10-30-2003, 10:32 PM
Last night (and early this morning) I deliberately went after the clone.
I did this because someone on a Diablo forum had said how disappointed she was with how easy the clone was, going toe-to-toe with it and only using 3 pots. So I tried it with my highest level zon, CLevel 74, but with a low-level equipment setup since the really good stuff was on characters going through Nightmare.
Well, okay, I don't even have any really good stuff :)
The first 4 hours was spent hanging in game waiting for it to show up. I THINK you need to see 100 SoJs Sold while you are in a game. I went in with the first message saying 446 sold, and it spawned after the 540 sold message.
When it did spawn, I was in for a surprise. My level 74 Act 2 merc with partial Hwannin's set didn't stand a chance. At level 6, my Valk was dying faster than I could cast it. And I was blowing through pots too fast to even think about standing my ground and letting him have it.
With my merc in the battle I was able to get his life down a sliver. I had blown through a ton of gold, though, between resurrecting my merc and the death penalty from the occasional, unexpected one-hit-kill. Without the merc, I couldn't scratch him.
I used up the 20 points I had saved up in attributes to bump my Dex and Vit, and dropped the 12 Skill points I had saved up into the Valk. Still now joy.
I muled over the best equipment that my only other Hell difficulty character, and still no go.
I couldn't just task-swap out of the game to check online for help, because D2 really doesn't like task-swapping in-game on my 'puter. It gives the occasional total lock-up.
So, I got a machine on the workbench hung together enough to go online with it. Problem was, I couldn't get logged on the Lurker Lounge. I guess I must have used a really good password, and I don't share the drive on this machine that holds my password list. I wasn't about to create a spam account. I checked the LurkerLounge channel on IRC, but by then it was late enough that most of the USEast players had already packed it in for the night.
I went on the Amazon Basin, which I rarely frequent. They're using some silly application to manage games, and it doesn't work for me. As a last resort, I posted a request for help in their Meeting Place forum. From the read-count, it didn't look like hardly anyone even bothered to look at it until this morning.
There was only one, last thing to try. I went on the regular public BattleNet channels and asked for help.
Of course, that is much like a wounded seal asking for help from a killer whale.
In no time I was joined by a level 78 sorceress. We went to where I had the clone parked, she spammed some frozen orbs, and ran like a scared cat. No offense to cats intended.
My Pubby helper said he'd be back, and swapped to a level 90 Amazon. Between the two of us, plus a few more deaths apiece, and several trips for more pots, we finally killed the clone after about a half-hour.
Of course, the Pubby made sure to stay close to the clone as it's life was just about done, and grabbed the unique charm as soon as it dropped. No more than I expected.
I would make a few suggestions, for anyone looking to try this.
#1: Get a reliable team together beforehand. make sure that they will be available when the clone shows up. I had my character idle in the game for 4 hours waiting for it to happen. It LOOKS like it is triggered when there have been 100 SoJs sold WHILE YOU ARE IN THE GAME. The first notice I had was that 446 were sold, and the clone triggered after 540.
One person can hand out and wait for the clone. Once it's triggered, it will persist in the game- you can exit and come back with different characters and he is still there.
#2: Know which Super-Unique you want to be the clone. The first Super-Unique that has not been activated seems to be the one that becomes the clone. I had tried to set it up for the Den in Act 1, but since Corpsefire was already triggered, he didn't clone. I was in Cold Plains when it triggered, but had already killed Bishibosh. Rakanishu wound up being Clone-ified.
You can't really clear a battlefield very well beforehand, since if you activate the super-unique there he won't clone.
Although the clone has some attacks that can jump barriers (i.e. Fire Wall), I'm thinking that it would be worth a try for a range-attack charactrer to try it in the River of Flame with Hephasto is the clone sample.
Another odd idea would be to make Diablo himself the clone. You could open the seals in the Chaos Sanctuary, and leave one guy to kill for when the clone effect triggers.
#3: This ain't no cake-walk. The level 90 pubby who helped me would never have been able to solo it. Good players and decent equipment is necessary. I tried Goldstrike and a Burrito, and barely made a dent solo before I would need to move to avoid LBOD or some other killer attack. Titan's Revenge with Impale didn't help much, it might have had a chance if I had a decent shield with me, but with what I had I couldn't go toe-to-toe for very long.
Was it worth it? Not if you don't get the charm. :) The main reason I tried was because I wanted a bit of a break from working my new Ladder character (Level 16 / Act 2). I may try again, if I'm not planning on using this 'puter for a while. I expect that 4 hours waiting for the clone is at least as long as one will need to wait.
I suppose that a larger team could get charms for everyone in the team in one night, if they all created their own game, to get a set of games with clones in them. Then, everyone in the group starts going through killing clones, while one person keeps visiting the other games to keep them up.
-rcv-
I did this because someone on a Diablo forum had said how disappointed she was with how easy the clone was, going toe-to-toe with it and only using 3 pots. So I tried it with my highest level zon, CLevel 74, but with a low-level equipment setup since the really good stuff was on characters going through Nightmare.
Well, okay, I don't even have any really good stuff :)
The first 4 hours was spent hanging in game waiting for it to show up. I THINK you need to see 100 SoJs Sold while you are in a game. I went in with the first message saying 446 sold, and it spawned after the 540 sold message.
When it did spawn, I was in for a surprise. My level 74 Act 2 merc with partial Hwannin's set didn't stand a chance. At level 6, my Valk was dying faster than I could cast it. And I was blowing through pots too fast to even think about standing my ground and letting him have it.
With my merc in the battle I was able to get his life down a sliver. I had blown through a ton of gold, though, between resurrecting my merc and the death penalty from the occasional, unexpected one-hit-kill. Without the merc, I couldn't scratch him.
I used up the 20 points I had saved up in attributes to bump my Dex and Vit, and dropped the 12 Skill points I had saved up into the Valk. Still now joy.
I muled over the best equipment that my only other Hell difficulty character, and still no go.
I couldn't just task-swap out of the game to check online for help, because D2 really doesn't like task-swapping in-game on my 'puter. It gives the occasional total lock-up.
So, I got a machine on the workbench hung together enough to go online with it. Problem was, I couldn't get logged on the Lurker Lounge. I guess I must have used a really good password, and I don't share the drive on this machine that holds my password list. I wasn't about to create a spam account. I checked the LurkerLounge channel on IRC, but by then it was late enough that most of the USEast players had already packed it in for the night.
I went on the Amazon Basin, which I rarely frequent. They're using some silly application to manage games, and it doesn't work for me. As a last resort, I posted a request for help in their Meeting Place forum. From the read-count, it didn't look like hardly anyone even bothered to look at it until this morning.
There was only one, last thing to try. I went on the regular public BattleNet channels and asked for help.
Of course, that is much like a wounded seal asking for help from a killer whale.
In no time I was joined by a level 78 sorceress. We went to where I had the clone parked, she spammed some frozen orbs, and ran like a scared cat. No offense to cats intended.
My Pubby helper said he'd be back, and swapped to a level 90 Amazon. Between the two of us, plus a few more deaths apiece, and several trips for more pots, we finally killed the clone after about a half-hour.
Of course, the Pubby made sure to stay close to the clone as it's life was just about done, and grabbed the unique charm as soon as it dropped. No more than I expected.
I would make a few suggestions, for anyone looking to try this.
#1: Get a reliable team together beforehand. make sure that they will be available when the clone shows up. I had my character idle in the game for 4 hours waiting for it to happen. It LOOKS like it is triggered when there have been 100 SoJs sold WHILE YOU ARE IN THE GAME. The first notice I had was that 446 were sold, and the clone triggered after 540.
One person can hand out and wait for the clone. Once it's triggered, it will persist in the game- you can exit and come back with different characters and he is still there.
#2: Know which Super-Unique you want to be the clone. The first Super-Unique that has not been activated seems to be the one that becomes the clone. I had tried to set it up for the Den in Act 1, but since Corpsefire was already triggered, he didn't clone. I was in Cold Plains when it triggered, but had already killed Bishibosh. Rakanishu wound up being Clone-ified.
You can't really clear a battlefield very well beforehand, since if you activate the super-unique there he won't clone.
Although the clone has some attacks that can jump barriers (i.e. Fire Wall), I'm thinking that it would be worth a try for a range-attack charactrer to try it in the River of Flame with Hephasto is the clone sample.
Another odd idea would be to make Diablo himself the clone. You could open the seals in the Chaos Sanctuary, and leave one guy to kill for when the clone effect triggers.
#3: This ain't no cake-walk. The level 90 pubby who helped me would never have been able to solo it. Good players and decent equipment is necessary. I tried Goldstrike and a Burrito, and barely made a dent solo before I would need to move to avoid LBOD or some other killer attack. Titan's Revenge with Impale didn't help much, it might have had a chance if I had a decent shield with me, but with what I had I couldn't go toe-to-toe for very long.
Was it worth it? Not if you don't get the charm. :) The main reason I tried was because I wanted a bit of a break from working my new Ladder character (Level 16 / Act 2). I may try again, if I'm not planning on using this 'puter for a while. I expect that 4 hours waiting for the clone is at least as long as one will need to wait.
I suppose that a larger team could get charms for everyone in the team in one night, if they all created their own game, to get a set of games with clones in them. Then, everyone in the group starts going through killing clones, while one person keeps visiting the other games to keep them up.
-rcv-