08-08-2003, 11:11 PM
(This post was last modified: 08-09-2003, 05:59 AM by Haviandhae'el.)
(By the way, I've read the etiquette but this is still my first post ever; forgive me if I violate something!)
:ph34r: <--- My ninja is a more or less happy with the patch. There are a few things I'd like to address though. I've played DII avidly since it was first released, complete with anticipatory necromancer skill/stat placement guides... yeah, nerd.
Anyway, v1.10 seems to be a miscellany of blessings and curses to the dedicated and casual player.
1) Blessing: Dedicated players and casual players alike get to see some nicer equipment tossed their way without having to do ridiculous things like warp into the Durance of Hate a bajillionzillion times with tasteless collections of items that all seem to have gaudy topazes stuck in them.
Curse: By the time you get to hell, which, I understand is someone's choice to go above and beyond with their character, and not a necessity, jaw-dropping items are pretty much required. As I understand it, Blizzard wanted to make under-used skills viable or at least considerable, and different equipment setups not only a reality but a necessity.
They did a good job with the potential for Grandmasters and Cruel prefixes on rare weapons, but what about spell casters? As I see it, sorcs and necros won't be clamoring for any rares. Occy and Shakos will still be disgusting prevalent. Not much variety there.
Also, due to the RIDICULOUS regeneration rates I've observed in Hell and even late Nightmare, methods of preventing monster healing, such as Open Wounds, of Vileness suffix items, and massive poison (with high duration, please. Venom's short duration is a definite curse in hell, sometimes) are requisite.
Variety? Cough. I suspect not.
2) Blessing: Monster hp is definitely... hellish, in Hell. That makes for good fights- interesting, tough fights, as opposed to the one-whirl/few-multi/one-fury facade it used to be.
Curse: I played with 6 other people in A4 Hell, and we were all pretty psyched because it had been pretty tough before that. Each act, as we all know, takes an eternity to complete now. It's a good accomplishment, yes, but solo, we must concede that the game is tedious and frustrating. So, with the party geared up, thawing/antidote potions in hand, and with 500K each simply for ressing the new useless mercs (see my point 3), we set out into the Outer Steppes.
My sorceress friend, who had 71% light res (which is terribly good for a legit player, and we were all legit, without a resistance spell/skill), died instantly from an MSLE monster and her thunderstorm.
So, great, Blizzard, you still have those one-hit kill inescapable idiot monsters that none but the Thunder God's Vigor adorned lvl 34 BO Barbs can take. Yeah, I'm glad that equip diversity is being promoted here.
Everyone was appalled, so Sorcy exited to town after giving the stats of the monster. Okay, everyone thought, it's Poison Immune, MSLE, and has 5 minions. They're all granted insane hp boosts. Okay.
Pally friends equip salvation and resist lightning, which we all cheer, and we go down again. I use Blade Fury to knock him down a bit and hopefully halt regen, but, oh wait, my Venom does jack against him, and even if it could do something, it would last for, hmm, approximately .4 seconds. That means I would have to stand there flinging blades out of my arse like I was trying to make a salad out of the stupid Megademon, fulfilling ONLY the requirement of stopping is mad regen, not to mention turning him into a walking nuclear powerplant during meltdown.
Okay. Yeah.
So I actually do that, hoping my Rattlecage (courtesy of hell Andy) will knock a few crushing blows into him. Well, we all know the effectiveness of that on champs/uniques. However, with resist light and salvation and fade equipped, my hp was dipping at moderate rates.
COME OUT, YOU FOOLS! I was glaring at the stupid Pandemonium Fortress steps and the milling crowd of 2 pallies, 1 sorc, 1 zon, 1 barb, and 1 druid apprehensively sticking out a single bootied toe into the danger zone as if afraid the MSLE bolts would leap a few yards to them for even peeking out.
Eventually, they all did, and between static, my blades, and 6 kamikaze rushers, the MSLE and crew went out in about 6 minutes. Exhilerating? Uh, yeah, it was fun. However, I'm not so sure that encouraging part play involved giving monsters 5K hp that scales up with each player, thereby kind of defeating the purpose of asking people to join you. Oh well.
Thoroughly spent and proud of the accomplishment, we went into a tightly-knit formation with three ranged chars, me/sorc/zon and the 2 pallies right behind the barb in a lovely spearhead formation, skirting the edges of the Steppes to find the entrance to the Plains.
In no time at all (somewhere in Plains or Steppes, which I can't recall), we encounter 3 very jolly, very impossible bosses spawned basically in the same tile, from the looks of it.
1) Star Eye
Extra Fast, Extra strong, Stone Skin, Immune to Physical, Immune to Poison
2) Wraith Star the Unholy (or something) [Archer type]
Extra strong, Multiple shots, Lightning Enchanted, Immune to Lightning, Immune to Poison
3) Some name I forgot [Archer Type]
Cold enchanted, Cursed, Extra fast, Immune to Cold, Immune to Poison
All of us promptly wet our pants, one pally charging and one zealing away like he was trying swat a fly on Boss 1's forehead with a broadsword. After 8 minutes of retreating and flinging ninja stars, staticing, magic arrows, charges, frenzied whirlings, synergized meteors, and about 30 or so well-placed shadow masters, we found ourselves once again cowering in the Pandemonium fortress steps with 3 fully regenerated bosses and a few minions.
F. U. C. K. (Sorry is that an etiquitte violation?)
I realized the dilemma ensued thusly: Boss 1 (remember the PI) was the vanguard, beating at the pallies and barb until they were weeping for us to destroy it. The multishot monster was basically a zon with an Arcing Hydra Bow and 7 points in Multishot, or something to that extent and effect, and at the same time, a sorceress that would cast hmm, a level 33/33 mastery Nova every time you hit her. The boss with cold/ranged damage would curse us not only with amplified damage but a nasty chilling effect that our thawing potions simply couldn't counter fast enough. Since none of us was graced with a ravenfrost or death's set, or ANYTHING to counter the cold, we were crawling around sluggishly, trying to combat the extra fast ravagings of the ranged and melee attacker. Oh, and they were all immune to poison, so my Venom had less effect on them than throwing roses at them.
We called it a night. Or morning, rather.
Um, after my extended ramblings and outburst, and unprecedented deviation from my original topic :unsure: , v1.10 is both very engaging and frustrating, simultaneously. Again, though I recognize Hell is an optional challenge, not an obstacle in the game, I'm not sure whether Hardcore play, or even legit play, is too fun, especially for variants who apparently have as much chance to succeed playing hell as they do finding a windforce and grandfather in the same drop.
So where does that leave us? With emerging breeds of upcoming uber chars that are the only ones to really succeed in hell? I hope not. The prospects, however, are grim.
Thanks to anyone who read this (I mean, put up with it, lol). I tried to convey my thoughts on the patch in an organized fashion, but, being more spontaneous than organized, settled for an anecdote.
:ph34r: <--- My ninja is a more or less happy with the patch. There are a few things I'd like to address though. I've played DII avidly since it was first released, complete with anticipatory necromancer skill/stat placement guides... yeah, nerd.
Anyway, v1.10 seems to be a miscellany of blessings and curses to the dedicated and casual player.
1) Blessing: Dedicated players and casual players alike get to see some nicer equipment tossed their way without having to do ridiculous things like warp into the Durance of Hate a bajillionzillion times with tasteless collections of items that all seem to have gaudy topazes stuck in them.
Curse: By the time you get to hell, which, I understand is someone's choice to go above and beyond with their character, and not a necessity, jaw-dropping items are pretty much required. As I understand it, Blizzard wanted to make under-used skills viable or at least considerable, and different equipment setups not only a reality but a necessity.
They did a good job with the potential for Grandmasters and Cruel prefixes on rare weapons, but what about spell casters? As I see it, sorcs and necros won't be clamoring for any rares. Occy and Shakos will still be disgusting prevalent. Not much variety there.
Also, due to the RIDICULOUS regeneration rates I've observed in Hell and even late Nightmare, methods of preventing monster healing, such as Open Wounds, of Vileness suffix items, and massive poison (with high duration, please. Venom's short duration is a definite curse in hell, sometimes) are requisite.
Variety? Cough. I suspect not.
2) Blessing: Monster hp is definitely... hellish, in Hell. That makes for good fights- interesting, tough fights, as opposed to the one-whirl/few-multi/one-fury facade it used to be.
Curse: I played with 6 other people in A4 Hell, and we were all pretty psyched because it had been pretty tough before that. Each act, as we all know, takes an eternity to complete now. It's a good accomplishment, yes, but solo, we must concede that the game is tedious and frustrating. So, with the party geared up, thawing/antidote potions in hand, and with 500K each simply for ressing the new useless mercs (see my point 3), we set out into the Outer Steppes.
My sorceress friend, who had 71% light res (which is terribly good for a legit player, and we were all legit, without a resistance spell/skill), died instantly from an MSLE monster and her thunderstorm.
So, great, Blizzard, you still have those one-hit kill inescapable idiot monsters that none but the Thunder God's Vigor adorned lvl 34 BO Barbs can take. Yeah, I'm glad that equip diversity is being promoted here.
Everyone was appalled, so Sorcy exited to town after giving the stats of the monster. Okay, everyone thought, it's Poison Immune, MSLE, and has 5 minions. They're all granted insane hp boosts. Okay.
Pally friends equip salvation and resist lightning, which we all cheer, and we go down again. I use Blade Fury to knock him down a bit and hopefully halt regen, but, oh wait, my Venom does jack against him, and even if it could do something, it would last for, hmm, approximately .4 seconds. That means I would have to stand there flinging blades out of my arse like I was trying to make a salad out of the stupid Megademon, fulfilling ONLY the requirement of stopping is mad regen, not to mention turning him into a walking nuclear powerplant during meltdown.
Okay. Yeah.
So I actually do that, hoping my Rattlecage (courtesy of hell Andy) will knock a few crushing blows into him. Well, we all know the effectiveness of that on champs/uniques. However, with resist light and salvation and fade equipped, my hp was dipping at moderate rates.
COME OUT, YOU FOOLS! I was glaring at the stupid Pandemonium Fortress steps and the milling crowd of 2 pallies, 1 sorc, 1 zon, 1 barb, and 1 druid apprehensively sticking out a single bootied toe into the danger zone as if afraid the MSLE bolts would leap a few yards to them for even peeking out.
Eventually, they all did, and between static, my blades, and 6 kamikaze rushers, the MSLE and crew went out in about 6 minutes. Exhilerating? Uh, yeah, it was fun. However, I'm not so sure that encouraging part play involved giving monsters 5K hp that scales up with each player, thereby kind of defeating the purpose of asking people to join you. Oh well.
Thoroughly spent and proud of the accomplishment, we went into a tightly-knit formation with three ranged chars, me/sorc/zon and the 2 pallies right behind the barb in a lovely spearhead formation, skirting the edges of the Steppes to find the entrance to the Plains.
In no time at all (somewhere in Plains or Steppes, which I can't recall), we encounter 3 very jolly, very impossible bosses spawned basically in the same tile, from the looks of it.
1) Star Eye
Extra Fast, Extra strong, Stone Skin, Immune to Physical, Immune to Poison
2) Wraith Star the Unholy (or something) [Archer type]
Extra strong, Multiple shots, Lightning Enchanted, Immune to Lightning, Immune to Poison
3) Some name I forgot [Archer Type]
Cold enchanted, Cursed, Extra fast, Immune to Cold, Immune to Poison
All of us promptly wet our pants, one pally charging and one zealing away like he was trying swat a fly on Boss 1's forehead with a broadsword. After 8 minutes of retreating and flinging ninja stars, staticing, magic arrows, charges, frenzied whirlings, synergized meteors, and about 30 or so well-placed shadow masters, we found ourselves once again cowering in the Pandemonium fortress steps with 3 fully regenerated bosses and a few minions.
F. U. C. K. (Sorry is that an etiquitte violation?)
I realized the dilemma ensued thusly: Boss 1 (remember the PI) was the vanguard, beating at the pallies and barb until they were weeping for us to destroy it. The multishot monster was basically a zon with an Arcing Hydra Bow and 7 points in Multishot, or something to that extent and effect, and at the same time, a sorceress that would cast hmm, a level 33/33 mastery Nova every time you hit her. The boss with cold/ranged damage would curse us not only with amplified damage but a nasty chilling effect that our thawing potions simply couldn't counter fast enough. Since none of us was graced with a ravenfrost or death's set, or ANYTHING to counter the cold, we were crawling around sluggishly, trying to combat the extra fast ravagings of the ranged and melee attacker. Oh, and they were all immune to poison, so my Venom had less effect on them than throwing roses at them.
We called it a night. Or morning, rather.
Um, after my extended ramblings and outburst, and unprecedented deviation from my original topic :unsure: , v1.10 is both very engaging and frustrating, simultaneously. Again, though I recognize Hell is an optional challenge, not an obstacle in the game, I'm not sure whether Hardcore play, or even legit play, is too fun, especially for variants who apparently have as much chance to succeed playing hell as they do finding a windforce and grandfather in the same drop.
So where does that leave us? With emerging breeds of upcoming uber chars that are the only ones to really succeed in hell? I hope not. The prospects, however, are grim.
Thanks to anyone who read this (I mean, put up with it, lol). I tried to convey my thoughts on the patch in an organized fashion, but, being more spontaneous than organized, settled for an anecdote.