Spell Theory 101
2) Spells are good:
3) When in doubt, retreat:
4) Use thy terrain
General:
5) Know thy enemy:
You don't need a great or unique bow. Just look for
one that does the most damage possible (such as a
deadly bow of power which I curretly use, no windforce
yet..damn). At highger levels when you do enough
damage by virtue of strength and dexterity, a fast
attack bow like the needler is nice (even if 1-3 on
the damage, your natural +dam will be enough if you're
going multi warhead style). But any bow with dex
and str will do the job. With a normal bow, my level
25 rogue was doing 30-35 points damage per shot.
Use of your bow. When you don't know what's in a room
or you kow it's fulla nasties, stay out of range/sight
of the monsters and pluck a few arrows into the room to
activate a choice one or two. Easier to pick off one
blood knight than diablo's whole horde. If you do
find a whole horde of nasties coming at you, stone
curse the front line, that will slow the onslaught
while you pick off half of them. Also, don't be afraid
to run. Going around corners is good, it forces the
monsters to go single file and you can pop 'em one
by one. Another note, using shift-fire makes you less
accurate. your character only shoots in the direction
you're firing and takes a while to acquire the target
you've been pointing to. If you need to drop them
quick, don't bother shift, and after the monster dies,
keep firing and hit shift, you'll stop dead in your
tracks instead of running into oblivion.
For running around hell, you're screwed hand to hand
chasing down those advocates and witches. Just load
up on resistace items (obsidian amulate or ring with
the steel veil works nicely) ad those little spell
flingers barely tickle you while you unload volleys
of 30-40 point damage arrows into their ranks. I've
cleared whole levels of hell without needing to chug
a potion because of resistances.
Play your rogue for what she is. A fine piece of
artillery. Just keep on the move, keep the arrows
flying and make sure you max out dex ASAP and you'll
life a long, lucrative life.
- Faeder
Perhaps the most important aspect of playing a mage is
wise selection of spells as you develop your character.
The following is a list of "high priority" spells.
At low levels, the most important strategy is to develop
one offensive spell at a high level (preferably firebolt
or lightning). This will enable your character to
throw many spells in succession and not have to engage
in melee combat. The Firewall spell is THE most efficient
bang-for-your-mana spell in the game; a few well placed
firewalls will wipe out a room of 30+ monsters. Get that
firewall as soon as you can!
If you haven't learned lightning by dungeon level 7 or so,
you're in some pretty serious trouble. At this point
firebolt becomes too weak as a primary single enemy offensive
spell, and you probably don't have the mana to be tossing
fireballs at everything that moves quite yet. In general, if
you get to about level 5 and don't have lightning, it's time
to see that witch more often! The same goes for fireball:
if you don't know that one by the time you get to level 11
or so, forget it.
The Elemental spell is a tremendous weapon, but is too mana
inefficient for general use. A staff of elemental, however,
is a deadly weapon for the level 15-25 mage. Open a door,
and before those monsters move send the deluge of elementals
in; they'll be fried before they can look at you. A level
22 mage of mine once took out two warriors (lv 24 + 25) in
a duel with his staff of elemental, and I've been singing
this spell's praises ever since.
Guardian and Stone Curse are the next most important spells
for general use (not to mention their creative applications
in multi), but the capper is teleport. A mage above level
20 with teleport will NEVER lose a fight to a real character
of any other class--that's just all there is to it.
Chain lightning is invaluable if you're ever planning on
being alone in hell/hell, but don't worry about building
it up too much until after you've gotten the spells above.
Good luck, and happy hunting!
Alan
Dexterity
Now we're talking about people who play the game for the real sense of accomplishment it brings, not your run-of-the-mill show-off.
But my discovery, after being forced to rebuild my characters from scratch more than once, is that of all the attributes Dexterity matters most.
Why? Well it's simple. What are the two most important parts of battle? Hitting the foe, and not being hit by the foe (please, no "duh's" from the peanut gallery. karate instructors say the same thing). What does Dexterity do? It 1) Improves
your chance to hit the foe, and 2) Improves your chance to avoid being hit by the foe.
All warfare boils down to these two things. Even main battle tanks rely on not being hit to survive, not on the density of their armour or the punch of their weapons
So my suggestion, with two TOTALLY legit characters (and a host of semi-legitimate characters) regularly slaying Diablo without a scratch is: Before going for strength or vitality or magic, get a 60 in dexterity (or maybe a little better, if you are a
Rogue).
That, and eat your Puppy Chow...
- Whipwillow
Warrior fitness
1) You need bows (yes, bows):
Tip for Newbie Sorcerors
Bow is long range firepower, and that means you don't have to
go up close and personal with the critters you are going after.
While sometimes that's good, other times the chase may bring
even more bad guys. Ever chased a couple goatmen archers into
a room only to find over a dozen more of them pouring arrows
into you while you can't even land ONE blow on ONE of them?
That's the time to use arrows. (same with Snow witch, succubi,
etc.) When combined with spells like firewalls, this will cut
down that herd that's chasing you to a trickle that you can
easily deal with.
Sometimes, it's best just to stand in the open and take the
damage while dealing out some in reply with bows. This is
esp true with long-distance-attack-and-runs-away type enemies
such as goatmen archers, snow witch/succubi/hellspawn etc.
If you chase them god knows what you'll run into.
Keep a few of those "of wizardry" stuff around. You need them
to read books. Fighters are inherently short-range attack, and
thus need some long range offense to complement. Bows are nice
but one must open inventory, then switch weapons, put the old
weapon back... While spells are almost IMMEDIATE. Just cast
away and poof! Firewalls, Holy Bolts, and Fireballs are great
weapons, so is lightning and chain lightning, if you have
enough mana to cast them.
This also means that you MAY want to hold on to some of the
spell staffs you find around. I found an elemental staff
around Lazurus' Lair, so I armed myself with firewalls and
lots of mana potions, then went down and cast firewalls into
the room, then used elementals to chase down any one not burned.
Only got hit with a few fireballs. You can even sell the staff
for more money later. Of course, this won't work if you can't
use the staff.
Not sure if you can take out that bunch of blood knights?
RETREAT! Six to eight blood knights are deadly, but two
to four are just troublesome, and one is piece of cake. If
you retreat, you may get out of range of some, thus reducing
the immediate number you will be facing. This also forces
them to break up their "formation".
Retreating also gives you time to rearm yourself, cast some
healing spells, use that healing scroll instead of the
less potent potions, etc. Perhaps change to a more appropriate
weapons, like a sword instead of a bow or axe.
Around a corner you know to be clear is a good place
to regroup if you are ambushed. It gives you time to
switch weapons, cast heal spells, rearrange potions
on belt, etc.
Never allow yourself to be surrounded unless you know
you won't be damaged. Fight your way out. When you are
getting hit you won't be doing any hitting, and if you
are surrounded that just means you will getting hit
more instead of MAKING the hits.
Church:
In the church, there are frequently those fence-like
closures that you can shoot through. As most baddies
at this time don't open doors, if you have a bow you
have a perfect shooting gallery. You may find similar
structures in caves, but those bad guys may open doors.
Such places are also good HIDING places if you run into
too many critters.
Catacombs:
The rooms (open or doored) can be death traps if one
is not careful. Have plenty of firewall spells ready
to roast any inhabitants. Consider open the door and
lure the baddies out into corridors to fight in smaller
bunches. (Corridors aren't that wide)
Caves:
some sections are hard to get to, which means you may
have problems when you run into a lot of long-range
attackers like magma demons, vortex lords, acid beasts,
etc who will shoot at you across the lava river.
Hell:
Circular corridors with side rooms, dangerous since
the large areas means large concentration of enemies.
Walking slow is essential and retreat frequent.
their strengths and weaknesses.
The enemies roughly fall into the following types:
Up-close-and-personal -- charges into point-blank range,
usually armed with only melee weapons
ex: Skeletons, Overlords, blood knights, etc..
deal with them at a distance or trade blow for blow
Melee combat, runs away when hurt -- comes at you
and fight, but if hurt, runs away to recuperate
ex: Unseen, gargoyles.
kill them the first time. Fast hit will stop them from
getting away.
Long distance attack, stand their ground -- fires at you
when you come into range, stays still like a turret
ex: skeleton archers (not all).
Get out of range or wade through their fire and kill them .
Long distance attack, close to melee combat -- fires a
few shots at you but also chases you down to melee.
ex: Vortex lord, magma demons, acid spitters.
Chase them down first. They are eaiser to kill in melee
and your approach may also make them miss their shots.
Long distance attack, stays out of range -- attacks you
from a distance, tries to stay out of melee range by
running away if you approach
ex: goatmen archers, snow witch, advocates, etc. 1) stand your ground and
use bows and trade blow by blow, supplement with magic like firewalls 2)
chase them down , vary your approach so you trap them in corners so you
can kill them with repeated blows - Changon
This is something all good sorcerors will have figured
out but you should always make sure you're using the
right spell for the creature you're attacking. Certain
creatures are resistant to either fire or lighting
(such as fire-clan which resist fire). Keep your favourite
spells of both types on function keys and swap between
them depending on who's attacking. It's also helpful to
have quick access to Stone Curse in case you find a
unique monster that's causing you problems.
- FloYd
Rules of Sorcery
1) MANA SHIELD
Yes, obvious, yet required. A high-leveled sorceror
could probably ahve only 250- hit points and 500+ mana.
With Mana Shield, the enemies will have an extra 500+
hit points before they can kill you. Without it, your
sorceror won't last long.
DISADVANTAGE: Using your spells is now considered using
up your Hit Points.
2) SWORDS AND SHIELDS
Hold a good sworld and shield in your inventory. Some
enemies down in hell are immune to most spells, and your
sorcror will be forced to fight in close combat. A
sword and a shield would be real helpful in such a
situation.
DISADVANTAGE: Sorceror sucks at fighting.
3) FASTER ATTACKS
The sorceror has a special "fast attack" ability if he
is equipped with only a shield. You may want to equip
only a shield for attacking faster. Another advantage
to this is changing from a staff (assuming you are
equipped with one) to a shield is faster than changing
to sword and shield.
DISADVANTAGE: Takes too long to kill enemy.
4) SPELL HOTKEYS
Set three of your spell hotkeys to the three category
of spell magic: LIGHTNING, FIRE, MAGIC. Most hell
enemies are immune to 2/3 of the spell category. You
can switch quickly to the vulnerable spell and cast it
quickly.
DISADVANTAGE: Leaves only one spot for other spells such
as "heal" and "teleport".
5) TELEPORT
Set one of your spell hotkeys to "teleport". If
surrounded by enemies, you now have a way of escaping.
Also, you can leave some enemies in disarray by
teleporting into walled rooms.
DISADVANTAGE: If you follow Rule #4, you now have no
hotkeys left.
6) AIMING
Learn how to aim. Wasting mana by shooting mid-air is
not a good way of killing (good way of killing yourself
if you follow Rule #1). Learn to aim at moving enemies
by placing yourself into the angle at which the enemy
is heading.
DISADVANTAGE: None
7) LEARN THE ENEMY'S WEAKNESS
Some enemies are immune to some spells. Learn which
spells to use against them. It'll also save you mana.
DISADVANTAGE: None
- Edge
Get Your Mage to Retirement Age
Do Unto Others - In the combined arms world of Diablo,
the wizards are the artillery. The warriors are the infantry.
Those poor warriors, slogging through the dungeons and hewing about with mighty blades,
sometimes feel that they don't get enough respect. Put yourself in their boots for a
second. There they are, running from monster to monster, trying their best to rack up
experience, kill after tedious kill. They often need to chase 'em down (Ever gone on a
solo goat hunt as a warrior? Those archers are tedious to kill). Then, after all of this,
in swaggers (or more likely, teleports) you, the wizard. You toss a few spells around, and
maybe unleash a golem to do by remote control what the warrior has to do by hand. You get
loads of experience, scoop up the treasure, and bask in the glory. Well, good wizard, let
me encourage you to be nice to warriors. They are your best friends. Warriors can do what
you can't - beat the snot out of the bad guys, toe to toe. The just love keeping a
bunch of monsters busy while you ready your next pretty pyrotechnic display. So, in return
for their help, be nice to them. In the heat of battle, cast "heal other" on a wounded
warrior. Warriors should not need to use bunches of heal potions if you have bunches of
mana available. Help out the guys with swords by making liberal use of stone curse.
When things get really hairy, cast a golem just behind the monsters beating on
your warrior buddies, to take some of the heat off of them. If you do this often enough,
we can reduce the number of people who say ,"Oh no, not a wizard! I hate playing
with wizards." If you get a rep as a good wizard, folks will line up to play with you.
- Ridicully
Starting Charactors: The Mage
So, after hearing all about those lvl 20 fireballs and
800+ mana, you have decided to start a Mage. When you
go about starting a Mage, however, you will notice that
it is a bit harder than that Warrior you blasted through
the church with. The first problem that most begining
Mages have is that they will buy the wrong things in
town. Sure, that robe (75 gold and 5-7 ac) looks nice.
Then you can buy a hat as well, but you need your gold
so leave them alone. Buy a club (1-6 dam, 20 gold) and
a heal potion to start you with. that will leave you
with 30 gold, which you will nead later. When you get
your first few level ups, don't put them into magic.
You have plenty of that. Instead, put 2 into vitality,
2 into strength, and 1 into dexterity. You start with
30 HP, and you need to wield more powerfull weopens
(str and vit). Free AC also comes in handy (dex).
After dungeon
delving a while, you will notice that that free staff
just wasn't enough and that you have used all your
potions for mana (fire bolt) and you needed that heal.
here is where the club comes in. It swings faster than
your staff, does more damage, and you can even hold a
buckler (oh boy!) Go and kill stuff until you either
are low on health with no way to heal or when your
stuff starts to fall apart. Remember to bring
everything you find to town to sell, you will need the
gold.
Fix anything that is on the verge of falling apart
(not expensive to do) and then go to the witch.
Hopefully you will have enough cash to recharge your
stave, and if you have enough, do so. If not, go buy a
heal and use your club :-)
One last note:
Do level one until it becomes easy, then do level two.
When level 2 gets easy, do 3... Etc.
Just remeber to pump vitality until it is AT LEAST 60
(unless you get early mana shield :), and strength
until it is 40 or so.
Once that is done, you will be on your path to becoming
one of the great, lvl 20 fireball spewing Mages. Just
don't cheat to do it, please.
- Dark_One
Rogue Usage
Rogues are great characters. Warriors are best with
close melee and Mages can sling from a distance.
However, no other class can do as much damage as
quickly and from a distance, as a Rogue. Well, ok
yes, fireball and flame wave do plenty of damage, but
plucking yew isn't gonna cost you mana. Now, enough
of me advocating the class.. on to usage.
Make your Rogue Rock.
My Level 26 Rogue is now feared in even the darkest parts of hell thanks to careful planning and decent attack strategies. Here is what I have found works well for the Rogue.
ONE: USE A BOW!
Sometime the urge to use a hand to hand weapon will arise. Find that King's Sword of Haste? Trade it to a Warrior friend. The Rogue's biggest strength is the ability to spit arrows like nobody's business, and the motto 'hit them before they get to y
ou' is one you should follow at all times.
TWO: PICK THEM OFF ONE AT A TIME.
If you're by yourself, you have to keep a horde of monsters from getting to you before you can turn 'em into swiss cheese. In order to do this you have to keep too many of them from attacking at once, and you can do this in two ways. The first is to
only release a few at a time. Walk slowly and pick off any awakened monsters before you move any farther. Avoid the temptation to run up and grab that treasure! You'll release a bunch of critters that will squash you before you can get away. If you re
lease a few too many for you likeing, run around a corner and pick them off as they come around. The other way is to cast a golem into a horde of monsters and support him with your bow. (This also works if you have a warrior friend in multiplayer). Not
e that if you're playing with a warrior friend running around a corner won't work because they'll all go after your friend and he'll get pissed because you left him alone to die. Just watch your aim.
THREE: DEFENSE IS SECONDARY.
The Rogue should not be concerned with being able to take a beating. That's the warrior's department. With that in mind pump Dexterity as much as possible, without neglecting Strength or Magic. Strength so you can use those really big bows and dexte
rity boosting armor that you find, and Magic because you would like to be able to cast the odd healing/golem/guardian spell without downing potions like beer on St. Patrick's Day (cause they're not green!). Vitality is not as important because you don't
expect to get hit, remember? My level 26 Rogue has about 30 base vitality and still survives nicely in hell.
FOUR: CHECK EVERYTHING FOR TRAPS.
The Rogue's ability is unique in that it causes no permanent damage to your equipment, unlike the Warrior and Sorceror. When playing in multiplayer, remember to let the rogue check all chests/doors for traps before you try to open them. The lower lev
els of hell are full of nova spell trapped chests, and letting one of these loose with your friends around is NEVER a good plan. Let the rogue try to disarm it (if you're feeling brave) or open it from a distance or around a corner with a telekenisis spe
ll, and you should be able to avoid the embarassment of getting fried by a trap.
Remember these things and your Rogue will soon be able to rock the known universe. Oh, one more thing. A rogue works much better with a warrior than with a Sorceror.
Happy Hunting and See You In Hell.