Diablo 2 Speedrun Guide — teo1904

Original guide written by teo1904 · mirrored on TheGHoppers as a community reference.

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All text and images on this page are the work of teo1904. Source: pf-mail.wixsite.com/d2speedruns

Welcome to my Speedrun Guide

Hello everyone,

I started this page because from time to time people asked me on my stream to do a guide of my own. I hope my thoughts and knowledge about the game can give you some insight. I will edit a lot of things and details as I am doing speedruns.

There are so many details that I think are important to speedrun this game fast. It is not only choosing the right skillbuild, but also: finding the right ways, avoiding dead ends…etc. So I will add as much information about the details, that I find important, to my runs.

If you have any specific questions / ideas / suggestions you should contact me. Most simple way to do that is joining my stream (twitch.tv/teo1904).

To check out the current world records on every class check out this page: speedrun.com/d2lod.

Experience

Experience is the basis on getting your lvl ups which results in +1 skillpoint and +5 statpoints each. Also every lvl adds base life, mana and stamina. The amounts differ between the chars, check out the char specifics for more information.

How to get experience:

You get experience by killing monsters.
There is an experience shrine which grants you +50% experience for 144 seconds. Try to use them as efficiently as possible.
Quest rewards do not give experience.

Basic white monster

They are the basis for any other type of monster.
They are easy to kill but very bad for experience compared to the following monster types.

Champions

2–4 monsters each group — avoid them when there are only 2.
+300% Experience.
+2 monster lvl.
Ghostly champions have "spectral hit" — they do elemental damage every hit. This can be very annoying on ranged monsters.
Shamans from act 1 and 3 are the monsters you want to be champions, they give very good experience.

Bossgroups

Boss and minions +500% Experience.
Boss and minions +3 monster lvl.
A random ability out of the boss modifier list.
They are your main experience source.

The goal in every speedrun through norm is to get lvl 20 in the "Chaos Sanctuary" (act 4).

The reason behind this? You have to be lvl 20 to get the ancients quest in act 5. This is a requirement to finish the game, because you can't go on without this quest.

Lets see how we get there most efficiently:

Until 'Andariel' — You want to focus on bossgroups here. Only kill basic monsters if you get a large group of them. Depending on the character you want to reach between 13–14.5.
'Blood Moor' — you want to get lvl 2 here. Zombies are the best experience in this area.
Act 2 — 'Far Oasis' and the 'Rocky Waste' with beetles are awesome experience. But you will have to kill other normal monsters as well — just try to get little groups of monsters. lvl 17 should be your minimum goal for 'Duriel'. The Sorceress is the exception. You want to be 18 with her.
Act 3 — The 'Flayer Jungle' is the area you want to clear for experience here to get close to 20 before 'Mephisto'. Amazon and Necro should be lvl 20 before 'Mephisto'.

Potions

Healing Potions

The healing amount differs between the chars as you can see in the chart.
These effects sometimes get doubled.
Healing potions stack.
When you hit 100% of your max life the rest effect of the healing potions gets lost.

Mana Potions

The amount how much mana each potion regenerates differs between the chars as the chart shows.
These effects sometimes get doubled as well.
Mana potions stack.
When you hit 100% of your max mana the rest effect of the mana potions gets lost.

Rejuvenation Potions

Refills 35% Life and Mana instantly.
Refills 100% Life and Mana instantly (full rejuvenation).

Stamina Potions

Refills your Stamina pool.
Antidote gives infinite Stamina for 30 seconds (stackable). Stamina is a real pain in any part of the game. Always have some with you to avoid walking.
Antidote potion: cures poison instantly, +50 Poison Resistance and +10 max resistance for 30 seconds (stackable).

Thawing Potion

Cures Freeze effect instantly.
+50 Cold Resistance and +10 max resistance for 30 seconds (stackable). Always have 1–2 of those with you.

Gold Management

Gold is a very crucial aspect of any speedrun. The reasons behind that are very simple: you need Gold for buying potions, and items can be very expensive — more to that in the Items of Interest section.

So basically you want to get your gold together as efficiently as possible and as early as possible — it really starts in the Blood Moor. For the very start almost any dropped item can be used for selling to get potions. Even ~500 gold from the Blood Moor can be enough to start a run.

The list of items to get that money is quite long:

Scepters / Wands / Short Staffs with skills ~ can give up to 5k gold.
Any throwing potions: Strangling, Fulmination, Choking, Exploding ~ depends on how much quantity they have.
Chipped gems ~ 250 gold each (skull gives 500).
Throwing knifes ~ 480 gold (even with "cracked" or "low quality").
Leather Armors ~ 240 gold.
Jewels + Charms + Jewelry ~ depends on what's on them.

From the stuff you find in Blood Moor you just want to get some stamina and mana potions.

Later in the game the list of potentially interesting items for selling changes a bit:

Char-specific Items with a lot of +skills (Necromancer shields / Sorc orbs / pelts) — the skills need to be high lvl to be worth it though.
Still interesting: Scepters / Wands / Staffs with skills (the higher the skills the better).
Jewels + Charms + Jewelry.
Heavy armors: Scale Mail / Chain Mail / Splint Mail / Plate Mail.

Other stuff gets worthless:

Light armors.
Chipped gems.
Throwing knifes.

The acts have a certain cap how much money you can get as a maximum from items:

act 1 — 5000 gold
act 2 — 10000 gold
act 3 — 15000 gold
act 4 — 20000 gold
act 5 — 25000 gold

If you run out of money during the Baal waves in act 5 — just sell everything the waves drop. If even that is not enough you can think about selling your gear as well.

Sellworthy items (Blood Moor, then later act 1):

Shrines

Shrines are a way to get buffs for a certain amount of time (varies between the shrines). They can improve your run a lot.

Important to know:

Shrine times can not be stacked! If you use the same shrine twice it just restarts the timer to the full length.
Shrines can not be stacked. You can not use different shrines together.
Most shrine positions are fixed. If you find one close to a Waypoint you really should check it out during countess runs for example. They change between games however, so the kind of shrine might change.
Exception: Health shrines, Mana shrines and wells are static and will always stay the same.
Some shrines regenerate after some time.

Stat-changing shrines

Experience Shrine — +50% Experience for 144 seconds. Does not regenerate. Most important shrine until lvl 20.
Skill Shrine — +2 all Skills for 96 seconds. Regenerates after 240 seconds. Very nice for any act boss fight. If close to a waypoint you can use it multiple times.
Combat Shrine — +200% Attack Rating and +200% physical damage for 96 seconds. Regenerates after 240 seconds.
Mana-Recharge Shrine — +400% Mana regeneration for 96 seconds. Regenerates after 240 seconds.
Armor Shrine — +100% Defense for 96 seconds. Regenerates after 240 seconds.
Stamina Shrine — Infinite Stamina for 192 seconds. Regenerates after 240 seconds.

Resistance shrines

Resist Fire / Cold / Poison / Lightning Shrine — +75% of that resistance for 144 seconds. Regenerates after 240 seconds.

Regenerating shrines

Health Shrine — Refills 100% Life instantly. Regenerates after 96 seconds.
Mana Shrine — Refills 100% Mana instantly. Regenerates after 96 seconds.
Refilling Shrine — Refills 100% Life / Mana instantly. Regenerates after 96 seconds.
Well — Refills 50% Life, Mana and Stamina instantly per charge. Regenerates after 30 sec (separate timers for the charges).

One-time-use shrines

Monster Shrine — Converts 1 random white monster to a boss. The boss won't have minions.
Portal Shrine — Permanent Town portal to this position. If you find this before the waypoint in the Far Oasis this can be useful. TP does not stay if you save & quit.
Gem Shrine — Either upgrades a gem from your inventory or drops a random chipped gem.
Exploding Shrine — Drops 5–10 Exploding potions. Small explosion that does damage to enemies. Only useful as a gold source in Blood Moor.
Poison Shrine — Drops 5–10 choking potions. Large poison cloud that does damage to enemies. Can be used to kill boss groups.
Fire Shrine — Takes 50% of current hp from everything in range. This hits you as well.

TP-Drops

What is a TP drop?

Drop a town portal at an objective.
Get the next waypoint in the direction of the next objective or within the same area.
Go back to town through the waypoint and go through your placed town portal.

Example: Some chars have to do Den of Evil for the respec. So you start by finding the Den of Evil, drop a TP there and go on to the Cold Plains waypoint. After finding it you go to town and use the TP to get back to the Den of Evil.

This screenshot shows how it looks in practice and why it is being used: the way between town and objective is longer than the way between WP and TP in town, and the way between WP and objective is longer than the way between WP and TP in town.

Where can I use a TP drop?

Act 1:

Den of Evil (Cold Plains waypoint).
Forgotten Tower (Black Marsh WP) — If you find the tower before the waypoint on your first approach, drop a TP at the tower.
Forgotten Tower (Outer Cloister WP) — If the tower is very far away from the Black Marsh, in the direction of the Cloister, you might want to do a TP drop in one of your Countess runs.

Act 2:

Halls of the Dead (Dry Hills or Far Oasis WP) — The Far Oasis is better when you find the Far Oasis before the Dry Hills waypoint.
Connection between Dry Hills and Far Oasis (Far Oasis WP) — If you find the entrance to the Far Oasis before Halls of the Dead or Dry Hills WP, place the TP here.
Maggot Lair (Far Oasis or Lost City WP) — This one only applies if you came across the Dry Hills waypoint. If you find the Lost City before the WP in the Far Oasis I recommend to search for the Lost City WP. (Exception if you almost searched the whole map in the Far Oasis.)
Connection between Far Oasis and Lost City (Lost City WP) — This one only applies if you came across the Dry Hills waypoint. When you move through the Far Oasis and find the entrance to the Lost City before either the WP or the Maggot Lair, you should use the TP here and search for the Lost City WP. Use the TP to get back to the Far Oasis later.

Act 3:

Flayer Dungeon (WP in one of the Kurast areas or Travincal) — I use this one all the time. It is way faster to drop a TP at the Flayer Dungeon and get a later WP before going in there. Make sure you have enough mana and life potions before heading to the WP!

After that there is no good place for a TP drop anymore.

Faster Run / Walk

Faster Run / Walk is an attribute that can improve your movement speed considerably. The base speed is the same for each char:

Walking: 6 yards / sec
Running: 9 yards / sec
Charging (Pala): 22 yards / sec — this is not affected by item-FRW, but skill FRW works however.

The FR/W affix can only be found on Boots and the runeword Stealth in our speedrun through norm. FR/W is an "e-function", there are no fixed caps. The walking and running speed is also affected by light, medium and heavy armor. That shouldn't be a problem in our speedruns though.

Faster Cast Rate

Every character needs a specific amount of base frames to cast skills. The amount of frames needed to cast a skill varies between them:

Sorceress: 14
Necromancer: 16
Paladin: 16
Druid: 15

For Amazon, Assassin and Barbarian FCR doesn't matter for speedruns. This base cast rate can be improved by items with the affix "Faster Cast Rate".

Items on which you can find this affix:

2-handed staffs, Wands, Orbs, Rings, Amulets, Circlets.
Runeword Stealth "Tal Eth" — 25% FCR for free here.

Every char has specific breakpoints for that. Every breakpoint lowers the needed frames by one (check them out in the char specifics). However FCR does NOT reduce cooldowns from spells!

Faster Hit Recovery

In Diablo 2 "hit recovery" is an animation that triggers when you get hit by something for 1/12th of your maximum hp. This animation takes a certain amount of frames. Every frame is roughly 0.04 seconds since Diablo 2 gives us a maximum of 25 frames/sec.

The base number of frames needed varies between the chars:

Amazon: 11
Assassin: 9
Barbarian: 9
Druid: 13
Necromancer: 13
Paladin: 9
Sorceress: 15

Now the item affix "Faster Hit Recovery" comes into play.

Where can we get "Faster Hit Recovery" from?

Runeword Stealth "Tal Eth" — We will always build this so we have 25% guaranteed.
Boots, Belts, Shields, Helmets.

These items can be shopped from the vendors from lvl 1 and cost around 1000 Gold. Remember that potions are more important if you are low on money! Every char has certain FHR breakpoints. Every breakpoint takes off 1 frame from the hit recovery animation. Doesn't sound like much but when you get more experienced you will see that it is noticeable.

Acronyms

Since this would probably be a long list, just check out acronyms here on the Diablo Wiki. If you can't find the acronym you don't know there, please write me a message on Twitch.

Detailed Stats: Amazon

Starting Stats

Faster Hit Recovery breakpoints

Statsgain

No skill used in speedruns requires FCR, so no list for that here.

Skill Build — Normal any%

Skill order

Skill explanations

Jab: Requirement for 'Poison Javelin'.
Power Strike: Very strong single-target skill. Mostly used in the 'Countess' runs. Also in the 'Maggot Lair' and against 'Andariel' + 'Duriel'.
Poison Javelin: Main damage skill until lvl 20. Needs some practice to lure monsters into its path. At lvl 20 it becomes a requirement for 'Charged Strike'.
Lightning Bolt: Requirement for 'Charged Strike' at lvl 20.
Charged Strike: This will be our damage skill from lvl 20 'Mephisto' onwards. It is a very powerful single target attack, so don't try to fight too large groups.

After respec

Speedrun Route: Amazon

Gameplay: Amazon

Key moments (by lvl):

Cold Plains WP — lvl 2 (make a TP drop to the 'Den of Evil' — you need to do that quest).
Underground Passage — lvl 4–5.
Forgotten Tower — lvl 6.
Last Countess run — lvl 12–12.5 (Tal, Eth, 2x Ral must have dropped until that point for a good run).
Andariel — lvl 13–14.
Duriel — lvl 17+.
Mephisto — lvl 20 (you want to hit lvl 20 before 'Travincal').

General gameplay:

lvl 1–5: Well… throwing javelins is the only thing to do here.
lvl 6–20: 'Poison Javelin's are extremely powerful. Try to lure monsters into the poison. Use 'Power Strike' only in narrow areas like 'Maggot Lair'.
lvl 20–Baal: 'Charged Strike' has both an up- and a down-side. Down-side: no real AoE. Up-side: very strong single target. Try to "divide and conquer". Perfect scenario: only kill the quest-progress relevant monster!

Items of Interest: Amazon

Unavoidable Items

Armor: You want to get an armor with 2 open sockets. If you don't get one as a drop you can shop a Quilted Armor, Leather Armor or Hard Leather Armor at Charsi (make sure it is not a magical item!). In this armor you put the runes Tal and Eth in this order to build the runeword 'Stealth'. With +25% Faster Run/Walk, Faster Cast Rate and Faster Hit Recovery it is absolutely necessary on any character you want to speedrun!

Shields: Shields are the source for our resistances. If you don't get one as a drop you can shop one or two Small Shields at Charsi. Diamonds and Topazes are nice in act 2 if you feel uncomfortable against the beetles. 2x Ral Runes are a "must have" for act 4 on the Amazon. To get maximum resistance you can combine a diamond shield with a helmet.

Weapon: Javelins are the only weapon you will use on the Amazon. If you don't get one as a drop you can shop javelins at Charsi. Possible additional stat (don't shop for it): +10% Increased Attack Speed — it is possible to imbue that, but boots have priority!

Belt: The belt slot defines how many potions you can take with you. Buy potions by spamming left-click while having no belt or a sash — it's faster. Secondarily a 3-row belt speeds up the potion shopping (fill belt, unequip, re-equip). If you don't get one as a drop you can buy a Sash or Belt from Charsi or Fara. Possible additional stats (don't shop for them): +10% / 17% Faster Hit Recovery; +5–20% Lightning-, Cold- or Fire-Resistances; 5% chance to cast level 3 'Frost Nova' when struck.

Optional Items

Helmet: Helmets are not a must have — they are a "just in case" item to put runes in. You want at least one helmet with 2 open sockets in case you don't get a shield. Shop a Cap or Skull Cap at Charsi. Either Tir or Ral runes (if you don't get a shield) are the options for the helmet. Possible additional stat: +10% / 17% Faster Hit Recovery (extremely rare).

Boots: Completely optional. They can speed up a run by a lot with the right attribute. Only take Chain Boots if they have Faster Run / Walk. Possible additional stats: +10–20% Faster Run / Walk (up to +40% on unique / set boots); +10% / 17% Faster Hit Recovery; +5–20% Resistances.

Gloves: Completely optional — you can skip over Charsi's items while you shop for the important items. Possible additional stats: +10% Increased Attack Speed; +5–20% Resistances; 5% chance to cast level 3 'Frost Nova' when struck.

Jewelry: Except for gold, rings and amulets are not really that important. Possible additional stats: +x to Life or Mana; +5–30 Resistance; +1 Mana after each kill.

Item reference (from the original guide)

Detailed Stats: Assassin

Starting Stats

Faster Hit Recovery breakpoints

Statsgain

No skill used in speedruns requires FCR, so no list for that here.