Diablo 2 Lord of Destruction FAQ
Last Updated 11/10/01
Danielxcel@aol.com
By Danode
Version 1.08
Section I
Introduction
1. Versions
1.00 First version- Has new features and modifications in LOD, introduction,
legal
stuff, contact info, and special thanks.
1.01 Fixed some typos.
1.02 Fixed some information in Nightmare and Hell experience loss, changed the
title of Section 2, added someone to the Special Thanks section and fixed version
number and date last updated.
1.03 Fixed Mercenaries Modification section, and a typo.
1.04 Fixed some typos and some mistakes, including the title of the 8th new
feature and added a new section, coming soon, to the end.
1.05 Big Update! Added a new section: The Mercenary Guide. Also fixed some
grammatical errors and got rid of the subsection in section I, FAQ info. Added some
information to the 1st modification about hirelings and changed the title. Updated
the Coming Soon section and the FAQ Overview. Changed the Contact Info Section.
1.06 Fixed an annoying formattng error/bug for good. Sorry about that. Also added
a new section, hints and cheats. Fixed some mistakes in contact info. Added 1
sections to the end. Also added something else to the end.
1.07 Added some hints to the cheats and hints section. These hints are in a
category of equipment strategies and hints. Fixed a bad mistake where I spelled the
cheat, soundchoasdebug, like that, it sould be soundchaosdebug. Sorry!
1.08 Fixed art at the bottom, moved the modification, arm heal and keep hirelings
to the mercenary guide, fixed variuos mistakes and typos, changed formatting bug
section at the bottom added note in mercenary guide. (All this done by Infinity
Engine Player, see special thanks section) I changed version numbers and other
variuos typos and mistakes and added hint/tip to the mercenary guide.
2. FAQ Overview
This FAQ is divided into 5 main sections: The introduction, the new LOD
features, changes, etc. The mercenary guide, the cheats/hints and the section
including the contact info, legal junk, and coming soon.
Section II
New LOD Features and Modifications
1. Section Overview
This section is divided into 2 parts: The new features and the modifications. The
new features lists the totally new features. The modifications details any changes
to features already in the game.
2. New Features
1. New Map Mode- While before there was the full screen see through map, now
there is a mini-map that appears in the corner. This allows you to see where you are
going and see where you are on the map at the same time.
2. Weapon switching- Now above the first weapon slot (left) there are two tabs. I
and II. Click on II or hit W to switch to your secondary item slot. You can now
carry an extra weapon and shield, a two-handed weapon, or two weapons if you are a
barbarian or assasin. During combat just hit W to switch to your secondary weapon.
3. More Hotkeys- There are now 8 more hotkeys for the skills and spells.
4. More Items and Item Suffixes and Prefixes- Thousands of new items are included
with the addition of hundreds more suffixes and prefixes.
5. Crafted Items- A new type of item made by combining runes (detailed later)
and other items.
6. Elite Items- A new type of item found only in late Nightmare and Hell
difficulty. They are better than exceptional.
7. More Sets- There are now 16 more sets. In my opinion they are much better.
(Look at end in stategies/hints/tips for the super set I found)
8. Character Only Items- A new type of item that can only be used by a certain
character class. Paladins get shields that, give all resist. Even when they are
NORMAL! If they are magic they have all resist and other attributes.
Barbarians get war helms taht usually add +1 or +2 to a certain skill set or skill.
Ex. +1 to all masteries or +1 to Leap. Necromancers get heads that are used like
shields that add poison damage. Sorceress' get orbs which add to skills and mana.
Amazons get new bows and javelins which add to the bow and javelin skill set.
Assasins get claws and katars. They strap them and their hands and can use two at
once.
9. Charged Items- A new ability of some items, they get charges. For example a
amulet might have 23 charges of frost nova. This lets sorceress' cast it for free.
But even better any class can use them. A barbarian could be walking around casting
frost nova. This makes duels much better if you have a charged item.
10. New Sockets- Armor can now have up to 6 sockets. When gems are put into they
do the same as if you put them into a helm.
11. More socketables- Now there are jewels and runes. Jewels can be rare or magic
and have prefixes and suffixes, just like magic items. Runes have preset attributes
depending on what you put it in. For example a certain rune might add poison damage
in a weapon, but add poison resistance in a helm.
3. Modifications
1. Gambling- Gambling Prices are now based on character level, as well as what's
availible. If you are level 2 most things will be cheap (except for amulets and
rings which are always expensive). You can no longer gamble for set or unique items.
OH MAN! You can get elite and exceptional items if you are a high enough level.
There is always at least one ring and one amulet on the gambling screen.
2. Boss Monsters- Boss monsters now do 30% less damage than before to mercenaries
and minions (summoned creatures). Now they don't have a guarenteed rare/set/unique
item drop, but still have a decent chance.
3. Monster Classification- Now, under the monster's name you will see the type of
monster, either demon or undead. If nothing is listed they are animal types.
4. Monster Level- Maximum monster level in Nightmare is level 70 now, amd in Hell
it's 90.
5. Poison Damage- Poison damage now does more damage.
6. Mana and Life stealing- Mana and Life stealing effects are lowered in Hell and
Nightmare.
7. Nightmare and Hell experience loss- Now in Nightmare and Hell difficulty you
lose experience when you die. Sorry I don't know how much but its not out of total
experience. It's out of the total experience between the level and your experience
level. For example if you have 100,000 experience and for the next level you need
150,000 and you die in Nightmare or Hell you would lose the percent of 50,000
because that is the difference between 150,000 and 100,000.
8. Stash- The stash is now twice as large and can hold more money.
9. Gems and Skulls- These gems were made more powerful and level requirements
have been added.
10. Throwing Potions- Throwing potions now have levl requirements and have been
made more powerful.
11. Resistence Lowering- In Nightmare your resistences are now -40 and in Hell
they are now -100
12. Multiplayer Modifications- Corpse looting in multiplayer is now only
available in hardcore games. There is a new party experience bonus for a people in a
party. Item drop rate has been increased in the multiplayer soloing and for
multiplayer parties. Gold from items sold to vendors is now shared with all party
members within the same group. Though this is eliminated with the first patch. You
can only go hostile once per minute with each player in your game.
13. Crystal Swords- Crystal Swords now have increased durability.
14. Scepters- Scepter class items now do more damage.
15. Diablo- Diablo is harder in normal than he was. The countdown timer is
removed. Now you can just leisurely pick up the items and talk to Tyreal to go to
Act V
16. Unique monsters- In Nightmare and Hell unique monsters appear more often.
17. Unique Items- Unique items now have level limits
18. Stacks- You can now have 250 bolts in a stack and 350 arrows in a stack. You
can now have up to 12 keys in one stack.
19- Bone Items- Bone shields and helms can now have sockets.
20. Blocking Chance- Total chance to block is now based on level, dexterity, and
chance to block items.
21. Flawless Gems- Flawless quality gems can now drop.
22- Exceptional items can now drop in late into Normal depending on character
level and Monster level.
23. Sets- Sets that have not been converted may have additional bonuses and
attributes, depending on how many pieces of a set are worn or which pieces are used
with other sets. There is now a bonus for having part of a set, not only a full set.
24. Single Player Dropping- The single player drop rate has been increased.
25. Flamespike the Crawler- The super unique monster, Flamespike the Crawler was
removed from the Inner Cloister Waypoint
26. Immunities- Monsters can now be immune to certain types of attacks (fire,
lightning, cold, physical). In higher difficulty there is a greater chance for a
monster to have immunities.
Section III
Mercenary Guide
1. The Mercenary Guide- This section includes my strategies for using the various
mercenaries.
1. Rogue Archer- These rogue archers are one of my favorites. Try to get
one with cold arrow, they're the best. I like to equip them with a triple socketed
bow. It works well with all emeralds or two emeralds and a sapphire. My favorite is
a jewel that adds something like 47-59 PD and a emerald. I don't know if it's a bug
or not but for some reason the poison damage increases dramatically. I've had 2
chipped emeralds doing 29 PD and 3doing 59 PD. It also works with the jewel. I've
gotten up to 100 PD with my first bow for my Rogue Archer. Try to get them good armor
and a good helm. I like to stick with them until Act III or Act V depending on how
they are doing. They also get the spell inner sight.
2. Guardsmen- These are my least favorite mercenaries. First of all they can only
have polearms. I personally have never liked polearms . They do have decent
abilities. Guardsmen who are combat use jab, if they are defensive they use defiance,
if they are offensive they use blessed aim. I will set aside my opinions and
tell you what the best ways to use them are. The best way is to get one with
defiance and a good bardiche or something like it. Once again give them good armor
and a good helm. Also if you keep them long enough they get holy freeze and/or
might.
3. Iron Wolves- These are another one of my favorites. They can be equipped
with a sword and a shield. They have pretty good spells. Iron Wolves who are cold
use frozen armor and glacial spike, ones who are lightning use charged bolt and
lightning bolt and ones who are fire use inferno and fireball. I like the cold type
the best. They are very helpful in dealing with the pesky fetishes, flayers, etc in
the jungle. Once again give them good armor and a good helm. I like to keep them
until Act V or just skip them and stay with my Rogue
4. Act IV- In Act IV their are no mecenaries. Tyreal can ressurect any
mercenaries you have brought from previous acts.
5. Barbarians- These barbarians are my favorite mercenaries. Even for a Barbarian
they are good. They use bash or stun. You can equip them with any sword. Its best to
use two-handed because they can't use shields anyway. I like to epuip them with
either loot I have found adventuring or about 100,000 to 1,000,000 coins in
equipment from Nightmare and/or Hell. These are especially helpful for magic-users
like a Sorceress. They are also good for Barbarians themselves. It gives you a
partner who is just as good in combat as you. Except he can't use skills. Well,
actually just bash and stun.
2. Overall Tips- This section contains hints that apply to all mercenaries.
1. Life- One of the best items a mercenary can have is something with life +,
damage reduced by..., or life steal. Anything that can make them stay alive longer
is great. One, because it saves you money as you don't have to resurrect them as
often. Ressurecting can get very expensive (In Nightmare my Barbarian cost 50000
gold peices to ressurect). Two, it gives you more time to heal them if they are
injured or being injured. Three, if they aregoing to die it gives them a chance to
do more damage for you.
3. Arm, heal and keep mercenaries- You can now give mercenaries a weapon, armor,
and helms. Rogues may have bows, Guardsmen may have a polearm, Iron Wolves may have
a sword and a shield, and Barbarians can have a two-handed or one-handed sword, but
no shield. Also anything you equip them with never needs to be repaired. This makes
ethereal items great since they cannot be repaired but mercenaries' items never lose
durability. You can heal them by dropping potions on their portraits in the upper-
left corner (if you have a mercenary and don't see a portrait, try pressing Z). Also
you can keep mercenaries throughout the acts. In other words if you really like
rogues, you could keep a rogue to the fifth act. Now mercenaries have a strength and
dexterity rating, life, armor class, and damage. You can resurrect them if they die,
for a price at the mercenary captain. They grow in levels and some may get new
skills. Rogues have either no special arrow, cold, or fire arrow. They also have
inner sight. Pikemen/Warriors who are combat use jab, ones who are defense use
defiance, and ones who are offensive use blessed aim. At higher levels they get holy
freeze and/or might. Iron Wolves who are cold use frozen armor and glacial spike,
ones who are lightning use charged bolt and lightning bolt and ones who are fire use
inferno and fireball. In Act IV you can bring one from another act and Tyreal
resurects them. Act V Barbarians get either bash or stun.
Note: You cannot put gems, runes, or jewels in the equipment that
your mercenaries have on. You must manually take the socketed peice off and
put it into your inventory. After it is in your inventory then you can put the
gems, runes, or jewels into it.
Section IV
Cheats and Hints
1. Cheats- Right now I only have one cheat. It doesn't really effect the game but
its's sort of fun.
1. Sound Cheat- Press enter or return, whatever your keyboard has, and type
soundchaosdebug. You should hear something strange so make sure you have the sound
on. Type it again to stop it.
2. Cheats- If you have any cheats that WORK please send them to me. I will put
your name in the special thanks.
2. Hints, Tips, and Strategies- If you have any hints, tips or strategies please
send them to me. I will put your name in the special thanks.
1. Equipment- Here are some general and specific hints, tips, and strategies for
equipment
2. Armor- There is one general rule for armor that you should know. YOU NEED
HIGH DEFENSE! Another good thing in armor is resistences. They really help in
nightmare and hell. Early in the game and sometimes even late in the game a good
ability to have is a chance to cast a spell when hit. One of the best is frost nova.
Even if you have a 4% chance, it can still help. If you are being pounded from all
sides and you can't escape, there is a pretty good chance you will get a frost nova.
That might just allow you to escape. Also socketing armor with jewels is good. You
could get a increased damage jewel and it would effect every weapon you ever have,
as long as you have that armor on.
3. Boots- One of the best boots to have are fast, faster, or fastest run/walk
boots. They really help you to get away if you are stuck or near stuck. Also
sometimes it gets kind of boring if you have to run or walk a long or moderate
distance and you are going pretty slow.
4. Gloves- Gloves can have almost any attribute, but I always seem to end
up having gold find+ or magic find+ with a resistence, Also rares, uniques, or set
gloves are usually pretty good. You really don't need to pay attention to the armor
class unless it's more than 10-15 difference.
5. Helmets- Good helmets have decent defense and good attributes. I have one that
adds life, mana, cold resist, defence rating of itself, attack rating, and gives +1
to the assasin's shadow disciplines. I found it in Act III on normal. Rares are
usually better than sets and uniques in most cases but not always.
6. Rings and amulets- What you should have in these depends on what character you
are and what playing style you use. If you are a sorceress or necromancer or
elemental druid you might want mana. If you are a Barbarian you might want life and
life steal. Most characters will need high resistences. So here is a wierd horadric
cube recipe for a great amulet, if you don't mind collecting and transmuting gems.
Take a perfect of each gem (not counting skull) and any amulet and hit transmute.
You will get an amulet with a random resist in each element and sometimes something
else. I got PR 37%, FR 41%, LR 17%, CR 29%, 4% life steal and +1 to necromancer
skill levels (too bad I wasn't a necromancer when I did this).
7. Belts- Once you get to plated belts never take anything but a plated belt or
it's elite and exceptional equivalents, you really need the four rows of potions.
8. Weapons and Shields - You need damage, damage, damage! Don't worry about other
effects. One of the best weapons I have is my level 73 paladin's one it does 23-34
normal damge plus 1-547 lightning damage. In case I find a monster that is immune to
lighning I switch to a rare cold damage (1-97) sword. My shield is the rare class
specific one I got in nightmare from Anya. It's the tall shield thats blue for
paladins. It has 136 defense, paladin skill level +2, mana steal, all resist +24
except poison 34, attacker takes damage of 2 and I personalized it to say
Danopalado's Armageddon Tower (Cool Name). I don't have it anymore because my
paladin got deleted. It's strange though, in the save folder the save is there, but
it won't appear in the game. If anyone knows hoe to fix this please tell me. I WILL
DEFINETLY PUT YOU IN THE SPECIAL THANKS SECTION FOR THAT. I MIGHT EVEN GIVE YOU
SOMETHING FROM MY ONLINE CHARACTER. Shields need defense and abilties, they are good
socketed with diamonds.
Section V
Contact Info, Legal Stuff, Etc.
1. Contact info- If you wish to contact me, my email address, which is at the top,
is Danielxcel@aol.com. If you wish to tell me what you think of my FAQ, you have
found a typo or mistake, or you want me to add your idea/hint/cheat to my FAQ,
please Email me. If you give me an idea or help me with an idea, I will give you
credit in the Special Thanks Section. If you belong to CheatCodes.com please try to
include your nickname. If you see this on any site besides CheatCodes.com please
tell me and I will also give you credit in the special thanks
2. Legal Junk- Please don't steal any of my ideas. Don't put this on another site.
If you wish to put it on another site, email me for permission. I'll most likely
give it to you if you ask.
3. Special Thanks- Thanks to the people at BradyGames for making the Diablo2 LOD
Strategy guide, from which I got some of my information, thanks to CheatCodes.com
for letting people submit FAQs, walkthoughs, etc. Thanks to the people at Blizzard
for making such a great game. Thanks to Infinity Engine Player for telling me about
some of my typos and mistakes. He also downloaded my FAQ, and fixed any problems he
saw and then emailed it back to me. That is version 1.08. Infinity Engine Player is
his CheatCodes.com nickname. Thanks to all of you out there who have read this FAQ.
4. Coming Soon- My next update should include more strategies/hints/tips (probably
character hints, tips and strategies and maybe some more.)
5. Formatting Bug- If anywhere in this FAQ you see something that looks like this:
example example example example example example example example example example
example example example example
example example example example example example example example example example
Please email me and include your E-mail address or cheatcodes.com nickname and tell
me where you have found something like this. I have been having a fromatting problem
with my computer. Sorry about it. I think I pretty much fixed it in Version 1.06 But
if you see it I would appreciate if you told me. I WILL give you credit in the
special thanks section.
___ ___ __ _________
| \ | /\ | \ | / \ | |
| | | / \ | _/ | / \ | |
| | | /----\ | \ | \ / | |
|__/ | / \ |___/ |__ \__/ | |
---------
___ ___
| / \ | \
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|_____ \___/ |__/