Diablo II single player questions

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If you find things with charges of Slow Missile and Cloak of Shadows they can really help.
I remember at some point I got really tired of inching may way to Baal with my "summonancer". Your character is a martial build though... giving up a slot might be a problem.

 

Oh, it's not too terrible - I just like having the merc active because I perform optimally when I he's alive because he provides me with the might aura. With a high physical damage build using Lavagauts for the chance to cast enchant, I can do just fine without him. I've reached the point where I go Drago from Rocky IV, "If he dies, he dies." Each trip back to town I typically have well in excess of 50,000 gp in loot to sell off and get him resurrected. I've just stopped taking trips to town specifically to resurrect him.

I actually made some progress with him this weekend. I took out Nihlathak, which means the next test is hell Ancients. I've also started using the bear form with a lot more frequency. I used to only use him to stun ghosts while I Fire Clawed them to death. I'm finding out the stunning affect with Shockwave works on just about everything, even unique boss packs. In fact, from what I can tell, the only thing it doesn't work on are Act bosses.

Strangely, it doesn't work every time - it's almost like there's a percent chance of it affecting a boss. I'm using it with great affect on Frenzytaurs. The only that sucks is when they are immune to fire - then I have to switch over to my much lower damage Maul attack. But I really like Shockwave, even though I had originally intended to only use it on mana drain physical immunes. In levels where there are no fire immunes, I'm starting to think that my best bet may be to use the bear. Slightly slower killing speeds, but much safer - both for me and the merc.

 

Noob question here: How does one collect sets? Since there are multiple sets and you perhaps want to collect multiple items until you get a full set, how do you deal with the limited storage space?

 

Or, if you play multiplayer like I do, you use mules. You create characters that you don't intend to use, and fill their stashes and inventory spaces up with stuff for other characters. Characters that are "retired" are also useful as mules.

Generally speaking, you get the full set before you create the character that you intend to use the set. Most of the better sets that you would use for advanced characters have one or more pieces that are pretty damn rare, and so it is folly to make a character with the hopes of finding specific pieces of the set. It is for this reason that I'm not a big fan of sets. Most sets are only really powerful if you have all the pieces (all the class specific sets are good examples), and it's near impossible to get all the pieces. Typically you can get a better character setup by using a combination of rares and uniques. That said, there are several rare set pieces that are useful all on their own, usually ones that give +skills, crushing blow, piercing attack or ignore target defense as a base modifier on the item.

With the holidays I've done a lot of travelling recently and I haven't played any D2 in over a week. Hopefully I'll get back to it soon. I have yet to attempt the fight with the ancients on Hell difficulty with my WW druid. I'm not entirely convinced how well that will go. I definitely think I need to try to get only two to attack me at any given time. The things I have going for me is a very large life pool, a high attack rating, and good damage output. The cons are that my druid performs optimally when I have both my spirit and merc with me, and I'm assuming those two are as good as dead in this fight.

 

If worse comes to worst you can always make a low level "Harmony" bow. I really doubt it'll come to that though, unless they have multiple auras or ...

If you're gonna use mules in Battlenet be sure to check out muling guides from other sites first. Useful advice like not switchin characters more than 4 or 5 times in 5 minutes (or the game will kick you out and won't let you log back in for 20 mins) will save you the heartache of losing valuable items.

If you play multiplayer you can also work with other people or trade with them for rare set pieces. Currency is usually perfect gems, perfect skulls, high level runes, specific charms and good rares.

 

Regarding multiplayer muling, there's just a few things you need to know. First of all, you need to start a game and keep it open for about five minutes. Go on a boss run, or kill some monsters, whatever. After about five minutes battlenet makes the game permanent meaning that the game session does not end as soon as you save and exit. Instead, the game remains open and active for a couple of minutes after you save and exit. During that period of a minute or two, it allows you to join with another character.

So you save and exit with the character you want to receive the muled items, and then you enter the game with your mule. (I highly recommend you use a passworded game so no one else can join.) Have your mule drop the items on the ground you want your new character to receive, and then save and exit. Since the game is already permanent, you will once again have a couple of minutes to rejoin the game with the character you want to receive the muled items. Join with that character and pick up the items your mule left on the ground.

Voila! Items transferred.

Scythe is correct in that if you open too many NEW games you'll get a temporary ban from battlenet. But I think so long as you are using the same passworded game you won't have that problem. I've done several transfers in a fairly short period of time, and I've never got temp banned for that.

With that weapon?!?! I would have thought you'd be kicking ass and taking names with that setup!

 

A Demon Limb is a fairly rare find. Not so rare as a lot of elite uniques, but nothing that is elite and unique is common. To find six with a single run through with a character is most unusual. I don't think I've found six in my entire D2 career. A Demon Limb actually isn't too bad of an option on switch for dealing with physical immunes...

I have no explanation for the SoJ. It's just like me with Tal Rahsa's Adjudication. SoJs exist - I have a few of them - so your quest is not as quixotic as it appears.

 

Damage reduction works on all types of non-elemental damage, so physical and magic damage (although hardly anything does magic damage, so mostly physical). Your resistances work on elemental damage. (It also works on Diablo's PLBoD, which is half lightning, half physical.) I would advise against that amulet unless you can maintain your resistances without Mara's. I'm assuming that most of the damage your necro takes is from missile elemental attacks, and not from melee attacks, but you can always try a run or two and experiment with it.

I finished Hell with my druid last night. Mopped the floor with the ancients. I used exactly one FRP, and my merc did not die. The only thing that I didn't do was Lister. Lister spawned physical immune, and since he always spawns fire immune in hell, I had a problem. I did a divide and conquer strategy where I called everyone except Lister, and then I had him follow me to one of the corners of the map. (Not the corner of the throne room - the corner of the map of that entire level.) I then cast town portal, and ran back to the throne room via the way point, from WSK 2.

I don't know if I ever mentioned this before, but it is actually not necessary to kill any of the minions that Baal spawns for you to fight. The next sequence will spawn as soon as all of the previously-spawned minions are no longer in the throne room. For the most part, it is easier to actually kill them then it is to lure them all out of the throne room. (I imagine it would be near impossible to do so with the mummies in the second spawn, as they usually don't chase you.) Anyway, I parked Lister in one of the corners and went on to easily defeat Baal (although he did kill my merc).

I haven't had an opportunity to fight the Diablo Clone in quite some time, but this is the character I will do it with when I next get the opportunity. He has everything that you could want against the Diablo Clone - a life pool of over 2000, a good amount of life leech, open wounds to stop the insane regeneration of the DClone, and crushing blow. I think I can do it, although it will probably take about 5 full minutes of just standing there hitting him repreatedly (he does have 650,000 life).

 

I'm thinking of starting an Amazon, as I don't have all the rune I need to take my barb to completion. I ultimately plan on making a Javazon, and the obvious weapon of choice for any Javazon is Titan's Revenge, of which I conveniently have copies. It will be my main weapon and my switch. I'll use the runeword Sanctuary as my shield, my helm will be the unique - I think it's called Nightwing's Veil - that gives +2 to all Amazon skill levels. I have a pair of rare gloves that also give +2 to all amazon skill levels. I only have a +1 amazon skill rare amulet. Skins of the Vampermagi will probably be my armor, although with my other equipment selections I could certainly take on something with a higher strength requirement.

All of the amazon javelins and spears are unique in how your damage output works. With all other melee weapons, you get a 1% damage increase for each point spent in strength, while for missile weapons you get a 1% damage increase for each point spent in dexterity. Amazon bows work just like all other missile weapons, but the amazon javelins and spears are different. You get 0.75% damage increase for each point spent in strength, and a 0.25% increase for each point spent in dexterity. This, in my opinion, is a good thing. I generally only go high enough in strength to be able to use my gear, but with a single handed weapon, I'll use a shield and will want to maintain max block. It's nice that in addition to gaining attack rating and blocking, that my dexterity investment will also give a slight addition to damage output.

The only other thing I have to decide on is skills. I obviously am going to want 20 in lightning fury, but I'm not sure if synergies are worth the investment. All of the other lightning-based javelin skills are synergies to lightning fury, but the bonus is just 1%. Not sure if that's worth it. I also am going to invest 20 points in valkyrie, and probably 20 points in penetrate for the extra attack rating. I'm going to need some points in both pierce and critical strike, but there are steep diminishing returns to those skills, so neither are 20 pointers. I may just go with a single point in each and try to benefit enough from my +skills. (The one piece of equipment I could really use is a Razortail - that would give me a nice boost to pierce.) None of the other passive skills are worth more than a point either, especially considering +skills. So I have a 20 point skill to play with here. Thinking about fend so I have a melee javelin attack as well, although I may just dump those points into pierce. There's really no such thing as too much pierce when you're playing a lightning fury javazon (well up to 95%) - it's pretty much the basis of the entire build.

 

650,000 life, you say? That's what, under half a minute for a decent melee guy, a couple of minutes on /players8?

Or does he also spawn with 75+ resists across the board?

 

Try +90% resists across the board, and a meteor swarm and armageddon attack that the regular Diablo doesn't have.

 

this is the drop Dclone gives


Annihilus
Small Charm
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 70
+1 to All Skill Levels
+10-20 to All Attributes
All Resistances +10-20
+5-10% to Experience Gained

 

no only one at a time, just like the hellfire torch, it would be insane if you could carry more than one, what up