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Diablo: Cronan's Journey
The adventures of Cronan the Barbarian continue.
I've noticed that there's a sort of balance in Diablo (and most games of that sort) that determines whether or not I'm having fun. Basically, if I'm stuck in an area and can't do anything about it, it's not fun. What's fun is if I have a slight edge, enough so that I can effectively fight the enemies without it being so easy that it's boring. Right now, Cronan is in that good place.
Whirlwind turns out to be a pretty useful spell, actually. More useful still is the "Battle Command" warcry. It boosts all skills, for Cronan and his hirelings and friends, by one for 16 seconds. I've rearranged my hot buttons to trigger Battle Commands, then Shout (which increases defense), and then whatever is appropriate. It's a very effective combination.
Here's Cronan without any of his warcries up:
And here he is with Battle Command, Shout, and Battle Orders (which increases Life, Mana, and Stamina):
As you can see, he's level 34 and doing pretty well. I raced through the Frigid Highlands on Sunday night. Didn't care for them, because those fire-shooting imps are annoying for a primarily melee character - Cronan has a couple of throwing axes and can double-throw very effectively, but it's anathema to his style. Likewise the Arreat Plateau was annoying, so I got through it as quickly as I could. Too quickly, I guess, because I missed the waypoint! So I had to go back and search carefully to find it.
Which kind of leads me to one of the annoying things about Diablo 2: getting stuck. Since the game doesn't let you save, but rather saves the general "state" when you quit, and repopulates the monsters when you come back, it can really leave you in trouble. For example, last night. I'd cleared most of the Plateau, but hadn't found the waypoint. If I'd quit at that point, when I re-started the game I'd have had to start all the way back at the Frigid Highlands waypoint, work my way through ALL of the Highlands, and then through all of the Arreat Plateau (side note: "Arreat", the world mountain, sounds a lot like "Ararat", the mountain in historical Armenia which is the biblical landing place of Noah's Ark. Coincidence?).
So there are times when I need to pause the game and leave it running until I can come back, because if I shut down I'll have to spend as many as two or three hours getting back to where I was the next time I play. The alternative is to simply keep playing until I find a waypoint, which isn't always possible. Leaving the computer on for hours while I'm elsewhere is wasteful and bad for the machine, but at the same time I hate feeling like I'm trapped at the keyboard. Generally it's all annoying.
But in this case I managed to find the Plateau waypoint, and then decided to enter the Crystalline Passage (I'd already cleared the Plateau, after all), and see if I could find that waypoint as well. At least if I couldn't I wouldn't feel so bad, since I'd only have to fight through half the Plateau to reach the Passage again.
Luck was with me this time. The monsters of the Passage were much easier for Cronan to take in melee; even the curses of the succibi didn't seem to have much effect, and before I knew it I'd found the Crystalline Passage waypoint. I was glad to shut down and get some sleep.
I've noticed that there's a sort of balance in Diablo (and most games of that sort) that determines whether or not I'm having fun. Basically, if I'm stuck in an area and can't do anything about it, it's not fun. What's fun is if I have a slight edge, enough so that I can effectively fight the enemies without it being so easy that it's boring. Right now, Cronan is in that good place.
Whirlwind turns out to be a pretty useful spell, actually. More useful still is the "Battle Command" warcry. It boosts all skills, for Cronan and his hirelings and friends, by one for 16 seconds. I've rearranged my hot buttons to trigger Battle Commands, then Shout (which increases defense), and then whatever is appropriate. It's a very effective combination.
Here's Cronan without any of his warcries up:
And here he is with Battle Command, Shout, and Battle Orders (which increases Life, Mana, and Stamina):
As you can see, he's level 34 and doing pretty well. I raced through the Frigid Highlands on Sunday night. Didn't care for them, because those fire-shooting imps are annoying for a primarily melee character - Cronan has a couple of throwing axes and can double-throw very effectively, but it's anathema to his style. Likewise the Arreat Plateau was annoying, so I got through it as quickly as I could. Too quickly, I guess, because I missed the waypoint! So I had to go back and search carefully to find it.
Which kind of leads me to one of the annoying things about Diablo 2: getting stuck. Since the game doesn't let you save, but rather saves the general "state" when you quit, and repopulates the monsters when you come back, it can really leave you in trouble. For example, last night. I'd cleared most of the Plateau, but hadn't found the waypoint. If I'd quit at that point, when I re-started the game I'd have had to start all the way back at the Frigid Highlands waypoint, work my way through ALL of the Highlands, and then through all of the Arreat Plateau (side note: "Arreat", the world mountain, sounds a lot like "Ararat", the mountain in historical Armenia which is the biblical landing place of Noah's Ark. Coincidence?).
So there are times when I need to pause the game and leave it running until I can come back, because if I shut down I'll have to spend as many as two or three hours getting back to where I was the next time I play. The alternative is to simply keep playing until I find a waypoint, which isn't always possible. Leaving the computer on for hours while I'm elsewhere is wasteful and bad for the machine, but at the same time I hate feeling like I'm trapped at the keyboard. Generally it's all annoying.
But in this case I managed to find the Plateau waypoint, and then decided to enter the Crystalline Passage (I'd already cleared the Plateau, after all), and see if I could find that waypoint as well. At least if I couldn't I wouldn't feel so bad, since I'd only have to fight through half the Plateau to reach the Passage again.
Luck was with me this time. The monsters of the Passage were much easier for Cronan to take in melee; even the curses of the succibi didn't seem to have much effect, and before I knew it I'd found the Crystalline Passage waypoint. I was glad to shut down and get some sleep.