07-06-2004, 03:24 AM
> does enchant work with Blade Sentinel?
Elemental adders work with the Blade skills. The Sentinel has a NextDelay factor of one second, so the 0.4 sec duration Venom override causes a damage output shortfall. There are reductions to the damage with Blade skills which apply to all of the damage. In addition weapons that are marked (mpq) for a 2H penalty for these skills are halved again, including the elemental damage, iirc (but don't take my word for it, as it's been a while).
> how do you kill Baal with a fire blast/WoF assassin?
Baal himself is no problem, so I assume you're asking about the fire immunes one runs into for sure in the course of the game, like Talic? My goal with a rushee is only clvl 40 so I tend to ignore this flaw in their character (my first WoF build was stopped cold by all the fire immunes in act 1 Hell and "retired" into MFing in nightmare). Neither the FI seal boss in CS act 4 nor Talic are mandatory kills though (the character needing quest credit has to share kill credit for the last Ancient standing; ditto e.g. on the three prison doors "killed" in early act 5).
In any event, in normal difficulty, the occasional FI can be taken with a normal attack. I've played many builds "pure" (without help or items from my other characters) and found that keeping an eye, for example, on the shop watching for poison ranged weapons (or just emeralds into socketed bows) is sufficient to patiently sleaze the occasional "immune to my usual attacks" monster.
BTW, in playing with "crippled" builds I've found that I love leveling in Far Oasis and Kurast Bazaar (after the Council is broken) because of the monster mix. Any sort of AoE (area of effect) attack tends to turn swarms of bugs into instant xp. Other than the resulting lightning when you hit a beetle, F.O. doesn't ever have ranged attackers, so it tends to be a very "safe" zone. Because of various opportunities for faster leveling lopsided builds, I think location rushing a character is very effective (more than just the "I can't kill Duriel! Would you help me?"). People joining impromptu parties that actually *work* (as opposed to the messes I've seen the majority of the time on public Ladder play) are effectively getting a location rush... you just need to know when to bail and solo a good xp area you've been granted access to (in as high a Players N game as makes sense for your build/twink).
> with enchant, try TIR TIR TIR helms and armor
Yes, I've done that. I first had that thought during the buggy beta when you unfortunately got tons of mana from +mana/kill stuff. The convenience factor is rather high. I've also played a Freezing Arrow zon with +mana/kill gear from clvl 30 into the 40s and had a good time. Even in classic this can be a fun build (use perfect saphires in a bow for really long freeze duration).
> since you save the ALT-TAB, JOIN, PARTY and ENCHANT moves
I hear ya. If you go the enchant route you need to really go for it. In classic my enchant would last over 10 minutes and circa 13 in LoD, iirc. Even so, this aspect can be tedious. Speaking of which, twinking a Kuko/razortail on a clvl 33 makes getting to clvl 40 pretty swift for probably any build in LoD (if you meet the reqs). Of course, since we're always talking Softcore, I have to acknowledge that 8 player Baal run (normal) games are an xp gravy train no matter what your build--as long as you stay alive, keep up, and the party has sufficient killing force. Simply location rushing your clvl 20+ rushee to Worldstone Waypoint and then seeking to party in games like that at clvl 25+ (xp penalty formula release) makes a lot of sense for time efficiency. If you're just playing a character for fun to act as a carry-along engine then you could use some oddball builds that would be welcome at clvl 25 into a WSK party (max Static Field; pumped Meditation; etc.). Your ton of poison jewel twink could carry pretty much any build to clvl 25 (assuming you location rush yourself at need).
> since iirc lev 85 characters are rather rare in classic -- so a mono-tree is guaranteed
The partnership of an Enchantress with Static Field maxed and a Skelemancer in classic was stunningly powerful. At one point, when our goal was gaining levels, Ferengi noted (iirc) that the combo had an excellent chance of being contenders in a new ladder race for ranking. In classic having a high level Sorc around with max. Static is a license to print xp for any other character (SF doesn't steal kills you see, and cream puffs the monsters for the rushee). So, if you have a partner and are willing to bootstrap yourselves a utility Sorc, then I indeed think classic is open to more than mono-tree builds.
> introduced the (imho) hideous practice of synergies.
Yes, the blessed hammer Paly in Classic, etc. Pretty odd balance when you have sh*t for equipment and some builds with uber skills.
> We live in the same district, so we're not online friends (this is a HUGE help
It is a great annoyance to me that it was easier in Everquest to "slave" a character on a second account to your primary by far than D2 (log in/out blessings; /follow for travel; pets acting autonomously but predictably/usefully; etc.). If I could just have my second character in either park or follow mode and message them to trigger an occasional mouse click I'd be going crazy toying with duo combos. Naturally I've diddled this a bit by changing hireling skills in a mod but its just not the same. It has been many years since I've had housemates playing the same games I'm playing. My EQ phase was the last of that (loads of fun).
> Yes, I know it is not so elegant as your solutions, but it's fast :) (one gets staff, other gets snakes, third gets summoner and then all three look for the staff socket
iirc, when my Durimule creates a game:
1. the true tomb is known (Quest screen, durimule)
2. the summoner can still be killed, if you wish, for credit
3. the viper darkness can still be lifted, if you wish, for credit
4. the staff isn't needed, as it has already been placed; Duriel/Tyriel is available, for credit
5. the palace can be walked into at will
What's not to like?
If you don't want to walk down through the palace to AS you can instead waypoint/teleport to the Vipers, slaughter them and TP in a rushee to touch the altar (lift darkness credit enables TP directly to summoner). If you don't want to walk from summoner platform (red TP) all the way to Duriel you just bring the rushee on screen (dead in softcore is fine) for the summoner demise (which enables TP directly to Tyriel).
Indeed, all that has been "blocked" is the ability to piece together a staff, to open the palace, to "reveal" the true tomb by touching Horizon's Journal, to place a staff.
In other words, no difficulty arises for any reasonable act 2 M.O. by having a "perfect" Durimule create the game (they can leave immediately, of course, provided you note the true tomb on the quest screen and get another character into the game before the one minute bnet grace period for new games living expires).
If you appreciate the incredible convenience of having such a mule handy and know how to properly create one all that remains is the tedium of doing one for each difficulty level (and for both classic and LoD, if you're a junkie like me). Naturally the effort is hardly worth it unless you're actually going to putting a lot of (batches of) characters through act 2.
> About poison jewels: it's a perversion of mine, but I love to watch the chilled enemies shatter automatically.
I have a similar weakness... I really love to see Rabies catch hold on a crowd.
No point in doing anything in the game unless you're enjoying yourself. In my view, the whole "reason" for rune rushing to get wealthy is merely to acquire "toys" to have more fun with. People realized very early on in Everquest that speedily leveling a primary character by hook or crook would allow them to twink later characters. Unfortunately many of them got into a grind about it, and so never enjoyed either the initial hard-working character nor stopped to smell the roses with their subsequent twinkees. Since the "real world" these days is tinted fairly hedonistically, I find it supremely ironic to find, in a *game*, a high occurrance of an ethic in which the purpose of life is to "work really hard, so your children can be pressured to do the same, ad infinitem".
That being said, I certainly "wasted" a lot of time acquiring my Ravenclaw in classic (never was able to trade for one, so eventually I racked up many many hours on Fire Eye runs).
Elemental adders work with the Blade skills. The Sentinel has a NextDelay factor of one second, so the 0.4 sec duration Venom override causes a damage output shortfall. There are reductions to the damage with Blade skills which apply to all of the damage. In addition weapons that are marked (mpq) for a 2H penalty for these skills are halved again, including the elemental damage, iirc (but don't take my word for it, as it's been a while).
> how do you kill Baal with a fire blast/WoF assassin?
Baal himself is no problem, so I assume you're asking about the fire immunes one runs into for sure in the course of the game, like Talic? My goal with a rushee is only clvl 40 so I tend to ignore this flaw in their character (my first WoF build was stopped cold by all the fire immunes in act 1 Hell and "retired" into MFing in nightmare). Neither the FI seal boss in CS act 4 nor Talic are mandatory kills though (the character needing quest credit has to share kill credit for the last Ancient standing; ditto e.g. on the three prison doors "killed" in early act 5).
In any event, in normal difficulty, the occasional FI can be taken with a normal attack. I've played many builds "pure" (without help or items from my other characters) and found that keeping an eye, for example, on the shop watching for poison ranged weapons (or just emeralds into socketed bows) is sufficient to patiently sleaze the occasional "immune to my usual attacks" monster.
BTW, in playing with "crippled" builds I've found that I love leveling in Far Oasis and Kurast Bazaar (after the Council is broken) because of the monster mix. Any sort of AoE (area of effect) attack tends to turn swarms of bugs into instant xp. Other than the resulting lightning when you hit a beetle, F.O. doesn't ever have ranged attackers, so it tends to be a very "safe" zone. Because of various opportunities for faster leveling lopsided builds, I think location rushing a character is very effective (more than just the "I can't kill Duriel! Would you help me?"). People joining impromptu parties that actually *work* (as opposed to the messes I've seen the majority of the time on public Ladder play) are effectively getting a location rush... you just need to know when to bail and solo a good xp area you've been granted access to (in as high a Players N game as makes sense for your build/twink).
> with enchant, try TIR TIR TIR helms and armor
Yes, I've done that. I first had that thought during the buggy beta when you unfortunately got tons of mana from +mana/kill stuff. The convenience factor is rather high. I've also played a Freezing Arrow zon with +mana/kill gear from clvl 30 into the 40s and had a good time. Even in classic this can be a fun build (use perfect saphires in a bow for really long freeze duration).
> since you save the ALT-TAB, JOIN, PARTY and ENCHANT moves
I hear ya. If you go the enchant route you need to really go for it. In classic my enchant would last over 10 minutes and circa 13 in LoD, iirc. Even so, this aspect can be tedious. Speaking of which, twinking a Kuko/razortail on a clvl 33 makes getting to clvl 40 pretty swift for probably any build in LoD (if you meet the reqs). Of course, since we're always talking Softcore, I have to acknowledge that 8 player Baal run (normal) games are an xp gravy train no matter what your build--as long as you stay alive, keep up, and the party has sufficient killing force. Simply location rushing your clvl 20+ rushee to Worldstone Waypoint and then seeking to party in games like that at clvl 25+ (xp penalty formula release) makes a lot of sense for time efficiency. If you're just playing a character for fun to act as a carry-along engine then you could use some oddball builds that would be welcome at clvl 25 into a WSK party (max Static Field; pumped Meditation; etc.). Your ton of poison jewel twink could carry pretty much any build to clvl 25 (assuming you location rush yourself at need).
> since iirc lev 85 characters are rather rare in classic -- so a mono-tree is guaranteed
The partnership of an Enchantress with Static Field maxed and a Skelemancer in classic was stunningly powerful. At one point, when our goal was gaining levels, Ferengi noted (iirc) that the combo had an excellent chance of being contenders in a new ladder race for ranking. In classic having a high level Sorc around with max. Static is a license to print xp for any other character (SF doesn't steal kills you see, and cream puffs the monsters for the rushee). So, if you have a partner and are willing to bootstrap yourselves a utility Sorc, then I indeed think classic is open to more than mono-tree builds.
> introduced the (imho) hideous practice of synergies.
Yes, the blessed hammer Paly in Classic, etc. Pretty odd balance when you have sh*t for equipment and some builds with uber skills.
> We live in the same district, so we're not online friends (this is a HUGE help
It is a great annoyance to me that it was easier in Everquest to "slave" a character on a second account to your primary by far than D2 (log in/out blessings; /follow for travel; pets acting autonomously but predictably/usefully; etc.). If I could just have my second character in either park or follow mode and message them to trigger an occasional mouse click I'd be going crazy toying with duo combos. Naturally I've diddled this a bit by changing hireling skills in a mod but its just not the same. It has been many years since I've had housemates playing the same games I'm playing. My EQ phase was the last of that (loads of fun).
> Yes, I know it is not so elegant as your solutions, but it's fast :) (one gets staff, other gets snakes, third gets summoner and then all three look for the staff socket
iirc, when my Durimule creates a game:
1. the true tomb is known (Quest screen, durimule)
2. the summoner can still be killed, if you wish, for credit
3. the viper darkness can still be lifted, if you wish, for credit
4. the staff isn't needed, as it has already been placed; Duriel/Tyriel is available, for credit
5. the palace can be walked into at will
What's not to like?
If you don't want to walk down through the palace to AS you can instead waypoint/teleport to the Vipers, slaughter them and TP in a rushee to touch the altar (lift darkness credit enables TP directly to summoner). If you don't want to walk from summoner platform (red TP) all the way to Duriel you just bring the rushee on screen (dead in softcore is fine) for the summoner demise (which enables TP directly to Tyriel).
Indeed, all that has been "blocked" is the ability to piece together a staff, to open the palace, to "reveal" the true tomb by touching Horizon's Journal, to place a staff.
In other words, no difficulty arises for any reasonable act 2 M.O. by having a "perfect" Durimule create the game (they can leave immediately, of course, provided you note the true tomb on the quest screen and get another character into the game before the one minute bnet grace period for new games living expires).
If you appreciate the incredible convenience of having such a mule handy and know how to properly create one all that remains is the tedium of doing one for each difficulty level (and for both classic and LoD, if you're a junkie like me). Naturally the effort is hardly worth it unless you're actually going to putting a lot of (batches of) characters through act 2.
> About poison jewels: it's a perversion of mine, but I love to watch the chilled enemies shatter automatically.
I have a similar weakness... I really love to see Rabies catch hold on a crowd.
No point in doing anything in the game unless you're enjoying yourself. In my view, the whole "reason" for rune rushing to get wealthy is merely to acquire "toys" to have more fun with. People realized very early on in Everquest that speedily leveling a primary character by hook or crook would allow them to twink later characters. Unfortunately many of them got into a grind about it, and so never enjoyed either the initial hard-working character nor stopped to smell the roses with their subsequent twinkees. Since the "real world" these days is tinted fairly hedonistically, I find it supremely ironic to find, in a *game*, a high occurrance of an ethic in which the purpose of life is to "work really hard, so your children can be pressured to do the same, ad infinitem".
That being said, I certainly "wasted" a lot of time acquiring my Ravenclaw in classic (never was able to trade for one, so eventually I racked up many many hours on Fire Eye runs).
"He's got demons? Cool!" -- Gonzo, Muppet Treasure Island
"Proto-matter... an unstable substance which every ethical scientist in the galaxy has denounced as dangerously unpredictable." -- Saavik, Star Trek III
"Mom! Dad! It's evil! Don't touch it!" -- Kevin, Time Bandits
"Proto-matter... an unstable substance which every ethical scientist in the galaxy has denounced as dangerously unpredictable." -- Saavik, Star Trek III
"Mom! Dad! It's evil! Don't touch it!" -- Kevin, Time Bandits