06-21-2003, 04:34 AM
(This post was last modified: 06-23-2003, 06:28 AM by wonkothesane.)
A number of points jumped out at me in this chat, listed in no particular order:
I must say, this threw me off at first. I thought that perhaps warmth potions are really weak fire potions? :blink: Actually, I suspect they're thawing potions, though how a thawing potion can be improved is beyond me. Maybe it'll give you a few seconds of protection agaist Duriel's/random boss' Holy Freeze auras.
Those three items indicate that the days of Cow Runs, Mephisto Runs, or really any kind of Single-Goal Run (ignoring boss/quest runs to get to the next act) are long gone; instead, people are now going to do (Act 5) runs that basically do the entire act, skipping areas with difficult resistances (the patch will hopefully make monster resistances homogenous on the large-scale [1]), and do the "unknown" superuniques, like Snapchip Shatter, all the while killing as many normal monsters as possible; Andy, Meph and Baal may or may not be done, depending on how much the no-mf nerf synergyses (sp?) with the new "regular" non-first drops and increased boss difficulty.
[1] Depending on how much monster stats/resistances are shaken up by the patch, people may or may not rapidly discover that certain areas are very good for certain character builds, with special regard to sorceresses and even elemental druids.
I must say, I can't wait to see how charged bolt is going to turn out in the new patch :D
Oh, and I hope Blizzard doesn't rely on obfuscation alone for the new world event. I don't really expect them to think it'll remain secret for very long, and once it's out, I hope it doesn't have an unbalancing effect on the game.
Off-topic mumbling here: I wonder if the NPC sets and Uniques (Atma's Wail/Ammy, Natalya's set, etc) are ever going to be able to change the way an NPC interacts with you... e.g. Talk to Atma with Atma's Wail and Atma's Scarab on, and she, say, tells you about a lost item of hers (Atma's Revenge), at which point that item will be added to the list of items that can drop (say, only in the sewers of A2), or she could give you access to a new hidden dungeon in Act 2 that has very high level monsters with good experience and item drops.
Killing Izual with the new Azurewrath could be interesting as well.
Sigh. The suspense is terrible.
Quote:Are you upgrading potions?
Battle.Net Development Team: Yes, we have upgraded health, mana, warmth, antidote, and stamina potions.
I must say, this threw me off at first. I thought that perhaps warmth potions are really weak fire potions? :blink: Actually, I suspect they're thawing potions, though how a thawing potion can be improved is beyond me. Maybe it'll give you a few seconds of protection agaist Duriel's/random boss' Holy Freeze auras.
Quote:Will higher level runes be easier to get?
Bill Roper: Yes, thanks to the new Horadric Cube recipes. Also, the Hellforge quest now drops better runes, the Countess drops better runes, and the rune drops themselves have been improved to be more likely to drop better runes.
and
Are you making any changes to magic find?
Battle.Net Development Team: Yes, we have made "Magic Find" no longer work on end bosses and certain uniques.
Have you made any changes to boss runs?
Battle.Net Development Team: Bosses drop better drops the first time they are killed. Magic find no longer works on them, and bosses that were too easy to get to have reduced drops. Oh, and they are harder now.
Those three items indicate that the days of Cow Runs, Mephisto Runs, or really any kind of Single-Goal Run (ignoring boss/quest runs to get to the next act) are long gone; instead, people are now going to do (Act 5) runs that basically do the entire act, skipping areas with difficult resistances (the patch will hopefully make monster resistances homogenous on the large-scale [1]), and do the "unknown" superuniques, like Snapchip Shatter, all the while killing as many normal monsters as possible; Andy, Meph and Baal may or may not be done, depending on how much the no-mf nerf synergyses (sp?) with the new "regular" non-first drops and increased boss difficulty.
[1] Depending on how much monster stats/resistances are shaken up by the patch, people may or may not rapidly discover that certain areas are very good for certain character builds, with special regard to sorceresses and even elemental druids.
I must say, I can't wait to see how charged bolt is going to turn out in the new patch :D
Oh, and I hope Blizzard doesn't rely on obfuscation alone for the new world event. I don't really expect them to think it'll remain secret for very long, and once it's out, I hope it doesn't have an unbalancing effect on the game.
Off-topic mumbling here: I wonder if the NPC sets and Uniques (Atma's Wail/Ammy, Natalya's set, etc) are ever going to be able to change the way an NPC interacts with you... e.g. Talk to Atma with Atma's Wail and Atma's Scarab on, and she, say, tells you about a lost item of hers (Atma's Revenge), at which point that item will be added to the list of items that can drop (say, only in the sewers of A2), or she could give you access to a new hidden dungeon in Act 2 that has very high level monsters with good experience and item drops.
Killing Izual with the new Azurewrath could be interesting as well.
Sigh. The suspense is terrible.