Just purchased the game, what would be the best class for a newbie?
Thanks
If you want to actually be able to solo through the game, Barbarian or Paladin. If you’re interested in clear speed but learning the hard way, everything else.
This is basically to say: Physical and Magic damage are the go to as Nightmare and Hell have these Immunities least in abundance. Elemental damage Immunities are everwhere in Hell.
Necromancer with summons can be easy if you don’t plan on moving quickly as well.
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Did you play D3?
Assuming you’re playing Softcore (can die unlimited times) but confirmation would be great.
What sounds fun to you from the character list?
Considering the amount of content in the game, I recommend you take every class through Act 1. Get a feel for everything. Then pick something.
Crap, I no longer have 666 posts 
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Easily a trap-Assassin or a Paladin.
Amazon using a bow. Super easy and you don’t have to be good at it.
If you start with a Paladin that focuses on Holy Fire/Zeal, then respec into Blessed Hammer/Concentration, you’ll be asking yourself why this game is so easy 
Honestly any class build will get you through the base game fairly well. Finding out how hard a boss out of no where slams your face in from lack of prep is part of the fun 
Tbh new player hitting hell difficulty and facing first immune mobs can be pretty frustrating and discouraging experience, when you also have poor gear and low resistances to boot.
Two of the classes/builds can be quite easy for a newbie combatting immunities with crappy gear and still maxing survivability. Assassin using combination of maxing fire blast + wake of fire + wake of inferno + lightning sentry + death sentry. Putting also one point to fade and mind blast. And Necromancer maxing combination of corpse explosion + bone spear + bone wall + bone prison + teeth. Putting one point to amplify damage and bone armor. Also path to “meat shield” summons could be considered. When gear gets better, you can respec into more solid builds.
Anything but Sorc.
I’d say necrolagger (summon necromancer), but the performance issues showed during beta plus the absence of the chars more prone to lag (Assassin because of trapsin, Necromancer because of necrolagger), makes me be a bit reluctanct regarding those until checking they’re “technologically viable”.
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Summon-Necromancer is very beginner-friendly. Advantages:
- There’s only two must-have skills: Raise Skeleton and Skeleton Mastery. All other skills are optional. This means you can experiment a lot.
- Very easy to play, as your summons mostly keep you safe. You can make all kinds of “mistakes” while still enjoying the game and progressing. You can really horse around as a Necro.
- Necro allows different play-styles, which keeps the game fun and interesting, for a beginner. You have options like summoning (obviously), damage-spells, support-spells (curses), crowd-control spells.
The only disadvantage of Necro is that you are not exactly the fastest killing-machine. Other builds are more “efficient”, but less newbie-friendly.
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All classes with Mind Blast and Fade.
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lol
twenty characters
all classes besides bow amazon and kicksin should be fine for a beginner
i feel you
moving on from 69 was hard for me aswell
but yeah see you at 420 , 666 , and 1337 
Whatever strikes your fancy I’d say. They all have strengths and weaknesses, but the more straightforward classes, like Amazon and Barbarian could in a sense, be seen as more “beginner-friendly” disregarding the intricacies of more advanced tactics (mainly pvp oriented though imo)
Thing with D2 is, that any class, have a multitude of builds, some for general play and others are more niche and specialized. Learn as you go. Find out what works and doesn’t.
Things also depends if you intent on playing solo or in grp’s for example, as others can make up for any weaknesses your build might have at certain places or difficulties.
As a solo-player myself, I usually have to skimp out on max damage for example, in favor of more diverse skills and items with +skills are more valueable because of that, in order to cover my bases so to speak, so I don’t get shafted by some immunity in Hell diff.
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Perhaps in normal mode. But imagine a newbie, nearly naked (compared to someone that is not first time around), trying to do solo diablo even in nightmare. These summons will last about 10 secs when diablo’s lightning hose mows them all down. Skellies are prolly summoned in around skill level 24 ( at best for this newbie). Revives could change the outcome, assuming this newbie knows how to manage and position them correctly. So, no, I myself cannot recommend this to newbie. And in hell difficulty the progression stops at the first physical immune pack. Sadly.
Barbarian just wm1 man easy life watch out for iron maiden get beserk for immune to physical easymode noob class
Btw necro is not easymode your summons get stuck on doorways (need teleport to reset them) and most bosses nuke them down really easy until your over leveld and over geared.
Welcome to Diablo II. I wish i could enjoy my first time D2 once again !
I would start with a sorc buddy.
Here the reasons
- Very good dmg dealer (exept against immune in hell)
- Not so gear dependant
- Best character to farm at early start
- You can get used to move by using teleport (mandatory skill for endgame characters with the runeword enigma).
- Character with the best mobility for this reason also
- Good pvp character at early start (hard to stack resistance)
I would go with a Cold sorc using Blizzard.
And go in public game !
Have fun !
DHA