Tips, deeds, quests, best leveling items, farm countesses, best builds, for the new Diablo tournament season rush!

Useful info all the time

Here are the things to keep in mind:

• you need to know the white items to make useful runic words for your class, they are given to you later in this guide
• regularly look at the sellers to find these good runic word bases more easily
• overall only kill elite mobs (blue and yellow), don't mind the others unless you have an experience shrine
• overall, only do the skills, attributes and resistances quests once the act is over. Forge only in Hell.
• act 1 is crucial for a good start, the other acts are much more "straight" where the objective is only to go to the end of the act as quickly as possible

Here are the possible runes with the countess:

• Normal: El Eld Tir Nef Eth Ith Tal Ral
• Nightmare: El Eld Tir Nef Eth Ith Tal Ral Ort Thul Amn Sol Shael Dol Hel Io (Lum Ko with luck)
• Hell: all the way to Ist (Gul Lo with luck)

Act 1 Normal

Here are the steps:

1. Exit the city to go to the cave of the Mark of Evil and use your cities portal scroll there
2. See if you find a house with a chest, there are often interesting objects
3. Take the other path to go to the Frozen Plains to activate the Waypoint and return to town
4. During stages 1 to 2 kill some monsters in order to have some gold, if possible sell the explosive fire or poison potions
5. In town, buy stamina potions, belts and town portal scrolls
6. Take the cities portal you left to be directly at the Den of Evil
7. Clear the area, return to town, buy town portal and identification book, and stamina potions
8. Also look for a weapon or armor from Charsi and Akara
9. Take your waypoint back to the Frozen Plains and go directly to The Stonefield, The Underpass, The Dark Swamp, The Outer Cloister until you reach the level 2 Catacombs. Remember to kill the monsters if you find an experience shrine, otherwise kill those in your way
10. So you'll be around level 11-12 at this point and we're going to take the next step to farming Countess. You can then kill Andariel, think about antidotes if necessary

Accuracy:

• don't waste time saving Cain or recovering the Mercenary, only in hell for Cain and if very specific need for a build for the mercenary

farm countess

After finishing all the previous steps, you will farm the countess in a loop. There's no need to do it earlier because the runic words require you to be at least level 13. So now is the best time to do it!

• Steel Steel (13) - Sword, Ax or Mace 2 holes - El Shot - for physical damage
• Malice (15) - 3 hole melee weapon - Ith El Eth - for physical damage
• Stealth (17) - 2-hole armor - Tal Eth - movement speed, spell casting, fhr, poison resistance, etc, to take for all classes AND your mercenary

Remember to always go left to find the next floors of the tower!

Act 2 Normal

There is no miracle technique to perform this act, however, do it in this order:

1. Remember to hire your mercenary!
2. Exit the city, Rock Desert then Arid Hills (take the Waypoint) to find the Hall of the Dead level 3 and recover the cube
3. Go back to Arid Hills then go to the Distant Oasis, activate the Waypoint then Lair of the Worm level 3 for the staff
4. Go back to the Distant Oasis, go to the Forgotten city then Valley of Serpents Temple of Vipers for the Amulet
5. Talk to Drognan then talk to Jerhin to access the Palace cellars. Go each time to the very bottom then to the Arcane Sanctuary
6. One in four chance of finding the right path, once it's done kill the summoner, collect the symbol, go to the mage canyon and kill Duriel
7. Before this step you can also kill Radament for the skill bonus

Act 3 Normal

Likewise, you will have to do the necessary quests to be able to complete the act:

1. Think of the mercenaries in Act 3 who are interesting!
2. Go to the Spider Forest, Spider Cave to collect the Eye of Kalim
3. Then head to Flayer's Jungle to find Flayer's Prison and retrieve Kalim's Brain
4. You can then go directly to the Kurast Bazaar to find the Kurast Sewers and collect the Heart of Kalim
5. Go kill the Council in Tranvical, collect the Bane of Kalim and fuse it all together to gain access to the entrance to the Prison of Hatred

4 act

Here are the key points to remember:

1. Exit Pandemonium to go to Infinite Steppes, then to the Plains of Despair then to the City of the Damned
2. Find the passage to the River of Fire and go directly to kill Diablo

Act 5 and nightmare transition

Here are the key points to remember:

1. do the second quest to get Ral + Ort + Tal and put them in a shield three holes Ancients Pledge with 40+ to all resistances
2. go to Baal as fast as possible, be careful you must be level 24 to kill the Ancients
3. take level 35+ (until 40) in Baal Runs
4. do the quest Anya, Izual, Radament act 2 and possibly the Book act 3
5. go into nightmare mode

Clarification on the level and the Elders:

• you have a big experience debuff until you are level 25 in act 5
• if you rush, you can therefore kill the old level 24 which will give you level 25 for Baalrun
• if you take a little more time, be sure to be level 25 before starting the act

Second farm of Countess

Depending on your characters, here is what you will need to collect:

• Distance
  • Bow and Crossbow 2 holes - Zephyr (21) - Ort El - damage and movement speed
  • Bow and Crossbow 2 holes - Harmony (39) - Tir Ith Sol Ko - damage, aura, valkyerie
• Fighter
  • Sword or Scepter 3 holes - King's Grace (25) - Amn Ral Thul - damage and anti-boss
  • 5 hole melee weapon - Honor (27) - Amn El Ith Tir Sol - damage and skill
  • Mace or Hammer 3 holes - Black (35) - damage and vitality
  • 3-hole sword - Uproar - Shael Ko Eld (39) - fanaticism aura
• spell caster
  • 4 Hole Sword - Spirit (25) - Thal Thul Ort Amn - skill and spell casting speed
  • 2-hole helmet - Lore (27) - Ort Sol - skill
• Armor
  • 2-hole armor - Smoke (37) - Nef Lum - resistances +50
  • 3-hole armor - Lionheart (41) - Hel Lum Fal - resistance 30 and attributes
  • 3-hole armor - Treachery (43) - Shael Thul Lem - for all fighters
  • 3-hole armor - Uproar - Shael Ko Eld (39) - movement and attack speed
• Bouclier
  • at act 5 Q2 - 40 + resistors
  • 2-Hole Shield - Rime (29) - Shael Eth - MF, 25 Resistance
• Necromancers
  • 2-hole wand - White (35) - Dol Io - many skills
• Assassin
  • 3-hole claws - Pattern (23) - Tal Ort Thul - must have on your assassin
• Mercenary
  • 4-Hole Battle Ax - Insight (27) - Ral Tir Tal Sol

Act 1 to 5 Nightmare

Once the normal difficulty is over, the rest will be simpler:

• repeat the stories of the acts, going as fast as possible to the end of the act
• always do the skills, attributes and resistances quests when you have a lot more level and avoid the others
• farm the Countess again, this time as soon as you are in the area, by looking to the vendors for the right weapon bases

Farm areas Nightmare and Hell transition

Before going to Hell, here are some key points to be sure to have done, on a first character:

• be at least level 65, do Baal Runs, you can push up to 70
• have all skills, resistances and attributes quests
• have the equipment mentioned above, especially a good weapon and armor in runic word, as well as good resistances!
• manage immunes, the ideal is one of these builds to start the new Diablo 2 Resurrected season

If you ever want to farm, here are some areas:

• Andariel Nightmare, only for sorcerers
• Mephisto Nightmare
• Diablorun Nightmare
• The Pit The Pit Hell
• Andariel Hell
• Cowhide Nightmare

These areas are all very simple and yield equipment quickly! Do the countess only if you need small runes, I advise against farming otherwise.

Precision Items Hell

Don't forget to update your runic words on a better basis and use the new runic word to attack! The sets will also be very useful to get off to a good start in hell. Unbeding Will, a far too strong runic word level 63 Fal Io Ith Eld El Hel

Which builds to start?

I suggest you 7 builds to kick off the Diablo 2 Resurrected season, one per class. They are all very powerful to easily complete the three difficulty levels of the game from scratch!

• Amazone Javazon Hybrid, very versatile and good clear, no problem for immunes
• Martial Arts Assassin, lots of damage, resistances and no problem for immunes
• Barbarian Double Throw, the most exotic but super fun to play on the new patch and very useful to your party
• Druid Armageddon, very simple, very powerful, no problem for immunes
• Necromancer Invocations, the Hardcore choice, a character to easily start the season
• Sacred Fire Paladin, the best way to do the first 30 levels of your character
• sorcerer Orb of Ice and Fire, the best character to farm in endgame, but not the easiest!

Thanks

Thanks to Alexandre for his feedback on the subject!

History

• 1.0: creation

By Alchemists, April 2022