^Epic.

One problem with playing online: Your character is deleted after 90 days if you don't use him. I've lost quite a few characters because I play games in "spurts", not playing them for months at a time while I'm busy playing something else.

Single player with the PlugY mod is my preferred mode now. It gives you infinite storage, infinite shared storage (so you can easily transfer items between all your characters), and lets you redistribute your skills and stats whenever you feel like it which is great for someone new to the game.

My favorite character so far is the skelemancer. I've also enjoyed a frozen orb/hydra and frozen orb/meteor sorceress (hydra more though). I even experimented with a sorceress that relied on casting a ridiculous amount of charged bolts.

For a skelemancer Clay Golem is useful, but don't put more than 1 point into it. I don't remember my exact skill distribution but I do know it was max Raise Skeleton, some Summon Resist, a lot in Skeletal Mages, and I think some in Corpse Explosion (which is by far the most epic skill in any game save for NWN's Epic Dragon Shape).

Like I said though, with PlugY you can experiment to your heart's content.

Battle.net is full of bots and spammers now, I'd recommend just playing single player unless you have friends to play with. If you're playing single player there is a command you'll want to know. Hit enter, type in "/players x", (x is the # of players you'd like to simulate) and hit enter again. What does this do? It makes monsters harder, but also increases the xp and loot drops. I played on /players 8 quite a bit which simulates a battle.net game with 8 players in it. More than 8 is possible but not recommended. Eight player games solo isn't easy but my characters level fast and the drops are decent. If I get no loot I like I gamble up something I do like. If I've just confused you try searching for the Arreat Summit, it's a good spot to find D2 info.

Necros don't really need dex at all. Put a lot of points into vit and enough str to wear the gear you want. Some shields will require dex but again, just enough to equip the item is enough. Keep your resistances as high as possible.

If you're just a skeleton summoner you're going to get pummeled at the end of each act by the bosses, it's just the way it is. Act bosses do 2x or 4x the amount of dmg to summons, I can't remember which. Diablo will kill a skeleton every time he hits one no matter what your skill levels are. A good merc will save you here sometimes. I prefer the Act II merc with a prayer aura for the first play through. Be sure to equip him well. There is a summoner trick though. The clay golem slows anything it hits, at higher levels of mastery it's a considerable slowdown and will turn the toughest of monsters into pushovers if your merc is any good. For this reason I put 20 points into clay golem on my summoners.

With Iron Maiden and decent summoning skills you'll be just fine against Diablo's minions. Just curse the monsters and let your merc and minions do what they do. A single skill point in Iron Maiden is enough. Corpse Explosion is also a very nice skill, it can clear an entire screen. CE is another skill I put 20 points into. I believe with the latest patch you can respec three times so don't worry too much about skills now, just get a feel for the game and have fun first!

Hammerdins are still OP'd, they can solo anything but take a while to build because they're very gear dependent. A sorceress is the easiest character to play from the start through the end of hell difficulty with.

Thanks, I think ill just play the game the way it is (no commands or anything)

And if i feel like doing another playthrough, ill consider using the command you have given and maybe some mods.

If you're going Necro, Decreptify is a must-have for later boss fights, like Duriel or even Diablo. They move down to a crawl and will be easy for your minions to tackle.

I really miss Diablo 2. I can't even count how many mouses died during my playthroughs

well since your gonna roll spellcaster you've got sorceress and necromancer, i warn you, going heavy on the summoner aspect for necro gets a little nutty (played using a now-deleted 67 barbarian with a 72 necro who had at least 3 platoons worth of minions (both summon and ressurected) as for the former, your truly destructive magic comes later (some have a cool-down or wait period to cast again)

Aye, I almost never play without Players 8 enabled anymore. I'm a big fan of good drops and a character that quickly levels and develops. It helps me test out different builds without investing a ton of time into them, and the battles get pretty intense with the heavily boosted difficulty. That and I think the enemies by default die a bit too fast.

This topic has me thinking of reinstalling Diablo 2 soon. I only play single-player, but I didn't finish the game with my necromancer once I hit the hell levels and was corpse-fishing a lot; I lost patience with the game. I should try it again though.

Here's my favorite track from the game so far, the Harem music: http://youtu.be/fDtWBTwIL8Y

The harem music scared the [censored] out of me. Lut Gholein music was great and nearly all the music from Act V was solid.

Then play solo games on Battle.net. Trust me, he's going to regret choosing to play SP when he finishes the game and he realized that there is nothing more for him to do because he can't take his character online. :rolleyes:

Open B.net ftw. Can play SP characters online with friends, and even works with modifications.

About how many hours does this game have in a playthrough, especially a first playthrough.
Im trying to see how long this game will last me.

When I first played it, it took me a week to complete each act. Mind you, I was 12.

If you pace yourself it'll take you more than 30 hours. The real playtime is dedicated to getting powerful loot, trading with people online and building a powerful character for higher difficulties.

Everytime you quit the game and re-enter it, everything respawns. This creates the ability to go on "runs" for better items by killing bosses over and over again. Luckily for single player mode, the map doesn't reset until you change difficulties. The map always resets online.

That's a good question. There's no ingame clock that keeps track of how long you've been playing that I know of so it's hard to give you anything precise. 30 hours maybe, depending on how much you grind. But even after you beat the game there's two more difficulty levels that unlock for you to drag your character through with more powerful drops. Personally I've only bothered to play through the normal difficulty.