Heheh, and normal mode is a walk in the park compared to the higher difficulties.

Of course, higher-difficulty Diablo 2 isn't designed to be solo'd. One of the problems you might be having is that the drop-rate for magic weapons that actually have a damage bonus is actually quite low and merchants virtually never stock them. This means that melee characters who don't do heavy grinding are usually under-equipped for each act. Agreed, although this really only shows up in the higher difficulties. Heh, gotta disagree with you on this. I find this vastly improves the game.

There actually are potions in Diablo 2 that have instant effect: the rejuvination potions. Quite frankly, they ruin the game. Higher-difficulty level monsters are all about 1HKO'ing players since people can just chug a rejuvination potion if they ever get too low. The gradual potions let the monsters be a challenge without having to resort to 1HKO-level damage to be threatening. These aren't as bad as they first appear. The problem is that most players don't invest nearly enough stat points into vitality and are actually (unintentionally) playing glass cannons. If you actually put enough points into vitality, you can melee these nasty critters pretty easily. In its fully-patched state, solo Diablo 2 hell difficulty is close to unbeatable legitimately. Synergies and the preponderance of immunities means that every character will eventually encounter monsters they simply are incapable of fighting at the higher difficulties. Ironically, the hammerdin is the only exception as (for whatever reason) blessed hammer has a damage bug that was never fixed and nothing is immune to it. I've only beaten Diablo 2 hell difficulty on my own merits before the synergy patch (mind you, I never played extensively after that point).