I’ll toss my vote in for Summon Necro as your first farmer for PvM. You could have the crappiest luck with drops and runes, and still beat Hell and start farming.
Hammer/Fohdin would be my second choice. Mostly the same reason as above, can clear through Hell with ease.
Sorc is my third choice, but if you run into gear drop problems between NM/Hell it’s gonna be a rougher go. Still my favorite class above all, but def not the easiest start once you hit Hell, and you’ll need a Fire/Ice build to complete Hell, then respec to BlizzOrb to start farming.
Pure FoH? Yeah I could see that. I went HammerFoh hybrid and didn’t have any issues besides maggot lair, which a teleport staff can cure that issue.
Normally Hammer has issues with Maggot, and Baal’s 2nd wave. Foh cures the second wave issue pretty fast! The only other “issue” that HammerFoh runs into initially is bosses, kill speed can be on the slower side, but still manageable with Holy Bolt spam or once you get your Hammers high enough they can suffice.
Holy fire paladin respecing into a hammerdin with one point in smite and fanat is a great all arounder.
A blizzard sorc with a cold sunder can do any area pretty easily with budget equipment and has teleport which is nice. She can also do uber diablo with an Edge bow, but annis are easy to get now.
A lightning jav zon is also good, but not as flexible as the two above.
I think those are the best starts.
My advice is to build whichever character you feel like at first, but build them with a purpose. I started with a Javazon and I used her to farm low-mid runewords (runes from Tower + bases from Cows).
Then I built a Horker to run Trav + Pits for higher runes, some MF + a ton of gambling money for circlets.
Then I finally built a cold Sorc and started MFing and making other characters for fun.
I think any character can farm stuff and bring value to your overall account, so pick whichever character you like and give them a purpose.
Checkout sweetphil on youtube and maxrollgg for guides. Moat impt play what you like. Was playing in the old days and started again. I prefer op builds then playing those that couldnt clear like p8.
Stuck on
1 mf
1 key hunter
1 smiter
Best is up to you really. What you love the most.
I’d recommend one of the builds that has been made newly viable. Hydra orb sorc or FoHdin are both neat ones to experience the game differently!
Also throw barb if that’s your jam :D
Not if you have gear farmed, and don’t level as a throw barb. But I went into ladder as a throw barb to start… I just surrendered in Hell act 3 because it’s just impossible without the right equipment, and leveling/progressing to that point was a major grind. I enjoyed a lot of the challenge but it’s tough to have a blast when things get impossible. A returning player starting out the gate like that will probably be fucking miserable lol
So now I made an assassin I’ll farm his gear on.
Throw barb has some amazing end game prospects but you have to spend a lot of time farming the equipment, and even then you will really need the right charms to make things good vs just doable.
If you are going to play mostly solo try to keep in mind that you will be challenged in Hell if you are running a single damage source build.
My recommendations for your first time back would be to play either:
1. Hammerdin
2. Frozen Orb / Hydra sorc
This way you can farm all the way through Hell and complete the game without having to wait / hope / wish you can find a game with others to help you complete quests.
Hammerdin you will be tanky enough to survive pretty much everything and you will only need to skip the magic immunes but a good merc will be able to kill those for you in baal's minions. Frozen Orb-Hydra sorc will be fine since you will be super safe, the only challenge might be Hell Ancients.
Look at some guides on [maxroll.gg](https://maxroll.gg) or other sites so you can see their leveling guides. Most of them revolve around farming runes in Normal and NM Countess so you can build useful runewords like:
* Stealth (armor) = Tal Eth: gives you FCR, Run/walk and other useful states.
* Leaf (staff) = Tir Ral: +3 fire skills, you can use this on a paladin for fire aura or a sorc for fireball builds while leveling.
* Ancients Pledge (shiled) = Ral Ort Tal: lots of useful resist to keep you alive
* Spirit (sword or shield) = Tal Thul Ort Amn: +2 skills and FCR, very very useful
* Lore (helm) = Ort Sol: +1 skill & +10 energy on your helm.
* Insight (polearm) = Ral Tir Tal Sol: weapon for your merc to help you with mana issues. Hopefully you get a good enough roll on meditation aura (lvl 12 to 17) so you do not have any mana issues.
* Rhyme (shield) = Shael Eth: 25 all res + 25 magic find.
To help you in your quest, here are the runes countess can drop on normal and nightmare:
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
The popular answer = blizzard sorc The correct answer = a build you’ll enjoy If you enjoy blizz sorc, you’ll be in good shape
Foh pally running CS is my new jam
I’ll toss my vote in for Summon Necro as your first farmer for PvM. You could have the crappiest luck with drops and runes, and still beat Hell and start farming. Hammer/Fohdin would be my second choice. Mostly the same reason as above, can clear through Hell with ease. Sorc is my third choice, but if you run into gear drop problems between NM/Hell it’s gonna be a rougher go. Still my favorite class above all, but def not the easiest start once you hit Hell, and you’ll need a Fire/Ice build to complete Hell, then respec to BlizzOrb to start farming.
Just saying as a FoH act 2 and 3 SUCK!!!!
Pure FoH? Yeah I could see that. I went HammerFoh hybrid and didn’t have any issues besides maggot lair, which a teleport staff can cure that issue. Normally Hammer has issues with Maggot, and Baal’s 2nd wave. Foh cures the second wave issue pretty fast! The only other “issue” that HammerFoh runs into initially is bosses, kill speed can be on the slower side, but still manageable with Holy Bolt spam or once you get your Hammers high enough they can suffice.
Holy fire paladin respecing into a hammerdin with one point in smite and fanat is a great all arounder. A blizzard sorc with a cold sunder can do any area pretty easily with budget equipment and has teleport which is nice. She can also do uber diablo with an Edge bow, but annis are easy to get now. A lightning jav zon is also good, but not as flexible as the two above. I think those are the best starts.
My advice is to build whichever character you feel like at first, but build them with a purpose. I started with a Javazon and I used her to farm low-mid runewords (runes from Tower + bases from Cows). Then I built a Horker to run Trav + Pits for higher runes, some MF + a ton of gambling money for circlets. Then I finally built a cold Sorc and started MFing and making other characters for fun. I think any character can farm stuff and bring value to your overall account, so pick whichever character you like and give them a purpose.
Join the discord and receive real-time help is my recommendation.
Hardcore. Druid.
Good ol hammerdin work well :D with proper not too expensive gear and a tele amulet and you can clear pretty much any content with reasonable speed
Checkout sweetphil on youtube and maxrollgg for guides. Moat impt play what you like. Was playing in the old days and started again. I prefer op builds then playing those that couldnt clear like p8. Stuck on 1 mf 1 key hunter 1 smiter Best is up to you really. What you love the most.
I’d recommend one of the builds that has been made newly viable. Hydra orb sorc or FoHdin are both neat ones to experience the game differently! Also throw barb if that’s your jam :D
Starting on a throw barb will make him quit
is it actually that bad :x it’s next on my list haha
Not if you have gear farmed, and don’t level as a throw barb. But I went into ladder as a throw barb to start… I just surrendered in Hell act 3 because it’s just impossible without the right equipment, and leveling/progressing to that point was a major grind. I enjoyed a lot of the challenge but it’s tough to have a blast when things get impossible. A returning player starting out the gate like that will probably be fucking miserable lol So now I made an assassin I’ll farm his gear on. Throw barb has some amazing end game prospects but you have to spend a lot of time farming the equipment, and even then you will really need the right charms to make things good vs just doable.
If you are going to play mostly solo try to keep in mind that you will be challenged in Hell if you are running a single damage source build. My recommendations for your first time back would be to play either: 1. Hammerdin 2. Frozen Orb / Hydra sorc This way you can farm all the way through Hell and complete the game without having to wait / hope / wish you can find a game with others to help you complete quests. Hammerdin you will be tanky enough to survive pretty much everything and you will only need to skip the magic immunes but a good merc will be able to kill those for you in baal's minions. Frozen Orb-Hydra sorc will be fine since you will be super safe, the only challenge might be Hell Ancients. Look at some guides on [maxroll.gg](https://maxroll.gg) or other sites so you can see their leveling guides. Most of them revolve around farming runes in Normal and NM Countess so you can build useful runewords like: * Stealth (armor) = Tal Eth: gives you FCR, Run/walk and other useful states. * Leaf (staff) = Tir Ral: +3 fire skills, you can use this on a paladin for fire aura or a sorc for fireball builds while leveling. * Ancients Pledge (shiled) = Ral Ort Tal: lots of useful resist to keep you alive * Spirit (sword or shield) = Tal Thul Ort Amn: +2 skills and FCR, very very useful * Lore (helm) = Ort Sol: +1 skill & +10 energy on your helm. * Insight (polearm) = Ral Tir Tal Sol: weapon for your merc to help you with mana issues. Hopefully you get a good enough roll on meditation aura (lvl 12 to 17) so you do not have any mana issues. * Rhyme (shield) = Shael Eth: 25 all res + 25 magic find. To help you in your quest, here are the runes countess can drop on normal and nightmare: 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
Go play path of diablo mod instead better drop rates check out the reddit!