Stave spell level?

[Zyr]

While magic can play a vital role for any character class, it is usually not the primary attack for a warrior or rogue.

*Chuckle* I shared NiteWing's affinity for staves, to the point of obsession. I found myself playing variant characters I called (for lack of the imagination necessary to coin a better name) Illiterate Treehuggers-- Rogues and Warriors who could not read spellbooks or scrolls, and who used only staves as weapons. They could kill monsters only by whacking them with a staff or casting a spell from it. (I think I was inspired in part by one of your variants, Nystul, though I don't recall which one.)

Clubs (but not shields) were permitted until the character found the first staff, or accumulated enough GP to buy one. The game was not particularly fun until a staff of Town Portal was acquired...

I started with a Warrior in Single Player, and he did everything but kill Diablo. I got a Rogue to level 14 in SP. Then my son convinced me to play on battle.net for the first time.

After playing a couple of conventional Rogues for a while, I couldn't resist creating two new Illiterate Treehuggers on bnet (though I always played them solo). Talk about a challenge! Inventory space allows only six staves, one set of armor, and ten spaces free for spare amulets, rings, and GP. Which spells to choose?

I settled on Chain Lightning and Fireball as my primary killers (I never came close to mastering the knack of proper Firewall placement. :() For me, Town Portal was mandatory, as was Telekinesis, for post-death equipment retrieval, and Stone Curse. The sixth staff slot varied; usually it was Mana Shield, but if I'd found a particularly nice Holy Bolt staff during a game, sometimes I'd keep it. Occasionally, I'd have to choose between, say, a Bountiful Staff and an Arch-Angel's Staff of either Fireball or Chain Lightning; I'd keep both, and hope a monster or Adria would supply a Mana Shield staff in the next game.

(Did you know you can reach the Catacombs stair from Adria in three clicks, but it takes four clicks to get back to Adria after resetting her inventory? Did I mention obsession?)

I managed to get both Zyr the Warrior and Zyl the Rogue into Hell on bnet before I was persuaded to start playing Diablo II LoD last summer, by the independent efforts of my son and a friend from another online game. Then the D2LoD1.10 patch was released, and that's what I've been playing ever since. Recently I checked, and both Zyr and Zyl have been deleted. Ah, well...

NiteWing, despite all of these words, I concur completely with Nystul's advice. In my opinion, the most important staff you should look for (and perhaps the only one for your first character) is a Staff of Sorcery, to boost your Magic level temporarily, permitting you to read Spellbooks that would otherwise be red and unavailable to you. (You might also want to hang onto other "reading glasses" such as rings and an amulet of Sorcery for this purpose.)

You might wish to download Jarulf's Guide, if you haven't already done so-- or you may find it more convenient to use the online HTML version.