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"LORD OF DESTRUCTION"

Dedicated to Max, my most loyal friend who has at last found peace.

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Ý      This walkthrough is copyrighted to Mister Sinister (2003)            Ý
Ý I don't mind it being lifted in its entireity, but if you do so, please   Ý Ý make sure you give credit to the author (me) and DON'T pass it off as     Ý Ý your own.  Thanks !                                                       Ý
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Ý                                   INDEX                                   Ý
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PART ONE              BEFORE WE GET STARTED
PART TWO              CHOOSING YOUR CHARACTER
PART THREE            ACT ONE   - THE ROGUE ENCAMPMENT
PART FOUR             ACT TWO   - LUT GHOLEIN
PART FIVE             ACT THREE - THE KURAST DOCKS
PART SIX              ACT FOUR  - THE PANDEMONIUM FORTRESS
PART SEVEN            ACT FIVE  - HARROGATH
PART EIGHT            HINTS AND TIPS
PART NINE             ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS


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Ý                                  PART ONE                                 Ý
Ý                           BEFORE WE GET STARTED                           Ý
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Hi there.  Welcome to my Diablo II: Lord of Destruction walkthrough.  There are a few things I would like to clear up before we begin if that's ok.

You might get the impression from reading this walkthrough that I'm intending for it to be read exclusively by newbies ... I'm not - however, I have
DELIBERATELY made my commentary for Act One flexible enough so that it CAN be read by newbies, and I (hopefully) explain things clearly enough for them to be able to pick up the game and run ... however, I think that there are a few things in there that even a more seasoned player might have not considered ...

... I hope so, at any rate !! =)

From Act Two (since the acts are kinda formulaic - not BORING - just formulaic) I have tried to speed up the walkthrough a bit so that people of any standard can flick through it ...

Also, I should point out that I'm British.  I say this because in the past when I have done walkthroughs, people have commented that some of the terms
I use ... like ... slaphead for example, they just don't understand ...

... you can always e-mail me and I'll explain as best I can ;)

Also, when I give directions in this walkthrough - e.g. Alkor's hut is to the north-east of your present location, I have tried to take into account that the maps are always at an angle.

Therefore, imagine tilting the screen as if you were looking down on the characters before you interpret my directions, or you *might* get a little confused ;)

Right !!  Thanks for letting me get all that out of the way - LET'S GO !! =D

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Ý                                   PART TWO                                Ý
Ý                            CHOOSING YOUR CHARACTER                        Ý
Ý                                                                           Ý
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This is obviously THE single most important decision you need to make in this game.  You can only play one character at a time, and as you will see when we play, a LOT of effort goes into developing your character.

That being said, there are seven characters available to you to pick from.
I won't bore you with their details too much, but my comments on each are as follows :-

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Ý                                    AMAZON                                 Ý
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NOT BAD !!  Check out those DUDS !!  And the hair !!  We like her ... well fitted armour is SOOOOOOO attractive =./

What's that ?  Get to the point ??  Ok ...

The Amazon is a VERY well balanced character to play.  She specialises in both Bow AND Polearm skills, making her good in hand-to-hand AND at range.
She also has a good range of passive skills - i.e. skills which run all the time in the background without having to be specifically called into play ?

GOOD POINTS :-

*  Very well balanced
*  Offers a broad set of skills to choose from

BAD POINTS :-

*  Lots of attacks costs mana, and given her ROF (Rate of Fire), if you don't have loads of mana available to you to draw from, you can quickly whittle down her reserves.
*  She's not MEAN enough for my taste.

CLASS-SPECIFIC WEAPONRY :-

*  There are certain bows in the game - e.g. Stag Bow, that can ONLY be used by the Amazon.

QUIRKS :-

*  Whilst she can use arrows with her bows, the Amazon has the rather fortunate fallback position of being able to CREATE magical arrows through the expenditure of mana.  This means that she SHOULD never be unable to fire her bow, if you're able to keep her mana in check.

HIRELINGS :-

Given that the Amazon has both ranged and hand-to-hand skills, she favours perhaps the greatest variety of choice for a Hireling ...

Rogue Sister      - Perhaps my LEAST likely suggestion, as she offers nothing that the Amazon doesn't already have skill-wise - SCORE: 1/4
Desert Mercenary  - Good choice - his hand-to-hand skills reach MAMMOTH proportions in terms of the damage they can do if he is properly equipped, and given that he HAS to get into hand-to-hand, she can either fight by his side up close and personal, or back him up with her ranged skills.  PLUS you can use his auras to great effect if you pick him carefully - SCORE: 2/4
Iron Wolf Mage    - The most versatile hireling you can get, as he boasts both hand-to-hand combat skills, AND ranged spellcasting abilities.  I would suggest that you might like to look to using him, as he can back up your Amazon in any given situation.  SCORE: 4/4
Barbarian Warrior - The strongest fighter I would say, so my comments are pretty much as per the Desert Mercenary (bar
Barbarian's Lack of ability to use auras of course).
SCORE: 3/4


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Ý                                ASSASSIN                                   Ý
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OMIGOD !!  I tell ya, from the moment she did that first spin-kick at the character select screen ?  I fell in LOVE with the assassin ... I love assassins as characters anyway ... they are so PRO !  So she was my first character (and is still my best even today !!)

The Amazon boasts a specialised set of skills, with a broad variety of martial arts attacks that can be used to great effect if you feel like getting up close and nasty ... for those of you who are keen to stay away, you can rely on her traps instead - there are plenty of those to amuse you too.  She ISN'T as versatile a character as the Amazon, but given the fact that she's just so plain MEAN, I just HAD to play as her first of all.

GOOD POINTS :-

*  If you augment her skills intelligently, she can become DEVASTATINGLY powerful as the levels go on ... PLUS her ability to place traps means that she can pretty much avoid most difficult situations, by wearing down her opponents with fire and lightning before they get close enough to do her any real harm.
*  She just looks so MEAN !!!!! =D

BAD POINTS :-

*  Whilst she has a load of hand-to-hand skills at her disposal, when I was playing her I found that - even though they were varied - they weren't generally as powerful as her traps and, as such, I pretty much wound up focusing on increasing her trap skills at the expense of her other abilities.

CLASS-SPECIFIC WEAPONRY :-

*  Various hand-held weapons, including the hatchet hands, katar and quhab.

QUIRKS :-

*  The Assassin can automatically pick locks ... this means that she need never carry around keys, and can automatically open locked chests ...
RESULT !!!!! =D

HIRELINGS :-

Given her versatility the Assassin should ideally look to choose a hireling that reflects her style of play ... if you are a Trap Specialist, you might like to go for the hireling (as I did) to afford you extra protection at range ... if you focus more on the assassin's hand-to-hand skills, then you might like to go for the desert mercenary or barbarian for more backup when you are in the fray ...

As such, my comments are as follows :-

Rogue Sister      - This is the hireling that I personally pick when I'm playing the assassin.  I feel that her powerful long-ranged bow attacks work well in conjunction with the way I play my assassin - inflicting OPTIMUM long-range attack damage rather than getting up close and personal.  SCORE: 4/4
Desert Mercenary  - Another good choice for the Assassin ... the Desert
Mercenary's Auras can provide her with benefits should she need to mix it up a little, whilst his hand-to-hand skills can provide her with enough time to set up a couple more traps and wipe out some enemies.  However, I personally find that the Desert
Merc's tendency to just run head-first into combat frustrates my style, as it would be better if he just held back that little bit longer ???  SCORE: 2/4
Iron Wolf Mage    - A well balanced hireling, 'tis true ... if you are the type of player that chops and changes his/her style of play to suit the circumstances, and has spread your upgrade points pretty much evenly across your skills, then this might well be the hireling to compliment YOUR style of play.  SCORE: 3/4
Barbarian Warrior - Bless him ... I'm sure there is SOMEBODY out there that would have a 4/4 for the Barbarian Warrior, but it AIN'T gonna be me sunshine ... I tried using him with my assassin, but I found that my comparatively weak hand-to-hand skills (because I'd loaded up so heavily on traps) meant that I couldn't provide HIM with the kind of support HE needed when he was wading up to his neck into trouble ... SCORE: 1/4

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