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By The GamePros
To kick off our Diablo II strategies, we've tapped some of GamePro's foremost
Diablo II masters to pass on their wisdom. Sit back, relax, and enjoy random
tidbits and tips from the 'Pros as Dan Amrich and Chris Patterson crack open
their brains and pour their knowledge out for all to enjoy.
Dan Amrich
The three most important words in Diablo II are "Of The Leech." You can save
yourself a lot of storage space if you don't have to carry around tons of
potions-
-and the best way to do that is to acquire life-stealing weapons and jewelry
with
the suffix "Of The Leech" on it. If you can get about 10% total Of The Leech-
ness, you should be fine; 15% would mean that, so long as you keep hitting with
your weapon or don't lose the jewelry, you can get by with only two or three
health potions. Try it.
If you have to dump potions to make room for other items in your inventory,
dump
health. As you may or may not have noticed, you can't buy mana potions in town.
Sometimes, an unenchanted Superior-grade item will be worth more than a
low-level
magically enchanted item--so don't throw those "normal" items away just because
the text ain't blue.
When you're not questing, grab a few of the "Of Greed" enchanted items (boots,
belts, rings, whatever) and fill your gold coffers--then store 'em and forget
about them. Gold is relatively easy to come by, so in the long haul, you'll want
boots, belts, rings, and whatever that enhance your skills, not increase your
stash account. You can't kill the undead by throwing coins at them.
For you Diablo newbies, take note: When you're in the Palace at Lut Gohlein,
shoot your magic attacks (or, if you're an Amazon, your arrows/bolts/javelins)
through the grated walls without opening the doors. It's the proverbial fish in
a
barrel, except the fish shoot back...but it's still better than opening the door
to let them rush you.
What the hell do you do with Wirt's Leg? You hold on to it. It's gonna come in
handy late in the game.
Unlike the original game, potions in Diablo II take time to drink. Rejuvenation
potions refill health and mana instantly, but regular health and mana potions do
not. If you quaff one in battle, retreat (or run) while your meters refill.
Three of the same type and condition of a gem (ie three chipped diamond, three
flawed topaz) can be transmuted in the Horadric Cube into one gem of the next
quality level up. Similarly, three rings can be turned into one amulet and three
amulets can be turned into one ring.
Learn to listen for the sound of a booby-trapped chest or urn (or whatever). If,
in addition to the creaking or crashing you also hear what sounds like a
log-and-
rope switch being pulled, RUN. Popular traps include lightning, fire, fireballs,
and flash.
Chris Patterson
If you kill the head, the body will die. Always go after creatures that can
heal,
resurrect or spawn other creatures first (Fallen Shaman, Blood Hawk Nest, Hollow
One, Sand Maggot, etc.). Ignore the riff-raff, they'll be easy pickings once the
big boys are gone.
Know your role, jabroni! If you're playing with others, work to play to your
collective strengths. Don't force your necromancer or sorceress to tank for the
rest of the party. It's inefficient, and will annoy your party members.
Similarly, if you're not playing a melee character, be good support for the
players who are in harm's way. A well-placed Curse or Glacial Spike spell will
often turn the tide of a closely fought battle.
Never go adventuring without at least one Town Portal scroll, and make sure you
have a hot key set for it in case things get suddenly hairy. Think of it as your
American Express card.
If you just can't manage to complete a quest, go wander the wilderness for a
while. After going up a level or two, you should be able to finish that quest
with ease.
Jay Turner
Don't ignore leveling up to rush through the quests. Whenever you find a cave,
hole, or dungeon that doesn't pertain to your quest, clean it out anyway.
Usually
you'll find some good items and gold in there, but most importantly you'll be
gaining XPs and getting more powerful by the moment.
When you come up against a named monster with a horde of wimpy monsters around,
melee characters will want to take out the unique, while Amazons and
spellcasters
might want to focus on the cannon fodder. Killing the "named" baddie sometimes
weakens the other monsters around it, but weaker characters may have a hard time
fighting with ten weaker enemies beating on them at once.
Necromancers thrive where there are dead things. For this reason, it's not
always the best idea to use freezing weapons when a necro is in your party.
Corpse Explosion is more effective than almost any ice weapon you can use
(except
some of the Sorceress' ice skills), so try to drop at least one corpse in a
group
of enemies.
Spellcasters may want to look for mana regeneration and mana-stealing items.
Items exist that increase your mana recharge rate, steal mana with each hit, or
add points of mana with each kill. These are great for the Necromancer, who
never
gets a mana recharge skill. Weapons that steal mana with damage are great for
Paladins and Barbarians, who never get nearly the amount of mana the other
classes enjoy.
The ALT key is your friend. Whenever you've just finished a huge battle, walk
around with the ALT key pressed, and any items that were dropping in the melee
will show up on screen, and you can pick them up by clicking on their name
label.
More Horadric Cube formulae: 2 quivers of arrows = 1 quiver of crossbow bolts; 2
quivers of bolts = 1 quiver of arrows; 1 spear + 1 quiver of arrows = 1 bundle
of
javelins; 3 perfect gems + 1 magical item = random high level item; 2 Topaz + 1
ring = Coral Ring (gives lightning resistance). Experiment with other items in
the Cube and you just might be surprised.
When you're fighting a boss, it's nice to have at least one Town Portal open in
a
relatively safe location. If you're in a party, have at least two in different
areas, so that at least one will always be open. This way you can run to town,
stock up, repair, heal (by talking to certain people in town), and go back down
at full strength.
Throughout Act I, collect all the anti-poison gear you can, because Andariel
poisons with each hit and spews poison bolts. Items that reduce poison length
are
often better, because the resistance items you find in Act I aren't necessarily
strong enough to resist the boss' poison attacks.
Save any set pieces you find, even if you don't plan to use them. You should be
able to find someone on Battle.Net who needs the piece you have, and you can
usually trade those pieces for good money.
Danny Lam
Don't under estimate the value of poisoning potions, especially when dispatching
enemies that stay at a distance like those Fetishes.
As the Barbarian, use your Find Potion ability to get as many potions as you
can.
If you don't have enough room, throw them into your Horadric Cube and transmute
some health and mana potions into rejuvenation potions.
The Barbarian's leaping attack can: a) get you out of a jam b) allow you to leap
to areas that may not be accessible without a bridge c) attack enemies with one
click
The Barbarian's War Cry will scare minions away so you can attack the big boss
(like annoying Shamans that raises the dead or whatever).
To kick off our Diablo II strategies, we've tapped some of GamePro's foremost
Diablo II masters to pass on their wisdom. Sit back, relax, and enjoy random
tidbits and tips from the 'Pros as Dan Amrich and Chris Patterson crack open
their brains and pour their knowledge out for all to enjoy.
Dan Amrich
The three most important words in Diablo II are "Of The Leech." You can save
yourself a lot of storage space if you don't have to carry around tons of
potions-
-and the best way to do that is to acquire life-stealing weapons and jewelry
with
the suffix "Of The Leech" on it. If you can get about 10% total Of The Leech-
ness, you should be fine; 15% would mean that, so long as you keep hitting with
your weapon or don't lose the jewelry, you can get by with only two or three
health potions. Try it.
If you have to dump potions to make room for other items in your inventory,
dump
health. As you may or may not have noticed, you can't buy mana potions in town.
Sometimes, an unenchanted Superior-grade item will be worth more than a
low-level
magically enchanted item--so don't throw those "normal" items away just because
the text ain't blue.
When you're not questing, grab a few of the "Of Greed" enchanted items (boots,
belts, rings, whatever) and fill your gold coffers--then store 'em and forget
about them. Gold is relatively easy to come by, so in the long haul, you'll want
boots, belts, rings, and whatever that enhance your skills, not increase your
stash account. You can't kill the undead by throwing coins at them.
For you Diablo newbies, take note: When you're in the Palace at Lut Gohlein,
shoot your magic attacks (or, if you're an Amazon, your arrows/bolts/javelins)
through the grated walls without opening the doors. It's the proverbial fish in
a
barrel, except the fish shoot back...but it's still better than opening the door
to let them rush you.
What the hell do you do with Wirt's Leg? You hold on to it. It's gonna come in
handy late in the game.
Unlike the original game, potions in Diablo II take time to drink. Rejuvenation
potions refill health and mana instantly, but regular health and mana potions do
not. If you quaff one in battle, retreat (or run) while your meters refill.
Three of the same type and condition of a gem (ie three chipped diamond, three
flawed topaz) can be transmuted in the Horadric Cube into one gem of the next
quality level up. Similarly, three rings can be turned into one amulet and three
amulets can be turned into one ring.
Learn to listen for the sound of a booby-trapped chest or urn (or whatever). If,
in addition to the creaking or crashing you also hear what sounds like a
log-and-
rope switch being pulled, RUN. Popular traps include lightning, fire, fireballs,
and flash.
Chris Patterson
If you kill the head, the body will die. Always go after creatures that can
heal,
resurrect or spawn other creatures first (Fallen Shaman, Blood Hawk Nest, Hollow
One, Sand Maggot, etc.). Ignore the riff-raff, they'll be easy pickings once the
big boys are gone.
Know your role, jabroni! If you're playing with others, work to play to your
collective strengths. Don't force your necromancer or sorceress to tank for the
rest of the party. It's inefficient, and will annoy your party members.
Similarly, if you're not playing a melee character, be good support for the
players who are in harm's way. A well-placed Curse or Glacial Spike spell will
often turn the tide of a closely fought battle.
Never go adventuring without at least one Town Portal scroll, and make sure you
have a hot key set for it in case things get suddenly hairy. Think of it as your
American Express card.
If you just can't manage to complete a quest, go wander the wilderness for a
while. After going up a level or two, you should be able to finish that quest
with ease.
Jay Turner
Don't ignore leveling up to rush through the quests. Whenever you find a cave,
hole, or dungeon that doesn't pertain to your quest, clean it out anyway.
Usually
you'll find some good items and gold in there, but most importantly you'll be
gaining XPs and getting more powerful by the moment.
When you come up against a named monster with a horde of wimpy monsters around,
melee characters will want to take out the unique, while Amazons and
spellcasters
might want to focus on the cannon fodder. Killing the "named" baddie sometimes
weakens the other monsters around it, but weaker characters may have a hard time
fighting with ten weaker enemies beating on them at once.
Necromancers thrive where there are dead things. For this reason, it's not
always the best idea to use freezing weapons when a necro is in your party.
Corpse Explosion is more effective than almost any ice weapon you can use
(except
some of the Sorceress' ice skills), so try to drop at least one corpse in a
group
of enemies.
Spellcasters may want to look for mana regeneration and mana-stealing items.
Items exist that increase your mana recharge rate, steal mana with each hit, or
add points of mana with each kill. These are great for the Necromancer, who
never
gets a mana recharge skill. Weapons that steal mana with damage are great for
Paladins and Barbarians, who never get nearly the amount of mana the other
classes enjoy.
The ALT key is your friend. Whenever you've just finished a huge battle, walk
around with the ALT key pressed, and any items that were dropping in the melee
will show up on screen, and you can pick them up by clicking on their name
label.
More Horadric Cube formulae: 2 quivers of arrows = 1 quiver of crossbow bolts; 2
quivers of bolts = 1 quiver of arrows; 1 spear + 1 quiver of arrows = 1 bundle
of
javelins; 3 perfect gems + 1 magical item = random high level item; 2 Topaz + 1
ring = Coral Ring (gives lightning resistance). Experiment with other items in
the Cube and you just might be surprised.
When you're fighting a boss, it's nice to have at least one Town Portal open in
a
relatively safe location. If you're in a party, have at least two in different
areas, so that at least one will always be open. This way you can run to town,
stock up, repair, heal (by talking to certain people in town), and go back down
at full strength.
Throughout Act I, collect all the anti-poison gear you can, because Andariel
poisons with each hit and spews poison bolts. Items that reduce poison length
are
often better, because the resistance items you find in Act I aren't necessarily
strong enough to resist the boss' poison attacks.
Save any set pieces you find, even if you don't plan to use them. You should be
able to find someone on Battle.Net who needs the piece you have, and you can
usually trade those pieces for good money.
Danny Lam
Don't under estimate the value of poisoning potions, especially when dispatching
enemies that stay at a distance like those Fetishes.
As the Barbarian, use your Find Potion ability to get as many potions as you
can.
If you don't have enough room, throw them into your Horadric Cube and transmute
some health and mana potions into rejuvenation potions.
The Barbarian's leaping attack can: a) get you out of a jam b) allow you to leap
to areas that may not be accessible without a bridge c) attack enemies with one
click
The Barbarian's War Cry will scare minions away so you can attack the big boss
(like annoying Shamans that raises the dead or whatever).