general questions about serius bnet play

[ttopperharley]

hey everyone. im a wow vet, been at it for almost 2 years but i had to quit about a year ago. now i might be able to finally do some gaming again, and im thinking about d2x. ive been doing some reading but there are still a few questions not contained in an ordinary guide i would like clarified.

first i would like honest opinions from experienced players: is it still possible to be a good player after so many years the game came out in a modest timeframe? (say 3 or 4 hours a day) im thinking about gear, i know some of the most powerful items do not drop anymore or they got nerfed. if i decide to start d2 i wanna be good at it like every other game :-)

the other thing is lvling. so basically you create an 8 man game/join one for the extra xp. then what? you go solo or with the others? i dont know anyone at the moment so that might be a problem. also how long does it take to lvl a char so i can start MFing with him/her? if i do decide to start playing i really wouldnt want to spend months hitting goblins before i can actually get to enjoy the game :-)

and there is trading. i read thru a 1000 words post about mechanics and scamming and that wasnt really reassuring. is it really that bad? i mean ppl will try to scam me with dupes every other trade? i cant imagine blizzard would allow such things to go on...

i think that about covers it, thank you in advance for your kind replies hope to see some of you ingame soon :-)

[Crowd Control]

To answer some of your questions shortly:

- It'd take a week to get the basics, two weeks to know most things and about three weeks to master all the knowledge. Lot's of things are mentioned here, on diabloii.net (http://www.diabloii.net) or the Arreat Summit (http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp). Look through those to learn most stuff. In depth statistics can be found in the statistics forum here or on the Strategy Compendium (http://strategy.diabloii.net). Read the guides and builds in the corresponding forum here to learn about those.

- It takes little time to be a good player PvM, but I'm not into PvP. And that's where the real deal begins. That type of play needs serious experience.

- You can use this forum (Comm-forum > in-game help) to ask someone to help you out in rushing or powerleveling. It'd take a couple of hours to farm some good gear from bosses if you're a bit lucky.

- Trading via these forums is considered very scamfree, so make use of it

Now just buy the damn game and get into it...




...and welcome to the ETF

[prion]

I always recommend that people go all the way throuh normal difficulty at least once in single player so that they know all about the areas, the different monster types, and the story.

now once you get online you make a game called "act 1 start" and anyone else making a new character will join up with you and co-op to get the quests done. There is a significant bonus to experience when your in a party with others so people always join up with complete strangers and mostly behave themselves, just remember this: anything that drops is fair game so be quick with your mouse click if you see something green, yellow, or gold.

As far as what you mean by being a good player, it's really up to you how you define that. :)

welcome to the addiction.

[ttopperharley]

i played thru the game the day it came out so i have the general idea about it but that was all SP and some 5 years ago (i think) :-)

so youre saying that lvling is done exclusively in grps. how about MFing? does being in an 8 man game effect the loot from bosses or ppl just run them solo?

my main interest would of course be pvp but from my experience from other games i know if somone wants to be effective there he needs gear and to get gear hes gotta farm a lot. so starting a WW barb (my main interest) would probably be foolish since it needs a lotta crap to be good. ive read in several posts that sorcies make good first untwinked chars and that one can MF with it pretty easy. question is, how long would it take to get one up so i can start working on gear for my barb...

and thank you for your responses so far :-)

[prion]

there's times when it can be useful to level solo, but i guess i would consider that part of the "advanced" course, for the most part, just party up.

I think you can get your sorc levelled in 2-4 days but as for fully geared to where you can solo Hell act bosses....I dunno

uhh...i don't want to tackle the rest of the questions right now, I think someone else could do a better job.

[ttopperharley]

thanks man that was the info i was lookin for

guess im gunna give it some more thought (and reading) then probably ask another set of stupid questions here :-) i have a feeling ill end up playing its a blizzard game after all and the direct predecessor of WoW so it cant be bad.

thanks for the responses again

[Mursilis]

Questing is normally done in groups, while magic finding is done solo or in very small groups of people that know each other well. The reason MFing isn't done with strangers is that when items fall it's a free-for-all to pick them up. You've got a good chance of not getting anything at all.

[Rice_Farmer3]

I always recommend that people go all the way throuh normal difficulty at least once in single player so that they know all about the areas, the different monster types, and the story.


I couldn't agree more. :smiley:
I think 3-4 hours a day is not modest at all. I only get to play about hour a day. You will be up in the godliness in no time if you know what your doing.
Also, it is true that scamming is unfortunately pretty common on bnet, but it's actually not that bad. Obviously, your best choice would be to trade on the forums, but that's not always going to happen. Most people out there on bnet that are willing and legit traders. It's not like everyone out there is just seeking to take your stuff. And also, you are 100% safe from scamming if you are vigilant.
If you played WoW, you may be used to doing everything with other people (I don't know actually, cuz I haven't played myself) but D2 is more solo/small groups oriented. You will have easier time if you work in teams of 2-8 with willing players, but many times it is desirable to do things alone, like if you are killing bosses and you want the drops for yourself.