Diablo II: Expansion Pack (release date!!!)

[Dis]

well with all those cold spells, yes more warmth will probably be necessary (esp in the beginning normal level).

I'm getting burnt out on this game though. Melee characters just aren't fun. My druid is kind of fun. But my barbarian is a pain in the ass. I haven't found any swords whatsoever. The sword I'm using now came in nightmare act2 before the expansion. I'm in act 5 nightmare now. I'm not doing diddly damage to these monsters.

I find tones of assassin weapons, but no good swords.

This game is broken. Plain and Simple.

This is why the sorceress is the only character I can play now. They don't rely on finding weapons to be good. I can't even find any good items to trade with other people. I'm at the end of act5 nightmare. And I still only find the same set items I found in normal level.

It takes 10 seconds to kill one of those blood lord (I think is name) in act 5 nightmare. I can't handle a pack by myself. Tell me how that is fun?

The sorceress is the only character I will use from now on, unless they improve item drops. Less assassin items, and more barbarian items (besides helmets- I see a ton of barb helmets, but no swords whatsoever).

even if they nerf the firewall (most likely), the sorceress will still have the advantage of not needing to find good items just to keep the game moving along to the next act.

[The Mad Monk]

I think it looks better, but it's hard to say without actually playing the build. One point in warmth is enough to start with, but don't hesitate to add more if you think your mana isn't recovering fast enough.

How much do you expect to depend on skill/mana/mana regen boosts from gear?

Both diabloii.net and the lurker lounge have reams of data, if really want to get into the nitty-gritty of 'build theory'.

BTW, anybody here read the ongoing adventures of Naked Babe?

[OldWarrior_42]

DA ... or just D here at Apolyton . I have a level 37 Barbarian that I am currently using in Nightmare...but Still in Act I.

He has 2 excellent swords that kick ass, I ended up buying them both, as the ones I have found are not as good. But I have put almost all of my skill points in just 3 areas. Sword mastery, Frenzy and Natural resistance.

And when I get into a melee and just use constant Frenzy .... with these 2 swords, I rip everything to shreds. I love to go into a packed area and clean house.

If I can remember to write down what swords and attributes they have, I will post them here when I next get a chance.

But the Barbarian can actually be a very powerful and fun character to play. At least for me. I hope you have better luck in getting some weapons that you can enjoy.

[Dis]

you don't get tore apart with no shield?

I probably could do better with 2 swords. anyways beserk lowers my defense to 0 anyways. but my shiled deflects a lot (I still have around 65% blocking with my dex mod)

[OldWarrior_42]

Nope....no torn apart.....and no shield . I actually beat Diablo in Normal, standing toe to toe and hacked him up eventually with my 2 swords and frenzy. Also lots of potions. Health and mana.

But yeah, I get along without any shield whatsoever and so far in act 1 of nightmare I have found nothing to give me a hard time yet. And I don't use beserk. I think frenzy is the better skill.

If you create another Barbarian and go through the game again, try just feeding sword mastery and frenzy and of course natural resistance. You also obviously will need to waste a few points to go down the tree to frenzy but thats life.

[Chowlett]

Something just struck me. I've seen all of the following magic modifiers (or their effects) on item's I've picked up...

Angel's, Monk's, Summonner's, Acrobat's, Slayer's, Lion Branded, Shaman's.

For those of you that don't know, those give +1 to these skills:

All Sorc, All Paladin, All Necro, Amazon Magic + Passive, All Barb, Paladin Combat Skills, All Druid.

However, I haven't as yet picked up anything that adds to Assassin skills, despite having characters in Act II nightmare. Do such items exist?

[DinoDoc]

Sorceresses are boring me. I'm going to start an assassin. Here's the build I'm following:

No Martial Arts

Shadow Disciplines:

Burst of Speed: 3 points

Cloak of Shadows: 1 point

Fade: 3 points

Shadow Warrior: 1 point

Mind Blast: 20 points

Shadow Master: 20 points

Traps:

Wake of Fire: 1 point

Lightning Sentry: 20 points

Wake of Inferno: 20 points

Death Sentry: 5 points

(1 point in all prereq)

[Diablo, Bro. of Mephisto]

I like the amazon the best. my strategies are as follows:

Make your Amazon a Bowazon, though they may not do as much damage, you will most likely not die as much, and ranged attacking in hell difficulty is invaluable.

I use Ice Arrow in my left hand, so I shoot 1 every time. in my right hand I use strafe. I level up both those skills 'til their maxed. I also go for the passave skills, like penetration I max out as soon as possible, so I can have good attack rating. the dodging skills are very usefull as well, especially if you are a spearazon/javazon. and the "chance to do double damage" skill is also very usefull when you are a bowazon.

the valkyrie I try to max as well, in hell difficulty she provides excellant distractions to the harder monsters like the bosses. though she is usuless in attacking, since she can't hit worth crap. I just use her has a deception while me and my merc go in for the kill.

the freezing arrow is good to use when facing the physical immune guys in hell difficulty. though it drains your mana like no other.

I like to keep my atts like this: (I am lvl 78)

strength: 230+
Dexterity: 300+
vitality: 100+
energy: 80+

having high strength is good for equiping the high lvl elite armor. the dexterity of course is good for attack rating and damage (when using a bow or Xbow). high vitality is good for life. having nice mana is good for the skills that require more mana (e.g. freezing arrow).

right now my amazon is using Eaglehorn bow, which so far as I know, is the best legit bow in the game.

stone of jordan ring is good for boosting your spells and your mana. my other ring I use is a prismatic ring, +15 to all resists, and +10 to both dexterity and strength.

my amulet is...forgot its name, (this is the legit version) but it is +20 to all resistances, +2 to all skills, and +5 to all attributes. there is a hacked version which is like +250 to all resists, +7 to all skills, and +95 to all attributes. I have the hacked version too, but I prefer to be legit. (I play open b.net and single player, the realms are too laggy for me)

[Dis]

well the patch is out. many, many changes. although none to extreme

the biggest is firewall. Before my level 16 firewall (3 mastery) was doing around 1800 damage. But now does around 1500 damage. but 15 % isn't too bad. it was needed.

there are also changed to amazon arrows, I'm not sure how that works.

quite a few other minor changes. you can now give potions to your hireling much easier.

[The Mad Monk]

The Great Massacre of 1.09

Looks very much like what happened to DinoDoc's necro, not so long ago. Overtime at work enabled my characters to duck the blow...any casualties here?

[DinoDoc]

I'm thinking a building a necro to go with the assassin I have in progress.

I have a question about ethereal Iron golems. Does the ethereal mod give them the ability to break the physical immunity of monsters?

TMM: You mean that wasn't just a random accident that killed my original necro? Jesus, I pity anyone that has to suffer such a fate. Especially if they play ladder. How's your character doing anyway?

[The Mad Monk]

Sorry it took so long to get back...

What happened was undoubtedly an accident--and all Blizzard's fault. Expansion characters would be selected for play, but be booted out of games for not being expansion characters; the next time those characters entered a game, they were level 1, with only the level one starting gear! There were a number of level one matriarch/patriarchs running around (or just quietly sobbing) that evening...

A rollback apparently cleaned that mess up.

My characters are all doing fine; I want to get in more play time in with my assasins and druids (my highset level assasin, Dark_Creampuff, is now level 22), but I'm too busy obsessing on getting a Po rune or five (hundred ). To that end, I've been busy 'runehunting' in nightmare with my bowazon.