Understanding Game Servers on Battle.net
At this point, it's useful to explain that when you create a game on a Diablo 2 Realm server (e.g., USEast, USWest, Asia and Europe), the server is one of many for that realm, and it will be somewhat randomly chosen when your game is created. For example, when you create a game on USEast, it will be assigned to one of dozens of servers that can run Diablo 2 games.

Game servers on Battle.net can (and do) run various types of games. For example, a given server can run any number of simultaneous games, and each of these games can be different in terms of Ladder, Non-ladder, hard core, soft core, as well as the three difficulty levels (Normal, Nightmare, Hell).

These game servers are identified by a unique IP address (e.g., 63.240.202.35 and 63.240.202.64 are two different Diablo game servers on the USEast realm). More on this later…

Understanding "Stones of Jordan Sold to Merchants" messages
Each time a player sells a Stone of Jordan in a game, no matter what kind of game (Ladder, Non-ladder, hardcore, softcore, etc.), the server on which the game is running keeps track of the total sales with a counter. If you are in a game on a server when someone sells a Stone of Jordan (in another game or the same game on that server), you will see a message similar to "NNNN Stones of Jordan Sold to Merchants" (where NNNN is the total number sold).

Every 80-120 times a Stone of Jordan is sold on a server, no matter which games it was sold in, there is a chance that it will cause Diablo Clone (Über Diablo) to appear.



Understanding "Diablo Walks the Earth" message
If you're in a Hell-level game on a server when someone sells a Stone of Jordan that causes Diablo Clone to appear, you will see the message "Diablo Walks the Earth" accompanied by the sound of thunder and a shaking screen. This is also referred to as the "World event." Note, however, that Diablo Clone can only appear in a game that was created with a difficulty of Hell.

Once "Diablo Walks the Earth," you must find him and kill him to obtain the Annihilus charm.



Getting to Diablo Clone

To be brutally honest, without a strategy, your chances of encountering Diablo Clone are very slim.

It's virtually impossible these days to find the 80-120 Stones of Jordan to sell on a single server to force him to appear all by yourself. It's also not very likely that he'll appear by simply waiting in a game without any knowledge of what server you're on, or what the number of total sales of Stones of Jordan is for that server.

So, a better strategy is to find a game server where the count of Stones of Jordan is close to the number needed for him to walk, and then wait for other people to sell Stones of Jordan. Remember, the sales can take place in any game on that server, not necessarily your game.

Finding a server where Diablo Clone will likely appear

Necessity is the mother of invention. Various Diablo 2 fans have formed communities that hunt Diablo Clone. To do this well, a key piece of information is to know where (and when) Diablo Clone will walk the earth. As I mentioned before, Diablo Clone will walk on a given server once every 80-120 times someone sells a Stone of Jordan. Given this information, you only have to keep track of the number of sales on a server. Given that there are dozens of servers, and you have no control over which server a game will be created on, this is a daunting task! It's a lot of information to keep track of — for example, the up-to-date counts on each server, the counts when Diablo Clone last walked, etc.

To make a long story short, several communities have created methods to keep track of all this information, which can be presented to you in simplified form. For example, if you look at the web site http://counts.dcloneirc.net, it will give you the list of all the USEast servers, with the counts for each server, as well as the estimated numbers of Stones of Jordan sold since the last time Diablo Clone walked on the server. This information is collected from various sources, and is stored in a database and maintained in near real-time.

Other sources of this same information include different IRC servers, such as dcloneirc.net with its #useast-dclone channel. Here you can obtain real-time updates on sales for the various IPs in USEast, not to mention friendly advice from the experts.

So, to find a server where Diablo Clone will more likely walk, it's a two part problem:

1. Using some up-to-date information, for example from the http://counts.dcloneirc.net site, you choose an IP address that has an estimated number of sales that is closer to 80-100 since the last walk of Diablo Clone. This step is pretty easy, given that you just have to check the site to see which servers are the most interesting. Note, however, that when a server is "up" a number that is closer to 80-100, other hunters will try to force it to sell quickly. Usually it's a matter of minutes before a server like that is "walked" and then becomes uninteresting. After the message "Diablo walks the earth" appears in games on a server, any games created will have to wait until 80-120 sales occur. In other words, the game has to be created before the message appears. Generally speaking, to find an interesting server, you are going to target servers that are "up" more than 10-20 sales. Remember that you have no control over what server will be given to you when you create a game. It will take you some time to accomplish the next step.
2. Next, you need to create a Hell-level game (use a password to prevent others from joining) on the same server that you identified in step 1. This step is more difficult, since Battle.net decides the server IP somewhat at random. It's a matter of trial and error. First, once your Hell-level game is created, press ALT-TAB and open a DOS window (in Windows XP, Start > Run > cmd). To find out the IP address of the server of your game, type the following command in a DOS window:
netstat -n | find "4000"

The IP address of your game's server on Battle.net is circled in the following figure:



If the game you created is not on the correct IP address identified in step 1), you need to try again by creating another game, and rechecking the server's IP address. However, there's a risk in this process — if you create too many games within a certain time, Battle.net will eventually ban your computer temporarily. That is, you will get a message stating that "Your Connection Has Been Temporarily Restricted" from the Realm you were logged into. This is temporary ban is more commonly known as "Realm down" or "r/d" on the IRC channels, and can last from 15 minutes to several days.

According to Battle.net's support web site (http://www.blizzard.com/support/?id=adt0689p), 10-minute games should not get you into trouble with realm-down errors. So, if you play by the rules outlined by Battle.net, you can safely pick only 6 IP addresses within an hour to find the right one.

Because there are dozens of servers, trying only 6 servers per hour is bad odds. You can try more servers per hour, at the risk of getting realm-down. You can also ask around in the IRC channels for ways to improve these odds of finding the right IP. Not all of the methods in use by the people on the IRC channels are in accordance with the EULA of Diablo 2, and theoretically you could even have your CD-key permanently banned from the Realms by trying these methods. Exercise caution when you get advice.

Server camping

On a side note, if you keep a game open on a server long enough (also known as "camping" a server), eventually enough sales will occur on it, even though its sales are low at the time you create the game. This means that if you wait long enough in a Hell-level game on any Realm server, eventually Diablo Clone will walk the earth. However, there are some problems with server camping:
-If you aren't doing anything in a game, you will be disconnected from it for being idle. There are various "anti-idling" tricks, which are out of the scope of this guide. Google will surely help you find answers to this question.
-Like all servers on the internet, Diablo 2 Realm servers eventually crash or are rebooted, or an ISP between your PC and the server goes down, or, if you're using a wireless router, your wife runs the microwave and you lose your wireless connection. Even if you manage to solve the anti-idle problem above, you can't do much about this problem in server camping. On a server with low sales, it's often more likely that it will crash before Diablo Clone will walk. This is why it's better to camp a server that is closer to walking.

Finding Diablo Clone once he "walks the earth"

Ok, let's assume you got the message "Diablo walks the earth" in a game, and your screen is shaking (and maybe your hands as well). Congratulations are not yet in order! You have to first

a. cause Diablo Clone to "spawn" (pretty easy to do) and then
b. kill him (not so easy — he's called Über Diablo for a reason!).

a) Spawning Diablo Clone

Uber Diablo (spawned in place of Rakanishu)
Über Diablo
(spawned in place of Rakanishu in the Stony Field)

After the "Diablo walks the earth" message appears, he isn't truly walking in the game until he "spawns," and this can be in many places. However, this is not random, but is based on where you go once you get the message.

A popular place to spawn Diablo Clone is the Act I - Stony Field, in place of Rakanishu.

To be precise, Diablo Clone will spawn in place of the first Super Unique Monster you meet (and which you have not already met) in any Act (I-V), once the "Diablo walks the earth" message appears. If there happen to be multiple players in a game, it's the first player that encounters a Super Unique Monster who will cause Diablo Clone to spawn.

Note: If you have already visited a Super Unique Monster (thus causing it to spawn) before "Diablo walks the earth," then Diablo Clone does not replace the Super Unique Monster. This can sometimes be a problem if Diablo Clone walks during a game that you have already played a lot, especially if you have killed many of the Super Unique Monsters.

Here is a list of Super Unique Monsters in the various Acts of the game from the Arreat Summit: http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/monsters/super.shtml

b) Killing Diablo Clone

The best Diablo Clone killers are characters that can dish out a lot of Crushing Blow and withstand damage. You may want to consider the Smiter (a.k.a. Vindicator) Paladin builds (Google will help you find build guides, and the Arreat Summit offers general advice on killing Über Diablo). But, I suggest you have this kind of character built already, if you intend to take on Diablo Clone.

If your character can't kill Diablo Clone, the best advice I can give you is to ask someone to help. But remember, if you leave a game that's active, it will eventually disappear and you'll have lost your chance at killing Diablo Clone.

If you're not sure where to find someone to help, I recommend you contact someone in the dcloneirc.net IRC channels who has "voiced" or "operator" status. You can always just ask for help in that IRC channel.

Conclusion

Strategy backfires

Ironically, Battle.net's intention of reducing the number of Stones of Jordan by inventing Über Diablo has perhaps backfired on them. As of the time of writing this guide, it's the author's belief that many players currently exploit dubious means to acquire more and more Stones of Jordan, with the ultimate goal of obtaining the coveted Annihilus charm.

The dubious ways that people obtain Stones of Jordan in mass quantities include:
-using script engines (robots) that do repeated magic-find runs to places where a Stone of Jordan is most likely to drop (e.g., Andariel in Nightmare difficulty);
-exploiting design flaws in the on-line Battle.net servers to duplicate Stones of Jordan (e.g., Hellfire Torch Strafer lag duping);
-trading valuable items on Battle.net (non-ladder) for Stones of Jordan (which were likely duped or obtained using a robot).

If you've played Diablo 2 for any amount of time, you'll know that a Stone of Jordan is a very rare item, and it's the last thing you want to sell to a vendor when you've found it legitimately. If you think about the actual rarity of the item, you can see that it's strange that they still exist in mass quantities today. According to a treasure drop-calculator I use, the chance of Nightmare Andariel dropping a Stone of Jordan is 1:3063 (assuming a 400% better chance of finding magic items).

Counterfeit Stones of Jordan

Unless there are dubious methods used frequently today for fabricating Stones of Jordan, I cannot see how there can still be enough Stones of Jordan found every day (legitimately) to walk at least one server. It is typical, based on my experience in some of the IRC channels, to see at least one server walk per day. Even the robot method to find random Stones of Jordan seems unlikely, as the odds of finding a Stone of Jordan go down with other monsters, and you can only create so many games/hour to run Andariel, for example.

The author has heard rumors that inappropriate behavior (lag duping, botting, etc.) is less scrutinized by Battle.net in the non-ladder realms. However, non-ladder sales of Stones of Jordan can allow Über Diablo to walk in a ladder game, since the same server (IP address) can have ladder and non-ladder games.

So, it seems that the dubiously ubiquitous (i.e., counterfeit) non-ladder Stones of Jordan are inspired by the high value of Annihilus charms on ladder. Here's the formula used to convert non-ladder Stones of Jordan into ladder Annihilus charms:
-team up with others in an alliance with this strategy (strength in numbers),
-acquire counterfeit non-ladder Stones of Jordan,
-create ladder and non-ladder games on the same IP address,
-sell enough of the counterfeit Stones of Jordan in the IP address on non-ladder so that Diablo Clone walks the earth in all games on that server,
-kill Diablo Clone on each ladder game of the server and collect the (ladder) Annihilus charm.

For the record, the author does not condone duping by any means (please do not ask me how to dupe Stones of Jordan or anything else in Diablo 2).

One last point - which is another way that Battle.net had intended to keep the market of Annihilus charms limited - you cannot put an Annihilus charm in the Trade window, and you can only carry just one. So, trading them on any realm is a huge risk if you don't trust the person you're trading with, because you have to drop the charm to transfer it to another player.

 Über Diablo (Demon)
info from Arreat Summit



This demon is a mystery to all but the most elite players. Be warned, for this Diablo is far stronger than his predecessor, but great rewards await those powerful and clever enough to stand up to the challenge...

Über Diablo only awakens on the Battle.net Realms. Just what could possibly cause that? It remains a mystery to some. Others have figured it out. Could it involve the Stone of Jordan? Über Diablo only appears on Hell Difficulty. He can appear in various acts and locations in the game. He is the only monster that can drop the Annihilus Charm.

Tips and Other Additional Information
Full Lightning and Fire Resistance will help a lot against Diablo. With high Physical Damage Reduction and Fire/Lightning Absorption, Diablo will end up healing you over time instead of damaging you.

Diablo may cast his special Bone Prison on you, your hirelings, and around your Town Portals to prevent you from escaping.

The Red Lightning Hose deals half physical, half lightning damage. Full Lightning Resistance and Damage Reduction/a high Block Rate may allow you to survive this attack.

The biggest difference you'll notice is that this version of Diablo now has much higher life, much higher resistances, more powerful attacks, and Armageddon. Beware!

Über-Diablo uses the following Skills: Fire Nova, Red Lightning Hose, Cold Touch, Fire Wall, Firestorm, Bone Prison, Charge, Taunt (does nothing), Armageddon.