I have Kalim's brain. Now I can turn the computer off and go to bed. The witch doctor must not have been tough. I saw him once but don't recall killing him.

I have never had any luck with the thrown potions. I decided not to try ranged weapons either because I would get confused trying to change weapons quickly.

Hi all,

Sounds like you are doing great.
Did you know that you can also use the letter O to get your hireling's inventory? You can.

I give them armor and helms that are hand-me-downs or one I find that I can't use but tried to give them weapons and they say that they can't use them. Hmmm.

I just wondered why it is that you find these huge charms that take up half of your
Inventory?? Wish they were smaller.

Well still in Chapter II with all my people and heading to the Dry Hills now with all
of them.

Got a long way to go before I am where you guys are.

I probably should just play one or two but its hard to chose since I like the different
skills they have so will have to continue the way I am for now.

Not being able to save more often so you don

I just cleared out Lower Kurash. Hmm, the monsters weren't too bad and there was some nice stuff. You have to enter every building in the ruin to get it all, but that was worth a lot of gold. I was teleporting every few minutes, but my stash is bulging now!

VHLMagic,
the hireling from Act 1 can only use bows. The hirelings from act 2 use spears and javelins. The hirelings from act 3 also have specific weapons.

And yeah, it will take a very long time to complete 4 games vs players who only do one at a time.

I'll be heading to Kurast today. Nice to hear it has some good stuff. I haven't picked up anything in quite a while. I could sure use some gems. Of course your game probably has diffferent stuff. I regretted getting that free hireling. Shouldn't have talked to her. I lost my great cold one and got a poorer one using fire. I finally went back and hired a cold one, but not as great as the first. If I keep hiring, will the list run out--no more available?

Can't help with the hirelings, in the expansion you can give them healing potions and you can pay to resurrect them. So I have the same one I started with she's leveled with me through the game.

As for the stuff I picked up in lower Kurash, there were lots of potions (horadic cube recipe; three healing potions - three mana potions = one restore potion), a large charm, chipped skull, lots of fairly valuble weapons and armor. Maps are random, but I'll bet you'll get plenty to sell and stuff your stash with cash.

Pokey,

Looking back through the thread, I see that you do have the expansion for Diablo 2. Can I suggest that you go ahead and install it and upgrade your character? You won't lose any progress, and the larger stash and better hireling interaction alone would make it worthwhile. Plus there are far more magic items and set pieces to find.

The only reason I could see for having a non-expansion character would be if you are joining friends in an unexpanded BattleNet game.

Pib, I'm considering it. It makes me a bit nervous because I read that there are things that some did not like about it and it adds difficulty. How big is the inventory? Mine is 40 spaces. I could do without a bigger stash. My hirelings are doing well, though I just lost another.

I am in Lower Kurash now. Hurray, the waypoint was right at the entrance!

Anyone know what might have happened to my hireling? We were walking around lower Kurast in the vicinity of the waypoint. All creatures had been killed and we were at full health. He would sometimes walk around the other side of a house or in it. I walked to the waypoint to teleport back and noticed that he was missing. I heard nothing and it was only about a minute since I checked. I'm perplexed--maybe I mssed something like a trap.

Go back and check for him. Especially if you still have his portrait showing. Sometimes they get stuck in places. Just bactrack until you find them. :]]]]
If he was dead you would NO longer have the portrait of them.

His portait was gone. It just happened so suddenly and we were in a cleared area of the village.

Hummmmm.... He's dead if his portrait is not there. Sorry I have no clue as to why if no one attacked him.
Maybe he ran into a ambush. They do sometimes wonder off and get into trouble.

Did the ruined temple in the Kurast Bazaar and got the tome. Time to rest up for tomorrow.

Hi all,

In my Sorceress game I kept loosing so many hirelings that it was down to about 4 left. Don't know if the list starts over with new people or you just don't have any more to hire.


I will have to see what happens when I play with her again.

I finally got it that they need the same type of weapons so my hireling from the second area has a better spear now and looking for higher damage ones as we go along.

I tried to give them healing potions and they said that they can't use that. I will try again but usually just wait it out once we clear out an area for them to heal before we go on.

The archers in the first area just healed themselves. Wonder why we don't get healing spells and have to keep using potions.

Did you know that if you keep clicking on gamble that you get to see different items evey time you click??? You do and I have gotten a lot of rare items by doing that. Its rare if it is in yellow letters.

If you have the expansion, drop a healing potion on their portrait, not in their inventory! My archer does heal herself, but sometimes she needs a bit extra. I drop a potion on her portrait and she says "thank you"

You can tell if a gambled item is going to be gold? Thanks, that is a very very useful tip.

When I lost my last hireling, I found that I could rehire him. He only gets 3-8 damage though. My best got 4-10 and he hasn't shown up on the list again. I find that the amount of life is more important. We have become quite a team. I keep him close and he freezes the enemies as they come close and I hack them and usually get no damage. Occasionly he will cast repeatedly and actually kill something by himself.

I'm going to check out that gambing trick.

Found the sewers but couldn't find the bit of Khalim I needed. So I'll need to clean out the sewer again. Urk, I hate this bit of Diablo.

That and the fact that I should check *every time* I return to town and see if the vendors have some new cool piece of equipment that I simply must have. I like it better if vendors only get new stuff once a day or once every couple of days. These guys get new shipments way too often.

I did the sewers and got Kalim's heart. Nothing very tough in there. Now to figure out where I need to go next.

Another hireling just died mysteriously. He was standing on the Kurast Bazaar waypoint and didn't seem to know how to get past the low wall surrounding it. I walked on a bit, figuring he would finally figure it out and his portrait disappeared. Maybe you just can't get too far from them.

I found the way to Upper Kurast. Going after the flail.

We've reached Travincal but are in a furious battle to enter the gate. Meteors and things are raining down and I can't even tell where they are coming from. We raced in and out of the gate many times but there are a lot of them and don't think we've made much of a dent.

That's a very tough area, Pokey, there are about 3 named enemies there, try pulling one away from the others, and fire resistance is helpful, as I'm sure you've seen.

I have the Flail. Luckily it was on the first council member. Now to go back and get the rest of them and search for a stopping place for the night.

....We got to the second level of the Durance of Hate and found the waypoint. A good place to stop. Tomorrow...Mephisto!

Hi all,

Oh Thanks Pib and I will try the healing potion on the portrait thing if needed.

No you don't get to see what kind of item you gamble on until you pay for it first.

Its a chance you have to be willing to take and I have gotten a few rare items by taking that chance.

Boy I am running out of room in my inventory in one of my games because of all the charms that I found.

I cannot carry much stuff found to sell so have to use Town Portal a lot.

I was playing my Necromancer yesterday and so far I think I like the Druid and his skills the best.

His Firestorm spell really does a lot of damage.

Oh and I am playing the expansion Pib.

VHLMagic, Now let's see, you can do things with your hireling and play a Druid...somehow I knew you had an expansion game going!

I hear you about the inventory thing. Only about 1/3 my inventory is available so I use portals a lot. Most of the used space is charms and the Horadic cube (which is also stuffed to the brim).

I love watching the Assassin use Dragon Claw. She is fast and deadly with two claw class weapons. Both of her weapons were lucky gambles! They aren't worth that much gold but they have gold names and have a lot of good magic. Now that I have as much gold in the stash as it will hold, I gamble away my extra on a regular basis.

I think I'm in a tough battle here. I killed Sparkfist but it cost two mercenaries and now there are no more that cast cold, which is what will work best against Mephisto. Two council champions to go before I get to him.

I did find some nice armor with a defense of 161.

Yep, I'm finding the opponents may be tougher as I go up in level, but the rewards are better as well.

Found the lever in the sewer and have all of Khalim but the flail. Stopped when I found the teleporter in Upper Kurash.

Also, the other day, I finally found and turned on the mini-map option. So much better! (Sorry Pokey, expansion only) Now I can leave the map up and not have it interfer with battle.