What are the most controller-friendly builds for each class?

[mrmivo]

I started the platinum journey yesterday, so I haven't done or seen much yet. D3 and D4 (beta) worked really well with a controller, but D2 wasn't originally designed with controllers in mind and not every build seems equally suitable for controller. I googled a bit, but I've gotten mixed results (for example, some saying hydra/FO sorc is great with controller, others saying that it's suboptimal because you can't play hydras in specific places, etc). I'll need to get each class through hell and one character to 99, and I'm trying to plan this out a bit. I'm particularly unsure which class/build to try and get to 99. (I'm playing offline on PS5, so can't trade for stuff, but would ideally like to be able to do p6-p8 solo eventually.) I figure asking here will get me the best answers as many of you play the game only on console.

 

In your experience, which builds (per class) would you say are the most suitable for playing with a controller?

[Property_Damage]

The game was made with a controller in mind or i should say the main focus with the devs was that consoles was the priority so its well optimized for controllers for any build

 

i see you plan on going the offline single player route, this is smart as you can back up your saves for extra insurance and there’s duplication exploits, you should see other topics related to this game about the duplication glitch, they still work at the time of writing this, i tried to do my best to give a detailed step by step of how to dupe on ps5, maybe give it a look over if you havent already

 

This might seem like its all over the place but i will lend my advice

 

Start off by only playing hardcore, you will collect other character class related items along the way to 99 that youll wanna use for your other characters that youll still need to make and play through the game with so this is the only logical route in my opinion 

 

your 99 character should be a paladin as they can solo the entire game on max players 8 difficulty if min / maxed accordingly, your end games build’s focus should be a hammerdin but start off with a holy fire build, this will take you just about all the way through nightmare mode with minimal gear where youll respec into hammers

 

A general idea would be to know what gear youll need or strive for going into this journey

maybe watch mrllamasc on youtube and study a hammerdin build guide if you arent sure what you need prior, and also a smiter build as i would recommend respec’ing into smite and doing uber trist runs for character torches along the way late game

 

Collect everything and i mean just about everything

all sorts of shity gems and low end runes, dupe them to the high heavens and craft them up, i did this and i literally had multiples of every single rune in the game from El to Zod in normal difficulty, i made an enigma long before i was able to use it or even be able to find said runes

 

Collect everything because there is no trading for you

from chipped gems to flawless

crappy el runes and up

 

learn the recipes inorder to craft runes up to the next higher ranked rune

 

learn the recipes to put random sockets into runeword bases so you dont have to burn an act5 larzuk socket quest because you cant get rushed to act5 in offline single player so socket quests are scarce

 

make mules to hold all this random crap you collect

 

collect sigons set as all characters can utilize it early game even though it doesnt seem to be beneficial for a sorc to be wearing it early game but it offers some very good bonuses as as complete set, pair this with 2 angelic rings and angelic amulet and youre basically just a tank in normal

 

collect all 4 of the bossess essences so you can make respec tokens and dupe those so you can respec unlimited

 

collect hell diablo small charms, grand charms and jewels and reroll them in the cube with 3 perfect gems for a ‘chance’ at a godly roll

learn about all the cube recipes, least the important ones

 

collect keys of hatred, terror and destruction

farm an organ set, now dupe that organ set a ton for more chances at better torches

 

farm for SoJ, dupe that and farm uber diablo for an anni sc

 

literally dupe everything  because well you can and then you can spread that out onto your other characters, alot of characters share similar gear, youre probably gona make 4 or 5 different caster based characters so youll make and dupe a HoTo several times, spirit shields, enigmas, etc. think of it like a game of chess and always be thinking ahead, always be thinking of the next respec, always be thinking of your next character and what can you collect or make or craft to help in the long run

 

know what early game runewords youre gona need or want like Lore, Malice, Steel, Stealth, Insight, etc

dont just think about end game, mid game is also pretty important, you dont wanna get to nightmare and be completely stuck, or hell and be in the same scenario

make sure to collect things like skin of the vipermagi and other mid level items to help you through the mid game

 

as far as characters, i made a:

javazon 

trapsin

Summon necro

summon druid and respeced to elemental

holy fire paladin to hammers to smite back to hammers

lightning sorc

and a singer barb

[mrmivo]

Thanks for the extensive response and all the tips! I really appreciate that you took the time to answer so thoroughly!

 

I played D2 for a few years when it was originally released, so a lot of it is still very familiar, though they also seem to have made quite a few changes and added new content too. I'm playing offline so I can control the save games, and while it does feel a little cheesy to me, the level 99 journey is challenging enough for me to not want to have to start over. So far I haven't died, but I'll definitely reload from the cloud save if and when that happens (in the original game my highest HC character was 92, a trapsin, but that was lucky). I probably won't dupe anything, though I totally understand why people do and the advantages it offers. I'm probably handicapping myself that way since I also can't trade, but I'll see how it goes!

 

I was afraid someone would say hammerdin is the best choice for the level 99 trophy. I never quite liked the playstyle and I think I still don't. I only just got to act 2 with my paladin, though, so it's too early to say. But just in case I can't warm up to it, what would you say is the #2 most suited class/build for getting to 99 in HC and that can solo most of the content?

 

So far I only took a necromancer (summoner), a druid (summoner) and the paladin to level 18-20, just to re-familiarize myself a little with the game. The druid certainly is the smoothest so far, but I'm in the dark about the end game viability (p8). Low level experiences aren't very representative of end game viability. 

[Property_Damage]

its still down to the core meta builds
 

Next option would be a lightning sorc with an infinity merc with or without a lightning sunder grandcharm (goodluck there if you dont plan on duping) you need ber mal ber ist runes for infinity

 

javazon with an infinity merc but she will be slightly slower as shes on foot

 

then maybe a blizz sorc But everybody else after that is weak as shit in comparison and can barely solo past players 3 difficulty and will still require a ton of gear from runewords and high end uniques

[YellowFever-AU]

T

 

any character where you need to place something the controller is inferior. Like corpse explosion and curses.

 

Of course it’s definitely playable but it’s suboptimal and borderline frustrating *glares at corpse explosion*
 

good controller builds are as follows:

 

summon druid

feral druid

Elemental Druid (volcano and tornadoes sucks on controller)

 

Paladin (all builds) with hammerdin being the “hardest” on controller due to placement but still godlike and fun

 

All barbarian builds but avoid leap and find item, potion builds. Suboptimal on a controller as you can’t target individual corpses and you waste time finding item on rubbish mobs

Trapsin is ok but suboptimal because you can’t place traps anywhere you want

necro poison is gold

bone is okay but trying to do walls/prisons is clunky

summon as above is fine but corpse explosion and curses are clunky to use

 

sorcs are all fine. Nova id argue is more fun on controller but you have less control of where you teleport.

 

blizzard is ok but you can’t place where you like and casting it for mobs to run into is impossible so I’d consider it inferior to PC.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 16, 2023 by YellowFever-AU

[mrmivo]

I've been playing for a bit now and taken a few classes to around 30-35: summoner necromancer, summoner druid, a hammerdin and a javazon. The javazon feels really good with the controller, no real downsides. The triggers work great for throwing the javelins, and it feels very intuitive. I think this will be the first character I'll get one of the  "finish game in hell difficulty with class X" trophy for. She should be able to farm Mephisto in nightmare, too, to get some gear for the other characters. Farming bosses with necro and druid is a little slow because I have to re-summon the minions whenever I create a new game (this was really nice in the D4 beta: you log back in with the summons you had when you logged out). Still not enjoying hammerdin, but I'll get used to it eventually!

 

I'm getting the hang of playing the game with the controller. Feels much better than it did when I started out. There are some nice shortcuts and it's just muscle memory. Today I discovered the "pick up loot and put it into cube" command that I hadn't seen before. They did put some thought into adapting the game to a gamepad.