New Runewords on AT

[Vash]

Wow. I think I'm going to shoot myself now.

Making the game even more broken IS NOT THE WAY TO FIX THE FACT THAT THE GAME IS BROKEN!

*continues shooting self*

Edit: Might I direct your attention to Breath of the Dying.

[Pren]

Holy GOD those are obscene.

Chains of Honor is great. The ones with innate paladin auras, IMO, are broken... shouldn't trivialize skills like that.

Chaos: The assassin only weapon with +1 to whirlwind. Great thinking.

Doom is sick.

Breath of the dying uses a Zod... that's pretty rare still.

[whyBish]

I think that they are all reasonable for their cost, but crescent moon looks a bit cheap (static fiield for an um?)

[TaiDaishar]

Eh... care to give a link to that page please?

P.S What is AT anyway? :D

[Arutha]

Arreat Summit

[TaiDaishar]

Oh, actually I went to the summit but didn't see the runewords section :)

All the runewords seem pretty powerful but not too overpowered compared to the reports of the increased difficulty except for Breath of the Dying but... well... who here can say he found a Zod rune? Not to even mention the ladder characters...

I got only one complaint though, I DO NOT like the paladin only aura on items that could be used by all, if it was paladin shields then o.k but adding these runewords to the already paladin merceneries of act 2 it makes the paladin utterly useless as the "Leader" the description says he is.

[Guest]

I still dont get why everyone is upset - its not the same game it was, you need to see this stuff used in hell before you make blanket statments.

[Lane]

Breath of the Dying Crusader Bow in action.
Sorcie using Beast. :P

Oh, and she's also using Delirium, hence the Mind Blast'ed monsters.

[Kevin]

A sorc using beast gets to use werebear? I didn't read the word that way.

Can we get a screen of that with the skill bar up as well?

[Lane]

A sorc using beast gets to use werebear?  I didn't read the word that way.

Can we get a screen of that with the skill bar up as well?

Yes, it's the same thing as the Assassin being able to use Whirlwind with the Chaos runeword. (Yes, the Assassin can WW.)

Call to Arms also allows other classes to use Battle Orders and Battle Command. The bonus looks nice, but from what I've read it only actually gives at most a +3 bonus to a Barbarian using that weapon.

As I recall, the only thing the sorcie could do in werebear form was summon a Grizzly. I don't have the character anymore and uninstalled the beta so I can't give a screenshot of the skill tree.

Oh, noting that I cast Energy Shield, Shiver Armor and Thunderstorm prior to shifting.

[AtomicKitKat]

*drools at Famine on an Avenger...*

[IlleglWpns]

Crescent moon looks quite tasty. And it doesn't seem horribly hard to get. I'm sure most players could scrape up an um rune if necessary.

[Striker]

I still dont get why everyone is upset - its not the same game it was, you need to see this stuff used in hell before you make blanket statments.

Granted, we don't know yet how well these new runewords work in hell, or even if you could get away with similar (but less powerful) items. I'm more concerned with the runes that are required to make them.

Scrolling through the list of new runewords, I can count the ones I can make on one hand. And I've been playing for almost 2 years now. Pretty much all of them need an "extremely rare" rune that I've never seen drop in a game. Even with the rune upgrade formulas and a (hopefully) improved rune drop, how many of these are the above average player going to be able to make?

I hope that this list isn't complete and that they'll be adding more low and mid level ones to the mix. Otherwise, "the gap" that Sirian talked about years ago just got wider. :(

[Bolty]

I still dont get why everyone is upset - its not the same game it was, you need to see this stuff used in hell before you make blanket statments.

That's what I find funny so far - you hear "The monsters are way too powerful and hard to kill" on one end, and "these new items are sickly overpowered, WTF" on the other. I don't know myself if there's a middle ground, but things have to be seriously tested out first.

-Bolty

[Nicodemus Phaulkon]

Shades of Elfquest, or what? :huh:

Shael, Um and Tir. Considering that in 1.09 and the period of years, 6 or 7 Um runes have dropped in my games, I would call this runeword "future prevalent". Even going the hard route and cubing to the Um wouldn't take much at all.

10% Chance To Cast Level 17 Chain Lightning On Striking
20% Chance To Cast Level 13 Static Field On Striking
+20% Increased Attack Speed
+220-260% Enhanced Damage (varies)
Ignore Target's Defense
-35% To Enemy Lightning Resistance
25% Chance of Open Wounds
+9-11 Magic Absorb (varies)
+2 To Mana After Each Kill
Level 18 Summon Spirit Wolf (30 Charges)

What were looking at here is a poor man's version of a Schaefer's Hammer or Stormlash. It is due to Static field alone that I was able to solo my Fanatic Zealot in P8 Cows. The power of Static Field cannot be overstated; while Crushing Blow and Deadly Strike had their benefits limited, Static Field (aside from Lightning immunes) applied across the board.

And now we have a runeword, which I'm guessing will be approximately clvl 50ish, that gives the same SF punch along with the ITD to make sure the punch connects. Further, when this runeword is constructed in an applicable elite, the actual enhanced damage will rival the Schaeffer's as well.

Now then, add into this the ability to reduce enemy resistance to launched chain lightnings? This runeword active in a Cryptic Sword is a low-yield nuclear weapon.

While the BotDying's Zod rune keeps it held to the highest possible level of remoteness (read: Realms will have them in droves), this particular runeword could be built in IRONMAN competitions.

I find that... scary.

[Mavfin]

Maybe we need Pete to teach a course on logic.........(to the forum, after what Bolty said)

[Occhidiangela]

Emphasis will be on how to jump --or not to jump -- to conclusions. :D

[Occhidiangela]

Clvl requirement will be a key to where Crescent Moon fits as regards balance.

If the reports of enormous hip point totals on monsters is true, then this Rune Word may be just right in Hell, or just right for an Act II merc, or Just Right for any number of reasons.

It also won't bother Stone Skin Lightning Immune bosses much, Open Wounds takes a while to kill bosses. :o

[IlleglWpns]

Yes this is definitely the "bang for the buck" runeword. I like it because it evens out the runeword progression. Think about. You start at stuff like "steel", proceed to "kings grace" and then "honor".....and then there's this huge gap until you manage to scrape up the runes for something like "silence" or "fury", by which time you probably have a cruel elite rendering them pointless.

[Dagni]

Heh, "steel" may be unlikely to be of use to an untwinked character by the time he gets it now. So far, in Act I/NM I've gotten one or two of each of Tal/Ral/Ort without even bothering to do the quest that gives you them, but I haven't got a single Tir. I imagine that I've just been unlucky, but still, the range of runes that CAN drop in Normal is so much higher that it lowers the chance that you'll get that one particular low level rune that you want for your low-level runeword.

- Dagni