Diablo
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strategies -
Lord of Destruction d2x
Melee Characters
include the Barbarian, Shapeshifting Druid, Paladin, Assassin,
and Spear Amazon.
There are many options for
Melee Characters. Although this page has suggestions about
popular items, there is no perfect guide to the best items to
wear. Generally, it is best to rate items against each other and
select the one that best help your character. This page mostly
lists the Ultimate Items rather than listing all options
available. Check out the Item
Section for a more complete list of what is available.
Basic Magic Ability List
Damage
The higher your damage then the faster monsters will die. Find
weapons that do the most damage possible. Runes or jewels that
are "Enhanced Damage" can also improve equipment and
socketed items.
% Mana Steal, % Life Steal
and Cold Damage
Melee Characters typically do not raise their energy. Instead,
Melee Characters usually rely on % Mana Steal items to refill
their Mana. Items that add to Mana will be sufficient to raise
Mana reserves to a high enough level to support skills. % Life
Steal keeps characters at full health and allows them to
quickly recover from damage and use few potions. Cold Damage
is also very useful because it not only chills monsters, but
it also causes some of them to shatter leaving no corpse for
the monsters to raise their fallen friends. One point of Cold
Damage is all it takes to chill monsters. Popular items for
Cold Damage are the Eye of Etlich and Frostburns. You can also
use a Charm, which might be even easier.
Sockets
Use the Socket Quest and Horadric Cube Formula to socket items
(even Rare, Crafted, Set, Unique) and enhance them with good
jewels and runes.
Resistances
It is best to try to maximize Resistances, especially
Lightning, Fire and Cold.
Hit Recovery
Items with Hit Recovery allow you to quickly recover after you
being hit. Without Hit Recovery items, a character is hit, it
will be stunned and will stand in place until able to move
again. If multiple monsters are attacking at once, the
character may be continually stunned until it dies. But, with
Hit Recovery items, characters can quickly return to battle
after being hit. Hit Recovery items stack so they can be used
on several different pieces of equipment (belts, armor, boots
or, shields) to significantly reduce the length of time a
character is stunned.
Increased Attack Speed
Items that "Increase Attack Speed" enable your
characters to swing weapons more rapidly or shoot faster. Here
are some examples:
Damage Reduced by X%
These items significantly reduce damage. There are four
Unique pieces of armor and the Ber Rune, which reduces damage
by 8% in armor, helms and shields. Some speculate that there
is a 95% Cap on these items. The following is not a complete
list of all Damage Reducing items.
Prevent Monster Heal
At higher difficulty levels, monsters regenerate. Find a
Prevent Monster Heal item to stop them from healing.
Magic Find
Magic Find generally comes at a price. For more tips on Magic
Find Equipment go here.
Charms
Good Charms to have are + Life, + Skills, + Maximum Damage, +
Elemental Damage and, + Resistances.
Weapons
When looking for weapons, damage
is the main concern. For skills that do not ignore weapon
speed, find a fast weapon. Using items that increase weapon
speed is also very important. Other key weapon types include
those that steal Life and/or Mana, give bonuses to skills, or
have other useful statistics, especially Cold Damage.
Range might be a
consideration when selecting which weapons to master. Consult
the Items
Section for a listing of weapons and weapon ranges. It is
easy to notice the difference between a Pike with a Range of
5, and a Sword with only a range of 1. Pikes can hit monsters
much further away and in many cases, kill the monster before
it gets within melee range.
Try to find the ultimate
weapon of each weapon class. When evaluating weapons, keep the
weapon that does the most average damage [(Minimum + Maximum)/
2] rather than the the most maximum damage.
"Cruel" Magical
Weapons, which can offer +201-300% damage, are available from
vendors. Keep exiting and re-entering town to "re
roll" the vendors until they offer one of these items.
You can then socket the items and add other runes or jewels to
them.
Use Imbue Quest Reward and
Cube Formulas to attempt to create a high damage Rare or
Crafted Weapon.
Armor
In addition to the popular
choices below, check out the Basic Magic
Ability List for other armor types including Defense Rare
or Crafted Armor as well as different Set or Unique Armor.
Unique
Templar Coat: Guardian Angel (+15% To Maximum
Resistances, +1 Paladin Skills, more) This armor allows up
to 90% Resistances which is 5% less than the Resistance Cap.
Below describes some of the more
popular shields. The Basic Magic Ability List
provides a more complete list. It includes high Defense Rare
or Crafted Armor as well as different Set or Unique Shields.
Generally, look for a higher % Blocking instead of Defense and
add sockets and runes or jewels to shields for even more
benefits.
Socketed Tower Shield/Pavise/Aegis/Monarch with 3-4
Perfect Diamonds or Um Runes
As characters move to Act IV and higher difficulty levels,
Resistances become very important. A 3-4 Perfect Diamond
Shield will offer about 57-76% Resistances, which can offset
the -40 and -100 to Resistances on Nightmare and Hell
difficulty. Um Runes can be used instead of Perfect
Diamonds; however, they are very rare. Added Resistances are
much more helpful than the +1 to skills on the Sigon's
Guard.
Paladins should look for a
good Paladin Shield, especially with high bonuses to All
Resistances. The Unique
Gilded Shield: Herald of Zakarum is also a good choice
for the holy warrior.
Gloves
Check out the Basic
Magic Ability List for a more comprehensive look at
available gloves. Generally, most Melee players look for
gloves that Increase Attack Speed or add to Magic Find.
Ultimate Gloves?
Set
Bramble Mitts: Laying of Hands (20% Increased Attack
Speed, +350% Damage To Demons, Fire Resist +50%). These
gloves are very powerful due to their Damage vs. Demons.
Many monsters are Demons. This damage will not display on
the character screen.
Other Gloves
Rare or Crafted Gloves with
Increased Attack Speed
Set
Gauntlets: Sigon's Gage (30% Increased Attack Speed, 10%
Life Steal) With another Sigon's Item such as Sigon's Guard,
characters receive a 30% Increased Attack Speed bonus on the
Gloves as well as a 10% Life Steal Partial Set Bonus.
Unique
Leather Gloves: The Hand of Broc (3% Life Stolen, 3%
Mana Stolen, +20 to Mana) These gloves are great at early
levels and when available Life or Mana Steal is low.
Goldwrap
(10% Increased Attack Speed, 30% Magic Find)
Increasing weapon speed can be very helpful if using a skill
that depends on weapon speed. The downside of using this
belt is the missed opportunity to gain other magical stats
from a belt such as Life and Resistances.
Check out the Basic
Magic Ability List for more boots available. Look for
Boots that offer Defense and useful magical bonuses such as
Faster Run/Walk, Fastest Hit Recovery, Resistances or
additional Life/Mana (if needed). Boots that give a Faster
Run/Walk Speed, and faster Stamina Regeneration can really
help characters avoid danger and reach their destination much
quicker.
Initially, look for boots
that reduce Stamina drain or offer additional Stamina. Boots
that Heal Stamina 50% will heal Stamina faster when characters
stop. Vidala's Fetlock will give 150 additional Stamina.
Treads of Cthon will take 50% less Stamina when characters run
and walk which means in essence that it doubles Stamina. If
Stamina doubled is greater than Stamina +150, then Treads of
Cthon will allow a character to run longer than Vidala's.
As Characters accrue more
vitality, they can eventually run as often as needed (within
reason) and not run out of Stamina. At that point, Stamina
reducing boots are no longer needed and should be replaced
with "Fastest Run/Walk." This will free up Magical
Prefix/Suffixes on your boots.
Set
Light Plated Boots: Vidala's Fetlock (30% Faster
Run/Walk, +150 to Maximum Stamina)
While other boots can offer Faster Run/Walk, only Vidala's
Fetlock offers such a huge increase of 150 to Stamina. This
combination means running is almost unlimited. The only draw
back of Vidala's Fetlock is the lost opportunity to wear a
Rare pair of boots with Resistances and other useful stats,
and other useful stats. Once you have enough Stamina, look
for better Rare boots.
Unique
Chain Boots: Treads of Cthon (30% Faster Run/Walk, 50%
Stamina, +50 Defense vs Missile)
Requires 50% less Stamina to run or walk. Treads of Cthon
are especially helpful until you can build up enough Stamina
is increased to use just Fastest Run/Walk boots without
additional Stamina or Stamina reduction. Once a high enough
level of Stamina is reached, look for better boots.
Unique
Greaves: Tearhaunch (20% Faster Run/Walk, All
Resistances +10)
While Tearhaunch is slower than Treads of Cthon and Vidala's
Fetlock and does not offer any help to Stamina, the +10 to
Resistances is pretty handy.
Unique
Light Plated Boots: Goblin Toe (25% Chance of a Crushing
Blow)
Those willing to give up Fast running boots can get some
extra damage from Crushing Blow by using Goblin Toe.
Rare or Crafted Rings
Look for rings that Steal % Mana, and/or Steal % Life.
Typically, look for rings that steal as much as possible, but
any Life/Mana steal ring will do if the Life and Mana are
returned. Other things to look for on the ring are:
Resistances (Fire and Lightning especially) and Life. Before
Patch 1.08 Dual Mana and Life Steal Rings spawned. Trading
with other players is a good method for obtaining one of these
rings.
Set
Ring: Cathan's Seal (6% Life Stolen, Required Level 11).
This Ring is good for newbie characters and for players that
do not have high-powered Life Steal rings that existed before
Patch 1.08
Unique
Ring: Manald Heal (4-7% Mana Stolen Per Hit, Regenerate
Mana 20%, Replenish Life +5-8, more)
Rare, Crafted, Set, Unique
Amulets
There are quite a few useful Amulets offered early in the
game. Look for Amulets that Steal Mana and/or Life and that
give Resistances. Most players look for +1 or +2 to All
Skills. +1-3 to Skill Tabs are also something that can be
useful.
When searching for a +1 to +2
All Skills Amulet, useful magical bonuses to have are % Mana
Steal, % Life Steal, Magic Damage Reduced by 1-4, Life,
Resistances or, Mana (if needed).
Good Amulets
Unique
Amulet: The Eye of Etlich (+1 to Skills, 3-7% Life
Steal, Cold Damage) This Amulet is popular for the
additional skill point, Cold Damage and Life Steal.
Unique
Grim Helm: Vampire Gaze (15-20% Damage Reduction, 8%
Life/Mana Steal) Not only does this helm offer 15-20% Damage
Reduction, it also has dual Mana/Life Steal, High Defense
and other good bonuses.
Unique
Shako: Harlequin Crest (+1.5-148.5 Life, 50% Magic Find,
+2 All Skills, Damage Reduced By 10%) The main benefit is
the 10% Damage Reduction.
