Diablo II 1.10 Beta Test begins

[Dagni]

Now, in addition to the standard slvl breakpoints, there is even better bonuses at 23-28, and 29+. The standard skill breakpoints were:

slvl:
2-8
9-16
17+

Now:

slvl:
2-8
9-16
17-22
23-28
29+

Oh, and also skills can now get a different bonus for min than for max. Before min and max would always increase equally.

So, for example Bone Spear was: 16-24 dmg at slvl 1, +8-8/+8-8/+8-8. Now it's: 16-24, +8-8/+9-9/+12-13/+18-19/+24-25.

- Dagni

[Taem]

- It looks like the hellforge quests can drop from r01 to r25 now.  I don't know what the specific ranges are for each difficulty.

- A monster "Diablo Clone" has drop group of "ROP", which points to in Nightmare and mysterious object "Annihilus" -- dropping 1 out of 5 times.  In Hell, "Annihilus" drops every time.

- Countess now drops out of Runes 4 in normal, Runes 8 in nightmare, Runes 12 in Hell, 3 of 4 times.  Runes 4 is up to r08.  Runes 8 is up to rune r16.  Runes 12 is up to r24.  This isn't new is it?

- Rune drop rate looks approximately halved.

I just did countess with my friends in a IP-peer to peer game and got ZERO runes. Not one. We did it again with the same result. That was the first time any of us had killed her in normal because we made all new characters for both tests.

I also confirm that auras kick in between 0.5 - 2 seconds and lasts only 2 seconds instead of 4 (no more aura swapping). This is easily noticable with Conviction.

EDIT - some dissapointing expections not met with the paladin, IMO. His skill synergies are so sporatic now. Also, he is still a cookie cutter! You can't take any of the other auras without fanatisicm or something already cookie cutter. You have NO CHOICE with the 1.1 patch and a paladin but to become cookie cutter for any usefullness, either for survival or for synergies for other skills - (strickly my opinion).

Also, I read in numerous spots that quests were suppose to of changed, but have not seen any changes in them from act 1-3 yet (yes, we're already that far). So... Well I have seen 1, sort of. You can't take TP's from durance 2 unless you've killed the council in Travincial.

EDIT 2 - I also remember reading that the casting speed of most spells would become usable (instead of a stupid casting delay because of graphic intensive spells), but have yet to see this. Any one notice a spell that previously had a casting delay have the casting delay removed, or even lessened?

EDIT 3 - BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA.... YES!!!! My friends ITH weapon turned into a regular colosus blade :D SO there go the ITH's for once and for all. He didn't have any bugged items or dupes to test out, but I'm glad to see at least ITh's, and hopefully Quarks dissappearing FOR GOOD!!!! Horray!

[Brista]

Looks to me like Ferocious now spawns on rares

It seemed a logical step

(Newbie MPQ reader but it has a "1" in the rare column like all the lesser affixes and Cruel has a blank there. I'm guessing one = available)

Master's too but not Grandmaster's

So a rare with both would get 202-350% ed :)

Edit: omw, a craft with both could get over 400% counting the automod!!!

[ChromaticOnion]

Well, it looks as if you might actually have to invest more than 6 or so points into cold mastery now...
-5% at slvl 1 ouch!
Now I guess I'll have to use something OTHER than just frozen orb! Golly! :ph34r:

[Brista]

Final observation from the mpq's (take this with a mighty pinch of salt folks, I don't know really what I am looking at)

There is a column in the armour.txt called Absorb which has some (low) values in it for some of the top end armour. What exactly does that column do? Is it elemental absorb?

Even more final observation: base AC values look unchanged at a glance (it had been speculated they would change)

[Ice]

Anyone had any success creating the runewords?

I tried out six and only two worked out well... Doomsayer was missing quite a few attributes (volcano on strike and holy freeze aura) while three others (hand of justice, passion, the beast) crashed the game.

[WarBlade]

EDIT - some dissapointing expections not met with the paladin, IMO.  His skill synergies are so sporatic now.  Also, he is still a cookie cutter!  You can't take any of the other auras without fanatisicm or something already cookie cutter.  You have NO CHOICE with the 1.1 patch and a paladin but to become cookie cutter for any usefullness, either for survival or for synergies for other skills - (strickly my opinion).

I took a Shock Zealot through parts of Act 2 Hell on "Players 1" and he was doing ok with his Shock producing up near 3000 at the top end and a King's Grace Rune Sword as the weapon.

Defiant using Zeal in Act 1 Hell "Players 8" bombed. Nothing could get him, but he could kill practically nothing too.

An Avenger in Act 5 Hell "Players 8" was struggling, but he could crawl through slowly. Oh and watch out for those Prowling Dead etc. Charge hits hurt like hell now. This is the new Horned Demon of Diablo 2 and makes one's heart skip a beat when you see two of the suckers breaking into a run simultaneously. :o I'm hesitant to try Nihlathak's Temple at this point and trying to imagine that level chock full of Horned Demons . . . *gulp*

Edit: Well the temple crowd are still featherweights in Nightmare at least . . . or maybe that was because my Elemental Druid is somewhere in the 3 to 4 times more powerful ballpark, without any new investments or items. :blink: And he looks like a bright green neon sign in that Hawkmail.

Anyway I wonder what Crushing Blow is doing these days. By the looks of things the 1, 1/2, 1/3 thing might be the same for CB too, otherwise I would have said Crushing Blow is the Zealot's ace in the hole. Dunno though. Maybe it still is.

[Polare]

Nobody has mentioned one of the (IMHO) more meaningful changes -- there is now a true night/day transition outdoors (at least in Act I). This seems like it might open the door to some of the (previously non-activated but in the code) affixes which happen only "at night" or "during day".

Anyone have more information about these affixes? Were they enabled at all?

-Polare

[Maral]

I've noticed that boss monsters in hell almost allways drop elites. Also, the overall chance for exeptionals and elites to drop, seems to be pumped up. I also killed Diablo in normal (first time with this char) and he dropped 4 rare and 2 magic items. Two of the rares were quite good (or maybe I've forgotten what a good rare is ;) ).

[Ruvanal]

There is a column in the armour.txt called Absorb which has some (low) values in it for some of the top end armour. What exactly does that column do? Is it elemental absorb?

The column has been there and is unused since v1.00.

Looks to me like Ferocious now spawns on rares

It seemed a logical step

(Newbie MPQ reader but it has a "1" in the rare column like all the lesser affixes and Cruel has a blank there. I'm guessing one = available)

Master's too but not Grandmaster's

So a rare with both would get 202-350% ed

You missed the extra "cruel" prefix that was added at the bottom of the list with a freq=1, for rares. So a rare could at the extreme get up to 450% damage. Many of the affixes that were limit to magic only have been opened up to appearing on rares now.

There are also some extra affixes that have been added like the ones that allow mana leech on rings and life leech on amulets. These are at higher spawning and req levels than their counterparts, but they at least are there.

Aurikan and Dragoon, you both missed what may be the two horror cube formulas (or blessings in some players opinion).
3 standard gems + 1 socketed weapon -> magic, socketable weapon
3 flawless gems + 1 magic weapon -> socketed, magic weapon

The first requires only that the weapon be socketed, but it can be of any quality. The second only requires that the weapon be magical, with or without sockets. The output of both is the same and can be recycled back into either formula. The ilvl=30 on both which will allow cruel to appear with any weapon that has a qlvl of 75+. AND they each give a random 1 to 6 sockets, but the ilvl will only limit most of the weapon types to 4 sockets. This makes these two formula more "powerful" than the old and the socketing quest not a good choice for magic items.
socket limit for item types at ilvl=30
5 Scepter
2 Wand
6 Staff
4 Bow
5 Axe
4 Club
4 Sword
4 Hammer
3 Knife
4 Spear
4 Polearm
4 Crossbow
4 Mace
3 Assassin Claws
3 Orb
4 Amazon Bow
4 Amazon Spear

From some of the descriptions so far though, this type of item may be what is required to survive in hell.

Dragoon, the tempered formula that you listed are not enabled to work. Besides that they are incomplete except for the last one and it requires an item (tempered) that will not exist without the other formula be fleshed out and enabled.

For those that want to see part of the hit on getting experience at higher levels open the experience.txt file and not the new column that is for downgrading the experience at certain levels. The 'ding' starts at level 70 and down grades steadily from there to about 0.5% of earned amount at the end. I am not sure how they have modified the experience per kill from before, but if things like the *mlvl/clvl factor are still used, then there does not appear to be that many monsters that are over level 85 compared to the plethora of level 90 monsters that are in v1.09. We will need to learn the intricacies of the new file changes t be sure though.

[Brista]

Thanks Ruvunal :)

So with the possibility of Cruel + Master's on a Hit power or Blood craft we have a possibility of a 300% + 150% + 35-60% craft auto-mod. 2 sockets is possible too so with 2 Ohms a 610% ed weapon is theoretically possible

(I checked for a second Grandmaster's entry - there is just the one entry and rare column is blank)

Incidentally the ed% automod on hitpower and blood craft weapons is now equal - a tiny fix there

Another comment on rares, as I've galloped from level 1 through to level 20-ish in players 8 I've found about 20 rares. They seem much much better than the normal A1 junk, with several having 6 affixes and a 4 affix jewel

From a no-twink, early game perspective changes to the rares is perhaps the most noticeable difference with regard to the items

It's going to be nice to be picking stuff up again :)

[D-Dave]

One funny thing I noticed when cubing my Pierre Tombale Couant into an elite: It lost durability...very strange, but maybe the game handels this cubing as a predetermined item drop.


Pre cubing


Post cubing (reduced durability)

About increased Item drops (and better rares):
Gambeling test on rings turned up this:

so dual leech is back but mana being high level on rings and life being high level on amulets?

and a regular citizen of normal difficulty Den of Evil dropped this:

either i was incredibly lucky or chances for fitting affixes have been increased
Update: Chances must have been greatly raised as the last 10 rare weapons that dropped all had enhanced damage and armours all had enhanced defense...

back to testing...


-dave

more stuff:
-council must be killed before a portal to the durance of hate can be taken
-hellforge hammer drops identified
-rott walker boss standing up again after first kill (bug/feature/oddity?)
-Thresh Socket moved from Barbarian Prison to exit to Crystalin Passage
-Demon Rascals have some sort of defensive skill (turns them translucend for 1 or maybe 2 seconds)
-frozen monsters no longer shatters 100% (not talking about cold immunes here, they don't freeze anyway) makes revivers and Nihlathak extra annoying
-Decoy is shown in red on Automap and has a nametag on it (pretty nifty for PvP)
-Amazon Skills set for left / right mouse button reset to normal attack when unequipping bow (massively annoying)

Second addition:
Special set effects:
-Aldur's, Griswold's, Immortal King's, Mavina's and Tal Rasha's set all give a glow around the char (as seen on many screenshots)
-Trang-Oul's: transformation into a Vampire (melee attacks leech life) (as seen on AS)
-Natalya's: makes the Assassin translucend (spelling?) and grants 30% damage reduce

[TheDragoon]

Dragoon, the tempered formula that you listed are not enabled to work. Besides that they are incomplete except for the last one and it requires an item (tempered) that will not exist without the other formula be fleshed out and enabled.

I was tired. ;) I copy and pasted and figured other people could sort through it. :)

[keenduck]

The quill rats(!) in Act V have some sort of thorns effect going on. It's not an aura, because the other monsters around weren't returning damage back to me. I have no idea what this is, but it sure makes them dangerous, especially the uniques.

[Sickywicky]

The phenomenom of a moulten boulder with 1259-2267 dmg at lv 2 seems a bit overpowered. :P I don't have an url for my screenies so I can't show you guys the screenie. I would think this is a bug since it should be 10-17 physical and 10-18 fire damage at that level. :blink:

[Lane]

Anyone had any success creating the runewords?

I tried out six and only two worked out well... Doomsayer was missing quite a few attributes (volcano on strike and holy freeze aura) while three others (hand of justice, passion, the beast) crashed the game.

I have had really odd results with runewords. More than half of them didn't work at all and I ended up with "Gemmed" armor and weapons. The ones that did work have vastly different bonuses than what I've seen listed. Here are some examples:

Beast
Bramble
Breath of the Dying
Call to Arms
Famine
Delirium

I also have screenshots of the effects of "Delirium"

Example

[Rataxes]

Just took a brand new Martyr Paladin on a spin in Act 1 Normal, with players set to 8.

Sacrifice got a pretty heavy boost, getting +15% dmg per slvl instead of +12%, and +7% AR instead of +5%. Not only that, but the 8% damage to self now only applies to the damage received by the monster, which is easily one of the most important requirements for making Sacrifice a viable skill in this new patch.

Anyway, with Sacrifice at +360% dmg, I'm doing 40-90 dmg with a regular Scepter! Still in Act 1, and I'm sure noticing the difficulty increase. Even Fallens can survive a hit from me now, and it seems the monsters damage has been greatly increased. Particularly Champs and Bosses deal vast amounts of damage. With 250 HP in the Underground Passage, a few Champion Skeletal Archers on average zapped 30-40 HP's per hit, damage which was previously reserved for Hell monsters! Sacrifice is great though, hardly ever notice the damage to self. With the additional synergestic bonuses from Fanaticism and Redemption and a few skill adders, as well as your STR, your total damage bonus could easily top +1000%.

Played for about 2 hours and just reached the Catacombs. Drops are a bit scarce I think, I hardly get enough to go around, what with the vast amounts of minor health potions I constantly have to buy. Got enough money left over a few times to gamble, but I've had little success with that. I noticed a cool trap I haven't seen before, when I triggered a trapped chest, it caused two skeletal archers to rise from the ground. I've seen magical swords appear, but this was something new to me.

[Ryethe]

Someone go check out hell for me...

... I think it may be frozen over or something :lol:

[--Pete]

Hi,

I have had really odd results with runewords. More than half of them didn't work at all and I ended up with "Gemmed" armor and weapons.

Could it be that the new rune words (and, indeed, some of the other new effects) are tied to the "new" ladder and as such don't work right in SP? In which case, a SP only beta makes about as much sense as shoes for a fish :)

--Pete

[Ryethe]

The affixes that are tied to each mlvl seem to have been changed. I found a small charm of life (+10 to life) in the Blood Moor and with a lvl 14 req to boot :blink:.

The Beta Calls!
-Ryethe