**********Diablo II - Lord of Destruction********* *********Multiplayer Guide******** ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Date: 17-10-01 Author: Ben Cleaver E-mail: benc2k@aol.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Please Note* This guide may not be distributed or used in any way for personal gain without the permission of myself. If you wish to place this guide on your webpage please e-mail me to the address above, I will gladly share this guide if I belive it is not for someones personal gain. All Diablo II trademarks and battle.net are owned by Blizzard entertainment and this guide must not be used to break any of Blizzards own policies and ruling. Please refer to www.blizzard.com for any additional info. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _____________________________ ( TABLE OF CONTENTS: ) ( 1) Introduction ) ( 2) Info on Battle.net ) ( 3) Getting Started ) ( 4) Beginners Tips ) ( 5) Playing The Game ) ( 6) Rare Item Finding Tips ) ( 7) Hardcore Guide ) ( 8) Additional Information ) (_____________________________) ----------------------------------------(1)------------------------------------------------------ -----------------------------------Introduction-------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After looking on GameFAQS and not seeing a multiplayer guide available on one of the best online games I decided it was time I took action. Diablo II has been one of the greatest online experiences available, and the new Lord of Destruction add-on was what we were all waiting for. Forget all the online games of Starcraft, Ultima Online, Command & Conquer and even the great Counter Strike, you are going to find your place in the huge community of Diablo II. Many of my friends who own this game liked playing it offline, in the single player mode, which is very enjoyable with the O latency (lag) and playing the game through and finding some of the rare items available. They had never played the online game, which in my opinion offers a lot more to you. When you log onto battle.net you have the oppurtunity to make great teams, and progress throughout the game without being fiercly outnumbered by the deamons and monsters in the world. Enjoy this Guide to battle.net, I have tried to include all my own experience for playing to aid you, please enjoy reading :) -------------------------------------(2)--------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------Info on Battle.Net------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Battle.net is your gateway into the multiplayer universe of Diablo II, LOD. Sometimes battle.net can be unresponsive at times, but due to many people being on the game it can be a difficulty. I live in the UK and find the best times to play is in the morning where America are asleep, well most of them :D Choose your times to play, and you will enjoy a lag free environment, but if you have some sort of broadband access then you should have no problems at any time of play. ***** You can make as many accounts as you feel necessary, but these ***** are the points that you should be aware of when making many accounts: * More accounts mean more characters to play with, look at tips for the benifits for having multiple accounts in section 4. * You MUST play your account for at least 2 hours within 48 hours of making it, or it will be wiped. * After making the account and playing for the 2 hours, it will stay on the system for upto 90 days, so as long as you do play your multiple accounts at least 2 hours then they are safe. * Make a note of you accounts, because my friend forgot 1 of his with many characters who had rare items with them, put their passwords somewhere safe. ***** Chatting in the battle.net rooms * The people in the rooms will probably be experienced players who know a lot more than you, so be wary as some of their intentions may be unhealthy for your account ;) * If you see some messages asking for your account name and password because of a 'bug', ignore them becuase someone is trying to steal your account. Blizzard never ask for account details. * If your stuck in a game on a certain act, ask someone in the room to give you a hand, some players who are high levels will gladly help a new player get on their feet. * Try to make friends with someone who is a similar level to you, there is a possibility that they have another character which has a very high level, and you may even get some goodies from them. If you get the messages 'player not found' or 'realm down' please do not threat, close Diablo II totally and reload, if this does not work you may need to reconnect to your internet. I tend to try different numbers if I experience such problems. --------------------------------------(3)-------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------Getting Started-------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So what character are you going to choose? I have created a list below to show you what each character has that makes them a good choice: * Amazon- The amazon is fast and doesnt get into much combat where she is hurt, quite a hard character to train up for your first, and you will only gain exp in big groups. Beginners Rating: 6/10 * Assassin- My friend chose this character over the overs to play first, and he belives that it is the best. If you screw up the skills you give it you can make a pretty ineffective assasin. The only problem with this character is that its hard to do some really quick killing for the rare and unique items mentioned later in the guide. Beginners Rating: 5/10 * Barbarian- My first character I made on my Diablo II account was the barbarian, and I think that it is the best character by far for new players. I was able to train it up extremely fast and make it strong enough to get unique items for my other characters. You can use a high level barbarian to equip your other characters later in the game. Beginners Rating: 10/10 * Necromancer- Perhaps one of the harder characters to train up, the necromancer is a very weak character who relys on his minions to do the damage. Good if you dont want to risk dying early in the game, but when you come to fight the bosses of Durial, Diablo and Baal you will find training this guy up as your first character very challanging. Beginners Rating: 4/10 * Sorceress- The Sorcersss is supposed to be the strongest character by far, many of my friends say a high level sorceress is perfect for player killing (pk) due to its best spells. For a new player this character may be a bit hard to get used to, but it is quite easy to train her up as they get extremely strong later in the game. Beginners Rating: 9/10 * Paladin- The paladin is similar to the Barbarian in many ways, however when you have a paladin you should probably use a shield at all times. Unlike the barbarians who normally wield two weapons or one large one, the paladin commonly uses maces or swords with a good shield. A very good character to train up, as its just 'bash bash' like the barbarian which really is the easiest way to get a high level fast. Beginners Rating: 8.5/10 * Druid- The second of the new characters, and is the more physical of the two. The druid can use his shape-shifting techniques to change into either a werewolf or a werebear. Takes a lot of training and patience to train up this character. I would say that it is more challanging than a barbarian to train, but I dont think its final skills are too great for a new player. Perhaps would be better once you have your first character up a few levels. Beginners Rating: 6/10 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Really it is upto you what you decide to become first, I certainly believe that the barbarian is by fas the easiest character to train up, and it is very important to have one really good character. Please read in the tips for finding magical items in section 6 to understand why it is so vital. I tried to train up a barbarian and a necromancer and I ended up with a level 77 barbarian and a level 17 necromancer becuase I focused on the easiest to get up. You will find many players in the games you join will be the same classand a similar level, see if you can pick up tips from them. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ------------------------------------(4)---------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------Beginners Tips---------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- COMMON INFORMATION After choosing your first character you can now join or create your own games. For a new player you should definatly go on join games and choose one with a name such as: 'Act 1 Start', and look for how many players are on, because this will decide how much exp you get. Try to avoid games like 'bloodrun123' or 'baalkill01' because these are for better players who just want to do fast killing and leave to make a new one. Join a game where the players will stay on for some time. If you join a game with 7 other players, their levels are all added up then divided to decide how much exp you get, so if there is a nice level 70 person helping, it will also aid you. All you should be interested in is some quick levels. JOINING PARTYS If you want to join a party, press P on your keyboard and if someone has invited you you can 'accept' their invitation. You can also invite other people to join your party on this option. You will share all the experience that your party gains as long as you are in the area. Many players leech exp from people who work hard for it, although this may seem very tempting you are missing out on all the rare items that others are getting. QUICK EXPERIENCE The quickest way to get some experience is to join games with 5-7 players already on them. Start fighting in the blood moor, but if you have the oppurtunity to go further in the act kindly ask for a tp. Mass killing will get you upto a high level, so start training. I have got a paladin on level 10 within 30 minutes so it is very easy to get the levels up. GENERAL TIPS If you feel like your out of your depth, allow others to do the work for you. Take breaks to heal and always fight in a group to increase your chances of surviving. Be kind to your fellow players and you may get a present :) -------------------------------------(5)--------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------Playing The Game-------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE 5 ACTS On Single Player the only way to finish the game (without hacking) was to make your way through the acts and finish most or all the quests. On multiplayer though you can miss quests out to progress. My advice is to NOT just rush through the quests to get to act 5 for 'mega exp' because it won't happen. Players get very angry if you have done this, and you don't get anywhere near as much exp as you may like. Below are some of my guidelines for levels you should be at in all the 3 different modes. The levels are shown from the minimum to the maximum you should stay in each act. NORMAL MODE ___________________________________________________________ ACT 1 ACT 2 ACT 3 ACT 4 ACT 5 ----------------------------------------------------------- 1 - 12 13 - 20 21 - 29 30 - 34 35 - 43+ ----------------------------------------------------------- NIGHTMARE MODE ___________________________________________________________ ACT 1 ACT 2 ACT 3 ACT 4 ACT 5 ----------------------------------------------------------- 40 - 46 47 - 52 53 - 57 58 - 61 62 - 68+ ----------------------------------------------------------- HELL MODE ___________________________________________________________ ACT 1 ACT 2 ACT 3 ACT 4 ACT 5 ----------------------------------------------------------- 65 - 68 69 - 70 71 - 73 74 - 77 78 - 99 ----------------------------------------------------------- * Some people may believe some of these levels are a bit high, but you need to know whether you are ready for playing in the acts and modes that you are. Because you can play on your own to get rare items (please refer to section 6) later in the game. * Dont be tempted by the chances to get too far ahead in the acts, about 2 days before I wrote this guide I was playing with my level 39 necromancer in nightmare mode and a level 6 amazon joined the game and was 3 acts ahead of me. Totally ridiculous and a waste of time because she could only join nightmare games when in the chatrooms. She died from a zombie when in act 1 and left the game ^_^ ---------------------------------------(6)------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------Rare Item Finding Tips-------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The first character I trained up was my barbarian, who is now on level 77. I have not trained him up to level 99 because I want to get my necromancer and my lvl 70 sorceress up. The only reason my necromancer and sorceress are good characters is due to the fact that I have some very unique items that I captured with my barbarian. THE BEST METHOD If you have took my advice and trained up your barbarian, or even a paladin would do, you can do a fair and easy way of getting rares. You need to be around level 50 to do this right, and to have finished act 3 on normal mode. Follow the instructions below if this applies to you: 1) Create a game, doesnt matter what name, and make a password. I usually type something like 'dsjfmjdsfmds' and password 'fdgfdg' because its fast and nobody will have it. 2) Once in the game go straight to act 3 durance of hate level 2 waypoint. Mephisto is well known to give the best items than most other bosses. Make sure you have any magic item boosts equipped. I use a helmut with 3 perfect topaz in, the defence is only 29 compared to my 215 defence helmut but it isnt inportant. 3) If your a barbarian you can use leap attack on level 1 (which jumps as far as level 20 leap) and hop over all the monsters. Once on floor 3 just leap over the red portal to the Pandemonium Fortress and tackle Mephisto. I did this on level 50 a few times and found loads of uniques. 4) Do this a few times and you should find quite a few uniques. They probably will be normal uniques, but if you want exceptional and elite uniques then do this in nightmare and hell mode. WHAT IVE FOUND USING THIS METHOD Doing this over and over again in normal and nightmare mode I have found exceptional weapons, plate armor and many gloves and boots etc. I found a bow which is 60-122 damage and +2 to necro skills so I use that for my necromancer. I have also found Immortal Kings helmut and lots of set items. Rare items are common from Mephisto, and if you only get magic (blue) items then you have been short changed. WHY ITS ONE OF THE BEST METHODS * Extremely fast to do * Mephisto gives the best items * Only 1 floor to go down * Not really too hard for a decent barbarian * Can be done with any good character, but barbs. are the fastest :) ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON RARES, UNIQUES AND SETS Although I believe this method is very good, there are many others, you can get rare items at any time in the game from any monster, but your chances do increase with the mepthod above. If you are in a big group you have a better chance, but it is certain that everyone is looking to get these too, so you may be out-looted. My friends say they get all their items from hell mode, but nightmare is where I have found nearly all my items, and I even know level 60 barbs. that only train in normal mode. Killing bosses is the sure fire way of getting the rares you want. ----------------------------------(7)------------------------------------------------------------ -----------------------------Hardcore Guide------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is where it gets very interesting, the hardest mode available can be unlocked on battle.net aswell. Once you have finished the game and have that renounced title 'Slayer' then you can enter the hardcore arena. You want to know all the good and bad parts of this, well read on... BAD PARTS :( * Lots of PK'rs can make it very annoying. * You get ONE life, you die and thats it. * ONE LIFE???!!! * Everyone goes 'rip rip R.I.P' if you die, which makes me curse a lot. GOOD PARTS :) * Better items to find in my experience. * Very, very exciting. * Makes the game more enjoyable if you survive (if). --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TO UNLOCK HARDCORE MODE: Finish the game in normal mode to create hardcore characters. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yeah...its the hardest mode around, and can be one of the most annoying available. Ive lost level 30 hardcore guys because of mega lag, once you see that black screen blocking your path you need to get out of the game! If you do well though you can have the honour of knowing that you are a expert Diablo player. VITAL TIPS * You lag at any time, save and quit the game immediatly. * If you get half health and there are monsters around you, get out of the game. * If someone goes hostile and you dont think you can take them, dont! * Play dirty, if you get annoyed at someone weaker than you then go hostile to scare them off. * Don't take any risks, if you think you will die, then get out, if you cant switch pc off at the mains or something ;) A very hard mode which you should not try to do until you have mastered a class, below are a list of the characters and whether there good for hardcore mode or not. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Amazon- One of the best characters you could want to use in this mode, the amazon can dodge monsters and use her bows to attack. I suggest you read a bowazon FAQ as using a spear is suicide. Let others do the work and you hide in a safe place with your bow and you will be ok. Hardcore Rating: 8.5/10 * Assassin- This character may be quite hard no get to terms with in normal mode, but she does suit the rigors of hardcore gaming. You can use your traps to aid you in your survival, and with the many good charge up attacks you could pick your attacks well. If you get overrun with monsters then you may need to make a hasty retreat. Once on level 30 hit some points into death centry and shadow master, as your double can die all she wants :) Hardcore Rating: 7.5/10 * Barbarian- The best character in normal mode is far from the best in hardcore. Although my normal barbarian is a high level, he has died I don't know how many times. The barbarian is suited to running in and causing mass destruction, this is why he is at threat more than others. However he is very strong and if you used a shield and hit more points into vitality then you could find him to be good for you. Hardcore Rating: 7/10 * Necromancer- Perhaps one of the harder ones to train up without some sort of background knowledge. If you can somehow live until level 30 with this character then you have reached a large milestone. My necro on normal mode seemed to become a man when he was able to get his fire golem and revive high. Take no risks and avoid ALL contact with the enemies. Allow your minions to do the work or you will not last long at all. Hardcore Rating: 5.5/10 * Sorceress- Without a doubt the sorceress is the most popular character in hardcore mode. She has the perfect mix of power and safety in her attacks. She can cast spells from a safe distance and cause devestating damage. Use the sorceress well in hardcore mode and you could live a long and illustrious life. Hardcore Rating: 10/10 * Paladin- In hardcore mode you would probably see the paladin as the best combat character available. I have seen a lot of lower level paladins perish on the acts of 2 and 3. But those that do live seem to be extremely strong. Get your Zeal high to do some fast and easy damage. Then you can consider getting your defensive auras up due to the one life clause ;) Make sure you have a good shield with resistance boosts for your characters. Dont go to act 2 until at least on level 15 if you want to live. Hardcore Rating: 8/10 * Druid- I've only heard good things about the druids on hardcore mode, even though they seem to be the least popular chosen. There ability to change is a great asset, but I noticed that many of hardcore druids use the elemental skills which I think are a waste of time in normal game mode. Get your summons up and don't rely on your transformations into wolf or bear too much. Background knowledge on druids are needed before making this character on hardcore mode or you will find that in nightmare and hell modes you will die very fast. Hardcore Rating: 7/10 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Be very careful with your choice of character, as this could determine whether your sucessful or not. Hardcore mode is created solely for players who find the normal play not challanging enough. I suggest that you must have tried the characters beforehand to make your own decisions on whether you are good enough to play without dying. --------------------------------(8)-------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------Additional Information--------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If anyone has a problem or question about battle.net please send me an e-mail at benc2k@aol.com. I will try to answer all e-mails as thoroughly as possible. This is my first guide on GameFAQs so I would gladly take any comments and suggestions that you may want to make. Many thanks to Blizzard Entertainment(c) for making the great game, and I look forward to future titles that they are sure to release. BEST WEBSITES * http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/ * http://www.diabloii.net/ I believe that http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/ is the best resource for Diablo II that you could ever want. Its the official and the best, no contest, please refer to this for info on every possible part of the game. Copyright to Ben Cleaver 17/10/01, must not be distributed without permission from myself. This guide should only be posted on GameFAQs, if it is on another webpage please inform me asap. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------