Frequently Asked Questions
I want to help the D2 Speedrunning grow. I hope that this page can explain in simple detail everything that one would need to know to have effective runs.
You can start whatever category you want as long as it follows SRL rules (http://www.speedrunslive.com/faq/rules/). The popular categories would probably be to kill normal baal with an assassin, sorceress, or druid. It can be on either softcore or hardcore, players 1/players 8/players x. You could have races to find and kill a specific enemy, find a specific item, obtain a specific amount of gold, using specific character builds, suicide with sacrifice or fire, die at a specific location, or even without the automap. Segmented runs also have a webpage (http://speeddemosarchive.com/Diablo2LoD.html) as well. Although you can't race with segmented runs, you can still make your own.
To a degree. There are specific patterns for most of the game that are very easy to learn (check out the map layouts page). You will begin having solid runs almost every attempt once these patterns are mastered.
There is, but that's what can keep speedrunning this game fresh. Technical skill and critical decision making are still huge parts in how fast a timed run would finish. The RNG in Diablo II in addition to all of the different category opportunities are what can keep every race unique and exciting.
It is called WSplit. You can find it here: http://www.mediafire.com/download/x6e6g8d0m5daa3q/WSplit+1.5.2.zip. There's a lot of ways that you can customize it to make yours look unique.
Absolutely. You can Save And Exit Game as many times as you want as a part of your strategy. The only exception is if you were doing a race on SRL where the category specifically indicates no S/E'ing.
Gotta go fast.