Index - Page Three

7. Links - "must-see" places.
8. Acknowledgements - to all those guys'n'gals out there who helped creating this.
9. And The Story Ends - ...Insanity said coldly, still waiting for the chance...

Appendix A: Bosses And Other Disasters: Bosses And Other Disasters - tips on beating monsters, with a focus on superuniques and Act End Bosses.
     a) Enchantments On Bosses
     b) General Tactics
     c) Unique Bosses
     d) Champions
     e) Oblivion Knights
Appendix B: Moo: Moo - about the famous Cow Level, and how to conquer it.
Appendix C: I'm Not A Trendy Jerk: I'm Not A Trendy Jerk - what to do when you want to be different.

Yup, here they are, the nightmares of your sleepless nights, in alphabetical order. Take Note: some of these pages may contain literal and graphic violence. Since you're reading this guide already, you might as well get another push of it and start slaying people. What are you waiting for?

Baselisk's Character Builder
A nice little program, it allows you to plan ahead your characters (esp. regarding skill distribution). This is a stand-alone program that doesn't mess with your existing characters.

The Chaos Sanctuary
Blizzard's official D2-guide, which is good for numerical data.

The Eye of Argon (MST'ized version)
"That's one belligerent loincloth!" Need a really damn good laugh to spice up a day full of sadness and grief? Let Mike and the Bots show you how to make the worst read of all time an entertaining one, and be it only through making more or less witty and sarcastic comments.

The Eye of Argon (original version)
"A sweeping blade of flashing steel riveted from the massive barbarians hide enameled shield as his rippling right arm thrust forth..." If you feel like reading twenty pages of bad fantasy at its worst, visit this link. But be warned: your life will never be the same again.

Fusion/Tactics Mod
If vanilla D2 ain't difficult enough for you, then you might want to visit this site. Those mods (esp. Fusion) sure do spice up the game.

Mirajj's Tale
Want to read some good D2-FanFic? Well this is a nice place for it.

V&K's Mods
Another D2 mod for you to try. This site also features the excellent Middle-Earth mod for D1.

8. Acknowledgements

Writing a guide such as this one is impossible without the help, assistance or "being-there" factor of many people. I'd like to take the opportunity to thank (in alphabetical order)...

All people who've commented on the guide or simply said they liked/hated it.

Baselisk for the Character Builder.

Blind Guardian for their outstanding music. Don't forget: the Curse of Feanor runs long!

Blizzard for creating an enjoyable game, though it certainly has many flaws.

Bolty for the Lurker Lounge.

CTJ (Crystalion, Trucidation, Jarulf) - the Big Three, as they have already discovered a large amount of information on how the D2-engine works and are still cruisin'.

9. And The Story Ends

That's it, another guide is done. I hope you enjoyed it, perhaps even found it helpful. Don't listen to people who claim the Barbarian is a "newbie char" - there are many ways to get a fun challenge out of ANY character, you just have to restrict yourself and do things you really wouldn't do normally, for example. Now enjoy!

- MMAgCh

The Master of Hypocrisy

Appendix A - Bosses and Champions

Bosses make the world go 'round, or so you have been told. There's two general types of bosses: first, there are the random ones. They have random names (either like "X Y" or "X Y the Z", the exact names are chosen from a name pool) and random enchantments. They also always have minions, which have +100% HPs and enhanced damage/AR as well. Then there are set bosses. They can be somewhat like random bosses (e.g. the Countess: based on normal monster type, enchantment(s) listed, minions), or they can be unique (e.g. the Act End bosses). Set bosses' names can also be kind of similar to those of random bosses (e.g. Creeping Feature, Coldworm the Burrower), but you will quickly find out which names belong to the random name pool and which don't.

a) Enchantments on bosses

Every random boss, set bosses and some uniques have certain enchantments on them. Random bosses have one on Normal diff, two on NM and three on Hell. Set bosses have fixed numbers and kinds of them on Normal diff and receive the mentioned difficulty bonuses. Furthermore, a few monsters/bosses may have enchantments even if they're not listed; for example, council members can teleport themselves.

Here's a list of all enchantments.

Aura Enchanted - as it says. Affects all monsters or players within a certain radius. Possible auras: Blessed Aim, Conviction, Fanaticism, Holy Fire/Freeze/Lightning, Might.
Cold Enchanted - the boss receives cold resistance and inflicts cold damage. A frost nova will go off when it dies.
Cursed - the boss has a 50% chance of cursing you with Amplify Damage when it hits you, the duration of the curse being dependant on monster level and difficulty.
Extra Fast - the boss and its minions move more quickly. The boss alone also gets a major increase in attack speed.
Extra Strong - the boss gets an increase in tohit and damage.
Fire Enchanted - the boss receives fire resistances and inflicts fire damage. It will explode when it dies.
Lightning Enchanted - aaargh! The boss receives lightning resistance and inflicts lightning damage. When hit, very damaging charged bolts will go off in all directions. One of the very worst enchantments ever.
Magic Resistant - the boss has some resists to all kinds of elemental damage.
Mana Burn - the boss can drain mana when it hits you.
Multiple Shots - found only on bosses that can employ certain ranged attacks, they fire a total of five projectiles.
Spectral Hit - the boss inflicts a random type of elemental damage (F, L, C, P) with each hit.
Stone Skin - the boss receives resistances to physical damage and has increased DR.
Teleportation - the boss can teleport around, and once it's down to a certain amount of HP% the boss may heal itself in the process. Bosses that are Extra Fast teleport more quickly, too, as their attacking animation is used for teleportation as well. Cold damage helps some, naturally.
Thief - this enchantment is, luckily, unique to Lord De Seis, one of the bosses in the Chaos Sanctuary. It allows the boss to make potions fly out of your belt.  However, this enchantment looks to be deactivated on the realms and may be removed completely in version 1.04.

And here are some thoughts about these enchantments.

Aura Enchanted - this really depends on the aura. Holy Fire/Lightning is annoying, but not much of a problem, whereas Holy Freeze can be a PITA. Conviction's DR penalty can be offset to some degree with Shout and Concentrate; seemingly it doesn't lower resists, though. Bug? The other auras aren't particularly nasty, but not to be taken lightly, either; critters enchanted with Might can pack a punch, for example, especially if they are strong anyways. One of your very worst nightmares might just be a Vulture boss with Blessed Aim, though. (Eeew!)
Cold Enchanted - the frost nova upon death and the chilling effect of cold attacks are the main problem here. Be sure to have good cold resists and perhaps a few Thawing Potions ready.
Cursed - As long as you don't get it, you can't be cursed either, so avoid being hit. :-) When you get cursed, either TP to town to get healed or dodge the monster until the curse wears off (which takes quite long on NM or hell diff), or get yourself another curse from an OK or hit a shrine. Lastly, you could simply go on fighting as if nothing happened. Well, good luck then. And of course, having a Paladin with Cleansing nearby is groovy in this case. =)
Extra Fast - Monsters that are strong hit really quickly now, too...better take the boss out fast, ideally via LA so you don't take more hits than necessary.
Extra Strong - if they hit, you'll feel it. So don't get hit.
Fire Enchanted - Not that dangerous. The "corpse explosion" is a real jester, though; sometimes it doesn't do any damage at all, sometimes it takes as much as half your life. As with all monsters with elemental enchantments, the right resists help a lot.
Lightning Enchanted - you need lightning resists. You need to kill them with as few hits as possible. You need to avoid being hit by the charged bolts. Nuff said.
Magic Resistant - Who cares? As the damage you inflict is physical, there is no point in worrying about this for your own reasons.
Mana Burn - take a hit and see most of your mana fade into oblivion. These are happy times for those with mana steal or a potion ready to be quaffed. Needless to say, don't get yourself stuck in the midst of a pack without mana to leap/WW out.
Multiple Shots - don't stand in front of the boss when those go off. They can pincushion you pretty nicely. ALL projectiles can hit you. Did I mention that LEBs with this enchantment get their CBs multiplied as well? Yes, that means there are FIVE CBs where usually only one would be. Good night, gracie.
Spectral Hit - Again, cold's chilling effect (and perhaps the poison) are annoying...but it's nothing some resists can't fix.
Stone Skin - Congratulations, your attacks will be much less effective against this critter! Here it pays to have a) some extra time at your hands or b) a friendly Sorceress nearby who can toast/zap/freeze the living hell out of the bastard (or bitch, as it were).
Teleportation - Bah! Teleporting bosses who heal themselves... Find some way to nail them down. Stun, Bash or Leap Attack anyone? This enchantment doesn't make a boss much more dangerous than it is already (YMMV), but it *does* make it a major nuisance. Combined with certain other enchantments, you might want to park the boss somewhere and continue your journey. Of course, this isn't a solution if you *must* kill the boss to proceed. Bosses that are Extra Fast teleport more quickly, too. Bleh.
Thief - Well, pick the potions up again as soon as they drop. This might cause your belt set-up to be a bit screwed, but it's not that bad.

b) General Tactics

Here are a few general tactics against bosses and champions. Some of them may have already been mentioned in the Enchantments section, but I think they are important enough to be mentioned twice. ;-)

Try to separate the boss from its minions. It's easier to take on the boss when you're not surrounded by other monsters. Grim Ward (or Howl) is an excellent way to do is, at it will scare the minions - and only the minions - away. Using the environment to your advantage is also advisable. The old CD-doorway trick works here, too, though you won't get to try it out as often...there are much less doors around.

A boss whose base monster has the resurrecting ability (a good example is Bishibosh, who's based on Fallen Shamans) can resurrect its minions! Those, in turn, can resurrect the normal monsters often found along with them. There's a couple of ways to solve this situation. First, simply hope to live long enough and bash your way through whatever stands in it until you get to the boss and kill it. This is the "Me Smash" approach. Want to be more subtle? Use Leap/Leap Attack to get to the boss directly, without bothering with its minions in the first place. Kill it first, then the minions. You could kill the minions and be sure to make the corpses non-resurrectable. It's probably the best approach if you have to be especially careful for some reason. This applies to many other monsters that can affect their companions (or you!), too. Examples would be the Cantors (who can heal other monsters), aura-enchanted bosses or simply annoying ranged attackers: go for the source of your problems first.

Lightning Enchanted Bosses - whee! Make sure you deal as much damage with each hit as possible. You don't want to take literally dozens of times to kill them. There are times where there's no other choice, but as far as you can help it...each hit makes a number of (high-damage!) charged bolts go off. The more you hit, the more CBs appear. Worse, sometimes they won't even be visible. (This has been made a "feature" in v1.03. Blah.) Rule of thumb: CBs always go off, but sometimes you can't see them.

Cold Enchanted Bosses - well, the frost nova that goes off when they die is the biggest problem. Depending on your cold resists, you'll be chilled for a really long time. A thawing potion may be nice to have in case there's more baddies around ya. Of course, if you're not caught in the blast, you don't get chilled. Throwing and Bow Barbarians rejoice (unless they manage to get themselves too close to the blast radius)!

Against any and all monsters (not only bosses), inflicting cold damage is very nice, as it will chill them, thus giving you more time to hack or run away. An additional bonus: chilled monsters sometimes burst apart (frozen monsters do it all the time) when they die, so there are no corpses - and that means no resurrections, either (on the other hand, also no item/potion pullin' or GW raisin'). So, don't underestimate cold damage! Even though a rare Bec-de-Corbin may only do 1-2 cold damage, it still chills monsters on NM diff for a full second!

Unless you have a fair amount of DR or are using a shield, I have found that the "Jump'N'Run" tactic works best on higher difficulty levels. Place yourself about a screen away from the boss. Leap Attack so you end up at the same place as the boss and score a direct hit when you land. Retreat (either via running or through another leap) and repeat until boss or you are dead. =)

Ghosts and their bosses are a real problem. As you know, those undead are ethereal and thus can "stack themselves". What looks like a single ghost may in fact well be a bunch of half a dozen or perhaps more. As it's really hard to target them individually (when possible at all), you'll likely want to scatter them; I needn't elaborate on how dangerous it is to stand toe-to-toe with a pack of monsters that are all in the same place. This is most easily done through Howl or Grim Ward; should those not be an option for some reason, you could also try running through the level (back into known and thus hopefully cleared territory) to "lose" some of them. Ranged Barbarians rejoice, as they can hurl pointed stuff at them while they're still floating around. And of course, you call "call back" fleeing ghosts via Taunt.

Basically, champions are extra fast, extra strong, minion-less bosses that tend to come at you in minor packs. As GW, Howl or Taunt won't work on them, a little more creativity is required to scatter them, e.g. taking advantage of the so-called (and sometimes pretty lacking) path-finding AI. You won't believe what a small hop across a river in Act III can do sometimes!

Of course, WW solves most of the above problems, but it's so obvious I mention it once and that's sufficient then.

c) The Unique Bosses

For the record, I consider those bosses "set" that are based on a normal monster (e.g. Countess, Creeping Feature). Unique bosses are truly unique (e.g. Griswold, Smith). The reason I don't talk about set bosses here is that the tactics used against them should be quite obvious, as there's little difference between them and random bosses. This doesn't apply at all to unique bosses, however, that's why they get their own section.

Griswold (cursed)
" ... "

Finally, there's an opportunity to smack Gris for having charged such ridiculous prices in Diablo! Gris is your basic badass zombie. Slow and packs a punch. The fact that he's cursed doesn't improve things for you, either. Since you meet him pretty early on and thus have maybe hit clvl 7-8, your best attack will probably be Bash. Go for it. Griswold has a lot of hitpoints, so it'll take some minutes to destroy him. On the other hand, he's pretty slow, so it's easy to leave him behind to heal, TP out or wait for the curse to wear off. If you're double-wielding, Double Swing may be your preferred attack. Choose what's better: a single, powerful blow, or two rapid attacks with both weapons' effects kicking in. Barbarians that rely on ranged attacks have the easiest time, as it's a piece of cake to stay ahead of Gris and pincushion him with whatever is throwable/shootable and pointed.

On later difficulties, you'll have access to advantaged skills like LA and nice war cries, so he should not be that much of a problem.

The Smith (extra strong)
"Your soul'll fuel the Hellforge!"

This guy remind you of somebody? Mr Butcher returns with a different profession. He's big, bad, fast, and packs a real mean punch. He's not cursed, though. Melee'ing this guy can be a real PITA, so you should make sure to be clvl 12 at least. Stun is a nice attack against this guy. Make sure you have high DR, so you take as little hits as possible. Shout is very helpful here as well!

On higher difficulty levels, the Smith is even more deadly. Like all bosses, he receives (an) additional enchantment(s). Just about any enchantment is bad on this guy. Try to make the best of the situation, and don't think about melee'ing him. Jump'n'run using LA will work a tad bit better.

Andariel, the Maiden of Anguish
"Die, maggot!"

So this is Hell's definition of girl-power. Andy (as most veterans lovingly call her) is found in the Catacombs of the Rogue Monastery, sublevel 4. That particular level's layout is set. You start off in a long, relatively narrow room. Fight your way towards the SW and enter the door (once it's open, of course). You'll find a larger room, with a pool (and I *do* mean a pool) of blood in the middle, bodies in it. Bleh. It's populated by Dark Ones, their Shamans and some Ghouls (possibly Tainted or Afflicted, too). Let 'em have it. Already spotted the large door in the NE wall, the one with the neat bone standards besides it? Andariel is found behind it. Approach it carefully and open it, but don't proceed into the room yet. Retreat and kill the monsters that charge you. Once they're done for, take a step or two into the room and see what's coming for you. Andariel's footsteps have really unique sounds, so it's easy to distinguish her coming. Now beware!

You want to have at least some poison resistance here. That also includes reduced poison duration. If you're smart, gamble for Death's Hand, set leather gloves. +50% Poison Resistance, -75% Poison Duration. They're not that expensive to gamble for, at 2500 gold a pop. True, you can do without them, but be prepared to carry some Antidote potions then. If you should need even more help against poison, try and get ahold of Iratha's Collar, a set amulet featuring +30% Poion Resist and -75% duration (this is probably only an option on NM and Hell diff).

Andy has three attack forms, two of which involve poison. First, she can let a poison nova go out in front of her. Dodging the bolts is relatively easy as long as they don't go off too close to you. Second, she can fire a single poison bolt. It seems to do more damage/have more duration than the nova bolts. Avoid it if you can. The third attack is a melee attack. Don't get yourself hit too often.

So what's a Barbarian to do when he's trapped in the Monastery, surrounded by Evil and out of gas? We can fix the Evil problem: bash away. Literally. Bash helps you to...well, bash the living life outta Andariel. If you can, use a weapon that involves some good cold damage, to slow the bitch down. You're probably not suited well for jump'n'run attacks using Leap, thus the most viable option is indeed to go melee. Bash allows you to inflict as much damage as possible as quickly as possible. On higher difficulty levels, LA or WW should take care of the problem rather easily.

Radament the Fallen (extra fast)
"We live again!"

This rotten guy is found on the third level of the Lut Gholein sewers, accompanied by a bunch of various undead, and he keeps resurrecting them! While that may be annoying to non-Barbarians (or non-Necromancers), it's certainly no problem for you. You *do* have a point in FP, don't you? So go ahead and waste those corpses! You may even get a few potions from them.

Radament himself is not much of a problem as long as you keep bashing (or stunning) away. Just be sure to have at least some poison resistance.

Coldworm the Burrower (cold enchanted, magic resistant)
" ... "

Do you like bugs? There's plenty of 'em in D2, Coldworm the Burrower is just another one. Man, but she is big! She's the Queen of the Maggot Lair, neatly found in her own little room, also containing the shaft of the Horadric Staff and...lots of other maggots. Breeding maggots. That means you'll be confronted with a helluvalotta maggot young; the "Power of the Masses" at its finest. What to do? I suggest you use Leap Attack to jump around and kill the adult maggots, then clean up the young, and finally kill the Queen herself. Be sure to kill any grown-up maggots she spawns (yes, she can do that). Beware the poison that, uh, spills everywhere when she dies: it's quite potent and may prove your doom if there are other monsters around.

Duriel, the Lord of Lag...uh, Pain! The Lord of Pain!
"Looking for Baal?"

This one's a badass, to say the least. He looks, well, bleh. Check it out yourself, you won't be disappointed. He's found guarding Tal Rasha's Burial Chamber. To get to it, find Tal Rasha's True Tomb, and insert yer standard Horadric Staff in the Orifice found there. After some funky effects, a hole will be blown into the wall, which leads to the Burial Chamber.

DON'T take on Duriel in MP mode if you know you get loading lag. He'll come after you immediately after entering the Chamber. Whack, whack, dead Barbarian. Keep this in mind.

Duriel is a melee-only monster. Think that's nice? It ain't. He packs a whole lot of a punch. You'll really need good DR, AR, damage and HPs to stand against him and live.

His worst (for YOU, of course) attack probably is his Charge. Yep, that's right. When you're not close to him, he'll come charging for ya, doing a whole lot of damage. It's almost guaranteed to knock you over and out, especially on higher difficulty levels. So what are you to do?

Get down'n'dirty.

Stand right up to him and whack away. Unless he knocks you back, he won't charge. That means you'll still be confronted with his melee attacks, but not Charge, and that's a Good Thing (tm).

You'll also be pleased to know that Duriel features the Holy Freeze aura. Well, scratch the "Holy" part, but you get the idea. This means you'll be perma-frozen (chilled actually, but frozen sounds better). To make things worse, neither Res Cold nor potions/items "of Thawing" work here, since it's no real cold attack. Bleh.

Obviously, not getting hit all the time is a good idea here. Thus, go for a nice amount of DR. A fair amount of hit points would also be nice. Lastly, hit often and hit hard. That being said, go for it.

Bringing a mercenary in won't really do anything, as he'll likely be dead before he gets to inflict any damage. All he can do is to distract Duriel for a sec, so that his initial charge kills the poor sword-for-hire instead of you. Make use of your War Cries, in particular Shout, as it raises your DR. On higher difficulty levels, Battle Orders (followed by a rejuv- or at least healing potion to get to your new max life/mana) also helps a whole lot. Battle Cry/Battle Command are, naturally, good too. This works well even on NM difficulty. If you use Battle Command, it should be the first war cry you use, so the others get the slvl-increase bonus. Be prepared to use a lot of potions, though. Look at it like this: you only have to beat him once on each difficulty.

If you're a ranged-attacks-based Barbarian...leap around a lot and don't let him get too close. Easier said than done, but hey, that's life.

Like Mephisto and Diablo, Duriel's guaranteed to drop at least one rare/set/unique item when you kill him for the first time on a difficulty.

The High Council
" ... "

Those are the People Formerly Known To Safeguard Mephisto - now they've gone bad and would like to kill you. (Who in this damned game doesn't, anyway?) There's a total of six boss Council Members, discussed in more detail below. They usually also have some minions. Every Council Member can heal themselves and cast Hydra. The key is to confront them alone, so be sure to have cleared most of Travincal before confronting the first three and their minions. Running around like a headless chicken to lose some of them can also prove worthy. Also, when they're heavily wounded, they tend to try and heal themselves; don't let them! But here they come...

Ismail Vilehand (extra fast, cursed) - if they did much melee damage, this one would be a PITA, but as it is, he's merely a major nuisance. Take him out first, which shouldn't take too long.
Geleb Flamefinger (extra strong, fire enchanted) - Geleb can do a fair amount of damage when he hits you (plus fire damage as well), but there are worse enemies. His corpse explosion can be mean, so take care.
Toorc Icefist (stone skin, cold enchanted) - imo this is the most annoying one in Travincal. Not only does he chill you when he hits, but he's also very durable, so it usually takes several minutes to dispatch him...and then there's that frost nova. Bah.

However, compared to what lies below the Temple City, the first three members of the High Council have been rather puny. On the third and last level of the Durance of Hate, we find...

Bremm Sparkfist (aura enchanted [Blessed Aim], lightning enchanted) - waaaah! One of the most annoying bosses in Act III. Being a LEB is bad enough, but he tends to be around a lot of Blood Lords (can you say Deep Impact?)...eeew! He also tends to get particularly nasty enchantments on higher difficulty levels (my all-time favourites being Multishot and Stone Skin), so you'd better bring much firepower and at least as much luck when you go face Bremm. Remember: be damage efficient when facing LEBs - max dam in min # of hits. LA seems just fine for this.
Maffer Dragonhand (extra fast, extra strong) - not much better than Bremm. He can quickly tear you to ribbons if you're not careful, due to his melee-favouring enchantments. You'd better find a way to silence him quickly and without further ado.
Wyand Voidfinger (mana burn, teleportation) - yeah, not quite as bad as Mr Sparkfist or Mr Dragonhand, but still a PITA...that's Wyand. Manaburn often leaves you without the energy required to Leap Attack or do something miscellaneous - "nothing the right potion can't cure," as Lysander would put it, true - but it's annoying and can leave you looking quite stupid, to say the least.

Mephisto, the Lord of Hatred
"My Brothers have escaped you!"

Believed to be imprisoned below the Temple City of Travincal, Mephisto has indeed corrupted the High Council that guarded him - and that in turn has turned the Zakarum into a fanatical pack of bloodthirsty, evil, filled-with-hatred, badass zealots. Whew.

Mephisto's found on the third level of the Durance of Hate. Smash the Compelling Orb with Khalim's Will to gain entrance to it. Also, be sure to activate the WP on the second level.

Many people think that Mephisto isn't actually the main problem here; it's the three council members who are found on that level (as covered above). They all have some minions, and did I mention the Blood Lords? They can cover you in fire walls and meteors even when they have no LOS to you! That sucks. Hit-and-run attacks really are a good idea here. Proceed with caution and don't charge into the fray lest you want a bunch of Blood Lords and/or Council Members coming for you. LA is, as usual, very nice to have here. I suggest clearing out the Lords and the Council Members before facing Mephisto. Especially if you've not faced him before, it's nice to have lot of room to run and dodge in.

The Lord of Hatred has a couple of attacks. Probably the most damaging, that's his frozen orb (not the same spell as the Sorceress' since it doesn't shoot out ice blasts, thank goodness!): make sure you have a healthy amount of Cold resists, else it'll hurt. It's rather fast, thus not as easy to dodge. Beware. Second is a "Charged Bolt storm". Those can be quite painful when you get caught in the middle of them, so be careful. You may want to run from them until they vanish. Next is his normal Lightning attack. Nothing unusual about it. When you're close, Mephisto can emit a ring of poison clouds, not unlike the Necromancer's Poison Explosion spell. Carry some antidote potions with you. And finally, there's his melee attack. Not too damaging. Mephisto is one of the easier act end bosses imo, but ymmv.

Izual
"Save yourself!"

Izual the Fallen Angel is the poor lad who's been imprisoned in a balrog-like creature and would probably be caught in it until Hell freezes over (pun intended) if it were not your task to free him, read: reduce his "prison" to tiny, tiny pieces.

He's waiting for you in the Plains of Despair. As soon as you hear him taunt you (or is it a warning?), you should check yourself for cold resists. Don't have any? Ah, oops...

Seriously, you want a good deal of cold resists. Izual's melee attacks inflict cold damage, and he's also able to discharge frost novas. Naturally, you don't want to be chilled much, so Leap Attack is probably a good way of killing him. Don't expect cold attacks to have much effect on Izual. Not to forget: you should have cleared a large part of the Outer Steppes before facing him, so you have plenty of room to dodge his attacks. If you use WW, getting chilled by him is actually a good thing, as it makes you pass slower, allowing you to get even more hits in.

Oh: Izual does have a blasted lot of hitpoints, more than any other monster in the game, so be prepared to have your weapon repaired a few times. ;)

At least the reward for defeating him (and thus completing the "Fallen Angel" quest) is nice: two skill points from Tyrael. Use them wisely, little Grasshopper!

Hephasto the Armorer (extra strong, cursed, magic resistant)
"I shall make weapons from your bones!"

Hephasto is considered the toughest boss in Act IV by many. He guards the Hellforge and you have to kill him in order to complete the Soulstone quest (he drops the Hammer).

The problem with this guy is that he packs a mean punch. He already does a lot of damage, and when you happen to become cursed, well, nighty night...of course, you needn't complete the Hellforge quest (gems aren't that valuable anyway), so you can theoretically just let him be and go on about your other business.

Should you decide to confront him, however, be sure to have lots of hitpoints (e.g. on NM diff, a single hit of him can easily take out 700 HP) and do lots of damage. The faster he's dead the better. Use all passive warcries you can muster: BC, BO and Shout (in that order). Hephasto is one of the few critters against which WW doesn't help much. Whirling around is the perfect opportunity for him to land a blow or two, and as soon as you stop WWing, you drop dead. Bleh.

If you can get some help by other players, by all means get it. Having a Sorceress SF the bloody crap out of him is perhaps a bit cheesy, but at least it keeps you safe. Likewise an Amazon's valkyrie (or perhaps another Barbarian, heh) tanking can be useful as long as they get hit, not you.

Should you have to face him alone, then use LA. Given you have enough hitpoints, you may even survive being hit when landing (if you get hit), and if you're fast enough you can run away and regenerate the lost life. Should you get cursed, I suggest TPing to town (or using the River WP) to have yourself healed. Getting hit by Hephasto while cursed is a sure-fire way to bite the dust.

Now of course, if you're feeling wacky enough and have a nice polearm or spear, you may want to try WWing away from Hephasto, so he keeps running after you and taking hits. I haven't tried this out myself yet, but I don't see why it wouldn't work.

Diablo, the Lord of Terror
"Not even death can save you from me!"

'Tis the guy that gave this game his name. He's found in the Chaos Sanctuary and pops up on the pentagram once all five seals have been broken (which involves fighting and killing three bosses in the process).

Luckily for you, Diablo is kind of lazy. He doesn't move that much at all. Most of the time, he stands around and throws whatever spells come to his mind at you. When he moves, he either walks a short distance or charges at you on all fours, delivering a blow when he comes to a stop.

Here's Diablo's ranged attacks. Numbah one: a fire nova, a ring of flame that spreads out quickly. It's rather easy to dodge when you're a good distance away from him. Second are moving fire walls (sometimes called "flame rivers"). As those aren't that fast, they, too, can be easily avoided. They also tend to hurt somewhat more than the nova, but can rather easily be negated via some -MD. Finally, and worst, is his LBoD. It's a stream of red lightning that does a hell of a lot of damage. Literally. Maxxed Lightning resists don't do much, you simply can't afford to stand in it for more than one-two seconds at the most. It doesn't matter how many hitpoints you have: stand in this and you're about toast. Luckily, the blast's range is limited (though still fairly large), so you can run away from it with luck and speed. In most cases, it's a better idea to run circles around Diablo until he ceases blasting you.

Big D also has some melee attacks, a vanilla one and a chilling one. You know he's employing the second when he raises one of his claws, and it starts turning blue. Running won't help anymore then; you're chilled even if you're a mile away.

Under no circumstances should you hope to win by standing in front of Diablo and whacking away. True, sometimes his lightning blast won't hit you when you're right in front of him, but don't bet on it. Use the fact he rarely moves to your advantage and stay away from him. See what attack he employs. If it's not his lightning blast, LA/WW to him and retreat. When you screw up the timing and land in the middle of the nasty red stuff, RUN. Or LEAP.

Oh, and: Big D has a "built-in feature" that causes 52% of attacks with physical damage to miss him. So don't be surprised if you find yourself missing the Lord of Terror a lot; it's not necessarily your AR's fault, Diablo is simply cheating by using an invisible tower shield. >:)

d) Champions

Champions are similar to bosses and yet different. They spawn in groups from two to four and are easy to identify by their names, which are written in blue and have the "champion" suffix. What do champions do? They move and hit much faster, harder, and better then normal monsters, and they have, of course, increased hitpoints. They are also worth more experience. Sometimes champions (especially when there's three or four of them) can be more annoying than a boss and his pack, as it's hardly possible to take on them one-by-one.

Upon dying, they always seem to drop at least one potion; in addition, they will also drop an unusually high amount of gold OR an item that could be magical or rare. AI-modifying war cries (Howl, Taunt, Grim Ward) don't work on champions.

e) Oblivion Knights

OKs are found in the Chaos Sanctuary only...thank goodness! They're a spellcasting/cursing type of monster who can really pack a punch against the unexpecting. Let's first sum up their attack types.

1. Elemental attack - each OK can use one of four elemental attacks, which you can determine by looking at their hands' glow (colors should be obvious): Fire, Cold, Poison and Magic Missile. The latter isn't a magical attack - it can be blocked. The Cold attack can be rather devastating, especially if you lack the appropriate resists.

2. Bone Spirit - every OK can cast those, and they're pretty much like the Necromancer's spell. The specters track you down for a few seconds, inflicting medium to heavy damage. All spirits cast by a certain OK disappear immediately if you kill it. Yes, an OK-boss with Multishot casts five Bone Spirits at once.

3. Curses - Oblivion Knights can use all non-AI modifying curses the Necromancer can cast as well. Those are:

	Amplify Damage - you know it, you love it. You'll find yourself get hit much harder while being influenced by this curse.
	Life Tap - everybody who hits you steals some life. Bleh.
	Decrepify - suddenly you go much slower. However, the decreased walking/running speed does not take effect until you stop and move again. So if you get Decrepify'd while walking or running, simply keep moving and you'll be all right. Decrepify wears off rather quickly.
	Iron Maiden - uh-oh! Especially the Barbarian, as the melee-damage-dealer, looks really stupid when the damage he inflicts suddenly gets returned to him. This is the bane of all those who merrily WW into a group of monsters while a mischievous OK is nearby. When this happens - keep cool, but don't hit anything! Run around and dodge any attacks, or stay around the OK and hope you get another curse. Or you can simply use a nearby shrine (e.g. Mana Regen, Resists, Combat...) to overwrite it. Learn its sound. Wake up at 3 am when you hear it. Stop all attacking, cease all hostilities then...or simply use LA: for some reason the damage you inflict with it doesn't get returned to you as long as you do leap. Using LA at point-blank range will net you a standard melee attack which *does* get reflected back at you.
	Weaken - this reduces your damage (and seemingly AR as well) some. Never seemed to be much of a problem, though.
	Lower Resist - can be pretty nasty when you're already under crossfire by a battery of OKs. This is also the Silent Curse; it has no sound to go with it.

Appendix B - the Secret Cow Level

First of all, how to enter it: kill Diablo. Go to Act I, grab Wirt's Leg, put it in the Horadric Cube along with a tome of town portal, and transmute. Voilá, portal to the cow level. It can only be opened once per difficulty level, so you'd best create a TP immediately after entering the level and make sure you have enough time to (at least try and) clear the level.

In the Cow Level, there are Cows. You can hear them from a mile away (something makes me think the programmers gave their voices to them). They carry big pole arms and can really hurt you. On the other hand, they don't have all too much hitpoints, luckily.

One of the main problems here is that the cows tend to come at you in packs, and I do mean packs. Often, there is an initial "cow rush" upon entering the level, which can consist of more cows than you'd ever hoped to see during your lifetime.

As any good Barbarian player knows, the most important thing when facing such a situation is to create a corpse. Now that's nothing unusual in a Barbarian's career, but *having* a corpse to work with in the first place is important. As soon as you have one available, raise a Grim Ward, and voilá, some trouble less. As more cows die, you should create more GWs, thus shielding you from the concentrated wrath of the Hell Bovines. Getting swarmed is the last thing you want to have happen here. The Cow Level is a good place to have GW's slvl at 5+: due to the large number of cows and their moderate/fast speed small radii won't keep quite as many cows away as you'd like it to.

Oh, as for WW: it's possible, but you had better use a long-range weapon (ideally a polearm or a spear or some sort). Always skirt the packs on the edges and NEVER WW straight into the middle of 'em. You might be dead quicker than you can say "moo". Using GW is strongly suggested here as well.

Of course, if you want to do it the hard way (sans GW/Howl), you have to be on your toes constantly. Always keep at the edge of the pack(s), taking out as many cows as possible until they get too close, then run away, distract them a bit and try again. This is very risky and I do not suggest trying it. My first ever clear of the Cow Level was done using neither WW nor GW (only Leap Attack), and I can tell you, it was not pretty. I think it took me about twenty minutes to stop the initial cow rush. Using WW and GW on NM diff, it took fifteen minutes to clear the whole level. Whirlwind was really useful for mowing down lots of cows in a matter of seconds.

Actually, InSt/InSp may be worth having a few points in here, just to have a speed advantage over the cows.

Other notes about the Cow Level: cows seem to like dropping gems. Perhaps it's just me, but I tend to get a whole lot of gems per clear (at least twenty gems). Needless to say you can make lots of full rejuvs using this, as corpses for finding the required potions off are widely present, as well. That is, ideally they are. On the other hand, cows apparently don't like dropping magical stuff; usually I get about three to four magical items per clear (with the occasional rare, when I'm lucky). Sometimes I'd like to know how the hell those Dead Rogues made it into the Moo Moo Farm...is Akara really as unknowing as she pretends to be? Or does perhaps Kashya plan to overthrow the old crone and become the ultimate leader of the Sisterhood? And what does Gheed mean when he says that "those gals weren't so nice the first time around"? Questions over questions, and the answer's somewhere out there...ah well. Here's some info about the Lord of the Moo Moo Farm.

The Cow King (lightning enchanted)
"Moo!"

The Cow King is not your average boss, as he works much like the last three Act Bosses: he always drop at least one unique/rare/set item the first time he's killed. That doesn't make up for the fact it'll be crap most of the time, but it's worth a try. =) If you are unlucky, the portal to the Cow Level will be placed right next to the "Coral of Corruption" (as the King's box is called in the CS), so that he and his minions will get at you immediately. In that case, raising many GWs as quickly as possible becomes even more urgent. Usually the Stampede dies down after a few minutes, so you might be better off dodging the Cow King while slaying the peasants. Once you have him isolated, find a quick and merciless way to kill him. LA would be nice here to minimize the amount of CBs going off.

Appendix C - Variants

As you probably know there is (or had been) a large variant community for CD. A variant is a character that imposes several self-restrictions on him-/herself to make the game more challenging and interesting. The most popular CD variant is probably the Beyond Naked Mage, a sorcerer who relies solely on his mental capabilities. He only uses cursed items and has to "bleed dry" cursed staves which have charges. There had been many interesting twists for all three classes, often based on items, spells or just general playstyles which were commonly shunned by the "mainstream players". Isn't it obvious that there can be variants in D2, as well?

But first of all, a warning: D2 is different from CD in many ways. For example, in Classic Diablo every char could learn Teleport if they met the magic requirement. In D2, only the Sorceress will ever be able to use that spell. Thus, a lot of twists are impossible already - "spells" are limited to the 30 char skills, for example. LoL-melee chars would also be outright boring to play, at least in my opinion, as they can't repair their weapons. But perhaps you find it appealing to have to find new weapons at very regular intervals! Of course, there are other ways of limiting your options, and they needn't even make you differ greatly from the common playing styles! Playing a Barbarian who does not use WW or LA alone is fun, as you have to rely on war cries much more now. Or try restrictions on...

... certain weapon or armor types. How about a Barbarian who may only use dagger type weapons? You could go a step further and only allow light armor, for example.
... on skills. Try a Warcry (the tree)-only Barbarian! :)

Some variants from CD could also be used. Wouldn't it be fitting to play a Barbarian Barbarian? Only using normal or superior items sounds interesting. Of course you'd have to decide which skills are "magical" and which aren't. Elitists (chars who only use unique items) would work, too, though the average "suckiness-factors" of unique items would make them somewhat hard to play...then again, they were hard to play in CD already, you'll simply be keeping to the traditions. =)