Diablo II

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I got my Barb to Chapter 3 and am going to hire a Iron Wolf for the first time.
His magic attacks won't be hitting me in the back while I'm hacking the bad guys will they?

And is the ice guy the best one?

Off to see Battlestar Galactica in a few...

 

No worries about the ice guy hitting you in the back with his attacks. Just like the with the rogue archers in Act 1, their attacks go right through you.

I'm not sure I'd go so far as to call the ice guy the "best" one. He's the best of a not very good set of options (I'd take ice before I'd take fire or lightning), but overall, I'd rank the Iron Wolves as the worst choice of the three mercenary types you currently have access to. If you want a missile using mercenary, I'd stick with the rogue from Act 1 (using the one that fires cold arrows). From my experience, the Act 3 mercenaries spend more time running away from enemies (especially considering the sheer number of enemies in Act 3) than actually attacking enemies for you.

The good news is, it doesn't really matter which guy you go with in Normal difficulty, as you don't even need the help most of the time. Once you hit nightmare, there's really only one choice for mercenary for any character that relies on physical damage (and a barbarian certainly meets that criteria). You're going to want an offensive mercenary from Greiz in Act 2. You get the effects of his might aura as well as him, so for any melee character it's a no-brainer what to pick. Of course, since you cannot hire one until Act 2 nightmare, you can go with whatever one you'd like until then.

 

I've always felt that the Nightmare Act 2 mercenaries were the only ones worth considering, regardless of the class. Might mercenary for a melee build, Holy Freeze mercenary for a ranged or caster character. On my first playthrough I kept juggling hirelings as they died and new ones became available, but on my last playthrough (Sorceress) I went through all of Normal and Nightmare Act 1 without any hirelings and didn't miss them. The game did suddenly become easier when I got the Holy Freeze merc and my Sorceress could spam Fireballs at slowed enemies

 

OK my Barb is about to hit level 30 and face the big D.

I've been using Frenzy but Berserk and Wirlwind will become options.

Which of the three is best?

 

Frenzy should still be your main, but for fighting Diablo, you want Leap Attack to dodge the pink lightning of death...

 

All are viable skills. However, all are most useful when you sink a lot of points into the skill and the applicable synergies. So you want to pick one and stick with it. If you are already pumping frenzy, I'd stick with that, as they are wasted points otherwise. The synergies for frenzy are taunt and double swing, so after you max out frenzy, future points go there.

One word of advice though. I would recommend you get one - and only one mind you - point in berserk. Berserk deals magic damage as opposed to physical damage. Once you hit nightmare difficulty (and again in hell difficulty), the ghost-type creatures you encounter are immune to physical damage, meaning they won't be hurt by things like frenzy or whirlwind, but they will be hurt by berserk.

You certainly don't want to use berserk as your standard attack - it hits for big damage but is a slow attack, and your defense drops to zero while swinging - it's exclusively for special uses when you encounter a creature immune to your typical frenzy attack.

 

Finally bought down the Big D after using about 15 TPs and dying twice.
The Iron Wolf merc is useless here.

And got my first unique drop; Tearhaunch Greaves - Best normal boots.
Took that long...

I think I had 6 or 7 by the time I faced Diablo in my Necro game

 

That's why I recommended against the Iron Wolf mercenary. I think that overall they are the worst of the four choices.

I'd definitely switch over to a barbarian merc now that you are in Act V.

 

Getting ready to finish.
Finally got a nice rare sword to drop at level 38.
+100 poison damage
1 - 50something Lightning damage
1-2 cold damge
6% life steal
and some other % attack increases too

'bout time!

Also at level 38 the ancient armor can be gambled for and I got one with +50% defense and 10% hit recovery.


Getting ready to face Baal....

Now any ideas for a good Sorceress build?
She's next...

Blizzard sound cool.

 

Blizzard is definitely a solid choice, in that Blizzard has many synergies and will yield high damage. The three drawbacks to that build are high mana cost, a weaker secondary attack (for when you run into cold immunes), and not getting your main attack skill until level 24 (and a lot longer than that before you get it up to a respectable level). There's also the small problem that Blizzard has a cool-down timer on it, so you cannot cast it continually.

The easiest to play, and probably most common sorceress build is known as the Meteorb. Your two main skills (Meteor and Frozen Orb) give this build its name. The basic build plan is you put one point in all the cold prerequisites and 20 points in Frozen Orb (also place one point into Cold Mastery even though it isn't a prerequisite). Frozen Orb gives solid damage and kicks butt all the way through nightmare.

However, once you hit hell difficulty, you need something with a bit more kick, and that's where meteor comes in. Meteor synergivzes with a lot of other skills in the fire tree (Fireball, Fire Bolt, and Fire Mastery), and does insane damage if you actually sink 20 points into all of those skills. The other advanatge is that the biggest synergy you get is from Fireball, which is available at level 12. So you can start pumping that fairly early, and not have to wait until Act IV to get a good attack spell. Meteor has a timer, just like Blizzard, so the normal tactic in hell is to just hold down the right click and toggle back between Meteor and Fireball when attacking enemies (you can get off about two fireballs between each meteor).

Having said all that, Blizzard can work. Blizzard is like the Meteor equivalent in the cold tree. It also has a bunch of synergies that you'll want to invest in, and there's the level 18 spell (I think it's called Glacial Spike) that is spammable and can be used as a Fireball alternative. I may even go so far as to say your top damage output will almost get to what a Meteor can do. The problem is eventually you will run into cold immunes, and you won't have a great alternative attack. (Meteorbs have 20 points in Frozen Orb as an alternative to their fire-based spells.)

So the question that needs to be answered is what to pick as your backup attack. As I have already detailed, the Fire Tree is the most synergy dependant tree, and since you'll be spending most of your points on synergies for Blizzard, the Fire Tree is not a great option for a second damage type. Looking at the lightning tree, you need to pick a spell that will give solid damage for a 20-point investment and doesn't need a ton of synergy skills to be effective. The biggest bang for your buck in that tree is probably getting a 20-point Chain Lightning. (And of course all sorceresses, no matter what type, need to get a point in Nova and Teleport from the Lightning tree.)

 

Finally hit level 24 and Blizzard rules.

Does Thunder Storm even work?

Is it an outside only spell?

 

Thunderstorm works - in fact it works a lot like Blizzard! Blizzard, Thunder Storm and Meteor are all essentially the same spell - they are the area effect spells for each of the three elements. I wouldn't actually recommend using TS in conjunction with Blizzard though - as I detailed earlier, I'd go with Chain Lightning.

 

When I cast blizzard and meteor I see area effects but with thunder storm nothing.
Do monsters have to be the area of effect to see some bolts.


BTW I forgot to pick up Mephisto's soul stone and Cain gave it to me in the begining of Act IV.
I went back to get it (it was hidden behind a column) and it was there but the game wouldn't let me pick it up to get two of them.

 

That is strange. As I said, I usually do not use TS, so I cannot remember exactly what it should look like, but there's no requirement for any spell that a creature as to be within the area of effect. Every other spell you can cast in an area where there's no monster, so I do not see why TS would be any different.

Yeah, there's a bunch of items in the game where you cannot have more than one in your inventory (inclunding your stash) at any given time. Here's the list: Wirt's Leg, the bark of the Tree of Inifuss, the Book of Learn Skill, the Horadric Staff (but the individual parts and the completed staff), Khalim's Relics, Mephisto's Soul stone, the Hellforge Hammer, Malah's potion of Thawing, and Malah's scroll you receive as a reward for rescuing Anya. I think that's the complete list, although I may have missed one.

 

Which is probably the most obvious one... and the most necessary to limit. If you were allowed to carry more than one Horadric Cube you would effectively have limitless inventory. Not only would several Horardic Cubes allow you to hold much more stuff, but you would be able to place a Cube within another Cube, with the only limtation being the number of cubes you could get your hands on.

 

About thunderstorm: when you cast it, you just see some lightning swirling under your feet, and bolts of lightning will strike at enemies every few seconds or so. I don't remember how great the range is, but probably similair to the screen. Find a lone monster somewhere to test it out on.

 

Yep. Tested in Hell and monsters have to be in the zone of attack to see the bolts unlike the other two spells.

Just leveling up to 30 now before facing the big "D".

Any advice with a Sorceress?

Blizzard good?

Have the merc from Act II with a mediocre attack weapon.
I've gotten great drops but nothing much for a Sorceress or a rare spear/pike.

But I did get some stuff a Driud would kill for in a Normal game...

I did loot a store for a war staff with +1 to all cold spells and +2 to teleport and fireball.

 

Blizzard is probably the Sorc's best spell, if you put points into all the synergies, but if you intend to solo a Blizzard sorceress into Hell you're going to have a LOT of trouble with cold immunes. Definitely put a point into it, but have a look at Aldeth's posts towards the top of the page and decide if you want to go the route of a pure Cold sorceress (Blizzard being the main attack) or build a Meteorb (much more recommended if you go into Hell). If you're playing multiplayer this is far less of a problem, as you can have your Blizzard sorceress and other people in the group can cover another form of damage to avoid problems with the cold immunes.

 

That will take a long time. I'd advise going with something that casts a lot faster than Blizzard - like spamming Fireball. Or cast blizzard, but throw in a fireball or two while it's in the cool down period.