How do you do it?

[()|31vi0n]

I've been playing Diablo II off and on since it's release. Since I started back up, I've noticed quite a few advancements in equipment and player abilities (mainly hammerdins. they should be freaking illegal).

I'm by no stretch of the imaginiation a n00b. My cold/mf sorc has 310% mf (if i switch to my secondary weapon (Gull and Sig shield). Her equipment is: Ondal's, Trang's Gloves, Shako(P Topaz), Skullder's(P Topaz) some ****ty yellow boots, fcr ammy, 25% mf ring, Tal's belt and another ring I can't remember (but it's not good). Her blizz damage is close to 2K, and her orb damage is around 400 (with cold mastery at -140% cold res).

I was just curious... It seems like in order to be able to do good in Hell difficulty, your sorc has to have full tals, lidless, 2x SOJs. and +3 to respective skill amulet. Your hammerdin has to have HOTO, Enigma, HOZ, arach, and so on... My question is: How the hell do godly D2 players get their hands on the runes and the equipment required to make their characters inhumanly good? Unless every good hammerdin I've seen just buys their stuff off of lewt.com or something...

My best bet is to get 40 pgems to trade for a Pul, which I can then trade for... stuff. (It seems like everything is worth a Pul nowadays).

Any trading tips would be appreciated. Thanks.

[amatuerbeerguy]

Start by doing countess runs, along with LK runs. To help find runes. Although I have found 2 um in cold plains but had to have at least 5 people in game. As for trading try going to the wait for free games you can get some decent stuff there to trade with. Good luck, otherwise just keep playing eventually you will find stuff.

[jrob624]

Cubing the runes and building them up to the higher ones is the way to go. It will take quite a while but eventually it will pay off. Countess and Lower kurast like amatuerbeerguy said r the way to go. I also like to Magic find while I am doing the quests .... seems to work fairly decent for me. i am only playing on single player but I have found some decent runes and uniques while questing ( no rushing for me). Good luck and just have fun and the items will come.

[saracen85]

run the pits/cows and collect socketables. people will always find good use for 3/4 os archons/dusk shrouds, eth base weapons etc..

anyway, you don't need to have enigma or any other godly gear to do well in hell. hammerdins can wield 2x spirits as early as level25. skin of vipermagi is a great caster armor that's pretty easy to find or trade for.

[Pigeon Poop]

It is really about time in. MF, MF and when you are finished, MF some more. I just did it 1piece at a time. After the reset, I built an MFer and did NM Andy, Meph and Baal forever. As I began to get better gear, I either wore it or traded it away. Soon, I was able to MF in parts of Hell and find even better gear worth trading or wearing. Eventually, I am able to build whatever character I wish.

Time. It's all about time.

[Taurean]

Actually, that Cold Mf sorc of yours isn`t that bad. If you get the proper merc, you could do Hell Mephisto runs, but i`m curious as to if you use Energy shield or not.

Hire an Act 2 Normal Combat merc, give him a Insight runeword poleaxe, and watch both your life and mana regenerate at crazy speeds. You can tele away almost without fear when using this combination.

Insight:

Allowed Items: 4 Socket Polearms/Staves
Runes: Ral + Tir + Tal + Sol
Level 12-17 Meditation Aura When Equipped (varies)
+35% Faster Cast Rate
+200-260% Enhanced Damage (varies)
+9 To Minimum Damage
180-250% Bonus to Attack Rating (varies)
Adds 5-30 Fire Damage
+75 Poison Damage Over 5 Seconds
+1-6 To Critical Strike (varies)
+5 To All Attributes
+2 To Mana After Each Kill
23% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Act 2 normal combat merc has Prayer aura, and it will synergize with the Meditation aura on the weapon he will wear.

I do agree that finding the high-end gear and High runes are ridiculously slim. I`ve just recently decided to start trading for hr`s, after a long time of rejecting it due to the dupers. I still think duping is wrong.

[saracen85]

ahh.. here they are.
a nice guide..

http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=422336

[®@þþ3¬]

I always start out with a sorc for mf. I collect whatever has any use. PGems, low runes (for RWs and crafting), keys, white items, jewels and the liking.

At some point you will get so rich you dont bother picking up stuff with low value. At one point I got so rich I didnt bother to pick up anything worth lower than Pul. :)

EDIT: Fastest/easiest way to get wealth fast is to farm keys IMO

[()|31vi0n]

Good deal guys.

Taurean: Yes. I use Energy shield, and the best of the 3 cold armors. (shiver?) Also, my merc is pretty good. He is using Grizwold's armor, Naj's Circlet (need's the strength for right now) and Bonehew. But Insight definately sounds like a good call. I have all those runes, too =].

Thanks for the advice, dudes.

[Taurean]

Check out mr Rappel`s guide if you want to become smarter about Es sorces ^^

Tell us how you find the Insight\Prayer merc when or if you try it ..

Personally i use the Frozen armor, because even though you get more defense with the two other armor skills, the extra defense doesn`t help much either way .. Therefore i`d rather have less defense and freeze the enemies when they hit, so that you have a better chance to escape if you need to ^_^

[®@þþ3¬]

Check out mr Rappel`s guide if you want to become smarter about Es sorces ^^

:o

[elayman]

I usually start off trying to make rich friends who usually help me out. I started out 2 days ago and found a guy to rush me, gave me shako, a ptorch, as well as some other goodies.. it really depends on who you know in the game. I used to find ist runes all the time doing rushes with my hammerdin. If you're on US west I can help you out..

/w *sorcymasta

[MambaLeyla]

I honestly cant remember how I got the game, whether my dad bought it for me or I borrowed it from someone.

But I was first playing it on a machine with only 8 megs of RAM and it was really choppy. Then my dad saw how poorly it was running and later that week picked me up another 8 megs and the game ran beautifully after that.

A lot of my other friends were starting to get into it at the time as well. Then when we heard about the duping trick, we all thought wed died and gone to heaven. I never had a knack for duping items though. I always picked the one piece of gold up a little to soon. It was easier duping Arkaines Valor or Griswolds Edge I thought than duping gold.

The music in Tristam was hypnotic too. Back then I could have easily just listened to that music for hours. At that age, being more impressionable can be a gift as certain video games have a much larger impact on you than when youre an adult.