With D2R coming out and getting exposed to a few old d2 videos, I got excited to play the game again. Wasn't interested in D2R though, as I played enough with patch 1.11+ 10 years ago, and wanted something different.

Why patch 1.07?
It was the original patch that came with D2 Lod when it first came out, and since we didn't have internet access back then, I spent quite a lot of time playing it, without knowing anything about its "interesting" features.
Combining the terrible drop rates, with the super strong enemys and no synergies, it was quite the experience. I started at a very young age, and most of my chars didn't make it past normal, but eventually a few years later,
I managed to get to Hell A5 with a summon necromancer and a fury druid. Unfortunately both struggled super hard and couldn't get past ancients, and were generally pretty badly built skill and stats wise.

I have read the 1.07 guides I could find, plus a nice walkthrough by the user Joey, and recently the other 1.07 HC Wt here.

There are some potential for great items in this patch, although the chance of crafting or finding one is very slim. I personally find it more challenging, and rewarding, as finding some decent uniques or set items can be a huge upgrade,
and some exceptional uniques and sets can be great items even in Hell, and they don't fall of the wagon so hard as in later patches.

Runewords are pretty bad, there is a different list, but even the ones requiring high runes aren't that great, and you hardly find any runes at all, even the more common ones. There is a very long list of runewords that don't show their stats,
I tried a few, and they work but give no stats other then some poison res so I won't waste more.

I was wondering what character to start, prefering melee myself, but remembering how much they struggle especially in these early patches, since they are very gear dependant, which is of course hard to come by.
Definitely wanted to try something new, so I decided to make a werebear, since it was a little stronger in 1.07, and having fire claws would mean I wouldn't struggle that hard in normal with no gear.
- Werebear skill modified to give +50% to hit points. (It was +100%.)
- Maul now gives +20% damage per charge per level. (It was +25%.) Its stun length is shorter and attack bonus is 3% plus, 3% per level.(it was +20%, 10% per level.)
Also crushing blow works agains't phys immune, and is stronger than later patches. At around lvl 60-70 there is potential to get a lot of extra %ED from Maul, Werebear, HOTW so with the right weapon, damage should be great, on switch
using a very fast weapon with some elemental damage and crushing blow could deal with immunes.

Wasn't sure which skills I want to max exactly, or whether or not I want some summons or not. I decided against summons, looking back they would have made things a lot easier.
Right now I have reached Nightmare A4, and will post about interesting stuff I found so far, plus what are the plans going forward. (I didn't want to start this walkthrough just to quit after a day.)

I finally figured out how to mule, so maybe if I start another character it won't have to walk completely untwinked.

Here are the current stats/skill distribution in Nightmare, I have Rattlecage armor+Great increased attack speed Kris on switch vs bosses. Gloves and belt are sigons.

Now I need a great exceptional unique weapon or the Hwaniss set Bill, I have saved up stat points and few dex/str charms to be able to wear it. I tried to rack run the unique Gothic Axe in Nm Lower Kurast, but quit after ~200-300 runs, thinking I have more chance of good drop from a normal monster while progressing.

Any tips/advice are appreciated! Anyone know if attack speed works the same as in later patches? If so, a Tresher with Greatly increased attack speed/good ED% socketed with 4 shae would reach 4 FPA attack, 3 times faster then my current weapon, maybe it could even be purchased.







This post was edited by championmath on Oct 9 2021 04:27am

climbing through normal was easier than I expected, I just used very fast attack speed weapons, and the quest weapons on A2 and A3. I was really lucky as I found 2 uniques already in the first two acts, /1000 chance) the unique cleaver that was too slow, and a shield which I didn't use...

Started to struggle in flayer jungle a little, I farmed travincal for 2-3 levels and found an Ort rune, then another one in A4, I thought jewels drops aren't that bad because I found like 4-5 in Normal, so I could have 3 weapon craft, only needed to find an exceptional weapon. However in all of NM with lots of travincal runs I only found 1 jewel... I will save them for crafting later from now on unless they are very good.

Runewords work but they are mostly very weak so no point in wasting runes in them.



I was very lucky to find this helm in A2.


Only good runeword I made so far, Bramble anyone? The fire/lightres and faster run walk is pretty good I still use it and switch it up with Rattlecage for bosses.

Cool, GL with this I'm playing a sorc in 1,09 but Ove been planning on a 1.07 walk when I'm done with her

Rattlecage is super strong vs Bosses, even the 25% CB melts them with a quick weapon. The annoying hit causes monster flee doesn't proc if you have Maul, so thats nice, I found another one for merc. I have it in stash and use it vs bosses.
Not sure if Knockback works the same, if so Jalai would be cool as in 1.07 it gives +2 druid +1 shapeshift and 25% CB and unfortunately knockback.


This weapon is really good have the same ias bp as khalims flail or the A2 staff (which I used both even in NM) I just use an increased block chance shield with it.


One of my best finds so far in A5 normal, I put it on merc cause I had the +3 Fireclaws helm




Ty, nice I might try 1.09 after this as I never played it, but it also has some nice features. Gl

This post was edited by championmath on Oct 10 2021 01:32am

Cool wt. those rune words got me all kinds of confused

Ty Yeah... I was so excited to try new ones there is a very long list, but unfortunately only a few works (most give only posion res), the ones that are somewhat usefull require HRs that have even less chance of dropping and they are hard to miss cause white
It would be cool to have more variety in runewords, but in my opinion they shouldn't be so much stronger than uniques.

Here are the results of my first crafts -.- I probably should have waited for lvl 51 for guaranteed 3 mods but I desperately needed a better weapon and was hoping for a Partizan with some ias. I was lucky because I found 2 Ort runes on the way to A5, and enough jewels.







Now I am saving Ort's and the jewels I find, although its very tempting to socket my +11 max dmg jewel into the circlet I showed, for my assa so she can murder normal Baalruns.

One of the good things in this patch, is that charms can get much more +damage than later patches, the problem is they aren't that easy to come by. I was worried I have some wrong version as I didn't find a single one so far, but running a few LK runs I found one finally.
Getting a few more of these (and hopefully slightly better) would be huge, as the monsters don't have that much HP, and you have the potential to use a really fast weapon, that doesn't have a lot of base dmg. For example having an inventory full of these would mean +240 max dmg, which multiplied by Maul, HoTW and Werebear would mean a lot.
If I manage to find a few it opens up a lot of new character options, bowazon/lightning fury comes to mind.


Sad that this is Etheral... Really need that FRW with no teleport, to have fast rack runs, unfortunately I haven't found anything usefull yet, but have a map now with 5 weapon racks and sometimes it drops Battle Scytchle, but couldn't figure out a way to have it drop everygame.


Another usefull drop, with its "Fastest run walk" 40% frw it all adds up, i am already a suuper fast bear.

Beautiful work

There is something incgamer people discovered a few years ago.
1.07 crafting formula is bugged in a way that it takes into account the ilvl of the runes as well. The problem with this: the ilvl of runes are set to 1. Because of that it is not possible to craft items with ilvl higher than 65 (clvl*0.66), so most of the desired affixes (e.g. +2 skills) can not be obtained.

Hovever there is a workaround for that. If a rune drops in game, it retains its ilvl util the game is saved (either you exit or via automatic saves during the game).
So, if you want the best possible craft, always use the rune immediately, when you find it. For example: you farm LK chests, always keep the crafting mats (item+jewel+gem) in your cube and when a rune pops up, craft immediately.

can explain it much better I think.

This post was edited by -joey- on Oct 11 2021 02:57am

Ty



Oh no, another bug thank you for that info, I will make sure to do this once I start farming in Hell.

So I just mentioned that I am doing a few runs on an LK Map with 5 weapon racks 2 armor racks and 4 chests. Unforunately I couldn't find a stable good drop, but since I have a lot of potential good items varying (Battle Scythle, Gothic Axe, War Club, Cutlass, Dragon Shield etc.)
I was just doing random runs opening all the chests and trying to find patterns where there are 2-3 potentially good items that drop. Funny enough some racks were dropping the same useless item almost always, but not the ones I needed.
But, finally I got my first unique guys, aaaaaaand its:

Hot garbage sadly, the funny thing is the one before dropped Battle Scythle (best for me) and the one after Gothic Axe (also very good) -.-


But at least I got my hands on another one of these, this time no MF though. I am starting to think a bowazon with a lot of max dmg small charms, and crushing blow would just blow up everything, same with lightning fury as I think everything gets added to it in this patch and it has a different look to it.
Of course potentially I could craft a Giant Tresher with 580% ED and 100% ias... right?


I would also appreciate some shae runes, if that great weapon drops finally as I haven't seen a single one yet.