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Help fellow gamers to defeat Diablo and his brothers. Send your gaming strategies to the webmistress, and we'll post them here.
General Strategies
Amazon Strategies | Assassin Strategies Barbarian Strategies Druid Strategies Necromancer Strategies Paladin Strategies Sorceress Strategies
| General Game Strategies If you really want to try this, it works rather well. Go to the edge of town in any act. Town is your safe haven and as long as you are within it's bondaries, you cannot be hurt. Find the exact edge of town, then run off into whatever area is next. Keep running until you've got a whole pack of enemies chasing you. Then run back to town. Step right to the edge of town, but stay in it's boundaries. Now, the enemies will attack you, but when they hit you, you will feel no damage, and if you have any weapon, armour etc that cause damage to enemies when hit, all you need do is stand there and let them kill themselves. Sir Kalire Back to Top | Ok, when you go into the Durance of Hate level 3, throw up a town portal. (You will need it) Kill the blood lords in the first room. Venture into the second room a little at a time, and draw the blood lords, and Bremm Sparkfist out, slowly. Bremm will bring a few council members with him. After this is done, go to the west side of the chamber (left side) and kill Wyand Voidfinger and the few blood lords there. Go to the east side of the chamber (right side) and draw out and kill Maffer Dragonhand and the few blood lords there...take it slowly, and it will be simple. Ok, now...if you are not a Amazon, or if you do not have a bow (get arrows too :p)...go back to town and get one. Ok...ready? Run in and find Mephisto (he will be in the center and top of the chamber.) Immediately run away after you see him, stay on the east (right) side of the chamber, and run back through the room that had all of the blood lords, and Maffer Dragonhand, in it. Get back to the main chamber as fast as you can, and you should have Mephisto trapped across the lake, looking to do you in. Now, you just keep Mephisto at the very top of the screen (where he can't annhialate you with his lightning shots) and pick away at him. I have done this over 20 times with only one failure. It is a good way to get a little over 10,000 experience points. (34,000 for the entire 3rd level of the durance) And a good way for newbies to get past a very hard boss. Back to Top | A few time oyu will come across a group where the weaker guys can be rjuvinates and they are surounding the rejuv. guy and u cant get to him it is not always best to dive right in and go for the main guy. Try going in slightly and run. a few guys will fallow and u kill them when they r out of reach form the main guys. Do this a few times and it should be clear enugh to kill the main guy. -b-net name- No_NameSorc Back to Top | First tip: How to get your stash AS WELL AS your pocket full of money quickly? Watch out for staff and wand dropped by a monster. The value of any staff or wand that has �+skill� property usually hits the limit of the act. So, whenever you see a staff and wand on the ground, be sure to pick it up and check it out. I personally have a 27 level Necro that has 150,000 in stash and 270,000 in pocket, and I don�t know what to do with it! Second tip: Where is the best place to find rare, unique and set items? I heard that the Arcane Sanctuary and the Lower Kurast are the best places to find rare, unique and set items, but I think the Council Members are the best item-droppers, however. I personally fight the council member for over 50 times (an easy job with my blood golem and my lvl 10 bone spear), and I got AT LEAST 5 unique item (none of them is useful to me�.), 3 items in the Sigon set (too bad that it isn�t the Infernal Tools that I got), and an untold number of rare items. What I did is simple. I use the Waypoint to go to the Travincal. Go directly to the place where those members hide. Beat them (duh!), and pick up whatever you like on the ground (Generally there should be AT LEAST one rare item or a good wand/staff on the ground). Open a portal, and sell it in the town. Necro Back to Top | duriel is not that hard. my first time thru, i ran into him and stood in front if him and just slashed w/ my ax. he died after a minute or two. i was running a barb, lvl 20 at the time. for quick cash-act 1-the pit, the cave, etc., blood raven, the countess act 2-arcane santuary, canyon of the magi, maggot lair act 3-spider cave, arachnid lair, lower kurast, the council act 4-hephasto lordbrocktree-lvl 28 Back to Top | Ok, for everyone that says the Duriel is hard, would you mind explaining who this guy is. I've been through D2 about three times with three different character classes and I've yet to run across this Duriel that everyone says is hard. I have creamed and mopped the floor with a Duriel that looks like a big maggot/slug thing with horns at the end of act 2. Even at low levels. But this guy being hard, I've yet for that to happen. As for Mephisto, first time I found him I accidentally ran right up to him. Wasn't watching where I was going. After he ghosted me, I came back and played with him.Diablo's two main magic attacks, the circle of fire and the red lightning, are rather easy to avoid. The red lightning is the easiest to dodge. Once he starts, just stay in front of it. The closer yoou are to him, the easier it is to out run it. Then he'll stop and stand there for about a second or two. Attacking him at this point is a very good idea. But don't stick around too long, cuz very soon after this, the circle of fire. This one you just run away from him. The fire will go out and then you turns around and chase him down again. The undead knights in "Diablo's Den" are the most annoying monsters. I found Diablo easier to fight and kill than going against 5 of these creeps. The ones that cast spells are the hard ones. The others just get in the way. In the expansion, the little guys that teleport all the time and climb on top of crush beasts are the most irratating part of act 5. But the hardest part of the game is right before you fight Baal. Do NOT charge the Minions. The will tear you apart. Walk close enough to lure one away, take care of him, then repeat. Lister the Tormentor is not really that hard if you can get him away from everyone else. KiddCaz Back to Top |
| Duplication Trick First off, it must be noted this can be done using multiplayer methods. We are still unsure whether this would be achievable on Bettle.net, but it does definitely work across TCP/IP. Using this method we are pretty certain that you could use the character on Battle.net seeing as how this does not abnormally alter the character. Here's what you need to do: Setup: Before you do this trick, there are a couple things you'll want to do first. Create a new folder on the C: drive (I prefer it to be in "My Documents"). For now we'll this folder "D2charbkup". Open the D2 saved files folder and find the saved characters. Copy/paste all of the files for the character that you wish to use for this trick to the new folder you just created. Note: Do NOT cut/paste them. You still need these files to load your character in the game. Your friend can already be setting up his computer to host the game while you do this. Without closing the D2charbkup or D2 saved files windows, start Diablo II or Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. Step 1: Your friend should have the game running by now so all you need do is join. Take the usual steps to do this. If you're not familiar with this process, you will be by the time we get through. Once in the game, you don't have to do anything except drop the items that you wish to be duplicated. Unique and Set items CANNOT!!! be duplicated. It will delete these items upon your re-entry into the game and you WILL lose them without a back up of them. I believe Rare items do the same thing. Socketed items can be duplicated whether they are empty or not. Magic items, as well, can be duplicated. Gold, gems, jewels, runes, weapons, armor, amulets, rings, potions, etc. can all be duplicated. Once again, Unique and set items will NOT duplicate. Step 2: Before you save and exit (S&E), re-confirm that you have a backup copy of this current "dummy" character. Once you are sure, S&E. For TCP/IP this will take you back to the screen that asks you to host or join a game. You do not need to exit D2, so this screen is as far as you need to go. Now press alt+tab to minimize the D2 game "window." Now you will need to pull up the D2 saved files window and delete the current character. After doing this, pull up the D2charbkup window and cut/paste the back up dummy to the D2 saved files folder. Now that you have the back up character in place, go back to D2 and re-join the game. Step 2a: Now you will want to hunt down your friend's character and kill him for taking everything you just dropped. Step 3: With your new "dummy" character, check the inventory and make sure that everything you just dropped is in there. Now walk over to where you dropped everything and you will see that it is all still there along with everything that you have in your inventory. You now have two of everything that you had dropped. Pick up everything and make all the changes/adjustments to your items and your inventory that you wish to make with what you now have. After you have finished tweaking your character's possessions, S&E. Press alt+tab to minimize the D2 "window" again. Step 4: This step is similar to the Setup step. The exception is you don't need to create a new folder. Now all you need to do is copy/paste (once again, do NOT cut/paste) the new current saved character to the D2charbkup folder. Go back and re-join the game. Drop everything you want to duplicate again. S&E. Go back to the two folders (alt+tab) and cut/paste the back up character from the D2charbkup to the D2 saved files after deleting the current "dummy" character. !!!DO NOT FORGET TO COPY ALL THE FILE FOR THE CHOSEN CHARACTER!!! Now re-join the game and repeat. Note: This trick is can be used to it's fullest potential AFTER the Horadric Cube is obtained. I hope you like this trick. It is time consuming, but once you see the possibilities that this offers, time doesn't seem to matter as much. I have gotten to the point that I amgoing through the full process (minus the creation of the folder) in less than 5 minutes. And that most of the time includes transmuting gems and other items. This is also a great way of getting Full Rejuvenation potions. Well, I hope to hear how you like the trick. Kidd Back to Top | Bosses can be very hard to some people. This is not really a problem to most experienced players because they equip all the right items for bosses and acts. But to all newcomers or people that happen to be stuck on an annoying boozer of a boss, here's what to do: Andariel: She should't really be much of a problem even to a rookie if you keep vertical row of anti-poision potions on a good belt, and try to be at least level fifteen for a real easy fight. I also suggest that you run around the catacombs looking for a belt or heavy belt for extra slots if you are really having trouble. Poisen risistance is a must and I highly suggest a merc with a cold attack. STAY CLOSE TO HER, lest she cast poison cloud, which has been known to kill very good heros in one hit! Radament: This guy can be real ugly due to the fact that he has a rediculous amount of hit points. Sacrifice speed weapons if you must, just get a weapon that does mondo damage. His long 'life' and the fact that he raises skeletons can make munching minions very hard. Once again, have poison resistance and keep some antidotes! Duriel: This guy seems to have mixed opinions, some thing he's a sinch whuile others say he's the hardest in the world. Keep him frozen and stay either real close so he doesn't charge, or stay back and use cold spells and arrows. I thought maggots were ugly enough until I saw this thing, and the he smiles at you is really violating...:-P Mephisto: Lightning resistance is everything against mr .skull head, he loves to throw lightning balls and bolts and has a lightning melee attack. Once again, try to keep him frozen as it will drastically limit his ability to hurt you. One thing to remembe about lightning- it has a very large damage range, so he could either scratch you or do major pain. Diablo: Big monkey pain in the butt! Lightning and fire resistances are very helpful, as they may be they only things saving you from lightning inferno. Try to keep him frozen so you can see that aweful attack coming, although he has a tendency to do it real fast anyway. Getting rid of his minions is a pain and make sure they are all dead should diablo get a hankering to cast bone prison on your portal- or yourself! He has major resistances and lotsa hit points, armor reducing or static field is a lovely way to get this terd to spontaeniously combust right before your eyes! A few things to remeber about every boss: Freezing works miracles, make sure you know what range your enemy thrives at, and static field should always be used to soften the enemy up! Back to Top | Warrior necromancers and sorceresses are severely under-rated. They can deal out just as much melee damage as a paladin and then they have those awsome spells for later on, you just have to deal with the terrible beggining stats. Because you rely on your sword you don't have to waste skill points in skills like fireball in the very beggining and instead put it in warmth. You don't need to worry about defence because by level 10 you should have invested enough points in strength to wear a breastplate. Right now I am a level 14 sorceress with 275 defence and 20-30 damage, the damage by the way is better then any of my spells could be at that point. I play with a warrior necromancer that uses amplify damge which makes it even better. I used to laugh at the warrior class magic users, until I realized that Diablo II is item based, not skill based. Trust me this is the best way to go. Kami_Tachi lvl. 14 sorceress Back to Top |
| I saw a lot of people saying that you need to run to chest to pick magical items to get gold. I will say that is a waste of time. Check in your shops. what is the most expensive item ? Surely not the 4x2 blue Spear ! Throwing weapons. that's mainly for level 1-3. Pick up poison, fire, javelin and throwing knife. even the damaged one. You will sell them for 200-400 each. Amulets and rings. Still for lower levels, which good is a +1 to min damage ring to you ? will the game will be so easier for you then ? Or what's the use of a +15 stamina amulet ? 5% fire resist ? let me check that's... 0.3 damage less per shaman firebolt ? So You will want to sell nearly all amulet you find early .... 500-2000 gold each time. U will be at 10k quite early and pickup armors or good weapons in the shop will be much easier then :) Gems. at low level gems have 2 use. socketing in weapons to dish more damage, or in helm/armor to get more hp/mana. and to get money. I usually keep sapphires, emeralds and topaz for weapon enchant. Bows for my hireling, but also for me. If you can get a 7-11 axe with 2 topaz (1-8 lightning) you will have doubled your damage ! I keep skulls for my weapons too if I am a weak fighter or my skills requires mana (e.g. jab), you will get 2% life leech and 1% mana leech, that's very little but it helps a bit. now you may prefer the 2 topaz one. I uses ruby for helms and armors. They each give +10 hp ! so you or your hireling will survive much better. I uses sapphire or skulls in helms/armors for spellcasters too. Sapphire get mana (so you can cast more spells even with a low energy if you invested in str to get better armor early) and skulls helps a little bit in getting more mana back faster. The other gems I sell (in other words amethyst and diamonds, or extra gems when I got more than 2 of the given color). They give about 150 to 500 gold. so very good for level 1-5. At mid levels (normal-act V and then nightmare) you will find a lot of flawless drops. Keep some you will want to put in items (like skulls for mana regeneration, or diamond for better resist, and once you get 3 convert them to perfect) and sell the others. Skulls sells twice better. so a flawless skull is 15k I think. that's a good gold/inventoryspace ratio ;) I more or less keep gems until I have one or two perfect emerald and sapphires (good for weapons/bows) some skulls and all diamonds (3 diamond shields help a lot : +57% resist, my paladin even found a +26 to all resist rondache shield with 4 sockets -> 102% total resistance !). When you are high level, you will probably have enough gold, and you will sell all gems but the one you need for craft recipes, for your other chars, topaz for magic find etc. Staves and wands. More for mid to high levels. The price of skill bonus items depends on the skill level. If you pick a +2 to level 24 or 30 skill on a wand you can sell it for 18-25k in normal mode, and that's 2 squares of your inventory. orbs, 4x1 staves, druid pelts (2x2) and necro totem, blue, white or better grey has to be checked. Armor also are giving good gold. At act IV-V normal you will get platemails, gothic plates, splint mail drops. Even non magical ones. Superior or socketable one are better of course. but often a 3x2 metal armor can bring 8k-24k gold. In NM you still can pick some but you will have to only pick what is getting 25k or more, because staves, wands, druids pelt, and totems often come out with better prices for less space. So keep leveling and pickup the smallest more expensive items. If you are on battlenet, go back to town as soon as your inventory has less than 2x2 space in it. You don't want to be above a green item, pick it and have the game tell you : you can't carry that and your team mate which you never knew before pick the green item and smiles. All acts but act III are good for item picking selling because TP appears quite close to cain and shops. So you can id, heal, sell, repair and even check weapon/armor shop quite fast (in act III melee fighter must go to cain, ormus and then the smith above the bridge to repair, and then go to ashaera to check gloves and such for sale, or weapons if you are a zon :( ). Aethyr. Back to Top | I don't know if this constitutes as cheating, but I have a great way to get rare, set, and unique items. After every save & exit, monsters respawn, including bosses. Mephisto and the unique monster right before him almost always drop one of these items; there is a portal almost immediately next to the stairs to get to the 3rd level of the Durance of Hate. Neither one of them is difficult to defeat, especially if you use a bait-and-run attack to get rid of the other flunkies hanging around those guys. I've managed to pick up a complete set of rare, set, and unique items which made Act IV way easier. Back to Top | Hey, just wanted to post a strat that I figured out... When fighting Baal, you can discover if its him or the clone (two ways). The most difficult is how easily its damaged, if its taking off a good deal per hit, its most likely the clone. The second way is the 'Demon' tag under his name. The real Baal's is centered a little to the right, the clones is a little to the left. While I'm on the topic... Baal really isn't that hard to defeat... Get up close with alot of resistances and a good weapon, and he's toast. I myself just cast Armageddon and then beat him senseless with my rune sceptor, (Unique) and the RalOrtTal Shield. Its very effective Back to Top | when disposing of the "evil countess" there is a simple trick that can allow u to prevail unscathed. begin by luring her few minions away from her and kill them. when u enter her room she will attack u, but only if u stay there. equip a ranged weapon or ranged magical attack and enter. as she charges at u leave the room. u can then begin firing at her as she retreats back to the center. when she gets out of range simply repeat the process and lure her back towards the door/opening (depends on the map) and fire on her again. eventually she will be defeated and leave all her treasure to u. dev Back to Top |
| Here are some tips that might have been mentioned, but the list is just too damn long to read it all... Note: SP=Single Player MP=Multi player *(SP/MP)If you found a good item that you want to keep but you have no room...toss the lower level items you have to make room. *(MP)TRADE TRADE TRADE....Besides that, all I can say is: "one man's trash, is another man's treasure" *(MP)Watch your back, if you dont trust a person, make sure they go into battle before you *(SP/MP)Plan your stats wisley...I upgraded my axe mastery on my bard fairly high only to find out i'd rather use use mauls wich i had never upgraded *(MP)MAKE GOOD FRIENDS ...Hopefully that are higher lvl than you are, this way, they can help you out, get you god deals and share the wealth... *(MP)If you have a bad connection to the internet and your gameplay suffers...you might have noticed in act 3, that wen its clear and not raining, your gameplay is better than it was iwhen it does rain. To stop it from raining, press Esc and choose "Options"...then go into "Vidio options"...now turn graphic quality (or whatever) and shadow blending off down and off...this will prevent your screen from showing rain, you will hear it but not see it, thus improving your gameplay and lag! *(SP/MP)Unlike in Diablo I, you can hold a great deal of $$$ on your person. Instead of it taking up slots, it isnt even show in your item area, letting you carry great amounts with out interfearing with your space...my point is, pick up alll the gold you see. It isnt a big hastle and you will be happier in the long run. You will be able to buy whatever you want and not worry about cost. I have accumulated 157,000 gold+ and have nothing to spend it on, but when sumthing comes around that I want, I just buy it, no hastles. *(MP)To all those laggers out there that are desperate to make their machines run faster, here are some tips if you lag bad on Battle.net... -Remove your desktop back ground while you play. It takes up at least 3 megs of ram, that wont make it run slickity smooth but it helps... -Delete any sfiles or folders you dont use. Take 10 minutes to delete stuff you'll never use, use "Add/Remover Programs" in controll pannel. -Press ctrl+alt+del and close the programs that you KNOW dont need to be running.... IMPORTANT! DO NOT close systray and explorer...if you do it may lock up your computer...just stick to ending the programs that you know of. If one has a weird name and your not sure, dont close it, you may be sorry. This will speed up your comp alot if you close enough... -Close all the little tray icons that you can in the lower right corner of your screen. They just take up ram... -Now "Right" click on "My Computer" and select "Properties" Now select the "preformance" tab, check the % of recouces free, the higher the %, the faster your comp will rn, end more tasks to increace the % I deleted all my unused programs and files and i close all unneeded programs when i play, this keeps my comp running at 97% free which is hard to maintain for most. ***Well I hope these tips come in handy, ill surely add more as soon as I think of them. - WAR-TITAN (lvl 26 barb) Back to Top | A couple of strategies: the first is i just started a new charecter the assasin on the expansion and she isnt very strong. well i found a few charms to up her strength and dexterity and i had a 51 with strength and a 53 with dex. now i bought a fine socketed scale inserted a few gems and put the armor on . well low and behold i screwed up (thought i screwed up) and sold the charms, guess what the armor stayed in place it turned red but it stayed there on her hot little frame. i hired a archer from the first level and she went thru some levels well she got mixed up in a battle and died. well i went and had her resurrected (at the time she was a level 19) well she tagged along and before i knew it i heard ahh i feel much stronger now. i thought what last i knew she had a bunch of points to earn before she gets to 20 well seems as though being ressurected it sent her points as if she was level 1 or 2 etc but she was really a 19. but i had her killed off again simply because 1 she was stronger than me lol and 2 she was doin all the shooting steeling my points. happy gaming out there. Back to Top | it is good to be greedy!!! you know you can afford any thing when you have a belt giving 107% more gold and a ring giving 40% more. example- you kill a champ. fettish and get 2000+ gold on norm. difficulty, suddenly that pike you wanted is yours. also, your stash is maxed out at 800,000- you can gamble your self enough good rares to put ppl in the next higher diffficulty to shame. also watch out for fetish, although thay are small they have knives the size of their bodies, thats like me running at you with a 5'7'' butcher knife, tell me your not scared now....... Back to Top | People say that Duriel is the hardest creature to beat in the game, but if you just happen to have the right item, he's extremely easy. The main reason he's hard is because his attacks do so much damage. That makes people want to stand away from him. That's a mistake, because the second reason he's hard is because he's so darn fast!! The best thing to do is make him cold. Use a blue weapon. Whatever. Just freeze him so he's slow. Then use a fast attack to keep hitting him, so even after he recovers he doesnt have enough time to use that annoying attack that takes so much of your life. But the greatest thing for beating duriel is to have some type of attribute to make him run away from you. My sword poisoned, made cold, and made him run away at the same time~ giving me time to use some of my most powerful sorceress attacks. Of course, if you cant get him to run away from you, there's always vice versa~ that strategy works horribly though because of the super fast party =( and the fact that he is big enough to move across the room in one step =P Also, the Summoner seems hard at first, but its only because there are SOO many minions around him... but when I broke through to him, one charged bolt took him out, because I was using my Charged bolt in the first place to get rid of the minions... and well some of them hit him accidently ~_^ but he's super easy anyway Back to Top | This is my take on playing Lord of Destruction with the Druid. In my opinion, nothing else really matters but Raven in the Normal difficulty. Build up Raven. I'm on level 8 right now, and those bastards are indestructible, last for 20 hits, deal out 10-12 damage EACH HIT, and are VERY useful for gaining experience for you. Also, make sure you at least have one Dire Wolf (although level 1 wolf really sucks), a Carrion Vine, and Heart of the Wolverine. When you get a Rogue as a gift in Act I, USE HER. Equip her with some cold damage, a good bow and armor, and resurrect her everytime she dies. I have found this to be a lot easier playing this way. Make sure you have the maximum number or Ravens. When one goes away, replace it. Those little guys kick ass. When you think your Ravens are good enough, work on the shape-shifting. The real deal is when you're at level thirty, WORK ON HURRICANE AND ARMAGEDDON. That's my goal, and it's quite easy thus far to acheive it. Also, FYI on Mephisto, if you wear equipment that adds up to 100% lightning resistance, you will kick his ass royally, because he can't do anything else to you. Good luck, guys! Karam_Cloud,level 25 Druid Back to Top | In response to the post below on "QUICK CASH," I suggest also hitting up the following areas: Act I: Any of the "The Pit," "The Hole," etc. areas, head immediately for the second level where there's one of the golden chests. You'll usually get 2-3+ magical items, even at lower levels with little or no +Magic Find % Act II: The Arcane Sanctuary, especially the dead-end areas. Each has 2-3, sometimes four chests in it, and with the modifications to chest treasure drops with Patch 1.08, these were very rich the several times I looted them. Act III: Lower Kurast, without a doubt. Chest drops have always been more reliable for me than creature drops, and there's a number of buildings in Lower Kurast that contain two or more chests, and almost always spit out magic items. Even at comparably low levels, with only +20% magic find, I was bringing in a modest 40-50k per circuit through, and occasionally found a rare or even a set item I would use. Act IV: I usually just clear out the first two areas, as there's no real "money spot" in Act IV, aside from Diablo, and he's a PAIN in LoD. Act V: The Ancient's Way--its cake compared to some of the other areas, and you can usually find at least one or two uniques in the area with good drops. Also, there's a "The Pit"-type area here with a good golden chest, 3-4 magic items every time I've used it. Its also one of the easiest places to rack up exp. in Act V that I've found. -Allaera Ni Trien, Lvl 39 Assassin Back to Top | Lots of the tips I've seen on here have really helped me out. But there's one thing that I haven't heard anyone mention besides trying ur best not to spread out your skills (you should decide early on what type of fighter you're going after) I feel like I need to inform everyone on the sheer mechanics of moving your character. When I stepped foot in Act II I stumbled upon one of the single greatest items in Diablo II. The Treads of Cthon Chain Boots which basically has enabled me to run faster than almost anything on the screen without losing hardly any stamina. This discovery made me realize just how important "mouse mechanics" are. I've found some really great items but defensive percentage points aren't gonna save u from everything. Scan the opponent, know his strengths and weaknesses and then attack methodically according to the situation, number of enemies and their special traits. Being able to dodge attacks is soooo very vital to my success. I don't stand toe-to-toe with enemies, I'm a Necro, I'll leave that kinda thing up to the Barbarian. But learn to dodge attacks, even when trading blows with swords or things of that nature. Hit, stun, (if stunned enough keep attacking), back away, creep up and attack again. Bigger monsters don't get stunned but skeletons and zombies momentarily stun enough for multiple attacks. Try not to lose LIFE period. "Float like a butterfly and sting like a bee" Peace. Back to Top | Alright, this is basically to help out any newbies who might have gotten stuck. First off the most important thing is to build up your experience. Find and fight every monster explore areas you don't need to, and do some over after saving the game. This you you build up your experience and continue to level up. The strategy involved in diablo ii isn't like starcraft, but you still have to think. Where are you going to put skill points? Is this weapon right for my character or should I find something else. All these things come into play. For example I found the set item Arcana's Deathwand, but my character is a paladin so it's pretty useless, and I sold it. So far the best place that I've found to get unique and rare items is the secret cow level. You can go there as many times as you want after beating the game in normal level, then go back to tristram to get wirt's leg and transmute it with a tome of town portal. After you clear the level you can save and exit the game and jump back in and do it again. I've been doing this trying to find that weapon that is just right. I'm not sure what yet, but I'll know it when I find it. I've also been picking up mad gems. Nothing above chipped yet, but i've gotten so many I've been able to transmute them into higher quality ones over and over. Also for all you paladins out there. So far this tactic has been successful for me in dealing with uniques and the secret cow level. I've put conversion on my left click, and instead of using the right click for an attack I've got the aura of thorns. I convert a few minions and let them do the work for me. The result is that they either kill the unique or leave him with very little life left for me to finish off. I've had great luck with this combo in the secret cow level and have gone through it no sweat. Anyway best of luck to all who are just starting out. Wolfen lvl 30 paladin Back to Top | First thing, don't run from Duriel. If you do this, it'll use its charge attack on you, nearly killing you. This is obviously bad. Stay in close and just deal with the Holy Freeze. This won't work if you're a sorc, though... if you're a sorc, run and blast Duriel with whatever spell you use. Melee characters must stay in close or they'll die. -Shade_Colossus -- Lvl. 68 Barbarian Back to Top | The tips page here helped me a lot. I have to disagree with the guys that say Duriel is not hard, he is the hardest boss ive gone against. Mephisto was easy but the intimidation made up for that, at one point you can hide behind something and his bubble attack will hit the wall. I found that if you find a good weapon, stay with it, ive had my special mace from act I and i still havent found a better weapon. Putting 3 rings in the horadric cube for an amulet is the worse idea ever, it gives you a really bad amulet.When it comes to a guy who can rejuv monsters or create monster, dont bother killing the little guys go straight for him. Izual, other than being the toughest SOB ever, hes really weak, i raised a blood golem, Izual fought him but my blood golem rejuv himself from his own hits, i was just there hitting him taking no damage. Necro Lvl 26 Back to Top | ok, ive never written one of these b4 but i have the best strategy against diablo.okay. go near a pillar, and get in position so that u can hit diablo, but his ranged attacks get blocked by it. his fire circle and red lightning will be BLOCKED!!!i was dyin a million times till i did that, then i kicked his ass!! Back to Top | The one thing i think is so important is to always keep a back-up weapon in your Backpack. I can remember when my amazons weapon was damaged so much it could not be used till i got back to town and fixed it. Simple you say just launch a town portal and go to the pandemonium fortress. Well before i could do that i was fried by diablos lightning. so kids make sure you allways carry back up weapons or your screwed It worked for my paladin who ran out of bolts for his crossbow so i changed to a maul. easy isnt it? Azrael level 22 crossbow paladin Back to Top | Hello again! Just wanted to do an add-on for the stategies I listed below. A good way to build lots of experience in a hurry is to beat the game on Normal, then save and exit. Go back in on normal, and beat Mephisto so you can get back into the Chaos Sanctuary. Go to the River of Flame waypoint, which should be right in front of the pathway you take to go to Diablo's lair. Fight everybody again, and beat Diablo again. You will build experience in a hurry, as these are all high-level characters, and will give you a lot of points. I have tried leveling by fighting other major characters, but this seems to be fastest, and you get a lot of cool stuff, too. I personally am happy with my armor (Silks of the Victor), and I imbued a superior giant axe which gave me a cool axe that does a lot of damage and is +1 to skills as well, so I just sell everything and use the money to gamble if I see something that may be worthwhile. I am level 32 with this barb right now, and probably will move on again to Nightmare when I hit level 40 or so (I like things to be as easy as possible when playing a barb, hence the high level). Anywho, thanks for reading, hope it works for you as well as it has for me, and happy hunting! Steve Back to Top | My first suggestion is to make some mule characters, to store stuff you find. With this in mind be very patient and eventually you will find someone who needs something, and you need something from them. Between levels 10-20 do whatever you can to get a set. Furthermore for your first realm character i would recommend a lance barb, they level very fast and can get you stuff to trade for other chars you may create. When it comes to stat points, generally put nearly all your stats into strength for the first 10 levels, so you can meet req. then lower it to drastically for the following levels, and to generally not go much above 100, depending on your class. And also dont minimize vitality, and dex. Last of all figure out if u want to create a character for fast leveling or for dueling. -lanceswrath@useast level 58 Back to Top | Somewhere on this website it was mentioned that it sucks that they got rid of the exit without saving option in DII. You can still do this! Press ALT+TAB to minimize the game. You can then right klick on the bar at the bottom to close the game. This might not work on all computers but it probably will. Sir Tracem LvL 36 Pally Back to Top | When you walk down the stairs leading to the room before Andariel's lair, kill all the enemies in the first room. The go into Andariel's lair. When she sees you, she will follow you. Lead her out into the first room. Some other enemies will follow, but kill them before she gets out to you. Now you can fight her, and go back up the stairs if you need to regroup. You can fill your belt with potions, or go back to town or whatever. When you get back, she'll be in the same place, and you can do some more battling. Bleargh, Level 26, Barbarian Back to Top | QUICK CASH Get an item(preferably a ring or amulet) that has +10-30% increase of finding a magical item. Then wear it and go to the following areas depending on your act ACT 1: Go into those houses with the treasure boxes and the SECRET WHITE COAT(it doesn't highlight when your mouse floats over it but it's there) ACT 2: Go to Maggot Lair and go into the dead end rooms ACT 3: Go to the Spider Cavern and Arachnid Lair(this act is one of the worst for the trick) ACT 4: Go SOMEWHERE After you have collected most of the magical items, identify them and sell them, do this a lot of times for extra cash. AND HEY, maybe you'll find something you'll actually use like a scepter, staff or wand. Back to Top | As a novice player to the realm of Diablo II myself I figured I'd share some advice from my own experiences. The most important thing I can say is to think ahead when you add to your skill tree. What skill's are likely to continue to be extremely useful later on. If something will serve you well in the early going that's fine, but don't put all your points into building this up or you will pay for it later. I made the mistake of building up prayer with my paladin and it's come back to haunt me. If you plan carefully you won't have to suffer too much for it. Secondly explore everywhere. The entire map and even levels of caves you don't need to go in. These places exist for a reason and you can usually find something worthwhile in them, be it an amulet or ring, or an enchanted weapon. Regardless, even if it's something that won't help your character explore these places. Worst case you've built up your experience points and made a tidy profit from selling a magic item you can't use. A pretty fair trade off for a little more time taken to look around. Third, don't let yourself get surrounded. The only times I've gotten killed have been when I couldn't retreat to save myself. If you avoid being trapped like this you'll live a lot longer. A good way to avoid being mobbed is with a hit and run strategy. Many enemies will follow and some will distance themselves away from the group in their pursuit. That's your chance to strike a couple of blows and still get away relatively unscathed. It might take you awhile but eventually you'll whittle down the opposistion and still be in pretty good health. Lastly don't get discouraged. It might take some time, but if you stick with it you'll beat the game. Lobo Lvl 21 Paladin Back to Top | I have played all 5 classes with bows well into the third scene (level 40+) with great results. My secret is to use the gamble feature as early as possible to get superior equipment. Boots of speed are the first priority (A speed enhanced Bobo with boots of speed is an awsome sight) then, a good bow doing 40+ points of damage per hit with frostburn gauntlets makes a great stopper. Next work on all resistances - Poison is necessary in the first two scenes, with Fire at the end. Cold resistance and reducing cold duration is great for not being slowed (something that keeps you from being frozen is even better) and of course, Lightning for those Monsters that have that particular talent. The bow will keep the spell casters out of range of most danger while still enabling them to build their spell specialties for general room clearing. Each class can use the bow efficiently if a fair mount of points are put into it. (I generally use about 70). I havent had much of a problem with any of the bosses in normal level with any of the classes. Most of them didnt even work up a sweat. Vendegaar Back to Top | I have been reading the strategies on here, and some of them have been really helpful. I wanted to add my 2 cents, and hopefully I can be of help as well! 1. Be very, very deliberate when going through the game. Fight every monster possible, and repeat areas after saving. This way, you build your experience, and will be stronger than the monsters you encounter. The monsters get quite powerful when you get into Nightmare and Hell difficulties, and the last thing you want to do is have to fight someone like Duriel or Bremm Sparkfist in the higher difficulties when you are only a level 30-35. You also will find more magical items, which is nice also! 2. It bears repeating that you should find something that works for you, and stick with your gameplan. Know your character's strong points and play to those. 3. The secret cow level is rough, but boy, do you find lots of cool stuff! Just stay ahead of the herd, and try to limit the numbers of cows that are trying to do you in by staying near walls. This is a little tough, because the cows are literally everywhere! This area is fairly easy in Normal difficulty, but becomes amazingly difficult if you rush through everything, then try to do it at Nightmare. See #1 above and follow that advice before going there, or you WILL be obliterated, as there is no other area in the game where you will fight more enemies. There are literally hundreds of cows, and they can all kill you with one or two slices if you are too weak. Well, just a couple of discoveries I have made while playing. Hope they are of help to some of you! Steve Back to Top | I don't know if I'm the first to ever notice this but the guys in the high council at the Travincal near the end of Act 3 seem to drop a lot of gems. I've been going there repeatedly the last few days and have built up a nice little stash of gems so far. I've done it in Norm and Nightmare and the difficulty doesn't seem to make a difference. Most gems/skulls are normal or flawed but I have taken some flawless ones too. When leveling up and desiring some gems .... this is a easy and very inexpensive way to get some. I usually get between 1 and 4 gems/skulls per trip. And since my Zon is level 40 and my Barb is level 27 .... I just march right up and start wasting them without a lot of concern for dieing. I usually don't even use more than one potion. . -Cogline- (aka. .. Alkarye .. Paagor ..Cogline-Morr .. Ashmorda .. Godfrey) Back to Top | You have a tip on your site saying that charsi is givin unique items, and that there are several unique items for every item type. Everybody who played through the game can tell, this guy never ever got an unique item, or he must be blind on colours. THERE ARE ONLY 1 (one) UNIQUE ITEM FOR EACH ITEM TYPE! And it has an unique name to mark it. Tell this guy the difference between rare and unique, yellow and gold, good and better. BTW copy files and overwrite is not a gameplay tip, and should be concidered cheating. There is a reason you can't avoid saving he game. No offense against the guy, just take the tip off before anyone starts bugging the poor newbie. Back to Top | I dont know if most people really knwo this but if you try and try to get gold and i know at the begining i have trouble getting gold but what you have to do is make sure you have at least 2 tome of town portals and pick up EVERYTHING you find and sell it(everything) but the stuff you equip to you character. People probably will say it takes too much time and stuff but in the long run you will have mad money by the time you get to the second act as long as you dont buy alot of things. People probably already know they can do it but dont think it will be worth it when really it is. Back to Top | There's a simple trick to have lots and lots of rare items, without dificulties.With my Barb, in Act IV, when I leave the Pandemonium Forteress and enter the Outer Steppes, I always find a unique of these Corpse Spitters, sometimes enchanted with might, sometomes iron skin... When I kill it (I did it 3 times), he always give me rare items. The first time I killed it I found a rare Full Plate Mail with 249 defense. Sir Chaos_Champion, level 28 Spear Barb Back to Top | I was reading and there was one where this amazon used over 1,500 ice arrows on high council member! Also he said that he kept healing himself well.......... First run around travincal and kill ALL THE SEXTONS, the ones that heal, then try because even in Hell they don't heal themselves trust me, my level 67 Necro handled them quite easily I must have killed them in one minute. Also Duriel isn't all that hard, personally. I found him quite pathetic with my sorceress lvl36, lvl 17 at the time. I just bought stamina potions and found a lot of rejuvs and ran around the room with blaze and brought that dumb-ass down and made him kiss my feet. Well with my necro at that time, probably lvl 18 or something like that, it was a tad bit harder. I just casted a clay golem, cuz the blood golem when dead just about killed me, cast iron maiden and brought in 2 mages and 2 skeleton, cuz of my tarnhelm, and beat him quite simply. Yet I had to cast claygolem over and over and duriel just kinda killed himself the dumb-ass. Barbs are BY FAR THE HARDEST. Yet if you jack up the vitality and the dexterity then it is easier yet still quit tough. Paladins EASY. Thats all I have to say. The main skills are concentration Zeal and Blessed hammer and you will kill everyone quite easily, just find a rare or unique war hammer! I do 120-167 with my level 22 Paladin. With blessed hammer I do 158- about210! Amazons second easiest. Just find a powerful bow and your set. Spearazons are good too but they die more often. Also penetrate, which boosts your attack rating like a mad man is real good to have at least 10 into. Strafe is also GREAT. Get the Valkerie at a real high level, she is really strong. Sorceresses. Third easiest. I don't like them that much. They are just kinda stupid after a while. Fire and lightning aren't nearly as good. Also her level 30 skills for her aren't as powerful as some of the other characters get. (Revive, cough, for the necro, cough,cough) Necro. By far the most powerful. What I did I just put 20 into skeleton mastery, (skeletons and skeletal mages suck but revive is awsome), 15 into bone spirit, and 18 into revive! to unlock all this I put: one into amp damage, iron maiden, teeth, corpse, and bone spear. And only one into all the golems, except the fire golem (HE SUX SOOOO MUCH) one into golem mastery and a few into summon resist. The last time I died was in act one, normal, level It think 3 when trying to face blood raven being the hot shot I thought I was. DOH! all skills boosted with tarnhelm and sigon shield. and wand. Don't do too much melee. I found an AWSOME war hammer so I go in a little bit. In lower levels I mean. Well choose wisely. I suggest starting out with a sorceress then doing an amazon then a Necro, cuz you will want the experience of playing, and you also learn of the way the game works and how to face certain enemies. Also another suggestion, before starting a sorceress or amazon, choose if you are going to be spear or bow. with a sorceress choose lightning cold or fire. DO NOT SPREAD SKILLS. YOUR CHARACTER WILL SUCK Back to Top | This is a strategy for killing diablo. After you have mopped up his minions and the three uniques, he will appear and you gotta kill him. Here are some ways to do it. Melee: I have found that toe to toe combat with diablo is easy. he is relatively weak and doesn't do that much damage. The only problem is when he opens up with the red lightning attack. Unless you have put all of your stats into life you will die if you just stand there. That attack is absolutely devastating. And if it doesn't kil you,, then you will have very liitle hp left. I have found that when he gets ready to go for this attack and he raises his arms, just wait until he starts and then run circles around him. The lightning will trail you, and he will spin around to follow you, but you will evade it for the most part. After he stops be wary of another attack, but pound him if it doesn't come. For paladins use holy freeze to slow him down, and barbarians should use bash and leap attack as well as war cries to weaken him. Necromancers should use bone spear and bone spirit indiscriminantly, and use curses for more damage. Ranged: Cold sorceresses will have no trouble with him since they can just freeze him in place with a sufficiently good attack. Static field is a must and then follow it up with a devastating attack. Bowazons shouldn't let him get close and should use valkyrie if they have it. Keep him at a distance and empty all of your arrows into him. If you are a sorceress and you don't have cold then static him and then: 1) if you are using fire. just put tons of firewalls and hydras and whatever else you got beneath him. Use blaze when he is following you so that he will be taking damage. 2) if you are using lightning then you may be screwed, but just use your most powerful attack and try to keep him at a distance. Beware the red lightning Holy_Pimp: lvl 28 Paladin Drunken Thug: lvl 29 Barb Back to Top | if you ever have to bail out of a bad skirmish in a dungeon or somthing, and youre afraid ya might die if ya go back, go back to town get healing etc. then go to your stash, take all of your gold out and drop it on the ground. this way if you do die in that tough spot you dont lose any gold Ezekiel Back to Top | Ok. coolies. they were'nt very bright when the eliminated the option to quit without saving... before, if you knew you were about to get a cool item, you could quit without saving and reload if you didn't like what you got. in DII, you can't do that anymore. or can you? i've run through the "imbue" from the Hordric Malus quest many many times, coming out with some VERY cool items, but still haven't found just what i want. (currently working on a grand sceptor that gives +1 or +2 Paladin skills and i'm looking to get +2 or +3 zeal and maybe something else under the +150% to undead.) i now use perfect skulls and the cube to morph a gold ring, amulet, boots, (3 tier potion) belt, great helm and gloves. (other ring is SoJ). using the wall of the eyeless shield (the +5 mana per kill is incredible, especially since a it's a unique item - that means no level restriction, only stat restriction. a necromancer using the "teeth" spell can take down many enemies at once early on, and with the shield mana never goes down...) CyberHybrid Back to Top | Basically, playing this game over and over and over again, along with the help of many of my friends and my girlfriend, has taught me a few valuable lessons in D2: 1. NEVER GET TRAPPED- you do, you die 2. Never join parties as much as possible, IF U WANT TO EXP 3. If u want to find good items, I would recommend u join a party, but the people in the parties should either be in another act or at least 2 lvls above or below you 4. Beginning items are very important. Wear the right stuff, and you'll be fine (I'll give u a list of items later for each character) 5. When facing bosses... a) RUN A LOT b) either stay as far from them as possible (recommended for magic characters; aka necros, and sorcs), or as close as possible to them (for might characters; aka barbs, amazons, and palys) c) if u are a magic character, find a place to hide u from their attacks d) use as much rejuvenation potions as possible (best for bosses like Duriel and Andariel) 6. STATS AND SKILLS; LEARN WHERE TO PUT THEM IN!!!! MOST IMPORTANT (I will make a section on where to put stats and skills later Jason (Darkmyth_Miura) I have 3 accounts, highest lvl char I have is 96) Back to Top | "Ok so i c most of u r having problems with Hephasto and a bit with "the Smith" well let me tell u. Not all is lost. Their is a way how to defeat both without losing even a bit of health! What u do is : Take/Buy a weapon with Very fast attack speed or Fast attack ( very fast works 100%) It must have some damage! Now what u do is. First destory all the other creatures. Once this is done. the easy part comes. Killing them! All u do is take this Veryfast attack speed weapon. and u just pound them! They are to slow. Every time they lift a hand to hit. U hit them and they don't swing. Repeat on clicking on them till ur mouse breaks, and u will destroy them without losing any health!!! If u r Paladin. U should have a easier job. Use might! Cuz then u might not have to buy a new mouse :) Xantasmia Xantogorius (Barbarian Level 30) Xanlopidia ( Palidin Level 26) Back to Top | my first recommendation is for multiplayer characters. First I recommend using realms, since open bnet is hacked. For choosing your character class, unless you know alot of people in your realm, i recommend creating a "pioneer" character probably a barbarian since they level fast, play trade and gain stuff for ur other characters and only play the pioneer until about level 30, just until u get enough stuff. then create a new char and get the original to find him stuff so you are at an advantage through most of the beginning stages of the game Dimetapper Back to Top | When I first loaded up Diablo II, I made a few assumptions. One was that the barbarian character class was the closest extension of the original warrior class. Therefore, the barbarian would be the best class to learn with. I was dead wrong. The easiest class to learn with would be the paladin. Paladins are somewhat forgiving for newbies because you can make up for poor skill selection later on. Sir Paul (28), my paladin, was my first character. I didn't understand the skill tree at all and kept throwing nearly all of my skill points into prayer. Not only was this good enough to get me into the third act but I was also able to make up for this later on. In my opinion, the hardest class to learn on would be the barbarian. When you choose the first skill point for that character, you must already have a theme set for him. Unlike the paladin, spreading the skill points out evenly was a near fatal mistake. You need to have your theme ready when you start your barbarian. That way, you can skip large parts of the skill tree pumping only what you want. The others ranked from easiest to hardest would be. 1.) Paladin 2.) Amazon 3.) Sorceress 4.) Necromancer 5.) Barbarian John Back to Top | My Tip is for fellow rookies. 1. Live by the K.I.S.S. philosophy. (Keep It Simple Stupid). Don,t over equip yourself with every spell and try to utilize them all. Find a couple and get used to them and then branch out into other spells. This avoids hitting F1 -F12 trying to find the spell you need at a crucial time. 2. Despite what people say, Duriel is not that hard. I walked into the lair, saw him/her/it sitting there and proceeded to destroy it. I had no trouble what so ever. I'm not saying blindly walk in and be careless but just don't waste half our life trying all the tactics described in this site. Do whatever works best. 3. Explore EVERY square inch of land. a) you never know what treasures await the intrepid explorer. b) Experience points never hurt anybody c) Combat experience can lead to better reflexes when facing the the big meanies 4. Start with a simple character. ie) Barbarian, Paladin, Amazon. I have learned this from watching myself and my room-mate play. I am a barbarian and I have died about 12 times. (12 times out of 12 it was becase I was swarmed and unable to get out of the situation. I have never died at a boss yet) My room-mate on the other hand is using a necromancer and he has died 35 - 40 times which can be very frustrating to a novice player. It is because he is still getting used to the feel of the game and overcomplicating matters with too many spells. 5. Don't take the game too seriously. Grimlock - Lvl. 24 Barbarian Back to Top | 1. When fighting Fangskin and the Claw Vipers in the Claw Viper Temple, Try to get to the alter in the center of the room. Barbarians can do this easily with leap or leap attack. The Claw Vipers cannot enter this area and you can either hit them with ranged attacks or go to the edge of the alter and attack them. One or two may be able to reach you this way, but that is better than being surrounded. 2. When you get to Kurast, always hire a mercenary with cold attack. Fast-Cast is best, but any cold attack will do. Your enemies will be frozen in large groups and you can attack them at will. This works especially well when going through the Flayer Dungeon. I was looking for Kalim's Brain, and when I got to the room full of Shamen, I just stood back and let my merc blast through the door with his cold attack. It took some time, but one-by-one all the enemies in the room shattered in a shower of ice cubes. When only the boss was left, I just ran in and hacked him to pieces. This strategy is also very good because when you kill frozen enemies they shatter and cannot be brought back by shamen. ~Sir Quetzelkoatl Lvl 30 Pali Back to Top | I have got a tip for unlimited numbers of unique & rare items. After you defeating Durieal for the FIRST TIME, talk to Tyrael. Get back to Lut Gholien. Talk to Cain . Talk to Fara. Talk to Jerhyn.Upon that you'll received an instruction to talk to Meshif to take you to Act III. DO NOT talk to Meshif yet.Instead, save and exit. Restart. Get back to Duriel and defeat him for the 2nd time. You'll received a new rare/unique item. (If you get lucky you'll get more than one rare/unique items) Do this over and over again. Not only you'll gain exp points ( killing Duriel gained you approximately 5000 exp points)but lot of golds as well, by cashing the rare/unique items that you do not require. Proceed to the next level i.e talk to Meshif when you are ready. Enjoy.!!:) Azreal Dublin Malaysia Back to Top | In my opinion, the Arcane Sanctuary is a really good place to go for rare and magical items, even better then Lower Kurast. this is because not all the good items are in chests, some are dropped by monsters. The Ghoul lords especially tend to drop jewellry, gems and rare items. It's a big level, so you can end up with a lot of treasure. You should definetly search the whole of the arcane sanctuary. The boss of it, The Summoner, is really easy to kill. Laura, Lvl 28 Jabazon Lvl 25 Paladin Lvl 16 Bowazon Back to Top | Having trouble with Duriel? The best tip I can think of is to keep running. One biggie is to open a townportal as soon as you enter Duriels Lair....this makes it much easier to regain your corps without regenerating monsters. Another is to stock one colomn of your belt with thawing potions as this makes it easier to fight him without being frozen in slow-mo. Lord of Terror Back to Top | One of the most important things agout D2 is what items to use. In the begining on items such as rings it is okay to base your inventory on value. But once you get to the point where you find rare and unique items and enter act 2 it is a whole new ball game. Whenever you find a magic item think. Will this +30 mana help my barbarian more than my +20 to life. If you are a necro and you find a really good staff, sell it or trade it, a staff won't help a necro much. As you get further in the game, you find you have so much cash that if you die you lose the money you didn't have room in your stash for. To get rid of extra money, gamble of items. What items you gamble on depend on the amount of money you have, but gambling on lots of little things can help a lot too. TheBurned: FireSpawn lvl 25 necro Back to Top | when you choose what skill would you raise, try to concentrate on one type, like fire spells with the socceres or summoning with the necromancer, this will give you very few skills to use but they will be very powerfull. For example my paladin has Might in level 18, so I'm really strong and i didn't have to add any points to energy. Carlos Back to Top | This is for the newbies out there (and I know there will be hundreds of you looking at this), and I thought that I would relieve some of the stress, fear, and intimidation of the game. I was once a newbie, and I remember how fearful I was when just thinking about killing Andariel. Well, here's the lowdown of the bosses to ease your nerves... Blood Raven- shes not that hard. just keep your head on straight and have plenty of health potions ready. The Countess- she's more or less Blood Raven wearing blue. while she's simple to kill herself, there will be one or two uniques protecting her. The Smith- when you are exploring the Barracks, you will here something say "i'll make weapons from your bones", or something of the likes. when i first heard that i nearly wet my pants. the Smith will be the hardest guy so far for you up to this point in the game, but he's still far from possible to kill. the Smith is strong, so try not to stand toe-to-toe with him that much. i find hit and run (mostly running) is the most effective. a couple of rejuv potions will be handy for him Andariel- i was a little disappointed when i got to her. i expected her to be really hard. when you get to the bottom most layer of the catacombs, make sure you kill all the Fallen and undead before you open the large double doors (Andariel is on the other side). if you kill all the minions on your side of the door before you let her out, she will be MUCH easier to kill. overall, she mainly uses her poisen attack, and it doesnt take away that much life at all. hit and run with a few potions and you'll be fine Radament- i happened to find this guy pretty easy. as with all "bosses", carry a few rejuv potions since you might need to instantly refill some life. the most important thing to know with Radament is that he can raise the dead, so treat him as you would with a Fallen Shaman Coldworm the Burrower- he's easy if you kill him quickly. the longer you wait, the harder it gets (he spawns Rock Worms, which in turn spawn Rock Worm Young). if you hessitate, there will literally be a roomful of Rock Worm Young, so try to go directly for Coldworm when you see him Fangskin- one of the easiest bosses in the game. the hardest part about him is the extremely large group of Claw Vipers protecting him the Summoner- he has very little life, so he dies quickly. however, he is difficult to reach and attack. take your time killing the minions surrounding him with hit and lure tactics to get them away from the Summoner (the Summoner wont follow you). after they are dead, RUN as quickly as you can to the Summoner and slaughter him. if you go slowly, or stay in one place for long, his spells will eat you up Duriel- he is by far the most difficult monster in the game. he does an incredible amount of damage (something like 50 per hit), so be sure to carry as many rejuv potions as you can. health potions wont really help you too much against Duriel because he will kill you faster than healing potions will heal. for Duriel, open a portal inside the small chamber with Duriel (not in the Tomb of Tal Rasha outside the chamber). when your life gets low, use this portal to go back into town and refill, repair, and rebuy potions. then, use the waypoint to the Canyon of the Magi and walk all the way back to his chamber. your portal will already be there to take you back into town when you need it again. (if you are really fast, you can take the portal back to Duriel, but then you will need to reopen one which generally takes a second or two, which Duriel can kill you in that time frame). finally, dont try the tactic of climbing up the steep sides as mentioned several times on this site- it DOESNT work 99% of the time Council Members- if you can, try to lure these guys out one at a time. by themselves, they are pretty easy to kill. in groups, they will find you pretty easy to kill Mephisto- this guy just sucks. the only reason he is somewhat difficult is because of the intimidation factor. he is, though, the scariest looking boss in the game, but that's okay because you can close your eyes, not look at him, and still whoop his butt. Izual- he is probably the third hardest guy in the game (behind Duriel and Diablo). the main reason for this is because he has SOOOO much life (the most in the game for any monster). he is also resistant to everything. if possible, kill all the minions around him before you attack Izual himself. that way, those pesky little monsters wont eat away at your life and mana while you work on Izual Hephasto the Armorer- remember the Smith back in ACT I? well this is his big brother on steroids. he's fast and strong, but with some rejuvs and a little hit and run you will kill him.. eventually Grand Vizier of Chaos/ Lord de Seis/ Infector of Souls -- these are the three guys right before Diablo. they themselves are easy (compared to the bosses you've already killed in the game), but with them comes lots of minions. avoid being cornered at all times, because the shear volume of minions can often trap you from moving and excaping. Diablo -- he is the second hardest monster in the game. Duriel is by far the hardest, and Diablo is by far the second hardest. everybody else falls somewhere way below them. as far as i can tell, Diablo is difficult for only three reasons. first of all, he is intimidating. the entire point of the game is to kill this one guy, so obviously it will be stressful no matter how easy he might actually be. second, he has lots of life and he starts out as a level 40 monster. this means that he will be very hard to hit, will hit you almost every time, and takes seemingly forever to kill. lastly, he has the single most-devastating weapon in the game: his red lightning attack. luckily, before he uses it, he (usually) charges up first by raising his arms and his hands will glow. when he does this, run. no excuses. if you want to live you will run when he does this. luckily, his red lightning can be outran, and if you get an early jump it wont hit you at all (Diablo's other attacks, such as his fire rings and cold melee, do relatively little damage). if you have a portal open at all times and carry around a few rejuv potions you should be just fine Final difficulty ratings 1- Duriel 2- Diablo 3- Izual 4- Hephasto the Armorer 5- the Council Members 6- the three uniques before Diablo 7- Andariel 8- Mephisto 9- the Smith 10- Coldworm the Burrower (if and only if you took your sweet time) ~Altirus Back to Top | Quest= HORADRIC MALUS When you enter the barracks for the first time, try and look for the steps going down to Jail Level 1. Now, when finding the Smith, lead him to this area. You will have noticed that there are bars and a door around the entrance to Jail level 1. First kill all his little helpers, leaving only a few if you must, and lead him into the area where the steps go down. Get him to follow you around the steps. As he does, make a run for the gate and close it, making sure you walk away from the gate so that he follows you to the bars. DOHH !! He is now trapped and has not got the brains to get to you. Now proceed to smack down his candy ass from a distance, or through the bars. >>GAZ<< Back to Top | Hello, I've got a tip about fighting Andariel. Step1: Go into the catacombs level4 and clear everything in the first two rooms. Step2: Open the double doors to Andariel's chamber and stand back. Step3: Kill the first two or three monsters that come out of the room and wait forAndariel. Step4: When andariel comes out, hit her with whatever attack does that most damage. Step5: When your health runs low, take a potion, if poisoned use antidote potions. Step6: When you get about to 1/4 of your health, run around the little lake in the center while taking potions. Step7: When you get back to sufficient health, find Andariel in the room and repeat steps 4-6 until she dies. Good luck. Deathbringer Back to Top | Any time you have to fight a large group of undeadcharacter and you have a lot of vitality (or if your a paladin use your self healing) and go straight for the monster who can resurrect the dead. normally the hundreds of undead don't do that much damage while you kill the others. Olie Back to Top | Hi, I think the most usefull stratagie for any character, is to use a bow at the early levels. This works well because: 1. you basicly find an unlimited amount of arrows no matter at what level 2. in the early levels you rarly meet ranged monsters (except for shamens and Quill rats, and they're a sinch even with a short bow) so they'll never hit you. I know because when I started, I was using a paladin with a short sword at level 1, when I went to the den of evil and got killed trying to fight melee. So I went out and found me a short bow, and I just shot at them untill they charged at me, and I just ran and shot them untill they died! Tigerhawk, Paladin lvl. 18 Act 2
Back to Top | I hope you all know that if you wnat good rare or unique items, the best place to go, by far, is Lower Kurast. I have never gone through there without finding at least one unique or magical item. By the way, Jabazons are the best. -Eilonwy Level 32 Jabazon Back to Top | This site has a large list of the items, including the unique ones. However, do not go only by this list! Every type of item has SEVERAL uniques for it. Some of them are worse than the ones described in the items section, and some of them are better. Experiment a bit. When using Charsi's Imbue capability, first save and exit the game. Copy the game's Save folder into another directory. Go back into the game, and imbue whatever item you wanted. If the item is not something that you wanted (or you just want to see all of the uniques for that item type before choosing one) exit the game, and then copy that duplicate of the Save folder back onto the original one, overwriting the files. You will have everything that you had before you used the Imbue option, and you can keep doing this until you are satisfied with the result. This can be quite useful! Kil'jaeden Back to Top | Just before entering Duriel's lair in the 2 act create your townport. So if you die, you are back in the action in just 5 seconds. Just use your portal and create another one if you die again and again. Back to Top | Having played all five classes, here are a few general tips that should help for all of them: 1 Work out how you intend to play. Will you mix it up in hand-to-hand, or stay back and rain death from afar? 2 Specialise in a weapon or skill that complements your style of play. There are good options for all classes, so take advantage of them. 3 Put your attribute points where they will do most good! As a general rule, all character classes should try to get to at least 75 strength by the time they finish Normal difficulty level. This means that you can wear most heavy armours and wield decent weapons, thereby enhancing your survivability. If you intend to use spells, try to build up your mana. If you intend to use weapons, increase your dexterity. If your class does not need a skill, avoid putting points into it! After all, why does a barbarian need 75 energy? 4 Imbuing items with the Horadric Malus - wait until you have a decent item to imbue! Do not waste it by getting a dagger imbued, for example, unless you intend to use it for the remainder of the game. If you wait until Act IV, for example, you can imbue heavier armours or more damaging weapons. Better still, wait to Nightmare level before imbuing an item. 5 Do not be afraid to return to town. Here you will receive free healing, and (once you've rescued Deckard Cain), free identification of items. When in town, go to all the merchants, as you can often find a bargain. Alternatively, accumulate some cash, and go gambling for the rare or unique items. 6 Select your items carefully. Low on health? Look to buy armour, weapons or jewelry that boosts life points or gives fast it recovery. Need more strength to wear that funky plate mail? Look for belts or weapons that boost strength. And most importantly, LOOK FOR BOOTS/GREAVES THAT GIVE FASTEST MOVEMENT! There will come a time that you need to evade something, or catch an opponent. And if you have a magic item you may never use, sell it. And remember - "unique" does not always equate to "best" when it comes to magic items. 7 Especially if you intend to fight mainly melee combat, look for fast attack speed, or items and skills that increase your attack speed, over damage. For example, a repeating crossbow deals less damage than a heavy crossbow - but has fast attack speed, compared to very slow for the heavy. You may not hit as hard, but you will hit faster and more often. (Exception: get a pike if you are going to be a "Jabazon" (spear-using Amazon), and keep one of your mouse buttons on Jab. This skill ignores the attack speed of the weapon, and uses fast attack speed, repeatedly). As important is bonus "to hit" - it does you little good to have a slow weapon that deals 250-750 damage, if you have poor % to hit. 8 Take advantage of both mouse buttons. Configure your preferred spell or attack style on your left mouse button, and a supplemental skill or spell on your right button. 9 Build up your elemental resistances. Remember that all your resistances drop by 20% on starting Nightmare level, and by 50% on Hell level. 10 Have fun. (For a bit of background - I currently have a level 29 Jabazon that does 84-327 damage with her pike. Left mouse button: Fend. Right mouse button: Jab. Currently 649% to hit with pike. Strength and dex both around the 100 point mark, 25 vitality, 15 mana. Theme character: Necromancer level 15 with level 12 teeth, one in Amplify Damage, Iron Maiden and Clay Golem, with the remainder in bone armour. This character is able to hold its own, without being outstanding in any sense. Currently waiting for Blood Golem, and level 20 teeth, just for a little variety...) I have another dozen characters between levels 1 and 45. Guess it's time I got out of the house and bought myself a life... Mike. Back to Top | Strategy update Further down in this section, it is advised that when fighting Duriel, "if you try to run to the passage that lead to Tyrael,you'll end up climb a sharp slope and guess what? Duriel can't climb up after you. Since Duriel has no range weapon, you can beat him with any missle attack and finish the battle flawless." It has proven not to be true for everyone. It was reported that Duriel can climb behind you and continued hitting you as always!! So, use this strategy with caution! Back to Top | Personally, Duriel is the hardest boss in the game. But here is a tip, if you try to run to the passage that lead to Tyrael (it only opens after Duriel is dead, but go there anyway). You'll end up climbing a sharp slope and guess what? Duriel can't climb up after you. Since Duriel has no range weapon, you can beat him with any missle attack and finish the battle flawless. (Make sure you stand still and don't accidentally fall down the edge). When you complete Chrasi's quest of Imbue Weapon in Act I, u should leave the imbue for later on. Don't give her a cheap Cap or Dagger. When fighting unique monsters or bosses with Sorceress, always start the fight with 5-10 static Field. James Back to Top | Actually you can keep going back to the cow level. When you return to Tristram after loading your game, Wirt has regenerated, pegleg and all. Just buy and fill another town portal tome and yer in business. I've been back to the cow level twice. I still have made barely a dent in those damn cows though..:/ Kevin Back to Top | If you don't want weapons or potions to dissapear on you.... toss them at the foot of your "stash" chest..then every time you come to town, put them back into your invintory for a second, then toss them to the ground again. when you are tired and want to quit......place them in your inventory (IF YOU DIE.....ALL IS LOST) this tip only works if you don't die......You can keep stuff for necro or others for hours on end if you will toss and pick up every time you come to town.....I know it takes a couple of extra minutes.... but sometimes it is worth it! Chaaktara Kraul (Necro) Back to Top | You say that you have to kill the High Council to get access to the Compelling orb. You don't, you just have to draw them away from the temple, then you can go in and destroy the orb. I spent ages trying to kill one of them and it just kept on healing, I used over 1,500 freeze arrows (Hell level) and eventually just drew them away, I did the same for Bremm Sparkfist, and killed Mephisto without killing Bremm. Dominic Back to Top | When facing groups of monsters with one resurrecting the dead, use cold based attacks as the corpses are destroyed and cannot be raised. Amazons using Poison Spear are extremely useful against groups, but try to hit one of the ones near the back or miss crossing the path of the following monsters. This will poison groups and kill or weaken them as they cross. Lightning seems to be largely a waste of time. Concentrate on Fire, Poison or Cold. Cold is great except against Duriel. Poison seems to work the best. This seems to be the toughest boss in the game aside from Diablo. The small room is a real killer. Make sure you have at least a hireling with you or you will die as you load up. Rob Back to Top | There's a little trick that can help you earn more money...whenever you get a weapon that you want to sell, go to a person who can repair and sell. Repair your weapon to the MAX before selling and you'll earn a whole load more (e.g. I had a Breastplate (magical/green highlighted)before repairing I could sell it for about $5340...after repairing which costed about $1000, I could sell it for $10000(it's true)) Darren Back to Top | When you die and theres still a lot of monsters around go back to the fighting spot USE A WP, then make a Portal then lead the monsters away from your corps and away from the portal then die again as you restart in town go in portal then pick up your corps and your cash works every time... Bearypatch Back to Top | The only tip I can think of is when trying to kill The Summoner in the Arcane Sanctuary. The Sanctuary is huge and hard to tackle at one sitting. If you save and exit the game, it is harder on you when you go back. The demons respawn and I've even seen "champions" (much harder to kill) where I've already killed everything. When you finally get close to The Summoner, a Quest Log will appear, it simply says "kill the summoner". When you do see him, he shoots a big blue ball that drains your life fast. I was able to kill him pretty easily with a bow and arrow. He wasn't even in sight, but I got close and just started firing away. I was surprised when I did kill him. Monica Back to Top | When dealing with Shamans or any other monster that raises dead, try luring the peons away from the Shaman to where they are too far away to be raised. The Shaman don't normally follow(I haven't had one follow yet). That allows you to reduce the number of monsters to fight in a room. Luring also allows you string out the monsters and not be surrounded. Always try to fight with a narrow doorway between you and the monsters, that way at most only 1 or 2 monsters can attack at once. Be sure to hold the shift key so you don't end up walking through the door. Ragged Tiger Back to Top | i figured out a way to get 8x the EXP!!!! by god it works too. (trick requires more than 1 comp) 1. start a lan game or a b.net game with password. 2. join game with second computer 3. repeat untill enemys are too hard or you run out of computers 4. Don't ally up and you get all the money and you don't share exp! 5. instant level gaining craze!!!! my level 13 barbarian was getting massive exp. jumps! (i started over to build an axe warrior) White Goblin Back to Top | When fighting one the the special guys, running away, then blasting them with a projectile works the best. When they have lots of people, kill them off first, as the minions will probably be towards the front anyways (except for the The Fallen guy, this works. With the Fallen guy, don't bother killing the minions until he is dead, then kill the Shamans). Unless you are a bow user, pick up all arrows/bolts to sell. Sell even most of the good stuff you find if you don't think you'll use it until later on in the game. If the Sorceress, use your first 6-7 skills on warmth, no matter what element you are thinking about going for, it really comes in handy. Resist the urge the get a weapon over your starting staff, the weapons aren't worth it. If necro, skele. mages are a lot more usefull then the skele. warriors. -Luke (online D2 name: Urrim) Back to Top | |
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