Hi everyone. So I am loving D2R, it’s a lot of fun, but being that I didn’t play the game when it originally came out I’m finding the skill trees to be kind of confusing.
I see a lot of skills that are like weapon damage enhancements and damage buffs and such and I don’t see any benefit to choosing other abilities. For example, I’m currently playing a Paladin—although in Beta I had the same issue with a Barbarian—and I am hesitant to select anything other than Might because it’s a 70% damage buff.
Why would I want to select other skills and/or abilities and lose that huge damage increase?
I’d appreciate it if someone could shed some light on this topic, because I’m really not sure how this works. Thanks! 
What you want to do is go take a look at some sites, like D2jsp or purediablo. You don’t get a lot of respecs in D2, so you can easily mess up a build by just doing what seems to make sense at the time. You want a clear idea of the entire build you’re going for before you start investing too many skill points. It isn’t like other games in that way.
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You really have to decide how you want to play your character and commit, there are several ways to kill as a paladin even without attacking, hammer, fist of the heavens, even damaging auras. But if you want to whack enemies with a melee weapon you will definitely want might until the later auras. It’s actually way better than at original D2 launch. The skill synergies that give bonuses to other skills at least make it not as useless. But unlike D3 you only have 2 “skill slots” the vast majority of the skill tree goes unused on almost every build.
Good to know. All through beta I kept feeling like I was doing something wrong by only selecting damage buff talents.
I like playing the sword and board style so I think Might is a good one, but also I want to branch out and use other skills as well, as it could get boring just whacking things with melee over and over.
I guess I’ll have a look at some of these sites and see what they have to say.
Welcome.
2 reasons why Might is mediocre.
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Act II’s mercenary (hireling) has Might aura. That’s FREE. This means you can use 2 auras at once - you and your helper.
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There are better skills. Let’s look at meta builds that can actually last you through Hell. Remember, once you beat the game once, you do it 2x more with increasing difficulty. They’re called Nightmare and Hell mode.
Not every skills are viable for beating Hell in Diablo 2.
Let’s look at other offensive auras of Paladin:
Holy Fire - if you pump points into this, the aura will do periodic AOE damage and one-shot kill enemies in the range. Also directly adds +damage to your weapon, similar to Might.
Holy Freeze - AOE freeze, slows everyone time while you wack everyone using Zeal. Also directly adds +damage to your weapon, similar to Might.
Holy Shock - If you get (2) Dream helm & shield, you can stack AOE damage and walk around and insta-kill everyone while doing nothing. Stronger than Fire.
Thorns - Niche and useless
Blessed Aim - Good, Might is better, yes.
Concentration - This skill basically replaces Might. It gives +% damage AND uninterrupted attack.
Fanaticism - This is the best physical damage aura in the game. This directly beats Might. It gives you & your party +damage% boost, Attack SPEED (hard to get), and attack RATING. It’s three boosts in one.
Conviction - Also targeted towards elemental damage - destroys enemy’s armor and elemental resistance. They drop like flies.
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You actually get infinite respect once your able to kill hell bosses…
Right, but that isn’t relevant to the OP at this stage.
Oh I don’t think I’ll be going back and playing again once I’m done beating it. I’m a “play-through-the-game-to-see-how-the-story-ends” kind of guy, I’m not really interested in end game.
That’s not a slight against D2, it’s how I am with every game I play in general. When the credits roll, the game is finished imo, I’m not spending that much time going back over content I’ve already seen looking for better loot and stuff, I just don’t care.
Then play Sorceress and use all of her fancy unleashing hell of devastating magic (freezing orb, meteor, blizzard, chain lightning, etc)
well at least play all the different classes. they’re each totally different and fun in their own ways and will really add to your experience
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yea, I’m sure over time I’ll play them all. I played Barbarian in beta and it was pretty cool.
I’m interested to try Amazon and Druid also.
druid is alot of fun can play caster style, beast style (like as a werewolf), or summoner style where you have pets that can attack stuff
The beast style looks the most fun imo. I hope they make the D4 druid like that.
yeah the werewolf and werebear are great.