So the three mini bosses you defeated in the Frigid Plains dropped nothing good? Bad luck, I usually got at least one reasonable weapon/armor piece that sold for a respectable amount of cash (after repairing it). It may help that I had to take two of them out a couple of times because I needed to restart the area 'you can't finish this quest'.

Do try the portals in each of these areas, there is a chest loaded with gold and goodies at the end of the run. Fairly small and straight-forward to clear out.

Jewels and runes are rare drops, I haven't had a jewel drop in quite some time. You should be getting nice gemstones (emerald, diamond, ruby, sapphire, topaz) at least some of the time though.

I meant gems that you put in sockets. What are jewels? I've never seen any.

Jewels are another thing to put in sockets. Unlike gems, they tend to have 1 or two effects no matter what class of item you put them in (a jewel may give you +2 dexerity once placed in a socket). Gems have different effects in weapon vs armor vs shield. Jewels tend to have gold edges with a gemstone like center.

Jewels and runes were introduced in the expansion (I think) so it's not surprising you haven't hit any jewels yet.

We made it to the Crystalline Passage waypoint before quitting for the night. My cold hireling died so I went with the barbarian and he is doing okay, though I miss the freezing, which makes it easy finish off the monsters. The hireling was killing most of them himself.

Is the extra gold over 150,000 supposed to be safe next to the stash as long as you pick it up when you exit the game? I left a pile and noticed later that it was gone. I am finding better stuff now and more gold.

I believe that nothing in the game is safe if you leave it on the ground. You must still be under level 30 though. I did a lot of buffing and am level 32 - my stash holds 800,000 gold now! It was weird how fast the cash levels went up just at level 31.

How do you keep that much gold when the stash limit is 150,000? I am just about to hit level 30. Looking forward to using Salvation.

My stash suddenly jumped from 150,000 to 200,000 to 800,000. I don't know why it did that last increase, I was expecting the 150,000 to 200,000 when I hit level 30. But the jump to 800,000 wasn't expected at all. I have about 400,000 in there now.

[add] just to be clear. In the post above, my stash has a limit of 800,000. I have just barely gotten above 400,000.[/add]

Congrats, Magic!!! Well done.

Apparently, at level 30 in the normal game, your stash holds 200,000 gold. But once you move on to Act V, it seems to jump by 50,000 per level, not per 10 levels. So I've had

800,000 gold at 31
850,000 at 32 and now
900,000 at level 33 (Hmm, that may be off by a level, I have to check the game again). Now that is a very impressive stash cash limit. And I'm no where near filling it up.

But is there anything to buy with all that gold? I haven't seen anything good since Act 3. I haven't found anything worth switching to either.

I rescued Anya and then found the Glacial Trail waypoint. Time to enter Anya's red portal. I'm finally getting some gold--nearly 200,000. It costs a lot to resurrect the barbarian, though he's only died once so far. I wish there was a hot key to give him potions and not have to fumble around finding one and putting it on his icon.

I find that the smith and Anya sometimes have good equipment that's quite expensive. And now I have enough gold in reserve to gamble more often.

I expect that fighting Baal is going to cost me dearly, when I get there.

I didn't think to check with Anya.

What is that Scroll of Resistance Malah gave me? I don't know what to do with it and it takes a lot of space in the inventory. Looks like a one shot deal.

It is. Just right click to gain a bonus to resistance. I don't think there is any reason not to go ahead and do it immediately.

Unlike choosing an item to get sockets from the smith. That one you want to be very careful with and choose a good item.

Thanks. I still haven't got sockets placed in an item. I don't have any great rune or gem to put in it.

Found the waypoint in Hall of Pain and quitting for the night. Of course it was the last room I looked in. Level 31 now.

I found it doesn't always pay to repair an item before selling. I found a stick worth 25,000 and it cost 26,000 to repair---but after repairing, it brought only 25,000.

I can't sell anything for more than 25,000 gold ever. So if it's close to that already, I don't bother.

Rescuing Barbarians should have netted you three runes to place in a socketed shield. Mind you, to get the full effect, you need a) a shield with exactly three sockets and b) place those runes in exactly the right order.

I did place the three runes in order in my socketed shield. I haven't used it much because I have been using salvation with my two handed weapon.

How is your assassin doing? I haven't left the second floor waypoint yet. It was easy to that point but will get harder.

I won't be repairing anything that is close to 25,000 again--if I even find any.

Finally found the waypoint in the Frozen Tundra. Died once doing the extra level you can find in the Frozen Tundra. Found the entrance to the Ancient Way, but it was too late and I didn't feel like searching for the waypoint.

And, yeah, a shield is pretty useless for an assassin, since if you've taken her down the martial arts path, it's best to have duel claw class weapons. I have a really lovely sword to swap to, but she's just too good with those claws.

Hi all,

Well having fun running around in Act III and getting way better stuff to sell.

Money is piling up faster then it has up to now.

Wish they didn't have this maze like jungle to try and figure out which way to go but we are slowly finding our way around.

My assissan is using Isenhart's sword and breast plate and doing pretty good and also using firestorm to clear the way.

Enjoy the money piling up. I went through quite a lot of it in Act IV.

Your Assassin obviously doesn't depend on a combination of Cobra Strike and Dragon Claw. Swords don't work with moves like that.

Well, people, I found and unlocked the last waypoint in Diablo 2. Finished all quests barring the last one. Have 700,000 in cash to spare - should be useful if we die (and die and die and die). The Ancients didn't give me too much grief, but I died fairly soon after from carelessness.

I finished off Nihlathak last night after battling his endless horde of minions. When we got him down to just two--he kept summoning them--we rushed him and survived. Off to the Frozen Tundra now.

I don't understand some of the enhancements on weapons. I think "leech" means that the character gains that much life or mana per hit. What does "life stolen per hit" mean? Looking to get a better weapon for my hireling. I tried one earlier and he said he couldn't use it even though he had all the requirements in strength and dexterity and level. I don't understand why he couldn't use it.

Edit--I think I understand now. Life stolen is a percentage of the total life and is just damage to the enemy, no leeching.

Hirelings are quite specific in weapon abilities. The one I keep can only be equipped with a bow. Not even a crossbow, just a bow. So depending on which hireling you've settled on, that determines the weapons they are allowed to use.

I thought Life Stolen was pretty much the same as Leech? I mean, you steal something, it's yours

Hi,

Well played with my Necromancer yesterday and he can now summon 3 regular skeletons, 1 skeleton mage, Iron Golem and the hireling makes 6 helpers to do the dirty work for me hehe.

We will soon have an army working for us.

Will have to see how this goes as he gets to the end boss. Hmmm.

He also found 2 different set items where my other people only found 1 or 2 pieces of the same set.