Living in Hell?

[BlackEagle]

Living in Hell?

Let me start off with the fact that I am new to Diablo 2. So far I'm loving this game and this site has been invaluable in my learning of the game. Cudos to this site.
Now to my question. I have a level 70ish frost zelot. I did solo all the way through nightmare with no problems whatsoever. Now I'm in hell. Seems alot in the first act of hell is cold resist. One of the first beasts that I came up against was cold and physical immune. Stumped me. I'm just wondering what I can do to make my life in hell a little easyer. I really have no great items which I dont mind since I'm new to the game, and I figure all that will come with time.
I'm wondering if, for my first chars, I should go to another build, or tweak this build I am doing a bit so that I can have 2 elemental damages. (cold/lightning looks good)
Any help will be appreciated, and thanks.
BE

 

[Pitboss_2000]

Unfortunately, most melee characters have trouble dealing with Hell without good/great equipment. Most people usually make a caster (sorceress, summoning necromancer, I myself used a wind druid) when they start playing, because they kill with their skills instead of equipment. Load up this character with equipment that gives extra % to find magic items. Then, you use this character to run boses over and over again (NM Baal and Diablo, Pindleskin, Shenk/Eldritch) in order to find good equipment that your future characters can use. This is called Magic Finding, or MFing.

This way I was able to collect the entire IK set for my PvM barb before the guy was even lvl 20!

Splitting skills, and dividing skills between different trees and strats is usually a bad idea and won't get you far at Hell difficulty either.

Good luck!
PB2K

 

[Uzziah]

Splitting skills, and dividing skills between different trees and strats is usually a bad idea and won't get you far at Hell difficulty either.

You can do this you just have to think it through, the tri-elemental sorc is a good example.

Another good example would be my duel elemental build I think I will call it the hur-arm druid (once I beat Hell with it I would write a guide until then its quite frugal to write).

Your frost Zealot is a build that can handle Hell, maybe not as fast as other but its a well played and known build and is quite effective. The catch is being smarter than the immunities always have a way to deal with them. a frost zealot should not be using a HFreeze merc since this makes the CI/PI problem very noticable, instead figure out a second type of damage you can deal for the rare CI/PI case. If your zealot uses salvation for synergy you can add Holy fire or Holy shock to your build as an emergency CI/PI case the damage will be much smaller but it will be effective enough to kill those enemies, provided you have some + skills on your build. finding a scepter or unique (k****** awl) could grant you plenty in holy fire for it to be effective at this point that may be your best bet you have 1 point in Holy fire as least.

Melee builds have always been hard, this patch made them extremely hard without great equipment. Above all take your time and have fun. if you want a caster build I suggest necro summoner, trapsin, wind druid, or typical sorc power builds like the meteorbtress.

 

[BlackEagle]

Mmmmm. Thanks for the pointers. The meteorbtress seems like a good idea for me. I'm wondering if a fireballorbtress would be a good build. I seem to have a hard time with the timered spells. (they drive me insane) Say I have one meteor that can do 1k damage, or being able to fire 5 500 dmg fireballs in the same amount of time. Am I right in the way I'm looking at this?
I see a meteor coming for me. I stroll slowly out of the way. lol.

 

[Frosty_The_Snowman]

Mmmmm. Thanks for the pointers. The meteorbtress seems like a good idea for me. I'm wondering if a fireballorbtress would be a good build. I seem to have a hard time with the timered spells. (they drive me insane) Say I have one meteor that can do 1k damage, or being able to fire 5 500 dmg fireballs in the same amount of time. Am I right in the way I'm looking at this?
I see a meteor coming for me. I stroll slowly out of the way. lol.

A good way to optimize your killing speed is to cast a timered spell (for example : orb), then while the timer runs, you cast 2 or 3 fireballs. Repeat that until the monster is dead :thumbsup: !

 

[Balor]

I am playing my first 1.10 LoD barbarian, and he's doing fine in Hell. You don't have to make other characters and do MF'ing to get good items... You can also trade items on forums or in other games. My lvl 75 barb was untwinked and whacking around in Hell with moderate gear. With some smart trading, stocking all the gems you can find, you can find decent gear. You will be amazed that some people value a low enhanced defense Arreat around 9 perfect gems...
You don't have to have a BotD axe with fullblow damage; but start using some elite unique items that you can trade for a couple of pgems (I went from flamebellow to a grandfather i found during a countess run).
I would also say that you have to use your build and skills to the utmost. I was using a conc-barb and in the beginning of Hell, I had to use Howl and taunt with battle cry to get every edge, and even then killing was slow... but I got there... It is also more fun to play not knowing what you'll get, and have a lucky drop then planning your character in advance... but hey, that's the way I like my D2 :idea:

So, hang in there, eventually you'll get there! The game is not all about killing speed and uber l33t items, but the fun playing and searching... and also trading around on the forums and other games, to finally get a good kit...

My two cents... :thanks:

 

[Frosty_The_Snowman]

I am playing my first 1.10 LoD barbarian, and he's doing fine in Hell. You don't have to make other characters and do MF'ing to get good items... You can also trade items on forums or in other games. My lvl 75 barb was untwinked and whacking around in Hell with moderate gear. With some smart trading, stocking all the gems you can find, you can find decent gear. You will be amazed that some people value a low enhanced defense Arreat around 9 perfect gems...
You don't have to have a BotD axe with fullblow damage; but start using some elite unique items that you can trade for a couple of pgems (I went from flamebellow to a grandfather i found during a countess run).
I would also say that you have to use your build and skills to the utmost. I was using a conc-barb and in the beginning of Hell, I had to use Howl and taunt with battle cry to get every edge, and even then killing was slow... but I got there... It is also more fun to play not knowing what you'll get, and have a lucky drop then planning your character in advance... but hey, that's the way I like my D2 :idea:

So, hang in there, eventually you'll get there! The game is not all about killing speed and uber l33t items, but the fun playing and searching... and also trading around on the forums and other games, to finally get a good kit...

My two cents... :thanks:

I'm very pleased to see that there are still some people that *actually* play the game the way it was intended to be played :thumbsup: ! I have to admit that I don't fall in this category anymore, but still I *really* enjoy the ladder reset first few weeks, because I can really play the game untwinked. And at last, Isenhart's Case becomes a good drop again :lol: !

 

[DANIEL3RD]

Blackeagle I have no problems with my frost zealot in hell. Try obtaining some items that use crushing blow. If you are on the european realm I would be only too pleased to help you out with some kit if its needed. My account is :

SHAKA_ZU

 

[cotton]

For cold immunes and dual cold physical, try something with a different elemental damage on the weapon switch (there is a long list of good zealot weapons, most of which can be had for pgems.) A high elemental damage weapon on your merc would also help, and if you or mercy can get your hands on something with a chance to cast amp or lower resists, this will break immunities. And, if dual immunes are still a problem, park them somewhere and go around. They are not that common. If it is a boss you HAVE to kill (ancients can spawn this way, maybe Countess?,) quit the game and respawn the moster (for ancients cast TP and start over.)

Hell is slow going now for most builds, so don't expect to roll through like NM. You have two good attacks in cold and physical. This is enough to finish hell, you just might have to be a little creative. Even sorcs run into things immune to both of their attacks, and hammerdins and bone necros have only one type of damage, though immunty to it is rare.

Hope this helps, don't give up.

 

[Wambat]

Post by BlackEagle

Say I have one meteor that can do 1k damage, or being able to fire 5 500 dmg fireballs in the same amount of time. Am I right in the way I'm looking at this?

Meteorb is just semantics; you will find that if you want to use FB you have to max Meteor and vice versa. Essentially the build gives you four effective weapons: the orb, the meteor, the fireball, and the static field. Use them in any way you like, they are as effective as your tactics.

 

[Pherdnut]

Just max conviction and get yourself Necro LR wand. That will take care of most, but not all cold immunes. For hell, I can't help but wonder if a Lightning Orber would be the way to go. I'm new to itself and my meteorber has been running into a lot more dual cold/fire immunes than any other dual immunity.

 

[-jd-]

I'm new to itself and my meteorber has been running into a lot more dual cold/fire immunes than any other dual immunity.

im the same as you, but have found that a strong merc is very helpful for the duel cold / fire resists like hell Countess, just sit back and feed the odd potion :xsmile: