07-07-2003, 02:52 AM
Well everyone seems to be hacking up characters to test things out. I just thought I'd wander through the game from scratch, with a Necromancer.
I began the game with players 8 but switched to players 5 when I got to the Monestary, after some advice from Dagni in phooker51's thread "In depth, *realstic playtest and rant".
Well I decided to go with a zookeeper or whatever is produced in 1.10 by specialising in the summoning tree and maxing skeletons and magi.
My first impression was of course the speed in which the skeletons moved. Big plus to blizzard for this one :)
I steadily went through the open areas in act 1 and a few things became noticable.
Firstly. I wasn't recasting summons. The DR and AR for skeletons made them stay around for a long time, which made fights with bosses that had been pumped up more enjoyable. No longer did my skellies go down to one hit.
This was very obvious fighting Blood Raven and Griswold. My Minions ran after BloodRaven! Never before had they been able to keep up, but they boxed her in and went toe to toe, eventually eroding the evil archers life down to nothing and thus granting me victory. No longer were my minions just flesh and bone (mostly bone ;) ) but they were now hanging around long enough for me to give them names. :lol:
Pushing on to the Monestary I dropped the player difficulty down to 5, and found things a little faster. Not that I was plowing through, I wasn't recasting minions any less, it's just that I was killing quicker due to the reduced hit points of the monsters.
The Smith surprisingly showed the same benefits the skeletons had been showing all through act 1. They weren't dying. I think I recast minions about 4 times for that battle. I even came up against a LEB vampire in the catacombs and the skellies carried on for a minute or so before dying.
After Defeating Blood Raven i had put my first point into magi. Griswold showed me how much the damage of magi had increased as 1 magi was surrounded for around 2 minutes in Tristram all by itself by 8 creatures and took down 2 before collapsing.
Upon reaching the Catacombs the feel for D2 had changed for me. I feel like the game has shifted back to the D1 days of slow and steady progress with some battles that required a little retreating here and there. All in all I had found act 1 to that point to be a totally different pace than previous versions of the game. Very refreshing :)
Now onto the final task. Deafeating Andariel. Intrepidly I made my way down into the depths of the catacombs, and my army of 5 skeletons and 3 magi, with my trusty rogue and blood golem, ventured into the horrors that lay beneath. It was then i put my first point into amp damage, oh and how things got easier!
I had been told that there was some kind of magical portal to town halfway down into Andariel's realm but lo and behold when I found the inscribed magics on floor in a distant room they would not activate!
Alas I continued on still determined.
I slowly made my way down the last set of stairs to confront the demoness and disposed of her minions easily enough. Then I went forth to slay her with my skeletons surrounding the evil queen.
And again my minions stood up to the test. Before when i had taken on Andariel with skeletons in previous versions of the game, it was an endless town portal experience, running back and forth and mainly relying on my golem or merc to do the damage. Not this time. The summons decided in this patch that sticking around was alot more helpful and did so. Andariels poison attack swept from left to right and stopped dead in the undeads ribcages.
I was safe behind my minions and my rogue peppered her with arrows. I think I recast about 10 skeletons and went through quite a few potions but I didn't retreat once, and never recast my blood golem. Down Andariel went with a tomented scream, and my smile was from ear to ear.
In the end I finished act1 at 19th level on players 5 for most of the act. I had not spent 1 skill point. Until Andy dropped some rare boots that required 18 strength :D
Equipment:
Helm: Skull cap - 2x chipped skulls
Armour: Padded armour - 2x chipped skulls
Wand: +1 dim vision, +3 Skel mastery, +1 teeth
Sheild: Zombie Head +3 Skel Mastery
Boots: Rare (got these off andy - was bare foot the whole act)
10%FHR
+15 AR
Cold resist: +5%
Fire resist: +10%
Poison length reduced: 25%
+2 light radius
Belt: Rare
+1 Strength
+5 life
+18 stamina max
Cold resist: +7%
+1 light radius
Repairs durability 1 in 33 seconds.
Amulet: +2 life regen
Rings: 2 magic find rings, 5% and 7%
Charms: 1 +10 life large charm
Skill Allocation:
Skel Mastery: 2 (8 with skill adders)
Raise Skeleton: 9 (5 skeletons)
Skeleton Magi: 3
Golem Mastery: 1
Clay Golem: 1
Blood Golem: 1
Amp Damage: 1
Iron Maiden: 1 (added this point after andy because i hit 19th as I was fighting her minions)
All in all Skeletons have been speeded up and made harder to hit and hit more often themselves. This is most obvious with bosses, and the little need to recast minions. Amp damage makes a huge impact, even though it's radius is very small (2 with one point in it).
Act1 and the necro got through fine. What terrors and difficulties await him in act2?
I began the game with players 8 but switched to players 5 when I got to the Monestary, after some advice from Dagni in phooker51's thread "In depth, *realstic playtest and rant".
Well I decided to go with a zookeeper or whatever is produced in 1.10 by specialising in the summoning tree and maxing skeletons and magi.
My first impression was of course the speed in which the skeletons moved. Big plus to blizzard for this one :)
I steadily went through the open areas in act 1 and a few things became noticable.
Firstly. I wasn't recasting summons. The DR and AR for skeletons made them stay around for a long time, which made fights with bosses that had been pumped up more enjoyable. No longer did my skellies go down to one hit.
This was very obvious fighting Blood Raven and Griswold. My Minions ran after BloodRaven! Never before had they been able to keep up, but they boxed her in and went toe to toe, eventually eroding the evil archers life down to nothing and thus granting me victory. No longer were my minions just flesh and bone (mostly bone ;) ) but they were now hanging around long enough for me to give them names. :lol:
Pushing on to the Monestary I dropped the player difficulty down to 5, and found things a little faster. Not that I was plowing through, I wasn't recasting minions any less, it's just that I was killing quicker due to the reduced hit points of the monsters.
The Smith surprisingly showed the same benefits the skeletons had been showing all through act 1. They weren't dying. I think I recast minions about 4 times for that battle. I even came up against a LEB vampire in the catacombs and the skellies carried on for a minute or so before dying.
After Defeating Blood Raven i had put my first point into magi. Griswold showed me how much the damage of magi had increased as 1 magi was surrounded for around 2 minutes in Tristram all by itself by 8 creatures and took down 2 before collapsing.
Upon reaching the Catacombs the feel for D2 had changed for me. I feel like the game has shifted back to the D1 days of slow and steady progress with some battles that required a little retreating here and there. All in all I had found act 1 to that point to be a totally different pace than previous versions of the game. Very refreshing :)
Now onto the final task. Deafeating Andariel. Intrepidly I made my way down into the depths of the catacombs, and my army of 5 skeletons and 3 magi, with my trusty rogue and blood golem, ventured into the horrors that lay beneath. It was then i put my first point into amp damage, oh and how things got easier!
I had been told that there was some kind of magical portal to town halfway down into Andariel's realm but lo and behold when I found the inscribed magics on floor in a distant room they would not activate!
Alas I continued on still determined.
I slowly made my way down the last set of stairs to confront the demoness and disposed of her minions easily enough. Then I went forth to slay her with my skeletons surrounding the evil queen.
And again my minions stood up to the test. Before when i had taken on Andariel with skeletons in previous versions of the game, it was an endless town portal experience, running back and forth and mainly relying on my golem or merc to do the damage. Not this time. The summons decided in this patch that sticking around was alot more helpful and did so. Andariels poison attack swept from left to right and stopped dead in the undeads ribcages.
I was safe behind my minions and my rogue peppered her with arrows. I think I recast about 10 skeletons and went through quite a few potions but I didn't retreat once, and never recast my blood golem. Down Andariel went with a tomented scream, and my smile was from ear to ear.
In the end I finished act1 at 19th level on players 5 for most of the act. I had not spent 1 skill point. Until Andy dropped some rare boots that required 18 strength :D
Equipment:
Helm: Skull cap - 2x chipped skulls
Armour: Padded armour - 2x chipped skulls
Wand: +1 dim vision, +3 Skel mastery, +1 teeth
Sheild: Zombie Head +3 Skel Mastery
Boots: Rare (got these off andy - was bare foot the whole act)
10%FHR
+15 AR
Cold resist: +5%
Fire resist: +10%
Poison length reduced: 25%
+2 light radius
Belt: Rare
+1 Strength
+5 life
+18 stamina max
Cold resist: +7%
+1 light radius
Repairs durability 1 in 33 seconds.
Amulet: +2 life regen
Rings: 2 magic find rings, 5% and 7%
Charms: 1 +10 life large charm
Skill Allocation:
Skel Mastery: 2 (8 with skill adders)
Raise Skeleton: 9 (5 skeletons)
Skeleton Magi: 3
Golem Mastery: 1
Clay Golem: 1
Blood Golem: 1
Amp Damage: 1
Iron Maiden: 1 (added this point after andy because i hit 19th as I was fighting her minions)
All in all Skeletons have been speeded up and made harder to hit and hit more often themselves. This is most obvious with bosses, and the little need to recast minions. Amp damage makes a huge impact, even though it's radius is very small (2 with one point in it).
Act1 and the necro got through fine. What terrors and difficulties await him in act2?