Hello,
I am new to D2+D2R (played D3 but could not get into that one). I am liking this one better, call me an old school gamer, but just like the aesthetics, dark music and mood, and general gameplay better.
My only issue is that I find the game too easy and was a little surprised at this. Granted, I was only still in Act 1 online but I decided to start the campaign over offline mode when Difficulty Scaling was introduced. I increased it to “3” and feel like it is slightly more challenging. I have seen many posts here about DS and using it to play with other players, but no mention of using to increase difficulty singleplayer. I enjoy a challenge in a game like this and thus ask if anyone else does?
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i got over my “if its offline why bother?” mentality (partly cause there’s no ladder atm) and started a single player HC char on p8 and it turning out to be some of the most fun I’ve ever had playing d2. you’re thankful for every upgrade. you use tactical thinking instead of brute force. its almost an entirely different game.
it’s even more fun (for me at least) doing it with a non-meta build. i cant see running an hdin or blizz sorc or java in this mode. you already know that can conquer p8. do yourself a favor and pick like a… B Tier or lower build.
Summoner/Fury Hybrid Druid ftw! Killing NM meph on deck tonight!
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I play singleplayer offline with DS set to ‘7.’
It still exists in a couple of forms, but prior to this new Difficulty Scale, a chat command ‘/playersX,’ and a more recent addition, a command line argument ‘-players X’ where X equals the virtual number of players, were what we used to set the difficulty in singleplayer.
(If you use the command line argument, it will carry-over to all games you start, and you’ll notice that it automatically sets the Difficulty Scale to the same setting. I think without the command line argument, you have to set the DS at the start of each game, and that is how the chat command works, as well.)
Yeah definitely play on players 3 on normal. You can go back to players 1 on nm and hell and when you char is stronger you can raise it again. I usualy raise it in act 5 NM also when doing worldstone keep and last boss. If my char is capable of course.
In SP I tend to level somewhere between p3 and p5 on HC. It is a lot of fun but isn’t overly ‘one-shot kill’ if I went to higher difficulties.
I tend to go on P4 myself. I know P5 gives more drop % but the difficulty curve is in the sweet spot for me on P4. I agree P1 is too easy and slow to level up. I don’t like online, so this is best for me. Your results may vary. 
Welcome to the game. Hope you enjoy it!
I generally start with Jiansonz method from his early game magic finding guide. With that in mind one can run /p8 thru 99% of normal, nightmare, and hell. It is a bit slower leveling process, but you end up getting so much loot along the way. Characters that follow the first char tend to be twinked because of the acquired wealth. Running /p8 can be quite a challenge, especially when trying to keep one’s merc alive during critical moments.
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This guide?
pure diablo, Guide to Untwinked, Single-pass, Early Game Magic Finding (by jiansonz)???
Act 1 norm? Or hell?
And let’s wait and see when you get to the later acts in hell.
D2 itself isn’t a challenging game, several patches made the game easier mostly 1.10 and 1.13.
They should improve the difficulty of the game or just reduce overall power of the current system. Even using players8 command most of the time hardly you get any challenge. Some builds just doesn’t scalate well on hell, but even those still can do stuff in there on p8, just takes more time.
Normal are often easy, nightmare gives you a testing ground, hell pretty much would be what I consider “base” game experience.
Think this way: normal is to teach you the basics, nightmare is to show the direction of what will happen, hell is the mainmode to play(most of the time).
If you really want challenge these days you would need to play some off-meta build paired with p8 offline. Otherwise you should try classic version(non expasion) or try to play d2/d2 lod prior to 1.10 that could give you a bit of challenge and you could use up players64. I would suggest 1.08 or 1.09 versions of it.
Jiansonz’s guide:
https://www.diabloii.net/forums/threads/guide-to-untwinked-single-pass-early-game-magic-finding.620901/
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Oh yeah, playing a Skelemancer on /players 8 is a lot of fun. You’ll cruise through Act 1 and end it in the 20’s. With the scaled up XP and drops, you can stay ahead of the Mobs in terms of power and reap all the benefits. You will have to occasionally drop is to players 1 for bosses like Duriel and Diablo.