[djnat]

I have tons of connection problems in these days and can't play LoD in Bnet.

However, I can help here.


To make a decent char in Ladder starting from zero gear, imho, you must do the following things:

1) Try to level up in party your char from lvl 1 to lvl 24. It can be easily done in this places also with shitty gear:

Lvls 1-6: Stony Field
Lvls 7-10: Tristram runs
Lvls 10-14: Andy runs
Lvls 15-16: Sewers runs
Lvls 17-20: Tomb runs / Temples' runs (act III)
Lvl 21-24: Travincal runs

2) Make Act3 and Act4 in party; it should not be too difficult to kill Meph / Diablo. Make the hellforge quest in normal; if you are lucky, you will have a nice rune.

3) Enter Act5 and make quest 1 and 2. Try to get some decent weapon / stuff from Larzuk. After q2, go to Qual-Keck and he will give you Ral + Ort + Tal. Put those runes in that order in a 3-socketed shield, and you will have the "Ancient's pledge" runeword. Marvellous shield for normal and also nightmare difficulty.

Remember some other awsome low lvl / cost runewords:

- Stealth (Tal + Eth) on 2 socketed armor. Very nice in Normal difficulty.
- Lore (Ort + Sol) on 2 socketed helmets. +1 to all skills and nice stats, and lit resist. Very good, too.
- Rhyme (Shael + Eth) on 2 socketed shields. All resists +25, magic find and cannot be frozen are marvellous mod to make a char in his first steps.

4) Try to equip your char with decent items, especially low-cost runewords. It's not difficult to have some decent gear for low level. If you find a Manald heal or an Eye of Etlich, you are very lucky. Also the Cathan ring is a marvellous find if you are making a melee char.

5) Now you can make ancients, when you are lvl 24. Kill'em in party, and you will go up to lvl 25.

6) Make Normal Baalruns in party, players 8. After a few runs, you should be about lvl 45-50, that is a good lvl to start NM. Also make normal Pindleruns to get some other stuff for trade. Try to have a Lum rune.

7) In NM, try to find some good items. If you have a Lum rune, make the Smoke runeword on a nice armor. It has marvellous stats to survive: 50 all res, 20 fhr.

8) Always play in party and search for help in the most difficult points. Go to the hellforge quest and take the rune. If you are lucky, you will get a Um rune, that can be a very good "trade money" for some decent items to go on in NM.

9) Make NM baalruns til lvl 77. Then, hell is yours. In hell, you can do whatever you want, but after lvl 85, "serious" experience and find can be obtained only in Pindle runs (till 90), Chaos runs or Baalruns.

Remember that finding in NM, when you have nothing, is absolutely necessary. Pindle runs and Baalruns in NM can be awesome, cuz you can find items like Oculus / Shako / Raven / Titans / Zaka and so on...

Also remember to have some "easy" MF gear for Pindle runs: a 4-Topazed armor, Nagelrings, Chance guards, Topazed Helmet are not so difficult to make. But they are VERY useful to find something decent.


10) Trade ALL you find (and don't need) for useful gear for you.


Also remember a critical thing: there are some character types which are easier to play (when compared to other types) with shitty gear.

I would advise:

- Hammerdin
- Javazon
- Cold sorc
- Summoning necro

These chars are very good also if equipped with shit, till NM. In Hell you have to get some serious stuff, but if you go to NM, and you start finding a lot, you will soon get the items to trade for something good.