Mav's turn to rant

[Ignatz]

Good luck stopping them with a post or two. :)

[--Pete]

Hi,

A few of the rants are along the lines of "they screwed up my uber build." Most seem to be along the lines of "well they fixed problem X by making the monsters more difficult in a boring way, and they fixed that by putting yet more overpowered items in the game". Seems that most of the ranting I've seen has been along those lines.

--Pete

[Mavfin]

Which all has roots in the same thing. "I can't play like I used to." Most of it comes down to that. Other people are starting to play their way through, and are figuring out the new things. Others just post about it.

[Dagni]

Actually, I thought most of the rants were "they kept my favorite class (pal/necro) crappy!" Only with a lot more detail, and generally either including some good/decent suggestions for improving the class, or some atrocious ones. ;)

- Dagni

[kandrathe]

And, just because of Phooker51's thread my first 1.10 beta char is an arty necro, DrJones... He's now lvl 20, and just killed Act 1 Andy with his level 2 Bone Spear. It wasn't noble (had to bail to town 3 times to restock potions and minions), and he was running around her chamber screaming like a little girl, but the new Antidote potions are très utile! So, far he has had no deaths, although sadly his merc, Annor, has had a least three (all Andy).

It might just be my handling of him, but he has had occasion to wet himself from the inner cloister on, more than a few times. I had found the unique axe "The Gnasher" early in the game, but as he starts to move toward his artillery role, closing with the bad guys became a bad idea. So I set aside the axe, in favor of a +skills wand, and +skills head. Even though I'm focused on being an Artymancer, I've invested a point in Raise Skeleton, Skeletal Mage, Skeleton Mastery, Golem Mastery, Clay Golem, and Blood Golem, and then I've found some good rares with +skills gear for summoners, thus, my weapon switch allows me to add additional skeletons and mages if I need more tanking. The countess dropped two runes for me, Ith, and Ral and I'm finding quite a few descent rares, charms and magic jewels. Again, descent, but nothing to write home about.

I early on invested one point in Amp damage. I'm wondering if it is the case where the most viable Necro build is not a one trick pony. But, so far the bulk of my skills have gone to the P&B tree, teeth(1), Bone Armor(2), Corpse Explosion(1), Bone Wall(6), Bone Spear(2) (currentlyx1.49@37-50 dmg), 2 pts unused. I'm thinking that from now on focusing on Bone Prison, Bone Spear, and Bone Spirit with a few additional skills as needed. I also find I'm using all the tools in the kit now, and I've found no + P&B skills items yet.

I've maintained "Players 8", although after outer cloister the going got more interesting. :)

Wish I had more time to get him to Hell difficulty, as at the rate I'm going this is going to take awhile. But, maybe that is a good sign as well. So, wasn't it a challenging game that we wanted?

[Thecla]

I've been just wondering about this question, and your post provides a data point.

I routinely play players 1 solo. 1.10 clearly gives more xp than 1.09. I think I was around lvl 13 or 14 when I killed Andy, instead of the lvl 11 I would usually be at in 1.09. Currently I'm lvl 29 in Act V hell (glacial trail, pre-ancients); I'd guess in 1.09, I'd typically be around lvl 25 or so at that point (not completely sure), and maybe around 30 after Baal and entering nm diff. Very roughly speaking, my clvl in 1.10 has been close to where I'd be in the following act in 1.09. Nevertheless, the game is clearly tougher, so the monster changes outweight the lvl gain. But might it be the otherway round for players 1 vs. players 8? Obviously the monsters are harder in players 8, but if you play straight through at that setting you're also lvling up much faster, which could actually make it *easier*, since you won't be up against the clvl/mlvl curve, not to mention the access to additional skills and stat points (though you will have the same equipment -- which would hurst melee/bow types vs. casters types).

Overall, despite some bugs and oddities, I see nothing to complain about with this patch on normal difficulty. In fact, it's more af a change than I expected, given Bliz's previous statements that they didn't want to change normal too much. It's definitely slower going and tougher than before though still very reasonable. (I died once so far -- I ran into the middle of a fallen pack and couldn't get out in the cold plains at clvl 2 or 3, so I don't really count that one. :P )

[Brista]

Players 8 is essentially easier

It means that for the same exp you can be in a much lower level area. (For instance the level 20 Nec in Act 1)

Granted the monsters take longer to kill but said Nec is safer in the Catacombs than in the Tombs of Tal Rasha which is closer to where you might be playing through the game Players 1

[kandrathe]

Yes, it is easier in that respect... But, I think you run into more monsters per level, and more boss packs too. Then again, I haven't played single player mode since v1.07. It might just be a difference in v1.10, but for instance, when I stepped out of Lut Gholein, I literally fought at least 15 Scarab Demon packs in the Rocky Wastes. The place was jammed packed with them, and then the usual assortment of leapers, vultures, sabre cats and slingers. My experience with 2-4 player realm games in v1.09, was that the Rocky Waste may have 3-4 packs of Demon Scarabs at most. And, naturally, bosses hang around longer and hurt more.