05-21-2003, 04:47 AM
The hydra trick is that when I sorceress tp's to town, her hydras remain active (same for 'sin traps). A sorc will lay down hydras in battle near her "teamates", then tp to town and hit the hostile button. Against unprepared and especially lower level characters, lvl 25+ hydra / mastery hurts. A lot.
It was also mentioned how the storyline simply doesn't fit a character being evil -- I have to nitpick here. The *storyline* supports it just fine (err, well, sort of... the D1 story did, anyways, and certain characters in D2 can fit in as evil as well). However, the way the game is structured doesn't (so I agree w/ you in principle, just not in definition). Blizz seems to think the game can pretend to be a MMORPG. It can't. As a D2 character, the ONLY way to advance is by killing monsters, or at the very least by being in a party with people killing monsters.
However, I'd never really thought about that. But now that you mention it, you're absolutely right. Blizzard has some crazy ideas about their game -- how they've designed it, how it's worked, and how it's going to work in the future. The PK issue is just one of many.
I'm expecting to turn off diablo for quite some time when (if) the patch is released. While I give blizzard credit for spending so much time and effort on a game that stopped being profitable to them several years ago, they need to understand that quality, not quantity, is what matters. While I don't want to open yet another debate about the patch here, in some ways it fits here as well -- no matter how long they spend defending the way they've handled the issue, they can't cover the garbage they put in by yet more garbage, not even if they lay it on us by the truckload.
gekko
It was also mentioned how the storyline simply doesn't fit a character being evil -- I have to nitpick here. The *storyline* supports it just fine (err, well, sort of... the D1 story did, anyways, and certain characters in D2 can fit in as evil as well). However, the way the game is structured doesn't (so I agree w/ you in principle, just not in definition). Blizz seems to think the game can pretend to be a MMORPG. It can't. As a D2 character, the ONLY way to advance is by killing monsters, or at the very least by being in a party with people killing monsters.
However, I'd never really thought about that. But now that you mention it, you're absolutely right. Blizzard has some crazy ideas about their game -- how they've designed it, how it's worked, and how it's going to work in the future. The PK issue is just one of many.
I'm expecting to turn off diablo for quite some time when (if) the patch is released. While I give blizzard credit for spending so much time and effort on a game that stopped being profitable to them several years ago, they need to understand that quality, not quantity, is what matters. While I don't want to open yet another debate about the patch here, in some ways it fits here as well -- no matter how long they spend defending the way they've handled the issue, they can't cover the garbage they put in by yet more garbage, not even if they lay it on us by the truckload.
gekko
"Life is sacred and you are not its steward. You have stewardship over it but you don't own it. You're making a choice to go through this, it's not just happening to you. You're inviting it, and in some ways delighting in it. It's not accidental or coincidental. You're choosing it. You have to realize you've made choices."
-Michael Ventura, "Letters@3AM"
-Michael Ventura, "Letters@3AM"