complete noob asking for some help

[AnbuKaru]

Ive played Diablo 2 in the past but i had a friend "hold my hand" when i played so i never learned anything from that experience

i want to play this game but there's questions i would like answered before i jump into to play:

1) where should stat points go? (like what does each stat do and what classes benefit from what stat points)
2) can i respec?
3) whats a fun beginner class?
4) is there anything i should absolutely know about this game? (tips and tricks)
5) is the game better played with a party?

if i have anymore ill add, i appreciate the soon to come answers and help

[Ladvarian]

1) This all depends on class and build. There are guides as to where to put your points in each of the strategy forums. Choose a fun looking character and build and follow the guide or use it only for reference and try a unique build of your own.
Strategy Forums

2) If you play the latest patch, 1.13c, you will get 3 free respecs once per difficulty after completing the Den Of Evil (First quest of Act I). After that you need to collect essences from the Act bosses in Hell difficulty.
Respecs

Note if you play on b.net, you have to use the latest patch.

3) Define fun. Do you like to fight melee or cast spells? For melee there is always the Holy Freeze/Shock Zealot and the Concentrate Barbarian. For caster there is the MeteOrb or any of the other many sorceress builds. There is also the Fishymancer that is good if you do not mind standing behind an army of skeletons casting curses and corpse explosion. Then there is also the trap slinging trapassin. There are far too many to list all here, experiment and see which you like.

Holy Freeze Zealot (Paladin)

Concentrate Barbarian

MeteOrb Sorceress

Fishymancer (Necromancer)

Trapassin (Assassin)



4) The Horadric Cube is an invaluable piece. Read up on the uses. You get it in early Act II.
Cube Recipes (Diablo wiki)
Cube Recipes (Arreat Summit)

Runes and Perfect gems are considered trade currency besides item for item trade. The higher runes, less often dropped, are obviously worth more. Read up on the trade values of the items.

Runes and their rarity
Trade Forums


You also should know that high level runewords and items are not required to finish the game, just patience. Also there is still a lot of old info floating around make sure the info is at least for patch 1.10+, for 1.10-1.13, or the patch you intend to play if you play an earlier patch in SP.

5) The monsters gain more life and are harder as the number of players increase. So it kind of evens out. Note though that my MP experience is null. I play SP by myself.

[Mr SpArKLe]

Strength - Gives you the ability to use items with this requirement.
Dexterity - Increases Chance to Block enemy attacks
Increases Chance to hit the enemy with a physical attack.
Vitality - Increases the amount Life/HP you have.
Energy - Increases the amount of Mana you have.


Respec - Is now possible in each difficulty after completing your
first quest with Akara, Also you can can use a
Token of Absolution - Made by collecting 4 diferrent dusts from
Andariel/Duriel, Mephisto, Diablo, Baal.


Starting Character - If your playing single player it doesnt matter.
If you want to be successfull online The sorceress
is the easiest/fastest way to complete the game
and to farm areas/bosses for items.


Tips and tricks - None you would understand atm


Multiplayer & difficulty - If you are playing online the enemies get stronger with each player that joins the game, thus more rewarding loot, and having teammates always makes fighting easier. But if you are playing single player which u should to even understand whats going on...
You can type /players 8 in chat and will increase your dificulty to that of 8 players, do this offcourse once you can handle teleporting through the game and can kill anything.

Skill distribution - You can dowload a single player hero editor and create fully leveled characters and experiment with wich skills/builds you would like, youll quickly find out whats good and whats not doing this hands on. Other than that there are cookie cutter builds you can copy guides, but those are mostly bare minimum to satisfactory, a truly elite skill and stat distribution comes from years days and hours of experience and experimentation.

I hope you got this game for free.
Because this games multiplayer is about to go downhill with the upcoming patch.

Good luck

[Mr SpArKLe]

I ALMOST forgot to give you the BIBLE of Diablo2
http://classic.battle.net/diablo2exp/

[AnbuKaru]

I hope you got this game for free.
Because this games multiplayer is about to go downhill with the upcoming patch.

i actually got this game a long time ago i only spent 5$ on D2 and my friend gave me one of his LOD disc

[Archone]

Ive got one simple hint for you!

Play through the game!

You will surely learn tons! Just pick a Class thats fun for you! Doesnt matter which!
But heres a few examples on easily played ones:

Frozen Orb Sorceress
Zeal+Fanatiscm Paladin
Whirlwind Barbarian
Summoning Necromancer
Tornado Druid
Javelin Amazon
Trap Assassin

Peace and GL!

[krischan]

I ALMOST forgot to give you the BIBLE of Diablo2
http://classic.battle.net/diablo2exp/

Well, let's call it a halfway acceptable translation of it. Generally OK, but with a couple of errors.

[Verno]

I would suggest staying away from a concentration barb until you have played the game a little more. ...just from personal experience.

[AnbuKaru]

Ive got one simple hint for you!

Play through the game!

You will surely learn tons! Just pick a Class thats fun for you! Doesnt matter which!
But heres a few examples on easily played ones:

Frozen Orb Sorceress
Zeal+Fanatiscm Paladin
Whirlwind Barbarian
Summoning Necromancer
Tornado Druid
Javelin Amazon
Trap Assassin

Peace and GL!

im playing a necromancer right now and i like it i have a few more quests left in act I

[Flax]

Verno has just started to play a necro and hase some good questions and awnsers about it in his thread you should go check there.