A Guide to the special`s of Annihilus.com-servers!

[Lucid]

Hey Annihilus!

I want to write a guide for the absolute beginners. Since this guide will grow with the community and the serverpatches, this wouldn`t make sense in the wiki (you cant edit things in the wiki without a GM :/ ).
Also pls pls PLS new members do post your questions here, if you got some. It`s already hard for me to remember where the difficulty was at the very beginning! There were so many questions and im sure i wont remember them all for writing down in the first post.
Pls take into consideration, that this guide is written within patch 2.2 and just by me (a normal player). I may be wrong with things i write in here. Things also may change with further developement.
If you want to copy things out of here or take it up into a FAQ, just do it. Its allowed

Ok, so lets first talk about what this guide should have on info and what not:

It should be a FAQ-like thread about the differences between blizzards battle.net and the annihilus.com servers.
(you will see what i mean, when i post the first few things. Mostly will be gamechanges and questions about old stuff)

It should NOT be a gold FAQ or a "what character is best for pvp/pvm?" questions. Pls go in the right threads at the forums,
take a loot at the gold-FAQ or simply take a look into our wiki.
Wiki: http://annihilus.net/wiki_index.php
Character and guides on the forum: http://annihilus.net/forumdisplay.php?f=49
gold-FAQ: http://annihilus.net/content.php?r=131-FAQ


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Ok lets Start the guide right now:

1. - Question: How to create a account? / How to start playing?
Answer: First, you need an account on the annihilus.net homepage (this site). You can find the register function on the top right corner.
The second thing you need now is a ingame-account. Therefor just start your game via the annihilusclient. Then click on "Annihilus.net 2.2".
The loginscreen appears and you just click on "create new account". Give it a name and an e-mail adress.
Now you can connect the ingameaccount to your annihilus.net account, so you will get your golds for subscriptions etc. Go to annihilus.net, login to your annihilus.net account
and hit "Settings" on the top right corner. On the left side you will find a line called "Edit profile". At the very top you can type in your ingameaccount now.
Click on "Save changes" bottom left. Finish.

2. - Question: Can i play this mod offline?
Answer: No, since you need an internetconnection to get your annihilusclient startet. Also you wont be able to obtain gold on singleplayermode.
Maybe theres a way to start the game via game.exe out of your D2 mod folder. But i don`t know how to and i also wouldnt recommend it. The endgamecontent is mostly not doable solo.

3. - Question: What if i want to get more than 8 characters? Can i have a second ingame-account added to my annihilus account?
Answer: On annihilus, you can create more than 8 characters. Simply click on create, type a charname and you will get a scrolldown bar in your account. If your mousewheel doesnt slide that bar up and
down, just use your keyboard. A second account isnt needed, since of infinite characters and also you shouldnt be able to register two ingameaccounts with one annihilus.net-account!

4. - Question: If i kill baal at nightmare difficulty, will i still be able to see nightmare games in the game-list?
Answer: Yes! You will be able to see every open game, even if you are already in hell difficulty! On the Annihilus.com website you can further see every open game even if they have a password set.

5. - Question: Do old runewords and cube-recipes still work?
Answer: Yes, all old runewords and cube-recipes still work. Also most of the old uniq`s are out there but most of them have increased stats!

6. - Question: Can i play fullscreen without the annoying distortion? / My mouse is always running out of the windowed mode diablo...
Answer: I personally havent found a way, to play fullscreen without distortion. I just play on windowed mode. Theres a way to lock your cursor in that diablo 2 window by pressing "Alt + F1".
You will get a notice in your chatbox, either "Locked" or "Unlocked".

7. - Question: Who is those vendor "Hadriel" in act 1? What is the stuff that he trades for gold?
Answer: Theres a page about Hadriel on the "Characters and Guides" site in the wiki.

8. - Question: How much does stuff cost? Is there a guide or a pricelist out there?
Answer: This is difficult to say since prices change with every patch, ladderreset or just over time. To get you a little more information about this i would say that its not a good idea of buying runes or
gems via Hadriel. Better offer dice, dyes or effect stones to other players and get your (high-)runes this way. Highrunes will drop more often since you will level up faster/higher, the game's
difficulty+dropchance is increased and also because your killspeed will be much higher than on blizzards battle.net. Zod runes are worst favorite runes, due to their "high" dropchance (in hellcows
for example). You can follow a thread on the forum, where there is discussed about prices: http://annihilus.net/showthread.php?t=8200

9. - Question: Is the game more difficult or am i just rusted?!
Answer: You are right! The game`s difficult has been increased because the higher reworked uniqs/endgamegears would make normal hellmode just ridicoulus unchallenging.
The game is more challenging even in normal mode. You will find yourself stuck sometimes maybe, but then just go and do magic find runs and get better gears.
Since the uniqs are reworked and really strong even in lowlevel regions, it shouldnt be big problem to get it done.

10. - Question: I found someone that wanted me to rush, but i dont know what he meant with "observe"?
Answer: Pls read the beginners guide in the wiki to get further information:
http://annihilus.net/wiki_index.php?...nd-leveling-up


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Okay, thats it for now. I just dont remember any more of my questions i once had. Pls dont spam this thread. Keep it short for the new guys. Use your space for correction of the guide (if i made mistakes ofc) or for additional information. Also add questions and maybe answers of questions you have or once had.

~regards, Lucid

[Gordovan]

Ok here is a question that bugged me a while,

I've tried rl'yeh and dreamlands but I can't beat azothoth or dreamland bosses (except for sss'aa) is pure strength required or do I need to perform some trick? or do I need to trick the game ?

[Research]

Ok here is a question that bugged me a while,

I've tried rl'yeh and dreamlands but I can't beat azothoth or dreamland bosses (except for sss'aa) is pure strength required or do I need to perform some trick? or do I need to trick the game ?

life tap and crushing blow

[Lucid]

Ok here is a question that bugged me a while,

I've tried rl'yeh and dreamlands but I can't beat azothoth or dreamland bosses (except for sss'aa) is pure strength required or do I need to perform some trick? or do I need to trick the game ?

Heh, yes that is mindblowing at the start. Ive had my bowzon when i was at that point. I then built up my javazon and later a smiter. Now i am able to do the whole game solo (but i am still dying while making
mappo no ryujin!)
First thing you will need is defense. So you live long enough to deal damage. As Javazon thats pretty easy. Wear arkaines valor, stat most of your points to vita, skill dogde avoid and evade and go for maxblock.
Remember not to "run" but to "walk" when you are in dreamlands. While running, your blockchance is max. only 25%.
As second you will need a lot of damage. If youre going with a javazon, theres charged strike which deals a lot and you should buff this skill up by having alot +all, +ama, +java skills and a lot of -%enemy light ress
on your gears. Bo yourself (either join with barb, bo, then leave or with CTA on switch) also prebuff burst of speed! Fastest ias-breakpoint is a huge damage bonus!
Watch for your resists be high enough and have some absorb.

For Othuyeg you may need 90-95 lightres and have some absorb (easy to reach with a Thundergod belt). Othuyeg will be lightimmune forever. Kill him with smiter is the easiest way.

For Kaluut you may need some poison and fireres + absorb. Watch out, he has something like thorns. You will kill yourself with too much melee damage.

For Ssshaaa there a bowzon works wonders. You will be able killing him while he cant even see you. (theres a guide in the wiki for a lowcost bowzon). But you already beat this mob so no needed

For Mappo no Ryujin: well... i normally die 2-3 times when doing him. You will need to pierce his lightning immunity bei either having purifying gloves or malevolent runeword (while javazon playing).
This damn mob seems to do huge amount of magic damage, which you cant absorb or have resis for. Best item i found was "string of ears" with "magic resist +10%". Still dying alot...
Finally this mob is absolutely overpowered, if he has multi shot as elite affix. Then he will shoot 3 of those red lightning nova :´D i just leave the game then.

i hope this helps you a little bit. Just try to get some more gears and come back to dreamlands later. The same thing it is with azatoth. You just need vit, avoid and a huge amount of damage.You need
to kill the mob before your avoid/evade/dogde skill fails.

If you need further info, maybe post with what character your going to make dreamlands and ryleh. I personally can just help you with java, smiter and bowzon. And there not very well. LIke i said: im still
dying alot fighting against mappo. Someone have tips therefor?

~regards

[Lampogriz]

Full facetted tal sorc + 4golem necro kills mappo in 10-20 seconds.
For other bosses - smiter
Best smiter gear i posted somewhere in this section.

[Lucid]

@Lampo or any other who knows well about sorc or golem nec.

what specs / items get a talsorc or a necro to kill mappo that fast? Im very interested!

Talsorc: i guess a lightning nova sorc? Since i havent found out how to pierce fire/cold/phys. immunity of mappo.

and to the nec: What golem could do dmg to mappo? amp + iron golem or what? I know shrieking lich, which allows to have more golems activ. But i have absolutely no idea how this can work? Could you give little more info, how this builds work ? would be nice!

~regards

[Lampogriz]

Lucid,
Yeah sorc using lightning. full tal set + ganesh, wisps rings, purufying gloves.
Necro iwth clay golems, 30+k life must.

I use sorc with cow set for more mf, 76k lighting and 55+k life golems necro, but tals also works well.
Necro skills: all to golems, 1 pt lower resist. All items with +skill as much as possible

[Lucid]

thanks for you answer! Good to know. I still need a character for MF- or bossruns. Lightning sorc sounds pretty good.

for nec i think those gola un ghost wand and shrieking lich are at a pretty high price. maybe ill do one of those later on my career :P

regards

[herballyfe]

Question #6 If you uncheck full screen mode on the launcher, load the game, join a game, go in to option, extra options and then enable full screen. Works with 800x600, with higher resolution has slight spaces in between the blocks.