Hey all. I have a quick question. If you were to hit a wall and were just under geared or some such, are you suppose to farm earlier places you’ve cleared out before? Is that normal in Diablo 2? If you have a good build skills wise, but are just under geared is it the intent of the game for you to go back to earlier areas and grind until better gear and rune words drop and is that common?
I’m speaking from a solo perspective, of course. When you make new characters and just have bad luck finding great gear or runes are you suppose to go back to earlier areas and grind for better things?
I don’t mind the grind in this game, killing demons anywhere is just fun for me.
I’m a bit use to newer ARPGs, but still really enjoy Diablo 2. I can always respec, but it’s mainly a gear issue for me. I play offline singleplayer, but I’m thinking of SSF online soon.
yeah repeat hundred times, if you want fully optimize gear repeat thousand times
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Generally speaking, repeating an area numerous times for experience and better equipment is the norm. However, I must point out that the current balance between Melee and Caster is a bit skewed in the caster’s favor and its largely a result of two key factors: 1) Damage scaling from Weapon and 2) Chance to Hit.
Nearly every physical build in Diablo 2 scales from Weapon(be it Zeal Paladin to Strafe Amazon, the Weapon you have dictates what damage your Skills will deal). Casters or spells are all independent of that and are largely based on Skill level(hence +Skills matter here) and Synergies(hard points invested). Higher those are, the more powerful you will be. A note must be made that most casters deal Elemental damage so unless you are dual-spec or dual-element, you will struggle on Hell Difficulty due to Monster Immunity. Paladins and Necromancers are the exception since they have auras/curses that can break such immunity(although not in all cases).
The other advantage Casters have is with respect to Chance to Hit. Nearly all Physical attacks go through a Hit Check that tops out at 95% for the ceiling and 5% for the floor. Spells always hit and therefore are the best builds to adopt early on in a Ladder or SSF.
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Yes.
There are certain areas that are easier to clear if you are undergeared but can still drop you worthwhile items. Tbh Countess can be pretty OP for farming up some simple runes for pretty strong items. I also typically find my spirit monarch base early ladder there.
If you are struggling to get to that point NM baal can drop stuff that is good enough for survival.
Make sure you don’t ignore your merc’s gear as they can be underrated for how helpful they are.
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Players 3/5/7 for farming bases in cows.
Players 7 for farming runes in LK
Run LK all day until you have the runes needed to buy your power spike item.
You can target lower level areas, but it would be easier if you told us what character you’re rocking and what gear you have. Then we could figure out what the struggle is.
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Ah I’m a 68 Paladin but I just made a Duress with Ancient Armor and it was able to get my past a wall. I was just speaking in a general sense really if how going back and grinding better gear in D2 was suppose to work.
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Also, don’t forget to trade for better items.
If you don’t have a jsp account, go and make one. Look at what people are trading for, and farm some of those. PGems and ral runes are easy items. At the start of the next ladder, 4os flails and crystal swords are easy ways to build up some fg.
Somebody out there has the gear that you need. Trade the good stuff you’ve found to get it.
If you’re new to diablo 2 and fancy offline single player mode be prepared to grind a lot. Conserve runes if you think long term and up them, dont make mid runewords in not elite bases, unless its really starter really basic cheap runeword. You should also research some wiki diablo 2 knowledge on many aspects of the game, diablo 2 is not stupid masher (at least until godly gear which you wont probably have offline)
Kill bosses to lv up until you farm lv 85 areas in hell.
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I’ve always just smashed the square piece through the circle hole until it worked personally. I’ll respec if I think I can make a build that works to solve the current problem. You suffer for a long time but eventually get gg
Chilling out and farming appropriate areas does seem “smarter”. But I’m impatient
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In my experience with Diablo 2 and many other ARPG games, you typically hit a brick wall when you’ve made an error, or at least an “inefficient choice” building your character skill wise. Gear is also important, but Diablo 2 can be beaten in all three difficulties with all classes with garbage gear… You just have to build you character correctly skill wise to be able to do it.
Now I’ve heard you mention that you’re running a Holy Freeze/Zealer Paladin, which is fine up to a certain point… The problem is with Holy Freeze, the damage output is simply too low. It’s great for crowd control, that’s about it. Also as you progress through the difficulties, you start encountering more and more cold resistant and eventually cold immune monsters, which further reduces Holy Freezes already lackluster damage output.
If you want the best overall change for a Zealer, respec and switch to a Zealer with the Fanaticism aura. If you are really liking the aura damage and insist on using it, then switch to either Holy Fire or Holy Shock. If you liked the crowd control of Holy Freeze, once you get to A2 Nightmare, you can get a Holy Freeze merc, or you can go with a Might merc for the extra damage!
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No thank you. I’m not a super hardcore player that cares about BiS items. I’m fairly casual.
I don’t mind the grind really.
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