Why would you go Phase blades? Death is indestructible, and would be perfect for an ethereal bezerker axe.
Speed issues. You’ll note (as was discussed at length in a thread not on this board) that there is no IAS in that runeword. Phase blades give inherent IAS, though I guess if you wanted you could probably just go with 3S helmet IAS jewels or something.
BTW, for anyone interested in ladder season 2, I have started an account (a necro) on sdseason2 with the standard pass. USWest, natch.
Is it still Season 2 or do you mean they just started Season 3? 
I just bought the D2Exp (bargain bin!) and I was wondering if any dopers still played on BNet. Anybody interested in doing some partying?
I’m still on occasionally, but it’s been ages since I’ve seen anyone else. My current is a hammerdin, which works very well with the new runewords. I had him running with dual Spirit, until I got vexed by some random snake (so now he has HotO, of course). His mercenary is act 2 Prayer, with an Insight polearm (the Prayer synergy for meditation works on mercs, incidentally), which is enough that he almost never needs either kind of potion.
Also, I’ve made some interesting discoveries about the map patterns. Everyone knows that you should follow the left wall in Durance of Hate level 2, and most folks know you should follow the right wall in Worldstone Keep 2, but I’ve figured out why that works. Look at the map pieces containing a stairwell or the waypoint: Each of those pieces is oriented to either the NW, NE, SW, or SE. The orientation of the starting piece determines the orientation of the ending piece. So if, for instance, the Durance 2 waypoint is on a piece that juts out on the southeast, then the stairs down will be on a piece that juts out on the southwest. This pattern also works in the Tower Cellar 1-4, and I suspect other places (haven’t checked the Maggot Lair yet). I think there might also be a pattern for the Worldstone Keep 3, but I haven’t worked it out completely yet.
micahjn, what’s your username, so I can add you to my list? I go by *TemporeMores .
My BNet username is the same as my doper name: micahjn. I made a fire/summoner druid that I got to lvl 69 over the weekend, but I’m not that happy with my build. I wasted a few skill points here and there and he just doesn’t seem to do the damage that I’d like. I’ve been thinking about a hammerdin since the ones I’ve seen during Baal runs just dominate.
That’s interesting about the map patterns. I didn’t know that. That must be why some people can open the Baal TP in what seems like seconds while it takes me 10 minutes to find the stairs. 
My brother and I have been playing ladder on USEast for a while now. We don’t have scheduled times for it, though, so while you’re welcome to join us it’ll be pretty much a catch-as-catch-can. My BNet username is Morgyn, so if you’re on USEast and want to join in, let me know.
My brother’s got a paladin, I have a sorceress; we’ve just completed Nightmare but haven’t gotten too far in Hell. In fact, we’ve died so much in Hell we’ve gone back to Nightmare to pick up some cash and prizes (read: rejuv potions). I’m not sure how he’s allocating his points; I’ve been spreading out over all three skill trees because I’ve found myself faced by badies who are immune to one thing or the other too often, with the end result that while I can hit most things, I don’t do anywhere near the damage that a specialist can.
Meantime, I’ve got a problem that the game seems to freeze in place on me. Sometimes it doesn’t happen at all, sometimes it happens every minute or so (and it’s gotten me killed a time or two, which is very annoying). I’m trying to figure out if this is a problem with my connection, my computer, or the BNet servers, so I’m hoping someone here has an idea. Maybe it’s background processes?
Essentially, my character can move around on the screen. The badies may or may not move around (this is variable). None of the spells I cast do any damage and the monsters don’t seem to be damaging me, then all of a sudden there’s an adjustment in position and health for all involved in the fight. I’ve found my location “reset” a few times, too, in that I’ll move someplace and then the screen and my character sort of “jumps” back to either where I started from or a point early in my movement.
Morgyn, what you describe is a textbook case of lag. It’s generally caused by problems in your network connection (especially if it’s too slow). There’s no real cure, short of getting broadband, but you can at least tell when it’s getting bad. Hit enter to bring up the chat screen, then type “/fps” (no quotes). This will bring up some performance information at the top of your screen. The piece you’re interested in is “ping”. For good gameplay, this should be at around 100 or lower (lower is better). If it starts climbing, head back to town and wait for it to subside.
For your sorceress, going triple-tree is suicide. Double-tree (typically fire and cold) is doable, but you still won’t have nearly the damage of a specialist. Only very seldom will you encounter something immune to both of your elements, and on those rare occasions, you can just let party members or your mercenary take care of it. Or worst case scenario, you just avoid that monster.
What kind of paladin is your brother playing? If he uses Conviction aura, then you shouldn’t have to worry about immunities. Conviction lowers a monster’s resistances, and will usually render them not immune. Even for non-immune monsters, it’ll greatly increase the damage you do (and the damage he does, if he’s using Vengeance).
And if you don’t mind starting over, we’ve got tons of equipment just lying around collecting dust on USWest, and I’d be glad to help you with quests or levelling. But if you’re having lag problems on East, moving to a more distant server might not be the best idea.
I had a feeling it was lag. Believe it or not, I am on broadband—Verizon DSL to be specific. Having lag on DSL bothers me no end. Still, Verizon has apparently raised the service speed recently, so I’m trying to get upgraded. Maybe that will help. My brother has cable, and he’s had similar problems although nowhere near as frequently as I do.
I know doing triple tree is difficult. The problem is that since my brother and I don’t have scheduled sessions, there are many times when I’m playing alone. And the bloody game has taken to throwing two or three different groups of icks at me at once, each with a separate immunity. Not a lot of choice in avoiding them. And my merc has a bad habit of hanging back and not doing much unless I run right into the monsters and right out again. At least with a sorceress I can teleport in place and get her back with me; my brother’s merc tends to get stuck somewhere and not be around for long stretches of time. The merc AI sucks!
Thanks for the tip on Conviction—I didn’t know it could render an immune monster not immune. Useful info, that. Does it work with physical immunes, too? I think he usually uses Fanaticism (?); he likes the extra hitting speed he gets from it. Too bad he can’t have two auras going at once!
Vengeance lowers monsters’ fire, cold, and lightning. The only thing you can do about physical immunities is Amplify Damage and Decrepify, Necromancer curses both of them. But there are items you can get which give you a chance of casting them on striking. Fanaticism isn’t a bad choice for an aura, but it’s not the most party-friendly, since it does absolutely nothing for spellcasters, whereas Conviction is at least somewhat useful to almost everyone (it also lowers monster defense, which makes it far, far easier to hit them).
Hey, is anyone still playing? Its been awhile since I played Diablo, and I’m in the mood to play again 
Unfortunatly it has been so long that all my characters have been deleted, do we still have active mules on the sd-teams? Or does someone want to join me in starting a new character?
I just started playing too. USEast, ladder, acct name same as username here.
I need perfect amethysts. Does anyone have any? I don’t have much in trade, but I do have a Tiamat’s Rebuke.
If you just started playing, you should think about joining the USWest Ladder server. There are still a bunch of SDMB members/former members playing there.
Hi! I have never played Diablo 2 (and am still trying to get the demo to work properly), but am thinking of buying it. I want a game I can play cooperatively with one of my friends, but not really have to deal with many other people. Moreover, I need a game that can be played on my rather wimpy computer. From what I’ve heard, Diablo 2 fits the bill.
So, if anyone could care to help me a bit, I’d really appreciate it. How amendable is Diablo 2 to two-player-only cooperative play?
Thanks!
Personally I think that Diablo 2 was designed with the idea of multiplayer from the start. It is a great game to play with a friend. You can play Diablo 2 by yourself, or with up to 7 other friends (max of 8 players per a game) Diablo is best with at least 2 people, picking complementary classes. So it would work with you and your friend, plus since the game has been out for awhile, you should be able to get it pretty cheap.
There are 3 ways to play the game, single player, by yourself on your own computer, Open multiplayer, where you and a friend can play together with your single player characters, and playing on Battle.net. On Battle.net you play on closed realms, the character you create here can only be played here, but you can play in public games, or private. You can play on the realms by yourself if you wanted to, or with just your friends, or you can let anybody play in the game.
There are a couple realms, each totally sepreate from each other, if you do deciede to play on the realms, play on US West, there is nice active comunity of SDMB members (and former members) playing there. We can help get you started, and show you the ropes on how to play.
I’m kinda in the mood to play again too. See you guys on US West later this afternoon!
Yes, you read it correctly. From Blizzard’s website
(some interesting pics there too: 1, 2, 3, 4)
I’m sure that new players will have plenty of people to play with soon enough. In August, according to what people are saying in message boards. Along with a possible ladder reset. And new runewords.
Now I’m just waiting for friends of mine to get online so I can tell them. Especially the one that missed the last ladder reset. On the 2nd or 3rd day of his vacation. A vacation that lasted 2 weeks. :smack:
A new reason to re-re-…-restart playing. Me== 
First of all, I’m sorry about having to make a double post (does it still count as one if it’s an update?).
Second, I’m also sorry to report that I have only been able to contact 1 of my friends, who has refused to start again.
Third, there is no reset (for now at least).
Finally, the rumors were correct, 1.11 is comming out in August. The date? Couple hours ago by the time I post this. Downloading it right now, but the computer is being stupid and refuses to stop wasting bandwidth (Well, it’s actually me, but in my defence it’s going over a 56k connection).
Hopefully, someone will see this and respond or something. The post before my first was posted a day before I posted mine. :dubious:
I’m still monitoring this thread, a lot of the previous posters let their membership expire last renewal period, but they are still playing Diablo 2. We are playing on US West, Game name “sdmb” pass is “cecil” or you can msg me, account *hirka
We would love to have you join us.
I haven’t had a chance to log onto D2 yet today, had a major internet problem that just got fixed, I’m going to log on now, hope the patch is something good.