What would you think of....

[Walkiry]

*Sigh* I guess there are not many players in Europe then, since I've only got one request for the password of the account there :P :D

[Sporky Smurf]

Another quick update on LL-Piege, who is still level 35. BUT, she has just thoroughly cleared the Cow Level in a three player game, though she was solo.

The moment she stepped through the glowing red portal cows were coming at her from all directions. She set her beautiful Sentries around her in a five-pointed star to try and stop the rushes while she slipped out and started running. Piege is almost ALWAYS moving. That's the beauty about this character. All of her attacks are fire-and-forget, basically. Traps, fire and forget. Highly potent, long lasting poison damage from a bow, check. This proved a slight problem at first because she had spawned right next to the Corral of Doom, and the more she moved the more beef she awoke. Once Piege remembered she had Death Sentry at hand she cleared the first area in a matter of seconds and developed the strategy she used for pretty much the whole level. This strategy was:

Scout at the edge of your screen for Cows with your Lightning Sentries. If they go off, fire a couple of venom-tipped arrows in the direction of the bovines. The poison was almost always enough to produce a corpse or two, and the LS's would smoosh some more. Run up, check the mob's size. If it's large, lay down a Death Sentry or two and lead the herd over a corpse. Boom! Boom! Moo. This would produce me a "field" of corpses where I would set up some more Death Sentries, go herd up a LARGE crowd and lure back for their slaughtering. Overall, it was an EXP and Item bust, but oh well. Still had fun being a butcher.


Edit: I guess LL-Piege wasn't as "immortal" as I had thought she was. I was in a game, cruising through A1 and about to rescue Cain. Someone else in my game was doing Andy, so I hit her portal and smashed Andy to pieces. Hop over to A2 to get my HF Merc and decided to test him out in the Sewers. Round the first corner and a whole nest of Skellie Archers launch some flaming arrows into my butt. I save & exit at the exact moment I perish. So now the character icon is invisible, but dead. Grrr. Losts a WHOLE bunch of poison charms, etc... Grrr.

[Baajikiil]

Edit: I guess LL-Piege wasn't as "immortal" as I had thought she was.

Alas, the fate of the hardcore. *moment of silence* Well time to start over again with that build, it seemed to be fun.
Or take a break with a new one.


UPDATE:
Poison_Creeper has made lvl 33 from the ancients and has the worldstone keep wp. He has hit no major stumbling blocks so far, though it is slow going in 8 player games. No close calls, though the time an LEB minotaur spawned directly on top of him(urn) could have been bad. Many of the act5 quests are incomplete because I "cannot complete quest" in the game in which I did most of act5.

[Mikedok]

I started a new character on the USEast account. The character is a hardcore druid named No_Stats. The plan for this character is to be a melee werebear that puts no points in stats and no twinking. I'm sure he won't get very far, but after I give up on him it will be a nice character for someone else to take over as a regular werebear and spend the stat points as they like. (Unless I get killed of course.)

The skill plan I have for him is max Oak, max lycanthropy, 1 point in carrion vine, a bunch of points in maul, and some in shock wave. I don't think he will get enough levels to get close to these goals, but you gotta have a plan. :)

Currently, he is level 12 and just finished act1. His main problem right now is lack of damage. He obviously doesn't have the stats to equip any higher damage weapons.

Edit: I've played him some more, he is now lvl 19 and has the full staff for act2.

[LavCat]

onlyPets is now level 37 in act 3 of nightmare. 

onlyPets is now level 48 and on his way to Nihlathak. Faithful companion Hazade is 47 and now a worthy tank. Just as well, as onlyPets can't hit anything himself. Level 19 bear fills in. Bear likes might aura. No deaths tonight. Sorry for the news of LL_Piege and of Refrigerator's account.

Hazade now has Shivering Partizan of Winter that Thresh so kindly dropped. onlyPets continues to use repeating crossbow. Not terribly exciting. He had hoped that Anya might present him with a bow, but that was not to be.

The first elite item he saw was a spider bow (the first elite item I saw at least). He saved it with the thought of trying an imbue. He has a Hel rune, and with the socket quest he could just about equip a spider bow. His chance to hit with the crossbow is about 30 percent.

I moved four socket ancient armor and some other stuff to mule. Current amulet is Rainbow Amulet of the Squid. Current boots are rare ones, but probably not the ones that the Langolier described. I never saw those.

Sorry for whomever asked me to keep their game open for them tonight. I kept it open for a couple hours, but it eventually crashed. As I am about to do myself.

[Sporky Smurf]

Although it may be cheese, why not socket onlyPets' bow with an Eth rune?

[Baajikiil]

Although it may be cheese, why not socket onlyPets' bow with an Eth rune?

The verdict is not completely in about whether using eth items is cheese, or cheating. Many people here feel strongly both ways about the issue. Perhaps it is too contoversial a move for the LL public account.

I personally do not use eth runes in weapons, as I consider it too cheesy, not really cheating unless in PvP.

[Albion Child]

QUOTE 
Although it may be cheese, why not socket onlyPets' bow with an Eth rune? 


The verdict is not completely in about whether using eth items is cheese, or cheating. Many people here feel strongly both ways about the issue. Perhaps it is too contoversial a move for the LL public account.

I personally do not use eth runes in weapons, as I consider it too cheesy, not really cheating unless in PvP. 
Post Settings

Is it any less cheesy to use in PvP?

[Baajikiil]

Is it any less cheesy to use in PvP?

By this

as I consider it too cheesy, not really cheating unless in PvP.

I mean that I think it is not really cheating, just taking advantage of a bug(just as all barbs and claw assassins do).

But in PvP play, I think that it is cheating due to the fact that it completely removes an opponents defense rating as an issue. This can have a dramatic affect on skill and equipment decisions. Of ourse, I guess if both parties agree on it, I guess that's okay.

Personally though, there are several things I do not do that others do:
I do not play normal(cookie-cutter) characters any more, only weird builds(I no longer find enjoyment in being overpoweringly powerful). I try to avoid bug abuse. I do not do MF runs(though I do do baal runs for exp).

It's all personal opinion to me, play the way you wish. but on a public LL account it should be considered that some people try to avoid exploiting bugs.

[Albion Child]

Doh I just read that again...my mistake, I misunderstood....

It seems to me that even among legit duelers (at least those who claim to be), using Eth runes in weapons is acceptable.

I agree that it is fairly cheesy, but I don't think it's cheating. Besides anyone soceting an item with an ETH rune is gonna get screwed whenever blizz gets around to patching it. (That once lovely Eth claw would be much nicer with ED or IAS for example). However, my enchantress uses an ETH rune in her bow and has practically no Dex (minimum for a long battle bow).

[Grumpy]

The "ETH" debate ran for about 1 1/2 years among the communities that consider themselves "legit" duelers. So much so that collaberating communities on east and west respectively had different rules regarding ETH.

At this point I think it is accepted, though many don't like it.

[Grumpy]

I made a PvP nec on the west communal account, though I have not left town of act 1 yet. I have a couple questions regarding what is acceptable on this account:

1. Can I get a rush to hell and level this guy up quick if as long as no MH is used? Is rushing in itself considered bad mannered?

2. Can I mule equipment over to him?

Any input is appreciated.

Thanks.

[Baajikiil]

1. Can I get a rush to hell and level this guy up quick if as long as no MH is used? Is rushing in itself considered bad mannered?

Doesn't bother me. If any one has a complaint, speak up.

2. Can I mule equipment over to him?

See answer #1. I usually twink on my personal characters, and have no problem with it. I do also play no twink guys, but its just a matter of taste. I would think that when you create a new character on the LL account you should let people know if you have something against twinking him. As you made that guy, seems fine to me.


I've always liked necros in PvP, and it could be interesting to have one available to play with every once in a while. But I wouldn't give him anything you would mind losing; although we do have a password on the account, I wouldn't put it past someone to make a LL account and ask for the PW just to steal a good PvP necro setup(or just to annoy us).

[Grumpy]

Thanks for the response. Hmmmm....anyone who knows PvP knows you have to have decent equipment to fight. I was planning on putting good but not great stuff on him, things I could afford to lose. I was thinking like this:

2 soj's
rare +2 ammy
Crafted belt
Boots (undecided)
Shaft ( I have one socketed with KO)
Storm
Shako
Spike
Magefists

Plain P/B charms, maybe a couple of low life ones and smal r/w charms. Make him full dr/block. I like necros alot, I have been dueling with them a long time. I'd like more people to try them out, I was hoping this would encourage it....

However, if you think it will increase the likely hood of the account being stolen maybe I shouldn't, that would spoil the fun fer all.

[LavCat]

In my opinion, if you make the character you get to set the guidlines. I understand this was Albion Child's original expressed intent. Albion Child can speak for him/herself, though. I would suggest not doing anything that would get you banned, however.

In the case of onlyPets, I have a mule holding some stuff for him, mostly things other folks have found and may be attached to. I do not share anything with him that he has not come by himself.

[LavCat]

Although it may be cheese, why not socket onlyPets' bow with an Eth rune?

That would not be my choice. I will use Eth in a rune word, but to use it just to exploit the bug does not seem fair. For myself I ask the question: "Would I use it in this way even if I didn't know about the bug?" In this case I might have, but I'd rather be able to sleep at night...or whenever it is I sleep.

I also have not been rushing with him, and while I have been playing he has found all his own waypoints. For my own characters I often give them waypoints.

[Walkiry]

I had nothing better to do, so I took onlyPets to have a few words with Izual. Two more skill points (unallocated) :)

I hate to state the obvious (actually I don't hate it :D), but if hitting is a problem why not get a blessed aim merc?

[Archon_Wing]

I think it's agreed that going through the game with a pvp character is boring and pointless. The whole point of the character is to duel, so he should be twinked and rushed. As long as the items should remain legit, nobody should care.

The items aren't that hard to get, so the leet h4xors probaly won't bother, but you shouldn't be attached to the items though. :P

[Albion Child]

I rush and I am rushed constantly by the group of people I play with often. Most (cetainly not all) of my characters are twinked.

Rushing is not cheating by any definition. I think some people enjoy the challenge of an unrushed, untwinked character, as well as the satisfaction of building that character "all by yourself." However different people enjoy playing basically complete builds much more than actually "building the character."

I hope that sort of makes sense.

[gekko]

2 soj's
rare +2 ammy
Crafted belt
Boots (undecided)
Shaft ( I have one socketed with KO)
Storm
Shako
Spike
Magefists

That stuff will disappear. I guarrantee it. Shako and shaft, if nothing else, are highly sought after and very overpriced on the realms. And they WILL be taken.

The idea of a dueler on a public account is ineresting, but I wouldn't bother. People will steal ANYTHING. When I made my singer in classic, I tried muling a +mana, faster cast wand in a public game. The level 80+ barb in the game took it. It was a magic wand with faster cast and about +20 mana.

Anywho, I suggest something slightly different. Ever hear of the bravado variant?

http://www.realmsbeyond.net/diablo/vd2bravado.html

It's quite amusing, requires absolutely no specific gear, little specific stat/skill distribution. And it would be alot of fun, particularly in duels.

gekko