09-11-2003, 08:03 PM
Welcome back! I restarted back in June after an 18 month hiatus, so I know exactly what you're going through. I got immediately sick of all the hacked and duped items as well, so I jumped as quickly as possible to hardcore. The game there is far more legit in terms of items than softcore and people in general are a lot nicer and like to party a lot more (except you have to be very careful of PK's). Sure, there are some hacked and duped items there, but they aren't as prevelant, and because of the nature of hardcore, they tend to get lost over time.
In hardcore, I managed to get some decent equipment by trading gems. There's some demand for chipped gems because of the 3-chipped gems + magic sword = new magic sword with sockets (people are trying to roll cruel socketed swords with this). So, I recommend muling away all of the chipped gems you find and then once you've collected enough, you can join an "Itmz 4 Chips" game and try to get some equipment. Wtih chips, you can get equipment that will get you through nightmare -- sigon stuff, undead crowns (useful to give to mercs), and nightmare level unique weapons. Using chipped gems, I was able to get several Skystrikes and a couple of Kuko's for my amazon.
Later, you can then jump into the perfect gem economy. A lot of people don't know about it, but you can get some pretty decent items with perfect gems. The perfect gem trading games are a lot rarer to find, but when they're there, they're a great place to get medium level equipment. That's how I got my Lycander's Aim (30 pgems), Goldstrike arch (40 pgems), and Magewrath's (20pgems each) for my 'zon (who died several times -- I'm playing over a modem -- so I needed multiple copies of equipment). You can also get pieces of various exceptional set items that way.
To get top equipment like Windforces, etc., you just have to adventure in hell for a while and collect them. Use as much magic find equipment as you can safely equip yourself with. Top equipment only trades for top equipment.
As to your other questions, the only one I have a solid answer to is that LR does affect magic resistance in 1.09 but doesn't affect it in 1.10s. I don't know if it's going to stay this way in the final release or not.
By the way, whenever 1.10 does come out, Blizzard will introduce "ladder games" that will basically be new separated realms (kind of like how hardcore and softcore are separated). So, if you play there, you'll be able to start off in a clean and new realm where everyone starts off with the proverbial +1 firebolt staff. You don't actually have to play for the ladder to play in ladder games. You can just enjoy playing in a new clean realm. I can't wait.
In hardcore, I managed to get some decent equipment by trading gems. There's some demand for chipped gems because of the 3-chipped gems + magic sword = new magic sword with sockets (people are trying to roll cruel socketed swords with this). So, I recommend muling away all of the chipped gems you find and then once you've collected enough, you can join an "Itmz 4 Chips" game and try to get some equipment. Wtih chips, you can get equipment that will get you through nightmare -- sigon stuff, undead crowns (useful to give to mercs), and nightmare level unique weapons. Using chipped gems, I was able to get several Skystrikes and a couple of Kuko's for my amazon.
Later, you can then jump into the perfect gem economy. A lot of people don't know about it, but you can get some pretty decent items with perfect gems. The perfect gem trading games are a lot rarer to find, but when they're there, they're a great place to get medium level equipment. That's how I got my Lycander's Aim (30 pgems), Goldstrike arch (40 pgems), and Magewrath's (20pgems each) for my 'zon (who died several times -- I'm playing over a modem -- so I needed multiple copies of equipment). You can also get pieces of various exceptional set items that way.
To get top equipment like Windforces, etc., you just have to adventure in hell for a while and collect them. Use as much magic find equipment as you can safely equip yourself with. Top equipment only trades for top equipment.
As to your other questions, the only one I have a solid answer to is that LR does affect magic resistance in 1.09 but doesn't affect it in 1.10s. I don't know if it's going to stay this way in the final release or not.
By the way, whenever 1.10 does come out, Blizzard will introduce "ladder games" that will basically be new separated realms (kind of like how hardcore and softcore are separated). So, if you play there, you'll be able to start off in a clean and new realm where everyone starts off with the proverbial +1 firebolt staff. You don't actually have to play for the ladder to play in ladder games. You can just enjoy playing in a new clean realm. I can't wait.