Newbie looking for tips to many issues

[yugular]

Hi,

I played Diablo II LoD through Normal and NM couple years ago with Paladin, Necro and Barbarian. All own builds without tips.

I installed the game again yesterday and started to look forums to get more out of the game. I desided to build fishymancer as it sounds pretty fun. I play singleplayer.

Now I would like to know few things (tips&links appreciated!)

1. I don't rush - I like to play certain maps all over again to see if I can find good stuff. Can you recommend areas to find good beginning eq (in Act1 also)? MF (magic find?) tips appreciated. Im not familiar with term farming but it has something to do with this?

2. Is gambling of any use really?

3. What kind of stuff I should stash (gems, runes, reju potions?)

4. What is ATMA? Do you recommed it and is it easy to use and learn? I understand I get bigger stash and can trade between my characters.

5. Open character in Battle.net - Is it possible to go to battlenet with this singleplayer character and perhaps do some partying (exp) and trade stuff? I have never played in battle net.

6. All other help for newbie is also welcome. Im currently level 3 and I start playing later today. I am not familiar with all abbreviations so use them wisely ;)

Thanks a lot!
-yugular

[Voorhees]

1. All I can really say here is to kill, kill, kill. Make sure not to miss out on killing and champion, unique or boss monsters as they have better potential drops.
2. Very much so, but generally only at higher levels. Circlets can get some really nice stats. Far better than most unique helms you'll come across. Amulets and rings are a good choice too, as you can gamble way more of these then you will ever see drop.
3. I wouldn't stash juvs so much, a decent belt will hold all you need. I would only keep gems if I was planning on using them for something. They tend to clutter your stash. Same with the lower runes.
4. No real experience with this. Someone else will have to comment.
5. Yes. Open is full of hacked chars and items though. It has pretty much no real value as far as I can see, outside of a way for single player friends to get together and play.

[yugular]

Thanks to Voorhees!

Also what does the player8 mean? I run to this few times in the forums but don't know what it means...

Also I have been thinking if I play mp in battlenet (open doesn't sound good as I dont want to get messed with hacked items&chars). Do you suggest ladder or normal?

[dryzalizer]

I think this early-game MF and gambling guide will be of interest to you: http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=620901

This one explains ATMA:
http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=659145

I prefer single player as well, both of these threads are from the single player forum. Lots of knowledgable folks over there, check it out! Basically a fishymancer is a good starting character because it is safe and you can finish the game without super gear. You can also MF well with this char, and find items for other characters that way unless you like to play entirely untwinked. And then there's the single player trade forum, where you can trade for items with other single player people. Check that and read the stickied rules carefully if you're interested.

edit: /players 8 is a command you type in in-game when playing single player to simulate an 8-player party. Monsters will have 4 times the HP and give 4x experience, and be 37% stronger or so with their attacks. Most of us play on /players 8 through the end of nightmare to be at ~level 70 when entering Hell, and then either continue or drop down to a lower /players setting to finish the game. This is considered legit among the single player community, we pretty much all do it to level up at the right time throughout the game.

[yugular]

@ dryzalizer

I am just checking if I understand correctly. All these ATMA, GoMule, RWM etc.etc. are forbidden in battlenet but allowed in SinglePlayerTradingForums?

Do you recommend to install the game modifications RWM & RRM?

Thanks!

[Hrus]

1. area runs are not worth it and definitly not in normal or NM, where potential drops are not good and there is smaller number of champion/bosspacks. Bossruns are more effective. (Don't run in normal much though, you can't get many good items there - I would suggest getting to NM Mephisto and start running him)

2. In the beginning you can get better base items than you will see dropping from monsters or offered by vendors (Poleaxes in act1...). In the end, it's only about money if you have a spare - you can try to gamble good rare ring, amu or a circlet.
chance to get unique - 1:2000
chance to get set item - 1:1000
chance to get rare item - 1:10

3. Only perfect gems. Few lower runes, when you will have more of them just stop to pick them up, keep all runes from Ko and higher.

4. Atma is a muling program for SP, you can have an infinte stashes and you can store them a lot of items - it isn't really infinite, for example my stash with 5000 unique or set items loads in around 30 seconds :) You can easily move items between characters and these stashes so you don't have to solve the problems which items to keep and you can keep them all...

5. Stay away from OPEN at all costs. It's full of hacks and dupes and if you will play there you can't trade or get into multiplayer with SPF members here. If you want to try MP, you can - via TCP/IP with the SPF members.

6. Read guides from the stickes :)

[yugular]

Wow these forums are really active :)

Thanks for all for their replies! I just read the stickies in the SP forums and I think I found my home :)

I look forward to learn more from the game and it is great that I found these forums. It is nice that SP-players can also do trading through these forums as it sounds fun and allows to get items that would be next to impossible to gain by playing 2hours in a week. I also look forward to MP with SPF members!

[dryzalizer]

Cool yugu, make sure to read all the SPTF rules and stickies very carefully so you don't unknowingly break one of the many rules. E.g., no trading for a week after posting your trader profile. Read the threads and learn how people conduct trades and use ATMA. Browse SPF and SPTF and Newcomer a lot.

It is completely your decision whether or not to install the RRM/RWM mods. Most traders use them so it would broaden the pool of traders you could deal with, but you should decide for yourself if you want to use those extra runewords and trade with people who are using them. I personally would say that the chance to make Spirit is reason enough!

[Hrus]

I personally would say that the chance to make Spirit is reason enough!
Yeah, those cheap imbalanced silly runewords like Insight and Spirit :rolleyes:

[yugular]

Cool yugu, make sure to read all the SPTF rules and stickies very carefully so you don't unknowingly break one of the many rules. E.g., no trading for a week after posting your trader profile. Read the threads and learn how people conduct trades and use ATMA. Browse SPF and SPTF and Newcomer a lot.

It is completely your decision whether or not to install the RRM/RWM mods. Most traders use them so it would broaden the pool of traders you could deal with, but you should decide for yourself if you want to use those extra runewords and trade with people who are using them. I personally would say that the chance to make Spirit is reason enough!

Yeah I noticed all the rules and got the headache! Whoa! I guess it takes a time to learn everything... I will install mods next weekend when I have time.

btw. I still haven't found what that player8 stands for?

[Hrus]

post 4 of this thread - monsters get more health, more experience for a kill, lower chance to drop nothing and in NM and Hell difficulty slightly more damage.
press enter, type /players8 into konzole, press enter. Newly spawned monsters will get those properties.

[Thyiad]

btw.[/B] I still haven't found what that player8 stands for?

Also in post #9 of the SPF FAQ. :p

[yugular]

ok, do you recommend using this players8 ?

[lionheartthebrave]

If you can handle it, yes, the extra XP is well worth it

If a naked passive zon can do Normal and NM at p8, so can you

[yugular]

Can someone explain the meaning of untwinked and single-pass?

[humblegar]

Can someone explain the meaning of untwinked and single-pass?

Both are here (http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=538888) (Look at Thyiad's signature - abbreviations, or at ***Newcomer Forum Stickied Threads***).

[Mursilis]

Untwinkled means the character can only use items they personally find, you can transfer any items to them at all.

Single-pass means your character can only kill each monster once and go through each area once. So once you clear out the Den of Evil in Normal, then you can't go back and clear it again in another game session even though the monsters will respawn. Therefore no boss running and so forth as well.

[yugular]

I have 1.12 and I thought that I don't need cd anymore, but when I tried to start without cd it didn't work out.

I am pretty sure I read from somewhere that after 1.12 cd is not needed anymore... Not important to me but I am wondering if I am right or wrong and whats wrong with my 1.12 as it doesnt work?

[Hrus]

You need to copy mpq files from LOD disc to your install folder - those that are missing there - one of them is music mpq, I think you need one other (forgot the name).