Diablo II single player questions

You have to take the dexterity bonus into account as well if you want to make sure you're getting the best attack rating. Each point in dexterity provides +4 to attack rating (and is multiplied by any +% attack rating bonuses you get from skills and items) so it is possible that a Raven Frost with a high dexterity and moderately high attack rating modifier can exceed the total attack rating bonus you'd get from a Raven Frost with a high attack rating modifier and moderatiely high dexterity.

Raven Frost and Tal Rasha's Adjudication - my personal bane in item finding.

I personally prefer String of Ears for the life leech, but if you have adequate life leech from some other source, the increase in vitality and slightly better damage reduction (SoE's has 10% DR) may be the better option.

Technically, it's one of the level 85 areas, but the concept dmc states is correct. Basically, a monster's level is equal to whatever the area level is. Area level 85 is the highest in the game. Creatures can drop from any treasure class that is equal to or less than their monster level. All TCs are multiples of 3, and TC 84 is the next to highest TC in the game, and TC 87 is highest. So all the regular monsters you encounter in area level 85 locations can drop from the second highest TC, and since champions and unique monsters get a bonus to +2 to monster level, they can drop any item in the game. The experience points you get from monsters are tied to the monster level, so level 85 monsters also give greater amounts of experience points from other monsters of the same act (although a level 85 monster in Act V will give more experience points than a level 85 monster in Act I).

There are level 85 areas throughout the game (although only on hell difficulty), and which one is best for you depends on what character you are playing, as detailed below:

Act I: The Pits (accessed through the Tamoe Highlands) - This one is highly recommended for just about any character. There are no physical immunes for the melee builds, and none of the monsters are immune to more than one element, so any character capable of dealing two different damage types should not have much problems.

The Mausolem (accessed from the graveyard where you encounter Blood Raven - it's the one on the eastern side of her) - This is recommended for any character that does not rely on leeching, as there are tons of unleechable skeletons on this level. No dual immunes here though, so any dual elemental sorceress will be able to breeze through. Necros also like this area.

Act II: Level 3 of the Maggot Lair (unfortunately only Level 3) - This one isn't recommended for any character, simply because the Maggot Lair is fairly difficult, and it requires you to do Level 1 and Level 2 before you get to the level 85 area. About the only characters that do this are necros that specialize in bone spears and bowazons with a high % chance of delivering a piercing hit (because of the narrow passageways a single bone spear or piercing arrow/bolt can hit a ton of creatures).

The Ancient Tunnels (accessed through the Lost City) - This area isn't hard for any character, but it isn't run often because the area is fairly small, and it may very well take you quite a while to find the Ancients Tunnels which are randomly located somewhere in the large Lost City area.

Act III: Level 2 of the Kurast Sewers (unfortunately only level 2) - This one suffers from the same draw back as the Maggot Lair, in that it requires you to do to Level 1 first, and Level 1 is not a level 85 area. Furthermore, Level 2 is so small that there really isn't anything to kill down there. The one redeeming feature is that there are a ton of multi-drop chests on level 2.

All of the little side areas in Kurast, Upper Kurast, and the Kurast Causway - There are six of these altogether, and I don't know anyone who does them. All of these areas are tiny, and there is a chance you get swarmed and killed by a boss pack as soon as you take the stairs down. (But Lower Kurast, Kurast, and Upper Kurast each have two multi-drop chests randomly located. They look just like regular chests, but they drop like the gold chests.)

Act IV: Pandemoneum Fortress - This is the only Act with just one level 85 area. With Oblivion Knight spamming Iron Maiden all over the place, this area flat out sucks for any melee character, and isn't that popular even among non-melee characters because of the sheer difficulty of the level. On the bright side, each of the three seal bosses and Diablo can drop anything in the game, but this area is not particularly popular.

Act V: Level 3 of the Worldstone Keep and the Baal's Throne (Two areas, but they occur consecutively, and have similar features, so I'm listing them together) - This is the big game hunter location for item finding. These two areas combine the possibility of the best items and the most experience points per monster ratio in the game. You need to take the waypoint to the WSK Level 2, but that's not a level 85 area, so there's no need to clear that. Take the stairs down and then kill everything on level 3 and Baal's Throne, and then proceed to the Worldstone Chamber and take out Baal. All five of the super uniques that Baal spawns, as well as Baal himself, can drop any item in the game, and you're sure to run into a few other champions and uniques along the way, so there are a lot of good opportunities for good drops here.

One caveat here - since we're in Act V, monster spawns are randomized, meaning it's impossible to predict how difficult these areas will be. If your spawns are Demon Imps, Skeleton Warriors, and Defilers, no problem! However, if you get Oblivon Knights, Gloams, and Moon Lords (those Minataur things that use Frenzy attacks), you're better off casting Power Word: Save & Exit.

That sounds like a good plan, and I agree that you don't have to worry about your life pool - pretty much ever - as a barbarian. With maxed battle orders and shout you combine a character with well over 2000 (and possibly over 3000) life with the very real possibility of not getting hit much if you have access to high defense gear, you're about as close to indestructible as you can get. About the only real things you have to worry about is getting Iron Maiden cast on you mid-whirl, or if you do something stupid like running into the middle of a pack of extra fast, extra strong Frenzytaurs.

While I don't know the exact odds, I'm convinced that 90% of all unique rings are either Manald Heal or Nagelring.

As for my druid, I had a pleasant surprise when I hit level 42 and equipped Jalal's Mane. I use it for the skills, but it also gives +30 to both strength and energy. This was a boon for my character. Stormshield has far and away the highest strength requirement of any piece of equipment - even if I up my Fleshrender to the elite version, Stormshield will still be the highest by over 20 points. Right now, my strength is 157, which is actually 1 point higher than what I need to use Stormshield. I have +15 from Duriel's Shell, +30 from Jalal's Mane, and about +10 from various other equipment. However, since the only equipment I'm dead set on that I will use throughout the rest of the game is Duriel's Shell and Jalal's Mane, I'll probably dump a few more points into strength to give myself flexibility with my ancillary equipment. (Basically, I want my strength to be 156 with just the 45 I get from Duriel's and Jalal's.)

Right now, I'm level 50ish, mid Act II Nightmare, with Lycanthropy and Fury maxed. With all of my +skill gear, all of my one point wonder shape-shifting skills are at level 11 with just a single point invested in each. I'm currently working on Fire Claws, and after that, I'll go with the synergy of my choice for the remaining skills points. (Which is pretty much non-optional at this point, as Fire Claws at level 30 with no synergy only does a few hundred points fire damage per hit, but with one synergy it does well over 1000. In fact, any other skill points I get once I max one synergy may very well go into a second synergy.) The attack plan is Fury everything that isn't immune to physical damage. Morph into bear form and cast shock wave to stun physical immunes and Fire Claw them when they are dazed. (As an aside, I have discovered that even Champions and Unques are able to be stunned, although sometimes you need more than one shockwave to do so.) The only problem will be the rare unique that is immune to fire and physical damage, which for me will be effectively unkillable.

One more strange thing about this character - I have nothing that gives either mana or life leech on him. I find I have no need for any type of mana recovery equipment, as my +30 to energy Jalal's Mane gives me more mana than I know what to do with. Even though Fury is my standard attack, I literally cannot use the mana faster than I naturally recover it. For life recovery, I use the vine. It has quite the voracious appetite, and each corpse it eats returns 8% of my life bulb. I also am experimenting with the spirits. I have invested just one point in each, and I have to admit, it's a tough choice as to which one I like better. Oak Sage gives life to both me and my merc. That's nice, but I already have over 1000 life (with just 80 in vitality - gotta love Lycanthropy!), and my merc hasn't had any problems staying alive either. So I'm currently using Heart of the Wolverine, which increases the attack rating and damage of both me and my merc. I realize that by the time I reach hell difficulty, I may need to switch back to Oak Sage.

 

I gave up my Diablo II resurgence months ago. It got to the point where all I cared about was item finding. Which was fun and obsessive for a few weeks, but got old remarkably fast, I have to say. Haven't touched it since.

 

did anyone here get any great item by gambling ?

 

Oh hell yes, most of us have. I think my most impressive gamble was Guardian Angel (unique armour with tons of good modifiers), but I've also gambled some pretty good rares as well. A very, very small proportion of gambles turn out to be actually useful, but there is so much money in the game that you're bound to gamble some unique stuff eventually.

 

I have got a ton of very good rares by gambling. As for uniques, Ziad is the only person I know who has ever gambled an exceptional unique item. All of my unique items have been things like Chance Guards, and other similar low level normal uniques. The chances of gambling a set or unique item are each 1 in 2000 (so I guess it's actually 1 in 1000 for one of those two events happening on any given gamble).

All of the items that show up on a gamble window appear as the normal version, but there is a chance (based on your character level) that they are upgraded to the exceptional or elite version of the item. The formula for calculating the exact odds are rather complicated, but for an approximation, the odds of it getting an exceptional version is roughly equal to your character level divided by 8, and the odds of getting an elite are roughly equal to your character level divided by 25 (so you can never have better than a few % chance of getting an elite).

That's why Ziad's gamble was so unusual, in that not only did he hit on the very long odds of 1 in 2000 for a unique, but he also hit on the fairly long odds on getting it upgraded to an exceptional (I don't know what level Ziad was when he did the gamble, but his chance of the upgrade probably was less than 10%). I'd guess that only 1 in 20,000 or so gambled plate mail armors will be guardian angel.

 

I don't remember what level I was when I gambled Guardian Angel, but I think I was in Nightmare Act 2, so must have been around 50. I think I should also stop using this one gamble as an example, because it's by far the best one I've had, and nothing else has come even close. I think I've gambled a few low-level uniques and maybe one or two low-level sets, but most of my useful items from gambling are usually rares and nothing more.

 

Well, just because it's non-representative, doesn't mean it doesn't count, Ziad. Just because you got the equivalent of hitting the Diablo 2 Powerball doesn't in any way lessen the outcome. In fact, some sets an uniques drop so rarely, having odds of 1 in some tens of thousands is actually much better than the odds of having said items dropping from a boss.

 

dmc,

I agree that you don't need to level Conan up any further before proceeding into nightmare. While I don't play on players 8, level 48 is considerably higher than when I start nightmare. In fact, the only time I wait beyond level 40 is when there is some more gear that I want to use that just a little higher than 40. For example with my druid, I waited until level 42 to start nightmare, as that allowed me to equip Duriel's Shell and Jalal's Mane.

As for BotD, regardless of what weapon type you end up going with, you wouldn't want to make in anything less than an elite weapon. (Assuming that BotD can made in any weapon that can have 6 sockets, there should be a few options other than polearms. I don't know what weapon types BotD works in - only that you need 6 sockets - mainly because I do not ever foresee me being able to ever make that runeword, so I never looked that closely at the requirements.)

Seeing as how any 6-socket polearms are exceedingly rare, I agree that it would probably be better to just find a regular version of the item and use your socket quest, as that guarantees you the 6-sockets. I should also point out that you're probably better off using a character with less mf to increase your odds of getting the white version of the item. Of course, there's no need to do that until you actually get the runes.

Regarding enigma, if all you're using if for is the teleport, why not just use leap attack? That's basically a line of sight teleport, and you cannot be hit while in mid-air. You already have the skill if you have whirlwind, and I find it to be a fairly useful skill at any rate. I use it for crossing moats in Act III, a ton in the Kurast Sewers, and I ususally jump over the blood lord seal bosses so I can fight them in the open. However, the most useful part of that skill is for getting through an over-crowded doorway (although that's less of an issue for a whirlwind barb). Just jump through the door (depending on the quantity of monsters, it's sometimes necessary to jump immediately back out of the door.)

Blood gloves are my favorite craft in the game because of the crushing blow mod. IMO, every melee character needs some crushing blow, and if you can't fit any of the few set or unique items that provide it as part of your gear, blood gloves aren't a bad option at all (and some more life leech doesn't hurt either). WW barbs score so many hits that even with something like 10% CB you'll still be fine.

I didn't play much at all this weekend due to the fall distraction known as football, although I did finish Act II Nightmare. My druid hasn't even been tested yet in combat - I could probably count the number of healing potions I used in Act II on my fingers with several fingers to spare.

 

I will concede that point - a perk about single player that I forget as I don't play on single player. I haven't played much the last few days with RL getting in the way. However, my son is going for his two-year vaccinations tomorrow, and as such that probably means we won't be going anywhere this weekend, so I should probably start advancing my druid again.

 

Oh, I don't think you can actually expect to FIND a Zod. I assumed when you said you were hoping to eventually make BotD that you were saving runes and eventually hoping to upgrade to a Zod.

 

By the time you've actually acquired that said Zod, you should have also found an ETHEREAL elite polearm with both 6 sockets AND quite likely some enhanced damage percentage, too. Don't waste a zod on a non-ethereal weapon, that would be a huge shame.

 

Ethereals DO come with enhanced damage (or enhanced defense in case of armor), and since the Zod rune gives the modifier "indestructible", ideally you would want to make BotD in an ethereal. While I know that it is possible for an item to be both ethereal AND socketed (so finding a 6-socket elite ethereal polearm is possible), I am unsure about the cube recipe or the socket quest.

For all practical purposes though, you wouldn't want to use the cube recipe. Remember that for the cube recipe the game randomly selects a number between 1 and 6, and that's how many sockets you get. If the game generates a number that exceeds the maximum number of sockets an item can have, you get the maximum. So it's a great recipe of you're trying to generate a 3-socket falcata (4 in 6 chance) but not so great for getting a 6-socket great poleaxe (1 in 6 chance). Since ethereal great poleaxes don't grow on trees, that's pretty long odds.

On the socket quest I'm not sure. My initial thought would be that you COULD use an ethereal item with the socket quest, because the only things that are prohibited are items that cannot have sockets and items that already have sockets.