09-05-2003, 02:27 AM
I remember the display bug you're talking about, but 1.10 buffing changes actually un-nerfed energy shield (buffing didn't work on TS even in 1.09, despite what a lot of people thought. I haven't checked to see if does in 1.10, although I know buffing works on cold armors). In 1.09 you could use a staff to cast a high level energy shield, but if you had no points in ES and switched to your primary slot the shield would go to lvl 0, and you notice this pretty quickly when you die with full mana. In 1.10 you can cast a shield with zero points invested and then switch to primary weapons. You will still lose mana when you get hit and notice substantial damage reduction.
I know you can get 2 usable trees, but I don't see the point. You can more than double your killing speed by opting for one tree, and it really isn't necessary to be able to kill all monsters. You still CAN kill pretty much anything with a merc, and when cold immunes get mixed in with vulnerable monsters he will end up killing a few of them, but you're always free to leave them behind and go find something killable. If you don't like doing that, there are a few areas where cold immunes never pop up, and, more importantly, there are more areas where there are always very few cold immunes. Chaos sanctuary is one of the best places to level in the game for any character that's tough enough to deal with it, and the only cold immunes are the few oblivion knights that spawn with the fire immune melee knights. A merc can kill them very fast if you static them and tele-aim your merc at them when they run, or use telekinesis them to stop them from running. Or, you can ignore them. I'm usually able to do that comfortably. I also level in worldstone with very few problems.
The main point is: if you can vastly increase your killing speed without serious problems, why not do it? Would you rather be able to kill most monsters very fast and ignore a few of them, or be able to kill everything at a moderate speed? You're not any safer by being able to kill cold immunes. If you're fighting dangerous monsters, some of which are cold immune, you're going to lessen the danger more quickly by being able to take out the non cold immunes much faster than you would be able to if you went 2 tree, and also much faster than you would be able to take out the cold immunes with a fire tree. An old lesson I learned playing Starcraft: the trick isn't spreading your resources out to prepare for any situation, but knowing what situations to prepare for. In Diablo 2, you have the distinct advantage of being able to choose what situations to fight in, and so the most effective builds are going to be those that choose their battles and prepare for them accordingly.
I know you can get 2 usable trees, but I don't see the point. You can more than double your killing speed by opting for one tree, and it really isn't necessary to be able to kill all monsters. You still CAN kill pretty much anything with a merc, and when cold immunes get mixed in with vulnerable monsters he will end up killing a few of them, but you're always free to leave them behind and go find something killable. If you don't like doing that, there are a few areas where cold immunes never pop up, and, more importantly, there are more areas where there are always very few cold immunes. Chaos sanctuary is one of the best places to level in the game for any character that's tough enough to deal with it, and the only cold immunes are the few oblivion knights that spawn with the fire immune melee knights. A merc can kill them very fast if you static them and tele-aim your merc at them when they run, or use telekinesis them to stop them from running. Or, you can ignore them. I'm usually able to do that comfortably. I also level in worldstone with very few problems.
The main point is: if you can vastly increase your killing speed without serious problems, why not do it? Would you rather be able to kill most monsters very fast and ignore a few of them, or be able to kill everything at a moderate speed? You're not any safer by being able to kill cold immunes. If you're fighting dangerous monsters, some of which are cold immune, you're going to lessen the danger more quickly by being able to take out the non cold immunes much faster than you would be able to if you went 2 tree, and also much faster than you would be able to take out the cold immunes with a fire tree. An old lesson I learned playing Starcraft: the trick isn't spreading your resources out to prepare for any situation, but knowing what situations to prepare for. In Diablo 2, you have the distinct advantage of being able to choose what situations to fight in, and so the most effective builds are going to be those that choose their battles and prepare for them accordingly.