Okay, so I'd like to share some thoughts now. So, currently regarding Diablo 4, the new itemization, system and game balance is currently being (publicly) tested, and based on my limited experience and seeing how other people test it, I have some thoughts.
But first of all, what is changing
- There will be fewer items dropping
- Gems are overall more useful
- The trade between other players is much more free than before
- Magic items will have 1 affix, rares will have 2 affixes, and legendary items will have 3 +one legendary power. Uniques will remain mostly the same. What it means is that in the endgame, you'll be picking rares only for scraping them. Previously, rares could be used as a base for creating legendary items, now it is not the case.
- There are fewer, but more potent and generalized affixes on most items. One, you feel they power more. Second, the overly specific situational affixes are mostly gone from the items that drop. This makes comparing the items you drop in the game much less tedious. Then again, the now "punchier" affixes are raising one concern for me, but that I'll explain later
- Unique items are no longer restricted to World Tier III and World Tier IVs, so you can find some while playing through the campaign.
- Legendary and unique items can roll with 1 to 3 so-called "greater affixes". These not only have their max roll, they also are overall higher than normal affixes can work. Some top tier items will become extremely rare and very valuable in trading, so that might affect the game's economy and community in a way I am unable to predict
- But that's not all. Finding a great item is just the beginning, thanks to two new systems: tempering and masterworking.
- Tempering allows to add two new affixes to an item that are specialized/specific. In short: you'll be able to find tempered recipes while playing the game, and you can learn the recipes. Looking at the preview in-game, there will be tons of them. Anyways, recipes are divided into categories and you'll be able to add two affixes to item, but only 1 per category. Affixes can be rerolled set a amount of time. Affixes are various, from general damage boost to situational damage boost, to chance of adding flat elemental damage to your attack, to affecting the cooldown of your skills, to affecting the area of effect of specific skills, and duration of specific your skills. Things like that. Generally, it allows you to customize your build to what you'd like to and opens up build possibilities.
- Then there's masterworking. It replaces standard item upgrading that was in place now. There are 12 levels of upgrades, most of them give all affixes on an item +5% boost. But, upgrading the item 4th, 8th and 12th time instead will give only one affix a +25% boost. So, depending on the RNG you can end up with 3 affixes boosted more than others, or even one affix becomes incredibly powerful. This applies to affixes obtained via tempering as well, so for example, let's say you have an affix that gives you bigger area of effect of Blizzard (sorceror's skill). After masterworking, the result might be that your Blizzard will affect effectively all of the screen. After masterworking is complete, you can reset it to 0 and start over, if you aren't happy with end result. The materials needed to masterwork an item can be found in the new endgame activity: the Pit
- The Pit works a lot like Greater Rifts in Diablo III. You have the timer to kill a set number of enemies in a randomly generated dungeon, and after you managed to do it in time, a portal will open to allow you to face the dungeon's boss. After killing a boss, you'll be rewarded with a drop and chest with materials specifically required for masterworking. The deeper levels (more difficult) of the Pit can grant you higher-tier materials as well.
A new Uber boss was added to the game
- Most of Uber bosses have an optional even stronger version to fight now.
- Many skills in the game have been rebalanced. Minions/animal companions in particular are now viable
- There is an option to zoom out camera
- Helltides have been changed. When killing demons in the area under Helltide, you'll gain notoriety among demons. The more you kill them, the more you'll be perceived as a threat and so you'll be ambushed by a more dangerous wave of demons (think of the GTA system of stars). At its max, you can expect a powerful boss to attack, killing which resets the threat level and grants you some sweet loot. You can also summon the boss at certain places.
- There are some no-brainers, like new legendary powers and new Uniques. In particular, we have Tyrael's Might in game now.
Okay, so what do testers and I think of this? Vast majority of people seem to enjoy new systems and claim that the game should look like this on release day - something I can agree with. The new systems are making many more builds viable and, intentionally or not, the update addresses some problems I had with the game and haven't voiced to anyone yet. I also like the idea that whenever I find a really powerful legendary and unique item, then that would be the beginning of the journey for this particular item due to tempering and masterworking. I like the idea of having much more freedom in customizing my character build and not wasting an insane amount of time comparing dropped items with tons of reduntant and overly specific affixes. That being said, I have two big concerns:
First of all, affixes are more powerful and they feel more meaningful and overall useful, but the problem lies in which affixes can spawn where. Because, if main character attribute can spawn on anything, additional life can spawn or anything, or +% damage can spawn on too many pieces, then it dumbs down your choice in a way if there are obvious correct choices. I'd like it to be thought much better, especially given max of 3 affixes on base legendary.
Second and more important, I have noticed in examples set by other players, is insane power creep. Think of Diablo III level of craziness. Things like instant killing of Uber obsses, Barbarian's dune devils covering all the screen, Sorceror's Frozen Orb triggering Hydras that trigger additional Frozen Orbs that trigger Hydras etc. Not only I'm afraid the game will be piss easy at this rate, but also this level of craziness crashes harshly with the mood the artstyle, music and overall vibe the game presents. It was acceptable-ish with much more stylized/cartoonish DIII, but in DIV it does really feel off.
Maybe the game will be more fun and that's all that ultimately matters, but I am afraid something will be lost.
I wanted to say something about how the revamped loot system and other new systems feel in D4 now that changes have gone live, but that would take a while and I'm too lazy for that. Instead, I'll share a video with amazing feat:
Okay, I guess I'll share some thoughts on latest rework of Diablo 4 systems, given I have some time in already (lvl 100 Druid, Hagrid and level 89, Sorceress, Dynaheir)
The game feels better overall. You find more items, with less affixes on it, but those affixes are more powerful and more generalized. It helps with the pacing, comparing items you found and so on. Rares and Legendaries items you found can by upgraded by tempering them at blacksmith - this is a way you are aiming for more build-specific affixes. Additional damage to companions, cooldown reduciton on specific skills, increased area of effects, chance to proc effect on hit etc. In contrast to the previous system, you are adding those specific things and you have more control over what specific affixes you can have on items, as opposed to finding a lot of sh*t, taking a ton of time to compare the the items and having hard time to decide what you'd want from it. All in all, it is positive change for the game.
Tempered items and Uniques can be strengthened by masterworking. It is an endgame system that replaces the previous upgrading system. It is expensive, and to get the materials for it you need to partake in an endgame activity like the Pit. The Pit can be very fun, but it also suffers from issues I'll mention later.
Example of an item that was tempered and then masterworked. Anvil symbolizes affixes that were added in tempering, blue numbers received an additional +25% boost courtesy of milestone level of masterworking:
Helltides were fun in the new rework in PTR and they are still fun now. They are available even in lower difficulty settings if the campaign is finished. There is generally more things to do, they are more rewarding and you can even summon a boss, defeating which usually results in some sweet loot. As you kill demons and open special chests, your "threat meter" rises and so you'll be ambushed by stronger waves of demons, culminating in fighting against a hell-possessed version of one of the player characters.
Unique items: let's start from the good. They can also be masterworked. When compared to tempered items, there are plenty that are still viable, and in some cases, crucial for the builds. And Shako will always be good. However, when it comes to weapons, things are starting to get ugly. For example, take a look at the Unique item and what Dynaheir is using:
Now, the Oculus has a really nice flavour to it: a massive skill bonus to Teleport means greatly reduced cooldown and increased nova damage (yes, in D4 teleport casts a small nova on landing). With skill points invested in improving the nova damage, in theory, it encourages using teleport often for devastating results, right? And not to mention the Teleport Enchantment (meaning instead of standard dodge, you have additional "charges" on teleport on cooldown). It has also +29% damage. Cool right?
Well, no, actually. Look at what you are losing. Lots of crit damage (or any other +damage affix you can have instead), +43% damage from tempering and proc of flat damage from lucky hit chance. Dynaheir is also losing her attack speed which is helpful for procing effect she is relying on. When testing using these two different weapons, I find that Oculus's cool flavour and resulting combat style is simply much inferior. And Dynaheir isn't that powerful, she struggles in some endgame activities for now, like the Pit.
I had similar feelings for other weapon uniques. Sorry, but the sheer damage gain you can have from tempering is just usually much better than cool stuff Unique weapons have. Which is quite a shame.
Rare and magic items are useless now, same for vendors (since they don't sell unique and legendaries). The developers said something about giving those items purpose in further updates, but I don't know what this can be. Maybe they'll be bases for runewords or something?
Now, my biggest peeve with the game right now is the difficulty. It starts as piss easy and it mostly stays that way from World Tier I to World Tier III. The result is often that you can comfortably get to higher World Tiers while under-leveled. And at the start of World Tier IV, this is also the case. In fact, for most of the content, this is the case. However, as you progress through the levels of the Pit or Nightmare Dungeons, something happens. You see, the difficulty rises at a steady pace, that's not a big deal. It's just a bit harder, and a bit harder. You still doing fine, you're going through the dungeon just fine, and then you die instantly for a reason you cannot comprehend. I paint it with a broad stroke, but this is essentially the problem: one moment you're doing fine, the other you are put in a situation in which you just die and you don't know why or what you could have done better. Basically, in the same area you are clearing semi-comfortably, there are sudden and unpredictable difficulty spikes and that's just not fun. Even though the game doesn't punish death as severely as D2 did, I still would rather die in D2, where at least I know what I did wrong or what series of unfortunate events had lead to it.
Also when you know what you are doing and unless you are in deeper Nightmare Dungeons, the Butcher is now the B*tcher. He's not scary anymore. In short, I think the difficulty needs to be adjusted and I think it should be done in a thoughtful manner.
And due to the sudden difficulty spikes resulting in nearly instant deaths, I don't want to play hardcore in D4 as of right now. Maybe in the future, but definitely not right now. I don't recommend playing hardcore unless you want to get angry.
The Pit has the same difficulty problem as Nightmare Dungeons, but the Pit has a time limit to clear and you are time penalized after each death. This would work really fine, if it wasn't for above-mentioned difficulty issue. Lower levels of the Pit are however really fun, since the sudden deaths aren't the case there.
What can I say is that the game certainly went into right direction, but there's still work to be done. Can you have fun in this game? Yes. Can it also be furstrating at times? Also yes.
Thanks for sharing, this is very insightful and helpful. I haven't played D4, but from what I'm reading it's very similar to an actively patched live-service game where every couple of months the meta changes, and even some basic approaches to creating builds change. It's positive to hear that the changes are making the game better overall. Let's hope that with even more time, hardcore playthroughs would be more reasonable and the difficulty settings would be adjusted.
It would be foolish for me to assume much people cared about this, but anyways:
1. Thinking of doing hardcore playthroughs of non-expansion characters and then describe them here. I've done some softcore runs with Necromancer and Paladin and I noticed that the experience, at least from my point of view, is visibly different and affect the gameplay, the decisions I need to make etc. Some examples of this: with Necromancer, I pretty much needed to do one of the following:
- Level up Golem and Golem mastery enough to, with help of Amplify damage, kill Hell difficulty Act IV monsters. This is because as a summoner build, I'd need an army and for that, I needed corpses. In Expansion, I could use mercenary for that, but in non-expansion games, mercenaries don't level up, don't use equipment and don't travel with you between acts.
- Or invest in Iron Maiden and have monsters kill themselves by attacking the Golem.
And while playing as Paladin, I went with Blessed hammer build, but in order to deal with magical immune creatures, I needed some more sources of damage. So I went with First of havens and Holy bolt as suplementary abilities. This isn't something I'd do with Hammerdin otherwise.
Point is, without features introduced in Lord of Destruciton expansion, the game feels quite differently and requires other approaches, at least in a single player
2. Because Diablo IV experienced some massive changes to difficulty and progression systems, and because the new expansion is live for some time now, I see some merit in doing hardcore runs, maybe once per season due to fresh start. My biggest gripe with trying this was very inconsistent difficulty on the given setting, but since that issue was pretty much fixed, I think I might just enjoy some runs. I need to answer some questions about my self-imposed rules of the runs etc. Also, probably no one is going to be interested, so...
Hmm. Thanks for the updates. I had written off Diablo IV and forgotten that it exists. Now I'm thinking about getting it eventually, especially if I can catch it on sale.
I really enjoyed Diablo II and even Diablo III, so I might like the new one.
If you enjoyed D3, I think there's a high change you'll enjoy D4 as well. But yes: wait until you get some good sale. Even as a rather unique Diablo fan, I'd recommend people to wait for sale for it.
As I mentioned previously, I decided to give a harcdcore run under classic settings in Diablo 2 a try and I decided to start with a Barbarian.
But first, let's see what's different in classic games:
- Only 4 acts in the game
- Only 1 weapon set
- Mercenaries don't level up, and they don't travel between acts
- Mercenaries aren't receiving touch-ups they got in lattest patches in expansion games
- Dexterity is not required to maintain block rate
- The resistance penalty between game difficulties is lower than in expansion games
- There are no Elite items
- There are fewer Sets
- Uniques can be only of normal quality - there are no Exceptional uniques. Meaning that often the best gear is contained in rare Exceptional items
- Stash size is limited
- There is no shared stash
- No runes and runewords
- Lesser power creep
- No terror zones
I think all the above makes a classic playthrough different enough to what I typically shared here. I think it's worth a try.
Anyways, I said I'll be playing as Barbarian and I decided to go with Sword + Shield combo. The plan is to use Concentration as main damaging skill. I'll also have Berserk available for physical immune monsters, and maybe keep a sword with elemental damage in inventory in rare cases of both physical and magic immune monsters. I know I can usually skip fighting monsters in those rare instances, but it never felt right to me in Diablo game.
Something about my playstyle: when going through areas for the first time, I feel obligated to do two things:
1) Find a waypoint (if there is one)
2) Go to optional dungeon and find special chest at level 2-3 of said dungeon (if available)
I'll also am free to grind whenever I see fit. I predict it will be necessary at some point, given my character would need rare exceptional weapon that rolled well.
Anyways, let's begin!
First quest in the game and I was pretty lucky. Almost immediately I found an Experience shrine and rushed to Corpsefire in the Den of Evil to maximize the benefit:
I have decided to invest into the Blade mastery, as it allows me to gain benefit from using not only 1 and 2-handed swords (which I can also lift in one hand, being Barbarian and all), but also daggers. Using daggers isn't that significant in the long run, but it can be nice at the beginning. Just look what I found in the Cave under Cold Plains:
That's better than nonmagical Short Sword
Fight against the Blood Raven was not hard, and after I Bashed her to death, she dropped a nice Buckler
Somewhere between finding the scroll of Inifuss and rescuing Deckard Cain, I have found two upgrades at the vendors:
Battling against an Unique and Griswold at the same time. Ironhead's defense was up to the task.
After rescuing Cain, I have gambled a Falchion from Gheed. Nothing too fancy, it is slow but it deals good damage per hit, that scales with bonuses from Blade mastery and Bash:
I also practically never use Falchions in Diablo 2, so why not try
In the Black March, I have found Hsarus' Iron first. Too bad it's not very useful item.
In the caverns below, I managed to find some actual upgrades:
Well, the sash gives me less bonus to life than my current belt, but it has some mana and poison resistance. And poison resistance is generally useful vs. first act boss. About skull cap, I haven't used it for long, as I bought one with 2 sockets and put two chipped topazes into it for additional bonus to magic find. Act 1 is easy enough and additional bonus to finding magic items won't hurt.
Yet another gambling session with Gheed and I got myself a Crystal Sword. Definitive upgrade over my Falchion:
Fighting against both Countess and Smith was not much of a deal
That void of an armpit!
Moving on, the next good drop I found on my way were the gauntlets. I found them on 3rd level of Catacombs:
Fire and poison resistances sound good for end of Act 1 and beginning of Act 2
And the unique Hand Axe
Too little too late, and besides it won't give me bonuses from Blade Mastery
Facing against the Maiden of Anguish, after previously pre-buffing myself with antidote potions:
Thanks to my defenses and good poison resistance, she wasn't really all that threatening and was Bashed back into hell. As for her drops...
Don't mind if I do!
Surely, I'm going to use that sword for a while
Pretty nice belt. it also expands my belt slots, so hooray for convience
Gonna save that one for a good doggo at the end of Act II.
Overall, Ironhead finished act I at character level 16, with most of his free point being invested in Blade mastery, and the rest for pre-requisited for skills Ironhead will be using. Notably, I decided to not go for Find Item skill this time around, as in classic games I am really unlikely to find many +skills items for it to be worth it. As for which skills I am going to be using:
Concentration
Berserk
Leap Attack (for movement option, 1 point only)
Battle Cry (may invest several skill points for additional duration and potency of its effects)
Battle Orders (it gives a significant bonus to life, mana, stamina, and also gives additional damage to Bersekr and Concentration)
Increased Stamina, Increased Speed, Iron Skin, Natural Resistance - all 1 points each, with possibility for more in case of Natural Resistance
I got lucky with map of the sewers under Lut Gholein, found a waypoint on level 2 easily, and also encountered Radament early.
And he also dropped a belt from Arctic Set
(and I have no screenshot of identified version. Silly me!)
After returning to the city, I bought magic find gloves from Elzix. I think additional magic find is worth it, especially so early game,
when the game is relatively easy.
The first optional location - The Stony Tomb - was located just next to the exit to the next area. I seem lucky with things like
that. And inside the Tomb, I have found two nice items
The gloves will be put in stash for now, as I prefer additional magic find for now. As for the sword, mana leech is nice and had it rolled some better damage,
I'd gladly use it. But alas, it did not. But later I managed to find a life leech ring, so that's something.
I visited Halls of the Dead for the Horadric Cube and it seems my additional magic find pays off
It is a really nice ring earlygame, and - you guessed it - it has additonal magic find on it!
So, I got the cube and additonal nice loot from the boss guarding it:
Then, next thing of note, one of the Scarabs in the Maggot Lair was larping as Duriel, with that frost aura of his. So far, the toughest opponent
I would have forgotten! Ironhead reached level 18 somewhere before he entered the Maggot Lair, so he started using Concentration and debuffinf some stronger enemies (or just large groups) with battle cry. Until level 22, I'll invest all skill points available into Concentration, as that would be my main attack for the run
A bit later I have found another life leech ring, but this time with some magic find. Who would have guessed!
So, I have acquired the Staff of Kings and went shopping. You'll never guess what I have bought:
EVEN MORE MAGIC FIND
In the claw viper temple, Fangskin spawned right next to the altar. This is convenient for a melee-oriented character, since it makes it easy to take the claw vipers 1-on-1 at the stairs.
For my valor in battle, I have got a new shield:
55% block rate is very solid, will be Diablo useful against the good doggo at the end of Act 2. And I'm sorry, but guess what I have found in the Arcane Sanctuary?
OF COURSE
Razortrine dropped in the Canyon of the Magi. Magic find is working, but too bad that Razortrine is useless for my character
Due to the self-impsed rules, I need to clear all the optional tombs before going to actual Tomb of Tal Rasha (which symbol was the quarter). When Ironhead rached level 21, I went back to Lut Gholein and gambled for long swords at Elzix a lot. I have spend about 30 to 40 thousand gold, but eventaully I have found an upgrade for my current weapon.
Better overall DPS, slow from small cold damage, mana steal per hit and resistance. With such weapon in hand, I can face the Diablo's doggo with confidence. At first, we were feeling blue:
But eventually, the doggo understood that he is just not meant to be a guardian dog and died, not being able to do much against Ironhead's defence. The fact that Ironhead debuffed the doggo with Battle Cry and drank some thawing potions as pre-buff certainly helped. But overall and as always in my case, I consider Duriel to be really overrated boss in terms of difficulty. If I am to guess why many people have problems with him, I think it, ironically, goes back to the meta of this game: it is "meta" to largery ignore the defense stat and mechanics associated with it, it is "meta" to rush trhough the game, instead taking time to prepare for upcoming challenges ahead of time (instead at exact point where it is necessary). It works in the speedruns, but in just chill playthrough, not so much. And Duriel is kinda realiy check if you try go with 'meta", without sufficient experience as a player.
Anyways, the drops are good, which is unbecoming of the doggo:
Ohh, those are really neat drops for the stage you're at. I 100% agree that Magic Find is the most important. Ironhead is doing great! Also, nice reports, and special thanks for cut screenshots!
The plate mail is a straight-up upgrade, and bone helm has better defense and additional cold resist, but I needed sacrifice 18% of my magic find. But I guess I'll need some cold resistance for the near future. Heading out of the docks, I have found the Spider Cavern and Khalid's Khalim's Eye easily.
While at it, I have a confession to make: I actually like Act 3 of this game. While many players complain about the first half of the the act being a nightmare to navigate through, it never felt like that to me. I am not a speedrunner and I don't consider speed the number 1 priority and the only important criteria in games. To me, jungles of act 3 are cool and I generally love the aesthetic of the whole act. I also think it executes the whole "gather some parts to transform them in a cube" thing better than act 2 does. Anyways, found a ring:
So far, to the stash with it. Meanwhile, Ironhead got a +20 life boost from finishing the Golden Bird quest. While searching for a waypoint in the Great Marsh, I have dicovered a use for Taunt skill. I can use it to make Gloams approach me and melee me, instead of using their Lightning attacks. It will be useful in Nightmare and Hell difficulty for sure! Anyways, while retrieving the Gidbinn in the Flyer Jungle I have found a new belt:
Good defense, good slots, and +20 to life. Worth having. I have returned to town to get a reward from Ormus and puta two diamonds in a Bone Shield for an upgrade
Ormus has some sense of humor, I give him that. By the way, I have forgotten that I also get to have an Iron Wolf mercenary for free: I'm sure Devak will have long and fulfilling career in freezing my enemies.
Battle for Khalid's Khalim's Brain (Devak died already)
When searching for the Swamped Pit in the Flyer Jungle, I have found a Milabrega's Orb
+20% magic find is tempting, but I refused the temptation: the loss of resistances, block rate and defense isn't worth it. And since I mentioned the Swampy Pit, a significant and unusual amount of Stygian Dolls spawned in there. That would be a really big problem in Hell Difficulty, given how damaging their explosions-on-death can be
An amulet worth stashing for now:
Finally, Ironhead has arrived at Mysłowice Lower Kurast and found 2 rare items:
Not gonna lie, Armageddon Razor is a badass name. Unfortunately, my weapon has better damage, and also a convience in form of mana leech. The ring however will be stashed for possible future use. Soon after I have found Cathan's Seal. Not the most powerful item around, but it has more life leech than my ring right now, so I'll be stashing it.
Haha, look. A big wood with a funny name trying to gang on me.
And now thirsty women trying to do the same, but Ironhead wants them begone. He's only there for Lam Esen's tome... (and +5 points into vitality)
I have forgotten to mention this again: I reached level 24 and unlocked Battle Order and Increase Speed. Until level 28, I'll be spending my level-up
earned skill points into Battle Orders: it is powerful skill that gives life, mana, and stamina. Plus it gives synergy to other shouts' duration and additional damage
to Concentration and Berserk. It gives more damage per point for Concentration than Concentration itself: however, it does not give an attack rating and defense bonus,
obviously.
Found Coif of Glory in one other temple, but I won't be using it, primarly because blinding target on hit overrides Battle Cry and Taunt debufs:
Retrieved Khalid's Khalim's Heart from Kurast Sewers. Seriously, how this thing hasn't decomposed by now is the biggest mystery in Diablo lore.
Later in the upper city, I was not interested in Milaberga's Rod:
But a drop in one of the temples at Kurast Coastway caught my interest:
A thing from Cathan's set. Let's combine it with a ring, shall we?
I think it's a worthy combination for now, even if I had to sacrifice some magic find again.
I agree about the Act 3. Always liked the jungle, the music, and the vibe. I think the Act is frowned upon due to some similarity between enemies in the jungle and native residents of America maybe?
Arrived in the Częstochowa temple city of Travincal, went for the Waypoint and then proceeded to massacre the High Council. Toorc welcomed Ironhead rather coldly, Ismail tried to put his vile hand to where it does not belong and Geleb did the same with his flame fingers.
More seriously, Council Members, with one exception, don't pose that much of a challenge to me at normal difficulty. Still, I always loved their design, both visual and sound alike.
Now that the Council Members were dead, Khalid's Khalim's Flail was combined with his organs in Horadric Cuba and Khalim's Will was created. With it, Ironhead could destroy the Compelling Orb and reveal the way to Mephisto's lair.
Speaking of, I had a very nice look with finding my way through it. Easy access from level 1 to level 2, and the second had easy access between the Waypoint and the way to level 3. That will be good for some farming.
Now, Bremm Sparkfist is the one exception in terms of difficulty I mentioned earlier. He often spawns with Conviction aura, decreasing my defense and resistances and he is always lightning enchanted. Plus, he and his minion alike cast Hydras. Combination of all of those factors is very dangerous and requires high caution when playing hardcore. Fortunately, the rest of the Council Members on this area isn't very formidable: they are not as threatening by themselves and they lack minions around them.
The fight against Mephisto, the Lord of Hatred went smoothly. Good - I'll be visiting him several times before starting Act 4. When you melee him, he doesn't use many spells and prefers to melee you in turn. Only on ocassion he'll cast a spell. Those spells can result in a damage spike, so a hardcore character would do well to have rejuveation potions ready, just in case.
The loot wasn't mind-blowing
So, I went to the Pandemonium Fortress to get a waypoint here, and then Mephisto runs started. The reason I needed access to the Pandemonium Fortress is due to the efficiency: it is faster to go through the portal to Act IV after killing Mephisto and save & quit in Pandemonium Fortress than it is to save & quit immediately. This is because in latter case, you're going back into Kurast docks, and with significantly longer way to access Waypoint to Durance of Hate level 2. The waypoint access is really fast in Pandemonium Fortress however.
Sorry, I felt like explaining the above since someone can find this useful. Anyways, to the gains from the run:
From these, the only thing that ultimately gets used for a bit is the plate mail. Some items were tempting (like Gleamscythe, but it offered slightly lower DPS than my current sword and on top of that, it lacked the convience of mana steal), but did not get to be used. Bought a new boots in a meanwhile:
Some more loot from Uncle Mephisto:
I got new field plate armor (less defense, but other properties make up for it), belt (excellent in general) and a good shield. With all that, I am prepared for act IV. And right away got a good luck with the map:
Izual was not a problem: he is tank and can slow you down with the cold, but otherwise he is easy.
Defeating him granted me +2 skill points from Tyrael. They both went into Concentration. Proceeded deeper into hell, into the Hellforge I went and faced Hephasto the Armorer in battle. He cannot even be compared to the Butcher from Diablo 1:
And soon after, Mephisto's soulstone was destroyed. No use in showcasing the drop, since runes don't exist in classic Diablo 2.
One of the last thing to do now is to face Diablo in Chaos Sanctuary. But first, his seals' guardians need to be destroyed. So let's get to it.
From the three, I consider Infector of Souls the most difficult to deal with, on normal difficulty at least, since Spectral Hits adds elemental damage to his (and minions') attacks, and extra fast boosts up the speed of that attacks. Combine that with their Inferno spell and you'll have a massive damage spike on your hands. Luckily, Ironhead has a taunt as a supplementary skill and thus can lure away minions from the main boss, greatly reducing the danger. In between killing Lord De Seis and Grand Vizier of Chaos, I have found an unique Breast Plate:
Unfortunately, its main appeal is posion resistance (and a lot of it), but this least significant resistance type in the game. Also, I cannot use Horadric Cube recipe to up the base of the item from breast plate to cuirass, since this is a non-expansion character and therefore some Horadric Cube recipes are not available.
Anyways, Diablo:
I was concerned about his cold touch + red lightning combination, but it turns out that my lightning resistance, great block rate and life ammount boosted from Battle Orders enabled me to tank each red lightning attack with use of a health potion. This meant that IRonhead's victory was just a matter of time, as long as he had health potions, that is.
Diablo, however, had his last laugh with a shitty loot:
Ohh, nice, congrats! Also, lucky that you've found Gull. You know, in my thousands of hours in D2, I never got that drop somehow. Blades of Ali Baba, sure, many times, but never Gull.
First, this kickass video from Zarfen the Loot Goblin. Amazing achievement:
Second: Ironhead the barbarian is already at act 3 nightmare. I am just too lazy to make an update o him.
Third: Tried newest season of D4, and I think the game is just going the direction I was hoping it won't. Way too easy, way too many rewards, it went full casual now. This isn't the game I was hoping for.
First, this kickass video from Zarfen the Loot Goblin. Amazing achievement:
Second: Ironhead the barbarian is already at act 3 nightmare. I am just too lazy to make an update o him.
Third: Tried newest season of D4, and I think the game is just going the direction I was hoping it won't. Way too easy, way too many rewards, it went full casual now. This isn't the game I was hoping for.
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