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I am playing Diablo 2 for the very first time and I am near the end of chapter 1. My character is a Paladin. I was wondering what should be the level of a character before beginning chapter 2? Thanks.

Usually around level 18-20 is a good level for the desert.

Thanks for the quick reply; much appreciated. I have one other question and it concerns skills. Am I understanding correctly that only one skill at a time can be employed? Is this including the passive skills or are they a constant? thanks again.

In terms of using multiple skills, it's a bit tricky, especially for paladins. So, to simplify this for ya-

Trigger Skills: Skills that require you to right click to use, you can have two of those active. One on the left mouse slot, and one on the right mouse slot.

Aura Skills: No matter what, you can only have one active at a time, once you have it assigned to the right mouse slot, it's always constantly active. The only exception to this is if you have a constant active aura on an item of some sort, and those are rare.

Passive skills: Never needs any right or left mouse button assignment, they're instantaneous upgrades to your character just as pumping up your strength is.

This is one of the reasons paladins can sometimes be considered a wee bit too strong. You can have an Aura active and a trigger skill active at the same time (Like Sacrifice on the left mouse and the Might Aura on the right mouse).

What is considered a passive skill?

Any skill that says the name and then says (passive). Paladins don't have any passive skills sadly. But sorceress's do, in elemental masteries.

Paladins too strong? Melee classes are seriously penalized in Diablo 2. I'll let the poster discover why.

I don't think paladins are too strong. I'm just giving reasons why it can be considered too strong.

Personally I never even play paladins. Even if it's a point and click 2D game, I do like to add a little more flavor to the game by setting things up around my enemy (Like a hydra from the sorceress, or a few molten boulders from druid, traps from assassins, etc).

I have another question if that is okay. I notice that both the Personal Stash and your Character's inventory only have one screen each to carry/store goods. This seems quite a bit limiting or is there a second screen to each that I am missing? Thanks.

Yeah, there's only one screen for each storage, and I REALLY hate the limiting space it provides considering the amount of loot you get from a few enemies killed.

Fortunately, there's this-
[url="http://phrozenkeep.planetdiablo.gamespy.com/forum/dload.php?action=file&file_id=1335&sid=b43a20a32decdd066817d38a04aa4d9f"]PlugY The Survival Kit[/url]

What this does is it adds unlimited space to your stash, a bigger one page inventory, and a bigger one page Horadric Cube (If you haven't gotten this item yet, you will soon).

Some say this is a cheat, and with the way people can use it, yeah I can see it as a cheat. But this gives you space to save up for all the gems you collect, as well as other socket-items if you have the expansion pack (cause there are over 50 runes and a dozen times more combinations that create unique item runewords).

Thanks for the link! Between the grossly limited stash/inventory space AND the worst designed Save Game option - or I should say What Option? - I have ever had the the mispleasure to encounter in a game, I wouldn't call this a cheat in the least.

Right now I am at the close of Act 2 except I can't get past a certain someone. It is very frustrating.

Who, Duriel?

Yeah, actually I have to agree that Duriel is one of the hardest bosses of the game, next to Baal of course.

Yes, Duriel. My Paladin has done very well up till this point (though he has had a number of deaths along the way - ). I rarely consult a walkthrough to help me gameplay but this boss is ridiculous. Some are saying neither poison or cold affects "him" but lightning and fire do. Yet another writer says to employ cold to help slow him down. Any idea which position is correct? Thanks again.

Well I'll tell you this, anytime you see a monster, he doesn't have an immunity unless it says "Immunity to XXXX" right under his name.

Duriel should only have one thing under his name, "Demon." Meaning everything affects him. Though, considering he -uses- cold he would probably be resistant to it at least.

Zeal and Aura of Fire would easily take him down, easily. Just stock up on mana potions.

Duriel has 50% cold resistance on normal, and 20% against fire, lightning and poison. I'm not sure that he is slowed by cold though, he might be. However, your "holy freeze" aura slows all monsters, even those that normally are not slowed by cold.

I believe no act boss in the game is immune to anything, some are highly resistant though.

DaveO wrote:Paladins too strong? Melee classes are seriously penalized in Diablo 2. I'll let the poster discover why.

When people say paladins are to strong I doubt they are referring to a melee class.

A passive skill is something that is always in effect, like damage resistence, etc. I dont think durial is to difficult to defeat, it juss depends on how good u and ur character are. Ive beaten the game with every class and have not had much difficulty with him. The only hard boss to me in the game is diablo.

As a paladin Duriel shouldn't be too much of a hassle, it probably depends on your active aura and where all your stat and skill points went. The biggest problem with Duriel is his speed, not so much his natural speed but his Holy Freeze aura applying negatively to the player character.

As a paladin consider using a faster weapon (possibly 1 handed with a shield) and stuffing your inventory with health and some mana potions. Try having a sword and shield in slot number 2 if you don't already.

Sometimes persistance is the key though, in the past I have died about 20 or 30 times trying to kill a certain monster.

~

I should point out that Duriel can be quite the nightmare to fight as a low level bowazon, other builds can be difficult depending on level too.

I'm pretty sure Duriel can be slowed. I was using an Ice Arrow on my amazon, which does freeze normal things but it was slower.

Is there a best level to fight Duriel?

That's a gray area for duriel, I've fought him through many levels but it all depends on build. Necromancers and Bowazons can have quite a degree on difficulty, most of it stems (in my opinion) to lack of points in vitality. Mercenaries and hirelings don't help much either.

Personally I think if you can reach them, you can kill them. It may take many, many goes but chipping them down can take persistance and deaths.

In the old days I've died like 18 or more times trying to kill duriel using a bowazon, he simply killed my decoys and mecenary in one hit. If you are at a level to use decoy cast it on the other side of the room and stay out of his holy freeze aura and just pelt him with all the fire arrows or ice arrows possible. If you have mana steal it makes it more cost effective to keep casting decoy and keep him occupied. If a bowazon don't be tempted to try and spear him, you'll still do more damage with a bow.

Keep using those town portals!

Yeah agreed. Town portals are probably the most useful items in Diablo. Love the way they stay open and you could just skip back and forth while fighting the big bosses.