I just started playing this game like a day or two ago. This thread reads like a Greek handbook for defusing hand grenades to me.
This is all I got to offer … a page from my LJ on the subject.
Is it hopeless? Should I give up now and invest in Diamond Mine?
Hang in there Jack.
The chat does seem kind of overwhelming at first, but after playing the game for a little while you’ll catch on. Trust me.
Jack, looking at your LJ I can see one major error you’ve made. You’re not getting any benefit from those three points in Axe Mastery because a bardiche isn’t an axe - it’s a polearm.
You also want to consider saving skill points for higher level skills; you aren’t obligated to spend them, and you don’t have to to complete the early levels. While you can’t raise a skill to a level beyond (your level - level requirement +1), you can buy multiple skills at each level and it’s easier to save up skill points that otherwise would go into weaker skills than to alternate between raising each skill in turn.
Another vote for Jack to hang in there. I went through several accounts worth of characters before I settled on builds I really liked. Don’t worry so much about playing the perfect character with godly gear immediately. Enjoy the game, play what you like, and soon you will start growing more curious about the game and more perceptive to its nuances.
I’ve been playing seriously for a few years now. Out of four ladder characters I made and played, all over 30th level, I am only keeping one of them. We all make mistakes, and experimenting with how gear and builds work is half the fun.
Check www.diabloii.net for a lot of good info. Their FAQs are a little out of date with the latest patch, but you can check their forums for the updates. That should help you out a lot with the basics.
A few points, Jack. First, you don’t want to pick up just everything you find. Some items are worth more than others, and some items aren’t really worth bothering to pick up. As a general rule, body amor is worth a good bit, scepters, wands, and staves are worth a lot if they have plusses to skills on them, but not otherwise, colored items (magic, rare, unique, or set; blue, yellow, gold, or green respectively) are worth more than normal items (white or gray), and items with weird names are often exceptional and thus worth more (but you won’t be seeing any of those for a while yet, at least not until Act IV). Cracked, damaged, etc. items usually aren’t worth the bother, unless they fall into one of the above categories. But your general strategy is sound: Gather loot out in the wilderness until your inventory is full, then portal back, sell or stash the loot, stash the gold, and re-supply.
You can buy a Tome of Identify, which holds up to 20 identify scrolls and only takes 2 spaces in your inventory, and a Tome of Town Portal, which likewise holds up to 20 Town Portal scrolls. If you don’t mind buying a new Town Portal scroll every trip to town, you can save a little space by not having a tome, but that’s a hassle. If you keep two or more of either scroll type in your inventory, then buy tomes and save some space.
Don’t bother stockpiling keys. You can carry twelve in a stack, which’ll last you for a few trips out into the wilderness, you’ll find more all over the place, and they’re cheap to buy if you start running low.
High damage on a weapon is nice, but attack speed is nice, too. You might be able to find a weapon that’s better, even if it has lower damage, if it swings faster than a polearm. Of course, later on, you’ll find weapons that both do more damage and swing faster than your current one. Also, the polearm is two-handed: With a one-handed weapon, you could add a shield or (since you’re a barbarian) another weapon. On the other hand, polearms have longer reach than most melee weapons (this will be very useful if you decide to go with Whirlwind), so it’s a tradeoff.
Okay, I’m trying to build my first summoning necro. I’m maxing skeleton mastery and then I’ll add to my raise skeleton and revive skills. I’m not going to do any more skelly magis though, I plan on going for the lower resist curse to help against various immunes that I’ll hit in hell. I’m not even looking for a more powerful gollem.
I’m hoping to have enough points left over to have some sort of offensive skill (right now I couldn’t hurt a handicapped fly), any suggestions or recommendations. If you feel I’m erring in my goals, please feel free to share it. As I said, this is my first summoner.
As for attribute points, I’ve mostly gone with vitality, some strength to wear armor, and a bit of mana. He’s only level 32 so far, so I can adjust his attributes as I add more.
On the gripping hand, wielding two swords with Whirlwind gets you 50% more attacks, and if you are using flamberges or great swords your reach is almost as good as a pike (4 vs 5).
Actually, if the weapon speed is the same, it will give you twice as many attacks. If the sword weapon speed is greater than the polearm, you get better than twice the attacks.
wOOt! Who_me? and I figured out the right area to level in and in no time at all I’m at level 30!
Now as a novasorc, where should I be putting my skill points. I’ve got Warmth at 7, which from what I’ve read, should be enough, I’ve got a few points here and there to get to nova (and 2 points in frost nova), and Nova is up to like 15 (with modifiers). I’ve got about 6 skill points to play with. Where should I put 'em? All into Nova until it’s maxed?
I’d also like to have a back-up attack for lightning immunes and I’m partial to the cold tree. Is this a bad idea?
Any suggestions?
A) Who_Me, I got two more early X-mas presents for your necro, one of which is really, REALLY nice. 
B) ??? 
Um…Ok, so I’m doing some public Baal runs and some guy says “Sorc: use static on Baal”. I respond that my static is only at a 2 but my nova is at like…17. He says “So? Static’s a much faster kill.”
Uh-HUH. Um.
Is he full of crap? Or what?
Static takes off 1/4 of a creature’s life, regardless of HPs. More points only increases the radius of attack.
Nova does X number of damage. At 17, it’s still nowhere near 1/4 of Baal’s HPs.
In Normal, multiple Statics will decrease him down to 25% of his total HP, then quit. NM is 33%, Hell is 1/2.
So, can Motie barbarians triple-wield? Not counting that built-in dagger under the armpit, of course :D.
And just to clarify a bit more for Fenris: Static field can never kill anything, but it does a great job at beating monsters down. It works essentially the same way as crushing blow, except that it’s much more efficient and reliable, but it stops working after a certain percentage of life.
Thanks! Then the guy wasn’t talking out his ass. (Which would make a grand total of TWO people (me being the other, as avatar of goodness and light) in that game who weren’t*
Fenris
*coming soon to a pit-thread near you
By the way, YeticusRex, next time I see you online I have a very nice pair of gloves for you. It’s funny that I should end up with the perfect gloves for an Amazon, using the Caster craft …
Yeah, and the Tinker ones can quad-wield. Problem with them is, they can only wield daggers, but they have the advantage of numbers. They can be thrown like ninja stars.
The guys at work think I’m playing too much Diablo. I only suggested that we take the phone to Larzuk so he could socket it, then we could put some perfect skulls and suck the life out of our customers.
Say, I found an Aldur’s Rhythm, and now I’m inspired to make a druid to use it. Any suggested builds? Are werebears or werewolves better?
Story a minute summary, since it’s past 4 AM here.
Sorry, the idea of me making a SHORT D2 post is amusing. Okay, you can all stop guffawing now.
vol and i did some runs. we found some good stuff. some of you will be pleased. one of them is a new elite unique. another was a shako. since vol already had one, he gave it to me.
vol wants to do baal runs with worldstone. i think that will be very boring and take forever, as opposed to the meph runs which are very boring (except for items) but take little time. i proposed cow king farming. we did not vote.
the end
Christmas is coming early! Squeeeeeeeeel !!!
I’ve been having problems getting on the internet at certain times because of the work their doing to the main cables from Metro L.A. area up here to the High Desert due to the fires back in October & November…I’ll try to get on later tonight after I get back from my son’s hockey practice and tree decoratin’…
As long as I’m looking, I may as well post (as long as the post goes through).
My javazon is working in hell exclusively. She still needs some better equipment, but I’ve also gotten comments of “WOW!!” when they see the lightning shooting across the screen. She can’t really do much tanking, but is forced to do it by the fact that most people seem to prefer to hang back out of danger.
I’ve decided the easiest way to get the equipment I need is to trade gems and runes for them. I’ve seen some equipment going for low to mid runes that I really could use. Perfect rubies are also in demand. If anyone on East has something they really want, post it. I am a member of the forums at diabloii and if I see something listed that I’ve seen here, I’ll pick it up if I can.
BTW, punha, I’ll keep the Fal for you until you want it.