Index - Page Two

5. Skills - all kinds of comments on skills.
     a) General Notes
     b) To Max Or Not To Max?
     c) Skill List
6. Miscellaneous - as it says, nothing in particular.
     a) Reduced Magic Damage
     b) Overhead Projections
     c) Devastating Combos
     d) "Ye Who Transmute Here, Abandon All Hope"
     e) "We Shall Do Well With Bauble, Eh!"
     f) Throwing One's Money Away
     g) Triumph or Thievery?
     h) My Name is Heinz Sealmann
     k) "Hot Keys, Here For Your Pleasure..."

a) General Notes

Base skill levels (before +skill sources kick in) can NEVER be higher than (current clvl) - (required clvl - 1). For example, you can only have one point into a clvl 6 skill when reaching clvl 6 just then, two points when you're level seven, and so on; thus, saving points to dump into a single skill doesn't work. However, nothing keeps you from saving points to put into two skills. Furthermore, base slvls can never exceed 20. You need skill shrines, BC, or +skill items to get past 20, up to a max of 30.

Duration-based skills and temporary skill adders: if the skill increase wears off while the skill is in effect, it will stay at its improved slvl until the duration runs out. This holds true for all War Cries except FP, FI and War Cry (as they work instantly and aren't based on a duration of some kind).

Usually I won't list exact, numerical values of the skill effects here. I refer you to the Chaos Sanctuary instead.

b) To Max Or Not To Max?

It's a quite common question whether it's a good idea to push a skill to 20. Well, that isn't all that easy to answer.

Doing Some Basic Math

First of all, skills that have diminishing returns are a major no-no. Look at Natural Resistances: it starts out adding 12% to all resists @ slvl 1. That's an increase of 12 percentage points (from zero to twelve). slvl 2 adds 21%, that's nine more points. slvl 3: 28%, seven points. Slvl 4: 35%, still seven points. Slvl 5: 40%, only five points. Slvl 6: 44%. Four points! The returns start to drop sharply here! It is obvious that allocating points to other skills would net you better results (no additional resists of course, but that's not the problem now). This also shows that for quite a few skills, the initial point is also the only one that would normally be worth investing. That holds true for e.g. Increase Stamina/Speed.

While we're at those. Increase Stamina does have constant returns, Increase Speed doesn't. InSt adds 30% to Stamina @ slvl 1 and adds 15% per additional level. So no matter how many points you divert, the increase is constant. However, consider this: InSt starts out with +30% @ slvl 1, i.e. you get 30% for one skill point. To add another 30%, you need two skill points (two more levels @ +15% each)! Thus, you should ask yourself: is the initial +30% for only one point enough, or do I really need a total of 60% at the cost of three points? It goes from there. IS works in a similar way. It, too, starts off with +30%, but only increases by 10% each slvl.

InSp increases speed by 13% @ slvl 1, and already slvl 2 nets only five additional points. For slvl 5 ==> slvl 6, you only get a 2% increase, and it drops even more over time!

Doing Some Basic Thinking

Of course it is also important to know whether you are going to use a skill in the future - is it only a prereq? Or will you use it on occasion? - and if yes, how much are you going to use it? Clearly, the more often you use a skill, the more likely it is to receive an additional skill point. It is obvious that WW-Barbs will push WW to 20 before they do anything else.

However, before blindly pushing skills, also keep in mind that you may well find equipment that increases your skills. For example, while I do like Find Potion @ slvl 4, I could also have put two points into it and hoped that I'd find a nice item that increases my skills by one or perhaps two levels (which hasn't happened to this day, but that's something completely different). Wasted skill points hurt. I will rave about this later on when we come to skill point allocation.

If you're a melee barb, you will most likely end up using one of five melee skills: Bash, Stun, Concentrate, or Double Swing/Frenzy. The nice thing about those is that they all have very low mana costs, and since you're almost bound to acquire mana-stealing items sometime during your career they make excellent standard attacks. But do you want them to be slvl 20? Sure, each of them has constant returns, so you're not losing anything, but what about the skills you can't pump (as much or at all) because all your points go into this preferred attack? 'Tis the pivotal point. Instead of one skill @ 20, you could have ten skills @ 2! Or five skills @ 4, or whatever mix you desire. Keep in mind that cherishing one skill alone while negating the others may not get you through the game as well as you would want to.

The Barbarian has a total of 30 skills, 10 on each of the of three skill tabs (War Cries, Combat Skills, Combat Masteries). Of those 30, you'll hardly use all of them. For example, most chars are restricted to one or two weapon masteries. Usually, the whole double-wielding branch is used or is not used. Likewise, InSt and InSp are not used by many players. It's thus safe to assume that your average Barbarian will be using about 20 of those 30 skills.

Now, of those 20 skills, some will likely be prereqs only; for example, I can't see myself putting more than one point into Howl or Find Item (this still being yer average Barbarian we're talking about), and I won't (or only very rarely) be using them, so I needn't bother further. On the other hand, even regularly used skills needn't necessarily be the ones to be pumped like mad. E.g. while I may use Grim Ward all the time, I wouldn't increase it past slvl 1. I even feel that it becomes too effective at a certain point, since its radius keeps increasing evenly. But this, too, is a matter of personal preference., I guess.

So, which skills are worth maxing? Well, there's the combat masteries, simply because "they always pay off". Given that you stick with one type of weapon, the related mastery is always good to boost. As I've already said, another skill that could potentially be maxed is Whirlwind. For some folks it's their primary attack type, for others it's not as much as a backup, but in any case, getting rid of the negative damage "boost" is nice (and happens at slvl 8). Apart from that, I don't think there are any skills which are truly worth to be raised to 20; remember what I said, you'll often do better with ten skills @ 2 than one skill @ 20 (for example). I believe that a combination of skills makes a "good" character, while relying on very few doesn't. YMMV.

c) Skill List

For the sake of convience, here's a nifty lil‘ table showing which skills become available when you hit a certain clvl.

A general note: the Pro/Con section isn't really meant to tell you which skill to use, and which skill not to use. It's merely meant to point out skills' disadvantages, so you may use other skills or tactics to counter these. Also, skills that don't work on Champions/Bosses won't do anything against Oblivion Knights, either.

Another general note: of course requirements are cumulative. E.g. though I only state that Frenzy requires Double Throw, of course you must have Double Throw first (thus including Double Swing and Bash). This one was obvious, wasn't it? =)

Combat Skills

Most Combat Skills require at least one melee weapon to use; the exceptions are Leap (which works without any weapon at all) and the Double attacks (which require two melee/throwing weapons). If you are using only a bow, Leap is the only skill on this tab that's worth investing in. Everything else won't work with a bow.

Bash
Prereq.: none
Effect: Single attack with increased Damage and AR that also knocks the target back
Mana: 2

This is your basic combat skill, from which most other combat skills are derived. As you put more points into it, the increase in damage and AR goes up.

If you want to, you can make this your standard attack, since 2 mana points are easy to steal back, even with a low mana-stealing %; however, the knockback-effect will prove to be annoying versus certain monsters (ranged attackers/magic users). However, it is a nice skill, especially in the beginning, where you'll want to keep bosses at a distance (or literally bash them into a wall); besides, the dam/AR increase is always nice to have. One point is enough for this unless you want to make it your primary attack.

Pro:
   - works with any melee weapon (unlike masteries)
   - low mana cost
   - no requirements whatsoever
   - useful AR/damage bonus and knock back
   - only HtH-combat skill besides Berserk that increases damage
Con:
   - knock back can also be a disadvantage

Leap
Prereq.: clvl 6
Effect: Leap over enemies and obstacles, while knocking back monsters near your landing point
Mana: 2

Leap allows you to do what it says: leap. With but one skill point in it, it'll be more of a short hop, though; you need a fair amount of points to make it truly effective. Nevertheless, it is useful in many situations, when you can leap over the minions of Greater Mummies, Shamans or egg-laying Maggots to take out the resurrecting/spawning monsters first. It's sometimes useful to short cut your way; a good example is the Arcane Sanctuary (though you'll need a good 4-5 points to make it).

However, in most cases, you'll be using LA over this, for its unlimited range. One thing LA doesn't have, however, is the knockback effect: upon landing, all monsters around you will be knocked back (distance seems to depend on slvl) and stunned for a really short time, so this does have its uses beyond enhanced movement. Besides the low mana cost, it's also the only thing that makes it shine compared to LA.

Pro:
   - useful to jump over minions/take short cuts
   - low mana cost
   - knockback helps to control the flow of combat
   - requires no weapon
Con:
   - needs a healthy amount of points to achieve truly useful ranges
   - is made obsolete by Leap Attack in most ways
   - Barbarian sounds rather stupid when Leaping ;-)

Double Swing
Prereq.: clvl 6, Bash
Effect: When wielding two weapons, swing them quickly after each other, with increased AR.
Mana: 2

This skill doesn't exactly do what it says. It doesn't allow you to swing two weapons simultaneously; when using Double Swing, you merely swing them quickly, faster than double-clicking, and with an AR-bonus. If there's only one monster available, you'll attempt to hit it with both weapons; otherwise the two blows will go to different monsters. As the slvl increases, so does the AR-bonus. As you can probably guess, this skill is only of any use when you double-wield. If you know you're not going to do so, leave this part of the skill tree alone; wasted skill points do you no good.

Pro:
   - increases AR
   - low mana cost
   - slightly reduces micromanagement
Con
   - not a real simultaneous attack
   - no damage adder

Stun
Prereq.: clvl 12, Bash
Effect: temporarily stun a target.
Mana: 2

This skill is worth at least one point. Stun allows you to stun your enemy (the stun-time is only ½ for bosses and "superuniques"), giving you time to launch another attack, or simply flee. The low mana cost means it makes an excellent primary attack. With a fast weapon, you can easily stun-lock monsters with this. Users of slow weapons should consider Concentrate, though.

Pro:
   - very effective with fast weapons
   - increases AR
   - low mana cost
Con:
   - less effective with slow weapons
   - no damage adder

Double Throw
Prereq.: clvl 12, Double Swing
Effect: When wielding two throwing weapons, throw them quickly after each other, with increased AR.
Mana: 2

This is pretty much the same as Double Swing, except it's for throwing weapons. It may be interesting for Barbarians who seek to master throwing weapons, as they will usually want to be a good distance away from their foes, so interruptibility is not an immediate issue.

Pro:
   - low mana cost
   - increases AR
   - dispatches foes more quickly
Con:
   - no damage adder

Leap Attack
Prereq.: clvl 18, Leap
Effect: Leap to a target and strike it upon landing, with increased damage and AR.
Mana: 9

LA is really worth a point or two. You will find it very useful when there's a lot of spawning/resurrecting monsters around, like in the Maggot Lair or tombs; you can pick out those vicious monsters, basically hopping from one to the other and then back to safety. Don't forget you need not bother bashing through their minions first. Leap Attack is a simple and effective way to eliminate "the source of the problem first."

Since even slvl 1 will increase your damage by more than 100%, the mana cost of 9 can easily be claimed back through mana-stealing items...though if you have none and don't happen to have pumped Energy like there's no tomorrow, it might be a good idea to pick your target wisely, unless you're willing to quaff a lot of blue potions. With mana steal, you can basically LA around to your heart's content.

Of course, you can use LA simply to leap to a spot you specify. Your Barbarian will attempt to hit any monster within range upon landing, so it's relatively easy to LA-kill fleeing or similarly moving monsters. You "only" need good timing. It can be learned, and it's one of the many things that distinguishes a good Barbarian player from the "click, WW, dead pack - click, WW, dead pack - w00t! 1 r0x0rz" faction.

v1.03 shows us that LA's range issue is "not a bug, it's a feature". They simply removed the range description, which means that Leap is a waste of points for about all practical reasons as soon as you get this. Bleh.

Pro:
   - great damage and AR adder
   - virtually unlimited range
Con:
   - relatively high mana cost without mana steal/high base mana
   - Barbarian makes a stupid sound when doing this :-)
   - lacks Leap's overall knockback upon landing

Concentrate
Prereq.: clvl 18, Stun
Effect: perform an uninterruptible attack while increasing your AR and DR.
Mana: 2

This is a valuable skill when you're using a slow weapon. The low mana cost can be claimed back sans problems. However, there are two problems. First, you can still be hit while attacking, it's just that you won't be stunned/the attack won't be interrupted; you will still take damage. Second, you can't do *anything* while attacking using Concentrate, not even drink a potion. Thus, beware: don't face too large groups of monsters while doing this, or shift-click like a maniac; else Concentrate may be your bane (been there, done that).

If you're using a fast weapon, you may be better off using Bash or Stun as your main attack skill, but mayhaps that's just me.

Pro:
   - as long as AR is high enough, a hit is basically guaranteed (unless monster moves away)
   - AR and DR bonus
   - low mana cost
Con:
   - uninterruptible attack also means you can't quaff potions or do anything else while striking
   - no damage adder

Whirlwind
Prereq.: L30, Leap Attack, Concentrate
Effect: it's a slicin', dicin', whirlin' and smashin' Barbarian o' death!
Mana: 25 @ slvl 1, +1 per slvl

Yeah, this is it, the D2-equivalent to CD's FireBall. A true no-brainer. All you need is life/mana steal and an acceptable amount of damage, then just click on the opposite side of a mob and watch them die.

In v1.03, WW has been toned down, although it still is a really powerful skill. Lacking any experience with pre-1.03 WW, I don't really see how it could have been any stronger before, actually.

On a personal note, I must say that WW is utterly overhyped by various guides all over the net. Yes, it is an Überskill, but the fact that so many guides basically say "go WW, otherwise u suck, and most other skills and all warcries are crap 2" really bothers me. DaShiv demonstrated well how a Barbarian can still dominate without Leap Attack OR Whirlwind, and it makes for a good read.

Pro:
   - deals lots of damage to lots of monsters really quick.
   - the Barbarian's only AoE-skill
Con:
   - very high mana cost, especially at higher slvls

Berserk
Prereq.: L30, Concentrate
Effect: gain AR and magical damage at the cost of DR
Mana: 5

The problem with this skill is, Bash does exactly the same thing, but without any requirements *and* without reducing your DR. What's worse, Berserk doesn't actually give you magical damage, so it's even more useless (otherwise it'd have been at least a choice against Stone Skin enchanted bosses and physical resistant monsters). The only advantage at all is that its max effects are much higher than those of Bash (+360% AR, +246% Dam @ slvl 20), that's it.

Pro:
   - higher effects than Bash
   - low mana cost
Con:
   - everything else ;P

War Cries

There are two kinds of war cries; those that affect you and your allies, and those that affect monsters. There are subtypes to those, but I won't go into this, as it's not really important.

Howl
Prereq.: none
Effect: sends all nearby monsters running in fear
Mana: 2

A nice skill in the beginning, it scares all nearby monsters, the duration/running-range being dependant on the slvl. Nice to allow yourself some silent seconds to quaff a potion, portal out or to-do-whatever-you-want-to-do. If you advance carefully, you won't need this all that much. Also: this won't affect monsters with a higher level than 1+clvl+Howl slvl, so it's not very useful on NM and Hell diff, where the mlvls will often be a good way ahead of your own level, unless you invest a lot of points into this. Once you can raise Grim Wards, you won't use this much any more, anyway. Hmm...one advantage over GW: Howl can used whenever and wherever you want, while Grim Ward needs a corpse (and seems to take longer to "cast," but perhaps that's just me).

Pro:
   - send 'em running! And buy yourself some time to do stuff.
   - low mana cost
   - universally usable
Con:
   - sometimes monsters can't run away due to room reasons
   - dependant on monster level, thus less effective on higher difficulty levels

Find Potion
Prereq.: none
Effect: grants a chance to find a Healing-, Mana- or Rejuvenation Potion on a corpse.
Mana: 2

Which potions can you find where?

Act I : Light Healing/Mana, Rejuvenation Potions
Act II : Healing/Mana, Rejuvenation Potions
Act III, IV : Greater Healing/Mana, Full Rejuvenation Potions

This holds true for any difficulty setting, so relying on FP in early NM or Hell acts won't satisfy your "potion thirst" as easily. Greater/Super potions are still available from the vendors, though, and after all rejuvenation potions still fill up 35% of the orbs, which is not too bad after all and certainly more as light or even normal healing potions can do.

You should not put more than 3-4 points into this skill. At slvl 4, you have a 44% chance of finding a potion, which is absolutely enough. slvl 5 would give you a 50% chance, but those 6 per cent really are not worth it. Lower slvls probably work, too, it really depends on your playing style (and mine involves preferring to find lots of potions). Note: you can probably stick with one or two points into this if you take +skill items into consideration. I didn't. But that's just me. :)

It should be noted that corpses on which you've tried to find a potion can't be used by a Necromancer to raise skeletons anymore. It should also be noted that such corpses can't be "used" by other monsters, either. Messin' with corpses, no more resurrections...yay!

And finally, it should also be noted that this skill comes particularly in handy when the potions you derive from corpses are bad, but you have gems to waste. For those who don't know what I'm talking about: three red potions, three blue potions and a gem (grades of potions and the gem don't matter!) can be transmuted into one Full Rejuvenation potion. Needless to say, those are pretty damn handy, especially in Act I and II where they can't be found via FP.

Pro:
   - chance of finding superior potions
   - low mana cost
   - makes the corpse non-resurrectable
   - I really like it :-)
Con:
   - renders corpses useless to you and other players
   - less effective in lower acts (mainly on higher difficulty levels)

Shout
Prereq.: clvl 6, Howl
Effect: increases the DR of your party (and yourself)
Mana: 7

A really nice skill, doubling your base DR by 100% at slvl 1 and adding a further 10% per level. This is nice to use before fighting tough monsters, especially in conjunction with other war cries. Of course, the duration is limited, but it's still fairly long and is quick to "cast" again. This makes a very nice substitute for Iron Skin early on; 100% DR increase for only one skill point and at clvl 6 already.

Pro:
- more DR is always good
- your party is affected, too
Con:
- rather short duration

Taunt
Prereq.: clvl 6, Howl
Effect: makes monsters attack you directly while slightly reducing their attacks' effectiveness
Mana: 3

This is also a very nice skill. It can be aimed at a single monster, which will then be very pissed (to put it bluntly) and chase after you. So what's nice about this, you ask? It rids you of nasty spellcasters and ranged attackers! For example, Fallen Shamans won't throw fire bolts at you from afar, they will walk over and try to stab you with their dagger. Same goes for Greater Mummies and many other monsters (including archers): they all will try and attack you at point blank range. Why run after them if you can have it the other way around? Finally, it seems that monsters who interact with others (resurrecting, for example) will cease doing that as long as they are after you and don't get blocked by obstacles.

Of course, unless you put a fair amount of points into Taunt, the decrease in attack rating and damage will be hardly perceivable - but it *is* there, after all, and it's not the main reason of using this skill IMO. If you want crippled monsters, use Battle Cry.

Pro:
   - low mana cost
   - saves time and effort :)
Con:
   - Heh, uh...close-to-nonexistent AR/Dam decrease? :-)
   - doesn't work on champions and bosses

Find Item
Prereq.: clvl 12, Find Potion
Effect: grants a chance to find an item on a corpse
Mana: 7

Basically, this gives the corpse a chance to drop another item, like you sometimes get when killing it off. The chance% here is much lower than FP's, so you need a good amount of points to make this work well. Not to mention the fact that 7 mana is also pretty high.

On the other hand, if you're a Throwing Barb, this could be worth a few points; you'll always want more ammo, not to mention exceptional weapons on higher difficulty levels. This is really a question of having skill points "over" or not. In most cases, boosting other skills is certainly a better idea. However, one point into this is a must, as it paves the way to Grim Ward, which you DO want to have.

Pro:
   - I guess being able to find another item isn't *that* bad...
   - ...and making the corpse non-resurrectable isn't bad either...
Con:
   - ...but most else *is*....
   - ...like the fact you and other players don't get to use the corpse again

Battle Cry
Prereq.: clvl 18, Taunt
Effect: reduces nearby enemies' damage and defense
Mana: 5

Another interesting warcry. It makes monsters easier to hit (due to a whoppin' -50% defense @ slvl 1) and reduces the damage they can inflict (-25% @ slvl 1), which is certainly a Good Thing (tm), even more so since it works on bosses and champions, too. Furthermore it does not have diminishing returns; it adds 2% defense decrease and 1% damage decrease per level, which leads to a total of -88% (!!) defense and -44% damage @ slvl 20, while the mana cost stays constant. Certainly this should be used when your AR lacks somewhat against certain bosses, and it also useful for weakening damage-intensive monsters (e.g. Duriel, Hephasto). The only real disadvantage of Battle Cry, apart from its very small area of effect, is its short duration, which starts out at 12 seconds @ slvl 1 and goes up by 2.4 seconds per slvl.

Pro:
   - serious decreases in enemy defense and damage
   - low mana cost
   - works on all monsters
Con:
   - short duration
   - small area of effect

Grim Ward
Prereq.: clvl 24, Find Item
Effect: creates a totem that scares monsters away
Mana: 4

One of the most underestimated skills ever, I dare say. I had been ignorant of this myself until some helpful guys on the LL (waves to Sirian and DaShiv, e.g.) pointed out that this is among the best options of crowd controlling. For GW, you need a corpse. Your Barbarian will then fashion a grim totem out of the corpse, which scares away all monsters within a certain (small) radius and has a limited duration; with 40 seconds, it's still pretty long. Note that GW does not affect Champions and Bosses; still, this is a very, VERY useful skill to have. It effectively thins out the ranks of your enemies, so you may end up fighting only 1-2 at the same time. It is needless to say that GW truly shines on NM or hell diff, where you don't want to be swarmed at all. This nifty Ward doesn't give a flying fish about level limits. It scares any and all monsters! As long as you have a corpse available (which shouldn't be a problem; retreat to one if necessary), you can easily avoid being overwhelmed. A true must-have!

One word of advice however: keep in mind that you can only "use" a corpse once. If you used FP on one, you can't raise a GW from it. That means you may have to think twice before blindly "casting" FP/FI.

Pro:
   - low mana cost
   - perfect for controlling the combat flow
   - makes the corpse non-resurrectable
   - not limited to monsters within a certain level range
   - long duration
Con:
   - corpse-dependant and corpse-destroying
   - small radius
   - does not work on Champions and Bosses (but is this really a disadvantage?)
   - isn't that effective when used against a whole lot of monsters in one spot
   - not always easy to use

Battle Orders
Prereq.: clvl 24, Shout
Effect: increases the max life, mana and stamina of you and your party
Mana: 5

A pretty nice skill. It increases max life/mana/stamina by 40% @ slvl 1. Please note the max. It does not fill up the current values to reach the new max, which means you have to quaff a potion of some kind (or use life/mana steal, visit a healer, etc.) to make use of the increased stats. Obviously, the more base hp/mana you have, the more effective this is. You can give yourself a temporary set of Frostburns with this (ok, sans enhanced damage, cold damage and defense). As with Shout and Battle Command this is nice to have when facing strong bosses or just tough situations in general. BO does have diminishing decreases, so any points after the 1st aren't exactly the best idea.

Pro:
   - low mana cost
   - long duration
   - good to have :-)
Con:
   - heh...has to be re-activated every once so often
   - diminishing returns

Battle Command
Prereq.: clvl 30, Battle Orders
Effect: increases all slvls of you and your party
Mana: 12

Another nice skill. BC increases all slvl by one for a fairly short duration. Basically it's the same as BO: activate before a tough fight and it's groovy. If you will it's a portable mini-skill shrine. I guess I needn't mention that this should be the first of any war cries to launch, if you're e.g. going to use Shout and Battle Orders as well? Putting more points into this only increases the duration, so it's not exactly the kind of skill you want to pump a lot. But at least it has no diminishing returns...

Also, a small note. When using +skill items, the effects of IS and NR won't show up properly on the char screen. (Yes, you can't trust anything on the damned thing.) Using BC will fix that for the rest of the game.

Pro:
   - increased slvls are always nice to have
   - temporarily fixes a display bug :-)
Con:
   - rather high mana cost
   - short duration

War Cry
Prereq.: clvl 30, Battle Cry
Effect: injure and stun all nearby monsters
Mana: 17 @ slvl 1, +1 per slvl

To put it bluntly: this skill isn't going to become famous for its outstanding damage. To be exact, 15-20 damage for 17 mana is, uh, pitiful, considering that you can inflict much much more damage with about any other skill, sometimes even at a much lower mana cost (Leap Attack, anyone?). And no, pumping it isn't a good idea, either, seeing as how damage goes up by 5-5 per slvl. It simply doesn't cut it.

The true use in War Cry lies in its stun effect, which starts out at 1 second @ slvl 1 and goes up by 0.2 seconds per slvl. That's not much, but in a troublesome situation this one second might be just what you need to escape. It can also be used to support allies, if you don't feel like diving into the heat yourself. That's about it. Compared to other skills, even those of lower level, War Cry is rather bad.

Pro:
   - does some damage
   - stun can be nifty
Con:
   - high mana cost
   - not very efficient, compared to other skills

Combat Masteries

Surprisingly, the weapon masteries only work when you are wielding that particular kind of weapon. Apart from that, the other skills here are in effect all the time, since they are passive. Duh!

Sword/Axe/Mace Mastery; Pole Arm/Throwing Weapon/Spear Mastery
Prereq.: clvl 6 for the last three, else: none
Effect: increases damage and AR when using the proper weapon class.

Masteries are pretty useful if you're know you're going to use a certain weapon class. You'd better not put points into a mastery just because "you've just found an awesome weapon". Chances are you'll find an even better one, and Murphy will make sure it's a weapon of a different class. Result: wasted point. Sure, you could end up finding a superior item of the proper weapon class again, but those skill points are too precious for such gambling.

So, if you play a themed character (I always decide what my char will be like before creating) and thus know which weapon class you will be using, choosing the related mastery is fine, and you should max it out then. It helps out your damage and AR nicely. If you don't, perhaps you'll want to put exactly one point in each weapon mastery (or in those masteries that support the weapons which you think you may end up using). You won't excel with any weapon then, but you'll have a nice little modifier no matter what you're using for your weapon (except for bows, daggers, staves and wands). Choose wisely, as this still means you'll be using six points to gain an advantage when using weapons which you will perhaps never use in the first place! Personally I'd not do it, but to each his own.

Masteries also give you a chance of scoring a critical hit (=double damage!), which is equal to slvl*2, leading to a max of 40% @ slvl 20 (unless further enhanced by BC/items). Nifty-nice!

Pro/Con: not available. Read my comments and judge for yourself.

Increase Stamina
Prereq.: clvl 12
Effect: increases stamina

Short and sweet, this one enhances your stamina, so you can run longer. It starts out with a +30% modifier and goes up by 15% every level. One point into this may be nice (perhaps even some more, especially if you're going to run a lot), but that's about it. You don't kill stuff by being on the run. At least if you're playing a melee Barbarian.

Pro:
   - a stamina increase is nice to have...
Con:
   - ...but one point is about the max you want to have here

Increase Speed
Prereq.: clvl 24, Increase Stamina
Effect: increases walking and running speed

Yeah, well, you run and walk faster with this. Nothing else. Probably the same thing applies here as did for Increase Stamina: one point may be nice. That's it.

Pro:
   - you move a bit faster. w00t!
Con:
   - there's other skills, you know...
   - really bad returns

Iron Skin
Prereq.: clvl 18
Effect: increases your DR.

This starts out with a +30% increase to your DR and goes up by 10% every level. The higher yer basic DR, the more effective this skill is. Since you don't get diminishing returns here, it's a safe skill to pump when you don't know where to put your skill points; however, as you advance in the game, you'll have to increase your DR much more to achieve the same decrease in be-hit, so unless your basic DR increases noticeably as well, Iron Skin won't do as much.

Pro:
   - can really help your DR out...
Con:
   - ...but without enough DR for starters, it's useless
   - anyway, due to the 4xAR bug/feature it's not as useful

Natural Resistance
Prereq.: clvl 30, Iron Skin
Effect: increases all resistances.

At slvl 1, this gives you a merry +12% to all resistances, but further increases in level will be less effective over time. It's very good for boosting your resistances, especially considering the penalties on NM and Hell diff, but there's a point where putting any more points into this skill will simply not be effective. IMO, that point's reached at skill level 7 (if not sooner, depending on personal preferance), which will give you 47% res all, but an additional point will only add another 2%.

Pro:
   - not-dependant-on-equipment-resists! Whee!
   - nicely nullifies the difficulty penalties
Con:
   - diminishing returns

6. Miscellaneous

In this section you find things which are good to know, but don't really fit into any of the other chapters, or aren't worth having their own chapters.

a) Reduced Magic Damage

Did you know that items which reduce magical damage do that on a frame-based rate? "Behind the scenes," D2 runs at a framerate of 25 (don't confuse this with the on-screen frames!), i.e. the game updates itself 25 times a second. Most magical attacks (such as fireballs, glacial spikes and their likes) have all their damage applied to one frame, thus -MD only reduces the damage once. For magical attacks which are continuous (examples would be firewalls, inferno blasts and Diablo's LBoD), their damage is spread over those 25 frames. E.g. a firewall which does 50-100 damage per second actually does 2-4 damage, just twenty-five times a second. Of course, -MD effects get to kick in a lot more. For all practical reasons the damage of the above firewall would be reduced to 25-75 (1-3 * 25) when you have one point of reduced magical damage. Theoretically, you could stack on -MD items and become all but invulnerable against such attacks, not counting resists yet! So if you find yourself repeatedly slain by fire walls or Diablo's lightning attack, you should really consider using items that reduce magical damage. Other attacks, basically all those which hit only once (as mentioned above), are of course not reduced like that; they only get the (vanishingly small) normal damage reduction. Same goes for "normal" damage-decreasing effects. A small note: the LBoD is composed of 60% lightning damage and 40% physical damage, so don't expect to "undo" it completely using -MD effects.

b) Overhead Projections

"Overhead" effects (curses and certain shrine effects) overwrite each other. Yep, activating a Combat Shrine in the CS is of little use when this Oblivion Knight around the corner puts a Decrepify curse on you, thus erasing the shrine's effect. Of course, the opposite holds true as well...

c) Devastating Combos

Have you ever tried combining the three effects Crushing Blow, Howling and Blinding? Such a combination can, for example, be attained through using Rattlecage (unique Gothic Plate) and the Coif of Glory (unique Helm). Crushing Blow gives you a chance of reducing monsters' HPs by 50% in one blow, Howling sends them fleeing, and Blinding greatly reduces their radius of awareness. Basically such an item combination totally cripples a monster! Of course Paladins can use this to much greater effect (considering their Zeal skill), but it may still be of interest to Barbarians, especially those who double-wield (come to think of it, this would be really nasty using LA). You could also use Goblin Toes (unique Light Plated Boots) to increase your chance of scoring a Crushing Blow. Add in Bonesnap (even more CB!) or a knock-back item (Cleglaw's Pincers?), and you've got yourself one mean Barbarian. Isn't this sweet? :) A most devastating way of using Leap Attack for sure.

d) "Ye Who Transmute Here, Abandon All Hope"

Are you the kind of person who frequently does "accidental" transmutes? To prevent that, put a quest item into the cube - voilá, no more transmuting. Now that's nice, you say, but quest items are used sooner or later! True, but there's a way to get yourself a permanent quest item. Afaik it only works with Mephisto's Soulstone. It's quite simple: pick up the stone when it drops in Act III, then get to the point where you place the soulstone on the Hellforge to smack it to pieces. Place it on the Forge, but DON'T destroy it. Instead, return to town and talk to Cain. He gives you another Soulstone! Put it in your cube, and lo and behold, the time of accidental transmuting has come to an end! Now, of course some people will consider this bug exploitation; I don't (as this doesn't give you any advantage over others). Do whatever you think is right.

e) "We Shall Do Well With Bauble, Eh!"

Apparently the Grigmeister has never played D2, or else he wouldn't have made that intelligent remark. As for gems: basically, they suck. Only those are any good outside of Normal diff which are percentage-based. This means skulls in helms (mana & life regeneration) and weapons (mana- and lifesteal), diamonds in weapons (+%damage vs. undead) and shields (resist all), rubys/topazes/sapphires/emeralds in shields (fire/lightning/cold/poison resists, respectively, though they are rather minor, compared to what you can get out of a perfect 3DS), and topazes in helms (+chancetofindmagicalitems%). Putting sapphires in weapons may be a nice approach when you're lacking cold damage from other sources, as their chilling duration can come in handy even on higher difficulty levels. This duration increases with the gem's grade, so you might want to take it through a few gem shrines to maximize the effects. But hey, at least those gems don't turn into jelly that threatens to kill you. Well, rubies don't. Or were those emeralds? Reddish emeralds...hmmm...

f) Throwing One's Money Away

I think you should have some experience with that already, after all you probably bought D2. >:) Yes, as you probably guessed this small subchapter is about gambling. There are a few guidelines which you should consider.

• don't gamble on heavy plates, they are way too expensive. Basically, don't gamble on anything that costs 100,000+.
• You have a 3% chance of receiving an unique, 5% chance of getting a rare and 7% chance of finding a set item. (Is this correct?) Everything else will be magical.
• This isn't truly a gambling guideline. But anyway, gambling can be a pretty expensive hobby, right? But once you made it to Act IV, money comes pretty easily. Just be sure to pick up and sell splint mails and all kinds of plate armor as long as they're at least "normal" quality. They easily sell for 4k+. Also sell all weapons that can have skill boni on them. (Scepters, wands, staves.) The same can be said for superior gothic shields, masks, great helms and crowns. Every exceptional piece of armor sells for quite much, too. Just be sure to repair them before you sell 'em."
• Keep in mind that the quality of items you receive is based on your clvls.

g) Triumph Or Thievery?

Yes, this small chapter is about Triumphant items and mana steal. There isn't terribly much to say about that. It's quite simple: Triumphant doesn't scale with weapon damage, mana steal does. "+1 Mana After Each Kill" does mean +1 mana, regardless for how many hundreds of points you whack the bad boys. But 6% mana steal would return quite some blue fluid for you to use again.

Also, consider that "+x mana after each kill" does just that: adds some mana after each kill. If you're fighting a tough monster that takes onlygodknowshowmany hits before it goes down, mana-after-kill-items bring nothing. Null, nix, nada. Mana steal, however, would give you some mana after each hit and thus allow for a constant flow into your mana orb. And that's what you want, after all!

Triumphant items are only useful when you're doing so pitiful damage that mana steal is on the verge of not working at all. But even then you have to kill stuff to receive that mana. Summa summarum, simply take the "+x mana after each kill" as what it is: a rather useless effect that is "nice to have" at best.

h) My Name is Heinz Sealmann

I doubt anybody understands the pun, but oh well. :-) As you may know, you have to break the five seals in the CS to release Diablo. Three seals each release a boss and pack (Grand Vizier of Chaos, Storm Caster; Infector of Souls, Venom Lord; Lord de Seis, Oblivion Knight). There are two sets of two seals (which are "responsible" for the Vizier and the Infector) and one single seal (for Lord de Seis). Each of these can have one of two layouts, which are neatly shown in this graphic here, made by Yours Truly. (Anybody who thinks the picture looks stupid shall make a better one or be silent!) For each layout, the red seal releases the boss. I have marked the approximate "insertion points" of the packs with red crosses (how appropriate!); note, however, that those points seem to be random sometimes, hence the multiple crosses. I take no responsibility as to their correctness, so be careful.  See the map here.

k) (yes, k) "Hot Keys, Here For Your Pleasure..."

Some day those wacky headings will give me a lot of trouble. :)

Usually the skill hotkeys are F1-F8. (That's my configuration, too, btw.) Some people prefer to allocate them to the normal keys, perhaps because they're closer to the potion hotkeys then; I don't know.

(What now follows is a list of my personal hotkeying preferences, which may be of some value to you. If it isn't, feel free to ignore them.)
I have always divided the eight hotkeys into two groups: four for the LMB and RMB each. My philosophy is that the "standard attacks" belong to the LMB, while "special attacks/skills" belong to the RMB. Thus, my LMB is always configured like this:

F1 = Standard attack
F2 = Bash
F3 = Concentrate
F4 = Stun

Yes, no Double Swing here, mainly since I'm not into double-wielding much. But of course YMMV. My Barbarians usually choose one of those skills as their permanent attack sooner or later; as soon as that happens, the hotkeys are used for other skills on the right button. Ah, while we're at the right button, here's my combo. Note that skills in parentheses are used before their "sequel" becomes available. E.g. Taunt is replaced by Grim Ward.

F5 = Leap Attack (Leap)
F6 = Find Potion/Find Item
F7 = Grim Ward (Taunt)
F8 = Shout

This has turned out to be a very nice combination for me, but depending on the skills/system you use this might not apply to you. As for my skill choice here, IMO both FP and Shout are important enough to have them easily available at all times. (Note that you may prefer Find Item; as always, YMMV.) Even though hotkeyed I usually don't use Leap much, but its knockback is good at shattering crowds, as you know.

As I said previously, sooner or later you will likely abandon the LMB hotkeys. When I do they instead bear these skills:

F1 = Battle Orders
F2 = Battle Command
F3/F4 = FFA (Free For All)

Yes, the allocation of F3 and F4 is truly free, it differs greatly from character to character. E.g. Frenzy may go on F3, or WW on F4.

Well, those were my definitions. Finally, here are a few general guidelines.

• hotkeys come and go just as skills do. Don't keep skills hotkeyed which you hardly ever use, especially if they keep you from hotkeying other, more important skills.
• as far as possible, use the same hotkeys for every character. That way you can choose the right skill immediately without having to think first, and that with every char.
• do not hesitate to change hotkeys when you know you're going to need a certain combo soon. E.g. when going up against Duriel, having Grim Ward or Taunt hotkeyed is pointless. Better put war cries like Shout or BO on those keys.
• remember that not all skills can be used via the LMB. To avoid unnecessary skill-changing, skills that can go on the LMB should also be hotkeyed there.