Diablo IV, Diablo 2 and Diablo 3 Forums - Diabloii.Net

Background:

(BTW, this will be a VERY long post and if someone knows of a better way to embed or add images in threads/messages, please help me)

I've been playing D2 LoD since release, or shortly after. My father had bought the game to me, since he saw I loved playing D1 (and still do). Back then we had no internet access so I was stuck playing 1.07 Single Player. This also meant that I had no way to find informations about the game, and had to learn on my own. Since I was very young and stupid back then (12 years old) the characters I built were very poorly planned, if planned at all XD

Later on (about a year later) my mom started paying an internet access. Obviously, I was very curious to try D2 on Battle.Net, which I did promptly.

When I started playing on B.Net, the latest patch was 1.09. I didn't really notice any changes, except a few things like items could be sold for more than 25K on NM and Hell, and that Rejuvenation pots would go to belt automatically when picked up.

Since I am a extreme completionist gamer, I gave myself the most ambitious, irrealistic, absurd goal possible in D2 IMO.

This goal is to complete the game with:

All 7 classes on Expansion Softcore
All 7 classes on Expansion Hardcore
All 5 classes on Classic Softcore
All 5 classes on Classic Hardcore

AND to level them all to 99.


I played D2 1.09 on Battle Net until my mom decided that D2 was taking too much time of my life, and cancelled our internet subscription.

Since I learned a lot when playing on B.net and now without an internet connection I thought I should try reaching my goal in SP.

BUT, bad things happened, first, a so called friend stole my D2 LoD CD, and my mom didn't want to buy another one (for legit reasons) and then my computer finally died, because of all the viruses that infected it when I had internet.

So I was left without internet, then without D2 and no computer. All what was left was the internet access at school. This went on for 4 years. 4 years that whenever I had access to a computer with internet, I would browse the web for infos about D2, learn the mechanics and the best possible builds, take notes and write builds on paper, while asking feedback from my friends who could play D2 and make me really jealous XD

But it turned out that soon after I had no way to play D2 anymore, 1.10 came out. And I immediately detested it, maybe because I am scared of change, I don't know.There was no way to change my determination to reach my goal in 1.09. I am still VERY, VERY far from it, and most probably will never reach it (10 level 99 on Classic SP, that's humanly impossible).

Eventually, I started working, and bought myself a decent PC, good enough to run D2 flawlessly, and quickly installed D2 on it. I had downloaded the 1.09d patch at school so I could update the game at home.

But bad things happened again, and 2 years later, the hard drive failed, so I lost all the progress I had made. Restarted fresh in 2008, and played on and off since. This time I have backups of my characters, regularly updated, both via e-mail and external USB drive. There's no way I'm starting over again. :)

The Sept

Pic:
Screenshot047.jpg

So far, I have recently Pat/Mat'd all of the LoD Softcore sept, I still need to level them up. Glad I'm playing 1.09, this shouldn't be too long.

Since I am stubborn sometimes, I absolutely wanted my characters to have the gear I had planned for their build, and wouldn't play them before I found all the gear they needed. OK some (maybe most) item choices are suboptimal, or even thoughtless. An example is that I love my melee attackers to have dual Raven Frost, and most of my characters have low/very low resists in Hell.

Most of the builds are also cookue-cutter, so don't expect some fancy or cool builds in there, sorry :p

So, here I present you my sept, + other completed characters


Matriarch Sweetspot, Burizon (LoD SC):


Sweetspot

Screenshot048.jpg

One of my older characters, I don't really remember much of the time when I did quest with her, but seeing her low life and resists makes me think she is very fragile. But she's amazing in the cow level, which is what I care about. She gets close to 6K damage when her merc activates Might. Also, I built her in a way that she's ready to use Windforce, if I ever find one.

Gear
Helm: Vampire Gaze 8/6/20
Weapon: Buriza-Do Kyanon 196%
Armor: Shaftstop 189%
Gloves: Laying of Hands --> She used to wear Bloodfist, but I like the Damage to Demons, Fire resist and 20% IAS
Belt: Razortail
Boots: Gore Rider
Amulet: Highlord's
Ring: Scintillating ring of the Locust (5% LL, 14 @)
Ring: Raven Frost (229/16)
Switch weapon: Eaglehorn
Charms: lots of poison damage charms

Merc gear: Gaze, Shaftstop, Hone Sundan (Shael, Amn, Amn)

Stats

Level 87
134(135) Strength
240(308) Dexterity
136 Vitality
15 Energy

Skills

Bow & Crossbow

20(21) Multiple Shot
20(21) Guided Arrow
20(21) Freezing Arrow

Passive & Magic

20(21) Critical Strike
3(4) Dodge
2(3) Avoid
2(3) Evade
7(8) Pierce, for 65% + 33% from Razortail. Never checked if the % just add or if it calculated differently. Anyway it's just there in case I find Windforce

My next skill point will go in Fire Arrow, since I recently learned that this skill converts physical damage to fire in 1.09 and is amazing for dealing with PI monsters.

Sweetspot is probably my fastest cow killer, and definitely the character with the most damage shown on the LCS

Matriarch Technical, Phoenix Strike / Death Sentry Assassin (LoD SC)

Technical

Screenshot049.jpg

This character is my most recent Matriarch, completed yesterday. Now I know that questing with this Assassin was one my most frustrating experience in D2 so far.

I really dislike how fragile she was to LE bosses, PI bosses, PI/FI bosses, and was very unlucky and met lots of Cursed Extra Strong Aura Enchanted bosses that are surprisingly good at killing her in 2 hits, even with Gaze, Shaftstop and String of ears, and 330+ Vitality. Fortunately, she is very good in the cow level, with the help of Death Sentry. This character is probably the one who died the most out of all my Sept thanks to low resists XD.

I never used Death Sentry for the entire game, except when I did a few cow runs to reach level 80 yesterday, and it worked amazing combined with the Meteor from Phoenix strike.

Gear


Helm: Vampire Gaze (8/6/20) --> identical to Sweetspot's Gaze XD
Weapon: Bartuc's Cut-throat (Shael, 194%)
Weapon: Bartuc's Cut-throat (Shael, 192%)
Armor: Shaftstop (180%)
Gloves: Bloodfist
Belt: String of Ears (8/14)
Boots: Waterwalk (64 Life)
Ring: Raven Frost (241/19)
Ring: Raven Frost (247/16)
Amulet: Highlord's

Charms:
Shogukusha's Grand Charm of Incineraton (1 Martial Arts skills. 4-8 fire damage)
Entrapping Grand Charm of Dexterity (1 Trap skills, 3 Dex)
Other charms are Max Damage/AR

Now that I think about it, this is probably the last kind of charms I would want for such a character XD

Stats

Level 80
79(122) Strength
29(122) Dexterity
361 Vitality
26 Energy (probably 1 misclick lol)

Skils

Martial Arts

3(11) Tiger Strike (wasted points)
20(28) Dragon Claw
20(28) Phoenix Strike

Shadow Disciplines

20(25) Claw Mastery
2(7) Burst of Speed
1(6) Claw Block

Traps

16(22) Death Sentry

The way I play her in the Cow level: Lure a lot of cows, the more the merrier, cast the 3rd charge of Phoenix Strike so the cows surrounding me are frozen, and then spam the Meteor charge until one cow dies. Retreat a little bit and cast 2-3 Death Sentries and watch the cows explode in a rain of hellish fire! How can it be more fun? :p

Patriarch Beast, WW Barbarian (LoD SC)

Beast

Screenshot050.jpg

Ahh, the Barbarian, probably one of my favorite class to play in D2. I started Beast as soon as I found The Grandfather in a cow run with my Sorceress. Unfortunately, I was very unlucky with the Damage % roll, I got 154% out of the 150-250% range. Still, this weapon is very powerful. He used to wear a Stormshield, but now is dual wielding Grandfather along with a Cruel Colossus Blade of Measure, which ALSO rolled a terrible damage % (201%, the absolute minimum for Cruel) and socketed it with Shael/Shael/Eth.

Gear

Helm: Arreat's Face (198/6)
Weapon: The Grandfather (Shael, 154%)
Weapon: Cruel Colossus Blade of Measure (Shael. Shael, Eth 201%, 3 Min Damage)
Armor: Shaftstop (Um, 219%)
Gloves: Bloodfist
Belt: String of Ears (8/14)
Boots: Waterwalk (64 Life)
Ring: Raven Frost (201/19)
Ring: Raven Frost (212/18)
Amulet: Viper Heart rare amulet, see below.
Switch, 2x Echiong

Code:
Viper Heart
Amulet
Required Level: 50
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 90
Fingerprint: 0xb586045e
+16 to Strength
+15 to Energy
Fire Resist +14%
Lightning Resist +14%
Cold Resist +14%
Poison Resist +35%
6% Mana stolen per hit
+2  to Curses (Necromancer Only)
Charms: Max Damage + AR

Stats

Level 87
159(215) Strength
38(130) Dexterity
323(343) Vitality
10(45) Energy

Skills

Combat Skills

20(24) Concentrate
20(24) Whirlwind
6(10) Berserk

Combat Masteries

20(22) Sword Mastery
11(13) Iron Skin
14(16) Natural Resistances

Warcries

1 Shout
1 Battle Orders

I rarely ever use the warcries with him.

Back when he used to wear Stornshield along with Grandfather, he was super slow in the Cow Level, but thanks to RobbyD's advice, now that Beast uses the Cruwl Colossus Blade of Measure, socketed with an Eth, he never misses and attacks much faster, resulting in much, much shorter cow runs :) The only drawback is the crazy repair cost. Beast was also my very first WW barbarian.

Patriarch L-Cancel, Fury Werewolf Druid (LoD SC)


L-Cancel

Screenshot051.jpg

L-Cancel

It seems like since the change in the forums, the formatting in the post linked as got "corrupted" :/
I don't want to edit it and risk bumping an old dead thread.

I played him recently, and I must say this character is probably the most boring character in my Sept, plus he is the slowest cow runner, I could almost say he can't run them. I will remake him if I find another build that kills cows faster.

He is now level 80, and has over 3.6K life in Wolf form with Oak Sage.

Patriarch Mindgames, Blood Golem, Iron Maiden, Bone Spear, Poison Nova Necromancer (LoD SC).

MindGames

Screenshot052.jpg

MindGames

I said pretty much everything in this thread, only difference is that he now wears 2 SoJs, a Shako and is level 82. Turns out to be very powerful in the Cow Level, I was positively surprised :D He also now has 4 Fungal GCs

Patriarch Vision, Zeal/Fanaticism, Vengeance/Conviction Paladin (LoD SC)

Vision

Screenshot054.jpg

This character is probably my most versatile, well-rounded out of all my Sept. With maxed resists minus Poison, 4 frames Zeal, Max Block, and options to kill any type of enemy, he was very, very fun to play with. And he's able to run P8 Cow Level quite fast, too.

Using Vengeance and flashing Conviction for PI bosses, they were no threat. PI undeads? No problem, just use Sanctuary, which ignores undead Physical resists in 1.09. Mana Burn PI? Just use Redemption! No matter what he encountered, Vision was prepared. Fully cleared Hell on P8, without much problem, except for Stygian Dolls and a pack of PI Frenzytaurs in Abbadon. A total 4 deaths.

Gear

Helm: Vampire Gaze (8/8/16)
Weapon: Baranar's Star (Eth)
Armor: Shaftstop (215%)
Shield: Herald of Zakarum (Perfect Diamond, 176%)
Gloves: Laying of Hands
Belt: String of Ears (8/15)
Boots: Gore Rider
Amulet: Highlord's
Ring: Raven Frost (163/20)
Ring: Raven Frost (204/20)

Charms: various resists to have maxed, bit of life and elemental damage

Stats

Level 84
133(169) Strength
67(122) Dexterity
300(320) Vitality
15 Energy

Skills

Combat Skills

1(6) Zeal
20(25) Vengeance
20(25) Holy Shield

Offensive Auras

20(23) Fanaticism
17(20) Conviction

Defensive Auras

1(4) Redemption

Matriarch Fall, Frozen Orb, FireWall Sorceress (LoD SC)

Fall

Screenshot055.jpg

This is my oldest character, the one who's been running Mephisto and Pindle to provide gear for all my other LoD SC characters. Also my 2nd most efficient cow killer, very close behind Sweetspot. So far, Frozen Orb / Fire Wall is the only sorc build I've tried in 1.09, and it works very well.

Gear

Helm: Harlequin's Crest (141, Um)
Weapon: The Occulus
Armor: Skin of the Vipermagi (34)
Shield: Lidless Wall
Gloves: Magefist
Belt: Gloom's trap
Boots: Silkweave
Amulet: Mara's Kaleidoscope (29 @)
Rings 2x Bul Kathos' Wedding Band
Switch: Gull (Ist), and Milabrega's Orb

Charms:

2x Fire Skill GC (one of them has 26 life
2x Cold Skill GC (one of them has 12% FHR)
24x SC of Vita

Stats

Level 96
63(70)
25(32)
402(444)
80(117)

Skills

Fire Spells

6(20) Warmth
20(34) Fire Wall
20(34) Fire Mastery

Cold Spells

20(33) Frozen Orb
20(33) Cold Mastery

Lightning Spells

1(12) in all Lightning spells except Energy Shield
6(17) Nova

I have three more "finished" characters, but I will add them later to this thread.

Baroness Blast, Frozen Orb/Fire Wall Sorceress (Classic SC), level 81
Baron Alpha, Whirlwind Barbarian (Classic SC), level 78
King Loyal, Whirlwind Barbarian (Classic HC), level 76
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