IMPORTANT: Diablo III has not come out yet so, for now, we have no tips on building any characters for Diablo III.  Here is a list of how to build a godly character for (non-expansion) Diablo II characters. We know it's outdated. We mainly want to keep it up for nostalgic purposes. Enjoy: 

Barb Building: (Scroll down for other characters) 



Gear:


Barbs are tricky. There are so many different ways to build them, not to mention that there are so many combinations of gear that they can use. I will tell you from my experience what seems to work the best. For Barb vs. Barb, Hailstone Jack or Dire Flange Ornates should be the only two Ornates you wear. Which is better? It's up to you. I prefer Hailstone for the extra defense. There are about 100 combinations you can use for Barb vs. Barb. For Barb vs. Barb, sword/shield barbs are definitely the best. 



1- Helm/Gloves/Shield - Sigons is a must if you ask me. The 10% life leech is invaluable, not to mention the +600 or more to AR you get from the helm. I use Sigon's helm, and gloves with Armageddon Wing Pavise (Amethyst) because you get more defense from that. Some prefer +1 from Sigon's shield and use Godly gloves with Sigon's helm and shield. Either way you must use 2 Sigon items together to get the leech. You could also use Sigon's shield with the gloves and get a Godly Helm. That is a good bet as well but you lose 600+ AR from the Helm. But you gain alot of defense from a 200+ helm (Cruel Casque?)

2- Boots/Belt - Use Hsarus boots and belt. The belt adds about 210 defense and the boots add 800+ AR (dependant upon Char lvl).



3- Rings/Ammy - Angelic ammy with Angelic rings adds 1,000+ AR per each ring. You will never miss a lancer with this much AR. The only time you will miss a SS barb is when his shield blocks your entire WW. You sacrafice alot of leech from this so I like to use 1 Angelic ring and 1 Havoc Spiral (The +14 dex from Raven Spirals is not needed since you have plenty of AR). 



If you prefer to stick with HIGH defense and Lower AR you should socket your Ornate with a Diamond (+100 AR) and your sword with an Amethyst (+150 AR). If you use these set combinations you do not need the extra AR so I would put a Ruby into the Ornate and a Skull into the Sword (You need as much leech as possible).



Stats: 



There are 2 ways to build a Barb's stats. You can either pump up your Dex and Str until the base Dex and str reach the requirements needed for your items (usually 170 str, 110 dex). -OR- You can leave your stat points unused until you are at a high enough level to equip all of your gear ... then make up the difference. For example, my new barb (This is a Zon/Sorc Killer) will use 2 Raven Spirals (+28 dex), Shadow Necklace (+18 Dex, +18 Str), Imp Shank Boots (+18 Str) and Havoc Visage (+14 Dex). I need 88 Dex and 110 Str to use my Lance. As of now I have not added anything to Str or Dex, with all those items equipped I will have a total of 78 Dex, and around 66 Str without having touched my Stats!! So I only need to add 10 dex and another 44 Str to reach the REQs for my items. I can then use the rest to add into vit.



Zon/Sorc Killing Barbs - Use the second method to build these characters. These Barbs should have ALOT of life, ALOT of resistances, a very fast run/walk and a very fast hit recovery. Pump 8-12 points into faster run/walk and wear 30% faster R/W boots. Imp shanks would work best because of the HR. One way to do them is to use Havoc Visage for the added life and 20% HR, Blinkbat, death's sash and gloves. Those three give you: +15 All Res., cannot be frozen, 40% faster HR, 10% faster R/W, fire dmge, and a +2 Barb ammy. Raven Spirals should be used for the Dex and resistances (and leech) and any +2 Barb ammy will do (I prefer Shadow Necklace) but Collar would work well also because of the resistances. The other way to do it is to use Iratha's helm, gloves, ammy and belt with Hawkmail instead. You lose alot of HR with this but you gain mad resistances. This will put your res. at like 80, 90, 85, 95. It also adds 20% faster R/W. Or you can lose the belt, use death's sash and keep Blinkbat (you need cannot be frozen) and have average resistances.


BO should be maxed, iron skin is not necessary. Neither is shout. WW and mastery should be maxed as well. 



Skills: For SS Barb vs. Barb Barbs: Max: WW, Mastery, Iron Skin, and then it's up to you how you want to do shout and BO. I prefer to add 2 points of BO for every 1 point of shout but that's just me. My 86 Barb has max BO and lvl 12 (or so) shout and everything else maxed. 
So there you have it.

That's how you make Barbs.


Amazons are pretty simple. I won't try to explain Javazons because I don't know the first thing about them. I don't think they are very difficult though.



Gear:



Helm: For PK, Havoc Visage, Cruel Casque or Beast Visor are the best. I strongly recommend Havoc Visage. Cruel Casque and Beast are essentially the same (other than defense, but who cares?). The primary difference between Beast/Casque and Visage is that Visage has 20% faster HR, and way more resistances. The other 2 have +2 min. dmge. To me it sounds very obvious what is better here. Yet most people prefer (for some reason I do not know) Beast. For Sorc PKing, Visage is the obvious choice. For Zon Pking ... the extra 20% HR makes a huge difference in my opinion. The faster you recover from the other Zons hits, the more arrows you are pumping back at them per second. I have found myself many times murdering people at close quarters (in your face) Zon dueling because my arrows are hitting them faster than they can recover from the hits. You can use a ruby or an emerald for the helm.    

Boots: Imp Shanks are the best but Hailstone treads are nice too. They have more Cold res. but no HR. 



Gloves and Belt: Death's. That's it. 



Bow: Duh. Ghoul Stinger for PK, Carrion for cows. Use a saphire in the Carrion and in my opinion, a ruby in the ghoul. Fire damage slows down the target's hit recovery. 



Rings/Ammy: There are several ammys you can use. The most popular (and the one I prefer) is Storm Scarab. Again, I'm a freak about resistances, I hate getting killed by the weather. There is also a very rare Zon ammy which is +2 and adds +9 min dmge. That would own but do you have one? Nope. Can you get one? Good luck. As far as rings go, I prefer Ravens for the resistances and for the + to dex. If you have +9 min, dmge rings with 6% leech those work real well also. But I for one prefer the extra res. Another nice ring is Bitter Hold. It has 6% life leech and dual stat. It has high cold res. which comes in very handy for Sorc dueling. The +12 str will help you reach str reqs for your items sooner so you can use those points to put into dex or vit. Your total Strength should be 76 (for Carrion) WITH YOUR ITEMS ON. Wait until you reach the level requirements for all your gear then equip it. Then pump your str up high enough to reach 76 for Carrion. Any questions? 



Stats: A few ways to build a zon. Pure life Zons are generally pretty dominant in PK. They don't die very often but when it comes to suprise attack they suck because they're damage is very low. People will find it very difficult to kill you and/or sneak you with a life Zon. Basically you put your base stats high enough to meet requirements for your items than pump everything into life. These are the best for fighting sorc's. Another way is to get your life up to a certain amount and then put the rest into dex. This will give you more damage but you will die more often and more easily. It's all up to you. I've found that the most dominant in PK are Zons with about 1000-1200 life and then pump the rest into dex. As long as you don't waste any points into str (Hint: By using your items to meet str reqs) you should be able to pump alot into dex even after reaching 1100 life. Make sure you are doing the Act 3 quests (+20 life and +5 stats) they help.



Skills: Guided, critical, pierce, and avoid are all very important. My Zon has about 18-20 in those (Guided is maxed). The last 4-6 points you put into those skills only add 2% so in my opinion that's a total waste. Other skills should go into valk for PKing (I've seen it happen 1 too many times where 2 Zons are PKing and one of them lose because they're valk died and stopped taking the arrows). And then Evade is a helpful skill to have because you can run and dodge arrows at the same time. I wouldn't touch multi because it's better to have those skills into your PK skills but it's all up to you.



As far as PKing goes. With a lvl 10 Valk and a lvl 10 Evade you can cast your Valk (between you and enemy) about 4-7 feet away then walk up toward your enemy until you are right behind valk. His arrows will guide to your valk while your arrows tear him up. It works like a charm. 



That's how you build Zons.

Sorc Building: 



This is the trickiest of all. I am not going to cover even half of the ways to build a sorc. I will simply say that it's all about the stats.



Gear: Use 1 SOJ, and a godly fast cast ring or 2 SOJ's. The SOJ's add alot of mana which helps alot in PK especially with a level 10 or so energy shield. Imp shanks are the best. Frostburns are the best. Wraith Collar ammy is the best. Havoc Visage is the best (Ruby). Get a Godly Mage plate (preferably Bone Coat or Brimstone Shroud). If you can't find a Viper Cord, Bladebuckle should be used because it has 30% faster HR. Viper Cord is the best but it is quite rare. A godly sorc shield (Blood Mark). And of course, shard.



Stats: Use your gear to meet the requirements you need. The rest should be poured into life and mana. I like to have a little more mana than life because you are taking more than 50% of your damage to your mana. Some people disagree with that. Some people prefer more life than mana which is find but you will find yourself running out of mana alot. You should have no more than 70 dex and 70 str after you put your items on. 


Skills: One way to build them for PK is to max lightning mastery, max thunder storm, put about 10 into cold mastery, max orb, about 10 energy shield. Some people prefer to only put 1 point into TS and then put more into cold mastery. This is effective as well especially if you are good with tele and orb.


For Cow: Static owns cow levels. You need something else so that you can finish them off because static won't kill a cow. Meteor is good but it takes some practice to get used to. Orb is also very good when combining with static. Cow Sorc's in my opinion are the best cow characters in the game.



That's how you build a Sorc.

There are a million and one ways. Pallys are used for many things. In PK they are most useful standing next to a Zon with fanatacism. If you want to PK independently, use conviction with FOH (fist of the heavens). Once the green aura is under the enemy, this is a powerful weapon. It's good for killing barbs but difficult when fighting Zons and Sorc's because you have to get close enough for the Aura to take effect. For pallys I like to use SOJ's and other skill adding items. 



That's pretty much it for Pally's

Great cowers. For cow levels you want to max corpse explosion, iron maiden and put 1 point into blood golem. Use blood golem for cows. When you cast iron maiden on the cows, then they hit your blood golem, the blood golem leeches life from them, and since you share life with blood golems, your life fills up as well. Wait for one to die then corpse explode your little ass off. ;)


For PK, the only thing you can really kill is Barbs. Cast Iron Maiden on them and then try to put a bone wall in front of their WW. Keep in mind that when you do this, you take away experience from a barb so don't do it to your friends. LOL. You can also cast fire golem and hope they hit it. The only other thing you can do with necros is cast curses on people and irritate the hell out of them. LOL.


There is not really any godly necro gear that's popular, other than good wands. The gear is not extremely important, mostly just what you prefer.

 

That's how you build a Necro.