I don't think hired help would work here as the walkways are narrow. I did find a walkthrough that goes into great detail about the Arcane Sanctuary.

I am making some progress now. I think I have done two of the four pathways but haven't found the goal yet. I did pick up two uninteresting staffs that turned out to be worth 7000 and 9500 each and only usable by sorceresses, so I sold them and have 50,000 in gold now. I'll have to finish the other two pathways tonight because I don't dare exit the game now.

The Arcane Sanctuary is visually interesting but kind of a pain to get through. Your hired helper will lag behind because of the crazy pathing, you just have to go a little slower than normal as each corner of the map has fairly big fights, and then there is the Summoner, of course

Woohoo, I got the Summoner. He killed me the first time but I got him down to 1/4 health, so I went back to town and bought some more equipment and went back. This time it worked. Made it to the canyon. Enough for today. That was exhausting and I hope there is nothing in the game that is harder.

I am so glad I found him on the third walkway I tried and didn't have to do the one with the teleportals.

Hi all,

Oh Pokey...I am sure Diablo will be harder and that is why I am waiting with my Paladin and playing the other 3 people instead.

I did beat Diablo in the original Diablo game and hope I can do it in Diablo II.


Be careful Pib when you get to level 4 area.
Clear out all the minions first before you open the door to where Andriel is.

There are also some minions in there with her but if you go slow and get what you can before she starts chasing you then you will not have everything attacking you at the same time.

She will keep poisoning you so have plenty of antidotes with you not to mention health potions.

Be ready to run for the stairs if your health goes down and it will go down really fast.

I want you to make it with her because its the greatest feeling when you get her.

She will not heal if you run to the stairs and heal and then go back to get her.

If you die then she heals.

Duriel is dead. Got him on the first try using a few health potions and melee. Of course he was in the last room in the tomb. On to Act 3 tomorrow after a rest.

Hi all,

Well still trying to get Andriel with my last person the Sorceress. She keeps dying and dying. Sigh.

Why does the price of resurrecting your archer keep going higher and higher every time you need to do that? Jeez.

Feels like it taking forever to get this part done.

My Assassin was much stronger then my Necromancer and Sorceress so it didn't take her as long as these other two do.

My cold spell isn't slowing her down very much so will have to try my fire spell to see if maybe that will do the trick.

My Necromancer had the archer and he could summon a clay golem to help distract her but with the Sorceress its just me and the archer who keeps dying so its just me. Hmmm.

Wow Pokey you are moving right along. Glad you got Duriel and you are 2 chapters ahead of me.

How are you doing Pib??? Where are you???

I'll Try to clear some things up. I've been playing this game on and on for over three years now (mostly online).

You can have up to 16 bodies in the game. This means that you can die 16 times with having a body. If you die a 17th time, your first body will parish and it will drop all items on it on to the ground. This could explain why some lost their items.

The price to resurrect your mercenary will go up every time he/she levels up. It will stay fixed at 50.000 gold (somewhere around lvl 80).

Andariel is vulnerable for fire, use that against her. Also as a Sorceress, use Static Field on bosses (lvl 6 or lvl 12 Lightning skill). This will reduce 25% of the boss' health every time you cast it. But you have to be in their faces to cast it though.

When gambling, aim for amulets and circlets. If playing LoD, you might get lucky and even get a set or unique item. Also by playing LoD, if you're an Assassin or Amazon, gamble for gloves. They might have +1 - +3 to a single skilltree.

By installing the expansion, you'll get class specific items. Weapons for Assassin and Sorceress, Helms for Druid And Barbarian, Shields for Necromancer (shrunken heads) and Paladins and Bows and Spears for the Amazon.

Mercenaries for hire:
Act 1: Rogue Scout, uses bows (either cold or fire enchanted) and cast Inner Sight.
Act 2: Desert Mercenary, uses spears, javelins and polearms. These have different (Paladin) auras: Prayer or Blessed Aim or Defiance in Normal and Hell mode. Might or Holy Freeze or Thorns in Nightmare.
Act 3: Iron Wolf, uses swords and shields. Lightning or Cold or Fire spells. He attacks rarely hand-to-hand.
Act 4: None, but Tyrael can resurrect them.
Act 5: Barbarian, uses one-handed or two-handed swords. Can equip Barbarian helms.

I still do not understand how this works. At the most I have died 3 times in a situation. I died, went back and got equipment and died in the same spot. Did it a third time. I never saw more than one body, the one from the first time and I never went more than a few steps. I finally decided I wasn't going to win this way and exited the game. When I went looking for my body, there was one in the Rogue camp. When you exit and return to the game is there only one body? Do you lose the rest? I would really like to understand this so I would stop losing equipment. I hate to risk it anymore, but if I exit the game, all my progress is lost.

I am doing some of the other tombs to level up before going to Act III. I found a very fast sword that kills the enemies much faster. Also I learned that repairing items before selling them really pays off and that town portals can be used over and over if only used in one direction. Really handy when clearing out the tombs. Nearly to level 22.

As far as I can tell, if you die and exit the game, when you return you find one body by the stash with all your equipment but no gold. Any gold in your stash is safe from this effect.

I tried twice to retrieve the body from the dungeon, but generally I died because of overwhelming numbers and that doesn't improve when you go back and don't have your proper equipment. So now when I die, I save and exit, start the game again and just grab the equipment from the body.

I have made it to Act II. Then I had to stop mucking about on the computer so much because of a serious bout of RSI in my right shoulder.

Hi all,

Well yesterday I decided to try the Druid also to see what kind of skills he has.

He can Summon,has Elemental and he can also change into a warewolf or other kinds of creatures. Pretty good.

Will have to see how it goes with him.

Hi all,

Well I love his fire spells. He has one now that acts just like a very big fiery bowling ball and does a lot of damage and is fun to watch it bowl them over hehe.

He can also summon spirit pets that help in the health department or help in the
doing more damage department.

He has cold spells but I will use those with the Sorceress and he will be my fire
expert.

He is at level 9 now and moving right along.
I will then continue with the other 3 people once he catches up with them.

So far I like playing with him and doing different people makes the game more interesting.

So anybody else still playing?
How are you doing and where are you and what kind of person or persons are you playing?

My Palladin been hanging out at the end of act 2 trying to raise my level. I've cleared all the tombs. I do love those gorillas out in the desert. They are slow and easy to hit and give quite a bit of experience. I hit level 23 last night and am moving on to act 3 today.

You don't get many skill points in this game, so I am being careful how I assign them--pick just a few skills and try to get to a higher level in each skill.

I made it to the second part of Act II but have been having a gaming break while my shoulder rests a bit. Diablo at least, is completely moused based, games that combine mouse and keyboard do evil things to my posture.

My assassin is a very good character. We've been practicing Wave of Fire trap and that clears a room so nicely for you!