Playstyle & Progression

• Clear out the Den of Evil and pick up items to sell, like Rings, Amulets, Charms, etc. Keep using Throw with your javelin to kill your enemies until you hit Level 6. Yes... This is painful...
• Important: Pick up and keep any type of Ruby for later use! When you come across Gem Shrines, drop every Gem apart from your highest Ruby to upgrade them as high as possible.
• Pick up a couple of Chipped Gems and put them into your Stash. You can use them to repair the expensive Lower Resist and Teleport Charges by putting 1 Chipped Gem + 1 Ort Rune and the Charges-item into the Horadric Cube and hit Transmute.
• Return to town, sell the items to Charsi and purchase a bunch of Javelin stacks. Buy some Life and Stamina Potions from Akara as well. Add both the Tome of Town Portal, and the Tome of Identify if possible.
• From this point onwards, Elite Groups are your primary focus when it comes to killing monsters. Don't waste your time with individual monsters. They grant far less Experience!
• Start using Poison Javelin as soon as you hit Level 6. This attack creates a straight line of clouds, dealing Poison Damage to targets moving through it. There are different situations that require a different use:
  • Against fast moving melee targets: Throw the Poison Javelin in front of you and run through the cloud to lure in the enemies.
  • Against ranged monsters: Throw the Poison Javelin next to them and move to the opposite side of the line. Move out of range of the monsters. This forces them to move into the cloud. While ranged monsters are in range of you, they usually don't move a lot.
• Fight your way to the Black Marsh. Find the Waypoint and start farming The Countess inside the Forgotten Tower for the below listed Runes. Put the Runes into your Stash for storage.
  Check Charsi for the 2 Socketed Studded Leather, and 2x 2 Socketed Helmet at the start of each run. Also check for a 2-3 Socketed Hunter's Bow.
• Equip your Gemmed Hunter's Bow, ideally filled with 2x Chipped Ruby. Wait with the final Socket until you killed Andariel - She might drop a big Ruby. They increase the explosion damage of your main damage dealing ability; Exploding Arrow. Be aware of the massive amount of Mana this skill goes through! Prepare your inventory with Potions accordingly and equip your Gemmed Cap if you have farmed Tir Runes. Continue to use Poison Javelin from your secondary Weapon Swap until the end of Act 1.
• After acquiring all Runes, make your way to the Catacombs Level 4, where you face the first Act boss, Andariel - Maiden of Anguish.

Gear Checklist

Playstyle & Progression

• Enter Lut Gholein and pick up a Belt from Farah. Check Drognan for a 2 Socketed Bone Shield. The Shield can be shopped a lot later, but why would you go back for it? Put it into your Stash for now.
• Kill Radament first and then continue making progress through Act 2. Only use Exploding Arrow as the Poison Javelin is no longer useful.
• Create and equip your Stealth Studded Leather at Level 17.
• Make your way through Act 3. At Level 19 you can put on a Gemmed Cap if you want to feel safer against Fire Damage. This comes at the cost of Quality of Life if you had a Gemmed Cap before.
• Your target for the end of Act 3 is at least Level 19.8.
• Hire an Act 2 Mercenary after you enter Act 4 and equip him with a Pike from Halbu. You'll need him to kill Grandvizier of Chaos in the Chaos Sanctuary and Colenzo the Annihilator on the first Wave in the Throne of Destruction.
• When you reach Level 20, go to Act 3 and shop for a Battle Staff of Teleportation at Ormus. Use a Waypoint you pick up along the way and re-enter Kurast Docks through a Town Portal to reset his inventory. You only need to check Staves with a red background because the Level required for it is 24, meaning you can't equip it right now.
• Continue your progress all the way to Baal. Kill Izual along the way for the extra Skill Points and finish.
• Open up The Secret Cow Level and pick up items to sell for Gold while Leveling up to 25. Equip the Battle Staff of Teleportation in your secondary Weapon Swap when you hit Level 24. Kill Eldritch the Rectifier once you reach Level 25. Reach Level 26 here so you can buy the big Potions in Nightmare.

Gear Checklist

Attribute Allocation

Playstyle & Progression

• Respec according to the plan above.
• Equip your Javelin of Swiftness and Rhyme Bone Shield in your main Weapon Swap. Put the additional Javelin of Swiftness and the Wand of Lower Resistance into your inventory. This saves you some time as you have to repair them less often.
• You'll frequently switch between the Wand of Lower Resistance and Battle Staff of Teleportation in your Weapon Swap:
  • Equip the Wand of Lower Resistance in open areas and for boss fights to increase damage as needed.
  • Equip the Battle Staff of Teleportation in maze-like areas.
• Lightning Fury is one of the most powerful Area of Effect Skills. In combination with Pierce you can theoretically hit up to 200 targets. Use it to get rid of high density monster packs.
• Charged Strike is your single target destroyer. Use it against any left-over enemies and in boss fights.
  Note: The Synergies for Charged Strike were changed slightly in Patch 2.4. This leads to lower damage early on. However, it reaches higher damage numbers when all Synergies are maxed out.
• Curse tanky or Immune to Lightning enemies with Lower Resist to break their immunity or simply skip them by running or Teleporting past them. The latter is required in Act 2's Maggot Lair and some parts of Act 3.
• Shop for +20% Increased Attack Speed Gloves of Alacrity at Level 41 (only check Heavy Gloves) or Level 44 (check Heavy Gloves as well) at Charsi / Gheed in Nightmare Act 1.
• The Chaos Sanctuary can be an annoying place. While Grandvizier the Chaos is always Immune to Lightning the other 2 Seal bosses can also be Immune to Lightning which cannot be broken. Unfortunately, the only way to deal with this is to re-roll the Chaos Sanctuary.
• The biggest challenge lies with the Ancients in Act 5. Before you start this fight, drop 1-2 inventories worth of Life and Mana Potions. Repair your Wand of Lower Resistance to ensure that you have enough Charges. Madawc is always Immune to Lightning, and even after his Immunity is broken, he still has a lot of remaining Lightning Resist. Make sure none of the Ancients have Elite modifiers that increase their Resistances (Magic Resistant, Lightning Enchanted, Spectral Hit) as this makes this fight harder than it needs to be. Using a Town Portal resets the fight. Split up the 3 Ancients and kill Talic and Korlic first. Take Talic into a corner to stop him from using Whirlwind and face tank Korlic to slap him down. If you farmed for the Strength Spear, equip it to get Madawc down to 10% remaining Life with its Crushing Blow and jab for its bonus to Attack Rating and high attack speed. Then use Lower Resist to break his immunity and finish him with charged strike.