Wednesday 20 October 2021

D2: Resurrected NEW Players Guide




-Mostly for new players. Also a refresher if you're coming back after a long break. :)

1. You Only Get 1 Skill Respec Per Difficulty for completing the Den of Evil quest. After that the only way to respec is to farm the Act bosses in Hell difficulty to create respec tokens.

-You can max out each skill with 20 points, although bonuses to skills from gear pushes this beyond 20.

-Only focus on maxing out 1-2 main attack skills and their synergies or else your skills will become too weak later on.

-There are quite a few weak and mediocre skills in Diablo 2 so choose very carefully or you may have to re-create your character if you've already used your first Den of Evil Respec:

---Endgame Viable Skills for Every Class--- (Some are only for Crowd Control or Support)

Sorceress - Blizzard/Frozen Orb/Meteor/Fireball/Firewall/Static Field/Lightning

Paladin - Blessed Hammer/Concentration/Holy Shield/Smite/Zeal/Fanaticism

Barbarian - Frenzy/Double Swing/Leap/Battle Orders/War Cry/Battle Cry/Find item

Druid - Tornado/Hurricane/Grizzly/Oak Sage/Shock Wave/Fury

Necromancer - Skeletons/Clay Golem/Revive/Amplify Damage/Decrepify/Life Tap/Lower Resist/Corpse Explosion/Poison Nova/Bone Spear/Bone Prison

Assassin - Lightning Sentry/Death Sentry/Burst of Speed/Fade/Cloak of Shadows/Mind Blast/Shadow Master/Shadow Warrior

Amazon - Charged Strike/Lightning Fury/Penetrate/Pierce/Valkyrie/Exploding Arrow/Freezing Arrow

---"How Does Difficulty work in D2R?"---

-In Diablo 2 you start out in Act One "normal", you cannot change this until completing each difficulty. You have to defeat the act bosses to progress up to Act 5 Baal. Once you kill him you progress to "Nightmare". Then you can make Normal and Nightmare games.

-The game will play the same in Nightmare but the loot table opens up to much better item drops/Affixes, every mob has exponentially higher life + damage, you get a -40% debuff to all resistances and some monsters start to be completely immune to certain types like Fire Immune or Lightning Immune.

-You then Defeat Baal in nightmare to progress to Hell. Hell mode opens up the entire loot table in lvl 85 areas, it gives you a -100% debuff to all resistances and MANY monsters will be immune to certain types of spells and some will even have double immunities. (yikes!)

2. Put Most Stat points Into Vitality For All Characters. In Diablo 2 you need to put most points into vitality early or else you'll constantly die.

-Only put enough points into strength/Dexterity to wear gear. You can put a few points into Energy in the beginning to help with spells/skills, but not too much. Same with Dex to help attack rating, but don't put too much and cripple your life.

-Vitality also increases stamina which allows you to run longer. When running your defense automatically becomes zero. Toggle 'R' to walk and defend yourself or recover stamina.

-Buy Stamina potions to restore stamina to full and gain temporary unlimited stamina for 30 seconds per potion. (effects stack)

3. Your Inventory Space is Very Limited so you'll need to make frequent trips to town to sell and/or put items in your stash.

-Pick up things like Throwing Knives and potions early on to use & sell for gold. As well as Paladin Scepters, Necro Wands, Sorc source/staves. Most gear with + to skills sells for a lot.

-Buy The Tomes of Town Portal & Identify and keep them both on you. They hold up to 20 scrolls each. (Refill Tomes in one click by holding shift when purchasing) (You can also put scrolls of Town Portal into your belt for quick hot-key escapes!! good for HC players)

-Some Blue items can be worth more than others. Like Charms and Jewels. The rolls are very random in D2 so be sure you don't miss something valuable.

-Always Pick up Charms and Gems, Jewels, & Runes to socket them into weapons and armor for early boosts and keep lots in your stash for Crafting, Transmuting & Creating Runewords. (The games most powerful gear, see #10)

4. Get a Belt and Always Keep it Stacked With Mana, Health &/or Rejuvenation potions. Using them is part of the game. Use Rejuvenation potions to heal life & mana instantly. (3 Small Rejuv potions in horadric cube = 1 Full Rejuv potion)

-Pick up and throw Strangling Gas Potions. These are surprisingly effective. They always hit and can help a lot with packs of monsters early on.

-Antidote and thawing potions effects stack. They don't physically stack in quantity but their effects do. They last for 30 seconds each so drinking 4 potions will give you 2 minutes of increased resistance. (tip: Use thawing potions before fighting Duriel, A2 boss)

-Refill belt in one-click by holding shift when purchasing.

-Heal your mercenary or give them Antidote/Thawing potions by holding Shift + 1 2 3 4 to the corresponding potions on your belt. (or drag & drop)

5. Get Faster Cast Rate (FCR) on gear to dramatically improve casting speed of all spells for all classes once you hit your classes FCR breakpoint.

-Also get Faster Hit Recovery (FHR) to reduce the time you get stuck when attacked

-FCR/FHR Breakpoints: https://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Breakpoints

-Note: 10% FCR does NOT mean you cast 10% faster, once you hit a breakpoint your character will start casting MUCH faster.

-*Exception: The Assassin uses Increased Attack Speed (ias) to improve casting speed of Traps (Shadow Tree still uses FCR)

6. Use The Shared Stash To Transfer Items & Gold to other characters and store all your l33t loots. If you run out of space create a random class to store more. Name them something like "UniqueMule" or "GemMule" inline with what you give them to hold.

7. Immediately Drop Your Shield at lvl 1 On All Classes. You get locked up and it prevents escape or subsequent attacks. Wear shields once you have better ones a little later on.

-Ex: Ancients Pledge (Ral + Ort + Tal)[lvl 21] 3os Shield. Rhyme (Shael + Eth)[lvl 29] 2os shield

8. Keep The Horadric Cube (from Act 2) on you for extra storage while slaying demons. You can also transmute things like 3 gems into a higher quality gem and the same with runes skulls & rejuv potions. You can even Craft, Upgrade and Socket items!

-Reroll Amulets & Rings: 3 Rings = 1 Amy, 3 Amy = 1 Ring

-Repair & Recharge items: Ort + Chipped Gem

-Open Secret Cow Level: Wirt's Leg (Tristram) + Tome of Town Portal. [Doesn't actually exist]

-Socket "normal" Weapon: Ral + Amn + P-Amethyst

-Socket "normal" Armor: Tal + Thul + P-Topaz

-Socket "normal" Helm: Ral + Thul + P-Sapphire

-Socket "normal" Shield: Tal + Amn + P-Ruby

-*Remove Socketed items: Hel + TP scroll (runes/gems are destroyed)

-Up Normal Unique Weapon to Exceptional: Ral + Sol + P-Emerald

-Up Normal Unique Armor to Exceptional: Tal + Shael + P-Diamond

-Up Exceptional Unique Weapon to Elite: Lum + Pul + P-Emerald

-Up Exceptional Unique Armor to Elite: Ko + Lem + P-Diamond

-Up Normal Rare Weapon to Exceptional: Ort + Amn + P-Sapphire

-Up Normal Rare Armor To Exceptional: Ral + Thul + P-Amethyst

-Up Exceptional Rare Weapon to Elite: Fal + Um + P-Sapphire

-Up Exceptional Rare Armor to Elite: Ko + Pul + P-Amethyst

-Full List: https://d2.maxroll.gg/resources/horadric-cube-recipes

-Craft Gear to Wear: https://d2.maxroll.gg/items/crafted-items

-Trade items 4 items on this site if you don't want to make trade-games: https://Diablo2.io/trade

9. Farm The Countess in Act 1, Black Marsh > Forgotten Tower lvl 5, from lvl 6-12ish. Then continue to farm her as needed in normal to nightmare mode to create your first runewords (very powerful weapons/armor > list in #10)

-Countess Rune Drops: (Always kill on /players1)

Normal: [El, Eld, Tir, Nef, Eth, Ith, Tal, Ral]

Nightmare: [Ort, Thul, Amn, Sol, Shael, Dol, Hel, io] Very-rare [Lum/Ko]

Hell: [Lum, Ko, Fal, Lem, Pul, Um, Mal, Ist, Gul] Very-rare [Gul, Vex, Ohm, Lo]

-Hellforge Rune Drops: (A4 Quest)

Normal: El to Amn

Nightmare: Sol to Um

Hell: Hel to Gul

-Always double Check Runeword recipes to make sure you put runes in the correct order and in the correct item type.

-Use Hel Rune + TP scroll in the Horadric Cube to Remove all items from sockets, the Runes or Gems will be destroyed in the process.

10. Create Stealth Amor (Tal + Eth) at lvl 17 for all classes and other runewords too! Its easy to farm the runes from the Countess & Hellforge for all early-mid game runewords and they drastically increase your damage and defense. You can also easily buy most of the Bases with open sockets from Vendors too. Reset all Vendor items by leaving town through the Main Entrance, Portal or Waypoint.

-*Note: You cannot create runewords in anything but white and superior bases. Meaning nothing magic, rare or unique with sockets will work. Choose bases with low strength and dexterity requirements.

-Useful Early-to-Mid Game Runewords: [os = open sockets]

lvl 13 - Steel (Tir + El) (2os sword/axe/mace)

lvl 17 - Stealth (Tal + Eth) (2os Body Armor)

lvl 17 - Malice (Ith + El + Eth) (3os Any Weapon)

lvl 19 - Leaf (Sorc) (Tir + Ral) (2os Staff Only)

lvl 21 - Ancients Pledge (Ral + Ort + Tal) (3os Shield)

lvl 21 - Zephyr (Ort + Eth) (2os Hunters Bow)

lvl 25 - Edge (Tir + Tal + Amn) (3os Hunters Bow)

lvl 25 - Spirit (Tal + Thul + Ort + Amn) (4os Crystal/Broad/Long Sword)

lvl 25 - Strength (Amn + Tir) (2os Any Melee Weapon)

lvl 25 - King's Grace (Amn + Ral + Thul) (3os Swords/Scepters)

lvl 27 - Insight(Ral + Tir + Tal + Sol)(4os Polearm)

lvl 27 - Lore (Ort + Sol) (2os Helm)

lvl 27 - Radiance (Nef + Sol + Ith) (3os Helm)

lvl 27 - Honor (Amn + El + Ith + Tir + Sol) (5os Any Melee Weapon)

lvl 29 - Rhyme (Shael + Eth) (2os Shield)

lvl 29 - Peace (Zon) (Shael + Thul + Amn) (3 socket Body Armor)

lvl 35 - Black (Thul + io + Nef) (3os Flail)

lvl 35 - White (Necro) (Dol + Io) (2os Wand)

lvl 37 - Smoke (Nef + Lum) (2os Body Armor)

lvl 39 - Harmony (Tir + Ith + Sol + Ko) (4os Missile Weapons)

lvl 41 - Obedience (Hel + Ko + Thul + Eth + Fal) (5os Polearm)

lvl 41 - Lionheart (Hel + Lum + Fal) (3os Body Armor)

lvl 43 - Wealth (Lem + Ko + Tir) (3os Body Armor)

lvl 43 - Treachery (Shael + Thul + Lem) (3os Body Armor)

lvl 43 - Voice of Reason (Lem + Ko + El + Eld) (4os Sword/Mace)

lvl 43 - Passion (Dol + Ort + Eld + Lem) (4os Any Weapon)

lvl 47 - Duress (Shael + Um + Thul) (3os Body Armor)

lvl 54 - Spirit (Tal + Thul + Ort + Amn) (4os Monarch Shield)

-Full List/Guide: https://diablo2.io/forums/diablo-2-runewords-runes-cheat-sheet-t8644.html

11. Get an Act 1 Mercenary Early On from completing the Burial Grounds quest. Then hire the A2 Mercenary right when you get to Lut Gholein at the top corner of the city near the sewer entrance. A2 Merc Auras:

Combat (N): Prayer (slowly heals you and your party/minions) (not that great)

Offense (N): Blessed Aim (increases Attack Rating for you and your party/minions)

Defense (N): Defiance (gives extra defense to you and your party/minions)

Combat (NM): Thorns (returns very high percentage of damage back at melee attackers)

Offense (NM): Might (Greatly increases melee damage for you and your party/minions)

Defense (NM): Holy Freeze (freezes nearby enemies and adds cold to merc attack)\-\*note: Hell mercenary auras are same as Normal, only worse with a lower lvl cap.


Mercenary Specific Tips:

-Heal your mercenary or give them Antidote/Thawing potions by holding Shift + 1 2 3 4 to the corresponding potions on your belt. (or drag & drop)

-If your merc is leveling too slow, take off their gear and then hire a new merc at a higher level in town.

-WARNING: Their gear will disappear if you replace your merc without removing it first.

-A1 MERC: (Archer Type)

lvl 1 = Gemmed 3 socket bow.

lvl 17 = Stealth Armor (Tal + eth)

lvl 21 = Zephyr bow. (Ort + Eth) 25% ias, +25% Run

lvl 25 = Edge bow (Tir + Tal + Amn) lvl 15 Thorns Aura

lvl 39 = Harmony bow (Tir + Ith + Sol + Ko) (or better Edge) lvl 10 Vigor

lvl 43 = Treachery Armor (Shael + Thul + Lem) 45% ias

-A2 MERC: (Melee/Meatshield Type) *Powerful Auras

lvl 15 = Malice Polearm (Ith + El + Eth) Use Scythe or Voulge

lvl 17 = Stealth Armor (Tal + eth)

lvl 27 = Insight Polearm (Ral + Tir + Tal + Sol) Use Halberd, War Scythe or Poleaxe

lvl 41 = Obedience Polearm (Hel + Ko + Thul + Eth + Fal) If you don't rely heavily on mana

lvl 43 = Treachery Armor (Shael + Thul + Lem) 45% IAS

-A3 MERC: (Spell Caster Type) *benefits from FCR

-Get Vipermagi armor from Andy/meph (NM).

-Use Shields with FCR like Lidless Wall or Wall of Eyeless

lvl 17 = Stealth Amor (Tal + eth) 25fcr

lvl 25 = Spirit Sword (Tal + Thul + Ort + Amn) 25-35 fcr

lvl 54 = Spirit Monarch Shield (Tal + Thul + Ort + Amn) 25-35 fcr

-A5 MERC: (Melee w/ bash) *needs really good gear to be useful. Stick with A2.

12. Shopping at City Vendors for Great lvling Gear and Sockets: (Reset Vendors via waypoint, portal or sewer)

-Akara A1 (N) for +Skills on Wands for Necro & Orbs/Staves for Sorc. You can get x3 to multiple skills! And Scepters for your Pally and Barb, very strong early game.

-Charsi A1 (N) for 2-3os bows, polearms, axes, and 2os Scimitars and Katars. (socket with gems, jewels & runes)

-Fara A2 (N) for 2-3os shields, armors, polearms and 2os Helms. Also ctc Frost Nova when hit gear for crowd control (tinted blue)

-Elzix A2 (N-NM-H) for early Magic Find, Life or Resistance Boots/helms/belts for All Classes. 20% IAS gloves (NM)

-Ormus A3 (N) buy a staff with +1 to Teleport *Charges*. NOT items with the (sorcerous only) tag. This will allow all other characters to teleport like the sorc when holding the staff. This is extremely useful for navigating hard areas like the Maggot Lair. (*WARNING: Gold cost to repair charges is very high, use teleport charges wisely. You can also restore charges with Ort rune + Chipped Gem in the Cube)

-Anya A5 (NM-H) for x2-3 Skills on Claws for the Assassin.

-Larzuk A5 (N) 3os helms starting at lvl 39

-Gamble at Gheed A1, Elzix A2, Jamella A4 and Anya A5 for a chance at great items!

13. Focus on Killing Boss Groups. They give 500% experience and are 3 lvls higher than area level. Also Champion groups give 300% experience, so don't waste too much time killing many normal mobs. (unless its just too fun? Ash Getchum: "Gotta kill-em-all!" )

-When you get to Act 5 in any difficulty, do the quest to save Anya and she will open a portal to run Pindleskin. Kill him + his minions then Shenk & Eldritch + their minions (Above & Below the Frigid Waypoint), exit game and repeat for very quick experience and item farming.

14. Type "/playersX" (x = 1 - 8) in Single Player. Each increase in player count will increase mob XP & Dmg but also increase the experience you receive and number of loot dropped (every other level 3, 5, 7).

-Farm Act bosses on "/players3" this caps out the loot drop table and prevents the boss from dropping nothing. https://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Player_Settings

-In-Game Commands:

/framerate: Displays the same stats as /fps, but also includes some memory allocation information.

/fps: Shows in-game framerate. 25 is the maximum display rate. (may change in D2R)

/nopickup: Stops your character from picking up any items in that game unless holding the show item key.

/soundchaosdebug: Plays every sound in the game. Type the command again to turn it off.

/time: Displays your local time and Battle.net server time.

/players (1-8): Simulates more players in the game to increase drops and game difficulty (single player only).

15. Stack resistances to 75 (max). In nightmare you get a debuff of -40% and in Hell it is -100% to all resistances. If you don't stack high resistance, you're gonna have a bad time. #southpark

16. All Classes Need 'Cannot Be Frozen' but especially melee classes or builds. Being frozen is one of the worst and most common debuffs and causes a lot of deaths. (HC players beware!)

17. Crushing Blow is your best friend for bosses and high HP mobs. It does a percentage of the targets life.

-25% VS normal creep, 10% VS hirelings or PVP and 12.5% VS Champions, Uniques & Bosses.

-Missle Weapon percentages are halved: 12.5% > 5% > 6.25%.

18. Magic Finding: also referred to as "MFing". Its the process of running the same bosses or areas over and over in an attempt to find more powerful runes and rare/unique items. This game has hundreds of items that are akin to winning the lottery when they drop.

-Stack at least ~250. MF has significant diminishing returns after the first 250-300.

-MF Curve: https://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Magic_find_diminishing_returns

-Note: Do not MF in public games. MF in Single Player, Private Games or with Close Friends only. Loot is FFA in D2r and other players can see and pick up anything that drops.

-Great Places to MF: Ancient Tunnels (H) > Andariel (NM-H) > Mephisto (NM-H) > Countess (NM-H, *Runes) > Lower Kurast (NM-H) > Pindelskin (H) > Eldritch (H) > Shenk (H) > Nihlathak (H, *Runes/keys) > Pit (H) > Chaos Sanctuary (NM-H) > Cows (NM-H) > Baal/throne room (NM-H) [Not in any specific order. Some places are better than others for finding specific gear but can change depending on how fast your character and build can clear that area or boss. Refer to Item Finder: http://dropcalc.silospen.com/item.php for specific loot drops and odds in each area]

19. You Do Not Need to Kill Every Monster in This Game, There Are a Lot of "Immunes". They are rare in normal, somewhat common in nightmare and very common in Hell, even seeing double immunities. If you can just skip those specific monsters thats fine. Or you can try a hybrid build that focuses on two elements like Firewall/Frozen orb or Frenzy/Berserk. But you can still even run into Fire/Cold immune & Physical/Magic Immunes, so just skip these and don't feel too ashamed. (that monster punked you, you should feel shame).

20. Most Common D2 Acronyms/Lingo: (i probably missed a few)


"N" = Normal "NM" = Nightmare "H" = Hell.


SOJ = Stone of Jordan Unique Ring


TP = Town Portal


SP = Single Player mode


MF = Magic Find


IAS = Increased Attack Speed


os = Open Sockets


Eth = Etheral


PP = Party Please :)


PK = Player Kill. >:)


FCR = Faster Cast Rate


FWR = Faster Walk/Run Speed


FHR = Faster Hit Recovery


FBR = Faster Block Rate


BO = Battle Orders. A barbarian skill. Greatly increases life and mana of entire party


CTA = Call To Arms (Amn + Ral + Mal + Ist + Ohm) gives any class Battle orders


Nigma = Enigma (Jah + Ith + Ber) Runeword that gives any class the ability to teleport


LR = Low Rune = [El, Eld, Tir, Nef, Eth, Ith, Tal, Ral, Ort, Thul & Amn] & Lower Resist (necro curse)


MR = Mid Rune = [Sol, Shael, Dol, Hel, io, Lum, Ko, Fal, Lem, Pul & Um]


HR = High Rune = [Mal, Ist, Gul, Vex, Ohm, Lo, Sur, Ber, Jah, Cham & Zod]


Trist Runs = Low level group runs through Tristram, located through a portal in the Act 1 Stoney Field.


Tomb Runs = Low level group runs through Tal Rasha's Tombs at the end of Act 2.


Baal Runs = Mid to end level group runs through end of Act 5 to kill Baal and his minions.


R4F or Rush 4 forge = Someone will rush you through the game in exchange for your Hellforge Quest Rune


Chaos = Referring to the Chaos Sanctuary Area in Act 4.


"SC" = Small Charm "LC" = Large Charm "GC" = Grand Charm


Skillers = Grand Charm with + to Class Skills (Only found in NM - A3 Flayer Jungle and beyond)


Pcomb = + Combat Skills Grand Charm for Paladins


Hdin = Hammerdin = Paladin that uses Blessed Hammer build


"1" = Safe, "2" = Not Safe. Refers to if a Town Portal someone opens up is safe to take or not. They may be trying to escape death.


HoTo = Heart of The Oak Runeword (Ko + Vex + Pul + Thul) gives +3 all skills, 40 FCR


BK = Bul-Kathos Ring


CB = Crushing Blow (percentage of monster health per hit, powerful against bosses)


DS = Deadly Strike (% chance to deal double damage)


OW = Open Wounds (causes target to bleed for dmg over time)


DR = Damage Reduction %


Torch = Unique Large Charm from killing Ubers. Gives +3 to skills, All Res and Firestorm on strike


Anni = Unique Small Charm from killing Diablo clone. Gives +1 all skills, + Attributes + All Res and +10% Experience gained


BIN = Buy It Now


FG = Forum Gold (Currency on `D2jsp.com`)


Script = Description (referring to the description of a created game for trades)


WUG = What do you Got?


WUW = What do you Want?


NN = No Need


t4t = Thanks for Trade :)


ISO = In Search Of


Pindle = Pindleskin = Unique monster in A5 through Anya's portal after her quest


Andy = Act 1 boss Andariel


Meph = Act 3 boss Mephisto


Big D = Diablo


Occy = The Occulus Unique Orb. Has +3 Sorc Skills, 50% MF, 30% FCR & +20 to Vit/Str/Res


Shako = Harlequin Crest Unique Helm. Has +2 to skills, DR, Mana, life and 50% MF


DND = Sets a Do Not Disturb message for your online profile. Type "/DND message" to set it. This was commonly used to scam players into giving up their passwords. (i never fell for it.. of course..)


Amy = Amulet


CTC = Chance to Cast


WP = Way Point


LK = Lower Kurast

21. HELPFUL EXPLOITS LIST:

-Andariel loot bug: All act bosses have a higher loot drop table for their first Quest kill in each difficulty and then reverts to normal on subsequent kills. But for Andariel, if after killing her you immediately go to Act 2 via talking to Warriv, you keep her Quest loot tables permananently. If you leave or drop from the game before Talking to Warriv the bug will not work and you can't re-do it for that difficulty. (no you don't need to avoid talking to anyone or other activities)

-A2 Merc bug: Get him stuck behind something like closing a door and then walk away from his location, once he teleports to you he is no longer able to be targeted by enemies until you exit game.

-Easy Duriel Kill: You can trap duriel into running in place and unable to attack you at the right side of his cave. Circle around the tomb so hes following close behind you and then hug the top of the screen and drag him down the right side until he gets stuck walking in place. Do not move, kill him from a distance with ranged attacks/potions/minions.

-Easy Mephisto Kill: You can easily trap mephisto on his moat and kill him from a distance on the other side with either ranged attacks or spells.

-Easy Diablo Kill: You can get Diablo stuck on the side of his pentagram platform so he can't move.

-Easy Ancients Kill: You can prevent Madawak from using Whirlwind if you are near the edge of the cliff or up against one of the pillars.

-Skip Baal's Minions: Run down below the entrance to the thrown room before the wave gets summoned and it will skip that wave or lure the minions below the entrance and either run around or teleport back up to Baals throne and he will spawn the next wave or end and enter the worldstone chamber if you skipped the final wave.

-Easy Baal Kill: If you can slow Baal enough with Decrepify, slow effects from gear or Clay Golem Baal will get stuck in a loop attempting to re-cast his attack spells but never fully finishing. Easy pickins.

-Despawn Baal's Clone: Once baal spawns his clone, use a town portal and wait 10s, re-enter and his clone will despawn.

**Comment below with any helpful exploits i missed and i will add them to this list**