Diablo II ProTip Guide Pt. 2
- April 29, 2003 13:36 PM PST
- Email this!
Jay Turner
Don't ignore leveling up to rush through the quests. Whenever you find a cave, hole, or dungeon that doesn't pertain to your quest, clean it out anyway. Usually you'll find some good items and gold in there, but most importantly you'll be gaining XPs and getting more powerful by the moment.
When you come up against a named monster with a horde of wimpy monsters around, melee characters will want to take out the unique, while Amazons and spellcasters might want to focus on the cannon fodder. Killing the "named" baddie sometimes weakens the other monsters around it, but weaker characters may have a hard time fighting with ten weaker enemies beating on them at once.
Necromancers thrive where there are dead things. For this reason, it's not always the best idea to use freezing weapons when a necro is in your party. Corpse Explosion is more effective than almost any ice weapon you can use (except some of the Sorceress' ice skills), so try to drop at least one corpse in a group of enemies.
Spellcasters may want to look for mana regeneration and mana-stealing items. Items exist that increase your mana recharge rate, steal mana with each hit, or add points of mana with each kill. These are great for the Necromancer, who never gets a mana recharge skill. Weapons that steal mana with damage are great for Paladins and Barbarians, who never get nearly the amount of mana the other classes enjoy.
The ALT key is your friend. Whenever you've just finished a huge battle, walk around with the ALT key pressed, and any items that were dropping in the melee will show up on screen, and you can pick them up by clicking on their name label.
More Horadric Cube formulae: 2 quivers of arrows = 1 quiver of crossbow bolts; 2 quivers of bolts = 1 quiver of arrows; 1 spear + 1 quiver of arrows = 1 bundle of javelins; 3 perfect gems + 1 magical item = random high level item; 2 Topaz + 1 ring = Coral Ring (gives lightning resistance). Experiment with other items in the Cube and you just might be surprised.
When you're fighting a boss, it's nice to have at least one Town Portal open in a relatively safe location. If you're in a party, have at least two in different areas, so that at least one will always be open. This way you can run to town, stock up, repair, heal (by talking to certain people in town), and go back down at full strength.
Throughout Act I, collect all the anti-poison gear you can, because Andariel poisons with each hit and spews poison bolts. Items that reduce poison length are often better, because the resistance items you find in Act I aren't necessarily strong enough to resist the boss' poison attacks.
Save any set pieces you find, even if you don't plan to use them. You should be able to find someone on Battle.Net who needs the piece you have, and you can usually trade those pieces for good money.
Danny Lam
Don't under estimate the value of poisoning potions, especially when dispatching enemies that stay at a distance like those Fetishes.
As the Barbarian, use your Find Potion ability to get as many potions as you can. If you don't have enough room, throw them into your Horadric Cube and transmute some health and mana potions into rejuvenation potions.
The Barbarian's leaping attack can: a) get you out of a jam b) allow you to leap to areas that may not be accessible without a bridge c) attack enemies with one click
The Barbarian's War Cry will scare minions away so you can attack the big boss (like annoying Shamans that raises the dead or whatever).
Hell To Play
That about wraps up the GamePros' attempt at kindness. You'll have to take it from here? unless you want to read our upcoming strategy guides. Tune in tomorrow for our Necromancer guide, and keep checking back for more assistance from the GamePros.
- Previous Page Prev
- Next Page Next
- 1
- 2
