[iaberle]

I was wondering what people think is the best weapon for Diablo II: Lord of Destruction's two new character classes (the Assassin and the Druid) ?

[juanvaldes]

I used the assassin's special weapon (claws?) and can't remember what I used for my Druid. Sorry been using X only since I got my first X.1 beta. Waiting for the X update before I get back into it, got to much work and other games to play anyway.

[Osirisis]

For the druid, it would depend on what type of druid you are planning to play. The were druid's tend to focus on on the melee aspect of things, i.e. mauls and swords, while the elemental druids can focus on melee, i.e. the earthshaker (+3 to elemental skills), but will mainly be found wearing general +skills items, i.e. the islestrike among others.

My girlfriend is playing a Martial Arts assassin, wearing the Orphans Call set with some Bartucs claws. Ideally if you are doing the martial arts assassin, you want a claw of some sort with a shield.

Some good resources to hit would be Diabloii.net or planetdiablo.com. The forums there will be able to supply you with much more accurate suggestions for weapons than I probably can. You also be able to find out more specific information concerning the many variants of assassins and druids, which may make playing the game that much more enjoyable.

Good luck. Hope you enjoy

[mac freak]

For a high-level Druid, the best choice by far (while maintaining affordability) is either Hellslayer (unique Decapitator) or the Immortal King's Stone Crusher (set Ogre Maul). I myself wear an ethereal Hellslayer with Zod on my ass-kikcin' Druid
Pic: http://www.webfeatsdesign.com/druidstats2.jpg

For lower-level characters, Bonesnap works well, then perhaps a Cruel Feral Axe.

Assassins have it harder -- the only REALLY effective weapon is Natalya's Mark, which is very expensive. You can get by with Bartuc's, but it's hard... I suppose a Cruel Suwayyah would work as well.

It's really too bad that the game was ruined by duping though, otherwise I'd still play that ass-kickin' Druid.

[Guy Incognito]

Originally posted by mac freak:
<STRONG>For a high-level Druid, the best choice by far (while maintaining affordability) is either Hellslayer (unique Decapitator) or the Immortal King's Stone Crusher (set Ogre Maul). I myself wear an ethereal Hellslayer with Zod on my ass-kikcin' Druid
Pic: http://www.webfeatsdesign.com/druidstats2.jpg

For lower-level characters, Bonesnap works well, then perhaps a Cruel Feral Axe.

Assassins have it harder -- the only REALLY effective weapon is Natalya's Mark, which is very expensive. You can get by with Bartuc's, but it's hard... I suppose a Cruel Suwayyah would work as well.

It's really too bad that the game was ruined by duping though, otherwise I'd still play that ass-kickin' Druid. </STRONG>

Hmmm...I just looked at the stats on the 1.08 Hellslayer and thought to myself 'a barbarian with a 1.08 Arkaine Valor and a 1.08 Hellslayer and a level 30+ Battle Order would certainly bust 15000 health.'

Daaaaaaaaaamn! I'll be back when I actually have it calculated.

[Jansar]

I recently bought an "Ith" sword from a guy on battle.net for 40 soj's. It is the best sword in the game. I'm happy to have it. It can easily deal 5K damage during an average whirlwind attack.

[Guy Incognito]

(99 * 2 Vitality * 4 health) = 792 health (1.08 Hellslayer)
(99 * 2 health) + (99 * 2.5 Vitality * 4 health) = 1188 health (1.08 Arkaine's)
(99 * 1.5 * 4 health) + (2 Vitality * 4 health) = 156 health (Harlquin Crest aka Shako)
(99 * 1 health) = 99 health (2 Bul Katho's Rings)
(5 vitality * 4 health) = 20 health (Mara's Kaleidoscope ammy)


Assuming a base Vitality of about 325

325 * 4 health = 1300

Barb starts with 55 health + 60 from the act 3 quest + 2 health per clvl = 313

32 * 20 health (small perfect vita charms) = 640 health

Put all of this together

4508 health

shako, bul kathos, two echoing swords on swap, mara's 2 +1 to warcry grand charms = +14 to skills warcries

lvl 34 battle order = +134% to health

That's 10548 health...ok so I was off by 4500 (I guess I got too excited.)

[Guy Incognito]

Originally posted by Jansar:
<STRONG>I recently bought an "Ith" sword from a guy on battle.net for 40 soj's. It is the best sword in the game. I'm happy to have it. It can easily deal 5K damage during an average whirlwind attack.</STRONG>

Heh...you just paid 40 soj for a bugged item...and Blizzard will gladly take it off your hands for you.

It's created using the Silence runeword and then the runes are removed through a bug exploit and then resocketed with enhanced damage jewels. And then duped as hell.

Duped bug items will dissapear soon. Sorry, you lost....unless you can trade it to someone else. I won't even ask how you got 40 sojs in the first place.

Cheaters and hackers should be shot.

[mac freak]

It's possible to get 40+ SOJs legitimately. During the first month the expansion was out, I amassed 43 of them completely legitimately (a bunch more later, of course)... primarily through Cruel items, which people didn't then know could be purchased. I traded a Cruel Hydra Bow of Evisceration for 9 SOJs back then!

And yes, dupers/hackers should be shot for ruining my favorite PC game of all time.

[Big Mac]

I feel like I'm missing something really great here. My friends like Diablo, but I tried it once and never really got into it. I guess I don't enjoy traditional RPGs - the only one I've ever liked is Mario RPG, and that doesn't really count, I suppose.

[mac freak]

Why not? Super Mario RPG for SNES is still my favorite single player console game of all time! (SSBM for GC is the best multiplayer).

If Mario RPG-type games are your thing though, of course you won't get into Diablo... they're completely different.

Originally posted by mac freak:
<STRONG>It's possible to get 40+ SOJs legitimately. During the first month the expansion was out, I amassed 43 of them completely legitimately (a bunch more later, of course)... primarily through Cruel items, which people didn't then know could be purchased. I traded a Cruel Hydra Bow of Evisceration for 9 SOJs back then!

And yes, dupers/hackers should be shot for ruining my favorite PC game of all time.</STRONG>

The guy must have been pretty stupid...a Cruel Hydra Bow of Eviscration isn't even worth 1 soj, let alone 9.

[mac freak]

Guy Incognito --

You missed my point. When the expansion first came out, all values were super-inflated, such that a Cruel Hydra Bow of Evisceration WAS worth 9 sojs. Today, it's worth jack squat, but then, it was hot stuff.

I find it hard to believe that prices were inflated because people didn't know Larzuk sold elite weapons? Everyone magically wisened up and know that Larzuk sells these weapons now?

I still see 80% of the D2 population scratch their heads when I ask for their chipped gems. I don't think there was any inflation in item prices when the expansion first came out. The only thing that may have driven prices down would have been the dupers...not the fact that people started to realize you could spend a few hours running to Larzul and the waypoint to find a decent cruel Colossus blade or cruel Hydra.

[mac freak]

Well, then you obviously weren't playing D2 when the expansion first came out! All the new stuff was worth a ton due to the -- ta da! -- Law of Supply and Demand. Good new stuff was rare, since the xpack hadn't been out long enough to produce a glut of exceptional and elite uniques and sets, and everyone WANTED excep/elite uniques/sets. Examples: Tal Rasha's Mask was worth over 15 the first few days, the Buriza (1.08!) was about 20, Cruels ranged from 2 to 10, the IK Maul was 25... of course, over the course of a few weeks, these prices dropped severely since so many more of the item had been found, though they were still significantly higher than they are today.

Anyway, you can argue all you want, but you're not going to convince me that events that I have friggin' material evidence for (items) didn't happen!

Originally posted by mac freak:
<STRONG>Well, then you obviously weren't playing D2 when the expansion first came out! All the new stuff was worth a ton due to the -- ta da! -- Law of Supply and Demand. Good new stuff was rare, since the xpack hadn't been out long enough to produce a glut of exceptional and elite uniques and sets, and everyone WANTED excep/elite uniques/sets. Examples: Tal Rasha's Mask was worth over 15 the first few days, the Buriza (1.08!) was about 20, Cruels ranged from 2 to 10, the IK Maul was 25... of course, over the course of a few weeks, these prices dropped severely since so many more of the item had been found, though they were still significantly higher than they are today.

Anyway, you can argue all you want, but you're not going to convince me that events that I have friggin' material evidence for (items) didn't happen!</STRONG>

I'm surprised the shitty items were going for that much. These prices must have come down after a few days the expansion came out. How much was Arkaine's Valor (.08) going for? 50 sojs? I know now that armor is priceless (200+ sojs?) cuz Blizzard was smoking crack when they built that item.

My friend and I did a Meph run 2 days ago and I got 2 Stormshields, one Shaftstop, a String of Ears, Bartuc's, Tal Rasha's mask...all this after about 100 runs and 2 hours of play. According to this 'inflation' you're talking about, I'd be swimming in Stones of Jordans if I had bought the expansion when it first came out.

Yup!
However, if the xpack had just come out, would you have your MF stuff? Probably not. Only if you had found it all, since you wouldn't have been able to afford it, and even if you could, most uniques were much worse in 1.08 (with a few exceptions, of course).

Valor at that time was literally priceless... it was so rare and so awesome that people would either use it or sell it on ebay.

Originally posted by &lt;mac-freak&gt;:
<STRONG>Yup!
However, if the xpack had just come out, would you have your MF stuff? Probably not. Only if you had found it all, since you wouldn't have been able to afford it, and even if you could, most uniques were much worse in 1.08 (with a few exceptions, of course).

Valor at that time was literally priceless... it was so rare and so awesome that people would either use it or sell it on ebay.</STRONG>

I actually don't have much MF on at the moment. I don't know how all these uniques and sets drop. All I have is a 3 topaz barbarian helm a few small mf charms some mf on my boots and some on my Atma's wail armor. I've found some excellent items from Meph runs but I have yet to find Ali Baba's or Skulder's Ire or War Travellers,

My friend and I are very efficient in killing Mephisto though...his sorceress goes down and finds the stairs by simply teleporting around...so he finds the stairs in les than 30 seconds...he opens a portal for me...we go down to Durance of Hate Level 3...I jump over the red portal...he teleports over...statics Meph down to half his life in a blink of an eye and then another 5 seconds of whacking with my level 25 berserk and 350% more damage to demon Laying of Hands later Meph drops...doesn't take more than a minute to kill Meph...and we usually do it in 45 seconds.