The Core of Diablo
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O_Bruce
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Patch 2.5 just launched
news.blizzard.com
As expected, Terror Zones and Sunder charms will be for ladder only. Can't have single player being any more fun, can we?
But don't worry. You can't now go throught doors that appear closed. Also, the game will refer now to you as "they" instead as "he/she" as to not upset literal fraction of human population. Yay.
Yes, I'm bitter.
Diablo II: Resurrected Ladder Season Two Has Concluded
Terror Zones are now live in Diablo II: Resurrected! Experience this new feature in all expansion-enabled online games now and on October 6 when Ladder Season Two begins.
news.blizzard.com
As expected, Terror Zones and Sunder charms will be for ladder only. Can't have single player being any more fun, can we?
But don't worry. You can't now go throught doors that appear closed. Also, the game will refer now to you as "they" instead as "he/she" as to not upset literal fraction of human population. Yay.
Yes, I'm bitter.
Urdnot_Wrex
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I seem to hear frustration about unmet expectations from the patch?
I'm pragmatic. "they" is much easier to type than "he/she" if we don't know who we're talking to (aliens like you humans often can't tell a Krogan's or dwarf's gender for example), and going through closed doors hurts. In my case mostly the door or the person on the other side of it, but still.
O_Bruce
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Mal the summoning druid finale
So, after grinding and all I mentioned in the previous update, it was time to beat the rest of the game. First, Mal has defeated Radament and claimed book of skill - since his pets are now maxed out, Mal invested into Lycanthropy from this point onward for more life and longer shapeshifts. On his way to obtain the staff of kings, Mal found unique Martel de Fer - The Gavel of Pain.
The charges of amplify damage will prove to be useful at some points. Chance of casting amplify damage on striking is great and all, but it wouldn't be used that often.
Fight against Duriel wasn't especially exciting, but he has dropped something I haven't found on my grail challenge at this point:
Islestrike. Too bad that the items I find on hardcore characters I don't include in my grail, due to probability of them being lost forever
Moving into act 3, I made Mal basically speedrun through the most of the act. First really notable thing was Stormtree, in particular the belt it dropped:
Additional life is nice, as well fire and lightning resistances, which are really important
Travincal:
Uncle Mephisto:
Once the visit to the uncle was accomplished succesfully, Mal went to Act IV and hunted down Izual. As usual, skill points went to Lycanthropy. Now, Hephasto allowed (by proxy) experience Devak the Mercenary some Splendor
Look! A T-pose!
Now, Act V I really wanted to beat fast in one go, so once again I went for speedrun-ish approach, as much as it was possible in case of summoner build. Anyways, Nihlathak was the biggest challenge so far due to corpse explosions. Fortunately, Mal could stay back and rely on his good boys and bear . The Vine, who was summoned thanks to Mal's headgear also proved to be usefull by destroying the corpses before they'd be exploded.
Oddly,I had no screenshots from the fight against Ancients, but I don't recall them being particularly nasty. I can, after all, always re-summon the pets as many times as it is necessary, so Ancient Ones have very little chance of winning. So, Mal speedran through Worldstone Keep and made his good boys face off against Baal's minions
Now, depending on the build, I'd like to say that after the final boss (Lister) I then killed Baal but with summoning druid, Baal is very annoying. He constantly knocks back and slows Mal's pets, which requires re-positioning them often. He also loved to summon his clone over and over again, resulting in tedious battle. But eventually, Baal's defeat was shattering
Get it? Because he literally shattered. And left a garbage loot.
I don't know when, but I think some Assassin playthrough will be next, if only because I want to save character I hate the most for last.
So, after grinding and all I mentioned in the previous update, it was time to beat the rest of the game. First, Mal has defeated Radament and claimed book of skill - since his pets are now maxed out, Mal invested into Lycanthropy from this point onward for more life and longer shapeshifts. On his way to obtain the staff of kings, Mal found unique Martel de Fer - The Gavel of Pain.
Fight against Duriel wasn't especially exciting, but he has dropped something I haven't found on my grail challenge at this point:
Moving into act 3, I made Mal basically speedrun through the most of the act. First really notable thing was Stormtree, in particular the belt it dropped:
Travincal:
Uncle Mephisto:
Once the visit to the uncle was accomplished succesfully, Mal went to Act IV and hunted down Izual. As usual, skill points went to Lycanthropy. Now, Hephasto allowed (by proxy) experience Devak the Mercenary some Splendor
Look! A T-pose!
Now, Act V I really wanted to beat fast in one go, so once again I went for speedrun-ish approach, as much as it was possible in case of summoner build. Anyways, Nihlathak was the biggest challenge so far due to corpse explosions. Fortunately, Mal could stay back and rely on his good boys and bear . The Vine, who was summoned thanks to Mal's headgear also proved to be usefull by destroying the corpses before they'd be exploded.
Oddly,I had no screenshots from the fight against Ancients, but I don't recall them being particularly nasty. I can, after all, always re-summon the pets as many times as it is necessary, so Ancient Ones have very little chance of winning. So, Mal speedran through Worldstone Keep and made his good boys face off against Baal's minions
I don't know when, but I think some Assassin playthrough will be next, if only because I want to save character I hate the most for last.
jmerry
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Congrats on another Guardian.
I'm going for a slightly different pattern on my HC project. The main rule there is to alternate gender, with the order otherwise chosen to delay the more gear-dependent builds until I had enough of a stash. My least favorite class is the one I'm playing right now, fifth in the project (last completed Nightmare act 3). Barbarian combat just feels a little boring for me, especially in that very tanky mode I'm going with. Conversely, my favorite class is probably the Paladin, which will be seventh. And then I'll go back for replays of the failed classes, so it won't be last unless I fail on the first try.
Urdnot_Wrex
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I hear you. I'm still on the fence about D2 Resurrected and know the old D2 from watching someone play 20 years ago only (which is one of the reasons I'm following this thread), but I do know it's frustrating when a game is available for single and multiplayer but the former isn't treated as an equally valid option.
jmerry
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Jassar part 2: Nightmare
There's not much to say, really. Nightmare was a breeze. Nothing remotely threatened him - massive life and 75% blocking and 75% resists and substantial reduction of both physical and magical damage is a very strong defense. I think the lowest he ever dropped was about 2/3 health, in the Throne of Destruction when multiple boss packs including Black Souls hit him for decent amouts of damage and mana burned him out of Whirlwind. Then I drank a red potion, and that was that.
I took two pictures. First, a notable item found from one of those guys that starts dead outside Nihlathak's temple:
Jassar later personalized it, and will wear it when he moves on to Hell difficulty.
Second, Baal himself. He took a lot of killing, but he didn't inflict any damage.
Decent drops, too. Better than all the other act bosses, who dropped no unique items or even exceptional set items. Jassar is a Conqueror at level 74.
Skill investment: Sword Mastery, Battle Orders, Whirlwind maxed. Working on Shout. 1 point in all other relevant skills. Jassar uses mostly Whirlwind to fight now.
New items for my HC collection: Spire of Lazarus, Tancred's Weird, Bladebone, ethereal The Jade Tan Do, Sureshrill Frost, ethereal Undead Crown, Steeldriver, The Dragon Chang, String of Ears, Immortal King's Detail.
Jassar kept the same equipment through all of Nightmare, including the Angelic combo (armor/amulet/two rings). That, at least, will go away in Hell. After all, he needs more resistances now. No more >12K attack rating...
One side note: when it comes to the personalization reward, I will only apply it for an item that character both finds/makes and uses. Though the item is not considered bound, and may be transferred to other characters later. So for Jassar, that's his sword (put in the runes) and now belt (found). Only time will tell if anything qualifies for the third personalization reward, or if I even kill Nihlathak in Hell.
There's not much to say, really. Nightmare was a breeze. Nothing remotely threatened him - massive life and 75% blocking and 75% resists and substantial reduction of both physical and magical damage is a very strong defense. I think the lowest he ever dropped was about 2/3 health, in the Throne of Destruction when multiple boss packs including Black Souls hit him for decent amouts of damage and mana burned him out of Whirlwind. Then I drank a red potion, and that was that.
I took two pictures. First, a notable item found from one of those guys that starts dead outside Nihlathak's temple:
Second, Baal himself. He took a lot of killing, but he didn't inflict any damage.
Skill investment: Sword Mastery, Battle Orders, Whirlwind maxed. Working on Shout. 1 point in all other relevant skills. Jassar uses mostly Whirlwind to fight now.
New items for my HC collection: Spire of Lazarus, Tancred's Weird, Bladebone, ethereal The Jade Tan Do, Sureshrill Frost, ethereal Undead Crown, Steeldriver, The Dragon Chang, String of Ears, Immortal King's Detail.
Jassar kept the same equipment through all of Nightmare, including the Angelic combo (armor/amulet/two rings). That, at least, will go away in Hell. After all, he needs more resistances now. No more >12K attack rating...
One side note: when it comes to the personalization reward, I will only apply it for an item that character both finds/makes and uses. Though the item is not considered bound, and may be transferred to other characters later. So for Jassar, that's his sword (put in the runes) and now belt (found). Only time will tell if anything qualifies for the third personalization reward, or if I even kill Nihlathak in Hell.
O_Bruce
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The Tale of Kristin, part 1
So, for my next hardcore run I decided to go with elemental-based Assassin. This is the character class I am the least familiar with, so this might be an interesting experience for me.
I decided to go with claw + shield combo, rather than dual claws. First of all, I can have defensive benefits, most notably resistances, from wearing a shield. Second, since the shield is should be covering resistances, I don't have to invest into Fade much, instead, I can add 3-4 points into Burst of Speed for greater mobility and DPS (while I think this skill is a "1-point wonder" in the endgame, but the playthrough is not an endgame, so multipe +all skills points from gear aren't likely going to happen).
The run is self-found.
Anyways, I started playthrough at players 3 and nothing in particular happened, until my character was already on Tamoe Highland:
As expected, Nagelring. But I'll take it - magic find is great, damage reduction is useful, especially earlygame and attack rating doesn't hurt
When fighting my way through the Jail, I raised the difficulty to Players 5. More loot, more experience, challenging enemies. The next interesting thing, I found Hsaru's Iron Heel:
Now, the Andariel fight:
I realized I forget to show off my gear and confirm the difficulty I am playing at. Though, Kristin is level 18 when first time killing Andariel, which is overleveling for Act 1 normal. Higher players count helped in that.
O_Bruce will be back with more updates soonish!
So, for my next hardcore run I decided to go with elemental-based Assassin. This is the character class I am the least familiar with, so this might be an interesting experience for me.
I decided to go with claw + shield combo, rather than dual claws. First of all, I can have defensive benefits, most notably resistances, from wearing a shield. Second, since the shield is should be covering resistances, I don't have to invest into Fade much, instead, I can add 3-4 points into Burst of Speed for greater mobility and DPS (while I think this skill is a "1-point wonder" in the endgame, but the playthrough is not an endgame, so multipe +all skills points from gear aren't likely going to happen).
The run is self-found.
Anyways, I started playthrough at players 3 and nothing in particular happened, until my character was already on Tamoe Highland:
When fighting my way through the Jail, I raised the difficulty to Players 5. More loot, more experience, challenging enemies. The next interesting thing, I found Hsaru's Iron Heel:
Now, the Andariel fight:
I realized I forget to show off my gear and confirm the difficulty I am playing at. Though, Kristin is level 18 when first time killing Andariel, which is overleveling for Act 1 normal. Higher players count helped in that.
O_Bruce will be back with more updates soonish!
O_Bruce
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Tale of Kristin, part II
So, I have decided to visit auntie Andariel few more times - still on players 5. From more notable loot, Kristin found Crushflange and Arctic Binding, the latter being actually useful.
Then I proceed with act II, starting with the Radament:
The +1 skill point from the Book of Skills went into Dragon Claws - a prerequisite for Dragon Flight, the closest thing to teleport Assassin can get. In the future, I plan to use first quest reward from Act IV to add 1 skill point to Dragon Tail and Dragon Flight.
Then I went to collect Horadric Cube and components for Horadric Staff. Despite players 5 difficulty, monster killing rate was still quite good, so I was content with playing like that. Eventually, the Horadric Staff was made whole:
Summoner didn't last long all alone with Kristin. Poor man.
If is quite satisfying that after playing years of this game I can more-or-less at glance deduce what the symbol of true Tal Rasha's tomb is and in what direction I need to go to reach it. Speaking of the true tomb, Kristin found Angelic Wings inside:
And now, Arctic Bindings and its bonuse to cold resistance will prove useful against a big D.
I mean Duriel of course.
85% cold resist is possible due to overdose of thawing potions. Also, I didn't quite know why I did that close-ups after defeating big D, but now that I think about it, it can be equivalent of teabagging.
So far, it is going good. Act III obviously is next. Mephisto will probably be more scary due to his Skull Missile attack, but we'll find out.
So, I have decided to visit auntie Andariel few more times - still on players 5. From more notable loot, Kristin found Crushflange and Arctic Binding, the latter being actually useful.
Then I proceed with act II, starting with the Radament:
Then I went to collect Horadric Cube and components for Horadric Staff. Despite players 5 difficulty, monster killing rate was still quite good, so I was content with playing like that. Eventually, the Horadric Staff was made whole:
Summoner didn't last long all alone with Kristin. Poor man.
If is quite satisfying that after playing years of this game I can more-or-less at glance deduce what the symbol of true Tal Rasha's tomb is and in what direction I need to go to reach it. Speaking of the true tomb, Kristin found Angelic Wings inside:
And now, Arctic Bindings and its bonuse to cold resistance will prove useful against a big D.
I mean Duriel of course.
85% cold resist is possible due to overdose of thawing potions. Also, I didn't quite know why I did that close-ups after defeating big D, but now that I think about it, it can be equivalent of teabagging.
So far, it is going good. Act III obviously is next. Mephisto will probably be more scary due to his Skull Missile attack, but we'll find out.
O_Bruce
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Tale of Kristin, part III
The first sections of act III were rather uneventful - minus some items Kristin managed to find along the way:
Really nice amulet for this part of the game. And it probably helped in finding the shield:
I won't be scoffing at additional magic find at this part of the game
Ormus' reward for returning the Gidbin proved to be useful:
The first hard thing in this act, was definitely the Zakarum Council. Playing on players 5 meant it took more time to bring them down and that gave them more opportunity to summon hydras, heal themselves and each other and so on, and so on. But all, in all, Kristin succeeded in her task.
It felt really satisfying to unleash my load all at once:
And, Uncle Mephisto's fight. As I predicted, he was more dangerous than Duriel.
Moving out to act IV, Izual fight was not very interesting, albeit longer because Players 5.
The two skill points Kristin has received went into Dragon Tail and Dragon Flight. To be honest, at this point in time I don't think I'll invest more than one point into the finishing moves - I don't see the point. I prefer to invest more into the skill that synergize with Phoenix Strike.
But there is a problem with my current skill distribution, which act IV - River of Flames, more specifically - highlighted: while Kristin's fire, lightning and cold skills adds to Phoenix Strike potential damage, they don't synergize with each other. Furthermore, the only synergy these skills receive is with Phoenix Strike itself. Because I decided to spend my skill points in a way to make each element similarly strong, that ultimately meant my damage output started lagging behind. I do believe that once Phoenix Strike and its synergies are going to be involved, my situation is going to improve, but until then, the act IV was slower than I am used to.
Hephasto the Armore and an "e(t)h" drop and nice drop:
The rune from hellforge is quite a common one, even in Normal difficulty standard. However, it will have its use soon. Hephasto himself has left KRisting with a pair of nice boots:
Fire and Lightning resistances, with additional magic find is what I want to see when facing the Lord of Terror
Before going for Diablo, though, Kristin did some rune transmutations and ended up with what she needed for the Ancient Pledge runeword. She then bought a decent enough base for it in Lut Gholein
With all resistances maxed out, Kristin invaded the Chaos Sanctuary and I must say, playing on players 5 with a build like that was kinda nice. I don't normally do this, since I'm concerned about things taking too long and thus being boring, but instead, I found myself enjoying the change of pace. As usual in normal difficulty, the Infector of Souls was the biggest problem (besides Diablo himself). He required kiting and taking advantage of Cloak of Shadows.
Anyways, Chaos Sanctuary made it clear to me that taking Diablo on players 5 could be a bad idea. So I dumbed it down to Players 3. Here's the fight:
[I am using Nvidia ShadowPlay for such recordings, but I can only record last 10 minutes, so part of the footage was lost. Then again I haven't expected the fight to last 10 minutes.
The first sections of act III were rather uneventful - minus some items Kristin managed to find along the way:
Ormus' reward for returning the Gidbin proved to be useful:
The first hard thing in this act, was definitely the Zakarum Council. Playing on players 5 meant it took more time to bring them down and that gave them more opportunity to summon hydras, heal themselves and each other and so on, and so on. But all, in all, Kristin succeeded in her task.
It felt really satisfying to unleash my load all at once:
And, Uncle Mephisto's fight. As I predicted, he was more dangerous than Duriel.
Moving out to act IV, Izual fight was not very interesting, albeit longer because Players 5.
The two skill points Kristin has received went into Dragon Tail and Dragon Flight. To be honest, at this point in time I don't think I'll invest more than one point into the finishing moves - I don't see the point. I prefer to invest more into the skill that synergize with Phoenix Strike.
But there is a problem with my current skill distribution, which act IV - River of Flames, more specifically - highlighted: while Kristin's fire, lightning and cold skills adds to Phoenix Strike potential damage, they don't synergize with each other. Furthermore, the only synergy these skills receive is with Phoenix Strike itself. Because I decided to spend my skill points in a way to make each element similarly strong, that ultimately meant my damage output started lagging behind. I do believe that once Phoenix Strike and its synergies are going to be involved, my situation is going to improve, but until then, the act IV was slower than I am used to.
Hephasto the Armore and an "e(t)h" drop and nice drop:
Before going for Diablo, though, Kristin did some rune transmutations and ended up with what she needed for the Ancient Pledge runeword. She then bought a decent enough base for it in Lut Gholein
With all resistances maxed out, Kristin invaded the Chaos Sanctuary and I must say, playing on players 5 with a build like that was kinda nice. I don't normally do this, since I'm concerned about things taking too long and thus being boring, but instead, I found myself enjoying the change of pace. As usual in normal difficulty, the Infector of Souls was the biggest problem (besides Diablo himself). He required kiting and taking advantage of Cloak of Shadows.
Anyways, Chaos Sanctuary made it clear to me that taking Diablo on players 5 could be a bad idea. So I dumbed it down to Players 3. Here's the fight:
[I am using Nvidia ShadowPlay for such recordings, but I can only record last 10 minutes, so part of the footage was lost. Then again I haven't expected the fight to last 10 minutes.
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Nice progress there! I see you try to use all 3 different charges, that's not something I ever tried. As you remember, Mara went through the Normal difficulty not long ago, I just focused on either Fire or Lightning damage. Using 3 different charges must be a great exercise to test your real-life dexterity, with switching from one skill to another on the keyboard or using the mouse wheel. This sounds a bit too complicated for me personally.
Also, belated congratulations on your Mal the summoning druid finale. Welcome, another Guardian of the Tavern!
Also, belated congratulations on your Mal the summoning druid finale. Welcome, another Guardian of the Tavern!
jmerry
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Jassar part 3: Hell
I'm posting later than usual, because today I played through the hours I normally skip. Instead of heading outside when the sun encroached on my screen, I pulled the blinds and just kept going.
Before moving Jassar into Hell, I did some Diablo runs with Cythandria. She got about halfway through level 90, and picked up some new items for the collection.
Some things I'll use, other things that'll just collect dust in a stash.
Next, I made some gear updates to adjust for the resistance penalty.
Mercenary armor: Darkglow -> Goldskin
Amulet: Angelic Wings -> Mara's Kaleidoscope
Armor: Angelic Mantle -> Duress (Dusk Shroud)
Ring 1: Angelic Halo -> Raven Frost
Ring 2: Angelic Halo -> rare with 3% mana and 8% life steal
Alt weapon 1: Spirit (Crystal Sword) -> Echoing Long Sword of Slaying
Alt weapon 2: Spirit (Crystal Sword) -> Echoing Long Sword
Belt: Gloom's Trap -> String of Ears
Helmet: filled socket with perfect topaz
So ... maxed resistances, greatly increased defense, a ton of life steal, but only 5678 attack rating. I'll take it. And since I'm investing in Shout now, that defense will increase further.
Lower players count from 8 to 3 (because even with an ethereal Oath, Jassar's damage isn't all that high), and head out. It doesn't take long to find another upgrade - Corpsefire drops a Stealskull, which Leharas takes in place of his old ethereal Undead Crown.
And from there, progress is steady. Not fast, but nothing's dangerous. Even enemies that would have terrified Cythandria, like a Fanaticism/Cursed archer boss pack in the Forgotten Tower, are trivial. I just whirled through that one without a care. I did find a few good things, like this belt:
And this spear from a rack.
Too bad I'm playing a version of the game in which the Amazon's spear specialization is terrible.
Ghosts get a bit more annoying toward the end of the act, as Leharas seems to lose his ability to hold aggro. Berserk doesn't work so well when the mana burners are all attacking you directly. Andariel goes down at level 79.
For act 2, I swap some charms around. More life is the main benefit. And out in the Lost City, I run into a rather tough monster:
I've got cold damage, lightning damage, Prevent Monster Heal, and Open Wounds. It's slow, but the zombie goes down. And I never see that immunity combination again; only a few monster types can possibly roll it.
Then, after that first segment, I swap out all of Leharas' gear. For his head, a circlet with resist all and life steal. For his weapon, Arioc's Needle. And for his armor...
Now that's some serious defense. Cube an ethereal item to get sockets, applying the ethereal defense bonus again, and then make the runeword. I've tried this three times hoping for two sockets to make Prudence, but rolled four sockets each time. This was the highest-defense version, at 518 base -> 777 as dropped -> 1165 with sockets. And then I made the highest-defense runeword in it.
Also, since I no longer have the benefit of Insight, I swap out the gloves for a set of crafted gloves with 3% mana steal. Doubling that stat is just what I need to sustain whirling.
In the final segment, I clear the false tombs as always. And they're kind to me.
Plus a second Mara's Kaleidoscope in the same tomb. With better resists. So naturally, I keep the one I have and throw the new one into the stash for a future character.
The true tomb comes last, and Duriel. He's always easy when you're playing a melee tank.
Act complete at level 84.
Early in act 3...
Near-minimum magic find, near-maximum gold find. Jassar gives up his attack rating/life grand charm for it. The "merc can't hold aggro" issue pops up after a while, making Dark Shapes in the Flayer Dungeon troublesome. So I end the session at the Flayer Dungeon waypoint.
For the act's second session, Gloams pop up in the Swampy Pit. They can actually do real damage, so I bring out the tactics. Unless they're mixed in with fleshy enemies, in which case I can just whirl through.
The enormous Durance level 2 has dolls, and even that barely fazes Jassar. Mephisto himself is unleechable, so I need a few potions. One red, one blue, one convenient mana shrine.
Act complete at level 85.
In act 4, for the first time all game, I intentionally drink a rejuvenation potion. What brought it on? I was on the River of Flame, surrounded by Grotesque Wyrms, while mana burn Stranglers kept me from using any skills with their missiles. Life was going down, and I wasn't carrying a blue. I needed that infusion of mana so that I could whirl out of the mess.
Then there's Diablo.
He took one blue potion. No reds needed. Level 86 now.
Act 5 finally brings a bit of threat. Some of the enemy mixes feel dangerous, like the Horror Archers, Hell Temptresses, and Blood Lords (phys immune minotaurs) in Abaddon. Actually, the worst part is that the Blood Lords have no chill and charge straight past Leharas every time to attack Jassar directly. They're not the last enemies like that; quite a few foes are like that, particularly the ones I'd like to use Berserk on. And yet some of the lesser enemies do seem to attack him normally. I don't really understand what's going on with the AI here.
I go after Nihlathak this time:
No reward but the bragging rights, really. Jassar tanked a couple of corpse explosions, but mostly just cleared out the bodies himself before the necromancer could get to him. That level also had the Tomb Vipers, which were handled mostly with Taunt. Also, Jassar has reached level 87; with Shout maxed, he dropped that last point into Grim Ward.
The Ancients are easy, and so are the three levels of the Worldstone Keep. The throne has Burning Souls, which might be trouble if I couldn't just pull them with Taunt.
And finally, Baal. He takes a long time. Jassar has to recast his buffs mid-fight. There's a clone blasting away while Jassar doggedly focuses on the real demon. And finally ...
Victory. Jassar reaches Guardian, at level 87. My third in this project, and third ever.
A catalog of the new items Jassar found for my collection in his journey through Hell difficulty:
And here's the final build, in three composite pictures. All stats are with the standard trio of warcry buffs active.
Plus the two echoing swords on switch
Warcries on the switch, combat skills and masteries on the main.
After I made that Stone for him, Leharas never died even once. And that instance in act 4 was the only time all game that Jassar drank a purple in combat. Jassar had no close calls. Ever. He was just that good at tanking.
I'm posting later than usual, because today I played through the hours I normally skip. Instead of heading outside when the sun encroached on my screen, I pulled the blinds and just kept going.
Before moving Jassar into Hell, I did some Diablo runs with Cythandria. She got about halfway through level 90, and picked up some new items for the collection.
Kelpie Snare, Hone Sundan, ethereal Ironstone, ethereal Rockfleece, Bonehew, The Stone of Jordan, Coldsteel Eye, Rainbow Facet (fire, level-up), Immortal King's Stone Crusher, Hellslayer, Hellrack, Arm of King Leoric
Next, I made some gear updates to adjust for the resistance penalty.
Mercenary armor: Darkglow -> Goldskin
Amulet: Angelic Wings -> Mara's Kaleidoscope
Armor: Angelic Mantle -> Duress (Dusk Shroud)
Ring 1: Angelic Halo -> Raven Frost
Ring 2: Angelic Halo -> rare with 3% mana and 8% life steal
Alt weapon 1: Spirit (Crystal Sword) -> Echoing Long Sword of Slaying
Alt weapon 2: Spirit (Crystal Sword) -> Echoing Long Sword
Belt: Gloom's Trap -> String of Ears
Helmet: filled socket with perfect topaz
So ... maxed resistances, greatly increased defense, a ton of life steal, but only 5678 attack rating. I'll take it. And since I'm investing in Shout now, that defense will increase further.
Lower players count from 8 to 3 (because even with an ethereal Oath, Jassar's damage isn't all that high), and head out. It doesn't take long to find another upgrade - Corpsefire drops a Stealskull, which Leharas takes in place of his old ethereal Undead Crown.
And from there, progress is steady. Not fast, but nothing's dangerous. Even enemies that would have terrified Cythandria, like a Fanaticism/Cursed archer boss pack in the Forgotten Tower, are trivial. I just whirled through that one without a care. I did find a few good things, like this belt:
Ghosts get a bit more annoying toward the end of the act, as Leharas seems to lose his ability to hold aggro. Berserk doesn't work so well when the mana burners are all attacking you directly. Andariel goes down at level 79.
For act 2, I swap some charms around. More life is the main benefit. And out in the Lost City, I run into a rather tough monster:
Then, after that first segment, I swap out all of Leharas' gear. For his head, a circlet with resist all and life steal. For his weapon, Arioc's Needle. And for his armor...
Also, since I no longer have the benefit of Insight, I swap out the gloves for a set of crafted gloves with 3% mana steal. Doubling that stat is just what I need to sustain whirling.
In the final segment, I clear the false tombs as always. And they're kind to me.
The true tomb comes last, and Duriel. He's always easy when you're playing a melee tank.
Early in act 3...
For the act's second session, Gloams pop up in the Swampy Pit. They can actually do real damage, so I bring out the tactics. Unless they're mixed in with fleshy enemies, in which case I can just whirl through.
The enormous Durance level 2 has dolls, and even that barely fazes Jassar. Mephisto himself is unleechable, so I need a few potions. One red, one blue, one convenient mana shrine.
In act 4, for the first time all game, I intentionally drink a rejuvenation potion. What brought it on? I was on the River of Flame, surrounded by Grotesque Wyrms, while mana burn Stranglers kept me from using any skills with their missiles. Life was going down, and I wasn't carrying a blue. I needed that infusion of mana so that I could whirl out of the mess.
Then there's Diablo.
Act 5 finally brings a bit of threat. Some of the enemy mixes feel dangerous, like the Horror Archers, Hell Temptresses, and Blood Lords (phys immune minotaurs) in Abaddon. Actually, the worst part is that the Blood Lords have no chill and charge straight past Leharas every time to attack Jassar directly. They're not the last enemies like that; quite a few foes are like that, particularly the ones I'd like to use Berserk on. And yet some of the lesser enemies do seem to attack him normally. I don't really understand what's going on with the AI here.
I go after Nihlathak this time:
The Ancients are easy, and so are the three levels of the Worldstone Keep. The throne has Burning Souls, which might be trouble if I couldn't just pull them with Taunt.
And finally, Baal. He takes a long time. Jassar has to recast his buffs mid-fight. There's a clone blasting away while Jassar doggedly focuses on the real demon. And finally ...
A catalog of the new items Jassar found for my collection in his journey through Hell difficulty:
Todesfaelle Flamme, Stealskull, Dwarf Star, Nosferatu's Coil, Lycander's Flank, Black Hades, Rusthandle, Carrion Wind, Dangoon's Teaching, Messerschmidt's Reaver, Hand of Blessed Light, Ghoulhide, Trang-Oul's Claws, Maelstrom, Que-Hegan's Wisdom, Blastbark
And here's the final build, in three composite pictures. All stats are with the standard trio of warcry buffs active.
Plus the two echoing swords on switch
Warcries on the switch, combat skills and masteries on the main.
After I made that Stone for him, Leharas never died even once. And that instance in act 4 was the only time all game that Jassar drank a purple in combat. Jassar had no close calls. Ever. He was just that good at tanking.
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Congrats! Welcome, another Guardian!
Also, hey, your Jassar found Mara's Kaleidoscope, that's neat.
Also, hey, your Jassar found Mara's Kaleidoscope, that's neat.
jmerry
Habitué
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- 59
I've found two of them in this project. One while Cythandria was doing Diablo runs, just before I started Jassar. He's using that one. Then Jassar found another, with 28 resist instead of 25. That one's in the stash for a future character.
My softcore collection, built over years and many more characters than this project ... no Mara's Kaleidoscope. It's weird how the luck goes sometimes. I've also found four Lightsabres now in this project; one of those was in Jassar's act 5 session, from a boss pack in the Drifter Cavern (item level 87). I was so hoping for another gold phase blade...
Common combat tactics for Jassar in Hell:
- Whirl back and forth through groups of enemies. The standard for basically anything that I can steal life and mana from. Up to and including Minions of Destruction.
- Stand behind Leharas and use Berserk. Useful for physical immunes that don't just ignore the mercenary, because zeroing out the defense really hurts when Jassar is actually being attacked.
- Use Concentrate and trade blows. Used for more physical immunes than Berserk, actually. Plus a lot of lone enemies and foes I can't leech from.
- Taunt enemies away from their friends, and beat them up. Useful for nastier ranged attackers like Gloams and the physical-immune succubus variants.
Next up in the project: an Amazon archer. After that, a melee Paladin. But not right away, as I'd like to spend some time on other things.
My softcore collection, built over years and many more characters than this project ... no Mara's Kaleidoscope. It's weird how the luck goes sometimes. I've also found four Lightsabres now in this project; one of those was in Jassar's act 5 session, from a boss pack in the Drifter Cavern (item level 87). I was so hoping for another gold phase blade...
Common combat tactics for Jassar in Hell:
- Whirl back and forth through groups of enemies. The standard for basically anything that I can steal life and mana from. Up to and including Minions of Destruction.
- Stand behind Leharas and use Berserk. Useful for physical immunes that don't just ignore the mercenary, because zeroing out the defense really hurts when Jassar is actually being attacked.
- Use Concentrate and trade blows. Used for more physical immunes than Berserk, actually. Plus a lot of lone enemies and foes I can't leech from.
- Taunt enemies away from their friends, and beat them up. Useful for nastier ranged attackers like Gloams and the physical-immune succubus variants.
Next up in the project: an Amazon archer. After that, a melee Paladin. But not right away, as I'd like to spend some time on other things.
- Messages
- 1,734
Windows Central has reported Diablo IV is targeting an April 2023 release with pre-orders starting in December alongside a marketing push at The Game Awards.
www.windowscentral.com
Report: Diablo 4 could be launching in Spring 2023, with preorders going live December (Updated)
From the seventh Circle of rumormill Hell.
www.windowscentral.com
O_Bruce
Habitué
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- 450
Tale of Kristin, part IV
It was a while, but Kristin's adventure continues! Never mind that actual gameplay was done over a month ago and I don't remember much, I can only go by recordings and screenshots...
I almost always start act V normal by getting past Shenk and grinding against Eldrich the Rectifier to at least level 28. Then, I made Kristin proceed through the plot until Anya is rescued - and on my way, I found an upgrade to Kristin's armor:
Anya, however, is always grateful for the rescue:
The funny thing is, I cannot recall if that's an upgrade or not. Nice durability though...
And so, grinding on the Pindleskin begins. While at it, Phoenix Strike was unlocked, and so, the overall damage of my character rose:
Lower Resist charges are really helpful. I am sure I will definitely never forget to use it, right?
That one either went to merc or was put in the stash for now. Not sure at this point
Rakescar is a good weapon at this point, but not for Kristin. Majority of her elemental attacks
require claws to work
Another upgrade. Well, less defense, but that bonus to life, along with cold resist was really important
Max physical damage of a Rakescar sounds nice, high bonus to attack rating also helps. The max durability is also nice
A mace from Aldur's set. Once again, a really good weapon for the stage of the game, but it is not a claw-class weapon...
Next, players 5 Nihlathak fight. The idea was to freeze solid all of his minions around Kristin and shatter them, leaving no corpses for the betrayer to explode. How did it turned out, watch here:
Now, the absolute lack of screenshots before the fight against the Ancients tells me I decided to rush to the end of the normal difficulty. So, Ancients:
On her way to the Throne of Destruction, Kristin found a nice base for the Strength runeword:
The durability isn't quite nice
I don't remember that much after a mouth, but I do remember Lister to be pain in my arse:
And finally, over 10 minutes of fighting players 5 Baal. Sorry for how I montaged the fight - next time I'll record using the OBS.
It was a while, but Kristin's adventure continues! Never mind that actual gameplay was done over a month ago and I don't remember much, I can only go by recordings and screenshots...
I almost always start act V normal by getting past Shenk and grinding against Eldrich the Rectifier to at least level 28. Then, I made Kristin proceed through the plot until Anya is rescued - and on my way, I found an upgrade to Kristin's armor:
Anya, however, is always grateful for the rescue:
The funny thing is, I cannot recall if that's an upgrade or not. Nice durability though...
And so, grinding on the Pindleskin begins. While at it, Phoenix Strike was unlocked, and so, the overall damage of my character rose:
Lower Resist charges are really helpful. I am sure I will definitely never forget to use it, right?
That one either went to merc or was put in the stash for now. Not sure at this point
Rakescar is a good weapon at this point, but not for Kristin. Majority of her elemental attacks
require claws to work
Another upgrade. Well, less defense, but that bonus to life, along with cold resist was really important
Max physical damage of a Rakescar sounds nice, high bonus to attack rating also helps. The max durability is also nice
A mace from Aldur's set. Once again, a really good weapon for the stage of the game, but it is not a claw-class weapon...
Next, players 5 Nihlathak fight. The idea was to freeze solid all of his minions around Kristin and shatter them, leaving no corpses for the betrayer to explode. How did it turned out, watch here:
Now, the absolute lack of screenshots before the fight against the Ancients tells me I decided to rush to the end of the normal difficulty. So, Ancients:
On her way to the Throne of Destruction, Kristin found a nice base for the Strength runeword:
The durability isn't quite nice
I don't remember that much after a mouth, but I do remember Lister to be pain in my arse:
And finally, over 10 minutes of fighting players 5 Baal. Sorry for how I montaged the fight - next time I'll record using the OBS.
- Messages
- 1,734
Good previews for Diablo 4 are starting to kick in:
www.eurogamer.net
"It's this unhurried nature that really makes Diablo 4 feel starkly different to the most recent Diablo game, Diablo Immortal. That game was in a hurry to impress you, throwing spectacular encounters at you and showering you with rewards. Making it so exciting you couldn't look away, as a free-to-play game has to, before revealing a grind later on.
Diablo 4 doesn't do that, it lets things breathe. It lets the world breathe as you're introduced to it, and it lets you breathe as the world introduces things to you - mechanics, rewards, ways to play the game. There's no rush here, which I really like, and there's a huge feeling of confidence that comes from it, as the game lets things gently build.
None of this is to say that Diablo 4 is boring - far from it. I'm particularly impressed with how the game manages to make combat feel challenging and exciting from the beginning - something Diablo 3 was hopeless at. This has a lot to do with the new World Tier difficulty options available. There are two you can choose from at the beginning, and the harder you go, the better your rewards will be. But if you do go harder, be prepared to die, not all of the time, but I died a handful of times against bosses, and some clusters of elites. (World Tier levels can be changed in-game from World Tier statues in towns, by the way. If you're grouped, the party leader determines the world state.)
It's not just a difficulty thing, though. It feels like Diablo 4 understands better how to make enemy encounters as a whole more exciting and challenging. Enemies themselves have been refreshed or redesigned, or are completely new - my favourites are the Broodlord vampires, which look like levitating Nosferatus and teleport around the area in a puff of smoke and bats, making them really hard to get to. And enemies knocking you down or freezing you, or otherwise making you unable to heal, is a particular danger here.
But there's a sense of fun in it all, too - a realisation of when Diablo feels best. Take the ghouls: they're squishy and unremarkable on their own, so the game throws 15 of them at you at once so you can smash them all to smithereens and feel like a badass."
I've spent 10 hours with Diablo 4 and I'm sold - it's been worth the wait
There's now an accompanying Blizzard interview to go with this piece, in which we talk about the build I played and muc…
"It's this unhurried nature that really makes Diablo 4 feel starkly different to the most recent Diablo game, Diablo Immortal. That game was in a hurry to impress you, throwing spectacular encounters at you and showering you with rewards. Making it so exciting you couldn't look away, as a free-to-play game has to, before revealing a grind later on.
Diablo 4 doesn't do that, it lets things breathe. It lets the world breathe as you're introduced to it, and it lets you breathe as the world introduces things to you - mechanics, rewards, ways to play the game. There's no rush here, which I really like, and there's a huge feeling of confidence that comes from it, as the game lets things gently build.
None of this is to say that Diablo 4 is boring - far from it. I'm particularly impressed with how the game manages to make combat feel challenging and exciting from the beginning - something Diablo 3 was hopeless at. This has a lot to do with the new World Tier difficulty options available. There are two you can choose from at the beginning, and the harder you go, the better your rewards will be. But if you do go harder, be prepared to die, not all of the time, but I died a handful of times against bosses, and some clusters of elites. (World Tier levels can be changed in-game from World Tier statues in towns, by the way. If you're grouped, the party leader determines the world state.)
It's not just a difficulty thing, though. It feels like Diablo 4 understands better how to make enemy encounters as a whole more exciting and challenging. Enemies themselves have been refreshed or redesigned, or are completely new - my favourites are the Broodlord vampires, which look like levitating Nosferatus and teleport around the area in a puff of smoke and bats, making them really hard to get to. And enemies knocking you down or freezing you, or otherwise making you unable to heal, is a particular danger here.
But there's a sense of fun in it all, too - a realisation of when Diablo feels best. Take the ghouls: they're squishy and unremarkable on their own, so the game throws 15 of them at you at once so you can smash them all to smithereens and feel like a badass."