| Basics | Characters | Controls | Resistance | Vendors | Gambling |
Character Names must be between 2 and 15 characters. Characters Names may only have upper and lower case letters (A-Z). In addition, names may have one dash ( - ) or one underscore ( _ ) as long as it is not the first or last character of the name. Finally, there are no spaces and no numbers allowed in Diablo II Character Names.
When a character levels up by earning enough experience points (from killing monsters), the "Level Up" and "New Skill" buttons appear at the bottom left and right corners of the screen. When in a safe situation, click on the buttons to bring up the Character Attributes and the Skill Tree to allocate the points. Some people in our guild feel that they can add these points even when in the toughest of battles, and some just hold on to them until they get multiple level ups.
Each time you level up, you may distribute 5 attribute points among your 4 attributes - Strength, which affects damage, Dexterity, which affects the ability to hit and avoid attacks, Vitality, which affects life, and Energy, which affects mana. Click on the "+" button next to an attribute to increment that attribute.
Each time you level up, you may add 1 point to an available skill. Available skills satisfy both a player level requirement and any skill prerequisites higher up on the tree. Click on all 3 tabs and sweep your cursor over the available skills to review their descriptions and detailed effects before making your selection.
See Tables For Level and Experience points HERE
Much like in real life, death is something you should try to avoid in Diablo II. When your Hit Points are reduced to zero during the game, you have died, 'DUH'.
If you are killed by a monster, your character loses a percentage of the total gold both carried and stored in the Stash. The percentage is equal to your character level.The rest falls to the ground in a pile. If the penalty uses up the gold being carried, the remainder of the penalty is deducted from the Stash.
However, in Single Player the death penalty will not take away all your gold. No gold is taken from the Stash and 500 gold per character level is exempt from the death penalty.
If you are killed by another player (PKed), your character does not drop the gold being carried, but instead drops the amount of gold that would be lost if you had been killed by a monster. This prevents a player killer (PK) from taking the gold you are carrying.In this way the gold dropped comes from your stash too.
As an additional death penalty, in Nightmare and Hell difficulty, your character will loses some experience, but will not drop down to a lower character level. You will lose 5% of the experience needed to attain the next level on Nightmare, and 10% on Hell.
When you press the Esc key you will restart in town. However, your corpse remains at the location where you died. You will have to return to your corpse in order to retrieve the gear that you had equipped when you died. When you find your corpse again left-click on it to re-equip your items. Make sure you have room in your inventory to pick up all the items on your corpse. If you do not have room, you will not be able to fully loot your corpse and you could lose some health and mana. You should also collect any gold you might have dropped when you died. If you're having trouble finding your corpse it appears as a red cross on your map.
If your character currently has no corpse, one is created and your equipped items stay on your corpse. If your character already has a corpse, equipped items simply fall to the ground along with gold. Be warned about equipping valuable equipment when you already have a corpse out in the field. If you die, your items will fall to the ground allowing anyone to take them. Unequipped items always remain in your inventory.
Only you (and those you permit) may loot your corpse.
After re-equipping the items from your corpse, you may wish to verify that you are using your primary weapon of choice and not your "backup" equipment or an item accidently picked up nearby, or from the area surrounding your corpse.
If you exit a game without retrieving your corpse, it will be placed in town in the next game you create or join.
NOTE: If your character was created "Hardcore", it is never reincarnated - you simply find yourself as a ghost in the Battle.net chat channel. Hardcore characters cannot create or join games once they have died.
Warning on recovering your corpse If you use +Strength or +Dexterity items to allow your character to wear other pieces of equipment or weapons, you may have to manually reequip these items after death. When you click on your corpse, an attempt is made to reequip your items where they were before. If, for example, an item that requires more than your base Strength (such as Armor) is attempted to be placed on your character before another item that gives +Strength which allows that armor, then that item can't and won't be placed on your character and will instead will fall into your inventory. If you do not have room in your inventory it will remain on the corpse. In this situation you will have looted and will be wearing all items you have room for, and your corpse will still exist with the items that couldn't be placed on your character or inventory. Warning: If you die while your corpse is still on the ground you may drop important items that you have just recovered from your corpse. This happens because any items you are wearing while a corpse already exists will be dropped to the ground. It is therefor extremely important to make room in your inventory for weapons or items before attempting to retrieve your body. When your belt comes off, your potions can quickly fill your inventory. Free up plenty of space in your inventory before looting your body. Keep this in mind especially in player vs player situations where another player might steal any of your items if you happen to die while you are in the process of equipping your items with an existing corpse.
If your corpse is located in an area where it is too dangerous to retrieve, or if you simply can't find your body, you can simplify matters by exiting and re-entering the game. When you do so, your corpse and all of its items will appear near your starting location in town. The drawback to this method is that you will lose any gold that your character had dropped upon death. This is even an option to advanced players playing on Nightmare and Hell Difficulty levels where deaths result in lost experience. When you die it's safer to exit and re-join the game to get your corpse if there are dangerous enemies around your body. When you rejoin the game, your corpse will be located in town next to where the Town Portals are created. In Lut Gholein this area is at the bottom right of town, in Kurast, this area is next to the Meshif. You should be able to find your corpse on the automap if you explore the town.
Periodically, Battle.net automatically saves every character playing in all Diablo II games. Your character is also saved when you choose "Save and Exit Game" from the 'Esc' Menu. If you die and leave a game without retrieving your corpse, at the beginning of the next game you start or join your corpse is placed in (or just outside) the town.
The character save data includes Character Attributes, Inventory, Skills, Skill Hot keys, Control Configuration, Waypoints Activated, the character's Corpse (if there is one), the list of completed Quests, and the contents of the character's Stash.
Your character has several Attributes corresponding to the abilities he or she will use during the game. Each character Class starts out with different starting values to represent training they have already had.
There is no limit on the points you can put into a single Attribute. However, you only receive 5 attribute points per level (plus one quest that gives 5 additional attribute points as a reward), so there is a finite amount of attribute points that you can earn.
Strength: affects how much damage you do when attacking and what armor you can equip. Displayed near your Strength is your attack damage rating associated with the actions you have selected for the Left and Right Action Icons. 170 Strength is the maximum Strength required to wield any weapon or don any armor. Additional Strength over 170 will give only minor increases in damage so points will probably be best spent elsewhere. Paladins and Barbarians are the classes that will need to wear the heaviest armor in the game, so they are the only classes that really should increase their strength all the way to 170, although there is nothing to stop the other classes from increasing their strength to that point as well. Amazon Bows will never require more than 95 Strength so they may not want to spend any more points past 95 although you might want to go higher for better Belts and Armor. Necromancers and Sorceresses typically want at least 60 Strength to equip Belts with 16 slots to hold their many Mana Potions, but they can also devote more points to Strength to wear Armor that offers more protection. Before spending too many of your hard won attribute points, remember that many magical armors have reduced Strength requirements, so a character can get by with much less Strength than this if they are choosy about their items. You will have to use up one of the Magical Attributes on that Armor, however, which may not be as much of an issue if you find a Rare Piece of Armor with up to 5 Magical attributes.
All characters can wear items that give additional Strength. This is something you should look into when wanting to use an item that you do not yet meet the requirements for.
Dexterity is a reflection of your character's agility. Your ability to defend against attacks, and how often your own melee or ranged attacks succeed depend on how much dexterity you have. These qualities are expressed as your Attack Rating and your Defense Rating:
Attack Ratings - The first Attack Rating field represents the attack rating for the action that is selected in your Left Action Icon, while the second field represents the Right Action Icon. The higher the value the more often your character will hit in battle. Magical attacks or non-combat skills do not have attack ratings and, if such a skill is currently selected in an Action Icon, the associated field will be blank. Melee fighters need enough Dexterity to hit often enough to kill without being killed. An estimate would be between 50 and 75%. If you are a melee fighter and you feel you are missing monsters too much, add more points to Dexterity or find/gamble a Dexterity-boosting item. If the monsters are much higher level than your character you should also level up to a level above the monsters to have a better chance of hitting them.
For any melee attack there is never less than a 5% chance to hit and never more than 95% chance to hit.
Defense Rating represents how well your character can avoid being hit in combat. The higher the value the less often your character will be hit. Highlighting the Defense Rating field with your cursor will display the percentage chance needed for a creature of your level to successfully hit you.
Vitality determines how much life your character has and how far you can run without resting.
Stamina affects how far you can run. Having more stamina means you can run farther before tiring out. Life is the amount of damage your character can endure before he or she will die. Life does not regenerate by itself, and must be replenished through healing potions, items that Replenish Life, or by visiting a healer.
Chance of Double Heal The amount of Vitality affects the chance of receiving double the Hit Points healed from a Healing Potion:
Energy determines how much Mana your character possesses.
Mana is your character's essence. Each time certain skills are used, such as the Sorceress' Fire Bolt or the Barbarian's Double Swing, some of this mana is consumed.
Adding more Mana is a good way to increase Mana Regeneration.
Stamina affects how far you can run. Having more stamina means you can run farther before tiring out.
Heavier Armor drains Stamina Faster and Slows Run/Walk Speed
Heavy Armor causes you to drain Stamina faster and slows your Run/Walk speed. Shields do not drain Stamina faster but they do slow your Run/Walk Speed. Light and Medium Armor do not drain Stamina faster. Heavy Armor doubles the Stamina depletion rate. Decrease in speed from Armor and Shields stack, so 10% decrease from a Shield and 10% from Armor would make you run 20% slower. If you're having serious problems with Stamina drop back to Medium Armor or Light Armor.
When you defeat Diablo on Regular or Hardcore mode, and on Normal, Nightmare, and Hell difficulty levels, your character will receive a new title in front of your characters name, example: Sir Warblade. You will receive a title as soon as you defeat Diablo, completing the last quest. Note that the Barbarian, Paladin, and Necromancer receive male titles, and the Sorceress and Amazon receive female titles. Keep this in mind when naming your characters so you do not end up with a female title in front of a male name for example.
Normal Difficulty: Sir, Dame
Nightmare Difficulty: Lord, Lady
Hell Difficulty: Baron, Baroness
Hardcore Mode
Normal Difficulty: Count, Countess
Nightmare Difficulty: Duke, Duchess
Hell Difficulty: King, Queen