Diablo II

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I found an easy solution for Duriel...I don't remember what level I was, but I used Bone Prision on him, and then had my mercanary (I've kept her since she was given to me) shoot him with ice bolts while I blasted him non-stop with Teeth. He'd eventually break though the bone prision, so I'd cast it again. I love Necros.

 

The even more easy solution is to get an Offense merc (the spear-dudes in Act 2), a large army of summons and Decrypify. Duriel got the ass-whipping of a lifetime.

 

Just killed duriel with my L22 paladin & rogue bowgirl. She has a socketed bow with ice damage that seems to slow them & he has a scepter that adds 2 ranks to Might & is socketed with ruby & topaz for fire & lightning damage. Had to use all of my healing potions but finally killed him. He then dropped 2 yellow & 1 green drops!! Unfortunately they were a druid headpiece, sorcerors staff & cleglaws shield. crap crap crap!!

 

Duriel got absolutely spanked with my L26 Decripify Necro. I had a Clay Golem (which seems to have MUCH more HP than all the other golems at higher level???) which slowed Duriel nearly 50% plus Decripify. He attacked me, but he was so SLOW I moved out of the way while my summons pounded the living crap out of him, and I have an offense merc so my summons' damage was even more souped up.

Not exactly a good drop - a useless rare Crystal Sword, a Cleglaw's shield and a rare Barbarian-only helmet.

Meph will get his spanking fairly soon, too. Then it's Big D, then it's Baal.

 

I always have problems with Big D - he kills of my summons instantly with a fire nova, and then it's just the merc and me.

 

He tends to kill my merc as quickly as my summons. The most viable way I've found to kill him with a necro is with the blood golem - it heals itself and you can heal it, so it can take a beating. Skeletons are useful at first, but they get killed very quickly and are a bit of a pain to replenish.

 

Actually bud a pally is Godly in cases, BUT!
You have to have the correct build!

 

That shouldn't be an issue for me - a few of my friends came over and we played a LAN game, and one of them gave me a ring with Teleport charges, so everytime Big D feels like firing up the Red Lightning Bolt of Death or the Fire Nova, I'll just teleport out of range, then when he's done messing around, I'll teleport right next to him and since all my summons teleport at the same exact spot with me, there's a good opportunity to give Big D a good spanking.

*EDIT* Haha, Big D got absolutely annihlated.... in a record time, too! Gotta love that Teleport ring... and the skill enhancing items passed down onto me by my buddies. And the drop! Three freaking uniques.

 

Kay, Necro's now level 52, Baal got his spanking, and I'm officially in Nightmare now. However, I do Baal runs in Normal because they yield me exponentially more XP (did you ever stopped to check how much XP Minions of destruction dish out when playing with /players 8?) than going through nightmare. Not to mention the sweet uniques I found so far.

 

Made a Mephisto Run with my Necro. He dropped the Armour and Shield from the Isenhart set!

I really need to get ATMA...

 

Isenhart's set is a pretty crappy set, IIRC...

As for me, Baal dropped me the ENTIRE Sigon set in ONE DROP. Too bad I'm level 52 and don't need it.

 

WEll, I've never had a complete set, so I want to see them in action. It has improved the AC of my Necro already...

 

A complete set will grand you a bunch of bonuses added on top of the separate items' own properties. You also get partial set bonuses if you have two or three items, depending on how many items are in the set - Sigon's set has six, but you get a bonus if you have two items, IIRC - I haven't checked, as I sold the damn set because I don't need it.

If you have the armor and shield of Isenhart's set, this means there are two items left to get - the full helm, and the broadsword.

 

I successfully downloaded ATMA last night, and realized that I have a complete Civerb set. I have started a low level paladin to test them out with...

I also plan to hand down a Berserker Hatchet and Headgear, Along with Hsaru's Iron fist and Heel to a starting Druid...

 

Despite what Disciple says, Isenhart's set is an excellent starter set for just about any character throughout normal difficulty. It grants you bonuses to strength, dexterity, has a wonderfully high armor with a low strength investment, improved chance to block, a good chunk of resist all, and the entire set can be equipped when you hit level 8. Now obviously, it's more designed for a melee character than a caster, but the set is fine. The Civerb set is also great throughout Normal. The Berserker set is somewhat lacking, as the axe really doesn't give you the damage you need.

 

Yes, well, I got the Isenhart set pretty late in Normal, so it was kind of useless, but I see it could have some decent value for a low level PC. And remember I said "IIRC", so I went on memory, and it looks like my memory was wrong on that one. Eh, this stuff happens.

The Berserker kit isn't the best around, but the 30% attack rating bonus it gives is not neglectable, especially when combined with the Barb's Axe mastery. I agree with Aldeth, it has ridiculously low damage, though. I suppose you could hold on to it until Act V, then get it socketed and add gems for extra elemental damage -- me, I like Sapphires, I love seeing monster shatter to pieces on death -- or a Jewel with a decent bonus damage. Berseker's Hatchet then becomes a decent backup weapon.

 

Courtesy of ATMA, I've got a second paladin running around with the Scepter and Shield from the Civerb set, and when my second druid hits level 3, he'll have the Axe and Helm from the Berserker set along with the boots and shield from the Hsaru set.

Meanwhile, My First Druid has advanced to Act 3, and my Necro is still mediochre, struggling through players 8 Council runs and no luck at all on Mephisto runs...

 

NOOOOOOOOOO! Not with a barb! Shatter on death means you can't use the barb's Find Item Skill (there has to be a body). That's fine for most normal monsters, but you want to FI all champions, bosses, and super unique bosses (although you cannot use FI on Act Bosses).

FI is useful with only one point invested in it, because nearly all barbs carry around two echoing weapons on their switch, to give +6 to all their warcries (which is mostly because of the battle orders skill). However, FI is also a warcry, and with 2 echoing weapons and casting battle commands first, your FI will go off at least as a level 8 skill, even if you have no other equipment that raises your skills.

 

Actually, playing with /players 8 set yields me far more enough crap than I could possibly want, so I willingly overlook FI.

 

It's experience and specific crap that I'm looking for. My Necro handles the Council (with /Players 8), but level three of the Durance is just too much for him at this time...

Might be a while getting him back to Hell...