07-09-2003, 03:36 PM
Some spoilers here wrt Act 2 1.10.
I've now got my 1.10 test BowZon into Act 2 Nightmare, she's at clvl 52. At players 1 she levelled up at a reasonable pace through the opening quests of Act 2 - but ooh baby when we get to the Arcance Sanctuary levelling went into overdrive - clearing AS = 1 level ( this is on players 1 ).
Some good gear dropped in the desert, a String of Ears, Sazabi's hat, Spirit Shroud, but charm and rune drop rates still seem to be down.
In the AS we've got the same monster mix as 1.09 but more boss packs, this is good ( I've alway liked the AS, a very BowZon friendly area ) AS bosses dropped a heavenly garb light plate and the summoner dropped chance guards ( which I will wear until I get to lvl 54 and can wear my nifty new crafted hitpower gloves with 20% IAS and a couple of other nice mods ).
So, off to the Canyon of the Magi. In the canyon itself we've got the same monsters mix as 1.09, cats, maggots and yetis ( Oh My! ) nothning special here. Into the tombs.
I open the first door inside the first tomb and, Holy S^!t!! ( my exact words ) , lightning bugs - lots of lightning bugs - two boss packs and some other buddies - must've been at least 20 of em. Luckily my merc ( act 2 holy freeze ) and Valk are jamming the doorway poking at stuff and keeping me from getting swarmed - spam FA and strafe ( drinking every last mana pot I've got because 7% mana leech doesn't do squat in NM 1.10, we now know why they are selling mana in town ) . So we survive that encounter , nothing good dropped. On further into the tomb, being much more carefull about charging thru doors. A couple of rooms later - zombies - again two boss packs - more than 20 zombies, one of the boss packs was extra fast. FA, run away, FA, run away, FA, run away. Luckily ( again ) Dark Lords did not seem to run in vast mobs nor did the ghosts. Lightning bugs and Zombies in larger mobs, everthing else in similar numbers to 1.09.
This pattern went on for each of the four tombs I went to before packing it in last nite - good experience, but a little hard on the shorts, zombies and Dark Lords hit hard now even in act 2 NM.
So, crowd control is even more important now in 1.10, crowds are bigger and meaner. Knockback, previously a very nice to have for solo Zons would now seem to be an absolute neccessity. FA ( with Ice Arrow and Cold Arrow synergies ) will slow em down, strafe will whittle away at them GA or Immo to take out the boss or stragglers when the crowd thins. Run away a lot, make sure you've got plenty of mana pots, use your decoy as an additional distraction. I'm guessing that in hell act 2 an extra fast cold immune boss pack of zombies will cause much distress.
Crowds of monsters have been much bigger through all of Act 1 and 2 NM so far - makes me a little concerned about acts 3 and 4 ( how many fetishes will be in a pack?, how am I going to handle an extra fast huge mob boss pack of OK knights?). So, work on those crowd control skills boys, you're not going to live long, even in NM, if you haven't got a few crowd control options and haven't planned it out in advance.
I've now got my 1.10 test BowZon into Act 2 Nightmare, she's at clvl 52. At players 1 she levelled up at a reasonable pace through the opening quests of Act 2 - but ooh baby when we get to the Arcance Sanctuary levelling went into overdrive - clearing AS = 1 level ( this is on players 1 ).
Some good gear dropped in the desert, a String of Ears, Sazabi's hat, Spirit Shroud, but charm and rune drop rates still seem to be down.
In the AS we've got the same monster mix as 1.09 but more boss packs, this is good ( I've alway liked the AS, a very BowZon friendly area ) AS bosses dropped a heavenly garb light plate and the summoner dropped chance guards ( which I will wear until I get to lvl 54 and can wear my nifty new crafted hitpower gloves with 20% IAS and a couple of other nice mods ).
So, off to the Canyon of the Magi. In the canyon itself we've got the same monsters mix as 1.09, cats, maggots and yetis ( Oh My! ) nothning special here. Into the tombs.
I open the first door inside the first tomb and, Holy S^!t!! ( my exact words ) , lightning bugs - lots of lightning bugs - two boss packs and some other buddies - must've been at least 20 of em. Luckily my merc ( act 2 holy freeze ) and Valk are jamming the doorway poking at stuff and keeping me from getting swarmed - spam FA and strafe ( drinking every last mana pot I've got because 7% mana leech doesn't do squat in NM 1.10, we now know why they are selling mana in town ) . So we survive that encounter , nothing good dropped. On further into the tomb, being much more carefull about charging thru doors. A couple of rooms later - zombies - again two boss packs - more than 20 zombies, one of the boss packs was extra fast. FA, run away, FA, run away, FA, run away. Luckily ( again ) Dark Lords did not seem to run in vast mobs nor did the ghosts. Lightning bugs and Zombies in larger mobs, everthing else in similar numbers to 1.09.
This pattern went on for each of the four tombs I went to before packing it in last nite - good experience, but a little hard on the shorts, zombies and Dark Lords hit hard now even in act 2 NM.
So, crowd control is even more important now in 1.10, crowds are bigger and meaner. Knockback, previously a very nice to have for solo Zons would now seem to be an absolute neccessity. FA ( with Ice Arrow and Cold Arrow synergies ) will slow em down, strafe will whittle away at them GA or Immo to take out the boss or stragglers when the crowd thins. Run away a lot, make sure you've got plenty of mana pots, use your decoy as an additional distraction. I'm guessing that in hell act 2 an extra fast cold immune boss pack of zombies will cause much distress.
Crowds of monsters have been much bigger through all of Act 1 and 2 NM so far - makes me a little concerned about acts 3 and 4 ( how many fetishes will be in a pack?, how am I going to handle an extra fast huge mob boss pack of OK knights?). So, work on those crowd control skills boys, you're not going to live long, even in NM, if you haven't got a few crowd control options and haven't planned it out in advance.
Some people are like slinkys, not really good for anything but you just can't help but smile when you see them tumble down the stairs.