GameBanshee Forums

Yeah, I'm a newbie.

Speaking of which, I'm stuck on the first level of the Arcane Sanctuary in Act II. I've traveled in all four directions from the waypoint, messed around with the Ghoul lords, goat dudes, and those bloody teleportation portals. I suppose I could do this over and over until I reach 23rd level (my Paladin is already 22nd level), but really, I'd rather move along to Tal Rasha's tomb. Am I missing something titantic here? I can't seem to find the way to the second level of the Sanctuary. Any help would be appreciated.

There is only one level, consisting of four arms just as you have seen. Each arm branch into two parallell ways, meeting again at the end of the branch. At the end of each of the four branches there is a platform - three of these platforms are small with some monsters and a couple of chests, but on the forth platform, which is a bit larger and easy to run pass, is the Summoner, the monster you must beat in order to get the red portal to Tal Rasha's Tomb. Hope that helps!

The XP you get is quite good. I haven't ever found any item that great in the Arcane Sanctuary, but IIRC, there was plenty of gold

Plenty of gold and a good place to find gems, it seems like

Yep, when you are broke and wants to gamble, Arcane Sanctuary is a good place to go However, I agree with Chanak that the teleport arm is absolutely horrible unless you are Sorc (and can teleport yourself) a Barb (who can leap attack) or an Ass (Dragon flight). I also find the Stairs arm very annoying....

The 7 Tombs of Tal Rasha is one of my favorite areas in the game, it is dangerous but rewarding. And Ancient Kaa the Soulless feels like family I will never forget when he spawned MSLE and Spectral hit...in addition to his constant Hell mods 100% Magic Resistant, Extra Stong and LE. It was about as easy as when Bremm spawn with MSLE and Conviction....but I sort of like that (as long as I'm not HC) because it's a good fight, whereas Nihl is not fun, it's too unfair to be fun.

@CE: Thanks for the advice. You won't believe it, but I ran the entire Sanctuary two times over since you posted - hitting every area - and still never encountered the Summoner. I wonder if I my install is suffering from a bug.

In the meantime, my paladin reached 23rd level. Zeal is actually a nice ability; I have 4 points in it right now and it comes in handy when facing a group of specters and Ghoul lords.

Chan, you should try Holy Smite

Thorns is quite cool as well...assign holy smite or zeal to your left click, and thorns to passive, and voila!

thorns is alright, but in the later levels I prefer not to be taking damage at all, regardless of the benefits. I've boosted that defense aura so that most enemies on act 4 have abou 10-15% chance of hitting, and I've got a 45% chance to block.

maybe a slight spoiler.....but nothing much


I'm playing through with a Paladin using Thorns right now.....I've reached like level 24 and have 13 or 14 in thorn and 9 in Zeal..... I'm just about looking for Heaphisto and the game is just getting hard........ I used more Full Rev potions in the area before the River of Flame (can't recall teh name) than what I did in all teh tree first chapters alone and the first two areas of chap 4

Originally posted by Chanak
@CE: Thanks for the advice. You won't believe it, but I ran the entire Sanctuary two times over since you posted - hitting every area - and still never encountered the Summoner. I wonder if I my install is suffering from a bug.

That sounds really strange...never heard of that bug before. Did you find a platform with a few chests at the end of each arm? Also, you get the quest-button in your left corner when you approach the Summoner (before you see him), that has not happened?

The worst thing is that you are stuck unless you find the Summoner, since there is no other way to Canyon of the Magi the first time you play. I hope you have found him by now, otherwise I can only recommend saving your charater files elsewhere and reinstall...

Originally posted by C Elegans
That sounds really strange...never heard of that bug before. Did you find a platform with a few chests at the end of each arm? Also, you get the quest-button in your left corner when you approach the Summoner (before you see him), that has not happened?

The worst thing is that you are stuck unless you find the Summoner, since there is no other way to Canyon of the Magi the first time you play. I hope you have found him by now, otherwise I can only recommend saving your charater files elsewhere and reinstall...

Update: I continued to wander around the Sanctuary repeatedly, exiting out when I had searched all of it each time. Suddenly, the Summoner popped up on my last run. I've since waxed Duriel and now I'm running around in the jungle of Act 3. LOL, those little creeps with the blowguns and chef's knives are reminiscent of a 1970's horror movie. That has not been lost on me.

Originally posted by Chanak
Update: I continued to wander around the Sanctuary repeatedly, exiting out when I had searched all of it each time. Suddenly, the Summoner popped up on my last run. I've since waxed Duriel and now I'm running around in the jungle of Act 3. LOL, those little creeps with the blowguns and chef's knives are reminiscent of a 1970's horror movie. That has not been lost on me.

IMO those small petty imps are the MOST annoying monsters in D2..... they just can't stand still...... the only thing that is really efefctive against them is Strife and ice orb...otherwise they just run away from you.....well have a fun chase....... they seem to be able to run forever......

Originally posted by Chanak
Update: I continued to wander around the Sanctuary repeatedly, exiting out when I had searched all of it each time. Suddenly, the Summoner popped up on my last run. I've since waxed Duriel and now I'm running around in the jungle of Act 3. LOL, those little creeps with the blowguns and chef's knives are reminiscent of a 1970's horror movie. That has not been lost on me.

LOL, you are right

Good you found him eventually! Personally I hate the jungle areas in Act 3, but the later areas are good.

@Garaz: I agree with you they are the most annoying monsters except if you are a Strafazon on Frozen Orb-Sorc...especially I hate the undead type that explodes when you hit them and cause a lot of damage.

Originally posted by C Elegans
@Garaz: I agree with you they are the most annoying monsters except if you are a Strafazon on Frozen Orb-Sorc...especially I hate the undead type that explodes when you hit them and cause a lot of damage.

which is why I usually just run through ActIII and when I get to act IV I'm greatly underpowered and get my @ss wooped big time..... looking through all teh areas in ActIII can really pay of later in the game but it requires ALOT of patience as they are huge and full of imps that run around your feet

@Rob-nark: I never played LoD so I can't tell about them.... sounds ennoying though.....

Originally posted by garazdawi
which is why I usually just run through ActIII and when I get to act IV I'm greatly underpowered and get my @ss wooped big time.....

That's what I do too in the jungle, (don't you just hate the Flayer Dungeon?) but thanks too all the XP you get in Kurast Bazaar and the following areas, it's ususally not too bad when you come to Act IV, depending on what class you play, how lucky you are with finding equipment...and how twinked you are, or course

You should really play LoD too, it really adds to the game, I couldn't imagine playing D2 without it now...and it's so cheap now since it's old.

@rob: You know, those little jungle dudes remind me of you in an odd sort of way. Hanging out near the trees, shooting at passers-by with blowguns...

LOL, I actually find the little creeps to be rather entertaining. The first time I hacked one of the shamans in two, a little dude with a chef knife jumped out of the shaman costume.

@CE: Speaking of the Amazon, I've run one through Act 1, and I rather like her. It looks like she'd be a good choice for Act 3. I've also started a barbarian and assassin character, though I haven't progressed very far with them yet. My goal is to try them all out before graduating to the Hell difficulty. So far, the amazon impresses me the most.

Yes, Diablo is rather inexpensive now. I bought the entire Diablo series in one box - the original, Diablo 2, and LoD - for about $30 US. Not a bad deal, and the original game brings back memories when I bought it new several years ago. Looking back, I can see just how much influence the original Diablo has had upon the games of the past 6 years. Dungeon Siege comes to mind.

I thought I would add my own newbie questions to this thread.

The first is where the **** is the Arcane Sanctuary? I presume I am missing something extremely obvious but I now have the Horadric Staff and nowhere to go.

Does anyone play with a merc? I got so very tired of paying to resurect Amplisa. I think I am going to leave her dead this time. I would have thought that a rogue armed with a bow would stand back and pick enemies off but no, she has to wade into the middle of every melee and die at the least opportunity. She had some really expensive armour too but she can stay dead this time.

Playing as a Paladin, I am really enjoying zeal. Unfortunately I put too many points into might very early on before I realised that augmented damage is really unnecesary in order to chop enemies into fishbait. Holy freeze is quite good too.

Is Wirt's leg required for anything in particular? I can't sell it but I would like to get rid of it to clear some space in my stash.