Diablo 2: one of those games in life I keep returning to. Started playing it when I was 12, and I know it inside out. Roughly once every 1,5 years I’ll have a phase where I want to play some.
I’m in such a phase right now. I haven’t been gaming since the Victoria 3 release, and frankly, I don’t have much time to spend either. Something will be sacrificed. Currently this will be study time. I’ve been studying for several hours a day for nearly two years, but with my current increased focus on health and weight loss, I feel I need a break and allow myself some leasure.
Diablo 2 Resurrected will reset tomorrow and I’ve been doing a little bit of research to get up to speed on the new Terror Zones and possible character builds. I think it’s so lovely that Blizzard came out with Diablo 2 Resurrected 1,5 years ago, and that they’re still adding new content to a nearly 20 year old game.
Terror Zones
An interesting addition to the game which will change end game levelling. From what I’ve read, they are suited to farm solo from level 92 or so. Up until then Dia/Baal runs are still most efficient.
Builds
One of the new interesting build possibilities in D2R is the Fire Druid. When D2R was launched I played an Trap assassin and a barbarian, so it will be fun to try something new. I haven’t built a druid in many years, so I look forward to that.
I also considered doing a war cry barbarian, javazon or summon necromancer. But the fire druid appeals most to me currently.
Ladder
My plan is to just build one character, and I think I’ll keep doing that in the future. When I feel like joining a ladder reset I’ll just do one character, play it through the game, do some end game farming, and by then I’ll probably be finished with Diablo for a while again.
Druid Strategy
I’ll be playing through the game in public games. Like every reset there will be a flood of cold sorceresses, so my fire damage will be a good addition to any party. From what I’ve seen, the fire druid does a ton of damage with hardly any gear, so I probably won’t have to much low level farming. I’ll just focus on playing through the game asap and do any farming in hell difficulty.
Stats
Str for gear, rest vita.
Skills
1 point Oak Sage, and take some summons to get to grizzly. Aim for grizzly by nightmare. But don’t prioritize. I’ll be playing with parties, so probably not much need for summons, and I’ll probably have to re-cast them all the time anyway which might actually be annoying. Maybe better to just focus on the fire skills.
Figure out which attack skill I like. Fissure can be fine through all of nightmare.
Alzorath’s maxing path:
Fissure Armageddon Molten Boulder Volcano Firestorm
Cyclone armor: wait until you have a lot of + skills. So don’t bother
Use quick cast
The quick cast feature is something new to me. As an old school player I was resistant to this feature. But from what I’ve seen, it seems very effective with the fire skills.
Gear
Tal Eth Stealth breast plate.
Ort Sol Lore. Save a 2soc druid helm for this
Buy 2soc staff tir ral at Akara asap.
Dual spirits
Magefist
Later gear
Rain Armor Ort Mal Ith
Ravenlore
Links:
2023050414055
Alzorath video guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPrpXS1OJ7M