1.00 News, Info and Gossip

[Excalibur]

I only have a LvL 60 Sorceress . Just wanted to gain a few levels at River of Flame with some players in and I noticed that I struggled a lot against everything. My main attack was supposed to be Frozen Orb which for some reason I though would kill everything with one or two casts. Right now it costs me 65 mana and with x2 Soj, Frostburn, Wall of the Eyeless and having nearly 650 mana with 100 Energy and maxed Warmth still seems not enough.

Frozen Orb is quite impractical. If it doesn't kill, you get surrounded quickly and then it just starts becoming useless since it won't damage anything if you throw it directly to a mob. For that reason it's quite hard to farm the baby maggots efficiently as you constantly need to reposition your char. But indeed, I should use Static more. I invested my last points in Glacial Spike which is currnetly at level 10 and it does wonders for farming the maggots.

One important question, is there any benefit farming NM or Hell cows if only I am searching for Rare Boots and Rare Rings? Will those come with higher stats at NM or Hell?

Thanks!

 

[art_vandelay]

I only have a LvL 60 Sorceress . Just wanted to gain a few levels at River of Flame with some players in and I noticed that I struggled a lot against everything. My main attack was supposed to be Frozen Orb which for some reason I though would kill everything with one or two casts. Right now it costs me 65 mana and with x2 Soj, Frostburn, Wall of the Eyeless and having nearly 650 mana with 100 Energy and maxed Warmth still seems not enough.

Frozen Orb is quite impractical. If it doesn't kill, you get surrounded quickly and then it just starts becoming useless since it won't damage anything if you throw it directly to a mob. For that reason it's quite hard to farm the baby maggots efficiently as you constantly need to reposition your char. But indeed, I should use Static more. I invested my last points in Glacial Spike which is currnetly at level 10 and it does wonders for farming the maggots.

Don't bother farming RoF with sorceress, she has no control over where damage lands and some lag could mean a death even from maggot babies. If you want to do this optimally you basically need a WW barb, as you can actually target your damage to the babies as opposed to accidentally killing the mothers. A game like that you can keep open for hours, hell you can even have it running over night. Characters can gain 50 levels in such a game or more.

The Orb is really nice while rushing through normal, NM and early Hell but in act 4 Hell it shows its weakness, that's just how it is

One important question, is there any benefit farming NM or Hell cows if only I am searching for Rare Boots and Rare Rings? Will those come with higher stats at NM or Hell?

Here is Treeharl's analysis of rings, you can find a lot of item discussion in the link to this item thread in the first post:

Rings

Next in class are rings. 1.00 is famous for low level easy to get leach rings. Luckely rings are among the easiest target as Cow King drops them quite frequent. The highest decent modifier requiers ilvl 62 this means Cow King hell is more than sufficient to get anything on your rare ring you want. This also means that gambling on rings is A BAD IDEA! I explained in my other guide how you could use the Cow King to gain decent amount of your selected rare items.

Should I run Cow King normal, nm or hell for my rare rings? That is up to you. Normal has the best chance of getting a decent to a very good ring while Cow King hell can drop truely insane rings but also very bad ones...

Modifier ilvl
+31-40 to Life 24
+31-40 to Mana 24
Cold Resist +31-50% 25
Fire Resist +31-50% 25
Lightning Resist +31-50% 25
Poison Resist +31-50% 25
+121-150 to Attack Rating 27
+21-30 to Mana 30
+41-60 to Mana 30
Poison Resist +11-20% 35
Adds 1 Minimum to 2-6 Fire Damage 40
Adds 2-7 Poison Damage 45
Adds 1-8 Lightning Damage 50
Replenish Life +5 55
+11-15 to Dexterity 60
+15% to each Resistance 62
+11-15 to Strength 62

As you can see everything from ivl 35 till 55 is terrible!. This means running Cow King nm for rings is plain stupid!

Scource or rare rings
- Cow King hell for the best ones (drops all modifiers)
- Cow King normal (ilvl 31) for decent ones (you can farm these very quickly with a decent seed)
- if you still want to gamble rings NOT RECOMENDED either gamble at clvl 30-32 or clvl 65+

Check out his stuff on boots as well, but generally most good stats occur quite early. There is an affix table in the vortex thread:

[GUIDE] The Time Traveler's Vortex - Part 2 - A Guide to Pre-LoD Versions

Welcome to the Time Traveler's Guide to pre-LoD Versions! LINKY to general time travel guide Slight change from the version(s) posted on the old forums, since else it would be one bigger guide to 1.00 and a bunch of lesser guides. Quick overview of Pre-LoD patches: 1.00 - Where it all...

www.purediablo.com

Affix level is the item level plus two and gambling has the same constraints to ilvl as in modern versions.

 

[Excalibur]

Oh my.. I really though Normal Cows would be enough. I definitely can't run Hell cows with my current Sorcy. Thanks for the help!

 

[DariusTriplet]

Static Field is the single best skill in the game post-CE nerf at higher players settings, since it scales with monster HP. The only thing that really impacts it is lightning resist, which is a fixed value, so monsters are just as sturdy vs a Sorceress at p1 as they are on p8. The play pattern for a Sorceress in 1.00-1.06 is: gather up monsters, Static until they close in, run away, more Static, then lob a few FO once they're low enough. There's no real rule of thumb for when to switch to FO; you'll just get a feel for it as you play. It's a pity that blowing entire mana orbs of Orbs isn't really a great way to play, since it's so damned fun to blast 20+ Orbs out in a few seconds.

One EXTREMELY IMPORTANT FROZEN ORB FACT is that, in 1.00-1.06, you DO NOT want Orb to ever hit monsters! I can't overemphasize this fact - once the Orb hits a monster, it'll continue to display and look like it's throwing shards, but it doesn't actually do any damage. You want to aim Orbs right by monsters, but never hitting any of them, to deal maximum damage.

I did like slvl 20 Orb, since it helped a lot vs high-resist monsters - Orb + a few points in Mastery were enough to slice through Staticed-down monsters, and were strong enough to deal with finger mages on p8.

I wrote up my playthrough of a 1.05 Sorceress - https://www.diabloii.net/forums/threads/queen-of-the-sorceresses-a-1-05-adventure.966469/ - which gets more into Staticing, Orbing, etc.

The Orb is really nice while rushing through normal, NM and early Hell but in act 4 Hell it shows its weakness, that's just how it is

Doesn't help that there's a ton of lightning resist in Act 4 Hell - Static barely does anything vs finger mages, and IIRC Izual has so much HP that he bugs Static. At least, I recall Static-ing him dozens of times with no effect on his health bar, and Statics+a few bulbs of FO didn't budge his HP at all.

OTOH Sorcs are probably the single best Diablo runner, since his huge HP doesn't do much vs. Static, his obnoxious blockrate doesn't do anything vs spells, and you can Teleport away from pink hoses.

 

[WoRG]

Just gonna point out that you want a high level Static... damage doesn't increase, but range does, and you wanna hit the whole screen with it, so everything just falls over with 1-2 Orbs after you Static them down...

WoRG

 

[Barl]

I only have a LvL 60 Sorceress . Just wanted to gain a few levels at River of Flame with some players in and I noticed that I struggled a lot against everything. My main attack was supposed to be Frozen Orb which for some reason I though would kill everything with one or two casts. Right now it costs me 65 mana and with x2 Soj, Frostburn, Wall of the Eyeless and having nearly 650 mana with 100 Energy and maxed Warmth still seems not enough.

Frozen Orb is quite impractical. If it doesn't kill, you get surrounded quickly and then it just starts becoming useless since it won't damage anything if you throw it directly to a mob. For that reason it's quite hard to farm the baby maggots efficiently as you constantly need to reposition your char. But indeed, I should use Static more. I invested my last points in Glacial Spike which is currnetly at level 10 and it does wonders for farming the maggots.

One important question, is there any benefit farming NM or Hell cows if only I am searching for Rare Boots and Rare Rings? Will those come with higher stats at NM or Hell?

Thanks!

I often stat about 200 energy on sorc (and necro) by level 50. that plus two sojs and frostburn gets you close to 1000 mana and allows you to spam orb, aided by wall of the eyeless and warmth. then again, i only play in single player games (only multi to xfer). static should do the bulk of the work with enough points to have good range (i.e., so you don't have to get near the enemies).

are you familiar with the strangeness about orb in the early patches (1.07 and prior? not sure): the orb itself doesn't do much at all, it's the shards that come out the side that do the most damage, so you want to aim near but not at things.

 

[Excalibur]

Yeah I know that about the Frozen Orb!
I though playing through 1.00 would be a walk in the park with the experience from the later patches but eventually it was a hell of a journey. In any case, my goal was achieved and I gathered dozes of Soj and now I am in search of some rare rings which I could perhaps use in PvP. Just wondering if anyone has any of those crazy Rare rings that a Hell Cow King can drop? Would like to see what it looks like.

Also, I tried to rush another Sorceress and noticed she was not gaining any experience as I was killing stuff with my 60 LvL Sorceress? I read in Helvete's thread "The must be within couple of screens to get exp thing wasn't invented until 1.10, so both chars will gain experience." so how exactly that works? Which is the best way to level a new char?

 

[art_vandelay]

Also, I tried to rush another Sorceress and noticed she was not gaining any experience as I was killing stuff with my 60 LvL Sorceress? I read in Helvete's thread "The must be within couple of screens to get exp thing wasn't invented until 1.10, so both chars will gain experience." so how exactly that works? Which is the best way to level a new char?

As long as you are partied and in the same area you should receive XP. Best way is to park the rushees in the little appendix at the "beginning" of the RoF and clear everything in a large radius around it to make them safe.

As to the rings, it's really up to your imagination. Just look at the affix tables and combine a bit, there is no "best" ring I guess, or at least finding anything approaching that would be incredibly hard. There are only slightly more than 4 billion rare rings, which means the potential for good affixes AND high rolls is limited.

 

[Excalibur]

I parked one character lvl 1 outside the Rogue Enhancement, killed some mobs with my LvL 60 Sorcy and no experience was transfered to it, strange. Does this work if I bring level 1 rushees to hell for example?

 

[art_vandelay]

I parked one character lvl 1 outside the Rogue Enhancement, killed some mobs with my LvL 60 Sorcy and no experience was transfered to it, strange. Does this work if I bring level 1 rushees to hell for example?

You are sure the two are partied? Was it truly no XP or just very low?

It should work anywhere one can gain experience...

 

[Excalibur]

Yeah both were partied. No exp at all, will try again in a while.

It should work anywhere one can gain experience...

I asked that in case there were restrictions for exp gaining depending the character level and the difficulty.

 

[Excalibur]

Was it truly no XP or just very low?

Eventually it was my bad. She was getting one point of experience which didn't move the exp bar even at level 1 and I assumed it was no exp at all.
So... what's the most effective way to level up a rushee if they only obtain one point of experience?

 

[d2lover]

1.07 ancients, after that 1.07 cows

no point with all the bugs that get either your char curropted, trapped in normal, or slow down the runs.

1.05+ could be ok for rushing, as all the serious bugs seem to be fixed there

but still a timewaste imo

you save act 5 for what exactly?
being trapped in a version without manapots

 

[art_vandelay]

Eventually it was my bad. She was getting one point of experience which didn't move the exp bar even at level 1 and I assumed it was no exp at all.
So... what's the most effective way to level up a rushee if they only obtain one point of experience?

Oops, I overread your statement about the Rogue Encampment. Yeah the monsters there give abysmal XP. You really need to go to the Hell RoF and kill a LOT of maggots. It will be fast at the beginning, then slow down around 20-25 and then become fast again.

What @d2lover is referencing is all the fun I compiled in this thread:

[Guide] Gamebreaking Bugs and Crashes in Diablo 2 (1.00-1.14d)

This is meant to be an up to date collection of all 'gamebreaking' bugs in D2 ranging from patch 1.00 to the current patch 1.14d. This includes all bugs which lead to loss of items, progress or even entire characters. The majority of bugs in this list are crashes and the losses are incurred by...

www.purediablo.com

Basically you need to be very careful when rushing in 1.00.

That being said if you don't have 1.07 characters yet, doing RoF leveling in 1.00 is faster. That way you can start out in those more difficult patches with lvl 60+ characters. Especially if you want the "free" level 52 rushees later on.

Once you have a 1.07 infrastructure cows will indeed be faster, but before that 1.00 rules.

 

[Excalibur]

1.07 ancients, after that 1.07 cows

no point with all the bugs that get either your char curropted, trapped in normal, or slow down the runs.

1.05+ could be ok for rushing, as all the serious bugs seem to be fixed there

but still a timewaste imo

you save act 5 for what exactly?
being trapped in a version without manapots

Wanted to create a new char for Hell Cows.

@art_vandelay Thanks for everything!

 

[Excalibur]

So I managed to rush a new Sorcy to Hell and I am trying to level her up in the River of Flame.
Now the Maggots lay the Eggs only ONCE. After that they seem not to summon any more baby maggots. I noticed that happens only when I host a TCP/IP game. Anyone knows why that happens?

 

[T-Rex]

So I managed to rush a new Sorcy to Hell and I am trying to level her up in the River of Flame.
Now the Maggots lay the Eggs only ONCE. After that they seem not to summon any more baby maggots. I noticed that happens only when I host a TCP/IP game. Anyone knows why that happens?

Sorry can't answer that but IMO -
Best place to farm Maggots has to be Maggot Liar, level 3, just outside Cold Wom the Burrower's room.
My SP offline v1.00 Sorcs like to help themselves to 10 levels per difficulty.
Young Maggots will form an orderly single-file procession down to you standing at the bottom end of the long staright corridor leading in. Optimal point is just outside Sand Maggot poison spitting range. Don't kill Cold Worm who produces Sand Maggot - nor them who produce the young. Fire Ball works well [1pt Fb, FB + FM +skills]
Will pre-cast a TP in case poison gets too hot and need to step into Town, however - don't know what the trigger is but - occassionally the room will seethe with hundreds and the TP malfuctions [mouse hover-over TP no longer states Lut Gholein] and you'll need to retreat into the more open space and cast again until it works.
Worth collecting gems+mana pots for Full Rev recipe together with other goodies to sell and gamble - rare rings and amulets can have up to six affixes.
Also you can go away and do other things - kill Andy, Meph, etc - returning thereafter to rinse and repeat.
Edit @art_vandelay Q "Does anyone have some more playthroughs of pre-LoD classic or strategy guides? uQ
Don't know if these qualify for wkat you're looking for, but for what it's worth I have
D2Classic - JChristopher 2000-11-22
D2Classic - Samdelazie 2000-09-09
D2Classic - Stinger 3 16 2001-03-18
and for the record swear by -
D2X - A.K.A. 2005-07-26

Edit2 Anyone know why Blizzard removed Flamespike the Crawler (Razor Spine) from guarding the Inner Cloister WP?

 

[art_vandelay]

Fire Ball works well [1pt Fb, FB + FM +skills]

I agree with the strategy in every point except this one and I had the same success with it as you. I chose to put points into Glacial Spike instead because it is useful outside of the Maggot Lair and it keeps the maggots in place. Of course I never tried any other fire spell besides Warmth in 1.00 so that may be another reason for me.

Edit @art_vandelay Q "Does anyone have some more playthroughs of pre-LoD classic or strategy guides? uQ
Don't know if these qualify for wkat you're looking for, but for what it's worth I have
D2Classic - JChristopher 2000-11-22
D2Classic - Samdelazie 2000-09-09
D2Classic - Stinger 3 16 2001-03-18
and for the record swear by -
D2X - A.K.A. 2005-07-26

I think you forgot to put links

Anyone know why Blizzard removed Flamespike the Crawler (Razor Spine) from guarding the Inner Cloister WP?

Never heard of anything official but he is the only monster that can spawn on a WP which means that he probably killed his fair share of HC characters. Maybe the community complained about it being unfair and they gave in and removed him.

It is certainly not because of his farmability, he only drops garbage

 

[Barl]

Edit2 Anyone know why Blizzard removed Flamespike the Crawler (Razor Spine) from guarding the Inner Cloister WP?

not sure if there's any known official reason, but that dude is dangerous. even on single player with certain low-power chars he can kill you if you're careless. i imagine it was even worse on battle.net in the old days because of lag. i can see him just murdering people whose client hadn't even loaded the room yet because of lag.


i started a twinked pike-ww barb recently with a challenge: no points spent in vitality. i decided to twink the character because otherwise it would be too miserable of an experience. currently in act 2 normal and level 16. weapon is a socketed pike with three perfect skulls in it and honestly this may have to be the weapon i carry throughout the whole game. leap attack will, because it always hits, be the main thing to do until i get ww.

 

[T-Rex]

@art_vandelay
1. Yes, maybe so, but would find Glacial Spike [1pt prerequisite] more useful for Rof Eg. with @Excalibur 's Q "Frozen Orb is quite impractical. If it doesn't kill, you get surrounded quickly and then it just starts becoming useless" uQ Glacial Spike will freeze a few, block others and buy a bit of time ...and save Orb for Knights and the like.
However when no young are coming down the Lair passage FB will hit and kill the Sand Maggots as far back as Cold Worms part, whereas GS won't necessarily. And yes Cold Worm will replace them, but that slows down the egg-laying process.
...Besides Andy quite likes those particular 3+skills Fire pts ;-) [Prefer Magefist over Frosties but keep both.]
Did you experience the "heaving masses" and TP bug/thing?
@art_vandelay
2. With regards to the Links : After 20+ years if they don't "Google" they probably don't exist... and they [hate to say it] probably "belong" to other sites. Not sure if that matters? but last known contact details -
- by Joseph Christopher <[email protected]>
- by Samdelazie. Email : [email protected]
- Stinger has removed his Email and rants on about Trolls + includes his "list of the damned"
Good Luck
@art_vandelay @Barl
3. To the best of my knowledge, seem to recall getting Uniques from both Flamespike and Bone Ash [in Cathedral.] So if ones Grailing Classic might be worthwhile target/s, incl whole level.
Aren't one/some wand/s unobtainable?
Also thinking : Flamespikes absence may explain those illusive TC3 items in later patches.
Incidentally, in v1.00 Normal , sometimes the first Unique of the game will drop between Rogue Camp and the first WP - by whatshername, "Halt! You should complete Akara's quest before venturing further"
@Barl
4. My Sorcs will use a Composite Bow with three perfect Skulls for most of Normal Act ii and Act iii.
Eventually replaced upon finding Spectral Shard and together with three perfect diamonds Shield their End Game gear.
It's funny that for me Sorcs never use a staff - maybe carrying the quest ones. They start first few levels with the given hurty-stick [repairs 1xGP] and go on to Long Bow as soon as they can, Composite Bow, then Spectral/Shield.
With optional Hellforge Quest saved for other patches, Hell Forge Hammer +40 F habdy to use for leveling/grailing Council Upstairs + Down, etc - don't recall using for Diablo