Some classic questions

[Orphan]

Having recently grown abit tired of D2 expansion, I decided to start over on classic for abit of fun (no charms, on baal runs, no mercs, no high lvl runewords and no high lvl uniques). I just have a few questions, because it's been so long since I last played it (I didn't see a classic forum, so posted here )

Can someone confirm to me if hell difficulty still has immunities? If I was to make, oh..I don't know, a lightning sorc, would I run into trouble on hell because I don't have a merc to kill the lightning immunes? I think it'd be a waste to make a character that would hit a brick wall on hell :scratch:

I was just wondering if rings or amulets with the teleport charges are capable of dropping (was thinking of making a poison zon).

[WickedFrog25]

There are still immunities in hell (and late nightmare) in classic, and afaik in classic monsters have the same immunities as they would in expack. You won't find any items with charges or chance to strike in classic either.

[bill_n_opus]

I tried a necro summoner on classic 1.10 and while it was fun it was a real challenge and unplayable at the end around Act4 Hell.

Problem is that you can't transport your summons from Act to Act. You actually have to reraise your army which means you have to kill something yourself or get your merc to help out. The kicker is that you can only hire your merc for that particular level and s/he doesn't move with you ... so getting that first corpse can be really difficult and by Act4 is almost impossible.

Plus, the whole classic items and uniques thing makes it even more difficult.

As for immunities you still have the usual stuff ... good luck!

[MeAmNoBoDy]

As someone said, there are immunities so if you're a sorc and you plan on playing hell, you must go dual tree. Otherwise you can't clear everything. On the plus side, the minus resistances aren't as high in classic but it is still hard to get the full maxed out res without decently good gear.

Some tips if you intend on making a sorc: use a low str 3 pdia shield until you find something better. So far I don't think dex affects block at all, not sure about this but before putting into dex I had the block listed on my shield. After putting enough in for spec shard, I had the same block (normally putting in around 20 dex does something). So you don't attempt to make a blocking sorc cause (unless someone corrects me) dex won't improve your block. Anyway, gl and hf making your classic sorc!

[Taft12]

You actually have to reraise your army which means you have to kill something yourself or get your merc to help out.

I never played a summoner in classic, but would confuse/attract help get your first couple corpses? The really painful thing about a summoner in classic would be the lack of a might merc.

Regarding dex, it's true block doesn't require it, so NEVER spend a point in dex for ANY char (except a bowazon). Get your AR from items (angelic rings/ammy is a nice way to do this).

[bill_n_opus]

I never played a summoner in classic, but would confuse/attract help get your first couple corpses? The really painful thing about a summoner in classic would be the lack of a might merc.

It's ironic actually. By the time you get to Hell difficulty the monsters have so much life relative to their damage that even if you were able to keep attract on one single monster (believe me, i've tried) all the time it would take a long, long, long time for that monster to die keeping mind monster regeneration and all that. You also have to keep alive by running around and/or cursing everything in sight to keep from getting hit/targeted.

I got as far at Act 4 Hell and then it was too difficult to do this anymore with those big Demons and such. It was too difficult for those flesh spawner kids to even die this way to get a corpse much less any other monster. That's when I folded my char.

Maybe if you did a hybrid melee/summoner/CE necro you would be able to go further but I didn't bother.

[Classics]

Classic requires a bit of manipulation. I play it too. For starters, I HIGHLY don't suggest a poison Zon. You'll get nowhere. In fact, don't even use Amazons untill you get used to Classic overall (they're the hardest class of 'em all). To kill in Classic, you either have to be really good with excellent items or use the Cookiecutters. I'd suggest, as in the expansion too, starting with a Sorceress. Why? To MF, and they can kill with some speed. You'll eventually get used to the highly increased difficulty.

Anyway, just for some suggestions, some characters to start with.
Bone Necro w/ Some investments in CE.
Fire/Ice Sorceress. Maybe Lightning.
Hammerdin.
--Barbarians cost a bit of moolah to make and a good Naga/Bhammer/Lance or a gerneral weapon.

As for the Summon Necros you were talking about, they're uncommon and quite frankly not powerful enough. If you REALLY want to make one, as someone else suggested, have a high level CE and even IM. I'd also suggest revives.

As someone said, there are immunities so if you're a sorc and you plan on playing hell, you must go dual tree.

-- Not true. With teleport, you're just going to have to ignore the immunes. I'm sorry, but dual tree really thins out your already tight damage.

Anyway, welcome to Classic, enjoy your stay and remember never go to the dark side. *CoughXpacCough*

[bill_n_opus]

The other thing about Classic is the lack of +skills overall. There are a very few +skill items that can enhance your char and those chars that are more +skills dependent in the expansion just won't cut it in Classic.

All of a sudden Tarnhelm and Silks of the Victors become godly items as well as SoJs, the last two being difficult to find to say the least.

[MeAmNoBoDy]

-- Not true. With teleport, you're just going to have to ignore the immunes. I'm sorry, but dual tree really thins out your already tight damage

Umm well if you intend on beating the game you MUST go dual tree. Grand visier is lit immune, dias is cold immune, and ventar is fire immune. One of each in the chaos sanc. So unless you don't plan on killing diablo alone, you won't beat the game. (same goes for the high council if you get a bad spawn)This is why I said that, but you can always play public of course. This is hard though cause since not too many people play, you won't find an amazing number of games to lvl fast in or to go through the game in. As for thining out your damage, so long as you have FO as one of your main skills, and you only put a few pts in cold mastery, your second tree will actually be strong enough to kill with. Might not be the 1 hit ko that some of us are used to with our mad plus gear stuff in LOD but one or two extra casts isn't that big of a deal.

[-Tempus-]

about the best you can get for +skills would be lev 32 or 33 skills for most builds. if you can pickup a skill shrine and a barb you can always add +3 to that.

most builds wont need that unless you want to solo in 8player games. the melee builds can have a hard time in D2C since they cant find high dmg weapons like you can in LOD. magic weapons will only go as high as 100% ed with a 2nd mod of +max or something, rares can only get upto 200% ed with a few other mods. spell casters can all get the same dmg as you can in LOD.

if you want to make a good d2c sorc go fire/cold with Static Field. to finsh off cold/fire imms you drop a point into lightning mastery and then have a staff like +2toall +3 lightning or chain lightning.

if you only want to cow you can do very well with a single tree build but if you want to run the CS and D you'll need to coop or use a different char.

i also wouldnt make a melee build untill you have found a good weapon the char first.

-Tempus-