Hi guys, newcomer to Diablo 2 here.

[pharphis]

Congrats! You'll learn to love the rest of the game even more :P The higher difficulties make it that much more exciting, I hope.
I think *all* monsters regenerate health? All bosses? I don't know. But yeah, Lister regenerates really quickly, and he's everyone's least favourite minion, I hope.
The beginning of NM probably won't be too hard, as you're a fairly high level. Once you get to act 4, and maybe a bit sooner, you'll start to feel the difficulties of boss packs.

[Veristek]

I can't seem to get any 4 socket staffs or polearms to spawn at the NM rogue camp. How do I get a 4 socket staff (for spirit runeword), plus get the + skills I want? Specifically, +3 to blizzard, +3 fireball, and hopefully +3 warmth... and a good 4 socket polearm with substantial life leech to keep my merc alive and can put in Insight runeword in it.

[Malicious]

Spirit can only be made using a 4 soc sword or shield. For all runewords you need a non-magic item as well, so you'll most likely need to find it from drops.

Edit: Added the following information

You won't be seeing a 4 soc shield for a while (you need a monarch shield for it), but spirit sword is fairly easy to make early on. All the runes are easily obtainable by just running Countess on NM. As for the sword, it's most ideal to have a 4 soc crystal sword because it has the lowest str req, but I also use broad swords as they're just a slight step up in str req.

[pharphis]

You can't get non-magical items from shops anywhere past act 2 normal, unfortuantely. Everything you see from there on is magical, and so you can't use them for runewords.
So you also can't find a polearm with leech in it and be able to make insight out of it, and can you make spirit out of a staff? I thought it was just swords and shields.
Edit: Ninja'd a bit.
Also, you won't be able to find 4 socketed stuff in normal act 1 or 2 shops, either.

[KiraZ]

You can't get non-magical items from shops anywhere past act 2 normal, unfortuantely. Everything you see from there on is magical, and so you can't use them for runewords.
So you also can't find a polearm with leech in it and be able to make insight out of it, and can you make spirit out of a staff? I thought it was just swords and shields.
Edit: Ninja'd a bit.
Also, you won't be able to find 4 socketed stuff in normal act 1 or 2 shops, either.

Just to be exact, I think you can find non-magical shop items if you rush through the acts and remain below some preset clvl (18 IIRC). But, you'll get trash mods that way so just ignore the rambling obscure side of me :lol:

Also, I endorse perfect diamonds socketed to your shield for a quick fix for res. They'll easily take care of your res through NM so you can go more full out with topazes in other slots. 3os pdiamond pwns Ancient Pledge easy

[Twibz]

maybe think about going back to normal baal and running him for a bit? just a thought

[Veristek]

I've had no luck finding "white" 4 socket staffs or polearm drops. Isn't there any way to use the cube to make normal 4 socket items with specific bonuses? When I bought my stuff in Act 1 / 2 on Normal, they were "grey" with bonuses and could be installed with runewords. I know you can't with "blue" or better items, right?

[kestegs]

Right, only grey items work for runewords.

You can use the cube to add a random number of sockets to a white item if you want (ral+amn+p amethyst)

Here is a chart of what the max sockets an item can get by ilevel.

[Veristek]

Just looked at the runeword list, and I saw some runewords that I might want to go for.

Sorc:

Weapon: Heart of the Oak (+3 to all skills, +15% max mana, 40% faster cast rate, and +30 - 40 to all resists)
Armor: Engima (+2 to all skills, 45% faster running, +1 teleport, +14 life after every kill, and up to 99% magic-find)
Helm: Lore (+1 to all skills) / Dream (+5% to max health and +5 - 20 to all resists)

Merc:

Weapon: Insight / Infinity (probably Insight first, then Infinity later on)
Armor: Engima (same reasons as for Sorc)
Helm: Lore / Dream

Trying to figure out shields since the Heart of the Oak will be really useful with +3 to all spell levels, and merc using Insight or Infinity will prevent shields cuz these runewords only work on 2-handed polearms. A few possibilities...

Phoenix = fire absorb, increased fire resists, and redemption (no corpse respawns and I can heal my mana / health from killing enemy hordes)
Sanctuary = 50 - 70 to all resists, plus 20% to hit recovery, blocking speed, and blocking success rates.
Spirit = +2 to skills, 35% to all resists except fire, 55% hit recovery, and 25% - 35% faster cast rate

Phoenix could probably be useful when fighting Diablo (fire resists / absorb) or these hordes of Act 4 minions, killing Baal's minion waves, or the tons of Fallens / undeads in Act 1 + 2 (healing mana / life from killing them, plus no corpse revives for the re-animating monsters).

Feedback? Ideas? Are there better runeword combos I should look for?

[shintyguy]

sorc doesnt need enigma, already have teleport. Spirit and Lore are popular nd insight is great for most players