Newbie questions

[Little Faith]

Well, I've had Diablo for quite some time now and I've read through Freshman's and all that jazz, but I still consider myself a newbie based on the time i've actually played the game.

I have these few questions:


Firstly: I usually ditched level 3 as I am a bit scared of King Leoric instead doing level 2 until I was big enough to cope with the catacombs, but I hardly get to see level 3 (and all it's myriad bosses this waY). What kind of AC, %to hit, etc. do you think is required to best The Undead King in melee (I know besting him with magic is just a question of a big Phat Holy Bolt)

Secondly: I want to do an axe fighter and I have rummaged a bit about for a guide on an axe-using warrior. The only thing I have found uptil now are the different axe variants that are not of such big use for me presently.
Are axe fighter mostly similar to a (nerfed) sword-and-shield fighter or do I need to know something else?

Thirdly: I am also very interested in doing a staff-using warrior-mage, but have not found any guides regarding wizardly warriors yet. Can you give me some pointers?

[dotPlaid]

I can understand your hesitation to face the Skeleton King, but as a warrior you're on a mission, and there's no time for fear. What would Gillain say about you running away? Besides, when Leoric can smell you, and is coming for you, but you can't see him in a sea of Burning Dead, why that's action!

I've read through Freshman's and all that jazz

Does that include Jarulf's Guide to Diablo and Broken Diablo (aka Hellfire)? If not, you should check it out here. You'll find all the stats you need about Leoric and axes (and why GPoW goes beyond cheesy to cheating).

I am also very interested in doing a staff-using warrior-mage

What you are looking for, here, is info about a Turtle Mage.

Happy reading, but moreso, happy thumping evil about the head and neck.

Cheers.

//Edit for grammar

[Bob]

On leoric-mangling:
1 - Get a 'crushing' weapon; club, spiked club, mace, morning star, flail, war hammer, maul. (mauls are out of reach & club is obsolete by level 3 though), you'll do 150% damage to him (and other undead stuff)
2 - for pity's sake don't use a sword, you'll only do 50% damage

tohit% - as much as you can, you really need to get as close to the 95% 'real' cap as possible and keep getting hits on him. This is slightly more important than damage - leoric life-steals 100% of the damage he does, potentially taking him above his starting HP. You've got to KEEP hitting him with enough damage do 'stun' him (that's all the damage that you need to make sure that you have), I believe that the number is mlvl -3 , which in leoric's case would be 13. So long as you're doing enough to stop him getting a shot in at you (and therefor stealing health) then you'll eventually wear him down - being a warrior also means that you'll get a clvl% chance to do double damage.
If you can get a clvl when you can get a swiftness weapon that will also help, but readiness is worthless.

Leoric is a pure melee battle - anything that will give you a better chance there is welcomed - AC, tohit%, You should pump dexterity until you max it to start. Resistances can go to hell for this battle, along with all the other pretty stuff (mana, light radius, mana steal, etc). Either go in and beat him about the head with a heavy implement, or walk around firing holy bolts - don't try to stand and batter him & fire bolt intermittently, he'll just swing, stun & then stunlock you as a warrior.

Another tip is to go in tile-by-tile and slowly clear out all his minions first - the last thing that you want is one of them, or him, stunning you because you're fighting 2 things at once.

You seem to indicate that you're playing multiplayer - another piece of advice would be to get someone else to help you - with 2 people attacking you're almost guaranteed to keep him stunned most of the time - or if you can get a sorc to bolt him, you can tank as the bolt won't affect you.

I don't really know how much you know about playing D1, so I hope I haven't seemed patronising

Good hunting!

-Bob

[Little Faith]

Oh, i've had Jarulf's wonderful guide lying on my hard disk for quite some time now. Its inquiries into the nature of the monster AI's have been a great boon in my playing. Also I owe it my mastery of the Firewall spell which has earned me at least one dot (I've actually firewalked Diablo to death once).

What I wanted was some advice in what to go for when going up against King Leoric early. When still confined to the early Church levels you are severely hampered in the equipment apartment. Especially with regards to Armor Class. When using the two-handed axes this gets even worse. I would suppose going for %to hit and Dexterity is the thing to do as your Holy Bolt is still a bit too flimsy.


And regarding the "Turtle Mage" the guide prescribes the use of a shield and the famous Dreamflange. Besides not wanting to "MF" for a Dreamflange I dearly want the warrior with staff "look".



Edit: Oh yeah, and how serious an issue is King Leoric's Life Leech?


More Editage: To Bob: I am playing a pure axe-wielder, so the blunt thing is a bit reduntant. I would, however, consider to go for dexterity first and using a Large Axe instead of pushing for the 50 Strength the Broad Axe requires.

[Moldran]

It should be noted that an axe warrior is a relatively challenging character. As a newbie, maybe you should develop your warrior in a more conservative way. You can still switch to an axe setup later, if you want to. Diablo1 does not really have an individual 'skilling' of chars like Diablo2 has. Your char will probably have all his stats maxed by the time he reaches clvl 40. The individuality lies in the equipment setup used. This means that you can always switch between different setups. Later on, the equipment setups do not depend on a certain skill point distribution - you will have all stats maxed out anyway.

The 3 big disadvantages an axe warrior suffers compared to a sword/shield warrior are:

1) No shield = no blocking. Big big disavantage. On dungeon levels 13-16, foes have high "autohit" values. That means they have a good chance to hit you regardless of your AC. Without a shield, your AC is your last defense. In other words: In the deeper levels, you will take alot of hits.
Possible measure to deal with that: Use an item 'of Harmony' to reduce your hit recovery time. This won't reduce the number of hits you take, but it will help you to deal with their effects.

2) No shield = no boni from the shield. Your warrior will probably end up having about 15-40 AC and 30-50 HPs less than his sword-and-shield wielding brothers usually have. You will also have a harder time getting the resistances necessary for the deeper dungeon levels.

3) Axes are slow. Even with a speed/haste suffix, you won't be able to stunlock certain monsters (Advocate Class), which can be very annoying, because these guys like to teleport away when they get the chance to.

The only advantage of Axes is the slightly higher damage compared to a sword/shield combination. That advantage is clearly outweighed by the disadvantages. The fact that swords swing faster already makes up for the higher damage alone.

About Leo: DEX, DEX, DEX.
The usual way to start a Warrior is to put the first 8 level ups into DEX completely. You will then reach your maximum DEX (60) at clvl 9. If you solo and do not skip any levels, you meet Leo somewhere between clvl 7 and clvl 9, IIRC.
A shield also helps alot versus Leo, especially if you face him in your first game (after the first game of your warrior, his chance to block hits is reduced by 30% because of a nasty bug). If you decide to face Leo without a shield, I recommend to level your char at least to level 15 before going for him, with 8 level ups into DEX, the remaining level ups into STR, hopefully some decent AC (30+), and a good supply of health potions.

That is just from my experience though, and probably not very accurate.

You also may want to have a look at this great article by Charis:
http://realmsbeyond.net/diablo/forgecdmeleeleo.html
It was not written for your situation, but with Ironman warriors in mind. But it still contains alot of useful information.

[aaa]

"Edit: Oh yeah, and how serious an issue is King Leoric's Life Leech?"

Oh yee of Little Faith (pun PUN!)

It's 100% of whatever damage he does (in multi), so if your life globe plummets from a few hits you probably shouldn't fight him yet (as he'll easily heal himself in a few whacks).



Probably the best advice would be to just start fighting him with warriors. The more you fight him, the more you'll know about how to fight him. Just like the rest of the game. The more you've played through it the easier it got, because you knew how monsters would act/react, how fast they moved, etc...
So just start bashing his head in. Just be wary like you would normally be.

[Urza-DSF]

Just a small nit though: If you manage to find yourself a bow that adds fire damage, one hit from that will completely stop Leo's Life Leech and Regeneration.

Weapon Switching is your friend ^_^

[JimBrownTx]

It's nice to see someone else who appreciates that bows aren't just for Rogues and Amazons! :D

While I usually don't use one in Diablo 2. I do keep the Archer Mercenary from the very begginning PERMENANTLY throughout the game to compensate for my Paladins allmost total lack of Distance spells.

But, in D1 where storage space is not an issue! B) I take full advantage of it.

A few of my strategies for it (Let me know if you find them useful) ;)

While everyone takes it for granted to kill baddies on the other side of fences that they can't open. There are some grand oppurtunitties like the Butcher who also can't. But, most find it almost impossible to get through the door in time to close it on him.

This is why you ALLWAYS have a minimum of L1 Teleport spell. Have the door shut BEFOREHAND and your Teleport allready on . Then as you reach the fence. Just Teleport over and enjoy making a Pincushion out of the Butcher and anyone else who can't open doors!

#2 Allways save any Bow with heavy duty MAGIC RESISTANCE or Resist ALL. These are great for dealing with the Advocates and the Sucubus Hussies who are a pain in the arse to chase! Combined with a few Resistance jewels. You can take a few hits in exchange for being able to just shoot them rather than chase them all night.

That or use the Teleport to jump in front of them.

Notes: there are numerous levels with open spaces that are maze like. Where many of your monsters will come to the nearest spot towards you. Even though they can't cross things like the lava flow to get at you. Use these to set them up and then use your bow for some easy kills!

Likewise. You can do the same with open fences. Move to the end away for the open gate. And most demons are to stupid to walk down and around to get at you. The Butcher is one of them.

Sometimes you'll get lucky and the herd of Demon Spit dogs(I hate them guys) will stay in one spot and just keep shooting acid as long as you don't come to close. ALLWAYS remember when you find the perfect spt just outside of thier range to hold the SHIFT button down so when the one your cursors locked on dies you don't accidentally run forward.

I haven't been able to test it in D1 yet. But, in D2 I've found that while I don't personally like KNOCKBACK in swords for my warrior. It's the perfect bonus for Bow use where added distance is desired. Jim