How to Start on Offline Single Player or a Holy Grail, The Easy Way Diablo 2 Resurrected

teh1tronner: I definitely recommend a muling program for inventory management. It keeps your character list clean and allows you to check what items you have without needing to boot up the game.
bishop5116: Awesome video Phil, currently working on my own grail. It's been on and off for about 2 years now and the biggest thing that keeps me going is just taking breaks when I need. Part of what's wonderful about this game and keeps me coming back is how consistently fun the game is. Especially offline, there's no point burning yourself out when you're not racing anyone. Take your time, chill, and if you find yourself getting burnt out, take a break until you're excited to play the game again.

Thanks for all the awesome content over the years, makes farming LK bearable! You're the best D2 content creator around.
mmocracy: I've been an offliner since the early days of D2 and the SPF. It's fun and rewarding starting over, and I've done it differently each time. My most recent run on D2R went Blizz sorc then hammerdin after I LK'd an enigma. Now I have the gear to start just about any character I want.
mathewbollington9569: I'm not sure you're giving good advice here since the introduction of Terror Zones.

If you complete the game as Cold Sorc then you'll be able to open up the TZs and farming the TZs for the relevant Sunder charm has to be way more efficient and enjoyable than grinding Lower Kurast for the high runes need for Infinity?

In fact I'd say to any beginner starting out, forget all the high stuff because that comes later. Sometime months later. Get good on characters with basic and junk items.

Anyway, even without a Cold Sunder, Frozen Orb/Hydra is a workable build early on. Just have to remember that the Sorc in Hell can be really soft.

Stealth, Spirit, Lore and Insight are all early targets.
Peasant Crown socketed with a Topaz is a cheap alternative to Shako.
You can roll for a Prismatic amulet if an all res doesn't drop.
Any items that will help increase your mana pool early on is good. Sapphires in the helm for example. 10FCR rings with mana. Mana charms.
I always bring my spell casters up to a base DEX of 35 so they'll be able to wield HOTO on a flail. A small sacrifice that can avoid a respec.
Again for spell casters, base STR up to 165 which would cover requirements for dusk shrouds, Archon plates, but mostly the Spirit Monarch. Except for Hammerdins who can use a 4os class shield instead. Non-spell casters go up to STR 105.
A 3os bow with emeralds is useful in Normal Diablo fight. You can keep him at range and eventually whittle him down. Also useful for a sorc early on when low on mana. Use a combo of casts and shooting until the mana pool can be grown and replenished with greater mana pots.
Early farming targets could be Blood Raven (to get merc prior to lvl 8), Coldcrow, Bishbosh, Rakinishu and Countess. Or it might be better to push.
Gambling can be a thing early on too.

I always stash/mule early items for twinking new characters. Good targets to keep are:
1-2 cold damage charm for the melee builds
Mana charms.
Low level set items - Hsarus, Deaths Guard belt/gloves, Arctic, set etc
Sigons for early melee builds is great.
Plus AR rings, in lvl 0, lvl 3, lvl 6, lvl 9 and lvl 12 tiers. After that eventually you get Angelic amu/ring combo.
An assortment of items that bear resistances. Lightning and fire are priorities.
Wands and Sorc Orbs that could have useful skills, otherwise good to sell.
Small charms with resistance.
Any large charms from Act3 NM onwards are good for re-rolling and going for plus skill charms. That's why you hoard and cube normal and flawless gems and skulls.

Large charms can be good for high values, but 2 space charms are probably not worth keeping most of the time.
I don't worry about a 4os polearm dropping. Either I gather the items for rolling in the cube or one drops in Hell. Fallen camps in Act 1, especially on TZ, and no MF seem to be as good a way as any to farm for these.

Finally in single player it is possible to lvl quickly early on in players 8. It doesn't seem to be much harder. Nightmare Terror Zones on players 8 is a really good way to earn experience quickly, especially in the early acts. Those TZs will also drop all manner of useful items.
ziljin: I am just playing for fun. I have a bunch of characters from level 1 to 14 lol. I find some nice gear and build a new character to use it. I also use the shared stash to just share the best gear every character can use. It's fun to compare the different builds even if I only play them until level 6 lol
zfeazcesd1047: One thing I'd recommend for new players on their sorceress is not to switch immediately into blizzard at level 24 or whatever that level is and instead wait a few levels so you have more points to spend...maybe level ~30 or so. I've heard a lot of people say it was kind of a bad experience switching immediately.
frohairic: Also watched a video from sir fox w new simulations showing different player counts in LK are better than P7 (specifically P5). Sir fox cited another player, but their research looked well written
vasheroo: LK runs hurt my soul. But isn't there a whole strategy to farm armor and weapon racks where in single player you can ensure they stay in the same spot, and so if you approach them the same way they will always drop the same item?
ChrisVickeryinajar: Your LK numbers are pessimistic at best (assuming double campfire), it's only once in every 192.4 runs for a Pul and 455 for Gul ... I also think it's super super worth mentioning how armor stands / weapon racks are fixed in LK. For example, I rolled a Greater Talon map and got 2 different 3PS claws before I got both Guls to make the mosaics out of them.
frohairic: Super appreciate the thoughts on Enigma vs. Infinity. I have this very decision on my hands and I have been anguishing over it w two Ber runes and two handful of mid runes. I was leaning enigma, and this felt like timely reassurance