Tis' I!!! Lord Newbiness TheAzn!

[PrestonBurke]

I recently bought the Diablo battlechest (and by recently i mean, last night) and found this game to be amazing. I played the orignal Diablo last night, but found it lacking in taste compared to its sequeal Diablo 2. So today after school i installed D2 and D2:LOD. I've been playing this game non stop, ignoring my homework and questions came up.

What is the best way to help organize your items?
I'm currently filled up on chest space (Half of it being chipped gems, 3 uniqe items along with expolsive potions), which leaves me with only the inventory space given to my character. What is a good rule of thumb of items i should keep and things i should sell?

What is a decent way of training your charater?
Right now i'm level 12, and it seems really hard (or at least boring) to train my character up to the next level. What is a efficent way to train your character without grinding?

What would be a efficent way to spend my skill points?
I'm playing a barbarian, and right now these are his stats:
50 Str
40 Dex
40 Vit
15 Magic

How are some tips to improve my Micro in this game?
I'm a lazy person, so Diablo mainly becomes a giant click fest. What are some ways i can improve my gameplay against a horde of monsters or a really tough boss without having to spend a lot of potions to fight them?

How do i find really good equipment?
I'm not intreasted in fighting bosses and unique monsters over and over for the magic or socketed items they drop. I'm thinking about trying Geeds Gamble option, but i only have 70,000 gold in my savings account and each gamble thing is 10,000. So what i've been doing is saving and exiting, then checking the shops for really good items. So i kinda want to know, what you guys do to find good equipment?

My Stuff currently:

Sturdy Helm: 21 Def
Gemmed Studded Leather: 1 Topaz, 1 Skull. 34 Def plus Benefits
Gemmed Large Shield: 2 Amyseth, 1 Diamond. 28 Def plus Benefits
Heavy Boots: 8 Def
Belt of the Jackal: 3 Def, +2 Mana, +8 Life
Chain Mail Gloves: 8 Def
Truimphant Axe: 4 - 11 damage.Wierd Merc Glitch:
For some strange reason, a glitch wont let me heal my Merc when she is injured. Whenever i try to drag a potion onto her potrait, it drops the item instead. Have any of you encountered this?

Yeah, well some of the answers may be more obvious than i think, but then again, i'm a D2 newb.

[Dayoh]

You will be an addict shortly i am.

What is the best way to help organize your items?
I'm currently filled up on chest space (Half of it being chipped gems, 3 uniqe items along with expolsive potions), which leaves me with only the inventory space given to my character. What is a good rule of thumb of items i should keep and things i should sell?

With the gems, the only ones you wanna keep are "flawless" and "perfect" gems, with the "flawless" gems you can transmute them into a "perfect" gem (3 of one type flawless gems = 1 perfect gem of that type). You dont need the explosie potions either. With a rule of thumb of keeping items, just keep the good ones for your char :P

What is a decent way of training your charater?
Right now i'm level 12, and it seems really hard (or at least boring) to train my character up to the next level. What is a efficent way to train your character without grinding?

Theres 2 ways,
1. Play the game normally doing all the quests, fun but can get boring.
2. Get rushed, through to the last act and do runs.
Here is the run list
1 - 20 Tristram runs (you can get to 20, if you do it with the people at the right lvl)
20 - 25 Tomb Runs (not sure about this one but it should work)
25 - 40 Chaos Runs
40 - 60 Baal Runs

Then when ur at the next difficulty rush NM Baal to lvl 75 odd, then get rushed to Hell and do Baal runs to 99 from there.

Anouther good place to do some running is in the bloody foothills, awesome EXP there.

What would be a efficent way to spend my skill points?
I'm playing a barbarian, and right now these are his stats:
50 Str
40 Dex
40 Vit
15 Magic


Well with a Barb, you will need most in Str and Vit, enough in Dex to get a decent Blocking/attack rating. For magic very little in here only get more in there if u need it.

How are some tips to improve my Micro in this game?
I'm a lazy person, so Diablo mainly becomes a giant click fest. What are some ways i can improve my gameplay against a horde of monsters or a really tough boss without having to spend a lot of potions to fight them?

It can be a very micro intensive game i feel but u get used to it. When you lvl up your hero gets better more health etc, so when u hit like lvl 15 for a barb you wont need potions much.

How do i find really good equipment?
I'm not intreasted in fighting bosses and unique monsters over and over for the magic or socketed items they drop. I'm thinking about trying Geeds Gamble option, but i only have 70,000 gold in my savings account and each gamble thing is 10,000. So what i've been doing is saving and exiting, then checking the shops for really good items. So i kinda want to know, what you guys do to find good equipment

All i can say is do boss runs and kill super uniques or trade :P

And with that merc thing maybe you didnt get it on the portriat...

EDIT: what realm you play on im on USWEST, should have a few games, i might have some stuff u can have aswell.

[Neo]

It seems as if you might be playing Classic Diablo II. Mercenaries can only be healed via the expansion -- you'll want to install that before you start playing.

You should also download the latest patch as well.

If your making a barb -- just remember, don't waste points into his Magic, since he only gets 1 mana per point, which is very very poor.

-Kupa

[PrestonBurke]

You will be an addict shortly i am.

With the gems, the only ones you wanna keep are "flawless" and "perfect" gems, with the "flawless" gems you can transmute them into a "perfect" gem (3 of one type flawless gems = 1 perfect gem of that type). You dont need the explosie potions either. With a rule of thumb of keeping items, just keep the good ones for your char :P

Then when ur at the next difficulty rush NM Baal to lvl 75 odd, then get rushed to Hell and do Baal runs to 99 from there.

Anouther good place to do some running is in the bloody foothills, awesome EXP there.

Well with a Barb, you will need most in Str and Vit, enough in Dex to get a decent Blocking/attack rating. For magic very little in here only get more in there if u need it.

It can be a very micro intensive game i feel but u get used to it. When you lvl up your hero gets better more health etc, so when u hit like lvl 15 for a barb you wont need potions much.

And with that merc thing maybe you didnt get it on the portriat...

EDIT: what realm you play on im on USWEST, should have a few games, i might have some stuff u can have aswell.
I dont think i'm ready for D2 B.Net yet. I might want to play around some more on single player before tackling the net.

And it turns out it was just some temporary glitch that prevented my Archer from getting healed.

Thanks for the advice Dayoh, esp the Gem part. I literally have 20 gems and runes in my chest. I'm going to look for some recipes that i can use the gems with in the Horadic Cube.


If your making a barb -- just remember, don't waste points into his Magic, since he only gets 1 mana per point, which is very very poor.

That was a very important thing i needed to know. I was thinking about spending some of my skill points on Mana the next time i level up. But my current mana level will sustain me.

I'm a level 18 Barbarian right now. :D
50 Str
50 Dex
50 Vit
20 Mana

I'm on Act II right now, playing the second mission were i have to find the Horadic items. The Horadic cube seems pretty cool; and i think i might take Dayohs advice on getting rid of my chipped gems and using them in making full Rejuv potions.

Rejuv Pots = Life Savers

I still have my old Archer Merc, i really like her a lot. Shes very helpful in Mini-Boss battles like with Radament. Since Radament could reserruct his minions, my Archer kept on distracting them while i smashed Radaments skull to a pulp. I'm wondering if its possible to have more than one Merc, but i doubt it.

But unfortuantley, she wasnt that helpful in the fight against Andariel. My merc just ran straight up her and got a 1 hit KO by the succubus. And boy, Andariel scared the living jeebies out of me. Since she took out my backup i was left to deal with her and ending up running around the pool of blood and tossing potions at her. I finally worked up the courage to fight her, and it was pretty funny since she was so large that it looked like my Barb was bashing her V-Card. And she wasnt as tough as i expected, only took one Rejuv and 2 Minor health pots.

[Neo]

As a side note about mercenaries, you might pickup a "Defensive" Mercenary from the NPC north of the Waypoint in Act2. That mercenary has the Defiance Aura which increases your defense.

You can also get a Prayer Aura (heals hp every 2 seconds) via "Combat" and get Blessed Aim (increases your Attack Rating which helps to hit monsters) via "Offensive"

Hope that makes sense. Give the merce any old Polearm or Spear and whatever armor that drops and he'll be your best friend.

As for your stats, it might be a good idea to get 100+ str first, and then dump points into Dex or Vit. Note that Dex really only helps if you use a shield. If your 2handed (ie: Maul Barbarian, Polearm, etc...) then Dex is somewhat wasted.

Remember also that for your actual spells, you should get Battle Orders -- start maxing that as soon as possible. Only put 1 point into Battle Command. For other "warcries" you might use Shout, which increases your defense, Taunt which brings monsters to you, and Howl which causes them to run from you.

You'll want to pick one mastery and stick with it (don't dump points randomly into each mastery, just pick one, like Sword Mastery and max it). Normally 1 point into Increase Stamina, Faster Run/Walk, and Iron Skin, Natural Resistances are enough.

Then just decide on your combat skills.

Frenzy Barbs are incredibly fun -- and hyper. Concentrate based bards are sturdy, and usually include some Whirlwinding.

Uhh, rambling. Hopefully you can pick out a few things from that thats helpful.

-Kupa

[IrishDutchman]

I'm crappy at Diablo myself, but my only advise is:

Don't use your gems until you get further into the game.

You'll be able to transmute 'em into better ones, and try only socketing items you think you'll be using for a while.

[Giantfish]

Well, if you'll only play single player, go ahead and use your gems. The odds of finding runes by yourself are very low (I've been trying to find them by myself for awhile now...)

[PrestonBurke]

I find the Magic Mercs in Act 3 pretty friggin uber. I hired a level 19 Cold spelled mage, and hes the biggest life saver i ever had. All those little midgets in the Jungle are annoying so i use Shout to scare them away, then have my mage pick them off from the distance.

I'm on the Khalims Will quest of Act 3 and i cant find the Kurast Bazarr entrance to the Sewers. Where is that exactly?

[Neo]

There are entrances to the sewers in Bazaar, and I believe Upper Kurast. Normally they are near the middle of the area, in a sort of shallow pit area, on the minimap it appears sort of like a colored splotch..

err something. Just poke around you'll find it.

If you are playing single player, you might enjoy using ATMA (http://atma.diabloii.net/) to help you organize your stuff. Other single players swear by that program (and I mean, they scream its praises >.>).

-Kupa

[PrestonBurke]

Hehe, i'm on Act IV right now. I have to unlock Diablo chamber and fight him myself. Should be fun.

On a sadder note, my bank stash is now offically overflowed with gems, jewels, and runes. And a portion of my inventory has gems also.

I cant find any decent armor here. I have:

Sturdy Plate Mail : 142 Defense. I'm hoping to find something better than this, but so far i have no luck.
Brutal Giant Axe of Blight: 31 - 64 Damage with 1 - 16 Posion damage per second.
Stronge Great Helm of the Fox: 49 Defense, +10 health.
And some amulets and rings that provide resistance, and unique gloves and boots that i wont bother to list.


And my level 25 Cold Mage died, and Tyreal wont let me revive him. =( Its lonely here in the pits of hell.

[Neo]

Watch out for Iron Maiden... ;)

-Neo

[PrestonBurke]

Despite getting killed by Diablo at least four times, i found fighting the Lord of Terror one of the best boss fights ever.

I'm in the begining of Act V. It was clever how Ba'al tricked the old man into believing he was Tyreal. And the army that Ba'al massed was unbelievable. They were like the Orcs in LOTR.

[Giantfish]

A lot of people have trouble with the Ancients first time around.

Make sure you focus on the Ancients one at a time. Let your mercenary engage one or two of them and then take on the third yourself. Make sure you have plenty of healing items and heal both your mercenary and yourself whenever necessary.

[PrestonBurke]

I've decided to give reputation to anybody that helped me, so thanks guys.

[IrishDutchman]

Despite getting killed by Diablo at least four times, i found fighting the Lord of Terror one of the best boss fights ever.


Seriously? I demolished him the first time, also with a barb. What lvl were you, and what was your lightning resistance?

[PrestonBurke]

Seriously? I demolished him the first time, also with a barb. What lvl were you, and what was your lightning resistance?
I had a low level, around 24 or 25. I cant remember my lightning resistance, but was probbaly a low 20'ish.

[andman3000]

Here is one tip that really helped me alot and that is. one hand on the mouse button. and Ctrl+1,etc any skills you have. And have your left hand on the number 1 and 2 keys, one on r to toggle running, and one on tab to switch the map on and off.

In that position you also have easy access to the Ctrl+1,etc buttons.

I hope that helps.

[IrishDutchman]

I had a low level, around 24 or 25. I cant remember my lightning resistance, but was probbaly a low 20'ish.

Oh, ok. It's not crucial, but 100 lightning resistance helps immensely. I think I did him 1st at lvl 28 or so, with 100 lightning resistance. You can survive that lightning beam he shoots for way longer, which is his most devastating atttack. A lil' fire resistance doesn't hurt either, but lightning is most important.

[Neo]

light resistance maxes at 75...

skill shortcuts are default f1-f8 -- to set shortcuts type "s" mouseover a skill and press f1-f8 and the skill will be assigned to that fkey.

For example, I also set Town Portal (on every character) to F6.

-Neo

[IrishDutchman]

light resistance maxes at 75...


Heh, could be. Haven't played the game in ages. Anyway, what I mean is:
'Max out your lightning resistance.'

Thanks.

[GrassDragon]

I've actually remapped the skill shortcuts. Because I'm on a Mac laptop, I use the command key to right click, which is right next to the spacebar. I've remapped all of the skill hotkeys from the higher function keys to Z-B. Five is definitely enough for your most used skills; if you're a Nec and you have a lot of curses or something there are still the function keys for those rarely used skills.

[Neo]

See I cant do that, because i use the default hotkeys ("s" opens up right 'quick skill' thing, c opens up character screen, etc...)

I have begun using 5-0 for extra skills if I need them.

-Neo

[GrassDragon]

Move the character screen to A and you have almost the whole bottom row free.

[PrestonBurke]

light resistance maxes at 75...

skill shortcuts are default f1-f8 -- to set shortcuts type "s" mouseover a skill and press f1-f8 and the skill will be assigned to that fkey.

For example, I also set Town Portal (on every character) to F6.

-Neo

Oh so thats how it works. I thought you could assign the skills to normal keys like a,s,d,f instead of the "F" keys.

Oh i defeated Baal, he was a lot easier that i thought he would be. In my opinon the diffculty rating of the bosses would be:
1. Diablo
2. Baal
3. Mephisto

I'm now playing on Nightmare diffculty, for some strange reason i want to document every single item there is in the Diablo world with ATMA.

I've been saving up magic and socketed items, then used ATMA to export them into there catogory files. Waste of time, but whatever.

[andman3000]

Just watch out for using some weapons with socket for the reason is that some units in nightmare and in hell are immune to cold,fire and lightning. So you dont want to have a sword that does 30 damage and with 4 perfect fire gems. (I just made up the damge thing , I havn't played in a long time.)

Maybe you should have two swords with one being fire and one being cold damage?

[Giantfish]

You can assign skill hotkeys to regular keys. There are 16 skill hotkeys. Only 8 are used by default. Just go to configure controls to change them around. I have a, s, d, and f as hotkeys to my most commonly used skills.

[PrestonBurke]

How do i acess the Cow realm? Everytime i try to combine Wirts leg and a Tome of Town Portal my character says that he cant use it yet.

And do i gain the same amount of experience from training on Nightmare level Act I monsters as if i were training on Act V on normal? It seems like it takes a little bit longer to gain experience "here", than "there".

[Giantfish]

You must have finished the fifth act of a difficulty to access the cow level for that difficulty.

[Neo]

Must have killed Baal.

Go back to Normal Difficulty and try again.

Also, be aware that once you kill the cow king, you will no longer be able to visit it again. So its generally a good idea to leave him alone. He's always in or near his "pen" (you'll understand it once you visit).

-Neo

[IrishDutchman]

^ Just to clear things up, Neo means the cow king. Not the cow kind. Typo.

[Neo]

rofl, thanks =P

"cow kind" Haha, "dont kill any cows!" i bet that sounded wierd =P

-Neo

[PrestonBurke]

Strange, i can transmute the portal in Rouge encampment but not Harrogath. =\

Well these hell bovines are fun to slaughter. They pack a nasty punch but low defense. Hehehe... plenty of loot though. An iritating thing about them is that, my defense rating for them is that they have a 17% chance to hit me, but it feels like they hit me everytime.

I tried looking for the Cow king, but realized that he fell to the slaughter of my axe among his minions. I seriously spent at least 15 minutes searching a cleaned out map for him but realized i already killed him.

[Neo]

Heh.

You can only open the cow portal in Act 1 -- it will not work elsewhere in any of the other acts.

You can open it once per difficulty -- that is, you can open it in Normal as many times as you want until you kill the Cow King. Then you can do the same in NM and then in Hell.

-Neo

[grover1311]

ah the fun of slaughtering cows that walk on 2 feet

[Razorstorm]

I have bought it recently. Its real good. Im going to get expansion soon. Do you have to use the 3D thing with LOD?

[bloodbane]

everyone likes saying moo

[andman3000]

What do you mean by 3D thing Razorstorm?

[Aqo]

I think he means the setting which you select after installation.
If that really is what he was referring to - no, you don't have to use it. I prefer the other option myself even.

[WimzWaben]

Hrm nasy ape said maxing light res to fight diablo, but his red hose thing is half fire/half phys dmg, so you'd want to use fire res and anything with "reduce damage by x%"(like rockfleece or string of ears)

[WimzWaben]

Nvm I lied, It is Half lightning XD, so yes max light res and use damage reduce gear if hes a problem next time around.

[IrishDutchman]

I had these awesome boots I saved for fighting diablo, with some insane light resistance. Can't remember how much, but if memory servers 40 or something. Anyway, I easily did it the first time, but when I tried again I forgot to wear the boots, and I didn't have my light res maxxed. Got pwnd. :(

[PrestonBurke]

Man, i wish there was a way to "re-invest" your skill points into other skills. Now that i think about it, i spent a lot of skill points into useless stuff that probbaly would have been better in other skills.

Like Leap for instance, level 4 currently and i don't even use the skill. I want to take away 3 points from it and put it into Find Potion or a defensive or offensive warcry.

I never understood why i sold every Charm i had. It would have been a lot smarter for me to save them up to boost my Characters stats, but no....

[WimzWaben]

Something they should add in d3 :D
I hate screwing up stat points or skills... I did that with my nova necro.. accidentaly gave him 100 base strength(shift-clicked when I was adding str on accident... it had been about 20 lvls since I spent any stats, so the whole stack went into str) when he only needed 30. 70 points that could have gone to vitality X(
The only way to fix it is to remake your character :(

[PrestonBurke]

Something they should add in d3 :D
I hate screwing up stat points or skills... I did that with my nova necro.. accidentaly gave him 100 base strength(shift-clicked when I was adding str on accident... it had been about 20 lvls since I spent any stats, so the whole stack went into str) when he only needed 30. 70 points that could have gone to vitality X(
The only way to fix it is to remake your character :(
Or some really smart programmer makes a program that can edit your skill and stat points so you can switch them around. But the thing is that you can't add more stats or skills than what you already have. I hate cheating in a game, just ruins the "fun" process of grinding.