1 Plan the build before level ten
Because skill points are difficult to reclaim, the most valuable thing you can do is decide where the character is going before you have spent many of them.
A workable plan answers three questions: which skill kills things, which skills feed it through synergies, and what keeps you alive while it happens. If you cannot answer all three, you have a collection of skills rather than a build.
Saving a few points while you decide is legitimate and often smart. An unspent point is worth more than a point spent into something you abandon.
2 Your mercenary is half your character
Hired mercenaries fight alongside you, use equipment you give them, and carry auras or attacks that affect the whole party. New players treat them as a distraction; experienced players treat them as a second equipment slot set.
Two habits pay off immediately. Keep the mercenary alive by giving it life leech on its weapon, and pass along good armour and helmets you cannot use yourself rather than selling them. A dead mercenary contributes nothing, and a well equipped one can carry a struggling character through a difficulty step.
3 Magic find is a build decision
Magic find increases the chance that dropped items are of a higher quality. It is not free, because every slot given to it is a slot not giving damage or defence.
| Stage | Sensible balance |
|---|---|
| While levelling | Almost none. Killing efficiently finds more items than any percentage bonus |
| Once the build works | Add it in slots that were not doing much anyway, such as rings and charms |
| Dedicated farming | A separate set of gear you swap in, keeping the killing set intact |
The failure mode is stacking so much magic find that you kill too slowly to find anything. Speed of clearing and magic find multiply together, so the best result is a balance rather than a maximum.
4 Terror Zones and where to farm
Terror Zones rotate which areas are elevated in level, and the Infernal Edition lists updates to them among its endgame changes. The point of the system is to stop the entire community farming the same three locations forever.
Use them. Following the rotation means fighting enemies worth more experience and better drops than the same zone would normally give, and it takes you through areas you would otherwise never revisit.
Alongside them, the edition adds a Colossal Ancients fight and new mechanics described as rewarding strategy and class mastery, so the endgame is no longer only about repeating one efficient run.
5 Immunities and why one damage type is a trap
In the hardest difficulty, some enemies are outright immune to a damage type. A character that deals only fire damage will meet packs it literally cannot hurt.
6 Playing in an eight player game
Games support up to eight players with cross platform multiplayer. More players means tougher enemies but also more from each kill, so a full game is more efficient than a solo one provided you can survive in it.
Bring something the group wants. An aura, a curse, a source of a damage type nobody else has, or simply a character that can take hits. A group of eight glass cannons dies to the same pack repeatedly.
7 Joining a ladder season deliberately
Seasonal ladder resets give everyone a fresh start with new challenges, and leaderboards to compete on. The community concentrates hard at the beginning of a season and thins out later.
If multiplayer matters to you, starting a character in the first days of a season is worth far more than any build optimisation. Trading is active, groups form easily, and everybody is at a similar power level, which is exactly the condition that makes an eight player game work.
8 Mistakes that waste a character
| Mistake | Consequence |
|---|---|
| Spreading skill points widely | Nothing is strong enough for the later difficulties and points are hard to reclaim |
| Ignoring resistances | The character stops working the moment the difficulty steps up |
| Selling runes and socketed items | You are throwing away the currency and the runeword material |
| Letting the mercenary die repeatedly | You are playing without a substantial part of your damage and survivability |
| Stacking magic find too early | Slower clears cancel out the bonus entirely |
Decide what kills, what feeds it and what keeps you alive before spending many points, and hold points back rather than guessing. Equip your mercenary properly, since it is effectively a second character. Add magic find only after the build works, because clear speed multiplies with it. Follow Terror Zone rotations, always carry a second damage type for immunities, bring something a group wants in eight player games, and start a character early in a ladder season if multiplayer is why you are here.
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