Diablo II: Expansion Pack (release date!!!)

[Diablo, Bro. of Mephisto]

Well, I go to many of the d2 fan sites and the blizzard.com site alot, several times a week, and in this new thread I will list everything I know about the exp pack:

First of all...the release date is set!!! June 29th 2001, about a week from now.

Here are the list of everything I can think of that will be in the exp pack, correct me if I am wrong on anything:

Category 1: Items.

1. New Sets for each character, most of which are extremely powerfull, which include bonuses like, +50 to all resistances, and +2 or 3 to all skills..yes you heard me...+3!!!

2. New Class-Specific items for each character, that only that character can use:

2a. Amazon - New Bows, spears, and javelins
2b. Paladin - New Shields
2c. Barbarian - New Helms
2d. Druid (new exp character) - New Pelts (I think they are like helms)
2e. Sorceress - New Orbs (they are like wands, except for sorceresses)
2f. Necromancer - New Totems (they will replace a necro's shield)
2g. Assasin (new exp character) - New one-handed weapons (this are like claws that she wears in each hand)

3. New Jewels (they are like gems, except are generally not as powerfull, and do other things)

4. New Runes (they are like gems and jewels, except that they are usually more powerfull, and do different things) There are a total of 30 runes in the exp pack, all different, and each doing different things.

5. New "Charged Items", that allow you to use a spell/skill of another character class.

6. New Charms, If you put these in your inventory, they give you special bonuses, like items that you wear, except that this you keep in your inventory, and do not wear. NOTE - these will not work if they are not in your inventory

7. New "Rune Word" items, if you put a curtain amount of runes, in the exact order into an item, then that item will change to a "Rune Word" item, that is like unique items, sometimes with VERY powerfull properties.

8. New "Elite" items, that are the advancement from the "exceptional items", and can only be found on hell difficulty.

9. New Exceptional, and Elite Unique items.

10. Lots of new elite rare items.

11. New helms, called, Circlets. These are usually more powerfull then other helms, and when you wear them, your character appears to be wearing no helm (great bonus to those that like their heads being bare)

Well, thats all I can think of for the items section.

Category 2: Stash.

1. your stash in the exp pack will be doubled in size, so you can carry alot more items.

2. You will also be able to hold more items. (example: right now, my lvl 58 amazon can hold aproximately 300,000 in her stash. In the exp pack, she will be able to hold 1.4 mill...huge difference!)

Category 3: Characters.

1. Two new Character classes, which are:

1a. Assasin. THis woman warrior will have her skills based around martial arts and hand-to-hand combat.

1b. Druid. This man will be alot like the necromancer, except that his skills will be based around nature, and mother earth, instead of curses and the undead. One thing this nature warrior will be able to do, is shapeshift into a huge cave bear, or a dire wolf, he will have master over the wind and earth (ie. tornados, and plants).

Category 4: Mercenaries

1. mercenaries will become much more powerfull, and alot more important then they are in Diablo II. here is a list of several of the new features that will come with them:

1a. You will be able to equip your mercenary/hireling will items.

1b. If he/she dies, you can ressurect her. however, it is very expensive, for example, if you buy a mercenary for 200 gold, it could cost up to 1200 gold to ressurect her. NOTE - if you do not ress. your mercenary, all the equipment that you gave her/him will be lost...keep this in mind!!!

1c. There will be new, barbarian mercenaries in act V.

1d. This is perhaps one of the best enhancements to the exp pack, and that is that your mercenaries will be able to travel across the different acts with you.

1e. If you drop a healing potion on your mercenary, he/she will heal, at least partly.

I think there are more stuff to mercenaries, but I cant think of any at the moment.

Category 5: Miscellaneos.

1. The Expansion pack will take place in act V, in the barbarian highlands (but I am sure all of you already know this).

2. Nightmare and Hell difficulties will become alot harder, and will be made strictly for the higher lvl characters. Although...the exploits you will find their will be alot better.

3. THe "end" monster you will be fighting is diablo's brother, baal. (but I am sure all of you know this as well)

4. After you install the diablo II exp pack, you will either be able to start new, exp characters, or convert your old diablo II characters. NOTE - once you convert your old characters, you will no longer be able to play in games, or trade with other players, who have not converted their old characters yet, you will ONLY be able to play with other exp characters over open battle.net, and the battle.net realms.

well, I think that is all, if I have forgotten anything that any of you guys know about, please tell me.

[The Mad Monk]

I was playing in USEast just last night, and noticed that some interesting--and pleasent--changes in the treasures. For example, breaking a jug in act 2 NM (eight players) provided a stack of war javelins, 400 gold, and a flawless diamond.

*drool*

I also noticed that a lot of the sale prices have gone well up--rejuvs have gone from 12 to 200 gold (which makes a lot more sense, IMO), and a suit of blue ghost armor 'of the fox' went for better than 20K! With prices like these, who needs staves???

I also found blue chain gloves 'of the bat' (3% mana leech), a suffix I had never seen on gloves before, outside of the 'Hands of Broc'. All in all, a nice change.

BTW, I now see level reqs on gems, but have yet to see a level req on any of my uniques--is that an expansion-only thing, or did the good folks at Blizzard retract it entirely?

[Diablo, Bro. of Mephisto]

Thanks for your question.

your comment got me remembering something else about the exp pack,

Yes, the new patch (version 1.8) is incredible, adding incredible to crap to nightmare and hell difficulty levels.

In the Expansion set, there will be about 3 - 4 times the amount of affixes then there are currently in diablo2:

Quote:

"In Diablo II, there were/are approximately 180 affixes on items...in the expansion set, there will be nearly 600 - 800."
-Blizzard Designer

I forgot the guys name who said this, but I got it from the exp faq at diabloii.net,

But anyway, I think that quote says it all right there.

And about your question about the gems req. and unique req., the reason for the new req. on gems, is so that the lower lvl characters won't be able to use high quality gems, if they added a perfect gem (req. lvl 18) to a non-req lvl item, then that item would gain a req lvl 18 on it, because of the gem in it.

And about unique's, yes, in the exp pack, UNIQUES WILL HAVE REQUIREMENTS, the 1.8 patch also added this, although, none of the uniques that a character had before downloading it, will not be changed, but any uniques that are found AFTER downloading the 1.8 patch, will have req on them, this is for the purpose as the same as gems, so that low lvl characters can't use high lvl items any more, for example, the Stone Of Jordan ring, before it had no requirements, but after the new patch, any soj's that are found, will have a minimum req of something like lvl 15 (minimum).

I understand about your finding the flawless and crap...I had the same experience, I was playing in nightmare act 4 (in single player), and a normal monster dropped around 550 gold, and a flawless amithyst...I just about fell out of my chair.

And something more about the runes:

As I said before, there will be a total of 30 runes, each doing different things, some more powerfull then others. They sort of have their own lvls, the higher the lvl, the better stuff they do to items that they are added too, and the higher their lvl, the rarer they are. For example, the lowest class of rune (forgot its name), will do pretty week stuff, and will be the most commonly found,

Qoute:
"The first rune, will be found pretty commonly, usually as often as finding rings and gems."

And the last rune, and the most powerful, will be probably the rarest of items,

"The best of the runes, will be quite powerfull, BUT, will be EXTREMELY rare. You will be lucky, to EVER find one!"

The approximate statistics of the best rune are about 1 in every 800,000 of the weakest runes, so your chances are VERY slim of finding one.

Also, I did not say this (but I think you all get the idea), that runes and jewels will work like gems, and can be inserted into sockets.

And lastly, legit rares and uniques CAN now be socketed in the expansion set, but can only 1 socket per rare'unique item, and the regular socketed items, can now have up to 6 sockets, not just 3, so you can really customize your socketed item, and make it very powful in a curtain area, depending on the amount of the same gems you put into it, so if you put alot of amythists in it, it will have a very high +% to attack rating.

and I made a mistake in my previous post, I said:

"You will also be able to hold more items, (example: right now my lvl 58 amazon can hold approximately 300,000 in her stash, In the exp pack, she will be able to hold 1.4 mill...huge difference!)"

Well, I am sorry, I meant GOLD, that I will be able to hold up to 1.4 mill in gold in the exp pack.

Well, I think that about covers it.

[OldWarrior_42]

Biggest complaint, if you would call it that, for me was whether or not you could have the choice to regenerate the levels with creatures or not.

What I mean by this is... say I clear out two thirds of the monsters in an act , but then something comes up and I have to save the game and pick it up at a later time. I would like to have the choice of whether I can have all the monsters reappear and I would have to kill them all over again or I can just pick up where I left off. Whereas the monsters I killed.... stay killed unless I say otherwise.

This would be the most appealling feature for me... as sometimes due to time constraints, I can't sit at the comp. and kill monsters for an hour at a time. Only to have to save and then when I get back to the game, I must clear it out all over again just to get back to the point I was at before I had to save from the last time I played.

Did they say anything about whether this would be an added feature or not?

For me... in DII....I have trouble trying to kill Diablo as my Barbarian is just not tough enough to go against him toe to toe without having to try to keep going back for replacement potions of life and mana...etc.
Then if I can't finish at that time and have to save, when I come back to try again... I have to clear out all the other monsters first...again... before trying to go back up against Diablo.

That would be the one feature in the game that I would pay for an xpack....even if they added absolutely nothing else to the game. And maybe if they fixed the bit of drag I get at times when playing in some of the acts due to sluggish movement or whatever you call it.

I have done all the different possible rememdies to rid myself of the sluggishness, but it is still there.

I know my comp is not the greatest machine but it should certainly be good enough to run this game as smooth as it ran the first one and the first xpack. I had 64mb ram and it is a 300 mhz...PII with a ATIrage pro fury 2xagp graphics card. Ran the first game and xpack smooth as hell.
I then increased memory to 128mb and it should be well enough for the second game but I get this sluggishness which bugs me at times. Just doesn't bug me enough to not want to play though.

This series of games is my 2nd all time favorite series of games next to the AoE/AoK games.

I still can't wait for the xpack. I have it on order at Best Buy.

Keep the info coming. It is much appreciated by us semi-lurkers.

[ravagon]

For the really keen, this posted on diabloii.net ...

We've had reports that some Fry's and many other smaller software stores in the US
were selling copies Monday! If you've not already pre-ordered somewhere and sent money, you might want to call around to your local stores today and
tomorrow, just in case someone jumps the gun.
Update: EBWorld has updated their site in the last few hours, and now lists D2X as shipping today! We've gotten several mails already this morning from
people who found the Expansion on sale in local stores.

Unfortunately, it looks as if the darned Yanks are going to get the drop on the rest of the world again ... (sigh)

[Chowlett]

excuse me while I drool... huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu.

Ooooooh, ok. Not only is LoD coming out on the 29th here (confirmation obtained from www.eb.uk.com), but they list the price as only £19.99! £20 for what is essentially a new stand-alone game. I'm really starting to like Blizzard!

(And it's just as well, because I stpidly updated to v 1.08 without thinking that it would, of course, cause my no-CD crack to stop working.)

[Father Beast]

Originally posted by OldWarrior_42
Biggest complaint, if you would call it that, for me was whether or not you could have the choice to regenerate the levels with creatures or not.

What I mean by this is... say I clear out two thirds of the monsters in an act , but then something comes up and I have to save the game and pick it up at a later time. I would like to have the choice of whether I can have all the monsters reappear and I would have to kill them all over again or I can just pick up where I left off. Whereas the monsters I killed.... stay killed unless I say otherwise.

This would be the most appealling feature for me... as sometimes due to time constraints, I can't sit at the comp. and kill monsters for an hour at a time. Only to have to save and then when I get back to the game, I must clear it out all over again just to get back to the point I was at before I had to save from the last time I played.

Did they say anything about whether this would be an added feature or not?

For me... in DII....I have trouble trying to kill Diablo as my Barbarian is just not tough enough to go against him toe to toe without having to try to keep going back for replacement potions of life and mana...etc.
Then if I can't finish at that time and have to save, when I come back to try again... I have to clear out all the other monsters first...again... before trying to go back up against Diablo.

That would be the one feature in the game that I would pay for an xpack....even if they added absolutely nothing else to the game.

I agree, Old, this is the single most annoying thing about D2, which can make or break the expansion pack. Under the current system, saving is like starting a new game, almost.

lets see about sending a petition to blizzard. make an expansion pack where saving doesn't ressurect all the monsters... hey, that's a good idea!

[Chowlett]

And I have it! I'd be playing it, but I'm online to see why my Sorceress doesn't appear for selection anymore...

[DinoDoc]

What strategies do you people use to kill Baal?

[Dis]

hehe I'm back in black, after an unfortunate bannning

if you character doesn't show up online, make sure you have downloaded the patch first (although this should happen automatically- this has happened to some people, not me though)

and baal. He's easy- except for my bowazon. I just whacked the hell out of him with my paladin (vengeance and sacrifice) and barbarian (whirlwind). My bowazon is struggling. Like I had to do with diablo, I will have to party with someone- multizons just aren't that powerful anymore. I will have to invest in some elemental arrows I suppose (and no more jab )

[DinoDoc]

I'm so happy. I found a +1 necro ammulet and a Stone of Jordan ring tonight. Hopefully, the boost to my skill lvls will allow me to kill Baal now.

[Dis]

hmm well I don't know about necros

I defeated him the other day (I was paladin, my brother was necro). But you can use the same technique. I recommend buying a hireling- although you will most likely lose them. It should be worth the expense. My brother hardly got touched. I sucked 15 rejuvs though. And of course have a sturdy golem. This should keep the heat off you. Keep amp (give hireling high damage sword). damage on. Probably iron maiden to (don't know much about necro). And lots of bone spirits and spears. Try poison as well.

I love act5. even those imps aren't a real problem.

[Diablo, Bro. of Mephisto]

Well, I am back...finally, after playing D2X alot since it came out (of course)...and I have beaten Baal on both normal and nightmare difficulties with my lvl 62 amazon, but hell is too hard right now, so I am stickin' with nightmare until I get to lvl 70-75 or so.

here i have listed all the quests and quest rewards...if I can remember them all that is:

1. First Quest - Stop the Siege of Harrogath.

This quest is quite easy, if you are a high enough lvl, all you have to do is kill a demon out in the first area outside of the fort, his name is, Shenk the Oversear. He's a big ugly dude, who is surrounded by lesser demons, and he's quite easy on normal.

The Quest reward for stopping the siege (killing Shenk the Oversear) is that the blacksmith (forgot his name hehehe) will socket one of your items for free...kinda like imbueing in act 1. NOTE - only regular and magical items may have more then 1 socket, but rares, sets, and unique items may only have 1 socket, keep that in mind.

2. Quest 2 - Rescue the Barbarian Soldiers

Que-Kehk (the mercenary captain for act 5) will give you this one...you must rescue 15 of his captured soldiers out in the second area. It is a different quest then the rest in the game...and will give you fond memories of Warcraft II. The 15 soldiers are in groups of five, and will be inclosed in a wooden prison, you will recognize it on your auto-map by the 'prisons' being white.

Once you have rescued all 15 of Que-Kehk's soldiers, he will give you the first runeword of the game, Ancients Pledge, which is a shield. He also gives you the runes that are req. for that runeword, Tal, Ral, and Ort. He also allows you to higher barbarian mercenaries from then on out.

3. Quest 3 - Rescueing Anya.

Malah, the Healer will give you this one. You must go find Anya and resque her in the frozen river (the 3rd or 4th area).

Once you have rescued her, for the quest reward malah will give you a scroll of resistance, right click on it to use it, and it will give you +10 to all resistances. NOTE - This may not seem very much, but once you have done this quest on all three difficulties, your resistances will have jumped a total of 30%, which will come in handy against that darned -100 resists in hell difficulty.

Now, go talk to Anya, and she will "Personalize" one of your items, adding your characters name to the front of the selected item (example: my amazons name is rogue, before my bows name was, something like Dread Lock, after she personalized it, it became, Rogue's Dread Lock).

When you talk to Anya in town, she will give you the fourth Quest:

4. Quest Four - Defeating Nihlathak

What happened to Anya in quest 3 was that Nihlathak the traitor captured anya, and imprisoned her within an ice chamber, that is when you rescue her. Now for this quest...you must take Anya's portal to Nihlathak's temple, and defeat him. Note - Beware of his corpse explosion, even my amazon had 800 life, and she still took heavy damage.

Once you defeat him, go talk to anya again and she will give you a class-specific item of the character that you are currently playing (example: if you are a necromancer, she will give you a new totem, if yuo are a paladin, she will give you a new shield, etc).

5. Quest 5 - Defeating the Ancients.

In this quest, you must prove yourself worthy of entering mt. arreat by defeating the 3 ancients, who can be quite tough, depending on your lvl. Note - you MUST defeat all 3 ancients before casting a tp (townportal) and going back to town, if you leave the area, or cast a tp before ALL 3 are dead, then they all go back to their original position, and you must fight them all over again.

The Quest reward for defeating them is being able to enter the World Stone chamber (where Baal is), and a huge experience bonus. The experience bonus rises with each difficulty lvl, on normal, they will give you 1 million experience, and nightmare they will give you 20 million (can you believe it!?), and on hell, 50 million, yes...a huge bonus. When I defeated them on nightmare, they boosted my lvl from 59 to 62, I think its one of the best quest rewards in the game.

6. Final Quest - Defeating Baal, Lord of Destruction.

This quest is like the first one, go find Baal in the worldstone chamber and kill him, the act is over.

But...you must first defeat his minions before going into the worldstone chamber itself...and on nightmare, his minions are a crap load to deal with.

The quest reward for defeating Baal is simply beating the game, completing act 5, and getting whatever he drops when you kill him.

Well, I think I have said enough...but one last thing...the expansion is awesome, there is so much more do to and to find then D2.

last note - my amazon is lvl 62, and her name is rogue, and she has lots to trade on battle.net...if anyone is interested...including arkaines valor armor. She also has a 84-250 damage lance, a 28 - 160 damage bow, and a few runes, and rings and amulets, and LOTS of gems. she's also got a mid-lvl shield with like 60 defense, and some nice amazon javelins with +1 to javelin and spear skills. oh yeah, a pare of war boots and gauntlets too.

Im done.

[Cthol]

blah

[Chowlett]

Grr. Got a Shae and an Eth rune, so I thought, hey let's make a Rhyme shield. So I find a bone shield, get Larzuk to socket it - yay, it has two sockets. So I pop in Shae, then Eth and get... a ShaeEth shield. Luckily I took a backup, but what gives?

Unfortunately, I neglected to take a backup before I imbued some splint mail, so I've got a 4 affix rare armour, of which one is "of Ease". Grr. Oh well, not long till I defeat Baal, then Cuprosti the Sorceress can go get the second imbue and try again.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Chowlett
Grr. Got a Shae and an Eth rune, so I thought, hey let's make a Rhyme shield. So I find a bone shield, get Larzuk to socket it - yay, it has two sockets. So I pop in Shae, then Eth and get... a ShaeEth shield. Luckily I took a backup, but what gives?

Do you play on the realms or single player?

[Chowlett]

Originally posted by DinoDoc


Do you play on the realms or single player?

Single Player - and it doesn't work with a spiked shield either.

Anyway, Baal's down (all 4 of him - that's a tough challenge), and the imbue has been collected - but not needed as yet, I found a very nice rare armour on the ground, along with some rare boots. Also SteelClash, but as a sorc not overly useful, so I sold it in exchange for a rainbow small shield - much more useful. What with the new Double Immunes, I reckon I might now try to beckon a tri-elementalist. With 2 +1 sorc skills items (an amulet and Anya's rare orb), it seems a viable proposition - i skill point = 3!

[Dis]

my sorc is using 3 elements. primarirly I'll concentrate on firewall, glacial spike and chain lightening.

I tried a werebear druid but didn't like it. the bear looks cool, but attacks to slow. I like fast attacks. And the lag and dysync was so bad yesterday I would swing 10 times and not hit anything. more frustrating than fun considering how long it takes to swing 10 times.

My fav characters are still the amazon and paladin. with sorceress coming in 3rd and barbarian 4th. I'll say the druid is fifth. I didn't like the necro much- too indirect for my tastes. The assassin doesn't look all that great, but I will take one all the way through normal level.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Chowlett
Single Player - and it doesn't work with a spiked shield either.

None of the rune words work for off-line play, as far as I know. I'd try it again on open battle net and see if it works there. If not the rune words, will only work on the closed realms.

P.S. If you do try open battle net, I might like to party with you sometime. It might be fun battling the hordes of hell with a fellow Apolytoner. Also, open battle net will allow you to trade for some really sweet sorc items that you might be having trouble finding right now.

[Chowlett]

Unfortunately, my Diablo machine isn't working for the net at the moment. Maybe sometime in October I'll get connected (well, actually, I definitely will, but whether or not I'll manage before then is another matter).

It seems a bit off that rune words would only work online, particularly as you get a Rune Word for a quest reward - and it doesn't say anything about it in the manual.

Another bizarre thing - just before patch 1.08 appeared, I gambled a Nagelring, which I wear at all times. So I was playing along the other day, when a unique ring dropped, and I thought "wahay, it's the second in the series (I forget the name)". So I take it to Cain, who ID's it as... Nagelring. Grr. That's not meant to happen.

[Chowlett]

Ah, you're right. Just checked the Arreat Summit site, which says...

"Rune Words are currently only active for Realm Characters. We expect Rune Words to be added for Single Player and Open Characters in a future patch. "

Gee, that's nice.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Chowlett
Unfortunately, my Diablo machine isn't working for the net at the moment. Maybe sometime in October I'll get connected (well, actually, I definitely will, but whether or not I'll manage before then is another matter).

That's cool. Whenever you get the machine connected, my necro would still like to part with you. With your elemental attacks and my Lower Resist curse, the minions of hell wouldn't stand a chance.

It seems a bit off that rune words would only work online, particularly as you get a Rune Word for a quest reward - and it doesn't say anything about it in the manual.

Ancient's Pledge is the only rune word to work off line at the moment. The rest of the rune words will likely be activated for off-line play in the next patch.

Another bizarre thing - just before patch 1.08 appeared, I gambled a Nagelring, which I wear at all times. So I was playing along the other day, when a unique ring dropped, and I thought "wahay, it's the second in the series (I forget the name)". So I take it to Cain, who ID's it as... Nagelring. Grr. That's not meant to happen.

1) Lucky SOB. I haven't even had one unique ring drop in game.

2) Double spawning is a known bug right now. Look for it to be fixed in the next patch. In the meantime, enjoy the benefits of your two Nagelring. When you finally get your Diablo machine connectted, you can you one of them to trade for what you really want.

[Chowlett]

Actually, I had a much better rare for the second ring, so as I didn't plan to use my Sorc on open B.net, I sold the old Nagelring and kept the new one. Probably a foolish move, but hey.

[Diablo, Bro. of Mephisto]

Originally posted by DinoDoc


None of the rune words work for off-line play, as far as I know. I'd try it again on open battle net and see if it works there. If not the rune words, will only work on the closed realms.

P.S. If you do try open battle net, I might like to party with you sometime. It might be fun battling the hordes of hell with a fellow Apolytoner.

I would love to play with you online, what characters do you have, whats their names and lvls, so I can watch for em whenever I get a chance to get on open b.net (I've been really busy lately). Anyway, the guys I play with are my assasin, her name is Ewyn, she is around lvl 18, and then I also play with my amazon, who is lvl 62, her name is Rogue.

anyway, maybe every time I get online, I can create a game called, Apolyton, so that whoever is here at apolyton, will join and play with me. And so you can find me, or me find you, if yuo create a game with that name.

also, I love the new assasin, she kicks butt!, and she looks cool, though not as sexy as the amazon.

about the runewords. I was at the blizzard site recently, reading about this exact topic. They said that none of the runewords work off of the battle.net realms, except for the ancients Pledge one (Tal + Ort + Ral, or Ral + Ort + Tal), and that this is one of the main fixes in the new 1.9 patch that will becoming out any time soon.

ps. For those of you who dont know any, and would like to know some, i will list the best runewords that I know here in the next couple days. but right now I am either too busy to, or just to lazy to post them...you decide.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Diablo, Bro. of Mephisto
I would love to play with you online, what characters do you have, whats their names and lvls, so I can watch for em whenever I get a chance to get on open b.net (I've been really busy lately).

I have a lvl 42 necromancer by the name of Merlin. I'm currently in the process of comming up with a werebear elemental druid but I have not started on him yet.

ps. For those of you who dont know any, and would like to know some, i will list the best runewords that I know here in the next couple days. but right now I am either too busy to, or just to lazy to post them...you decide.

You can find a semi-complete listing of them at www.diabloii.net . They also have some sweet crafted item recipes.

PS. What weapon does your amazon specialize in? I have what I think to be a sweet rare +2 skills spear.

[Diablo, Bro. of Mephisto]

Dinodoc,

I got most of my runewords from diabloii.net, and in the next couple posts I will post the ones that I think are the best.

About your question, "What weapon do I use with my amazon?"

Answer: I use a crossbow, its not +1 or 2, but its got incredible damage, 72 - 260. And its got some nice other attributes, like piercing attack. I socketed it with larzuks quest reward, and added a skull, so it now steals mana and life, a big bonus for me, since I play in nightmare, which can get pretty tough at times, even for being lvl 62. Also, it is fast attack speed, HUGE bonus for being a crossbow.

And one thing about my amazon, she is carrying around two arkaines valor armors, one that I am saving, and one extra to trade, so in case anyone needs some nice, high lvl armor, talk to me. I am looking for 'Hel' rune to insert it into the one I am saving, cause it will lower the req. lvl, so I can use it alot sooner, if you have Hel rune, please let me know. I figured out that since the armor is req. lvl 85 right now...that if I put a -15% req. in it, it will lower to about lvl 72, so that will help alot, since i am only 10 lvls away from 72, but 23 away from lvl 85.

well, I got to go. Next post i do I will list all the runewords that i think are the best, and that are worth using the runes for.

[Diablo, Bro. of Mephisto]

well, as I promised, I will now post the best runewords that i know:

1. Ancients Pledge (Shield Only) - Ral + Ort + Tal

note: this one is the only one that will work off the b.net realms right now, be patient, that will be soon fixed in the 1.9 patch. This is for a 3 socketed shield, and I classify it as, "ok". the resistances are nice (+45 to all), but even better with a paladin shield (+80 - 85), but the rest of the mods are not much use.

2. Honor (Any Melee Weapon only) - Amn + El + Ith + Tir + Sol

note: this weapon has just incredible mods, +170% inhanced damage, +250 to AR (attack rating), and lots of others, including life steal. It's surprising how nice this weapon is with the kind of runes it requires, all of them are pretty easy to find.

3. Holy Thunder (Scepters only) - Eth + Ral + Ort + Tal

note: this scepter has unbelievable lightning mods, obviously for a lightning based paladin. if you like alot of elemental damage on your weapons, try this one out. with all of the runes being easy to find...why not try it?

4. Memory (Staves only) - Lum + Po + Sol + Eth

note: this is a really nice sorceress staff, with +3 to all skills, and mana bonuses.

5. Kings Grace (Swords or Scepters only) - Amn + Ral + Thul

note: this is a nice weapon, not as nice as Honor, but good enough for mid-lvl characters.

6. Lionheart (Armor only) - Hel + Lum + Fal

note: this armor has incrediblely nice mods, the only draw back is it has no +% to defense, so you'll want to use this on a exceptional or elite armor, to get the higher defense. other then that, its quite nice.

7. Smoke (armor only) - Nef + Lum

note: the resistances on this armor are incredible (+50), and some other nice mods too. For only two runes, this is quite a nice armor. If you are in need of better resistances, this armor is for you.

well, thats about all the ones that I thought were really worth the effort of using up your runes, though there are tons of other runewords. you can check them out at www.diabloii.net

[Diablo, Bro. of Mephisto]

I forgot 1 runeword...and it happens to be the best. lol:

Silence (any weapon only) - Dol + Eld + Hel + Ist + Tir + Vex

Note: this is just an unbeatable weapon. the mods on it are incredible!!! though with 6 runes, 2 of them being extremely rare (Ist and Vex), its to be expected. here are just a few of these amazing stats:

11% mana steal
+75 resist all
requirements -20% (the required lvl on the weapon is 56)
30% find magical items
+2 to all skills
increased attack speed
175% damage to demons
+50 to attack rating against undead

and those are just a few of the many mods on this weapon. Personally, I would use up all those runes to make this weapon, it really is 1 in a million. I think it is well worth it to use up those two rare runes.

well, that should be all! (hopefully)

note: the 1.9 patch should be coming out by the end of the month, and as soon as it is out, all of the runewords should work off the b.net realms, both on single player, and on open b.net.

[DinoDoc]

My character has died due to unknown causes. Any suggestions on what new character to create would be most appreciated.

[Diablo, Bro. of Mephisto]

what character class died?

this is my own personal oppinion, but I really like the amazon, and the assasin. I also like the paladin.

but again...thats my own personal oppinion.