09-30-2003, 09:46 PM
Normal Difficulty
So, what happened? Why did I completely abandon my original plan to document the early parts of the new Skeletorrâs journey?
I tried out the new /players X command for the first time with Skel. And frankly, it made the game so laughably easy, I was almost bored to tears. Why?
Three things increase with points invested in the skelleton skills: offence, defence, and numbers. Obviously, the three are interconected, and it gets more complicted than that, but essentially, thatâs all you need to figure out the basic math.
http://sirian.warpcore.org/d2x/subpoena-2.html
I wonât re-write what Sirian so eloquently explained in the above link (begining of Subpoenaâs story -- the summons ONLY necromancer Sirian started in the expansion). But basically, he sums up what is intuitively obvious: the more, stronger minions you control, the easier it is to âcruiseâ through. When youâre outnumbered or faced by stronger enemies, it becomes harder and harder to stay ahead of the curve.
Well, I decided to try the game out at players 8, right out of the gate. I didnât lose my whole army to anything in all of act 1, including andariel! When the end boss for the act dropped, I had a full army and had barely tapped into the corpses scattered around the 4th level of the catacombs!
There were a few interesting things learned, but nothing truly worthy of writting down. I took some screenshots, deleted just about all of them, and really only kept the others to remind myself of a few important numbers -- basically, the life, defence, AR, and damage of my minions.
Skel is currently at clvl 31, and has full cleared the game up through act 3, inclusively. He has invested a single point in every curse except the three AI curses (dim vision, confuse, attract). Currently, skeleton mastery is at level 13, +skills included. That grants his mages and warriors +104 life and +26 damage. Both raise skeleton and raise mage are at level 9, also with +skills. That gives 5 of each warrior. I am currently using an act 1 merc -- I have yet to decide whether or not I will stick with her, or switch to an act 3 merc. I will not use an act 2 merc unless the game forces me to. I know my minions would benefit greatly from thorns or might, however, they are so strong on their own, I really canât stand helping them out any more.
Thus far, the only interesting fights Iâve had were with Mephisto and the council members. The council was only difficult until I succeded seperating them from any Blood Lords or minions. Meph would chop my golem in one blow, and iron maiden didnât seem all that effective. Once I switched to lower resist and simply recast golem every time he took a hit, the battle was over. I lost many golems, but my mages chewed up Meph in perfect safety.
Some fights Iâve enjoyed. I canât wait for the added difficulty of NM and hell. Already, I can see what WILL be a real challenge -- constantly repositioning a very weak golem to keep unravellers busy, protecting my mages and allowing them to chew through whatever opposition presents itself.
On an equipment note, Iâve been fairly lucky thus far. My current wand has +1 summoning skills, +2 raise skeleton and +2 raise mage. Thatâs about as good as I can hope for, at least until late NM/hell difficulty. My fire/coldghtning resists are all well over maximum, even without the Anya quest reward. Iâve managed to cube one full diamond and one flawless, and Iâve still got a few flawed in my stash. Unless I find a very nice rare head, I will definately be switching to a 3 D shield for hell difficulty (probably not for NM, however). I occasionally find myself using my character himself to tank for the mages, when the golem is preocupied elsewhere. I would not want to try that with negative resists once I reach hell.
But all of that is pure speculation at this point. Up next is act 4 -- Iâm looking forward to the Chaos Sanctuary. Should be interesting.
gekko
So, what happened? Why did I completely abandon my original plan to document the early parts of the new Skeletorrâs journey?
I tried out the new /players X command for the first time with Skel. And frankly, it made the game so laughably easy, I was almost bored to tears. Why?
Three things increase with points invested in the skelleton skills: offence, defence, and numbers. Obviously, the three are interconected, and it gets more complicted than that, but essentially, thatâs all you need to figure out the basic math.
http://sirian.warpcore.org/d2x/subpoena-2.html
I wonât re-write what Sirian so eloquently explained in the above link (begining of Subpoenaâs story -- the summons ONLY necromancer Sirian started in the expansion). But basically, he sums up what is intuitively obvious: the more, stronger minions you control, the easier it is to âcruiseâ through. When youâre outnumbered or faced by stronger enemies, it becomes harder and harder to stay ahead of the curve.
Well, I decided to try the game out at players 8, right out of the gate. I didnât lose my whole army to anything in all of act 1, including andariel! When the end boss for the act dropped, I had a full army and had barely tapped into the corpses scattered around the 4th level of the catacombs!
There were a few interesting things learned, but nothing truly worthy of writting down. I took some screenshots, deleted just about all of them, and really only kept the others to remind myself of a few important numbers -- basically, the life, defence, AR, and damage of my minions.
Skel is currently at clvl 31, and has full cleared the game up through act 3, inclusively. He has invested a single point in every curse except the three AI curses (dim vision, confuse, attract). Currently, skeleton mastery is at level 13, +skills included. That grants his mages and warriors +104 life and +26 damage. Both raise skeleton and raise mage are at level 9, also with +skills. That gives 5 of each warrior. I am currently using an act 1 merc -- I have yet to decide whether or not I will stick with her, or switch to an act 3 merc. I will not use an act 2 merc unless the game forces me to. I know my minions would benefit greatly from thorns or might, however, they are so strong on their own, I really canât stand helping them out any more.
Thus far, the only interesting fights Iâve had were with Mephisto and the council members. The council was only difficult until I succeded seperating them from any Blood Lords or minions. Meph would chop my golem in one blow, and iron maiden didnât seem all that effective. Once I switched to lower resist and simply recast golem every time he took a hit, the battle was over. I lost many golems, but my mages chewed up Meph in perfect safety.
Some fights Iâve enjoyed. I canât wait for the added difficulty of NM and hell. Already, I can see what WILL be a real challenge -- constantly repositioning a very weak golem to keep unravellers busy, protecting my mages and allowing them to chew through whatever opposition presents itself.
On an equipment note, Iâve been fairly lucky thus far. My current wand has +1 summoning skills, +2 raise skeleton and +2 raise mage. Thatâs about as good as I can hope for, at least until late NM/hell difficulty. My fire/coldghtning resists are all well over maximum, even without the Anya quest reward. Iâve managed to cube one full diamond and one flawless, and Iâve still got a few flawed in my stash. Unless I find a very nice rare head, I will definately be switching to a 3 D shield for hell difficulty (probably not for NM, however). I occasionally find myself using my character himself to tank for the mages, when the golem is preocupied elsewhere. I would not want to try that with negative resists once I reach hell.
But all of that is pure speculation at this point. Up next is act 4 -- Iâm looking forward to the Chaos Sanctuary. Should be interesting.
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"