Neat untwinked SP builds

Been playing single-player on and off for a decade, but I took a really long break before starting again just the other day and it's obvious that the old-fashioned builds aren't applicable with the later patches. I tried to look in the builds thread, but there's just a million of them and they don't make it very clear what's for which version or meant for from-scratch play. I tried a windy druid and found that it wasn't very mana sustainable with poor gear and relied too heavily on high-level skills, leaving me barely capable of killing act bosses. What are some cool, preferably less common but perfectly viable builds that don't require gear? I don't play sorceress or amazon, by the way.

Edit: Oh! And what's the earliest I can get a 4-socket polearm of some sort? I want to keep trying my windy druid, I like the build, it just can't sustain the mana cost of spamming tornados. An Insight polearm on the merc should fix that, I just seem to remember that you can't get 4-socket weapons in normal. Will I have to wait until nightmare? I don't mule, it defeats the purpose of the game for me.|||A holy frost zealot can easily go through untwinked, and is fun and capable of MF runs.

Just concentrate on IAS/leech/crushing blow. You can make Steel (tirel) which is great, in a flail. Then Strength (amntir), again it's great. Finally, Black (thulionef). I've played this guy untwinked on HC so many times, and never got bored or scared of losing him. On my current version, I've found (by NM act2); twitchthroe, goldwrap, ias/mf/res gloves and I've made Strength + rhyme.

Polearm, I *believe* it's Normal Act5, but unlikely to get one until NM. Don't quote me though. I may be talking about 4 socket swords to be honest, which should also help majorly with the mana issues |||I enjoyed bone necromancer quite a bit, it's powerful and entertaining character even untwinked. Also quite mana demanding though.

I believe you can find 4 os polearm in normal difficulty already, act 5, maybe even act 4.|||If you look back through the pat/mat guide in the stickies, as it sounds like you have, the ones with an * next to them are untwinked. The Bolded ones are unique builds: either featured in tournaments or just off the wall somehow or another.

With 1.13c, you can respec your character. Adjust all the stat/skill points. For the windy druid, you can start as a fire druid, then once you hit 30 (I'm doing this, and respected at 20... mistake on my part) to use hurricane and the other wind skills.

There are numerous necro builds I've seen lately that go untwinked.

FredofEric's DoNotDie

He states that it's mostly untwinked, was just given a few items: all of which can be easily acquired through normal questing. It's a pretty good write up: makes me want to finish my necro!

Old fashion summoners, either Druid or Necro, can both go through hell naked slowly but Sheerly.

Welcome to the forums! Hope you enjoy your stay!|||He's a noob though, because he used CE, so he's a fishymancer with a different first kill. Aint that right Freddy boy? :P

*runs away*

Seriously though, do what Coju suggested. At the end of the day, there's no point playing a 'safe', 'strong' or 'easy' character unless you enjoy it!

There's some great characters there untwinked. I'm doing an untwinked enchantress just now, and she's great fun! |||Welcome to the SPF!

Can't belive Virigi missed his chance!

*kicks shins*

My vote would go for a Berserker Barb. Using War Cry to stun lock your foes, then beating the snot out of them with Berserker. And until you reach clvl 30 for accessing Berserker, a Barb is fairly OP during all of Normal, but if you're still seeing issues with act bosses, using slvl 1 Concentration between lvls 18 and 30 worked just fine for my (late) untwinked HC Zerker.

And 4 os polearms can be found in Nightmare and on naturally, or can be made in an Act 5 Normal polearm (depends on ilvl) using the Larzuk socketing quest (I doubt you'd have the runes to cube socket by that point going untwinked).|||Thanks for the advice. I think I'll stick with my druid, I'll just have to wear a 3-Tir breastplate and a 2-Tir hat in order to balance mana until I can make myself an Insight. Ral/Tal are common enough from normal countess that cubing the Thul and Sol should only be a matter of running her for a couple of hours or so. I used to come here years ago, actually, but I haven't touched D2 since 1.09 or something.

By the way, while this probably doesn't belong here, has anyone tried to register a new forum account lately and had problems with that? It gives you four images and asks you to click on the flower or whatever, but the images don't load so I had to sit there and just try random ones until I hit the right red X.|||I love untwinked, and it's what I know the most about, so I'll pick out some of the good options for you



Stealth (TalEth)


Code:

Magic Damage Reduced By 3
+6 To Dexterity
+15 To Maximum Stamina
Poison Resist +30%
Regenerate Mana 15%
25% Faster Run/Walk
25% Faster Cast Rate
25% Faster Hit Recovery

Lore (OrtSol)


Code:

+1 To All Skill Levels
+10 To Energy
+2 To Mana After Each Kill
Lightning Resist +30%
Damage Reduced By 7
+2 To Light Radius

Radiance (NefSolIth)


Code:

+75% Enhanced Defense
+30 Defense Vs. Missile
+10 To Energy
+10 To Vitality
15% Damage Goes To Mana
Magic Damage Reduced By 3
+33 To Mana
Damage Reduced By 7
+5 To Light Radius

At the start, just chuck on armour and helm socketed with saphires, and one with tir runes.|||Welcome!!!

*steals wallet*

DONOTDIE has now died - but I really enjoyed the guy. I'm actually thinking of making my first druid right now.

Are you playing HC?

And: it is not a fishymancer! fishymancers are booooringz while my guy was funny! And yes.. You better run Virgi! I will give you a head start though. I have some Arcane Sanctuary runs to do

EDIT;


Quote:








He's a noob though




This reminds me. There is something I forgot to do. New thread will be up shortly.|||I already made a Stealth (and all the other really low-end runewords) but I want to spend my first Sol on an Insight. Haven't found a good wolfhead for Lore yet or I might have gone with that first. So far, Tir-filled armor seems better than sapphires for sustaining mana. Tornado has to be spammed to be effective and a deep mana pool doesn't help the OOM issue much without any %regen. It's just an issue against bigger bosses where the mana per kill obviously doesn't help. I could barely kill Mephisto at level 26!

I don't play HC, but I play to avoid dying more than I play to melt faces in a hurry. I just can't enjoy the idea of losing everything in a moment of bad luck. Minion-based builds bore me, I don't have the patience for the poor AI and I don't enjoy having skeletons and wolves do my job. I might do a WW barb after my druid grows up, that was my primary build back in the day.