Alright, so I fired up Diablo 2 Resurrected yesterday thinking I’d breeze through leveling up like back in the day. Boy, was I wrong. Let me walk you through exactly how I messed up and what I fixed to stop wasting hours grinding.
My First Dumb Move
First off, I rolled a Paladin because “easy mode,” right? Wrong. I dumped points into Holy Bolt early because I remembered it shredding undead. What I forgot? Holy Bolt only hits UNDEAD. When I hit the Stony Field full of beast types, I might as well have been throwing marshmallows. My damage output was a joke.
Skill Points Disaster
Here’s where it got ugly. I kept putting single points here and there – Zeal here, Might there, Thorns because… why not? By level 15 I was a confused mess swinging a wet noodle sword. Zero synergy bonuses meant my holy Bolts still tickled monsters.
- Major screwup: Not focusing on ONE main skill tree immediately
- Painful lesson: You NEED those synergy bonuses to actually kill stuff
That Sweet “Upgrade” Trap
Found a badass-looking two-handed sword around level 18 that required 25 Strength. Drained my entire stash of gems to socket a Sapphire for mana. Then realized I couldn’t equip it till Act 2 without farming Strength charms for an hour. Meanwhile my crappy starter sword melted skeletons slower than ice cream in hell.
Epiphany moment: Damage per second >>>>>> shiny item models. Keep your attack speed HIGH early.
The Anti-Resistance Campaign
Duriel murdered me. Like, instantly. Four times. Because my cold resistance was NEGATIVE 15%. All that gear with “+5% poison resist” or “+10 life”? Worthless when the big boy hits you with 200 cold damage per swing. Had to restart the entire act after farming thawing potions for 30 minutes.
Farming Fails
After finally beating Duriel, I thought “I’ll just run Tombs for XP!” Spent 45 minutes clearing every corner like a completionist. Got two whole levels. Then remembered rune drops don’t even happen there. Felt like an idiot when I switched to Countess runs and jumped 8 levels plus runes in half the time.
- Stupid tax: Not checking area level caps before grinding
- Game changer: Targeted farming beats blind clearing every time
How I Turned It Around
Respecced at Akara at level 24 – dumped EVERYTHING into Blessed Hammer and Vigor. Grabbed the first fast one-handed weapon I found. Stacked lightning/cold resist gear even if it looked dumb. Stuck to Countess/Andariel runs until level 30. Suddenly felt like playing with cheat codes.
Final death count: 17 before fixing mistakes, 2 after. Moral of the story? Don’t be nostalgic – be smart. Now go murder some demons properly.