The Best Way to Start The New Ladder on Diablo 2!
As Blizzard has officially announced at their forum, the next Diablo 2 ladder reset will take place on December 12th, 2017 05:00 PST.
If you’re asking yourself “What’s the best class to start with for the new ladder?” or “how can I get ahead from other players?” you came to the right place.
What is ladder and ladder reset in Diablo 2?
Well, the ladder is a type of competitive, closed multiplayer realm. It resets about every 6 months or when Blizzard thinks it’s the best time for a reset. Players are leveling up in order to unlock higher difficulties and compete at the leaderboards.
After a ladder reset takes place, all previous ladder characters are moving automatically to the non-ladder mode. Then, all players start from scratch without having powerful items or skills. It’s a great chance for new and more experienced players to start over in a fresh environment and a new economy.
Also, there are definitely some pros for playing on the ladder. There, you can find some powerful items, Runewords, and upgrades that are available only in the ladder mode. But you can keep them in non-ladder mode after your ladder character expires!
As a result, the best thing you can do some days before a ladder resets, it’s trying to find as many ladder-only items as you can.
What’s the best class to start the new ladder?
The best way to start a new ladder is focusing on a build that’s very effective for PvE (Player-versus-Environment) and Magic Finding. You should be able to quickly take down large groups of monsters, so you can level up fast and have the highest chance of finding the best equipment.
The items play the most important role in Diablo 2. They can make the difference and skyrocket your build. So, your primary aim while you’re playing on the ladder should be the searching of the strongest and hardest-to-find items.
Another thing you have to take care of (if you play solo mostly) is the immunities of enemies at higher levels. You don’t want to reach a point that you can’t kill many types of monsters due to their immunity to your element.
The most popular class to serve the above purposes is the Sorceress. It’s probably the easiest way to start a ladder, especially for new players. This class can easily focus on two different elements. For example, you can level up Chain Lightning and Frozen Orb, Blizzard and Chain Lightning, or Blizzard and Fireball. This way you will be able to deal with every kind of immunity while destroying large groups of enemies with ease.
In addition, Sorceress has some useful utility tools. Teleport lets you “pass” through walls, saving you a lot of time. You can also use this skill to trap Mephisto and kill him solo within seconds.
You can consider the Barbarian build with Immortal King set too. It’s performing extremely well at higher levels and difficulties like the Hell mode. Sorceress is much stronger at the early stages of the game though.
What are the best ways to level up quickly on the ladder?
If you want to level up as soon as possible, the best you can do is to gather a big party (up to 8 players). This party’s better to include different builds that work well together. In general, the best places to gain experience solo or with a party are:
- Level 1-14: Tristram Runs, Normal difficulty.
- Level 14-20: Tomb Runs (at the end of Act 2), Normal difficulty.
- Level 20-26: Cow Runs, Normal difficulty.
- In order to gain access to the level, you’ll need the help of a friend that has defeated Baal in Normal difficulty. The same applies to higher difficulties as well. Only characters that have defeated Baal can open the Cow level.
- How to unlock the secret cow level: In the Stony Field (Act 1) go to Tristram and in the west corner you can find the dead body of Wirt. If you click it, he will give you his leg and some gold. Take his leg to the Rogue Encampment and buy from Akara a Tome of Town Portal. Then place it in your Cube together with the leg. After you transmute, it will open a portal to the Secret Cow Level. Note that if you kill the Cow King you won’t be able to enter again in this difficulty. So don’t kill him if you wish to do more Cow runs.
- Level 26-40: Once you do the fifth Act, make Baal runs (Normal difficulties)
- Level 40-60: Go through Act 1 to 5 of Nightmare difficulty as you want to unlock the Hell mode.
- Level 60-80+: Chaos/Baal Runs in hell difficulty with a party.
How to find some powerful items?
First of all, it’s very helpful for you and your party to have equipment that boosts the Magic Finding (MF). This way, your chances to find a strong item increases significantly.
The next most helpful thing you can do is to team up with friends in order to farm bosses like Mephisto, again and again. You can do it solo as well, but it’s not as effective. It’s a kind of time-consuming and repetitive progress, but still, the best way to find powerful items.
If you’re bored to go through this progress and you want an immediate head start on the new ladder, you can always purchase your desired items.
After you reach further than level 85+ the best areas to farm items and more experience are:
- Act 1: Mausoleum (To find it, go from Cold Plains to the burial grounds). Pit levels 1 and 2 (Take the Black Marsh waypoint to the Tamoe Highland).Act II: Maggot Lair, level 3 (Located below the far Oasis.)
Ancient Tunnels (You can find it under a trapdoor in the Lost City.)Act III: Ruined Fane / Disused Reliquary: Use the Travincal waypoint to the Kurast Causeway.
Sewers level 2 / Forgotten Temple: Keep going down to the Causeway until Upper Kurast.Act IV: River of Flame, Chaos Sanctuary.Act V: Worldstone Keep levels 1-3, Throne of Destruction.
What are your plans for the ladder reset? Which character are your starting with? Feel free to let us know below! Don’t forget to check out our store in the coming days for latest offers and updates for the ladder reset. Stay tuned!
