best way to prepare for hell

[Deltren]

Hi I recently got into D2 again and made a hammerdin. He is 65 now and can do the first three wp areas of hell without dieing. My Hammers do 2.3 with conc on, and yes I was laughed at for this low dmg. I am really poor and am unsure how to gain "wealth". The other day I traded a bunch of Pgems for some decent armor upgrades (vrs the rares I had these unqiues were good).

My question is what is the best way to find stuff that is trade-able and what is the best way to prepare for hell. While all guides basically say get "this gear and this gear" I can't really get any gear because I have no real wealth base...

What are good ways to gain trade able items like pgems? Are there any crafting recipes that are particularly nice (I believe that the reason I got a bunch of these trades was because this person wanted to use pgems in a recipe for making crafted amulets)?
What are good places to mf for trade able items? Where are good places/ what are good ways to find gems and runes?

Any tips would be appreciated.

[dejavoodoo]

Well it's pretty hard to trade even decent uniques :( which would help me alot if people wanted them, but most people want pgems for crafting/rerolling. I usually find a good amount just doing runs (even in nm) of trav/meph/diablo. Trav doesn't drop that great in nm but i do find a quite a few flawless around there which is the fastest way to making a perfect. Then of course there is hellforge in all difficulties and if you can rush people you can try to do it for a forge unless you are kind enought od it for free. Playing ALOT tends to be the easiest way in the end.

[GodlyHammurz]

i suggest mabe doing cont in hell 4 keyz, they tend trade good :D also make frends with some ppl and they can help you wiv andy runz.

one last thing free in tp, free games etc are always good, most ppl who make the games are pretty good with decent mf and will leave most uniques and stuff.

gl dude :D

[Evrae Altana]

Welcome to the forums GodlyHammurz. :wave:

*steals pants and wallet*

[Mursilis]

This sounds like your first character, so some magic finding is in order to gain wealth. I'd suggest a few NM Mephisto runs to get some nice exceptional items. Once your hammerdin is all decked out the monsters between you and Hell Mephisto should be doable. Once you get to Hell Mephisto run him over and over. You'll find all the items you need for equipping new characters and for trading purposes to start gaining wealth.

One thing to review for some hints on magic finding is Hrus' guide (http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=412453)

[Raith]

Do some NM Baal runs and hope for a Shako. ;]

[Voorhees]

Well, you said you can do act1 hell fairly well, so if I were you I would run the pits in Tamoe Highland. Pretty much any item can drop in here as opposed to running nightmare, and they are still fairly easy. Plus it will be good leveling till somewhere in the seventies.
My most important advice is to familiarize yourself with what kind of items are valuable and about how much you can get for them. I can't tell you how many stories I've heard(or experienced myself:embarassed:) where a newer player has found an ungodly expensive item and sold it to an npc cause they didn't get why it would be useful. Take a little time a peruse the trade forum and take a look at what kind of items people are trading and what kind of offer they're getting on them. There are lots of items that may seem fairly lame to a newer player, but can fetch considerable prices from more experienced players. Lot's of times a magical, rare or even just a socketed item can be very valuable if you train yourself on what to look for.