Inventory Management

[Jonathan Corum]

I play the Lord of Destruction expansion. I love the extra stash space, but wondered how do you manage your backpack?

My backpack typically looks like this
[Free space and found items] -/- [charms] -/- [tome of town portal]

The free space for found items is usually enough for a 2x4 piece of equipment and a 2x3 piece. Extra found potions go in the free space at left for superfast access if needed in a boss fight. Most runs I only have the number of potions that fit my current belt. I don't normally keep keys in multiplayer though I do for single player. I don't keep a tome of identify anymore. My main backpack is stuffed with charms and I have a hard time getting rid of any. However I do frequently weigh the charms merits for my style of play and eventually drop ones I no longer have room for (in multiplayer dropping them in free games for others to find). I like having a tome of town portal in the less accessible far right as I use a hotkey when scrolls are needed.

Anyone vary from this?
I'd especially like to hear from any whose style of play is radically different (such as no charms).

[protoshoggoth]

Sounds about the same as me. I never go out without enough room to pick up at least one 2x4 thing. Sometimes on boss fights I'll load up on potions, sometimes even fighting with the inventory window open. I usually carry an inventory book, and keys but when things get really, really tight sometimes they have to go.

For characters with no real weapon switch that opens up some potential for addition loot-hauling.

I've never gotten into carrying the cube in my backpack, but I know a lot of people do. If I wasn't such a damn packrat I wouldn't need it in my stash.

[Fragbait]

Hi,

I searched a bit and came up with a pic that shows how my inventory usually looks like (ignore the armor):

I'm quite the charm addict, and use them to balance my resists, magic find or (elemental) damage all the time. I'm usually hard-pressed to maintain a 2x4 space... :lol:
Nowadays I'm even using a single scroll of town portal instead of a tome to save another slot. Omg, that is extreme...:whistling:

Greetings, Fragbait

[ShadowHM]

For all but one of my characters, I keep my cube in my backpack, to put found items into.

I often, but not always, also leave a 2x6 space available for found items open.

My cube sits in the top right corner (for ease of dropping items into it). Underneath it is a tome of town portal, a tome of identification or a set of keys and an antidote. I infill the rest with charms until I have enough space left for either that opening for drops (so I can id and then discard or drop into the cube) or for extra arrows/potions.

[Chaostheory]

Really depends if i play hardcore or not, but i think on softcore my backpack would look much similar to Fragbait's (without the armor with 2K defence of course:)).
When playing hardcore I always keep few spots for rejuves and other potions. The extra space for items is usually about 2 x 4 or 3 x 4.

Oh yeah.. Tome of town portal and a tome of identify, I always keep them with me too.

[Occhidiangela]

Really depends if i play hardcore or not, but i think on softcore my backpack would look much similar to Fragbait's (without the armor with 2K defence of course:)).
When playing hardcore I always keep few spots for rejuves and other potions. The extra space for items is usually about 2 x 4 or 3 x 4.

Oh yeah.. Tome of town portal and a tome of identify, I always keep them with me too.

Upper left hand corner. Horadric cube. Below and left of that a TP tome. Usually a 2x charm of some sort, or two small charms, right next to the tome.

Charms (resists mostly) start from the right edgeand fill in. Before a given run, at least a 2X 4 in the backpack and the cube are empty. If my stash is too full, either mule off or look hard and clean out the stuff I don't really need.

Rinse and repeat.

Typically, an antidote pot, a cold res pot, and a couple of Full Rejuves in the bottom row of the backback when the run starts.

I had toyed with putting TP's in slot 4 of the belt, with juve, life, mana pots in 1,2,3, to avoid wasting two spots with TP tome, but since I play HC, another row of Juves is needed.

I want to live.

Occhi

[Knijnknelis]

My inventory looks different with each character. Whenever I get my cube, I put it in the nearest corner and place my tomes above or underneath it.
The rest will be filled with charms and stuff I found.

[Fragbait]

Typically, an antidote pot, a cold res pot, and a couple of Full Rejuves in the bottom row of the backback when the run starts.

I had toyed with putting TP's in slot 4 of the belt, with juve, life, mana pots in 1,2,3, to avoid wasting two spots with TP tome, but since I play HC, another row of Juves is needed.

I want to live.

Occhi

Hi,

I once had an antidote with me all the time: With my shapeshifting bear-druid. The potions just didn't help against strong poison, as they filled my orb so slowly. Only thing that helped was a purple and an antidote. Never did the thing with cold res potions, though.

Oh, and isn't it kinda dangerous to take a chance and fight till the last row in HC? If you're relying on the last row of potions to stay alive, you might be better of trying a more defensive strategy imho. But I wouldn't know - my only HC babe is a slowazon, and only lvl fifty-something in NM.

Greetings, Fragbait

[ShadowHM]

Oh, and isn't it kinda dangerous to take a chance and fight till the last row in HC? If you're relying on the last row of potions to stay alive, you might be better of trying a more defensive strategy imho.

Dangerous? Yes.

Needful? Sometimes. For example, there are bosses who can and will regenerate if you go back to town and get more potions. It might be better to fight to that last potion and take it down. Or you might be wanting to keep a comrade alive. Or you might be in the presence of a mana steal boss, and need to chug the purples, just to get your mana ball back. Or your dratted Insight-wielding mercenary may be down for the count on you, but you could still save the day by chugging purples, just to have some mana.

And, sometimes, it is just pure orneriness that makes you *want* to try something. I took on DClone with a companion once. He played a Singer and I had a Medic. He sang, I healed and the mercs took out the Big Guy with their crushing blows. He ran out of potions due to feeding his mercenary, but he had faith in my Medic. And we did prevail. :)