1.10 new "synergies"

[Roland]

Synergistic skills are one of the few things I'm actually looking forward to. Why? MODDING! See my signature. :P

I'm just curious as to how much freedom we get with these Synergistic skills. Some are straight damage modifiers, while others add to more subtle elements (added healing for Prayer, anyone?). I just wonder how we'll be able to change these. Will I be able to add damage to Sanctuary by pumping Prayer? Will I be able to add to Prayer's healing by pumping Vengeance? Etc., etc. This new ability intrigues me a great deal; the more I hear about it, the more I want to know about it. But, unfortunately, it's something I CAN'T speculate on. Without cold, hard proof in the files themselves, we modders won't know anything about the limits we can take with it.

That is my sole interest in 1.10: modding. We've been promised alot more power and freedom. It's time for Blizzard to pay the bill for their own speeches.

Although, I must admit... looking at the picture, I am feeling faintly nauseous. And hungry. Where's my breakfast?

[TaiDaishar]

Greetings WarBlade.

You seem to have already made a few speculation about Bob, one of which is that he puts points in conviction, vengence, meditation, holy shield and fanatiscm, I do not remember anything about saying he's trying to max those 5 skills.

Secondly, you seem to forget (no matter how justified it is because of the dupes) that not every one has that 100% resist shield and let me remind you that even WITH that shield, the paladin is at 0% resists in hell, not a good thing if you're going against LE.

No, the Synergies in the cases of the Elemental Resist + Attack Auras might have been intended to encourage point investment in the Defensive Tree, but they certainly won't do much to encourage active use. 

I disagree, if I had a max defiance and a max conviction against a horde of overwhelming monsters surrounding me, I would most definatly use Defiance instead of conviction as I play HC my survivability is more important than being able to kill a few more monsters in that 5 seconds my character has to live before it dies.

And lets picture this, you happen to encounter a MSLE in Hell, your resists, even with that 100% resists shield, doesn't help you much, will you use fanatiscm when fighting him or salvation (at a fairly low level) or a mid-high level lightning resist which will give you far greater bonuses to light resist than salvation.

[Roland]

Over at RB. Synergies, like anything else, are just a tool. It's up to the artist to make art with them. A good artist can make a masterpiece with the simplest of tools. A bad artist, no matter how good the tools are, will never be able to make even a remotely worthwhile piece.

[WarBlade]

Greetings WarBlade.

You seem to have already made a few speculation about Bob, one of which is that he puts points in conviction, vengence, meditation, holy shield and fanatiscm, I do not remember anything about saying he's trying to max those 5 skills.

4 Skills. I gave an either/or option between Conviction and Fanaticism because of the huge Mana expenses involved in maxing Vengeance. You need to put points somewhere to get the leech or regeneration happening.

Secondly, you seem to forget (no matter how justified it is because of the dupes) that not every one has that 100% resist shield and let me remind you that even WITH that shield, the paladin is at 0% resists in hell, not a good thing if you're going against LE.

I seem to forget? :huh:

That the shield slot alone is but one slot and it's practically impossible to run in Hell using such a shield and have 0% Resistance left in anything (unless nekked). On the contrary, typical Lightning and Fire Riesist numbers for me are 75.

You're right in saying not everyone has that 100% Resist All shield. One of my Paladin's carries 106%, another carries a 76% one. Really, if Murphy should opt not to drop a 4 socket exceptional in Nightmare, Larzuk is ready and willing to assist. There's no reason for a Paladin not to carry a 4D shield of some kind (outside of variant/restricted play).

I disagree, if I had a max defiance and a max conviction against a horde of overwhelming monsters surrounding me, I would most definatly use  Defiance instead of conviction as I play HC my survivability is more important than being able to kill a few more monsters in that  5 seconds my character has to live before it dies.

Defiance? *Reads back and notes Defiance mentioned* We were talking abut synergies. How did Defiance get into your debate??? :blink:

And lets picture this, you happen to encounter a MSLE in Hell, your resists, even with that 100% resists shield, doesn't help you much, will you use fanatiscm when fighting him or salvation (at a fairly low level) or a mid-high level lightning resist which will give you far greater bonuses to light resist than salvation.

Depends on the creature. Salvation won't boost an already maxed resistance so that skill will never have a point invested (except for one character I have where one point is there for the pretty rainbow). Likewise Resist Lightning also does nothing. Depending on the charatcer, my tactics range from ranged attacks to Charge attacks always staying with an Offensive Aura of some kind. I also have a couple of no Offensive Aura Paladins and they'll just stick to their default Defiance and Prayer/Meditation Auras.

[mageofthesands]

Nasty overgrown geckos. *fake Aussie acent* I can bite my arm off in one fierce bite! Criky! *end bad sterotypeing* But Rabies is so fun. I still like Specter's version of a contagious virus type Rabies. Maybe adding points to something will increase Rabies' duration? Or adding points to bear skills will increase wolf skills and vice versa? I hope not on that one.

BTW, has anyone heard of Dragoon's Guide to the Werebear?

[WarBlade]

I think you mean, "Is there someone, anyone, here who has not heard of Dragoon's Guide to the Werebear?" ;)

[mageofthesands]

So sue me. I'm a newbie to online guides. ....Crazy b.net people, never show respect to the single player....grumble....

[WarBlade]

I'm a newbie to online guides.

And you'd be wise to keep it that way. There are probably about 10 guides worth reading and the one you mentioned is one of them. Most of the guides around are for printing out on toilet paper.

[mageofthesands]

And I posted asking which ten they are. Care to tell me?

[NuurAbSaal]

I like the idea of boosting Paladin defensive auras.

my own idea:

Resist Lightning, Fire and Cold all grant +1 (mb less?) absorb per point

Why?
Would make them more useful for keeping Mercs alive against tough Magic attackers or catapults for example and would be (IMHO) fun but not "uber".

I have not really thought it trough but I'm sure you guys will have no problem finding some flaws ;) Comments appreciated.

Oh, I forgot that it's completley useless to come up with ideas for 1.1 now (or ever, for that matter), maybe some modmakers (you know who you are!) like the idea though...

Greetings
Nuur

[Occhidiangela]

You know.. I wonder how many people are desperately trying to find +3 bone spear 2 socket wands right about now.   Who knows if they will change White or disable it 

I have been looking for just such a wand on West and East Hardcore for about six months.

No luck. :P

I hope they keep White, I like that Rune Word.

As I understand it, the points added for synergy effecdts are only the points from your 'click on the button' skill selections. Apparently, some sort of flag on the skills added by items precludes those bonus points from counting on the synergy effects. I may have understood that incorrectly, however.

[Occhidiangela]

mageofthesands: And I posted asking which ten they are. Care to tell me

Monkeycid recently did a nice guide to the Barbarian. See discussion on the Armory Forum here at The Lurker Lounge.

CorwinBrute, and a few others, have some nice Amazon Guides over at the Amazon Basin. (Go the the Lurker Lounge Front Page --click on the picture of DiabloII at the top of this page-- to find out how to get to Amazon Basin.) See discussion at the Armory about the Javazon Guide, recently posted.

Check the Armory also for a variety of other strategy and tactics discussions.

There is a fairly recent Trapper Assassin Guide at Diabloii.net that is not too bad, however, most of what you need to know can be gleaned from discussions at The Armory.

Elric of Grans has posted some excellent Necromancer class information, curses in particular: go to any of his posts here and click on the links.

You know about Dragoon and his Werebear guide, try Zarathustra's guide to the Elemental Druid, it is excellent. :) I am pretty sure Bolty hosted it here, check the front page for links.

Tomi Gustaffsen, IIRC, posted The Walking Paladin Guide. It is very good.

Check the Armory for links, and the front page.

If you are interested in HC play, there is a decent HC guide here: Rahl's Hardcore Guide

He includes some basic Barbarian and Sorceress Magic Find builds in it. There are a couple of errors, such as extra strong being 3X versus 2X, but it is a solid product. I will be updating it when 1.10 comes out, but not until then. My friend Rahl gave me permission to do that.

[Kharohz]

I have already found mine, it is whited and ready to go.

I did this because you never know what they do to runewords, or even if they change the runes, being how as it seems bone spear looks much more viable now.

At first I thought the only way would to FIND the wand, turns out you can buy it.

Oh it takes 15-30 mins to attain this wand ;). Get about 300k Gold (You'll probally only need 150k.. but hey)
Go to act2 normal, make sure the game loads so that the town gate is near the Wand selling guy.

Keep looking over the Bone Wands only (Wands/Yew wands do not get 2 sockets). Buy if either two socketed or no socket (You can use the socket quest on the latter, it usually always will give two)

Oh the only problem is that these wands cannot spawn with lvl 24/30 skills. But since you are after Bone spear it shouldn't be a problem.

Enjoy ;)

[Nicodemus Phaulkon]

Or as I like to call them: The Scriptures ;)

[Kharohz]

As I understand it, the points added for synergy effecdts are only the points from your 'click on the button' skill selections. Apparently, some sort of flag on the skills added by items precludes those bonus points from counting on the synergy effects. I may have understood that incorrectly, however.

Nah you got it correct. I want a +8 bone spear wand merely because (obviously) from that screenshot shows that it is now a viable skill. :)

[Brista]

It seems to me that the way to get the most out of Bone Spear is to get the skill level up as high as possible and put real points into the multiplicative skills

+8 BS White seems like a darn good start, a 2 socket +3 Bone Spear Head would be useful too just in case there's a +skills runeword for it

[jondifool]

replying to

Hehe, silly me, Jondi, this quote is for you, taken directly from GFraizer:

Only the points you assign, and not those granted by items, give synergy bonuses

thx Taidashar. Feeling stupid that I missed that. But at least now I am a little more confident that the patch is thought trough!.

[WarBlade]

my own idea:

Resist Lightning, Fire and Cold all grant +1 (mb less?) absorb per point

I've seen that one pop up in so many wishlists before and never cared for it myself. For one thing the name says it all: Resist Fire, Cold, Lightning. That's a far cry from "Absorb Fire, Cold, Lightning".

Absorb is not a resist and it's effect is actually reduced by the power of Resistances, so as the skill level increases (in this wish case) the absorb number goes up and yet is also simultaneously being reined in by the increasing Resistance. All very Mickey Duck IMO.

I've always advocated increases to maximum Resistance instead. Imagine the skill with something like +1 to Maximum Resist per level . . . It doesn't grant the character the ad hoc virtual Immunity that some Absorb items can give and doesn't contribute to such things either (something that should be difficult to achieve). Under such a circumstance a number of players would be tempted to drop single points into Resist Lightning and Fire and with +Skills from items actually make use of the small bonus to the top end in particular fights. Alternately some variant styles might evolve to go the whole hog and aim for a 90% resistance to something or similar, perhaps even after suffering enemies' Conviction. B)

[mageofthesands]

How about this? Adding pionts in Death Sentry adds massive damage to Shock Web, Charged Bolt Trap adds more spikes to Shock Web, and Lightning Trap adds duration. I think a Spider build would be fun.

I'll check those guides out.

[Ignatz]

Shock Web isn't supposed to do damage, silly! It's for parlor tricks and style points. I think, frankly, that it's pretty cool that the Assassin is the only character with a taunt move.