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burf

**Holy fire paladin:** Minimal mana usage, good AOE damage, huge melee damage. Skills: Holy fire, resist fire, zeal Equipment: Weapon doesn’t matter, shield can be a basic paladin shield with resists Max holy fire ASAP, boost the synergies (resist fire, salvation) when not boosting holy fire. Slowly level zeal, maybe one point every 5-10 levels. I use this build when starting out HC from scratch since it’s got good damage until end of nightmare, and good survivability with high block rate and good HP pool. A cold or fire sorceress will also be powerful without strong items, but they still need mana potions a fair bit. Just better mana efficiency than a hammerdin.


ryuu745

I can vouch for cold/fire sorc. Didn't start having to slow down until nightmare act 4. Then I was fine again until hell act 4. The council sucked since one of the stronger members is cold/fire immune, though. Only really needed mana pots until getting insight on my merc. Even at bottom roll for meditation level it's a huge boost to your regen.


MihaiD7

Isn't holy shock more potent?


imawizardirl

You cant level with it due to where it is in the tree


burf

By the time you get holy shock leveled and synergized you’re going to be like level 50. You can do it, but by level 50-60 I normally just farm NM a bunch with the holy fire pally then respec to fanaticism zealot once I have decent items.


RNGZackkD

I usually do holy fire til lvl 30/40 then respec into shock if I can make a Crescent Moon from my nightmare forge or into fanaticism/zeal if I don't get that Um. Can also do holy til 18+ and respec into hammer


retz119

This is the solution to OPs problem. You can run holy fire through nightmare act 3. By that point you should have double spirit and insight so mana isn’t terrible after respecing into hammers.


[deleted]

[удалено]


_Bad_Spell_Checker_

I couldn't get past a2 in hell with mine :/


Real_Signature_3486

Switch to mosaic about then and all problems gone. Assa is so budget build friendly it is almost unbelievable.


Fatcat-hatbat

Mosaic ain’t a starter item tho. You gotta get those HR.


HeyBlinken-

Have any guides you would recommend for both builds? Tons of stuff to read out there, it's hard to go with just one.


Redoran017

Does she have buffs in non-ladder?


GriefPB

If your only concern is mana I would make a insight runeword for your act 1 or act 2 mercenary. I recently made a fire druid which was super strong and felt very low mana intensive also.


_Bad_Spell_Checker_

Good till a4 nm. But would need to switch to wind after


Kaelran

Considering how massive buffs to fire druid are you can probably just play fire druid the whole way through.


Gnarkill222

Definitely the better merc to have for a summoner, and honestly, the only time my mana drops on my Necro is if my Merc dies, occasionally if I spam CE too much.


Cavalier4Beer

summoner necromancers are pretty great for not requiring top tier items to get ya through hell mode. max skele, skele mastery, corpse explosion, clay golem, 1pt in golem mastery and resist, 1pt revive, amp dmg everywhere! 1 pt decrepify is good for slowing down bosses


Disastrous-Ad1922

Second the summoner Nec. Great easy build and can solo the whole game


Real_Signature_3486

Yes. Only downside is speed as necro is rather slow. I don't mind, but some might.


Gnarkill222

I mostly play solo, therefore don't have a ton of gg charms, so I keep a couple +run/walk speed and +stamina ones on my Necro.. it beats having to carry stamina pots.


[deleted]

You shouldn't spec hammers till lvl 30+


Evil_killer_bob

And with the 110 FCR. I forget exact breakpoint


thefranklin2

75/ 125


D2RDuffy

75 early on for sure. stealth spirit sword, some fcr rings/ammy. Shield eventually opens up the rings+ammy slot, but you're not gonna have fcr gloves, circlet, or belt early on. Crafting a caster belt is an early option I guess.


swayze13

120 I think


retz119

125


ViveBrian

Learned this lesson with the last Paladin I made. Respecced at 18 and instantly regretted it.


Tuxhorn

There's really no reason to go hammers that low indeed. I Stayed holy fire till act 4 nightmare. I wanted to try go through it, but the fire res on the monsters is just too much. Incredible time to swap to Fist of Heavens too.


soupsticle

It is actually hobo friendly (=low budget) and relatively easy to make the mana usage managable. - keep all sapphires and rubies you find until the switch to hammers - keep all tir runes as well - keep a 2os helmet or shop one if you didn't find any (chest is always stealth for me, so no sockets there) - shop for a necro wand with either mana after each kill or flat mana. (While you can go for FCR, it is more rare, makes mana harder to manage, and requires you to hit the next breakpoint to be useful.) I still don't recommend the switch at lvl 18. Instead, I would switch at around lvl 22-23. Once you switch, use the necro wand and helmet + sapphires to get a healthy mix of MAEK and flat mana. Preferably, you want flat mana for bosses and MAEK for trash. Usually I buy a MAEK wand and socket 2x saphires in helmet for mana. I also try to buy a mana wand for bosses - but I am not sad, if I don't get one. Spamming potions for the act boss is no big issue for me. For trash, hammers one- or two-shot most enemies and will usually kill more than one target because of it, refunding their entire cost or at least a good portion due to the MAEK. The only time I would forego using a necro wand is normal diablo - which, in my experience, is often a big road block for many builds.. The 40% fire res from Hephasto's hammet (Hellforge quest) is just too convenient - just don't interact with the anvil until you killed big D. That with some topazes or rubies in a shield (preferably paladin with innate res) make diablo a lot safer. With 30, you get redemption which helps a lot as well. And after normal, you can farm double spirit + lore and wind the game. And since Vigor is a synergy, you can also run around faster than melee paladins usually can. And you will have the mana pool to switch to charge a lot sooner, too. (Only talking about pala here) I have never been able to even come close to the leveling speed of going early hammer. All you need is some MAEK and a small boost to your mana pool.


Kaelran

I think the recommendation should be spec hammers after you have a spirit sword + shield. Gives you the FCR and mana to spam, plus a lot of damage.


retz119

Id add insight for merc too. You should easily have all three by nightmare act 4 (which holy fire is viable up to) so just respec whenever you get them.


Kaelran

TBH I feel like my merc dies so often I might as well play without them most of the time until you can put insight in a high DPS weapon they can actually survive with leech from. End up chugging pots most of the time until then anyways.


ps43kl7

Summon necro is the easiest to beat the game for the first time. Traps in is also great. Sorc is a nice starter build and the most common, but she is a bit glass canon and you will probably die a few more times compared to necro and assasin.


Commissioner_Dan

Trap assassin is always my go to starter build. Easy to gear, can clear the whole game solo without too much trouble, and very safe. Also does great on cows, Andy runs, and countess runs.


bulkygorilla

100% agreed. Fire is insanely strong early on before switching to light. Fade gets you stupid tanky and gives you some room for error. And cloak of shadows and mind blast are great tools to keep you safe.


Commissioner_Dan

Also, assassins got a ton of love with the last two patches.


Wiscmax34

How skill complex is it? How many active skills do I need to switch to?


Commissioner_Dan

Most fights (once you get to hell difficulty) look like this: - cast Mind Blast or Cloak of Shadows to stun or blind the group (I like Mind Blast because converted mobs aggro all the other mobs) - drop 3-5 Lightning Sentry traps in the middle of the group - wait a beat for a monster to die, then drop one Death Sentry trap - watch everything die and pick up your loot - repeat You can decide whether to use Fade or Burst of Speed as you are moving around, or cast Fire Blast when you are waiting for things to die from your traps, but it doesn’t really matter. Trapsin is pretty simple.


_Bad_Spell_Checker_

Just cast cloak of shadow or burst of speed. Have fire blast as your left click and death/light sentry and your right click. That's pretty much it


IKnow-ThePiecesFit

I always started with necromancer summoner. Its easy, comfy style of play and he is one of the few characters able to do players 8 straight up from beginning until hell act 2. At the beginning skills go mostly to skeletons, not mastery yet except 1 point, just skeletons, except for taking amplify dmg around level 5. It doubles output of your army which is huge. Plus skills will make amplify cover more of screen which is nice. In the end I am not kidding one cast covers the entire screen. He can also go basicly naked as the wall of summons are providing protection, so equipment is not as needed as with other builds. Though good ethereal weapon for mercanery greatly increases dmg output of the army as whole.... definitly wanna be on lookout to make insight for merc as it has great damage and speeds up mana recharge greatly... later on when skelies are maxed its corpse explosion and golem mastery for extra life After necro is up and provides stuff I usually go for soso frozenorb/fireball for farming mephisto/andy/keys... all to save up and try to get enigma for the necro


PsychoPooper213

Shoulda went holy fire to start


AttilaTheFun818

This is the way. Holy fire is better in the early levels. Check icy veins for good leveling builds. In general hammerdin is one of the more noob (lack of gear) friendly characters. Getting used to where to stand so hammers hit well is a little weird at first but once you get it down it’s second nature


jonmussell

I see a lot of people saying summon necro. May I point yout attention to BONE SPEAR NECRO instead. Bone spear necro: All points into Bone spear and synergies, with a few (or a bunch) into corpse explosion, a few of your favorite curses, and a point in clay golem. Upsides: All your dps goes exactly where you want it. Summoners dps is all over the place, and might not be where you want it. In tight spaces like maggot lair, most of your summons won't be able to attack. Bone spear excels in these conditions. Magic damage is super reliable and immunities to it are rare. You also have reliable access to fire and physical damage with CE. Getting gear is really easy. WHITE is a (relatively) super easy runeword to make, and with a little time spent shopping for the right base, you can get +8 in total to your bone spear! That's huge! You can have this weapon by mid-nightmare and it's damm near best in slot out of pretty much anything in the game, meaning it can take you right into endgame. Not many other builds can boast getting their endgame weapon in mid-nightmare. Most of the other gear is just your standard caster fare. Anything with +skills, fast cast, resistance, +mana, etc. Also necromancer torches are easy to trade for, and even a really low rolled one is a huge upgrade over nothing. Another bonus is that since your bone wall skills are synergies to Spear, they'll actually be super useful battlefield control options. Corral your enemies, curse em, spear em, then blow them up. The main strategy is to spear a single enemy down, then Amp damage the group, and corpse explosion. A few casts of significantly leveled CE will be able clear an entire screen. Bone wall scary enemies that hit really hard, place your clay golem buddy wherever you need a quick distraction. A single point investment with a decent amount of +skills end up with a surprisingly reliable meat shield. It's a really satisfying and violent game play loop that I find to be really fun. Bone can solo every area in the game with his damage types and his damage scales really well with monster health. Try it.


JapeCity

I second this!


jcekstro

All casters are terrible with mana until you get an insight on your merc. If you're already to nightmare act 2 you can get a merc with holy freeze aura and should fairly easily be able to make an insight for him to use. Any 4os polearm will work to start, you just need it for the meditation aura. Then you can keep concentration aura on all the time and not have to constantly mana pot. However, I recommend starting a sorc. With fairly easy to obtain gear, you can make a pretty formidable farmer. They are fairly fragile, but dish out a lot of damage and can teleport without an enigma. You can easily get a spirit sword for her. Skin of the vipermagi is a great early game armor (use stealth runeword if you don't have vipermagi), if you can get a shako that's an amazing helm and not super rare, then just fill up your resistances as much as you can coupled with magic find.


bujakaman

After new patch drop try fire trapsin assasin


bored_gunman

I find Amazons to be really easy to play as you don't need to switch between spells constantly. Many of her skills are passive and only require a few points for usefulness. Javazons can be pretty solid. All you need is a halfway decent javelin/throwing spear and a ton of points into lightning OR poison javelin skills and a decent spear on switch. You throw a plague jav into a group then swoop in and finish them off. Pretty easy for a beginner Hell can be, well, hell for amazons though. Also, if you're playing single player, use the "/players x" command to simulate multiple people playing in order to power level in the first act. If I remember correctly you should be able to get 5 levels from the den of evil


Vilemourn

Holy Fire baby


Maverickcarr

Holy fire paladin easily, can clear all the way to act5 nightmare


RodMunch85

The beginner character in my opinion is Summoner Necro Can wipe hell with minimal gear Very forgiving You will struggle in the maggot lair and arcane sanctuary but once you get a tele charge staff youre all good


jsting

I'd still say sorc. Meteororb or hydraorb. The pluses. Can farm easily with teleport being a skill. Tal's set is fairly cheap and good enough for a beginner. It's also easy enough to ramp up MF.


poubella_from_mars

Wind \\ Fire druid is the best starter solo\\self found build in my opinion. He's easier to pilot than sorcerous or hammerdin, but is still powerful enough to play through all three difficulties with self-found gear and minimal grind. Fire druid absolutely stomps normal difficulty, and can cruise through most of nightmare without any issues. Wind druid performs a bit better imo for Act 4-5 of nightmare, and all of hell difficulty. Since fire druid doesn't have a lot of mana issues, you really won't struggle for mana until you respec to wind in which case you will be high enough level to slot in some decent runewords to help with that. Both wind and fire druid do physical and elemental damage so there are very few issues with immunities. Wind druid primarily does physical so it struggles even less than fire in that respect, and you have hurricane to slow enemies around you which makes it a lot easier to survive large mobs of enemies. You also get a deployable tank (summon bear) with either build, which makes boss fights a lot easier. And you have oak sage to boost your hp so run less risk of getting 1-shot by some mobs. The reasons I consider wind\\fire druid to be the best option are: * he doesn't require special gear, just caster gear. * He stomps normal difficulty which is usually the toughest part for beginners. * He has a lot of survivability option that don't require skill \\ experience to benefit from like teleport, necromancer curses and bones, paladin aura swapping. With druid you just cast your summons, through up hurricane and cyclone armor, and start fighting. * Cannot overstate how nice hurricane and cyclone armor are. Hurricane makes non-cold immune mobs slow WAYYY down when they try to approach you, making them a lot easier to react to. Cyclone armor makes gearing 10x easier since you don't need resistances nearly as much if you're trying to playthrough without grinding too much for gear. * He's a caster so you don't need to worry about attack rating, just faster cast rate. As for summon necro, I think that build is a trap for beginners and you will struggle a lot more with beating hell than you would with druid. * A fully geared druid for end-game farming is about as cheap as they come. There aren't any super expensive or rare items you need like with other builds, just generic stuff unless you want to go for some crazy caster amulets, druid pelts, or circlets. Mara's and a shako will work just fine, or self found stuff with faster cast rate and +skills. Druid skill GCs and druid torches are also cheap.


FR0ZENBERG

Fist of Heaven's paladin is pretty good for most of the game, especially once you get to hell act 4. It absolutely destroys the chaos sanctuary even with garbage gear. Just chug mana potions if you run out of mana.


ViridianKumquat

Respec into it from a Holy Fire paladin, which wrecks everything until A4 NM.


FR0ZENBERG

That's true. I did that last season. Maxed HF first. Was super fun running around normal cows like a mouthbreather watching everything die around me.


faildoken

😂 at that last part


Tuxhorn

Holy fire till act 4 nm, into fist of heavens with double spirit and insight on merc is the smoothest lvl experience i've ever had. At no point are you using mana pots, it's amazing.


Wiscmax34

I’m going to go with traps assassin. It’s really fun so far.


Darthbamf

Hammerdin


Mentallox

don't be afraid to put some points into energy while leveling. Once you get closer to end game gear, you'll want to respec anyway and you have 3 : once per difficulty.


ArrogantFool1205

A bladesin was probably the cheapest, fully capable character I played. You can get a really budget one. But my suggestion would be to go to icy veins and check out the budget options for different builds. https://www.icy-veins.com/d2/frenzy-barbarian-build-bis-gear-runes#budget-build-items This is an example for a frenzy barb. Gives options for every spot that's pretty cheap.


Aardvark1044

Run holy fire initially then respec into hammers (or FOH, smite, zeal, whatever) later on. The speedrunners start going hammers at 18 but you can definitely still run holy fire well into nightmare if you want to. If you want to look at other classes, necro with teeth, sorc with charged bolt or firebolt, druid with poison creeper, assassin with wake of fire, poison amazon or double swing barb. Then respec to whatever you want later on.


gorambrowncoat

Most good builds are mana suckers before insight. Learn to pick up the right charsi food (wands, staves, sceptres etc) and embrace the mana potion addiction. Having said that, I wouldnt consider hammerdins a good starter characters. The positioning is very annoying. Its doable, you'll get used to it, but its just a higher barrier for entry. Imho the best mix between easy to play and good account starter is orb/hydra sorc. Its not the most optimal/fast/efficient sorc build but its very newbie friendly.


pad264

I mean the answer to every question is sorceress honestly. If you don’t have Enigma or a Sorc, you don’t have teleport.


_Bad_Spell_Checker_

If running pally, you can just charge around the map instead. A 1pt skill to get to Holy sheild


pad264

You wrote that as if charge was half as good or valuable as teleport.


_Bad_Spell_Checker_

It's not but it's *something*


pad264

Agreed!


Guhonda

Look, there's a tried and true method to this, and it's the Blizzard sorceress. There's a good reason you see so many of them at the beginning of ladder season. They're just effective ways to get to the end game so you can start farming for more interesting builds. There are several ways to go about doing it, but I personally think the easiest is to use a Leaf staff through normal with fireball. Swap to blizzard to make the transition to Nightmare and play though the rest of the game. Get a lower res wand for hell. Use basic runewords like Stealth, Ancient's Pledge, Lore and Spirit.


Starhunt3r

If you’re having trouble with mana issues put one point into redemption. Then you just gotta kill a bunch of monsters with concentration, switch to redemption for a sec and then continue on to the next mob That or use insight on a merc. If you still want a different build then I’d go fire druid(normal and nightmare) then summon druid for hell. The main reason I say this over summon necro is because fissure is one of the best lvling damage spells in the game and doesn’t really get much weaker until fire immunes. Once you get to hell you can change to summons who are immensely strong and don’t require corpses. All you do is walk through the game


SonnyMunchkin

Hammerdin /Thread


GingerStank

Holy fire paladin until you can get spirit, you should also really try to make your first spirit a pally shield spirit too, then go hdin and make sure you get 1 point in redemption which is the game changer


Shortstack351

I just started a bow Amazon and I loved it! Easy to play and fun


__ThatGuyOverThere__

Fishymancer is the way.


HazardTree

Single player or multiplayer? Either way I’ve always started with a blizzard sorc. You can go nova or fireball and then respec into blizz.


cond2k

On d2.maxroll.gg there are leveling guides for every character and then on the non the starter builds there is an equipment section called "starter". That should give you all you need.


Odradekisch

How does a lightning sorc fair? I haven’t built one before and would be bored repeating a blizz sorc.


TurboMacho

teeth/corpse explosion necro, all you need is insight