Wazzup.

[Feared]

Howdy, all. After growing bored with my battle.net excursions, I've decided to try something new. Sexual deviation isn't my style, so the next logical choice was single player.

To start, my name is Alex, I live in Florida, and I like Metal, favorite band being Opeth. As far as Diablo goes... well I played prior to whenever the heck I made this account, stopped for about 1.5 years, and just restarted a few months ago. Since then I've only really made one good character, that being a lvl 89 hammerdin with a bunch of really good gear that I bummed off a friend. Before then (back in '05) I had a lvl ~90 mfing sorc, and that was about it. I never really did anything special/challenging. That is why I now am very interested in getting an untwinked SP character through Hell. This raises some questions.

1. What would be a good, fun build to get me acquainted with single player?
1(a). It seems to me that soloing Hell would require at least 2 signifigant sources of damage to deal with immunes. How far is this true?
1(b). I've always played Bnet with max resistances. I realize that won't be as practical without stuff I take for granted on Bnet. What's a good resistance level to shoot for?

2. How long will it take to beat hell? Obviously it differs, but if you had to make a rough estimate... what about just normal? Nightmare?

That just about does it. Any words of advice you want to throw my way are greatly appreciated. I'll probably kick off my first SP character in a few hours, or when I get a couple informative response.

[Noodle]

Welcome!

The party line is that a summonmancer is the easiest to get through Hell untwinked. Many prefer to make a Blizz sorc as their first character, primarily to run Mephisto for items to outfit their next one. Can't go wrong with either.

I started my SP career with a trapsin - you can shop for very good claws, use Fire Blast on lightning immunes, use Fade to help with resists (although I'm addicted to Burst of Speed), and she's practically invulnerable with Cloak of Shadows and Mind Blast.

Good luck with your new character, whichever you choose!

- Noodle

[duckysmile]

Howdy there. I myself only have a zealot online to help my brother with Uber Tristram. Everything else I do in SP. Noodle got it right, either a fishymancer, or a blizzsorc. I chose to do the later, because I've made like, 6 different fishymancers, and I wanted to try something new. Resists are the same, the higher the better. I'll go for weaker equipment as long as it has more resists, because from my experience, they're absolutely needed.

Welcome and good luck. It's a lot of fun.

[Zaliqai]

Welcome to the SPF Feared! :wave:

If you just want to get through Hell untwinked then as Noodle and ducky said the Skelliemancer is probably the easiest and he can MF just about anywhere, though he'll be slower at the MFing than other builds. I thought it was a really fun build but if you're looking for a challenge you may want to look elsewhere.

Other good options are the Meteorb and Blizzballer sorceress' since they are dual element. They can kill and MF just about anything. A little more challenging than the Skelliemancer but still fairly easy.

The Blizzsorc is just about the best MFer around and can quickly farm places such as Hell Meph, Pindle and the Ancient Tunnels. She'll be tougher to get through Hell though since she'll be untwinked and will have to rely on her merc more often for cold immunes, unless you just Teleport through. She's fun and very effective if you want to MF a lot for twinking your next characters but otherwise you may not want to make her your first choice.

My favorite build so far is the LF/FA Amazon, otherwise known as the Fishyzon. She may be a bit more item dependant than the other builds but I'm sure she can make it untwinked as well. She can MF as well though she'll be slower at it than the sorcs.

I don't have a lot of experience with other builds so I can't give suggestions there but the best thing to remember is that this is Diablo II where all builds are fun :smiley:. You can make it with any build untwinked.

You don't need two sources of damage but if you have them it will definitely make things easier and you won't have to rely on your merc as often. And since he'll be untwinked as well his effectiveness will depend a bit on luck finding items for him.

As far as immunities go more is always better but Lightning is the most important.

I don't play very quickly but then I always do every quest and find every waypoint. I'm rarely in a rush either so every Act takes me about an hour or two, sometimes more. I'm probably one of the slower players though.

Anyway, I hope you have a lot of fun with your first SP character. Let us know how it went.

[nebux]

welcome to the SPF!
*kick Feared shin*
/varnish

[aitrus]

Welcome to the SPF :wave:

Rub this gently onto your shins... hope it helps
*gives Feared shin lotion*

[asdfgah]

Welcome to the SPF! :wave:

[Grisu]

Welcome to the SPF!

I've seen nebux already gave you a warm welcome and aitrus took care of your shins...so, nothing more to do here for me. But if you at one time or another are in need of a fireman - just call on me!:thumbsup:

[Online]

Welcome! :wave:

About build choice, play the one you enjoy the most. Boredom might be your worst enemy after all!