Diablo II

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You could do Kurast runs, Gnarff. Lower, Bazaar, Upper - easy, and there's tons of junk and some good XP to be found.

*EDIT* Ha, Andariel dropped the broadsword from Isenhart's set... want it, Gnarff?

 

YEs, I have a Druid that would like the Sowrd.

I could see my Necro doing the Kurast Runs with the troops...

I may even be able to gfo as far as Travincal, to take out the Council...

 

Gnarff, I exported the sword as an D2 item file, if you can import items from D2 item files with ATMA, then it's yours.

We should post shots of our chars...

 

I've never been able to do screen shots...

 

The easist way to get any set item(that i have found & this was before i knew about ATMA) is the udietoo editor. when you open a file in it, just click on View -> Item store.
It has a tab just for the item sets & you can get any peice you need for your character.
This was always cool after you had played thru with one character type & found good gear for a different type.

 

I export uniques/sets as D2 item files using Hero Editor, then delete the item in my inventory/stash. When another of my chars needs a piece of loot I found, I just zap it in with Hero Editor.

And no, I don't cheese the hell out of my chars, even though I'm using Hero Editor. That would take the fun out of the game.

 

For fun I used to make the most overboard characters I could, but without illegally changing stats. Ie, they were valid level 99 characters, but with weaponry so powerful that a level 1 character could kill hell baal.

Getting more than +511% enhanced damage on a sword actually requires socketing, since each enhanced damage modifier cant provide more than 511% enhanced damage. So the weapon had enhanced damage and so did the 6 jewels I inserted.

For extra fun, have as many auras active at once as possible, and use items that give extra damage to elemental skills.

 

Started a new game with a barbarian & have been bouncing around the first stage to build up my level a little. So when i got the hodaric malus for charsi, i was Level 16. I decided to use Hero editor(i know Bad, Bad) to give myself an assault helm to see what charsi would do with it.
HOLY POOP!! she gave it back to me with 9 enhancements AND socketed!!
I don't think i have ever seen so much on 1 item before.

 

The Necrobutcher is now level 62, I'm doing runs of the Seven Tombs in Nightmare - I found roughly a dozen or so uniques, some worthless, some palatable. The most noteworthy items were two parts of trang-Oul's set - this is gonna be PRICELESS for my Necro later in the game.

 

Hmmm....

Glad to see my thread is still going strong!

 

Necrobutcher is now level 68, and I'm about halfway done with Act 5 at Nightmare. Big D dropped an unique Great Sword which my level 25 Barb certainly will use when I decided to level him up some more. Found some more set items, nothing groundbreaking - I still hope to get the missing pieces from Trang-Oul's set.

 

Started a new paladin a couple o' days ago & went with a holy freeze build.
Might - 1
Holy fire - 1
Resist cold - 17
Holy freeze - 10
plus i have scepter that adds +3 to holy freeze & +2 to resist cold And a sheild that adds +2 to resist cold.

It's adding like 420-460 pts cold damage per attack, the field damage is 80-85 & slows enemies like 52-53%. going thru kurast now. The mobs of the annoying little pygmies in the jungles where hilarious as in slow-mo they burst into ice-cubes!!

 

The Holy Freeze build is usually linked to Zeal, as it adds the 420-460 cold damage to each attack, effectively making it (420-460) X 5. That's why the build is usually called the Frost Zealot.

Also, keep in mind that +skill items only add to skills actually being used and do not give synergy bonuses, so that shield that adds +2 to resist cold is NOT enhancing your holy freeze attack. (Although if you ever use resist cold as your active aura, it would help you there.) The +3 holy freeze scepter is great, although again, you aren't getting the synergy bonus for the resist cold.

I would recommend getting zeal up to level 4 ASAP. (At level 4 Zeal gives you five attacks per zeal cycle - the most that you can get. Past level 4 it increases in damage and attack rating, but does not increase the number of attacks.) Zeal is great not just for dealing damage, but is also very mana friendly. It only costs 2 mana per use, and it leeches like crazy. As long as you have something in your equipment that steals mana, you can put zeal on your left mouse button and use it as your standard attack.

I was able to go through the entire game (winning on hell difficulty) with a Frost Zealot. I was around level 85 or so when I beat Hell Baal, so I had somewhere around 97 skill points with all the quests done. I had a might mercenary with me. My skill set up was:

20 holy freeze
20 resist cold (holy freeze synergy)
20 zeal
20 sacrifice (zeal synergy)
5 holy shield (it gives the biggest bonuses to chance to block at low levels - I got it up to level 10 with + items)
about 6 or 7 prerequisites for the above listed skills
Any extra skill points go to salvation, as that also gives a small increase (+2%) to holy freeze damage).

At high levels, you get great cold and physical damage, which is essential to getting through hell difficulty - you frequently run into creatures that are cold immune or physical immune, but you rarely encounter something that is both cold and physical immune. Another variant that also works well is making a holy shock zealot. Exact same skill setup, except you take holy shock and resist lightning instead of holy freeze and resist cold. The other change you make is you take a holy freeze mercenary with you, so you do tons of cold AND lightning damage.

 

i have a zealot using fanatiscism and i like it a lot!

he is lvl 38 and have just beaten diablo on normal, damn to hell the oblivion knights with idiotic iron maidens is anoying!

my build will be this:

20 zeal
20 sacrifice
20 fana
some in holy shield
and a bit in the holy ligntning ( i plan to take an act 2 offence merc from nightmare for the holy freeze)

 

I think aldeth put a good jinx on my game.
Near the beginning of act 4, i got a rondache with +3 holy frost & a grim saw longsword.
I don't think i have ever gotten one of those as the damage bonus was thru the roof : 3-10 cold, 1-40 lightning & 515 pioson damage over 8 seconds!!! 515 poison damage ! ! !
The minions of baal were a cake walk.
Heck Baal was a cake walk, i was doing 1500ish-1700ish total damage per attack ! !

Now in nightmare act 2 Level 45 with the following skills
Sacrifice - 1
Zeal - 4
Might - 1
Holy Fire - 1
Holy Freeze - 20
Resist Cold - 20
Salvation - 3

As long as i don't get anybody that is immune to both cold & poison i'm good for know as far as weapons go. Now i just gotta get some better armor

Any suggestions as to were to put new skill pts? Keep putting them in Salvation or somewhere else?

 

I would recommend a few points in holy shield (5 tops - fewer if you get a scepter or shield that give you bonuses to that skill), and after that, start pumping zeal. Four points in zeal is fine for nightmare, but you will notice when you hit hell difficulty that the enemies will get much more difficult to hit. Additional points in zeal will not increase the number of attacks (it's capped at 5 per zeal cycle), but it will give you a bonus in physical damage and attack rating. The increase in physical damage is inconsequential - you're doing much more elemental damage anyway, so that's not what you're after. It's the attack rating that is important. 1700 points of damage per hit is great - but only if you aren't having difficulty hitting. It will initially appear like you're wasting those skill points in nightmare - I'm sure you're hitting pretty much everything right now - but hell is a whole new ballgame, and you'll greatly appreciate that attack rating bonus then.

 

The Necrobutcher is now 75, and I've just begun Hell - I can already see the difference in difficulty. Nightmare was a walk in the park, but Hell should be interesting.

 

Are you still on players 8 setting? I don't think I've ever done hell on players 8.

 

Yup, I always play with players 8 setting. The loot and XP doing Hell with this setting is absolutely unbelievable - and I'm looking forward to doing Duriel/Meph/Big D/Baal runs at Hell - I've added some uniques/sets to my collection of items and I'm one piece away from completing Trang-Oul's set for the Necrobutcher, so I have the motivation to do the runs.

I did the Cow Level at Nightmare once, and I tried doing it a second time, but it looks I can't do it. Damn.

 

You can only re-do the cow level multiple times if you don't kill the cow king. (Well, you can do the cow level again once you complete the next difficulty setting, but only once per difficulty setting if you kill the cow king.) Regardless, nightmare cows offer pretty lousy XPs and drops. You are MUCH better off doing nightmare Baal runs in terms of both XPs and item drops.

Even on hell difficulty, cow runs are probably not your best option. The highest TCs cows can drop from is 78, whereas Diablo, Baal and Baal minions can drop from TC 90, which is the highest. You'll certainly get MORE items doing cow runs than Baal or Diablo runs, but if you are looking for top-end items, then the cows aren't for you.