Fastest and surest way to get decent items?

[hablahabla]

Hello, with D3 coming up, I got the urge to play D2: LoD again. Haven't played for 4-5 years, but I see most of the stuff is the same in 1.12 as in 1.10 (the same runewords, same builds are used etc). I've read around, and found out that farming torches seems to be the surest way to get good items relatively fast. I've decided on a fanatic zealot for the task (1 pt smiter).

However, I will be starting from scratch, so I will need to get me some decent items before I can manage to solo UT. What is the fastest and surest way to get the cheap but still hard to find stash? I'm talking stash worth maybe a few ums, maybe an ist or two all together.

I see there still is a demand for pgems and certain runes for crafting, but I never was a crafter so I don't know which are in demand. I was thinking just farming pgems and these runes until I can trade them for higher runes (pul, um) that I can then trade for the items I want. Is this the way to go? Or is there a faster (but still sure, I'm not looking at "get lucky and find a hr") way to get decent stash?

Another option I've been thinking about is getting a char for key farming. I see there are decent prices on keys, so that should be viable. But I don't think the fanatic zealot would be good to do that, due to travel distances. Would it work, or should I go first for a sorc to key farm until I get enough stash to go for UT? If so, which sorc build is both cheap enough and good enough to take on the key holders?

Of course I'm open for other suggestions, this is just what I've found to be good options.

[Nomadj]

I've heard the ltg sorc is good one to start out with if your poor.

[butchie]

blizzard sorc for andy / meph / some of the L85 areas / keys

Pro:
- Easy to play.
- Decent killing speed with low equip (almost equip independant).
- Easy to get a lot of mf without loosing much of the killing power.

Cons:
- You can't run cold immunes areas.

[UCSeraph]

LoL dude.
Same thing with me and tons of other people I've met and befriended in the last 2 days.
I started up about 6 days ago, however 2 of those days were temp banning days and I recieved like 3 more temp bans because of rapid joining/following of baal runs.
I didn't realize that they could ban you for using the mousewheel too often... but they do...

Anyway,

Your best bet to start off well is to meet people and be friendly... they might just might have enough spare stuff to throw at you to get started.

A person I met dropped me a Skullders and Occy which REALLY helped

I started up my MF Meteorb sorc and am running NM runs all day and now I'm rebuilding my "empire" of mules. lol.

If anyone's on USWest Ladder and needs someone they can trust, shoot me a message... since my real life friends stopped playing D2 when I did... 4 - 5 years ago...


Currently, I have a level 87 MF sorc who could probably go to 92 with more baalruns in the next 5 hours... lol
There are bots that constantly run baal so if you get rushed to hell difficulty, follow up on those bots esp late night and they just might not pick up some good equip you could use sell!!! i.e. Rare GLOVES//BOOTS...

You can also follow up and pick up random items and sell for 35K gold each run... just hop outta baal's throne and go to malah with it. Then gamble rings//amulets... I often just gamble amulets... Trying to reach 90-94 so that I can gamble +2 skills... i've been gambling a ton of good +1 skills class specific w/ +stats//resists//fastercast and have gotten some mid-high level runes for them!

People trade Runes for equip all the time

Most trade games now involve trading "Torches" or "Keys'. This is totally new to me.. but I read a FAQ and realized what they had added to D2... quite amazing.

Well, GL, feel free to start up on the West realm and I can help you out.
Just found a 2nd Occy last night off NM meph. woot. AND a war trav!!

[hablahabla]

I don't think you understand the situation here. I'm not looking for mf, or getting lucky. I want a sure way to get decent value fast. Things that are relatively easy to get, that everyone wants (in high quantum, that is). I.e. pgems, ral runes, keys etc.

I've been reading some more guides and threads, and a CL/L sorc with FO as backup looks like a good option for countess (both runes and keys). However, I'm not sure how cheap this build is if it's any good. It's difficult to get a good dualtree sorc cheap. Any thoughts?

[Nomadj]

the countess is good place for getting T keys and runes, but I have no clue about building sorc's. You may have to collect the low runes and up them to rals, but thats not too bad since they are also low.

[butchie]

I don't think you understand the situation here. I'm not looking for mf, or getting lucky. I want a sure way to get decent value fast. Things that are relatively easy to get, that everyone wants (in high quantum, that is). I.e. pgems, ral runes, keys etc.

I've been reading some more guides and threads, and a CL/L sorc with FO as backup looks like a good option for countess (both runes and keys). However, I'm not sure how cheap this build is if it's any good. It's difficult to get a good dualtree sorc cheap. Any thoughts?

Well, then get 4 CD keys then and make a classic grush sorc. Fastest way to get rich.

@key running. You can do that with blizz sorc too... your merc takes down countess (CI) easily, sumoner is no problem and you can also pick off nihla from the distance if he don't spawn with CI.
I guess lightning sorc is faster runner for T-keys, but she's much more equip dependant than blizz sorc and much more limited without infinity...

[Crying Freeman]

Personally, I think that the cold sorc is best to run Mephisto and Ancient Tunnels, but you need some decent MF to do that, The Oculus, Skullder´s Ire and the Harlequim´s Crest(shako), are the backbone of the MF sorc on a budget. You will need Pul for each of these usually depending on realm.

If you´re like one of the posters above, you can get one of those for free, or all of them if you´re really lucky. I got my Oculus for 4 pgems the other day, best price I ever got for it. But that´s luck.

I´d advice you to start with a summoner necromancer, since you´re naked. They can really play the game naked, unlike the sorc, and can run literally anywhere, since with the curses you won´t have much immunes to get on your way.
You can add MF to all of the necro equip slots, and have a decent character. After you get enought items, change to the cold sorc with the above mentioned items and run Mephisto and/or Ancient Tunnels. After all of that you should have enough equip for a decent zealot, or at least enough runes/pgems to buy for one.

There´s no fast way to get rich in this game, you have to work really hard to get your dreamed items. Don´t fall to the illusion of the many rich people in b.net, they´re mostly cheaters, that bought their duped items on those pesky stores. Most use bots and maphack is almost universal, so there´s no real honour to that.

It´s a game, enjoy it as it is, and have fun while collecting the items. I´m hunting for my first Windforce, and want to enjoy owning my very own, not a traded(and possibly duped), item.

[hablahabla]

I know there are no fast ways to get rich. I've played this game a lot, but that was a long time ago. If you want to play without cheating it takes a lot of time. And I'm willing to spend that time. But I want to make it as efficient as possible, so I want to go for sure find, sure gain. Things I know where will drop with what frequency. I.e. countess is great for runes, which I can cube to ral, thul, and the higher ones to lem/pul/um. And when I get enough crowd control I can take cows for the massive killcount to get pgems.

Right now it's betwen pure lightning sorc and blizz sorc. I still have a few days until I get the CD's, so I still have time to think.

Thanks for all the input, btw!