Just bought D2

[BoostedCruiser]

After hearing that D2 was an amazing game and seeing the new D3 stuff, I went and bought D2 the other day. Needless to say, I feel like a total newb to all of this D2 stuff. Can anyone give me advice on choosing a character and build that will be easy to learn and play for a newb? Any good beginners guides out there? Keep in mind that this is classic D2, no LOD yet.

[HegemonKhan]

FIRST:

Read the manual (if u have one and haven't read it yet) so u are familiar with the basics of the game and stuff. like quests and acts and skills and stats. the 5 characters. keys/controls. skill synergies. mp play. mp partying. mp commands, like how to chat and friend and message. mp-bnet xfering. mp-bnet temp ban. mp-bnet rules. etc.

SECOND:

For mp (multiplayer/bnet) play u'll need to learn all the abreviations that are used.
For examples: tp=town portal, wp=way point, ng=new game, pp=party please, bo= battle orders + battle command + shout. chant=enchant. sora=sorc teleporting to usually the star in cs (chaos sanctuary area). bora=barb leaping to usually the star in cs. wug=what u got. wuw. what u want. pk=palayer killer. pvp=player vs player. pvm=player vs monster. duel=player(s) vs player(s). LLD=low level duels. MLD=medium level duels. HLD=high level duels. etc.

THIRD:

for actual playing, u could just experiment and as u do u learn stuff and get familiar with the actual play mechanics and whats good and not, etc. but this takes more time.

if u do mp games, u wont really get to learn the game. as its all about rushing. skipping quests and things that dont matter etc etc

it might be better to do an sp (single player) game first, until u r familiar with the game, the acts, the quests, and etc.
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FOURTH:

As for your actual question:

any spell casting char is best (and easiest). contrary to most games, melee-phys damage characters are much harder to use and play with in d2. magic spell casting characters and builds are much more dominent (and easier) in d2.

i would use a sorc (sorceress) first and folow what i'm going to tell u here and u will be off and running with a good start.

OR, u could make a summoner necro, which i'll also help with after the sorc step guide.

OR, u could make a hammerdin (blessed hammer skill using paladin). Although, despite being so powerful, its a bit too hard for a noob to make and use, at least without help and instruction (like getting good resist gear and the certain gear items like godly rares or just uniques like shard, eyeless, magefist, gold skin, silks, etc).
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the sorceress:

back ground info:

in the beginning early char levels (1-11) u'll see the barb (barbarian), pal (or din) (paladin), zon (or ama) (amazon) excel with weapon melee attacking being able to run up and slug it out with monsters and not die compared to your sorc, but do not be fooled. as soon as u hit char (character) lvl (level) 12 u'll have powerful spells that will be equal to the weapon using melee barb, pal, zon characters if not better. u than quickly surpass them in ability and usefulness. but u have to know how to build your sorc, which i will help u with below.
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step guide for a noob (new player/un-experienced) to make a solid "noob" sorc:

GOLD:

pick up body armors, wands, scepters, staffs and sell them for huge gold. also "TRY" not to die. this is easier said than done. also, its
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STATS (strength=str, dexterity=dex, vitality=vit, energy=nrg):

put all 5 pts (points) into vit with each lvl up. if u want/need to wear gear (weapon, body armor, hat, boot, glove, amulet, rings, shield, belt) than put into str and/or dex as is needed to wear that gear u wanna use. this will give u life which will keep u from dying for half the game on your high life pool alone which a sorc really needs. a good basic str amount for a noob is 55 str. this lets u wear the highest def light armor, mage plate. as u get more experienced (and know the different gear items) than u can go lower or higher str for certain gear items. do NOT put any pts into nrg!!!! as u lvl up u'll get tons of nrg so don't worry about it. u'll have to buy and drink lots of mana potions but its well worth it to not waste pts into the nrg stat.
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SKILLS:

the sorc has 3 different spell type tab pages of skills. lit (lightning). fire. cold. pick one of these types (fire, lit, cold) to be your damage dealer.

damage dealing skills (choose one type of build below):

fire: fireball skill (+ its synergies + fire mastery)

lit: lightning-chain lightning skills (+ its synergies + lit mastery)

cold: blizzard or frozen orb skill (+ its synergies + cold mastery)

for any/every sorc build: 1 pt into static skill (lit skill on lit tab page), 1 pt into teleport skill (+1 pt into telekineses=prequisite=required for teleport skill) (both teleport and telekineses are also lit skills on the lit tab page)
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and thats about it for making a sorc.

i am too tired right now to type about the summoner necro and a hammerdin. maybe i'll do it later some time if u still need help on it.

stats:

the stat placement is the same as i mentioned for the sorc.

skills:

basically u jsut put pts into the sk's (skills) (to the max of 20=max them) skeleleton mastery, summon skeleton, summon skeleton mage, revive, rest of pts into summon resist. 1 pt into amp (amplify) curse and 1 into decrepify curse. and/or whatever other curses u want. 1 pt into whatever golem u wanna use. 1 pt into golem mastery. 1 pt into CE (corpse explosion). optional 1 pt into bone armor.
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feel free to ask me or others if u got questions. i love to help people so i'm always happy to answer any questions.

u might wanna though post in the new comers forum if the site still has it as its more appropriate for u a newcomer...though they probably jsut dicuss LOD so maybe u are in the right forum anyways. i'm not sure if its better for u to post in new comers furom or classic forum. have to ask moderator which is better place to post at for right now.

[Palm]

LOD is just for better resolution. Advice? :dontknow: :propeller: :doh: Nah, seriously play hammerdin, get the skills off somewhere, go full vita and ur doin good. Long as ur stats and skills are straight you got a good char and the noobness of items you may pick to use can be corrected. :crazyeyes:

[Hawkreborn]

dude HegemonKhan you are awesome and a good contribution to these forums

[BoostedCruiser]

Awesome post HegemonKhan!!

Thanks

[HegemonKhan]

i am worried though that my post might be a bit heavy, since u jsut got d2. u might not understand much of it if u haven't played d2 much. i did try to at least explain as much i could and also a lot of terms, hopefully its not too confusing or too in-depth game wise for you, while trying to keep it "somewhat short in length".
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also on my above post on the gold part at the end of it i was typing something and didnt finish it:

GOLD:

pick up body armors, wands, scepters, staffs and sell them for huge gold. also "TRY" not to die. this is easier said than done. also, its

this is what i was gonna say:

also, its....

a VERY good idea to xfer the gold (both on character and in your town stash) off a char u are going to use to another character, before u use it. but do keep at least 5,000 to 10,000 gold on the character u are going to use for repairs or pot buying. the reason u wanna xfer most of the gold off to anotehr character before u use it is because of...dying (when u die u lose gold) and getting pk'ed or doing duels. this keeps u from losing your gold which lets u build up huge amounts of gold for later use like gambling or whatever.

unfortunately, i myself, should take this advise, as well, but i never remember to or am too lazy to do so. i end up dying a lot and losing all my gold cuz i didn't do this that i am advising for u to do. i really should use my own advise as well so i'm not broke all the time. :D
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also if i haven't explained:

xfer= transfering gold or items from one of your characters to another

i have a guide on it called HK's ultimate xfering guide or something like that...i'll try to find it and link it here....nvm (nevermind)..i just remembered that warlock has nicely stickied it right into the guides stkicky thread and whatver its called at the top. but i'll put the link here too anyways for it:

the build guides and faqs sticky thread:

http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=611653

HK's ultimate item trasfer guide (its on page 2 of a thread. so u can go and look at page 1 of the thread, too):

http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?p=6398754
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also if u need help or dont understand the skill stuff, ask away.

i didn't talk about skills in much depth or explain them much as that would have made my already long post much longer.