hammerdin with ladder rws ofc

Best beginner character is sorceress by a mile. Teleport > Any other skills/synergies in the game.

There's no risk of dying in Hell if you choose appropriate game content. Your goal is to reach A3 in Hell before you stop to farm and level up.

Run Hell Andy to get common unique gear (Shako, Vipermagi etc.) and run LK for runes. You get a rune (Mal or higher) about one in 250-300 runs on average on players 8 - so if you're running efficiently, you can expect to make a HoTO within about 10 hours of LK farming on average. Infinity or Enigma would take 40-60 hours depending on your luck.

Once you have acquired some high-end gear (Especially Enigma), then you can swap to whichever class you prefer but it's always best to start with a sorc (FB/Orb while getting up to Hell, then respec full Blizz vs. Andy).

This post was edited by draftw3dr on Jun 2 2019 09:57pm

I don't have much experience, but I'd like something more challenging than what darashitter would play.

windy ftw

frenzy barb

I wouldn't go for hammerdin cuz they have no unique that's hard to find, like death's web, griffons, death's fathom stuff like that.

I would recommend a trapassin. They are fun to play and very safe, and can progress thru P8 content with minimal gear.

Agreed..
I got all the way to act 2 hell. And I couldn't get past maggot lair because all the beetles are lightning immune. Then I accidentally deleted my d2 files when deleting pics out of the d2 folder..

Yeah trapassin is nice because you spec into two damage types within one skill tree (lightning + phys w/ death sentry). Also, shadow master is a 1-pt-wonder once you get a few +skills.

I would also recommend javazon as they can similarly progress thru P8 with minimal gear and considerable ease until you hit hell.

Be sure to rerun countess for the below runewords, which will make life much easier until you reach hell:

Norm - Stealth, Malice, Ancients Pledge
Nightmare - Lore, Smoke, Rhyme, (Spirit / Insight if ladder enabled)

Hdin/sorc are of course fine as well, I just enjoy the lesser played builds when doing SP.

This post was edited by TheOmnipotent on Jun 3 2019 10:52am

Voted for other.
Looking at the resulting hardass WT thread I have to say: Made my day.

But hey, today's bar has not been raised to high