Hey y'all - with the remastered D2 being released on Friday I figured I would share some knowledge for those interested. Whether it's your first play through or coming back down nostalgia road I am here to save you some mother fuckin' time. I've played D2 for almost 20 years with maybe about a 4ish year gap recently but I've spent a solid chunk of my youth and adult life playing Diablo II in form or another. Now, D2 remastered is pretty much identical to the original with the exception of nice high res character models and fancy lighting. Everything else remains the same - the good and the bad. Now, Im more of a purist but despite that I wish they "modernized" just a few aspects. One being, the slow progression from meaningless Normal difficulty to Nightmare/Hell ect. Regardless, normal is just an obstacle to hinder the many so the few can go on play the real game. But Fear will blast you through a normal run through in less than 5 hours. I'm not a speed runner (I think they average like 1.5 hours) but I can comfortably say I can breeze through the entire normal game in about 4 hours. The peak speed will come from either Amazon or Sorc class though. So if you are interested in those classes you should be interested in this guide. For example I will use a Amazon below, which is basically a crappier sorceress but with perks! Before we begin, yes I play Diablo II... late at night... in the dark... alone... one handed (more on that later)... and if you want to party up hit me up. Fast Clear Normal Difficulty: The Rules: 1) Fill your inventory with Mana Potions, Town Portal (Tome), Stamina Potions, and save all Rejuv potions in stash 2) Skip all gear outside of Socketed Shield/Helm/Chest Armor 3) Pick up only Gems, Skulls, Runes, and Jewels 3b) Maybe pick up yellow or sets especially if you want to gear the another character 4) Waypoints, fuck that? Just activate the one closest to final act boss OR when you are quitting for the night 5) Complete all quests in order, refer to wiki instead of conversation with NPC (https://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Act_IV) 6) ACT 2 Merc ASAP - Defiance or Might 7) Skip all side areas except near Act 3 Travincal/Bazaar and Act 4 Despair/River 8) Skip all transitioning mobs except for rare/superuniques 9) Mini-map stays on always 10) Rejuv potions are for bosses where you can spam for survivability The Javazon: We will keep it simple - both Sorc and Javazons skills scale regardless of weapon which makes them prime candidates for this. I will use a Javazon for example. Either use javelins with the shield for bonus early on or just grab a 2H spear. First 5 Levels dump all points into Dex. Next 5 levels dump into Str for damage , and then the next 10 levels into Vit to stay alive. Pretty much going to go down the Jav class tree and rush Charged Strike as our boss killer and Plague Javelin for our temporary Mob killer. After 3 points in Plague we will dump everything in Lightning Jav and ofcourse Charged Strike. All excess points go into Power Strike for the prereq bonus. 1 point in criticial hit on the passive tree just in case. It will look like this by level 20: By the time we are done with Normal we will be about level 25 - 28. For the most part you will continue dumping in Charged Strike, Lightning Strike, and Power Strike. Once we hit level 30 we will unlock Lightning Fury which is what we will use for the majority of the game. Until then keep on stacking the lightning skills. At level 30 and Normal is done you can respec Act 1 and take back your plague jav skills to invest into lightning. Here is what level 30 will look like: For stats distribution, level 20 to 30, just to 3:2 ratio. 3 Vit, 1 Str, 1 Dex every level. End goal is up to what you are exactly planning on doing with your build in NM/Hell . Example, if you were to stay as a Javazon I advise only putting enough into Dex/Str to get the gear you want: 75 Str, and 109 Dex, everything else goes to Vitality. While leveling, And no, do not put points into mana. Its a waste, you will get mana from gear. ACT 1 Immediately head out the gate of Rogue Encampment and follow the dirt road. Objective is Den of Evil which will be a "location" so itll be a purple blurp on map. Follow foad until you reach sweet ass Flavie. She will talk shit but don't you worry about her sweet lips and fine ass. If you didn't see den at this point either turn left or right back toward Rogue encampment through the wilderness and BAM! +Den of Evil+ Kill every monster, quest should populate and tell you how many are left. When done leave and go see Flavie. Head to Cold Plain - stay on road but head left at the first fork to most likely get to Burial Ground. If left brings you to Stoney Field turn back and try other way. When arriving at Burial Ground drop town portal. +Burial Grounds+ Kill that hoe Blood Raven cause she owes you money. Don't even loot her, just leave because you are a cold-hearted gangsta and can't take all this shit no mo' +Stoney Field+ Follow path, probably find some cairn stones like the ones in Ireland. Not bad idea if you find the waypoint here but who cares you have stamina potions. Proceed to Underground Passage. Kill everything here that is directly in your path to stay on the leveling plane. +Dark Forest+ From exit follow the "map border" right or left, eventually see a stupid ass tree. Click it and get the tome. And either run back to stone henge or if you marked Waypoint use a townportal to get back. +Stoney Field+ Using your adult brain, match the pattern in quest lod (Q) and touch the stones defiantly (and with out permission) until shit lights up. Might have to kill Rakinishu unless your Fear the Kitten and like to keep him alive. +New/Old Tristram+ Fuck them up if you want. If not free the OG Dirty Bastard Deckard Cain from his wierd fetish cage. Then head North West and grab wirts leg. But his leg in your stash for end of difficulty fun. When done go back to Stoney Field and find black marsh. The forgotten tower quest is at Black Marsh which gives you some early runes. Do it or don't it doesnt matter. If you dont do it just come back at Act 4 and breeze through it. If not head to Tamoe Highlands following the foot path and then stay on it until Outer Cloister (shitty word). Run through Outer Cloister and go straight to barracks. +Barracks+ Kill the smith before you advance to Jails. Retrieve hammer from the smith and turn in quest at next waypoint or TP. Run through jails - drop a TP at every floor just in case you die. It will get slightly harder. +Jails/Inner Cloister/Cathedral+ Mostly run through, occasionally kill. Just get to Catacombs. I found the easiest way to find a stair case is when you spawn figure out which corner you are in and head to opposite side. If you spawn center then check around your quadrant for the next staircase. +Catacombs+ Rush to Floor 4 and then head to town. Grab Ice Merc if you dont have it. Grab 3 antidote potions, equip all your rejuv potions you have been saving and head bacl. Drop another TP just in case. Andariel boss spawns here, I found it easiest to deal with the adds first, then lure that horse looking hoe to the first room with the fountain. Basically just run around the fountain throwing Javs at her. When done, loot that bitch or fuck off and dont. Head to town and immediately turn your quests in, cash them in who cares, but head to Act 2. Let me know if you want me to continue!
ACT 2 Cool town, but we will sight see later. Head right along the way to the door way to reach sewers. +Sewers+ Rush through to find the stair case to level 2. We have to kill some jackass named Radamant who usually spawns opposite side of entrance. He usually comes in with a hefty mob so be a little more careful here as you are still underpowered. Once dead grab the Horadric Toilet Paper roll. Tp back to town and then head into rocky waste. +Dry Hills+ No more road so you will be wasting a lot of time searching for transitions and instances. My tip for Act 2 is find a border and just hug it to find the next transition point. Highly suggest stocking up on stamina potions. Arrive in Dry Hills, search for instance called Hall of the Dead Assholes. SCrew to floor 2 and snag WP if you can. Dont waste too much time, if you dont find it just go to floor 3. You will see Bloodwitch near the golden chest, she is weak shit kill and take her chest. Hooray you have a cube. IF you found the WP then TP to town and WP back in. If not just run back to dry hills and find next area Far Oasis. +Far Oasis+ Beetles will give you some problems in close-quarters because every hit cause chain lightning. Throttle on HP and skip them. Maggot lair will be somewhere near the center and usually WP is very close. Enter maggot lair and prepare to fight. Tight hallways suck. Rush to level 3, maybe drop a TP every floor as insurance. Kill coldworm, careful he explodes with chill upon death. Grab staff and either WP Far Oasis or run out. Look for transition to Lost City. +Lost City+ Oh no darkess has come, dont worry about the quest - the Valley of Snakes is conveniently located with in lost city. Go there and go into claw viper temple. Running charged strike you should tear through this. +Claw Viper Temple+ 2 Floors, no mercy, plenty of room to run through. Get the cool amulet and hooray sunlight again. TP to town and combine the staff of kinds and amulet in the whoradric cube and make horadric staff, oh so horadrically. +Harem/Cellar+ Not full of loose women unfortunately. Theyve been slaughtered which is a bigger injustice than diablo trying to enslave humanity. Enter Harem NW in town. This will be a long interior stretch so skip what you can. Run through palace to Harem, blow through level 1 and 2. Next is prison, who cares about WP so keep going. Drop TP for insurance. Need to get to the 3rd floor of Cellar. At the end of cellar 3 is tp to arcane sanctuary and a WP. +Arcane Sancuatary+ Most common stopping point of a speed run if you choose. Basically, you grind here until level 22 to make the rest of the Normal easy. Speed run lets go. Arcane is got 4 paths, guessing game I always go right because I am zoolander and dont know how to go left. Annoying area but straightfoward. One path will bring you to the summoner, just whoop his ass real quick and done. Teleport to canyon of magi. +Canyon of Magi+ Just like stonehenge, lets use our adult brain to match the symbol in quest log to the right temple. Easy, the temple only spawn on NW and NE borders because isometric. I start right said which is NE and work my way counter-clock wise. Symbol matched, enter Tal Rasha tomb. Drop TP for insurance. +Tal Rasha Tomb+ Okay, this is going to be annoying. YOu will be fighting the Act 2 boss at the end of this. but there are no waypoints so make sure you reserve the time to get through the tomb and kill Duriel. Okay, 7 levels of Tal Rasha tomb go go go. 12 minutes later... Okay, TP to town and grab your gangsta staff and stack your rejuv potions on belt. Okay, return and drop another TP and put your stick in its hole. Wall breaks and if you enter you fight boss. HOLD! Duriel - will be the most difficult boss you will fight on normal. Its a small area, he will freeze you, and you cant really fight at ranged. I recommend as soon as you enter his battle, drop another TP. Have your merc engage him, stand near you TP and walk him with charged strike. Once your merc gets killed, go back to town, resurrect him, and go back through TP (obviously drop another TP) and repeat the process until dead. CONGRATS! Grab whatever shit he gives you or dont, then head to back room and see Tyrael. TP to town, head south and see Meshif to get to Act 3. The longest Act is over. At this point Act 3 will either be brisk or slow as shit and then everything else will be fast fast. Ill do Act 3 in a minute or two
ACT 3 Annoying fucking town and I despise this act except for Mephisto. +Kurast/Upgrades+ You either are still rocking starter equipment, or you are lying to me and picked up stuff because you cant resist. You have a choice though, you can upgrade some shit from vendors if you want, but look dont waste too much time on this shit. At this point you should have Charged Strike on Mouse 1 and ranged Lightning Strike on Mouse 2. Pretty much will never hit another monster ever again with a default attack. Attack Rating matters none because CS and LS automatically hit. Weapon damage doesnt do anything since you rely on skill damage. What would you upgrade? Socket Shield and either put Diamonds for resistance in it or runes for mana regen. For chest and head anything to either give you mana or mana regen. I do suggest boots that give you run speed. Other than that lets go. +Spider Forest/Great Marsh/Flayer Jungle+ All three areas are interconnected and have several ways in or out which will make this take FOREVER or can be really fast. I lucked out and literally hit the 3 instance right in a row. Follow river is the best bet. Look out for a Jade Figurine that any monster can spawn, pick it up for golden bird quest. You need to hit Spider Forest->Spider Cavern for Khalims Eye. You need to hit Flayer Forest->Flayer Dungeon for Khalims Brain. While in Flayer Forest look for a little tiny tribal village for gidbinn dagger for another quest. After all that go through Flayer to Kurast Lower. +Lower Kurast/Bazaar+ Blow through Lower Kurast and Bazaar and look for Sewers Instance. Level 3 sewers will be Khalims Heart. Put all Khalim pieces in cube and make a flail. +Upper Kurast/Causeway/Travincal+ Leave sewers to bazaar and look for transition to upper kurast. Breeze through to the causeway then to travicinal. Clear out side instances for another quest while here. At the end of travincal will be some Council Demons, take them on one at a time as they can be difficult. When done, go up stairs to the temple, equip flail and smash the compelling orb. If memory serves me right the entrance to Durance will open. +Durance+ Breeze through this and get WP on level 2. Level 3 will lead to Mephisto Act 3 boss. I suggest killing his adds and council members first by provocating them to fight in small room. With enough rejuv potions you should be able to 1 on 1 meph with chargest strike. Woohoo, Tyral will TP you to act 4
ACT 4 This will be the fastest act - stock up on stamina and mana pots. Head right out of Pandamonium and proceed to Outer Steppes. Hug one side of the border or the other and rush to transition to Plains of Despair. Quick run around to find Izual - sack that sad sack of shit for a quest. Then head to city of damned and look for WP. Oddly the stairs down to River of Flames is right next to the WP. At this point despite being under leveled, if you have been dumping points into CS you should rick roll these mother fuckers. Cruise through until you find hell forge, kill everyone, put soulstone in forge and smash. Yay for gems and runes. Okay, go the other way to Diablo Sanctuary. +Chaos Sanctuary+ Shape of a cross - when you enter start on the right side and work your way counter clockwise and activate each seal. 5 seals total. 5 mini bosses that need a good dose of whoop ass. After the last seal is activiated diablo will spawn in the center. As usual put your rej potions in and lets get to work. Diablo is easy for the most part - i recommend using Lightning Strike and stay in range. Avoid his red lightning crap and when AOE ring of fire happens just pot an HP and take it. As usual you can drop a TP back and just keep resurrecting your merc but probably not worth it. Congratz diablo is dead so lets talk to Tyrael and get sent to the final act!
ACT 5 Okay, before I write out Act 5 speed run let's talk about two things. If you are not enjoying the speed run and find it frustrating this what you need to do - go to Act 1 and see the witch. You can respec your Amazon/Sorceress to whatever type you want to actually use. Then go back to Act 5 and gear yourself out. Go out the gate, and take your sweet time leveling up and killing shit. If you feel underpowered either go back to Mephisto and kill him a couple times or if you are really having trouble go back to Arcane Sanctuary and level up until your like 27 or 28. Just finish Act 5 normally and enjoy. Do know you shaved off a ton of time to get to this point so it was worth it. If you have been reaping and enjoying the speed run just know its going to get easier and then harder. Luckily for most of this Act you will find insane amount of HP and MP potions to keep you going but some of the fights can get tricky. The hardest area will be Ancients because you wont be able to cheese it with a TP, once you leave the fight resets. Its annoying but if you are Javazon or Sorc you can do it. Baal isnt terrible, but the build up fight before it can feel a little grindy. Just stock up on TPs and make sure to drop them for insurance.
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