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I'm having a recurring problem with D2 right now and it is this. Good solidly built characters just aren't fun to play. I know these characters are powerful with their maxxed skills and great equipment but the bottom line is that it gets very dull very fast killing hordes of monsters or other players with just one or two skills (at least for me anyway). To make matters worse, it's very hard to make a character that can use both melee and magic effectively (normal not so much but definately in nightmare and hell). There is a ton of strategy in creating a powerful character (how much time have we spent bickering what skills to max or who can create a more powerful bowazon) and the process of brainstorming and engineering a good character seems to be more fun then actually playing the final product. Has anyone ever created a diversified character capable of beating hell (with obtainable items) that actually needed strategy in the game play of the character and not just the creation of the character? (I understand that every character needs at least some strategy for gameplay but keep in mind there is a difference between repetitively casting as many fireballs as fast as you can while running around dodging enemies and reacting to different monsters with different types of attacks based on your different skills). I know the odds are against me on this one because Diablo 2 was created for specialized characters so maybe I'm just venting on a difference in gaming philosophy but any advice would be greatly appreciated!!
Just fool around with either universally crappy, or builds of your own design. Odds are one of them will take some mad skills to own hell (if they get that far).
I think that the ranger (Paladin using ranged weapons) takes a great deal of skill; you have to lead your target, which is hard to do in Diablo's interface. An Amazon for example, would never have to do this; she would just spam multi-shot or fire off a few quick guided arrows.
An armageddon druid also takes some twitch hit and run tactics, bringing the fire and brimstone over your enemies then running away.
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05-13-2004, 09:48 PM
(This post was last modified: 05-13-2004, 10:02 PM by ShadowHM.)
How about a Bow Assassin? Shadow skills only.
How about a Dagger Amazon? Passive skills only.
Both of these are simple to build and require a lot of tactical manoeuvring to carry on, but both are viable in Hell.
How about a mêlée Sorceress? Skill points all over the map, but also viable.
Edit: spelling
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Charge Pallie? I made one, I'm maxing Blessed Hammer, Charge, and (Might, Vigor, Blessed Aim for synergies)... Then 4 points in Zeal... It's not easy to Charge into a pack of Death Lords and get away, you know...
You could try out for a Reviver instead of the usual Skelliemancer... Problem with that is you should have tons of mana and mana regen to be able to keep your army up...
Curser, Attract / Confuse... I don't think many people use that... Are you looking for originality or difficulty?
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Quote:Curser, Attract / Confuse... I don't think many people use that...
Won't work if you have no other killing method, as neither of them (sadly) give exp.
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How about playing what you find, only? No twinking at all. It's very simple and can be used on any character, any build, but it takes alot of brainstorming, while you play.
<glances at ShadowHM> A bow assassin? Hmmm . . . isn't that a Sniper? ;)
Want a challenge? Play her (the sniper) with just 3 skills.
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Hey ogot,
I'm not looking for an original or difficult design so much as a character that has alot of options when attacking and killing things (something that makes continuous gameplay interesting). Right now I'm testing a combat-summoning necro. I've put one 1 skill into the important curses and I am putting almost every other skill point into poison dagger, poison nova, and the summoning skills. I'm also using a thorns merc as a way to kill things off faster (I liked it better when blood golem and thorns worked together, so now i have to use fire golem instead. I know I can get more hit points for a Clay one but I need too many skill points to do that.) I've definately made more effective and damage dealing characters and I don't necessarily like how hard it's getting later on in nightmare and hell, but what I do like is that I constantly have to judge each situation and each enemy differently and I'm constantly killing creatures with many various methods.
P.S. Does anyone have any other character types/strategies where the gameplay is fresh. Remember I'm not looking for purposely difficult or creative builds, but rather a build that needs constant judgement calls and therefore a variety of ways to kill off enemies.
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Hybrid amazons might work. Amazons have several different skills that don't need synergies, or very few synergies, and you get to change between javalins and arrows. I've got one going right now that switches between plague javalin, multishot, lightning fury, and a point in the cold arrows for slowing some monsters down and it's a lot of fun.
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