Median 2007 1.23 B

[Brother Laz]

The original rabbit simulator! Well, not really, but 72 patches in 18 months is cause for celebration! If you thought Diablo 2 mods are basically cheats, with overpowered items and masses of monsters, think again. Median 2007 gives each character a new skill tree, with 30 brand new skills. Blessed hammer, what is that?

If you ever wanted to drop axe mines or shoot arrows through walls, this is the mod for you!

On the item front, 260 runewords, 120 uniques and 720 base weapons and armor are waiting for you. To make up for this, monster AI has received major changes. Frogs turn into a prince when killed, and the Summoner now actually ...summons monsters.

Mods by Brother Laz - feed the rabbit

[Wyrm]

Hmm... my battle.net accounts recently (and finally) expired so if I do start playing D2 again it'll be SP, so I'll give this a whirl next time I fire the game up. Now if only I could break my Guild Wars addiction...

[SwissMercenary]

Ah, hells, I might as well get back into this again.

Oh, and this cracked me up:

Median 2007 is the latest mod in the Median line, and its number one feature is the all new, class-specific skill trees

You mean like vanilla Diablo 2? L:P

[Brother Laz]

You mean like vanilla Diablo 2? L:P

No, I mean unlike earlier Median versions.:lol:

[SwissMercenary]

Okay, I've finally gotten D2 to work again on this dinosaur, and to put all my comments in one:

Your suspension off TPK was... Bleh. Just bleh.

In regards to the mod itself - great stuff, despite the fact that I somewhat miss some of the Median2k6 skill combos.

I've gotten a sorc to Act 2, and may comment on that character later... Otherwise...

I've also been running a meleezon. The idea is to recycle the old melee-sorc Hex + Overpower...

However, I'm at somewhat of a loss for skill distributions.

1) I'm obviously not investing into any of the bow skills. However, Death Metal, and Death Core are both in one of the bow trees. Are they worth an investment? Can they be used with a melee weapon in hand?

3) Roughly how many points should Retailate get?

3) Lionheart and Radience seem to be pretty useless for a Retribute/Retaliate meleezon. Would they be worthwhile, if I made a good investment into the two spell trees?

4) How is magic missle at all useful? 16-33 damage, 1 bolt at level 1?

5) How do Blood Star/Blood Storm do in terms of damage?

My plan as of now is something along the lines of:

4-6 Retaliate
1-6 Retribute

3+ Bloodlust
Max Mana Sweep
Max Storm Touch
3+ Hex

1+ Death Coil
1+ Mana Coil
Max? Blood Storm

A point in Lionheart and Radiance?

Is that kind of build workable?

[Brother Laz]

Sorry for the delayed reply; thought nothing had happened here, as usual...;)

'1) I'm obviously not investing into any of the bow skills. However, Death Metal, and Death Core are both in one of the bow trees. Are they worth an investment? Can they be used with a melee weapon in hand?'

No melee weapon, and they are weapon-based, meaning you need a good bow to make them worth it.

'3) Roughly how many points should Retailate get?'

Enough to cover a large-sized crowd - ~6-7.

'3) Lionheart and Radience seem to be pretty useless for a Retribute/Retaliate meleezon. Would they be worthwhile, if I made a good investment into the two spell trees?'

Lionheart does keep you alive. It may reduce the chance that you get hit, but if the monsters are not hitting you, you don't lose life and can inflict damage in the meantime, even just single target damage. It basically slows the fight down, but is very useful against some of the stronger monster packs.

'4) How is magic missle at all useful? 16-33 damage, 1 bolt at level 1?'

It can get up to ~20 bolts and 700 damage per bolt at high levels with the synergy. If there is only one enemy within range, it delivers 10K+ damage per cast. Pow.

'5) How do Blood Star/Blood Storm do in terms of damage?'

Bloodstar is a powerful single target spell - 5K damage is attainable. Bloodstorm does puny damage, but spams out missiles at a rapid rate, at multiple targets. It really adds up, but is somewhat hard to use on moving enemies.

'Is that kind of build workable?'

Yes, but I'd max out the physical synergy to Hex, instead of Hex itself, if you're doing little spellcasting. Also, you don't really need too much elemental backup power - some enemies are strongly resistant to physical, but nothing is immune to it.

Stormtouch is almost useless in 1.23, but has received a major power boost in 1.24 (coming soon, 18.sep.2006). Ditto for Pagan Heart (in fact, their power boosts come from synergies to each other).

[Brother Laz]

Small poll.

Those of you who were turned off by high monster life in Act 3+, tell me. Those of you who liked it that way, tell me too.

I'm going to do something radical in 1.24, namely reduce monster life to 1/3. Good idea or very bad idea? You guys tell me...;)

[Zingydex]

I may take a look at this new version when I get my CD drive back up and running. I got a question beforehand, though: has monster speed changed in 2k7? I gave up on 2k6 because with no viable minion skills and the monsters' tendancy to ignore my merc altogether, there was no noticeable delay between the time an enemy came on screen and the time they were in melee range - certainly not long enough to get a spell off, let alone kill anything. Not exactly favorable conditions for a guy who almost exclusively plays spellcaster characters.

The spells are nice (although some aren't nearly as powerful as advertised), but it's hard to use them with 5-8 monsters in your face all the time.

[Brother Laz]

There are more viable minions now, but the 'power' thing is due to fairly high monster hit points in 1.23. I'm sending you the download link for the currently unreleased 1.24 T over private message.

For the unlucky - other than a load of new content, the main feature in 1.24 is much lower monster life - down to original M2 levels, in fact. Should make the mod less of a grind if you don't have the godliest uberbuild.

Deadline 20.sep.2006

[Brother Laz]

1.24 T is out!
Mods by Laz

So far, the first responses are overwhelmingly positive. Looks like this was a major step in the right direction.:)

[librarian]

Heiho,

glad to hear that :-)

<ad>
Did you know there is a little ingame video from Median 1.23 at youtube?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBrqSslznTI
</ad>

[Little Faith]

I am very very pleased with this patch. It shows Median 2 at it's most polished and funniest.

That said, I have a very minor gripe that has been voiced countless of times before:

Does the graphic for Shadowform/Gift of Shadows really need to be that conspicuous? If you happen to multiplay or have minions the screen easily fills up with white blobs to the point where it is hard to see anything.

I know Mephisto's white cloud looks totally boss and it would not be out of place as a high-power low duration buff. But as a bread and butter buff that will be on most of the time (especially if you play with a necrolyte) it looks very out of place.

[Brother Laz]

Sorry for the delay; I don't check the LL that often usually, because nothing ever happens... ahem.

Thanks for the feedback, and let me know if monster life and damage need to be reduced some more. As for your gripe, the problem is with Gift of Shadows and not Shadowform as such. Changing the graphic on that thing would be confusing (because it really is Shadowform), and deleting it from the game would be somewhat unfair.

I'll probably remove it from the Necrolyte (it's a bit overpowered anyway), and leave it as a low chance to cast on items.