Diablo II 1.10 Beta Test begins

[NiteFox]

Okay, I'll admit I haven't read many of the posts here since yesterday. Ergo, there will probably be a very high chance that stuff mentioned here has probably been covered elsewhere. Yay. Plus, I ain't at all interested in the figures, just give me the damn game; don't expect any deep thoughts about damage dealt, resistances, treasure classes etc. I just want to play.

So after sitting in queue at Fileplanet like a common schmuck (Bah!) I finally got my mitts on the patch. Now if only I had Diablo II installed... One failed install later, old 1.09 characters backed up, and patched so lovingly applied (Gotta love the new icon...) I was ready to play! Uh, only this was 9PM yesterday and I had to go out.

First thing I noticed was that the zombies seemed different, and they were tougher than usual. Fortunately, I had a shotgun in my invent- Oh, damn. Inserted the Resident Evil 3 CD by mistake. My bad.

Ten minutes later, the correct game loaded, and with an initial button selection that dredged memories of the ol' Diablo II demo, it's time to rock. But what character? I had a choice of four, including Blaiddarth, my mildly successful clvl 47 Weredruid with so many gems the sparkle can be viewed by Hubble, a Cube, a boatload of cash, and on the verge of starting Act 3 Nightmare...

Nah, best if I started anew. Decided on build: Weredruid again, now I needed a name. I settled on Bledri (Bled-REE), it's Welsh, it has something (Mythologically) to do with wolves, it's perfect. Now for some planning: Pure Werewolf, with maybe a spirit, decided on Oak Sage. Not gonna bother putting prereqs along the Werebear half of the Shapeshifting tree to get Hunger, and I sure as hell ain't gonna accidentally spend a point in Summon Raven. Now let's look at these synergies, eh?

What a huge disappointment. Four synergies, Fire Claws benefits from four of the Elemental tree (Firestorm, Molten Boulder, Fissure, Volcano) and Rabies benefits from Poison Creeper. Big whoop. They had better be worth it, especially Rabies.

But that's only two synergies, what about the other two? Well, I believe here that Blizzard got confused over the difference between a synergy and a passive skill. Highlight Werewolf and Werebear and look under the synergies given: LYCANTHROPY! GODDAMN LYCANTHROPY!!!!!, with all the exclamation marks. But, aside from the passive bonuses given by each lovingly assigned point in Lycanthropy, does 'wolf or 'bear gain any additional bonuses, say extra AC, AR, or even a superficial colour change for their fur every level? (Yes, I dream of running around with a bright yellow Werewolf, it sure as hell would amuse the crap out of everyone) No. There is no other benefit, aside from the passive bonus of adding Lycanthropy. Well thank you Blizzard.

Yep, I guess you could argue that Lycanthropy always behaved like a synergy, given that it only affected two skills rather than, say, Dodge, which was truly passive regardless of whatever you're doing. But that's hardly the point is it? Four synergies a tree and two of them have literally no effect whatsofugginever. God, I can imagine the meeting that went into that: "Oh-kay, we need two more synergies for the Druid Shapeshift tree. Any ideas?" "Well, what about added life or mana steal for Hunger with points in Carrion Vine or Solar Creeper?" "Maybe added IAS for Fury with Feral Rage?" "Maybe some cold damage with Shockwave with points invested in Arctic Blast? That'd be pretty cool." "Nah nah nah... Too difficult, besides, we gotta get this beta out by tomorrow. Plus, I gotta pee." "Hey, why don't we just list Lycanthropy for Werewolf and bear? We've already coded it, and I suppose Lycanthropy is kinda like a synergy rather than a passive." "Brilliant! Pay rises for all! Now let's go home." You couldn't make it up.

Honest, I'm beginning to think that Shaftstop should be recommended Druid armour, that way we might stop getting shafted repeatedly. Grr...

Furballs of the world unite! Cast off your flea collars and demand decent synergies before the final release! I'd lodge an official complaint later, and risk running the gauntlet that is Battle.net Forums, but, I, uh, wanna play some more. Anyhoo, no other noticable changes in town 'cept for the much touted blue potion sale at Akara's House o' Pots. Shame a Weredruid doesn't need blues for the first few levels, and after that they should have high enough mana and leech to live a life of mana potion abstinance for a very long time. Let's get out there and cause some damage, /players 8 style!

My mission, should I choose to accept it:
1) Play the game to see if the patch is worth the wait.
2) Test things to see if there are any improvement with the drops system.
3) Amass more chips than Frito-Lays. Oh yes.

Experience Shrine a couple of yards away from the encapment entrance, and for a clvl 1, /players 8 Druid this is a godsend, the difference between taking on three Zombies for the level and three Quill Rats. First monster in sight is a Zombie, and actually they do look kinda different, unless I never noticed their shoulder pads before. Yeah, that's it. Zombie dispatched, and now it's down to a couple of Quill Rats.

Ching! Level 2. Invest in Werwolf and let the blood flow, not bad for thirty seconds of work. Time to explore a bit.

Now folks, I don't want to upset anyone, but what I am about to impart may shock you (Unless of course this isn't the first post you've read here.). Blood Moor, Fallen, everywhere! Now, I'm not talking about maybe four or five Fallen randomly appearing near an abandoned house, I'm talking dozens of the little buggers all over the Moor! How's that for diversity, folks? Bet you're glad you waited in line at Gamespy's servers with the rest of the great unwashed and kept your place like a regular plebe. Nah, seriously, it is good to see more Fallen sprinkled around for diversity, the Moor was just plain boring, and it is fun to actually place kill 'n' chase with the little red bastards without having to worry about Shaman. Blood Moor cleared, and as usual I burst past Flavie to trigger the Cold Plains Waypoint, time to tackle the Den at clvl 4, verging on 5.

Now, this will probably piss some folk off: Fallen Shaman are far more annoying than ever. While there does seem to be a delay between them "casting" reserruct on a Fallen and the said Fallen dusting themselves off before, yes, getting decapitated again. But I believe their effective range for resurrecting has been increased greatly. Seriously. Try it out. Drag a few Fallen away from their Shaman master and kill them around the corner at a distance that normal Shaman cannot reach. They'll be back, hell yes, and eventually your teeth will be set on edge.

And another thing about the difficulty, Shaman annoyances aside, I don't really see any major difference between hot-newness /players 8 and the old-and-busted players 8 (Though of course the additional clvl gained thanks to that early shrine may have put myself ahead of the difficulty curve). True, monsters regenerate HPs very quickly, and if you don't kill them straight away you can watch their life bar climb back to full in a matter of seconds, but they die just the same, and the first Gargantuan Beast (Always a sobering sight) went down like Jaques Cousteau to my claws. Still, thanks to those fuggin' Shaman, and their closeness and the size of their packs, I still had to work pretty hard to get to the end. About ten monsters left, clvl 6 reached, one in 'wolf and five in Lycanthropy, I decided to treat myself to a nice, juicy, Oak Sage. (Tastes great with chicken! Mmm. Chicken.) Hmm, forget working on Heart of Wolverine like I did with Blaiddarth - Sure, I hit harder than anything out there, but the potion prices were astronomical! And they taste worse than Vanilla Coke, yech. Pump Oak, get more HP than God, be happy. Would a loved a synergy for any of the spirits, but what are you gonna do when Blizzard have just repackaged the old Dire Wolf/Grizzly passives as their "new gimmick?"

Oh, and what did I say about the difficulty before? Forget about it. If I was bombing through the Den like a locomotive, then Corpsefire and his pack decided to play the role of the couch on the line. Minion HP is boosted, minion damage is boosted, and there were five of them. Ouch. I even had to run away! Unthinkable! I can't help but feel I disgraced myself somehow. Even though I was drawing one, maybe two away from their pack at a time I was still getting smacked. Hey, thank God a random Fallen had popped a (Actually pretty decent) Rare Padded Leather up on the Moor, or it would have been over a lot sooner.

Still can't find Corpsefire though, and that thought worried me as I was down to two monsters, two Zombies on the screen, and no boss yet. Guess what Blizzard have done kiddies? That's right: Bosses aren't differently coloured no more, at least in the beta. Boy was my face red as I blazed towards the final "Zombie" without paying attention and getting my ass handed back to me thanks to a poisened spectral hit. Then again, bosses don't benefit from having the little light radius in the caves, 'cause no every monster has 'em. Of course, if you want to find Corpsefire in a hurry, here's a hint - He's mute. That's right, his lips are sealed, doesn't so much as grunt. Folks, this is how you can tell this is a beta.

Hmm, I wonder if Blizzard incorporated commands to do all the funky stuff you saw in the screenshots, such as displaying monsters and moving townsfolk. It sure as hell would speed up the beta, and I wouldn't be one to complain when it's removed in the final. Nope, all the disadvantages of playing a beta, with none of the advantages. Yes, I'm still bitter of the synergy fiasco, leave me alone.

Corpsefire didn't drop much of anything, four minor reds to replace the five light reds I chugged taking him and his pack on (Cheers!), a magical short bow, and a magical katar. This does not bode well for the implication of improved drops. TP up, grap the extra Lycanthropy point from Akara, listen to Kashya whine about Blood Raven, ID, hock, and WP to the Plains.

Damn those Shaman! Damn their bones! They're really getting annoying! On no fewer than three seperate occassions did I meet five packs of ten Fallen, with a Shaman, in close proximity where the Shaman from the furthest pack can raise a Fallen from the nearest. When will Blizzard recognise that annoying the hell out of people does not equate a greater gameplay challenge? Probably about the same time they fix the MS No-Stun bug in Diablo.

Maybe it's not too late to play Resident Evil 3 before dinner.

But on the whole, the general drops are better even though the boss drops are through the floor. Bishibosh (Also a dumb mute) didn't drop so much as a cracked sash, and a Dark Rogue boss had naught but a Grand Charm (My third of the day) with lousy mods. But the normal monsters were popping rings and amulets and blues and rares all over the shop, and I'm now wearing my third Rare Padded Leather.

Time to shop. Charsi had a two-hander with a 10% chance to cast level 1 Amplify Damage on striking on sale, and if this had been 1.09 I wouldn't have looked at it twice.

But maybe they've fixed it for single?

The answer came halfway through a pack of Dark Spearwomen: YES! Finally! Chance to cast Curse actually WORKS! Heheheheh, all that time I ran through the game with my old Barbarian with a pair of Amp Damage two-handers and wondering why no one was being cursed. It's replay time!

Ooh, is that the time? Food calls, and I was just about to hit 9. My Rogue is loving her new Hunter's with three chipped sapphires, though the monsters ain't, plus I got a few chippies, and lots of Stash space now I don't have to hoarde blues (Say, what is the juve formula? I'll have to find that out.) and the general drops are pretty good, though bosses are only good for experience at the moment.

So that's objectives 2 and 3 accomplished. What about 1? Hmm, on one hand you've got pretty decent difficulty on boss packs, blues for sale, the good drops, monster diversity, and the neato command reporting "players set to 8". On the other, you got even more annoying Shaman, the monster light radii in caves (Which rather defeats the purpose of a dark cave, dontchathink?), the nonsensical and overhyped synergies (Then again, this is a pure Weredruid point of view, other characters will probably benefit. Bastards.) and the awful, awful boss drops. Also, the affix diversity is both a good and a bad thing. Good because it gives a sense of total randomness, and you can never tell what you'll get next, and bad because by now I've usually got a pair of "find xx% extra gold" rings with maybe some MF by now, in fact it's almost guaranteed that one would drop in the Den, this was the first game ever when I haven't found one. The MF doesn't bother me in the slightest, but for a habitual gambler and someone who needs to repair their gear (*Waits for cheers and catcalls from the Sorceress and Amazon corners*) I need the moolah. *Sigh*

Alms for the poor?

Well, here's hoping things pick up later on.