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Summoning Necro has always been my favourite class. It’s a cakewalk through normal and nightmare just with an army of skeletons and a handful of curses. Mix in Corpse Explosion later and hell is very doable too, even single player. The more gear-dependent classes can become a chore in single player once you get into nightmare, unless you’ve got some good items stored away in your stash for later use. I’ve played the Necro so many times before, I decided not to do it yet again in D2 Resurrected. But I did still want to have pets and play a character that would be relatively easy, so I picked a summoning Druid instead. Having a mere 3 Dire Wolves is not as impressive as a zillion skeletons, but the Druid has been fun too. It remains to be seen how viable this character will be in nightmare.

I'm working through Act I NM with my Druid now. It's been a cakewalk so far, but I'm sure it will become more of a challenge towards the end of NM.

Matriarch sonus, welcome to the fold. Six down, only one left to go! Druid -- Summoner Druid, later re-spec'd into Wind Druid -- DONE Sorc -- Fireball Sorc, later re-spec'd into Frozen Orb / Fireball Sorc -- DONE Necro -- Summoner / Corpse Explosion -- DONE Barb -- Double Swing / Frenzy Barb, re-spec'd into Singer / War Cry build -- DONE Pally -- Conviction Zealot -- DONE Amazon -- Charged Strike / Lightning Fury / Freezing Arrow Javazon -- DONE Assassin -- Fire Trapsin My plan was to go all-in on Lightning Fury / Charged Strike and all of their synergies, as a pure Javazon, but I decided to re-spec in Hell and make her a hybrid Javazon / Bowazon to make lightning immunes easier to cope with. In the end I maxed Lightning Fury and Charged Strike for my main attacks with javelin, and Freezing Arrow (and almost maxed Cold Arrow as a synergy) for when I would swap to the bow. This charater was a bit of a glass cannon, and I had to play more cautiously than I did with the Pally that I Pat'd just before, but overall it was still pretty easy. Lightning Fury melts mobs of monsters that aren't lightning immune, and Freezing Arrow freezes everything so that adds some safety. Next up: A Fire Trapsin. I'll have to mix in something else, most likely Death Sentry or maybe the Blade traps, in Hell when fire immunes start popping up all over. But a pure Fire Trap build should get me through Nightmare without much trouble.

Patch 2.4.3 dropping tomorrow -- patch notes here Some very nice quality of life improvements in here. Console people are getting a bit of love: Added a new "Loot to Cube" skill for controllers in the general skills menu. Using this skill on an item will pick it up and place it in your Horadric Cube, if there is space. Players can now bulk assign stat points using a controller. Finally characters with full inventories can pick up items straight to the Cube without having to drop stuff out of inventory first. Much less tedious. Re-spec'ing will also be a million times faster with the ability to bulk assign points. Cain can now also ID unidentified items that are in the Cube. That is a nice little time-saver. Finally, the changes to Whirlwind sound nice. I am keen to test them out. All the online stuff doesn't concern me as I only play offline single player... but the Magic Find event sounds fun, even if 50% added MF isn't that big of a bonus.

My seven Pats / Mats are complete! Druid -- Summoner Druid, later re-spec'd into Wind Druid -- Patriarch howlinwolf Sorc -- Fireball Sorc, later re-spec'd into Frozen Orb / Fireball Sorc -- Matriarch fira Necro -- Summoner / Corpse Explosion -- Patriarch gallagher Barb -- Double Swing / Frenzy Barb, re-spec'd into Singer / War Cry build -- Patriarch ken Pally -- Conviction Zealot -- Patriarch zed Amazon -- Charged Strike / Lightning Fury / Freezing Arrow Javazon -- Matriarch sonus Assassin -- Fire Trapsin, re-spec'd to Lightning Sentry / Death Sentry trapsin in Hell -- Matriarch dee When I got the idea to complete Hell with each class, I wasn't sure if I'd follow through on it... but I've done it! All solo single player, though I did hire mercs to make life easier. Back in the old days, I don't think I ever played a pure trapsin. I was more into the Martial Arts skill tree. Playing this character was a real eye-opener. Incredible clear speed even with very cheap gear. Lightning Sentry is just too good. And then the Corpse Explosions from Death Sentry make short work of lightning immunes). I'm going to move all my Magic Find gear over to the trapsin because she should be able to run pretty much any area of the game pretty efficiently. I also have two other characters on the go: ikea, a hybrid Werebear / Summoning Druid (need the new patch to drop to continue this guy!); and summerbabe, an Enchantress. I think I have just enough high-end-ish gear to make an Enchantress viable in Hell, though it won't be easy. I will probably mix in a lightning spell with leftover skill points. Maybe Nova. It continues to shock me how much I can keep replaying this game without getting bored.

I put my Druid on the backburner for a bit to play around with some other characters. My Fireball Sorc steamrolled through Normal. Too easy. I still don't think focusing only on Fire skills will be viable later on, but I'll go as far as I can and then consider a re-spec whenever I hit a wall. Also, I've been saving up interesting melee gear in my stash between playing the Druid and Sorc, so I started playing a Barb as well. Got him some good swords and I'm pretty much just using Double Swing and cutting everything down that gets in my way. It's very mindless, but fun for when I feel like playing and not having to think much about it.

The jungles are behind me now. Didn’t take as long as I thought it would.

Aaaaand my Druid has completed Nightmare at level 61. Not too shabby. For Baal, I switched from wolves to a grizzly because I was burning through mana pots re-casting the wolves. I have Summon Spirit Wolf, Summon Dire Wolf, and Summon Grizzly all maxed out now, so I might have to just roll with the grizzly in Hell. The thing is such a tank, hits hard too, and it gets nice synergy bonuses from points in the other two summons.

Aw yeah, we cleaned out that Den of Evil Then my annoying children came and ruined my fun

A new member of the I-beat-Hell club: Patriarch howlinwolf the Wind Druid I thought the Assassin was waaaay cooler than the Druid when LoD released back in the day, so I didn't spend much time with the Druid. I still think the Assassin is a really fun class, but I wish I hadn't slept on the Druid all these years. Specifically the Druid's Elemental skills tree. With Cyclone Armor, Twister, Tornado, and Hurricane maxed, this character can handle most of Hell with ease. I just need a merc for dual cold/physical immune monsters. With +skill gear equipped, my main skills were all at level 29. At that level, Cyclone Armor absorbs 1955 fire/cold/lightning damage, which makes this character super safe even in Hell. Tornado was doing over 3,000 damage (physical damage even though it's technically a spell), and Hurricane around 1,500 cold damage. Most things went down rather easily I lucked out big-time and found a Fal rune in Act IV Hell, which enabled me to make an 'Obedience' polearm for my merc. It has a 30% chance to cast level 21 Enchant upon killing a monster, so the merc chipped in with nice fire damage when my Tornado and Hurricane were ineffective. Towards the end of this play through, I got some pretty sweet item drops that would be perfect for an Amazon. The game is basically telling me to play a Javazon next

Now my Pally, Patriarch zed, is finished with Hell.  Druid -- Summoner Druid, later re-spec'd into Wind Druid -- DONE Sorc -- Fireball Sorc, later re-spec'd into Frozen Orb / Fireball Sorc -- DONE Necro -- Summoner / Corpse Explosion -- DONE Barb -- Double Swing / Frenzy Barb, re-spec'd into Singer / War Cry build -- DONE Pally -- Conviction Zealot -- DONE Amazon -- Charged Strike / Lightning Fury Javazon -- Started a character and got her through to Act II Normal a couple weeks ago Assassin -- Trapsin probably -- Traps-based builds are less gear-dependent and I haven't found decent stuff for a Martial Arts build... still yet to create this character... A typical Zealot would use Fanaticism as their main aura, but I went with Conviction because I happened to have some gear that would add a lot of elemental damage. The defense and resistance debuffs from max level Conviction are great. Very easy play through overall. Zeal + lots of Crushing Blow gear made Act bosses a breeze. Hell Baal went down so fast The biggest challenge for this character was probably Hell Ancients. I had a lot of bad luck with them. Next up is the Javazon.

What skills are you going to focus on with the Sorc? I got my Barb through to Act V. Diablo was... problematic for my Double Swing build... but I beat him eventually The thing that turned my fortunes was using the gloves from Cleglaw's set, which I happened to have kicking around in my stash. They slow the target by 25%. Without that, I was struggling to keep up with Diablo's quick moves. I have high fire resistance and lots of life steal, so I could just keep hacking away when he used fire or melee attacks, but I could not tank his lightning attack and I was slow to avoid it. Slowing him down a bit made all the difference. Everything else aside from Diablo has been a pushover though. I have enough life steal to just charge into a pack of monsters, hold the B button down (bound to Double Swing), and everything's dead a few seconds later Like I said the other day, it makes for very mindless gameplay. I also dusted off the Druid for a bit last night. Act IV NM has been easier than anticipated. Zipped right on through to the Chaos Sanctuary last night.

I ought to know to wait until after they’re in bed before I try to do anything… Got back into it for a bit after things quieted down in the apartment here. Zipped through most of Act 1. Just the boss quest is left. I’m not going to stay awake long enough to get through The Jail and Catacombs tonight, so that’s a job for tomorrow.

I have been having a blast playing since 2.4 dropped. I'm still offline single player only, didn't bother going online to create a ladder character. Since I finished my 7 Pats/Mats, I have since Mat'd a Blizzard Sorc--probably my fastest clear of the game yet, wow Blizzard kills fast! And then I Pat'd my Summoning Druid. Playing with the whole zoo was great. Not quite as fast as a summoning Necro, but still a pretty fast and easy character to play. I have also been doing quite a bit of MF'ing with my Fireball Sorc. I've got a nice little farming route I do that mostly doesn't have any fire immunes: Andy; Countess (if I'm looking for runes); Stoney Tomb (new alvl 85 area in Act 2); Arachnid Lair (another new alvl 85 area, in Act 3); Meph; Pindle; Eldritch. I can also run Crypt/Mausoleum and Maggot Lair, but the monster density in those places ain't great. Slow and steady I'm improving my gear, upping my MF %, etc. Got quite a few nice drops the last couple days. And then tonight ... Eldritch dropped a Zod! MF doesn't affect rune drops, so it was just a random thing, but still... crazy! First time I've ever got a Zod. Still almost can't believe it.

A bunch of new runewords have been previewed by various D2 YouTubers in the past couple days. Lots of changes coming in the upcoming patch 2.4. New runewords, class/balance changes to encourage the use of a variety of different skills instead of just the cookie-cutter builds for each class, and I think they're also trying to make the Act I, III, and V mercenaries more viable too as most people only use Act II mercs. This is some pretty exciting stuff! A few of the new runewords I looked at look really solid, but sadly they have high runes that I will probably never have as a single player guy. Get those Cham runes outta here please! In other news, my Pally is in Act IV Hell. Pretty smooth sailing so far. He's not the fastest killer, but I have massive defense with maxed Holy Shield, and crazy resistances from my gear. I can't think of a safer melee build than a Zealot, even with crummy self-found single player gear.

Keep a Clay Golem out there against Diablo to take the heat off your skeletons, just keep recasting it when Diablo kills him. For some reason Diablo loves to target the Golem. It’s a great distraction.

I finished Act II NM last night. My wolves and merc actually held up pretty well against Duriel, but my team’s damage was weak. Luckily I could switch to a runeword bow (‘Edge’) that grants a Thorns aura. Duriel basically killed himself. Without Thorns, it would have been a long battle. With Thorns, less than a minute.

They are finally going to allow the Druid to summon all his different pets at once! Ravens, Spirit Wolves, Dire Wolves, and Grizzly. You can use them all at once. That’s a big change. I’m really looking forward for this new patch to drop.

My Switch year in review thingy says I've put 220 hours into D2R It hasn't even been out 3 full months yet I haven't played games this much in ages! Feels good. Still having lots of fun in D2R.

Act II Hell is done. Bye bye Duriel

I just beat NM last night with my Sorc. I re-spec’d in Act IV NM to add a second element though. I basically got that far using nothing but Fireball, but fire immune monsters start appearing in Act IV NM, so it was time to change things up. Now Frozen Orb is the main skill, with Fireball and Meteor used as fallback options against cold immunes. Hell is gonna be a slog. I’ve already bumped into some very annoying fire and cold immune uniques. My merc has to take care of those. He dies a lot though I’m pissing away gold resurrecting this guy all the time.

I loved playing the Assassin, but it can be rather gear-dependent. Though the Barb is too and I’ve been played one lately… I finished Normal with my Barb this morning, and then cleared out the Cow Level for good measure. Drops were mostly trash though. Baal was quite a bit easier than Diablo. I’ve now got my Barb and Sorc at Act I NM, and the Druid at Act V NM. Might as well see if I can push the Druid through to Hell before I play the Barb or Sorc more.

Just finished downloading D2 Resurrected onto my Switch

I took a break from my Druid to play a Fireball Sorc for a few days this week. I got through to Act V super fast. Everything went down in a rain of Fireballs Yesterday I turned my attention back to the Druid, and I might be hitting a wall here in Act II NM with my current setup. I had been using bows, letting my Dire Wolves and merc do most of the work while plinking away from a safer distance. Seems like it's time to drop that strategy in favour of a good shield (really need some resistances) and a more powerful one-handed weapon. I'm also going to do a re-spec to drop a couple points into the Shapeshifting tree. 1 point each in Werebear and Lycanthropy will provide a nice little life boost, and then I'll get a point in Shock Wave too, to stun mobs and make it a little easier for my Wolves and merc to take care of business. Probably won't be able to find good enough gear to make this character viable in Hell unless I get some very lucky drops here in NM.

In all the years of playing Diablo II, I've never really spent much time playing a Paladin. My buddy in high school always played a Paladin, so I guess I didn't want to be the same. I started with the Necromancer (probably the class I've played the most over the years) and then switched to Assassin when LoD came out. I also had a pretty high level Javazon. That was a popular build online for a while there. Now I'm playing a Druid, Sorc, and Barb, which were under-used classes for me back in the day. It's just the Pally now that I've never given any attention to...