BATTLE.NET

GHOST-SPOTTING TIPS

By now, you've all probably encountered ghosts, people who've name-blanked themselves and set their level to zero so that they're invisible. Until Blizzard comes up with Yet Another Patch to address this behavior, here are some simple ways to spot ghosts:
1) You're in town, and you keep seeing has cast an illegal spell" messages. For some reason, most ghosts can't deal with the fact that their old TownKill patch doesn't work anymore, and will repeatedly try until they run out of mana. Taunt the ghost repeatedly. Don't try duping or exchanging equipment; ghosts seem to love stealing.
2) Your mana (if you're mana-shielded) or health drops for no apparent reason. You can't hear a weapon or spell, but you're being injured with nothing in sight. Advice is to leave the game with all due haste.
3) You create a game, play for a while, and suddenly you get lagged as if a slow player has connected, but you can't see them. Time for a new game.

GETTING KILLED BUT KEEPING ALL OF YOUR STUFF
A good way to avoid getting PKed or even just losing your stuff when dying is ALT-F4. Yes, that wonderful little keystroke to close a Windows program. (also reported to be the way to the Secret Cow Level by Robbers). Even as you're screaming, by hitting ALT-F4, the game closes, without saving your dead character.

HOW TO KILL PESKY PKS AND OTHER ANNOYING PEOPLE
You can get rid of PKs by going down to level 16, this may take a little effort, but it will be worth it, find Diablo's lair, but don't open it, instead, open a portal into his lair...and lure the PK into the portal...Diablo and his fellow blood knights will do all the work for you. Also if you happen to see a person with a whole ton of hit points, say like 30,000,000 use bone spirit, that would take a big chunk out of his life pretty quick.

AVOID GETTING PK'D: LET THE OTHER PLAYER GO FIRST
A new PK technique that mages/rogues use is to let you go first, then wait until you're busy fighting creatures before they let fly with fireballs/arrows. If they time it right, they'll help the creatures kill you--so your ear gets dumped on the ground when you die. To avoid this situation, always let unfamiliar players go first. Wait a while, until you know you can trust them, before you begin to go first.

REDUCING LAG
First off, find yourself a group of HONEST reliable players, make a private CHANNEL that you can all go to before beginning your games! Make sure no one has red lagg status. If they do, have them try to re-connect. This doesn't always work, but it's better than nothing.
Next have the LOWEST level fighter make the game as this makes for the easiest dungeons! Always take a balanced party containing at least 1 mage and 1 fighter. Now have everyone join the game: if there is no lagg, all is good. But if lagg shows it's ugly head, find out who is causing it by having the players leave and rejoin the game one at a time! If the unlucky player cannot reduce his/her lagg then don't play with them! This might sound cruel, but how much worse would it be to lose all of your stuff? Also, not everyone can play with everyone else! Another trick is too turn either/ both music/sound off!

MEANING OF THE DOTS IN CHARACTER BOXES IN THE BATTLE.NET CHANNELS
The dots represent the 'soulstones' that you get from Diablo slayings. The first dot means that you've killed Diablo on normal mode, the second means that you've killed Diablo on Nightmare mode (you also get the first dot for doing this if you don't already have it) and the third means that you've killed Diablo on Hell mode (you also get any previous dots you don't have). When you get the maximum of three dots, then your character's box gets outlined in gold as well.

GETTING SOMEONE'S ID ON BATTLE.NET
To get the battlenet ID, type /whois {charname} without the braces while on a B.net channel. (ie. If you want to find my ID while I'm on B.net, you'd type /whois Alaric ). It will return a unique number for you or whomever's name you entered. You don't get a unique ID for every char you have, so if you have 2 chars on the same machine, they will have the same ID.
This can be used for several purposes. One theory is that people with extremely high ID numbers (ie 200000+) or so and characters that are 45th level, have cheated to get their character that high since they wouldn't have been on Battle.net that long. This is by no means a surefire way of determining cheating. They could have built up their characters outside of Battle.net before joining or have been rabidly playing B.net 24 hrs/day for the last week or so.
Another use of the ID is to tell who a person really is. With all the character editors and multiple characters around, it's hard to tell who just Townkilled you. However, with their ID, you can know for sure who to get revenge on or put a bounty on. /whereis (charname) also works.

CHARACTERS

ATTRIBUTES
What stats should you improve? Balance your stats with the knowledge that levels are harder to gain later in the game. After level 26 or so, you will be spending several hours (8 or more) gaining individual levels. Luckily, Adira starts selling Strength, Dex, and Magic Elixirs at that point. From level 26 on up, you will gain more stats from Elixirs than by leveling. If you are not journeying with a fighter, don't raise your strength stat on the low levels--spend those points on dex. Rogues have ample opportunity to raise their strength later. Warriors, likewise, have ample opportunity to raise magic and dex later in the game. Sorcerers, for the same reasons, can ignore strength and dex until level 26. (You should raise these secondary stats enough to wear armor and weapons.) .

DEXTERITY
Now we're talking about people who play the game for the real sense of accomplishment it brings, not your run-of-the-mill show-off. But my discovery, after being forced to rebuild my characters from scratch more than once, is that of all the attributes Dexterity matters most. Why? Well it's simple. What are the two most important parts of battle? Hitting the foe, and not being hit by the foe. What does Dexterity do? It 1) Improves your chance to hit the foe, and 2) Improves your chance to avoid being hit by the foe. All warfare boils down to these two things. Even main battle tanks rely on not being hit to survive, not on the density of their armor or the punch of their weapons. So my suggestion, with two TOTALLY legit characters (and a host of semi-legitimate characters) regularly slaying Diablo without a scratch is: Before going for strength or vitality or magic, get a 60 in dexterity (or maybe a little better, if you are a Rogue).

WARRIOR FITNESS
1) You need bows (yes, bows): Bow is long range firepower, and that means you don't have to go up close and personal with the critters you are going after. While sometimes that's good, other times the chase may bring even more bad guys. Ever chased a couple goatmen archers into a room only to find over a dozen more of them pouring arrows into you while you can't even land ONE blow on ONE of them? That's the time to use arrows. When combined with spells like firewalls, this will cut down that herd that's chasing you to a trickle that you can easily deal with. Sometimes, it's best just to stand in the open and take the damage while dealing out some in reply with bows. This is especially true with long-distance-attack-and-run-away type enemies such as goatmen archers, snow witch/Succubi/hellspawn etc.
2) Spells are good: Keep a few of those "of wizardry" stuff around. You need them to read books. Fighters are inherently short-range attack, and thus need some long range offense to complement. Bows are nice but one must open inventory, then switch weapons, put the old weapon back. While spells are almost IMMEDIATE. Just cast away and poof! Firewalls, Holy Bolts, and Fireballs are great weapons, so is lightning and chain lightning, if you have enough mana to cast them. This also means that you MAY want to hold on to some of the spell staffs you find around. I found an elemental staff around Lazarus'' Lair, so I armed myself with firewalls and lots of mana potions, then went down and cast firewalls into the room, then used elementals to chase down any one not burned. Only got hit with a few fireballs. You can even sell the staff for more money later.
3) When in doubt, retreat: Not sure if you can take out that bunch of blood knights? RETREAT! Six to eight blood knights are deadly, but two to four are just troublesome, and one is piece of cake. If you retreat, you may get out of range of some, thus reducing the immediate number you will be facing. This also forces them to break up their "formation". Retreating also gives you time to rearm yourself, cast some healing spells, use that healing scroll instead of the less potent potions, etc. Perhaps change to a more appropriate weapons, like a sword instead of a bow or axe.
4) Use thy terrain. General: Around a corner you know to be clear is a good place to regroup if you are ambushed. It gives you time to switch weapons, cast heal spells, rearrange potions on belt, etc. Never allow yourself to be surrounded unless you know you won't be damaged. Fight your way out. When you are getting hit you won't be doing any hitting, and if you are surrounded that just means you will getting hit more instead of MAKING the hits. Church: In the church, there are frequently those fence-like closures that you can shoot through. As most creatures at this time don't open doors, if you have a bow you have a perfect shooting gallery. You may find similar structures in caves, but those bad guys may open doors. Such places are also good HIDING places if you run into too many critters. Catacombs: The rooms (open or doored) can be death traps if one is not careful. Have plenty of firewall spells ready to roast any inhabitants. Consider opening the door and lure the creatures out into corridors to fight in smaller bunches. (Corridors aren't that wide) Caves: some sections are hard to get to, which means you may have problems when you run into a lot of long-range attackers like magma demons, vortex lords, acid beasts, etc who will shoot at you across the lava river. Hell: Circular corridors with side rooms, dangerous since the large areas means large concentration of enemies. Walking slow is essential and retreat frequent.
5) Know thy enemy: The enemies roughly fall into the following types: Up-close-and-personal--charges into point-blank range, usually armed with only melee weapons. Deal with them at a distance or trade blow for blow. (Skeletons, Overlords, blood knights) Melee combat, runs away when hurt--comes at you, but if hurt, runs away to recuperate. Kill them the first time. Fast hit will stop them from getting away. (Unseen, gargoyles) Long distance attack, stand their ground--fires at you when you come into range, stays still like a turret. Get out of range or wade through their fire and kill them. (Skeleton archers) Long distance attack, close to melee combat--fires a few shots at you but also chases you down to melee. Chase them down first. They are easier to kill in melee and your approach may also make them miss their shots. (Vortex Lord, Magma Demons, Acid Spitters) Long distance attack, stays out of range--attacks you from a distance, tries to stay out of melee range by running away if you approach. Either stand your ground, supplemented with magic like firewalls, or chase them down , trapping them in corners so you can kill them with repeated blows. (Goatmen Archers, Snow Witch)

STARTING WITH A SORCEROR So, after hearing all about those level 20 fireballs and 800+ mana, you have decided to start a Mage. When you go about starting a Mage, however, you will notice that it is a bit harder than that Warrior you blasted through the church with. The first problem that most beginning Mages have is that they will buy the wrong things in town. Sure, that robe (75 gold and 5-7 ac) looks nice. Then you can buy a hat as well, but you need your gold so leave them alone. Buy a club (1-6 dam, 20 gold) and a heal potion to start you with that will leave you with 30 gold, which you will need later. When you get your first few level ups, don't put them into magic. You have plenty of that. Instead, put 2 into vitality, 2 into strength, and 1 into dexterity. You start with 30 HP, and you need to wield more powerful weapons (str and vitality). Free AC also comes in handy (dex). After dungeon delving a while, you will notice that that free staff just wasn't enough and that you have used all your potions for mana (fire bolt) and you needed that heal. Here is where the club comes in. It swings faster than your staff, does more damage, and you can even hold a buckler . Go and kill stuff until you either are low on health with no way to heal or when your stuff starts to fall apart. Remember to bring everything you find to town to sell, since you will need the gold. Fix anything that is on the verge of falling apart, and then go to the witch.
Hopefully you will have enough cash to recharge your stave, and if you have enough, do so. If not, go buy a heal and use your club. One last note: Do level one until it becomes easy, then do level two. When level 2 gets easy, do 3... Etc. Just remember to pump vitality until it is AT LEAST 60 (unless you get early mana shield :), and strength until it is 40 or so.

SORCEROR SPELLS
Perhaps the most important aspect of playing a mage is wise selection of spells as you develop your character. The following is a list of "high priority" spells. At low levels, the most important strategy is to develop one offensive spell at a high level (preferably firebolt or lightning).
This will enable your character to throw many spells in succession and not have to engage in melee combat. The Firewall spell is THE most efficient bang-for- your-mana spell in the game; a few well placed firewalls will wipe out a room of 30+ creatures. Get that firewall as soon as you can! If you haven't learned lightning by dungeon level 7 or so, you're in some pretty serious trouble. At this point firebolt becomes too weak as a primary single enemy offensive spell, and you probably don't have the mana to be tossing fireballs at everything that moves quite yet. In general, if you get to about level 5 and don't have lightning, it's time to see that witch more often!
The same goes for fireball: if you don't know that one by the time you get to level 11 or so, forget it. The Elemental spell is a tremendous weapon, but is too mana inefficient for general use. A staff of elemental, however, is a deadly weapon for the level 15-25 mage. Open a door, and before those creatures move send the deluge of elementals in; they'll be fried before they can look at you. Guardian and Stone Curse are the next most important spells for general use, but the best is teleport. A mage above level 20 with teleport will NEVER lose a fight to a real character of any other class--that's just all there is to it. Chain lightning is invaluable if you're ever planning on being alone in hell/hell, but don't worry about building it up too much until after you've gotten the spells above.

SORCERER STATS
You will never depend on HP to keep you alive, so never bother raising your vitality. You should be using mana shield all the time. Instead of pouring a lot of stat points into strength, you might want to shop around for something that will raise it magically, like crowns, necklaces, or rings of the stars, heavens, or zodiac. But still put points into strength, since magic items will only go so far.

SORCERY HINTS
1) MANA SHIELD Yes, obvious, yet required. A high-leveled sorcerer could probably have only 250- hit points and 500+ mana. With Mana Shield, the enemies will have an extra 500+ hit points before they can kill you. Without it, your sorcerer won't last long. DISADVANTAGE: Using your spells is now considered using up your Hit Points.
2) SWORDS AND SHIELDS Hold a good sword and shield in your inventory. Some enemies down in hell are immune to most spells, and your sorcerer will be forced to fight in close combat. A sword and a shield would be real helpful in such a situation.
DISADVANTAGE: Sorcerer sucks at fighting.
3) FASTER ATTACKS The sorcerer has a special "fast attack" ability if he is equipped with only a shield. You may want to equip only a shield for attacking faster. Another advantage to this is changing from a staff (assuming you are equipped with one) to a shield is faster than changing to sword and shield. DISADVANTAGE: Takes too long to kill enemy.
4) SPELL HOTKEYS Set three of your spell hotkeys to the three categories of spell magic: LIGHTNING, FIRE, MAGIC. Most hell enemies are immune to 2/3 of the spell category. You can switch quickly to the vulnerable spell and cast it quickly. DISADVANTAGE: Leaves only one spot for other spells such as "heal" and "teleport."
5) TELEPORT Set one of your spell hotkeys to "teleport." If surrounded by enemies, you now have a way of escaping. Also, you can leave some enemies in disarray by teleporting into walled rooms. DISADVANTAGE: If you follow Rule #4, you now have no hotkeys left.
6) AIMING Learn how to aim. Wasting mana by shooting mid-air is not a good way of killing (good way of killing yourself if you follow Rule #1). Learn to aim at moving enemies by placing yourself into the angle at which the enemy is heading. DISADVANTAGE: None
7) LEARN THE ENEMY'S WEAKNESS Some enemies are immune to some spells. Learn which spells to use against them. It'll also save you mana. DISADVANTAGE: None

ROGUE USAGE
Rogues are great characters. Warriors are best with close melee and Sorcerers can sling from a distance. However, no other class can do as much damage as quickly and from a distance, as a Rogue. Well, ok yes, fireball and flame wave do plenty of damage, but plucking yew isn't gonna cost you mana.
You don't need a great or unique bow. Just look for one that does the most damage possible. At higher levels when you do enough damage by virtue of strength and dexterity, a fast attack bow like the needler is nice (even if 1-3 on the damage, your natural damage will be enough if you're going multi warhead style). But any bow with dex and str will do the job.
Use of your bow. When you don't know what's in a room or you know it's full of nasties, stay out of range/sight of the creatures and pluck a few arrows into the room to activate a choice one or two. Easier to pick off one blood knight than Diablo's whole horde. If you do find a whole horde of nasties coming at you, stone curse the front line, that will slow the onslaught while you pick off half of them. Also, don't be afraid to run. Going around corners is good, it forces the creatures to go single file and you can pop 'em one by one. Another note, using shift-fire makes you less accurate. Your character only shoots in the direction you're firing and takes a while to acquire the target you've been pointing to. If you need to drop them quick, don't bother shift, and after the creature dies, keep firing and hit shift, you'll stop dead in your tracks instead of running into oblivion.
For running around hell, you're screwed hand to hand chasing down those advocates and witches. Just load up on resistance items (obsidian amulet or ring with the steel veil works nicely) and those little spell flingers barely tickle you while you unload volleys of 30-40 point damage arrows into their ranks.

ROGUE TACTICS
ONE: USE A BOW! Sometime the urge to use a hand to hand weapon will arise. Find that King's Sword of Haste? Trade it to a Warrior friend. The Rogue's biggest strength is the ability to spit arrows like nobody's business, and the motto 'hit them before they get to you' is one you should follow at all times.
TWO: PICK THEM OFF ONE AT A TIME. If you're by yourself, you have to keep a horde of creatures from getting to you before you can turn 'em into swiss cheese. In order to do this you have to keep too many of them from attacking at once, and you can do this in two ways. The first is to only release a few at a time. Walk slowly and pick off any awakened creatures before you move any farther. Avoid the temptation to run up and grab that treasure! You'll release a bunch of critters that will squash you before you can get away. If you release a few too many for you liking, run around a corner and pick them off as they come around. The other way is to cast a golem into a horde of creatures and support him with your bow.
THREE: DEFENSE IS SECONDARY. The Rogue should not be concerned with being able to take a beating. That's the warrior's department. With that in mind pump Dexterity as much as possible, without neglecting Strength or Magic. Strength so you can use those really big bows and dexterity boosting armor that you find, and Magic because you would like to be able to cast the odd healing/golem/guardian spell without downing potions like beer on St. Patrick's Day (cause they're not green!). Vitality is not as important because you don't expect to get hit, remember?
FOUR: CHECK EVERYTHING FOR TRAPS. The Rogue's ability is unique in that it causes no permanent damage to your equipment, unlike the Warrior and Sorcerer. When playing in multiplayer, remember to let the rogue check all chests/doors for traps before you try to open them. The lower levels of hell are full of nova spell trapped chests, and letting one of these loose with your friends around is NEVER a good plan. Let the rogue try to disarm it (if you're feeling brave) or open it from a distance or around a corner with a telekinesis spell, and you should be able to avoid the embarrassment of getting fried by a trap.

DUNGEON

DOORS IN THE CAVES
If you're like me, you probably have played through Diablo about a million times by now. For me, the Cave levels are my least favorite levels (mostly because of the Magma Demons) because of the open spaces and uncrossable lava. If you're a warrior, who prefers a sword over a spell or an arrow, killing creatures is a tricky business. Some of the more nasty creatures you might encounter are Vipers, acid beasts, and Illusion Weavers that like to attack in huge numbers. Well, I like to carry a bow with me in these levels, because I can stir up trouble and then run into a door, shut it, and fire through the walls. The aforementioned enemies are too stupid to open doors, and will wander around until they die. WARNING!! Certain enemies, like Magma Demons or Horned Demons, can open doors. Be careful, because this is a nasty shock when you think you are safe behind a door.

ACROSS THE LAVA
Ever had spitters or other missile hurlers bunched across some lava in the caves, and been pounded on searching for a way across? If you answered yes, you're probably not using a bow, and don't want to waste mana on spells. So what's left? Well, despite the fact you can't walk across lava, there still are many spots that you can fight across it. It's usually on a diagonal, but if you maneuver properly, you can take them out. And the nice part is, they can only hit you one at a time, so you won't get swarmed.

EASY GOLD
The easiest way to get gold is to play nightmare Church and Catacombs. I like to stay in one spot and cast charged bolt like there is no tomorrow. Charged bolt is great since it destroys most Church creatures in 1 hit. Also, it does not eat up mana like chainlightning. Just stand at the entrance of a room, let loose with charged bolt, and gather up the loot. A good way to beat harder creatures in the Catacombs is to set up firewalls around you, use charged bolt to bring the creatures to the firewall. If any get through, finish them off with firebolts. They should be weak enough for firebolts by then.

ITEMS

A USE FOR CONSTRICTING RING
Most people take a look at the constricting ring and toss it into the recycling bin. For a rogue or warrior this is a bad move. I have found a use for constricting ring that makes hell/hell 50% easier. It's simple really. The constricting ring gives you 100% resist all. Normally only 75% is allowed, so now you are immune to all magic/fire/lightning. It does however have a downside which involves you constantly losing hp. This effect can be easily negated by a weapon "of blood". The gain 5 percent life feature will negate the constricting ring as long as you remove the ring after battles. BOOM! Your worries are over about advocates, succubi, and those fire breathing demons.

CHEAP REPAIRS
When you find new items that you may want to use, make sure you repair them before you identify them. Repairing un-identified magical items costs as much as repairing a basic item of the same type. However, if you repair an item after you identify it, depending on how much the item sells for to the blacksmith, you could find yourself paying 20,000 bucks to repair an item you've never used.

HACKED ITEMS
DIABLO PLATE: This item truly is real...Really hacked that is. Diablo Plate is full plate mail with the following stats: +255 to all stats, 255 armor class, +255% to armor class, indestructible, requires -1 strength to wear.

INDESTRUCTIBLE:
Any item that is not ...of the Ages, and is indestructible, is hacked. The main reason there are so many items that have been hacked to be indestructible is because nobody wants something to break in the middle of battle, and people hate to repair things. Another main reason it's so common is because there was a set of instructions on how to make an item indestructible somewhere on the Internet, so everyone was doing it.

LIGHTFORGE:
The Lightforge is an actually item, but only in the single player game! And even in the single player game it's a mace not a helm. The helm version is hacked. And you you come across the mace version in a multiplayer game, it too, is hacked. Therefore, there is NO way to legitimately get this item in Multiplayer.

MAP OF THE STARS:
It does not actually exist within the game ( not as an acquirable item at any rate ). The map does nothing, so if someone offers it to you, ignore them. This item apparently hacked out of the data files. It was meant to tell you how powerful Diablo is. There's even a video on the CD that supports this idea. Another theory suggests that a Rune of the Stars is needed for it to work, but the Rune of the Stars was never implemented, so it doesn't exist. This is a useless item!

RUNE OF THE STARS:
Rumor has it that the Rune of the Stars was meant to be used with the Map of the Stars. People say that if you had both after beating Diablo you would be taken to an entrance for levels 17-20. This was only possible in the single player game. The idea about secret levels is not true, it is a rumor!

UNIQUES:
The only unique rings in multiplayer are the Ring of Engagement, and the Constricting Ring. There are NO unique amulets. Most (possibly all) unique items have been hacked into rings, the most common of which include Messerschmidt's Reaver, Demonspike Coat, and others. Any unique items that don't match the picture and obvious use are hacked.

DUPED ITEMS
KING'S:
This is undoubtedly the most often duped set of weapons in the game. Almost any King's weapon that you trade for that is a Bastard Sword is duped, and most other types of weapons are dupes too. The best thing is to not trade for them, or ask for something less, like a Champion's something, instead of a King's. You don't lose much in terms of damage and to hit, but you gain a much higher odds that the item is legit.

GODLY:
These are the most often duped armor in the game. Either Tower Shields or Full Plate Mail, these are almost always hacked too, and are Indestructible. Even if you trade for one that isn't indestructible, odds are extremely in favor of it being duped.

..OF THE ZODIAC:
These are often duped, though there are some legit ones that exist. You should be wary of anyone willing to trade them for anything less than the best stuff. There are some Zodiacs that are almost always dupes. They are the Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac, and the Jade Amulet of the Zodiac and the Obsidian Amulet of the Zodiac. Nobody in their right mind would ever trade one of these away.

ROLLOVER
A very interesting thing happened to me the other night. I was playing along, and found an enchanted Great Sword. I thought little of it, and grabbed it. Now, I bet you're thinking, So what, who cares?
Well, when I identified it at Cain, he tells me my sword has 276 durability. If you haven't done editing on any items, the significance of this is that the highest number allowed for durability is 255, the lowest being 0. Since this was above 255, I took a screen shot. If you're wondering where the Roll-over part comes into play, I dropped the item, to free up inventory space. When I picked it up again, it had only 20 durability. This is because 256=0, and 276 = 256 + 20. Now, only one question remains. How did it get to 276 durability in the first place?

FAST HIT RECOVERY, FAST BLOCK, AND FAST ATTACK
Whenever you get hit, your character would normally go through an animation sequence where he/she recoils and is unable to do anything for a short while. If you get hit repeated in succession, you will be powerless to do anything against the creatures. Fast Hit Recovery cuts away a number of frames of animation when you get hit, making recovery from the recoil faster, and enabling you to take action against the creatures quickly. This ability is especially important in Hell multiplayer mode, where creatures attack really fast.
In order from least effect to most effect, the three types of fast hit recovery are Balance, Stability, and Harmony. Fast Block reduces the frames of animation for blocking sequences, enabling you to block quicker as well as recover from blocking quicker. The only type of fast block is Blocking. Fast Attack also cuts away animation frames from attack sequences. With this ability, you will be able to attack more rapidly. This ability is really good at helping you kill creatures before they can attack you. The fast attack may allow you to keep the enemy creatures recoiling from your attacks without allowing them to respond with their own attacks. In order of least effect to most effect, the four types of fast attack are Readiness, Swiftness, Speed, and Haste. Haste is really, really fast.

ARMOR % BONUS
Armor % bonuses apply for THAT ITEM'S AC ONLY. Note that the value is then rounded down.

WEAPON % BONUS
Weapon % damage bonuses (either from Unique weapons, magical weapons, or armor/rings that has damage modifiers) apply to the weapon's damage only. If an item does + damage as well (i.e. damage 1-10 +20% +4 points of damage), then the additional damage is not affected by the percent bonus modifier. To find the total damage that you will do with a weapon, use the following formula: Item Damage * (1 + Percent Bonus / 100) + Damage Bonus + Strength Bonus

SHIELDS VS. TWO-HANDED WEAPONS
unless you find a really cool two-handed weapon, a one-handed weapon and a shield is a far better bet. You will get hit FAR less, and chances are you will attack faster. If you are recoiling from an enemy's successful blow, you can't swing your axe again. Likewise, if you are attacking faster, they can't return the favor since they are recoiling from the blows. Rogues as a rule suffer because they can not wield shields, and hence have lower armor classes and lack the blocking effect of a shield.

MISCELLANEOUS TIPS
BUYING STUFF FROM GRISWOLD
In multiplayer games, if one person buys something, Griswold starts selling something new to EVERY player. So check again if a party member buys something. Wirt, Griswold, and Adira will all sell different things to players of different levels, although Wirt is prone to offering the same thing to players of the same level.

BARGAIN WITH WIRT!
You can bargain with the retailers in town. When they quote you a price, don't buy the item immediately. Pick up 2/3rds of the price quoted and talk to them again. They'll accept the offer, and you can save big cash--especially on those big-ticket items.

PERMANENT PORTALS IN MULTIPLAYER GAMES
You need at least two characters who can cast Town Portal (staff, scroll whatever). When in the dungeon each person should cast the spell. From then on, only use the portal that the other person made.. or don't complete a round trip in your own portal. The portals will remain and not disappear use after use! When you go down a level, just recast the two portals again. Extremely useful when you require frequent trips up to offload equipment and reload up on potions.

HIDDEN MESSAGE
Yes, that's right. Blizzard has been flooding us with hidden messages. There are two messages in the auto-run screen of Diablo. Using a paint program, and the normal picture, I found where it said 'Natalie Portman Rocks'. I'm not entirely sure who Natalie Portman is, but apparently she's an actress, relatively young. When I tried installing the Earthlink software, the screen flashed, and I saw that there were indeed two messages, as I originally thought. So, after more fiddling around, I found where it says 'Buy War II'. The messages are between Diablo's spikes/horns.

SECRET LEVELS
Blizzard has stated that there are no secret levels in the game. There are just a lot of wild, joke rumors floating around about pushing the cows in a particular pattern to open up fantastic levels with new creatures, great treasure etc...

HIDDEN MOVIES
There are supposed to be hidden movie(s) encrypted in the game. You can extract the movies with a program found at a site at [*]http://personal.nbnet.nb.ca/labby. From there you can find a link to get a program that lets you view the movie.

EXTRACTING PICTURES FROM THE OPENING MOVIE CLIP
In order to capture screenshots from the introduction you must first extract the smacker movie files from the Diablo CD using Andre Arsenault's diabmov.exe program. Second, you must obtain the actual Smacker program in order to view and edit the movies themselves. Third, you must output the individual frame you want to capture to the file format you desire using Smacker's utilities. For instance, the butcher movie is 77 frames long; you can output the entire movie to individual .jpgs .gifs (or any other format that Smacker lets you)...
Butcher1.jpg Butcher2.jpg... etc. etc. down to Butcher77.jpg... [Or, if you prefer, you can capture only frames 5-23 by selecting when to begin capturing and when to stop.]. Finally, using your graphics browser utility (Thumbs Plus, Photoshop, etc.) select the shots that you liked and delete the rest! Sorry there is no easy way to just hit Print Screen, but this method does work and is actually pretty cool. The reason for this is because you can see the entire movie--frame by frame--and sit back and select the parts you like at your leisure. You don't have to sit there with your finger on the Print Screen button until just the right moment.

SEEDS
Seeds were an option that was available in the demo, where you pressed 'r', and got a number that represented the 'blueprint' to which the dungeon was generated. There was a program that allowed you to enter in your own seeds to try out other people's dungeon blueprints or repeat one of the ones that you liked before. You can't do any of this in the full version, probably since it could take away from the randomness of the game.

LEVEL GENERATION
There seems to be a database of levels containing a list of all the creatures, level layout, treasure and other stuff to be found on the level and treasure to be found on the creatures for that level. The random generator selects one of the 'blueprints' to create the level. For the single player game, I noticed that if you reload your game and kill the same particular creature over and over, you will always find the same item off its body.

DYING ON A LEVEL
A neat trick to getting your things back after you die, is what I call the Human Magnet. Since the creatures seem to hang around your stuff, you need to create a diversion to draw them off. Bring your character back to the site of the accident, create a portal (very important), make sure the creatures there see you, then run like hell into the maze taking the creatures with you. Make sure you aren't carrying anything. When the creatures catch you, you will lose nothing but the free health that Peppin gave you. Once you hit Restart in Town (not new game), just pop into the portal, grab your goodies, and kick some butt.

FIREWALL TRICK & DEATH
Let's say you have a boss that you are having trouble killing, for instance, Diablo. Get rid of your stuff you are holding and leave it in town. Then, stand still and wait for the creature to run at you. Now, cast a firewall spell (or more if you want) right next to you. They will stupidly step into the flames just to attack you. Sit there and let them hack you. Just wait until they die in the flames then restart the game in town.

DIABLO 2
There will be a new CD with extra levels and new graphics, but it will not contain enough new ideas to be called a new game in it's own right. The disk is supposed to contain the levels for the Horadrim temple that your character locates in the east. Your character apparently travels here in a bid to rid him/herself of the soul stone now lodged in his\her forehead. It's on the drawing board and it's slated to be started after starcraft is released. The core routines are going to be adapted from Diablo 1 so the development times should be shorter.

IMPSSIBLE TO GET TO LEVEL 50
If you are lucky enough to get to level 35 you will notice that you stop getting experience from normal level games, regardless of if you fight in hell or the caves. You will notice the same thing at level 42-3 on Nightmare level and at levels 46-7 on Hell difficulty. Though you will have given up trying long before level 46, as you get so little experience after level 43, that it would take over 20 hours playing in hell to get level up.

RUMOROUS SECRET COW LEVEL
For this one, you need a Map of the Stars. Rumors say that if you clear out ALL creatures (not 1 left!) from level one until the last level, except for Diablo himself. Then one person stays in town and the other kills Diablo. When Diablo is dying (when he spurts blood out), the player that kills Diablo must push ESC and goto new game, then rejoin the game (do it FAST!). Then go back to Diablo's level. Stand in the pentagram (the one in middle of the Diablo's room) and right click on the map of the stars! Then when you return to the town, between the cows will be a green portal. That will lead you to the 17th level!!

CREATURES
GENERAL TACTICS
Doors - If you find yourself in a room and there are many enemies coming toward you, run for a doorway, and go through it. Then stop, turn around and prepare to fight the enemies one at a time. This makes your job a lot easier, and you'll find that the damage you take will decrease exponentially.
Cornering - When fighting Mages, the ones that teleport, a good strategy is to use stone curse on them. Then they can't move, but you can damage them. Another way to kill them without chasing them, but without the use of stone curse is to corner them. Get them stuck in a corner and position yourself right next to them at 45 degrees of the corner. Distance yourself equally from the walls that meet to form the corner. When they try to teleport away, they will just re-appear in the same place. This is a good way to kill Lazarus.
Running - When you find yourself losing life quick and needing to run from an attack, make sure you run to a place you've already explored. You don't want to run into another group of creatures and have to be attacked on two sides.

KILLING A LOT OF PESKY CREATURES WITH MINIMUM DAMAGE
When you bump into a lot of creatures in any room, make sure you run quickly to the entrance of the room, or run to the nearest available door (make sure that area is already cleared), and stand just outside the entrance. You will find that at any time, only one creature can attack you, and all the other creatures just line up or move around behind the first creature. They are then easier to pick off....... as the first creature will find itself in a fix as it cannot move backwards (it's "friends" are blocking it). If you like, you can use your Inferno scrolls or spell. This will do maximum damage to the other creatures, as well as the first one. Anyone can be dealt with this way, except for those irritating disappearing Advocates (and their likes).

TIP FOR FIGHTING UNIQUE ENEMIES
Unique enemies are always a pain in the neck, and sometimes worse. One thing I have noticed, though, is that the unique enemies are usually susceptible to the spells their counterparts are immune to. For example, the balrogs are immune to fire while the unique counterpart is easily killed by fireballs. Most unique enemies will be susceptible to the fireballs, which can quickly destroy any enemy. Also all the witches in Lazarus's lair are susceptible to fireballs, so just launch a bunch in there.

CREATURE HIT POINTS
If a creature has 100 hit points in single player, then Multiplayer normal mode hit points are 2x that or 200 hp. Nightmare mode is 3x normal mode = 3x200 =600hp. Hell mode is 4x normal mode = 4x200 =800 hp.

CREATURE IMMUNITY
Some creatures in hell on hell difficulty are listed as being immune to fire, lightning, and magic, but that isn't exactly true. Blizzard has noted that there are no creatures that are completely immune to all forms of spellcasting. Those creatures which are listed as being immune to everything can actually be affected by Stone Curse and Apocalypse and perhaps other spells too.

THE XP FROM CREATURES
Each creature is worth a certain base xp amount and then has a negative xp modifier for each of your character's level. For example, a Blood Claw has a base of 5425 and a modifier of 187. If you were 20th level when you killed the Blood Claw, you'd get [5425 -(187*20)] xp or 1785 xp. When you reach a certain level (In the case of the Blood Claw ~level 29) you will receive no xp because of the cumulative effects of the negative modifiers. You can't receive below zero xp for any creature however, no matter what level you are.

CREATURES REGAINING HIT POINTS
Creatures regain hit points, although the tougher creatures tend to regain them faster than weaker ones. You should try to kill a creature once you've hit it instead of switching creatures to attack before you've killed one of them.

SURROUNDED BY CREATURES
If you've been smoked by a mob of knights before, then use this. When you enter a room through a passage, go in there to see what's there, and run out right away, after attracting attention. Then, if you've done it right, you've got around 10-15 knights chasing you. Now cast around 20, or as many guardians as you can so that they fill up the passage. When the knights reach you, just teleport to the other side of the guardians! Every time you do this, they will chase you, and get pummeled some more. You can also use golem or a few flame waves to attract attention to yourself.

SURPRISE ATTACKING
Have an Apocalypse spell ready, and when you walk along walls cast it. You'll be surprised on how many creatures you can kill before they even know you are there. This also comes in handy against Lazarus. Kill all his minions before actually showing yourself to him with the tactic. Then, walk in and out so he begins to talk. Look for his glow and circle the outside of his room until you can reach him with the spell. Then, all you have to do is sit there and beat on him with the spell.

LINING UP YOUR TARGET
Rogues especially, but with any ranged weapon, including spells, your chance of hitting goes up significantly if you are "lined up" with them on the map in 45 degree increments. A creature "3 squares up and 5 squares over" is MUCH harder to hit than one simply "3 squares up". Also, when "shift" shooting/swinging your hit probability goes down, so if you know you are on target and aren't worried too much about moving if the creature dies, let off the shift.

HOW TO KILL THE BUTCHER
1. To kill the butcher, find the entrance to the next level, (the square shaped steps), then open the door to the butcher's room and run as fast as possible to the steps. DON'T go down. Just run around the stairs and eventually the butcher will get stupid and walk into the stairs themselves. Since the butcher isn't a player he will be trapped there, while you pelt him with spells or arrows.
2. Find a room with the grate-like wall you can shoot through, then lead the butcher down there, go in the room and close the door, then shoot the butcher from inside the room (he can't open the door)
3. All you need is a scroll of Firewall. Stand right in front of the Butcher's door. Ready your scroll so that it is the spell showing in the space at the lower right. Open the door, immediately cast the firewall directly inside, and close the door again. The Butcher will stand in the fire until he dies. Just remember: left click, right click, left click, and DON'T MOVE!!! Of course, the Butcher is a little tougher in the multiplayer game, and one firewall won't kill him. It still helps, though.

ZHAR THE MAD
Once he starts nuking you, cast a firewall on him (he won't move). Then get out of the room and wait for his death. This way you won't get hit. Just remember never to come close to him or he will cast flash.

THOSE PESKY ARCHBISHOPS
I found out that golems are immune to the flash spell that the archbishops cast so often, and I don't recall seeing any of the firebolt/fireball spells hitting it either. They tend to cast the fire spell at you only. Set him off and go around a corner while he takes them out. Just listen for the golem to get squashed, then send out another.

FUN WITH ADVOCATES
Well, I noticed that they ALWAYS teleport away in the direction that you face. So, the trick is to "chase" them into a corner. If you're careful, you can trick any teleporting character into a corner, and if you face into the corner exactly (you have to face into the corner, and not face either of the walls), then you can just slash away and all they can do is teleport in and out of the same square.

ADVOCATE SHIELDS
When I run into a room filled with Blood Guards and Advocates, the Blood Guards would gather around me while the Advocates shoot. Attack ONLY the Blood Guards that are on the side that there are no Advocates. After that, just sit and watch as the Advocates kill the Blood Guards for you. And if you want a laugh, let a Blood Guard chase you next to an Advocate, and the Advocate will cast flash a few times and kill the Blood Guard.

FIREWALLING AND CERTAIN ACID BEASTS
Doesn't every one hate when there are a zillion balls of acid firing at you with seemingly careless precision? This could be a problem but I think I have discovered that on certain acid beasts, namely the ones that accompany the boss acid spitter, they don't advance on you if they spit on you. The acid spits only go so far so get a little closer until you are one step away from the barrage, then firewall them until most of them are dead.

WARRIORS AND GOATMEN
Goatmen, the archer type and not the mace type, can be a huge pain, especially with the warriors since they cowardly retreat and sometimes lead you into a HUGE ambush. This ambush can seriously put a dent in your HP as the ambush could lead to more Goatmen archers and some other flunkies with them. If there are corners nearby, don't engage them but try to get out of their sight and in a nice little place where you can easily thrash them. Once they see you, they will follow you until they see you again and start shooting; when they get close to you, STRIKE!!! Make sure you keep swinging until they are dead since they will flee from you and the consecutive hits will bring them back in swinging distance.

NO MORE ADVOCATES AROUND DIABLO
Everyone hates the advocates around Diablo when you release him. All those fireballs can really start to hurt. When you release Diablo have all but one guy stay by the final switches(make sure that area is cleared). Then have someone with the teleport spell run towards Diablo's final lair. Then have him teleport back to the other people. Diablo and all his knights will follow, leaving the advocates safely behind. The knights are much easier to fight than the advocates, especially for a warrior.

HOLY BOLT ON DIABLO
The easiest way to get Diablo out of his room without activating the rest of his horde is to stand back and launch Holy Bolt. The other creatures are all immune to the spell, so it will not affect them. It will hit Diablo, however, and he will come on out to attack you. You can continue using Holy Bolt to kill Diablo, or if you are a fighter, you'll probably want to close in on him and start hacking.

KILLING DIABLO WITH THE WARRIOR AND NO MAGIC
If you charge the room where Diablo is, you will get swarmed by Knights and Advocates. If you slowly work your way in, you can activate only a few enemies at a time, but there is a better way. Get the best bow that you can, and pump your dexterity up as much as possible. Then stand outside of the room by the wall, hold shift, and shoot arrows into the room. When you hit an enemy, they will activate, and you can shoot them down. After a while, shoot straight at the center of the room. Soon you should hear Diablo grunt from a hit, and he will charge you. As he runs toward you, equip your best melee weapon and put your back to the wall. When he reaches you, just start swinging at him. You should be able to trade hits with him one for one, and since you are up against the wall, his hits won't knock you back, so with a full belt of heal potions you should defeat him easily.

KILLING DIABLO-WITH THE WARRIOR
I've seen all these tips about teleporting into Diablo's room, and firewalling everything and then teleporting back out. While this may be fine for the magic user and the rogue, with a warrior, it is a little more difficult. You need like 80 magic to use teleport scrolls, which is something that is next to impossible without many magic boosting items, and then you usually don't have enough mana to cast enough firewalls anyway. Here's what to do. Flip the switches, and then walk toward the room, but stop as soon as you see any enemies. These should be knights. Then run away, letting the knights follow you, where you can set up a firewall trap for them, and fight them while they stand in it. They shouldn't be too hard to handle. Then, fill up your mana and HP, and fill your belt with 8 potions of full healing (or full rejuvenation) Then walk back to Diablo's room until he is on the screen. Then run away, because the advocates are shooting at you. The only ones who will chase will be knights and the dark lord. Take them far away, and kill the knights first, possibly using firewall, and then hack Diablo until he dies.

THOSE PESKY MAGES IN HELL
Warriors and sorcerers work well together against these guys. Have the sorcerer cast stone curse on all these losers and let the warrior wipe them up. It doesn't take long to clear out big rooms of them. Also, for warriors only, try and get them to reappear in or near a corner. Then, once you see in the the exact corner, come at them from a 45 degree angle from their spot. That way they keep reappearing in the same spot as long as you don't move to the side.

KILLING DIABLO WITH SPELLS
Once you pull all the levers on his level and cleaned up and other enemies around his spot, go back to town and buy a bunch of long range spells like lightning, nova, fireball, etc. Then go back to his lair and stand out of view from even the walls to his spot. Just get in a position where you have a direct shot to the center of his room. (But don't get any closer to his room.) Now prep all you spells with the hot keys and fire them all in his room. He should come running out quite pissed and moderately to extremely damaged. Now kill him. A knight or two might follow him out, but they should not be a problem if you actually made it to Diablo.

SPELLS
SPELL OVERLOADS
When casting spells like chain lightning, people normally only do it one at a time, until they run out of mana. Well, now there's a way to get more out of it. When you find a big load of enemies or even one or two, keep right clicking as fast as you can and it lets you pull off a few more spells then you are spending mana for.

THE POWER OF TELEKINESIS
If you die in multi-player, you can often get back to your stuff, but be out of view of the creatures that killed you. Since you can "see" items around corners, use the Telekinesis spell to grab all of your things by hiding behind a wall.

THE HIDDEN BENEFITS OF STONE CURSE
Stone curse has one trick few people use. It can be cast through walls. You can use this when fighting Lazarus, The Butcher, or just basic creatures. This works best (obviously) when you have an infravision scroll that you used. You can even stone curse someone, hit them, and leave their line of sight and they won't follow you.

SCOUTING W/APOCALYPSE
Scouting with the Staff of Apocalypse: When adventuring in a group, a Sorcerer with a Staff of Apocalypse can act as a scout in finding Demons around corners and in rooms. A quick "POP" of the staff, and even creatures around the corner throw off a big ball of flame. Other characters can see this flames also, which works a lot better than having one person cast infravision and then trying to type out where all the bad guys are. Fighters and Rogues appreciate the heads up, giving them time to pull back to a choke point and setup an "arrow-fest!" or allowing you to throw a few firewalls for all the bad guys to pour through before the big melee.

FUN WITH NAJ'S PUZZLER
Naj's Puzzler has completely changed my tactics. The 57 teleport charges are great, and cheap to recharge. It is great fun to set teleport, chain lightning and firewall on hotkeys. Teleport into a room you think may have bad guys in it, switch to area effect spells, and blast away. Teleport out while the firewalls are burning, and you can hear the cries of anguish after you leave. Once the noise subsides, go back in, and scoop up all the gold. Another fun variation involves a scroll of golem. Teleport in, fire off chain lightning a few times to soften up the resistance, and then unleash your golem. Teleport out, and listen until the sounds of pain subside. Naj's Puzzler also allows fast getaways. If you get into a tight spot, it's a great way to escape. I've run into a bunch of acid beasts in the caves, and was able to flee like the wind using the Puzzler. Casting it right on top of the stairs even takes you to the next level.

CONCENTRATING CHAIN LIGHTNING
When using the Chain Lightning(CL) Spell there are certain little things you can do, especially in Hell, to make it more effective. If you run into Soul Burners, Balrogs, or Lava Maws, CL can be very effective if used properly. Yes, you can just stand there and let them surround you and keep firing off CL in a circular pattern in which the bolts all spread from you in the center, until they are all dead, BUT usually when you do this you are only getting one bolt at a time hitting a particular creature at once. It may not even hit them at all if the are moving around quickly. This is not only Mana wasting but slow to kill, as well. The best way to use it is to maneuver yourself into a position in which your CL emanates in a tight fan, or cheese wedge shaped pattern from your body.
To do this fire off a preliminary test burst to see where the majority of the Lightning is going and then move accordingly. The easiest way to set yourself up for the best shot is to move back into a small hallway so they have to come down the narrow bottleneck and they cannot surround you and ruin the effectiveness of your spell. Also CL will fire towards enemies on the other sides of walls. It won't hit them but you can maneuver yourself to place the creature between you and the concentrated burst to finish him off much faster.

TO PHASE OR NOT TO PHASE
You've been whacked beside the stairs, and you can't even get a foothold on the level because of the horde surrounding it. Well, enter the spell of Phasing. It is perhaps the most underrated spell in the game, but I have found it useful in the above situation. Set the current spell for Phase and put some damaging scroll ready in your belt. I prefer to use scrolls of Nova and Apocalypse, but Firewall does fine as well. Go down the stairs, start clicking your mouse button to get the Phasing spell out quickly, and then fire off the scroll when you reappear. Of course you'll die immediately following, but you managed at least one hit in. People disagree by saying Teleport is much better, but they fail to realize that Phasing requires one mouse click to work. The main premise behind this Phasing trick is to soften up the creatures and disperse them as much as possible so that you will have enough time to use the Teleport spell. Then you can let loose a potionful of Chain Lightning and Fireball to mop up.

THE HOMING MISSILE - ENTER THE ELEMENTAL
Some people think that the Elemental spell is rubbish because Fireball is better. Not so... Fireball fires in a straight direction..but the Elemental can 'home' in on your target. Works best on fast running creatures (horned demons, acid beasts) and even when pkilling! Has about 60% chance of hitting a fast moving opponent ... even when the opponent has run around the corner! Doesn't work too well on teleporting enemies though (Advocates).

KNOWING WHICH SPELL TO USE...
I have found that knowing which spells will kill which critter, especially in hell, is invaluable! I like to use firewall on those chicks with the bows, on level 13 and lower, this is the spell that kills groups of them the quickest, however you must remember to get them as close together as possible to get as many of them as possible. Chain lightning works on most of the other critters down there.
Guardian helps with the wizards that pop in and out, and holy bolt helps with Diablo. No matter what character you are, develop your spells to a high level, so they won't drain your mana. Also keep in mind, that mana shield only benefits you if you have more mana, then life; if you have more life points stick with it, and if you have more mana points then life points then use mana shield.

GUARDIAN
Guardian is a very important spell for everyone but especially for sorcerers in Hell. Although offense/ defense is what immediately comes to mind when you think of the spell, Guardian is helpful for much more than this. Knowing what creatures are around a corner and whether or not they can be effected by fire-based spells is very important. Always cast a Guardian into an unexplored room. Listen. Is the Guardian firing? If it's not, it is generally safe enough to peek into the room.
Nothing is close enough that they can get to you quickly. Is the Guardian is firing? Are there creature pain noises coming from inside the room? If so, what creature is making this noise and what spells can I use to dispose of them? Finally if the Guardian is firing and you hear no pain noises, then it could mean one of two things. One, the creature it is firing at is behind an object that is protecting it, or you are unfortunately about to do battle with a fire immune creature. If you are about to do battle with a fire immune creature it would be wise not to conjure up 10 .
Guardians to do battle for you and your party. Why? Those fireballs are going to pass right over them and into your band of adventurers trying to dispose of your foes. This may seem obvious but if the creatures are not making pain noises anytime you throw any spell, they are immune. Don't waste your time and mana. If you keep the gauntlet in the same spot as you cast several Guardians they will form in a line making for a very effective "firing squad" for those nasty Maelstrom.

GOLEMS LEAD THE WAY
If you are ever low down in hell and you don't want to go up but you are getting low on hit points, create a golem to go into large rooms. If there are any Snow Witch types or Acid Spitting guys then you will see all of the light from their blasts. Plus the golem will beat some of them up before getting munched.

TOWN PORTAL: USE BY STAIRS
Whenever I die by the stairs, or I have some hunch that I'm going to die; I've been pushing it, and I know that I'm going a little deep. Conveniently there aren't usually creatures right at the stairs to begin with, so when I get that special feeling that I might die, I take a few steps out and fire a Town Portal as far away as I can. It makes a back door. When I die I can figure out where the creatures are closest, and either come down the stairs or the portal.
Usually, that gives me enough time to do at least one or two spells. Another advantage to doing that, is that if someone else is in the game but on another level. They can come save your sorry butt and not have to walk all that way. If I surprise myself and don't die, it's still nice to have a way to retreat other than the stairs if I get in trouble later. Or if I run out of mana later, I don't have to worry about not being able to cast a TP, 'cause one is right there!

HOTKEYS: THEY CAN DETERMINE LIFE AND DEATH
Most people think of hotkeys and take them for granted. Not so. They should be taken very seriously, as they can mean the difference between life and death. Usually, you think of spell hotkeys and say, oh, yea. Macro hotkeys are important, too. By hitting F9-F12, you can say a very long message with very short effort. You may set these up by editing "diablo.ini". Why hotkeys? Maybe you've cast infravision and know that a horde of creatures lie behind a door that your partner is carelessly about to open, and you can't stop them in time. Hit a hotkey! You need to retreat. Hit a hotkey! You're about to cast some deadly spell, but your partner's in the way. Again, hit a hotkey.

EXTRA SPELLS
If you join a game and you see a book you like and you want to learn more about the spell, just rejoin the game and the book will be there...buy it then return, buy it then return, and so on. This only works in multi-player games and one person must always be in the game.

FIREWALL & TELEPORT
You can teleport in to where the creature is, then cast firewall at the creature. When it is in the flames just teleport out. The creature won't move from the flames since it can't see you.

THE MISSING SPELLS
This is an annoying question, mainly because the spells are missing only because Blizzard didn't finish coding Diablo before they released it. The missing spells are INVISIBILITY, ETHEREALISE, BLOODBATH ( or bloodboil ) and SENTINEL. The effects for these spells didn't get coded, though the icons and graphics for these spells is in the data file. Rumor has it that the missing spells will be included in this new version, along with ten or so new spells. There will also be some new animated sequences.

BLOODSTAR USE
Bloodstar is the same spell the succubi and witches fire at you. The different colors don't matter, they are the same spell. Bloodstar kills any non immune creatures with a shot or two. The drawback, is that it is slow. Try using it against gold vipers, you will find it very effective.

SPELL PAGE FIVE
Yes, spell page five does exist. To get started, click on page one. This just makes it easier to find page five. Now if you look at the far right edge of button four, you'll see that the space there is wider then the spaces between all the other pages. All you have to do is click over there. The space is about one pixel wide but if you keep clicking next to button four, you'll find it. I think that the way the game was written, every spell needs a place in the book, whether it can be found as a book or not. This may be where spells like identify and infravision have slots. Other spells that may go here are the ones that were never implemented or only existed in the Alpha and Beta versions. These would be: Etherialize, Blood Boil, Blood Ritual, Doom Serpents, and Invisibility.

DEAD DEEP IN THE DUNGEON
If you have died deep in the dungeon and are having trouble rescuing your stuff, FireWall comes in handy. Walk down to the dungeon without carrying anything, cast as many FireWall spells as you can, and then stay dead until the FireWalls drop (waiting for as many creatures to die as possible). Then restart in town. If there are two or more players in the game, cast Town Portals a decent distance from each other and away from the stairs; then you will have a way of getting down that isn't surrounded by countless hordes of bad guys. Remember, Town Portal can be cast on the other side of a wall. If you are still having problems getting your stuff, get close enough, 'Telekenis' as many items as you can, and then try again if you die. Don't put the equipment back on!