Battle.net 101

This guide to Battle.net was written in 1998, when Diablo was new and Battle.net existed just to serve it. As such some of the info presented here is now outdated. Read it for historical amusement, and also to get more info about playing Diablo I online, if you are so inclined.

Getting Started

Ok, you're a newbie. You're walking around in town and all of a sudden someone in plate mail starts dropping Godly Plate of the Whale, Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac, Royal Circlet, Stormshield, King's Sword of Haste, Demonspike Coat (in many forms except Plate), Dreamflange (in many forms except Mace), Thinking Cap (in many forms), and gold.

So, what do you do?

Do you thank him, take the items, and go kill some monsters?

Do you steal all the items, exit the game, make a private game, and go kill some monsters?

Do you sit there on your butt and not say a word, shocked at the sheer power these items would provide?

Nay! You take one glance at them, say "This is the worst crap I ever saw in my life! Why don't you go get some better stuff to give people?" -- or conversely -- "This isn't legit" -- and leave?

This, my friend, is what all the experienced players are doing nowadays, and there's a reason for it. Those items I listed off are all common "dupes", or duplicated items. (Many are hacked items, things that can not be legitimately found in the game.) Lame people like to exploit a bug in the game where you can, with the proper procedure, make 2 things from one! This is called "duping" and almost every respectable player (players called "Legits", who don't cheat or dupe) despises people who do it. You should be able to imagine why, as you can of course keep selling the second item and get as much gold as you want, or you could dupe items before you trade them, essentially getting something for nothing. And of course there's the REAL reason we despise dupers, giving duped high-quality stuff to newbies like you. It totally ruins the game for you. Here's why:

Imagine yourself in a medieval war. There are people in plate all around you, hacking and slashing at each other like madmen. You, however, are in Power Armor. Psionic Blades protrude from your forearms that can cut solid Titanium alloys like a hot knife through butter. Some guy in a dark cloak just gave it to you. You have absolutely no training. You kill everyone. However, you still have no experience, because you don't notice when someone's hacking you from behind, or trying to trip you. And you don't know that waving your fist at the guy in front of you normally isn't a very effective attack, even though you think it is, because it worked in your case. So the guy asks for his Protoss Zealot Battle Armor back. You don't give it to him, confident in your ability to massacre this fool, and try to attack him. He just presses a button on this thing around his wrist, and the suit freezes, the Psi Blades retract. He challenges you to a duel, to see who keeps the Armor. You get out of the suit, he gives you a sword, he says "en guarde". You die miserably.

See what giving super-powerful stuff to a beginner does? If you ever find out that the stuff someone gave you isn't legal, once you get some real stuff you won't have the skills to survive in the lower levels. All those cheaters are corrupting players such as yourselves, and keep saying that they are actually HELPING you.

It is possible to tell most of the hacked items. But if an item can occur normally in the game, there is no way to prove, without a doubt, that it's duped.

But, none of that matters. You see, if someone gives you pure as snow gear that is too advanced for your character, then the net effect is the same: the game is ruined for you. The problem with duped/hacked stuff isn't that it's immoral, unethical, or fattening. The problem is that using it ruins the game. A couple of Obsidian/Zodiacs, a gold/Zodiac, an Awesome Plate of some mammal, Royal Circlet, Storm Shield, King's Sword of Haste will turn a level 1 character into something that will just cut through everything in sight. No strategy, no player skill required. Just left click on everything in sight and in a couple of hours you'll have your solo dot and a huge case of boredom.

What's the point of playing like that? You'll never have the thrill of finding good gear -- you've already got the best. You can't take any pride or satisfaction in beating a tough boss or a bunch of mobs -- it's not your skill, it's the gear someone gave you that's doing the playing. And, since you don't have anything invested in your character, there's nothing to keep you playing past level 35 or so. Since getting to Diablo and killing him is no big thing by itself, then you've just wasted whatever time and money you put into the game.

So, it does not matter if the gear that's being offered is legit or not, duped or not. If it's much above the level of the stuff you can find/buy yourself, then you are better off not using it. You'll have a lot more fun and become a much better player.

I'll avoid ranting about how these people suck and tell you how to avoid most dupers and cheaters, and how to stay "legit" (Legit means not duping, cheating, or using dupes or hacked items)

Rule #1

People with hp over these values are cheaters: Warrior 798 Rogue 683 Mage 620. Simply move your mouse over someone to see their level and hp. If the character is below level 50, subtract the levels that he is below 50, and that's the max hp possible for his level. If he's a Warrior, multiply the difference by 2.

Note: "trust" means accept items from them (gifts or trades), go down their portals, allow them to help you gain levels (by protecting you in an advanced dungeon level). I personally have ceased trading with anyone but close & TRUSTED friends, and I suggest that you do so as well.

Rule #2

Never trust a level <10 char with Plate Mail on.

Rule #3

Be careful around people with a threatening names. Careful can mean many things. Just trust your instinct (well, I doubt you have the Cheater Instinct yet :) ).

Rule #4

Never play with someone who starts dropping lots of ears in town, after getting in for the first time. (Ears are dropped when a player kills another player, it's proof that he killed that person. You don't drop any equipment when you get killed by a player. Only some gold and an ear) People who do this are either egotistical, a pk (player-killer), stupid to lose good ears, or wants to scare you. All these people are people who are either unpleasant to play with or just plain disruptive of your playing experience (IE: killing you without warning).

Rule #5

Be wary of people who ask for a Town Portal immediately after joining, especially if you haven't even seen a Book of Town Portal yet, and people who ask where you are less than 5-10 seconds after joining, especially if they don't say hello first. Also, don't go rushing off to help someone immediately after joining who doesn't describe the trouble (s)he is in. In other words, "I need help! Come here!" isn't enough, and is really suspicious if repeated many many times... even more so if repeated over a large spance of time. However, if you have been playing with them for a while, it might be real. Reason for this is that PKs are usually in a hurry to get as many kills as possible in a short amount of time, as they are addicted to the adrenaline rush and the feel of power and control they get from killing a representative of someone (or are trying to become somehow better in other PKs' eyes, by having a huge # of ears).

Rule #6

Be wary of people who offer a gift to you before entering the Dungeon for the first time in the game, for these people could be trying to lull you into a false sense of security... so they can get you killed by monsters and steal your stuff (also known as MKing, Monster Killing). (by the way, this happened to me twice. It's a professional tactic, though apparently not used very frequently by your average mk)

Rule #7

If you die from a player's attack while there are monsters around, don't let him resurrect you. He could be a MK. Press Escape to get to the menu, then press down once, when the "restart in town" gets lit, press down again and Enter. You may want to keep a finger over a potion button holding a Full Rejuvenation potion or a Full Health, so if he resses you, you can survive. This circumstance happens more than you would think it would. The only exception is if you have played with him before, then he probably won't try stuff.

Rule #8

Players above level 50 are cheaters. Plain and simple. And never play with level 50s until you're a high level, mostly because some cheaters like to hack themselves to be only level 50, even though they could be 99, just because they want to disguise themselves as legit people (don't ask me why).

Rule #9

Don't create games that say "legit no pks". That attracts more pks and cheaters than normal, since they probably just scan games for key words, such as "legit", or "no pks". Create a regular game called something like "For Players with Honor", this would imply a legit, no pk game, without being blatant about it. Other examples would be "World for the good guys", you know, create a game for good people. Even better yet, play private games with your friends. Maybe befriend an AoH'er. After a while, (s)he'll bring up the topic of sponsorship, if you're worthy ;)

Rule #10

Hotkey your spells. Open up your spells by clicking on the spell icon in the lower right hand corner of your screen. Move your mouse over a spell, and press one of these keys: F5 F6 F7 F8. After assigning a spell, you can select it again by pressing the proper function key. This is vital to survival if you play a mage! Even monsters will be hard if you have to search through your speedbook manually to get a spell, and fending off a PK will be nigh impossible.

Rule #11

Have an escape spell hotkeyed, so if you get attacked you can escape easily. Town Portal and Teleport are escape spells. Phasing doesn't work well against players, unless he's a Warrior. Well, multiple phases might confuse the unwary PK, but I've never heard of it being used.

Rule #12

You MAY want to experiment with cheats, but DO NOT use the cheated character on Battle.net. Simply start a Null-Modem game (Direct Connect) and cheat to your heart's content. You will learn lots of useful information about cheaters. Yeah, I suppose some people might disapprove of this, but screw em! They're more concerned with being "legit" than having fun!

Battle.net Survival:

Rule #1

Don't spam. Spamming is repeatedly broadcasting messages rapidly, or just repetitively one message.

Rule #2

Please don't curse very much. This makes you look rude. Unless you have a damn good reason for it, like you're really pissed off about some guy who just MK'ed you, and such. Even then, keep it down :)

Rule #3

Don't go into channel Legit (if it still exists), most of the people in there actually aren't legit, last time I checked. Go to channel aoh instead. Lots of Star Craft people hang there too, but don't worry, they're all nice guys. Make sure to behave!

Strategy Forum Survival:

Rule #1

When you are posting something without any Diablo strategy in it, put <ns> in the subject. This says that the post has <No Strategy>. If the post does not include text from you, put <nt>. Very little text: <vlt>. Some text: <text>. Long post: <long>. Very long post (like this one): <very long>. Off topic: <ot> (off topic posts seem to be discouraged right now, for some reason)

Rule #2

Never reply to a post (not a reply) that seems to be the epitome of cheating, or pking, or being really stupid. Most of the time it's a "Troll", our name for someone who posts just to get an angry response out of someone.

Rule #3

Don't post no-strategy posts without having <ns> in the subject. It gets people pissed off, for some reason. They think it's cluttering up the Forum. (I tend to think it doesn't matter)

Rule #4

DO NOT ask for cheats!

Rule #5

Don't post a strategy claiming you found something new, especially if you don't know if it's new or not.

Rule #6

Ignore Landru. He's a program created by Bostic to reply to certain posts, and tell cheaters to stop cheating, idiots to quit posting, and guilds to go advertise somewhere else.

Rule #7

Don't bring up these topics: "What is the best bow?" "Which class is the best?" "Rogues should use swords!" However, if you don't know the answers, you can ask for a quick summary of the argument. Quick summary of those?

---(start summary)---

Best Bow: Well, people are split b/t Eaglehorn and Windforce. Don't even think about a Merciless War Bow of the Heavens/Thunder... The unique ones are much easier to find via laz runs.

Best Class: There isn't any. Well, in the long run, for brute strength and endurance, the MAGE is actually the best class. For fun factor, the Warrior is always the best (until you run out of options when trying to rescue equipment). For versatility, the Rogue beats them all. What other class can use melee, magic, and bows, all effectively?

Rogues with swords?: Yeah, s/s setup with a Rogue is nice, but you do lose some power in the process. You do the same damage per hit, usually, but slower... Sure, perfect blocking with a SS or HD is great, but so is being able to keep all monsters from even touching you, if you can use the WF effectively, and have some good dodging skills in the case of projectile attacks.

---(end summary)---

Rule #8

Refer to the Rogue class as "Rogue", not "Rouge". Rouge is French for red, which is NOT a character class :)

Rule #9

Please leave your e-mail address when asking for assistance, or asking for a game... And make sure to give details of your character-- When asking for a game, your character level and class will suffice. When asking for help, please describe your character in detail (include everything in your Character screen), and your equipped items.

Chat Commands:

/whois <user>
/whereis <user>
/where <user>

These commands search for a person. If he's online, it will tell you where he is. Also, once you use this on someone you can always find that person, even if he's using a different character. Simply write down the account number it shows you and place that where his name would be. Make sure to use a "#" at the start of the number.

/away <reason>

Puts you in Away mode. People whispering to you or using /whois will see the reason you're away. To disable it, leave the <reason> blank.

/time

Tells you what time it is, in your time zone and in Battle.net's time zone. Handy for figuring out what time the Blizzard Tech Support channel is open. Unfortunately, the local time always seems to be wrong...

/ignore <user>
/squelch <user>

These mute out any messages that person sends to you.

/unsquelch <user>

This disables the mute.

/whisper <user> <message>
/msg <user> <message>
/w <user> <message>

Simply a command to whisper to someone. No-one else can listen in on your conversation.

/rejoin
/resign

You rejoin the channel. Handy if you want to be at the bottom of the list.

/me <action>

Allows you to talk in yellow, in this format: <Name Action> This is what would happen if your name was "Name" and you typed "/me Action" People who don't have the 1.05 patch or higher can't see this (they can use it blindly though). If you want to talk behind the 1.04 users' backs, this is the way.

/dnd <message>

This blocks whispers. VERY handy if someone is whispering spam to you. When someone tries to whisper to you, they get that message. Use /dnd without a message to turn it off.

In-Game Commands:

/whois <user>
/whereis <user>
/where <user>

VERY handy. You can tell if someone is available to help you or join in your game, with this.

/whisper <user> <message>
/msg <user> <message>

You can talk to people in chat with this! Call for help, offer someone a game, just chat while killing stuff, the possibilities are endless.

/ignore
/squelch

These don't mute out what he says in the game, but when he goes into the chat, you won't be able to hear him. This is actually useful, as if someone is whispering Spam to you, you can get rid of it.

/unsquelch

Same effect, if you want to let someone whisper to you again.

/time

Yep, this works in-Game too.

/dnd

Same here.

Op commands:

Ops are Channel Operators. This exists in Private channels only. They are the law and order in those private channels. You can tell someone's an Op when his picture turns into a Gavel (hammer) and he talks in white.

/ban <user>

Bans a person from the channel, and sends him to The Void (a channel). They can only come back in when the op changes.

/unban <user>

Removes a ban from a user.

/kick <user>

Kicks a user out of the channel, and sends him to The Void. He can come back if he wants to.

/designate <user>

Assigns someone as your heir. If you leave for any reason, that person gets op.

Abbreviations:

• KSO: King's Sword of --
  
  • S: Speed, H: Haste, Heavens, B: Blood, V: Vampires, C: Carnage
• SSO: Strange Sword of --
  • S: Speed, H: Haste, Heavens, B: Blood, V: Vampires, C: Carnage
• MBO: Merciless Bow of -- T: Thunder, B: Burning, H: Heavens
• GPO: Godly Plate of -- W: Whale, O: Osmosis, A: Ages
• APO: Awesome Plate of -- S: Sorcery, T: Tiger, L: Lion, St: Stars
• SPO: Saintly Plate of -- S: Sorcery, T: Tiger, L: Lion, St: Stars
• GSO: Godly Shield of -- A: Ages, T: Tiger
• ASO: Awesome Shield of -- T: Tiger
• SSO: Saintly Shield of -- T: Tiger, Th: Thieves
• ESO: Emerald Shield of -- T: Tiger
• TC: Thinking Cap
• TP: Town Portal
• RC: Royal Circlet
• CC: Civerb's Cudgel
• WF: Windforce
• EH: Eaglehorn
• OZ: Obsidian Ring/Amulet of the Zodiac
• ObsZod: Obsidian Ring/Amulet of the Zodiac
• PK: Player Killer
• PKK: Player Killer Killer (one who kills PKs)
• MK: Monster Killer
• NT: No Text
• VLT: Very Little Text
• NS: No Strategy

Things You Should Know:

Townkill can only affect people that use Townkill. (Townkill allows spells in town)

Ghost Mode players can't affect your game. (Ghost Mode makes you invisible to players)

Ok, when you press Enter to start typing something to say (in Game), there will be a list of people in your game below the box you're typing in. There will be buttons marked "Voice" next to them. If you push one, it says "Mute". While someone is "Muted" they can't hear you. Unfortunately you can hear them. So the only use of this is having a private conversation with someone without having to use whispers, or having a private conversation with many people at once. Once I have had the mute button malfunction, and mute out my speech to the wrong person! It said it had worked correctly, but the wrong person was still affected.

Guidelines for Playing Without Getting Killed by Monsters:

Rule #1

Try to stay near the wall. Don't go straight into the middle of a large room if you can help it, that just attracts more monsters to you. I personally don't do this, but that's cause I'm crazy :)

Rule #2

Don't let more than 4 monsters attack you at once. Walk a few steps backward and let them walk towards you again. This thins it out to 3 most of the time. You can just walk 1 step backwards if you are in a tight space.

Rule #3

Buy regular potions at first, but when you start accumulating more than 5000 gold, buy Full potions, only a beltfull at first, then start keeping extra in your inventory as your personal cache of cash increases.

Rule #4

For added safety, you can put an emergency item in the 8th slot in your belt. (emergency items are things such as Full Rejuvenation Potions, Scrolls of Flame Wave, Nova, and Apocalypse... there are probably others)

Rule #5 (for Warriors and Rogues)

Don't sell the items that add to Magic! These can be used temporarily to read books, because afterwards you can wear normal stuff.

Rule #6 (for Mages and Rogues)

Check the Witch often. Her items change each time you enter the town (from the chat room or the dungeon).

Rule #7

Once you are a moderate level (like 15 or so), start checking Wirt. His stuff gets more useful once you get better levels, and it's real bad to miss something awesome that you could've bought. His item changes each time you gain two character levels.

Rule #8

Thinking Caps. DO NOT sell these. I know the Durability is 1, and one hit is all it needs to break, but you can increase its Dur with Hidden Shrines. You can find these in the Church or the Catacombs. 11 Dur is functional, 21 Dur is much better. Once you get it to 11 or 21 you can trade it with your friends.

Rule #9

Don't use up all your potions before refilling your belt. Once you get down to half, refill it when the fighting's stopped.

Some info about various enchantments and items:

Civerb's Cudgel's +200% damage to Demons applies to the TOTAL damage, not just the weapon's 1-8. Bloodslayer (an axe) works in the same way. This allows your Strength (and if you're a Rogue, Strength and Dexterity) bonus to be tripled as well. HOWEVER! It does seem that The Deadly Hunter, a bow, does not work in the same way, BUT DON'T SELL IT!!!!! Give it to someone here. The Deadly Hunter is one of the RAREST items in the game. Of course, only try and give it to us if it's legit.

The Helm of Sprits is a handy item that, if you don't like it, can be given to someone here for a good item in return. That life draining ability (from monsters) works well with a Sword of Haste/Speed, or even Vamps.

-of Thieves used to halve damage from most ranged attacks, but now it only halves trap damage. So now it's really useless :(

Unidentified items don't give anything but their armor class, so the Gotterdammurung can be worn unidentified for the 60 ac, but without the null resistances.

The Constricting Ring's life draining doesn't hurt that much when you're at a higher level.

Haste is just as fast as Speed, even tho Blizz claimed to have "fixed" it.

Single-player only items:

Veil of Steel, Undead Crown, Empyrean Band, Ring of Truth, Optic Amulet, Butcher's Cleaver, Arkaine's Valor, Griswold's Edge, Brain, Tavern Sign, Spectral Elixir, Staff of Lazarus, Black Mushroom, Anvil of Fury, Golden Elixir, Map of Stars, Magic Rock, Blood Stone, Fungal Tome.

All items after Griswold's Edge are useless items that are just interesting to look at (in multiplayer, that is).

Commonly Duped Items:

• King's Sword of Haste/Blood/Vampires/Carnage
• Godly Plate of the Whale (hacked item)
• Godly Plate of the Ages (see above)
• Godly Plate of Osmosis (see above)
• Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac
• Royal Circlet
• Gnarled Root (not in Club form is hacked)
• Butcher's Cleaver (in any form. hacked item.)
• Lightforge (in any form. hacked item.)
• Demonspike Coat (not in plate form. hacked item.)
• Thinking Cap (any form that's Indestructible)
• Dreamflange (not in Mace form. hacked item.)
• Any item with a picture of Arkaine's Valor
• Any item with a picture of The Butcher's Cleaver

Some web pages you might want to look at:

Wiki note: Most of these links are long dead, since this article was written more than a decade ago. The good information from them can be found throughout this wiki.

First off, this page'll get you to a huge amount of resources:
http://www.arewehavingfunyet.com/diablo/diablo.shtml

The Diablo Asylum:
http://www.win.net/homefield/diablo/
down temporarily, use this link instead, if you want to see
the first 20 or so variants:
http://www.revolution98.com/diablo/html/beyondnaked.htm
(don't let the URL discourage you :) )

Van Damned's Plain Guide to Diablo:
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Chamber/1992/diablo.html

Diablo Multiplayer Guide for Rogues:
http://home.stny.lrun.com/drhager/diablo.htm

The Unofficial Diablo Home Page:
http://diablo.scorched.com/

Aderrasi's Diablo Strategy FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
http://www1.stuttgart.netsurf.de/~jbaumann/faq.html
I snatched some stuff from here, but there's some neat strategy in here as well, that I didn't snatch.

Well, I don't recommend this guide until you're quite used to the game, but it is VERY handy once you are. Print it out for easy reference. Jarulf's Guide to Diablo and Hellfire
http://pf.chemeng.lth.se/diablo/index.html

And, if you EVER want to join a guild, I recommend mine, Angels of Hell. We are legit, and prefer it if you didn't pk any of our members maliciously, but other than that, you can do pretty much whatever you want. To join, hang around channel aoh and talk with people. Ask to play a game with someone. If that person likes you, he'll become your sponsor, and you will get assigned an evaluator, who will basically play games with you in order to get to know what you're like. If you pass, you're in the guild.

If you need any help in Diablo, check channel AoH, there are nice people there, so you'll probably be able to get some help.

I probably left some things out, go to those web pages for the rest, or keep an eye on this thread and read the responses.

McFrugal