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Welcome
to the Forge!
In Diablo, a core of dedicated gamers seeking extra challenge played
a variation called "Ironman". A team of typically 3 players, one of each
class, would enter the dungeon and never return to town (or at least use
its services) until they or Diablo were dead. Restart in town was not
allowed, only resurrection. One game, done with each level in order, start
to finish. Despite thousands of such game attempts, scant few, known as
Ironman Champions, have succeeded...
This is the Diablo
2 edition of the Forge. Clasic Diablo Ironman info can be found here.
It is my wish to
make this guide as comprehensive as the original Forge
for Classic Diablo. This will indeed be a very ambitious undertaking.
The many classes each with their own set of skills and choice of specialization,
which also means an almost infinite interlocking skill combinations are
mind boggling. This will be a very time consuming project, especially
with 2 new classes on the horizon it may even be a never ending effort
- that may span over a period of months and perhaps years. For this reason,
and now that we have a working rule set for D2 and a victory story, I
chose to open this section right now instead.
Much of the up
coming
info you will find here will no doubt be collaborative works ranging from
forum discussions to coop play testing to contributions. The Forge is
therefore dedicated to all the Ironman fans out there, and a special THANKS
to the Forge gang for their valuable inputs and the shaping of the D2
Ironman rule set.
What you will find
here:
Under the General heading
-
Rules
- General Ironman game play: Psychology, Communication, Items, When lvling
up, Potions, Skills, etc.
- Basic tactics
- Monsters
- Layout
- Advanced tactics
Under the Classes
Heading
Class/solo specific Tips
Under the Multi Player
heading
Multi-player Tips
Team makeup and interlocking skills
Ironman
Rules
- Party of all new characters, no gifts/trading/playing with outsiders
in any way.
- Party is on its own, no use of town NPC's except where required by quests.
Players may speak to NPC only while it has an "!" over its head, and then
only do the business relating to the quest.
- When a character dies, it is eliminated. Period. Effectively Hardcore
whether the game is played HC or Soft.
- Ironmen fight what they face, and must clear a clean "path" from town
to the Act boss, killing all bosses seen on the way or known to be in
an area along the path.
- All quests must be done. All waypoints must be visited.
- Once an Act is finished, you may not come back to it.
- No repeating areas to gain experience
- Game may be halted and recontinued when any WP is found or Act finished
All players must be present in game continuations. It's a party game.
Key Implications:
- No repairs, no buying/selling, no gambling whatsoever.
- No town healing except incidental when NPC has '!'. Cain ID is a one
time Act I bonus.
- Resource management, weapon durability, and deciding what to ID, become
key issues.
- "Optional" areas, not on path and not involved in a quest, remain optional.
It's a trade off between some extra experience, additional chances to
die, and taking longer to finish an already long and grueling game.
- Free mercenaries will be received in Acts 1 and 3. They may be used,
and will likely die due to lack of town-NPC-regen. New mercs may NOT be
hired.
FAQ
Q:
Scrolls
When you have many scrolls taking up inventory space you are allowed to
purchase tome(s) to store them. Just make sure you discard the same amount
of scrolls that come with the tome.
Q:
Is it cheesy to lvlup a certain character by letting him/her solo an area?
No, the soloist takes on extra risk and uses up more resources, and at
the same time taking exp from the group. This strategy is often practiced
in CD Ironman - a mage would let the warrior get ahead for 2 to 4 clvls.
Q:
Should I play my Ironman in Hardcore?
All variants play by the honor system, Hardcore receives no special recognition.
A realm HC character shows you have completed a certain act/diff, but
it still doesn't prove you played by the rules. Its simple - if you cheat,
you suck! In the CD days, we have seen a few claims of Ironman victories
but the experienced players can tell the difference from fakes.
Q:
Are auto heals by receiving and ending quests okay?
Yes, only when the NPC has a "!" over his/her head. Do not interact
with any NPC without the "!"
Q:
What if I lagout?
You may rejoin the game and proceed as normal. If you lagout and return
dead (Death can occur even from a spike at the wrong time) you (and your
partners in multi) would have to decide if lag was the cause. If you honestly
think lag/spike was the cause then count yourself as alive.
Q:
What if I lagout and cannot rejoin game.
In multi-players, it is up to your partners to decide if they would carry
on without you, or stop the game at the next WP. In either case, you can
rejoin the next game without penalty except any quest reward you might
have missed - Redoing quest or area is not allowed, and you may not solo
to catch up. This also means if your partners go ahead and finish an act
boss, they don't want you in the team anymore ;p
If the
game crashed all items you have left on the ground are considered lost.
It is recommended you keep in inventory or stash any desirable item when
playing on bnet.
Q:
do the WPs from areas like Sewers in Act 2 and Halls of the Dead need
to be found?
Yes, all waypoints must be found and paths cleared.
Q:
Should the Cube quest be repeated?
Since all WPs must be found, the extra lvl would be optional...
Q:
Can I save imbues for later?
The "Once an Act is finished, you may not come back to it."
rule means you have to do it before you leave Act 1
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