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Oldies but Goldies
Here are some past posts from the DSF which I thought worth saving and sharing:
Acid Spitters. Most beginners have a hard time dealing with the Fast Spit mobs of Acid Spitters found in Diablo (hmmm, now that I think about it a bit, these can at times cause problems for even veterans, especially on the harder difficulty levels in MP). Armin gives a few tips on dealing with the Catacomb boss spitters and their minions, along the way giving an evaluation of a low-level warrior. However, Plaguewrath, who can show up on dlvl 10, has a slightly different attack style. Esau gives some more advice dealing with Fast Spit mobs, including Plaguewrath. It might be worth noting that, since Firewall is one of the recommended tools for dealing with Fast Spit mobs, Chaoshowler on dlvl 8 has no resistances or immunities, but Deathspit (dlvl 6) and Plaguewrath (dlvl 10) are both resistant to fire.
Armor Class. A common question is, "How high an armor class do I need to be safe?" Although a playing style for experienced players is to go with low AC and compensate with high dexterity and blocking, or using certain tactics, probably more players prefer to get their AC high enough so that most monsters have a low chance of doing damage. Champagne put together a simple table to show some ranges of significant AC at the different levels and difficulties. Armin discusses various aspects of armor class, addresses a couple of fallacies about AC that some people have, and put together a table showing what AC you need in Hell/Hell to make monsters miss 50% of the time (though you can easily adapt the table for other difficulties). This is a rather different viewpoint than many players are used to, and might be helpful, especially for beginners.
Champagne's AC Table - How much is enough?
Backing-up Characters. There are still occasionally posts on the DSF, saying that backing up your characters is not legit. I don't agree with that; backing-up has nothing to do with being legit. When to restore, is when questions dealing with legitness come into play. Here are posts by two long-time legit players giving their views.
Backup = smart; no backup = stupid. - Pete
Even die-hard legits backup. - Thecla
Bean-counting. Here's something a little different. Have you ever wanted to keep track of all of the monsters you kill? This is (supposedly) a way to do it. Note that I have only tried it briefly myself, and found you have to follow the steps exactly. I'm putting this here partly from a sense of whimsy, partly because I think it's a clever idea. However, if used regularly, it wouldn't surprise me if there is an upper limit to how many monsters the game will keep track of. On the other hand, that limit might be high enough to not matter. If you find out what it is, please let me know. :)
Fin's Vade Mecum for Beancounting
Chain Lightning.
Spear used to sometimes append short "strat/tactic" ideas to the end of posts about non-strat topics. Here are a couple that particularly appealed to me.
A regular question asked on the DSF is, "How high should I get my Chain Lightning spell?" - Answers vary from as low as 7-8 to 20! :) Here are various viewpoints. Me? For a long time, I kept it at around slvl 11-12, but a while back I upped it to 15 with my more-or-less traditional sorcerer, and I've gotten used to that level.
Both sides of the coin - Armin
Constricting Ring. Das Regard has written several posts discussing his experiments with the Constricting Ring, including his classic "Constricting Ring Analysis" listed in the "Links to Somewhere" section.
Das Regard's Interview with Jarulf about finding the CR and other Unique Items
Equipping two CR's at the same time
Co-op tactics
Orkinman's Ten Commandments for a Co-op Warrior
DSF Breakdown. Mirajj has put together several iterations of a list of mini-autobiographies submitted by posters on the DSF. Here is the latest version of the list, compiled in July, 2001.
Immortal Hero Variant - For those of you seeking a challenge in Diablo (especially those who prefer the SP environment), consider playing Immortal Hero characters. This fairly simple variant (at least, rule-wise) means that, if you die - that's it - that character is dead; no reloading of saved games is allowed. It MIGHT have been coincidence that Blizzard added the Hardcore option to Diablo II, but it might not have been either. :)
The Immortal Hero Variant - Pete
Item Creation. In response to Das Regard's post on the effect of equipping two Constricting Rings at once (see above), Jarulf posted a detailed write-up about the process of item creation. While double-checking his work afterward, he found something new, so to report that, and answer a couple of questions raised about Part 1, he wrote more in Part 2, and then answered a couple of more questions in Part 3. These represent probably the most detailed, extensive discussion ever available about how Classic Diablo creates items and their attributes.
Item Finding. Many people find parts of Jarulf's Guide intimidating and have a hard time applying the information given there. Various posters have attempted to clarify, summarize, and otherwise explain aspects of JG over the past couple of years. In terms of using JG to figure out where and when to find certain items, Armin's following post is probably the best I've seen. I'm tempted to call it "A Dummies Guide to JG" but a) it really only covers certain aspects of using JG, and b) that would probably be a copyright violation, and I don't want to get sued by the publisher of that series ;)
A Short Course in Using Jarulf's Guide - Armin
Level-up Point Distribution. Armin's "Leveling-up 101" on Freshman Diablo (see the "Links to Somewhere" section) has a good discussion of how to distribute the 5 points you get at each new clvl you attain. However, although his ideas are widely supported, I thought it worth balancing his thoughts with some other viewpoints.
Level-up point distribution - Charles Warren
Level-up point distribution - HowGozit
Level-up point distribution - Varaya
Mage Development. Many players feel that the sorcerer is the hardest class to start with, though it arguably becomes the most powerful class at high levels. Pete put together some good ideas for playing a new mage.
Care and Feeding of a level 1-4 mage - Pete
Power Gaming in Diablo. A couple of posts discussing ways to be more "efficient" in playing the game.
Moriah's Ideas on Power Gaming in Diablo
Finnan Haddie's Post on Power Gaming in Diablo
Rogue topics. Although Claudio's website ( http://www.claudiospage.com ) is the definitive reference for Rogue topics, I thought I would add some Rogue-related posts here to broaden the information available to Rogue fans.
The young (sub-clvl 30) Rogue - Pete
Scanners. Scanners are a controversial topic on the DSF. Here is one of Armin's write-ups about his opinions on the subject, which pretty much agree with mine.
Sorcerer playing styles. The various ways to play a Sorcererer are still a frequent DSF discussion topic.
Comments on Muscle Mages, Tanks, and BNM's - Charles Warren
Muscle Mage Melee Tips (including Black Death tips) - Charles Warren
Tank Mage vs. Battle Mage - Roland 'the Gunslinger'
Telekinesis. Telekinesis (= TK) is a useful spell, one that makes life easier and a little safer in the dungeon, but most players don't regard it as essential. Regardless just how much or little a player uses TK, almost all think of it as a non-combat spell (though some occasionally use TK for sort-of a knock-back effect to control mobs, and it is sometimes used during item recovery after death in MP). Thus, it was quite startling when Moriah reported that TK can be used to gain Experience Points while fighting monsters.
Telekinesis and Experience Points - Moriah
Town Portal. The Spell of Town Portal is a handy one; not many players actually enjoy trudging back through several already-cleared levels to get to town. Personally, once I get past dlvl 3, I start buying scrolls if I don't find enough in the dungeon to meet my needs, even if money is in short supply! However, TP is useful in many other ways; it can be a lifeline out of a life-or-death situation. In fact, it can argued that TP is one of the most important spells in the game (and one that is way undervalued and underutilized by most beginners). Don't overlook Staves of Town Portal, as a temporary measure until you get a Book of TP; IIRC, the per-spell-cost of recharging a staff of TP at Adria's is cheaper than buying scrolls. Pete wrote up a nice post talking about some of the other uses of TP. I'm tempted to say, "Town Portal - don't leave home without it!" ;)
The Tactical Town Portal - Pete
Zen Harmony. The Zen Harmony approach (check the glossary for an explanation) is a "small niche" playing style - most players will not even have the necessary items, or want to put up with the trade-offs necessary to play this way. Nevertheless, I am including these posts for several reasons. First, this was probably the last major new playing style or variant to be developed before the Diablo 2 Stress Test and release (after which so many of the veteran D1 players (the 'old-timers') left the DSF), 2) these posts give a flavor of what the DSF used to be like, and 3) they propose and discuss a dizzyingly wide variety of equipment setups, trying to find combinations of items that work. The thread started when Walkiry announced a successful 3@30 with a Warrior variant using this approach. The other posts are from the last part of the thread, plus Charis' final follow-up post a few days later.
Walkiry's 3@30 with a Golem using the 0.10 setup