I need help with Diablo

Cafe Society
1

Finally getting around to playing the Playstation version with my wife, and the documentation sucks.

The games is loosely based on AD&D rules, I think. Specific to Diablo, I need to understand how certain things work, such as:

Armor Class
Hit Points
To hit
Damage
etc.
I get the basics, but am sometimes cluesless when I pick up an item and it says something like “+77% to damage”. Does this increase or decrease the damage I incur (or is it the damage I inflict?)
Can anyone point me to a good online resource for this info? I have been unable to find any…

Thanks,

      Joe
2

+77% would certainly increase damage. Consider your current damage (100%), add 77%, and you have 177% of normal damage. A plus will always mean more damage; a minus, less. You can see exactly how much damage different weapons do (minus special effects, like fire) by bringing up your Character and Inventory screens at the same time, and switching weapons around.

Armor class is not like D&D; more is better. Really, it is “armor points”. The more points, the better. Again, you can switch around armor while watching your Character screen and see what item combinations give the most.

Hit points are held in the red globe. Successful hits decrease your hit points (your globe drains). When your globe is empty, you die.

To-hit is like THAC0. It is simply a number that increases your ability to hit creatures. Like Armor Class, more is better.

All of this is for the PC version; I’m assuming that the PSX one is comparable. I never read any of the docs for Diablo; I just experimented. Really, you don’t need to put in too much thought. Just check your character screen for the stats, and experiment with different weapon combos.

Assuming you can leave items in town, as on PC, I generally keep a lot of different equipment around, particularly with bonuses to magic. This will allow you to read books after you get back to town, and switch around for weapons and armor that are poor for battle but good for magic. (Once you read a spellbook, you’ve memorized the spell and lowering your magic by taking off the equipment will not make you lose the spell.)

Any other questions, Joe? There are tons of sites out there. I highly recommend having a master list of the Shrines available, because some of the Shrines are quite good; others, very, very bad.

3

www.diabloii.net

(+77% to damage you inflict).

4

I’m going from the PC version as well. And I’m going from memory, as I’m deeply embroiled in Diablo II: Lord of Destruction right now.

Basically, you want all your Armor Class, Hit Points, To Hit etc. to be as high as possible. When something says +77% damage, dat’s good! So for example, if you find a King’s Sword of Carnage, you’ll increase your chance to hit by 76%-100%, your damage by 151%-175% (King prefix) and your damage again by 13-16 (carnage suffix).

The best PC resource is at:

I’m sure you’ll find some differences with the Playstation version, but alot of the information is probably relevant.

I understand there’s also a strategy book out for the playstation version for about $12.99 US. Might be worth investing in it.

5

I’ve actually played the playstation version, and it’s mostly identical to the PC game. The biggest difference is the controls, for obvious reasons.

More is always better in this game.

A pointer:
Never be afraid to run. The surest way to die in this game is to be overwhelmed. If a huge horde of ugly things is coming at you, retreat to a doorway and fight them one at a time.

6

Thanks for all the advice - ill check out some of the sites above.

I’ve actually played through the PC version before, just don’t know how to tell my wife how it all works. I’ve taken the approach to checking the character info screen after equiping a weapon, but some things specifically leave me confused.

For example, in AD&D rules, I believe armor class does not affect the damage that you take when hit, but decreases the chance of getting successfuly hit. I’ve heard ppl describe it differently in Diablo, hinting at it actually affects the damage your character can sustain when hit.

I’ve also been confused when a weapon indicates somthing like “Damage 1-6” and then “+77% damage”.

For one thing, what determines the actual damage that the weapon inflicts on the scale of 1-6? Is it the condition of the weapon, or some sort of caclucated value like THACO which is calculated for each swing?

Is the damage inflicted 1-6 and then an additional 77%, or is the total damage, % increase included, 1-6?

BTW, the Playstation version is a little different from the PC - we’re in level 15, and have only encountered one quest so far. Not sure if its just the randomness of the game, or if there’s fewer quests in the PSX version…

Thanks again for all the replies

7

THE guide to diablo is Jarulf’s Guide .

Bar none.

167 pages of more than you EVER wanted to know about the game, the items, and the game mechanics.

There are copies of it all over. A good download page is:

http://lurkerlounge.com/jarulf/

8

If it says 1-6 damage, that means that the damage done is a random number between 1 and 6. I think, though I could be mistaken, that it’s just a uniform distribution. In Diablo II, the damage listed on a weapon is after all modifiers have been applied, but that doesn’t seem consistent with a weapon being 1-6 with +77% enhanced. Is that an actual example? In any event, the way to find out would be to look at two weapons of the same type, but with different modifiers.

9

Amen. I have it printed and in a binder.
+77% would be 77% more than whatever that hit scored. For example, if a sword does 1-6, than the actual damage would be 77% more than the random number from 1-6 chosen. If the hit was '4". than +77% would be about 7.

I think.

10

Ooops. That was me, sorry.

11

Or put a wall of bars between you and the baddies and shoot things at 'em.

12

This is not how it works in the PC version of Diablo 2. Whatever numerical value is listed for a weapon is the total damage that weapon does after all the weapon modifiers. The 1-6 damage +77% damage is a possible example. Think of it this way: A short sword does (IIRC) 1-8 damage.

If you had a Gold Short Sword your sword would do 1-8 damage and add to your attack rating (AR).

If you had… um… a Vicious Short Sword, the damage listing would no longer be 1-8, it would say something else (depending on the degree of the modifier). It would also list the damage mod below, in the mod list (for example +77% to damage), but this would already be taken into account in the weapon’s stats.

Elemental mods work differently. If you had a Short Sword of Frost, the damage listing would still be 1-8, but in the mod list it would say (for instance) ‘Adds 1-2 cold damage,’ which would not be taken into account above.

Regardless, all of this information is taken into account in the damage output on your character screen. In PC D2 the damage reading will also change color for different types of damage. The damage reading on your character screen is final damage after all modifiers are taken into account, including skills and such.

This may not be the way it works for the PS2, but I’d be surprised if they changed something like this.

13

He’s talking about Diablo 1 though…

I’ve never worried about what it does, just gone by more is better. And given that I beat LOD this morning I must be doing something right :).

14

Isn’t the PS2 Diablo more a port of PC D2 than D1? If not, I take back everything I said. I don’t recall at all how D1 was organized.

15

It’d be interesting to note if the two games (DI and DII) work differently. I’m trying to get through Jarulf’s guide… very good stuff!

My impression so far is that all basic items in the same class, such as a non-magical Long Bows, do the same amount of damage, say 1-10.

If it is a magical Long Bow, the additional % damage is added to those base figures (although the base figures are still listed as the same as its still in the Long Bow class).

So, I think it works as Ginger mentioned, the damage done is 1-10 + an additioanal %. Your character stats indicate your actual damage rating taking this into affect (as far as I can tell), but the item will still list the base damage.

16

I don’t think any version of Diablo was ever ported to the PS2. The port to the PSX was D1.

17

Looks like I’m wrong again. Screw this. I’m going home.