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Diablo
I'm still playing Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction. Lately I've been working two sorceresses, one Fire/Lightning, the other almost all Cold (except for a very effective level 13 Static Field).
I find the characters most interesting in the level 24-30 range. That's because at level 24 you get access to the next-to-last level of spells, and at 30 you get the final round of spells. If you've got decent skill-bonus items, you can get a big surge of power when you hit those new spell levels.
The best thing about playing a sorceress is the speed of play; you can really move fast, thanks to the teleport spell. And that is a great way out of the waypoint trap.
Should I bother to explain that? Diablo players will already know about it, and those who don't play won't care. Basically, you can end up sort of stuck in a game; if you don't find the next waypoint before you have to start playing, you can find yourself having to re-play an hour or even two hours of combat to find the waypoint the next time.
Anyway, I zapped around the various areas at high speed, starting with runs along the borders - framing the entire areas - and then additional runs to fill in my map along the centers of the areas. Theoretically there was a danger that I could teleport into the middle of a huge cluster of monsters (which I did, several times), get hit, stunlocked, and killed...but I have a pretty fast hit recovery, and the monsters themselves took a distinct fraction of a second to react when I teleported in. So I never really had a problem.
One thing I noticed was that it was smart to take the time to do a little monster-clearing at certain points. For example, on outdoor areas in Act 5, which are long and rectangular: I'd clear out the short side of the rectangle on the starting side, teleport up one long side, and clear out the monsters on the far end short side too. That way, I knew I had a safe final destination.
Although there were enough quiet spots along the way that I could aways recover and take a mana potion when necessary.
For underground areas, I once again defined the perimeters first. That had the added bonus of helping me find the waypoints and exits quickly, because unlike in the open areas, they tend to be located on the edges.
My Fire/Lightning sorceress is level 31 or 32 now. I've finished all of the quests except Baal, and have all of the waypoints. She's ready for Baal runs and will quickly level to 55 or so. She's wearing gear which gives her +4 to all Fire skills, which is quite handy.
I got the Cold sorc to level 30 last night. She still has to finish the Ancients quest, and to get the final waypoint. She's wearing gear that gives +1 to all Cold skills and +1 to all skills, for a total of +2 to all Cold skills; not great, but helpful. She definitely needs better equipment, though.
As I said before, she has a level 13 static field; that's a wonderful spell when you're in a group. You can affect almost every enemy on the screen, and each casting of the spell reduces ALL enemy hit points by 1/4 of the current total. So the spell itself can't kill them...but you can reduce almost every enemy to a point where they're incredibly easy to kill. Unlike some other spells, Static Field isn't on a timer, so you can cast it as quickly as you can click, over and over.
Even in solo play, it's quite effective. I've got an Act I hireling, a rogue with a socketed bow with +175 in poison damage and +10-14 cold; she can take out a huge number of weakened enemies with great speed. I was actually able to kill Diablo solo without dying once, although my hireling died a couple of times in the process.
Recently I accidentally left a game open with my Fire sorc that I'd thought I had password-protected. Someone popped in, and rather than leaving the game, I decided to give them a hand. So I helped them get all the waypoints. It was kind of fun.
I find the characters most interesting in the level 24-30 range. That's because at level 24 you get access to the next-to-last level of spells, and at 30 you get the final round of spells. If you've got decent skill-bonus items, you can get a big surge of power when you hit those new spell levels.
The best thing about playing a sorceress is the speed of play; you can really move fast, thanks to the teleport spell. And that is a great way out of the waypoint trap.
Should I bother to explain that? Diablo players will already know about it, and those who don't play won't care. Basically, you can end up sort of stuck in a game; if you don't find the next waypoint before you have to start playing, you can find yourself having to re-play an hour or even two hours of combat to find the waypoint the next time.
Anyway, I zapped around the various areas at high speed, starting with runs along the borders - framing the entire areas - and then additional runs to fill in my map along the centers of the areas. Theoretically there was a danger that I could teleport into the middle of a huge cluster of monsters (which I did, several times), get hit, stunlocked, and killed...but I have a pretty fast hit recovery, and the monsters themselves took a distinct fraction of a second to react when I teleported in. So I never really had a problem.
One thing I noticed was that it was smart to take the time to do a little monster-clearing at certain points. For example, on outdoor areas in Act 5, which are long and rectangular: I'd clear out the short side of the rectangle on the starting side, teleport up one long side, and clear out the monsters on the far end short side too. That way, I knew I had a safe final destination.
Although there were enough quiet spots along the way that I could aways recover and take a mana potion when necessary.
For underground areas, I once again defined the perimeters first. That had the added bonus of helping me find the waypoints and exits quickly, because unlike in the open areas, they tend to be located on the edges.
My Fire/Lightning sorceress is level 31 or 32 now. I've finished all of the quests except Baal, and have all of the waypoints. She's ready for Baal runs and will quickly level to 55 or so. She's wearing gear which gives her +4 to all Fire skills, which is quite handy.
I got the Cold sorc to level 30 last night. She still has to finish the Ancients quest, and to get the final waypoint. She's wearing gear that gives +1 to all Cold skills and +1 to all skills, for a total of +2 to all Cold skills; not great, but helpful. She definitely needs better equipment, though.
As I said before, she has a level 13 static field; that's a wonderful spell when you're in a group. You can affect almost every enemy on the screen, and each casting of the spell reduces ALL enemy hit points by 1/4 of the current total. So the spell itself can't kill them...but you can reduce almost every enemy to a point where they're incredibly easy to kill. Unlike some other spells, Static Field isn't on a timer, so you can cast it as quickly as you can click, over and over.
Even in solo play, it's quite effective. I've got an Act I hireling, a rogue with a socketed bow with +175 in poison damage and +10-14 cold; she can take out a huge number of weakened enemies with great speed. I was actually able to kill Diablo solo without dying once, although my hireling died a couple of times in the process.
Recently I accidentally left a game open with my Fire sorc that I'd thought I had password-protected. Someone popped in, and rather than leaving the game, I decided to give them a hand. So I helped them get all the waypoints. It was kind of fun.
no subject
And here, I thought this would be an entry about our president, "el diablo."
;-)
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All my characters are hardcore. Right now I have Kyroal, a 18th level Paladin, and Ti-Raja, a 12th level Barbarian. Both of them are still in Act I. I don't worry too much about getting waypoints, because I usually like to play through an area several times. The idea is to get as much XP in a area as possible, to avoid the risk of dying (which has more consequences in hardcore). I've never gotten past Act II in hardcore... I did finish Baal with one non-hardcore character, an Amazon, but then I didn't log in for a while and I lost her.
Kiralee
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