Just to pair down the size of the posts, I'll respond without major quoting. :)
Re: strategy
I agree theres something to be said for that type of challange. I'll give you the best example in the game. The Chaos Sanctuary. I gave up xpac after a few months because I found it pretty tedius. I went back to classic hardcore and the good old days of clearing out cs and pairing up with a few people (pallies with salvation, necros with life tap, etc etc) and going after Lord De Seis (I mourn the day he lost his thief modifier). Cleaning out cs that way was exactly what you described, drawing out oblivs, selectively killing monsters, an element of danger, all around good time. I understand perfectly. However, there is also something to be said for variety. I don't want to have to play the entire game that way, pulling 1 monster out of the pack, or running away every single time the action gets hot. Retreating to town every few minutes isn't fun after a while either. All I'm saying is that while a challange is good, there is such a thing as overcompensating.
Re: hell
My original post was an attempt to see how the game would play on the first time around, going into hell. And while I can't comment on how it will play exactly, I get the general impression that a few uber skills will again come to the forefront, and everyone will fall into familiar niche roles. I was hoping that 'conventional' stuff would be changed around. With my findings at least, it hasn't. Necros get powerful poison, and need to recast golems more. At everyone's urging, I did some playing at players 1 to test out revives and such. The problem? Total reliance on merc to get started, and minions still seemed largely uneffective. "well, try gettiing 20 of them" people say... I thought the point of the patch was to provide more variety and balance. I shouldn't only be able to kill monsters with max spirit and synergies and 20 revives.
Re: maphack
I'm not throwing my support to maphack and saying it is necessary or that I think it's good. To the contrary, I said it's ruined much of the game. However, I think despite its dubious nature, that it has some potentially useful ideas. I don't mean turning on fullbright, or seeing monster stats, I mean things like being able to configure the colour of item text, or maybe seeing "socketed xxx" instead of just grey items. Regarding Act 3, again, I see a clear distinction between difficulty and tedium. It wasn't difficult as much as boring. If I had to fight a few kick ass bosses for each chunk of the flail, I would be all over that. (thats not a bad idea come to think of it) I am not a fan of wading through few thousand flayers for a few hours and hitting a few hundred dead ends, however. Would a few map scrolls that revealed hints or general locations really degrade the gameplay? I don't see how. Just because "thats how the game was designed" does not mean there is no room for improvement or change.
Re: strategy
I agree theres something to be said for that type of challange. I'll give you the best example in the game. The Chaos Sanctuary. I gave up xpac after a few months because I found it pretty tedius. I went back to classic hardcore and the good old days of clearing out cs and pairing up with a few people (pallies with salvation, necros with life tap, etc etc) and going after Lord De Seis (I mourn the day he lost his thief modifier). Cleaning out cs that way was exactly what you described, drawing out oblivs, selectively killing monsters, an element of danger, all around good time. I understand perfectly. However, there is also something to be said for variety. I don't want to have to play the entire game that way, pulling 1 monster out of the pack, or running away every single time the action gets hot. Retreating to town every few minutes isn't fun after a while either. All I'm saying is that while a challange is good, there is such a thing as overcompensating.
Re: hell
My original post was an attempt to see how the game would play on the first time around, going into hell. And while I can't comment on how it will play exactly, I get the general impression that a few uber skills will again come to the forefront, and everyone will fall into familiar niche roles. I was hoping that 'conventional' stuff would be changed around. With my findings at least, it hasn't. Necros get powerful poison, and need to recast golems more. At everyone's urging, I did some playing at players 1 to test out revives and such. The problem? Total reliance on merc to get started, and minions still seemed largely uneffective. "well, try gettiing 20 of them" people say... I thought the point of the patch was to provide more variety and balance. I shouldn't only be able to kill monsters with max spirit and synergies and 20 revives.
Re: maphack
I'm not throwing my support to maphack and saying it is necessary or that I think it's good. To the contrary, I said it's ruined much of the game. However, I think despite its dubious nature, that it has some potentially useful ideas. I don't mean turning on fullbright, or seeing monster stats, I mean things like being able to configure the colour of item text, or maybe seeing "socketed xxx" instead of just grey items. Regarding Act 3, again, I see a clear distinction between difficulty and tedium. It wasn't difficult as much as boring. If I had to fight a few kick ass bosses for each chunk of the flail, I would be all over that. (thats not a bad idea come to think of it) I am not a fan of wading through few thousand flayers for a few hours and hitting a few hundred dead ends, however. Would a few map scrolls that revealed hints or general locations really degrade the gameplay? I don't see how. Just because "thats how the game was designed" does not mean there is no room for improvement or change.