The friggin early days.....
#21
Jedi Knight,Apr 10 2003, 11:46 AM Wrote:Immunities didn't exist at all before 1.08, which gave the sorceress a little more choice for her spells. In LoD you have to spend points everywhere just because of some immune monsters - it removes all originality from different builds, they're all almost the same now.
I disagree that it ruined the sorc varients, the varients were destroyed by the incredibly powerful spells the sorc has now added to the general uselessness of not uber physical attackers because of the 50% PR, at least with the immunes the sorcs have to spend (well, supposedly, if the cows weren't so bloody popular) in more than one tree and that's what Blizzard wanted, what I wanted as well, I hated the one/two skill builds like the mastery/WW and orb/static they ruined the entire point of the different skills, I also hate the one skill builds of today which are MS and Orb or Firewall...
"Turn the key deftly in the oiled wards, and seal the hushed casket of my soul" - John Keats, "To Sleep"
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#22
Jedi Knight,Apr 10 2003, 06:46 AM Wrote:In LoD you have to spend points everywhere just because of some immune monsters - it removes all originality from different builds, they're all almost the same now.
I don't know....

There were a lot of one trick ponies in Classic. Now you have to think about how you are going to build for the inevitable monsters who are immune to your main attack.

However, since I have zero experience with public games, I cannot comment on the 'they're all almost the same now' part. But it seems to me that there are still many ways to vary on a character class and still be effective.
And you may call it righteousness
When civility survives,
But I've had dinner with the Devil and
I know nice from right.

From Dinner with the Devil, by Big Rude Jake


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#23
Hail Jedi Knight,

Immunities were added with LoD early on - pre-beta I think - but they were only 95% resistant. General complaining here got it to true immune in the 1.47 beta build.
May the wind pick up your heels and your sword strike true.
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#24
And even when really immune it was buggy for a while.
Also some really overpowered combos got, thankfully, discovered and fixed. Anyone recall conviction+static testing Sirian did? I loved the Diablo-dies-in-2-statics-or-near-enough screenshots </sarcasm>.
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#25
I have a tri elemental sorceress, very pedestrian:

Maxed Hydra
Maxed T-storm
Some points on both Masteries (+ skills takes it to 10-12)
1 point in Cold
As much into Orb as I can fit.

She seems able to kill what ever needs killing, and has a Merc to do the Physical damage.

Is she fast? No, but she is effective.

I also suck at sorceresses, in general, so I don't go for exotic builds there. :)
Cry 'Havoc' and let slip the Men 'O War!
In War, the outcome is never final. --Carl von Clausewitz--
Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum
John 11:35 - consider why.
In Memory of Pete
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#26
I don't think T-Storm really counts as an actual damage as it only hits one target every few seconds and is a cast and forget spell...

It's too bad you don't make the more exotic sorceresses builds as they are much much much more fun than the usuals, I even tried to make a Druid with Arctic Blast (like a sorc with inferno) too bad Arctic Blast simply stink and has no mastery so it didn't work out :)
"Turn the key deftly in the oiled wards, and seal the hushed casket of my soul" - John Keats, "To Sleep"
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#27
The angelic halo bug that let you get slvl 200+ abilities :) Hahaha. I actually used that one just as a gag because it was sooooo friggin funny to mow down everything with, well, anything. Ph33r my holy fire (which would reach across the entire level and do thousands of damage to anyone it hit).
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#28
lol oh yes, I remember that one, I increased my skills by around 50 and went with a few friends to kill diablo, I cast one of the curses and oops... the game lags terribly and no character is seen, almost all of us died, lol that was extremely funny... it was HC mind you :)
"Turn the key deftly in the oiled wards, and seal the hushed casket of my soul" - John Keats, "To Sleep"
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#29
It just is not an area of effect skill. It does plenty of damage per stroke.

My Sorceress on West is, IIRC, Firewall and Chain Lightning. Have not played her in ages, but Chain is pretty neat against big groups. Been looking for the perfect Cutlass, rare, to use for FC. :)
Cry 'Havoc' and let slip the Men 'O War!
In War, the outcome is never final. --Carl von Clausewitz--
Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum
John 11:35 - consider why.
In Memory of Pete
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#30
Quote:I disagree that it ruined the sorc varients, the varients were destroyed by the incredibly powerful spells the sorc has now added to the general uselessness of not uber physical attackers because of the 50% PR, at least with the immunes the sorcs have to spend (well, supposedly, if the cows weren't so bloody popular) in more than one tree and that's what Blizzard wanted, what I wanted as well, I hated the one/two skill builds like the mastery/WW and orb/static they ruined the entire point of the different skills, I also hate the one skill builds of today which are MS and Orb or Firewall...

Maybe sorc variants are not "ruined". But the way it is right now, Blizzard forces you to put points erywhere in order to complete the game. If uber skills were toned down, and some resists were added, it would allow versatility as well as one/two skills builds - but cookie-cutter builds would be less effective, and variants a little more. Which means a Static / FW / Orb sorc would not kill that much faster than a Meteor / Thunderstorm / Glacial Spike build, for example. Both would be viable and fun to play.
[Image: lukesnewlightsaber.jpg]

An elegant weapon for a more civilized time. For over a thousand generations the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic. Before the dark times, before the Empire.
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#31
If you're looking for balance, you won't generally find it any better in mods than in stock Diablo II. In fact, most times you'll find it far worse. However, there ARE a few mods out there that strive for balance, and some of those even achieve it. ;)

I don't mean to toot my own horn, but my mod is solely about balance. It's the prime focus for my mod, and I've spent a great deal of time honing it. Granted, my mod is far from perfect, and I'm sure there are still imbalances to be fixed (of those that CAN be fixed, anyway), but it's a far cry from the horrible state of stock D2. ;) Might want to give it a shot.

http://www.diablosc.com/hosted_files/dark_tower/

Grab the latest version and check it out. 1.10 is the latest official release, and 1.11 Beta is the latest internal build release. Even that is outdated compared to the latest internal build, but it's still farther along than 1.10. ;) Take your pick. Just remember that mods cannot be played on the Realms, solely in either SP, TCP/IP, or Open Battle.Net. I'm working on potentially getting a Dark Tower Realm up and running. First attempt failed, but with new server software, and with information on how to do it, I may just get it up someday. We'll see. :)
Roland *The Gunslinger*
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#32
What I remember best are sorcs with piercing bows so they could pierce with glacial spike etc... and when we first started messing around with fast cast... And then overnight every sorc had max static...
I also remember every good character had enough str for ornate plate, *or else* and that we used to build our barbs from level 1-50 with points in the masteries tree only.
Oh and nobody liked to party with a summon mancer, and who can forget corpse explosion reaching for a screen and a half easily, with scaleable damage...
Nobody used fanaticism much either, it was concentration for life! And almost everyone had a really good paladin, because they were quite strong (but not too much in zeal)
Oh yeah... my favorate thing was how strafe's ed multiplied ALL your damage, not just bow damage (of course bows did like 1 damage for a while) and that if you had a revive happy necro you could put 30 arrows into
one monster...
And almost everyone had some dual leech jewelery if they'd played a character or two up to 70 or so, it just seemed you found them from quests and such...
-Saga_Keeper
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#33
I don't think they'r eall the same now....

True some skills are almost never used, but there are many viable main attacks that people use.....Orb, Nova, TS, Hydra, Firewall......and the lesser used (but still used) inferno, blaze, charged bolt, blizzard, meteor.
"Once you have tasted flight,
you will forever walk the earth with
your eyes turned skyward, for there
you have been, and there you will
always long to return."

-Leonardo da Vinci
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#34
Reading this post, it came to me just how much this website has affected people playing this game, even the uneducated people on Battle.Net.

Hey, if we didn't figure it out someone else would have, but it is still nice to think about :)

Oh and about those dual-leech rings? they are still around, in both D2C and D2X.... And still duped all the time. :angry: and now, *they* are starting to hack D2X items into D2C :blink:
BANANAMAN SEZ: SHUT UP LADIES. THERE IS ENOF BANANA TO GO AROUND. TOOT!
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#35
LL discoveries have definitely been the origin of many Realm-wide trends.

I remember hanging out with a group of Lurkers early LOD and being shown how one could do the cow level more than once per difficulty. It took a few months for that dangerous information to be widely known and progress to the current state where a 1/3rd or more hell games have 'cow' in the title and there are official cow channels on the channel list.

What really gets my nostalgia going is the period when the enhanced damage modifiers weren't working on bows, and +min/max modifiers were all that an amazon needed to care about (along with speed and base item of course). I was playing paladins a lot then, and I really enjoyed the fact that an Amazon and a Paladin with concentration was a team significanty stronger than the sum of its parts. Amazons are so strong now that having a Paladin aura is icing on the cake, but not improvement enough to evoke cries of "YAY!!! A PALADIN!!!" :D

Those games with just my conc (or might/smite in one case) paladin and a group of 5-7 zons playing through all of act4 in private games... That was in a small way kind of like living out one of my adolescent fantasies. :P (I have a screenie saved somewhere of my paladin surrounded by 21 zons/decoys/valks onscreen)
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#36
Quote:(I have a screenie saved somewhere of my paladin surrounded by 21 zons/decoys/valks onscreen)



I'd love to see that screenie...
"Once you have tasted flight,
you will forever walk the earth with
your eyes turned skyward, for there
you have been, and there you will
always long to return."

-Leonardo da Vinci
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#37
The days when Izual was immune to Static Field with sufficiently enough players, Hephasto the cause of many VERY quick deaths, LEB's possesing "stealth" bolts, and the awsome power of the Javazon never fully realized.

"Holy crap! You just solo tanked Diablo! What armour are you wearing?"
"Oh, twitch"
"Oh.. Sigon shield?"
"Nah, 3D tower"
"Hm.. what weapon?"
"Some Glaive I bought in shop"
"Ahh... I see..."

*snicker*

Ahh, yes, the days when Static Field was worth it enough to have more than an one-point investment, and monsters were only highly-resistant, never immune. The days when Sirian would prove us all wrong by doing the impossible, and take a sorceress to Act-IV with only Firebolt at her side. Wonder if he lurks here anymore...

The days when auras were star-shaped, and when Strafe was so powerful no-one noticed some damage modifier doesn't work with bows. The hours spent running from Elzix's to the sewer entrance, then back again, the days spent actually doing everything in Act-III, and the weeks spent attempting and re-attempting to get farther than Hell Act-III with my Lightning-only-Sorceress. :P

Ahh, yes, the good'ol days.
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#38
Quote:The hours spent running from Elzix's to the sewer entrance, then back again,


I've never understood this. The waypoint is closer and quicker. I run to the Lut Gholein WP, blink to Sewers L2, blink back to Lut Gholein, and run back to Elzix. I've timed it, it's quicker.

Why am I the only one I know who does this?

-Kasreyn
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#39
Quote:Why am I the only one I know who does this?

I was a WP guy too :P
--Mith

I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.
Jack London
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#40
Ahh... I remember the days in which I scavanged every armor, gem and the like for a few gold pieces in order to my item hungry characters some good items!

Of course I always cursed the merchants because they scammed me all the time (Gheed more than anyone else)
"Turn the key deftly in the oiled wards, and seal the hushed casket of my soul" - John Keats, "To Sleep"
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