Diablo 2: Resurrected, guide and advice for budding players

Diablo 2

In this introductory guide to Diablo 2: Resurrected we will make an overview of the classes, characteristics and abilities, with an eye to those who are approaching the Blizzard title for the first time.

Diablo 2: Resurrected is the remastering of the immortal Diablo 2 and its expansion Lord of Destruction, two real cornerstones of the RPG genre. The remaster is extremely faithful to the original twenty years ago when it comes to game content and mechanics, but features modern graphics and audio reworked for PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X | S, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.

The choice of class

Diablo 2: Resurrected, the Druid The first thing to do in Diablo 2: Resurrected is obviously to choose the class with which to start the adventure. There are seven characters available, namely Amazon, Assassin, Barbarian, Druid, Necromancer, Paladin and Enchantress. Each of them has unique characteristics and abilities, which inevitably affect your play style. Similarly, however, all characters are highly customizable, with countless configurations and equipment options. Here is a brief overview of each class in Diablo 2: Resurrected.



Amazon: she is a master in the use of the javelin and the bow and faces fights with superhuman agility. She is a very versatile class, allowing her to annihilate opponents from afar with arrows that she can infuse with elements of fire and ice and at the same time she does not do badly in close range combat using the spear. However, her versatility makes her unsuitable for novice players. Assassin: She is a martial arts expert who uses lethal traps and shadow disciplines to defeat evil. It is an extremely agile and lethal class in the right hands, but also fragile. To use it effectively you need to execute numerous commands and place traps in advance. Also in this case, therefore, we are talking about a character that is not very suitable for those approaching the game for the first time. Necromancer: Has dominion over life and death, which allows him to summon armies of skeletons and golems to fight alongside him. He can also use bone magic, unleash poisons and curses that cause altered states to the unfortunate. And as if that weren't enough, he can also explode the carcasses of enemies. A very fun class and all in all an excellent starting point for those approaching Diablo 2 for the first time. Barbaro: a concentrate of brute strength and robustness. Specializing in melee combat, the Barbarian can use a number of different weapons and let out warcries to empower allies or debuff enemies. One of the most accessible classes for newbies and that in multiplayer can turn out to be an excellent tank. Paladin: Fights using one-handed melee weapons and can use a shield to defend against enemy shots. Not only that, he can also take advantage of spells and powerful auras, which can damage enemies or guarantee passive bonuses for the team. A versatile class that can aim for both offensive and defense depending on the build you choose, but difficult to master. Enchantress: She fights from a distance, annihilating enemies with powerful spells of fire, ice and lightning and, once she has learned the relative skill, she can also teleport from one point to another on the screen. On the other hand, she is rather fragile and unsuitable for close combat. One of the most fun classes to use and also one of the most accessible. Druid: undoubtedly one of the most fascinating classes. Who wouldn't like to transform into a werewolf or a bear, command animal companions, and tear enemies to shreds? The Druid's "animal pack" also adds the use of earth, fire, wind and ice spells, making him one of the most versatile characters in Diablo 2: Resurrected.

After this brief overview, the question that arises is: what is the best class to play in Diablo 2: Resurrected? If we talk about mere potential, there is no stronger character in an absolute sense. Rather, considering the many hours of gameplay that you could spend in the game, the advice is to choose the class that seems most fun and suitable for your style of play. Do you want to have an army under your command? The Necromancer is for you. Do you like to do bad and bad weather with magic? Then you should focus on the Enchantress. Do you prefer a more direct and brutal approach? The Barbarian will give you a lot of satisfaction.

Having said that, if you are a budding player, the advice is to avoid the more complex classes, focusing on the more accessible ones. The Barbarian in this regard is one of the best classes to start. The complexity of this class can only be glimpsed in the advanced stages of the game, when theoretically you should have become familiar with the dynamics of the gameplay of Diablo 2: Resurrected, and you should have clear ideas whether to turn it into a tank or a DPS.

If close combat isn't your thing, the other recommended option for newbies is the Enchantress, thanks to her powerful elemental spells with high damage, altered statuses such as freezing enemies and Teleportation. Another good choice is the Necromancer and his army of invocations which, especially in the early stages, will crush enemies like gnats.

Build and reset of characteristics

Diablo 2: Resurrected, The Enchantress Building an efficient build for her class, carefully selecting the equipment to use and where to invest skill points and characteristics, is the core of the Diablo 2: Resurrected experience. Considering the limited options regarding stat reset, the advice is to plan your character's growth path from the very beginning.

However, if this is the first time you are playing Diablo 2 or the series in general, it is useless to puzzle too much about the many builds that can be found online. Better to aim for fun, trying to learn the game mechanics calmly and at the right pace. Obviously, don't use this advice as an excuse to assign Skill Points in bulk. The biggest mistake that could be made at the beginning is to try to balance the parameters by investing the statistic points in parallel on all the characteristics or aiming at the quantity of skills rather than the quality.

That said, the Normal difficulty level is forgiving enough that you can allow yourself a few mistakes along the way and experiment with builds, which is ultimately part of the fun. Also in case you make a mess it is possible to reset the skill points and statistics of your character, although the options in this sense are quite limited.

Basically there are two methods, as explained in our guide on how to reset the characteristics of your character in Diablo 2: Resurrected. One requires you to obtain rare materials and will only be accessible on the highest difficulty. The other allows you to restore points for free by talking to NPC Akara, but only once per game. In short, do it only in an absolute emergency.

Features and abilities

Diablo 2: Resurrected, with the right skills your character can become a war machine As explained above investing with reasoning in skills and statistics is important in order not to end up with an inefficient character in combat. Defeating enemies will earn you experience points needed to level up. At each level up you will get 5 points to invest in characteristics and one for skills.

Below is an overview of the characteristics in Diablo 2: Resurrected:

Strength: affects the damage dealt with the equipped weapon and determines the type of armor you will be able to use. Dexterity: Affects the odds of hitting enemies and avoiding attacks. It also determines the ability to equip certain types of weapons, especially ranged ones, and the odds of blocking an attack if you equip a shield. Vitality: determines the amount of life and stamina of your character. Energy: Determines the amount of mana your character has.

Regardless of the class, Vitality is a stat where it never hurts to invest points, due to the poor health of the characters and the fact that a high amount of life points are more effective than armor when playing it's about staying alive. Spend strengths and dexterity especially to meet the requirements of the equipment.

Skills on the other hand are divided into three different skill trees, which include active talents and passive bonuses. Considering that you will often use one or two skills as the main ones, you should invest points at most on two branches. Don't be fooled by the fact that some skills can only be unlocked at the most advanced levels, often the initial ones may be more effective. You can invest up to 20 points on a single skill and those from the same branch may have synergies between them.

Death is more punishing than you think

Diablo 2: Resurrected, the world is full of dangers and dying will have worse consequences than you think If you haven't played Diablo 2 in the past, you might be blown away the first time your character leaves his feathers. Each time the protagonist is defeated, in fact, he resurrects in the main city of the Act you are playing, losing all the equipped items (fortunately not those in the inventory), which remain on his corpse instead. To recover them, therefore, you will have to find your remains.

In short, a mechanic in some ways similar to that of the Souls or ZombiU, but with an important difference: if you die a second time while trying to recover your possessions these will not be lost forever, but rather there will be two (or more) corpses in the game world in possession of loot. Obviously losing your main equipment is a big blow, so always try to recover your loot as soon as possible and keep spare weapons and armor in your inventory just in case.

A mercenary as a friend

Diablo 2: Resurrected, Mercenaries have characteristics and abilities, just like your character. If you prefer to play Diablo 2: Resurrected in single player, we recommend that you hire a mercenary. We are talking about NPCs driven by artificial intelligence who fight alongside your character giving him a hand. You can only take on one at a time and they belong to different classes depending on the Act you have achieved: Rangers, Spearmen, Mages and Barbarians. Each mercenary has, just like your character, different abilities and stats, you can equip him with weapons and armor and he will level up by gaining experience points.

At higher difficulties they are basically useless or slaughterhouse fodder, but to yours first experience with Diablo 2: Resurrected may not be a bad idea to invest a small amount for an ally. In Act 1 you will be able to recruit mercenaries by talking to Kashya in the Ranger Camp after completing the Blood Raven quest. The former, by the way, is offered by the house, so we might as well take advantage of it.

The Tomes of the City Portal and Identification are the best friends in your inventory

Diablo 2: Resurrected, the Akara inventory the first NPC that will assign you a quest in Diablo 2: Resurrected has among its merchandise for sale two very interesting items that we recommend you get as soon as possible, namely the Identification Tome and the Portal Tome Citizen. These are nothing more than binders that can hold up to 20 units of City Portal Scrolls and Identification Scrolls respectively, allowing you to save space in your inventory.

City Portal creates a one-way portal which transports you directly to the city, while the Identification scrolls allow you to reveal the attributes of a magical item, a necessary step to be able to equip them.

Speaking of inventory management, during your adventures you will find loot to no end, but it is not wise to collect every single item. You can make a nice nest egg by selling excess items, but it's a tedious process that could force you to use a portal multiple times to return to the city and then resume your journey later. So we recommend that you focus on class-specific items, rings, amulets and so on rather than on low-value items that just take up space in your inventory.

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