Hey all! I'm new

[Aiqcuties]

Hi everyone! :howdy:

I'm new to daiblo 2 and the forums, thankyou super_gray for helping me get my account to post in forums running. I havent done anything on diablo 2 yet, except getting it up and running on my computer. I have a few questions if someone could answer them for me thanks.

What character should i start? (What is the easiest character for a starter?)
Should i play single player first, or go straight onto battle.net?
What happens if my character dies? (Does he/she drop all of her items?)

Thats all i have to ask for now, since i dont know very much about Diablo 2.

Thanks!

[Icarus]

from another thread:

a hammerdin is the easiest character to play through the game with. they can survive easily from normal to hell untwinked and without any help.

here's a hammerdin guide: http://strategy.diabloii.net/news.php?id=502

also, skeleton necromancers are fairly easy to play with and get through the game with.

guide: http://strategy.diabloii.net/news.php?id=509

What happens if my character dies? (Does he/she drop all of her items?)

when your character dies, you press escape and appear back in town. your body stays where you died with all of your items on it. none of your items pop out. you can have multiple corpses on the ground, too. if it's too dangerous to get your corpse back. i.e. its surrounded by monsters, then you can exit the game, and rejoin, and your corpse will appear in town for you to pick up.

Should i play single player first, or go straight onto battle.net?

it doesn't really matter which you play first. i would first get accustomed to the game and get a feel for the gameplay, characters, skills, etc. then move onto battle.net. but if you want to get items quicker you should play online. trading for items is an easy way to gain wealth in the community.

also read up on the basics of magic find: http://www.diabloii.net/strategy/x-guides/magic-find.shtml

have fun. :thumbsup:

[Aiqcuties]

Thankyou very much Icarus :worship: . I'll check out the links to the guide for a hammerdin and the magic find guide. If it doesnt work out, i'll try the skeleton Necromancer.

So it doesnt matter if i play battle.net first? or i dont lose my items when i die? ok, understood :lol: .

[krischan]

I suggest to start alone or with other newbies. Playing alone has the advantage that ony you decide about the speed of play, so you won't miss anything of the story. Just don't play with veterans and don't ask for advice as well. Try out everything by yourself. Get help only when it gets really frustrating. A lot of fun comes from overcoming frustration. Play through the whole story without getting well-meant advice from veterans (except these, of course ;) ). The game was most fun for me when everything was new and unknown.

Don't use any of the character guides right now, don't read these forums too much and don't try to make a "perfect" character with "godly" equipment at this moment. That will be very frustrating for a newcomer. Start a character that you would like to live through the story with.

Your first few characters probably won't survive in the highest difficulty level, but these characters' purpose is to have fun while experiencing all the new things. You can start your magic-find sorceress or all-powerful hammerdin later.

[Aiqcuties]

oh, ok. I'm going to start my very first character now, so i'll probably pick a barbarian or a Amazon and see how i go. Thanks.

[super_gray]

Ive played with several characters in my "short stint" at playing this game, Sorc, Ama, Barb, Necro, i havent tried Assa/Druid/Pala yet but the Necro i feel my necro is good enough for NM (Skellimancer) but i think he'd be a bit weak in Hell.

My sorc, who is primarily fire, is now having a tough time in Hell because of more fire immunities, and i kinda screwed her up for hell because i started doing Blizzard but found i didnt like it and went to F/ Orb (So both are pretty weak). So doing Pit runs is quite a challenge with her.

My barb is probably my best one so far, altho im now cursing myself for not adding Battle Cry to his Warcries, ive stopped lvling myself up now, and im building up my Merc who is flowing rather well, he gains his lvls pretty fast, may even start taking him on Hell-Baal runs.

Amazon, this was right at the beginnin, gonna be deleting her soon to maybe make room for a Paladin, heard theyre pretty decent.

[Jyde]

when your character dies, you press escape and appear back in town. your body stays where you died with all of your items on it. none of your items pop out. you can have multiple corpses on the ground, too. if it's too dangerous to get your corpse back. i.e. its surrounded by monsters, then you can exit the game, and rejoin, and your corpse will appear in town for you to pick up.

Icarus, you've raised an interesting point. If you don't collect your corpse and instead, restart the game (so your corpse appears in town), do you lose any items or gold etc from your corpse? Also, is there a difference if you're playing on SP or battle.net?

[super_gray]

You dont lose items on your corpse, all you lose is gold (And exp in NM/Hell). You die in Hardcore you lose everything ;).

I believe in 1.9 if your inventory was full, and you picked up an item o get your body back, if you picked up your body your items would drop on the floor, thus meaning you lost it if anyone was near you.

But in 1.10 you just get another corpse to save you from this, i remember my Necro having a Duel with my mate, i died, my potions filled my inventory, he opened a TP for me but my boots was missing. I was gonna tell him to give me them back, he was playing "all innocent", then i relised there was a 2nd body hiding behind the TP. I was glad i didnt say anythin to him :x.

If you die, leave your game, you will lose gold/all exp but get your body back (with items), but if you reclaimed your body in game youd get back a percentage of what xp was lost

[Herald of Doom]

Icarus, you've raised an interesting point. If you don't collect your corpse and instead, restart the game (so your corpse appears in town), do you lose any items or gold etc from your corpse? Also, is there a difference if you're playing on SP or battle.net?
If you have one corpse it will be fine. If you have several corpses diablo save the on with the most *gold* value. So if you have one corpse with usefull low lvl uniques and want to pick it up but you die (and you have accidently picked up 2 items that sell for 35K each) and you exit the game, you'll start with those two "expensive" items. At least that's how remember it, I could be a bit wrong. :)

HoD

[Gorny]

Hey Aiqcuties, welcome to the forums!

Everyone has given you great advice, but going back to your question about dying :

There is a way your character can drop items on death.

We call this "popping".

What will happen is if your characters inventory (not the stash) is full or has very limited space, the items you have equipped will end up dropping on the ground rather than going on to your corpse.

(when you die in SC or Softcore play, anything you have equipped goes on your corpse, and when you press ESC and start in town.. you must click on your corpse to pick it up and re-equip your items)

Krischan gives you good advice, as to how to start playing. Battle.net is a large place, full of people. Some people are nice, others ..well are not so nice.

Come back here with questions ...we are all here for ya!

Good luck,

~Aragorn

[krischan]

If you have one corpse it will be fine. If you have several corpses diablo save the on with the most *gold* value. So if you have one corpse with usefull low lvl uniques and want to pick it up but you die (and you have accidently picked up 2 items that sell for 35K each) and you exit the game, you'll start with those two "expensive" items. At least that's how remember it, I could be a bit wrong. :)

HoD

This doesn' happen just with low-level uniques. Just check what Charsi will pay e.g. for a WF :lol:

It doesn't depend on the sale value (which is capped at 35k), but on the buy value (which can be several 100k). Wands, staff, orbs and scepters can be ridiculously expensive - more expensive than e.g. the equipment of many killer setups. I remember back in 1.09 somebody mentioned a scepter which cost more than 3.5M to repair (i.e. more than a L99 character can hold in total)...

[Herald of Doom]

This doesn' happen just with low-level uniques. Just check what Charsi will pay e.g. for a WF :lol:

It doesn't depend on the sale value (which is capped at 35k), but on the buy value (which can be several 100k).
Oooh, working is bad for HoD, I think my brains don't get enough blood now I have to move the rest of my body :( I knew there was something wrong with my theory, but thank god we have Krischan to help us out :D

HoD

[Elgar]

i want to echo krischan's point:
play through the game without too much help. Its definately a fun experience to figure out how to get through certain situations for the first time.

With that said, i would suggest you pick a charecter you most likely will enjoy. If you like fireballs, try the sorc. if you like to go up to things and bash them, try the barb. If you like sitting back an watching your minions kill things, be a necromancer, etc.

I also echo the "solo the game first". Learing how to play, and knowing at what pace you like to play is important, and more players in a game hinder this. However you can still do this on B.net, and i sugest you do as you can then use that charecter in MP games when you choose to do so.

the others have explained the death thing pretty well.

[krischan]

Oooh, working is bad for HoD, I think my brains don't get enough blood now I have to move the rest of my body :( I knew there was something wrong with my theory, but thank god we have Krischan to help us out :D

HoD

I wrote my posting at work, too, but it seems I worked less hard than you today ;) Do don't consider your membership in the ETF on Top team as work, do you ?

Did I sense a trace of sarcasm in your posting or is it just me being a little too touchy ? No, I think you are just envious that you have to do more work than me atm :p

[Aiqcuties]

Thanks everyone! :thumbsup: You've been very helpful :worship: . I have started a barbarian on battle.net(realm~ uswest) but mostly been playing in a game by myself, he is level 12. Only times i've been into other games is when i need to ask someone a question about something, but non of them really respond. So i'll post them here.
I'm up to Andariel, (i think thats her name, for the last quest here.) My barbarian has been doing very well, and hasnt had much problem against many minnions except the ones that have lightning bolt thingies come out of them. Anyways. I get to Andariel near the end of the big long hall on catacombs level 4, but i hardly get to touch her before she kills my barbarian(which now i understand what happens when i die). Anyways.

Could someone give me some tips/advice on how to beat andariel?
What level should i be around when trying to kill her? (is level 12 too low?)
Is it better to use two weapons, or one weapon and a sheild?
Why are there two places that i can put skills?

Thats all for now.
Thanks
-Aiqcuties-

[Jyde]

Thanks y'all. I've been so afraid to lose my stuff that everytime I die, I will do all I can to reclaim my corpse. This includes packing in a stamina potion, opening a town portal, rushing in, clicking on corpse, rushing out and back through the town portal. Sometimes I make it, other times I don't. Nonetheless, I've never left my body(ies) to rot and have managed to always salvage my loot.

Well, I s'pose it's easier now that I know how it works. Still, the rush and frustration of having to reclaim my corpse was great.... tense, but great.

I'm playing on SP on Normal by the way. Yes, newbie and all.

[Rex]

Could someone give me some tips/advice on how to beat andariel?
What level should i be around when trying to kill her? (is level 12 too low?)
Is it better to use two weapons, or one weapon and a sheild?
Why are there two places that i can put skills?

Thats all for now.
Thanks
-Aiqcuties-

Her ranged poison attack is very deadly, so you better close with her. Use antidote potions (you can take one before you fight her, to get your resist poison up). I suggest using either a shield with resist poison/decrease poison length, or a big, fast two-handed weapon.

Good luck :thumbsup:

PS There are 3 skill trees, and 1 character ability tree.

[Aiqcuties]

Thanks Rex! Her big posion attack was the thing that kept killing me. I just killed her, i used an antidote and it boosted my posion resists to full! Yay! :lol: I also took a few more along. Was a long battle but i won :clap: , and she dropped a green coloured writing plated belt and a goldish colour writing short sword. Rixots Keen and Sigon's Wrap- why does it have green coloured writing? and is Rixots Keen like a special item?
I only just noticed that there were 3 skill trees. I'll be putting skill points into them now.

Thanks again Rex!

-Aiqcuties-

[Rex]

Congratulations on the victory of your epic battle :clap:

Sigon's belt is part of a set of items, called Sigon's Complete Steel. You can find it here (http://www.diabloii.net/items/item_sets/d2x-sigons_complete_steel.shtml). All set items have green text

Rixot's Keen is a unique item, hence the gold text.

There are also the common magic items (blue text) and rare items (yellow text).

[Herald of Doom]

I wrote my posting at work, too, but it seems I worked less hard than you today Do don't consider your membership in the ETF on Top team as work, do you ?

Did I sense a trace of sarcasm in your posting or is it just me being a little too touchy ? No, I think you are just envious that you have to do more work than me atm :p
I worked here (http://www.kestens.be/) for a week, in the cleaning department. It's a tough job, so I wasn't joking at all :D Cleaning a huge silo while standing on a ladder holding a bucket and a large broom isn't fun at all :cheesy:

@Aiqcuties: that's some nice items you got there for a barb. Congratz, I wish I found stuff like that from andy when I play untwinked :(

HoD

[Elgar]

Thanks Rex! Her big posion attack was the thing that kept killing me. I just killed her, i used an antidote and it boosted my posion resists to full! Yay! :lol: I also took a few more along. Was a long battle but i won :clap: , and she dropped a green coloured writing plated belt and a goldish colour writing short sword. Rixots Keen and Sigon's Wrap- why does it have green coloured writing? and is Rixots Keen like a special item?
I only just noticed that there were 3 skill trees. I'll be putting skill points into them now.

Thanks again Rex!

-Aiqcuties-

nice drops on norm Andy! Sigons wrap is part of Sigon's Full steel(?) set (you know its a set item by the green lettering), one of the best low level sets in the game. The other is a unique, hence the gold lettering. In the new ladder my charecter didnt get a unique until NM, so im jealous :worship:

[snowieken]

Don't use any of the character guides right now, don't read these forums too much and don't try to make a "perfect" character with "godly" equipment at this moment. That will be very frustrating for a newcomer. Start a character that you would like to live through the story with.

Your first few characters probably won't survive in the highest difficulty level, but these characters' purpose is to have fun while experiencing all the new things. You can start your magic-find sorceress or all-powerful hammerdin later.Best piece of advice to a newcomer I have read in a long time. This is so true. Play at your own pace to learn the game and try the powerful character builds later.

Welcome to the forums!