I think the thunderstorms we’ve been having for the past week messed up my home computer a little. I’m back on line (obviously) and ready to try B-Net. I tried entering one of the “SDMB” games, but B-Net said those games couldn’t be found. Tomorrow, I’m going to help my girlfriend with her PC, so I don’t know if I’ll have time for a Net game. If anyone is still checking this thread, I’ll post again when I’m available for a Net game.
Regarding the Corpse Explosion/Ironmaiden-Blood Golem controversy…
Each character has certain advantages and disadvantages. The sorceress kicks ass at a distance, but gets hosed close up. The barbarian runs around a lot and smashes stuff, but can’t do much more than that. The palidan… well, you get the idea.
By minimizing a characters’ strengths, eventually you reach a point where there’s no distinction 'tween the character classes at all.
Well, I beat Diablo on Nightmare difficulty. All your characters can bow down to Lord Monster, my level 40 paladin. I got so much kick ass stuff that I just don’t want to get rid of, my stash is filled and I have to hold onto some stuff in my inventory.
My advice to budding paladins…
- Put a decent amount of stat points into energy. You’ll want mana later in the game for the following combat skills.
- Put a fair amount of skill points into Holy Hammer. This thing kicks ass in act II and IV, as well as against the cows.
- Either don’t put any skill points into Fist of the Heavens, or put a lot. It starts out really weak, but if you put a lot it will kick major ass (Especially against large groups of undead, as after the initial lightning attack a bunch of holy bolts go after every enemy in range). However, it is a major mana hog, so if you go this way, put A LOT of points into energy.
- If you have a weapon with fast or very fast attack speed, focus a lot of points into Concentration (Increases damage and reduces chance of attack being interrupted). If you have a slower attack speed, put a lot of points into Fanaticism (Increased attack rating and faster attack speed).
- I must emphasize putting Zeal to at least level 7 or 8. This is definitely a backbone ability. I usually have this set to left button click, and Concentration or Fanaticism as my right mouse aura.
- Don’t focus too much on the individual elemental defensive auras. On level 30 you can pump up an ability that defends against all elemental attacks.
Well, that’s all for now…I’m prolly gonna start playing other characters while I’m playing my Paladin on hell.
Congrats, Lord Monster. I suppose most of you have seen the new 1.03 patch. They’ve scaled back Corpse Explosion, as well as some other things…Conversion for Paladins, and Whirlwind for Barbarians, I think.
And, Monster, do you use Thorns with your Paladin? I’ve got a Grand Scepter that adds 3 to Zeal and 3 to Blessed Hammer, and that suits me just fine. Zeal for normal attacking, Hammer whenever I get surrounded, and Thorns as my usual Aura. I’m Lev. 27. Any advice?
Forigve my slowness, but I just killed Duriel with my Barbarian. Don’t worry, my Amazon is farther along at home. Anyway, the Barbarian kicked Duriel’s ASS! In one hand, I had a rare flail that did 3-30 damage, and in the other, I had a sword that did 10-20 plus 1-16 lightning. I loaded up on rejuvvies, selected my double swing skill, and headed in. Held the right mouse button with one hand and had the other on my potions. I only needed 4. He went down in about 10 seconds. It was great, especially after the hell he put my Amazon through earlier.
Speaking of which, my Amazon is having a tough time getting through Act III. Anyone else find the Amazon inadequate at times? I really don’t want to start over. I only have so much time to screw around before school starts again, after all…
I just kicked Duriel’s ass again on my second trip through with a new Palidan. I had Chain Gloves of Fortune (32% better chance of Magic item), Chain Gloves of Fortune (21% better…), a level 4 skull cap socketed with two advanced topazes giving me 31% better chance of Magic item. I used a Masssive Broadsword of Gore - fast attack speed, damage 13-33 - and Thorns level three (on the advice of this message board; Duriel physically hits very hard so Thorns dishes it right back to him) against Duriel. I also had a unique two-handed sword (Loath Scratch Flamberge, very fast, 17-32 damage, causes flee, steals 5% life, 4% mana per hit, 10-16 fire damage, +110 to Attack rating) but didn’t use it. I also have an Infernal Buckle heavy belt, defense 31, +20 life.
Duriel went down on one trip in and I guzzled a variety of about seven potions to do it. After he died I paused to enjoy the view: He splits open like the fat bag of guts he is and his blood and varicoloured intestines spill out onto the floor. Hordes of white maggots arrive and crawl all over the floor.
I’ve got about 8 skill points in reserve and I will take your advice and start feeding Zeal, Concentration, and Holy Hammer. I sold my Broadsword of Gore when I got a very fast 7-33 sword. I like fast fights.
I’m now in Act 3 and am tripping into town with magic items all the time. I’m rich as hell, if I ever get killed I’ll lose about 100K in gold. I’m looking for and upgrading diamonds because I want a socketed shield that protects well against elemental attacks. My main focus is on finding the best possible unique items I can and I also have the problem of storage - do I keep the boots with the fastest speed boost or the find magic items or the super high defense or the half freeze duration? I also have an overpowered maul taking up room because I tried it out in a melee against champion monsters and found it (slowly but steadily) hammered them to death very nicely. This constant decision making is stressful, when I fire up the game I litter the ground with stuff in storage and head out looking for new items. I’ll have to sell the maul soon and probably the fancy flamberge. My latest armour is about 171 defense. Sometimes I think my Palidan is virtually unkillable but this game is full of surprises.
I keep notes of the tips from this thread. If I ever fire up a Necro or take my Palidan into nightmare level I’ll be calling down blessings on you guys for your advice. I already have a level 4 necro but I’m going to shitcan him because it seems I wasted points on his Dexterity.
Al,
Do what I do. I created a hold character for all that extra stuff. I just have a buddy I trust start a game with an empty character, join, jive him the stuff to stash, and then join the game with my holder character and he gives the stuff back. Very useful. BTW, DO NOT put too much into Zeal- 5 should be the MAX and I wouldn’t go more than four. The reason is that you get busy hitting 7-8 times, and get surrounded.
Ahaaar! With my chance of picking up magic items at +32%, +21%, and +10% (Fortuitous Ring) I am on a slightly staggering treasure hunt. I just did a second quick trip into the fortuitously located sewers in Act 3. The entrance is near the teleport and there’s a close first floor shining chest and a close entrance to the short second floor where there is another shining chest and about eight regular chests. It’s a good gold trip and I picked up:
uniques:
- Hailstone Crest Mask, def. 41, poison length reduced 75%, +1 light, +6 life, attacker takes damage of 2
- Pain Scratch long sword very fast, 4-23, -17 monster defense per hit, +64 attack, +1 max damage, +11 strength, (although I still like my Savage long sword 7-33 very fast)
- Armageddon Mangler Giant Ax, 42-58 damage, normal speed, +1 mana after each kill, -16 to monster defense per hit
My internet connection is too lousy for me to creatively save any of this stuff, or give it away, on Battle Net.
I am now going to put the top down on my old convertible and drive out to the reservoir for a swim. It might hit 28 today (that’s 82.4 y’all), a scorcher around here. I gotta get out of the house.
Smeg, my Amazon did fine in Act III with freezing arrows and a hireling to point out those blow-dart bastards before I could even see them. However, I kind of rushed through the game, and when I got to Diablo, I got my ass (yes, it’s a two-handed ass, in case you wondered) handed to me - definitely take your time building her up, and you should be fine.
They scaled down Corpse Explosion? Well fuck that. No more patches for me. What are its new stats? Less damage? Smaller radius? More mana?
MR
Maeglin, the nerfing of Corpse Explosion will really only reduce radius (by about 50%) for single-player. The big deal with CE was that on multiplayer, its damage scaled with the monsters’ HP. So, if you were in an 8-player game (where the monsters all had 8 times their normal HP) you could still kill whole screenfulls at once with CE (if it were pumped enough). Now you’d have to cast it at least 8 times to do that.
They also cut HP for the fire golem, and changed the effects of increased skill in Revive (it no longer adds health). The only way to make your revives tougher now is to boost Skel Mastery. They also nerfed the barb’s Whirlwind in a big way, but who cares about that? 
Since I don’t play bnet, I’m not going to download the patch. You might not want to, either.
Maeglin,
Taken from diabloii.net’s patch analysis. If you play offline, you won’t need to upgrade to the patch; however, as soon as you connect to battle.net, the server checks your version of the game and upgrades it automatically. There is quite an uproar in the D2 community because of this from what I understand.
I wonder if it’s possible to install the game twice; one install just for B-Net and one just for single-player.
BTW: There was some terrible weather in my area last night. My power was out for some 12 hours, so I haven’t been able to get on B-Net.
It was a little tricky, but I managed to install two copies of Diablo II.
Also, I see that there is a Diablo III website under construction.
rare item
Bumpy’s Glowing Boots
fast run/walk
+1 to light radius
50% chance of bumping thread back to the top
Actually, just today I found Arcanna’s Deathwand, probably THE item to get for the Sorceress. Gives +1 to all Sorceress abilities, and has 25% chance of Deadly Strike. Also have an amulet that gives +1 to all Sorceress abilities, too.
By the way, I also have an amulet that gives +1 to all Amazon abilities, and another that gives +1 to all Necromancer abilities (and +5 to light radius, if I recall correctly). If anybody wants to get on B.Net and trade, just lemme know (I’ll take a gem or two, depending on the quality, or a ring that also gives +1 to Sorceress abilities… anything else probably isn’t needed much). Ah, heck, I’ll give 'em away for free, if you really don’t have anything to trade.
WTF!!!
I decided last night to try out the Paladin. I’ve been playing with my Necromancer for a while now, end of ACT III (it’s a real bitch), and lo and behold, last night I start off the game with my Paladin and in less than an hour, I’m already level 7. Huh? I just wompped some major undead a$$ there! How the heck did I miss how great this character is?
Anyway, anyone have any clue what the deal with the council is on ActIII? How many are there? And what chance does a Level 26 Necromancer have of making his way through? I’ve already destroyed the orb. I just need to kill all the council, and use what’s his faces will to open the door.
SBD - there are some +2 wands out there, so keep an eye out.
Anyone start up a hardcore character yet?
This is a wand??? heh, sweet. Never thought of that. I’ll keep an eye out. Is it unique or rare?
I haven’t played in two weeks; first of the two I was out of state; second my computer was in the shop. But it’s back now, and though I don’t have the time to play today, Cold Mastery feels within my grasp . . .
that amulet sounds tempting too, but it would be tough to give up my prismatic amulet for that . . . such a painful decision, that would be.
Soulsing- 3 councel members plus minions. I have not played with a necro, but I would think you’d be fine with all those minions and lots of teeth. I cleared the cow level with an Amaxon and a friend playing a L28 necro, and it was a breeze. He created 15 or so golums and Skeleton mages, and we stood behind them and crucified the Hell Bovines. Piece of cake.
SPOOFE, Sure, I’ll take the staff if you don’t want it. I’ve beaten Diablo with an Amazon and a Paladin, am now making my way through again with a mage. I’m almost through act one. ( just got tha Malus last night.) With Sorcerer, what should I have Charci imbue? Any ideas? I am having trouble, on single player, running outta mana. It’s forcing me to put points into warmoth that I’d rather save for offensive spells. E-mail me, or your brother has my AIM name.