03-05-2004, 02:13 AM
Welcome!
As pointed out above, the only real difference between single-player and realms is that you can't count on finding/trading specific gear. While this is significant, it doesn't really invalidate much of the strategy you find elsewhere. Just keep an eye on the gear. If a post or guide is centered on a unique, irreplaceable piece of gear, that's probably out of the question in single-player. But most good guides and strategy are more concerned with general principles than specific items. Naturally, skill-centered builds (like a sorc or trap assassin) lean more in this direction than item-centered builds (most martial arts assassins). But if you study up on the various cube recipes and item crafts, you may find that you can make a decent approximation of the unique gear mentioned in guides.
Also, don't pass up on the benefits of single-player. Two things, mostly. 1) Your maps don't reset. You can run NM or Hell Countess in much less than 5 mins, depending on your char. While the very high-end runes will probably never drop, you can count on seeing mid-level ones given a bit of time. You can run Meph quickly, too, though the chances of you finding just the item that you need are pretty small. 2) You can set the player count with "/players X". Set that number to something that gives you just enough killing speed, and stick with it. My single-player paladin played in players-5, and made level 75 before leaving NM without a single repeat of an area apart from very few Countess and Meph runs.
As pointed out above, the only real difference between single-player and realms is that you can't count on finding/trading specific gear. While this is significant, it doesn't really invalidate much of the strategy you find elsewhere. Just keep an eye on the gear. If a post or guide is centered on a unique, irreplaceable piece of gear, that's probably out of the question in single-player. But most good guides and strategy are more concerned with general principles than specific items. Naturally, skill-centered builds (like a sorc or trap assassin) lean more in this direction than item-centered builds (most martial arts assassins). But if you study up on the various cube recipes and item crafts, you may find that you can make a decent approximation of the unique gear mentioned in guides.
Also, don't pass up on the benefits of single-player. Two things, mostly. 1) Your maps don't reset. You can run NM or Hell Countess in much less than 5 mins, depending on your char. While the very high-end runes will probably never drop, you can count on seeing mid-level ones given a bit of time. You can run Meph quickly, too, though the chances of you finding just the item that you need are pretty small. 2) You can set the player count with "/players X". Set that number to something that gives you just enough killing speed, and stick with it. My single-player paladin played in players-5, and made level 75 before leaving NM without a single repeat of an area apart from very few Countess and Meph runs.