The Top 3 Classes for Solo Players in Diablo 2 Resurrected

As a hardcore Diablo 2 player myself, I‘ve analyzed each class extensively to determine the best solo classes for beginners in Resurrected. Based on playstyle, damage, survivability, and flexibility, here are my top 3 picks:

1. Necromancer
2. Paladin
3. Sorceress

Let‘s dive into each one in-depth to see why I recommend them for new solo players.

#1 Necromancer – King of Solo Survival

The Necromancer is hands-down the best class for playing solo in Diablo 2 Resurrected. With an army of undead minions absorbing enemy damage, you‘ll crush through hordes while staying safe.

Popular builds like Summonmancer, Poisonmancer, and Bonemancer provide insane crowd control and damage output. Your skeleton warriors and mages will overwhelm enemies with a flood of bones and poison explosions.

Revives let you convert fallen uniques into powerful allies. Curses like Amplify Damage cause foes to take significantly more damage from you and your minions.

While the Necromancer lacks burst damage himself, his minions turn him into a beast for solo farming. I easily recommend him as the top solo class for beginners.

Why Choose Necromancer?

Survivability

• Minions soak up damage while you stay at range
• Huge life pool with +skills boosting base Vitality
• Life tapping converts HP to Mana for sustainability

Crowd Control

• Summoned minions surround and distract enemies
• Curses debilitate groups of foes
• Corpse Explosion decimates clumped up enemies

Flexibility

• Multiple powerful build options like Summoner, Poison, and Bone
• Works well with a huge variety of gear, especially +skills items

Leveling Up Solo

While leveling, max out Raise Skeleton, Skeleton Mastery, and Corpse Explosion first. Use Clay Golem and points in Summon Resist for extra tanks. Amplify Damage is essential to boost your minions‘ damage.

Prioritize +skills on items to rapidly strengthen your skeleton and poison abilities. Shop wands and staves from vendors as you level up.

Once you reach Nightmare and Hell difficulties, Respect your skills and transition to a Summonmancer or Poisonmancer endgame build.

Top Items To Farm

These are excellent items to farm solo as a Necromancer while leveling up:

• Stealth Rune Word – 25% Faster Cast Rate and huge resistances
• Ancients‘ Pledge Rune Word – +50-70% resistances
• White Wand/Stave – Shop and roll +3 Summoning Skills from vendors
• Trang-Oul‘s Armor Set – Massive buffs to poison and bone spells
• Homunculus Unique Shield – Big life and mana boosts

Prioritize finding items with skills bonuses, resistances, faster cast rate, and vitality to become incredibly tanky.

#2 Paladin – A Powerhouse Of Offense and Defense

While not as inherently survivable as the Necromancer, the Paladin still dominates as a top-tier solo class thanks to his auras and holy magic attacks.

The Hammerdin build focused on Blessed Hammer makes the Paladin an absolute powerhouse. By investing in Concentration Aura, you gain massive damage and attack speed. Holy Shield ups your defense and resistances tremendously.

Zeal lets you quickly mow down any magic immunes. Fist of the Heavens adds excellent AoE clearing. And abilities like Holy Bolt and Blessed Aim give you ranged damage and mana sustain.

While the Paladin may seem complex to build, just maxing out Blessed Hammer + Concentration Aura is extremely effective for solo play. Add 1 point wonders in key auras and utilities, and you‘ll have a damage dealing tank.

Paladin Solo Leveling Guide

I recommend leveling as a Hammerdin for the best solo experience. Here are the key skills to focus on:

• Max Blessed Hammer, Concentration Aura ASAP
• 1 Point in Holy Shield, Vigor, Meditation early on
• Get an Act 2 Might mercenary and equip an Insight runeword polearm
• Max out Holy Shield once you have +skills gear
• Use Charge for mobility to find/farm items faster

Shop for scepters, maces, and shields with +skills. The runewords Spirit, Lore, and Insight create a powerful core of gear.

By late Nightmare/Hell, you‘ll melt through enemies with your overpowered Blessed Hammers!

Top Items To Find Solo

These items will take your Hammerdin to the next level:

• Hoto Rune Word – Massive +skills and resistances
• Enigma Rune Word – Teleport for mobility
• Shako Unique Helm – Big boosts to skills and defense
• Mara‘s Kaleidoscope Amulet – Large increase to all attributes

Focus on boosting Hammer damage, resistances, faster cast rate, and vitality first when gearing up. The Paladin excels at solo play once you acquire key items.

#3 Sorceress – Raining Destruction

While squishier than the Necromancer and Paladin, the Sorceress makes up for it with immense AoE damage potential, teleport mobility, and powerful crowd control spells.

As a solo player, I lean towards Blizzard and Frozen Orb builds. Blizzard allows you to rain ice down off-screen, shattering groups before they even approach you. Frozen Orb wrecks clumped up enemies and provides chilling crowd control.

Teleport enables quickly darting around to find loot and escape hairy situations. Static Field helps chew through pesky magic immunes. Ice Blast and Frozen Armor give defensive bonuses.

The Sorceress requires a bit more skill to survive solo compared to the tanky Necromancer and Paladin. But her ability to swiftly obliterate packs of monsters makes her a top pick still.

Sorceress Leveling Guide

I recommend maxing out Frozen Orb + Cold Mastery first as they synergize into insane AoE damage. Static Field and Teleport are essential utilities to max out as well.

Shop for staves and scepters with +Cold skills to boost Frozen Orb‘s power. Prioritize faster cast rate, +skills, and resistances on gear. Ancients‘ Pledge and Spirit runewords are easy to craft while leveling.

Lore, Stealth, and Smoke runewords help boost resistances so you can survive in Hell difficulty. Focus on kiting and freezing enemies at distance with your cold spells.

Top Gear For Sorceress

These items will take your Sorceress to the next level:

• Occulus Unique Wand – Massive boost to cold skills/damage
• Tal Rasha‘s Set – Huge synergies with cold and fire skills
• Vipermagi Unique Armor – Faster cast rate and resistances
• Magefist Gloves – Fire skills and faster cast rate

With key gear boosting your Frozen Orb and resistances, the Sorceress dominates solo play by mercilessly freezing enemies at range.

Solo Class Comparison Chart

Here is a chart summarizing the key pros and cons of each top solo class:

Expert Tips for Solo Players

Based on my extensive Diablo 2 experience, here are my top expert tips for new players leveling up solo:

• Pick Necromancer or Hammerdin for easiest learning curve
• Stack resistances, Faster Cast Rate, +Skills on gear
• Shop vendors constantly for rare +skills weapons
• Use online trading sites to acquire key items faster
• Max out Vitality for life, Energy is nearly useless
• Hire an Act 2 Might mercenary for more damage
• Farm Nightmare Mephiso and Nightmare Andariel early on
• Stack Magic Find on swap gear to find uniques/sets faster

Following this guidance, you‘ll be well on your way to mastering solo play in Diablo 2 as a Necromancer, Paladin, or Sorceress. Let me know if you have any other questions – happy to help new players get started crushing solo!