Guide:Building Weath Guide v1.10, by Handofnaz: Difference between revisions

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A Guide for the Poor and Impoverished

Hey all. I’m Handofnaz, and this is my first attempt at writing a guide to, well, anything. This is just a compilation of things I’ve learned from playing the game and from other people, on the forums and off. I hope this offers enough information for the wretched and poverty-stricken among us. Comments and suggestions are very welcome. Happy reading.

So you finally got the modem up and running and you’re ready to break into the wide, wild world of Battle.net. You’re thrilled about the possibility of being able to quickly trade for equipment and items that will make your characters the best that they can be. Just one problem: you have nothing to trade. Fear not. It is every new player’s predicament, and older players go through it every time the Ladder resets. This is a guide that will help you gradually build the wealth that you truly feel you deserve. Now, I’m not promising godliness and high-level runewords cluttering your stash overnight. But I can promise that you will learn quite a bit about amassing wealth and excellent items, or, as I like to say, making the moneys.

I’ll be writing this in easy to understand terms, and I won’t bog you down with complicated formulas, jargon, charts, or anything of the sort. This is a guide to get you off the ground. If you’re interested in more specific details about the game (say, magic find ratios and percentages, item levels, treasure class levels, etc.), you can go ahead and check the many guides these forums have to offer. For now, let’s get on to making you super-rich! Or, rich. Or, just appropriately moneyed.

Everything’s fired up and you’re ready to go. Here are a few fundamental basics to help you make those crucial early-career choices.

Congratulations! You now have a setup which gives you plus 6-9 levels to your favorite skills and 96% to 168% MF, all for the low low price of playing the game. Now, what about the rest of your stuff? Honestly, it doesn’t matter, as long as it helps you kill and stay alive. If you can afford additional MF on your gloves, rings, boots, belt, etc, then go right ahead and use it.

I’ll try to make this short and sweet, as there are tons of guides out there that detail everything you need to know about magic finding, Darnoc’s Bnet Magic Find Guide being an excellent example. I won’t be discussing percentages and such, just the basic necessities.

There are other great places and targets for magic find runs. Again, check this thread for more information.

Muling is defined as the transfer of items between your current character and a backup character created for the purpose of storage. It’ll be useful to have a couple of mules lying around to help keep items you won’t be using immediately, or stuff that you plan to trade. Make sure to play with or at least leave your mules sitting in the Rogue Encampment for a total of two hours (split up or continuous) to perm them. You don’t want them expiring and taking all your hard-earned goodies with them. Some people also use characters that they no longer play with as mules.

You can now switch characters repeatedly to transfer items. Take note of a couple of things, though. If you switch characters too quickly (i.e. join and leave the game too fast), you'll get a realm down. Your IP address will be temporarily banned for 5 to 15 minutes, and you won't be able to log in to the realm. As you can see, this spells instant death for any items you may have left on the ground. As such, it is advisable to transfer items in small doses, that is, between as few characters as possible, and to stay in the game for about 30 seconds between each mule switch you make.

Here’s the fun part.

I won’t tell you how to deal with Uber Trist because there are tons of guides out there to help you. This one by C Squad is a good example. I’m told that with the right characters, it can be a cinch. As you probably noticed, you’ll need at least three keysets to make it to Uber Tristram in the first place, assuming all three initial portals open to the right level. Of course, there’s nothing stopping you from just trading for the organs to begin with. Have fun dealing with the Three, and give Mephisto a nice kick in the you-know-whats for me.

Trading on Battle.net is fairly simple. You join a trading game (which you can usually tell by the game’s name), click on the player with whom you want to trade, and wait for him to agree to trade with you. You then place your trade items in your respective windows and click on the check button when ready. Once both buttons turn green, the trade is completed, and you are both free to enjoy your new goods.

Keep these in mind, and remember to be careful and aware of what you’re doing. Trading is the best way for you to acquire what you want, and done properly, can take your characters very far.

As you may have gleaned from the earlier parts of this guide, there are very many ways to build wealth apart from simply magic finding. After a bit of experience playing the game, you might be interested in going on one of the following career paths, or even a combination of them. Note that you’ll need a decently mid- to high-level character to be successful at some of these, in terms of kill speed and efficiency. Don’t think about this as detrimental to your success. Just play the game and enjoy yourself. Before you know it, you’ll be powerful enough to take anything on. The stuff you pick up along the way is just gravy.

It gets a little complex here. There’s a nifty full-length guide on looking for the right server on which Diablo Clone walks. Many players have used this method to successfully reap multiple Annihilus charms, which are some of the most expensive items in the game. You will, of course, need to have multiple mules who can enter Hell games to pick up said charms, or kill DClone without an Anni to begin with. Check this guide for more details.

You’re comfortable and happy, and you’ve outfitted your first great character to your fullest satisfaction. Congratulations. Now, what to do with your magic finder?

Do whatever you want to with your MF character. Have them stick around and play with them every so often. After all, it’s them you have to thank for making your characters as awesome as they are now.

Not exactly related to success in Diablo II at all, but this aspect of the game still merits some discussion. What truly bugs most players about newbies is not the fact that they aren’t quite experienced with the game, but the very persistent negative behavior they exhibit. Few things can mark you for death more than begging, randomly cussing, picking fights, and stealing.

• If someone is rushing you, try your very best to be nice to them. And be polite when it comes to item drops. General consensus dictates that the rusher gets first choice of items, since it’s him doing the killing, and most likely him with the MF turning the stuff green, yellow, and gold. When it comes to act bosses, thought, rushees are usually given the benefit of first pick, since the first time a character kills a boss for a quest is also the best set of drops that boss will give (this is statistically true, but it will, of course, still depend on MF at the boss’ time of death). Rules may vary in your corner of Bnet. It may help to discuss this with your rusher beforehand. A last note. If it’s a free rush, let him have everything. He’s doing this for you for free, after all.

A great many thanks to the beautiful minds of Nightfish, Sasja, Darnoc, Cyber Dragon, Hoarshade, C Squad, Twelvebagger, and Urlik_Skarsol for their excellent guides and the information that was so helpful in the creation of this guide. Thanks also to Arreat Summit for being there to provide detailed statistics and information on just about everything on-call, 24/7. And thank you for having the patience to read through this. Here’s to your eventual prosperity. Cheers.

This section provides all the links used in this guide, and are listed in order of mention. Note how many of these guides are written by necromancers. *Cough, cough*.