FunWiki: CharacterConcepts

A listing of ideas for DiabloIi characters, for those of you who are too umimaginative to come up with your own. Written during expansion patch 1.09, so in older or newer patches, classic, or mods, this may or may not be helpful.

(1)The Standards:

Paladin with zeal/fanaticism/conviction and some way of doing elemental damage
Barbarian with whirlwind (generally long weapon, though swords are most popular these days as whirlwind no longer ignores weapon speed)
Barbarian with frenzy (generally swords or maces... axes don't seem to be very popular. Largely because good swords and maces are a lot easier to find.)
Assassin (martial arts) with phoenix strike/cobra strike/dragon flight
Necromancer with blood golem/iron maiden/bone spirit or spear I question whether this is still the standard. It worked well in classic, but if you look online most people have given up on Blood Golem/Iron? Maiden in favor of Fire Golem/Lower? Resist. I find amplify damage more effective than lower resist except against elemental enchanted uniques, cause most monsters are 100% resistant or 0% resistant on hell. This isn't quite so true in the later acts, but isn't terribly relevant either. As I see it, Necros do most of their damage with bone spear/spirit, maybe poison nova, fire golem, and corpse explosion. Given that these are basically all elemental damage sources, lower resist helps them and amp damage doesn't. Amp damage would be better if you were planning on using a lot of revive, but what works even better for that (in general) is life tap. As far as I know the biggest users of amp damage these days are cow-running zons wearing Atma's Scarab. I've actually tested fire golem with and without amp damage, and also looked at fire golem vs fire immunes, and he actually does respectable physical damage. Go figure. Maybe its a bug in 1.09 I think it does do some physical damage, but I maintain that doing 50 percent more damage on almost all your attacks is better than doing triple damage on a small subset of them. But that's just me. Frankly, Necros suck so badly in general its sort of a pointless debate; either way it takes forever to kill things, its just a matter of whether it takes forever or forever and a day. Well, that introduces the real reason to use amplify damage... your archer hireling. Thats where most of my damage comes from. Your act 1 merc still does physical damage? Mine all do lightning damage these days. But I guess if they were, Amp Damage would be a better option. By the way, I'm getting the feeling that we might want to start a strategy section on this page for things like this.
Druid with werewolf/oak sage/fury/some other summoning (heart of wolverine works well in place of oak sage as well)
Bowazon with multishot or strafe/guided arrow/elemental damage bow skill (with the last one often consisting of a single point in fire arrow)
Sorc with (hydra or meteor)/(nova, thunderstorm, or charged bolt)/freezing sphere (choose at least 2) + relevant masteries. I believe the first listed skill in the choices is the more popular/better (in the current thinking). It depends on whether you are playing to solo the game easily or to Mfind/level effectively in the late game. For soloing the game, best it Hydra/Thunder? Storm/Freezing? Sphere. If you are interested in cowing or meph/pindle running, Nova, Firewall, and Meteor are good choices, and you max your masteries instead of taking a third tree.

(2) The not too unusual

Paladin with vengeance for elemental damage (added to above concept) Though surprisingly bad. Vengeance eats too much mana to be effective vs. physical immunes, unless you pump mana a little bit and use meditation.
Paladin with zeal/lightning aura/conviction
Smitadin: Paladin specializing in Smite, particularly with Fanatacism and some sort of elemental damage skill. Surprisingly good.
Assassin (traps) with death sentry/fire sentry
Assassin (martial arts) using Dragon Tail/Tiger? Strike, plus some way of dealing with physical immunes.
Druid with werebear/shockwave/some summoning/an appropriate spirit
Necromancer with alternative golem choices
Necromancer who straight summons. I hear its possible, but better for multiplayer. is entertaining, safe, and not too bad... but if you run into a problem spot you'll never get back started again. Also startup time is slow getting those first few corpses. Well, slow relative to normal time. If you're playing a necromancer you aren't expecting to go fast.
- Earlier versions of DiabloIi: the Lagomancer. Annoys the s%&# out of party members on Bnet. Figure it out
Hybridzon with lightning fury/multishot/guided arrow (strafe also possible but vastly inferior)
Spearazon: pick your favorite spear skill (typically fend) and max it; rest of points in passives. Exists in the two-handed spear (offensive) variety and the one-handed (defensive) variety. The former will kill stuff quickly but struggle not to die; the latter will have an easier time staying alive but struggle to kill stuff.
Tankazon with lots of passives and lots of vitality
Ironbarb: Barbarian using concentrate, shout, and iron skin, plus good equipment, to get his AC up around 30000, thus assuring that all monsters only hit him 5% of the time. With correct equipment you can apparently push 60k, but doing so is generally not worth the effort.
Berserker: Uses berserk almost exclusively. Takes lots of potions and occasional switches to a more typical attsck skill to leech.

(3) The 'What are you playing?' (There is no guarantee any of these can beat the game. Though given some of the builds that have beaten the game, most probably can. Includes some designs that are just really unorthodox though not necessarily bad)

Spellcasting Paladin (blessed hammer/concentration/lightning spell) If you're planning on going concentration anyway, one point in blessed hammer with a few +skills will get you through Nightmare without too much of a problem. The hit recovery on blessed hammer is amazingly slow, so if you've hit a monster once it's dead, it just doesn't know it yet. The problem is hitting them the first time.
Martyr: Paladin who specializes in Sacrifice. Takes a lot of life leech to pull off.
Chargadin: Paladin specializing in Charge. Knockback a must.
Sword and Sorceress (enchant, a cold armor, thunderstorm, mana shield, with damage reduction equipment like mad)
Spellcasting Necromancer (no real summons except maybe a fire golem, few to no curses, poison nova, bone spirit or spear) I've played this one. I got bored of the game before beating it with this character, but aside from having to constantly restock my mana potions it wasn't too bad--AlexBobbs
Fear me Assassin (blade trap that surrounds body, 100% causes monster to flee on anything but weapon. Hell, 30% is probably enough. Blade shield gets a lot of hits)
Spellcasting hunter thornuid (some subset of armageddon/hurricane/tornado with spirit of barbs, lots of summons, and a bow) I think the leading variant of this is Grizzlygedon, with maxed Armageddon, Summon Bear, Summon Dire Wolf, and your favorite spirit. Then, since you don't have anything better to do while waiting for armageddon and the bear to kill stuff, you take the biggest, stompiest weapon you can find and go beat on stuff. Knockback is helpful. Hurricane can be used in place of Armageddon.
Death from Above Sorceress (thunderstorm/blizzard/meteor) Takes really good timing, but should be beatable Alternately, play a self-tanking sorc. With good equipment and energy shield you can afford to sit there with monsters surrounding you as you wait for the meteor to land.
Frogger (leap attack, with knockback)
Magazon (ice arrow/immolation arrow + lots of mana) technically exploding arrow works better, as immolation arrow has a casting delay.
Missionary (aura of thorns/conversion)
Shout Barbarian (warshout... and lots of mana... lots and lots of mana... i dont think you comprehend how much your equipment needs to be dedicated to mana) I read a guide on this. The guy had 3700 mana with Battle Orders activated, and level 36 war cry. Reports that it works well up until hell, where it has issues anywhere except the cow level.
The Psionicist (mindblast!)
Punch barb: Barb using no weapons, just punching. Bash recommended. Also lots of elemental damage charms.
Angelzon: Zon using multishot and lots of "percent chance to cast on attack" equipment.
Hit me sorc: Sorc with lots of "percent cast to chance when struck" gear. Works for any class, but only sorc can get Teleport (from oculus).
Throwing Barb: Double throw and throw mastery. Be prepared to spend a lot of money on your throwing weapons.
Ranger: Bow-wielding Paladin. Holy Shock recommended.
Hunter: Bow-wielding Druid.
Meleemancer: A necro who wields some big stompy weapon (typically a scythe) and wades into combat. Not very effective, but cool-looking. Many a necromancer of mine wielded a scythe just for the look. Cost a hell of a bunch of extra strength and dex, and was definitely not worth it, but they sure looked spiffy.
Werewolf Barb: (1.10 and after only) A barb specializing in druid shapeshifting and summoning. Yes, you can do it.
Sorcomancer: (1.10 and after only) A necromancer specializing in sorc fire skills. Again, yes, it can be done.
PotionThrower?: Umm.. yeah. Jury is still out on the best way to pull this off. I've heard paladin recommended, though Barb and Zon seem like natural choices as well.
Coward (not an official term, but the nevertheless...) Barb who does everything he can possibly think of to make himself resistant to damage. Characterized by a stompy AC, 75% block chance, 75% physical damage reduction, maxed resistances, and more hit points than the typical WorldWarII? battleship. Can very likely beat the game, but will take forever to do so because of the lack of emphasis on offense. Requires some rather specific, really, really good equipment.
Absorbadin: Another equipment-specific build; revolves around getting fire, cold, and lightning absorb above 50% and keeping resistances as low as possible. Much easier in 1.10. Good for dueling.

(4)The actively bad (orginally a list from the phrozenkeep entitled "Builds you will never see on battle.net")

Magiczon. Maxed magic arrow as primary attack. Has the advantage of never having to buy bolts or arrows.
Magizon. Specialized in slow missiles and inner sight. Look out, Baal!
Psychic Sass. Maxed Psychic Hammer. It has knockback! And only costs 8 mana!
Fire Blast. Maxed fire blast. 69-70 damage at level 20!
Coward. Barb specializing in Howl, Battle Cry, and Grim Ward.
Specialist. For those who want to keep their options open. Maxes all weapon masteries
Druid. Just in general (not quite true, but whatever)
Boner. Necro specializing in Bone Prison and Bone Wall, to keep enemies away. Uses teeth otherwise. Is so far worth playing on battle.net just for the reactions from other players. -- EvilSouthie
Passives Necro. Maxes Golem Mastery, Skeleton Mastery, and Summon Resist. Would have the most powerful summons ever if he actually could summon anything.
Undead Hunter. Paladin maxing Sanctuary and Hoyl Bolt, and uses primarily blunt weapons. Keeping with the holy theme, can also take Conversion, spreading the good word by bludgeoning people over the head.
Pyro. Paladin specializing in Holy Fire. Insert witty remark here.
Bolt Sorc. Only skills with "Bolt" in their name; to wit: fire bolt, ice bolt, and charged bolt. To quote the original description: FAER mi HaX0R? 533r l8r ttfm MudaFuker?, WTFF!!!!!
- Can you pump masteries? Cause then a sorc with 20 firebolt/20 fire mastery and +11 skills deals 192-199.2 damage for 2.5 mana! Charged bolt with light mastery maxed and +11 skills deals 98.4-106.6 damage and releases 33 bolts, seemingly only for 12 mana (the mana cost doesn't increase from 19 to 20th, so i assume it stops increasing, otherwise its only 17.5 mana max). Ice bolt blows goats though.
  - No you can't pump masteries. That would make this actually decent. Charged bolt (which, by the way, continues to increase in mana cost at a rate of .5 per level) is actually one of the better lightning skills these days. There's actually a "sparkler" build based off hydra/charged bolt. With just fire bolt/cold bolt and masteries it would be painful but still managable. Thus, no masteries. This is supposed to suck, remember?
Telesorc. Uses Teleport and Telekinesis as main skills. See "Psychic Sass" for advantages of this build.
Ravenmaster. Druid who uses Ravens almost exclusively (first 20 points). Probably won't get you through Nightmare and Hell, but can definitely beat Baal.