Diablo 2 Lord Of Destruction FAQ Why the #$*!!! Do I keep on dying in Hell Difficulty? V.1.04 By: SupaTallgeese E-Mail: nm486@hotmail.com Created in October 5 2001 This FAQ is copyrighted by SupaTallgeese and cannot be copied by ANYBODY without my permission.I cant write those legal jargon companies do so well ;) BEGINNER'S NOTE: This is my first FAQ, so bear with me, ill try to be as clear as possible and provide as much info as possible. Ok, so as you all would know, this FAQ is designed to help you solve your Hell Difficulty woes in Diablo: Lord of Destruction. I will try to keep this FAQ somewhat general but I will go into character specifics for certain situations. I will also assume that you know the very basics of Diablo 2. I am not going to post specific skill information, if you want info on that go check the other 50 faqs on Gamefaqs.com. VERSION CHANGES 1.01(October 31 2001)- Numbered the different sections. -Added extra info(-resistance and global physical) to Section 1. 1.02(November 6 2001)- Added new Caster Druid report. (section 5) -Added more monsters in Section 6. -Added more Info in the Amazon Section re: Immolation Arrow vs. Freezing Arrow -Added new Section called Difficult Quests. Replaces Final Statements for Section 7 spot. 1.03(November 14 2001)-Added the MSLE Boss in Section 8. -Small addition to Amazon Section in How to survive better in Hell -Small addition to Sorceress Section in How to become popular. -Small addition to Difficult Monsters and Quests: Act 4 Quest 3/Diablo 1.04(November 21 2001)-Added a new, and early version of Character Equips in Section 9(unfinished). Final Statements is now Section 10. -A little bit more info on Baal (beating him, that is) in Section 7. -Minor changes (mostly spelling and grammatical) here and there. 1.05(June 24 2002)-Whew! It's been ages since I've updated this! Anyway I thought I'd put this FAQ away a few months ago, but then I did get a few emails about a few things so I'll set it straight. -Updated Necromancer section -NEW character equip section (incomplete, and might stay that way if I don't have time) -Miscellaneous changes that I forgot where they were Ok, lets start, with some basic things: 1. THINGS TO LOOK OUT FOR WHEN YOU ENTER HELL DIFFICULTY -Monsters now have an immunity to at least one or more elements, including poison. -Monster Levels are base level+66 -Unique Bosses and Super Uniques have 2 more modifications on them. -Any special abilities they may have (i.e. charged bolts from lightning enchanted, Red Lightning, Fireball) are boosted by 7, so they do more damage and have more range, etc. -You lose more exp(10%) and gold when you die in hell. -Life Stealing and Mana Stealing are cut by half in Hell. -Cold and Curse durations are reduced by 3/4 in Hell -All resistances are -100% -All monsters receive a global 50% physical resistance -Life and Mana Steal are effectively reduced to 25% of your current percentage (lets say you steal 4% Life. The 4% will be reduced by 25% in hell.) -The super bugged, super powerful/impossibly powerful MSLE (Multishot-Lightning Enchanted). More into this later. These are the most significant changes. 2. OK I KNOW THIS STUFF, CAN YOU TELL ME SOMETHING USEFUL? Common Reasons why people die A LOT in hell: 1. You are too low of a level (by this I mean anywhere from lvl 40-50) if you are good, this means actual SKILL, good does not mean having 2 SOJ's and a Leaf rune word J. level 50ish is OK to enter hell. Level 40's will not survive long in Hell, especially the melee characters such as the barbarian and paladin. Sorceresses may do decent in Hell but since they are so cheap and powerful im not surprised:) 2. Your resistances are REALLY bad. By this I mean the negatives(-) if you got really bad negatives then it's a good bet when you run into a Carver Shaman or a Lightning Enchanted boss you're screwed. Low negatives up to -10 are not necessarily lethal, but as always try to get as high resistances as possible without sacrificing other areas. 3. Skill Points are put in all the wrong places. This usually applies to first-timers. If you have improper skill and stat placement then you are in trouble. You may have a slim chance, but it's a REALLY slim chance. 4. You don't play smart. Playing smart is key, even if you have a less-than-average character build but you play smart, you could get by Hell with some difficulty. I will go deeper into this later. 5. If you absolutely must insist on going into Hell low-level then please join an 8-player party 3. Uh-huh. Another important factor in surviving Hell is your hireling. While the hireling can't win the war for you, it can sure cut some weight off your shoulder. Let's analyze the 4 different hirelings in depth, and how they will play into your game. THE ROGUES OF SIGHTLESS EYE (a.k.a. the Archer) Found in Act 1 These pretty little girls use bows, not crossbows. Keep that in mind when choosing a weapon for her. The most important thing for her is Damage. Find the strongest weapon you can find. Ignore attack rating and other mods on the weapon for more damage. As for other items, find weapons that contribute to Attack Rating, and for armour, find the highest defense armour you can find. Other mods are a bonus. How heavy an armour is (light, medium, heavy) does not affect her. If possible, try to find items that add to strength and dexterity so that she can equip the best bows as soon as possible. Keep her out of melee range, if that means you have to re-position yourself to do so, do it. She does not have much life at all. Another feature she has is Inner Sight, which highlights all enemies in a certain radius and decreases the monsters' defense. She uses this often, even though she occasionally casts it twice in a row. All in all, a good long-range fighter. Barbarians, Paladins, Druids, Assassins and Necromancers can use her help well. DESERT MERCENARIES (a.k.a. the Aura-fighter) Found in Act 2 These men use Spear and Polearm-type weapons. Choose the Spear weapons, because weapon speed does not affect the hireling's rate of attack. You can achieve MASSIVE damage (well over 1000) with these guys, when equipped with Pikes/Lances/War Pikes. Another feature of these guys are the built-in auras. Depending on which difficulty you hire them from, they can have Prayer, Blessed Aim, Might, Thorns, Defiance, and Holy Freeze. Be careful though, they do not have as much life as you think, and these guys can go down pretty fast sometimes. Depending on what aura the merc you hired has, you can use him well. For Barbarians, they can make good comrades just for the aura alone, might is good. The auras make them usable by all classes. IRONWOLVES (a.k.a. the Mage) Found in Act 3 These hirelings are useful because of their magic powers. They come in three varieties, fire, cold, and ice. They can only have one element. While you equip them with one-handed swords and a shield, they rarely swing their sword if never so damage is no concern. Find a "caster" sword for best effect, and prismatic shield with good caster mods is preferred as well. They are generally weak with little life and defense, so try to avoid having them in a melee situation as much as possible. Otherwise they are useful. Melee characters will find the Ice mage very useful. Necromancers should avoid Ice Mages because dead frozen monsters leave no corpses. BARBARIANS (a.k.a the Warrior) Found in Act 5 These hirelings are the most versatile hireling warriors you can hire. They use Swords, one handed or two handed makes no difference. While they may not be able to beat the Mercenaries in final damage (Spears typically do more damage than swords), Barbarians have better attack skills, much more life, more defense, and barbarians have the most Strength and Dexterity averaged out, out of all hireling classes. They last long and can hold their own well. These warriors are optimal for Sorceresses, Necromancers, and Amazons, but any class can use a versatile melee fighter at their side. 4. Yawn, is this another boring, useless FAQ? No it isn't. I guess I will get to the chase, go into some character specifics. ***BARBARIAN*** All right, you think you're tough and all that, you got a meaty 150+ weapon backed up by weapon mastery, with some Battle Orders.ya, life was easy in Nightmare. Well its not the same anymore, buddy. It's called PHYSICAL IMMUNE. Physical immune screws over your leap attack, whirlwind, frenzy.Oh no! What shall our hero do?? Don't worry, blizzard is one step ahead of you: BESERK. Know it well. It will become one of your best friends in hell. Why, you might ask? Well it DOESN'T count as a physical attack, it counts as magical. Beserk greatly adds to your attack rating, damage and speed, but at the cost of losing your defence for a very short period of time. Beserk and War Cry are the only Barbarian remedies to physical immunes. A few other worries for the Barbarian: Mana Burn. This will totally screw over Whirlwind Barbs so bad it isn't funny. What can you do? Well, switch to normal attack, and if you score a hit, you will gain some mana. What do you do next? Well, unless you got high mana steal and really high dmg, you probably won't get enough for whirlwind. Maybe not even Leap Attack. Try using bash. Costs only 2 mana, does decent damage. Its not going to be pretty, so have some super healing pots to back you up. Or, if you're really messed, if you're in a party, get someone to help you out. How to be Popular with your party members: Use all the beneficial warcries on your party. If you have all of them (shout, battle orders and battle command) use them in the following order: BC, BO, and Shout. Having more defense and more maximum mana and life makes everybody else happy. Another thing to stay cool is don't be a big coward. You're a Barbarian! Don't be afraid to die once or twice. Show that you're willing to commit as a party member. This usually applies with everybody, don't be a leacher/slacker. HOW TO SURVIVE BETTER WITH YOUR BARBARIAN IN HELL DIFFICULTY: -If you're surrounded, use Howl. Most newbs who think they are tough when they do good damage always never use some of the essential early skills. Some can save your life. -If you think that using Whirlwind through a large crowd may be dangerous to your health, drink a potion first, and then use whirlwind. If you get hit during that time the potion will cover it for you. -Don't solo in Hell unless you KNOW for certain that you can take them on. If you run into a pack of champions or a unique with physical immune, well, you got no one to back you up. This may sound contradictory with my earlier statement of not being a coward, but there's a fine line between bravery and stupidity. -You are not invincible when you have a good damage weapon. ***PALADIN*** For the Paladin, things should be going ok so far. You've got a set plan involving a certain aura and combat skill and you're chewing up monsters. That's good, but things are going to change in Hell. The Zealot Paladin Zealot Paladins typically use Fanaticism and Zeal as their main left and right buttons. They may have Fist of the Heavens too depending on how flexible you want to be, although FOH is not a necessity for a Zealot, considering that for a Zealot you do not raise energy at all because Zeal costs only 2. Firstly a Zealot will notice he will do considerably less damage even with Fanat. That's ok, but keep in mind that Zealots will end up doing less damage than a Barbarian considering that your only constant source of damage boost comes from Fanat, which is limited, and whatever else on your weapons and other items. Your main priority in Hell is to seek an excellent one-handed weapon (i.e. ancient sword and above) or any elite one handed, rare/unique/set are fine. Imbue one of these weapons too if you don't have any luck trading for one. Make sure the weapon does a lot of damage and has a good damage modifier (100-200+%). Damage will be your main concern when it comes to weapons. (duh!) If you're using a two-handed weapon damage is less of a concern but you may notice that your resistances are suffering. If you find that elemental damage is killing you constantly, consider switching to a Shield with sockets to boost your resistances. Try to get the maximum number before socketing the shield with perfect Diamonds. The Avenger Paladin Avengers use Vengeance and Conviction. They also should have FOH to deal with crowd control from a long distance and then mop everything up with vengeance. Monsters in Hell have more resistances so you will notice your damage reduced a bit. Increase vengeance/conviction as necessary. Your best weapon EVER will probably be the Lightsabre, perfect for the Avenger. These babies are worth a lot, though, so be prepared to cough up the good stuff for it. Other good weapons are ok, but your ultimate goal is for Lightsabre. Repeat after me. Anyway, physical immunes and elemental immunes wont be too much of a problem because most of your damage comes from elemental which screws over physical immune, and you deal 3 types of elemental damage so losing one element wont completely kill you. HOW TO SURVIVE BETTER WITH THE PALADIN IN HELL DIFFICULTY: -Invest at least one point into Salvation. The initial resistances boost will help you a lot when it comes to elemental-heavy monsters, especially lightning enchanted monsters. -Redemption is a good skill when you are low on potions. HOW TO BE POPULAR WITH YOUR PARTY MEMBERS: Fanaticism will make you popular with almost all the classes except for sorceress and necromancer, who really don't benefit much from it. Keep Fanaticism online as much as possible. Conviction will help the others a little bit, the sorceress the most, but not by much. Meditation makes you popular with spellcasters. ***SORCERESS*** Two Words: Too Easy. It's a good bet you started Hell at mid-40's. Well, is it easy in Hell too? It's not difficult for a Sorceress, but you will have to play a wee bit tougher this time. Your main problems will be the elemental immunities, but if you got more than one element as your attack, you should be ok.unless under the uncommon situation where you face a unique monster with 2 or more immunities.in that case, you're out of luck.have a party member handle it, or if your hireling is up to it, have him/her take it on! BTW, you should be having a Barbarian hireling, they are the best hirelings for a Sorceress.and those guys aint no pushovers. Another threat is the fact that in Hell you are very likely of dying even from one lousy hit, especially the lightning enchanted buggers.be careful, and play safe! HOW TO SURVIVE BETTER WITH THE SORCERESS IN HELL 1. Don't be too aggressive. You may feel that way when you're doing a lot of damage, but don't get carried away. One wrong step and you could be fried. Play it safe. As the saying goes, better to be safe than sorry. 2. Get at least 2 elements ASAP. If possible, find items that add to another elemental attack, or charges.if you don't you'll have a hard time getting through Hell. 3. Resistances are critical in Hell, especially for the Sorc who doesn't have much resistance to begin with anyway. I suggest getting a good shield with maximum sockets and fill it with perfect diamonds. 4. Teleport is a good escape from Death. Hotkey it and be prepared to use it. At this level, 25 mana is bearable so you don't have to put more than a few points if you cannot spare the points. HOW TO BE POPULAR WITH YOUR PARTY MEMBERS: Unfortunately, Sorceresses are generally not very popular as a party member because people who play them are known to be rude and not very nice people. You can correct that, however. Don't just stand off screen casting Hydra or Frozen Orb and then rush in at the last second to pick up all the drops.you really didn't deserve it, the guy who was there meleeing with the monster deserved it.but if you thought that it was your outright contribution that defeated the monster then by all means go ahead. BE PRODUCTIVE. PEOPLE LIKE SORCERESSES THAT ARE GOOD MONSTER KILLERS BUT NOT JACKASSES. That's the bottom line. ***AMAZONS*** THE BOWAZON Damage is extremely critical for bowazons, if you do not do enough damage you will not get through Hell at all. The gap between act 5 nightmare and Act 1 hell is enormous. If you barely got by Act 5 damage-wise, you will suffer a living Hell in, well, Hell. Finding a good bow is your top priority, but be prepared to shell out your best items for them. Windforce or Buriza are examples of an ideal bow. If you really cannot remedy this, hire an Act 2 hireling in Nightmare with Offensive Auras. He will have Might, which will increase your damage somewhat. The more you level him up the more powerful Might will be. Train him in Nightmare to your level or at least level 60. Be prepared to recast your Valkyrie many times, even just to reposition her. Decoy is good as well; one point is all you need. Physical Immunes are your greatest trouble, so you will need at least one of the following things: Immolation Arrow, Freezing Arrow, and a Party Member that deals good elemental damage. Which is better, Freezing or Immolation? Well, if everything goes well the Immolation arrow will do more. The initial damage for Immolation arrow beats Freezing Arrow, not including the Fire Duration of Immolation arrow. Also the patch of fire Immolation Arrow gives you upon contact is stackable, so multiple stacks of Immolation Arrow can add up to A LOT of damage. The drawback of Immo is that monsters usually walk over your patch of fire with minimal damage. If you have a cold charm to slow the monsters down then Immolation will work much better. Use Multishot or Strafe to keep the monsters still and slow while Immolation Arrow puts them down. Freezing Arrow isn't bad however, it still does decent damage although less than Immo. The significant advantage of Freezing Arrow is that it works like Glacial Spike, which freezes all monsters in a certain radius of the blast. That is nice, however, since this is a Hell guide, I will say that in Hell Difficulty cold duration for Freezing Arrow is reduced to a measly 0.5 seconds. That means you WILL have to keep on firing Freezing Arrows constantly to keep them Frozen. This is not practical because Freezing Arrow costs a lot of Mana and unless you have massive Mana Steal and a lot of base damage with your bow, you cannot continuously fire Freezing Arrows without running out of Mana first. HOW TO SURVIVE BETTER IN HELL WITH YOUR BOWAZON: -Keep out of Range of melee monsters. -Put more points into Valkyrie and recast her often as well as the decoy skill. -Slow Missiles help too. -Don't blame Strafe-lock because to be honest Blizzard did you a favour by reducing it to only 10 arrows. That is definitely fine as long as you have valkyries and Decoys there to distract the monsters. If you die from Strafe lock, its usually due to poor strategic placement of your Amazon. I'm well into Hell and I have never died from Strafe lock so far. -Boost your resistances. SPEARAZON No data for her yet, haven't built one yet lol ;) HOW TO BE POPULAR WITH YOUR PARTY MEMEBERS: A Bowazon does not have many party-friendly skills except Inner Sight and Slow Missile. Neither one is especially useful, although Slow Missile helps against those pesky Oblivion Mages. ***NECROMANCERS*** Note: Some people have gotten the impression that I either A: Suck with Necro B: Think that it's impossible to get to Hell with a Necro. Well, I do use Necros a lot, in fact they were my favourite character before they got nerfed. Its not impossible, just harder. Its not very difficult to get to Hell or beat Hell with a Necro, sorry if you got that impression. However, it does take considerably more skill and time (especially time) for a Necro to accomplish Hell, which I am sure you'll agree with me on. Anyone with good Necromancer strategies for Hell is more than welcome to email to me. If you can actually make it this far in patch 1.09, I must offer you my deepest congratulations. Knowing how much the Necromancer has been toned down with previous patches it is difficult to get into Hell alone (add: BUT NOT IMPOSSIBLE.). And guess what: it doesn't get any easier. In fact, its much worse. There is a global -50% physical damage in Hell, which effects your best source of damage, the Revived (or at least they used to be;)) and Iron Maiden. Also Bone Spirit does not deal nearly enough damage in Hell, even if it is maxed out or even beyond level 20. I suggest teaming up with other people. If you've got another type of Necromancer, you're still going to have a very tough time in Hell. Poison spells have limited use even with Lower Resist. Curses are a must if you even want to barely SURVIVE in Hell. Good curses for use are Amplify Damage and Lower Resistance. Iron Maiden has lost all of its effectiveness in Hell, so don't use it. To boost your weakened damage, try getting a Might Merc from Act 2 Nightmare. ***HOW TO BE POPULAR WITH YOUR PARTY MEMBERS*** People appreciate Necromancers mostly for their Revived Monsters. Revived are excellent damage absorbers and make life MUCH easier for melee characters. Try not to have 20 skeletons, not only are they not effective but they cause a lot of lag. Lag is a bad thing! ***HOW TO SURVIVE BETTER IN HELL*** Wait for patch 1.10 lol hehe. 5. DRUID AND ASSASSIN The Druid and Assassin sections are not done yet.I have a level 44 Caster Druid and a level 36 Assassin, neither one of them are good to make decisions on.when I have time and information I need I will update the Druid and Assassin. NEW Caster Druid Report He sucks. That's about it. A Caster Druid just plain sucks, judging from my level 61 Druid (yes I've played immensely with my recently-level 44 Druid this past week) He is totally stuck in Act 1 Hell. Firestorm is useless (no dmg) Fissure is also slow and useless, Volcano is so-so, but doesn't cut it in hell. Arctic Blast does nowhere near enough damage in Hell. Twister and Tornado often miss their target and they deal physical damage. Armageddon and Hurricane are good, but they are pretty much close-range so that defeats the purpose of a Caster Druid ;) So in other words, stay away from him. Anyone who wants to prove me wrong do so.lol. 6. LARGEST THREATS TO YOU IN EACH ACT ACT 1: Groups of Shamans (i.e. Bishibosh) especially with low fire resistances Many Gargantuan Beasts, especially ones with Extra Strong and Cursed modifications Rakanishu Lightning enchanted bosses The Smith Andariel ACT 2: Skeletons because you cannot leech mana or life off them Radament and his horde Scarab Demons Blunderbores Summoner because of his elemental attacks Duriel ACT 3: Many, many, flayer-type monsters including Fetish Shamans Flame Spiders Council Members Blood Lords that cast Meteor Zakarum Priests that use Blizzard Thorned Hulk Mephisto ACT 4: Vile Mothers and their Childs Gorebellies Oblivion Mages and Warriors Finger Mages Willowisps Hephasto Diablo ACT 5: Frenzied Ice Spawns and variations of them Moon Lords Minions of Destruction including Council Members, Shamans, Skeleton Group and Venom Lords The Ancients Frozenstein and his group A lot of Demon Sprites 7. DIFFICULT QUESTS/LOCATIONS AND ACT BOSSES ACT 1, QUEST 3 (Deckard Cain)- Tristram is a haven for hordes of difficult monsters. You will invariably face Champion Monsters in the middile of Tristram. Griswold can be found in the bottom right corner of Tristram with other monsters. If you feel that you cannot handle all these monsters then click on Cain's prison and tp home ASAP. ACT 1 QUEST 6: Andariel can be played easily with a little bit of micromanagement. The main idea is to use the pool of blood in the second chamber in Cata. 4 and hit her while she goes around the pool. If you are melee, be prepared to suffer massive poison damage. Buy 4 antidote potions and put them in one belt column. Use them as necessary, and then waste her with powerful melee blows. ACT 2 QUEST 5: The Arcane Sanctuary is a really big place, and it could take quite some time before you find the Summoner. If you are in party, split up into groups and go all four directions until someone finds the Summoner. The Summoner specializes in Elemental Attacks, so be careful if your resistances are low. ACT 2 QUEST 6: Duriel is considered the toughest by Amazons and Sorceresses. Well, Duriel is tough, no only because of his brute force, but because the area you fight him in is small, so there is no running for the cowardly. For Sorceresses and amazons, a hireling is a necessity, preferably a tank such as the Act 2 merc or the Act 5 barbarians. While Duriel is feasting on your hirelings, pump him with the best attacks you got. If you're in a party with barbarians and/or Paladins and/or Druids then Duriel is not as big as a threat anymore. ACT 3, TRANVINCAL: This area is loaded with Spellcasters. Expect many Sextants and their minions, and a lot of Blood Lords. That means a hell lot of meteors, lightning and blizzards. And when you get to the Council Members, it isn't any easier. Not only are they good fighters, they can cast Hydra which can quickly deplete your life if you have a low fire resistance. ACT 3, QUEST 6: Mephisto is protected by a small group of blood lords and two additional council members. You can take two routes to Mephisto, left or right of the middle area. I can't really recommend one over the other, so choose which way you want. Once you encounter Mephisto, beware of his lightning strikes particularly if your lightning resistance is low. Otherwise, he is not a difficult boss, his life is rather low. ACT 4, CHAOS SANCTUARY: This place is a hellhole. I suggest extreme caution when you enter here, there are hordes and hordes of monsters waiting inside. I even get shivers with my Level 87 barbarian when I enter a NIGHTMARE Act 4 game. And you know what, these guys can still kill you easily if you're not careful. Melee characters should be aware of Iron Maiden going around, and the Oblivion Mages are annoying even at high levels. ACT 4, QUEST 3: If you can dodge his Red Lightning, it'll be much, much easier. If you find that you are dying too fast from his attacks, you must raise your lightning and fire resistance ASAP. Switch items if you have to. Diablo is tough, so don't expect easy victories. Diablo also has a Fire Nova attack, a firestorm attack, a freezing attack, a charge attack, and bone prison which he uses on your TP's. ACT 5, QUEST 5: The Ancients are difficult to kill if you're not ready. There are 3 of them each with their own unique skills and modifications. One of them has Leap Attack, one has whirlwind (!) and one has double throw. The Ancient with Double Throw deals poison damage, so be wary of that too. Keep in mind that if you cast a tp during combat the Ancients will reset and you will have to start all over again. Doh! ACT 5, QUEST 6: Baal is easy. He is not nearly as tough as Diablo. Your only main concern is his mana stealing attack, which wont even steal all of your mana. That's pretty sad. Baal does have an ability to make duplicates of himself, but the duplicate is much weaker than the real version. Other than those 2 skills Baal is an easy pushover. There are a few tricks you can use to defeat Baal, for the Sorceress and Amazon. For both these characters, stand on the south edge of the bridge where Baal is at, behind that pillar which marks the ends of the bridge. For the Sorceress, stand off-screen from Baal and cast Hydra on the bridge where Baal is. Don't stop until he is dead. For the Amazon cast Valkyrie and fire guided arrows until he is dead. Recast Valkyrie as necessary. 8. YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE, IN HELL (sort of ironic, isn't it?) The super bugged, super killer MSLE (Multishot - Lightning Enchanted) Even with maxed resistance (90)you still stand NOOO chance PERIOD against these monsters. It is very likely to appear on any creature in the game with MS. a good example would be the Council super unique in Durance of Hate lvl3. It is most likely to spawn only in hell mode where each creature gets an additional 2 mods. Why it being a killer, you may ask? As you know most players already have a headache with Lightning enchanted monsters. This gets bad with Multishot but is bearable with high vitality and good resistance, which is not always applicable to all. HOWEVER, if the monster is LE+CE and or FE then you are in deep trouble. In v1.09 the game is bugged such that the Cold and/or fire damage STACKS only the charged bolts. With multishot AND the Conviction aura you don't even stand a chance. The moment you see such a creature immediately hit Alt-F4 and quit the game NOW!!!!!!! (Unless you want to die, of course.) 9. CHARACTER EQUIPS Alright, since many people have asked me by email to have a character equip section, I will. This is sort of rushed, and incomplete, this is a "beta" version. Things may change and probably will. Instead of writing an equip that only the richest player full of sojs can have (knowing how even a basic unique will go for many sojs), I will put one that is an affordable equip and not as difficult to get/trade.don't expect to see top-notch ultra-rare items in this section. I think more people will appreciate a low-to-medium character equip section, as it serves a bridge from decent->godly. AMAZON (bowazon) EQUIP Weapon: Obviously either a bow or crossbow. If you cannot trade for a good one, its alright. There are luckily several alternatives for you that are easy. First is the Imbue. I recommend finding a gothic bow or matriarchical bow first. Your first Imbue can be at level 30 if you really want, but I recommend 40 or higher for better results (although it is not guaranteed.) Then Imbue at level 60 or above. Try your final imbue at 80 or above. Your second alternative is the reward from Anya's quest (the one where you save her from the Frozen River). She gives you an Amazon-only bow or an Amazon-only Spear. Whats really lame is that its completely random, so you might even get a spear if you're a bowazon! Tough luck. Your third alternative is gambling for one, although it is not as good and reliable as a method as gambling is expensive (but if you have a good flow of money, by all means, do so.) And if you do end up with a rare or unique bow (finally!) it may have crap mods and you would have to sell it. Ideal Mods are: enhanced damage(try to get somewhere from 100-250%, but realistically you should expect a 70-100% especially at not-as-high levels.) Increased attack speed(any % is great) +to attack rating(that can be a based on char. Level mod or just basic +number to ar) +1-3 amazon skill levels or related, and mana and/or life steal. Other mods are a bonus. Armor: Defense is not as much of a concern as opposed to melee fighters, since you are a long-range fighter. So don't try to get an armor with monstrous defense unless you find one. You main goal for an armor is resistance modifications, and magic find. Other mods are a bonus. I know that both of those mods are hard to find TOGETHER in a rare, but they do occur on Uniques. Uniques are hard to trade, and if you cannot get one, find the best one from a vendor. At higher levels godly armor is available, but be prepared to shell out the big bucks (im talking 500k+) Helm: Valkyrie Wing (unique winged helm) is a great helm for the Amazon, one of the best. But Valkyrie Wing is difficult to find and trade for. A good substitute is a rare exceptional Helm or a circlet-type helm of any kind. Rare circlets usually have excellent modifications even at earlier levels. Gamble for Circlets regularly, but keep in mind they are expensive. Don't Imbue a Helm! Good mods include resistances, +skill levels, magic find, +def, and +stat points. Other mods are a bonus. Gloves: Besides your weapon, gloves a great source of improving your attack. Defence is not an issue when it comes to gloves, they are just a bonus. Mods you should look for are IAS, mana and/or life steal, +dex, and magic find. You can gamble for them easily or trade for them. Belt: Belts are an excellent source of +strength and +dexterity. A good example of a good belt for the Amazon that is not difficult to get is Bladebuckle (unique plated belt). Adds to dex, and strength plus many other desirable mods. Defence is not important here. Shoes: Speed modifiers are what you want on boots. Other good mods are faster hit recovery, resistances, more stamina. Defence is of no concern. Your best bet is to gamble for a rare pair of boots. A great low-level pair of boots is Treads of Cthon, before LOD they were my favourite boots even for high-level characters. Rings: Mana and/or life steal is one of the main mods you should look for here. Resistances are also excellent. Amulet: Mana and/or life steal is one of the main mods you should look for here. Resistances are also excellent. +skills is a great plus but trading prices for amulets with those mods increase astronomically. NECROMANCER Weapon: Well, with the new items in LoD, there are actually crossbows designed for Necromancers! An example is Pus Spitter. These bows are good because not only do you get +skills, but also you can attack with the bow as well. Other than that, a good wand is your best bet paired up with a good shield. You want +2 Necromancer skill level wands at a minimum after level 40. Those can be bought after that level. Other skill mods are a bonus, as are +life and mana. Fighter mods (i.e. enhanced dmg) are useless on a wand unless you plan on attacking with it. Shield: Sigon's Guard is a good shield for Necromancer because of the +skill level and better blocking. If you want, you can socket it from Larzuk and place a perf. Diamond or a resistance jewel of your choice. But with LoD there are new Necromancer shields, and those offer +Necro skill levels, so if you can find a good Necromancer Shield, stick with it and socket it with a resistance jewel or perfect diamond. Armor: A caster armour is preferable. You can get a Crafted Caster armor, but caster armour from craft recipe is mediocre at best. A good Unique caster armour that is not especially difficult to trade or find is Skin of the Vipermagi, which offers resistance boosts, faster cast rate, enhanced defence, and much more. Shoes: See Amazon shoes for more info Gloves: You're definitely going to want caster-type gloves. By caster-type, I mean modifications that benefit spell users. Caster Mods include: Faster Cast Rate, +%more mana, +mana. Any other mods are a bonus. Belts: Like Gloves, you will want caster mods on them, or a belt that adds to strength so that you can handle better armour faster. A good belt is the unique "belt" Nightsmoke. It's full of caster mods and adds to all resistances. Helm: Some obvious Necromancer helms out there are Wormskull and Tarnhelm, or Peasant Crown. Neither of them are difficult to get or trade for (well, Peasant Crown trades for qyu. +skill levels are important here. Rings and Amulets: You'll definitely want resistances, caster mods (faster cast, +mana, etc.) and whatever else you can find. If you have excess money you can gamble for these. 10. FINAL STATEMENTS I hope this guide helped you a bit to survive in Hell better. It is my first FAQ, and I will improve my FAQ skills with experience and trial-and error. If you have any questions or constructive criticism email me at the address at the beginning of the FAQ. Thanks to: Me The other FAQ's I read at GameFaqs Battle.net Blizzard Antonio Sistos, for my first update, thanks! All the other people who contributed suggestions for my next updates No thanks to: My annoying brother My parents My Shift key which fails to work 50% of the time GFrazier who keeps on banning me from the Battle.net Forums for no reason.do your job right for once! Thanks, and happy hunting in Hell! SupaTallgeese OCTOBER 2001 "How can I catch her when the trees conspired to stop me?"