Hello travelers

R

Reinhardt

New member
Joined
Apr 2, 2023
Messages
16
Points
3
Long time D1 and D2 enjoyer here. I first played D2 in 2000 when it came out, first character paladin charger with 2H sword lol. Then life took over and didn’t play until few years ago, of course 1.14d. I’ve never played v1.09 and heard good things about it from older players so my search brought me here. It’s like I struck a treasure trove. When I fill my hearts desire with 1.09 I want to try out different versions.

So, currently I plan to finish my zealer/smiter hybrid in 1.09b classic (finished NM at lvl 34). Since XP isn’t so abundant as in LoD I must ask: what is the best leveling path for physical character?

Happy traveling, everyone. :)
 
Hey [mention]Reinhardt[/mention],

Welcome to the forum. For 1.09 classic I’m thinking it’s gonna be CS. In pre 1.10, experience is heavily balanced towards the end parts of each Act, so Act 4 CS would make sense.

Since you started in 2000, the patch possibilities would have been 1.00 - 1.06b. Are you planning on using Singling to play either 1.00 or 1.05b and relive the Classic experience as when you first played? While I think post lod classic is still good, it’s very different than original classic.
 
fearedbliss said:
Hey @Reinhardt,

Welcome to the forum. For 1.09 classic I’m thinking it’s gonna be CS. In pre 1.10, experience is heavily balanced towards the end parts of each Act, so Act 4 CS would make sense.

Since you started in 2000, the patch possibilities would have been 1.00 - 1.06b. Are you planning on using Singling to play either 1.00 or 1.05b and relive the Classic experience as when you first played? While I think post lod classic is still good, it’s very different than original classic.
Click to expand...

Yes, I will definitely try 1.05b per your recommendation. 1.00? Probably, not much in a hurry. Another question, is v1.10 without Enigma and other OP runewords?
 
Woohoo, another member! Welcome, [mention]Reinhardt[/mention] :)

Regarding the OP runewords, 1.10 is when Enigma, BotD, and others of that caliber were released. However, other common ones of the era, such as Faith and Fortitude, were ladder-only, so you will not find those in Single Player.

Also, you made a great choice on 1.09b. That’s my preferred/favorite patch, although I am primarily an LoD player. I agree with [mention]fearedbliss[/mention] though, that CS should definitely be the best place to level up, but I’d probably start my games with clearing the entire River of Flame, as the XP there should also be really good.

BTW, here is a link that you might find handy: http://www.d2tomb.com/rune_words.shtml

Have fun!
 
Manny said:
Woohoo, another member! Welcome, @Reinhardt :)

Regarding the OP runewords, 1.10 is when Enigma, BotD, and others of that caliber were released. However, other common ones of the era, such as Faith and Fortitude, were ladder-only, so you will not find those in Single Player.

Also, you made a great choice on 1.09b. That’s my preferred/favorite patch, although I am primarily an LoD player. I agree with @fearedbliss though, that CS should definitely be the best place to level up, but I’d probably start my games with clearing the entire River of Flame, as the XP there should also be really good.

BTW, here is a link that you might find handy: http://www.d2tomb.com/rune_words.shtml

Have fun!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip, I intend to try most available versions.
 
Welcome to the moving Caravan [mention]Reinhardt[/mention] !

Interesting to see someone else playing 1.09 classic! I’ve been playing this exact mode a lot recently (\"a lot\" is a bit of an exaggeration right now, lots of other priorities in my life for the time being haha).

IMO, the Paladin and Necromancer are the weakest classes in 1.09 Classic. If you find a classic Paladin build that can handle Hell CS on Players 8 easily, please let me know! My Paladin is stuck in his 60s, and given how weak he is, even with really good gear, I have to level in NM on P8, because Hell is still a bit too slow to be worth it :(

As for leveling in 1.09 Classic, generally speaking, Cow level is best until level 87-88, depending on the class. At this point the levels are slower than going to 99 in LoD lol. Then CS all the way, and Urdars on RoF are good for a while, too.

But for melee characters, so only Pal and Barb, Cow level in Classic is unviable, so you’re better off running River of Flame, you actually get more XP per hour there than in Chaos Sanctuary based on my experience (as long as you save and exit when you get Blood Maggots, because they slow doen runs way too much).

By level 86, CS is about the same rate as River of Flame, but Doom Knights in CS give a pitiful 600~ XP, on players 8, so you’re better off skipping them when you can. So what I do is use the WP from City of the Damned, run River of Flame. If I see blood maggots, I go back to town and use RoF WP and run straight to CS. If I see an XP shrine during the run, I activate it just before dealing the killing blow on Diablo.

I believe this method is best until level 91, at which point it is better to just kill uniques and champs, seals + Diablo and skip everything else.

Then when you get super high level, switch to Players 1, find an XP shrine, pop seals, kill the seal bosses, switch to PLayers 8, spawn Diablo, get the shrine, and kill Diablo with the shrine active. I tested a bit with Hero Editor on a level 98 I created. On players 8, Unique and Champion monsters only give ~3k xp, all white mobs in RoF and CS give 400-600 XP, and Diablo gives 88k (131k with XP shrine). I doubt anyone will ever get there haha.

IMO, only Barb and Amazon can reliably and quickly run RoF and CS on Players 8. Necro is out of the question. Sorc might be possible with super high level static and good FCR, but other spells are either too slow or too low damage, runs would take a while, unless killing only Diablo on players 8?

Necro is AMAZING in the cow level, so he can realistically reach level 91, with a lot of grinding. At level 98 though, Cow level gives only ~20k XP total on Players 8 lol, which means more than 14500 cow runs.
 
[mention]Erayz[/mention] Everyone hates maggots lol, especially in prelod. Idk, they seem more annoying to me there.

The Necro (IM/BG) is amazing in the cow level in 1.05b, I just switch it to p8 and just let everything kill itself trying to kill the goblin. Highest level my Necro got to before I did my own “ladder reset” was 64. Leveling is slow in prelod even with p8, so I don’t wanna imagine it on p1 (although I’m usually on p1).

I’m actually thinking of spinning up a 1.00 and 1.07 specifically to experience their own unique craziness and limitations. A crafted 1.07 blood bow with rare affixes also appearing on them and then have Larzuk give it maximum sockets sounds interesting, especially since CB is not nerfed at all for ranged attacks (from what I understand in the 1.08 patch notes).

For 1.00 the Necro having uncapped corpse explosion and all of that good stuff makes it interesting. Given a lot of builds kinda suck in prelod (although that’s part of their charm) means that the insanity to all of these different skills in 1.00 helps enjoy prelod a little bit more.. wider imagination becomes possible I guess you can say.

Maybe one day…
 
Erayz said:
Welcome to the moving Caravan @Reinhardt !

Interesting to see someone else playing 1.09 classic! I’ve been playing this exact mode a lot recently (\"a lot\" is a bit of an exaggeration right now, lots of other priorities in my life for the time being haha).

IMO, the Paladin and Necromancer are the weakest classes in 1.09 Classic. If you find a classic Paladin build that can handle Hell CS on Players 8 easily, please let me know! My Paladin is stuck in his 60s, and given how weak he is, even with really good gear, I have to level in NM on P8, because Hell is still a bit too slow to be worth it :(

As for leveling in 1.09 Classic, generally speaking, Cow level is best until level 87-88, depending on the class. At this point the levels are slower than going to 99 in LoD lol. Then CS all the way, and Urdars on RoF are good for a while, too.

But for melee characters, so only Pal and Barb, Cow level in Classic is unviable, so you’re better off running River of Flame, you actually get more XP per hour there than in Chaos Sanctuary based on my experience (as long as you save and exit when you get Blood Maggots, because they slow doen runs way too much).

By level 86, CS is about the same rate as River of Flame, but Doom Knights in CS give a pitiful 600~ XP, on players 8, so you’re better off skipping them when you can. So what I do is use the WP from City of the Damned, run River of Flame. If I see blood maggots, I go back to town and use RoF WP and run straight to CS. If I see an XP shrine during the run, I activate it just before dealing the killing blow on Diablo.

I believe this method is best until level 91, at which point it is better to just kill uniques and champs, seals + Diablo and skip everything else.

Then when you get super high level, switch to Players 1, find an XP shrine, pop seals, kill the seal bosses, switch to PLayers 8, spawn Diablo, get the shrine, and kill Diablo with the shrine active. I tested a bit with Hero Editor on a level 98 I created. On players 8, Unique and Champion monsters only give ~3k xp, all white mobs in RoF and CS give 400-600 XP, and Diablo gives 88k (131k with XP shrine). I doubt anyone will ever get there haha.

IMO, only Barb and Amazon can reliably and quickly run RoF and CS on Players 8. Necro is out of the question. Sorc might be possible with super high level static and good FCR, but other spells are either too slow or too low damage, runs would take a while, unless killing only Diablo on players 8?

Necro is AMAZING in the cow level, so he can realistically reach level 91, with a lot of grinding. At level 98 though, Cow level gives only ~20k XP total on Players 8 lol, which means more than 14500 cow runs.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the tips, I don’t think I’ll go further than lvl 93-94. Few questions if you don’t mind:
1) Am I right to assume you cannot buy staff with teleport charges in 1.09 classic?
2) Currently I’m lvl40 and struggling with damage output in hell. What weapon would I need to aim for and would imbuing a white weapon help?
 
Hey [mention]Reinhardt[/mention],

Charged items are only available in 1.07+ Expansion. So 1.09 Classic won’t have them.

As for weapon damage, imbuing some high damage exceptional base is probably the best you can do from my understanding. So depending on the class, a Bonesnap with Crushing Blow will provide the best damage possible that I’m aware of. Not necessarily because it has high base damage (including ED) but because of the CB.

Although I haven’t played 1.09 Classic in a while and am more familiar with 1.05b Classic at this point haha.
 
Reinhardt said:
Thanks for the tips, I don’t think I’ll go further than lvl 93-94. Few questions if you don’t mind:
1) Am I right to assume you cannot buy staff with teleport charges in 1.09 classic?
2) Currently I’m lvl40 and struggling with damage output in hell. What weapon would I need to aim for and would imbuing a white weapon help?
Click to expand...

1) That’s a good question, I never paid attention to items with charges, but I’d assume they don’t exist in Classic, as I never saw teleport charges being mentioned in any Classic guide.

2) Paladins always struggle with damage in Classic 1.09, unfortunately. I usually aim for a good rare Naga, Rune Sword or Ancient Sword. My Paladin is currently using this, and still has very low damage, even with maxed fanaticism.

 
Lol [mention]Erayz[/mention], and that’s with fanaticism increasing damage. Prelod fanaticism just increases attack speed. I like the Naga though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top