Starting a new game of Diablo 2

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So, I decided to start a new thread rather than continue to hijack the one that already exists.
I've decided to try starting this game again. I've got the expansion, but i'm more tempted by Necromancer than anything else.

Anyway, do I need any mods? do I play online or single player? If I play online, can I play with you guys? Can UKers play with USers?

Also, other such information

Edit: Is the Druid any good?

 

If you have played the all the way through the game without mods, than yes, try a mod or 2.
I am biased as i am greatly enjoying a mod called Median XL at the moment.
http://modsbylaz.planetdiablo.gamespy.com/
This is what i wrote about it a couple of months ago

This was for Median2008 & they are now on median xl which has changed about a dozen of the skills & added a bunch of new stuff.

Sorcerers have to choose 2 elements to specialise in but get to chooses from fire, cold lightning & poison(the poison tree runs the gambit from diseased cattle to a carpet of spiders & swarms of venomous insects).

The druid is now more elemental, either a ranger or an elemental druid or a charmer making the monsters fight for him & granting them powers.

Paladins can either be holy or unholy with 10 skills devoted to each which the other can't learn & paladins can be either fighters or casters(or a mix).

Necromancers, what can i say but uber summoner supreme now. No skeletons this time, the call forth shadows, darklings(demonic insects), rampagors(muscle bound sword wielding demons), lamias(flying ghosts) & a void archon(a super ghost on steroids).
That not enough for the necro? summon forth 10 different types of bone totems that can increase your life or add elemental damage to all of you minions or amny other effects.
Need more minions? Use "sacrifice" to call forth prisoners & kill them for corpses
A mid-30th level necro can have anywhere from 40 - 100 minions(depending on equipment)!!

Barbarians? Wield a huge 2-handed axe or 2 throwing axes or be a barbarian summoner that calls forth the spirits of his ancestors to help him!

Each class now has at least 3 or more completely different way to be played, with multiple variations.
Like i said i'm having a blast with it.

 

I never actually played through the game, I always got bored around that bit where you're in the jungle.

Gonna go with a summoning Necromancer, I think. Something along the lines of what's suggested at http://strategy.diii.net/news.php?id=509

Edit: Spelling

 

i would also play singleplayer, as i don't like the whole economic bit of playing online (i did that a lot back in the days) and it is a real no-fun timestealer IMO.


and when you play single player you can connect to other single players using TCP/IP, you can play with the people of BoM fx.
if that is what you want i also reccomend getting the latest patch 1.12a

 

Well, I kicked off a Necromancer. Got the 1.12 patch first.

Found a great wand, +3 Summon Skeleton and +2 Skeleton Mastery. About to take the underground passage to get the scroll from the tree.

 

I guess I'm late to the party, as you already started in single player, but I do play online. The reason I do so is I can switch items easily between characters just like people who have ATMA, but unlike single player, if I'm one piece short of completing a set, or need one more item to to fill out a characters equipment wish-list, I can easily trade for it. (Well, usually - the ultra rare things usually require some other ultra-rare things to acquire in a trade. However, 90% of sets and uniques can be acquired for the price of 20 perfect gems or less.)

As for being able to play people from around the world, you can, but only if you are playing on the same realm. I play on the realm "US East", but there is no reason for me to pick that realm just because I happen to live in the eastern half of the US. I could play on the realm "Europe". Likewise, just because you are from the UK doesn't mean you have to play on the Europe realm.

EDIT: That's a great wand to start the game with. Since you won't really be entering melee much to kill monsters (that's what you're skeletons are for), that wand can potentially last you a very long time. The ultimate wand for a summoning recromancer is without a doubt the Arm of King Leoric. (You have to scroll about 2/3 of the way down the page to see that particular wand - the link is to a list of all the unique wands in the game.) With +3 to raise skeleton (RS) and skeleton mastery (SM), along with +2 to all summoning skills, means you get +5 to both RS and SM just from your wand - you'll certainly add more +skills later from other pieces of equipment.

I agree with dmc that you can get away with one point in most curses. I would say there is one exception. You may want to throw a couple of extra points into amplify damage. It's the curse you use the most, and a couple of extra points increases it's area of effect considerably. It's not absolutely necessary - it's just the convenience factor of being able to amplify a whole pack at once. Honestly though, if you play into hell difficulty, you'll have tons of points to spare. The only thing this build absolutely mandates is 20 points in RS, SM, and corpse explosion. Everything else is up to you.

 

I'm so glad i've got ATMA, it's a great program. I'm pretty much pouring gems into it, I must easily have 150 and I haven't even killed Andariel yet. Getting a load of yellow items too!

Started a stash for each class, and they're all going pretty well. Whatever I start next is gonna get a nice boost, especially an Assassin. 2 yellow weapons already.


Edit: So, quick update. I've killed Andariel, and moved on. I then killed Radament! Next up is the Horadric quest, which i'm looking forward to. It'll be a chance to get rid of some gems

 

"Edit: Is the Druid any good?"

My Druid is entering ACT III and is level 24.
His best spell is Fissure (so far).

It's like the Socceress spell Blizzard except you get it at level 12 instead of level 24.

I'm not using his polymorph much at all so I'm using him as a cross between a necro with his nature army instead of skellys and a sorc with elemental attacks.

 

I just realised, my Necro hasn't died so far

 

Necros and Sorceresses are pretty easy to keep alive in Normal and Nightmare, if you're careful about your skill selection and you know what you're doing. It's one of the reasons these two are my favourite classes