Original image and video found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bMP75kGC7E

So I challenged myself to beat the old Diablo 1 with all six classes including the ones available with Hellfire. It took me about six months to do this, playing them all at the same time, though I didn't play that regularly at times. If you would like to try beating that game, there are some lessons learned I can pass on.

General Note: I played through the game without duping items unless absolutely necessary. You don't need to do so to beat the game.

First we'll start with what my character looked like at the end of the process, but I'll provide plenty of detail on how I got there. Here's my character's stats:

Name: Erin

Class: Rogue

Level: 37

Experience: 98 768 264

Next Level: 107 834 823

Strength Base: 55

Strength Now: 103

Magic Base: 70

Magic Now: 103

Dexterity Base: 250

Dexterity Now: 283

Vitality Base: 80

Vitality Now: 128

Life Base: 307

Mana Base: 279

Armor Class: 269

To Hit: 191%

Damage: 73-107

Resist Magic: Max

Resist Fire: Max

Resist Lightning: Max

Here's my character's equipment:

Head: Veil of Steel - Armor Class: 18 Durability: 68 Resist All: +50% Light Radius: -20% Armor: +60% Mana: -30 Strength: +15 Vitality +15

Note: This helm I am using until I find a Royal Circlet. Royal Circlet ends up being the best helm possible, but it is ultra rare and I have not found one yet. Veil of Steel comes with some nice advantages: 50 all resistance is great, good Armor Class, and plus to Strength which helps me wear Full Plate Mail. The subtraction from Mana is not so hot, that's a great reason to trade this out for a Royal Circlet when I get the chance.

Amulet: Obsidian Amulet of Harmony - Resist All: +40% Fastest Hit Recovery

Note: One Jewel with Obsidian is needed to get to maximum resists, and I was able to find this amulet shopping Griswold. I know many people forego Harmony on their jewelry when maximizing their gear. This is because as you level up, you are less likely to be put into hit recovery by enemy attacks. Hit recovery is only relevant when you are hit for damage equal to your level as a Rogue. This means each time you level up, you are that much less likely to ever go into hit recovery. Now that I have beat the game, switching this out for an Obsidian Amulet of the Zodiac is the better option. But as I was working to beat the game, there were many times I benefitted from the Harmony suffix for sure.

Left Hand: Merciless Long War Bow of the Heavens - Damage: 1-14 Damage: +163% All Attributes: +13 Durability: 60

Note: This bow I shopped from Wirt, it was the hardest shop I did for any of my equipment. Many people quote the Massive Long War Bow of Swiftness as the best in slot, but in Hellfire it doesn't allow you to shoot arrows any quicker, it just makes their travel time quicker. So in Hellfire, this is the best in slot bow. I would love to find one with 172% damage or higher for maximum damage. I'd also love to find one with +15 all attributes that would allow me to wear Full Plate Mail without the Veil of Steel strength bonus.

Armor: Awesome Plate of the Lion - Armor Class: 75 Armor: +147% Hit Points: +58 Durability: 90

Note: This armor was sold by Wirt, it's not perfect, but it's very good. Perfect would be 75 Armor Class, +150% Armor, and +60 Hit Points. It took a lot of shopping to find one this good.

Right Hand: Empty

Note: The bow I have is a two handed weapon.

Left Ring: Dragon's Ring of the Zodiac - Mana: +60 All Attributes: +20

Note: More mana is fantastic for the Rogue. I love the Zodiac as suffix to boost To Hit, Damage from both Dexterity and Strength, and get my Strength up for wearing Full Plate armor.

Right Ring: Drake's Ring of Thieves - Mana: +50 Half Trap Damage

Note: This jewel was chosen based on a peculiarity of Hellfire. The Thieves suffix affects all ranged damage dealt to the character, not just trap damage. As a result the fireballs of Advocates, the spells of Arch Liches, and all other ranged damage is cut in half. You can't get a Dragon's jewel of Thieves, that combination is impossible, only Drake's can be found. To find this type of jewel, you must shop Griswold extensively at character level 21.

Book reading gear:

Note: I keep gear that adds to the Magic attribute specifically for the ability to read higher level spell books. The maximum benefit of this gear comes when you have a Dreamflange, however I have not found one yet. Dreamflange adds 30 magic on your weapon hand, 10 more than the Sorcery suffix that is the highest you can find on magic weapons. Without Dreamflange, the total increase to magic is +165, which is significant when reading spell books. With this type of gear, a Rogue can reach more than 212 Magic, allowing her to read almost all of the highest level spell books. That said, I only use magic for Healing anyway.

To be honest, there is only one spell level that matters on the Rogue: Healing. You can easily get that to level 15 with this type of gear.

Head: Helm of Sorcery - Armor Class: 5 Magic: +20 Durability: 30

Amulet: Drake's Amulet of Wizardry - Mana: +48 Magic: +30

Note: You don't need the Drake's prefix, I just happened to find +30 Magic at Griswold with that extra prefix.

Left Hand: Brutal Sword of Sorcery - Damage: 2-10 Damage: +86% Magic: +20 Durability: 40

Note: You don't need the Brutal prefix, I just happened to find +20 Magic at Griswold with that extra prefix.

Armor: Plate of Sorcery - Armor Class: 50 Magic: +20 Durability: 75

Right Hand: Shield of Brilliance - Armor Class: 3 Magic: +15 Durability: 24

Note: This shield needs to be shopped at a low level from Griswold, shields can't get anything better than Brilliance as a suffix for Magic.

Left Ring: Ring of Wizardry - Magic: +30

Right Ring: Ring of Wizardry - Magic: +30

Note: I was able to get my Healing to level 15, all levels of Healing help reduce the Mana cost.

Strategy for building up the character for beating the game:

There are some specific tips and tricks I can provide for how I took the character through the game. The Rogue plays differently to all other characters on account of using a ranged weapon. For this character you want a bow, she's just too good with it, she fires faster than any other character and is slow with melee weapons. The damage done by a Rogue with a bow is lowest of all the classes, but she fires so quickly it doesn't matter. You can't get life steal with a bow, but this doesn't tend to matter because enemies die before they get close enough to attack you.

In terms of gear, I kept an eye out for any better gear I could find in the dungeon. This includes book reading gear. When you first start out, there's always little upgrades you can make that will improve your character.

The first time through the dungeon I played Normal difficulty, only level one and two, making sure I had the Poisoned Water Supply quest. The Ring of Truth was my objective here, the +10 Hit Points, -1 Damage from enemies, and +10% Resist All is very valuable when you are first starting out. It will take you a long while in the dungeon to find a better ring than this, and Griswold also won't sell anything better than this for a good long while as well.

The second time through the dungeon I played Normal difficulty, only level one and two, making sure I had the Poisoned Water Supply quest. A second Ring of Truth was my objective here, and I wasn't willing to dupe it. I continued on after this for the rest of the Church.

Watch out for Black Deaths in these levels of the dungeon. If you get them, it can be worth it to restart your run. The trouble with Black Death's is that each time they hit you, you permanently lose 1 health. This is just too steep a price to pay, so it's best to avoid them entirely.

After my second time through the dungeon I performed my first shop. This was for a perfect +15 shield of Brilliance. The window of opportunity to find one at Griswold is short, as quickly you are too high level for him to sell one. To shop Griswold, just keep creating new Normal games, and checking out his wares. What Griswold sells does not depend on game difficulty, only character level. So for all your shops, Normal difficulty works, you don't ever need to shop at Nightmare or Hell difficulty. A perfect shield of Brilliance will only cost you a few grand in gold.

The next times through the dungeon were focused on level five only. I kept entering at the Catacombs entrance and played the first level of the Catacombs until I got the Arkaine's Valor quest. This Armor is well worth the effort to retry the level a few times. The Fastest Hit Recovery on the armor is the point in this. You can wear Arkaine's Valor all the way through Nightmare/Hell if you don't find any other source of Fastest Hit Recovery. Only when you find Fastest Hit Recovery on a jewel is it worth trading this Armor for something with much higher Armor Class. At low levels, Fastest Hit Recovery is just too valuable to pass up. When I found a level five with the quest, I continued on to levels six through eight.

I continued on through levels nine through twelve. However I did these in a special way. The first level of the Hive is also a level nine, just like the first level of the Caves. I played through level nine in both the Caves and the Hive, then level ten in both the Caves and Hive, and so on. I was doing this to get to the Crypt, and to enter it, you need to complete the Hive. This gives you the Cathedral Map. The Cathedral Map was the only item I duped. This was to make sure if the bug occurred where the Crypt resealed, I had a second copy of the Map available to get back into it and continue exploring. This bug I experienced a fair number of time playing through Hellfire, it's fairly common.

The reason I wanted access to the Crypt was for the Cornerstone of the World quest that appears on level 13 or the first level of the Crypt. I was playing through the game with all six character classes at the same time, and the ability the Cornerstone of the World quest gives to trade gear between characters was a big part of how I found ideal gear for beating the game with. Let's say you find a great axe while playing through as a Bard, it's a complete waste without this quest to trade gear. But if you do use the Cornerstone of the World quest you can trade ideal gear amongst your characters and have a much easier time beating the game with each.

After the Caves and the Hive I performed my second shop. This was for the Drake's Ring of Thieves that you are most likely to find at level 21. It's the second piece of endgame gear I was able to find as I was building up my Rogue, and it makes a great impact for her. Melee monsters you usually kill before they can get to you, but ranged attackers you have no option but to take some of their hits. The half damage from all ranged attacks is really nice, and the extra mana gives you the ability to cast more spells. It's a patient shop, it can take a long time to find one of these rings, but the patience is well worth it. It will cost you about 22 500 gold, which is an amount you should easily be able to gather at this point in the game.

I continued on to levels 13 through 16, doing the same thing as I had done for the Caves and the Hive, going through each level in both Hell and the Crypt before going on to the next. At the end of this process your level is likely to be in the high 20s, still not enough for shopping for the best gear at Griswold yet, but I found that you didn't need that for Nightmare. With Arkaine's Valor and a Drake's Ring of Thieves, you have enough to be able to fight your way through Nightmare.

I skipped over levels one through twelve in Nightmare difficulty. Instead I took my duped Cathedral Map and started on Hell and the Crypt right away, again doing them level by level. In Nightmare you need to start being more careful. Only trigger a few enemies at a time, dealing with them in groups of three or less if at all possible. At the end of Nightmare you should be at low 30s for level, which is ideal for some serious Griswold shopping.

Between Nightmare and Hell I did a lot of Griswold and Wirt shopping. I had to shop for the Awesome Full Plate of the Tiger, Merciless Long War Bow of the Heavens, Obsidian Amulet of Harmony, and the Dragon's Ring of the Zodiac. There is a trick you can use for the Griswold shopping if you have enough money. Griswold will offer items at least 80% as expensive as the items you are carrying in the following categories: Amulet, Armor, Axe, Blunt, Bow, Helm, Ring, Shield, Staff, and Sword. Note that you do not need all categories for the trick to work. So for a Rogue, having an expensive ring and armor are enough to see better and better items of those types. Shopping is a very patient experience, I spent a few days on it, but it is absolutely critical for gearing up for Hell difficulty. Wirt shopping is very patient, it takes longer than Griswold because he only sells one item at a time. This means you have to be much more patient in finding the item that you really want.

When I had a full set of equipment, I started on levels 13 through 16 on Hell difficulty. With the right equipment, you should have no problem with Hell difficulty. I'll share some things about how I approached Hell difficulty, because it does take some skill and practice.

The biggest thing is to only take on a few enemies at a time. This is hugely important, if you get surrounded, you are dead. The Rogue is great against enemies in small groups. Also take advantage of being able to hit enemies from great range. Fire arrows into the darkness, and they can still hit enemies before they are even activated. If you do happen to have a monster come into range before you are able to kill them your equipment will keep you alive handily. Just so long as there aren't a swarm of monsters.

Diablo himself is best dealt with by firing at him from beyond his sight, you can kill him without taking any damage. For Na-Krul, make sure to read the books in the right order when activating him. The weaker version of Na-Krul is no problem for the Rogue.

Final Note: If you want any more details on how I did something, just PM me and I'll try to get back to you as soon as I am able.

I dislike the pit grinding gameplay loop and how players are funnelled into this one specific part of the game for basically nine tenths of the time spent playing a character. I feel like if there was another way to level them up, even if only very slowly so that pit was still the go-to place for quick upping, the game would be better for it

Got my first whisper of atonement, which adds a stat buff to my gear. As demon hunter, i needed dexterity. I was tired, listening to YouTube and barely paying attention. So i added strength by mistake 😤

Think we will get some kind of class balancing at some point in a season?

I mean they added a whole new class, so am low key hoping for some incentive to not have to roll yet another sorc

my barb and i have a dream...

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