diablo 2?

[Dromar]

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Yeah that must be it. I remember a number of those shrines, so it must be from the original Diablo.

I've stayed up way late playing D2 the last couple of days. Seems to be just the game for me ATM. I do wish there was more storage space; in EQ we eventually got I think 10 bags as a stash and could carry around tons more on our back.

I just now realized on level 10 that you could get your health and mana restored by going to Akara in the rogues camp. :P I had been drinking health potions all the time.

The expansion sure makes getting loot easier. There's a limit of 60,000 gold you can store up, and I'm already at like 23,000. Seen some awesome wands at Akara for my necro, ones with like +3 to clay golem and +2 or 3 to corpse explosion, plus a bunch of other effects too.

Any necros have any opinions on how much strength I should go for? Want to wear some good armor, and am up at 36 now.

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I wouldn't go much higher than that. Stat points are needed for Dex(until you've got max block) and Life. As a Necro who'll never use strength other than for armor, you'll have to resign yourself to having terrible armor. Fortunately, it pretty much works out the same in hell mode anyway. Armor is practically worthless by then unless you're a Paladin or a Barb.

I would suggest 1 point into Bone Armor and as many points as you can spare into Bone Wall or Bone Prison though.

[Blarg]

Wow, that's the thing about necros, everybody has such vastly different recommendations. For instance, very few of the builds stress dex or blocking.

Btw, I'm now at level 17 and even though I had to spend 3k and 4k reviving my merc twice, I still have 83k in cash. Cash is so easy now. Did die once so far. I got a shield that let me get a total of 3 skellies out there, and I got confused what the heck was going on with all the mobs running around right next to me.

Just moved to Act 2.

How much strength is sufficient for the best necro armor I'm likely to wear just as a single-player character?

[gumpzilla]

Are summoning necros even viable? Where does the damage come from once you get into Nightmare?

I played this game in a time period when I didn't have a reliable broadband connection, so it was all single player for me. I had a hardcore bone necro that got up to level 62 and most of the way through Nightmare Act V (past Nihlathak, who I was pretty terrified of because of the corpse explosions) and then died in a stupid, stupid accident. It was a fun character, though, and he was doing pretty respectable damage. I spent a lot of time (unsuccessfully) trying to scum for the runes for a White wand, as I had a socketed wand that I found that gave +3 to Bone Spear and +2 to Bone Armor, or something like that.

[Blarg]

Damage can come from a merc who can have a thorns effect, or one with Might, so I've read(though I don't even know what Might is). I've read that a freeze rogue and a clay golem can do every boss in the game, but claims are sometimes gear dependent. Also, a golem guide out there recommends golems plus poison nova.

I see so many necro variations talked about that it's pretty tough to sort out the information that applies to whatever build is being considered. Lots of the answers and threads assume you are building a type of necro that you aren't, and for a beginner it's really confusing and sometimes completely contradictory. Especially since some strats work only in one or the other patch number of the game.

[setjes]

Putting points in dex is a complete waste. Dex is needed for close combat chars like pally's. Go voor vitality all the way.

A good merc+CO do the dmg in NM and up. Ur skeletons will also do a good amount of dmg when u max them and the synergies

[Blarg]

People make so many statements about build choices in D2 without explaining them that it's so hard to make heads or tails of things. Reading some more, I've seen people talking about using high dex so they can get a shield that blocks 75% of hits, including some caster magic hits that also have a physical component. This is supposed to help a lot when teleporting around, etc.

If you have a bunch of skellies around to take up the attention of the mobs, I can see how this would be much less important. I'm not going skelly-heavy, but am going to work on corpse explosion, poison nova, and a clay golem. It looks like I am therefore much more likely to be hit, so I can see how the dex/blocking shield combo could be useful. But still it only applies to physical damage, and I have a merc, at least a couple skellies, and a golem to take up a lot of that. And it depends on getting one item that I might not ever get, I think called the homuculus shield. If I just got vitality, I could use it all the time.

What I'm really wondering is how much strength to get, too. I'm at 36 now and can wear chain mail but one of the main reasons I don't want to be restricted in armor is not to have high defense but so I can wear stuff I come across that has good effects on it. More to choose from, kind of thing. I remember when I played the game when it came out, I got a "faster hit recovery" chain mail or plate on my necro, and thought the quick recovery was really helpful.\

I'm also wondering about the merc with "might," as I hear they're the best. Haven't been able to find out what "might" is yet. But I'm loving my bow-wielding rogue who has an ice effect. Shattering corpses means less to blow up, but it takes care of so many enemies so quickly and easily. I did the Countess in Act I and never even saw her, she went down so fast. And I've heard with a cold rogue and a clay golem, you can take down anything in the game.

[Blarg]

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Putting points in dex is a complete waste. Dex is needed for close combat chars like pally's. Go voor vitality all the way.

A good merc+CO do the dmg in NM and up. Ur skeletons will also do a good amount of dmg when u max them and the synergies

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What's CO? CE is corpse explosion I know, but I just got the game a few days ago and don't know the jargon yet.

[gumpzilla]

Most of the online build suggestions seem to assume you're playing multiplayer and can trade for all sorts of insane equipment that you'll never, ever see playing single player. So it can be tricky to figure out what you should be doing instead.

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I'm also wondering about the merc with "might," as I hear they're the best. Haven't been able to find out what "might" is yet.

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I think Nightmare Act II paladins have the Might aura, which increases the damage for them and allies within range.

[g-bebe]

If I were to come back to D2, I hands down would make a summoning necro as my first character. Seeing as I'd be going back to the game with no outside assistance, I think it's the best way to be able to solo. Slow, maybe, but it's the safest in my opinion.

I'm always a fan of blocking, because with max block (75%), it more often than not will save your skin if mobs do penetrate your armies. But I never fill up my dex until late in the game, when leveling is slower and the detriment to my block % is small whenever I level (i.e. once I'm 80 I'll fill my dex up to where it needs to be, and it'll be fine forever... I'm very anal about wasting stat points...). The rest should go into vitality with minimum strength needed for whatever armor.

As far as mercs go... if you're going pure summoning, generally the best mercs are either a freezing-arrow act 1 merc, or as most prefer, a nightmare act 2 merc that gives the Might aura, which boosts the physical damage done by every ally affected by it's aura (which is why it's so great for a summoning necro -- all your skellies do much better damage).

TBH I look at most of my characters from a PvP perspective, which is why I value maxing block, stuff like faster hit recovery and resistances and wasting so little stat points, since it's all about numbers with D2 PvP. I know PvE you can get away with a lot more, so don't be insanely worried about that kind of stuff.

[Blarg]

Thanks, guys.

I just found out about a third-party program called ATMA that looks like it will give me the storage space I crave, but it renames some of the diablo 2 files so you can't play online. I wouldn't mind playing online at some point, but if I have to choose between having more storage and playing online, I'm going to have to go for the storage.

Don't know if you can do some characters offline using ATMA and some online, but I don't think so. Bah.

Btw I'm playing version 1.07 now, but am unsure whether I should patch to the latest. Any opinions?