Diablo 2 expansion tonight, anyone?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
61

I’m on USWest. I’m currently working on finishing off a Maul Barbarian (currently level 67 in Act II Hell Difficulty).

My $0.02 regarding Assassins:

IMO, the only traps worth having across all three difficulties are Lightning Sentry and Death Sentry. Death Sentry is particularly nice due to the built in corpse explosion attack. All the traps are extremely mana-inefficient, though, and you could skip the Traps tree entirely and be none the worse for it. The traps are there to soften up a pack of monsters; don’t expect your traps to kill anything by themselves unless you’re extremely patient.

Most of the common Assassin tactics revolve around a divide-and-conquer strategy. Break up the mobs; blind them, chill/freeze them, knock them back with Dragon tail (Dragon Tail is a rather slow attack, though). Then use your superior speed to take out the monsters a few at a time. I’ve only had limited experience with Assassin builds. The ones I did make tended to focus on a high damage, quick attacks against single opponents (Tiger Strike + Burst Of Speed, with or without Dragon Claw) and moderate crowd mutilation attacks (usuall Phoenix Strike). Equipping a fast weapon and charging Phoenix Strike to drop Meteors in rapid succession can be very effective.

Shadow Master is extremely useful. Venom is not, since the poison implementation is currently flawed in patch version 1.09. Being a speed-orientated player in general, I used Burst Of Speed almost constantly.

Assassins can tank decently well, especially when outfitted with decent cold area-of-effect attack skills. I don’t have extensive experience in this area, though, since standing around trading blows is not my playing style. But I’ve seen it work on Assassins that were equipped with decent gear.

62

My level 73 sorceress is permanently flawed. In my early days of D2X, I kept playing single-player, and as such focused a lot on Fireball. It’s a good spell for single-player… but is all but useless in multi-player. Combined with that and Glacial Spike, and a couple other spells, I have about 15 wasted skill points.

So… it’s time to start a new Sorc… I plan on getting her Fire Wall, Frozen Orb, Thunder Storm, and the masteries ASAP (as well as pumping a crapload of points into Warmth, one into Static Field, getting the Telekinesis/Teleport duo, and a few others). But no more of this “one spell, one target” crap for me. From now on, it’s ALL mass-destruction!

63

One thing I’ve learned (too late for my first couple of chars) is to save skill points. I put one in each talent I need to get to where I want to max, then go for it as fast and as hard as I can. My sorc is level 59 now, she’s maxed on meteor and level 16 on frozen orb not including the pluses my equipment gives me with like 6 each for fire and ice mastery. I use meteor as artillery support in groups (1650 dam + 430 dam/sec) and frozen orb when she trekking out by herself.

64

Same way I do it against cold immune monsters now- cast hydra as fast as it will let me and run in circles a lot. :wink:

65

I tend to invest evenly in skills, giving priority to the ones that are most useful to my style. My assassin is capable of both tanking and h&r. Shadows are certainly not just bait, at least not in normal mode. A shadow warrior uses the same skills that the assassin has active; shadow master can use any skill except casting another shadow. I cleared out all the vipers guarding the viper amulet in about 5 minutes with a shadow warrior and having wake of fire selected. The only traps really worth investing in are lightning or fire based. Blade traps are worthless. Dragon Tail is what I use when trying to avoid being surrounded because it will knock back any foe in close proximity to the target.

66

Thanks for the tips on Assassins.

I can’t believe that there are sorcs out there who aren’t interested in maxing on static field. It is the best skill in the game, bar none. Though I believed 1.09 nerfed it for the expansion, yet another reason why I am hesitant to buy it.

Max it out. Don’t think about it. Don’t question it. Just do it. A slvl 20 SF covers over 1.5 screens in all directions. Combined with fast cast, you can reduce scores of monsters at once to a fraction of their hit points with a minimal mana cost. Obviously this power scales magnificently, and obviously it is extremely effective against bosses. Duriel immune to cold? So what? Just SF him a half dozen times, and then any old spell will do. Dave, if you are having trouble, get yourself a staff that gives you Firewall or blaze. While Duriel doesn’t take cold damage, he still chills. So as soon as you enter his chamber, fire off a blizzard, switch to six static fields really quickly, and let him chase you around the room while using Blaze. Provided that you don’t lag, he will be dead in moments. My clvl 32 cold sorc kills Duriel in NM so fast she has time to moon him first and smoke a pack of Camels.

Andariel is even easier. As I am sure you know, if you get close enough, you can let her chase you around without firing off one of her poison bursts. With a little Cold Mastery, you can reduce her resistances enough to take her down like the bitch she is.

This may be true for the other classes, but there is simply no need to conserve points when building a sorc. Do not give more than one point to any low level offensive spell that you plan to outgrow. Give all excess points to Static Field and Warmth. At level 32, I have two points in Blizzard, two points in Glacial Spike, and three points in Energy Shield. My staff gives me an additional two points in Fire Wall. I have one point in all of the lightning prerequisites necessary for Energy Shield, especially teleport.

But I have ten points in Warmth and Static Field. Suffice to say, it works beautifully in either multiplayer, single player, or pvp. My party mates love the fact that I can empty my entire mana globe in five seconds flat, but get mana back fast enough to blast ass in the next battle.

And a full-screen Static Field is essential for healers. I was in an 8 person NM game last night. All of us were in the low thirties, and we were sloughing our way through Travincal. It was fucking tough. As far as I am concerned, the only thing that was saving us was the two party sorcs laying on the Static Field heavy enough to keep monster hp low. The warriors did pretty much all the finishing. The necro was useless, as the lightning bolts the hierophants were coughing up annihilated them in one shot, whereupon the bolts passed through the skeletons and golems right into us.

Warmth and Static Field. The rest is gravy.

MR

67

What Caldazar said:

Jenn has “Cloak of Shadow” loaded as her secondary skill, with “Dragon Tail” hotkeyed for emergencies. Her shadow will cast the Cloak of Shadows for her in a combat situation, saving mana. Jen then runs up, knifes a couple of monsters and runs away, past her shadow and merc. When the monsters are sufficently strung out, or stop to deal with the shadow and merc, she’ll cut behind them and knife a few. Meanwhile, the merc is usually in motion, trying to keep up with the assassin, which creates another run-loop-stab opportunity. This works really well except against huge mobs. For really big mobs, Jenn sets a town portal some distance from the nearest gate, and runs the monsters back and forth, escaping via the portal, returning via the gate. It’s time consuming, and only really works well out of doors, but is effective. In close quarters, she usually just bugs out, coming back the long way 'round, and tries to cut groups from the fringes of the pack.

She’s almost completely ignored the “traps” tree, putting the vast majority of her points into Shadow Skills and Martial Arts.

I lost my slayer, Maim (axe barb), in my harddrive crash, but it’s just as well. He was grossly unballanced, with way too many points in the low skills. I also lost my L13 hard-core nude barbarian, and my L31 necro, so any lag on Bnet is no longer my fault. :stuck_out_tongue:

68

Yup, this is the old static field + finisher combo.

Patch versions 1.07 and later rendered this combo less effective. By introducing immunities (lightning and otherwise), you’re forced to spread your points more thinly among the skill trees. This doesn’t leave enough point to devote heavily in static field, especially since you’re now only permitted to reduce monster Life to 1/3rd of it’s max value in Nightmare, and 1/2 in Hell.

Casting timers were also implemented on many of the high level sorceress spells. For instance, you’re only permitted to cast Frozen Orb once per second. To compensate, the spell damages on cast-delayed spells have been increased. An interesting side effect of this, though, is that Warmth is now optional for builds that rely heavily on cast-delayed spells since you’re simply casting less often. Which is a good thing, since you’ll need those extra skill points to develop secondary (and possibly tertiary) attack skills.

69

Fortunately this still works on regular D2. I don’t plan on upgrading until my sorc can compensate. Since Chain Lightning is a prereq for Energy Shield, I am considering developing that a bit later on, in preparation for increased monster resistances.

Unfortunately, I found a rare staff early in the game that gives me +2 to Fire Wall. Consequently, I have had little need to develop my fire tree. I imagine this will change. There seems to be little need at this time to throw many more points into my level 24 and 30 cold offensive spells, so once I am satisfied with Warmth, I can start exploring other tactics. There is a definite point of diminishing return for almost all offensive spells.

This was a particularly odious change. I have tried searching the internet to see if fast cast has any effect on this delay, but since it only appears to affect the pre-casting animation frames, somehow I doubt it. I am probably going to ditch much of my fast cast gear before making the switch to D2X.

I’m not sure whether that holds true for all circumstances. If you invest a high number of points into a high clvl skill, the mana cost increases. I suppose with exact figures for spell delay and spell cost I could do the math to determine whether increased warmth (assuming at least 3 stat points are spent on Energy with ever lvl up) is necessary. Furthermore, I switch to other spells instantly after casting Blizzard, due to the delay. I have Glacial Spike and Chain Lightning bound on my left mouse button, both of which I can fire off several times before my blizzard recast timer expires. This also requires a considerable amount of mana.

All in all, I am not particularly thrilled with the changes, as you can probably tell. :wink:

MR

70

Okay, I just got me the expansion, and I’m having a hell of a lot of fun with it. I’m a lvl 57 barbarian, now working on the Summit of mount Arreat. I only play single player, though, so none of y’all will get to meet him ;).

One thing, though. I read about that ‘players x’ thing in the thread and gave it a shot, and nothing happened. Is there something else you need to do? It’s not working for me.

71

I have a couple of items that increase my cast rate. I can sustain casting frozen orb at about 2 a second and meteor about once a second. As soon as I max my frozen orb out, then I’m going into the lightning skill tree. I think I’ve already have a level 1 static field and on your suggestion I’ll get that up as quickly as I can. I skipped several quests on my way to Act 5 in nm and I’m going to go back through and finish these before venturing into hell. I’ve heard alot about the immunities in hell and I want to be as prepared as I can.

72

Nope, fast cast doesn’t reduce the delay timer. If fact, all the delay timers are linked. If you cast a delayed spell, you can’t cast any other delayed spell until the timer runs out. It’s pretty easy to get around, though; cast your delayed spell and then cast a non-delayed one until the timer runs out.

The change was basically made to reduce graphic loads on peoples machines; all those Frozen Orbs and Blizzards flying around were slowing things down.

Yes, but the rate of mana regeration is dependent upon how much total mana you have as well (regen rate is a % of your maximum mana per second). Picking up a few +mana items is much cheaper than spending precious skill points. The only time I really run out of mana as a sorceress is when I spam Nova. Your mileage may vary, though.

Chippydip has developed an up-to-date Javascript character skill planner at:

http://www.cs.hmc.edu/~cbradfor/diablo2/skills.html

Blizzard’s own guide to Diablo II is at http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp The information should be for the latest version of the game, although the Blizzard site tends to be on the slow side in regards to updates, so not all the information there may be current.

Most people weren’t at first, but you get used to it. It doesn’t really make the game much harder; it just makes the game play somewhat differently.

73

Maybe I was wrong… it ** seems ** quicker than that.

74

Exactly as I mentioned above. Delayed AoE spell on the right click, targeted non-delay spell on the left. It works well enough overall. I will just spend less points on Blizzard and pump up my Chain Lightning.

[quoter]
The change was basically made to reduce graphic loads on peoples machines; all those Frozen Orbs and Blizzards flying around were slowing things down.
[/quote]

This is extremely true. Most people are not all that efficient with their spell use. They fire off six or seven stacked Blizzards where two would suffice. Neither me nor the people I usually play with are shy about telling a triggerhappy sorc where to shove her Frozen Orbs.

Indeed, hence I would calculate at least a minimal mana increase per level. While having items that boost mana is convenient and easier than spending stat points, mana increase takes up a slot that could be occupied by something that cannot be increased naturally, like resistances. I’ve got Sigon’s Helm now, +55 to mana, and am loving it big time. But if I should come a across a high res helm, I’d probably replace it and trade it to one of the many saps hunting for all of Sigon’s set.

Indeed. I don’t quit have the brute force at my disposal as soon as I see enemies begin to close range. I have to switch to different, less damaging tactics. Hence I am thinking of giving up my wonderful rare fastest cast staff in exchange for a triple perfect diamond tower shield. I might have to let enemies get closer before I zap them, hence I will need the defense.

I dunno…a second is practically an eternity in D2 time.

MR

75

On second thought, I don’t think Chain Lightning will be the spell for me. Too mana inefficient, and the casting and effect times are too slow. And the damage ain’ that great unless all the bolts actually hit.

76

Anyone know if you can bind Meteor to your left mouse button?

77

** HEY!!! ** I resemble that remark! :slight_smile:

78

I don’t believe so.

79

Also, Chain Lightning only hits 5 baddies. It also used to be smarter on hitting more than one, particularly if they were on opposite sides of you. Now, it goes and spends itself closer to where you target.

My sorcs use combos like Cold Orb with Glacial Spike or Fireball, and Thunderstorm. The Orb/Fireball/T-Storm works if you’re running into resistant people.

80

That’s why I switched to Firewall. Or lure foes into a group and hit 'em with a Meteor. I’m also working on Blizzard to I can freeze a bunch for my merc.