phaolo: Also, when I tried it, the "Fire Enchanted" stat wasn't fixed, so those quite common special monsters often meant insta-kill. : \
(and do you remember Ok's Iron Maiden curse? *shivers in fear*)
rtcvb32: And fire enchanted... hated those the most. Kill them from blindly in the other room shooting anything and everything until you hear the explode, wait 10 seconds in case entering the field would instantly kill you... ugg.
Iron Maiden curse? Hmmm... Wasn't that a necromancer's ability?
Light weights! It was Multi-Shot + Lightning Enchanted that truly killed you. Man I hated that ability combo.
Ikarugamesh: You made me want to play D2LoD again, but this time I'll stick to single player, as Bnet's characters expire (plus it's full of bots), and the local multiplayer is plagued with cheaters.
Character expiration seems to mostly be a thing of the past. I've left characters for a year or so and come back to play them. The "Character Expired" message displayed, but after I logged in with the character, it was fine.
KiNgBrAdLeY7: Yo, thanks a lot! Much appreciated! I didn't know i could use leoric's in second weapon shield slot and have it used simultaneously!
Be aware that while it is in your weapon switch, it is not actually active. You need to have it as your current weapon to get the bonuses from it. You can use it to summon skellies at the higher skill level, then switch back and the skellies will remain summoned at the higher level. If it bumps the Summon Skelly skill enough to give you an extra skeleton, then the extra will die once you swap back (the skill is no longer being supported at that level).
By extension: if you see a skill shrine, then consider resummoning your expendable minions (not the Iron Golem) while the skill shrine is active. They'll still be at the higher skill level when the shrine wears off (while curses and such will go back to normal).
KiNgBrAdLeY7: They don't expire! They expire only if you don't log in for 10 days straight (very hard to miss).
...
After normal, you NEVER see a SINGLE advertiser EVER again, they are always level 1 and lurk in normal. You can enjoy the game PERFECTLY! Battle net is better because of the ladder exclusive runewords, THE EXCLUSIVE C.U.B.E. RECIPES, the events etc. Or joining a full game and get MAX xp, much better drops chance etc. No way in single you can do all this fun stuff.
The 10 day limit is only for brand new characters, and you can leave your character sitting in one of the "Parking" games (or make your own) for 2 hours to push the limit to 90 days.
I'm pretty sure some of the ad bots get glitch rushed to Hell difficulty. Not much point in having one advertising in NM diff. I just wish there was a better way to filter to the spammed messages.
Most of the Ladder stuff is available in single player (not some of the events, though). In SP you can simulate having up to 8 players with the "/players x" line; the game will act as if there are 8 players in the game, though you are the only actual player.
hohiro: After you played 2 hrs with achar, it"expires" in 90 days, not 10 and you get a countdown. If the Charname isn`t used, you can even recover the char if it isnt used for VERY long time, although it says expired. Only your account you have to login once every 180 days i think.
Pretty much this.
KiNgBrAdLeY7: Hmm, i reached hell just now, but i don't dare venture in it, yet. I am level 66. One hedgehog spike thrown at me makes me loose 1/3 of my almost 700 hitpoints. My issue was my need to find those +2 skillers at nightmare, but since you say no chance, well, i might build some more levels and go full hell. Damn this character is overkill, i went to fight Baal thinking i would die instantly, but minions swarmed him to a corner, he did not even have time to clone himself... Hell is at another league on its own, though. Monsters are full of immunities, do insane damage etc.
You want a Summonmancer build? Max Raise Skeleton, Max Skeleton Mastery, 1 in Amp Damage through to Lower Resist, and just a few (1-5) in Golem Mastery and Summon Resist, then focus on Clay Golem. You can add 1 to Corpse Explosion (and pre-reqs) if you like. A few in Skeleton Mages and 1 in Revive if you like. Use the Act 2 merc with the Might aura. Make sure to keep your vitality high.
The Clay Golem gets insane HP, and the slow effect is epic even if the golem isn't high DPS. My merc is using Kelpie Snare for massive slow, +Clay Golem Slow, +Decrep, and Baal can't move and only occasionally attack. Amp Damage can break physical resistance for your skeletons to go to town while you sit back and stay alive, so use that most of the time.
KiNgBrAdLeY7: I might farm the Cow level too. Nightmare's is very rewarding, as i can remember. Some runes and socketed weapons wouldn't hurt, as well as xp etc. And fortunately, it is only one level lower area than Baal's palace!
They seriously toned down the Cow level drops some time back. Keep this in mind when deciding where to farm. Baal and the minions he calls up in the Throne of Destruction are pretty much the place to look now, iirc.
awalterj: You can of course change difficulty levels and restart the game in nightmare mode several times until you get an ideal layout...
In act 5, you can also go to the first portal, run down the stairs to Shenk (the fat slave whip guy), quickly kill him and run back up, and then kill Eldritch who is very close to the portal as well (bit further up and to the right). Can't promise you'll get anything good anytime soon but Pindleskin/Shenk/Eldritch are the most convenient minor bosses who can drop so-so stuff. Andariel and cow runs are a waste of time on nightmare imho. The runes Andariel drops in nightmare aren't high level enough for cool rune words.
He's on the realms, so he can't preserve a mini-map path. That would work wonders in SP though.
The big draw for NM Andariel is the slim chance for SOJs, iirc. Shenk and Pindleskin both got their drops toned down a lot, but they are still very easy to access (I often run Shenk abd Eldritch when I start a game, just to see what they have).
rtcvb32: This reminds me... A good number of skills that are useful early on are utter crap later (
like firebolt). Skeletons and Skeleton mastery is a dump skill. Put enough in until you can get golems, and raise the dead as shadows of themselves.
At least that's one thing they fixed in Zy-El, namely all skills are viable even at later levels...
Skeletons were indeed garbage way back. Now they are the summonmancer's bread and butter. Use Amp Damage and the Might merc with a golem. The Revived AI is simply too stupid to be reliable.
KiNgBrAdLeY7: Even damaged and cracked white items appear, or chipped gems!
You need those chipped gems to start cubing runes of Thul and higher. Starts with various chipped, moves to flawed, and onward.