I need detailed refreshers

[Nightwind]

It used to be that you could trust the "offical" blizard page for the rough idea of things.

That you came to the lounge and read archived posts if you wanted solid studies and details.

And the forum let you get the cutting edge in stratgy and skill.


Where can I get ANY of this now? I hardly recognise this place anymore, and the archvived files all say "nolonger relivent".

I can't find anything that seems to be accurate and up to date... ubers? Torches?

Can I please get some explanations, or better yet, solid, dependable links?

[Zingydex]

Well, here's the basics of what's new since 1.0x:

- Skill Changes: Many skills now give passive bonuses to other skills based on the number of "hard" (not item-granted) points you have in them. The relative power of many skills has been drastically altered, as has the power balance between different character builds.

- Item Changes: A smattering of new "static" gear and a TON of new runewords have been added - although some of the runewords are only valid either on closed Battlenet or a mod.

- Monster Changes: Monster stats have been upgraded right across the board. They're faster, stronger, tougher, and generally meaner. Basically, you NEED those upgrades to skills and gear to stand a chance outside of Normal difficulty.

- Battlenet Changes: Characters are now divided into "Ladder" and "non-Ladder". Non-ladder play is a bit easier, but you don't have access to some of the newer runewords and whatnot.

- World Event: Realm-only, unless you find a mod like PlugY that enables it for single-player. I'm pretty sure it's ladder-only, too. Essentially, from time to time in Hell difficulty the screen will shake and you get the message "Diablo Walks The Earth". After this point, the next superunique monster (Rakanishu, Corpsefire, or any other non-boss unique that shows up in a predictable place) that you come close enough to "activate" will be replaced by a souped-up version of Diablo. This guy can be anywhere from manageable to unbeatable depending on what sort of character you're playing. If you kill him, you usually find yourself with a unique small charm, the Annihilus, with bonuses that make it well worth the battle.

- Uber Tristram: Also Realm-only, and DEFINITELY ladder-only. This is an extremely involved side quest that requires even more attention to character choice than the Diablo Clone. This Thread at the Amazon Basin covers most of the gory details.

The Basin forum is also jam-packed with experienced D2 players, some of which (like adeyke and myself) also hang out here. Digging through that place with the help of the built-in search engine (YMMV with that) can get you all the info you ever wanted on the game.

[Occhidiangela]

It used to be that you could trust the "offical" blizard page for the rough idea of things.

That you came to the lounge and read archived posts if you wanted solid studies and details.

And the forum let you get the cutting edge in stratgy and skill.
Where can I get ANY of this now?  I hardly recognise this place anymore, and the archvived files all say "nolonger relivent".

I can't find anything that seems to be accurate and up to date... ubers?  Torches?

Can I please get some explanations, or better yet, solid, dependable links?
[right][snapback]108808[/snapback][/right]

Did you read the readme file for patch 1.10? The discussion of synergy? If not, I suggest you go to Chippy Dip's page and play around with the synergy system between skills.

Torch's and Ubers are an end game quest. Read this description.

The Annihulus Charm is from "Diablo XP" which is a Diablo Clone who spawns in Hell difficulty games when a certain number of SOJ's are sold, or a world event occurs that triggers "XXXX SoJ's sold" messages. He will spawn in the place of a normal superunique, such as Rakanishu or Bishibosh, the Countess, etcetera.

If you kill him, the charm he drops has +19 resist all, +1 skills, looks like a Mehpisto Soutstone, and has other attributes that I forget at the moment.

His regen is prodigious.

Hell difficulty monsters tend to be immune to at least one form of damage, and many mini bosses are double immunes when Stone Skin, Lightining Enchantment, or Fire Enchantment are piled onto resistsances to put them over 100%. Lower Resist and Conviction have made a big comeback to "break" immunities.

Wands with Charges of Lower Resist are a handy back up tool for any elemental based character.

Patch 1.11 Rune words provide for one +2 to class skills armor for each player class. The Assassin armor is a big favorite, thanks to its Fade casting on hit that boosts resists and physical immunity. Read Here

One trick ponies, other than Hammerdins, are a thing of the past, Singing Barbarians are more common, and Hurricane Druids seem to be quite popular these days.

Occhi

[Nightwind]

One trick ponies, other than Hammerdins, are a thing of the past, Singing Barbarians are more common, and Hurricane Druids seem to be quite popular these days.

So a high restances vengances baced paladin is a bad idea?

Would it make better sence to invest into smite?

Or it it completely back to the days of passive aura's that mearly help those who do the work to stay alive with the occasional holy bolt booster?

I did read all the offical documentation... gibberish as usual. And I'm working my way through the summet, though not expecting any of it to be true mind you.

If I wanted a minimaly invasive mod to make some of the MP options into sp ones to experiment with, is there a recomendation. Or is the best recomendation as always to simply dive into a ladder game and find out the hard way?

[Nightwind]

The Basin forum is also jam-packed with experienced D2 players, some of which (like adeyke and myself) also hang out here.  Digging through that place with the help of the built-in search engine (YMMV with that) can get you all the info you ever wanted on the game.

thank you,
but I'm afraid if I went to the basin right now without some experimentation first, then I'd just be asking the same questions again, and be twice as anoying for the brave souls who visit both places...

(could be worce, I could also be spamming 10 other places, right?)

[Occhidiangela]

So a high restances vengances baced paladin is a bad idea?

Would it make better sence to invest into smite?

Or it it completely back to the days of passive aura's that mearly help those who do the work to stay alive with the occasional holy bolt booster?

I did read all the offical documentation... gibberish as usual.  And I'm working my way through the summet, though not expecting any of it to be true mind you.

If I wanted a minimaly invasive mod to make some of the MP options into sp ones to experiment with, is there a recomendation.  Or is the best recomendation as always to simply dive into a ladder game and find out the hard way?
[right][snapback]108814[/snapback][/right]

A vengeance/conviction build still works. Merc Choice is, of course, worth detailed consideration.

Occhi

[Munkay]

thank you,
but I'm afraid if I went to the basin right now without some experimentation first, then I'd just be asking the same questions again, and be twice as anoying for the brave souls

It may be good to suspend your questions until you have some 1.10 experience under your belt, but AB is an incredible community and a vast resource worth reading before you endevour too deeply into 1.10. Delaying questions is fine, but missing out on all the information over there, is well, akin to trying to kill Hell Baal with a cracked club - just don't do it.

Cheers,

Munk

Edit: Hit post instead of Preview Post.

[Nightwind]

A vengeance/conviction build still works.  Merc Choice is, of course, worth detailed consideration.

Occhi
[right][snapback]108817[/snapback][/right]

act two merc... but what KIND, eh?

[Munkay]

act two merc... but what KIND, eh?
[right][snapback]108859[/snapback][/right]

That's the part that involves detailed consideration ;)

Check out what a few guides have to say about what works best, or even test out a few different builds in SP (using a program like ATMA to mimick the equip of your BNet char).

Cheers,

Munk

[Zingydex]

So a high restances vengances baced paladin is a bad idea?

Would it make better sence to invest into smite?

Or it it completely back to the days of passive aura's that mearly help those who do the work to stay alive with the occasional holy bolt booster?

I did read all the offical documentation... gibberish as usual.  And I'm working my way through the summet, though not expecting any of it to be true mind you.

If I wanted a minimaly invasive mod to make some of the MP options into sp ones to experiment with, is there a recomendation.  Or is the best recomendation as always to simply dive into a ladder game and find out the hard way?
[right][snapback]108814[/snapback][/right]

Finding out "the hard way" about some of the nastier surprises in 1.11 is not my recommendation. If you want a mod with minimal changes, I'd suggest PlugY (Google-able, IIRC), since the only notable changes enabled by default besides the Bnet-only features are the shared stash and the ability to un-allocate skill and stat points (allowing you to fiddle with multiple builds with relative ease).

Melee paladins (well, melee anything) are much more vulnerable nowadays, with the sheer wallop monsters pack and the instant-death threat of Iron Maiden. Vengeance would be your best bet to slip under the IM radar, but don't count on it. Most melee characters need maxed blocking and/or a tremendous life pool to survive long at higher levels. Don't count on your defense rating to help; every monster that does enough physical damage to be a threat either ignores the number altogether or has an obscenely high attack rating.

If you're going with Vengeance, focus your points on Conviction and the four synergy auras unless you're loaded with mana leech. The per-swing cost of a high-level Vengeance will drain your mana in seconds.

Smite is mainly a boss-killing skill, in conjunction with Crushing Blow gear. Its value in general melee is limited.


A few monster bugs that bear mentioning, since Blizzard's too lazy to fix them:

- Gloam-type monsters (the ghosts that race around shooting lightning bolts) do abnormally high damage, especially the high-end ones.

- Most monsters that drain your mana as part of their attack will deplete the entire blue orb every time they connect.

- Should you venture into Nihlathak's Temple in Hell, beware the vipers in the Halls of Vaught. Their projectiles will kill you before you can blink.

- "Extra Fast" monsters are unaffected by any form of slowing. I learned that the hard way myself.

- "Fire Enchanted" monsters in Nightmare will occasionally one-hit-kill you when they die, regardless of how big your life pool is. Don't stand next to such a creature when it's near death if you can possibly avoid it. Funny that they bothered to fix this (sort of) in Hell, but not Nightmare.

[Occhidiangela]

- "Fire Enchanted" monsters in Nightmare will occasionally one-hit-kill you when they die, regardless of how big your life pool is.  Don't stand next to such a creature when it's near death if you can possibly avoid it.  Funny that they bothered to fix this (sort of) in Hell, but not Nightmare.
[right][snapback]108912[/snapback][/right]

Lost a paladin to that last month. Irritating.

Occhi

[ShadowHM]

Lost a paladin to that last month.  Irritating.

Occhi
[right][snapback]109459[/snapback][/right]

So did Doc`Disaster. :(

[Nightwind]

That's the part that involves detailed consideration ;)

Check out what a few guides have to say about what works best, or even test out a few different builds in SP (using a program like ATMA to mimick the equip of your BNet char).

Cheers,

Munk

I'm reading the threads and concidering just the ones that have usable aura combinations to go along with my intentions...

Act 1 (cold)
Fanatacism Aura via Faith Runeword
Thorns aura via Edge Runeword

Act 2
Normal:
Combat Prayer
Defensive Defiance
Nightmare:
Defensive Holy Freeze
Offensive Might

Can I put a runeword into the spear and get two aura from him? Say adding a Doom runeword?

Bramble Thorns
Doom Holy Freeze
Hand of Justice , Dragon Holy Fire
Dream Holy Shock
Pheonix Redemption
Pride Concentration

Infintiry Conviction

Insight Meditation


Act 3 (Cold)
Bramble Thorns
Hand of justce, Dragon Holy Fire
Dream Holy Shock
Last Wish Might
Lawbringer Sanctuary
Pheonix Redemption


And I belive I can drop act 5 mercs off the list just with half a thought.

The ones that catch my eye are Insight on an act 2 combat merc. It'll be a while to get the weapon runeworded, but the result is nice enough in the meantime?

An act one cold merc with Faith runeworded also catches my eye, but dual regeneration seems to be a more handy thing then almost anything else, and very welcome to any party, right?

For half a moment I concidered letting the act two merc have my conviction arua for me, but the 12 levels would then be used in sanctuary, and the differnce in math between the 2% bonuses in synergy, vs the differnce between level 12 and level 20 convition... it doesn't seem to add up to a gain.

I've listed the act 3 merc options for aura equipment, but there's nothing there to even concider for any length of time?

So act two prayer? And collect Ral(8th) + Tir(3rd) + Tal(7th) + Sol(12) for insight to improve the suport capasity? The first three are easily cubed, Sol is within the non ladder chiped upgrades. And I supose I should seek an etherial?

I can't find a link that sugests what weapon I try to make the runeword in though.

Back to asking for advice it seems, yes?

[Occhidiangela]

I'm reading the threads and concidering just the ones that have usable aura combinations to go along with my intentions...

Act 1 (cold) 
Fanatacism Aura via Faith Runeword
Thorns aura via Edge Runeword

Act 2
Normal: 
Combat  Prayer
Defensive  Defiance
Nightmare: 
Defensive  Holy Freeze
Offensive  Might

Can I put a runeword into the spear and get two aura from him?  Say adding a Doom runeword?

So act two prayer?  And collect Ral(8th) + Tir(3rd) + Tal(7th) + Sol(12) for insight to improve the suport capasity?  The first three are easily cubed, Sol is within the non ladder chiped upgrades.  And I supose I should seek an etherial?


[right][snapback]109519[/snapback][/right]

Yes. You can. I have a Might Merc with an Insight Partizan who assists my Trapper. Very handy. Others have used other combinations.

Occhi

[Nightwind]

Ok, I've descided to cut the differnce between an avenger and an angel.

Merc will be a combat act 2 merc with an insight weapon.

Now, will the prayer and meditation aura's synergise?

I am also looking for recomendations for what to make the insight runeword in?

[Zingydex]

Ok, I've descided to cut the differnce between an avenger and an angel.

Merc will be a combat act 2 merc with an insight weapon.

Now, will the prayer and meditation aura's synergise?

I am also looking for recomendations for what to make the insight runeword in?
[right][snapback]109666[/snapback][/right]

Yes, it will. You'll effectively get a doubled prayer effect along with the mana regen. Any four-socket polearm-class weapon will do for Insight (yes, the desert mercs can use polearms), although ideally you'll want an ethereal version for the extra damage.

[ShadowHM]

Yes, it will.  You'll effectively get a doubled prayer effect along with the mana regen.  Any four-socket polearm-class weapon will do for Insight (yes, the desert mercs can use polearms), although ideally you'll want an ethereal version for the extra damage.
[right][snapback]109703[/snapback][/right]

Don't be afraid to make it in the first four socket polearm class weapon you find (that the mercenary can hold). Eventually, you will have more runes available, and can make an upgrade when you find another suitable base weapon for the rune word.