noobie questions

[Ceinnon]

Hello. Haven't played D2 for a long time, just starting up again so had some questions. I have LoD expansion and 1.11 patch.

1- Just heard about and downloaded ATMA but havent installed it (amazing the amount of junk I'm collecting, the extra storage space is really needed). Is this a legal program? Anyone tried with 1.11 patch?
2- Any gem, rune etc I throw in a socket cannot be recovered for later use?

I currently have a 20 paladin, just got the Horadric Cube and farming the Act I monastery and Anderiel for gems and such. In the long run is a 2h weapon or 1h + shield better for pally?

Thanks

[aman]

Most of the people in the spf use atma including myself , it works fine with 1.11 but iirc there was a problem with mulling keys(but that doesn't matter as we don't need them)

Imo overall 1handed pala with shields is better but i guess it can depend on build and items available

Aman

[Evrae Altana]

2- Any gem, rune etc I throw in a socket cannot be recovered for later use?
Any gem or rune you put into a socket cannot be recovered for later use. However, you can unsocket your item using the cube recipe Hel rune + TP scroll + item in order to. This leaves you with a clean socket but destroys whatever was in the socket.

[Phesto]

I currently have a 20 paladin, just got the Horadric Cube and farming the Act I monastery and Anderiel for gems and such.

If gems are your main focus I recommend waiting until Act IV because you'll get much bigger gems at the same rate, or faster, and you don't really need gems for Normal bosses. I can't stress this enough.

[Diabolico x64]

1- Just heard about and downloaded ATMA but havent installed it (amazing the amount of junk I'm collecting, the extra storage space is really needed). Is this a legal program? Anyone tried with 1.11 patch?


I don't know if you realize this or not, because I remember some people who did not, but ATMA is a singleplayer program. It cannot be used to transfer items on battle.net, in multiplayer.

[Crashlander]

ATMA's fine. It's easy to use and its a lot better not having to sell that awesome unique weapon when you can now stash it away for another character. There is actually a trading section of the single player forum where people can send mule files to each other with items on them.

Erm.... really the only time to worry about getting sockets cleared is when you screw up a runeword or something but other than that there's plenty of gems and plenty of socketed items in the game :) Just start over with a fresh item and new gems. Socketed items are usually available in shops so just keep stopping and starting your game till the one you want appears in the shop.

Anyhoo, you'll probably forget about gems once you get some decent runes together ;) check out the runewords section on this site to find out how to make awesome weapons using different rune combos.

Pally's are generally better sword and shield style. Pally only sheilds have some good elemental resistances and will help you stay alive much longer.

Crash :P

[Luca Rescigno]

I should look into downloading one of those programs... I just play single player most of the time, not online, so I transfer items to mules by just leaving a game hosted on a second computer, dropping stuff on the ground, and picking it up with the mules.

As for the shield thing, it's fun finding a Paladin shield with three sockets that already has an inherent Resist All. I had a +68 res all shield by act III normal with my Pally.