I’ve been playing Diablo 2 since it’s original launch(D2 NOT D2R so it’s been a lifelong addiction nearly) but I have never done an entire playthrough as a solo self found player. With all the interest in SSF play and talk of wanting a SSF ladder lately I have decided to start a personal journey to try this in order to understand the love some players have for this style of play since it never really appealed to me personally.
In this thread I am going to talk about my progress every time I play the character. Like a Blog or Diary if you will. I will cover quests I’ve accomplished, difficulties I’ve had and gear I’ve acquired as well as little personal vibes and tidbit commentary I feel I need to say or add.
I will be starting this journey playing a Werebear druid(Maul) I have named Myrox(Random dunno why). I hope that many of you enjoy following me on my journey here and please feel free to comment or give input anytime.
Day 1 results will be posted when I finish my current playing session. Here goes… hope I don’t give up out of boredom….
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I see you like slow grinds 
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Figure I’d make it challenging and fun.
Farm some Goblin Toes or a crushing blow weapon ASAP for boss fights
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Ty for the advice! Hoping I can craft some blood gloves as well.
DAY 1:
I managed to knock out Den, Blood Raven and Cain quests tonight and make it to lvl 14. Overall it was pretty uneventful find wise. I did manage to gamble a 2os rare Broad Axe as well as find some boots with poison Res on them that might help with Andariel if they are still worth using by the time I beat her. Also found some charms with Res on them. Other than that the drops were not impressive but it’s early so that’s expected.
Now to day one things.
As I said this is my first SSF run through EVER even though I’ve been playing D2 since the original game launched so I am approaching this experience as I pretty much did on my first character ever so a few things I noticed were…
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I kept EVERYTHING Worth selling to sell. Even things I’d normally not bother with when starting a fresh online character.
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I’m keeping ALL gems and jewels. I’m sure I’ll need as much as I can gather down the road to craft until I find decent drops.
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I’m gearing my Merc as I go when I usually wouldn’t even buy one until I’ve leveled a bit.
Overall I’d say I have an odd feeling of accomplishment even though I’ve just begun the sense of “progression” is there even though it is a bit time consuming and even boring at times because it’s content I’ve done more times than I can count.
I can definitely see why some people prefer this style of play but my judgement is still out on whether or not it truly “deserves” it’s own ladder system or if people should just play single player or online solo and be happy in their own little universe.
With all that being said I definitely got some enjoyment out of Day 1 and can’t wait to share more of this journey with you guys on day two!
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Are you doing this offline? If you hit level 14 after Cain, that sounds like players8 pace.
If you want some advice, farm the countess for Tir El and make Steel Large Axe. I have a level 32 Bear Druid in D2L and he’s still using this. Attack speed works different in D2L so maybe it’s not necessary for you.
One thing that’s interesting about SSF melee characters is that you need to invest a lot of points into str and dex to equip weapons. You can gamble a Maul at level 18 but it needs 70 str.
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Yes I’m doing this offline. Mostly to keep me from giving in to urges of playing with others which I’m 99.9% positive is so if I got too bored which isn’t the point of this experiment.
As for P8 I’m not sure? Never played single player so I’m not sure how to check and see if it’s on or not. I’m also playing mostly on my switch not my PC.
I definitely plan to farm countess a few times to get runes.
Yeah the strength/Dexterity issue is why I chose Werebear. At least then he can still have high health even when I’m dumping extra points in stuff besides vitality.
So you have a weapon in mind? Your best bet might be Obedience eh? Bonesnap would be miserable.
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Go into game settings, there is now a slider in SP you can adjust to increase monster difficulty to increase drops and experience. This replaces the old /players (×) in game command to simulate people joining your game like on bnet…
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I’m not sure yet. Kind of going with the flow on what drops. Doesn’t Werebear have a faster IAS with certain weapon types? Or am I remembering it wrong?
@Guitars
Oh then I definitely haven’t put it on P8 if it requires I toggle it on or something. I went through every section and side section/cave twice from blood Moor to marsh(except tower).
Devs completely butchered Werebear attack speed in 2.4, fast 1h is your best option now.
Strength and Black are solid runewords early on for speeding up boss kills.
I have been playing d2 classic offline and every build is SSF due to no shared stash 
Wait so they don’t have increased attack speed with some two handed weapons compared to other classes anymore?
Werebear with a Steel Large Axe attacks at a similar speed in both D2L and D2R. Don’t know what happens with endgame weapons though.
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I was under the impression Druid attacks faster than other classes with some two handers.
That was pre 2.4, bear attack speed got a huge nerf
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Druids still attack faster with 2H axes + maces, polearms, and staves compared to other weapon types.
https://warren1001.github.io/IAS_Calculator/
See here for more info, this calculator is accurate for 2.4.3 (and thus is accurate for the wereform IAS changes in 2.4).
You can see that a glorious axe, ogre maul, cryptic axe, and archon staff all have the same breakpoints and they all have 10 WSM (weapon speed modifier, base attack speed of the weapon basically). Compare it to a colossus sword (also 10 WSM) which is much slower even though it has the same WSM.
You can still use the /players x command, the slider is an additional alternative option (except for console where it’s the only method).
That isn’t true in regards to 1H weapons being faster than 2H weapons. Take a thunder maul (2H weapon, 20 WSM) and legendary mallet (1H weapon, 20 WSM) for example.
In werebear form to reach 11 FPA with the thunder maul you need 129 IAS, to reach 11 FPA with the legendary mallet you need 232 IAS.
But yes, they did severely nerf and slow down the maximum attack rate of werebears which is by design. Weapon IAS is also less effective compared to pre-2.4 but now you benefit from off-weapon IAS as well.
See here:
Timestamp at 1:18:32 if the timestamped link didn’t work.
Rob Gallerani says the werebear speed nerf was intentional because they wanted the bear to be the strong, tanky, unstoppable wereform while the werewolf would be the fast, nimble wereform. It’s a cool behind the scenes of D2R, I’d recommend watching the whole thing if you can.
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So is werebear better with 2H or 1H and shield?
Early and mid game I’d probably say a 2H weapon is better, you’re tanky enough without blocking and shields won’t really provide you much benefit compared to the additional damage + faster speed of 2H weapons.
Something like a Steel large axe will last you a while through Act 1, then you can gamble a maul or poleaxe in late Act 1 or early Act 2 and that should last you through Normal. Then you can farm an Insight polearm once you reach Nightmare Countess and that’ll probably last you through Nightmare.
Late game I’m not so sure, you could probably go either way with 1H or 2H. Grief + Phoenix is very strong offensively (but very expensive), but so is something like an upped Ribcracker or Obedience thresher/giant thresher.
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DAY 2:
So today was very productive(I feel. Considering I had limited time due to work.)!
I got through multiple countess runs. Charsi imbue quest. Andariel. Radament.
But most importantly I got my cube!!! Time to work on runes and gems!
That wasn’t the best part of my SSF journey today though….
I managed to get my first Unique on this journey. Greyform! Found it on the countess’s tower. Then I also got my second unique Nagelring on trash mobs in catacombs lvl 4 right before Andy!
It gets better. Found a rare +3 Werebear pelt as well and got the chance to gamble me a maul to help with damage.
Now to come down of the mountain… although today was relatively productive and I am enjoying my first ever SSF experience… the grind IS REAL. I find myself going backwards to farm for gear because I am leveling faster than I can logically gear this way. The Werebear is so Tammy I don’t realize he is way undergeared until I view his stuff or have trouble connecting on hits. I am now lvl 20 ready to fight the Summoner and Duriel tomorrow.
Few concerns I have…
Runewords - I have yet to make one.
Loneliness - It does get pretty lonely and boring mid grind solo. This thread is helping but ultimately maybe SSF is for certain types of people? I’m a social person so hopefully the excitement of the experience continues to outweigh the lack of interaction.
Stay tuned!
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Nice man, singleplayer really makes those low level uniques shine 
But imagine if you were competing on the Druid leaderboard, I’m sure you would be a lot more hyped to have found those items knowing that they will help give you a slight edge in getting through the rest of the game. You would be motivated to make the most out of your gambling and rerolling in the cube for competitive purposes.
But yeah they should fix the normal ladder and the way XP is awarded to a party. That way you can decide which mode is for you.
With the new gamelist update, all you have to do is search “Baal” and instantly find a baal run.
I’d like to at least see the normal ladder xp grind made better.