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Vessel of Hatred

Some questions from a new SP'er.

S

Sique

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Dec 2, 2008
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Some questions from a new SP'er.

Hi! I played d2 ages ago and while bored one day going through my old games I found it again. I installed it but didn't want to put up with the BS of the MP crowd, to my surprise I found this forum while researching d3! I want to *finally* finish d2 in single player, but I have a few questions.

1. What is a good/solid class to do a fresh run through completely untwinked. I haven't even made a level 1 character so there is no chance of that. I was leaning towards druid but only for a specific reason (see #2).

2. Are ravens viable at all? I noticed they have no synergies but I thought it would be cool to have a flock (too bad they can't be crows then it could be a murder!) of ravens following me around. I looked on this forum and the class specific forum and saw no mention of them except for the 1pt pre-requisites.

3. How do people get such great gear? even the untwinked players have awesome stuff.

4. Any advice you could give to someone planning their very 1st run through on SP?
 
Re: Some questions from a new SP'er.

Firstly Welcome to the forums :wave:.

I suggest you read the forum rules/FAQ's etc...

1- Easiest build to go through the game Untwinked is a Fishy Mancer. Here is the link to the build. Just read that and you should be good to go.

2- Ravens are pretty good for killing in Act 1 normal. Past that they are pretty useless for damage. The main reason people would invest points into them is for the Dim Vision which they cast when they attack.

3- Luck and having high MF. Read this guide for MF. If you can follow that then you should notice some pretty good drops comming your way.

4- Read this, it may be for HC but its pretty much the same.

Good luck!
 
Re: Some questions from a new SP'er.

A fishymancer is a nice safe first character. The guide is in the necromancer forums or just search for it. Very strong untwinked build that can also do decent magic finding for you.

Ravens are very underpowered. I would not start with a summon druid of any kind for a first character. The two best first characters in my opinion are the one mentioned above and a blizzard sorceress who will just get to NM and Hell Mephisto and run him till you have a decent amount of good items.
 
Re: Some questions from a new SP'er.

I'll second the recommendation for going with a Fishy Mancer. I have only just recently started playing and I started with a necro and evolved toward a Fishy Mancer. I've made it so far to Act2 Hell without to much trouble.
 
Re: Some questions from a new SP'er.

Welcome to the SPF.

Some good advice above, here's a few additional links:

Beginners Guide to Build Selection by Morathi. There is a whole post in the FAQ on build guides. That post is a great place to start.

Guide to untwinked MFing by jiansonz a compliment to HC Gunthers guide which was linked to above. Both he and HC Gunthers' guides are excellent and absolutely worth reading and following. How much you follow them depends on you. But they WILL provide results.

MF Oddballs by Nightfish. A great overview of MFing. Not designed for untwinked but he wrote the Fishymancer guide and this is an excellent compliment.

Most tournaments here are untwinked. Some very intereting reading in there. The Stickied Build Compilation by Winmar is also well worth a read. Untwinked characters are noted.
 
Re: Some questions from a new SP'er.

Morathi said:
3- Luck and having high MF. Read this guide for MF. If you can follow that then you should notice some pretty good drops comming your way.

4- Read this, it may be for HC but its pretty much the same.
Click to expand...

One more thing worth noting about these guides is that they're written from a single-pass perspective. The guides assume you do no rerunning of areas or bosses whatsoever. So when you play normally, you can add the benefits of running bosses, etc to the guides too. :thumbup:

Also welcome to the forums! Beware shin kickers.


 
Ravens are not really used for dealing damage. As mentioned above they are best used for the Dim Vision they cast when attacking. That makes them decent crowd control pieces to keep your character from being mobbed. I most recently had five flying with my Fury druid and I definitely noticed a difference between the times I was running with and without them.

For your first pass through the game try to follow the guide for your build fairly closely in terms of skill point allocation, especially in the beginning. Otherwise you may get a tad frustrated in certain points due to not having a needed skill (such as Decrepify when facing Duriel in Normal with a Fishymancer). One thing to keep in mind is some of the guides do suggest equipment that may be out of your price range. Don't worry, lower end equipment in it's place does just as well so you don't need the exact equipment suggested.

Most people in the SPF will play Normal and Nightmare at /p8, but don't feel you need to do the same. If you're finding things tough lower the difficulty until you are comfortable. The game should be fun, not stressful.

Pppssst, I like your guide Morathi :thumbup:
 
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Re: Some questions from a new SP'er.

I decided to start a fishymancer and I am already at And in act I and I am level 18!. I tried to follow the fishymancer and the MF guides, but I am leveling too fast for them. I had to drop down to /p 1 to get all the topazes for the chest/helm (was having really bad luck... over 30 diamonds, 20 emeralds and 25 or so rubies and only 5 topazes! This after running caves like 100 times, not to mention the huge number of times I had to talk to gheed to get the mf gloves and boots AND the hundred or so times it took to get a 3 socket ringmail chest (I'm anal.. kind of why I hate guides :D). Since then it has been a breeze at /p 8. I have been literally running through areas with my pets in tow and STILL leveling, as I'm trying to be 22 when I'm done with act I. I'm also going to have to get ATMA as I am completely out of storage space... how much does it add?

Sorry for the jumble of text but I didn't plan playing this long and now I'm exhausted. Thanks for all the advice so far!
 
Re: Some questions from a new SP'er.

You will have infinite stashes in ATMA. As Mursilis stated, follow the guide closely the first time. You don`t want to face Diablo without a point in summon resist.
 
Re: Some questions from a new SP'er.

My apologies to Mursilis and Morathi. I was thinking of Mursilis' guide but checking Morathi hadn't already linked to it. In short - I hadn't had any tea yet.

Sorry guys.
 
Re: Some questions from a new SP'er.

Quick point about Ravens. The most you can summon at one time is five at skill level 5. Since they do next to no damage most people invest 1 point and let +skills do the rest.
 
Re: Some questions from a new SP'er.

How do I beat duriel as a fishymancer? I got dcrep and it does help, but every time I try I get him to just above half before he finishes my merc and skels. I'm level 26, should I level up some more and finish capping summon skeletons?
 
Re: Some questions from a new SP'er.

Are you fighting him on /players 1? If you are, it shouldn't be a problem unless you messed up somewhere while inputting skill points. =X.
 
I'm going to grab the defensive merc and make sure its on /p 1. I thought it was on /p 1 but I could have been mistaken. does /p x save with the game?

Ya, I must have had it on /p8 I only lost 1 minion on /p 1.

Is it worth doing Meph runs on normal? I have 150~ MF which I could get higher, I think. Also what should he be run on /p 1? /p 8?
 
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Re: Some questions from a new SP'er.

Sique said:
Is it worth doing Meph runs on normal? I have 150~ MF which I could get higher, I think. Also what should he be run on /p 1? /p 8?
Click to expand...

Not really... But I've always done it with untwinked chars/first char after a restart anyway! :D
So, both from what I've always been told by others and from my own experience, he's absolutely not worth it, but it can be a nice change of pace to run him 5-10 times in between power questing, just to see some green or gold drop (even if it's breast plates and hard leather armours).


Also, as a general rule of thumb, act bosses and most other target unique monsters are best to run at /p 3, after that the increase in drop% is so low that it's generally not worth the increase in monster strength that /p x adds.

Cheerio



 
Re: Some questions from a new SP'er.

Another quick question... I was reading some of the MF guides and they mention having 2 MF helms (2 MF circlets or 2 artisan's helms with ptopazes) why is this?
 
Re: Some questions from a new SP'er.

Not quite gathering what you mean by "2 MF helms". It would help if you could provide a link.

Good helms for untwinked MF'ing on a Fishymancer include...
1) Any circlet with MF and 1 or 2 sockets for Perfect Topazes.
2) Any helms with 3 sockets for Perfect Topazes.
3) Tarnhelm, though this is quite rare.
 
Re: Some questions from a new SP'er.

I have not taken a very good look at the guide, but I would assume he means one for the mercenary and one for the actual character.
 
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