The Core of Diablo

jmerry · Aug 30, 2022

And now, the final update of Cythandria's story.

Right out of the gate in act 3, the wanderer's flesh beasts drop a set item (Arcanna's Deathwand). An auspicious sign. Then, later on in the Spider Forest, I get an item I've been waiting a long time for...

A four-socket Monarch. I would have settled for a white Monarch, but getting the four sockets immediately makes things a lot easier. I'll end the session as soon as I can find a good stopping point and make a Spirit shield.
That stopping point ends up being after the Spider Forest, Great Marsh, and Flayer Dungeon/Gidbinn; the Spider Forest waypoint is right next to the Flayer Jungle, and the alcove with the Flayer Dungeon and Gidbinn linked to the the Spider Forest.

The Flayer Dungeon did have some dangerous spots - undead flayers on both of the first two levels, and a tangle of several boss packs in level 2 including instances of both Fanaticism and Cursed. That one took out Emilio twice, though Cythandria got through without significant injury. Then the Great Marsh had Gloams, and most of its boss budget was spent on them - three boss packs in one off-river alcove and then two boss packs in another. That got messy.

I make Spirit. 98 mana, 35 FCR.
Switching out my shield for a new Spirit also called for several other equipment shuffles to balance the resistances.
Shield: Gemmed Dragon Shield (3x P. Diamond) -> Spirit Monarch
Gloves: Magefist -> Pain Hand (rare, +21 fire/+24 elec/+10 pois)
Boots: Corpse Track (rare, +20 FRW, +30 elec/+8 pois) -> Havoc Track (rare, +20 FRW, +38 fire)
Ring 1: Bone Touch (rare, +10 FCR, +29 fire/+24 cold) -> Dread Master (rare, +10 fire/+39 cold/+10 elec/+10 pois)
Ring 2: Viper Eye (rare, +10 FCR, +9 cold/+16 pois) -> Scintillating Ring of Accuracy (+15 all)
Serpent's Small Charm -> Viridian Small Charm of Life (+7 pois)

After all of that, Cythandria's resistances are maxed. She still has 105 FCR and 87 MF. He life and mana pools are bigger, and her skills go from +10 fire/+8 others to +11 fire/+10 others. Specifically, that's 1421 life and 481 mana with Oak Sage active.

Naturally, now that I have a Spirit, white monarchs start dropping. One in the Flayer Jungle, and more later. It's not supposed to be a super-rare item, after all. Then I get a five-socket phase blade ... hey, game, how about a Lo rune?
Most of the act goes pretty smoothly, though I do have to be careful about not letting those exploding undead pygmies reach Cythandria. They're basically everywhere they could possibly be, too.
One of the temples does get me to pull a blind teleport. When there's an archer pack right at the door, you don't stick around to see how dangerous they are. The room I teleported into was empty, and on coming back the archer didn't have particularly dangerous mods. The lack of a safe zone around the stairs in those temples can be really scary sometimes.

Down in Durance 2 - yet another level with undead pygmies - a Mauler boss drops something neat.

Eschuta's Temper. An item I didn't have even in softcore. And it's basically useless; this one only rolled +1 skills.
Also, Cythandria is pretty close to a new level. When I finish that giant map, she's about 4 million short. Kill the various boss packs on Durance 3, still a couple hundred K short ...

And Mephisto provides the last bit. Act complete at level 87. Then to end the session, I gamble away over 4 million gold ... no +2 skill amulets.
New items found in act 3: Arcanna's Deathwand, ethereal Pierre Tombale Couant, Eschuta's Temper, Spire of Honor.

Act 4 goes smoothly. Sure, the monsters are sturdy, but there are almost no physical ranged attackers in the act. The only ranged attacks with any physical component are the corpse spit move and Diablo's lightning hose. That means Cythandria really doesn't have to worry about much. Sure, Burning Souls can kill Oak Sages, but they just don't do that much damage through 75% lightning resistance.
The Hellforge:

A Mal rune. One from the previous three characters combined, two from Cythandria.

Finally, the Chaos Sanctuary. Fighting Diablo involves a lot of running around, but he goes down in the end.

And that's act 4. Still level 87, because it's a pretty short act. Diablo drops the act's only new item find, Blackleach Blade.

Act 5 starts easy enough, but then the Frigid Highlands is all fire immunes including Vile Archers. With the guest monsters, archers are back. And in the area's dungeon, Undead Stygian Dolls.So many dangerous monster types that could pop up.
Still, nothing too bad in the initial above-ground segment.

In the Crystalline Passage, I see archers with fanaticism ... turns out that's a double boss pack. A fanatic mage, a cursed archer. Potentially very dangerous, but Cythandria avoids taking any arrows.
The Frozen River brings Sirens and Claw Vipers. One Siren boss pack takes down Emilio twice, and later an Evil Urn gives me a nasty surprise - spawning a Claw Viper boss pack practically on top of Cythandria. Oh yeah - those things can get scary too. Cythandria ends up needing both a fat purple and a teleport to get out of that.
Also, another Harlequin Crest drops in here. I give it a socket (it has better defense than the old one), and I plan to add a perfect topaz once I can. (I meant to take a picture, but somehow that one came out solid black.)

Free Anya, get more resistances, keep going. Though I'll probably swap some things once the session is over.
The Drifter Cavern drives me back. A Moon Lord boss spawns Cursed and immune to both fire and cold, and Emilio can't win the duel on his own. Continue on, clear the Frozen Tundra, and finally reach level 88 in the Infernal Pit.

I clear most of Nihlathak's temple, but stop short of the Halls of Vaught. Without any corpse-clearing ability, I don't want to risk fighting him.

Now, the Ancients. I've been running at players 5, but I drop to players 1 for this fight. Lots of running away, but eventually I get Madawc alone and burn him down. Then Korlic. Then I wait out the curses those two had and finish off the cold-immune Talic.

Only the Worldstone Keep remains. And for this, I'll stay at players 1. This close to the end, I don't feel like taking extra risks.

That still doesn't stop me from finding stuff. Like this elite unique:

That was the second drop from a pygmy shaman boss. Those are always fun.

As it turned out, I didn't get any scary draws. The worst annoyances were the Horadrim Ancients raising Doom and Oblivion Knights in the Throne. Lister wasn't cold immune, so he died easily. And that just leaves Baal. He gets static down to half, then fireballs and meteors from a distance.

Cythandria becomes my second Guardian, at level 88.
New items found in act 5: Immortal King's Will, Ginther's Rift, Demon's Arch, Peasant Crown, Magnus' Skin, The Minotaur. I never did put together that Perfect Topaz I wanted.

So then I take a victory lap. Head back to Normal and Nightmare to personalize things, transfer in that perfect topaz, swap out a ring and some charms, then clear out the cows. On players 5. I find a few set items, but nothing new.

And so Cythandria's story is complete. Here's a composite shot of her stats and gear, in town (so no Oak Sage bonus) and after that post-Baal segment:

Frozen Orb is 415-435 damage with -110% enemy resistance. Final skill investments: Fire Bolt 3, Fire Ball 20, Meteor 20, Fire Mastery 12, Frozen Orb 20, Cold Mastery 9. One point in each other fire and cold spell except Chilling Armor and Hydra, one point in Static Field, Telekinesis, and Teleport from the lightning tree.

I didn't take a shot of Emilio, but he's been using the same stuff for a while. Insight in an ethereal Partizan (still can't find a good elite polearm for it), Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest, Duress.

Antimatter · Aug 30, 2022

Ohhh, congrats! We now have another Guardian. I like how you tweaked the players' number based on the risks involved. Also, cool to get that screen with all the items. It's an especially rewarding feeling to see how a character with "just" rare items becomes a Guardian.

O_Bruce · Aug 30, 2022

Depending on the item slots, some rare items can be as valuable or even more than uniques. Rings, amulets, gloves and boots are the most notable cases

jmerry · Aug 30, 2022

Though it's a bit embarrassing to still be using blue items in some slots, even after four characters worth of item-gathering. That Arch-Angel's Amulet... OK, gambling with high-level characters is about the only way to get +2 skill amulets, and I've spent large parts of that time without any characters that even had a chance at them. Still, I'll do some runs with Cythandria before I start up the next character in the project. Probably the Chaos Sanctuary, because it's a pretty low-risk area.

Oh, and the weapon switch? An Edge short bow and arrows, for better prices when gambling at the end of sessions. Switching away from Heart of the Oak in any other situation is inadvisable, due to the Oak Sages getting unsummoned. Those cost 1318 gold each.

My players count ... 8 through Normal and Nightmare, 5 through Hell. Except for Nightmare and Hell Ancients and the Hell Worldstone Keep, at 1. I ran single-pass full clears on almost everything, only rerunning a bunch of Baal runs in Normal.

jmerry · Sep 3, 2022

I've gotten far enough on it ... time for a report on the side project. Atlas.

The rules:
1. Atlas starts with a complete Immortal King set, with sockets already filled. (Perfect topazes in the helm and armor, Shael runes in the weapon)
2. Atlas will invest all stat points into strength. No exceptions.
3. Atlas will not be allowed to respec. All skill investments are permanent.
4. Atlas will equip each piece of his set as soon as possible, and keep it no matter what. Items from the set may not be removed or switched away from outside of town.
5. Atlas will not receive any other assistance from other characters or my softcore stash. The IK set is it.

As for death ... Atlas isn't a hardcore character. But I'm playing close to that. I'm still not sure whether I'll end the run on death or continue from the latest waypoint and keep count of the number of deaths.

And now, the recap. Here's the starting point:

The IK set is a high-level set. The first piece requires level 29, and it goes up from there. It'll be a while before the hand-me-downs are usable at all. Until then, I'm just working with what I can find. And I'll do that with single-pass full clears, at least for a while.

Obviously, finding sufficiently powerful weapons will be essential. And I get lucky in the Blood Moor, finding an ethereal scepter to bash enemies with. My main skill investment at this point is Mace Mastery, so that works well. Mana gets used for Find Potion, getting useful stuff and denying fallen shaman resurrection.
I actually use that scepter all the way to destruction.

Fortunately, I've already bought a replacement. A Vicious Mace of Worth, which still doesn't hit as hard.
Equipment is also supplemented with gambling; I gamble up a Belt for the extra potion slots soon after that.
A double archer boss pack on the Cave's second floor is the first real threat, causing me to need a bunch of healing potions.

At level 13, I switch to Find Item for my mana-using skill. Not enough mana to use it on everything, but that's fine.
I find my first set item in the Underground Passage - Hsarus' Iron Fist. Which I use, because that 2 points of damage reduction is good. Then I end the session at the Outer Cloister waypoint (running through the Tamoe Highland). That also comes with a round of gambling - the new weapon is a Silver Morning Star of Shock, and the new boots have 10% run speed.

For session 2, I switch to actually using combat skills. Bash is cheap and comes with a decent damage boost, and Find Item isn't good on anything but bosses yet. And more fights bring challenges - a champion pack of Black Rogues brings Atlas to below a quarter health, forcinf both a retreat to a doorway choke and potion use. The Smith, though, is pretty easy. Bash knocks him back, so he doesn't even get any swings in until the mana runs out.
With less mana for Find Potion/Find Item, I need a new solution for shamans - and I find it with Taunt. Just tell them to walk over so I can kill them. I pick up a new main attack skill with Concentrate at level 19, in the Catacombs. Also, I gamble a bit and pick up a Maul. No ED, but that's still a big damage boost. Level 20 adds Battle Cry to my repertoire, just in time for Andariel. And she's a brutal fight. Fortunately, a steady supply of healing potions keeps up with her.

Andariel's drop consists of six rares. I keep some of them, including the triple-durability belt, but it's nothing special. Act complete at level 20.
This session ends with another round of gambling; I pick up some MF boots, but I don't find a better weapon despite several tries at mauls.

In act 2, I trade out the mercenary. The new merc is Pratham, a Prayer specialist. That makes everything so much easier instantly. Then a really good item drops in the Rocky Waste - Bloodfist gloves. 125 HP before, 165 after. And the other mods are great too. I also start saving skill points with the Radament reward, rather than dumping all my surplus into Mace Mastery immediately.
The one troublesome enemy type at this stage - beetles. Atlas doesn't have much lightning resistance or MDR, so he can't take many of those spikes and has to let Pratham lead. Hollow Ones would be trouble, but Taunt solves them.
Then level 24 arrives, and with it Battle Orders. That's a huge boost, and I'll be pushing the skill as hard as possible. It's only 35 seconds to start, but I do my best to keep it up.
I actually face a physical-immune swarm boss in Coldworm's room. Fortunately, I still have that mace with minor lightning damage on switch; that plus a poison charm wears it down.
The session comes at level 25 after the Claw Viper Temple, and I hit up Elzix...

Now that's a good weapon. Good enough to last a long time. Pratham also gets a new poleaxe, and I pick up some jewelry with mana boosts.

In the next session, I find a set ring in the palace cellar - Cathan's Seal. Now I have both life and mana steal. The fights are a lot more routine now. My next major equipment upgrade is a runeword - Stealth in a set of superior chain mail, replacing the old Splint Mail of Warding. And at level 28, I reach Duriel.

He's usually easy when you're actually built for melee, but Atlas goes through five greater healing potions. And if you look closely, you can see the two scrolls of Town Portal amid the nothing-special drop. Come on - this is the quest drop. He shouldn't drop any TP scrolls in his quest drop, because Tyrael is there to open a portal for you.

Post split due to size limit.

jmerry · Sep 3, 2022

Second half of the post:

On to act 3, and it doesn't take long to reach a milestone.

Level 29. The first of the IK pieces is on.
Sszark drops Cathan's Visage - with the partial set bonus from the ring, that mask is actually fairly good. Then in the Flayer Jungle...

A great item ... but I'll have to give it up as soon as that XP bar fills. Which comes in the same area.

And at level 30, the second IK piece is on. Atlas invests in Battle Command and Natural Resistance in addition to another point in Battle Orders; Berserk and Whirlwind can wait.
The Lower Kurast waypoint is right by the entrance, and I take that as a stopping point. This round of gambling brings a life steal circlet for Pratham and a new rare amulet for Atlas. Atlas doesn't have many HP, but his other defenses are quite strong - resists all above 60% with Battle Command active, and the IK pieces have a lot of defense which then gets further boosted by Shout, Iron Skin, and Concentrate.

Then, in the Bazaar ...

Three parts. Now Atlas moves really fast. And has more life, defense, and attack rating.
Another good rare amulet drops at the tail end of Upper Kurast - prismatic resistance with extra lightning. Atlas is basically maxed all around now.
Finally, Mephisto. He's the easiest boss fight yet - Atlas just charges in and bashes.

Life steal and Prayer out-healed him. No potions needed.

Atlas starts act 4 at level 32. Izual falls at level 33, and that reward is used for Whirlwind and Berserk. Th Hellforge is particularly underwhelming with an Eld. Actually, everything is routine until Diablo himself. He is a serious threat. Lots of running around, lots of potions, multiple mercenary deaths. But I pull it out in the end.

His drop features two Berserker's Hatchets and The Centurion. Nothing I actually have a use for, though. Act complete at level 35.
A Sol rune dropped at some point in the act, and I use that to make a Lore helm. Cold resistance is a bit low now that I'm no longer using Cathan's mask, but the rest are maxed.

My old Havoc Mangler maul is looking a bit weak by now, so I shop at Larzuk's after killing Shenk. He's good for a Savage Great Maul, but I'd have to give up the mana steal for it ... so I still stick with the old weapon. Combat may be a bit slow, but it's still easy.
Atlas finally maxes out his resistances after rescuing Anya, with the aid of a new prismatic amulet (17 all instead of 11 all). Level 43 comes in the Frozen Tundra, and Battle Orders is maxed. The level 44 skill point goes to War Cry - a stun could be useful - and after that Mace Mastery is the priority. No skill other than Mace Mastery and Battle Orders has yet been invested in beyond one point.
In the Infernal Pit ...

Neat. An item I'm actually allowed to use, indefinitely. But the one I already have is better, so I won't.
There's no trouble with the regular monsters in Nihlathak's halls. Nihlathak himself lasts a long time, but his fall is inevitable.

From there, it's straight to the Ancients. No picture for them, and that's level 46.
Finally, on level 3 of the keep...

Level 47 reached. Four pieces of the set worn. The helmet is the set's weakest link, but we won't let that stop us.
I hit level 48 on Lister - I pulled those enemies out one or two at a time.
Finally, Baal. He's a long fight at players 8, but massive life steal keeps Atlas topped up. Actually, he's such a long fight that Battle Orders wears off at one point - that was an unpleasant surprise.

And so Normal difficulty is complete. Baal drops a Hotspur and a bunch of junk - a rare item there, only the second time I've found it in softcore.
One of those useless items is a double-durability blue Maul. So close...

And after all this time, Atlas is still using that "Havoc Mangler" rare maul. I'll have to do some more Baal runs to find a Nightmare-worthy weapon. Still, damage is one thing that comes easily to this build. All that strength does boost damage, after all.

O_Bruce · Sep 3, 2022

Mal the Summoning Druid vs the rest of the Nightmare difficulty

After thinking about it, I decided to Respec Mal to become a shapeshifter-summoner hybrid... only after some consideration, this hadn't worked out. As a result of investing skill points into Lycanthropy and Fury, my summons were not stronger, my character had less HP (from being Werewolf as opposed to Werebear), plus I was exposed to risk more. There would be a problem in hell difficulty regarding the loot - which melee characters are really dependent on. So, I respec Mal again, this time I also disregarded Ravens and and ~~returned to monke~~ the redistributed the saved skill points evenly among the summons. Which was a good decision - my overall DPS was greater than it was before.

Part of the respect also allowed me to invest some points into dexterity, enabling me to use Spirit Runeword in a Rune Sword (+2 to skills, 30 fcr, 55 fhr, vitality, mana). I also farmed the countess for two Stealth Runeword (fcr, fhr, movement speed, poision resist). Then I proceeded with beating Nightmare difficulty

Let's not beat around the bush. From my previous updates you know how safe the build is, so I'll just post some screenshots...

Nihlathak deserve some praise. He spawned with Cursed affix, which works wonders with his Corpse Explosion - this fight actually required some caution.

Baal also earned some words of praise - not only was he insisted on summoning his clone quite often, complicating the fight, he made Mal reposition his animal companions by re-summoning them often. I might add, that tactically re-positioning your summons is kinda fun in this build. You don't have that freedom with Necromancer. Anyways...

And this is how Mal became a Conqueror.

Stats [Hell Difficulty], skills, equipment info:

Mal also wore Lore Runeword in headgear (+1 skills, energy, lightning resistances), The Ward as shield (100% ed, +40 defense, +10% block chance, all res, +10 strength), Smoke Runeword in armor (enhanced defense, +50 to all res, some minor bonuses, Weakness charges) and Spirit in Rune Sword.

The mercenary uses Spirt in sword, Stealth armor, Lore heagear and Ancient Pledge in shield

O_Bruce · Sep 5, 2022

Mal, the Maiden of Anguish and the lootable Tomb:

The general playstyle hasn't changed in the Hell difficulty for Mal, aside from paying more attention to enemies' affixes and his own positioning in the middle of battle. Speaking of affixes, Coldcrow spawned with Cold Enhanced, Multiple Shots and Lightning Enchanted, making her a potentially dangerous enemy
[yes, this time I'm posting screenshots in spoilers. I am inconsistent about that and I'm sorry]

By the way, Mal was visiting the Cave because I decided to explore all act 1 areas to see how he and his army of pets fare. So, in Mausoleum Mal has found two interesting items:

When compared to the Lore runeword, Demon Visage gives Mal's pets a boost and provides some utility in form of Solar Creeper and Hurricane. It can also be made socket in. However, it trades Lightning Resistance, which is important and weakens the shapeshifting skills a bit due to the lack of skill points into that tree. Still, a good item.

The other item that was found was Kraken Shell with 2 sockets, ideal for making a better Smoke runeword in it. No screenshot provided, just to make sure I could actually include every important screenshot in this post

Then, Pets vs Zombies! Sounds like some mobile franchise

While exploring the Stone Field, Mal found +6 strength, 1-2 fire damage charm. Just noting that, since that gives Mal some room with regards of strength and equipment, which actually matters later. And in the Underground Passage, a double unique drop happened:

Too bad its nothing useful

Anyways, Treehead Woodfist, Griswold and all that Tristram jam:

Griswold spawned Cursed and Extra strong, which is a powerful combination. I think he was the first enemy on Hell difficulty that managed to kill my good boys

Another unique item dropped in the Forgotten Tower:

Lycander's Aim. A nice thing for Amazon and Rogue mercenaries

The Countess was nothing special. Will be farming her later for new Smoke runeword

And it did. Kraken Shell > Mesh Armor.

Will Will Smith smith Will Smith?

Yes, Will Smith will smith Will Smith

Found the skiller grand charm with +life!

And of course it was for accursed Paladin

Anyways, Andariel was quite strong in terms of killing wolves. Too bad for her I can just re-summon them again.

Too bad the loot wasn't anything good

Then, in my infinite wisdom, I decided to farm the Pit, until I realized now that I have the access to the beginning of Act II, then I have an access to the Stone Tomb, and level 85 area, which doesn't have any fire immune enemies. This made it a very convenient farming spot for Mal, as his mercenary deals AoE fire damage, and is using Enchant on the pets as well. So, Stone Tomb it is. While searching for it in for the first time outside of Lut Gholein, a high rune dropped!

Gul isn't that useful for me, but Gul is basically half of Vex. And if I had Vex, I'd probably farm for some more runes to get a legit Heart of the Oak in the hardcore playthrough. It would be glorious.

Once the Tomb is found (and it was also placed quite conveniently), farming has begun. I had two main goals: find a good Monarch shield that either had 4 sockets or it could be made in from Larzuk. Second, get to level 79 since that's the point my main summons will be maxed. So, some more notable loot:

Of course, the first unique I found is Herald of Zakarum for despicable Paladin. Next, there were some low-lewel uniques and sets. Then Ko rune. And then, Aldur's headgear. But without the rest of the set it is quite useless for Mal. And finally, Monarch!

I needed to farm the Countess for Ort rune, and eventually I get it. Behold, Spirit in Monarch:

Remember the part with the +6 to strength grand charm? It was its time to shine, along with some other equipment (like, alt rare gloves I had in my stash) that allowed me to wear the Spirit (instead of unique shield that gave me res and strength bonus) while still having enough strength to wear the Smoke runeword in Kraken Shell. Since Mal lost some fire resistance in the process of shifting gear, I made him back to Nightmare difficulty and have Larzuk make a socket into Demon Visage headgear. With Ral rune inserted into it, Mal's fire resistance was at 57%, which is decent-ish, given t that Mal isn't often exposed to direct fire damage - his good boys are doing their jobs just fine.

So, with level 79 achieved, Mal is now ready to conquer the rest of the Hell difficulty
[Stats and skill in separate post]

O_Bruce · Sep 5, 2022

So, Mal's stats and skills:

Now, while looking at damage from Dire Wolf and Grizzly, keep in mind the bonus from Heart of Wolverine, which is an additional +202% of damage. So, for simplification, you can triple the damage of Mal's pet. There is also a small bonus from mercenary's Enchant

Devak's (mercenary) stats and skills:

Enchant seems weak, but it does matter when facing enemies immune to physical damage. It also significatnly matters for Spirit Wolves, since they do Cold damage, and so aren't affected by damage bonus from Heart of Wolverine's aura. Devak's gear could use improvement: His Spirit Sword is fine, that's basically the best he can get. But, Vipermagi instead of Stealth runeword, unique Shako instead of Lore and Splendor/Lidless Wall/Spirit instead of Ancient's Pledge would be better. Spirit Monarch would require to be made in ethereal item and with Vipermagi being socketed with strength jewel/gem. It could be worth it, though.

jmerry · Sep 7, 2022

A quick interstitial update: I've been doing Diablo runs with Cythandria - well, full clears of everything from the River of Flame waypoint to the act boss - and she's now level 90. She has also found a lot of new stuff. Including this:

I had one of those in softcore. Now I have one in hardcore as well. Happy birthday to me.
Over those 48 runs, plus one tour of a bunch of level 84 and 85 areas, here's the list of new (to my HC collection) items found:

Athena's Wrath, Lightsabre, Humongous, Immortal King's Forge, The Rising Sun, Stormchaser, Blackhand Key, Viperfork, ethereal The General's Tan Do Li Ga, Shadow Killer, Corpsemourn, Woestave, Natalya's Shadow, Razor's Edge, Bloodtree Stump, Gheed's Fortune, Brainhew, Langer Briser, Mara's Kaleidoscope, Homunculus, Spirit Keeper

Emilio also got a better weapon, with a new Insight in an ethereal Cryptic Axe.

Atlas also did some runs - normal Baal, in his case. The objective was to find a Nightmare-worthy weapon, and he did so on the fourteenth run:

I'll give it a socket with a perfect skull and pair it with an Ancient's Pledge. That covers Nightmare damage, mana steal, and resistances.

Antimatter · Sep 9, 2022

Mara completed Act 1 Nightmare.

She created a new runeword (enabled in D2R) Pattern for her katar (that's a very nice & simple runeword for this stage of the game, made killing faster), and also has Blade of Ali Baba and Rhyme shield as a secondary weapon set for last seconds of bosses (with Cannot Be Frozen and Better Chance to Find Magic Items).

The video below shows the fight vs Andariel (where Mara allowed her mercenary to die quickly and basically fought alone, very non-optimized, but still never in danger). You can see Mara's stats & items after Andariel dies. With the setup she has now, Mara is basically ready for the whole Nightmare difficulty already, so she'll just try to find a fun balance between grinding Nightmare bosses and completing this difficulty level.

Mara has 6 perks put into Fists of Fire and 5 - in Claws of Thunder (that's not optimal, but allows her to kill any enemy as Mara can choose between Fire/Lightning damage at will).

O_Bruce · Sep 9, 2022

That's a nice update, will be waiting for moar!

It is also totally understandable to go for different damage types in solo single player play - immunities and all that

jmerry · Sep 14, 2022

I've gone Phoenix Strike myself a few times, and always enjoyed it. Even way back when I was playing with a one-button mouse. 1.10 hurt it a bit with synergies, as the skill got rather unwieldy synergies to each of its elements individually, and thus didn't really keep up with other options. It's still plenty good enough to clear the game, though.

Anyway, my own Hardcore project has moved on to a new character. This time, a Barbarian. I want a tanky build, so I looked at my one-handed weapons ... and decided the best option was to go swords, making a new Oath. Jassar will be a sword/shield whirler, at least when he's not using Concentrate.

Naturally, I started by making that Oath.

Not a very good roll on the damage, but it'll do. And because I want to use that as soon as possible, most of my stat points will be going into strength and dexterity.

Unlike my other barbarian, though, Jassar gets lots of good stuff. 3-piece Sigon's. A rare belt with lightning and poison resistance. Complete Angelic set, with double rings. Tarnhelm. It's all the toughness he needs to just breeze through everything, though the damage is a bit low; I supplement that with charms. And when you're running at players 8 with over 200 MF and using Find Item, you pick up a lot of stuff. Like this first unique of the run:

Nothing too special there, but Alhizeer can use it for now.

I end up spending a lot of time with Taunt on the right-click. It's just such a useful spell, telling enemies to stop doing annoying things and come over where I can kill them. Except with the pygmy shamans in act 3; I think their AI is bugged. They spend most of their time running around not doing anything, and keep running around like that even when Taunted.

At level 30 (in act 3), I finally get rid of that Angelic Sickle. With Natural Resistance now, I don't need the full set resistance bonus anymore. The replacement is a Bloodletter, at least until level 37 when I upgrade that to Ginther's Rift. Then later on in act 5, I swap out some armor pieces - first Arreat's Face, rare gloves (20% IAS, MF and GF), and War Traveler, then Gerke's Sanctuary. The weapon switch is dual Spirit Swords, to be used for warcry buffs and Find Item.

No enemies cause trouble during any of this. Mephisto can't even scratch him. Diablo's lightning attack is weaker than my life stealing. Nihlathak can deal damage, but only just. And Baal can only slow him and drain mana. Jassar becomes a Destroyer at level 48.

Then I come back for one more session. Head down into the Worldstone Keep to reach level 49...

There. Jassar has a Hell-worthy weapon. Also, one other switch - I'm now using Gloom's Trap in the belt slot for mana steal. Jassar is set for Nightmare; 44% resist all from Natural Resistance, 30% from Arreat's Face, 10% from the Anya quest, and 41% from Gerke's Sanctuary with a perfect diamond. That's 125% total, or 85% resist all with the Nightmare penalty. I can afford to keep using the Angelic pieces all through the difficulty.
That session finishes by clearing out the cows and then hitting Baal again. Jassar will enter Nightmare at level 50.

Of the many set and unique items I found, a few of them were new to my HC collection. I've picked up a lot of stuff already in this project, but there's still room for new finds even in normal difficulty. New items found: Stormguild, Blood Crescent, The Gnasher, Arcanna's Flesh, Death's Hand.

Antimatter · Sep 19, 2022

53 minutes of Diablo IV leaked beta gameplay footage:

mp4: Diablo-IV-Gameplay-Video-1-2_h264-xx3SwWob.mp4 and 1 other file

Visit this link to play the video: Diablo-IV-Gameplay-Video-1-2_h264-xx3SwWob.mp4 and 1 other file

files.fm

And here is an Imgur gallery showing all the gameplay elements leaked in those videos.

O_Bruce · Sep 19, 2022

My dear @Antimatter , this looks like pre-alpha/alpha footage, with placeholder names, untextured elements, voice placeholder for NPC etc. I 99% doubt its is showing content meant for beta tests.

mlnevese · Sep 19, 2022

I really like that the release date for Diablo IV is simply 2023. Better than announce a date and keeping changing it or rushing the game for release in a set date.

alice_ashpool · Sep 19, 2022

Thoughts on the new immunity sundering charms in PTR?

O_Bruce · Sep 19, 2022

alice_ashpool said:
Thoughts on the new immunity sundering charms in PTR?

For now, they are ladder-only, since they can drop only in Terrorized Areas, which are tied to online play as for now. Then might be implemented offline later, but "might" is the operative word here.

The charms are a good idea, but they are introducing some problems. They don't work on your summons/hydras/traps, so builds that are using those are devalued. They are super good with -res modifiers on gear (which then again, don't work on summons/hydras/traps), Lower Resist and Infinity Runeword (which makes, once again, mercenaries that aren't act 2 dudes not viable in the endgame in most cases) super good. When using LR or Infinity with sundered charm, the enemies you couldn't damage before become very easy to defeat. Let me provide you with an example.

Cold sorceress has the sundered grand charm and mercenary with Infinity runeword in hand. The charm decreases the cold immunities of monsters to 90%, regardless if they had 100% resistance or 180% - doesn't matter. The Infinity runeword wielded by the mercenary decreases the resistance by an additonal 85%, which gives previously completely immune enemy 5% resistance. That's for the most builds. But if you add -enemy res affix, or in the case of Cold sorceress her Cold Mastery, previously immune enemies can have negative resistance. Cold Sorceress could have -100% resistance on the enemies. Even against those who previously were unaffected by Infinity. That's crazy.

On the other hand, the charms have an interesting drawback in form of lowering player's resistance to particular element, which will affect how characters are geared up. This also gives a mixed-element builds some small advantage, in that due to dealing multi-type damage, they don't have to worry about immunities so much and therefore would not wear sundered charms.

Antimatter · Sep 19, 2022

O_Bruce said:
My dear @Antimatter , this looks like pre-alpha/alpha footage, with placeholder names, untextured elements, voice placeholder for NPC etc. I 99% doubt its is showing content meant for beta tests.

Here is the official beta announcement:

O_Bruce · Sep 19, 2022

Interesting. Since closed beta content is under NDA and there are months until open beta... I think the leaked gameplay with be from the closed beta after all... In which case, things like unfinished textures and placeholders are undertandable-ish

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