All Diablo2 Talk here.........

And come to think of it, your son’s druid is probably better off with that Bonesnap you found the other night. I had completely forgotten that druids like mauls.

Only catch on the Bloodletter is that required level is 30, so it might be a while before your barb can use it. But that’s OK. And I think that the IK helm is the most common piece of that set, so don’t get too excited, but it is nice.

As far as runewords go, one of my dream items is a Memory staff with a natural plus to teleport and some ice armor or another. That way, I’ll be able to put all of my useful non-fire skills on my weapon switch, without having to waste any points on them. But it seems unnaturally hard to find four-socket staves… Drognan never seems to have any, even though he carries Gnarled and Battle staves.

Evil Death, I’m not sure I see what you’re saying about the Angelic set. You’re filling two weapon slots, all your jewelry, and your body armor just to get 140% magic find? You could easily get 96% on the armor alone from four topazes, plus whatever you’ve got from jewelry and weapons. And I’m not sure why you’d want to use two angelic sickles… Even with the set boni, the damage is still pathetic, and you could get set boni just as easily from having one sickle and one of something else. For that matter, I’m not seeing any life steal on the Angelic set, either… Are you maybe thinking of Cathan’s? Indeed, Cathan’s ring isn’t too shabby, early on before you see the better life steal prefices.

I’ve been noticing that the drops in 1.10 are way better than I ever got before. My girlfriend and I have a handful of mules, several complete sets, but nothing that could really be considered “uber”.

Of course, the highest level characters we currently have are 70 and 71, and we can’t really get much farther than the Underground Passage on Hell difficulty, because the characters “grew up” playing 1.08 and 1.09; their equipment shows. We’re currently going back and re-running chunks of the game in Nightmare/Players 8 to get better items and to level up our mercs (in 1.08 and 1.09, our Amazons from the early game were enough; in 1.10, they couldn’t tank for us, and we’re both ranged characters).

I’ve actually muled away my crafted Caster Armor (sob!) because I found Goldskin. I was hoping to use the Shael + Tal + Diamond recipe to upgrade it, but I think its requirements will exceed my sorceress’ strength (currently around 110).

So off to my question: I’ve got Treads of Cthon (+30% Faster R/W) and two 5% charms, but I can’t keep up with my girlfriend’s Amazon, whose boots give her +40. Is the weight of my armor or the wind drag from my tower shield actually slowing me down?

I don’t know that any of the armor drags you down, but the Tower Shield is the only one that will slow you down. It eats up Stamina and speed. Go with a gothic instead if you can.

I checked DiabloII.Net and saw the weight difference (Heavy vs. Medium) but couldn’t find any hard data on how much I’m being slowed down. I’m currently using RalOrtTal (but may switch to 3x Perf. Diamonds for the resistances, soon!).

Anyone got any other ideas for what a 70th-level sorceress should be carrying into battle when she starts Hell difficulty?

BTW, I checked about the armor thing, and it looks like armor can eat up stamina, but doesn’t reduce your top speed. I don’t know how realistic that is, but I’m glad it’s so.

I’ve been thinking of starting up a summoning necro, so if you’re handing out free equipment… :smiley:

I don’t have numbers to say specifically what the speed penalties are, but I can say with absolute certainty that you’ll go slower with heavy or medium than light. Same with a shield I believe. I don’t know if weapon/helm/boots/gloves/belt make a difference.

Jurph, you want ideal gear, ideal ladder gear or just damn useful gear suggestions? Ideal would be either … rhyme, mosers, stormshield, lidless, depending on your other gear and your build. Really anything with dmg redux, solid resists, +skills or FCR is what you’re looking for. If you don’t have at least a +2 sorc orb, I’d find one right quick, because you will need massive +skills. You’ll want at least 500-600 life (at least), and depending on your build probably over 700 mana. And resists … hehehe. My barb has lvl 11 or so nat res, anya in all 3 difficulties, duriel’s shell and several nice items and still only has cold resistance maxed. Lightning is around 60. if i used a shield on him that’d be easy enough to fix, but I prefer dual-wielding when possible.

Didn’t say this was easy. There’s a reason 1.10 is designed for party play. With a barbarian in your party (I’ve been working on one who’s now lvl 85) you’ll get a LOT more life … I go from about 1260 to over 2600 with BO.

I have a +2 skills necro coronet (lvl 67 req) and a +2 druid skills coronet (lvl 67 req) for people. I’ll trade anyone the coronets for one imbue quest each (with stipulations. I don’t really want to imbue a col blade with a lvl 8 imbue:D). And I’m saving coronets and tiaras for imbues if anyone wants to use them.

Not at level 18, you can’t. I’m also playing SP, as I’ve only said a couple dozen times before - I don’t get to trade with other players.

**

No, I was misremembering replenish life, which is +6 on the Angelic ring. I haven’t played the character in a bit.

One of the more frustrating (and innovative and wonderful) things about Diablo II is that it is, especially in 1.10, very difficult to win on your own. The synergies between classes are nice, but the real benefit comes from multiple players being able to trade items around. I have two good friends whom I host on my LAN occasionally, which allows us to mule everything we’ve found when playing alone, and to then go out with our combined power and really clean out the place. All the same, the magical uber Unique items that people talk about – “Oh, you need to get one of those before you can really do anything useful in Hell” – I don’t think I’ve seen any of them. The highest runes I’ve ever seen are ‘Io’ and ‘Ko’.

I’m holding out a little hope, because uniques, sets, and rares seem to be dropping more often (about three uniques or set items in a two-hour session) and the rares are way up, too. I’ve got a “Rhyme” shield on my weapon switch. The one thing my Sorceress has going for her is that her switch is an Ali Baba (no Ist runes in it… yet!) with Rhyme, and a nice set of backup gear with Magic Find. Every few days I go out into Kurast and clean the place out on players 8 with my “whoring” (beg your pardon) gear on.

Jurph, you should have seen the clearing house laid out last night. There were so many things littering the ground it was almost impossible to click to walk somewhere without picking something up by accident!

Punha has more mules…

I killed the Countess in NM last night with my pally and it was the worst freaking rune drop. I got a better drop off the devilkin in the room before I fought her. I got an el, and some other really low level rune. Thats pretty much the drop I got off her in normal. I feel cheated!

Jurph, there is a speed penalty for wearing heavier gear - the penalties are -10% stamina drain and run speed for heavy armor, and I think it’s -5% stamina drain and run speed for medium armor.

I don’t want to hear about crap drops. My Barb killed Duriel yesterday for the first time and I got a scroll of TP. That’s right. One. Not even gold. Ugh…nasty slug thing. I may just go back and kill him again for giving me the crappy drop. Bastard.

Wandering Agnostic killed Duriel once and got nothing.

Not a TP scroll.

Not bolts.

Not even a lousy eth cracked sash.

Nothing.

By contrast, today (by which I mean roughly noon yesterday to just now)'s Countess runs produced the treasures of the fountain of youth.

Let’s just say I’ll be getting my transmute on, and Fenris, we got those runes for King’s Grace allllll ready.

Aww yeah.

Dunno how much I’ll be on today (Sunday). Having gotten Io, Hel, a few Dols, Amn and several lower-level runes from NM countess, and rather liking the fact that I can get a run done in under 5 minutes (which means I cast BC/BO once), I’m not sure I really want to try many Hell runs. I can do it … it’s not a matter of that. It’s a matter of speed and drop differences. Is there anyone who can test out drop differences in NM vs. Hell? If the difference is substantial (i.e. averaging a Thul per run rather than an Ith), I’ll happily switch to Hell runs (and stock up on chipped topaz).

Can’t say for sure, but Duriel’s dropped a TP scroll in 1.10 every time I’ve killed him. And yes, I’ve had nothing else from the fat fucker as well. So much for “enhanced drops on the first kill”.

:smiley:

And I got a few goodies for you. Including a couple of uniques I’ve NEVER seen (even though I hang out with you).

Plus a ton of runes and gems.

AND whoever said that MF doesn’t affect the countess? Bullshit. It may not affect what runes she drops, but I’ve gotten some GOOD uniques from her, and my MF is only around 100.

BTW: What is a “piercing attack”? I found a unique belt that gives it to me and I seem to be kicking ass and taking names. Can someone link to a specifc page[sup]1[/sup] that tells what the various attacks (piericng, crushing blow, open wounds, etc) actually mean in game terms? I can’t find one

BTW2: Pun, the way we’ve equipt me, I’m safer in the MIDDLE of a melee than at the edge: I leech so damn much that if I’m hitting anything (except skeletons. I hate skeletons!) I’ll gain back more than they take, but if I’m at the fringes of the battle, I could be damaged. The ultimate tank? :wink:

BTW3: Having played in a bunch of open games just to up my levels, I really appreciate playing with all o’ youse Dopers. (“LOloloLol Ur zon haz a fukning hottie c*nt tht my barb will rape till it bleedz biyatch. Lololol”.[sup]2[/sup]) Clearly, I was playing with the Noel Coward of the Diablo set. :rolleyes: :wink:

Fenris

[sup]1[/sup]A specific URL if you have one please, not just a recommendation to try D2.net–I cannot figure how that damn site is laid out. Thx

[sup]2[/sup]As far as I can tell, this translates into “I say, your character’s portrait is enchanting! I’m quite taken with her and, were she real, I’d certainly pay court!”

Right, then.

Piercing: as far as I can tell this applies only to ranged attacks[sup]1[/sup], and it means the arrow/javelin/whatever will, upon hitting its target (which isn’t a guarantee), hit that target and go through to find another, perhaps. Especially valuable if you’re an amazon using MS, strafe, freezing arrow, etc. Razortail is famous for doing this, but not as famous as the Buriza, whose cold dmg, insane overall dmg and “pierces target” made it the weapon of choice for almost every mf zon. I was able to take my burizon to level 97 using it.

Open wounds: this transforms monsters into hemophiliacs, for lack of a better description. Not only can’t they heal while they have open wounds, they lose health without you hitting them. I had this on both my swords (and my belt, IIRC) early on and I didn’t suffer from popping dolls because I hit them once or twice and they bled and died peacefully.

Crushing blow: this is the chance to take a certain percent of a monster’s life with one hit.

Deadly strike: same as critical strike. It’s the chance to do double physical damage.

Now. Munch, you’ve got two chars in their 70s. I have my barb, who can tank well enough for the most part (thorns is and always will be the bane of my existence), and Fenris is coming up with creative ways of surviving in NM Baal runs.

This means, of course, that we’re ready to rush for items (drops, countess, forge are the main ones). I’m hoping to make Lionheart and Kingslayer within the next week or so.

And Fenris, you missed the most obvious benefit of playing with dopers.

You can SEE the drop at least one microsecond after the boss is killed. I can count on ONE HAND the number of items I’ve gotten from Baal’s NM and Hell drops. Hell, it’s getting to where if a rune above El drops, there’s a mad dash to get it (judging by my collection, I seem to be doing ok at getting 'em).

[sup]1[/sup]Or I could be wrong. I have never played with a Razortail on a melee char. I don’t imagine how you’d go through one target and into another with a melee attack, though … and the visual that gives me is less than appetizing. “I hit you, reach through your body and hit that other guy, then withdraw my arm and hit you again, then…” anyone? Gah, your gaunts would be covered in blood.

Open wounds actually is affected only by the clevel I seem to remember. I read on one of the Battle.net sites that there was a formula as to how long the monster bled and how much life it lost per second as a function of clevel.

You were talking about public games and people stealing items, right? I think that we Dopers are pretty good at sharing…

See y’all on the net.

**
Heh. I was playing with (what was obviously) a group of friends (“hey, do you want that?”/“Nah, thanks, but I got somethin’ for Bill when he shows up”). They were trying to level up someone so the game was open (the someone was in the low '50s)

Anyway, there are some high level characters (80s) and we’re in the throne room. I don’t get there quite in time to handle the first wave of imp-things. The second wave is the (goddamned sumbitch) skeletons* Anyway, I cower behind a pillar from the (gawddamned) skeletons. Then the next wave hits (council members) and I start going through them like prunes through a grandmother. Heh. Then the Venom lords. THEN the Minions. We’re down to beating on Llister like a red-headed stepchild and one of the high level types says “Dude, you’re only 69. How the fuck r u surviving?”. I awed a Diablo-junkie dood. Thanks Pun and Who_me! :smiley:

Dibbies on the second set of them! :smiley:

**
Heh. I just stopped attacking baal–when he’s slivered, I just get ready to click the ground. I got that tomahawk I showed you and a couple of yellow items. I thought I was just slow.

All I can say is that I seem to be doing shitloads more damage with it than without it. (I use Zeal as my left-handed attack at all times. Could it be working with that? “Passing through” an attacked opponent to hit a second one but only counting as one zeal attack, giving me more bang for my buck?)

Fenris

*I gotta do something about skeletons. I can take on Lister the tormentor one on one, in NM, but ONE fucking oblivion knight can kill me in three hits (life-leech is my friend). Is there a shield with Prot. from undead? A rune? (I have the pally aura that fries Undead, but it’s not enough…unless i dump a ton of points into it. Hmmm…

I think that we’re just smart enough to be enlightened in our greed. If I see a Darksight Helm drop, I know that that’s better than what my sorc is currently wearing. But I also know that it’d do my sorc more good sitting on Yeti’s amazon’s head than on her own. Ditto for life steal and enhanced damage items, and were I not running with an Amazon, I’d have nothing better to do with bows and javelins than to sell them.

And we’ve still yet to figure out who the third West doper is. One would presume, from the fact that he or she is making sdmb/cecil games that he or she wants to meet other Dopers online, but said Doper would do well to turn off level restrictions on the game and make an appearance in this thread.

Oh, and Fenris, about halfway down the page, “Special magical effects”. It also covers freezes target, slows target, absorb, and a few others (all things which can appear on uniques but not on magic or rare). diabloii.net seems to go into more detail usually, but I agree that it’s a bit hard to navigate, and much of the information seems to be hidden in the forum, which you have to register to even read.

Yep, that’s kinda why I gave Puhna the Duriel Shell. That and I owe him a few. :cool: