I was wondering if I was the only one having disconnect problems (I’m new here, don’t hurt me).
I’m on a college wireless network, which sometimes isn’t as reliable as I’d like it to be. Last night though, I wasn’t having a problem with anything but Diablo II. I’d play in a game for 5-10 minutes only to have it freeze and the lovely “Connection Interrupted” screen pop up. Grr.
I haven’t logged back in to see how much I lost, but I know during the last game my new Druid gained two levels, so I may have to re-earn those. Nothing as bad as losing a Gull though. That really sucks, Maeglin.
Same thing happens to us on the West…3, 4, 5 even 6 times a night, not counting the physical mem dump my computer takes…I think I need to upgrade my RAM from 256 to 512 to solve that problem…what is everyone else’s RAM?
I don’t play realms, but the game is remarkably forgiving of players with less RAM. I host a three-player game with 512 of PC2100 and the other two players are able to join and play with 256M of PC133 (no lag) and 128M of PC100 (occasional lag). My processor is 1.9GHz, and the other two players are using 1GHz CPUs. One of my favorite things about DII is how kind the game is to players with lower system specs.
Oh, and not that I’m looking for a pat on the back, but I’m managing to plow through about one waypoint a night on Hell difficulty. My cold sorceress and my girlfriend’s Amazon are (slowly) punching through the critters and getting better loot every day. It’s the farthest I’ve ever been in the game, and it’s getting harder than it’s ever been before! Last night while fighting a small pack of cold-immune rogues in the Tamoe Highland, we accidentally caught the eye of a Fanaticism-enchanted extra-fast boss pack of rogues. Things went to hell in a handbasket REAL fast.
Communication (we play on a LAN in the same room) is becoming key, like “three cold immunes, your 2 o’clock” or “large pack of Fallen at three; I’ll get the shaman” and of course “watch your merc’s lifebar”.
I’m getting pretty scared of the eventual fight with Andariel, but the new antidote potions (+85% to your poison resist for ~30 seconds) may be the key, especially since you can toss one to your merc before he goes down swinging.
My barbarian merc is great, really–I love him to death–but he costs me 40k to resurrect, and I think he loses a few brain cells every time he dies. And he didn’t start with very many to begin with.
I’m playing on a 800MHz laptop with 128MB. Sad, isn’t it?
Surprisingly, I usually don’t have a problem with it at all, aside from the connection losses.
My younger sister just found a Diablo II BattleChest for $10 and is really getting into it. She’s getting pretty good with her Amazon and the big pointy hurty stick.
As for RAM, I’ve got 640 (2 256’s and a 128) and no MDSL, it wasn’t me with the sword. I’m logging back on in a minute and if I find anything decent that I can’t use, I’ll post it here.
As for the eyeless, I have two characters who could use it, but none that really need it at the moment. I’m sure someone else could use it more.
Anyway, Who_Me, once we can stay connected, if you can rush me a while, I’m pretty good against fire immunes if you can keep undead and poison types off my back!
Yup. And stamina potions are improved, too: They now give you a brief period where your stamina doesn’t decrease at all, sort of like a stamina shrine. Throwing potions, though, still aren’t anything other than sellable, so far as I know.
And I haven’t had much problem with USWest crashing on me… I think that I’ve been in a game that froze only two or three times. I do sometimes get brief freezeouts, followed by a few seconds of frantic catching up; I think that this happens when my CD has to spin up. Fortuneately it hasn’t killed me yet.
And does anyone else find it ironic that a paladin like Fenris’ would fear undead?
The thawing potions make it so that you can’t be frozen for 30 seconds and give you 30% cold res I think. Not too bad if you are a bear druid or something like that.
Good lord. I finally pushed my zookeeper necro up to the end of Act V Hell. The rest of the game was relatively easy for me (including the Ancients), but Baal waxed my little red wagon. Didn’t die or anything but I couldn’t scratch him either. Every time I wandered off to get more skellies, he’d heal everything I did to him. Is he this hard with other builds, too, on this difficulty?
My lvl 78 bowazon could get there as long as she’s in a party (she’s in Act4 now). She has Magewrath and Cliffkiller bows, but even with points galore in freeze arrow, she can’t kill anything past act3 hell without using a full quiver of arrows. The best she can do is freeze groups to make it easier for someone else to kill them.
My lvl 74 javazon does pretty good damage, much better than the bowazon, but goes through mana and javalins so fast by Act4 it’s ridiculous (she’s actually in act5 now). She does practically no physical damage so She’s meat for lightning immunes. Her physical damage is so bad, I tried to mule a Spire of Honor (unique spear with slow attack) to her. This is one of the things I lost in my muling disaster I posted about above.
My lvl 75 Fire Sorc. She’s in Act2 of hell now. Many fire immunes. I need to get her to Act5 to get an Act5 merc to tank for her and to kill the fire immunes. Damage isn’t too bad and can be raised easily by +skill items. Armor and resistances suck, but in this case it’s equipment that I need, most of which I can improve if I get enough patience to mf in nm enough.
None of these guys could get as far as you without help.
As for items, I found a Heart Carver (?) unique rondel (dagger class). Decent damage, ignore defense, +4 to find item, find potion, and something else. If anyone wants, leave message.
Sure, due to time zone issues, we may not be on at the same time until the weekend. If that’s the case, maybe I can switch off characters and use the javazon and fire sorc when each will be more effective.
Who_me? have you tried upgrading the Cliffkiller to an elite? That might not be a bad idea. Or, if you have a Goldstrike, they’re about the 3rd best bow now, once upgraded to a hydra.
For that I need the proper runes… I can’t remember off-hand, but I believe I need a Pul to upgrade exceptional weapons to elite. Don’t have one yet. I had been rune hunting for punha, I have a few runes now, but the highest is Sol.
Actually, I’ve done the countess countless times… and I’ll eventually get into that again. I have two stalled characters that I’ve stopped playing who are in nm that I’ll rush up to Act4 and steal their Hellforge drops. I’ve just been waiting until I get each character as far as they can be effective until I go into rune hunter mode. This way I know exactly where I need to upgrade, and have a bit of time to find items that I can either use or trade.
As for rushing, punha and I tried that one day and couldn’t get much action. We had one person willing to give us drops, but for some reason we couldn’t enter his game. there are apparently too many free rushes out there for many people to be willing to pay for it.
I have been away from the game for about a week now, and will probably log in tonight just to make sure all my mules (or most of them, at least) are still around.
There was, as Maegs said, a duping thing going around the realms, and I hope that is what was causing me to express glee at “only” pinging 2K. I am still royally pissed off that I lost 50 mil xp trying to get that last 7 to lvl 89, but such is life. In the meantime I have picked up a copy of Civ3 ($10) and am fairly close to beating the game, so once I do that I should be doing a bit more D2XP ladder play. I am behind in ladder play where I would like to be, but given the heinous lag I am not surprised and not all that disappointed (well, except in those who couldn’t just leave the ladder well enough alone and had to go hacking it up. People, if you don’t want to play legit, PLAY ON OPEN OR SINGLE PLAYER).
Meanwhile, the Hideous Awful Lag Monster finally caught up with me last night (although Yeti has reported a lot of problems with it). I’ve gotten the black-wall-of-nothingness problem a couple of times before, where the game basically forgets you exist, but this was just surreal. Click on an item, nothing happens. Click another item, nothing happens. Wait a few minutes, try to pick up something else, and suddenly you can’t, because you’re holding the first item. It didn’t help, either, that this happened just as Yeti and I portalled directly into the Cow King’s lap.
I just hope that the Raven Frost and Dwarf Star I found yesterday don’t get rolled back. If I wear a Nokozan Relic with the Dwarf Star, my sorc suddenly becomes the undisputed mistress of fire. Human salamander :D.