The Biggest Diablo Clone Hunting Guide Ever
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I wrote this guide because of 2 reasons:
1) I was bored
2) Ive seen alot of people all over asking how to get their own annihilus charm
Any feedback/suggestions are welcomed, this is jsut the first draft so be nice, once I make a final draft ill post it some free web server somewhere so I can just tell people the link whenever I see people ask how to find an annihilus charm. It's kinda lengthy, but it has alot of important information.
Guide to Annihilus Charm Finding
How to Kill the Diablo Clone
There is 5 parts to this guide:
1) Introduction
2) How to make a character that is able to kill the Diablo Clone
3) How to find Diablo Clone
4) How to kill the Diablo Clone
5) Help/Credits
Part 1: Introduction
You first must understand a few basic things. The unique charm called the Annihilus charm is only dropped by a character that is named the Diablo Clone (known as Uber Diablo by some, but for this guided I will refer to him as Diablo Clone, or DC). Many people have no clue how to find this monster, so therefore have no idea where to get their own Annihilus charm (or as I will refer to it, the Anni). It is not very difficult to do this, and on average, depending on time spent hunting the Diablo Clone, should be able to find anywhere from 2-5 Annis a day. At first it might be confusing, but once you get the hang of it, you can easily find DC, kill him, and get your very own Anni charms. This guide will tell you how to make a character that can successfully find and kill DC.
Part 2: Make a Diablo Clone Killer
Some people wonder if a specific type of character and equipment is needed to kill the Diablo Clone (DC), and the answer is yes. You must understand that some characters that are good at PvP (playerVSplayer, duels) or MvP (monsterVSplayer) may be terrible DC killers. I can tell you that the character I use for killing DC is very good at it, but gets destroyed in duels against other players. This is due to the fact that DC is unlike any other monster you have faced before
Before I talk about what character and equipment to make, you know about DC
DC has the following resistances:
-95% to cold
-95% to fire
-95% to poison
-95% to lightning
-50% to magic
-50% to physical.
-About 650,000 life
-Monster level of 110
-Very high attack rating and defense
-Does high amounts of physical, lightning and fire damage
By just looking at these stats, you should be able to figure out a few things:
Notice DC has 95% resistances to fire, lightning and cold, making any sorceress virtually useless against him. You may have the best sorceress ever, but it will not be an effective DC killer.
The best way to kill him would be to make a character that either does lots of physical or magic damage, since those are his two lowest resists.
There is however, a third way to kill DC quickly and effectively.
This third way is the way I chose because it not only kills DC quickly, but also doesn’t require expensive or elite gear. This third way, and in my opinion the best way, is using gear that adds the mod Crushing Blow.
Crushing Blow works like this:
”Crushing Blow gives a % chance of reducing a monster's remaining hit points by a certain %. It removes hit points based on the monsters current hit points, not maximum hit points.
Normal monster: 1/4 Melee, 1/8 Ranged Attack.
Other: 1/10 Melee, 1/20 Ranged Attack.”
For our purposes, we need to look at the melee part of other, other includes other characters in duels and boss monsters, and DC counts as a boss monster (others are Baal, regular Diablo, Duriel, ect.). You may be thinking that 1/10 (10%) of DC’s hit points isn’t very much, but remember, he has about 650,000 life, and 10% of that is 65,000, and 65000 damage is probably way more than any of your current melee characters can do. Also, you must know that Crushing Blow (CB) stacks, so if you have lets say 15% CB on your armor, and 15% on your weapon, it adds to 30% CB, so 30% of the time you will take 10% of DC’s life away. This is why CB is extremely powerful against monsters with an insane amount of life, such as DC. Because CB stacks, the goal is to get a total 95% CB when CB is added together from all of your gear. (note: you cannot have 100% crushing blow, it caps at 95% like everything else in the game, notice you cannot have 100% or 0% of anything, even with a level 99 character with a high attack rating, you sill only have 95% chance to hit a quill rat in normal, and also if you are level 1 with 0 defense, hell Ball will still only have a 5% chance to hit you, so because of this, anything over 95% CB still acts as 95% CB.)
There is one problem with CB, if you read the definition of it carefully, you will notice it said: “It removes hit points based on the monsters current hit points, not maximum hit points.” This means that once DC gets very low on life, CB will become less and less effective. (I’ve noticed that once he gets to about 1/3 of his life, CB isn’t much of a help anymore) This is why you will notice it that while using CB the first 2/3 of his life will go away quickly, then that last 1/3 is the hardest part. This means you will need to do a decent amount of physical damage to finish him off
Now to the part about building your character
Lots of people have different opinions on this. I can only tell you what I have experienced, and the character I have can kill DC in roughly 1 minute, 20 seconds. There are however, many different types of DC hunters, but once again, I will talk in detail about the type I have, because I know for a fact it works and is very effective.
Frost Zealot Of Crushing Blow
This is the type of character I use for killing DC. Like I said before, I have found it very effective. This is a Paladin that’s main attack is Zeal, and uses the Holy Freeze aura as its main aura.
What skills to get:
20 points into Sacrifice (adds bonus to zeal)
20 points into Zeal (main attack)
20 points into Holy Freeze (used to slow down DC)
1 to Charge (to get right next to DC quickly)
All extra points into Holy Shield (increases blocking and defense)
You can choose to put a few points into salvation if you need resistances
Notice, all of these skills, with just 1 into Holy shield and all pre reqs, you can get to it by about level 67, but depending on gear requirements you should finish your character and could start DC hunting around level 80. (mine is currently level 82 due to req on my weapon which I will talk about later)
Gear Setup: (ideal gear first, then other options listed afterwards)
-Weapon:
I have found that the best weapon to use is the Stormlash, unique scourge. It has fast attack speed, and also has 33% crushing blow. I socketed mine with an Amn rune to get some extra life steal, which is nice since I don’t have to inhale as many health potions as before.
Depending on what realm, ladder or non, this weapon could be hard to get. If you cannot find or trade for one, I suggest you do the following: make the Black runeword out of a flail, scourge or knout. (it is cheap to make, requires the Thul Io and Nef runes, in that order) It has 40% crushing blow. Don’t worry about the physical damage on it, since CB is an independent damage source. Once you get DC to 1/3 of his life, switch your weapon to one that has higher physical damage. Weapons that I would suggest would be Barnar’s Star, Death Cleaver (ladder), Demon Limb or anything with decent damage and more importantly, fast attack speed. Remember, use your Black weapon first, then switch when DC is at 1/3 of his life and finish him off.
-Armor:
I use the Duress runeword; I put it in a boneweave for the high defense. The reason for this armor is that it has 15% CB, and also adds bonuses to your resistances and faster hit recovery. This is a very nice armor, and shouldn’t be too hard to get, it requires a Shael, Um and Thul runes (socketed in that order).
Once again, if you cannot get this armor, the only other armor that I would say to use is Rattlecage, the unique gothic plate. This armor is very cheap and will be easy to get, the reason to use it is because it adds 25% CB.
-Helm:
I use, and really like Guillaume's Face, the helm from Orphan's set. I like how it looks, I like the horns and also it adds a very nice 35% CB. It also adds bonuses to hit recovery and strength. Overall, this is a great helm to use on your DC hunter, and shouldn’t be to hard to get. I really cant think of any other helms with CB, so try very hard to aquire this helm.
-Boots:
The best boots here are Gore Riders, the unique war boots. These boots are very popular for lots of types of characters, but we are most intrested in the 15% CB. They also add nice bonuses to faster run/walk as well as some other nice bonuses.
If you cannot get these boots, the only other boots I would suggest are Goblin Toe, the unique light plated boots. These boots should be easy to get, and are nice because they add a 25% CB, but not much else. These add more CB than Gore Riders, but only 15% is needed from the boots to still reach the 95% CB, so Gore Riders are a much better choice.
-Shield:
The shield’s basic purpose is to add to blocking, and add resistances. The best Paladin shield, in my mind, will always be the Herald of Zakarum, the unique Gilded Shield. Some may say to use Stormshield, but this shield is a lot harder to get, and I the Zakarum is a lot better shield for a Paladin anyway.
Other shields you could use are like I said before Stormshield, but this shield can be hard to get and Herald of Zakarum is better anyway. You could also use an Alma Negra, the unique sacred rondache. Basically, you want to look for bonuses to % blocking, and also bonuses to resistances.
-Gloves:
There is one pair of gloves that stands way above any other gloves you could use. These gloves are the Laying of hands, the gloves from the Disciple set. The main reason is that they add 350% damage to demons, and DC happens to be a demon. Using these gloves is like adding a 350% enhanced damage jewel to your weapon against other monsters. This is very important when finishing off his last bit of life when CB no longer helps. They also add 20% increased attack speed.
I really cant recommend any other gloves, Laying of Hands are so good for a DC Hunter, and they are somewhat easy to get. But if you cannot get them look for gloves that add increased attack speed or life steal.
-Belt:
I like to use the Thundergod’s Vigor belt, the unique war belt. It adds a very nice bonus to both strength and vitality, and also has lightning absorb, which is nice because one of DC’s main attacks is lightning based.
Other belt that could be used String of Ears or really any belt that would add to life, resistances or has life steal.
-Rings and Amulet:
This is the part where you need to test yourself and see which you like better. I use two rings from the Angelic Set, and the Angelic amulet. The reason for this is that they add a HUGE amount of attack rating, which is so very important because DC has very high defense. If your attack rating is ok, or you have low fire resistances or take a lot of damage when he uses his fire attack, you could go with 1 angelic ring and the amulet, and then use a dwarf star, for the fire absorb.
-Charms:
Charms should be used to make up for whatever you didn’t get from your gear. This could be +strength, +dexterity items, or +resistances charms. +life charms are also always helpful. You can also add paladin combat skill charms to get a higher level of zeal, but I don’t use them and don’t see a need.
If you use the setup of Duress, Stormlash, Guillaume's Face, and Gore Riders, this will add up to 98% CB, which is perfect. If you cant get one of these items, try using one of the others I suggested in place for it, but try to get to 95% or more CB.
Other characters that I have head are effective DC killers are Hammerdins because they do high ammounts of magic damage, or a javazon that uses jab with CB. I have not used these characters, so I cannot offer a guide for them, but other people in the mIRC room (explained in part3) are always willing to help
Part 3: How to find Diablo Clone
This part of the guide is probably the most confusing part, because most people have no idea how to find where DC spawns or how to find him. I can tell you that there is a reason he spawns, it is not random, and also it will take patience.
First off, you must understand that when you create a game, it is made on a random IP address that is hosted by the Battle net servers. These IPs start at .30 and go to .180. DC walks on a specific server, and all games that are created on that server, so if DC walks on server .55 and you are in a game that is on server .55, you will get the message “Diablo Walks this Earth” and the ground will shake. When does DC walk on a sever? Well, it has to do with selling SOJs (stone of Jordan rings to merchants). DC will walk on a server any time between when 75-150 SOJS are sold on the same server; it is random and always different.
Now, you all may be wonder well how do I know what IP server he will walk on, and how do I get onto that one.
The first question is easy. There is an organized DC Hunting chat channel on the mIRC network. For those unfamiliar with mIRC, you may download it at http://www.mirc.com/ (it is for free, and they will say you get a trial, but once the trial is over, you can keep clicking continue and connect.) Then, set the server you connect to, to the following: irc.dclone.org and then once you connect, join the following server depending on what realm you are on (being on ladder or non, hardcore or softcore doesn’t make a difference):
#useast-dclone for useast realm
#uswest-dclone for uswest realm
Once you have joined the channel, people will probably be chatting about whatever, but notice the topic of the channel. It will look something like this:
««««« ( Renegade: 8 pm est ) ( HOT:None ) ( Active:None ) ( SLOW:65) ( WALKED: 39, 53) »»»»» (type !hot to review topic. Other sugested channels: #trade #Chat) Please type !help to view all of the instant info
You can type !hot at any time to see the topic of the channel
There is 5 parts to the topic you must understand.
First, it says “Renegade 8pm est.” This is refering to what is called a Renegade run, or commonly known as rene. It is an organized DC Hunt where you must pay 7 softcore, nonladder SOJs to get in. Once they have everyone together that wants to join the rene, they tell you an IP they are going to pop (pop is a term that refers to when DC walks a server, such as “.51 just popped!”). Once all donors are in a game on that IP, they then sell all their SOJs at once and the server is popped. The public, people not part of the rene, will be given a 15 minutes notice and the IP will be posted. They then have 15 minutes to find a server on that IP, if they don’t then they are outta luck.
The other 4 parts are Hot, Active, Slow and Walked. Walked means the server as just popped, and it’s done. Slow means the server has had some SOJS sold on it, but nobody is selling now. Active means SOJS are currently being sold on it, and should pop soon. Hot means lots of selling of SOJS on it, and it will pop any minute. If you get in a active game, you will see a count come up that says “xxx Stones of Jordan have been sold to merchants” where xxx is the current count. On average, anywhere from 2-6 servers could be popped. The only trouble is that sometimes you cant get onto the right server in time.
Now onto how to get onto a server where DC will walk.
When searching for a game, its a lot easier to have your Diablo running in Window Mode. To do this, find the shortcut to Diablo, right click on it and go to properties. Look at the target, and you will see it says something like (depending on where Diablo is on your comp) C:\Program Files\Diablo II\Diablo II.exe. TO make it run in window mode, put the current target in quotes, and add a –W to the end of it, outside the quotes. When edited, the previously mentioned target should now look like this: "C:\Program Files\Diablo II\Diablo II.exe" –W. This will cause Diablo to run in a small window, and can be easily minimized so you can search for the correct IP quicker.
To search just follow these steps:
1) Create a game (always remember to password it so nobody steals your Anni)
2) Go to the start menu, click on run, and type in "cmd" and then press run
3) A black command box window should come up
4) Type in the following: netstat – n
5) You will get a list of a whole bunch of numbers; each one is a different IP address.
6) Look for the one that ends in .4000, that’s the Diablo one. It will look something like xx.xxx.xxx.xx.400 (the x’s are random numbers)
7) Look for the IP, it will be the 2 (or 3) numbers directly to the left of the .4000, so if you get something that looks like xx.xxx.xxx.86.4000, where the x’s are all different numbers, this means you are on server .86
8) Keep creating games and typing in netstat –n until you find a game that is on the IP you want.
9) If you make more than 3 games a minute, you will get a temporary IP ban, and you wont be able to connect to Battle net for 10 minutes.
Notice: There is no way to force yourself onto an IP address. You must keep creating games until you find the right one. This is where patience comes on, remember, servers range from .30 to .180, that’s 150 different servers, so essentially each time you create a game you have a 1 in 150 chance of it being the right one. Its completely random and takes patience. Sometimes you get lucky and get on the right IP in 3 tries, sometimes it has taken me 200+ games. Also, DC only spawns in Hell games created on the IP; he will not walk on a server that is a normal or nightmare game.
Part 4: How to kill Diablo Clone
This, believe it or not, is the easy part. If you made a good character, and got on the right IP, and finally get rewarded when you see the message “Diablo Walks this Earth,” you have done the hard part. To find DC, you must know that he spawns as the first new Super Unique Monster you come across. You can find a list of all the super unique monsters here: http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/monsters/super.shtml but I like to use Act1 because the surrounding monsters will be weak and won’t get in the way. My favorite places are to spawn him in the dark wood, as Treehead Woodfist because he is by the big tree in dark wood which is easy to find on the map, and it gives you a big open space to fight DC. If you made a Frost Zealot of Crushing Blow, you just want to find him, use charge to get right up next to him, and then use zeal to keep hitting him. Make sure your belt is filled with health potions, you will need them. If you use Black, keep attacking until he is at about 1/3 his life, then switch to your 2nd weapon and finish him off. If you use Stomlash, just keep attacking until he is dead. Once you have killed him, he will drop a unique small charm, the Annihilius Charm.
Part 5: Help/Credits
If you need help killing DC, you can ask in the mIRC channel for help. People there that are that will help you would be any of the ops, a person with a @ or + sign next to their name, or me (hoarshade). People are always looking to help, and I like to help people because I like to get in more practice against DC so I can further tweak my equipment and setup to become more effective. There are scammers that try to steal your Anni, but usually they are taken care of and are no a problem, but you can always ask an op to point out somebody who is trustworthy to help you.
I wrote this guide using all of the information I used in talking with people and hunting DC myself. I hope this guide was helpful and informative. If you have any questions you can either ask away in the mIRC room, or email me at hoarshade@hotmail.com or contact me on AIM, my screen name is Hoarshade.
hoarshade
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18-07-2004, 00:00 #2
NecroManiac
Member
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 311 I would have to disagree with sorcs being "totally useless" against DC, i have a blizz sorc with no charms and plain mf gear with around +4 to all skills totaly so i have a lvl 24 blizz and lvl 24 cold mastery i kill DC in about 30 secs. All u need to do is stack fire res (2x dwarf star, water walks) Of course u also need max res but that shouldnt be too hard. So all u do is get a merc or maybe urself to tank DC while own him the blizzards.
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18-07-2004, 00:22 #3
hoarshade
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Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 181 i was kind of exaggerating when saying sorcs were useless, i was just mainly trying to make a point that sorcs are usually not the best at killing dclone, and also just because somebody might have a character that is good in pvp or pvm that doesnt not mean it will do well against dclone
ill change it to something like "sorcs are usually not the best option for fightling dclone" or something like that
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18-07-2004, 00:27 #4
Suo
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Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 318 And there's some realm specific things. Like IP ranges, in Europe realm those vary from 30 to 100 and 211 to 241. For Europe, you don't necessarily need IRC to find out the hot IP's but you can use a great website, which I don't know if is allowed to link to, but have fun googling.
You can also use Netlimiter (google helps) to find out the IP of the game. Run the game in windowed mode (parameter -w) and position the game window and Netlimiter so that you can always see the IP of the game without needing to alt+tab from the game. I see the IP right when the game starts loading so I can instantly exit from the game if it's wrong one. But then I discovered that you get temp ban for 15 mins for exiting/creating games too quickly (bot type behavior) so I just type 2 random lines of text and then exit.
Also spawning the DC, I didn't notice if you mentioned but DC will spawn as the next superunique which you meet and which has not been spawned. My personal favorites are stony field and Rakanishu (which is kinda like dark wood too) and Eldritch in act 5 just up from Frigid wp. Eldritch is excellent since it can be found just in 2 seconds but other monsters there might cause troubles to some.
Otherwise I can't think of anything else to add or correct in there, nice job.
EDIT: And I just remembered something more :F
When the server is hot (dc can spawn, hope you explained it there), and sometimes before it, the game becomes very laggy. You'll get alot of desynching and travelling in areas can be hard because black walls come and you're thrown back. At least such was the cases when I was killing DC in ladder #1. And sometimes the server has crashed so I lost anni.
And when waiting for DC, there are anti-idle methods which are game glitches to prevent you from being thrown from the game even if you're not playing. Basically you click your stash or something which you can operate and your char gets stuck while trying to get it which the game thinks is that you are doing something.