Asking for a few opinions

[Aerali]

Asking for a few opinions

I have recently reinstalled D2. I had previously had it but didnt play all that much due to other games(mainly EQ) wasting all my time. I have since decided to go back and play a lot of older games that I missed out on, D2 included among them.

Now on to the meat of the question: I am going to stick with single player, and am only using ATMA (at the moment) to store extra gems. I plan to play each class untwinked, one Act at a time until I beat the game through Hell level. (Act 1 norm on all toons, then Act 2 norm etc). To compare and so on.

My main question after looking through the builds is to see if the ones that interest me and I am going to play I will be able to beat with just gear I can buy or get lucky to drop. I do not plan on doing any Baal or Mephisto runs etc, at this time. I'll just say the class and the build if it will work, just letting me know yea or nay will be a great help. Thanks a lot in advance.

Amazon - Sniperzon kinda (Strafe w/ merc and Valk: magic arrow for bosses)
Assassin - TS/DTail trapper (Death Sentry ?Blade fury venom line too maybe)
Barbarian - Frenzy barb
Druid - Werewolf (TheDragoon's version to an extent)
Necromancer - Skelliemancer with bone spear also for bosses
Paladin - Avenger
Sorceress - All around (10 pts in each mastery 5 pts in the big spell in each line Meteor Blizzard Thunder storm 10 pts to what I call the buildup skills fireball chain lightning and glacial spike) with room for a few flavors

Will these work? Not too worried about hard. I just dont want to get somewhere and get stuck and have to start the toon all over.

Hoping to find that one character class I like and then I will stick with it.

Thanks again for any comments

Rick

 

[corax1]

all of them will work. however the sorc will be incredibly weak due to lack of gear and skills. you should pick the skill from either a) fire or b) lightning that appeals most to you, say hydra, meteor or charged bolt. max it, the mastery and one synergy out. aswell as getting max frozen orb and as many in cold mastery as yiou can afterwards. dont forget teleport, warmth or static field.

 

[VioletStar]

My main question after looking through the builds is to see if the ones that interest me and I am going to play I will be able to beat with just gear I can buy or get lucky to drop. I do not plan on doing any Baal or Mephisto runs etc, at this time. I'll just say the class and the build if it will work, just letting me know yea or nay will be a great help. Thanks a lot in advance.

Amazon - Sniperzon kinda (Strafe w/ merc and Valk: magic arrow for bosses)
Assassin - TS/DTail trapper (Death Sentry ?Blade fury venom line too maybe)
Barbarian - Frenzy barb
Druid - Werewolf (TheDragoon's version to an extent)
Necromancer - Skelliemancer with bone spear also for bosses
Paladin - Avenger
Sorceress - All around (10 pts in each mastery 5 pts in the big spell in each line Meteor Blizzard Thunder storm 10 pts to what I call the buildup skills fireball chain lightning and glacial spike) with room for a few flavors

I'm nowhere near the expertise of other players here, but here is my take. First of all, which version do you plan to play on? The latest is 1.11. I only started playing in 1.10. However I have heard from others that the game play is significantly different before and after 1.10.

Assuming you are playing the 1.11 version, with no mod, and with average luck on item drop / shop.
StrafeaZon - very item dependent. You will need a high damage bow and items that give Increased Attack Speed. My guess: you will be stuck at Act 1 Hell, or at most Act 2 if you manage to crawl out of Act 1.

TrapperSin could be viable.
Martial Artist Sin or MA/Trap is item dependent and I personally find it hard to play, you have to click at the right time to release the charges. My guess: Act 4 of Nightmare.

FrenzyBarb - somewhat item dependent. Act 4 and 5 of Hell can be extremely frustrating, but plausible.

Werewolf - no comment, I have not played a Druid.

SkellyMancer - definitely plausible and easiest to play untwinked.

Avenger - never try this, but my guess is that this is very item dependent.

Sorceress - my favorite character. I'm not sure about the tri-elemental build you are aiming for, but Frozen Orb / Fire Ball build is certainly viable to be played untwinked, minimal repeats, and no MF runs.

 

[Twoflower]

as someone said above, realy depends on what version you ll play

if this is in 1.10 then :

forget about your plan for the sorc, look up the famous meteorb build instead. you sorc wouldnt do damage at all in hell

skellimancer dosnt want nor need bonespear, look up the guide for fishymancer instead

rest should be viable from what i can see most are too item dpeendent for my taste, but would surely work

 

[StillMyst]

I'd agree with corax on the sorc, an untwinked tri-elementalist would be pretty hard. However, a FO / anything else is extremley viable. Picking only one other tree would also enable maximum synergies, something you'll need playing untwinked.

For the amazon, I'd personally go with a lightning zon, as she can def go through the game untwinked while retaining big killing power. There's an excellent guide to it archived in the Amazon forum.

Your skellimancer shouldn't have too many problems at all.

I haven't played untwinked melee chars since 1.09, so I can't comment on those. Good luck with your project, and let us know how it goes. :thumbsup:

 

[bradley_turner]

Well, I remember playing my "A Quick Tournament" frenzy barb to act1 hell (died to andy because of stupidity...) with relative ease, and that was with base vitality, so it's definately possible, but it does require a bit of patience.

 

[midnightvulture]

Amazon will be tough without mf runs, I'd concur that a lightning 'zon will be much easier. My untwinked strafer stalled in act 1 hell, and I even found a decent bow, gloves, and armor (skystrike, loh, and vipermagi). Your necro, as said, won't really get much use out of bone spear. Bosses have too many hp for an unsynergized bone spell to be too effective. I'd recommend hitting up some of your utility/crowd control curses instead. The avenger will work, but he'll kill slowly. They really shine in mp, they're only kind of effective untwinked solo (though I only took one through nm). As said, tri-elemental sorceresses are much easier twinked and in the hands of an experienced player. Even then they're tough. I'd go frozen orb + something from one of the other trees. The meteorb is cheesy, but very effective. I think she's fun too. Good luck, and welcome to the forum.

mv

 

[Hrus]

All melee characters will need a good weapons. You can switch Avenger to Tesladin (you will only need fast weapon). Without a good weapon and with slow attack, Avenger will not be able to beat hell IMHO.
For Frenzy barb, I would place at least 10 points in War Cry - great for untwinked play.
I didn't play Werewolf, but they seem very weapon-dependant.
Sorceress - go Meteorb or Blizzball. You will not be efficient with tri-elemental in 1.10
Skellymancers don't need Bone spear.
Strafezon is very safe to play with Valkyrie and knockback. You can also try FA/Strafe variation which is even more safe and less item dependant.
Didn't play much sins, but with TS/DTail/Death Sentry, you should be OK, trapassin is easier, but more cheesy.

 

[abarlament]

Like everyone else said, BS (either of them) are useless for a skellimancer. I put lots of points in Spirit, thinking it would help me bring down a corpse so I could start the CE chain, but it doesn't do anything. Doesn't really matter, because I got through the whole game with just a few usefull skills: Skels, Skel Mast, Clay Golem, Golem Mast, CE, Amp, and Decrep.

Second, nobody has mentioned it, but Zerker's are good untweaked. Nightfish wrote the guide for untweaked characters, plus, they are very fun to play. The thing you'd really want to use is a big damage 2 handed weapon, and they drop quite a bit, just run NM meph a few times and you might find one.

 

[water_moon]

Welcome! Enjoy this welcoming goodie basket of baked goods and squid repelant. Just one little note on the Barb, don't forget to put a few points into item find, not only does it keep things from resurecting, but you have better luck at finding decent gear. And BO is a life saver. Also, as a new comer, you might not be familiar with the /players x comand. This lets you set the number of players in an sp game from 1 to 8 (with x being the chosen #) so that monsters are harder, give more xp, and more stuff drops.

All melee characters will need a good weapons.

I beg to differ, look at the wirt's leg tourney. There were no fewer than 3 in A5 hell, and seven who made it to hell wielding no more than a club, at low character levels I might add.

 

[Hrus]

I beg to differ, look at the wirt's leg tourney. There were no fewer than 3 in A5 hell, and seven who made it to hell wielding no more than a club, at low character levels I might add.

Yep, Wirt's leg is a teh uber weapon!
But I don't like underpowered builds, hitting single Devilkin in Hell 10x before he dies doesn't interest me. I made it once untwinked with concentrator and once with frenzier to Patriarch. They vere both very week according to my other untwinked chars that were using elemental skills. Because of that I say that they need good weapons to be viable. We all know that everything is possible and can be done (naked or with wirt's leg). IIRC, most of the characters in that tourney used some sort of elemental melee attack (Corax was a Venom sin and didn't kill any creatures in hell if he wasn't forced to do otherwise - he ended at lvl 69 or something like that?). I remember though that someone "crazy" made a passive zon?

 

[VioletStar]

I beg to differ, look at the wirt's leg tourney. There were no fewer than 3 in A5 hell, and seven who made it to hell wielding no more than a club, at low character levels I might add.

True, but it can be safely assumed that Aerali (the original poster) is somewhat of a newbie to the game. I doubt a new player can accomplish the same feat as those who participated in that tourney. Of course we also know Mongo-Jerry's Irene adventure, where he demonstrated a punching sorceress can beat Andariel in Hardcore.

As a newbie myself, I can say for sure that a melee character does need a good weapon. I have an untwinked Hardcore Fanatic Zealot that got stalled in last quest of Act 2 NM, he got totally owned by the Horadric Ancients that raise skeletons (had to save-exit several times then I gave up). So I'm now waiting until my sorceress can find him better items

 

[Aerali]

I am playing patch 1.11, the latest I believe.

Ok, so let me get this straight.

Amazon Lightning Fury is miy best bet I gather
Assassin my TC/DTail/DSentry should work
Barbarian Frenzy barb with some songs should work
Druid no input, but will try lots of life leech if it works
Necromancer Skellymancer should be fine
Paladin Tesladin? Hammerdin?
Sorcerer Meteorb or something along those lines

 

[midnightvulture]

Yup. Sounds about right. The druid should work out if you can find him a decent rare or unique maul or polearm. With Fury, Frenzy, and a carrion vine, plus your life bonus from wereskills and oak sage, you'll be quite durable. As for the pally, I'd go frost zealot (safer) or tesladin (faster) to start out. A little crushing blow and a fast weapon and you'll do fine.

mv

 

[water_moon]

True, but it can be safely assumed that Aerali (the original poster) is somewhat of a newbie to the game. I doubt a new player can accomplish the same feat as those who participated in that tourney.

That ws the fatherst I have ever gotten in hell. And I was playing an Iron barb (natural resist and stone skin with BO) Yep, that's right, the only time I have ever hit Act 5 by myself and even my MP blizzard sorcie hasn't made it to the ancients yet. My point was that there are several people here who play untwinked, and always have, and they have no problem getting to hell. Uber weapons are not a necessity.

And you might ask corax for druid help, he can often be found in the EMB; although we would welcome you there for yourself as readly as if you come bearing questions for his already over-inflated ego.