an excellent character to take through the game the first time to start building your item stash for future characters.

You, however, are already in a position where you have a decent stash of starting equipment, and therefore, I feel you will get more enjoyment from a character that is more item dependent and requires a bit more skill - like a Whirlwind or a Frenzy barbarian. Or you can go for a specialty high damage build like a berserker. (Note - to play a berserker on hell you basically NEED a Stormshield, as your defense drops to zero when you use berserk, so your only defense is a high block rate and damage reduction gear. The upside: berserkers can hit for upwards of 10,000 damage per swing with a maxed berserk and a synergy or two.)

So nothing against the conc barb, I just don't think it is well-suited for an experienced player with a nice item stash.

I got my paladin to the waypoint in the WSK. Baal dies tonight, and then I start my druid. (My whirly barb is on hold until I get a Pul rune. The whole build is based on that weapon, and I'm basically stuck at nightmare difficulty until I can upgrade my weapon.)

 

On gold and gambling - pretty much what you said. I always keep at least 50,000 gp though in case the merc needs reviving. But basically, I save up a couple of million gp and then go on a gambling spree.

The Barb is my favorite character, and I can give you some decent info on any barb you choose to play. I looked at the site you linked to, and there were two good guides for Whirlwind Barbarians. The IK Set guide is worth looking through if you plan on playing a whirlwind barb, especially if you would like to use mauls. While it specifically deals with the IK Set, it has a lot of good information on the WW skill that is useful for any type of WW barb. The polearm barb guide is also useful, and I took some info from that in developing my spear whirler.

If you would like to give Frenzy a shot, Ash's Frenzy guide on the site you linked to is outstanding. Definitely the best frenzy guide I have ever seen (I didn't re-read it but I assume it's the same Ash Frenzy guide I had read previously), and there is, in fact, very little I can add to it, despite my barb knowledge. That's your one stop shop for Frenzy barb info. If you put frenzy on your right click, you can hold it down, and just move the pointer across the screen, and your barb keeps attacking - very useful.

I'll look for a Berserker guide if you're interested in playing one of those, although Berserk is not for the feint of heart. Highest damage possible, great magic finders (because defense rating on your equipment is irrelevant most berserkers use 4-socket armors and 3-socket barb helms), laugh at oblivion knights (berserk deals magic, not physical damage), and with the exception of a very few magic immune monsters, berserk works against nearly everything. Max resists, max block, % damage reduction, and damage reduced by X gear are mandatory.

 

Yup. When using berserk (so always when you are in melee) your defense is nada, zero, zilch.

Your life pool can usually cover it. Pretty much all barbs, regardless of subclass, max Battle Orders. Even with very modest equipment, and a pair of echoing weapons on switch, it's a near certainty that you'll get your Battle Orders skill to around level 30, which will provide you with +125% life. Since a barb gets a very nice return of 4 life per point spent in vitality (and +3 life every level up), you're going to have a HUGE life pool. 2500 life is nearly certain to obtain, and if you are using a maul class weapon with no dexterity requirement, 3000-3500 life is a more realistic expectation.

Note: Don't worry about attack rating with a barb even if you keep your dexterity at base. All barb attacks come with huge attack rating bonuses, and you're going to max a mastery, which also gives a healthy boost to AR. The only reason to invest in dexterity is if you intend to use a shield and go for max block, which if you're playing berserker, is highly recommended.

If you're going for a whirlwind barb using mauls, the polearm barb guide isn't a bad start, as the concept of using a two-handed weapon while whirling will be pretty much the same. Skill setup is identical except you'll max mace mastery instead of polearm mastery. Plus whirl barbs have very standard skill setups:

20 battle orders
20 shout
20 weapon mastery
20 whirlwind
10-15 more in prerequisites and one point wonders. The "Masteries" tab has weapon masteries and a bunch of passive skills. You'll only max one mastery, but you'll want at least one point in all the other passives, so there are a lot of one-point wonders. Also, Whirlwind is a level 30 skills, and most of the other combat skills are prerequisites, and you'll need one point in battle commands, which has most of the other war cries as prerequisites, so there are lots of prerequisities as well.

Generally skills are maxed in the following order: Battle Orders, Whirlwind, Shout, Weapon Mastery.

Mauls, obviously, are not an option if you are going to use Frenzy, as you cannot dual wield mauls. It also eliminates polearms and spears for the same reason. Most Frenzy barbs use swords, because two-handed swords can be wielded with one hand, and thus you have a wide range of options. Swords, however, and not a requirement, and making a frenzy barb using single handed axes or maces is certainly doable. The only real rule is whichever weapon type you pick, makes sure you get both weapons in the same class. You don't have enough points to max out two masteries as a frenzy barb (unless you give up a synergy which is inadvisable), so you cannot mix and match. It's two swords, or two axes, or two maces.

 

I keep a reserve of gold enough to revive the merc once. I myself got into some serious trouble with my sorc too in ActV of nightmare when I did not have the waypoint on Arreat plataue and died in the crystal caverns. Trying to get back naked was a real pain. Oh and got my second unique ring at it turned out to be ravenfrost, so now I've got two of those. Can't believe they spawn as often as SOJ.

 

I did got a Raven Frost. Good stuff, but not really useful at the level I got it.

 

What class are you playing? Any melee class benefits from a Raven Frost, as it provides huge attack rating.

dmc, for some reason that site is blocked for me, even though I can get to other areas on the site. I'll have to look at it when I get home tonight - or if you give me title of the guide, maybe I can click on it directly. Or you can cut and paste the text into a PM and I'll look through it and give you my opinion. Some of the errors may be due to the guide being written prior to the 1.10 patch? The synergy system was introduced in that patch, so pre-1.10 guides tend to recommend backup attacks that are now no longer the best choice with synergies.

I started the druid last night, and I already am changing my initial plan somewhat. I was originally planning on making a werewolf, specializing in fury. While I'm still going to use fury as my main attack, I've decided to use both the werewolf and werebear form. Even stranger, I'm planning on sinking just one point each into werewolf and werebear, but I'm going to max out lycanthropy.

I should also point out that I have a TON of +skill items for this character. I know that I have a couple of shapeshifting grand charms, Jalal's Mane (+2 all skills, +4 shapeshifting), a rare amulet that gives +2 to all druid skills along with +resists and life, and a couple of choices of unique club type weapons that offer +2 to all druid skills. So I know that I have +10 to the shapeshifting tree with end game equipment.

As for the skills, points in WW add to attack rating and attack speed. The attack rating increase is linear, but attack speed has very steep diminishing returns once you get to around level 5. Points in WB add to damage and defense, and both increases are linear. Lycanthropy adds linearly to life (+20% at level 1, and +5% per level thereafter), and duration of the wereforms (30 seconds at level 1, +10 seconds for each level thereafter).

So lycanthropy is pretty comparable (and arguably better) to the barbarian skill Battle Orders (although you do not receive the increase to mana as well as life). For comparison's sake, Battle Orders gives +35% at level 1, but just +3% per level after that. Lycanthropy passes off battle orders in terms of the percent life bonus at level 10, and the gap only widens with additional skill points. However, while WWs and WBs often have the highest life totals of any character, barbarians are usually close due to a better return on vitality investment (4 life for barbs, 2 life for druids) and +life on level up (3 life for barbs, 2 for druids).

Anyway, here is the basic plan for this character. Fury, as you are probably aware, works similarly to the paladin skill zeal. The main differences are that it is a level 30 skill (the only level 30 skill on the shaftshifting tree) and the attack rating and damage bonuses are much larger with fury compared to zeal. The attack rating and damage bonuses are more comparable to a paladin using zeal with the fanatacism aura, so it's good. The downside is that it only deals physical damage, and you know that is an unworkable situation in hell difficulty.

So there is a need for an elemental based attack for physically immune creatures, and a shapeshifting druid has two options: Fire Claws and Rabies. Fire Claws as the name implies, deals Fire Damage, while Rabies deals poison damage. Both skills have some very nice synergies too. The summoning skill Poison Creeper gives a +18% damage boost to Rabies, and all of the fire-based skills in the elemental tab (so Firestorm, Molton Bolder, Volcano, and Armagedon) give a very nice +23% damage bonus to Fire Claws. (And yes, in case you're wondering, there are shapeshifters out there that specialize in Fire Claws and max out the skill and the synergies.)

This is actually a rather tough decision. I am assuming that I will max out one of the skills and one synergy (rabies only has one synergy, and I only have enough skill points to max out one of the fire claws synergies). In terms of pure damage, Rabies dwarfs Fire Claws. A 40 point investment in Fire Claws and a synergy will add around 1000 points of fire damage to my attacks, while that same 40 point investment in Rabies and Poison Creeper will add about 4000 points of poison damage to my attack. Rabies also spreads, so any other creature that touches a rabies-infected character also gets rabies, and it is therefore possible to get an entire pack of creatures infected by hitting a single one.

So that seems like a simple choice, right? Well, there's two factors here. The first is that rabies damage is poison damage, and like all poison damage, you don't get that 4000 points all at once - it is applied over the course of several seconds. Also, like all other poison attacks, hitting an already-infected creature simply resets the poison timer. So it is possible to get off many Fire Claws attacks (it's a very fast attack) in the time it takes for the poison damage to work to full effect. On the downside, Fire Claws only damages a single creature - it doesn't do any type of splash damage.

The second factor is that Fire Claws is one of two attacks on the shapeshifter tree that can be performed regardless of whether you are in WW or WB form. My plan is to go with Fire Claws and shapeshift into a WB for this attack. I'll also spend just one point on Shockwave, which stuns enemies for a couple of seconds when cast (it also deals a small amount of magic damage). Regular creatures have a 100% chance of being stunned when you cast it, and it also works champions and uniques with less effeciency, so you may need to cast it a few times to stun the boss in a boss pack. Stunned monsters don't move. The tactic here is shockwave, get in a few fire claws attacks, then shockwave again as soon as the stun wears off. This seems like a much safer course of action than the Rabies attack, as poisoned creatures still attack you at full strength while they take damage.

So the plan: primary attack will be Fury in WW form, with the backup attack being Fire Claws in WB form. I will max out Lycanthropy, Fury, Fire Claws, and one of the druid fire spells (you cannot cast elemental spells while shapeshifted, so it doesn't matter which one I pick - it's strictly for the synergy bonus). I also will put a point each in WW, WB, and Shockwave, and there are three pre-requisitie skills I won't use in order to get Fury and Shockwave (not three each, three total). I have also invested in a couple of one-point wonders - I spent a point in Oak Sage for the extra life bonus, and a point in the vine that eat corpses and returns a percentage of the corpse's life points to your charater. Can't think of the name of it right now. These two skills will be candidates for addtional skill points once I max out the first four I listed (which should occur around level 80.)

 

I have read gmoura's guide - although I concede that I did not review it recently. My AC went out in my house yesterday, and I was running around calling repair places so I didn't get on the PC.

From what I recall, I was not particularly impressed with that guide. The most comprehensive WW guide I have ever read was on dii.net and it was written by a guy named Rik. You may have to actually log onto their forums, go to the barbarian forum, and look at their archived guides (it's stickied as the first or second topic in the forum). He covers every two-handed runeword/unique/set weapon worth using, including their speeds and has some excellent gear recommendations.

 

Wow getting good drops from hell act 1. Just got corpsemourn and yesterday got nosferatus coil. While these are quite useless with the sorc they are certainly useful items. Funny thing though, just before I got corpsemourn I got a rare ethereal ornate plate which I thought would be great for my merc, those plans obviously have changed for now. He's also equiped with an ethereal grim's burning which makes him deal pretty good damage that I think will carry him quite far in hell.

 

Nosferatus' Coil is a very nice belt. Unless I'm mistaken though, I didn't think Corpsemourn was that great - I thought it looked a lot cooler than for the actual benefits of the armor. Although I admit I don't know the stats off hand. I thought it gave a lot of defense, but not a heck of a lot of anything else.

 

Exactly why I'll give it to my merc. You're right about it not having much else but it's definently a good armor for the merc and hopefully helps to keep him alive a bit longer.

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The main problem with my sorc is now that not having a shield makes her an easy target. I'll probably lift my strenght to a high enough level to wield stormshield just in case I find one. Archers are a real threat though and take my sorc down with relative ease. I hope corpsemourn will make my merc a bit more durable, it's certainly an improvement from the previous armor.