Savings & Load

Unlike in Diablo I, you cannot save the game in the middle of a dungeon, and re-load the game back to that point. That is, if you pick up an unidentified magic item and want to save the game before you identify it, so that you can reload the game and dump the item if its actually cursed or useless, you cannot do it directly through the main game menu like you could in Diablo I. This is because your in-game menu options are various game setting 'Options', 'Save and Quit', and 'Return to Game'. To do this in Diablo I you would just: save, identify item, load game, and then dump the item if you wanted. To do this in Diablo II, you need to: save and quit, load game, identify item, Alt-Tab (to bring up your Windows desktop), end task Diablo II (ctrl-alt-del, select Diablo II, click on 'end task'), then relaunch the game, and reload the game. Your item now returns to an unidentified state, and you can unload (sell, drop) it if you want.

This Cheat/Hint submitted by Don on Thursday, June 29, 2000 at 10:18:08


Money

This doesn't work for any class except the Barbarian. It definitely takes patience. OK, first learn the find potion skill. If u want to, after go to the skills shrine, then go around and kill everything, in between use the find potion skill and with the shrine enhancement u should be able to get light health and mana, and maybe even a rejuvenation. when your full go to the blacksmith and sell your potions. Presto, Mo money!

This Cheat/Hint submitted by GeoAvanti on Thursday, June 29, 2000 at 16:02:13

Dupe anything

Add a backup folder to the c:\program files\diablo II\save file. Save the character that you wish to duplicate items/gold/whatever with in there, basically everything that has their name on it. Open Diablo II. Join a tcp-ip game that your friend...etc.. has set up. Drop all your gear. Save and exit. Alt-tab to go to your windows desktop and go into the folder that should be called "backup". Copy all the files of the character back into the save file. It will ask you if you wish to overwrite. Just hit "A" for yes to all. Now join the game again, and your gear will be on the ground, unless your friend took it all, and you'll have all of it again. This works particularly well for getting all perfect gems, as you can dupe all the cracked/flawed whatever, then use the "Horadric Cube" to transmute them into the better gems. I personally have a character that has a full inventory of 4 of every type of gem/skull at a perfect level, which makes NICE socketed eq.

This Cheat/Hint submitted by Cirin on Tuesday, July 4, 2000 at 10:54:07

HEX INFO (Experienced Hexers Only)HP, MP skill points stats etc...

please always backup yoursavegame before u edit it.

The manual stated that all values of your character are in the save game and thus that is what i hacked
this is how.....

open your savegame(the file with XXXX.d2s,xxxx is your character name) using a hex editor. i am not showing the offset for different editors show it differently.

go in to your game. record all the values u want to edit eg. please remove all items from your body first!!!

str xx

dex xx

vit xx

eng xx

gold piece xxx

stamina xxx

this is how u edit stats

ok....convert the values u recorded into hex
eg. strength of 30 converted to hex value is 1E

in hex it would look like this. 00 xx 00 00 xx
xx is the value of the strength the next xx would be dex followed by vit and eng.

use the function find and type in xx 00 00 where xx is the current value.replace it with a value u want eg xx 00 00 00 into 64 00 00 00 (100 converted to hex value is 64).

so with all stats 100 it would look like this

64 00 00 00 64 00 00 00 64 00 00 00 64
(remember only 4 stats,str,dex,vit,eng
)
for stamina
it would be xx 00 00 00 xx

the first is the current value and the second the max value

for hp and mp it is different.

the value of hp mp and gold is recorded backwards in the file.

eg hp of 1000 in hex is 03 E8
but the game record it as E8 03

the first value is current and the second max

it would liik like this E8 03 00 E8 03 00

Mana point is just right behind hp.

gold piece follows behind. put all your gold in your stash first. then record and convert the value. eg gold of 99999 in hex is 01 86 9F
but instead record it as 9F 86 01.

a few bytes right after gold is the skill points.
it is a whole stretch of 00 00 00 00 00....if your character has no skill at all.
i do not know the order of the skill.it would be easier to see if you have 4-5 skill at level 1 so it would liik like this 01 01 01 00 00 01 etc... the skill u choose determines the slot.put in a value u want eg 0A which is 10. there is total of 30 skills.

please dont edit the value too high eg 255,ff as the higher the skill the more mana u will need. skills at level 255 will need hundreds or thousnsds of mana for 1 spell.

well this is it.
This Cheat/Hint submitted by R25114, CK on Tuesday, July 4, 2000 at 05:23:40

Multiplayer Cheat

If you have a freind with a cool Weapon ex. (you must have tree computers ) copy your save map and take it to the desk for exeple and then the 3 computer host a game and the others joins it and then put down all your stuf on the ground and then take "save and exit". and quit diablo 2 and then you take your save map on the desk and put it in the diablo 2 map and then join the 3 computers game and take the other players stuff in your inventory and then take save and exit know you will have all the stuff that your freind hade and your on stuff and your freind will have all his stuff and your stuff.

This Cheat/Hint submitted by Mepisto on Sunday, July 16, 2000 at 04:59:50

Item Duplication (money)

Take a floppy disk and go into the diablo 2 directory. Go into the save folder and copy all the files with your characters name onto the disk. Now you have a copy of your character. You then can go back into diablo and sell everything on your character, give the money (or items) to a friend and have them hold it. When you are finished go back to the save folder in the diablo 2 directory. Delete all the files with your name on them and replace them with the ones you saved on disk. Now you have your character back with all your stuff. Go back in the game and have your friend give you everything back. Now you have either a lot of money or duplicates of all your stuff (depending on what you gave them).

This Cheat/Hint submitted by LadyKye on Saturday, July 15, 2000 at 19:39:41

Cow Level

When you have the Horadaric Cube, get "Wert's Leg" in Tristram (where you go to rescue Deckhard Cain).then Go to the northwest part of the town and search that persons body. Place the Wert's leg and a Tome of Town Portal in the Horadaric Cube, and it will open a portal to the hidden cow level filled with axe carrying cows. you shouldent go through the portal until you are over level 35 because there are alot of cows and there really strong..

This Cheat/Hint submitted by Mister T on Wednesday, July 12, 2000 at 11:56:04

Getting Stuff Back Instantly From Corpse

If you die and can't get back to your body, simply save and exit the game, then load your game and your body should be in the town. All your gold may not appear ( this obviously depends on whether you were carrying any ), it may still be lying near where you died.

This Cheat/Hint submitted by Daniel McCann on Sunday, July 23, 2000 at 05:33:16

Good weapons

the code is about to how to get good weapons

Necromancers Weapon

To attain Necromancers ultimate weapon the STROKE OF DEATH please do the following:

Summon one of each of the golems
Cast a bone spirit
Then die.
After you respawn, type in the phrase: THEDARKMUSTFEED Look in your inventory and you will have the Stroke of Death

Paladin weapon

To attain Paladins ultimate weapon the HOLY AVENGER please do the following:
Cast the following spells in this order: Meditation, Prayer, Concentration, Prayer, Prayer, Meditation, Concentration, Medidtation.
Then kill a monster using the spell, Hand Of God
Type: IHAVESERVEDYOU
Look in your inventory and you will have the Holy Avenger!

This Cheat/Hint submitted by Tom Iancovici on Tuesday, July 11, 2000 at 10:52:46

Secret Cow Level

After Beating the game on all the modes ( Normal,Hard,Hell) Combine wirts leg with a tome of I dentity that is full in the horidric cube and it will be empty. Then a portal will appear next to you. Now you have to be in the Rouge Encampment.

This Cheat/Hint submitted by jimmy on Saturday, August 12, 2000 at 11:08:39

Extra Soulstone

To get an extra "Mephisto's soulstone" do the following:

1.Kill Mephisto in act 3.

2.Pick up his soulstone.

3.Go to the river of flame in act 4.

4.Kill "Hephasto the armorer".

5.Pick up the hellforge hammer.

7.Place "Mephisto's soulstone" on the hellforge WITHOUT HAVING IDENTIFIED THE HELLFORGE HAMMER!

8.Make a town portal.

9.Have Cain to identify the hellforge hammer.

10. You will now have an extra "Mephisto's soulstone" in your inventory though the original one will still be on the hellforge.

This Cheat/Hint submitted by Fourth prime evil on Sunday, October 8, 2000 at 08:02:11

Play in a Window:

Although not documented, you may run Diablo 2 in a Window instead of full-screen. Simply add "-w" to your Diablo 2 shortcut.
(ie: "C:\Diablo 2\Diablo II.exe" -w)


========================================
Wizzards´s POWER WORDs about DIABLO II
========================================

One of the most-awaited computer-games ever is Diablo II. After my Power-Words about Dungeon Keeper 1+2, Pax Imperia and Birth of the Federation it is now time for good power tips for Diablo II.

General tips for gameplay

- First play Diablo II a bit without reading these Power-Words. Explore this fantasy-world on your own and with level 7 you should continue reading this. Remember, your first character won´t be your final character.

- Basic strategies - every character has a different way of fighting: the Barbarian is the best fighter of DII and fights in direct contact to the enemies. The Amazon has good potential in long-range-fights with her bow, the Necromancer should combine summoning with curses and is a very interesting character. The Paladin should develop good fighting abilities combined with strong resistances (protection auras). Finally, the sorceress is a very interesting (and cute) character, but quite difficult to play. She should avoid direct enemy contact and develop strong specialized magic. More infos in the Sorceress Section.

- Skills: a very important aspect in DII is a well planned character-development. You may play for the exploration a just-for fun-character and then start a new one and plan a strong character. Specialiazing is one of the keys to get a strong character which can play even Act4 in Hell Mode. When you put too many skill-points into different spells you won´t have spells which are really powerful. (I had to restart my Sorceress two times until I found out about the best skill-planning)

- For finding the best skill-developments read the strategy-pages of the DII-Sites. Or ask some high level players on the BattleNet. I also recommend to download the DII-character planner at www.wizz.de. For Sorceress- and Necromancer players I have some special tips in these Power Words.

- Navigating: many maps have a waypoint which teleports you to town and other places, you can use them also to warp to another Act (if you entered that before). When searching a place for a quest or a special plain remember that some plains have more then two exits. Navigating though dungeons: (if you don´t want to fight all monsters, but simply want to quickly solve the quest): many times the exit to another level or an important location is on the other side of the dungeon. So don´t search near the entrance, but rush fast to the other end of the dungeon.

- The Automap is activated with the TAB-key, run with CRTL. With the numeric keypad (num lock on) you can say something to your fellow players: 0 = "Help"", 1 = "Follow me.", 2 = "For you.", 3 = "Thanks.", 4 = "Sorry.", 5 = "Bye.", 6 = "Die!". With the PrintScreen-Key you get screenshots saved in the Diablo 2 directory.

- ESCaping very dangerous situations (it sounds simple but saves a lot of money & exp): learn to FAST hit ESC and "save game". The ALT key shows you all items on the floor with names; that definitely helps to find good items fast.

- Selling items: if you have found more expensive items you want to sell (good armors, rares, etc.) first repair then sell them - you get more money.

- Difficulties: in Diablo 2 you can play the whole game with all quests in three difficulty-levels: Normal, Nightmare and Hell - mode. When dying in Normal mode you will loose all money you carry (it lies next to the corpse) and a part of the money from your stash. In Nightmare and Hell you will also loose experience points. So be extra careful if you have a character which will get a new level soon. Especially in Hell you NEED lots of resistance (best go for prismatic amus / rings), because there is a high negative restistance bonus.

- When dead, your character rematerializes in town, but does not have the equipped items. The corpse of your character lies at the place where it was killed. You can go back to that place, hopefully kill the monsters and get back your items with clicking the corpse. Be careful with equipping new stuff. Many players lost items that way. If you get killed several times (and had re-equipped) you will loose items! I would never equip my char with any new stuff after it has just been been killed.(in BattleNet a disconnect sometimes deletes your items in corpses when you´ve equipped new items...) After dying and game-restart the corpse will be in the town.

- Surviving: Rejuvenation-Potions ("life+magic"-potions) help in difficult fights / duels because they instantly regenerate life + mana points (normal potions let you regenerate slowly).

- Bosses: there are some monsters with blue name (stronger then normal) and be careful about the monsters with brown name (very strong monsters with special magical abilities). These monsters strengthen other normal monsters of the same type, try to kill the bosses first, then the others won´t be so strong anymore. When fighting a tough boss (or a quest opponent like Mephisto) you should open a town portal. Concentrate your attacks or spells on one monster until it goes down, then attack another monster to its end.

- Traps: you will be warned that a trap is activated when you hear this creaking noise. Run fast then!

- Getting rare items: when you are not in "levelling up"- or "quest"-mode you can just fight for getting nice items: equip magical items for additional-chance% of finding magical items like ring-of-luck or Tarnhelm. Especially in Act-4 you will find a lot of rare stuff - exploit it first (fight many monster bosses and get their rare items) and trade with that stuff to get what you need. And then continue on in next mode (Nightmare or Hell) - you will see that good items are needed because every advance in mode makes the monsters much more powerful.

- Retrieving items: when the monsters get you and it is too difficult to kill them to get back the stuff from your dead body, better leave game and enter another game, the body is back in town.

- In one quest Charsi offers to magical transform a basic item. Don´t use it too early, better wait until Act-3 (better until another mode like Nightmare Act-2) or when you find better basic items. The best is to "imbue" an armor because a (good) rare armor has great worth for use and trading in BattleNet. You can only transform basic items (white name).

- The Horadric Cube (to be found in Act-2, halls of the dead) is a special magical item you will need in Act-2 and Act-3. With this cube you can transform segments of quest items to the final quest item. And you can do some other magical transformations with the Horadric Cube: here are not all, but some interesting combinations:

- 3 gems (same type and grade) = 1 higher grade gem (same type)
- 3 Health-Potions + 3 Mana-Potions = 1 Rejuvenation-Potion
- 3 Health-Potions + 3 Mana-Potions + 1 gem = 1 full Rejuvenation-Potion
- 3 perfect gems (of any type) + 1 magical item = 1 new random magical item ( same type)
- 3 Amulets = 1 Random Ring
- 3 Rings = 1 Random Amulet
- 6 Gems and 1 sword = 1 socketed Long-Sword

- The secret cow level: in Tristam you will find Wirt´s leg (search his corpse). After defeating Diablo on this mode (Normal, Nightmare or Hell) you can open a portal to this sectret map: place wirt´s leg and a town-portal-book in the horadric cube and transform them. Enjoy the funny cows. :-)

- Diablo II has more and more modifications with every new patch. Especially the power of some spells will be changed. These Power Words are written in Oct-2000, and in future some details about DII might be changed.

- Open BattleNet: "doesn´t exist" for me (you can easily cheat and duplicate items) many cheaters / playerkillers are out there. So the more fair and real challenge is the closed Battle-Net, because up to date there is no cheat in closed BN.

- Playing in Battle-Net: In closed BattleNet the char is saved on one of Blizzards (free, but slow) servers and until now cheating is impossible. Let´s hope it stays this way - because creating a good char here and finding / trading good items takes quite some effort.

- Parties: you can play alone like in single-player mode, but the fun is being in a party with different chars. (press "P" for party screen). When you are in a party you share the experience and taken gold with all members if you are on the same map. So don´t do the fights alone while others search only gold and items.

- Trading: be careful about your trades when you are a beginner. Some advanced players like ripping off newbies (giving much less worthy stuff for good uniques). Read the offers and postings in the trade channel and the reactions of the other players. If you have special wishes or special items for sale leaving messages in the trade channel is faster then just randomly meeting other players in trading games. "Spamming" / "Flooding" (= repeating long messages very fast) won´t bring you much friends in trade channels - a constant, but changing slow flow of messages is much better. My way of getting good deals is having a text-file (in Windows) with my offers like:
"offers rare amu 6%-life-steal + fast cast rate + some Res"
"offers Tarnhelm or Nightsmoke for Culwens Point"
"seeks FROSTBURN offers WORMSKULL"
"trades Rare+2Staff-Sorc(20-45 dmg) / BONESNAP nice Unique Hammer
"trades MILAGREBAS-Scepter(+1Pala) / IRON JANG BONG (good +1Sorc Staff)"
"offers SILKS / SIGONS Shield / MAGEFISTS / Rare +2-Staff-Sorc (20-45dmg) / Pala+nec+1Amu-with-4%Mana-steal"
"seeks rare MagePlate AC300+"
"needs 1h-sword dmg 50+"
(and bring them *not too often* with copy (CRTL-C in textfile in Windows) and paste (CRTL-X) into the trade channel screen)

- Item Trading guide: - forget trading Basic Items (white): - Magical Items (blue): don´t have much worth (maybe some good items from Hell mode, like armor and helmets with high AC = ArmorClass).

- SET-items (green): most beginners are after them. Wizzard just says: waste of energy! Some SETs are maybe useful with level 16-24 or so. If you play well you will fast advance and don´t need them. Good rares are in many cases better then any SET. Even most complete SETs don´t have much worth.

- The only SET-items I can recommend (up to 20s Levels) are: +1-Weapons like Arcannas Staff, Infernal Torch, Milagrebas Scepter and Sigons Shield (the only SET-item with some worth even for higher players) (If you have a SET complete, it will add a special bonus, for example more armor).

- Rare Items (yellow): a good rare crown/armor/weapon is often more worth then the a uique crown/armor/weapon!

- Unique items (gold = dark yellow): it may sound strange, but many uniques are worthless for trade and use! Most weapons have too low damage or shield have too low AC. So don´t think in trading that every offered unique has value. But there are some very good unique items.

- This Unique-List tells about some useful and valuable items:

- Stone of Jordan (+1Skill / +mana-ring): one of the most valuable unique items - many players want it but the value decreased since there is a "trick" how to get it (see below)

- FrostBurn: gloves/gauntlets with good AC and giving +40% more Mana! One of the most-searched Items in BattleNet! Try to get it when offered cheap, it has great trading value. (my Sorceress Beldandy has got five Frostburns just because of its trading value)

- Silks of the Victor: nice armor with +1skill, high trading value.

- GoldSkin: another Armor with high trading and good using value.

- Wormskull: maybe the most searched for item for low/midlevel-players. You can´t be five minutes in the trade channel without reading "... seeks Wormskull.".It´s a Necromancer-skill +1 helmet with 4% life steal. I don't think it´s soo worthy to be crazy about it. But give it only away for *good* stuff!

- Tarnhelm: it increases the chance from 20% to 50% to find a magical item and gives +1 to all skills, but has a low AC. It´s worthy to have and good to use up to the 20s level (or equip it only when fighting for good items in Act-4). With higher % it has nice trading value.

- Nightsmoke: a belt that gives you mana for damage (but does NOT prevent damage!) - okay for Sorceresses and Necromancers under 30. - Magefists: give +1 to all fire-skills

- Culwens-Point: a sword which gives +1 to all skills, many mid-level sorceresses wear it.

- Spectral Shard: a nice weapon for Sorceresses with +10 Resistances, +50 Mana, fastest cast-rate, fast attack and +55 to attack.

- Eye of Ettlich: +1 skills amulet and 3%-life-steal, +4 light radius and some more. Not bad, but don´t give too much for it unless you really need that +1skill / life-steal combination.

Don´t forget: This list is not complete and other players may see the value of these items differently, it´s just to give you some idea about this subject! - Crystal Swords: these interesting sounding items are quite worthless in Diablo II, no good attack and even the unique crystal-sword is not really interesting. - Money has NOT that much trading-worth in this game, only for gambling (rares and uniques) and repairing, so don´t sell a good item (some bad players try to rip-off others with just buying good items). Some good items are even sold online for real money.

- Gems: You will find different sorts of gems when killing monsters or solving quests. They are in different degree of perfection: chipped, flawed, normal, flawless and perfect. You can place three gems (same sort and quality) into the Horadric Cube to transform them to the next higher level. Many beginners are seeking and trading for gems, but it is a waste of time. If you advance fast you will get better gems easily. For example for a perfect diamond you need 81 chipped diamonds! And if you collected and traded and transformed and finally have some perfect gems you are on an advanced level where gems don´t have any trade value. The only good worth of them is sometimes place them into socketed weapons to increase AC, mana or so. And you can use them to transform magical potions into greater rejuvenation potions. (see Horadric Cube section)

- The "real currency" in BattleNet in higher levels are good rare (commonly used items like) armors (AC 400+, str 100-), swords, helmets, belts and good unique items (see list). So I recommend if you find nice stuff try to get good uniques for it. Even if you get "only" Magefists and Nightsmoke, you can trade several of them for more valuable stuff like Wormskull or Frostburn. With some of those really searched for items you have the "money" you can get easily good stuff when needed. (imagine you loose a good staff and need a new one...)

- Don´t forget to repair your valuable items you have in use like armor and helmet if it´s a good one, it´s worth the money.

- Item-Magic you will need: fastest hit recovery, (Sorceress: fastest cast rate), resistances (look that all your resistances are balanced (equal), prismatic rings or amus are nice, those help you surviving Hell more then +1 skill items), +life, +mana. Some weapons with 7%+ life / mana steal are nice, but it depends on the character. - A good trade can have equal worth like playing half a day! Trading is a nice part of this online-gaming (as long you don´t meet rip-offs or beggars ...). Give it a try!

- Last tip for trading: learn by doing.

- Gambling: a good way to get rares and uniques (even if you aren´t so advanced in game) You can gamble in every act (e.g. at Gheed or Elxix): they´ll offer items for high prices, when buying them they will be identified and the result can be magical (mostly useless), SET (mostly useless), rare or unique (better). If you seek a special unique and don´t have the stuff for trading it, find out how it looks like. (the Frostburn looks like plate gauntlets, Tarnhelm like simple iron helmet and Nightsmoke like a small leather belt). I recommend always gamble Nightsmoke and Tarnhelm, they are cheap (less then 10000), and even if you don´t use them they are good trading items. Anyway there are many useless object offered (useless even as rare or unique) so just spend your money on worthy items like Frostburn or Stone of Jordan (ring). When you don´t find good stuff offered for gambling go to another map (waypoint) and back to town and see what the new offers are.

- The Stone of Jordan: there is a "trick" to getting it: if you can trade (or gamble) the unique NagelRing and Manald Heal Ring (don´t give too much) and have them with your char, you have a better chance to get that most valuable item. It is because when gambling you can´t get a unique item you already possess (with that char).

- Levelling up in closed BNet: it sounds funny but don´t advance too fast! There are players with level 24 in Nightmare and wonder why it is so difficult. Don´t go to Nighmare until level 30, better 33. (use that time to go over and over into Act-4 collecting nice items...) If you have found a level which is easy to play and brings lots of exp-points then play that level many times with 5-8 players (with no ally = no sharing of experience-points)! That´s the warp ticket to fast level advance. With more players the monsters get their hitpoints multiplied (for example four times with four players), but NOT their attack damage, they are harder to kill but not more dangerous. Easy level-up-locations I can recommend are Act-2: Sewers, Oasis and Palace, Act-3: Under-Kurast and Bazaar. Don´t combine levelling up with playing (difficult) quests. In some quests you encounter hard fights you might loose and loose experience points (Nightmare and Hell). So start your quest when you just have reached a new level.

- Necromancer Basic Tips: there is no "only good" way of playing the Necromancer, you can play a summon-only Nec or a Poisonmancer etc. But the basic rule here is (like in all other characters): specialize in the most effective spells!! Find out which spells will serve you in long term (mostly NOT the first spells of any char) and put lots of skill points into them. That can help surviving in Hell mode. Good Necromancer spells are: Amplified Damage (even in later modes) and Iron Maiden. These are the best from "curse" tree, a kind of "must have" for every Necromancer. The higher curse spells arent soo good. A good spell from Bone Magic is: Corpse Explosion (yummy...). It is very effective even against high level monsters (when 1-2 are dead you cast it and get more monsters down and cast again...). There is no resistance against Bone Magic, but it does not get too many points. (Bone Spirit on high level could work for duels, but I recommend not to put many points into that skill tree). Summoning.... ahhh that´s the thing I like about the Necromancer. It looks funny to walk through town with spellbound monsters walking behind you like little doggies... ;-) Don´t invest more points than necessary into Summon Skeleton and Clay Golem (and zero to Skeleton Mage), but lots of points into Skeleton Mastery (for it´s good for Revive, too), and quite some into Golem Mastery. Now the big question arises which Golem is better: Iron Golem (you need a metal object like dagger to cast, and the Iron Golem will take combat-related magical abilities from that object) or Fire Golem? Well, many succesful Necromancer players say in most times the Fire Golem is better because of more hit-points. The Blood Golem: use only one skill-point, it is not useful to play with it in late Nightmare or Hell. Until version 1.03 you can use that trick: Blood Golem and Iron Maiden (cast on monsters) combination: you will be healed greatly. And Revive (resurrect dead monsters which fight for you) pays off with high Skeleton Mastery, even if time length of the spell is quite short. In the beginning when you don´t have too many skeletons (again: not more then ONE piont to Summon Skeleton, keep the points for better spells): buy a staff with Summoning Skeletons+3 and Summoning Skeleton-Mages+3 and so you´ll get some... And important: get the Bone Shield (1-2) points, it will help you even in later levels. Necromancer Stats: don´t waste any point into dexerity. In the beginning increase mostly strength (better armor) and energy (you´ll need mana for lots of curses) and later on in vitality and energy. The Necromancer does not have the Warmth ability like the Sorceress, his mana regenerating ability goes directly with the maximum amount of mana.


Wizzard´s Guide for Sorceresses:

It is said that the way of the Sorceress is the most challenging in the realms of Diablo II. I can agree it is not easy. But with good skill planning and some strategies you can develop a powerful character. And skill planning is important. (so many players started their character all over because of wrong skill planning) A nice skill planning utility you can download right here: ( DOWNLOAD LINK D2planner.zip ) Skill tips: MOST successful sorceress player say Ice-Magic rules. Very true! (some people suggest fire-magic: nice graphics and a good fire sorceress can be OK but Ice is the best!)

I recommend Glacier Spike, Blizzard and Frozen Orb. Put lots of points into these. Other magic you need is Shiver Armor, Warmth, Static Field.

Shiver Armor gives you a bonus to armor. Beldandy, my level 60 sorceress, has over 1500 armor with that spell enhancing her armor. (3-4 skill points are OK)

Chilling Armor: DON´T use that because it is too expensive and ineffective. Warmth indicates the speed of regenerating mana: it´s good to have lots of warmth, but don´t put too many skillpoints into that. (The power of your spells is more important, you should have lots of mana/rejuvenation-potions with you anyway).

Glacier Spike freezes the enemies (for a short time) and damages them (not only the one you hit, but also the ones standing next to them).

Blizzard reminds me of the Warcraft II spell of the same name: an ice rain goes down damaging all enemies within that area.

Frozen Orb is a great attack spell in higher levels and for player duels. Cold mastery is not too important in Nightmare, but in Hell many monsters have a high (cold) resistance (well, they like it hot in hell, isn´t it?). So put at least 3-4 skillpoints into cold mastery to reduce their restistance to your Ice spells. Tough enemies you can kill with Glacier Spike (freezes them), some Blizzards (more Blizzards at the same place: damage will be added!) and static field. The only disadvantage of Ice Magic is that a Necromancer (there might be one in your party) can´t revive cold-killed monsters.

Static Field is one of the most important spells to kill the bosses: all enemies in range will loose 25% of their (actual!) lifepoints. So weaken the boss with four Static Fields and then give it some Glacier Spikes. More skillpoints in Static Field will only make the range better, not the percentage, about 3-4 skillpoints in Static Field is enough.

Some players suggest teleportation: I didn´t like it. My tip is get a wand with Teleportation and test it if you like it before wasting skillpoints on it.

Manashield: a nice addition to shiver armor. Here´s a nice trick (c) by Christian Wizzard *smile* buy a staff with manashield (only go for manashield-3!) at Ormus in Act-3. (go to him, and if he hasn´t got any just use the waypoint and back to Kurast and ask him again). Before going out of town for battles, equip this staff, use Manashield (EnergieSchild in German) and equip your normal staff again (should be a +1 staff or an +Glacier Spike / +Blizzard / +Frozen Orb staff). Now you have without wasting important skillpoints a level3-manashield. (it gets stronger when you have skill+1 items equipped.) It´s worth the work and looks cool.

Don´t put any skillpoints into other spells and only one spellpoint into those spells you need for getting the right ones in cold spell path. Why do I tell you this? Well, most beginners like fancy spells like Fireball or Charged Bolt (that one was great in Diablo1). But in Nightmare and Hell you will encounter lots of monsters with hundreds of hitpoints, and those spells won´t help you even on high levels. If you like to use a spell without spending skillpoints, use staffs!

Stats: where to put my character-points for a sorceress? Yes, energy is important but not the only thing. My first points go into strength (then you can use some nice basic armors) and vitality. In all playing Diablo2 I never invested into Dexerity (Sorceress)! You just don´t need it, there are nice weapons you can get without much dex (beginners should try and trade or somehow lend the "Iron Jang Bong", a +1skill-staff with good damage). After advancing some levels you should then upgrade your mana and life.

I´ve read in many newsgroups that a Sorceress doesn´t need good armors because she won´t fight in melee combat. Sure, I wish that too, but there are so many situations you won´t be able to avoid getting hit. (ever spared with Duriel? ;-) And I don´t have to talk about that baaad lag in BattleNet (time-stops in that the monsters keep hitting your poor cute Sorceress while you sit in front of the monitor (frozen game), wait and say "please let me do something!"). Good (not so expensive in trading) beginners-armor are Viadlas-Armor, Arctic-Armor (many green SET-items).

If playing in closed BattleNet try to get that during your first levels. (the uniques "Hands of Broc" and the Death-Set-Belt are nice items for a beginner Sorceresses, too) I recommend not to go over 70/80 in strength, for that you can trade armors up to 700 AC!! (additional trading tip: try to trade some worthy items like nightsmoke, magefists or even wormskull and frostburn and trade those for a GOOD armor). Nice mageplates should have AC from 200 - 400 (not only AC is important but try to get a rare armor with additional stats like +life and good resistances).

Stuff your Sorceress will need:

- boots of fastest going / running

- items which give fast(est) cast rate

- fastest hit recovery: do you notice that some monsters keep hitting your Sorceress while she can´t do anything: she needs an item with fastest hit recovery. I recommend a crown or helmet, because the boots should have fastest going/running.

- +1 skill items: so many people are so after them. Well, if you specialize in Ice-Magic this +1 won´t bring as much as +life +AC +resistance (especially prismatic rings which give you +xx in all magic classes). So it´s Ok to have one or two +1 items, but mostly protection is more important.

- +2 skill items: so many beginners search them: keep in mind that +2-amulets can be used only with level 67 or higher.

- +2-skill staff: you should use one after level 30. Try to get a +2-Sorceress-Skill-staff with additional abilities like +2-warmth or +2 to your favourite spell. - If you really wanna fight with sword try to get "Sigons Shield" (SET-item which gives +1 to all skills) and Culwens Point (sword, see items section).

Here is an Ice Sorceress Skill Tree I recommend:

Beldandy the Ice Goddess
Class: Sorceress, Level: 50
Clvl 1 Slvl 0: Starting Level
Clvl 2 Slvl 1: Frozen Armor
Clvl 3 Slvl 1: Ice Bolt
Clvl 4 Slvl 1: Warmth
Clvl 5 Reserved For Later
Clvl 6 Slvl 1: Ice Blast
Reserved Slvl 1: Static Field
Clvl 7 Slvl 2: Warmth
Clvl 8 Slvl 2: Static Field
Clvl 9 Slvl 3: Static Field
Clvl 10 Slvl 4: Static Field
Clvl 11 Slvl 3: Warmth
Clvl 12 Slvl 1: Shiver Armor
Clvl 13 Slvl 2: Shiver Armor
Clvl 14 Slvl 3: Shiver Armor
Clvl 15 Slvl 4: Shiver Armor
Clvl 16 Slvl 1: Frost Nova
Clvl 17 Slvl 4: Warmth
Clvl 18 Slvl 1: Glacier Spike
Clvl 19 Slvl 5: Shiver Armor
Clvl 20 Slvl 5: Warmth
Clvl 21 Slvl 6: Warmth
Clvl 22 Slvl 7: Warmth
Clvl 23 Reserved For Later
Clvl 24 Slvl 1: Blizzard
Clvl 25 Slvl 2: Blizzard
Clvl 26 Slvl 3: Blizzard
Clvl 27 Slvl 4: Blizzard
Clvl 28 Slvl 5: Blizzard
Clvl 29 Slvl 6: Blizzard
Clvl 30 Slvl 1: Frozen Orb
Reserved Slvl 1: Cold Mastery
Clvl 31 Slvl 2: Frozen Orb
Clvl 32 Slvl 3: Frozen Orb
Clvl 33 Slvl 4: Frozen Orb
Clvl 34 Slvl 2: Cold Mastery
Clvl 35 Slvl 3: Cold Mastery
Clvl 36 Slvl 4: Cold Mastery
Clvl 37 Slvl 5: Frozen Orb
Clvl 38 Slvl 6: Frozen Orb
Clvl 39 Slvl 7: Frozen Orb
Clvl 40 Slvl 5: Cold Mastery
Clvl 41 Slvl 6: Cold Mastery
Clvl 42 Slvl 7: Cold Mastery
Clvl 43 Slvl 7: Blizzard
Clvl 44 Slvl 8: Frozen Orb
Clvl 45 Slvl 9: Frozen Orb
Clvl 46 Slvl 10: Frozen Orb
Clvl 47 Slvl 11: Frozen Orb
Clvl 48 Slvl 12: Frozen Orb
Clvl 49 Slvl 13: Frozen Orb
Clvl 50 Slvl 14: Frozen Orb
ALL Quest skill-points into Warmth, from Level 30 into Frozen Orb

Now enter the Realms of Diablo 2 and have fun exploring new lands, fighting (lots) of new monsters and finding tons of new items!

"Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars."