Duo advice?

[darben]

Duo advice?

Well I have never played D2 and nor has my friend but he's done some research and will be playing a blizz sorc of some sort I don't know. I'm trying to think of a class that would be good to play with him for speed and leveling and finding gear.

We will be playing over LAN so i suppose these speed runs aren't possible. I was thinking about making a wind druid but I really don't know how you guys make it to level 24 with out using some sort of points for an offensive spell.

Any help or tips or suggestions are welcome and much appreciated. And just in case you didn't catch it, these are our first characters so we don't have any gear at all really.

He has farmed act one all the way up level 19 and has full yellow gear and doing really well and just tearing through mobs. So I would like to play something that can catch up and keep up as well and not hold him back.

 

[Hrus]

Re: Duo advice?

Blizzard sorc is very strong character (against non-immunt monsters), so I suggest for you to have equally strong and fast character (seeing other character do all the killing is boring. This leaves you for a sorc of a different element (Fireball or Chain Lightning) or hammerdin.

 

[darben]

Re: Duo advice?

I actually just started an amazon and i'm loving it right now but would that synergize at all with a sorc? I just made it to lvl 10 and haven't used any stat or skill points. I've seen two builds that i like.

1. the standard lighting jav
2. icy bowazon with strafe

And keep in mind that we are just playing lan so something cheap yet effective is what i need to start but also something that i can solo with in SP for gear.

And thank you for your response but i'd rather not go with sorc and pala's just never really appealed to me.


Oh and also as a first character how should I distribute my skill and stat points? I did just get a really nice ring with a good bit of AR and extra loot from mobs and dex bonus i think. a yellow off of act one and it sells to the vendor for 3k. so i guess money isn't a huge issue in this game.

 

[Hrus]

Re: Duo advice?

Pala is usually very party-friendly with all of his auras (cleansing, vigor, salvation), but play what is fun for you.

Frozen arrow is a good skill, but you will only duplicate the main element of your friend, which is not a good thing in hell difficulty when ~ third of the monsters is cold immune.

I would go full lightning aka Fury build, it's one of my most beloved builds. You have to use Charged Strike more when untwinked (without those fast replenish Titans), but it's an impressive and often overlooked skill on its own when properly synergized.

EDIT: both of the builds you mentioned can be played well with untwinked gear.

EDIT: for statpoints, just use the common: enough STR for equip (don't go much over 100 STR), DEX for block if you choose blocking (good for javazon) otherwise go base or enough for equip. No Energy, rest to Vitality. For skillpoints, decide for a certain build at the beginning and use only skills the build-guide suggests.

 

[Brutass]

Re: Duo advice?

I'd agree with the "fury" javazon build, lots of fun and massive damage, and fast killing too, and can be played effectively without too much twinked gear. One thing to consider though is to have at least 1 pt on plague for lightening immunes, i think it's a prerequisite anyway, or just get your friend to freeze the lightening immune monsters before you attack

 

[Hrus]

Re: Duo advice?

1 skill point plague doesn't really do any damage (1pt jab is much more effective) and they don't have to deal with immunities much if their main attacks are blizzard and Charged Strike (different elements). Those few dual LI/CI will be handled by their mercs easily.

 

[Brutass]

Re: Duo advice?

Hrus, you sre quite right about the Jab, my mistake

 

[darben]

Re: Duo advice?

ok the javazon is ok..kills big targets pretty fast and i decided to go with a CS/LF + 10/20-poison jav/plague jav. I just got to level 25 it's taking me a while...It seems like i have to load up my bags with pots just to be able to stay out and fight for more than 10 minutes at a time, spamming CS KILLS my mana.

I haven't put anything into energy, I think i'm looking at 95 vit/50 dex/ 40 str right now. And is there a way to speed up leveling at all? I've been reading some progress report threads and damn...I mean i read a guy that was playing untwinked summon druid on hardcore to boot and made it to lvl 70 in ~3 days...

I do have hamachi if anyone wants to help me out with some gear and or rush run for a first toon, prob the jav since it's the highest i have right now.

Also more contact info for anyone interested..

[email protected]
icq: 170446549
yahoo:skeptik1983

 

[Hrus]

Re: Duo advice?

Don't put 10-20 points in poison/plague. For noticable damage you have to go for 40 skills, otherwise it will do no noticable damage in hell difficulty. You will do more damage with simple jabbing (with 1 point jab) after you will find a good damage javelin, and you can also pierce immunities of some monsters with wand/dagger with Lower Resist charges, so you don't need second element so badly.

Energy is problem for this build (and most other builds too) around these levels, but with each level it's getting better and better. Just look for gear with +mana. I usually have a socketed helm with 2 sapphires around these levels to get my base mana (thus mana regeneration) higher.

For faster leveling, do you use /players8 command? This command emulates more players in the game (up to 8) for SP and TCP/IP games. Monsters have more hitpoints and gives more experience (and more items).

 

[darben]

Re: Duo advice?

i used the /players 8 on my javer for the first 20 lvls when i was doing him sp only, then after that in tcp/ip game i can't seem to get it to work.

So i have already messed my build up then by putting 10 points in poison jav? that skill made it so easy to lvl in the early lvls it was just stupid, round up a bunch and shoot one off and let them run through it and xp just came rolling in.

But even with players 8 i have to run to town sooo much for pots just to stay alive..i fill my inventory with them completely so most of the time i don't even pick up items that drop. I use all the best yellow items that drop or should i go for more socketed pieces?

I'm tempted to go back to my icey strafer if i've already messed this one up. don't use nearly as many pots but the arrows that i go through is just as bad. I just kind of want something that will be relatively ok for farming stuff later on for another character or from improving on that one. I heard strafers are good for pit runs but are the item drops there that good?

My friend the sorc just got blizzard and he's basically ripping **** down but the bosses i can put some hurt on them with CS. It's just that random killing out and about it doesn't seem as useful and my normal melee hits are pathetic at best for damage.

 

[Hrus]

Re: Duo advice?

/PlayersX command works in tcp/ip too, but only host can use it successfully (so if your friend hosts, he has to use it.

I was never fan of poison/plague javelin. It works nicely at low levels, but not really in hell, especially for untwinked character and it must be synergized to do noticable damage. So you basically loose 40 points for synergizing Charged Strike, which should be your main attack (Lightning Fury is very good for large packs, but it eats your mana much more and you loose javelins very quickly so it's manageable with Titans and their big stack and very fast replenish, but not so good with other javelins). And Charged Strike might be very good when fully or almost fully synergized... Without synergie, it's just mediocre skill.

About mana - go for as much +mana equipment as you can find. Use saphires as I suggested earlier. Mana pots will be more effective and you also regenerate your mana faster (mana regeneration is time to refill the whole mana bulb - bugger bulb means faster regeneration). After you will get around 200 mana (leveling will help greatly), you will not have to use mana pots...

And of course players8 makes you use mana pots more - you need more CS attacks to kill monsters...

When properly played and fully synergized, your ama will match blizzard sorc later in terms of damage. Frost maiden will not do that and her main attack will collide with your friend's Blizzy...

 

[darben]

Re: Duo advice?

Hrus first of all I would like to thank you a lot for keeping up with this thread and giving some advice to a complete newb.

Also since I wasted the points in poison jav already i guess i will remake another toon. It didn't take me long at all to get to where i am with the /players 8 command.

I would like to get my new one up there before tonight so that I can play with my sorc friend. Also how would a fire druid do with the sorc. alot of aoe i see. And would maxing out bear help at all for a tank or does he need the wolf synergies to compete...and btw what exactly is the synergy that the wolves provide for bear? I can't find any information on that at all.

 

[Hrus]

Re: Duo advice?

Fire druid is very strong in normal and nightmare and very, very week in hell difficulty.

For skills - use the skill calculator

 

[darben]

Re: Duo advice?

So what is the reason for the fire druid being so week in hell?

 

[Crowd Control]

Re: Duo advice?

Many fire immunes and difficult-to-hit firespells.

 

[darben]

Re: Duo advice?

so then a fire sorc is at just as bad of a disadvantage then in hell i assume?

 

[Crowd Control]

Re: Duo advice?

Well pure Firesorc would have the same disadvantage. But she can deal quite a bit more damage and also more damage over time, so she would kill the non fire immune faster. Add to that that she has an invaluable Teleport and Static for the mere price of 2 skillpoints.

 

[Hrus]

Re: Duo advice?

Fire sorc spells (Fireball, Meteor) are much more stronger than druids and most importantly all druids spells have crazy big casting delay. The best spell Fissure does just dufficient damage for nightmare if you max synergies, but you can't enhance its damage further after you put 40 points in them, while Fireball has two synergies and Fire Mastery.

I played a twinked fire elemental druid and I was dissapointed with the damage done to non-immunes. For immunes it's of course much worse, but it was expected...

 

[Elyxthaxzus]

Re: Duo advice?

If your interested in druid, i'd suggest a windy (good guide by fenris in druid forum). they have much of the survivability that a sorc does not, and your basically an up front caster (casting spells but in melee range). I used to run HC with a friend of mine (he had a sorc), and when it came to hell rushes for his alts (forge drops), he always ended up asking me to front with him. With max block, maxed elemental shields, a windy can handle allot of elemental issues sorcs cant. their killing speed isn't as fast as a sorc, but they make up for it with durability. and sorcs love my heart of the oak (more health), and all the summons come in handy (the bear is better then a merc at times for tanking stuff, and you can cast him wherever you want him and its instant aggro)

Figured i'd throw that 2 cents in since your considering re-rolling. definitely avoid fire druid..they're not bad, it's just a bad design where skills and synergies come into play. windy is better for hell play.

 

[darben]

Re: Duo advice?

Thanks for that info. I actually re rolled a trapsin and before i knew it i was lvl 22 and done with act 2. he's alot of fun but every time I try to sail east the game dings and crashes...