This means you can guestimate damage and strategize your skill investment and get an idea of what you max out or put 1 point into as well as where skills start to level off. i.e. you can compare the differences in the Sorc's cold shields. The second one has more defense bonus than the first and third. And we all know the "retaliate" thing is useless.

And how many times have you asked the question, which merc does holy freeze? or thorns? The book lists the mercs of act 2 norm, nightmare and hell. How about this question, how much strength does a shako need? Its in the book.

Granted it is not a 1.10 guide, but, if you play a lot like my friends and I, it is great to imagine a new character setup without looking at a website and getting their warped perception of what is an uber character. PLUS, you can look at the book during gameplay, I hate minimizing the screen to look at a website, doing that slows down gameplay.

Anyway, yes, it is old, but it is very good for understanding how some of the spells work and what benefit's they have to others. Pally auras, what are they? Does the radius grow when points are added? Granted 1.10 messed with this too :(

Newbies don't need the book, only old school, but if you've been around awhile, you know some skills go up and up and up and others level off, (like mana shield), it's nice to have the book around for experimenting. It lowers the anxiety of deciding skill point allocation (the most stressful part in the game).

I liked the book, and use it a lot, even though 1.10 kinda made things outdated. Still useful. I bought a second copy, and my brother uses it constantly. So thats 2 for 2 :) Anyway, if your a d2 fan, you'll love the back of the book, its cheaper than the ink you'll waste printing from a website.

I love D2, play a lot and refer to the book, it also makes a nice bathroom reader for those serious gamers.

Think about it, this book costs less than one 290, not that I have ever bought one, its worth it.

There is a person who didn't like the book, so they put like 5 bad reviews of the same review on the website? Whats that? If you play D2, you will pick up some stuff, even outdated a little as it is. Its like 80% accurate.

BART! If you make a 1.10 guide, I'll buy it!

"Outdated", To begin with, I believe that static, hardcopy guides to Diablo 2 are all useless, because the game is constantly being patched and changed. Monsters are given new abilities, the characteristics of certain levels are changed, and items are introduced, changed, or deleted altogether.

Therefore, the primary failing of this guide is that it is hopelessly out of date. The character building strategies are also hopelessly newbie-material - they provide the player with a 'balanced playing experience' but will give you a character that is much, much weaker than the best configurations.

This site has all of the up-to-date information, written by veteran players, that you could ever want to know, along with a forum populated by highly experienced and skilled players to help you. There is no reason to buy a guide when you can get much, much better for free.

Grading it on the basis of a hard-copy guide (that you can have open in front of you while playing, the sole advantage it has over diabloii.net), I suppose it isn't bad, which is why it got 2 stars instead of 1. While some of the information (such as items) is out of date, most of its tables are accurate and useful references. The strategies for using certain skills are also good to know - but keep in mind that these may not be the best, most efficient strategies.

I would only consider buying this book if you are absolutely, 100% new to the game.

"Outdated", To begin with, I believe that static, hardcopy guides to Diablo 2 are all useless, because the game is constantly being patched and changed. Monsters are given new abilities, the characteristics of certain levels are changed, and items are introduced, changed, or deleted altogether.

Therefore, the primary failing of this guide is that it is hopelessly out of date. The character building strategies are also hopelessly newbie-material - they provide the player with a 'balanced playing experience' but will give you a character that is much, much weaker than the best configurations.

This site has all of the up-to-date information, written by veteran players, that you could ever want to know, along with a forum populated by highly experienced and skilled players to help you. There is no reason to buy a guide when you can get much, much better for free.

Grading it on the basis of a hard-copy guide (that you can have open in front of you while playing, the sole advantage it has over diabloii.net), I suppose it isn't bad, which is why it got 2 stars instead of 1. While some of the information (such as items) is out of date, most of its tables are accurate and useful references. The strategies for using certain skills are also good to know - but keep in mind that these may not be the best, most efficient strategies.

I would only consider buying this book if you are absolutely, 100% new to the game.

"Hopelessly Out of Date...", ...Warning! This guide will be of use to those who only want a very general overview of the new Druid and Assassin character classes.... HOWEVER, the rest of the book is hopelesss outdated, seeing as it was written for the 1.07 version of D2 and the game is currently in its 1.09d patch...with promises of another ( 1.10 version ) patch sometime in June/July of 2002. This guide went in the trash when Blizzard released their 1.08 patch a mere three weeks into LoD's public release. Since then everything has changed vastly. Character skills have been altered so the tables are totally wrong. Sets and Uniques....well just about all of them have been changed, some beyond recognition. For example the unique round shield orginally a + skills necro item is now a sorcess skills item with total different mod's. As for the unique Archon staff ( an elite weapon), well it no longer exsists; instead it's name has been assigned to the unique Giant Thresher, which has totally different mod's and is used by a totally diffent kind of character! Most of the Runewords and Crafted items spells ( advertized as new for LoD ) have either been blocked or changed... about 90% of them weren't even in the guide to begin with! Just about everything is changed so completely that this guide would have to be TOTALLY rewritten ( perferably by someone who has actually played the game, not just read the fact sheets Blizzard passed down to them ). Even nearly a year later I see this guide in various stores and have to warn off people who want to get it... Don't get me wrong, LoD is a great game to try ( I play about 20-25 hrs per week on Realms ), but this guide is very outdated. Hopefully, someone will wake up at Brady and rewrite this book so it reflects the true picture of what D2LoD is now like on the Realms. Well, off to kill Diablo and his brothers... *evil chuckle* ...bye...

"Another dissapointment", This book (supposedly) provides info on the new features of the expansion set. The only really useful parts of it are the tables in the last part, and this does not work to those who haven't downloaded the 1.08 or 1.09 patch. There are many things in the guide that have changed after the last patch, including new items, rune words and crafted items.

If you have web access, search there for the info you need. This guide is a complete waste of time and money.

I was pretty harsh on his Diablo II Strategy Guide, and with good reason. It was pathetic. Mr. Farkas has had A YEAR to make decent additions to the "strategy" section but has not done so. Character building strategies, even though altered from the classic Diablo II (which would give a greater need for these) are simply, once again, not present anywhere in this book, with the exception of some "basic build" ideas for the Druid and Assassin (the 2 new character classes). The character sections list what each skill does, not even including the skill statistics except in a difficult-to-read chart back in the appendix.

Here are the numerous other problems:

1) Set item bonuses are not properly described. The new "hidden" bonuses are displayed as standard bonuses, with no mention of the need to have 2 or more items of the set to attain those bonuses.

2) The "complete" lists of unique items are anything but. Several of the new items are missing.

3) Level, strength, and dexterity requirements for all the equipment is, once again, not present. Mr. Farkas, each of these statistics is VITAL in building a character.

4) About 20 crafted item recipes are included, with no mention that there are nearly 200 such recipes.

5) A few rune word recipes are included, with no mention that there are over 100 such recipes.

6) Strategy blurbs consist of hints from Blizzard employees, and that's the extent of it.

7) Information on the cow level was not seen in this book.

There are more problems, more items that SHOULD be expected in a strategy guide, but I'll not bore you.

I have no idea how much Bart Farkas did or did not play Diablo II classic. I have no idea how much Bart Farkas did or did not participate in the lengthy beta test. But I can assure everyone reading this review that the information gathered in this book could EASILY have been written by somebody WHO HAS NEVER PLAYED THIS GAME.

Think hard on that last paragraph before spending your money.