New to mod

[Elad]

Started mod as a Sorc, now at lvl 20 Act 2 Norm. Have had a couple of really tough battles, Andy and sewer boss. Used a flying knife, Apocalypse, Mind Flay, and Punisher. Without Mind Flay and Punisher, would never made it.
Some Questions??
Is there any crafting? Have all these rings, amulets, jewels, and charms, and nothing to do with them.
Do the old 109 and 110 rune words work?
After reading some post, now using Shadow Form (couldn't live without), Mind Fray(same), Disco, and Pandamonium. Also, Avengers
Are there still orbs for Sorc? Like to use an orb and shield.
Have nothing in the bow and only a few melee skills.
Have a hard time telling which skills are for a Sorc.
A great starting mod for patch 1.11.
Elad

[Incompetent]

Is there any crafting? Have all these rings, amulets, jewels, and charms, and nothing to do with them.
Do the old 109 and 110 rune words work?

Laz has pretty much said he doesn't like cube recipes, so I doubt we'll see much on that front. The old runewords don't work, but Laz is making his own, which will be in the documentation.

Are there still orbs for Sorc? Like to use an orb and shield.

Currently Median has no class-specific items, and again I don't think that's going to change.

Have a hard time telling which skills are for a Sorc.

In Median this doesn't make sense. ALL skills in the tree are for Sorcs; they're also for Paladins, Amazons, Druids... The real question is, how are you building up your character? If you're making a caster, you'll probably have lots of energy and +skills, but poor strength and dex and not too much attack speed. In that case, the skills which do 'X-Y damage' (ie independent of weapons) will be best. If you're making a fighter, the opposite applies and you'll tend to use skills which do 'so many times weapon damage'. So you can certainly make a melee sorc - the only big disadvantages she has are slightly less life and slightly worse base attack speed with weapons.

But if you can manage the stats there's nothing to stop you making a hybrid character by having a caster weapon/shield and then a fighting weapon/shield on switch. In fact, it's quite easy to reach the required stats in Median, as a) you don't need that much energy to cast things, b) if you put Elds in your gear or put points in Art of War, all your stats will be boosted by a percentage.

[Lanthanide]

You need to max Art of War. You should probably spend 5 out of your next 8 skill points on it. It adds a large percent to your base stats, which will bump up your HP and mana considerably, as well as give you more dex and str to use the better defense items.


A good hint for surviving battles is to look for items with life regeneration on them, they can save your butt a lot. Also look for +life after each kill (you can get pretty big amounts like 30-40), these also help you a lot when going up against mobs. Obviously also ditch your Rogue merc and get an Act 2 one, preferrably the one that uses Shackles of Ice (see merc list on the mod home site).


And yes, this is pretty much the best mod I have ever seen. It is very innovative with the monsters and skills and is very fun - I'm still playing in Hell diff, when I've never gotten much past Nightmare difficulty in regular D2 because I just get bored. No sign of that yet with M2.

[Brother Laz]

Is there any crafting? Have all these rings, amulets, jewels, and charms, and nothing to do with them.

You can of course wear them. Nope, no crafting. Crafting is for other mods, you know, the mods with a readme larger than the .mpq file.

Do the old 109 and 110 rune words work?

Nope, but in the current patch 1.10 there are a few dozen new runewords active. All of them will be rebalanced in the next patch, but this will not retroactively apply to already made runewords, so go wild!

After reading some post, now using Shadow Form (couldn't live without), Mind Fray(same), Disco, and Pandamonium. Also, Avengers

Good picks, except you may need Art of War later on.

Are there still orbs for Sorc? Like to use an orb and shield.

Lanthanide has been screaming for the last two weeks that staves are useless and ergo the sorc is useless. This will be fixed in the next patch [1.11] by adding +all resistances to the affix pool for staves, but I can't tell for sure when this next patch will be - tomorrow, Sunday or next week. In the meantime, use a weapon and shield.

No, no orbs. Orbs were implemented because Blizzard was too lazy to fix staves. I'm not too lazy.

Have a hard time telling which skills are for a Sorc.

?

In fact, it's quite easy to reach the required stats in Median, as a) you don't need that much energy to cast things [...]

I am aware of this, but it is too late to make sweeping changes to mana costs anymore, or else a lot of characters would suddenly be useless or even totally unable to cast anything at all.

And yes, this is pretty much the best mod I have ever seen.

Though you sound exceptionally [elitely?] bitter in the feedback thread.

......

@ Elad: in the next patch, your innate skill Empower will be changed to a mana-stealing projectile attack. So don't rely on it [according to Lanth, it is now utterly useless anyway...]. On the other hand, Magic Missiles will be made more useful.

[Lanthanide]

Lanthanide has been screaming for the last two weeks that staves are useless and ergo the sorc is useless. This will be fixed in the next patch [1.11] by adding +all resistances to the affix pool for staves, but I can't tell for sure when this next patch will be - tomorrow, Sunday or next week. In the meantime, use a weapon and shield.

Well not useless, but with 3 (currently) pointless innate skills and destinct lack of sword/shield options compared to other classes, there's really no reason to pick them over the necro or druid. My sorc however is already clvl 74, and I'm not starting over now.

No, no orbs. Orbs were implemented because Blizzard was too lazy to fix staves. I'm not too lazy.

They did an amazingly poor job when you look at it too. The orbs were to make them more in line with necros, who had wands and shields. So they go and make orbs to even the playing field - that's fine. Then they go and give the necro those idiotic shrunken head things. So now the necro is effectively duel-wielding wands while the sorc only gets to use the equivalent of one. Running in circles, they are.

Though you sound exceptionally [elitely?] bitter in the feedback thread.

I'm good at coming over as crass, uncaring and bitter on the internet. Don't know why. Oh well.

@ Elad: in the next patch, your innate skill Empower will be changed to a mana-stealing projectile attack. So don't rely on it [according to Lanth, it is now utterly useless anyway...].

Not utterly useless, just very seldom useful. Two quite different concepts

[Elad]

Sigh!! Looks like I need to start all over.
Noticed max is 5 for each skill. Started by putting every point I got in Art of War and Apoc until they maxed. Then started putting in other skills usually 1 in each as I got points. Wasted too many in Apoc as it seemed great in Act 1, but not much use in Act 2.
Liked an orb and shield for elemental and sword or throwing weapon and shield for melee to switch as backup. An orb with a couple of sockets for rune word was great. Never ever liked staves as I needed a shield for defense and resistance. When playing a Sorc try to play purely elemental as possible.
It was Lanth's post that got me looking at other skills and ideas.
Boy, will I have a potfull of gold when I sell all the rings, amulets, jewels and charms. Not much to do with the gold, as townies don't have much of anything to sell but junk. My best things all came from drops.
One more question--does gambling do any good?
Have been looking at rune words--some really good ones. Just started getting a couple of runes in Act 2, none in Act 1.
Downloaded 1.10 last night. Really glad the mpq is small as my 56k modem and ISP are slower than molasses.
Thanks for the quick answers and advice.
Elad

[Brother Laz]

Sigh!! Looks like I need to start all over.
Noticed max is 5 for each skill. Started by putting every point I got in Art of War and Apoc until they maxed. Then started putting in other skills usually 1 in each as I got points. Wasted too many in Apoc as it seemed great in Act 1, but not much use in Act 2.

In patch 1.9 [IIRC], Apoc radius increases per level. Perhaps this helps.

Liked an orb and shield for elemental and sword or throwing weapon and shield for melee to switch as backup. An orb with a couple of sockets for rune word was great.

Huh? There are no orbs in M_2. Where did you get an orb, let alone a socketed orb?

Boy, will I have a potfull of gold when I sell all the rings, amulets, jewels and charms. Not much to do with the gold, as townies don't have much of anything to sell but junk.

Trivia: Lanth complained for a couple of months that vendor prices were too low, their items too expensive and it ruled out gambling. It is fixed now, as you see.

One more question--does gambling do any good?

Yep, especially rings and amulets. +1 skill rings are fairly common.

Have been looking at rune words--some really good ones. Just started getting a couple of runes in Act 2, none in Act 1.

All of the existing ones will be turned off and replaced in 1.11, so if you plan on making some runewords, do it quick. [the patch will not delete your existing runewords, btw]

Downloaded 1.10 last night. Really glad the mpq is small as my 56k modem and ISP are slower than molasses.

56k modem? Ouch!
On the upside, the mod will never grow much bigger than it currently is. Ie. no new graphics, sound etc. Good thing, because it'll probably take another few dozen patches before everything is balanced.

I could release a .txt-based version, but people are already too stupid to install a .mpq mod, it'd only make the deluge of emails even worse.

[Elad]

Huh? There are no orbs in M_2. Where did you get an orb, let alone a socketed orb?

Sorry--misunderstanding. It is what I liked (other mods) not what I have.

Since I don't have any equipment with rune wordsc 1.11 will be no prob.
Started over--Sorc, act 1 Blood Moor lvl 3. Point in Art of War and Mind Fray. Don't gobble up health potions like I did.
Liked Phrozen Heart's mod. Text based.
Having a little time adjusting after coming from Kato's Zy-El mod

[Lanthanide]

Hmmm, I've never used mind flay or rej. Just never seen a need for it.

[Incompetent]

Hmmm, I've never used mind flay or rej. Just never seen a need for it.

Mind Flay doesn't look too good on paper, but it's set up in such a way that you hardly need to aim it, and it can heal you up very quickly. Rej is a potion substitute, so I suppose it's not too useful if you don't mind buying lots of potions. (I feel my character is not quite up to stratch if he's constantly dependent on potions, but that's just me). I suppose it's different for ranged chars, though. Each worth a point, I'd say, especially if you have lots of +skills, though maxing either would be an extravagance for most chars.

[Elad]

I agree with Incomp, potions and rejuv are way too slow. Mind Flay gives you full health in a click. Great at the begining when you have little health or protection or skills. Without Mind Flay could never have beat Andy.

[Lanthanide]

I guess. Now I'm clvl 74 and just use super and greater healing potions all the time which only take 3 or 4 seconds, or rej (even full rej) potions if I'm really in a pickle.

You probably would need some kind of healing spell against Andy now, I took her out by using slvl 5 disco inferno, back when it was overpowered and did physical damage. Now it does poison damage, so it probably wouldn't even hurt Andy.

[Elad]

When I took her out, hadn't read your post on Disco, so didn't have any.
Use a rather crude way. Lvl 5 Punisher and Mind Flay(MF). Hit her with Punisher, then MF until Punisher was ready again. Did this over and over until she died.Threw a couple of Apoc in now and then. My belt is full of mana, which I constantly run out of. Need to find a good mana generater. Saw in patch 1.10 that Dico is poison now, so probably wont use it.
Elad
Still another question?? Are there any skills for throwing knives and axes? Could't find any. I just don't like bows, would rather use throwing equipment with a shield. Play a Sorc a lot and just hate, hate, hate staves. Looks like in this mod I will be forced to use stave to get Sorc extra skills. I know, I know just don't play a Sorc.