Diablo 2 Resurrection Thread! New/Old Players.

[sevey]

Nothing really to say, just wanted to be the 200th post in this thread.
I'll be on soon.

[Kara]

Brbz. I need to clean up my house. Be back in the next hour and a half or so.

[Kag]

Got the runes for my spirit (no rare runes for a sweet word. Love it.), so if anyone sees a Monarch hit me up and I'll give you pgems for it or something.

[TomBrend]

10-11 PST is a bit late for me... I'm East Coast.

[Master Gunner]

I should get back on this. I'll try to be on tonight and get leveling again.

[sevey]

@Kag, Monarchs aren't the easiest to find, especially with 4os. I assume you're going to use Laz to put sockets in it. Just remember the rules,
You cannot use the Add Socket Quest reward on Socketed Items.

You can only add Sockets to items that allow Sockets.

Normal items add the max number of Sockets depending on the item's level (this is determined by the level of the monster that dropped it) and the inherent maximum number of Sockets for the item's base type. So you may not always receive the "max" number of Sockets.

Magic Items will receive 1 or 2 Sockets with probability of either assuming that they are possible given the rules for normal. So you'll either get 1 Socket or 2.

Set Items, Rare Items, Unique Items, and Crafted Items add 1 Socket (1 Socket Max).

You cannot continue to add more Sockets with multiple "Add Sockets" rewards.

[Kag]

Yeah it's like 1:5k for normal monsters. I'm pretty much just gonna follow hammerdin bots around until I get something neat to trade for one or it actually drops. The best part to that is that it's pretty much unbeatable xp, but free items is good too.

[ecocd]

I finally defeated Baal on NM so I can start running hell if anyone gets on early enough. Big props to sevey for getting me all of the waypoints for Act V to power me through. It actually wasn't as dangerous as I thought it would be. I haven't set foot in hell, yet.

I think I'll hang out in Act I Hell for a while to amp up the damage on my Plague Javelin (Hellooooo Countess runs). Sure, it'll take 20-60 seconds for any creature to die in Hell, but those Lightning Immunes have to die somehow. Even at cLvl 72-75, I think it should be doing enough damage to take me through Hell Act V with some patience.

Is there a fast way to run for a socket quest? Can a new character TP to Act V without getting credit for killing Diablo? Whacking Shenk would take 5 seconds to get credit for the quest. Socketing things would be nice. Through all of NM, I never found a 4-socket polearm or a non-magical, non-socketed Bill to try socketing with my Cube.

[sevey]

You could just make a basic char and get me or reruns to norm rush you to the start of act 5, then do the socket quest. It might take 10 or 15 minutes tops because of damn act 2 and all the sodding pieces to collect but we could do it. Actually doing that a couple times would be easy and you get pretty decent drops from doing the bosses for quests (bosses killed for quests have better drop rates than normal bosses.) Hmm, I've got nothing better to do but grind my new pally, so if I'm on I'll do a rush.

[ecocd]

You could just make a basic char and get me or reruns to norm rush you to the start of act 5, then do the socket quest. It might take 10 or 15 minutes tops because of damn act 2 and all the sodding pieces to collect but we could do it. Actually doing that a couple times would be easy and you get pretty decent drops from doing the bosses for quests (bosses killed for quests have better drop rates than normal bosses.) Hmm, I've got nothing better to do but grind my new pally, so if I'm on I'll do a rush.

Cool. Does basic char have to be in the boss room when the boss is killed for it to count? Bummer about Act II - that would go faster, overall with two people running around, but one player has to be the basic char. I'm tempted to pick up another CD-KEY to be able to do this myself with 2 computers. That seems a little excessive ... but it would allow me to pick up multiple Wirt's Legs and Mephisto Soulstone quests too. Hmmmmm.

Edit: btw, does anyone know of a place to get skill tables beyond 20? Google has failed me. I see the tables occasionally in character guides, but I think they're done manually by people with +skills items. I tried plotting the damage from Plague Javelin, but it's not consistent % change from skill level to skill level even from 1-20. I'm just curious as to how I should be distributing points between Poison Javelin and Plague Javelin.

[Kag]

http://www.d2pal.com/skillplanner.html

[ChiUnit4evr]

Hey guys so I don't have any internets at my house right now. I'll be back online when I can, which is ideally next Tuesday. So sorry I haven't been online recently.

[sevey]

I may have been a bit tipsy the other night, but I remember that someone told me they found an Ist from forge. Whoever that was, would you be willing to trade it for a shako? Also I'm looking for a Ber, if anyone has a spare.

[Kag]

That was me, and sure.

[ecocd]

http://www.d2pal.com/skillplanner.html

Thanks! I suppose it should've come as no surprise, but it's always better to put points into the main skill, Plague Javelin, even measured on poison damage per frame. Unlike Lightning Fury, though, maxing the synergy makes a big difference (LF gets +1% damage - who the heck would put 20 points into Charged Strike to get 20% more damage in Lightning Fury?)

Interestingly, the increase in damage per second takes a pretty big hop at lvl 23 and lvl 29. It looks like the really big gains start piling up at lvl 29. That's a lot of +skills. Now I understand why people are always trying to squeeze another +1 skill. +1000 poison damage (~+52 damage / second) from level 28 to level 29. Another +1000 with synergy maxed for a total of 27k damage over 14.2 seconds. Brutal.

[sevey]

Ecocd, don't get intimidated by needing around 30 skill max.

And my current gear setup is:
A shako - +2
Tal Rasha's Ammy - +2
Skullder's Ire - +1
Occy - +3
Spirit Monarch - +2
HellFire Torch - +3
------
That's +13 total, so my maxed skills are at 33, and my single point skills (like Warmth) are at 14.

This is also not the best +skills setup possible. I could add Arachnid's mesh belt (+1), 2 SoJs or BKs (+1 each[+2]), an Anni (+1).

Which would bring me up to +17 skills. Even with all that, you could still add with grand charms (the only non-unique charms that can have +skill mods to them are Grand Charms, and they are always +1 to a character skill tree [ex: +1 to Traps])

So in total with ideal gear you could have +20 skills or more (depending on how much of you inventory you care to sacrifice.)

[sevey]

Also something to keep in mind is that synergies that get higher from +skill mods do not affect the initial skill. What I mean is that, say you max Plague and Poison Javs. You also have +10 total skill mods from your gear etc. making it so it shows 30 in both skills. Your plague javelin will act as it has 30 skill points in it, but is only getting 20 skill points from poison javelin as a synergy.

So technically the highest your synergies will every be is 20, because +sills from items don't affect synergies.

[ecocd]

Also something to keep in mind is that synergies that get higher from +skill mods do not affect the initial skill. What I mean is that, say you max Plague and Poison Javs. You also have +10 total skill mods from your gear etc. making it so it shows 30 in both skills. Your plague javelin will act as it has 30 skill points in it, but is only getting 20 skill points from poison javelin as a synergy.

So technically the highest your synergies will every be is 20, because +sills from items don't affect synergies.

Thanks. I'm pretty well versed in the mechanics of the game, it's just all of the multiplayer aspects that are new to me. I've even pretty much picked up the Item Drop system now. Who knew one of the best early places to find high end item drops was The Pit in Act I Hell? I'm a dork, I know, but it's those details that interest me.

[ecocd]

Holy crap, every Skeleton and Hungry Dead in Hell is lightning immune and resists poison 75%. I'm relying on a relatively low level valkyrie and Act 1 merc with a Kuko to take them down. Fortunately, Bloodraven is not immune and even lightning immune monsters trigger LF's bolts.

Somehow I need to simultaneously level up my Valk, Plague Javelin and Poison Javelin... Something tells me I didn't need as many points in Pierce. d'oh. No character's perfect I guess. Still, I wish I could do more than sit around throw plague javelines while watching my pets kill things.

At least Plague Javelin kicks ass at preventing monster heal with it's huge cloud of poison gas. Need to get rid of some of my poison charms now that I think about it. They're dropping the duration of the poison.

[Kara]

You're probably better off than my sorc. Immunes make me want to commit sorc suicide. =/

[Kag]

The best solution: do what it takes to get your hands on runes and put an Infinity Cryptic Axe on your merc.

Also the most expensive solution.

[sevey]

Guess who just lost their Sur rune because fucking blizzard doesn't trust any high runes ever. Sigh.

Moral: Don't ever trust any rune above Dol, that you didn't make yourself or see drop with your own eyes.

[ecocd]

I'm assuming Blizzard has some way to check if the item was duped rather than just randomly deleting high runes.

Do you actually find legitimate high-end items being traded amongst people you don't know personally? There's a fair chance the person that traded it to you didn't know it was duped, either.

Kara: You're right. At least I can run up and jab them to death as a last resort. Poor sorc.

Kag: I'll see what I can do about that in a few years when I've collected enough and found a socked Cryptic Axe. Is that the only case in which it's worth using an Act V merc? In my experience, they dive in headfirst and get mauled very quickly. Even my 1300 HP Valk dies under the onslaught of 5-9 Hell critters and Act V barbs don't have that much.

Still waiting on that polearm... I've even removed all my MF gear at this point in hopes of finding one. Even a broken one would be fine, because there's a cube recipe to make them normal and, thus, socketable.

[Master Gunner]

I'm glad that I'll always have good physical attacks, pets and spells to counter resistances (since while Hurricane does cold damage, tornado is all physical). However, I have next-to-no resistances myself, which is causing me to get killed. Repeatedly.

I think I'm just going to run through every zone in Act 1 from the start again, then I might be able to take down those damn skeletons in the jail/catacombs.

[ecocd]

I've been stocking up on resistances throughout the game so I have some pretty substantial gear on right now (~50% fire and lightning resist in Hell). As a javazon projectiles are pretty much the only damage to worry about so defense isn't nearly as important as resist. (and the awesome combination of Shield Block and Dodge/Evade means a javazon is pretty damn difficult to hit, in the first place.

Has your druid simply not needed the resists until now? The fastest way to get a ton of resist is to wear a shield from the Act V Runeword quest. If you don't use a shield, things will get a little tougher. Magical Prismatic amulets can be made in the Cube with a perfect gem of each type. And if you're only short on a single resist, you can make magical single resist rings in the Cube, too - useful for Poison gear to get through Act 2 and then toss afterward.

Without borrowing some awesome unique stuff from a friend, crafting is a good option. Crafting Belts will usually net you 2 resists due to the limited number of affixes available on belts (Caster crafting guarantees +5%-10% FCR and +10-20 mana bonuses in addition to any affixes you roll). I usually keep crafting until I get at least one good fire or lightning resist on my belt