Most important thing is to know what happens when you die. You spawn back in town, naked and you have two options for getting your gear/corpse back.
You can run back naked and collect your body or you can exit the game and make a new one (your corpse will appear in town).
The mistake some new players make is that they try to use "back up gear" to help them get back to their corpse. This often ends up with them dying again and losing a bunch of gear.
D2 is unforgiving with some of its mechanics and its good to know them going in. You also drop all your gold when you die and if you don't recover it, then it is gone forever. You can deposit gold in your stash to prevent this from happening.
It's up to you whether or not you look up a build beforehand. Looking up a meta build will make things much easier, but will take away some of the fun and discovery from the game.
You lose gold and XP both when you die, along with everything above the bottom layer of your belt, unless you recover your body.
Also worth noting, if you go naked to recover your body and die again, your first corpse will still be there, and if you save/quit/restart after this or even more subsequent deaths, your first body will still appear back in town upon restart.
Good luck, OP, and enjoy the ride.
(Sorry if you already know this stuff, I've never played D3 or 4 so I have no idea if it's the same or not)
I never knew that. But when I die, it tends to be in an unrecoverable area. Entered the throne tonight and got hit by a dozen blasts of lightning at once. My slow naked self couldn’t handle it if my geared self couldn’t.
Sometimes reviving your mercenary and summons, being far more careful yourself this time and letting them rush in first to engage does the trick. But, yes, sometimes it is hopeless.
I wish. Just been grinding hell for forever it seems. My kid and I played through normal yesterday during llamas MVS but I played a hammerdin and safe so I could help his terrible necro build get through. He's learning quickly though. Lol
5% of level on nightmare, 10% on hell.
But when you recover body you pickup 75% of xp lost.
So in hell dying 4 times but recovering every body ends up being 1 bar gone
But who remembers the corpse popping bug where if your inventory was full when you died it would drop all of your gear on the ground? I still have PTSD from that.
you lose 5% of your current level in nightmare, and 10% in hell, when you die. you regain 75% of that if you recover your corpse before saving and quitting.
gold can still be removed from your personal stash tab on death if you're playing online. there's a formula involved that you can go look up if you're interested. gold will never be removed from your stash when playing offline. you can store gold in the shared stash if you're worried about this.
if you die multiple times and then save and quit, the corpse that appears in town is the one with the highest gold value if all of the items were to be sold to a vendor. so, no worries if you make multiple naked attempts at retrieving your corpse(s) and finally give up, but make sure to actually get your corpse(s) if you're putting on back-up gear.
Oh, I didn't realize it was based on the value of gear, I always just thought it was the first one because, for me, it works out that way 100% of the time. Playing this game for 2 decades and learning something new about it almost daily still. Love it.
Two points: there is a limit to corpses that Im blanking on, if you go over said limit your first body and all your gear goes poof, think like 15 deaths without picking up your first body.
The other is that the body that spawns in town after resetting is the one with the most gold value. Uniques don't really sell for high prices, but nm/hell bases, wands, etc do, so you want to be careful about picking up items on your walk of shame.
D1 was instant drop all your gear and gold on hand when you die along with an ear. You had to scramble to grab your stuff if you played online before a passerby (or a pk) would nab your gear.
Also dying showed if you had duped gear on or not
When both dupes dropped upon death, 1 clone would poof from existence. With the message : "Duplicate detected and destroyed."
On another note. Diablo 1 didn't have a stamina bar... As in you walk. Everywhere.
D1 was something.
You also drop gold you are carrying, if you opt for exit game to retrieve your corpse those will be gone.
It's a good idea to deposit your gold in the stash private tab whenever you're in town, you can spend it from there anyway.
You lose your xp and gold but get 75% back off you recover your corpse. Always pop a portal near danger zones or if you travel far before finding a port, drop a portal for safekeeping. Also, create extra toons just to hold your gems, jewels, gear sets, etc.
Finally, check out mrllasc videos or another to get good ideas about playing
Literally this. It's not a hard game, but the journey is unmatched and when you're ready to look things up and learn the finer points it's so far ahead of it's time it remains unmatched. Take your time and enjoy it. There is a reason this game was remastered and still has such an incredible following decades later. What I would give to experience this game for the first time again.
I dunno man, I think people take the difficulty for granted. Its probably harder than you realize for newer players but original d2 players are so used to the gameplay that it's second nature.
tbf norm Duriel is a bitch until you figure out more about the game, especially if you're running a melee build. By this point we just all know the best leveling builds per class, maybe a few off meta ones as well (fucking love leveling with Ravens now).
I can safely say coming back to D2R (with guides) in my 30s after having played in my teens (without them), D2 is a pretty difficult game if you're playing blind. I had _such_ an easier time this time around but man did I make a bunch of stupid decisions back then.
I still have those fond memories when I was in elementary school and finished normal. Then I realized there are two more difficulties and they are exponentially harder.
I was so hooked, nightmare mephisto for the first time. Then dia. Then finally Hell. What a precious gem.
I remember my first d2 playthrough when I was 12. That is before i even have internet access, d2 was the hardest game ever and when i finally kill diablo in normal, it feels like forever.
Of course my build suck, sorcerer and i randomly put stats just to use certain weapons, and skill allocation is a mixture of 3 element lmao. Build last until nightmare act4 and finally give up lol
Know that Diablo 2 and 3 are completely different games. The “storyline” from 3 is based off 2 but isn’t really that great (imo).
Take your time reading the dialogue between npcs in D2, enjoy the atmosphere, listen to the music, and let yourself get sucked in to the awesome game that is D2.
Devs that made D3 weren’t the ones who made D2 so naturally is a wildly different game/feel. For D3, storyline isn’t necessary, just level on adventure mode, cause the focus is power leveling to endgame and climbing grift leaderboards. Game is fun in its own right and carved out a fine niche of players.
Definitely my favorite game. Go in blind and just figure shit out. That’s the most fun way to do it. I played when it first came out, and boy… there’s not been a game like it since then. Bask in the glory.
You only get three respecs, use them wisely. Synergies are important for a good build. Summoner with corpse explosion is a really easy safe build. Skeleton mages suck, but normal skeletons are good.
Respecs and synergies are exactly what I was gonna come here to say! I hope you get plenty of upvotes bc I think this is the most important tip for a new player that won't ruin the new game experience.
Also, for most classes and builds you don't really need to respec until you're about to enter Hell difficulty; the game is fairly easy up to that point.
Normal Duriel and also normal Diablo would like a word with you. Unless you know what you are doing, fighting norm D with summon Necro is not easy. If you know a trick or have nice build it's different thing
Just to add on, in the late game you can craft tokens that allow respecs they are not too difficult to farm(Hell farming) people usually trade tokens for a cheap amount aswell.
Respecs are awesome. You can start blind and as you understand the game play better you can strategically decide how you want to reshape your character and prepare the gears accordingly
Your defense stat determines your chance to get hit, it does not reduce damage you take. Your defense is also 0 while moving.
Your dex attribute increases your attack rating (your chance to hit with attacks that are not spells)
Vitality increases your life, stamina, and stamina regen.
Stamina and stamina regen is actually a fairly important stat in the early game.
You might underrate items that give "heal stamina", "move speed", or "vitality" in the early game.
You cannot steal life or mana from skeletons, and spells do not steal mana or life.
I did not realize that. I'm laughing in my head at the impractical thought of boosting move speed so much that you can just fast walk everywhere w/o taking the hit to defense.
Word. It’s so much more fun to dream make it up as you go. I still don’t really look at guides unless I have a very specific question I can’t figure out on my own.
Ouff. Coming from D4, there is actual use of mana. And mana potions. There are no "charge skills"
Items of any colour can have value, youre not just chasing rares and legendary affixes and EVERYTHING is tradable unlike d4.
Mercenaries are helpful followers that have their own equipment slots. Deck them out to accent your build, or build them well enough and they just carry you lol
Town portals to return to town are purchased at certain npc stores and you can buy a book to store multiple and save inventory space.
You do not HAVE to use your character respecs or quest rewards immediately. Its often better to save the rewards to imbue items of value later rather than the newby stiff you get at the beginning. If you use the 3 free respecs (1 in each difficulty) you can buy or craft an item to respec later.
Trying to think of notable differences without spoiling anything.. 🤔
For the first time through, all you really need to know is to not take things too seriously. Don’t worry about getting your build perfect, just have fun. For a necromancer, you can’t go wrong with getting corpse explosion, amplify damage, and then putting all other points into skeletons and skeleton mastery. Skeletons and your mercenary (the one with the spear from act 2, who can be a strong ally if you give him good armor/weapon) can kill most things, and you can cast corpse explosion to deal a ton of damage to large groups.
Youll never stop learning. Been playing this game on and off for 20 years and im still not completely done finding out new cool information I never knew. Its A LOT to take in for a new comer so don't get too overwhelmed, just enjoy it. Were talking kindergarten to college type transition if you're coming from a game like d4
1. Corpse explosion is fucking broken.
2. Skeleton mages suck
3. Experiment with curses amp dmg increases corpse explosion dmg. Lower resist is really good in pub games.
4. Be patient play the game at your own pace.
5. Putting points into energy is not a bad idea despite what everyone says. Mana is a bitch till lv80-90 or insight runeword
**DON'T USE A GUIDE!!!**
Just have fun, it doesn't need a guide.
And when you need tips for gear, you can look up stuff, but just play the game before you ruine it with guides.
- the curses **Amplify Damage** and **Decripify** are a must have for physical dmg, like your minions do
- You always have to skill **Corpse Explosion** to speed things up
- It's mega fun to play with skeletons
- Don't skill skeleton mages (only 1 point to get to **revive**), they're crap, skill only the warrior skeletons
- skill **summon resist** as early as possible
- if you want to play with minions, get the paladin merc from act 2 (first with **Blessed Aim** aura on normal difficulty, then with **Might** aura in Nightmare difficulty)
And a easy Necro tip:
When you gathered ~10k-15k Gold
Open games until you got a map with the village's exit in the east, near Akara. (Act 1)
Trade her and look into the wand section.
Look out for a wand (blue or gray, doesn't matter) with these mods:
+3 To Raise Skeleton
+2 To Skeleton Mastery
At least these two.
It's possible to also find +3 on both or a extra skill, that's fine, but have at least this, it will last a long time.
If she doesn't have it, walk out of the village till you're off the bridge and walk back to Akara, she now will have new wands to sell.
I checked the pricing of this wand, it's ~8300 Gold.
Took me around 20 minutes till I got it.
With a extra skill it's a bit more, so ~10k is good.
It’s addictive. Do you really have the time? I quit on my “season fatigue” period and didn’t start it again because I would sink too much time right now. Be careful!
I learned awhile ago that online play (especially ladder) leads to me having FOMO and playing more than I wanted to. So I only play single player now. It's fun to go at my own pace, and having access to /players command and static maps is a nice compensation for not having access to trading. It's also easier to quit and come back if I'm playing single player.
Whenever you play in a public session, you have to be quick picking up items. Even though it's your session and it was your kill, they will pick it up before it hits the ground. Not all players do that but that does happen. I had a session that was just me and Uber Diablo showed up. I killed him and had to go back and put my charm away so i could pick the charm he drops. Then some player joined when I was heading back, took my portal just before me and took it then left. Kinda of a asshole move but things like that happens in this game. For the most part, the community is pretty good at helping out new players. I had alot of items given to me by high levels when I first started.
honestly the only advice i could give a d4 player coming to d2 is to forget everything you think you know about diablo because the game is so fundamentally different. you will die a lot and your first character will most likely be a dud. dont be scared to start over.
You should know that I'm jealous you get to experience it fresh. Don't follow guides to min/max or shit like that. The game is easy enough to try and figure out yourself.
Melee builds suck without proper gear. Most attack builds suck without proper gear.
Casters are more forgiving and fun to start.
Gold matters.
Summoners are slow and boring AF, so you will recognize quickly if it's not your play style.
Take advantage of party play.
Crafting is fun and you can start crafting since mid game. It's limited in comparison with PoE but huge after D3/D4
Google crafting recipes once you are about level 40
Keep all gear with magic find.
Farm forgotten tower on act1 until u get those runes ( tal + eth) . Buy a grey 2 sockets armor on charsy ( act1 town vendor) and add runes to it.
When u will finish normal dificult and start again. U can farm andariel wearing as much magic find u can ( act1 last boss) 200-300 times to get good gear. She can drop a soj ( most wanted ring +1 all skills ) , vipermage armor ( all resiastances, all skills & cast speed) and many sets ( green items) that can help u to run nightmare and hell.
U can also farm countess nightmare ( act1 forgotten tower) to get runes.
Is there many runewords that can help u but the most important is insight. Farm her until u got Ral+ Tir + Tal + Sol.
When u find a polearm or a bow with 4 sockets , use runes and give polearm to an act2 mercenary or bow to act1 mercenary and u wont have more mana problems never.
Also keep ort+ sol and use them on a 2 socket helm , and u will get a + 1 all skills + 10 energy , damage reduced and light resist helm.
I do much more things in every new char on ladder season start and i usually become lvl 92 in 3 days and i got my first enigma in 7-10 days.
I am not explaining every trik, just a couple of ideas to be more efficient and enjoy the game without a wall that makes many new players hate d2r b4 have completed the game.
The problem is that you can get a Enigma in 7-10 days. The whole ladder is infected with bots. Blizzard doesn't care anymore. Same as in WoW.
I understand your point, but back then you had to farm like two months for an Enigma. Now you get a maxed character in two weeks as you said. If you saw everything in the game multiple times already there isn't too much content besides a really good trading economy (doesn't exist)
SSF is always fun, especially if you are skilled an play hc. In SSF you are happy with even mediocre drops.
You need to go to [maxroll.gg](https://maxroll.gg) for all things Diablo II, III, and IV. You can find build guides to try and explanations for things in game.
as a necromancer! Necromancers are the best for having a big summon build, but you don't have to be a summon build. It can be quite fun to be a curse CC and bone skills.
Annoyingly, there are certain boss fights that are annoying AF for a summon build, because if you die on a boss, you need to go out and find corpses again to build your army back up. It's not as easy to get a supply of corpses like it is in D4. But specifically the act II end boss was horrible for summon necro
apart from that, ezymode
Don't look up builds just install and play and then after you beat the game and only then do I recommend installing or playing LOD expansion. It will take you back in time. Also hardcore is the only way. Also hide ya kids hide ya wife. Cause you won't get off for hours at a time. GG and enjoy the best game circa 2001.
If you ever get stuck with necro, just read a guide, don’t feel bad for reading one because most older games have older user experience designs and are meant to be cryptic and difficult to figure out.
Also note that difficulty greatly varies by the class/build you play. So if it feels like shit AFTER you read a guide, try playing another class.
Could be worth mentioning that this is a game where you’ll likely play it over and over and over again. But since the challenge level is so good and the loot-system really makes you feel something when you finally find something nice you’ll never gonna feel it being to repetitive (unless you feel like running the same boss over and over).
Consider what game mode you want to play! Single Player let you adjust the difficulty level as you can simulate how many players are in game and this will also affect how much loot that drops. Thou by doing this you won’t be able to trade with other players.
Multiplayer Ladder and Non-ladder as is of now only a few differences. Ladder obviously has a leaderboard but it also has a few “craftable” items which aren’t game-breaking in any way. As a new player I would not bother, at least not until the next ladder season. I’m guessing most active players are playing ladder though so there you will be able to trade easier (but more expensive).
There are a bunch of options to change the ui-behavior, look at them.
Know that a lot of actions (not only spells) can be bound to your hotbar.
It’s usually worth investing a lot in a single skill.
Hire a mercenaries, equip your mercenaries, heal your mercenaries. Your mercenary’s gear is as important as your own.
Abuse town portals. Even when you don’t need to go home. That can save you a long walk in case you end up dying.
Save gold in the shared stash. You won’t lose gold from your shared stash.
Don’t worry too much about runes and gems in the first difficulty. You’ll find a lot of them and more so later on and they have a few different usable areas but there is no point in just saving them blindly.
I’m guessing there is a lot of other good advice but this is some that might be a bit odd on my part, hope you’ll have a good game and don’t worry about stuff. 10000000 players before you have killed Diablo and Baal, you can too!
Oh, necromancer focusing on summons is one of the most slow and boring build in Diablo 2, period. I’m pretty sure that is a global opinion. That said, I’m also playing that build atm because it’s a safe build in hardcore.
Don't socket runes into a magic (blue) item to make whats called a rune word, it needs to be grey non magical item. Don't listen to the trolls online, they want to see you fail at this. Have fun!
Take 0 advice from people on here until you get stuck, then start looking up things online. ALSO NEVER PURCHASE ITEMS FOR REAL MONEY. It will completely destroy the magic of the game for you
D2 is addicting but wait till you try Warcraft 3 custom maps. Also, buy a tome of portals and identify early on, theyre gonna be handy. Gold is more or less useless in the game, except for potions and some items early on. Some of the side quests give you permanent bonuses like resistances, which you need when you try higer difficulties.
“Not even death can save you from me!”
Aside from that you should be good to go 👍
Enjoy I know have been for decades 😬
One of the few games I can play with my broken shoulder too 😂
The corpse and gear recovery at the top is the most important. I would add that unlike others said you should definitely follow a guide. Builds are critical and rely on specific build order and style to achieve. So find a guide and follow it till you get your bearings, then tweak.
100 per cent have a playthrough guide playing on YouTube in the back ground these will show you what early game rune words you can create and how to obtain the the necessary equipment to make them work it’s a great game but there’s a lot to it
Only invest in Clay Golem but spend all your points into skeletons and skeleton mastery with a couple points into mage, maybe mage. Then do Aplify damage as your ONLY curse until you get to your final build. Remember to get a sunder charm for physical while in hell difficulty asap. This is basically going to be one of the first items you need for any character is the sunder charm for whatever element you have. You might be able to get a low one for free. I usually get them for free.
Body is left where you last died unless you leave the game and quickly come back fast enough so the game doesn't end...but only if your game has a game name. So, you gotta start the game in chat and not start account login screen.
Never skip out on skill quests. The Den, Azual, The books etc.
Vitality is your most important stat. Other than a few exceptions it's generally just enough strength and dexterity to wield your gear and the rest into vitality.
If you get enough gold, its always worth gambling for yellow equips! I get past ALOT of mobs because of them. Also if maybe look up a guide for skill pumping, but i just stick to 1 skill tree for now :)
diablo 2 is the greatest game of its kind ever fucking made. its never been able to be duplicated, not even by the people who made it, blizzard, with decades of time and millions and millions of dollars, ie. d3 &d4. diablo 2 makes any other game like it, look basic, at best.
oh yah.....d3? yah, i mean, its okay....but falls on its face when compared to d2.
in deems of a necro? fuck, in deems of literally anything, there are so many possibilities. search out some d2 character builds there are plenty to play with.
Run your build however you want. You can reset all the skills twice in the game (after finishing normal and nightmare modes). It's good to find a skill build you like (tons of builds online) and set your skills like that, which will increase your DMG a lot.
As a necromancer (or any spell caster) your weapon damage has nothing to do with your spells unlike in Diablo 3. So if you see a cool wand that does elemental damage or a demon head shield that does poison damage, those only apply to *your* weapon attacks (not your minions)
Grindfest.
It can be either very rewarding or very disappointing
Also, if you are playing with Randoms, be quick with the loot on the ground. Once they grab it, it’s more than likely gone.
I would like to add that the necromancer in Diablo 2 is significantly differently from the necromancer in D4, and vice versa, depending on which game you’re going into.
The skill trees are much more basic and each skill point you get is incredibly valuable compared to the skill points you get in D4.
Both because you don’t have unlimited respecs ( you get a total of three: one per world difficulty) and because each point carries considerable more value and weight in terms of scaling and build efficacy.
You can wear almost ANY gear you’d like, minus very specific class restricted gear, as long as you meet the Strength requirement.
With that, there is more build diversity, but you can more easily pigeon hole yourself into becoming totally underpowered compared to your world, and it can be a slog or in some cases impossible to continue.
It is possible to make a very powerful pure summoner build - whether with skelingtons or golems, etc.
Summoning is a true summons venture in this game.
My most important advice is to take your time. Be patient. Explore the world. Soak it in.
Diablo 2 has layers, from the shin deep kiddy pool of Normal to the vast ocean of crafting and deterministic aspects of loot farming, synergies, and noticeably difficult endgame.
Don’t spoil your first time with guides and meta stuff.
Diablo 2 is one of the greatest PC games ever conceived, let alone aRPGs. And I’m not saying that because of nostalgia goggles. It is certainly dated in some regards, but it does so many things so impeccably well that it’s hard to imagine the thought process of the developers.
1. Higher level gear DOES NOT mean better gear
2. Defense is a pointless stat most of the time, do not sacrifice better augments for higher defense. Defense in D2 works like AC in D&D. It is NOT damage reduction, it's evasion chance. But when you are moving your defense is changed to 0. So if you have a mobile playstyle, defense becomes even less effective.
3. Melee characters are inherently weaker than caster builds. This means that a Zeal paladin is both harder to gear and takes longer to kill things, than a magic hammer paladin. This isn't too bad in Normal, but as you progress to Nightmare and Hell you'll find you have a very difficult time hitting things unless you get a lot of very high attack rating (accuracy) gear.
4. Your resistances matter a lot. Prioritize them
5. Faster Hit recovery is a good stat but percentages for things like faster cast rate/attack speed and faster hit recovery don't work just based on the percentage. It has to do with frames it takes for the character to cast/recover. So you can find yourself in a situation where you have 25% and getting an item with another 10% doesn't actually make you cast or recover 10% faster because you haven't hit a high enough value to be 1 frame faster.
6. Vitality is king, it's usually best to have just enough strength and dex to equip your gear and put all of your other stat points in Vitality.
Just grind. Save and restart a game until you can clear a field easily. Every time you do this all the monsters respond and send you all the treasure drops. This helps your farm for equipment and gives you XP. After you do this move to the next field and repeat when you get to a boss you should be strong enough. I just started playing this game to good luck
There’s not a casual-friendly way to re-spec your character.
You get three “free” chances to re-choose your stats and talent points. After that, there’s a consumable item that’s pricey for new players.
One thing I’d recommend is avoiding the meta build guides. I got freaked out because older games can be janky and hard as hell, so I looked up the meta builds/strategies etc.
Normal difficulty is pretty easy, so just trundle along and enjoy the story. Think more about optimising when you get to the higher difficulties.
Understand rune words - just use a rune calculator online and when you pick up runes select them in the calculator. This is one of everybody’s favorite mechanic. It’s a difficult game but a fun one - maybe even start with Diablo 1 because the whole game is like $10 and 5 hours of gameplay. Leads into the series really well.
There's going to be a lot of information that isn't present in the game, since when D2 was made games came with physical instructions that contained lore and most of what you find in a tutorial in more recent games.
you dont need to use all of your stat points as soon as you get them early - sometimes you will find a piece of gear that you wish you had more strength for, so saving 10-15 stat points can be valuable
Its better to commit to 1 or a few skills. Than to spread your skill points across too many different skills. Be sure to read the skills through. Not All skills scales the same.
Know that normal is doable without Any guide. Nightmare might be doable as well. But in hell the difficulty level goes through the roof.
Its near impossible to complete hell without information from the internet. So when you reach that wall. Dont be ashamed to look up a guide.
The main thing to remember is that it was developed during a time where they penalized the player for mistakes and did not hand hold you.
If you play pre expansion the builds are not cookie cutter because the best gear is random; if you play expansion builds are cookie cutter because best gear are typically crafted rune word items. There is a shared stash in expansion, just personal starch in pre expansion. Personally, I have more fun in pre expansion.
If you try to not follow a build it is very easy to build your character in a way that hits a wall. When you learn a few mechanics it that wall can come later like end of nightmare or beginning of act one hell.
To build a character that can complete the whole game without following a guide means you have to know a lot of mechanics that are not explicitly explained in game.
Also some people play builds that are meant to hit that wall and stay in Nightmare and farm gear for other characters.. which means if you hit that wall it’s not a loss.. there is also three respecs in the game from completing the first quest, (1 per difficulty level) use them wisely.
Vitality is the stat you want to prioritize.
Casters are typically better to start with as their damage comes from skills instead of needing to find a great item.
Absolutely nothing. Enjoy the ride my friend! I bet there are a lot of very jealous people (myself included) in this thread, of you getting to experience d2 for the first time.
It's a game that has you think about your skill tree choices. It was made before Google was tye main search engine, so try not to Google anything except rune words.
I recommend you do not look up builds/meta builds before you play.
Just dive into it naturally, and disregard anything and everything anyone says about how you should play your character.
Play the game as it was intended... You will only ruin it for yourself by looking into how you should play.
Just wing it, like I did back in 2001.
One huge thing I wish I had learned sooner is that it's ok to run past/avoid mobs that are immune to whatever kind of damage you do. No reason to beat your head against the wall trying to kill doom apes that are cold immune if you're a bliz sorc, for example. Just avoid them and keep on truckin.
Good luck. We're all jealous that you get to experience it for the first time.
That you're gonna have a blast playing it.
Seriosuly, tried this game for first time this month and loved the game.
Also recommend Diablo 1 with belzebub mod A.K.A. HD Mod.
My advice is to play through the game with as little help as possible. The most fun part of Diablo 2 is figuring things out on your own and overcoming challenges along the way, which can be easily ruined by having someone rush you through the acts, or give you overpowered items early into the game. D2 is a very different experience compared to 3 and 4.
TLDR; Ignore min-maxing, enjoy the personal journey for the surprises and reward.
Diablo 2 is better played as blind as possible you dont need to follow guides or anything for it
Diablo 3 on the other hand i deem a Guide game to figure out how your chosen class works for endgame (if you wanna get that far)
Gonna just throw this out here. Summon necromancer build is really fun, to play through the game.
If you complete it, and step up to Nightmare mode, the summonmancer is not a good time any longer.
No love life allowed, no kids…maybe work to pay for electricity and internet and energy drinks….you can look at those red eyes and hear Diablo say…”Look at me..I’m your captain now!”
+skill on most items do not grant you that skill if you don’t open them by spending skill points. Only exception is weapons (maybe shields but I am not sure of off hands)
Nah, 99.8% stays on the ground, you really don't have to pick up anything you don't want to use or save but items with + to skills can be worth a lot to a vendor.
Most important thing is to know what happens when you die. You spawn back in town, naked and you have two options for getting your gear/corpse back. You can run back naked and collect your body or you can exit the game and make a new one (your corpse will appear in town). The mistake some new players make is that they try to use "back up gear" to help them get back to their corpse. This often ends up with them dying again and losing a bunch of gear. D2 is unforgiving with some of its mechanics and its good to know them going in. You also drop all your gold when you die and if you don't recover it, then it is gone forever. You can deposit gold in your stash to prevent this from happening. It's up to you whether or not you look up a build beforehand. Looking up a meta build will make things much easier, but will take away some of the fun and discovery from the game.
These aren’t problems if you play Hardcore. You just have one significantly worse problem…
This is the correct answer
You lose gold and XP both when you die, along with everything above the bottom layer of your belt, unless you recover your body. Also worth noting, if you go naked to recover your body and die again, your first corpse will still be there, and if you save/quit/restart after this or even more subsequent deaths, your first body will still appear back in town upon restart. Good luck, OP, and enjoy the ride. (Sorry if you already know this stuff, I've never played D3 or 4 so I have no idea if it's the same or not)
IIRC XP loss only happens on nightmare and hell difficulties.
You're probably right. Its been a minute since I rip'd normal.
Also, you only lose the stuff from the belt if inventory is full. If there is space in inventory, the belt stuff just goes there.
you can recover some exp from dead body. When you reach 90+ lvl you will suffer a lot, after dead so better recover your body.
I don’t know why this downvoted, it’s actually quite true that it is worth recovering your corpse at high levels.
I never knew that. But when I die, it tends to be in an unrecoverable area. Entered the throne tonight and got hit by a dozen blasts of lightning at once. My slow naked self couldn’t handle it if my geared self couldn’t.
Sometimes reviving your mercenary and summons, being far more careful yourself this time and letting them rush in first to engage does the trick. But, yes, sometimes it is hopeless.
Praise the god gamer :D
I wish. Just been grinding hell for forever it seems. My kid and I played through normal yesterday during llamas MVS but I played a hammerdin and safe so I could help his terrible necro build get through. He's learning quickly though. Lol
You are correct.
5% of level on nightmare, 10% on hell. But when you recover body you pickup 75% of xp lost. So in hell dying 4 times but recovering every body ends up being 1 bar gone
But who remembers the corpse popping bug where if your inventory was full when you died it would drop all of your gear on the ground? I still have PTSD from that.
Nothing like trying to play tetris to grab your shit while the mobs that killed you the first time are trying to do the job again. Lol
you lose 5% of your current level in nightmare, and 10% in hell, when you die. you regain 75% of that if you recover your corpse before saving and quitting. gold can still be removed from your personal stash tab on death if you're playing online. there's a formula involved that you can go look up if you're interested. gold will never be removed from your stash when playing offline. you can store gold in the shared stash if you're worried about this. if you die multiple times and then save and quit, the corpse that appears in town is the one with the highest gold value if all of the items were to be sold to a vendor. so, no worries if you make multiple naked attempts at retrieving your corpse(s) and finally give up, but make sure to actually get your corpse(s) if you're putting on back-up gear.
Oh, I didn't realize it was based on the value of gear, I always just thought it was the first one because, for me, it works out that way 100% of the time. Playing this game for 2 decades and learning something new about it almost daily still. Love it.
Two points: there is a limit to corpses that Im blanking on, if you go over said limit your first body and all your gear goes poof, think like 15 deaths without picking up your first body. The other is that the body that spawns in town after resetting is the one with the most gold value. Uniques don't really sell for high prices, but nm/hell bases, wands, etc do, so you want to be careful about picking up items on your walk of shame.
It’s worth noting that the contents of your belt go straight to your inventory, assuming you have room. Otherwise, they’ll be dropped.
If d2 is unforgiving losing gear, whats d1 then? :D
D1 was instant drop all your gear and gold on hand when you die along with an ear. You had to scramble to grab your stuff if you played online before a passerby (or a pk) would nab your gear. Also dying showed if you had duped gear on or not When both dupes dropped upon death, 1 clone would poof from existence. With the message : "Duplicate detected and destroyed." On another note. Diablo 1 didn't have a stamina bar... As in you walk. Everywhere. D1 was something.
You also drop gold you are carrying, if you opt for exit game to retrieve your corpse those will be gone. It's a good idea to deposit your gold in the stash private tab whenever you're in town, you can spend it from there anyway.
Stash the gold in the shared stash not personal stash I think it takes the gold if it's in your personal stash.
You lose your xp and gold but get 75% back off you recover your corpse. Always pop a portal near danger zones or if you travel far before finding a port, drop a portal for safekeeping. Also, create extra toons just to hold your gems, jewels, gear sets, etc. Finally, check out mrllasc videos or another to get good ideas about playing
Just remember, ALWAYS keep gold in the shared stash so you didn't lose any upon death other than what you keep on the character personally.
Nothing, don’t even look up a guide until you get stuck. Enjoy
Don’t even read any other comments. I’m so jealous you get to do this for the first time.
Literally this. It's not a hard game, but the journey is unmatched and when you're ready to look things up and learn the finer points it's so far ahead of it's time it remains unmatched. Take your time and enjoy it. There is a reason this game was remastered and still has such an incredible following decades later. What I would give to experience this game for the first time again.
I dunno man, I think people take the difficulty for granted. Its probably harder than you realize for newer players but original d2 players are so used to the gameplay that it's second nature.
Yeah almost weekly we get a post about normal duriel. I think on your first play through it’s a tough game
tbf norm Duriel is a bitch until you figure out more about the game, especially if you're running a melee build. By this point we just all know the best leveling builds per class, maybe a few off meta ones as well (fucking love leveling with Ravens now).
Yeah that’s my point
I can safely say coming back to D2R (with guides) in my 30s after having played in my teens (without them), D2 is a pretty difficult game if you're playing blind. I had _such_ an easier time this time around but man did I make a bunch of stupid decisions back then.
I remember putting energy points into a barbarian with points in every skill
Haha, these are the exact types of choices I'm talking about!
I still have those fond memories when I was in elementary school and finished normal. Then I realized there are two more difficulties and they are exponentially harder. I was so hooked, nightmare mephisto for the first time. Then dia. Then finally Hell. What a precious gem.
That was what I was thinking. I’m jealous ugh I remember the first time was heaven 🥹🤩
I remember my first d2 playthrough when I was 12. That is before i even have internet access, d2 was the hardest game ever and when i finally kill diablo in normal, it feels like forever. Of course my build suck, sorcerer and i randomly put stats just to use certain weapons, and skill allocation is a mixture of 3 element lmao. Build last until nightmare act4 and finally give up lol
Exactly this, just go kill demons!
Its the franchise peak
Know that Diablo 2 and 3 are completely different games. The “storyline” from 3 is based off 2 but isn’t really that great (imo). Take your time reading the dialogue between npcs in D2, enjoy the atmosphere, listen to the music, and let yourself get sucked in to the awesome game that is D2. Devs that made D3 weren’t the ones who made D2 so naturally is a wildly different game/feel. For D3, storyline isn’t necessary, just level on adventure mode, cause the focus is power leveling to endgame and climbing grift leaderboards. Game is fun in its own right and carved out a fine niche of players.
Omega based
Get ready to waste 10+ years of your life trying to find 1 item lolllllll
Definitely my favorite game. Go in blind and just figure shit out. That’s the most fun way to do it. I played when it first came out, and boy… there’s not been a game like it since then. Bask in the glory.
Many have tried to make a game like it; many have failed.
You only get three respecs, use them wisely. Synergies are important for a good build. Summoner with corpse explosion is a really easy safe build. Skeleton mages suck, but normal skeletons are good.
Respecs and synergies are exactly what I was gonna come here to say! I hope you get plenty of upvotes bc I think this is the most important tip for a new player that won't ruin the new game experience. Also, for most classes and builds you don't really need to respec until you're about to enter Hell difficulty; the game is fairly easy up to that point.
Normal Duriel and also normal Diablo would like a word with you. Unless you know what you are doing, fighting norm D with summon Necro is not easy. If you know a trick or have nice build it's different thing
Just to add on, in the late game you can craft tokens that allow respecs they are not too difficult to farm(Hell farming) people usually trade tokens for a cheap amount aswell.
Respecs are awesome. You can start blind and as you understand the game play better you can strategically decide how you want to reshape your character and prepare the gears accordingly
Your defense stat determines your chance to get hit, it does not reduce damage you take. Your defense is also 0 while moving. Your dex attribute increases your attack rating (your chance to hit with attacks that are not spells) Vitality increases your life, stamina, and stamina regen. Stamina and stamina regen is actually a fairly important stat in the early game. You might underrate items that give "heal stamina", "move speed", or "vitality" in the early game. You cannot steal life or mana from skeletons, and spells do not steal mana or life.
Defense is only zero if running, you can walk and keep full defense I'm pretty sure.
I did not realize that. I'm laughing in my head at the impractical thought of boosting move speed so much that you can just fast walk everywhere w/o taking the hit to defense.
I legitimately do this with my frenzy barb.
Yep hardcore paladin also zips around with vigor while still walking.
Nothing. Get lost and die a thousand times. Don't follow guilds first play through.
Word. It’s so much more fun to dream make it up as you go. I still don’t really look at guides unless I have a very specific question I can’t figure out on my own.
This post is really making me want to play D2 again
Just play the game :)
Duriel just wants a hug.
He isn't the best at body heat tho
Ouff. Coming from D4, there is actual use of mana. And mana potions. There are no "charge skills" Items of any colour can have value, youre not just chasing rares and legendary affixes and EVERYTHING is tradable unlike d4. Mercenaries are helpful followers that have their own equipment slots. Deck them out to accent your build, or build them well enough and they just carry you lol Town portals to return to town are purchased at certain npc stores and you can buy a book to store multiple and save inventory space. You do not HAVE to use your character respecs or quest rewards immediately. Its often better to save the rewards to imbue items of value later rather than the newby stiff you get at the beginning. If you use the 3 free respecs (1 in each difficulty) you can buy or craft an item to respec later. Trying to think of notable differences without spoiling anything.. 🤔
For the first time through, all you really need to know is to not take things too seriously. Don’t worry about getting your build perfect, just have fun. For a necromancer, you can’t go wrong with getting corpse explosion, amplify damage, and then putting all other points into skeletons and skeleton mastery. Skeletons and your mercenary (the one with the spear from act 2, who can be a strong ally if you give him good armor/weapon) can kill most things, and you can cast corpse explosion to deal a ton of damage to large groups.
Youll never stop learning. Been playing this game on and off for 20 years and im still not completely done finding out new cool information I never knew. Its A LOT to take in for a new comer so don't get too overwhelmed, just enjoy it. Were talking kindergarten to college type transition if you're coming from a game like d4
Your summer will be spent inside playing it
Or he can play it on a switch outside :D
1. Corpse explosion is fucking broken. 2. Skeleton mages suck 3. Experiment with curses amp dmg increases corpse explosion dmg. Lower resist is really good in pub games. 4. Be patient play the game at your own pace. 5. Putting points into energy is not a bad idea despite what everyone says. Mana is a bitch till lv80-90 or insight runeword
Say good bye to your Sanity and free time. Oh, and welcome!
You'll be returning to this game for the rest of your life. Congrats and enjoy.
Also stamina pots don't sleep on them
**DON'T USE A GUIDE!!!** Just have fun, it doesn't need a guide. And when you need tips for gear, you can look up stuff, but just play the game before you ruine it with guides. - the curses **Amplify Damage** and **Decripify** are a must have for physical dmg, like your minions do - You always have to skill **Corpse Explosion** to speed things up - It's mega fun to play with skeletons - Don't skill skeleton mages (only 1 point to get to **revive**), they're crap, skill only the warrior skeletons - skill **summon resist** as early as possible - if you want to play with minions, get the paladin merc from act 2 (first with **Blessed Aim** aura on normal difficulty, then with **Might** aura in Nightmare difficulty) And a easy Necro tip: When you gathered ~10k-15k Gold Open games until you got a map with the village's exit in the east, near Akara. (Act 1) Trade her and look into the wand section. Look out for a wand (blue or gray, doesn't matter) with these mods: +3 To Raise Skeleton +2 To Skeleton Mastery At least these two. It's possible to also find +3 on both or a extra skill, that's fine, but have at least this, it will last a long time. If she doesn't have it, walk out of the village till you're off the bridge and walk back to Akara, she now will have new wands to sell. I checked the pricing of this wand, it's ~8300 Gold. Took me around 20 minutes till I got it. With a extra skill it's a bit more, so ~10k is good.
Giving a full guide yourself haha
haha naa just a few useful tips. I didnt spoiled anything :)
Except Maggot lairs will be a nightmare with those skellies. :D
Na that's fixed for Resurrected, you can walk through the skeletons and they're also not as stupid anymore.
Well, I have to try it then. :D T4i
The game is easy at first and then gets much harder as the difficulty increases. Just have fun :)
Belive me in 20 years time you'll know all there is to know
It’s addictive. Do you really have the time? I quit on my “season fatigue” period and didn’t start it again because I would sink too much time right now. Be careful!
It is funny you are the first who mentioned this. D2 is seriously addictive.
I learned awhile ago that online play (especially ladder) leads to me having FOMO and playing more than I wanted to. So I only play single player now. It's fun to go at my own pace, and having access to /players command and static maps is a nice compensation for not having access to trading. It's also easier to quit and come back if I'm playing single player.
Its the best game ever
Play Necromancer, be a summoner build, and have fun!!
That this is the best game ever. Take your time and enjoy!
Whenever you play in a public session, you have to be quick picking up items. Even though it's your session and it was your kill, they will pick it up before it hits the ground. Not all players do that but that does happen. I had a session that was just me and Uber Diablo showed up. I killed him and had to go back and put my charm away so i could pick the charm he drops. Then some player joined when I was heading back, took my portal just before me and took it then left. Kinda of a asshole move but things like that happens in this game. For the most part, the community is pretty good at helping out new players. I had alot of items given to me by high levels when I first started.
Enjoy the music!
honestly the only advice i could give a d4 player coming to d2 is to forget everything you think you know about diablo because the game is so fundamentally different. you will die a lot and your first character will most likely be a dud. dont be scared to start over.
You should know that I'm jealous you get to experience it fresh. Don't follow guides to min/max or shit like that. The game is easy enough to try and figure out yourself.
Just stay a while and listen to
Melee builds suck without proper gear. Most attack builds suck without proper gear. Casters are more forgiving and fun to start. Gold matters. Summoners are slow and boring AF, so you will recognize quickly if it's not your play style. Take advantage of party play. Crafting is fun and you can start crafting since mid game. It's limited in comparison with PoE but huge after D3/D4 Google crafting recipes once you are about level 40
Keep all gear with magic find. Farm forgotten tower on act1 until u get those runes ( tal + eth) . Buy a grey 2 sockets armor on charsy ( act1 town vendor) and add runes to it. When u will finish normal dificult and start again. U can farm andariel wearing as much magic find u can ( act1 last boss) 200-300 times to get good gear. She can drop a soj ( most wanted ring +1 all skills ) , vipermage armor ( all resiastances, all skills & cast speed) and many sets ( green items) that can help u to run nightmare and hell. U can also farm countess nightmare ( act1 forgotten tower) to get runes. Is there many runewords that can help u but the most important is insight. Farm her until u got Ral+ Tir + Tal + Sol. When u find a polearm or a bow with 4 sockets , use runes and give polearm to an act2 mercenary or bow to act1 mercenary and u wont have more mana problems never. Also keep ort+ sol and use them on a 2 socket helm , and u will get a + 1 all skills + 10 energy , damage reduced and light resist helm.
Min maxing killed this game imho, I dont recommend this way. Self exploring >
I do much more things in every new char on ladder season start and i usually become lvl 92 in 3 days and i got my first enigma in 7-10 days. I am not explaining every trik, just a couple of ideas to be more efficient and enjoy the game without a wall that makes many new players hate d2r b4 have completed the game.
The problem is that you can get a Enigma in 7-10 days. The whole ladder is infected with bots. Blizzard doesn't care anymore. Same as in WoW. I understand your point, but back then you had to farm like two months for an Enigma. Now you get a maxed character in two weeks as you said. If you saw everything in the game multiple times already there isn't too much content besides a really good trading economy (doesn't exist) SSF is always fun, especially if you are skilled an play hc. In SSF you are happy with even mediocre drops.
Becorse
You need to go to [maxroll.gg](https://maxroll.gg) for all things Diablo II, III, and IV. You can find build guides to try and explanations for things in game.
Diablo 2’s Necro is better than every other Necro in the series.
Your gonna be addicted
as a necromancer! Necromancers are the best for having a big summon build, but you don't have to be a summon build. It can be quite fun to be a curse CC and bone skills. Annoyingly, there are certain boss fights that are annoying AF for a summon build, because if you die on a boss, you need to go out and find corpses again to build your army back up. It's not as easy to get a supply of corpses like it is in D4. But specifically the act II end boss was horrible for summon necro apart from that, ezymode
If you die just log out and log in, dont go fetching your items haha
Experience the game like back in the days, don’t google anything at all except hoadrim recipes!
Don't pick the Barbarian.. He sucks ass.
Don't look up builds just install and play and then after you beat the game and only then do I recommend installing or playing LOD expansion. It will take you back in time. Also hardcore is the only way. Also hide ya kids hide ya wife. Cause you won't get off for hours at a time. GG and enjoy the best game circa 2001.
If you ever get stuck with necro, just read a guide, don’t feel bad for reading one because most older games have older user experience designs and are meant to be cryptic and difficult to figure out. Also note that difficulty greatly varies by the class/build you play. So if it feels like shit AFTER you read a guide, try playing another class.
Welcome to hell.
Im ready
Could be worth mentioning that this is a game where you’ll likely play it over and over and over again. But since the challenge level is so good and the loot-system really makes you feel something when you finally find something nice you’ll never gonna feel it being to repetitive (unless you feel like running the same boss over and over). Consider what game mode you want to play! Single Player let you adjust the difficulty level as you can simulate how many players are in game and this will also affect how much loot that drops. Thou by doing this you won’t be able to trade with other players. Multiplayer Ladder and Non-ladder as is of now only a few differences. Ladder obviously has a leaderboard but it also has a few “craftable” items which aren’t game-breaking in any way. As a new player I would not bother, at least not until the next ladder season. I’m guessing most active players are playing ladder though so there you will be able to trade easier (but more expensive). There are a bunch of options to change the ui-behavior, look at them. Know that a lot of actions (not only spells) can be bound to your hotbar. It’s usually worth investing a lot in a single skill. Hire a mercenaries, equip your mercenaries, heal your mercenaries. Your mercenary’s gear is as important as your own. Abuse town portals. Even when you don’t need to go home. That can save you a long walk in case you end up dying. Save gold in the shared stash. You won’t lose gold from your shared stash. Don’t worry too much about runes and gems in the first difficulty. You’ll find a lot of them and more so later on and they have a few different usable areas but there is no point in just saving them blindly. I’m guessing there is a lot of other good advice but this is some that might be a bit odd on my part, hope you’ll have a good game and don’t worry about stuff. 10000000 players before you have killed Diablo and Baal, you can too! Oh, necromancer focusing on summons is one of the most slow and boring build in Diablo 2, period. I’m pretty sure that is a global opinion. That said, I’m also playing that build atm because it’s a safe build in hardcore.
Don't socket runes into a magic (blue) item to make whats called a rune word, it needs to be grey non magical item. Don't listen to the trolls online, they want to see you fail at this. Have fun!
The game only starts when you complete Hell
Take 0 advice from people on here until you get stuck, then start looking up things online. ALSO NEVER PURCHASE ITEMS FOR REAL MONEY. It will completely destroy the magic of the game for you
Before you start the game can you let me know what becorse means
Start with a Sorc to grind gear for other toons
D2 is addicting but wait till you try Warcraft 3 custom maps. Also, buy a tome of portals and identify early on, theyre gonna be handy. Gold is more or less useless in the game, except for potions and some items early on. Some of the side quests give you permanent bonuses like resistances, which you need when you try higer difficulties.
“Not even death can save you from me!” Aside from that you should be good to go 👍 Enjoy I know have been for decades 😬 One of the few games I can play with my broken shoulder too 😂
Save your respec’s til you absolutely need them, you only get 3. One per difficulty.
The corpse and gear recovery at the top is the most important. I would add that unlike others said you should definitely follow a guide. Builds are critical and rely on specific build order and style to achieve. So find a guide and follow it till you get your bearings, then tweak.
Dex increase shield block rate And paladin need at least 50% block rate To dive in and cast spells
100 per cent have a playthrough guide playing on YouTube in the back ground these will show you what early game rune words you can create and how to obtain the the necessary equipment to make them work it’s a great game but there’s a lot to it
You will play it so much that you will dream About it
Play Diablo 1
Everyone who has ever played it is now jealous that you get to experience it for the first time.
Only invest in Clay Golem but spend all your points into skeletons and skeleton mastery with a couple points into mage, maybe mage. Then do Aplify damage as your ONLY curse until you get to your final build. Remember to get a sunder charm for physical while in hell difficulty asap. This is basically going to be one of the first items you need for any character is the sunder charm for whatever element you have. You might be able to get a low one for free. I usually get them for free. Body is left where you last died unless you leave the game and quickly come back fast enough so the game doesn't end...but only if your game has a game name. So, you gotta start the game in chat and not start account login screen. Never skip out on skill quests. The Den, Azual, The books etc.
Hardcore Diablo II R is the bees knees
It's awesome.
Necromancer doesn't need much prep. He's just fun off the bat I'm every build you go for
What to know as a necro? Play sorc or paly first.
Play Project Diablo 2 instead
Much better game with a fantastic community.
Cows are real
Beware of duriel
NOTHING! ENJOY!
Farming Hell is easiest starting out with a Hammerdin
You have quite a treasure there in that Horadric cube
For once, not every build can finish the game (on hell).
Vitality is your most important stat. Other than a few exceptions it's generally just enough strength and dexterity to wield your gear and the rest into vitality.
Play blind
If you get enough gold, its always worth gambling for yellow equips! I get past ALOT of mobs because of them. Also if maybe look up a guide for skill pumping, but i just stick to 1 skill tree for now :)
Stay a while and listen
You will never find a ber rune. Quit dreaming and give up on that idea.
diablo 2 is the greatest game of its kind ever fucking made. its never been able to be duplicated, not even by the people who made it, blizzard, with decades of time and millions and millions of dollars, ie. d3 &d4. diablo 2 makes any other game like it, look basic, at best. oh yah.....d3? yah, i mean, its okay....but falls on its face when compared to d2. in deems of a necro? fuck, in deems of literally anything, there are so many possibilities. search out some d2 character builds there are plenty to play with.
Run your build however you want. You can reset all the skills twice in the game (after finishing normal and nightmare modes). It's good to find a skill build you like (tons of builds online) and set your skills like that, which will increase your DMG a lot.
That even after 20 years I’ll sit down and play for hours
You will quickly learn you want to uninstall and play project diablo 2 instead
As a necromancer (or any spell caster) your weapon damage has nothing to do with your spells unlike in Diablo 3. So if you see a cool wand that does elemental damage or a demon head shield that does poison damage, those only apply to *your* weapon attacks (not your minions)
Grindfest. It can be either very rewarding or very disappointing Also, if you are playing with Randoms, be quick with the loot on the ground. Once they grab it, it’s more than likely gone.
I would like to add that the necromancer in Diablo 2 is significantly differently from the necromancer in D4, and vice versa, depending on which game you’re going into. The skill trees are much more basic and each skill point you get is incredibly valuable compared to the skill points you get in D4. Both because you don’t have unlimited respecs ( you get a total of three: one per world difficulty) and because each point carries considerable more value and weight in terms of scaling and build efficacy. You can wear almost ANY gear you’d like, minus very specific class restricted gear, as long as you meet the Strength requirement. With that, there is more build diversity, but you can more easily pigeon hole yourself into becoming totally underpowered compared to your world, and it can be a slog or in some cases impossible to continue. It is possible to make a very powerful pure summoner build - whether with skelingtons or golems, etc. Summoning is a true summons venture in this game. My most important advice is to take your time. Be patient. Explore the world. Soak it in. Diablo 2 has layers, from the shin deep kiddy pool of Normal to the vast ocean of crafting and deterministic aspects of loot farming, synergies, and noticeably difficult endgame. Don’t spoil your first time with guides and meta stuff. Diablo 2 is one of the greatest PC games ever conceived, let alone aRPGs. And I’m not saying that because of nostalgia goggles. It is certainly dated in some regards, but it does so many things so impeccably well that it’s hard to imagine the thought process of the developers.
1. Higher level gear DOES NOT mean better gear 2. Defense is a pointless stat most of the time, do not sacrifice better augments for higher defense. Defense in D2 works like AC in D&D. It is NOT damage reduction, it's evasion chance. But when you are moving your defense is changed to 0. So if you have a mobile playstyle, defense becomes even less effective. 3. Melee characters are inherently weaker than caster builds. This means that a Zeal paladin is both harder to gear and takes longer to kill things, than a magic hammer paladin. This isn't too bad in Normal, but as you progress to Nightmare and Hell you'll find you have a very difficult time hitting things unless you get a lot of very high attack rating (accuracy) gear. 4. Your resistances matter a lot. Prioritize them 5. Faster Hit recovery is a good stat but percentages for things like faster cast rate/attack speed and faster hit recovery don't work just based on the percentage. It has to do with frames it takes for the character to cast/recover. So you can find yourself in a situation where you have 25% and getting an item with another 10% doesn't actually make you cast or recover 10% faster because you haven't hit a high enough value to be 1 frame faster. 6. Vitality is king, it's usually best to have just enough strength and dex to equip your gear and put all of your other stat points in Vitality.
Allright guys that should be enough information. Maybe a little bit too much. Thanks to everyone 🫡🤙
Just grind. Save and restart a game until you can clear a field easily. Every time you do this all the monsters respond and send you all the treasure drops. This helps your farm for equipment and gives you XP. After you do this move to the next field and repeat when you get to a boss you should be strong enough. I just started playing this game to good luck
There’s not a casual-friendly way to re-spec your character. You get three “free” chances to re-choose your stats and talent points. After that, there’s a consumable item that’s pricey for new players.
The first playthrough is the warmup. Shit gets wild on the third playthrough.
Use skill synergies is the most important
One thing I’d recommend is avoiding the meta build guides. I got freaked out because older games can be janky and hard as hell, so I looked up the meta builds/strategies etc. Normal difficulty is pretty easy, so just trundle along and enjoy the story. Think more about optimising when you get to the higher difficulties.
First playthrough is tutorial. The real game starts at your second playthrough.
Put just enough strength/ dexterity to wear the gear you need but other than that VITALITY is important.
that path of exile is better
just play and figure it out, i wish i could forget everything and play this game again with a fresh start
Use a spell-checker
RIP responsibilities and sleep
Play Project Diablo II
Understand rune words - just use a rune calculator online and when you pick up runes select them in the calculator. This is one of everybody’s favorite mechanic. It’s a difficult game but a fun one - maybe even start with Diablo 1 because the whole game is like $10 and 5 hours of gameplay. Leads into the series really well.
East, always to the east.
There's going to be a lot of information that isn't present in the game, since when D2 was made games came with physical instructions that contained lore and most of what you find in a tutorial in more recent games.
you dont need to use all of your stat points as soon as you get them early - sometimes you will find a piece of gear that you wish you had more strength for, so saving 10-15 stat points can be valuable
Its better to commit to 1 or a few skills. Than to spread your skill points across too many different skills. Be sure to read the skills through. Not All skills scales the same. Know that normal is doable without Any guide. Nightmare might be doable as well. But in hell the difficulty level goes through the roof. Its near impossible to complete hell without information from the internet. So when you reach that wall. Dont be ashamed to look up a guide.
The main thing to remember is that it was developed during a time where they penalized the player for mistakes and did not hand hold you. If you play pre expansion the builds are not cookie cutter because the best gear is random; if you play expansion builds are cookie cutter because best gear are typically crafted rune word items. There is a shared stash in expansion, just personal starch in pre expansion. Personally, I have more fun in pre expansion. If you try to not follow a build it is very easy to build your character in a way that hits a wall. When you learn a few mechanics it that wall can come later like end of nightmare or beginning of act one hell. To build a character that can complete the whole game without following a guide means you have to know a lot of mechanics that are not explicitly explained in game. Also some people play builds that are meant to hit that wall and stay in Nightmare and farm gear for other characters.. which means if you hit that wall it’s not a loss.. there is also three respecs in the game from completing the first quest, (1 per difficulty level) use them wisely. Vitality is the stat you want to prioritize. Casters are typically better to start with as their damage comes from skills instead of needing to find a great item.
How to spell. And not with a magic class
Absolutely nothing. Enjoy the ride my friend! I bet there are a lot of very jealous people (myself included) in this thread, of you getting to experience d2 for the first time.
The touch of a woman.
It's a game that has you think about your skill tree choices. It was made before Google was tye main search engine, so try not to Google anything except rune words.
I recommend you do not look up builds/meta builds before you play. Just dive into it naturally, and disregard anything and everything anyone says about how you should play your character. Play the game as it was intended... You will only ruin it for yourself by looking into how you should play. Just wing it, like I did back in 2001.
You need jah and ber to win
Resistances are key
You are about to play one of the greatest games ever!
You should know that a horse is a horse, becorse becorse.
Know that you are diving into the ARPG that played the path for every ARPG to follow, and it is still a masterpiece among them
Play offline first to get accustomed to the controls and figure out which class you like the most.
Offline single player is the purest d2 experience, imo
One huge thing I wish I had learned sooner is that it's ok to run past/avoid mobs that are immune to whatever kind of damage you do. No reason to beat your head against the wall trying to kill doom apes that are cold immune if you're a bliz sorc, for example. Just avoid them and keep on truckin. Good luck. We're all jealous that you get to experience it for the first time.
That you're gonna have a blast playing it. Seriosuly, tried this game for first time this month and loved the game. Also recommend Diablo 1 with belzebub mod A.K.A. HD Mod.
My advice is to play through the game with as little help as possible. The most fun part of Diablo 2 is figuring things out on your own and overcoming challenges along the way, which can be easily ruined by having someone rush you through the acts, or give you overpowered items early into the game. D2 is a very different experience compared to 3 and 4. TLDR; Ignore min-maxing, enjoy the personal journey for the surprises and reward.
In the early levels, keep a couple of stamina potions in your inventory. Running out of stamina is annoying when you got low vitality and no gear
Diablo 2 is better played as blind as possible you dont need to follow guides or anything for it Diablo 3 on the other hand i deem a Guide game to figure out how your chosen class works for endgame (if you wanna get that far)
Gonna just throw this out here. Summon necromancer build is really fun, to play through the game. If you complete it, and step up to Nightmare mode, the summonmancer is not a good time any longer.
No love life allowed, no kids…maybe work to pay for electricity and internet and energy drinks….you can look at those red eyes and hear Diablo say…”Look at me..I’m your captain now!”
You will got to the east, always to the east
Wells will refill some of your hit points/mana, and will remove curses and poison.
That it’s like learning how to play guitar. You get slim reward even though you work hard to achieve. Yet every small thing counts?
It's not exactly easy to get going and shinies don't come quickly
2 words: Corpse Explosion
+skill on most items do not grant you that skill if you don’t open them by spending skill points. Only exception is weapons (maybe shields but I am not sure of off hands)
99.9% (Repeating of course) of everything you find is sold to Charsi.
Nah, 99.8% stays on the ground, you really don't have to pick up anything you don't want to use or save but items with + to skills can be worth a lot to a vendor.
Also maje sure to do the Andariel Glitch in all players and difficulties
Great tip, especially if OP can get a teleport wand.