Help a Diablo II beginner!

[Hobo Joe]

I've just found a copy of Diablo II in my brother's stuff and I'd like to try it out as I'm aware of its reputation. I'm sure there must be some D2 veterans here so if you could give me some sound advice I'd really appreciate that. Which classes are best to begin with? Which ones will be strongest in the late game etc.?

Any general advice would be great too, or any tutorials/starter guides you could provide.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

I've just found a copy of Diablo II in my brother's stuff and I'd like to try it out as I'm aware of its reputation. I'm sure there must be some D2 veterans here so if you could give me some sound advice I'd really appreciate that. Which classes are best to begin with? Which ones will be strongest in the late game etc.?

Any general advice would be great too, or any tutorials/starter guides you could provide.

I'm interested as well; I picked up a copy at a thrift shop a few weeks ago. So far I'm enjoying it, but I'm not exactly an expert.

Here's a link to the official Blizzard run strategy guide; from what I've seen, it's almost as complete as the average wiki, but everything is straight from the horse's mouth.

 

[black_knight1337]

the barbarian is a pretty good damage dealer and tank. the thing is with diablo 2 you have to be careful when choosing where to put your stat points and skill points otherwise you may end up with a pos character which dies in 2 seconds. just a fair warning if you have the lord of destruction ep then you will get raped at the end no matter what you do. the final battle is generally just a massive spam of full rejuvenation potions. anyway good luck with it and lets see if you can play it all the way to the end.

 

[No_Remainders]

You really need to choose stat points wisely.

If you're playing Paladin, start upgrading thorns aura as early as you can, it helps.

 

[black_knight1337]

You really need to choose stat points wisely.

If you're playing Paladin, start upgrading thorns aura as early as you can, it helps.

True dat

 

[CLEVERSLEAZOID]

Personally I always found Barbarians to be good fun. High damage, and some really fun abilities. Only problem with them being that unless you decide to sword and board [one handed sword and a shield], in the later levels and the replays on Hell and Nightmare difficulties you'll find yourself taking lots of damage from lack of defense and resistances. The talents that buff those two stats from the barb tree aren't good enough to keep you on the level as some classes.

Necro's were also fun for summoning lots and lots of mobs to kill stuff for you, and the druid was good fun for turning into a bear. Assassins were also pretty bitching, but its been a good few years since I last played it.

And as for your main stats [STR DEX STA and WIS], alternate between putting all your points into STR + DEX, followed by STA.

There are some pretty good guides on gamefaqs.com for character builds.

 

[Togs]

I would kill, literally kill to be where you are now.

If I was gonna give some tips it would be-

Never put points into energy, even if your spellcaster- the gear you get will give you more then enough.

Put just enough puts into strength and dexterity to equip gear, and the rest goes into vitality.

Depth of skills is better then breadth, know your build before you start playing- theres no respec (well actually there is but its very involved and for high levels only).

Resistances are critical to defeating bosses- across the duration of the act collect gear to get it maxed for the fight, the only exception is act 1 normal where this can be difficult, about 50 should be enough given enough potions.

Only certain builds work on hell difficulty.

 

[UltraDolphins]

Well where to start... If this is your first time I would suggest a barbarian. I know a lot of people say it all depends on your play style and whatnot but you can't really argue with a tank. Just mess around and read up on the skills. You can't mess up too bad but it will be a rough journey at times.

Focus on vitality and some strength
No points in energy
some in dexterity if you need it

Get a nice fast weapon
Don't worry about crazy online items and trades until you get a good feel of the game
Click on things until they die

 

[Grospoliner]

I've just found a copy of Diablo II in my brother's stuff and I'd like to try it out as I'm aware of its reputation. I'm sure there must be some D2 veterans here so if you could give me some sound advice I'd really appreciate that. Which classes are best to begin with? Which ones will be strongest in the late game etc.?

Any general advice would be great too, or any tutorials/starter guides you could provide.

Try this http://classic.battle.net/diablo2exp/

 

[CharlesBronson]

Oh so many builds... I will share my three favs, but remember its YOUR character, do whatever the hell you think is fun.

Poison based Necro. You boost all the poison stats and horde emeralds and the like. And I also had a pet blood golem as a meat shield. This was my favorite build. Run up to a monster, stab him once, run in circles kiting him around until the poison kills him. Loved it.

Paladin archer. Weird setup I know but lots of strategy involved. Paladins usually roll in a tank setup but this one uses all the crazy auras to help supplement a bow. Frost aura works great here, slows or stops enemies in their tracks so you can blast away to your hearts content.

Wizard. Boost mana, all mana, nothing but mana. Then get mana shield. Awesome.

I know that all three of these have huge flaws, gaps in offense or defense, but I always found flawed or specific skill characters to be more fun to play in the long run. Keeps you thinking. Whatever you choose (and I do suggest the three above) have fun with it, great game!

 

[Bon_Clay]

I would kill, literally kill to be where you are now.

If I was gonna give some tips it would be-

Never put points into energy, even if your spellcaster- the gear you get will give you more then enough.

Put just enough puts into strength and dexterity to equip gear, and the rest goes into vitality.

Depth of skills is better then breadth, know your build before you start playing- theres no respec (well actually there is but its very involved and for high levels only).

Resistances are critical to defeating bosses- across the duration of the act collect gear to get it maxed for the fight, the only exception is act 1 normal where this can be difficult, about 50 should be enough given enough potions.

Only certain builds work on hell difficulty.

Good tips here. I have never put a single point into energy, it is a shameful thing to do. Though I believe you can reset points now, so you could get away with it.

The way I always did it was make a summoner Necro. Get corpse explosion, max skeleton raise and mastery, and at least one point in revive, and a bunch of curses. You can look up builds on Gamefaqs. This build will be really easy and safe to play through and get yourself some items.

Then I would make a sorc of some kind, usually blizzard as they are great for boss runs, great damage and no boss is cold immune.

 

[Crazie_Guy]

Oh this really brings me back. I hate being reminded of all my stuff that got deleted and will never come back.

All you really need to know, is get an Enigma. Or play sorc. Getting a rush to hell and doing chaos runs will get you to level 60 in a day, baal to 80, call it good. 90 is easy enough, but 100 is crazy person land.

Only enough strength and dex to equip your gear and not a single point more, the rest in vitality. Potions for any mana shortages.

Resistances are your friend.

If you want an awesometacular character that's very hard to build alone early game but becomes awesome later, try a bone necromancer. No summons, all offensive spells. 7k dmg bone spear. Amazing in PVP. Mine was able to take on any boss in the game alone save for uber tristram, and the ones that drop the components to get there. Could get the keys quite easily, though.

 

[Pearwood]

My best advice is to play single player. Battle.net has turned into one massive bitchfest about WoW. Also don't get rushed if you do play online, you get to higher levels faster but what's the point when you skip the entire game? As for what class, just try them all and play whatever feels right.

 

[babinro]

The idea is to focus all skill points on key abilities and max them out along with appropriate synergies. Stat points vary based on class, but no class should put points into energy...the focus is almost always dexterity, strength (enough to wear equipment) and then pump vitality.

Arguably the most fun class to play in Diablo 2 is the Skeleton Necromancer. Pump all points into things like Skeletons, skeleton mastery, and then a point into amplify damage and you have a solid build that only truly struggles against the act bosses.

Barbarian is an extremely boring build, but one that is effective throughout the game on all difficulties. I solo'd the game in all three difficulties using a Concentration focused build. But most barbarians will focus on Whirlwind.

Sorceress has an extremely slow start to the game, but is the easiest class to beat the game on all difficulties solo with in my opinion. I'd highly recommend focusing on Frozen Orb to cruise through most of the game, and meteor as your secondary as higher game difficulties will bring on tons of cold immune creatures. Putting a point into Teleport is extremely helpful as well. This build is painfully slow and challenging until which point you get Frozen Orb though. Max Orb and cold Mastery, Meteor and its mastery, one point in teleport.

Amazon class isn't all that fun in my opinion, but focusing on the lightning tree is your best bet in my experience.

The only druid I could solo with was one focused on the poison bite skill in the werewolf tree with a secondary weapon based damage skill in the same tree (I forget the name at this time)

Paladin focused on the cold aura was extremely effective for much of the game in my opinion. Thorns was fun early on..but at higher difficulties it becomes completely useless...avoid that skill. Zeal is a solid attack to accommodate any aura.

Lastly assassin. This is the games hard mode if you ask me. Lightning trap based assassins can really dominate a good portion of the game solo but will eventually hit the wall and become unplayable. The only true solo build I could succeed with was the tri-elemental attack focused one. Basically master two elements (fire and lightning), dabble in a finisher but don't really max it until super late game. Dabble in defensive skills as well.

 

[Hiphophippo]

Oh man. The amount of hours I spent playing this game is staggering. This game is pure nostalgia to me at this point. I would say, quite easily, that my favorite class is the summoner necromancer. It's just...so...much...fun. Also...if you don't patch the game to play online try a necro ith a blood golem and just drop down the Iron Maiden curse on things it's attacking. What a glorious bug.

 

[KiKiweaky]

Barbarian is an extremely boring build, but one that is effective throughout the game on all difficulties. I solo'd the game in all three difficulties using a Concentration focused build. But most barbarians will focus on Whirlwind.

Whirlwind you mad bro? It empties your energy orb in a matter of seconds. Frenzy Frenzy Frenzy Frenzy Frenzy and a bit of double swing, using 2 dimentional blades you can land 5 - 6 massive damage hits a second. And using the resists and stat buffs you can basicly make yourself immortal.

Well except for hell... I gave up on the hell difficulty, it was beyond reasonable how tough things were. Did you play hell with any characters? The Barbarian and necro were the only ones I took beyond level 18.

 

[cgmetallica1981]

What... I just stopped playing D2 and this was the first thread.
Paladin or Barb are the easiest and best starter classes. Paladin is very strong but not as fun to play, while Barbarian is fairly strong while being the funnest to play. Heres a tip: Plan out where to put your stat points and plan a skill tree. Research different skill trees and choose the one you would like to play as. Also consider looking up stuff about major enemies in bosses so you are sure what to have to defend yourself and counter their attacks.

 

[IndianaJonny]

Never put points in energy! (Good gear will do you just fine.)

Here's [//web.archive.org/web/20070808072323/http://strategy.diabloii.net/news.php?id=551] an old site with plenty of good builds.

 

[FallenTraveler]

I've just found a copy of Diablo II in my brother's stuff and I'd like to try it out as I'm aware of its reputation. I'm sure there must be some D2 veterans here so if you could give me some sound advice I'd really appreciate that. Which classes are best to begin with? Which ones will be strongest in the late game etc.?

Any general advice would be great too, or any tutorials/starter guides you could provide.

Left click... trust me, it works.

In all seriousness though, if you know RPG's just play, it's a load of fun no matter what you pick. I like Necromancers though, I like summoning skeletons

 

[dark-mortality]

Okay, since you are a beginner, start with the Barbarian. He's strong, can take a lot of damage, and is great to use to learn the basics.

At the very start (Mission one) Grab absolutely all items you find (except potions) and sell them. If you get crystals, sell all of them except one, ALWAYS keep one left. If you get an unidentified item (or what it's named), right-click on an identity scroll and left-click on the UD item. If you get a ring/amulet, identify it and use it.

If you use close-combat weapons, use almost all your points at strenght and vitality, you'll need it. If long-range, take 50% of the point you use on strenght and use on dexterity. Vitality is extremely important at the start and end of the game. Maces are probably the smartest weapons to use during act 1 and 2.

Think carefully through what skills you choose. You get just one chance with all the skill-points through the game. You will find a skill-point refunder later in the game, but do not use it until it's absolutely necesarry. It is probably already said, but resistance is also necesarry. With no resistance, you WILL get killed horribly fast against the final boss in each act.
(Here is a hint, Poison resistance at the end of act 1, Cold resistance at the end of act 2, lightning resistance at the end of act 3, and poison and fire resistance during the whole act 4.)

A hired partner is your best friend. Why? Because the enemies attack him and you at the same time, making it easier to kill them. Bear in mind, your assistant doesn't become good before act 3.
(Hint, If you are a Skeleton-summoning necromancer, do NOT choose the cold-wielding assistant in act 3. He will crush all your corpses making summoning almost unusable.)

And last, all final bosses in each act have an area-effect attack. The final boss in act 2 is maybe the hardest in the game because of his attack. (Diablo is also extremely annoying.)

This is all i can think of at the moment.