Going to be playing Diablo 2 for the very first time tonight. Tips?

Thuckey

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Never got around to playing this gem, heard many good things and overall enjoy these types of games. Had Diablo 3 for PS3 and played about halfway through.

What can I expect from Diablo 2? Is it better/worse than 3? What are some major or minor differences?

Has it aged well? I'm definitely more of a gameplay guy than a graphics guy. Actually I prefer older looking games rather than the obsession with "realistic" graphics I feel that games should LOOK and FEEL like a video game not a full on simulation.

Please share any tips for a starter with 0 knowledge on the game. Things that I maybe could use beforehand... and should I just jump right into hard mode or how are the difficulties in general?


Thanks.
 
play PoE instead? It's free and better...

Otherwise, I really hope you're playing D2 LoD edition (Lord of Destruction expansion) because the runes / rune-words definitely add a whole lot to the game. Don't go 'blind' because it's not doing anything but making it less fun, freely look up the rune-words whenever.

For Normal the word 'Stealth' is amazing for everyone, if you're doing a melee build 'Malice' is pretty awesome because it prevents monster regen.

If you play Sorc, get Frost Armor, not energy shield. For all characters (magic ones included), put very little into the Energy stat - you'll get enough from equipment, mana leech, potions, etc. Vitality is going to be your highest stat on every character, every build, every time. Strength is important for the gear you can wear, Dex is moderately important for hitting shit - all of them tend to have a dimiinishing value, while Vitality really doesn't.

All potions stack, so use a lot of them. This includes stamina potions - their time stacks, so if you drink like 10, you're not wasting them, the time you get infinite stamina just stacks (so buy and consume a lot because walking sucks).

If you play melee, early on it's super shit, so pick up some strangling gas potions and throw them into crowds to make it easier. Leave one potion in the stack, sell it, then re-buy it at no loss, so the entire stack refreshes quantity.
 
Never got around to playing this gem, heard many good things and overall enjoy these types of games. Had Diablo 3 for PS3 and played about halfway through.

What can I expect from Diablo 2? Is it better/worse than 3? What are some major or minor differences?

Has it aged well? I'm definitely more of a gameplay guy than a graphics guy. Actually I prefer older looking games rather than the obsession with "realistic" graphics I feel that games should LOOK and FEEL like a video game not a full on simulation.

Please share any tips for a starter with 0 knowledge on the game. Things that I maybe could use beforehand... and should I just jump right into hard mode or how are the difficulties in general?


Thanks.

hope you like clicking.. LOL. Farm a ton for the items you want. First 2 difficulties are a breeze (minus some boss fights). Hell mode really ramps up the difficulty if you are not prepared for it.
 
play PoE instead? It's free and better...

god, no.

d2 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> poe >> setting yourself on fire >>>> slowly dying of aids >>>> d3

plus, poe's best days are long gone. it's bullshit pathofnetflix candy crush pretending to be an arpg. the power creep has trivialized the game so much that it's just pointless to even play.

as for d2, it's way better than d3. it has actual mechanics and stat points/etc matter. it's definitely worth playing. as for tips:

1. play online. even if you're solo. the stash is tiny. if you stick with it, you'll need to make mule characters to stash runes/gear in. after a game's been up for more than 5 minutes, you should be able to safely switch chars, rejoin the game, and swap out gear (drop on ground) (if you play offline, you can't trade gear between characters. unless something's changed...)

2. if using melee, get/craft an item with crushing blow to use for bosses. (the "black" runeword is very easy to make [thul + io + nef ] )

3. disregard everything torrid said. ffs, he's talking about stamina potions. don't even pick them up. and he's kinda wrong, rejuvination potions are instant and won't stack. and energy shield is fantastic and increases sorc's survivability by a ton. especially late-game. he doesn't know what he's talking about.

4. duriel will kill the crap out of you at first.

(and if you playing online and they still have ladder up, pick an act 2 merc and make an "insight" (ral tir tal sol in a 4 socket polearm) for it.
 
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@rob mafia you're clearly an idiot. I'm not saying that with malice or anything, it's just stating a fact - it is raining outside in Dallas and you're an idiot.

If you don't use stamina potions in D2, then what are you doing? Walking everywhere? You don't even need to waste space on them, you just buy 10 in town, drink them all, and you have infinite stamina for 5 minutes.

Also, if you're dying to Duriel, here's a trick - use a thawing potion... and... they stack! omg.

Also, there's a reason that people play PoE to Diablo2 in a 100:1 ratio. I'll give you a hint: because it's better.
 
...did you ever even make it to nightmare?
walking? you mean... running? stamina's based on vitality. vitality's kind of an important stat. who the hell's running out of stamina? what kind of craptastic builds were you using?


wow, more people play poe than d2 in 2018? no way! i never would have guessed that a current game has more active players than a game that's 18 years old!

more people play candy crush than poe, too. your logic/argument infers that candy crush is a superior game. i guess we should all just play candy crush.

edit: i didn't even notice this nugget..

Also, if you're dying to Duriel, here's a trick - use a thawing potion... and... they stack! omg.

*facepalm*

duriel uses holy freeze. it ignores resistances, immunities, and "cannot be frozen" on gear. as such... it... ignores thawing potions.

you know, like the holy freeze merc (a2 nightmare) and how it still chilled cold immune mobs? ...which is why people used it.
 
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@rob mafia you're clearly an idiot. I'm not saying that with malice or anything, it's just stating a fact - it is raining outside in Dallas and you're an idiot.

If you don't use stamina potions in D2, then what are you doing? Walking everywhere? You don't even need to waste space on them, you just buy 10 in town, drink them all, and you have infinite stamina for 5 minutes.

Also, if you're dying to Duriel, here's a trick - use a thawing potion... and... they stack! omg.

Also, there's a reason that people play PoE to Diablo2 in a 100:1 ratio. I'll give you a hint: because it's better.

You are wrong on every thing you just said.
 
You are wrong on every thing you just said.

Okay.

It's just a game, I don't care. If you like one more than the other, then that's fine.

More people do play PoE, potions do stack and you don't start with teleport though - all these things are true.

Also, +1 vote for Necromancer.
 
...did you ever even make it to nightmare?
walking? you mean... running? stamina's based on vitality. vitality's kind of an important stat. who the hell's running out of stamina? what kind of craptastic builds were you using?


wow, more people play poe than d2 in 2018? no way! i never would have guessed that a current game has more active players than a game that's 18 years old!

more people play candy crush than poe, too. your logic/argument infers that candy crush is a superior game. i guess we should all just play candy crush.

edit: i didn't even notice this nugget..



*facepalm*

duriel uses holy freeze. it ignores resistances, immunities, and "cannot be frozen" on gear. as such... it... ignores thawing potions.

you know, like the holy freeze merc (a2 nightmare) and how it still chilled cold immune mobs? ...which is why people used it.

It's not to stop the freeze, it adds Cold Res. In normal, your res is going to suck and if you stack a bunch of thawing it puts you past the cap - it's extremely helpful. Trust me, just because the Wiki says 'thawing potions are of no use' doesn't mean it's actually true; that only pertains to the actual freezing effect.

And yeah, you're right, in Nightmare you're going to be teleporting and running, but this guy is playing for the first time. In Normal, if you're not stacking stamina pots, you're just saving pennies for a load of frustration of constantly running out of stamina.

Also, these aren't just my opinions - you can go watch any speedrunner of D2 out there. There's a reason they glug half a gallon of thawing before they fight Duriel and it's not because they're bad at the game.

Also, I don't want to argue about PoE > D2 - it's just dumb and a matter of preference. You can't measure some subjective thing. But comparing them is fair because they're both isometric ARPGs; you conflating them with a popularitiy of a phone game doesn't really make sense.
 
i dont understand why people want to defend one game over another. D2 was the original (D1 I guess but it was far less popular). POE is a huge nod to D2 and is better in almost every way. D2 stands the test of time however.
 
it's not about defending, but because 'x is better' derp statements. poe is garbage. poe is a shit game right now... even compared to poe 2015. for fuck's sake, pokemon league? 10 tiers of nets to catch animals with... to get more power creep? like... why? the game made a lot of bad choices from forsaken masters and onward, but this shit is so absurdly OP/casual/ridiculous that it's just laughable.

poe would have been better off just leaving it alone. but i guess this is the problem with the f2p/mtx business model.
 
It's not to stop the freeze, it adds Cold Res. In normal, your res is going to suck and if you stack a bunch of thawing it puts you past the cap - it's extremely helpful. Trust me, just because the Wiki says 'thawing potions are of no use' doesn't mean it's actually true; that only pertains to the actual freezing effect.

And yeah, you're right, in Nightmare you're going to be teleporting and running, but this guy is playing for the first time. In Normal, if you're not stacking stamina pots, you're just saving pennies for a load of frustration of constantly running out of stamina.

Also, these aren't just my opinions - you can go watch any speedrunner of D2 out there. There's a reason they glug half a gallon of thawing before they fight Duriel and it's not because they're bad at the game.

Also, I don't want to argue about PoE > D2 - it's just dumb and a matter of preference. You can't measure some subjective thing. But comparing them is fair because they're both isometric ARPGs; you conflating them with a popularitiy of a phone game doesn't really make sense.

...but it makes sense to compare the active players of a current game vs one 18 years ago, and to use that as the determining factor of what's better? insanity.

YOU'RE the one that argued that more players means it's better. candy crush, best game ever via torrid logic.
 
Clearly PoE raped your father and killed your mother, so I'll let you deal with this privately.
 
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