For those of us who have never played classic, what are the main differences?
If it’s pre expansion, is it also pre-synergies, and pre-monster health boosting?
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Oh fun!
Classic is a trip if you are used to the expansion. If you play classic, there are a large amount of things you will not have. Here are a few just off the top of my head, though, it goes much deeper than this list. In classic, you will not have the following:
Act 5
Druid and Assassin
Runes
Runewords (obviously)
Charms (this means there’s no Anni and Torch)
No class-specific items whatsoever
Pretty sure there are no ethereal items
Some sets and uniques are not present
Increased stash space (the stash is smaller)
I’ll let the Classic professionals fill in the gaps 
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Mercs do not travel with you between acts. You can’t equip them with items.
Necro summons do not travel with you between acts.
Magic and Rare items are much more important for your character in higher difficulties, since there are no Exceptional/Elite sets or uniques, and of course no runewords.
If you find pieces of Iratha’s Finery, hold onto them, as the set provides a wealthy amount of resistances. 
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If you play Classic, you pretty much have the following builds:
Necro: Bonemancer… CE any Magic Immunes. Summons don’t follow between acts so a waste.
Amazon: Light Java + Plague ← White Javelins still do well with this. Physical Bow simply wont work(too gear dependent). Elemental Bow needs a group(ideally Conviction)
Barbarian: WW pretty much… very gear dependent though with Concentrate to fight Bosses and Berserk for PI. Attack Rating is a must!!
Sorceress: Fire/Cold Hybrid(Orb + Hydra works well) or pure Cold. Teleport ftw
Paladin: Hammerdin bar none(Vigor aura + Charge for mobility). FoH also works but is heavily group dependent due to Animal/Beast limitation but comes with Conviction or Meditation(very valuable in group play). Zeal is also a possibility given Fanaticism but requires a godly weapon to work and like with Barbs needs Attack Rating.
For Gear Iratha Set is Best Set bar none. As for specifics…
Helm: Iratha Set honestly is BiS, although Tarnhelm isnt too bad for the +1 Skills and MF. Godly Rare works too.
Body Armor: So many options… Twitchthroe is my personal favorite given Blocking works differently on Classic. Goldskin is another strong candidate due to 35 All Resistance.
Gloves: Iratha Set is really solid here. Magefists for Sorceress for the Fire Skill bump and FCR. Otherwise a solid Rare works.
Belt: Iratha Set again, although Goldwrap is pretty nice from MF perspective.
Boots: Goblin Toe(Melee users), Hotspurs or good Rare for everyone else.
Rings: Ravenfrost(melee), else SOJ(skill/mana), Dwarf(Fire Absorb) or a really good rare
Amulet: Iratha Set imo. Crescent Moon is a solid option for melee.
Weapon: Depends on Class/Build.
Shield: Unique Ward is honestly my favorite here. Perfect roll yields 50 All Resistance or enough to cover Hell Difficulty penalty.
This is mostly wrong. Just saying. From someone who actually plays classic.
The builds are relatively correct but hybrid sorc is not a thing on classic. You mostly see Blizzard or Orb, you get the occasional player from expansion who goes hybrid so they can ‘solo’ but they eventually find out it’s not worth it to solo in classic as a sorc.
The items are where you are mostly wrong. Rare items rule the roost. Iratha is a beginner set, it’s solid but certainly not BIS.
Helm: Tarn is only a bo/chanter helm. Rare grim helm BIS
Armor: Twitch is good, gskin is ok, rare mage plate is BIS, or a good rare ornate for barb
Gloves: rare is BIS
Belt: rare 4 slot is BIS, demonhide/sharkskin best
Boots: you actually got this one right. Spurs are overrated imo but some people like them
Rings: only 1 of the 3 you listed actually exists in classic (SOJ) but you don’t generally see people wearing SOJ, mostly used for socketing rares. BIS is a nice dual leech ring with stats/res (melee) or FCR/stats/resist rings for casters.
Weapon: shard for sorc is by far BIS, blue scepter from vendor for din, rare Martel for barb, rare wand for Nec, zon is pretty much useless in classic.
Shield: ward is ok for beginner but it’s big and clunky and has low block. BIS is a nice high ED grim shield with 30/20 and all res, throw a socket in that baby.
Classic is awesome, the itemization is amazing and unmatched. Try it out!
Merry Christmas!
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I’ve rolled Hybrid Sorcs on Classic. They don’t deal as much damage as pure Blizz/Orb can but I’ve been able to clear areas, albeit “slower” than single element builds. Light Java is indeed rough but not “impossible” on Classic. In a party though, they’re ok and that’s especially with Conviction to reduce enemy Resistance.
As for gear, you’re right that Rare items rule the day but that’s if you can find them. Until then you got Uniques and Sets to fall back on and I find Iratha to be one my favorites given it has 65 All Resistance, 75% Poison Length Reduction, +10 Resistance Cap and 40% FRW(for Non-Sorc’s that’s pretty nice and doesn’t involve Boots). I forgot what Unique rings roll on Classic since its been several years since I’ve played(might roll Classic next Ladder). I’ve always liked Ward Shield, although I agree that the Block on it is a bit low(that’s why I like Twitch Armor to boost that) and combined with Iratha, you’re easily 45 - 65 Resistance on Hell Difficulty. Slap on Hotspurs and your Fire Resistance is at least 90, if not 95, hence making you virtually impervious to Fire Damage. Throw on some Rare rings with CLP Resistance and you can hit 95/85/85/85 with 71%-75% Block. For Classic, that’s pretty solid, independent of what Weapon you roll with.
Yes brother you just described the ideal beginner setup. It’s what you aim for asap on ladder until you find rares good enough to replace the set. The only problem with the iratha is it really limits the amount of life/fhr/damage you can obtain.
You roll 1 element (aka cold) because you primarily run 1 area, CS, which has a lot of fire immune but not much cold immune. Lightning skills are weak on classic. You won’t solo but classic is a team game anyways.
Static has no cap in nm and hell
WW is always max breakpoint regardless of ias
No elite items, no exceptional uniques/sets. Various other sets don’t exist as well.
Dex has no impact on block. Basically, whatever the shield says your block is is your block.
Res in nm is -20 and -50 in hell
The meta for gear is mostly rare based. Most popular builds are hammerdin, WW barb, and blizz sorc. Best source of XP/drops is CS but some run trav or Hell Mephisto. If you have any other questions, let me know. Lifetime classic player here.
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Didn’t that change with the expansion? I mean a lot of changes for expansion affected the classic aswell right?
WW changed only in expansion. In classic it remained the same. Though in 1.10 WW changed a lot in both classic and expansion. WW hits a lot more in 1.10 than it did previously. Also, pre 1.10, every hit was a deadly strike as long as you had weapon mastery. This unfortunately made weapons like lances significantly less viable since they only have 25 dura.
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Do the knights in chaos still cast Iron Maiden in classic ?
they sort of do. they still do the visual effect, and there is the iron maiden visual effect above player/summon heads, although there is no effect otherwise. same as in Expansion.
I suspect the devs did not go over every monster skill to delete iron maiden from them out of laiziness i suspect rather all they just made a global rule that all monster iron maiden skill level=0.
Additionally
Classic has no circlet/coronet/tiara/diadem items, so forget about rare + class skills circlets. no jewels no elite items (only normal version sets and uniques), out of uique rings and amulets there are only 3 of each ( all low level ones) ( nagel, maland,soj, mahim,nokozan,Eye-of-etlich), there are also retrictions to affixes that can spawn.
No skills on cast/attack/when get hit, no skill charges, no sox as an affix on rares and magic ( the exception to this rule are cube recepies, one rolls magic affixes on a socketed weapon, the other adds 1-2 sockets and rerolls a magic weapon. and ofcourse there’s a really expensive cube recepie to add sockets to rare items.
A lot of cube recepies are unavailable too. ( rune upgraedes obviously ) reroll magical item with 3 perfect gems is Expansion only for example.
Generally there are no such thing as socketed armor ( with the exception to rare armors cubed with certain expensive cube recepie to socket rare items).
certain weapons go up to 6 sockets, certain helms can go up to three sockets (late hell only),
there are no 4 socketed shields ( max is 3 sockets but some have max of 2).
I generally haven’t found any thrown potions from monsters. the two mid damage ones can drop from shrines only, and can be sold and re-purchased from vendors to have their amount restock. Rancid Gas Potion and Oil Potion do not drop in Classic.
thrown weapons come only from vendors and ocasionally from a weapon rack and they are either normal or superior, but never magic or rare. this limits the power of throw barbs, and javazons. the throw item quantities have been upgraded same way as in expasion, however they vanish from weapon slot when their quantity reaches zero.
they come in normal and exceptional versions. the most practical thrown weapons are superior harpoons +15%ED +3AR (exceptional thrown spears), the most damage while still having decent quantity and attack speed.
I personally haven’t found any magical +20% ias gloves in classic only +10% and there are probably no +amazon class tab skills on gloves either. if you want to roll bonus attack speed on items it is sigon gloves +30% ias + sigon helmet +AR (based on clvl) and unique studded leather armor twichthroe (+20% ias) and that’s it.
Oh yeah You can’t imbue thrown weapons if anybody is wondering .
i disagree about shard beeing bis for sorc weapon. certain unique necro wand has the same 50% FCR and +1 to all skills, and shard does not come with + to skills only 50% fcr.
Suicide Branch doesn’t exist in Classic cause there’s no exceptional sets/uniques.
aw crap so that’s why i couldn’t find it, i could’ve sworn it said just “wand” on maxroll…