11-04-2003, 12:46 AM
It's funny listening to people whine about losing cows and the foothills. It's even funnier seeing people try to do foothill runs for experience and watching them all drop like flies to the ranged attackers (which have huge range out on the open foothills).
In nightmare, I was leveling great from 40-60 just by finding an act 2 game with 6 or so people and never mentioning that I had any of the way points. Follow them and kill stuff as you progress through each of the areas. Now that I'm in the 60's, leveling is slower and act 4 & 5 games are preferable. I think in hell, the best experience runs I've seen so far were going through the Chaos Sanctuary. Run through with a party of 8, watch eachother's backs, have a bit of challenge, and pick up a basket of goodies when Diablo dies. I missed these a lot from the classic days. I also think runs through the various passages (halls of pain, crystaline, frozen river, glacial trail, drifter cavern, ancients way, halls of pain) in act 5 would be great for experience, since game hopping won't be necessary and the narrow passages prevent ranged attackers from overwhelming you.
I don't think synergies are entirely necessary to play a successful sorceress. My tri-elementalist (cl/orb/hydra) does rather well with nothing invested in synergies and a minimum in masteries (debating point placement at the moment). Obviously, she doesn't have the same damage output of specialized sorcs, but she is always able to contribute to the party, since there's never more than 2 immunities on any given monster.
My most successful play style is with an old 1.05 or 1.06 style javazon, who hasn't changed much. I'm still indestructable, but I also do little damage. I got an awesome imbue (312% ed elite) that helps a lot. I'm currently gambling for a good dual leech ring.
I think solo play is still viable if you want to, but really only in a truly solo game (not soloing in an 8 player game). Obviously, some builds are going to have an easier time at this than others. You could run through nightmare completely alone if it suited your fancy. In hell, its much harder to do solo, especially if you only specialize in 2 types of attacks (ie. phys & lightning, cold & fire, etc.).
I've noticed merc leveling to be better and worse. For instance, my husband hired a barb for his blizzard sorc (awesome damage, btw). They started out the same level, but every time he dies, he falls behind the sorc in levels. I think there's now over 5 levels difference between them. I hired a holy freeze merc, and as long as I keep him alive, he levels by the time I get half way to the next level up. Of course, mercs are still stupid and will kill themselves with iron maiden.
In nightmare, I was leveling great from 40-60 just by finding an act 2 game with 6 or so people and never mentioning that I had any of the way points. Follow them and kill stuff as you progress through each of the areas. Now that I'm in the 60's, leveling is slower and act 4 & 5 games are preferable. I think in hell, the best experience runs I've seen so far were going through the Chaos Sanctuary. Run through with a party of 8, watch eachother's backs, have a bit of challenge, and pick up a basket of goodies when Diablo dies. I missed these a lot from the classic days. I also think runs through the various passages (halls of pain, crystaline, frozen river, glacial trail, drifter cavern, ancients way, halls of pain) in act 5 would be great for experience, since game hopping won't be necessary and the narrow passages prevent ranged attackers from overwhelming you.
I don't think synergies are entirely necessary to play a successful sorceress. My tri-elementalist (cl/orb/hydra) does rather well with nothing invested in synergies and a minimum in masteries (debating point placement at the moment). Obviously, she doesn't have the same damage output of specialized sorcs, but she is always able to contribute to the party, since there's never more than 2 immunities on any given monster.
My most successful play style is with an old 1.05 or 1.06 style javazon, who hasn't changed much. I'm still indestructable, but I also do little damage. I got an awesome imbue (312% ed elite) that helps a lot. I'm currently gambling for a good dual leech ring.
I think solo play is still viable if you want to, but really only in a truly solo game (not soloing in an 8 player game). Obviously, some builds are going to have an easier time at this than others. You could run through nightmare completely alone if it suited your fancy. In hell, its much harder to do solo, especially if you only specialize in 2 types of attacks (ie. phys & lightning, cold & fire, etc.).
I've noticed merc leveling to be better and worse. For instance, my husband hired a barb for his blizzard sorc (awesome damage, btw). They started out the same level, but every time he dies, he falls behind the sorc in levels. I think there's now over 5 levels difference between them. I hired a holy freeze merc, and as long as I keep him alive, he levels by the time I get half way to the next level up. Of course, mercs are still stupid and will kill themselves with iron maiden.