Diablo II General Information Thread - slap a Zod in that beast!

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Retro Games > Diablo II General Information Thread - slap a Zod in that beast!

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Khorne: May 1, 2002

bongwizzard posted:

I tried a bunch of different arpgs over the last few weeks trying to find one that I liked and PoE was the one I liked the best, but I have no interest in reading a million forum posts about builds and it quickly became apparent that I was going to hit a wall where being stoned and clicking really fast isnt' enough.

D2 is so far just as fun as my memories of playing it back in the day, I love it way more then D3, which only held my interest for a few hours.

PoE life hack if you don't want to just screw around and make fun/crappy characters: Just look at the current ladder, or hardcore ladder, and steal a build from there. Don't accidentally steal a support build, though.

Max Wilco posted:

I always get confused when people use 'PoE', because usually they're talking about Path of Exile, but at first I think they're talking about Pillars of Eternity.

I haven't really put a lot time into Diablo 2 so far. I'm playing as the Sorceress (currently at Level 16), and I've made it to the start of Chapter 2, but I don't really feel hooked on it so far.

All that being said, part of me still wants to try Diablo 3. I've seen people playing what looks like post-game content on Twitch, and it looks pretty insane with people fighting superbosses and doing damage in the thousands. It looks a little more streamlined, but it still sound like people aren't really keen on it .I thought maybe it'd be something to pick up when it goes on sale, but I don't really follow Blizzard, but they don't seem the type to have frequent sales like Steam does.

Tough out sorceress until 30 or so. Sorceress is absolutely brutal to play from 16-24, but once you get rolling it's the most broken class in d2. With respecs, you're probably best off just dumping points into something that murders early then resetting once you get to a level where you can get your actual spells. With synergies, you can honestly dump them into a synergy skill that boosts what you are shooting for and avoid the reset altogether.

And yeah, the d3 endgame is fun. And it dumps you in it right away if you want it to, because you can ask for a power level in lljk community and then do the season journey which most people enjoy. After that you're kinda dumped into the endgame which goes on forever. You're not missing anything from 1-70, you awkwardly fumble around with random skills gaining exp kinda slowly and learn pretty much nothing except "this is a rift, you kill stuff and a guardian spawns" and "you can level by getting a kill streak bonus, which you don't get in rifts/grifts so it's useless knowledge after you hit 70".

Khorne fucked around with this message at 22:35 on May 23, 2017

# ? May 23, 2017 22:31

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# ? May 10, 2024 06:50

Star Man: Jun 1, 2008; There's a star maaaaaan
Over the rainbow

I still recommend that someone brand new to Diablo III (and Diablo II) play through the campaign just to see everything, get the bad story over with, and never look back unless they want to hit campaign-specific achievements. That way a new player can play at their own speed, see what places look like since adventure mode uses those same locations anyway, and not have to worry about trying to keep up with someone else.

# ? May 23, 2017 22:58

Max Wilco: Jan 23, 2012; I'm just trying to go through life without looking stupid.

It's not working out too well...

Khorne posted:

PoE life hack if you don't want to just screw around and make fun/crappy characters: Just look at the current ladder, or hardcore ladder, and steal a build from there. Don't accidentally steal a support build, though.
Tough out sorceress until 30 or so. Sorceress is absolutely brutal to play from 16-24, but once you get rolling it's the most broken class in d2. With respecs, you're probably best off just dumping points into something that murders early then resetting once you get to a level where you can get your actual spells. With synergies, you can honestly dump them into a synergy skill that boosts what you are shooting for and avoid the reset altogether.

I don't remember what they said exactly, but I recall listening to a podcast, and they were saying that as a Sorceress, once you get Frozen Orb, it trivializes a lot of fights.

I don't anything about synergies, and in terms of respecs, I don't know what I would respec the points into. I should point out that I have LoD installed, but I haven't converted the character I'm playing (I don't know what that changes).

Khorne posted:

And yeah, the d3 endgame is fun. And it dumps you in it right away if you want it to, because you can ask for a power level in lljk community and then do the season journey which most people enjoy. After that you're kinda dumped into the endgame which goes on forever. You're not missing anything from 1-70, you awkwardly fumble around with random skills gaining exp kinda slowly and learn pretty much nothing except "this is a rift, you kill stuff and a guardian spawns" and "you can level by getting a kill streak bonus, which you don't get in rifts/grifts so it's useless knowledge after you hit 70".

Getting from Level 1 to Level 70 is what sounds like the biggest hurdle. The power leveling thing sounds interesting, though. I get the impression that these game are a lot more fun playing with other people online than going through the single-player campaign.

# ? May 23, 2017 23:02

Star Man: Jun 1, 2008; There's a star maaaaaan
Over the rainbow

Max Wilco posted:

Getting from Level 1 to Level 70 is what sounds like the biggest hurdle. The power leveling thing sounds interesting, though. I get the impression that these game are a lot more fun playing with other people online than going through the single-player campaign.

Diablo 1 was the first game to use Battle.net, and prior to that, people would play multiplayer games of WarCraft: Orcs and Humans and WarCraft II over Kali. These games are always more fun with people. I can't really get back into Diablo II just because I have no one to play it with.

# ? May 23, 2017 23:05

bongwizzard: May 19, 2005; Then one day I meet a man,
He came to me and said,
"Hard work good and hard work fine,
but first take care of head"; Grimey Drawer

Man, being able to play along is most of the appeal for me. I sunk a ton of time into WoW when it first came out but quit once I had to party up with people.

In D2 news, I respeced with some more support skills and kicked the deamon lady's rear end. Act II seems huge and I am pumped as hell. Question, I have found that letting the minions fight and harking back to re-raise them as needed and cast Amplify Damage. I cast Teeth to get some dmg in, but it kills my mana. I have been pumping Vitality for more HP, when can I start dumping points into mana?

Also I assume that any extra damage from getting like a bow is less helpful than whatever bonuses a good wand will provide?

# ? May 24, 2017 02:18

Khorne: May 1, 2002

bongwizzard posted:

Man, being able to play along is most of the appeal for me. I sunk a ton of time into WoW when it first came out but quit once I had to party up with people.

In D2 news, I respeced with some more support skills and kicked the deamon lady's rear end. Act II seems huge and I am pumped as hell. Question, I have found that letting the minions fight and harking back to re-raise them as needed and cast Amplify Damage. I cast Teeth to get some dmg in, but it kills my mana. I have been pumping Vitality for more HP, when can I start dumping points into mana?

Also I assume that any extra damage from getting like a bow is less helpful than whatever bonuses a good wand will provide?

You have to chug mana potions and go buy more if you want to spam spells like teeth/bone spear. At least until you can make the Insight runeword.

Points in energy don't really help much and are a bad idea usually. You pretty much want enough str/dex to wear gear, vit. There's also the option to get max block which requires a bit more dex but I'd avoid thinking about that for now.

Equipping a mercenary, especially an a2 one, with a decent weapon might help you immensely. A2 mercs also give an aura to all your dudes, and there are some runewords for auras also.

And wand vs weapon depends early on. Sometimes it's better to just have a weapon on and beat stuff up, other times it's better to have the +skill bonuses from a wand. Wands can also give faster cast rate (not interesting to a summoner until insane endgame gear with teleport), mana and resists.

Khorne fucked around with this message at 02:46 on May 24, 2017

# ? May 24, 2017 02:43

gradenko_2000: Oct 5, 2010; HELL SERPENT; Lipstick Apathy

it's pretty much a universally bad idea to put points into Energy. Chug more mana pots.

# ? May 24, 2017 02:52

bongwizzard: May 19, 2005; Then one day I meet a man,
He came to me and said,
"Hard work good and hard work fine,
but first take care of head"; Grimey Drawer

Khorne posted:

You have to chug mana potions and go buy more if you want to spam spells like teeth/bone spear. At least until you can make the Insight runeword.

Points in energy don't really help much and are a bad idea usually. You pretty much want enough str/dex to wear gear, vit. There's also the option to get max block which requires a bit more dex but I'd avoid thinking about that for now.

Equipping a mercenary, especially an a2 one, with a decent weapon might help you immensely. A2 mercs also give an aura to all your dudes, and there are some runewords for auras also.

And wand vs weapon depends early on. Sometimes it's better to just have a weapon on and beat stuff up, other times it's better to have the +skill bonuses from a wand. Wands can also give faster cast rate (not interesting to a summoner until insane endgame gear with teleport), mana and resists.

Poop, well I did waste a handfull of points during respec on mana, but not too many.

I was not aware I could give my merc gear, how do I do that?

# ? May 24, 2017 03:48

Khorne: May 1, 2002

bongwizzard posted:

Poop, well I did waste a handfull of points during respec on mana, but not too many.

I was not aware I could give my merc gear, how do I do that?

It's O, P, or ; by default I think. Not sure which. You can check in options.

# ? May 24, 2017 03:54

Metal Meltdown: Mar 27, 2010

bongwizzard posted:

Poop, well I did waste a handfull of points during respec on mana, but not too many.

I was not aware I could give my merc gear, how do I do that?

Don't sweat giving yourself some energy. The old mantra of "never skill energy" comes from the days of no respecs. It also comes from the fact that the super end game gear gives you enough energy to completely manage your skills with judicious use of mana potions. However, you're very far from that point so some extra energy will make your early levels far more pleasant, which is what counts.

# ? May 24, 2017 04:54

Khorne: May 1, 2002

Metal Meltdown posted:

Don't sweat giving yourself some energy. The old mantra of "never skill energy" comes from the days of no respecs. It also comes from the fact that the super end game gear gives you enough energy to completely manage your skills with judicious use of mana potions. However, you're very far from that point so some extra energy will make your early levels far more pleasant, which is what counts.

The problem is energy doesn't make things more pleasant.

# ? May 24, 2017 05:35

Star Man: Jun 1, 2008; There's a star maaaaaan
Over the rainbow

There is only one build in the whole world that spends points in energy and I would never recommend Energy Shield to someone that just wants to chill.

# ? May 24, 2017 06:02

Seamonster: Apr 30, 2007; IMMER SIEGREICH

Points into energy you say?

Yet another reason Eastern Sun is so friggin great. Those points will increase % elemental damage :getin:

# ? May 24, 2017 15:02

Zogo: Jul 29, 2003

bongwizzard posted:

In D2 news, I respeced with some more support skills and kicked the deamon lady's rear end. Act II seems huge and I am pumped as hell. Question, I have found that letting the minions fight and harking back to re-raise them as needed and cast Amplify Damage. I cast Teeth to get some dmg in, but it kills my mana. I have been pumping Vitality for more HP, when can I start dumping points into mana?

Corpse Explosion is much superior to Teeth/Bone Spear/Bone Spirit in most situations. I rarely ever use teeth and only use spear/spirit against monsters with high resistances to physical damage and elemental stuff that are near no corpses. Also, you can give your mercenary health potions by dropping them onto the picture icon.

bongwizzard posted:

Also I assume that any extra damage from getting like a bow is less helpful than whatever bonuses a good wand will provide?

You'll eventually want a http://diablo.wikia.com/wiki/Heart_of_the_Oak_Rune_Word flail.

Khorne posted:

Equipping a mercenary, especially an a2 one, with a decent weapon might help you immensely. A2 mercs also give an aura to all your dudes, and there are some runewords for auras also.

I think act 2 offensive might mercenaries (nightmare level) are the best. Although I don't know if that's still the case.

Khorne posted:

It's O, P, or ; by default I think. Not sure which. You can check in options.

Zogo fucked around with this message at 22:12 on May 24, 2017

# ? May 24, 2017 22:09

Star Man: Jun 1, 2008; There's a star maaaaaan
Over the rainbow

The act II offensive mercenary has the Might aura. Until he reaches Nightmare difficulty, I would recommend using the act II combat mercenary for the Prayer aura in normal.

You can find out more here on Blizzard's website: http://classic.battle.net/diablo2exp/basics/hirelings.shtml

Just keep in mind that new mercenaries that you hire will delete everything from the old one and you generally want to hire new mercenaries in Normal difficulty. In Blizzard North's infinite wisdom, mercenaries hired in lower difficulties have slightly better stats, so always hire them in normal unless you need a specific aura that you can only get by hiring in Nightmare.

Zogo posted:

Also, you can give your mercenary health potions by dropping them onto the picture icon.

Shift + belt slot number.

# ? May 24, 2017 22:26

George: Nov 27, 2004; No love for your made-up things.

Star Man posted:

Shift + belt slot number.

Oh my God, why isn't this information in the OP?

# ? May 24, 2017 23:24

Star Man: Jun 1, 2008; There's a star maaaaaan
Over the rainbow

George posted:

Oh my God, why isn't this information in the OP?

Because gently caress you and everyone that looks like you

# ? May 24, 2017 23:29

Gaggins: Nov 20, 2007

bongwizzard posted:

Also I assume that any extra damage from getting like a bow is less helpful than whatever bonuses a good wand will provide?

Yeah - you don't need to be doing any physical attacking as a necro. Wands that add +skills to whatever main skills you're using will benefit you the most, especially at later levels once you've beefed up your skill synergies.

I also think that teeth/bone spear/bone spirit is a generally a waste unless you're committing to making a bone necro (which is fun but not a great build for single-player if you don't have good gear).

# ? May 24, 2017 23:36

George: Nov 27, 2004; No love for your made-up things.

Star Man posted:

Because gently caress you and everyone that looks like you

Not to ruin the fun, but I've always legit appreciated your contributions here and was doing the running gag. Also I can't believe I've been dragging potions all this time.

# ? May 24, 2017 23:50

bongwizzard: May 19, 2005; Then one day I meet a man,
He came to me and said,
"Hard work good and hard work fine,
but first take care of head"; Grimey Drawer

I am playing on whatever the default difficulty is and have no expectation of doing the game+ deal, my ratio to games started to games finished in like 100:1.

So the general gist of what I am hearing is to 1)Put no more points in Mana, 2)Don't worry about causing damage myself, 3)Keep buffing the skelebros and mud-friend.

I had no idea this game was so complicated, my buddy was super into it back in the day and he never mentioned all this planning.

# ? May 25, 2017 00:04

George: Nov 27, 2004; No love for your made-up things.

The fun of a game like D2 is, for me, watching a plan come together. Hitting that level where you can finally wear that ideal item or spec into your endgame skill is awesome.

# ? May 25, 2017 00:40

bongwizzard: May 19, 2005; Then one day I meet a man,
He came to me and said,
"Hard work good and hard work fine,
but first take care of head"; Grimey Drawer

How do you even plan for end game stuff for such a limited storage? I found some shield that was part of a set but sold it because there's no way I was going to dedicate six storage sluts to this thing for the entire game.

# ? May 25, 2017 15:00

Star Man: Jun 1, 2008; There's a star maaaaaan
Over the rainbow

bongwizzard posted:

How do you even plan for end game stuff for such a limited storage? I found some shield that was part of a set but sold it because there's no way I was going to dedicate six storage sluts to this thing for the entire game.

If you're playing on single player and running patch 1.13, you can use PlugY for your storage space concerns.

If you're on Battle.net, then welcome to hell.

# ? May 25, 2017 15:06

Cerepol: Dec 2, 2011

If you are playing on battle.net, make a new passworded game, sit in it for 5? (or was it 10 minutes) to make it slightly perm. Drop items, logonto mule, pick up items.

Welcome to the lovely hell that is muling!

# ? May 25, 2017 15:10

bongwizzard: May 19, 2005; Then one day I meet a man,
He came to me and said,
"Hard work good and hard work fine,
but first take care of head"; Grimey Drawer

Oh my God, that sounds like the most tedious thing in the universe.

I'm just gonna keep on clicking and killing until I get stuck and it stops being fun.

# ? May 25, 2017 15:13

Holyshoot: May 6, 2010

George posted:

Oh my God, why isn't this information in the OP?

you expect star man to have a good op? He melted down in the d3 thread. A game where people play for a few weeks then quit because the game play is about as deep as a kiddy pool.

# ? May 26, 2017 14:39

Star Man: Jun 1, 2008; There's a star maaaaaan
Over the rainbow

i m so owned.

so. so owned

# ? May 26, 2017 17:51

mewse: May 2, 2006

Star Man of 2014 laughs at Star Man of 2017

# ? May 26, 2017 18:01

Star Man: Jun 1, 2008; There's a star maaaaaan
Over the rainbow

mewse posted:

Star Man of 2014 laughs at Star Man of 2017

Star Man of 2017 wishes Star Man of 1987 was dead.

# ? May 26, 2017 18:03

Khorne: May 1, 2002

Holyshoot posted:

you expect star man to have a good op? He melted down in the d3 thread. A game where people play for a few weeks then quit because the game play is about as deep as a kiddy pool.

Most people who only play for a few weeks don't even get their feet wet.

# ? May 26, 2017 18:21

Theotus: Nov 8, 2014

bongwizzard posted:

Ok, my Necromancer is at level 17, has a full possy of skelebros, a spear with three red gems in it, and I still cannot kill the act 1 Demon Lady. Do I just suck?

One point skele mastery, one point amp damage, the rest of your points in skeletons. Maybe 30 strength and the rest in VIT. You should own her.

# ? May 26, 2017 18:27

Hooplah: Jul 15, 2006

Just because the game takes a long time to do things doesn't mean it has depth.

So a big Median XL update just hit today - anyone playing that? Thoughts so far? I've never bothered with that mod because ES is so good but I may give it a shot now

# ? May 26, 2017 18:29

George: Nov 27, 2004; No love for your made-up things.

Holyshoot posted:

you expect star man to have a good op? He melted down in the d3 thread. A game where people play for a few weeks then quit because the game play is about as deep as a kiddy pool.

We've been playing in the shallows our entire lives waiting for the chosen one to show us the ocean. Could you be the one?

# ? May 26, 2017 20:23

Star Man: Jun 1, 2008; There's a star maaaaaan
Over the rainbow

George posted:

We've been playing in the shallows our entire lives waiting for the chosen one to show us the ocean. Could you be the one?

The ocean is all of the missed opportunities to have fun at a party and get laid because you were too busy playing Diablo.

# ? May 26, 2017 20:42

George: Nov 27, 2004; No love for your made-up things.

Star Man posted:

The ocean is all of the missed opportunities to have fun at a party and get laid because you were too busy playing Diablo.

Oh, then it's definitely not this guy.

# ? May 26, 2017 21:04

soscannonballs: Dec 6, 2007

Hooplah posted:

Just because the game takes a long time to do things doesn't mean it has depth.

So a big Median XL update just hit today - anyone playing that? Thoughts so far? I've never bothered with that mod because ES is so good but I may give it a shot now

I am playing and it seems pretty cool.

# ? May 27, 2017 05:58

Navaash: Aug 15, 2001; FEED ME

I propose to tell the difference between Pillars and Path more easily that we acronym the latter as PoX :haw:

# ? May 29, 2017 04:17

Star Man: Jun 1, 2008; There's a star maaaaaan
Over the rainbow

Navaash posted:

I propose to tell the difference between Pillars and Path more easily that we acronym the latter as PoX

I wish everyone would get smallPoX

# ? May 29, 2017 08:29

ZenVulgarity: Oct 9, 2012; I made the hat by transforming my zen

God damnit how do I get medianxl to run on windows10

# ? May 29, 2017 15:57

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# ? May 10, 2024 06:50

Garfu: Mar 6, 2008; Much like buttholes, families are meant to be tight.

I got it to run by just downloading the launcher and installing it to a fresh D2 install directory.

I played it for about 5 minutes though until I realized the item customization was 1/100th of ES and ES4lyfe

# ? May 29, 2017 20:01

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