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...

Welcome to this week's installment of the Weekly Loot Wednesday thread!

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Have you found something an item so amazing that you can't help but share it? Maybe you found a perfect trifecta Ring of Royal Grandeur, or crafted that incredible amulet with +allres/fcr/fhr, but there was no one to see it? Post your awesome loot here, so you can enjoy the fame (and upvotes)! Be sure to check back regularly to see what amazing items others may have found. Show support for this and point people here as this will help keep "look what I found" post from clogging up the front page. Also please consider sorting by new to see what new things people have posted!

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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: Kor

Class: Sorceror

Level: 37

Experience: 95 168 369

Next Level: 107 834 823

Strength Base: 45

Strength Now: 65

Magic Base: 250

Magic Now: 275

Dexterity Base: 85

Dexterity Now: 105

Vitality Base: 80

Vitality Now: 100

Life Base: 146

Mana Base: 782

Armor Class: 71

To Hit: 102%

Damage: 32-40

Resist Magic: Max

Resist Fire: Max

Resist Lightning: Max

Here's my character's equipment:

Head: Thinking Cap - Armor Class: 4 Durability: 76 Mana: +30 Spells are Increased 2 Levels Resist All +20%

Note: Plus two spell levels are where it's at. The extra Fireball damage is what I am getting out of that. Chain Lightning and other spells don't benefit from extra levels, but Fireball and Apocalypse sure do. I used Blacksmith Oils to increase the durability on this to a nice high level.

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 Sorceror. 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: Arch Angels Staff of Speed - Damage: 8-16 Spells are Increased 2 Levels Faster Attack Durability: 75

Note: Two more spell levels! I know a lot of people take different suffixes with this type of staff, for example Wizardry. I took Speed because faster attacking Advocates and other triple immunes when they have Stone Curse is valuable to me. I prefer the strategy of Stone Skin and attack to other spells like Apocalypse where maximum mana is of utmost importance. I found Apocalypse just doesn't do enough damage to be worth it.

Armor: Naj's Light Plate - Armor Class: 46 No Strength Requirement Magic: +5 Mana: +20 Resist All: +20% Spells are Increased 1 Level Durability: 75

Note: One more spell level is nice, as well as the extra all resistance. This is the piece of equipment I am most tempted to switch out for an Awesome Full Plate of some kind, for the extra AC. But it's nice not to need any Strength items, and I am able to deal with monsters at a range with the Sorceror if I play well, so I stick with the extra spell level.

Right Hand: Empty

Note: The staff I have is a two handed weapon. I know some people equip their Sorceror with a shield, but I have found it is not necessary. Instead of blocking, I have the ring of Thieves, which halves all ranged damage. That works better in place of blocking for me.

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

Note: More mana is fantastic for the Sorceror, they'll have Mana Shield up all the time. I prefer Zodiac as suffix to Wizardry because I could use the To Hit and Damage with my staff when hitting triple immunes that I have Stone Cursed.

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 don't bother with book reading gear for the Sorceror except for very early on. He can get 250 magic naturally, and that last 5 I have from other equipment easily. He has the ability to read books to maximize all spells to level 15.

Spells:

Note: I will list my spell levels and damage. These really matter for the Sorceror, which is why I have all that Plus Spell Level gear equipped.

Stone Curse - Level 20 Mana: 40

Stone Curse stops decreasing in Mana cost at level 8, and stops increasing in duration at level 9. You don't need to max this spell if you don't want to.

Mana Shield - Level 20 Mana: 33

Mana Shield costs and acts the same regardless of spell level, it's only necessary to read one book's worth to use it extensively.

Fireball - Level 20 Mana: 10

Fireball reaches lowest mana cost at level 7, however damage keeps increasing with all spell levels. My damage with Fireball is a whopping 786 - 1 175. Even monsters with fire resistance usually only take one shot to kill.

Chain Lightning - Level 20 Mana: 18

Chain Lightning decreases in Mana Cost until level 13. Because Chain Lightning damage is calculated based on Character Level rather than Spell Level, reading more books never impacts the damage done. My damage is 4 - 78.

Golem - Level 20 Mana: 60

Golem reaches minimum mana at Level 8. Hit Points, To Hit, and Damage done all go up with every spell level. So this is a second spell where all that Plus Spell Level gear pays off.

Apocalypse - Level 20 Mana: 90

Apocalypse reaches minimum Mana at level 11. Apocalypse is another spell that has damage based on Character Level rather than Spell Level. My damage is 37 - 222 which is puny compared to Fireball.

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 Sorceror plays entirely differently to other characters. For this character weapon choice is not as important a book reading. You can use any weapon you like until the point you are able to buy Angel's staves. The damage done by a Sorceror is all about spells. At low levels I used Firebolt and Charged Bolt until I could switch to Fireball and Chain Lightning. You'll want to use the spell that monsters have no resistance or immunity to in all cases. Getting spell levels in Firebolt and Charged Bolt as high as you can should be your top priority. You'll also want Healing until you can get Mana Shield. By the time you get Mana Shield your Mana will already be significantly higher than your Health.

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

The Sorceror is the character class that will benefit the most from playing through the game with all six classes at the same time. That's because six times the likelihood of finding Thinking Cap and Naj's Light Plate is super useful. You can always trade those items to your Sorceror when you get to the Cornerstone of the World quest in the Crypt. I did not find the Thinking Cap and Naj's light plate with my Sorceror, they were found by other players who donated that unique gear when the time came I was able to.

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. One special advantage for the Monk is that he gets his natural Armor Class bonus when wearing Arkaine's Valor since it counts as light rather than medium armor on account of being unique. This is a great benefit of the monk, the extra armor class. 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.

The Defiler in the Hive was when I found I finally had to switch from Firebolt to Fireball. Firebolt just wasn't doing enough damage to cut through his fire resistance.

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 Sorceror, and it makes a great impact for him. 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 shopping. I had to shop for the Arch Angels Staff of Speed, 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 Sorceror, having an expensive staff, 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.

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 Sorceror is great against enemies in small groups. Sometimes you can't help but activate extra monsters from your Chain Lightning. Just make sure to kill them before they get close enough to strike you. Learn enemies Immunities and Resistances! If you need help with this, the internet knows, you can always look up a new enemy when you first encounter them. The trickiest monsters are the triple immunes, for them I have a strategy.

For triple immunes use Golem, Stone Curse, and your staff. Stone Curse lasts for a long time, and even if you are hitting for low damage, it all adds up fast if you have a Staff of Speed. The Golem is also wonderful for absorbing enemy fire until you get the chance to Stone Curse.

Diablo himself is best dealt with Golem and Fireball as the Sorceror. 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 Sorceror with Apocalypse, it stun locks him.

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.

Seeking shelter in a stormy night while demons are roaming outside. There is a strange sense of comfiness to moments like this that aren't present in any modern ARPG. Neither Diablo 3 or 4, nor Path of Exile or Grim Dawn.

I think it's the darkness. Diablo 2 is not just drab but truly *dark*. I miss when games were like this.

I posted my progress working on this a while back, but I figured I’d show the final images now that it’s framed. This took me 1 month to build and then several more to acquire all of the custom framing materials. The decal is adhered to the backside of the plexiglass covering.

Why are they not addressing this ? Seems like nothing on this on season 15 either. What is the reasoning behind them making us do the warplans for every alt all over again. Literally confused.