Building Wealth on the Ladder: A Guide for the Poor and Impoverished

[handofnaz]

Building Wealth on the Ladder: A Guide for the Poor and Impoverished

Hey all. I’m Handofnaz, and this is my first attempt at writing a guide to, well, anything. This is just a compilation of things I’ve learned from playing the game and from other people, on the forums and off. I hope this offers enough information for the wretched and poverty-stricken among us. Comments and suggestions are very welcome. Happy reading.

Contents

I. Introduction
II. Starting Out
a. Character Choices
b. General Gameplay
c. Equipment
III. Muling
IV. Magic Finding
V. Building Your Wealth
a. Gold
b. Gems
c. Charms
d. Jewels
e. Uniques
f. Set Items
g. Rares
h. Socketables and White Items
i. Ethereal Items
j. Runes
k. Runewords
l. Keys and Organs
m. Unique Charms
VI. Trading
VII. Career Options
VIII. Character Retirement
IX. Etiquette
X. Closing and Credits
XI. Quick Links


I. Introduction

So you finally got the modem up and running and you’re ready to break into the wide, wild world of Battle.net. You’re thrilled about the possibility of being able to quickly trade for equipment and items that will make your characters the best that they can be. Just one problem: you have nothing to trade. Fear not. It is every new player’s predicament, and older players go through it every time the Ladder resets. This is a guide that will help you gradually build the wealth that you truly feel you deserve. Now, I’m not promising godliness and high-level runewords cluttering your stash overnight. But I can promise that you will learn quite a bit about amassing wealth and excellent items, or, as I like to say, making the moneys.

I’ll be writing this in easy to understand terms, and I won’t bog you down with complicated formulas, jargon, charts, or anything of the sort. This is a guide to get you off the ground. If you’re interested in more specific details about the game (say, magic find ratios and percentages, item levels, treasure class levels, etc.), you can go ahead and check the many guides these forums have to offer. For now, let’s get on to making you super-rich! Or, rich. Or, just appropriately moneyed.


II. Starting Out

Everything’s fired up and you’re ready to go. Here are a few fundamental basics to help you make those crucial early-career choices.


a. Character Choices

Everyone knows that any character in the game can be effective at magic finding, or MFing, in most cases the primary method of wealth building in Diablo II. What you do is slap on some equipment with the mod “x % Better Chance of Getting Magic Item”, go kill some monsters, and hope for the best. If you’re lucky, you’ll end up with a bunch of great magical, rare, set, and unique items to use, store, or trade. People spend countless hours running various areas in the game in the hopes of finding bigger, better things. MFing is discussed in more detail in its relevant section. For now, let’s talk about creating the first character with which you plan to MF and ‘do business’ in the early game.

Like I said, any character can be turned into a magic finder. Two specific builds, however, stand out for their own unique capabilities. The first is the Fishymancer (http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=349093), a type of summoner necromancer that is named after the build’s designer, Nightfish. The Fishymancer maxes the skills Raise Skeleton, Skeleton Mastery, and Corpse Explosion, in that order. What he ends up with is a very durable army of skeletons and a way to clear entire crowds the moment the first monster drops. The second is Sasja’s very well designed dual-elemental sorceress, the Meteorb (http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=254070), so named for her use of the skills Meteor and Frozen Orb. This makes her a versatile character, as her main skills allow her to deal with monsters rapidly and efficiently. See the provided links to read up on the guides.

Now, I know I’m going to get criticized for plugging these guys, but there are very sound reasons for using one or the other for a primary magic finder. First, neither the Fishymancer nor the Meteorb demand very specific equipment to be effective killers. A few plus skills and some resists will be enough to take them through the game. Second, taking away their main combat gear in favor of magic find equipment will not necessarily cripple them. You can put them in perfect topaz-socketed armor and they’ll still rip things to pieces. In other words, the Fishy and the Meteorb are two of the cheapest characters to start out with.

Just some information on the two builds to help make your choice. The Fishymancer very rarely gets hit since he’s constantly surrounded by an army of skeletons. This makes him less reliant on protective gear (i.e., high defense armor, damage reduction, + life, and to an extent, resists). His mix of skills also allows him to kill any, I repeat, any monster in the game, regardless of immunities. However, he kills somewhat more slowly than other characters.

The Meteorb is a walking cannon, what with her huge elemental damage spells. Frozen Orb can single-handedly kill crowds, and Meteor makes short work of larger, meatier targets. A highly synergized Fireball is also very useful as a rapid-fire attack. The availability of Teleport allows her to complete magic find runs at top speed. Like most other sorceresses, however, the Meteorb is very fragile. Accidentally teleporting into a crowd can spell instant death, and not having sufficient resists can be extremely dangerous, especially against Gloams.

Basically, it’s safety versus speed. A Fishy kills slowly but surely, while a Meteorb rips through crowds rapidly, unless the crowds rip through her first.

There is, of course, nothing stopping you from leaping straight into the fray with a build of your choice. If you feel more comfortable going right into the game with a Kicksin, then do so. If your preference leans more towards Frenzybarbs, then hey, go ahead and play one. Just keep in mind their reduced efficiency at magic finding, as most other builds apart from the two initially mentioned suffer greatly when their main combat gear is switched out for magic find equipment. A good compromise would be to play both your favored character and a magic finder, so you can have one working to equip the other.


b. General Gameplay

Everyone knows this, but I’ll keep it short for the benefit of those who may need it. It’s simple. Leave the Rogue Encampment, hit things, pick up gold and blue items, sell, rinse, repeat. There are a few important points to note, though.

This is painfully obvious, but you should always carry around a tome of identify with you, always, in case you want to identify on the go. That way you can chuck out items with useless characteristics to make room for more things before you need to make a trip back to town. It goes without saying, but a tome full of scrolls of town portal, or at least a row in a belt, are invaluable. Also, if you aren’t playing an assassin, a set of keys can come in handy.

Be sure to pick up class-specific items, as these tend to appear with loads of staff mods (pluses to individual skills and such), consequently selling for huge amounts of gold. You’ll want the gold for gambling. Just trust me on this. The best items to pick up for resale are necromancer wands and sorceress orbs, as they take up the least space and carry the best potential for price in terms of inventory space to gold. Necromancer heads, staffs/staves, barbarian helms, druid pelts, and sometimes assassin claws can also be good for selling. Also, be sure to identify items specific to your own character class. You never know when you’ll find something better.

It’s safe to ignore most lower runes and low-quality gems at first, unless you plan to cube them up to better runes and higher-quality gems. Also, chipped gems are ideal for socketing very early in the game. They can add elemental damage when placed in weapons. Chipped rubies and sapphires can add life and mana, respectively, when socketed in armor or helms, and can help out immensely with early game problems.

Pick up every jewel and charm you see. Some of these can spawn with amazing mods and can be traded off. Finally, as Nightfish states in his Fishymancer guide, pick up every flawless gem you find and use the Horadric cube to upgrade them to perfect gems (3 flawless gems of the same kind = 1 perfect gem). Perfect gems can buy you some cheap items from other players, and can be very useful for rerolling charms (see section below).


c. Equipment

As a starting player, you naturally won’t have much to work with. Things you pick up or buy from the game’s merchants are typically serviceable until replaced by a better drop or purchase. Remember the gold I was talking about? Well. Here’s where it comes in handy. Working under the assumption that you’ve decided to go with a Fishy or a Meteorb, here are things you will want to acquire, all realistically attainable by Nightmare difficulty:

• A wand, orb, or staff with +3 to the skill tree you use the most. Wands and staves can be bought from the magic vendors (Akara, Drognan, Ormus, Jamella, and Malah). Orbs can’t be bought and are randomly dropped by monsters. Orbs are better by far, since they free up your other hand, allowing you to use a shield for resistances, blocking, or even + skills. Note: necromancers should also look out for heads (class-specific shields) with pluses to Skeleton Mastery and Raise Skeleton.

• An amulet with +3 to your skill tree. These can found while adventuring or gambled from Gheed, Elzix, Alkor, Jamella, Nihlathak, and later, Anya. If you gamble an amulet with pluses to other character skills, keep it anyway. You might decide to make a character with that class later, and it can help you out while you develop him/her. Some players also trade for these. Keep your eyes open.

• A circlet with +3 to your skill tree. Also gambled. This is not absolutely necessary, as circlets are very expensive when gambled. Also, you’ll probably want to free up your helm slot for a magic find helm.

For leveling purposes, just use whatever else you’ve picked up or bought. When going on magic find runs, however, you’ll want to have the following:

• A helm socketed with 3 perfect topazes. Remember what I said about cubing those gems? Yeah. This will give you an easy 72% MF. The earliest three-socket you’ll find should be a crown.

• Armor socketed with 4 perfect topazes. Hello, 96% MF. Delicious. The earliest four-socketed armor you’ll find will be gothic plate. You’ll find a plain socketed one while adventuring, or you can buy a magical one (with the Artisan, Mechanic, or Jeweler prefix) from the vendors.

Congratulations! You now have a setup which gives you plus 6-9 levels to your favorite skills and 96% to 168% MF, all for the low low price of playing the game. Now, what about the rest of your stuff? Honestly, it doesn’t matter, as long as it helps you kill and stay alive. If you can afford additional MF on your gloves, rings, boots, belt, etc, then go right ahead and use it.


III. Magic Finding

I’ll try to make this short and sweet, as there are tons of guides out there that detail everything you need to know about magic finding, Darnoc’s Bnet Magic Find Guide (http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=416239) being an excellent example. I won’t be discussing percentages and such, just the basic necessities.

Magic finding, or MFing, is when you go out and hit certain target monsters or areas wearing as much MF equipment as you can afford, killing them, and hoping for excellent item drops. While the 168% mentioned above isn’t optimal (most people believe in at least 300%), it’s a fairly good start for the fledgling MFer. Keep in mind that no amount of magic find will guarantee that the items you want will drop. More magic find only means a better chance to find magic items. The more MF you have, the better the possibility to find magic, rare, set, and unique items from monsters, in that order. Also remember that the more MF gear you wear, the more you compromise your killing speed. Try striking a good balance between high MF and kill speed.

Basically, when a monster is killed, the game calculates for the chance that an item will be magical (blue), rare (yellow), set (green), or unique (gold), with the highest chance for blue and the lowest chance for gold. For more items to drop from monsters, you need to be in a game with more players. In other words, the more people there are in the game, the more items killed monsters will drop. Note that this doesn’t mean that more uniques will automatically drop. It only means that there will be more items for your MF to affect. For more information on magic find percentages, diminishing returns, etc., check this (http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=416239).

Here’s a small list of some of the more popular magic find targets in the game.


Bosses and Superuniques

• Nightmare Andariel: while she doesn’t exactly drop great items, NM Andariel is the best target for finding the Stone of Jordan, as she can only drop three of the unique rings (Manald Heal, Nagelring, and the SOJ itself). I wouldn’t recommend her for much else, though. Don’t keep your hopes up. There’s like a 1 in 1650 chance of a Stone dropping or something. It’s entirely possible, but it’ll take some patience.

• Nightmare Mephisto: the first guy worth repeatedly running. You’ll get some pretty good equipment from him.

• Hell Andariel: again, not quite the best source of drops, but still run constantly for those dedicated to playing full magic find games each time.

• Hell Mephisto: here’s where the fun begins. Very good stuff, including end-game items like the Harlequin Crest (or Shako) and Verdungo’s Hearty Cord.

• Hell Eldritch and Shenk: famous for being so close to each other, that is, smack north and south of the Frigid Highlands waypoint, respectively. Good for some decent items.

• Hell Pindleskin: found right through the portal Anya opens for the Nihlathak quest. Kill everything here, repeatedly, if necessary. Pindleskin himself hates me and hardly drops anything, but one of the normal, non-minion monsters in his garden once dropped me Skullder’s Ire. Very nice.

• Hell Baal: the Man. He can drop anything in the game. Yes. Run him. Now.


Level 85 Areas

These are places where the Unique bosses, Champions, minions, and monsters have very high treasure class levels, meaning they can drop many of the best items in the game. They’re also great places for leveling.

• Act 1: The Mausoleum: one of the two crypts in the Burial Grounds where Blood Raven is found.

• Act 1: The Pits: located in the Tamoe Highlands. Take the Outer Cloister waypoint and follow the road.

• Act 2: Maggot Lair level 3: not a very popular place, for very obvious reasons.

• Act 2: Ancient Tunnels: found under a trap door in the Lost City.

• Act 3: Durance of Hate: again a great area. Don’t just ignore everyone and head straight for Mephisto. Kill everything for best results.

• Act 4: River of Flame: this has its own waypoint. It’s been suggested that the City of the Damned is a better starting waypoint for this, since you can take the stairs down and start from the very beginning of the River.

• Act 5: Worldstone Keep level 2 and 3: and all the way up to the Throne of Destruction and the Worldstone Chamber. That’s a long way down, and Baal is smack at the end of it, making for another great MF target. Nightfish has an excellent detailed guide on running the WSK here (http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=349147).

There are other great places and targets for magic find runs. Again, check this thread (http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=416239) for more information.


IV. Muling

Muling is defined as the transfer of items between your current character and a backup character created for the purpose of storage. It’ll be useful to have a couple of mules lying around to help keep items you won’t be using immediately, or stuff that you plan to trade. Make sure to play with or at least leave your mules sitting in the Rogue Encampment for a total of two hours (split up or continuous) to perm them. You don’t want them expiring and taking all your hard-earned goodies with them. Some people also use characters that they no longer play with as mules.

There are two kinds of muling. The first method involves a friend you trust. Just create a Normal private game, have him join it, and ask him to sit in it for a bit while you switch characters to transfer things. Of course, you’ll need to find a friend first. Not a problem, as you’ll eventually meet trustworthy people as you play the game. Just make sure you know them well enough before you even think about asking them to help with your transfers (also known as xfers, just so you know).

Self-muling is a little dangerous because you constantly have the risk of item loss hovering about you. It’s the only way to transfer stuff solo otherwise, however, and if done properly and with a good deal of care and attention, you’ll be pretty much okay.

To self-mule, create a Normal difficulty game with a password. This is to make sure that your level 1 mules can join the game and pick up the items you plan to mule. Okay, now leave the game running for at least five minutes. Go watch TV, beat up some monsters, whatever, as long as you clear five minutes. After that, save and exit, then rejoin the game with the same character. If you get in, that means the game is temporarily 'permed', which means it will stay up for about five minutes with no one in the game. Only start dropping items on the ground at this point!

You can now switch characters repeatedly to transfer items. Take note of a couple of things, though. If you switch characters too quickly (i.e. join and leave the game too fast), you'll get a realm down. Your IP address will be temporarily banned for 5 to 15 minutes, and you won't be able to log in to the realm. As you can see, this spells instant death for any items you may have left on the ground. As such, it is advisable to transfer items in small doses, that is, between as few characters as possible, and to stay in the game for about 30 seconds between each mule switch you make.

[handofnaz]

V. Building Your Wealth

Here’s the fun part.


a. Gold

It’s funny how gold is the game’s official currency when you can’t trade it for a Biggin’s Bonnet. Some people will want gold for their stuff on occasion, though. They’re most likely gamblers, and would rather receive big chunks of gold in return for items than play the game to earn it.

As I mentioned in the first part, some of the best items to sell to the vendors are class-specific items, as these can spawn with a huge number of mods that will make them worth plenty of gold (up to 35,000 per item). Armor is also usually good for this. When you first start out the game, pick up keys, chipped gems, and the throwing potions (strangling gas, fulminating, etc.). These are, surprisingly enough, worth decent gold for taking up so little space.

When your stash is filled to exploding, go burn some of that gold on gambling, preferably amulets and circlets. There are some very interesting possibilities for these. Both can spawn with + to skills, resistances, bonuses to life, mana, or stats, magic find, faster cast rate, and even charges of spells, such as Teleport. Rare circlets can also receive up to two open sockets and the faster run/walk mod. Many players will favor very good rares over uniques, sets, and runewords, if they have the right mods on them. Get a general consensus on a rare that you think might be good from friends and the trading forums. You just might be holding something expensive.

A note about gambling, though. If you use a mercenary, make sure you leave yourself just enough gold to resurrect him or her. You don’t want him dying right when you’re totally broke.


b. Gems

Ah, the base currency for Ladder play. If you’ve cubed the flawless gems you’ve been finding to perfect, you’ll find that you have a tidy little amount of base capital to work with. You can use these to trade for cheap but effective items, generally low-level uniques and set items. Prices vary depending on the realm, but even pieces from the top class-specific item sets (e.g., Trang-Oul’s Avatar, Tal Rasha’s Wrappings, M’avina’s Battle Hymn, etc.) can go for a handful of gems.

Some players also purchase gems in bulk with runes. On Ladder West, for example, Puls are worth 40 p gems, while Lems go for approximately 20. These players are grand charm rerollers. See the next section for more information.

A very nice way of building a stash of gems is by going chest-popping in Lower Kurast, an activity that’s generally more lucrative in higher difficulties and bigger multi-player games. It’s best to use a sorceress for this, so you can avoid monsters, teleport between huts, and use telekinesis to pop chests, logs, stashes, corpses, and baskets that are on screen. You’ll also find some runes, charms, and decent items by doing this. I almost had a heart attack when Atma’s Wail dropped from a basket. So it’s not a top item, but still, the thought of unique armor dropping from a basket of all things, and how said unique armor fit in the basket in the first place, truly surprised me. Full credit goes out to Twelvebagger for first pointing this out to me.


c. Charms

So tiny, yet so effective. As you well know, you receive benefits from charms by keeping them in your inventory. Note that keeping a Horadric cube filled with charms in your inventory won’t give you the bonuses from those charms.

It’s a good idea to pick up all charms you find because you’ll never know what you’re going to get. Some of the most popular small charms have +20 life, up to 11% resistance to any one element, resistances to all elements, and/or 7% magic find. These charms are very, very tradable. Keep them for their terrific benefits, or trade them off and jumpstart your trove.

Grand charms are favored for magical mods like +100 or so to attack rating, 12% faster hit recovery, and +40-45 life. They are usually preferred, however, with the most wonderful of mods, the skill tab pluses. This is why people buy perfect gems in bulk. By placing any magical item in the Horadric cube with three perfect gems and hitting transmute, you’ll ‘reroll’ the item and receive a new set of mods. As you might guess, rerolling grand charms is risky business, since there are so many possibilities that it is not very likely you’ll roll exactly what you were looking for. But these things sell very well at very good prices, so people just, pardon the pun, keep on rolling.

If you plan on getting into the GC skilling business, you’ll need, naturally, a healthy supply of gems and a nice base grand charm to work from. The + skill tab mods spawn on grand charms that have an item level of 50, the bulk of which are dropped in the Great Marsh and Flayer Jungle on Nightmare difficulty. If you want to stand a chance at rolling a +1 skill tab/+45 life grand charm, possibly the most expensive permutation available, you’ll need what is called a Baal GC, or a grand charm dropped by Hell Diablo, Nihlathak, or Baal. This grand charm can spawn any of the possible mods, which means that you’ll have to do a hell of a lot of rolling. It’s your choice.

Skiller grand charms generally go for good prices. The most expensive of the plain grand charms is the Paladin Combat Skill grand charm, owing to the popularity of Hammerdins. These are typically followed by Trap, Lightning, Fire, Cold, and Javelin grand charms. Necromancer Summoning and Poison and Bone charms lie somewhere in the mid-range, along with most of the other skill tabs. Paladin Defensive Aura and Necromancer Curse charms are the most worthless pieces of garbage you will ever have the misfortune to roll, unless you happen to find Clerics and Mojomancers hungry for more + skills. Good luck on that.

Large charms can be good as well, but they’re generally not traded. As a final note, you might consider holding on to any plain + strength charms you can find, as they are invaluable for outfitting your new characters in the early levels. A tidy assortment of low-level charms and jewelry can, for example, ensure that a sorceress can actually wear Sigon’s Complete Steel at level six, which is otherwise impossible because she can only have 35 strength by then. Just a suggestion. The game’s three unique charms are discussed in the relevant section far below.


d. Jewels

An interesting group of items. These can come with a variety of characteristics, some of the more popular being bonuses to all resistances, increased attack speed, additional minimum and maximum damage, and enhanced damage. One or more of these can occur on the same jewel, and rare jewels can potentially have a greater number of prefixes and suffixes. There is also a set of unique jewels prized by characters that kill with elemental damage, called Facets. These typically trade for good things, especially ones that have near-perfect stats (the maximum being +5% damage and –5% monster resistance). Pick up every jewel and identify it, you’ll never know what you’ll get. Some players also buy common, less powerful jewels (called junk jewels) in bulk for crafting. It might be worth to collect some on a mule, or to simply chuck away useless ones and only keep nice, decent jewels you’ll use or trade.


e. Uniques

The one thing you need to remember about Unique items is that their being unique does not automatically make them awesome, useful, or expensive. Nobody will buy your Bing Sz Wang. No one.

It takes a little amount of time playing the game, interacting with other players, and surfing to figure out which items are the best and most highly tradable. If you want to find a shortcut to the absolute best, check out the many excellent guides to character builds in the forums and look for the equipment list. Over and over you will see how the Herald of Zakarum (Hoz), Harlequin Crest (Shako), Arachnid Mesh (Spider), Oculus (Occy), Stone of Jordan (Soj), and many, many other items are the most frequently mentioned, simply because they are the most effective. You’ll also notice that many will have their own nicknames, such as the ones provided in parentheses above.

The only way to find uniques, of course, is by MFing. Yes, it’s hard work, and you’ll find more Bing Sz Wang’s than you can shake a fist at. But you’ll likely find other neat things as well, and life gets just a little sweeter when that first gold, unidentified Shako finally drops for you. Uniques first come in their normal low-level versions. You’ll eventually see exceptional and elite uniques as you progress through the game.

Of the normal uniques, a few are worth mentioning. The Ravenclaw Long Bow is favored for any character who has just turned level 15, as it is a very, very powerful weapon in the early game. The gloves Chance Guards, Magefist, and Frostburn are all favorites for different reasons, and often make their way into a player’s end game list of equipment. Tarnhelms, the unique skull cap, is very good for such surprisingly low requirements, offering +1 to skills and up to 50% magic find. Goldwrap is an old magic finder’s staple, and is best used when upgraded with the Horadric cube recipe to bring its total potion capacity to 16 (recipe: Tal + Shael + Perfect Diamond + unique normal armor).

There are other excellent normal uniques. Time, gameplay, and research will teach you about the ones worth keeping. Check the Arreat Summit (http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/) for a full list of all the items in the game. Helpful links are located at the very top of that page.


f. Set Items

A very interesting group of items, and quite effective if used properly. Most set items are tradable, and entire sets go for very good prices. It does take a little effort to actually find whole sets, but you can always buy a piece here and a piece there to complete it. You could, of course, just sell stuff piece by piece.

Some of the most popular item sets are the high-level class-specific ones, introduced as equipment packages for the player who doesn’t like to fuss and tweak his gear too much. Some sets are more popular than the others. Tal Rasha’s Wrappings and the Immortal King, for sorcs and barbarians, respectively, are undoubtedly the most heavily traded. Natalya’s Odium (assassins), Trang-Oul’s Avatar (necromancers), and M’avina’s Battle Hymn (amazons) are next. Griswold’s Legacy and Aldur’s Watchtower for the paladin and druid are the least popular, which isn’t to say that they aren’t effective.

Pieces in a set will go for varying prices depending on their rarity. For example, it is much easier to find Tal Rasha’s Horadric Crest (helm) or Tal Rasha’s Fine-spun Cloth (belt) than it is to find the amulet or armor through MFing. As such, completing an item set will still take something of an effort, but not one as heavily taxing as an equipment setup involving primarily uniques.

Some low-level set items to look out for include the entire Sigon’s set (Sigon’s Complete Steel) and the jewelry from Angelic Raiment and Cathan’s Traps. Sigon’s Complete Steel is a favorite for any character class for the incredible bonuses it provides: 30% increased attack speed, good resistances, +1 to all skills, 30% faster run/walk, 10% life leech, a healthy bonus to attack rating, and much more. And it’s usable at level 6. The only problem is its strength requirement, which can be remedied by the use of a number of low level requirement strength charms. It isn’t uncommon to enter a Tristram run game and find yourself surrounded by characters wearing the entire set. It’s just that good. The Angelic Wings amulet and Angelic Halo ring together provide 12 attack rating per character level, a nice boost for any melee character, especially if you throw in another ring. Cathan’s Seal is useful for the 6% life leech it provides at a very low level requirement. There are many more excellent low-level set items worth keeping and trading, mind you. These are just a few examples.


g. Rares

This family of items can appear with a great number of very useful characteristics. Many are good enough to be considered as equipment for the entire game, until, of course, you find something more useful. Depending on the type of rare (armor, glove, belt, etc.), you’ll get a different mixed bag of mods. Some of the better ones give impressive boosts to resistances, mana, life, strength, dexterity, and more. Circlets, amulets, and rings are of particular mention, because they can spawn with very, very good mods that are important for different kinds of characters. Faster cast rate, resistance, additional life or mana, magic find, and other nice mods can appear on these, and many players will pay well for a good rare that has a bundle of powerful statistics. Rings can also give bonuses to attack rating and fair amounts of life and mana leech. Be sure to ask around for a proper price before you trade something off. Other rare equipment, such as armor, boots, belts, and such, are very rarely traded, however, as in most cases, uniques, set items, and runewords are more effective.


h. Socketables and White Items

Socketed items appear with a random number of sockets in them, the number depending on the monster that drops it and on the item’s maximum number of sockets. These are useful in the early game for making effective weapons and armor, and are generally valued for their use in making runewords. For more information on runes and runewords, see the sections on them below. Take note that runewords can only be made in socketed items and superior socketed items, not magical, rare, set, or unique items with sockets in them.

Players will trade socketed items to make runewords out of, and will typically use the item’s defense or damage values to gauge its worth. In most cases, people will want the elite version of an item, as these stand to have the best defense and damage out of all socketed items. Many factors will still come into play regarding a player’s choice of socketable. Three-socket dusk shrouds, for example, are a popular choice for the Enigma runeword, as they have the lowest strength requirements of all the elite armors (77). Some players, however, prefer to make characters with base strength, and will opt for an Enigma made out of a three-socket breast plate. Yes, it takes all kinds to make a world. Melee-type runewords, however, such as Duress, will often find their way into armor with greater defense. A general rule to follow is this: caster-type characters prefer items with low requirements (e.g. a flail for Heart of the Oak), while melee-type characters prefer items with the best possible damage and defense (e.g. hellforge armor for Chains of Honor).

White items are just that, items that are non-magical and that have no sockets in them. These are occasionally traded for by players who want to do the socketing themselves. To add sockets to an item, either use the appropriate Horadric cube recipe, or take it to Larzuk in Act 5. You might actually not want to waste his reward on a white item, though, as you’ll probably want to socket a unique or set item with it instead. Note that the cube recipe will add a random number of sockets to the item, so you can have a number that falls between the minimum and maximum for it (1 and 6, respectively, for many of the elite larger weapons).

The following recipes are taken from the Arreat Summit:

• 1 Tal + 1 Thul + 1 perfect topaz + normal body armor = socketed body armor
• 1 Ral + 1 Amn + 1 perfect amethyst + normal weapon = socketed weapon
• 1 Ral + 1 Thul + 1 perfect sapphire + normal helm = socketed helm
• 1 Tal + 1 Amn + 1 perfect ruby + normal shield = socketed shield

Take note that the number of sockets an item can have depends on its type and the level of the monster that drops it. Generally, white items dropped in Hell will have better chances of having more sockets. Remember this for when buyers ask you where the item was found. A good way to find whites and socketables is to strip yourself of all MF equipment. That way only normal items will appear. Popular places for farming these include the Chaos Sanctuary and the Pits.


i. Ethereal Items

Many new players will immediately assume that ethereal items are useless. This is not necessarily the case. Ethereal items commonly have increased damage (for weapons) and defense (for armor), and typically have lower requirements for strength and dexterity than their normal counterparts. Mercenaries can use any ethereal item without breaking it, which explains why some ethereal uniques sell well. Ethereal socketed items are especially popular for their use in making powerful runewords for mercenaries, and in some cases, characters as well, as some runewords make an item indestructible, or will repair the item’s durability over time. Socketing an item with a Zod will also make it indestructible, but this is usually reserved for particularly valuable equipment, since, well, Zods really aren’t a dime a dozen.

Take a look at the runewords (http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/runewords.shtml) to see which ones are good to make in ethereal items. Don’t let the fact that something is ethereal put you off, as, oftentimes, someone out there will have a use for it.

[handofnaz]

j. Runes

This is a rather more complex aspect of Diablo II economy. Runes will go for different prices on different realms. The best thing to do would be to check your relevant realm on the trading forums here for current prices, or to browse trading games for current rates.

As you well know, runes are extremely valued for their use in making runewords, powerful magical items that are created with a number of specific runes and a plain, socketed item. They are also valued for their use in Horadric cube recipes, most notably upgrading uniques and rares to their exceptional and elite versions, and for crafting items. This has turned Rals and a select group of other runes into something of an informal currency, used by crafters in their trade lists.

The most reliable sources of runes in the game are the Countess and the Hellforge quest in Act IV. They offer the best rewards in Hell difficulty, in that the Countess can drop up to an Ist, and the forge can drop up to a Gul rune. There’s no way to control what rune drops, of course, which is why Hellforge rushing and Countess runs are so popular.

There isn’t any one area in the game that is optimal for rune-hunting. The hardest runes to find are in the highest bracket, meaning everything from Vex up to Zod. There are very small chances of these dropping, and a legit player’s best chances at making powerful runewords is by cubing runes all the way up to the one they need, or trading for them. This is where it gets complicated. (Note: a good guide on hunting for runes by Urlik_Skarsol can be found here (http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=178289). It is, however, more geared towards Single Players, as it makes use of the /playersx command. You’ll need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this guide.)

Many of the high runes (or HRs) are player-generated, or duped. This means that they aren’t legit. It also means that there is a chance that they will simply disappear from your inventory, or in some cases, from your runeword entirely. There is no way to tell whether a particular rune is a dupe, however, and you really have little choice but to take your chances with them. People will offer many solutions to rune ‘poofing’, but I have not seen any effective methods of making these items ‘permanent’, nor do I see the point in doing so, as they will eventually disappear anyway. It’s just one of those things we have to live with on Bnet. It’s up to you whether or not you want to deal in HRs.

Just for reference, it has been recently noted that the majority of all high runes, Ists, and now, even Ums are duped. Be careful, and try not to let this ruin your enjoyment of the game. Click here (http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/runes.shtml) for a full list of the runes and their properties, ranging from the most common to the rarest.


k. Runewords

Ah. Some of the best items in the game. A runeword (or RW) is made in an item with the correct number of sockets and with the runes placed in it in the right order. A socketed item must be plain, meaning non-magical. Its name on the ground and in your inventory should be in grey. An item that already has bonuses on it, say, sorceress staves or necromancer heads, will retain those mods after the runeword is completed. For example, the runeword Lore must be made in a helm… any helm… with two sockets, with the runes Ort and Sol. These include class-specific barbarian helms and pelts, so you could effectively make a Lore out of a plain helm or pelt that already has pluses to individual skills. You may use superior and ethereal items to make runewords. For a full list of runewords and their properties, check here (http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/runewords.shtml). Please take note of which runewords work in what patches and game environments (e.g., single player, ladder, non-ladder, etc.).

Many of the best runewords require the use of high runes. As discussed, it is up to you whether or not you’ll want to invest in these. They are, admittedly, extremely powerful tools. Not all the good runewords are made out of expensive runes, however.

A low level favorite for melee characters is Strength, a runeword made in any two-socket melee weapon with the runes Amn and Tir. The 25% crushing blow and 7% life leech are very serviceable until you find something better to fight with. Insight is a ladder-only runeword, and is one of the most popular cheaper ones. By putting Ral, Tir, Tal, and Sol in a four-socket polearm, you will receive an excellent weapon with many mods, the best of which is the Meditation Aura, which passively provides you monstrous mana regeneration, allowing you to cast high-cost spells as much as you like. Many players give Insight to their Act 2 mercenaries to free up their own main weapon slots.

Another favorite, especially for caster-type characters, is Spirit, a runeword which gives many great bonuses, which include +2 to all skills, 25%-35% faster cast rate, a large boost to mana, and good resistances when made in a shield. Spirit is made using the runes Tal, Thul, Ort, and Amn in four-socketed swords and shields. It’s best to use a broad sword to make a Spirit weapon, since you won’t actually use it for hitting things and it has the lowest requirements of all the swords. Unfortunately, non-paladins can only make Spirit in a monarch shield, which needs a whopping 156 strength to carry. It is, however, one of the best shields a caster can have, so the investment in strength is well worth it. There are many more great runewords for you to use. It’s just a matter of finding the right ones to fit your character’s needs.

A runeword’s worth typically takes into account the actual runes used to make it and the item in which they are socketed. A runeword can also be more or less expensive depending on how good the variable mods on it are. For example, Heart of the Oak can have between 30% and 40% bonuses to all resistances. A 39% HOTO will, as such, cost more than a 32%. Check around for prices on the forums.


l. Keys and Organs

The Uber Tristram world event requires at least three sets of special keys to activate. These keys are found from Act 1’s Countess, Act 2’s Summoner, and Act 3’s Nihlathak in Hell difficulty. They drop the Key of Terror, Key of Hate, and Key of Destruction, respectively. It is possible to receive more than one key in a single drop. Cubing an entire keyset in Hell Act 5 will open one of three portals to uber-versions of Andariel (Lilith), Duriel, and Izual, who will then drop organs as rewards: Diablo’s Horn, Baal’s Eye, and Mephisto’s Brain. These can then be cubed to open the portal to Uber Tristram, a hellish version of Tristram which contains super-powered versions of the Three Brothers and an endless torrent of minions.

Keys are very tradable, particularly as entire sets, as people are always looking to collect organs, either to keep for the eventual trip to Uber Tristram, or to trade again. Note that Keys of Hate are slightly more expensive than Keys of Terror, and Keys of Destruction are again slightly pricier than the other two, but this isn’t noticeable unless you’re trading keys for other keys (for example, US West has people trading two Terror Keys for one Destruction Key). Organs are typically worth the same thing, so it’s fair to trade an Eye for a Horn, for example.

The Countess is a favorite target for key running for two reasons. Her Tower is easily navigated, with maps that can be easily predicted after a few tries, and her drops can include runes all the way up to Ist. Certainly worth the time and effort.

The Summoner is a bit more of a pain, as he is found at the end of one of the four branches of the Arcane Sanctuary. There’s no way to tell where to go. The payoff is the fact that he is ridiculously easy to kill, but still, the time it takes to find him chips at one’s patience.

Nihlathak is the least favorite target for key runners, but also the most lucrative. Since fewer players run him, fewer Keys of Destruction float around the market, hence upping their price slightly. The major problem with Nihlathak is his incredibly annoying and powerful Corpse Explosion. Unfortunately, chilling his monsters is not a guarantee that they will shatter upon death, rendering their corpses useless.

A more reliable method is to equip a Nature’s Peace ring or a weapon made into a Lawbringer runeword, both of which have the Slain Monsters Rest in Peace mod, which does exactly what it says: all corpses of monsters you kill cannot be used for anything. Raise Skeleton, Death Sentry, Grim Ward, Corpse Explosion, and other corpse-reliant skills are made useless. Lawbringer is much cheaper by far, and is best made in a three-socket sword with the runes Amn + Lem + Ko. There is an excellent guide on Destruction Key running by Cyber Dragon here (http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=415467), which unravels the mystery of the maps of the Halls of Pain, and points out the right direction to follow in the Halls of Vaught every single time.


m. Unique Charms

This is all incredibly fun, but also incredibly complex. Unique charms are unique in the truest sense of the word, as a character can only hold one in his inventory at a time: one Gheed’s Fortune, one Hellfire Torch, and one Annihilus. Note that none of the unique charms can be placed in the trade window, so you will never know if the guy trading you is telling the absolute truth about its statistics. Also, they are very risky to trade, because the other guy can just run over to pick up your charm after he’s picked up what he was supposed to give and exit the game, leaving you barefoot and pregnant. Ahem.

So, number one, never trade for the unique charms through trade games that you’ll randomly find on Battle.net. Visit our resident trade forums and look for someone with a high post count to trade with. This is still not any assurance of a smooth, clean trade, as we recently learned on US West when a previously honest, reliable trader made off with another trader’s hard-earned high runes. Number two, make sure to ask a forum moderator to help you trade at a pre-arranged time in a pre-arranged passworded game, or perhaps ask for help from a trusted friend. It is truly unfortunate how the unique charms are completely untradable otherwise, but such is the way of things.

• Gheed’s Fortune: it makes me think that Blizzard isn’t an entirely heartless mega-corporation when they honor the scum-sucking, rogue-swindling Act I gambler with his own unique. Anyway, Gheed’s Fortune grand charms are staples in any dedicated MFer’s inventory, particularly ones that are perfect or near-perfect, meaning they have an MF percentage close to the 40% maximum mark. These also provide a nice boost to gold find, and some gold finders will pay well for a Gheed’s that has perfect gold find, but not MF. These drop randomly from monsters as you MF. I don’t have information about the best monsters to run for Gheed’s, but I’ll be sure to include it as soon as I find out.

• Annihilus: so small, yet so powerful, these babies provide excellent bonuses to all statistics, all resistances, +1 to all skills, and 5% to 10% bonus to experience (!). And they’re small charms. Imagine that. These are dropped by the elusive Diablo Clone, also known as DClone. He is near impossible to find if you don’t have some elaborate system involving IP addresses and servers set up, but when he does appear, you’ll be sorely disappointed in terms of challenge, because the guy is terribly easy to kill. Check this guide (http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=223863) by Hoarshade for detailed instructions on how to find Diablo Clone.

Anyway, when you’re on the right server, the message “xxx Stones of Jordan have been sold to merchants” will appear. This means that there is a bunch of people somewhere on that server rapidly selling off non-ladder SOJs. There is some debate on whether this actually has any effect on DClone’s appearance, but you don’t care, really, because you’re just there to beat the ever-loving crap out of him and take his goods. The message will appear again, and when the frequency ups, be prepared to visit a friendly neighborhood Super Unique (http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/monsters/super.shtml) monster. This means any specially-named monster that is always in the same spot in every game you create or enter, i.e., Pindleskin, Witch Doctor Endungu, the Dark Elder, Coldcrow, etc. Soon, the message “Diablo Walks This Earth” will appear, and your screen will start shaking in a very annoying manner, in the same way it does when you hit the fifth seal in the Chaos Sanctuary. Head over to the nearest Super Unique, and you will have found DClone.

There are a couple of favorite targets for DClone spawning. One is Rakanishu in the Stony Field, because he’s in Act 1 and is typically surrounded by monsters that won’t be so annoying to deal with. Another is the Den of Evil’s Corpsefire, because it’s relatively small and is again filled by easy to kill monsters. In public games (which you should never, ever join for DClone-hunting because of third-party programs that can snatch the Annihilus no matter who kills DClone), Radament in Sewer level 3 is a favorite, because hardly anyone else ever thinks to target him. I can’t remember where I read about this, but the easiest target is apparently Eldritch, just north of the Act 5 Frigid Highlands waypoint. Spawn him, then lead him down to Shenk the Overseer. Concentrate your efforts on Shenk. Remember how all monsters around Shenk immediately die as soon as he falls himself? Apparently, DClone is counted as one of said monsters. I haven’t tried this myself, but I probably wouldn’t do it, because it would rob something so simple of any challenge whatsoever.

Phew. So, with all that said, good luck hunting DClone, and enjoy the sweet Annihilus.

• Hellfire Torch: truly the most quest-like of the World Events, considering the number of ‘quest items’ you have to obtain to activate it. The Hellfire Torch large charm provides, again, great boosts to resistances, statistics, and +3 (!!!) to all skills. But before you get all hot and bothered, note that the Torch is semi class-specific. This means that any character can equip any Torch, but only a character of the right class will benefit from the boost to skills. You won’t know what class the Torch favors until you identify it. The Hellfire Torch also provides + to light radius (I mean, it’s a Torch, right), has 10 charges of Hydra on it, and a 25% chance to cast Firestorm on attack… not the druid skill, but Diablo’s super-scary fire stream spell.

So here’s how it works, in case you skipped the section on keys. You run Hell difficulty Countess, Summoner, and Nihlathak, of Acts 1, 2, and 5, for the Keys of Terror, Hate, and Destruction. Once you have all three, you put them in the Horadric cube and hit transmute while standing in Act 5 Hell. This will open a portal to one of three places: the Matron’s Den, the Forgotten Dunes, or the Furnace of Pain. Inside the portal will be waiting a stronger version of Andariel (Lilith), Duriel, and Izual. Each of these will drop an organ, either Diablo’s Horn, Baal’s Eye, or Mephisto’s Brain. Once all three organs are placed in the cube and transmuted, a portal to Tristram will open. This isn’t the old Tristram. It’s got a few changes, which include an unending horde of monsters and super-charged versions of the Three Brothers. They will drop a Torch, and another small charm, the Standard of Heroes, which really does absolutely nothing. Some say it’s just for bragging rights, while others say that future patches may turn it into something good. Believe what you will, but pick up the damn Torch.

I won’t tell you how to deal with Uber Trist because there are tons of guides out there to help you. This one (http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=372426) by C Squad is a good example. I’m told that with the right characters, it can be a cinch. As you probably noticed, you’ll need at least three keysets to make it to Uber Tristram in the first place, assuming all three initial portals open to the right level. Of course, there’s nothing stopping you from just trading for the organs to begin with. Have fun dealing with the Three, and give Mephisto a nice kick in the you-know-whats for me.


VI. Trading

Trading on Battle.net is fairly simple. You join a trading game (which you can usually tell by the game’s name), click on the player with whom you want to trade, and wait for him to agree to trade with you. You then place your trade items in your respective windows and click on the check button when ready. Once both buttons turn green, the trade is completed, and you are both free to enjoy your new goods.

This process is typically used for items you want to quickly trade on Battle.net. Make good use of the little space you have in naming a game to create a trade game. For example, if you’re looking for a Harlequin Crest, you can enter ‘bring shako’ and wait for a trader to come along and find you. Obviously, this works the other way, so you can sit in the join window and wait for a good trade game for you to enter to appear. When the word ‘script’ appears, this means that the trader wants you to read his game’s description for details on what he has or what he needs. If you have to trade something in a similar way, use the description field of the create game window appropriately. Note that most people make and join trade games in Hell difficulty.

The trade window that appears when you agree to trade with another player is the exact same size as your inventory. You can, as such, hypothetically trade up to 40 squares worth of items in total. Be sure you have enough space in your inventory to complete the trade when you do this. Be warned that none of the unique charms (Gheed’s Fortune, the Hellfire Torch, and the Annihilus) can be placed in the trade window. You can only trade these by dropping them on the ground. This is very risky business, literally.

If you’re interested in shopping for your items online, check out Diabloii.net’s list of trading forums (http://forums.diabloii.net/forumdisplay.php?f=21). These are populated by hundreds of people who trade briskly on a daily basis, and will provide a place for you to advertise your goods. Remember to indicate whether you are trading for Ladder or Non-ladder items in your post’s title (usually including the tags [L] or [NL] are good enough). If you want to buy something, post a reply to another user and make a bid for one of their items. Try to conform to what they’re looking for when stating your proposed price. Some players prefer runes, while others take gems. Still others believe in trading item for item. When you both come to an agreement, you can work out a time to complete the trade. Take down the other player’s Battle.net account name and whisper them at the predetermined time. Note that Battle.net’s font can be deceiving, and many people have been scammed out of their items by players posing as reputable traders. Make sure to confirm another trader’s identity before starting the trade.

[handofnaz]

Yes, scamming is rampant, because there are too many greedy people who would rather cheat others out of their hard-earned wealth than reap it on their own. A common scam involves replacing an item in the trade window with something that looks like it before hitting the check button. For example, you’re trading for a Shako. You hover your cursor over the other guy’s Shako and find that it is, indeed, a Harlequin Crest. He may suddenly exit the trade window and reengage you, or you’ll notice him taking the item out and placing it back in. This usually means that the item has been replaced. The Crest’s inventory graphic is that of a green leather cap. Be sure to double check before you click the check button, or you may end up with a very fetching emerald-socketed cap for your trouble. This guide (http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=388625) by Darnoc details a number of other popular scams. Be sure to read it before you start trading!

If you want to trade Hellfire Torches or Annis, you’d best get the help of a forum moderator, who will enter the game with you and the other trader to monitor the exchange. No one is responsible but you for losing a unique charm to a scammer. Again, never, ever trade unique charms in public games. That’s a sure way to get poor incredibly fast.

Just a few quick tips on trading before I end this section.

• Be reasonable and knowledgeable about the items you want to trade. Research its stats, ask friends about prices, and have its price checked in the appropriate forums. This is to make sure that you don’t offend someone by offering a Thul for their Mara’s Kaleidoscope, or worse, that you don’t sell your Arachnid Mesh for a handful of gems. This is easier than it sounds, actually. A couple of days of playing and browsing games and forums will quickly give you an idea of what items are usually worth. Take note again that different stats on an item can result in different prices.

• Always use the trade window. Always. There is no reason to drop items on the ground when you can place them in the secure trade window. Anyone can just run over and pick up your stuff and quickly hit save and exit. Don’t be an idiot.

• Only complete drop trades in private games. You don’t want to drop a Torch and suddenly have someone running out of the bushes to grab it. This is very common sense advice here. I shouldn’t need to tell you this.

• Try not to trade an item for another item of the same worth when you expected a rune or some gems to begin with. This extends the selling process. Fine, you got rid of the first item, but how long until you can sell the one the other guy just pawned off on you? The exception, of course, is when you actually want it.

• While a forum user’s post count is a good indication of how long he’s been around, it’s not necessarily a good indication of how trustworthy he can be. This is no attempt to blacklist any of the older forumers; it’s just that USWest had a recent kerfuffle over an old trader suddenly turned scammer. We’re still bothered by it. Anyway, by hanging out on the forums, you can easily learn about the most reliable and honest traders. They’re the ones with the posts that last 10 pages, filled with thank yous and praises from people they’ve completed exchanges with.

• Hold out long enough for your target trade, but don’t expect too much. You don’t want to let go of your item for less than what it’s worth, but you can’t expect to hold it for too long and eventually find someone who’ll pay double for it. Know what to expect. If you get more than what you wanted, congratulations. Also, don’t expect the world for your item. Be sure you know what it’s worth. I’ve had far too many nasty brushes with players wanting high runes for their Angelic amulets.

Keep these in mind, and remember to be careful and aware of what you’re doing. Trading is the best way for you to acquire what you want, and done properly, can take your characters very far.


VII. Career Options

As you may have gleaned from the earlier parts of this guide, there are very many ways to build wealth apart from simply magic finding. After a bit of experience playing the game, you might be interested in going on one of the following career paths, or even a combination of them. Note that you’ll need a decently mid- to high-level character to be successful at some of these, in terms of kill speed and efficiency. Don’t think about this as detrimental to your success. Just play the game and enjoy yourself. Before you know it, you’ll be powerful enough to take anything on. The stuff you pick up along the way is just gravy.

• MFer

Self-explanatory. As I’ve said, any character can be turned into an MFer, but some of the most effective ones will include hammerdins and sorceresses, hands down, for their unrivalled speed and crowd-killing power.

• Gold finder/Gambler

Gamblers will either trade items for sums of gold or go on gold finding trips themselves by equipping items with the x % Extra Gold from Monsters mod. Such items include Goldwrap, Chance Guards, Goldskin, Gheed’s Fortune, and the Rhyme runeword. The best source of gold is the Hell difficulty Council, up by the Compelling Orb after the Travincal waypoint in Act III. These guys drop gold in four to five digit amounts, sums that can be immensely compounded with the aforementioned items. Said gold is then gambled for powerful rare amulets and circlets at the game’s gambling merchants. A higher-level character is preferable for this route, as higher-level characters can store more gold in their stashes and inventories. A character can carry 10,000 gold in his inventory per level, up to a maximum of 990,000 gold at level 99. The stash can hold up to a maximum of 2,500,000 gold at level 99.

• GC Skiller/Reroller

A different kind of gambler, as it takes a lot of perfect gems to come up with something saleable. I discussed this at length in the charms section above. To summarize, pick up a grand charm from the Great Marsh and Flayer Jungle in Nightmare difficulty and cube it with three perfect gems. To make grand charms that can potentially have both + skills and the 45 life mod, look for a grand charm from Hell Baal, Diablo, or Nihlathak.

• Crafters

A very, very brave bunch of toasters, these people. What they do is collect specific runes, jewels, and perfect gems for the purpose of crafting, a Horadric cube process which can make items with useful preset mods and a number of other potentially powerful ones. Full recipes can be found here (http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/crafteditems.shtml). The full formulae and statistics for the relationship between clevel and ilevel (character level and item level) are also listed here. This is some pretty risky business, as again, you never know what you’ll get. I wouldn’t recommend this career to the lack-capital and impoverished. I personally don’t have the patience for crafting, but I do have great respect for the hallowed few who follow this difficult path.

• Forge Rusher

These players use fast teleporting characters to rush low-level players through entire game difficulties. I won’t detail the process here, but suffice to say, a good rusher can take you from Normal to just before Nightmare (the Worldstone Keep) in ten to fifteen minutes or less. Rushers expect the rune dropped from your Act IV Hellforge quest as payment. Don’t be rude and grab it before they can. Be warned, however, that some rushers have nasty streaks, and will leave the game as soon as they’ve obtained their rune, leaving you stranded in Act IV. If you plan to become a rusher, don’t be as nasty. A note on this. It’s best to rush people in Hell difficulty as the forge can drop better runes, as high as Gul. It’s a little harder because of the tougher monsters, naturally, but very doable.

• Key Runner

A nice business on its own, as keysets go for decent sums. The targets for these special items are Act 1’s Countess, Act 2’s Summoner, and Act 5’s Nihlathak in Hell difficulty, who drop the Key of Terror, Key of Hate, and Key of Destruction, respectively. It is possible to receive more than one key in a single drop. As I said in the section on unique charms, cubing an entire keyset in Hell Act V will open one of three portals to uber-versions of Andariel (Lilith), Duriel, and Izual, who will drop organs, which can then be cubed to open the portal to Uber Tristram.

You may extend this career into organ-hunting, which means that you will not trade the keys you find, but instead cube them to open portals to the mini-ubers. Many character builds can be used to kill these monsters. Consult the other forums for more information. You can then either trade organs off individually or as sets for Torch runners to use in opening the way to Uber Tristram.

• Torch runner

Again, self-explanatory. I haven’t been to Uber Tristram myself, but I am told that it is not a friendly place to be. There are great guides on killing the Brothers in these forums, which should point out ideal builds to use. Hellfire Torches make for great trades, but again, be warned. They cannot be exchanged in the trade window as they are unique charms. You will need to trade by dropping them on the ground and hoping that the other guy drops his goods and doesn’t pick them up immediately and steal your Torch. Also, a character can only hold one Torch at a time. If you run solo, be sure to have a set of Hell-ready mules to enter the game and pick them up for you. Better yet, enter Tristram Torch-free. Of course, this makes you less effective at killing.

• DClone Hunters

It gets a little complex here. There’s a nifty full-length guide on looking for the right server on which Diablo Clone walks. Many players have used this method to successfully reap multiple Annihilus charms, which are some of the most expensive items in the game. You will, of course, need to have multiple mules who can enter Hell games to pick up said charms, or kill DClone without an Anni to begin with. Check this guide (http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=223863) for more details.


VIII. Character Retirement

You’re comfortable and happy, and you’ve outfitted your first great character to your fullest satisfaction. Congratulations. Now, what to do with your magic finder?

You could turn him or her into a mule, and a very effective one that can actually enter Hell games and potentially pick up dropped Gheed’s Fortune, Annihilus, or Hellfire Torch charms for you. You can, of course, continue MFing with them. No harm in building the wealth further and getting ready for your next great project.

The best thing about them, however, is when they turn out to be your first choice in characters all along. Less characters mean less items to outfit them with, and generally, a shorter, sweeter path to the Ultimate Setup. I myself am most partial to Fishymancers and Meteorbs, and immediately set to work on outfitting my Fishy with alternate MF runs using both characters. I’ve Patriarched both since, and they’re still very close to my heart.

Do whatever you want to with your MF character. Have them stick around and play with them every so often. After all, it’s them you have to thank for making your characters as awesome as they are now.


IX. Etiquette

Not exactly related to success in Diablo II at all, but this aspect of the game still merits some discussion. What truly bugs most players about newbies is not the fact that they aren’t quite experienced with the game, but the very persistent negative behavior they exhibit. Few things can mark you for death more than begging, randomly cussing, picking fights, and stealing.

• Do not go around begging people for free items, something commonly communicated as “Gib itams plz”. This pisses most players off, and they will most likely ignore you or make good use of the Bnet squelch command. Great Diablo players got that way by working hard at earning their goods, not by entering random games to beg people for freebies and whatnot. This will not work for you, and it is certainly not a good way to get people to like you.

• Be polite. This is such common knowledge, but far too many players, not necessarily just newbies, seem to have attitude problems. Some will persecute you for your choice of class, build, or equipment. Others will insist on cussing out both you and your entire bloodline for petty things like refusing to party with them. Don’t bother. Squelch them (hit enter and type “/squelch ”), ignore them, leave the game, whatever. The point to remember is to be polite. It’s cheesy, but do unto others what you want to be done unto you.

Say thank you after trades are done, after free rushes, or when an older player feels like giving you stuff to help you out. Don’t yell at someone for giving you a Leaf staff over the freaking Oculus. Be thankful for what you get. You might even make friends in the process. Said friends might even like you enough to help you out. I’ve received rushes, gems, and even full low-level outfits from some of my friends. I’m not saying that you should go out of your way to make friends who’ll give you freebies. I’m saying that being a good, decent person, even on something as faceless as the Internet, pays off, every single time.

• Play intelligently. It takes a little concentration and experience to be able to play the game right. Now, there isn’t one exact correct way to play properly, but there are certain issues you can work on when playing as a specific class. For example, necromancers constantly get the poo end of the stick for playing with summons, as the lag can slow the game down for other players. Try to limit the number of minions you play with then. You won’t be needing as many in a multi-player game. Then there are the necromorons who insist on flinging useless curses on enemies, constantly overwriting the more effective curses placed there by other necros.

Pay attention to the party’s needs and conform accordingly. If you’re playing with lots of sorcs, use Lower Resist to help boost damage. If you’re a paladin, turn on Vigor in the downtime between monster packs to help things run along faster. If you’re a barbarian, go around and use Shout, Battle Orders, and Battle Command on anything that isn’t a monster. If you’re an Enchantress and you aren’t enchanting your party to help boost attack rating and fire damage, then you’re clearly not playing very smart. Also, a final, biased note for us necros and the trapsins: people, please take off Nature’s Peace and Lawbringer when playing in public! You make kittens cry.

• Spell properly. I know this is harsh, but it truly does not take much effort to type things out correctly, even if you don’t capitalize or use punctuation. Try not to type things in all caps unless you do it specifically to express enthusiasm, and please don’t hack things out in 1337 speak, as, sorry to say, there is nothing ‘leet’ about it. Finally, do not flood the bloody screen with the same message if people don’t immediately respond to you. You’ll most likely be mass-squelched, or for the benefit of the other players, PKed just on principle. You are, by the way, totally excused if English isn’t your first language.

• If someone is rushing you, try your very best to be nice to them. And be polite when it comes to item drops. General consensus dictates that the rusher gets first choice of items, since it’s him doing the killing, and most likely him with the MF turning the stuff green, yellow, and gold. When it comes to act bosses, thought, rushees are usually given the benefit of first pick, since the first time a character kills a boss for a quest is also the best set of drops that boss will give (this is statistically true, but it will, of course, still depend on MF at the boss’ time of death). Rules may vary in your corner of Bnet. It may help to discuss this with your rusher beforehand. A last note. If it’s a free rush, let him have everything. He’s doing this for you for free, after all.


[u]X. Closing and Credits

A great many thanks to the beautiful minds of Nightfish, Sasja, Darnoc, Cyber Dragon, Hoarshade, C Squad, Twelvebagger, and Urlik_Skarsol for their excellent guides and the information that was so helpful in the creation of this guide. Thanks also to Arreat Summit for being there to provide detailed statistics and information on just about everything on-call, 24/7. And thank you for having the patience to read through this. Here’s to your eventual prosperity. Cheers.

[handofnaz]

XI. Quick Links

This section provides all the links used in this guide, and are listed in order of mention. Note how many of these guides are written by necromancers. *Cough, cough*.

• Nightfish’s Fishymancer (http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=349093). The first and last word on Summoners. One of the best guides I’ve ever read, hands down. Nightfish explains point placement, progress, and cheap gear choices in excruciating detail, and suggests excellent ways to invest the many leftover skill points a Fishymancer will typically have after finishing his build.

• Sasja’s Meteorb V. 3.0 (http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=254070). Detailed instructions on how to build one of the most effective MFers in the game. Very well written, and touted for explaining to players how uber-gear isn’t necessary for having a good time.

• Darnoc’s Bnet Magic Find Guide (http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=416239). Very comprehensive information on treasure classes, area levels, diminishing returns, just about everything to do with magic find that I am too dumb and/or lazy to discuss myself.

• Nightfish’s Worldstone Keep Guide (http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=349147). Another piece by Nightfish. Good information, especially on how to run the entire keep without stepping on the same stone twice.

• Arreat Summit: Item Information (http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/). Very, very good lists detailing all prefixes, suffixes, and variations, and extensive discussions of all things about the game’s items: socketing, repairing, rerolling, you name it, they have it.

• Urlik_Skarsol’s Rune-Hunting Guide (http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=178289). While geared more towards single players, this guide is a good read nonetheless because of the advice it gives on the best areas, monsters, and situations for finding runes. An inspirational read (stop laughing) filled with precise charts on drop possibilities for each of the high runes.

• Arreat Summit: Runes (http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/runes.shtml). A list of all runes, rarities, and their effects when socketed in weapons, helms, armor, and shields.

• Arreat Summit: Runewords (http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/runewords.shtml). A list of all current runewords. Again, take note of which runewords work in specific patches and game environments.

• Cyber Dragon’s Destruction Key Running Guide (http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=415467). A great piece of work that espouses the use of the Slain Monsters Rest in Peace mod to handle Nihlathak’s Corpse Explosion. Cyber Dragon also offers the three map variations for the Halls of Pain, making the run from waypoint to stairs relatively, well, painless. Also reveals the secret of the Walls of Vaught. Shhh.

• Hoarshade’s DClone-Hunting Guide (http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=223863). First he tells you how to build a guy that can deal with DClone. Then he tells you how to find DClone. Then he tells you how to kick his burninating buttocks into next week. Short, sweet, and very informative.

• Arreat Summit: Super Unique Monsters (http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/monsters/super.shtml). A list of all the Super Unique monsters in the game, good for deciding which monster you want to spawn into Diablo Clone.

• C Squad’s Uber Tristram Guide (http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=372426). This guide quickly explains key running, organ running, and finally, tearing the Brothers Three to pitiful little shreds. Excellent guide. Also has some nice screenshots of the contents of the portals. Note that while he advocates the use of a party to fight the Brothers, it is entirely possible to solo Uber Tristram with the right characters. Some builds that have been known to solo it include Smiters and Summoners.

•Diabloii.net Trading Forum List (http://forums.diabloii.net/forumdisplay.php?f=21). A list of forums used by traders from USWest, USEast, and Europe. Also includes trading forums for Hardcore players, single players, and a forum dedicated to pricing items.

• Darnoc’s Scam Alert Thread (http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=388625). Provides a list of common scams used by bad people to take your moneys. Usually up to date, and should be considered required reading for every new player.

• Arreat Summit: Crafted Items (http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/crafteditems.shtml). Recipes, formulas, and advice about making the four different families of crafted item.

[princeandrew]

can this be stickied?

[handofnaz]

can this be stickied?

Whoah. That's very sweet of you. I just tossed this out there to provide information, though. Not at all sure if it'll be stickied or what, but I'm just glad it helped you. Thanks :)

[Leohappy]

I started this season with blizzsorc and that's also a good char to start with. Can kill Meph, Andy easy, and can play in Mausoleum and Ancient tunnels lvl 85 areas where theres no cold immunes and have awsome drops + easy monsters. Even with low +skills count she can solo in 8pl games, somthing no other can do (apart from hammerdin).

Also among runewords worth using is Stealth (Tal + Eth in armor) wich gives 25% FCR, FHR, FRW, and Lore helm (Ort + Sol in helm) +1 to all skill & light res. 2x Spirit is a no-brainer (shield+wpn) as is insght pole on merc. All these runes can be gained by doing a few countess runs in nm.

[handofnaz]

Ah, very sound advice there. I'd stick it in, but I can't seem to edit the original post anymore. Hmm. Ps, I've always liked your avatar. Looks vaguely familiar. Where's it from?

[Darnoc]

HandofNaz,

Good job on the guide, Naz! I see you definitely put a lot of planning and effort into it. It answers a lot of questions I see pop up here and in the community forums regularly too. Have you mentioned anything to Aragorn about this guide? Two things to point out should you post a revision at some point for this:

First mention the Travincial Council in common mfing spots; plenty of charms, gold, gems, jewels drop there regularly. They can't drop from the best treasure classes, but they are fast and its a good way to get started. I'm guilty of not putting this in the mf guide either, but then again I dont even mention pindle in the build suggestions section. Needless to say, there will be another version of the mf guide posted :wink3:

Second, make a note in the annihulus section that while the DClone can spawn in any difficulty setting, he will only drop an annihulus charm in hell difficulty game. In normal and nightmare games he will drop items like any other monster and has a tc of 110(I'm going to do some research into this to see if a grand charm dropped by a non-hell difficulty dclone can get life up to +50, since tc 110 is required for this mod).

Again, good job on this. Take it easy-

Darnoc

[handofnaz]

Duly noted! I can't believe I glossed over the difficulties for DClone walking. Eep.

I mentioned this to Gorny before I wrote it, but I'm a little shy about PMing him about it right now. Don't want to be too much of a bugger :/

I'm like a big fan of your work, so you running along to comment and actually offer praise is a Huge Thing™. Thanks lots, Conrad.

[Dadou]

Sticky on this ! Great post !

To anyone whose MFer has been overpowered by other chars, a good way to retire is Crafter or Rusher.

Rusher for friends, even if your other char is potentially more powerful, you'll see that it's always nice to play an old char (especially if you owe him your wealth). Besides, your Meteorb will rush faster than your IK or Hammerdin thanks to teleport (except if you have enough wealth for Enigma).

Crafter : If you get 70+, or even better 92+, get rid of your gear, stay in town, and accumulate the runes/gems and specific items necessary to craft. With your lvl, you'll be able to obtain very good mods !

I think that's what my ama will turn in, in 4 levels or so...

[mjpw]

this is great

[ael]

Nice one, hope it helps many newbies. About the etiquette part, I think it`s pretty much up to the player`s mood and personality.

[Chirijiraden]

I really like this guide...this needs to be sticky'd.

[maxicek]

Great guide.

When I moved from SP to ladder, the thing that confused me was communicating with people in the game, ie. how to whisper someone etc. It was fairly obvious how to make the deal by looking at the trading forums, but going from that point to getting my hands on the items was unclear to me (or maybe I was being thick). Maybe a small section on this?

[handofnaz]

You know what, I couldn't even add people to my friend's list. When I get to edit this (think I have to ask Gorny to help on that, don't think you can edit threads after some time), I'll add a section or a link to a list of Bnet commands. Thanks for suggesting this.

Everyone else, thanks lots for the comments, they are very much appreciated. Just a question about crafting though, Dadou, you mentioned removing all gear before starting... why so?

[Dadou]

Well, basically you don't need to remove what's equipped, but at least you need to remove charms, scrolls, books, everything that takes room in inventory or sash... because you'll be carrying a lot of runes/gems/jewels/magic items.

For the gear equipped, if you have, say, only one stormshield, maybe you would want to use it on another char instead of leaving it on a craftermule... That was my point.

Tip : when crafting, try to accumulate a good bunch of items of the same sort (depending on the recipe you'll use) to try several crafted items.

[handofnaz]

Well, basically you don't need to remove what's equipped, but at least you need to remove charms, scrolls, books, everything that takes room in inventory or sash... because you'll be carrying a lot of runes/gems/jewels/magic items.

For the gear equipped, if you have, say, only one stormshield, maybe you would want to use it on another char instead of leaving it on a craftermule... That was my point.

Tip : when crafting, try to accumulate a good bunch of items of the same sort (depending on the recipe you'll use) to try several crafted items.

Woo, my bad. That was too painfully obvious. Thanks for pointing that out :)

[Gorny]

*sneezes*

Thread is stuck...

[handofnaz]

*sneezes*

Thread is stuck...

The best kind of snot there is! Glory glory!

[CoyoteKid]

Thanks for all the good info.

[kingdryland]

Nice info. You should consider adding hell travincal runs. Loads of charms,gems,jewels,uniques. Probably the best way for non teleporting builds to get wealth in no time.

[Spellreaver]

Awesome guide Noz... I played diablo2 LOD when it first came out, beat normal and quit until 2 months ago. A lot's changed, and I knew little about MFinding runs until this guide, especially where to hunt, what to hunt and trading. Thanks for tips.

[handofnaz]

One is glad to be of service.

Just something new to add for low-level, extremely dirt-poor Meteorbs and other such caster characters. In place of plugging socketed armor full of sapphires, you might also consider wearing gear socketed with Tir runes, which give +2 mana per kill. You can get a 3-socket breast plate, 3-socket kite shield, and 3-socket broad sword from Fara (Act 2), and a 2-socket helm from someone as early as Charsi (Act 1). This accounts for 22 mana per kill which is pretty impressive for a totally untwinked young character. You will very rarely run out of mana, I assure you, and by the time you find something better to wear, you'll have expanded your mana pool to account for switching out your Tir gear.

You can get Tir runes by running the Countess. You can cube Els up to Elds and Elds up to Tirs, so it shouldn't take too long. You could, alternatively, put sapphires into helm and armor for mana, then Tirs into weapon and shield for + mana per kill.

Note that this works for any kills performed by your character only, not by your merc or minions. This means that it will work with Frozen Orb, Lightning Fury, Whirlwind, etc. It will not work for assassin traps, unfortunately, because traps are counted as minions.

[jag]

iirc you were the one talking about making this guide before in a thread...

Great job. I wish this had been available when I 1st started on b.net. I had played this game for 2 years sp/network and was still totally lost when i went online.

You tied together all the other guides that were out there, but were scattered making it hard for a 'noob' to either find or understand since I didnt find the abbreviation guide for over 3 months LOL

I know you are getting some of 'need to add this' things - but really overall it covers almost everything you need to know to get started. :thumbsup:

[tiong]

thanx for this guide. juz read it

[Paladingo]

Some fantastic info you posted here Handofnaz! I hope you don't mind me adding some data here! After doing 1000+ Hell Meph runs I did some in normal difficulty out of curiosity, and though that newer players might be interested to see what they might get.

Results of 100 normal Meph runs;

Why I did it;
I have been playing a new low level Paladin, using Scepters only as weaps and twinked with any items from my single player stashes. He got up to Act3 (normal) Kurast within a casual 4 hours playing and twinking.
He re-run the Kurast 3 and Travincal about 3 times until he reached lvl 25, where he could finally equip his "HolyThunder" runeword scepter with +6 holy shock, (and 2 points in) was +8 holy shock at lvl 25.

He used this weap for all 100 of the (normal diff) Mephisto runs, putting the skill point in holy shock each time he leveled up. Later runs he used a "Gull" dagger for the final kill, for extra MF.

The reason he decided to do 100 normal Meph runs was the Durance 2 map was perfect, one corner from D2 waypoint to the down stairs, AND even better still the waypoint room had 10+ chests and up to 20 baskets. D3 was perfect with the council mob in the right wing but no shrine sadly.

Procedure;
Full clear the waypoint room and upstairs room.
(about 1/3 time had an upstairs bosspack)
Full clear all D3, front and left first, then kill Meph, then the right wing council mob.
Every monster killed, every chest/basket popped.

Picked up;
All Uniques
All Sets
All rings/ammys
All gems/jewels/runes/charms
All cash
Rares identified, some picked up
Some blues.

Stats/Equipment;
Start lvl 25.0 ended lvl 31.4
HolyThunder weap, all holy shock
5 perfect topaz helm/armour (MF)
2 nagelring
goldwrap belt at lvl 27
chance guards gloves
sigons shield + pdiamond (+1 skill, +19 all resist)
nokozan ammy (fire resist)
fast boots
lots of damage/resist/MF charms
(Merc, bow chick, not too helpful)

How it went;
The first 20 runs were a bit rough. He had to resurrect merc Tylena about 6 times, due to her bad habit of standing on firewalls. She even earned a new nickname; "You dumb fatass *****!" After that she leveled a bit and seemed to get a bit smarter as well as tougher. Nickname retracted sorry. Pally had no deaths and only in the first 20 runs had to pop the occasional health pot. The nokozan ammy and couple of resist charms were perfect for making him fireproof, and due to melee attack on mephisto he didn't get much lightning damage. Pretty easy!

After about 20+ runs he got to lvl 27 and could put on the goldwrap belt, and he swapped a few charms along the way as the runs got safer and his killing ability got faster. Magic Find % at the start was about 200% and later equipped the goldwrap and some more MF small charms and a Gull dagger (+100% !) so it was over 350% near the end. For the record, it really didn't seem to make much difference in the "crop" whether the MF was 210% or 350%.

By the end, Pally was at lvl 31 and with holy shock 15, zeal damage shown at 246-1164 and holy shock pulse at 1-108, enough to take out ghoul lords with 2 pulses sometimes. Basically after the first 40 runs it was easy and after 60 runs it was so easy he was ID'ing rares in the middle of combat!

Hassles?
That HolyThunder scepter (+zeal) was a SUPERB weap, made the killing part easy even from the start. But the mongrel thing cost about 1.5 million to repair, so it got repaired in the cube wth an Ort rune. It needed 2 full repairs over the 100 runs, and was repared again at the end even tough still had 1/3 durability left. It was little boring after the first 50 runs. Total time for 100 runs was about 7 hours, very casual over 3 evenings and Mr. Pally even enjoyed a few stiff drinks along the way.

Costs;
3 Ort runes (weap repairs)
$25,000 (reurrects)
$10,000? (ID scrolls, general repairs)

The Crop;
35 Uniques; lvl2 to lvl20
81 Set items
Rares; about 150 (20 excellent)
Gold $4500(av) = $450,000
Charms=31; G=9, L=12, S=10
Gems=130; chip=30, flawd=54, norm=46
(equiv to 7.4 perfect gems)
Jewels=17

Runes;
El 8
Eld 8
Tir 5
Nef 7
Eth 7
Ith 6
Tal -
Ral 2
Ort 1

Uniques;
1 Rixots Keen sword lvl 2
1 Stoutnail club lvl 5
1 Lenymo sash lvl 7
2 Sepentlord staff lvl 9
2 Bloodfist gloves lvl 9
2 Umbral Disc shield lvl 9
1 The Diggler knife lvl 11
1 Gleamscyth sword lvl13
2 Witherstring bow lvl 13
4 Steelgoad stick lvl 14
1 Goreshovel axe lvl 14
1 Ravenclaw bow lvl 15
2 Bladebone axe lvl 15
2 Griswolds sword lvl 17
3 Duskdeep hat lvl 17
1 Ichorsting bow lvl 18
1 Bverrit Keep shield lvl 19
1 Soulharvest stick lvl 19
3 JadeTanDo knife lvl 19
2 Roguesbow bow lvl 20
1 Face of Horror hat lvl 20
(2 from chests, 8 from monsters, rest from Meph)

Set items;
Highest lvl = Sanders Gloves lvl 28
5 Sigons shields
Few Vidalas boots
Few Angelics
Only 2 Isenharts Case!

All in all there were plenty of great items for low level characters, including many very nice rares and even some great rare rings and +specific skills rare ammys etc. Sure it could have been done quicker and yes, sure the time could have been "better" spent running NM or Hell Meph (which i also do) BUT for a player fairly new to the game, and looking for great items to equip on their low level characters and test builds it was a few casual evenings of "play" that were well spent.

The Rixots Keen sword was a grail item of mine, very happy to get that! Lenymo can be hard to find, this is my 3rd. Things like Bloodfist, Duskdeeps, Gleamscythe, Goreshovel are a ton of fun on low level characters as are some of the lower level set items.

So if you get a character to about lvl 25 and he/she is pretty tough, it might be worth doing 100 normal Meph runs and start building your stash of goodies. Don't be put off if you don't have that much MF% equipment, just use what you can, and improve it as you go along. Even with 0% MF you should still get about 2/3 of the amount shown here.
:smiley:

[handofnaz]

Thanks for the replies, all! And for the kind words, jag. I just feel that it'd be great if people could learn off the bat what we all took months to find out through trial and error.

Input is always welcome, Paladingo, and this is quite substantial data! I myself ran NM Andariel with my FB sorc in the hopes of finding an SoJ (it never did drop) but never recorded my results. This is excellent stuff, especially someone who has to start from scratch and can't quite wait till NM to rack up the goodies. Great job!

Just some additional info to this. If you plan to use an Act II merc, a great way to make a starting weapon for him is with the Horadric Cube recipe: one kris, one staff, one belt, and one diamond of any quality. This will create a polearm with the very nice Savage prefix, which ensures that your merc will decimate most monsters almost single-handedly.

The problem is the occasional occurrence of ridiculously high strength and level requirements and the guest appearances of scythes, which Act II mercs can't use. This can be remedied with a little leveling and by throwing your spare amethysts into armor and helm to pump up merc strength.

You could, of course, opt to use the Savage weapon yourself. Very good stuff, especially for low level polearm Barbs and Sorcs of all kinds.

[Sazabie]

About NM Andariel runs. I have done it more than 50 times for total but I was always unlucky. My MF is about 500. But if the posiblity of getting SoJ is 1/1650, then 500MF will make it 1/275. (Am I right?) I guess 50 runs were not enough.
anyway, funny thing was that right after I gave up, I went into a normal game to help my friend killing Diablo. Then, this normal Diablo just dropped a Soj!!!

Does anyone know the possiblity of Normal Diablo dropping Soj? Im sure that High level-tele character can do this run as quick as NM Andariel runs.

[Byalongshot]

Excellent guide, I think I might get my D2 disk back from my brother and start playing again.

[krischan]

My MF is about 500. But if the posiblity of getting SoJ is 1/1650, then 500MF will make it 1/275. (Am I right?) I guess 50 runs were not enough.
No, you are wrong. With respect to rares, set items and unique items, MF is subject to diminishing returns. It's probably mentioned somewhere in this thread, but anyway:

True MF=(MF*X)/(MF+X)

Rares: X=600
Set items: X=500
Uniques: X=250

So with 500%MF, the true MF for uniques is 166%.

[templecrasher]

If my math is right, that means at 300% the True MF for uniques is 136%. I can easily see why people do not go all out on MF. It takes a good bit of gear changing to go from 300 to 500 for such a little return.

[Jenius]

I don't see hell cows mentioned in there, I've found it's a fairly decent source of items (such as monarch) and charms that you can pawn off for puls and lems. Don't really need a strong character or any mf gear to do it either. There's also very little immune guys, so a one trick pony sorc could fair pretty well in there too.

[handofnaz]

I'd say a Furyzon is still best equipped for cowing. I hadn't seen the true power of one until recently. They're apparently capable of slaying cows in full hell games, and since the Cow King is immune, there's no risk of breaking your portal down. Pretty intense. And yes, MF gear is unnecessary. Very nice runes, charms and jewels can drop in there.

And yes, as mentioned in Leohappy's post on this thread, #8, a Blizzard sorc is an excellent way to build wealth. She can slay Mephisto in under a minute without needing high-end gear, with or without the moat trick. Hell Meph drops better, but even NM Mephisto can yield some pretty lovely tradables. You can even leave her in Nightmare after you've found enough stuff to trade or wear for your other characters. Very solid build.

[BabyLink]

thanks for this guide, now i can get some mid-rare uniques. My friends used to give me some free for begining . Im no more friend-dependant :)

[Sazabie]

No, you are wrong. With respect to rares, set items and unique items, MF is subject to diminishing returns. It's probably mentioned somewhere in this thread, but anyway:

True MF=(MF*X)/(MF+X)

Rares: X=600
Set items: X=500
Uniques: X=250

So with 500%MF, the true MF for uniques is 166%.


Thanks a lot.:idea: So....... that means

100%MF = 71% Unique
83% Set
200%MF = 111% Unique
142% Set
300%MF = 136% Uniquse
187% Set
400%MF = 154% Unique
222% Set
500%MF = 166% Unique
250% Set

Wow........MF% from gear does not boost up the actual MF% as much as it seems. I shuold start balancing my MF gear on my light sorc.

[Ogtob]

I am currently building a new character and getting through the thirties repeatedly running Baal's Minions. Instead of immediately switching to a new game I bring in an older character and go whack Baal for whatever he will give up. Takes an extra 5 minutes max.

[Clicktoseename]

Very very usefull guide for poor players like me:grin: ! Thanks alot!:thumbsup: :flowers:

[batuchka]

Awesome guide and good job on helping out new poor players ^^ I would want to share certain stuff i did when starting out after a long time out of the game to build wealth:

Gambling:

Gheeds GC + Edge bow = up to 30% discount from vendors
This would mean more rolls for ammys, circlets, etc

Rares:

Mage class circlets:

+2 skill//+2 tree with 20fcr // prismatic = approaching gg

Melee class circlets:

+2 skill // visionary suffix // prismatic = approaching gg

Ammy

+2 skill/+2 tree/10fcr/prismatic = approaching gg

Career paths

Fishymancer can be converted to Uber/Key hunter with better gear (enigma, Hoto, eth Infinity, etc) ^^ Mages for prevent heal. Or even hell cow socketables finder hehe

Crafts

Gloves:

1) 20ias/10cb/str/dual leech= gg
2) 20ias/kb/+java or passive/dual leech = gg

Ammy:

1) +2 skill/10+fcr/primatic/stats = gg
2) +2 skill/10fcr/10% increased chance of blocking = gg

Ring:

8+ life leech // 6+ mana leech // 15+str = approaching gg

Hope i contributed in a useful way and cheers :D

[CornFedSeven]

A very good runeword that is cheap for a merc weapon that I love is "Honor"

Putting this in a lance creates for a great weapon, with relatively cheap runes.

[csafaii]

great guide thanks,Great for new and returning players.After reading this I know how much I forgot :tongue:

[Wurmer]

Great work you have done here. It's a very nice guide, well written and relying a good common sens. I am sure it will be of great help to newcomers and more experienced players alike.

[Marslite]

Very good guide. We need all these tips now that we are starting to play new ladder ! thanks !

[Rotta]

A very nice guide, i wish i would've been able to read it when i started diablo 2 (YEARS ago). it would've saved me from a lot of pain (The pain of losing my first unique to a random scammer :D)

Oh yeah, Hello everyone, No introduction forums here i see ^^

[Abubakr]

Thanks, this guide is really helpful for me.

[hollanddog]

i just came back to the game and this deserves a bump.

[degini]

Is it assumed that all MFing is being done in 8 player games? Is it worth it to do boss runs in solo games?

Any tips for finding appropriate sized games that will stay open long enough to do runs in?

[degini]

Great guide!

I am finding I cannot survive in nm/hell due to lack of resists and overall gear woes. I figured I should start pgem farming to build some base wealth, but simply cannot survive.Any suggestions?

Lvl 80 meteorb glass cannon

[Donut]

@degini

I found the hammerdin to be very effective character in pvm, you don't need top gear to kill monsters. If you can obtain a wizard spike or make a decent paladin spirit, your resist problems will be solved. Also, if you can get a naj staff you can teleport around (think of it as a poor man's enigma ^_^). Good luck!

[rCt Arbitur]

What the..

Your saying hell andariel drops bad? wtf she was my bread when i played with my meteorb back at ladder, as long as you kill monsters on your way to her you will be fine, also making a light sorc for Arcane Sanctuary is insane, i get lots of charms, keys and jewels/flawless gems with only 120 mf in games with any amount of players.

Also running nihlatak when your better should be an option.

[Elementrix]

Wow this is very good for beginners. I will be playing offline single player only. I think I decided on my classes. My favorite is the Sorceress since I like Elemental spells and such. I might start off with the Fishymancer because it might be a better first choice than a Sorceress. I still can't decide on Meteorb or Blizzballer.

[Hrus]

Fishymancer is much worse choice than a sorc in terms of getting wealth quickly. Also getting wealth in SP differs quite much from getting wealth in BNet (for example keys are worth nothing, socketed items are not so valuable and prizes are different...)

[Elementrix]

Fishymancer is much worse choice than a sorc in terms of getting wealth quickly. Also getting wealth in SP differs quite much from getting wealth in BNet (for example keys are worth nothing, socketed items are not so valuable and prizes are different...)

Is BNet a different version of Diablo 2? I have Diablo 2 Lord of Destruction. I would love to play online, but mine is only a single player version. My brother has my full game.
I think I will make a Sorceress then, now to decide Meteorb or Blizzballer.

[Buligo]

Is there really a single-player version of D2? Why? Bnet is still free of charge!?

[Elementrix]

Is there really a single-player version of D2? Why? Bnet is still free of charge!?

I don't know, my friend gave me it and when you chose BNet it just says the serial does not work with this game. The weird thing is it is a single application, no folder or anything.

[Elementrix]

Is there really a single-player version of D2? Why? Bnet is still free of charge!?

May I ask do you mean Diablo II is free to download or that its free to play online?

[butchie]

May I ask do you mean Diablo II is free to download or that its free to play online?

Free to play online on battle.net. Unlike wow for example, you don't pay any monthly fees for playing online.

[Elementrix]

Free to play online on battle.net. Unlike wow for example, you don't pay any monthly fees for playing online.

Okay thanks.:thumbup:

[Buligo]

May I ask do you mean Diablo II is free to download or that its free to play online?

When you mentioned some sort of Single player D2, I was puzzled because I never heard of such thing before. It comes unlogical to me that Blizzard would make a single-player version of D2, since b.net is still free. Looks like they will not make a LAN version of D3 (and we all know why), still, there will be battle.net for D3. But making a single player-only version of D2 seemed pointless to me.

[Twoflower]

Singleplayer is for those of us who like to play without cheats and lags and hackers and resets.

On topic : One important thing that didnt get mentioned is that speed matters. A lot. Your kills per hour ratio is much more important than your MF %.

Therefore, i feel that i must correct two things : 1 :Fishmancer is not a good choice for a first char. He takes long to kill bosses and he does not have teleport. Go with a sorc. 2 : Run hell Mephisto, not hell Baal. Baal takes forever to get there, and you have to fight trough 5 waves of mobs. There are only a few items that he drops that Mephisto cannot drop, and you should only start running Baal if you have everything Meph can drop and you need the rest of the items that you can only get from Baal.

Speed wins.