I used to play DII classic religiously. I spent hours and hours in the trade channel, turning PSkulls into SoJs to turn into some godly dupe to trade for more SoJs to trade for more godlies. I ended up have a fully outfitted PvP sorc, a fully outfitted BvB barb, a fully outfitted Lance Bard, a fully outfitted dexazon, and a mostly outfitted PvE Necro (that is to say, with all their ideal gear, where classic goes). At the time I stopped playing and let all my accounts get cancelled, I probably had a couple hundred dollars worth of eBayable garbage. Shame I don't believe in selling intangible stuff over eBay.
However, none of that stuff mattered to me. What did matter were my low level duelists. I had a level 12 Amazon who was the best duelist within 10 levels of her on USEast. A lofty claim to make, but until 1.10 came around, it was every bit true. If you'd like to see the build, i remember it so well. I'll gladly share it with you, so if you ever wanted to you could use an editor and an older version of DII (classic) to put it together.
Level 12 Zon "Xalon"
All Skill quests in all Difficulties done
Skill points maxed in Lightning Bolt, Crit, Peirce, dodge, a few in other things, mostly prereqs
Head: Prepatch Wormskull
Neck: Prepatch Eye of Etlich
Hand: Superior Throwing Spear/Javelin (whichever one had the right level req)
Hand: Luminous Disk (I think, some low level shield with awesome stats)
Chest: Prepatch Twitchthroe
Finger: SoJ
Finger: SoJ
Belt: Death's Wrap
Gloves: Death's Gloves
With all her gear, she had about 20%ish life leech, enough mana to kill most folks and keep going (though I farmed her mana pots in hell on one of my higher level sorts) huge faster hit recovery, huge block chance, huge increased attack speed. The strategy was to just keep using lightning bolt. even the (at the time) legendary A_Levelnine couldn't beat her with any measure of consistency. People who made their buisness in the low level duels trade put value in that ear. Of course, when 1.10 came out they made Lightning Bolt 100% elemental damage, and it ceased to benefit from lifeleech, and it lost it's stun. At that point I put Xalon to bed, and put all my faith in my pally.
He was amazing, too, but I don't remember all the stuff he had (some of it was really amazing rare items). He had a prepatch bone snap, and maxed out might/charge, and was able to do 1000+ damage on a charge at level 15. It's a shame charge was so buggy and prone to not work when slowed, or he might have been even better than Xalon (albiet 3 levels higher).
Well, I've prattled on about my glory days enough. Have fun with your DIIing; never again for me.
