Best Solo Diablo 2 Class for the newb?

[Gobbawatt]

What's the best D2 solo class for someone that's new to the game? Paladin seems interesting,but not sure. Also, i have the expansion.

[Deleted]

assassin, and spec into traps. makes the game a cakewalk

[Herecius]

Assassin is a beast. Druid used to be (at high levels) but can't remember if they nerfed them or not.

[Improvedlol]

Smite pal or Hammerdin are the best 2

[Durandro]

For a newbie? Barbarian. Just ridiculous low level.

[Weiland]

For a newbie? Barbarian. Just ridiculous low level.

this right is what made me go prot warrior

[krunksmash]

necro just point into skel's and run with an army

[Viceversa]

fishymancer

[Yooya]

Smite pal or Hammerdin are the best 2

Who in gods name would suggest the two builds that require so much knowledge and investment, through money and trade, to a 'noob'? Hammers are just useless without at least some very basic +skill unique(s), such as a Peasant's Crown, and I personally would never bother making one unless I could make a perfect one or else they are just mediocre.

Smite Paladins are equally as expensive and one of the harder builds to play. Not to mention its a solo play-through and he wouldn't be able to obtain a quarter of even the mediocre items you need to make either build viable - he would just run around gimped with half his stat points in abilities that won't have any pay off till the late (level) sixties.

The best thing to do is, if you plan to just play through normal, is pick the class you think you will enjoy - put points in what looks cool - go from there. However, the easiest for a single-player game is definitely the Necromancer. I am partial to the Barbarian, when by myself, and the Paladin online.

If you are starting online I always, whenever I feel like starting fresh, make my first character a Sorceress. You won't find yourself too capable in Hell but built right, even in crummy gear, you can kill Andariel and Mephisto (though you might want to teleport around the council) in Nightmare. This should give you a start point to farm up some basic gear, and help work your way into doing some Nightmare forge rushes.

Also, whenever you are in between games keep an eye out for a free game. The odds of getting anything great are slim, but you can pick up some average unique items, and occasionally really luck out.

[Hitriy]

sorceress is good for MF runs till you get something good. Also i love to play assasin with traps and fury amazon build.
If you're aiming at completing the game then it would be probably a warrior, frenzy wars are insane but requires two good weapons. Wolf druid is also nice.
Hammerdin requires some skill and experience in throwing hammers. But with a good +skills items hes probably the best character for soloing anything.
Necromancer is a peace easy with skeletons , but its really annoying in 2rd act oasis caves and baal. Poison spec might be also good if you have enough +skill items.

[Djuntas]

Depends on gear. If your just starting out prolly assasin or paladin.

Later on Smiter paladin becomes good of all in PVM. Maybe not the fastest killer, but it really cant die. It needs alot of gear trough.

[kerwyn]

Summoner/corpse explosion necro. Easy as hell, requires no gear.

[Deleted]

In my opinion you have 2 main options for a first time out, untwinked character. I should point out I play stirctly self found, single player only so I have no access to trading or boosts, rushes or anything else multiplayer related. As a result all my toons must be able to get through all areas of the game or have a means of bypassing them.

First Option: Fishymancer aka the summon necro

The fishymncer can probably do 95% of the game with no gear what so ever. It just gets better once you have some. The skill layout I use for all my new fishymancers is:

Summoning skills:
20 Raise Skeleton
20 Skeleton Mastery
10 Summon Resist
10 in revive
1 Clay Golem
1 Golem Mastery
1 skeletal mage (pre-requisit)
1 blood golem (pre-requisit)
1 iron golem (pre-requisit)

Poison and Bone SKills
1 Teeth
20 Corpse Explosion

Curses
1 in all curses

Any remaining points into anything you fancy that you can get to a high enough level to be useful. I usually pick revives or my golem related skills.

Mercinary: Act 2 Nightmare offensive mercenary with the biggest hurty stick you can find. He will die alot they are called morons for a reason but his aura does wonders for your army. With good gear he actually easily becomes your highest damage individual minion but he does need some life leech to really shine.

The above skill layout makes him finish at level 85 assuming all quests are completed and all bonus points have been earned (you can't miss them). I kill Baal in hell between level 84 and 88 on 95% of my characters and very very rarely take a character past level 90. With the above set you get a nice pack of skeletons and revives with a recastable golem to tank for you. Corpse explosion is the big killer spell. You don't actually need 20 points in it but its my personal preferance. the 1 in all curses is useful because most of them you either won't use or will use rarely but they can come in handy. Decrepify and amplify damage are however vital. Decrepify kills bosses and amplify damage boosts the corpse explosion physical damage component and your skeleton damage.

As already said he can go anywhere and kill anything in a standard game.

Trap Assassin:

The trap assassin uses lightning traps to kill her foes. Shes very capable and in some instances more capable than a fishy necro.

Trap Skills:
20 fire blast
20 Lightning Sentry
20 Death Sentry
1 Shock Web (pre-requisit)
1 Charged Bolt Sentry (pre-requisit)

Shadow Diciplines:
1 Claw Mastery (pre-requisit)
1 Psycic Hammer (pre-requisit)
1 Burst of Speed (1 point wonder)
1 Weapon Block (pre-requisit)
1 Cloak of Shadows (1 point wonder)
1 Fade (1 point wonder)
1 Shadow Warrior (pre-requisit)
17 Shadow Master

All remaining points in Charged Bolt Sentry.

Mercinary: Act 2 Nightmare defensive mercenary. His holy freeze aura hels slow groups.

A trapper can have 5 traps down at any one time. 5 of the same type if you so choose. I drop 4 lightning sentrys and 1 death sentry. Death sentry has a baby corpse explosion which can decimate large groups just like the fishy necro. Fireblast is used to kill lightning immunities. Any lightning and fire immunities are handled by your mercinary and your shadow master. Shadow master is a mirror of yourself. She uses assassin skills by herself. Even ones you don't have points in. She's probably my favorite summon in the game. Just keep fade up and your resistances will be okay for hell. All in all shes more well rounded than the fishy necro but suffers more with resistances from enemies in hell.

Anyway the above are both characters I've cleared the game with without any major issues. Food for thought.