Everyone’s playthrough is different, and this is meant to shed light on how I play the game and the reason I play the way I do. To me, the game breaks down into seven sections to the end-game. I’m going to go into detail about each section, as it’ll break down and explain the process.
- Class Breakdown: My various classes -
Amazon – Javazon / Multi- Strafe
This is just such a fun class to play. It's one of the safest and easiest classes to clear and farm up to. Great for high-pop areas like cows or even mindlessly tossing or spraying through TZs.
Assassin – Trapsin / eventually Mosaic
My D2:LoD favourite, I cannot express how much joy this class has brought me over the years. I tend to dislike boss spamming, so TZs have been a welcome change, and with it has come more zone clearing, just the thing Trapsins like.
Barbarian – Pitzerker
I don’t really play a barb, but on my single player, I’m going to try this someday. Otherwise, I just play a support barb online, popping bodies in Chaos Sanctuary or W/E.
Druid – Windy / Bear or Wolf
I don’t tend to make these anymore, but I’m eventually going to test the Werebear / Werewolf build and maybe try Windy again. Windy in LoD was my go-to after Sin’s for like 2 ladders, then I met someone who taught me how to play a smiter for Ubers. It has become a staple of my lineup for early-ladder ubers ever since; generally, if the community is spawning Dclones, my smiter is ready by then.
Necromancer – Bone / Summon / Exploder
Another class I don’t really play but might test someday. When I did, it was a Bone Spear necro, though. I did see a corpse explode cow farmer, which was very fun to watch, but it did require a body, and then everything would drop. I think Bone summon hybrid might be worth it since Skele mastery is the main skill needing levels; most can be passed by 1 point with like +12 all skills in the end game. Time will tell how I test it out.
Paladin – Fire Aura paladin / Smiter / FoH
A lot, IMO the most versatile class. Oh man, is this my favourite class these days. I still love the sin, but my goodness, the Paladin is just so versatile! Holy Fire paladin / Healadin / FoH (Pure) / FoH ( Redemption) / FoH + Holy Fire (My clown build) / Smiter / Hammerdin / Zealdin. I mean, the list goes on and on from viable to semi-viable to clown builds that shouldn’t work but do.
Sorceress – Blizzard / Lightning
I start fire and respec out to what I want, seeing as fire is super strong up until Act IV, but still doable, and then you just need to kill the first minion wave of Baals and you’re in the clear. Fire builds like Blaze and Fire Wall have been my go-to’s as of late because they can be ultra-safe HC builds IMO for getting to and starting to farm HeIl Andariel. It maxes Warmth with Fire Wall, which acts as a lesser Energy Shield synergy.
After maxing Fire Wall and Warmth and have about 5–10 Fire Mastery, you can opt to max Telekinesis for a stronger Energy Shield. Having high levels of Warmth rushing through the game with an Insight is miles better than I can ever explain. Teleport feels a lot less like a burden, and I urge you to try fire this way someday, with nothing but a fresh journey.
I’d look for a staff in Act II normal with +1-3 Energy Shield and eventually get an orb with +1-3 with +lightning tree skills or a staff; an orb can be used with a shield. Another great option is to find a +1-3 Energy Shield for Memory base. This saves 3–4, depending on how you look at it, points with a class able to max DPS and skill tree suitability with around 85 points. Putting it close to complete fairly early HeIl at around level 75–80.
I’ll have to do some digging, but HeIl Andariel is IIRC always on quest drop, making her one of the best early stage farms IMO before moving onto Mephisto or zone clearing. Fire allows you to farm her for entry ladder gear fairly safely and quickly. Once I have farmed a few nice pieces off her, I tend to swap over to Blizzard to finish out HeIl. Realistically, once you can place your five one-point wonders in the three trees and get 65ish points so like 60+, you can switch to Blizzard and still farm Andariel pretty easily, although with less survival.
- Stage one: Spirit weapon + Insight -
We’re going to truly start the journey from here. I don’t like to play non-ladder and tend to just delete and remake when a new ladder drops. At the start, I make a Paladin, Holy Fire through to HeIl, and then respec or transition into FoH + Holy Fire to avoid respecs; either way, it’ll be a smiter eventually. I’ll go ahead and create a sorc, sin, zon, and three mules (gems, runes, and random). As my characters progress, I’ll make other classes for farming breaks and a change of gameplay.
I like to make a low-level auradin power leveller running trists and tombs. After all my main characters are created, it’s time to journey through the game. Playthroughs differ based on who I’m playing with, but I still create the same classes, so solo playthroughs tend to be Pally into Sorc vs. Sorc first.
For solo, I like to clear through Act I and attempt to get 12+ by Act II, but while levelling my first one, I’ll also take a sorc through to collect any and all waypoints I see fit. This tends to be Stony Field Dark Wood / Cata 2, and any that are easy to come by, like outer and inner or Cold Plains. Once I’ve completed Normal through Act I-V, it’s time to farm for Insight or Spirit. I like to farm in cows for a number of reasons, including density, zone level, common runes and gem drops (I save and trade the Perfect Gems), and common suitable weapon drops for both Insight and Spirit. I don’t just limit it to normal cows though; Nightmare Countess is also one I tend to farm for targeting runes I have not acquired.
Once I have either of those two completed, I make the switch to a sorc. After I’ve shopped a decent Leaf base of Warmth / Blaze / Fire Wall, optionally Teleport and/or Frozen Armor. I’ll then level either Blaze or Fire Wall and focus on a lot of points into Warmth, usually 10+ by 19 when Leaf is equipped. Then finish off normal and ready for nightmare with usually Spirit and Insight, alongside a Rhyme and usually Stealth. At this point, I tend to look for either more +skills or more MF, so I usually shop for Boots and gloves with high MF and either farm, gamble, or trade for something like a Tarnhelm or use Lore. I try to get 100 MF by Nightmare because NM Andy and Meph are actually really good early game droppers, much like in HeIl. Once I’m satisfied with my character progress and feel I’m ready to go off to HeIl, I’ll push through and usually respect to blizzard at 55+. Usually by Act V of nightmare, depending on how much I Teleport through.
Sticking with Fire Wall is also viable, as you can get 1 point of Cold Mastery and a max Frozen Orb going into HeIl. As mentioned earlier, with a max Fire Wall, 10+ Warmth, 5 Fire Mastery with a max Frozen Orb, and 1 Cold Mastery, you can also use Energy Shield on your weapon switch without investing points into the skill itself. Since Telekinesis is better than raw levels for Energy Shield, Warmth also acts as a middle Ground, giving faster mana back to allow for some extra mitigation that Telekinesis would have offered. You can also skip cold and go pure Fire Wall with max Telekinesis for more survival and be easily able to farm HeIl andy until you were ready to move past, in which case I’d recommend blizzard. This is what I’d recommend for HC trying to be greedy and pushing into hell without proper resists because of how Energy Shield works.
- Stage two: get to HeIl Andy -
Growing up, even with the Andariel quest bug, I disliked farming Andy; idk, she just never felt super valuable. Boy was I wrong. Besides being one of the best SoJ droppers, she’s generally one of the safest things, IMO, to farm. Most Act I mobs are tuned down, with the exception of areas meant to be at a higher level, like the Pit. Not to say Misshappen don't go hard, but they’re generally the risk when farming Andariel. Duriel is without annoying mobs, but in a confined area with limited safety. Meph can be hit or miss since you CAN Gap him and range him, but his area can be tricky with the council members and various bloods. Lastly, Diablo and Baal are just time-consuming bosses; you can kill a lot more mephs and andys in the time it takes to kill a Diablo or Baal. But ANDY! She can be killed with a door closed, throwing blizzards beyond a wall for insane safety.
Now, mind you, you do have to leash her to the wall, but… I could also go on with a list of various items she can drop but won't; trust me, learn from me. Andy is hands down one of the best farms for early-ladder farms; don’t get me started on TZ Andy.
- Stage three: unlock Terror zones -
Get me started on TZ Andy! I think the only thing better than TZ farming is andy TZ farming. I mean, recently, from one kill at level 87, I got her to drop a spider and a visage. TZs are a fun bonus for a better late game, but pair it with the generally populated Andariel, and suddenly you’re multifarming on top of experience farming. Once my Sorceress has completed and unlocked TZs, I usually don’t worry about rushing my other classes since I can now make games when I want to farm on any that are able to.
Like in Hell Act I and Blood Moor is the TZ, I might take a HeIl-ready class like my Javazon and clear Blood Moor a bit for more Bers
and Shatter GCs. TZs are hit or miss for me early on. I tend to stick to Ancient Tunnels, stony tombs, Meph, Andy, and Key farming areas; otherwise, I’m farming Andy or Meph for smiter budget gear or trade value if online.- Stage four: prep smiter -
I’ll then return back to my smiter, usually by about Days 3–5 of the Ladder, and start looking to either get a rush or speed clear myself. Either way, I push through to HeIl, likely this time around continuing to do a Holy Fire + Resist Fire max into Holy Bolt and FoH, since if you manage to get Explosive Arrow as a projectile shot like from Raven Claw or charges on either a weapon or gloves. FoH and That can clear what the other cannot, alongside your mercenary.
Once at Act V, I start gearing and completing missed quests for HP, skills, attributes, resists, etc. I may have missed rushing through. If I’m playing solo, I’ll opt to trade for a low 1-2 BO CTA, as a little goes a long way and it’s cheaper than playing an Ohm+ Mal vs. a Vex, and getting Vex value is very easy.
I usually have about 40+ Perfect Gems alone by this point; mind you, they’re harder to trade early on, but not impossible.
I’ve recently watched a smiter build running Lawbringer, and my goodness, if you meet the resists and defensives, which aren’t too hard to reach, you have a beefy DPS and defensive alternative that makes pretty good work of Ubers.
Some of the gear I tend to roughly have by this point is:
- On the sorc – Level 75-85
Lore / Tarnhelm
Spirit / The Oculus
Energy Shield staff/orb on weapon switch
Rhyme / Spirit
Stealth / Skin of the Vipermagi
Rare MF + Resist gloves / Chance Guards
Rare Belt / Goldwrap (upped)
Rare MF + Resist Boots / Sigon’s Sabot w/ 2 other pieces usually gloves and Belt for 50% MF
Rare MF + Resist/Attributes/HP/Mana/FCR (If needed) Ring / Nagelring
Rare skill + MF/Resist/Attributes/HP/Mana/FCR (If needed) Neck
- On the Paladin – 70-80
Guillaume's Face + Um
Lawbringer in a Phase Blade
Call To Arms + Spirit on weapon switch
Herald Of Zakarum + Um (upped)
Treachery
Laying of Hands
Thundergod's Vigor
Gore Rider
Raven Frost + Resist + HP/Mana/Attributes / Dwarf Star
Rare skill + MF/Resist/Attributes/HP/Mana/FCR (If needed) Neck / Seraph's Hymn
And some charms to cover resists.
This is the setup I managed to build within about 2 weeks of playing single-player; most of it farmed off Andariel.
If I could only have 2 classes, they’d be Sorceress and Paladin, Fast Farming and Easy Ubers. I had used Metamorphosis before I managed a Gface drop, which is a great alternative if you're on single-player and managed a Cham but no gface.Even if you buy a cheap CTA that isn't required, the total cost is around a Lo.
Early Ladder HoZ, Gface, and Gores can be pretty pricey. AFAIK + Demon damage scales with Smite making Laying of Hands and Seraph's Hymn strong on Ubers.
This is my ideal budget gear before chasing things like Grief, Chains of Honor, etc, etc.
With this version of a smiter, with a few gear modifications from myself, you find yourself maxing Smite / Holy Shield / Prayer and using a 1-point Meditation aura. Prayer synergies and allows Meditation to heal you a bit and give you mana sustain. So any excess points can go where you please, making this a level 60-70 friendly build. The power of a Phase Blade’s attack frames.
Prayer is cool in that all skill points contribute to it as a synergy, so a 20 with +20 skills is essentially a level 40 synergy to Meditation aura or Cleansing aura. Seraph’s Hymn is kind of a lot of + skills when it comes to that department and making Meditation aura even better.
- Stage five: Push Ubers -
You can go even more budget with items like Black/Sanctuary or Ancient’s Pledge or Spirit in elite high resist base/ Goblin Toe/Smoke, realistically getting to a point where you have 75 all resists on HeIl and ideally 50+ in Lightning/Cold with like a level 20 Conviction on you, -100 all. Basically, at that point, your crushing blow and Decrepify, along with damage done to demons, will make quick work of Ubers.
After all is said and done, I’ll farm up the last required keys and start the great Ubers grinding process, killing off Lilith / Über Izual / Über Duriel and eventually the entire Pandemonium Event, taking out Über Mephisto first.
- Stage six: prep alts -
Once I’m satisfied with my torches and sorc/pally progression, I’ll move on to the Amazon and Assassin, allowing me more diverse farming classes for the various TZs. Javazon is great for Cows, Flayer, Nihls Halls (certain mob comps), Chaos Sanctuary, and so much more, depending on your gear and charms. Similarly, the trapsin tends to be decent at clearing out packed areas.
They give me a break from mindless teleporting. >.> Eventually, I’ll look forward to trying out the Mosaic build, but for now, my main goals for Ladders are getting a sorc and pally geared and setup to do Ubers. That is the end game to me in most cases, and in most cases, it’s done within two weeks from fresh ladders.
I hope this gives some Insight on how to approach the end game and some of the things you can expect from the end game, as vague as some parts may have been. Simplified, the game comes down to, for me anyways: Beat normal → Beat Nightmare → Farm until I can beat HeIl → push for Ubers → enjoy the game on other classes and farm for trade value or help other players. Enjoy the game and your farming, and remember, Ubers aren’t as bad as they seem; anyone can do it.
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