D2lod original ladder hc.

This season i made one of every character. Tried doing that a year or two ago, but i was unprepared for the amount of time and work it takes to manage that. But it gave me a good introduction, and this year it got much better.



Every character is now in act 5 frigid nightmare, only ama (poison javelin build) got left behind, doing act 4 now. Got 2 pul 1 um 1 lem from hellforge ^^ Looking forward for hell hellforge drops. Diablo dropped pretty decent gear too.

I really recommend trying this method, it keeps it very interesting, and challenging in terms of managing what gear to use, but that keeps it fun too. The variation in gameplay also keeps it interesting. The other great thing is that if you find a class-specific item, that you normally wouldn't be able to use, you now have every character ready to take advantage of it. That makes the gameplay more fun and interesting, and adds to the gearing challenge. If you find an item that would revolutionize the damage and performance, using a reset quest is something to consider.

Had two near deaths, or barely that. You get used to being wary about what to look for. The biggest danger is being tired and stressed, that's when you take dumb risks, forget to use safety measures, and can get overwhelmed too quickly.

One thing i'm lucky or "blessed" ^^ with is a stable internet connection. I've had zero (i do mean zero) disconnects, rubberbanding or any connection problems. Must have muled in excess of a thousand solo mule games, zero disconnects. So that is a huge positive factor. If one has trouble with this, paying for mule services is probably the best thing to do. A few fg for someone to have a character idle in a game for as long as you need etc. Back when i did have those issues, save and exit whenever there is a tendency of rubberbanding is essential. Because those 2-3 seconds can be the last you see of your character. That happened a few times.


Just meant as an inspirational post

This post was edited by Taurean on Jul 29 2023 11:57am

What builds are you going with?

The main philosophy is to build around good items i find along the way. So some of the builds have changed. This is how it's gone so far:

Amazon = Poison/plague javelin. Still doing that, and just leveled from 47-55 in about 1.5 hours of gameplay frigid nm. It's very efficient, safe and fast. I have found cliffkiller, so i am considering reskilling to bowa. But if i should find a titan's revenge from the 7 nightmare baal drops which is soon to occur, i may make a lightning javazon instead. Or maybe even double elemental.

Necromancer = Summoner + clay golem. Just very strong and safe build, if one watches out for strong elemental attacks, Low hit points is a norm, so that is a weakness factor. Clay golem is just essential at boss fights, and worth skilling even from an early level, slows the boss a lot.

Assassin = Trap + shadow master. Probably the safest, fastest and overall best build. Never have any problems with it. Going to use mind blast more when i get to hell, i think.

Barbarian = Been changing strategies quite a lot, since i've found different weapons. I actually don't remember what weapon i found, i think it was a unique sword, and used that with a diamond shield for resistances. Thought about only making a double throw barb, it deals good damage and is ranged, meaning safer. Around level 15-18, i found another decent unique and skilled up double swing, and use that with double throw on switch. Went along with frenzy, which made double throw even more viable, damn fun ^^ But then i got to level 30-35 and wanted to try whirlwind, went with that, cleglaw set since i found that. Found out that ww didn't work too well with sword+shield. I found a bloodletter and made king's grace, that worked very well and i ditched double throw for the time being. Now i am using the two swordguards with ww and it's damn efficient ^^ I could definitely reskill again to frenzy and use double throw on switch, i will probably do that if i find some unique throwing weapons. Whirlwind is great, but i'm not quite sure if it is more efficient than frenzy in the long run. It is .. a different skill to use.

Paladin = Zeal+fanaticism, and holy shield. Still using king's grace, but his turn to level up from ~47 - 55 in frigid is coming up, so it's time to rethink things. I may go with a swordguard, but losing the shield (rhyme) is a big loss, and i did find those runes at hellforge, so i may simply make a good runeword in a 1 handed weapon and just continue with zeal. I want to try sacrifice, but am a bit worried about the life loss deal when we start dealing bigger damage numbers. Zeal is a good skill, but it does lock you in place and that is a hazard factor in hardcore. Especially with paladin which has lower hit points than barbarian, and is a melee character. In that sense, i have actually used a bow on switch, and that is damn fun too, even with only normal attack. I figured trying cliffkiller with fanaticism. Probably won't be viable but i'll try just for fun. As far as now, paladin is the most difficult character to use.

Sorceress = Static (maxed)+lightning. It seems lightning is the most efficient skill to use. Hits in a wide range and pierces everything. The big bonus factor with sorceress and static is easy boss fights. I will probably start skilling frozen orb or hydra soon to prepare for hell. I do not use teleport almost at all, in hardcore, it is a hazard and will sooner or later get you killed. I only use it in safe situations to save time.

Druid = Tried to focus this build on minions only, since i think wherewolf+fury is somewhat weird to use. It seems to have some weird function that you have to stand at melee range to make full utilization of it, otherwise the fury zeal function doesn't apply. I never had that problem when using ribcracker in the past. If i find that weapon this season, i may go back to frenzy+fury, but as of now, i'm focusing on big hitpoints (bear+oak) and maxed spirit wolf, and maxing the other two minion skills too. Having the protection of the 5 spirit wolves is a good safety measure in hardcore. And they deal about 170 damage each + might aura from merc (which is really strong as of now due to finding duriel's shell + wormskull + insight in eth partizan), so they do contribute to killing things. The grizzly bear is good enough, but i dislike that strange second attack type when it stuns the enemy, it pauses for a second before hitting again. It seems kind of slow, even if it is a really strong tank. If it would just attack normally constantly, i would use that instead. Spirit wolf gives you more flexibility and protection from several angles. Druid is kind of hard to use properly, seems to need good gear to utilize well.


As of now, i have found quite a few new uniques, and with the runes i found, and possible drops from nm baal quest, i have a lot of options. Will be fun to see about a week from now.

This post was edited by Taurean on Jul 30 2023 02:09pm

Dang, just turned the paladin into a foh build. It is different, lol. I thought it would be faster, but it is nice and defensive for hardcore. Completely wrecks undead at least. And having fanaticism as aura makes the merc super strong. So it works quite well. I guess trying to find - lightning% items is relevant to this. And keeping a lower resist wand on switch works.

This post was edited by Taurean on Jul 30 2023 07:25pm

Cheers glad you're having fun! :thumbsup:

Good post, liked it and would love to do the same, but what can I say...I dont have time

Have fun mate! D2 LoD is a great game.

What has been your toughest boss fight thus far?

Yes that is an issue .. it does take a bit of time. But what you can do, especially if playing normal d2, is to make two or three characters. That goes a bit faster. A ladder season in regular d2 is 6 months so that is a long time. If you trade for some key pieces too, then it definitely gets much easier.




Well, as of now i have reached hell andariel. Actually, most of my characters are now ranged-based. Even paladin is now using fist of heavens, it is slightly slower, but much safer.

Barbarian will most likely stay dual handed ww, but i had to be careful around nightmare diablo with him, even if i could tank his attacks quite well, using ww was a bit risky.

But hell andariel was absolutely a challenge, merc and tanks dies within 2-3 seconds and is little help.


Unfortunately i had the necromancer die last sunday - losing a bunch of decent gear, now i am using backup gear on the others and making headway, but a bit slower. Friggin typical ^^ Just reached cold plains waypoint, went there from town waypoint, and was getting ready for "ploughing" act 1 hell for the others. Had a 3200 hit point level 25 clay golem, a decent merc and 5 skeletons, which was mowed down within 2 seconds by the nastiest pack of dark spearwomen ever ^^ I was looking at my second screen for about 1 second, and after realizing what happened i was being attacked. In that one second, i had moved my keyboard 2 centimeters which i usually do before setting out, to adjust my fingers to the keys. Some very rare times, this disconnects the keyboard from the wireless usbl and i have to spend 1-2 seconds pushing keys and slightly adjusting it again before getting connected. Frantically pressing 1-4 to use rejuv pots, which of course didn't work, while trying to run away, but was mercilessly killed in 2-3 hits... 800 hit points to 0 in less than a second. Then 3 seconds later, pressing escape, NOW the friggin keyboard works ^^ Thanks a lot, lol... Didn't get to see the modifiers on the mob boss but must have been extra strong and dual elemental enchanted at least. Probably got a 5% monster crit as well.


But, just going to keep moving forward until i reach end of hell. Then maybe re-start the necromancer if i feel like it.