[Drew]

Diablo response - Just be ready to dodge the "red lightning hose" Diablo does as that's really the most devastating thing he'll do. Also, he'll eat your mercenary for breakfast. Just resummon wolves, cast your attack spell, be mobile, and always be ready to dodge stuff. Also, fill your belt with potions and get ready to do what you'd be doing on a Saturday night if it wasn't your 'clean' month, as there are some attacks that you can't dodge.

The problem is he keeps hitting me with that "cage" thing, trapping me in place in the line of fire. There's, conveniently, a Resist Fire shrine right outside the Chaos Sanctuary, which if I hit that will take care of the worst of his ring of fire attack, but seems to have no effect on the other attack (must be a magic attack, and not a fire attack...?).

So, if I hit the Resist Fire shrine, keep my crossbow out (which lowers my defense since I can't keep my shield equipped, and lowers my normal resistance to fire, since my shield has some sort of resist bonus for a couple different attacks), keep casting Dire Wolves to keep him occupied, and accept the fact that once I'm caged in I can't dodge his other attack, well, I still get nowhere since the ring of fire attack does upwards of 300 points of damage, which is enough to finish off a Level 3 Dire Wolf, meaning I'll be constantly casting those, and I just can't hurt him enough with a crossbow to finish him off myself.

I'm thinking what I need to do here is to go back and level up a bit - if I could get my cyclone shield thing up a few levels, it'd take off the worst of at least the first magic attack of his, buying me that much more time. He doesn't SEEM to do too much conventional damage, so I think I could probably fight hand-to-hand against him (it helps that one of the charms I'm carrying does ice damage, which freezes him and slows him way down, and that my mace does something like 14-68 damage per hit, plus a whole sleew of other weapon- and charm-related bonuses) if I just had enough potions and got in a few hits first.

The problem is, my archer does a LOT of damage - all in she peaks out at like 200 I think - so a lot of my strategy to date has been about setting up the conflict such that ranged weapons can be used from the perimeter, which really isn't going to work here. :lol:

Even then though, against the fallen angel, I-whatsishame, that was probably a 2-3 minute fight, with my archer, three dire wolves, a poison vine, and a heart of the wolverine spirit. These things are just so damned tough that it takes a long time to kill them, and that's a problem because Diablo does enough damage every 15 seconds to finish me off if I'm not constantly hitting potions. :lol:

What was your character level when you first beat him? Am I just trying too early? I remember Diablo 1, I ended up starting a new game at about level 10-12 or so simply because my character wasn't tough enough to survive what he was fighting, but by the time he got back to that point in the dungeon the second time through he could hold his own (barely).

 

[Max]

can has diablo 3 now?

 

[Groff]

can has diablo 3 now?

This... I haven't played any of the Diablos in years. Such great games...

 

[Ambrosius]

Nate seconds the yearning for Diablo 3.

 

[Max]

THIRDS
THIRDS NATE THIRDS

 

[Ambrosius]

/facepalm

 

[Drew]

Wow guys. :lol:

Yeah, Diablo 3 is why I picked up 2 - I figured it made sense to get back in the mood. :lol:

 

[Max]

i think im gonna go buy the battlechest tonight :lol:

 

[Drew]

i think im gonna go buy the battlechest tonight :lol:

:lol:

Let me know what your character level is when you beat Diablo, or the first time you did, if you remember. I'm wondering if I'm having so much trouble with the final fight because I just suck at this game, or because I shouldn't even be attempting him at 27. :lol:

 

[Max]

i havent played in AGES
:idea: dya have battlenet?

 

[Josh]

Alright, first a few tips, courtesy of someone who used to spend WAAAY too much time at this game:

Diablo tips-
-The "An Evil Force" he uses to cage you in can be destroyed. Remember, you can press "W" to switch between two weapon/shield sets, so it might behoove you to do a quick switch when you get caged so that you might be able to whack your way out.
-The "Fire Trail" attack does do fire damage, it just does an absurd amount of it. It's slow enough to dodge when you're not caged, but it will completely destroy your mercenary and/or summons if they are all near each other.
-Mercenaries are not designed to take act bosses. There is a penalty built into the game where the mercenary deals 10% damage against act bosses and takes 10x normal damage. Your summons are unaffected by this, but your mercenary is.
-Remember, you can summon your wolves and such so that they are on opposite sides of Diablo. This splits his attacks a bit and slows him down since the ring of fire is the only thing that will hit multiple enemies at once.
-If you can get Diablo slowed, by cold or some other ability, it will do wonders for you. His attacks are slower and easier to see/dodge, and he will kill your summons much less often. He's still lethal though.
-Keep a Fissure under him at all times, and try to make sure he's always taking some sort of damage.

General tips:
-When leveling up, try the following: press 'enter' and type in '/players X' where X is a number from 1 to 8. The higher the number, the more health the monsters have (and they do slightly more damage) but they give significantly more experience and drops, as the game is basically setting itself up as if you were playing with 8 other players. At /players 8 monster life is at like 450% but experience gained increases similarly. Season this to taste, and try not to spawn a difficult act boss while at anything other than /players 1 or else you've got a LONG fight on your hands...

Recommended Stat/skill distributions:
When Patch 1.10/1.11 came out, the game got MUCH harder. Generally, you put strength high enough to be able to use items. Dexterity is mainly used for blocking with a shield (or meeting some weapon requirements) but is not hugely important otherwise. It does affect your chance to hit, but there are tons of items and skills that give good bonuses to attack rating. Some builds work well with a few points in energy, but dont overspend here as later on you will wish you had put some of those points in Vitality. Vitality gets everything else; life is at a premium in Diablo II, much more so than the first game.

Skills: Pick two or three 'main' skills, and max those out. Look at what skills synergize with those, and max those too if you've got the points. Try to have at least two different kinds of damage, as in the later difficulties monsters can and will show up immune to one or two elements, or physical damage, or magic. Look for "one-point wonders" that will give you a big boost for one point spent in them. I don't play Druids much, but for Barbarians "Iron Skin" is a one-point wonder because it will give you +30% defense for one point, and only a minimal investment for further than that.

It might be worth running around in Hell for a bit (or running Mephisto a few times) to get up to level 30 for your Bear. He makes a good tanking summon, with waaay more health than a wolf.

Keep some Rejuvenation potions in your belt too... they work instantly so can really save you in a pinch. Also, use the Function keys to hotkey your main skills so you can switch between them faster.

If you think your gear is holding you back, go back and run Mephisto a couple of times (use the waypoint to get to Durance of Hate Level 2, then run through the level quickly and work your way to Mephisto again; save, exit, repeat) If you raise player settings slightly (depending on how easy it is for you to kill him) you will start to see more rare, set, and unique items drop that will give you a bit more of an arsenal to deal with Diablo.

If you have any specific questions or issues, let me know and I'll see what I can do to help. It's weird, I rarely see Diablo use his "trap" ability on myself, with the Barbarian, Sorceress, or Necromancer.

...Holy crap, I am a fucking nerd.

BTW, it is possible to kill Diablo at level 27; but ever since I found out about the /players thing I usually hit him around level 30-32 and dont have much of a problem. I have never played a Druid so I don't have any specific suggestions though.

 

[Max]

im gonna shoot for: Level infinity druid

 

[Josh]

Ok, so here are the characters that I beat Diablo with (and their approximate levels)

Concentrate Barbarian - Diablo (level 31) - really easy, just get up really close and whack with a cold axe. If you get really really close to Diablo, the lightning will actually miss you.

Summon Necromancer - Diablo (level 35) - Died on him a couple times due to fragility and his ability to eat my minions for breakfast en masse. Finally won by lucking out and having him concentrate on my (resummonable) clay golem to the exclusion of all else, which slowed him along with my cold-equipped mercenary. Took a long time for skeletons and merc to chip away at him.

Meteorb Sorceress - Level 30 - Static Field brought him down to 25% health in a few castings (risky because of how close I had to get) and then Frozen Orb leveled him in like two castings. Total time: 25 seconds, tops, on /players 8. My mercenary (act 2 Defensive) didn't even die. Now you know why I like my sorceress so much!

 

[Max]

Im proposing some online play next weekend :lol:

 

[Drew]

:rofl: maybe, depending on if I have time.

the W thing is a total saving grace, dude, I've been using that since like Act 1. The combination of a good ranged weapon and a good melee weapon is huge, and IMO this is the biggest improvement of the game.

-Didn't know that about Mercenaries, good to know.

-I'd actually just been casting wolves en masse before I hit the battle, so I'd roll in with full mana. That makes sense, though, although either way as soon as he casts his ring of fire they're all going to bite it. Good call.

-likewise, I only realized last night that a waypoint would take you to ANY actice waypoint. I had no idea how to get out of hell before that, and I was starting to run dangerously low on money so I wasn't sure if I was going to run out of cash and not be able to ressurect my mercenary, and be screwed. :lol: (Again, I dind't know that they were worthless on bosses).

-When you say "level up," does that mean you can only change the the player thing when you have the "plus stats" thing on screen after completing a new level?

I figured I could make a straight run at it, but I don't think I can take Diablo just yet (or at least I'm doubtful. Maybe if I start hotkeying summons spells and fissure and get used to that I could make a fair crack at it, but so far I just don't feel like I've been able to deal enough damage before dying.

Similarly, I didn't know Rejuvinate worked instantly - I'd just been selling them as soon as I got them. :lol: I'd be downing 2-3 full health potions just because I was taking damage so fast if I waited for the full effect, I'd die. :lol:

 

[Max]

:idea: make time :agreed:

 

[Drew]

:lol: We'll see man. I still need to beat this thing myself.

 

[Max]

:idea: beat it faster, and well all start a fresh lyphestyle!

 

[Drew]

:idea: beat it faster, and well all start a fresh lyphestyle!

lyphestyle? :lol:

 

[Max]

lyphe-style. some dude on an emulation forum i used to frequent back before ssf worked went by dr34m3R 4 lYphE or something like that :lol: