One of the most-awaited computer-games ever is Diablo II. After my Power-Words about Dungeon Keeper 1+2, Pax Imperia and Birth of the Federation it is now time for good power tips for Diablo II.

General tips for gameplay

- First play Diablo II a bit without reading these Power-Words. Explore this fantasy-world on your own and with level 7 you should continue reading this. Remember, your first character won´t be your final character.

- Basic strategies - every character has a different way of fighting: the Barbarian is the best fighter of DII and fights in direct contact to the enemies. The Amazon has good potential in long-range-fights with her bow, the Necromancer should combine summoning with curses and is a very interesting character. The Paladin should develop good fighting abilities combined with strong resistances (protection auras). Finally, the sorceress is a very interesting (and cute) character, but quite difficult to play. She should avoid direct enemy contact and develop strong specialized magic. More infos in the Sorceress Section.

- Skills: a very important aspect in DII is a well planned character-development. You may play for the exploration a just-for fun-character and then start a new one and plan a strong character. Specialiazing is one of the keys to get a strong character which can play even Act4 in Hell Mode. When you put too many skill-points into different spells you won´t have spells which are really powerful. (I had to restart my Sorceress two times until I found out about the best skill-planning)

- For finding the best skill-developments read the strategy-pages of the DII-Sites. Or ask some high level players on the BattleNet. I also recommend to download the DII-character planner at www.wizz.de. For Sorceress- and Necromancer players I have some special tips in these Power Words.

- Navigating: many maps have a waypoint which teleports you to town and other places, you can use them also to warp to another Act (if you entered that before). When searching a place for a quest or a special plain remember that some plains have more then two exits. Navigating though dungeons: (if you don´t want to fight all monsters, but simply want to quickly solve the quest): many times the exit to another level or an important location is on the other side of the dungeon. So don´t search near the entrance, but rush fast to the other end of the dungeon.

- The Automap is activated with the TAB-key, run with CRTL. With...