08-09-2003, 10:09 PM
Yes the crafts are good for filling out slots. However there is one problem with balance at the moment ... Crescent Moon. The NM Hellforge dropped me an UM and it changed me from being decent but challenged in A5 nm players 1, to being a 'kill everything onscreen in 3 sec' char. I used to need to rely on mind blast (with thorns merc) against meleers, or cloak of shadows against ranged monsters to thin them out and get the first few corpses for DS, but now I just kick all the time :(
It's also a pity that def rating doesn't really help much. When I had a defiance merc, and some pretty nice crafted exceptional armor (as well as exceptional crafted boots/gloves) my to-be-hit was only at 50% after CoS.
Also, the drops are much better now, so 'playing your hand' is a lot easier. One of the pieces that I got early on was a hawkmail. I gave it to the merc, but realised that it fits so much nicer on the 'sin. No freeze is worth a slot on its own, and with the normal->exceptional upgrade being cheap you can also get some decent def out of it. Another good drop I got at around level 60 or so was an assassin rare amulet, with 4% life leech and about 40-50% worth of resists and some strength... these are the things that you can't plan for but they happen more often than previously.
It's also a pity that def rating doesn't really help much. When I had a defiance merc, and some pretty nice crafted exceptional armor (as well as exceptional crafted boots/gloves) my to-be-hit was only at 50% after CoS.
Also, the drops are much better now, so 'playing your hand' is a lot easier. One of the pieces that I got early on was a hawkmail. I gave it to the merc, but realised that it fits so much nicer on the 'sin. No freeze is worth a slot on its own, and with the normal->exceptional upgrade being cheap you can also get some decent def out of it. Another good drop I got at around level 60 or so was an assassin rare amulet, with 4% life leech and about 40-50% worth of resists and some strength... these are the things that you can't plan for but they happen more often than previously.