Here is what I do to start my gaming session. Keep in mind I’ve not end-gamed yet (to me end-gaming in D2 is defeating Baal in Hell) so I’m trying to get a sense of what others do before end-gaming to add to my steps.
- Countess rune run on normal. Takes about 3 minutes depending on where the tower is.
- Repeat on Nightmare. Another 3 minutes or so.
- Repeat on Hell. A little harder but doable in 5 minutes or sometimes a little more depending on monster density.
All three of those take about 10 minutes or so again depending where the tower is and monster density in Hell. This will also net you $100K or so of gold.
- Start a Hell game and go to my furthest progress (still in act 2 hell heading to the Arcane Sanctuary).
- Once I get board of leveling I’ll finish off my gaming session with a Normal and Nightmare Cow level.
- Of course a few Nightmare Baal runs.
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Step 1: Log in
Step 2: Have fun
Step 3: ???
Step 4: Profit
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Do den of evil then run straight to Cata 2. Grind Trist until 12. Kill Andy at like 12.
Run do Radiment, then run through act 2 collecting staff pieces. Kill summoner and then do tomb runs until 20. Kill duriel.
Run thought act 3 killing just boss packs until jade figurine drops, stop in bazaar to get tome, then kill council and go straight to meph.
Run through act 4 stopping to kill izzy.
Run through act 5 stopping to kill shenk and rescue Anya, and get anicents WP. Is I’m not 24 then go spawn cows on an alt and do 1-2 cow runs. Kill Baal…
Repeat in NM/Hell.
Then go farm pits until I hit level 73… then spam Eldritch/Trav til 80+ then do Chaos til 90… then Baal runs.
Takes like 2-3 days to hit the low 80’s typically depending on class and play time.
Why would I tell you? It’s my strategy!
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You forgot about muling the loot…
You forgot about muling the loot…
Only countess run in norm till I get tal eth and then proceed with the rest of the game. Knowing how map layouts work I can quite comfortably cruise through the game with little to no hiccups. This time I kinda want to try to farm iratha set for the nice res bonuses.
If i can find a semi decent 8 man Group, getting everyone a Torch in the first 12h
If not just play solo, cry for an hour because no 4os sword for spirit drops and get to act1/2 hell ilvl85 areas on my own.
Still cant decide what char…
You forgot ancient tunels.
Els i agree
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Make coffee, Take pain meds, Make sure Vapes are full, and Go!
Getting to nightmare as fast as possible. Level to 70 - 75 at public Baal runs.
Go to hell, teleport to Act5, kill baal. Then the game actually starts ^^
If you’re in Hell already, don’t waste your time doing ANYTHING in normal. The only thing worth doing in Nightmare is Andariel and that is if you are farming for SOJs and to be honest that is really a debatable strategy once you have proper magic find setup in Hell.
A better game strategy would be this:
1.) Play Normal until level 40-42, use public Baal games to get you to that level as needed
2.) Play Nightmare until level 67-70, use public Baal games to get you to that level as needed
3.) Play in Hell as far as you can, progressing forward as you can. Be sure to do Mausoleum, Pit, and Ancient Tunnel (these are the first 3 level 85 areas) and Tower runs constantly to find magic items, runes, and item bases until you are strong enough to start farming other areas such as the Chaos Sanctuary, Travincal, Mephisto, Baal, etc.
4.) As you progress in Hell you will unlock more areas to farm, add those areas to your farming list, and keep farming them.
Seriously don’t waste your time doing Normal & Nightmare Countess runs, the stuff you are going to find there is not worth it, because you will just find that stuff in Hell, but in Hell you will have the chance of finding significantly better items. For example, if you do a Hell Countess run, you can get up to an Ist rune from her special drop and up to a Lo rune from her regular drop. Monsters in the Tower in Hell can drop High Runes as well, some even up to Zod. So the Amn runes you will get from the Nightmare Countess you will surely get in Hell, but you’ll also have the jackpot chance in Hell which you have 0% chance of in Nightmare.
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Whatever…It’s not like there a huge secrets in this game. Just wondering how others spend their time playing. But if yours’s is such a secret then why not just NOT reply?
Depends what character?
Sorc: Tower until level 14 or 15 and acquired Tal-Eth, 2x Ral, few Tir runes for mana per kill.
Power through Normal to Cows. Level up a bit there, collect Jared Stones and either a white Crystal Sword or Broad Sword to socket for the SPirit.
Blast through NM, run some Tower runs for Spirit and Insight Runes, hit Andy and Meph for a bit for some gear, then Baal runs to level 60 ish.
Get through A2 Hell, then run Tower, Pits or Andy, Ancient Tunnels until my eyes pop out of my head and I decide to complete the game.
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I actually like doing Normal and Nightmare countess runs. Like I said it doesn’t take much time and after a few runs I have enough to upgrade them using the cube. Probably not the most efficient way to get runes but it’s fun to me.
I think I’m going to add the Ancient Tunnels to my list. That’s one thing I learned that I didn’t know in this thread so I’ll throw that into the rotation and see what happens.
I was out of normal around character level 28, Nightmare around 40-50 and now I’m a 78 and could go straight to Baal if I sat down and finished the campaign but I’m just having fun running around doing nothing so-to-speak. Plus at the lower difficulties I can eat and play. Drop out of Hell game, pop into normal or nightmare and have dinner. LoL
Thanks everyone who replied with useful information.
So, at the start of ladder, here is what i do.
Roll a sorc
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Level using Nova
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Do normal countess until i get Tal Eth (for stealth)
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Buy a 20% FCR wand from ormus in act 3
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Keep in FCR rings i find (usually i can find 1 or 2 while leveling up)
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Get through normal as fast as possible
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Farm cows until a non socketed or a 4os crystal sword drops then use larzuk to socket it if needed
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Farm nightmare countess for Tal Thul Ort Amn (Spirit sword) and Ort Sol (Lore helm)
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Once i hit level 24, i respec into blizzard sorc
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Rush through nightmare as fast as possible
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Level to 40 on normal baal runs if i’m not 40 by the time i get to ancients.
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Rush through hell act 1 as fast as possible, skip every quest except andy to get to act 2
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Teleport to lost city and get the WP
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check to see if there are any nightmare baal runs going, if so i’ll join them until they disband or i hit level 60, if not continue to step 14.
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Spam hell ancient tunnels at level 42+ as a blizzard sorc i should be able to do well with it.
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Get a monarch and larzuk it if needed to get a spirit monarch.
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Keep spamming ancient tunnels until a i get some drops, keeping an eye out for a 3 os helm or a 4os chest to socket ptopazes into for cheap MF (making sure to keep at least 63% FCR which is usually easy with 2 spirits and a ring or 2)
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Depending on my drops in ancient tunnels, once the sorc is around level 80:
a) If i get good items for a merc, i start doing farming keys to trade a 4x3 for a torch as the sorc
b) If i get a few good javazon or necro drops i level one for spamming cows for bases and runes
c) If i get good pally drops (gface, dracs etc.) i roll for smite to start farming torches (usually trading a 4x3 key set for 1 unid torch so every 3 runs i get a free torch for one of my characters)
d) If i get nothing by the time i’m level 80 on the sorc from ancient tunnels, i start farming nightmare meph for (war travs/tarnhelm/chance guards/alibaba/Skin of the Vipermagi/anything good) and nightmare andy (for soj) then keep any mid tier mf gear i find and trade away anything really good for runes (early on uniques are worth way more and you can trade away an early shako for like a vex+, so if i get like a perfect war travs you can bet i’m immediately trading that away for a high rune)
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Once i get some decent MF gear either through trading or farming on the sorc (around 300% mf usually with a swap like alibaba) i start doing hell meph to get gear to start capping out my resistance
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Once i cap out resistance (usually with low to mid tier items like rockstopper) i finish up any important quests i skipped and finish hell, then start focusing on doing chaos runs to level up to around 85 (if i’m not already)
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Start doing a basic route with my MF gear as the sorc until i can get a 3 piece tals through drops or trading:
a) Act 1 - Countess
b) Act 2 - Ancient Tunnels/Arcane Sanc (key)
c) Act 3 - Trav
d) Act 4 - Chaos sanc
e) Act 5 - Thresh socket/Eldritch/Pindle/Nihlithak
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Once i get really high MF through a swap, usually like 600+ mf, start spamming nightmare andy to farm an SoJ to trade away for high runes focusing on getting engima and grief.
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Make a berserk barb and get it rushed, stack Mf gear on it and start running pits/trav
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Decide on a fun character/build to play that is dumb and start going for it cycling each character i have depending on what i’m doing (barb for pit/trav, sorc for keys, javazon/necro for cows, pally for torches)
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Play a dumb build like wearbear sorc because why not?
If i happen to find anything super early like an early tal piece/shako/perfect war trav/perfect chancies, i’ll trade it away instead of keeping it for a high rune. Early MF drops can often go for ridiculous prices in the first week of ladder, and it would be better to just trade it away for a high rune, then buy one later for a lower price once more of them are out there. Lower tier mf pieces like tarnhelm/alibaba/crappy war travs/crappy chance guards i’ll just keep for myself to boost my mf a bit.
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Play how you like, but it is an entire waste of time doing normal & nightmare runs, especially of the Countess. You will get those same runes, as often, in Hell, just from regular monsters, or from doing Countess runs. Meanwhile, you will you have the chance to get other drops from hell that can only drop in hell. Another thing, the Ancient Tunnels, Pit, and Mausoleum are only worth doing in Hell, because only in Hell do they have the level 85 area set, in Normal and Nightmare they do not have any advantage over other areas in the game.
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