experiences from the beta

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experiences from the beta

Post by Char » Tue Sep 02, 2003 2:32 am

i myself am playing the beta a bit, too.

i play on players 1, not because i am weak or sth, but because the thing was intended to be played on players 1.
it seems to me as if the monsters have few HP though, and / or as if the hirelings are extremely strong. i cannot really confirm this cause i am playing a necromancer relying heavily on skeletons that deal quite few damage.

when starting, life was, of course, easy. it became even easier because pmpch supported me a bit and i was lvl 5 really quick, with blood raven already dead. i had 3 skeletons really fast, and when i got my skeleton mages, life turned out to be fun. the skeleton mages had higher defense and HP than the skeletons though, but that was okay since they had cost me 15 skillpoints while the skeletons only had cost 5.
i found some dagger with +clay golem and a head with +raise skeleton and +corpse explosion, which really helped, though i didnt use the clay golem anymore later on. the only good effect of the clay golem was that he didnt require any corpses.
corpse explosion cleared areas pretty fast, but for lots of mana. i only pushed spellpower though, until i had 100 and was about lvl 16. then i made 10 points in vitality and continued increasing spellpower.
the rouge from act1 was quite helpful and didnt get hit because of my undead army. in act2, i used a defensive hireling and will continue using this one i think.
the skeletons killed pretty fast in the beginning of act2, later on, their damage seems to be quite low. i had especially problems in maggot lair and arcane sanctuary where the skeletons blocked each other and my hireling. i didnt increase skeletons much from the beginning of act2 on though (mastery 1, skeletons 7+1, mages 4), because i wanted to get poison explosion, which ate up 41 skill points including prerequisites. that might be one reason for this. but poison explosion actually kills ;). and it doesnt have the bad side effect of physical damage which is already dealt by my skeletons and hireling.
for curses, i am still using lvl 1 amplify damage with increased range because of my high spellpower.
duriel was bad. i had to stand around and heal my hireling, and couldnt do anything else. i dont have any offensive spells besides lvl 1 teeth and my skeletons were instantly dead.
physical damage dealing opponents were in general the less bad enemies. the beetles with their area effect lightning sparks were quite evil though. they killed my skellies quite fast.

in general, i die quickly because i have less than 100 life....

currently, i have the following skills:
amplify damage 1
skeleton mastery 1
raise skeleton 8+1
raise skeletal mage 4
teeth 1
corpse explosion 1+1
poison dagger 1
poison explosion 2
1 skillpoint left.

stats:
level 20
strength 15+6 (base)
dexterity 25 (base)
vitality 25+4
spellpower 110
life 80+15
mana 280+33

i am planning to concentrate on:
decripify
skeleton mastery
raise skeleton
raise skeletal mage
summon resist
poison explosion
bone spirit

VonHundengebissen
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Re: experiences from the beta

Post by VonHundengebissen » Tue Sep 02, 2003 9:01 am

Hi everybody !

I play Sp and 8 players. I have a Barbar :) .

When i started to play there was nothing that could stop me... until the den. After a few hits from minions of Corpsfire i knew that the mod is going to be harder than normal d2. But i'm a Barbar and nothing can stop me. After the easy kill of bloodraven and same runs throught the first dungeons i started to get problems in the underground passage. There were some "nice" Champion Rogues and one of them was berserk. This little ***** only needs 3 arrows to kill me ( but she died first). After this the way to Andariel was easy. The two smithes were no problem. Andariel in 1 players to kill was like .. i don't know... easy.
The act 2 was hard. Radament and some masters were very though. All monsters make very big damage. After this little happening there were no problems for a long time. Until the palast cellar and sanctarium. I only say berserk spector. The last part of act 2 i thosse players 1. Those stunner become very strong... . Duriel himselfe was taff too. He killed me one time, but then he was the one who died.
Act 3 now becomes very bad. On the first steps all things were normal, until the spiderdungeon (?). The master is extra strong and cursed. To this tim i had about 220 life. This monsters only needs 2 hits to kill me. After 10 deads and the feeling diablo is a spider it dies. But there were about 7 little friends of the master. They need 3 hits to kill me (what never happend). I play with ww but in this situation i took stun. There was no other way....
After this i meet a thorned hulk master (extra strong). He regenerats so fast that i could not make real damage. But i had some luck and i gambled a weapon with prevent monster from healing. He died and i won.
Now i'm in the black marsch and on my way to the flyer dungeon.
Edit: I had killed the master in the flyerdungeon. He was very easy (1player :roll: ). Flyer are no problem they die like fallen. At this time i think the barbar is a strong char. But we will see what will happen when i meet strong elemental monster (priester of zarkanum).

This is my Barbar:

Level 26

Str: 80 +13
Dex: 45 +11
vit: 70+4 (265 life)
Spell: 15+ 9 (49 mana)

Leap 1
Leap Attack 1
WW 6
Stun 1
Concentrate 1
Swordmastery 4
Howl 1
Shout 1

as you can see i'm going to make a ww Barb. Yes, i know, not very new. But i will skill skills like stun and berserk and same masterys too. But at this time i have not enough points. At higher level i will skill more warcries for support (Bo...)
Last edited by VonHundengebissen on Tue Sep 02, 2003 12:47 pm, edited 6 times in total.
Niemand hat behauptet das Leben sei fair.
Niemand hat behauptet das Leben sei leicht.
Niemand hat behauptet das du eine Chance hast.
Und Niemand hat behauptet das es nach dem Tod besser wird!
Deshalb genießt euer Leben wie es ist.

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Re: experiences from the beta

Post by Char » Tue Sep 02, 2003 12:38 pm

you cannot directly post pictures, you have to upload them somewhere and post the links. the image tag is disabled in these forums.

just a comment, players 8 makes it not very much harder to beat the game because you are at higher levels in the same situations (and are therefore stronger, hit better and are hit less). it just makes it much harder for certain builds (for example skeletonmancer) that need corpses.

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Malachai29
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Re: experiences from the beta

Post by Malachai29 » Tue Sep 02, 2003 5:04 pm

Havent had much of a chance to play my elemdruid, but have beaten blood raven, at level 5....did den of evil at 3, still working from there....went on a drive with the family yesterday, so didnt get much of anything done! :)

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RIP Charsi's Forge! :)
Surgeon General's Warning: Double posting may be hazardous to your health

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Re: experiences from the beta

Post by 4ever~|link » Tue Sep 02, 2003 5:05 pm

All is going well for me. a soloing daggermancer can be tough at times, then at others its a breeze. my first bit of trouble came when i was tearing at corpsefire, he slaughtered my free skellies which only left me to kill him; since he delt so much damage to me in players 3, i had to resort to throwing daggers to kill him. Another part I had a bit of trouble was at Blood Raven, she seemed to summon an enitire legion of undead that kept me in my respective corner fending for my life, a constant cast of bone armor and CE saved my life.

In act 2 trouble came when fending for life in the sewers, the mages and archers down there seem to be way overpowered, in players 5 it was almost a slaughter, in players 1 is was almost murder. Radament also had some evil nuclear breath that would drain your lifefor what seemed like forever. Currently im in the dry hills, would be further if i hadnt been playing ragnarok online *snickers*.

STATS:
  • 49 spellpower = 111 mana
    45 vitality = 173stamina and 120 hp
    50 dexterity
    52 strength
    level 17
SKILLS
  • Amplify Damage Lvl 1
    Bone Armor Lvl 4
    Teeth Lvl 1
    Corpse Explosion Lvl 3
    Poison Dagger Lvl 5
    Summon Skeleton Lvl 1 (also +1 from dagger)
    Skeleton Mastery 1
    Summon Clay Golem Lvl 1
Since Im a daggermancer, I hope to built up an army of revives that share my stats to do my bidding, enjoy the fruits of Iron maiden lvl 1, and lower resist. Need to build up my attacks with bonespear as to not focus only on poison (would suck if all my future army died and i was left with a poison/phys resist).

VonHundengebissen
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Re: experiences from the beta

Post by VonHundengebissen » Tue Sep 02, 2003 9:31 pm

@4ever~|link: Cool Char, i hope this build can life in hell. I think you will get same problems in the palastcellar. You must run and hope that there is nobody in your way. I play a barb and i had enough problems with life. Duriel is fast and VERY strong. I think he will kill your skelis very fast. The problem is that you will need many points in your poisen skills to kill fast. The flayers aren't so strong. But sometimes there are about 20 around you. Don't forget that you can use a elemental weapon in your second weaponslot.

I hope you will come to baal and i hope that you will post your expiriences too. :)

Good night...
Niemand hat behauptet das Leben sei fair.
Niemand hat behauptet das Leben sei leicht.
Niemand hat behauptet das du eine Chance hast.
Und Niemand hat behauptet das es nach dem Tod besser wird!
Deshalb genießt euer Leben wie es ist.

VonHundengebissen
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Joined: Fri Aug 08, 2003 2:45 pm

Re: experiences from the beta

Post by VonHundengebissen » Wed Sep 03, 2003 1:24 pm

From bad to worse !

Where is my snuffy Mephisto ?
In former times i went down to the chamber of hate and there he was. A nice ghostly demon with small nice attacks and he ever liked me ...you will die..you are too late... You now what i mean ! Mephisto was the nicest of the 3 devil. But now everything changed. I went down to the chamber and there were some bloodlords (master + minions). They killed me several times because they are so strong that you can't attack them without dying because of the walls and the meteors. I thought: Okay let him ( the master) alone and go to your old friend Mephisto. I killed the last of the council and then i meet him. But this wasn't mephisto this was the devil himselve. I have 270 life and he only needs ONE lightning to kill me. The lightning and th superball ( i don't know the real name...) often make around 200-250 dam. And when he beats you you will lose about 100 life. It was hell to kill him because every 5 seconds he used the lightning and the ball. I don't know how somebody whit fewer life will kill this *******. He is very fast and he follows you a long time.
I'm now in act 4 but i think i will never went to act 5. Why ? If Mephisto is so strong what is with diablo ?
What do you think ?
Niemand hat behauptet das Leben sei fair.
Niemand hat behauptet das Leben sei leicht.
Niemand hat behauptet das du eine Chance hast.
Und Niemand hat behauptet das es nach dem Tod besser wird!
Deshalb genießt euer Leben wie es ist.

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Re: experiences from the beta

Post by Char » Wed Sep 03, 2003 1:48 pm

i think you shouldnt post several messages in a row.

besides that, i realized that the blizzard strategy seems to be that the enemies are the more balanced the higher the difficulty is. on NM and hell difficulty, the archers have 115% base attack rating compared to 250% on normal. same seems to go for the bosses. duriel has 4757% base HP on normal and NM difficulty compared to 1295% on hell difficulty.

mehisto: 5695 / 5695 / 1471
diablo: 6427 / 6427 / 1577

its not that extreme for damage. but the boss monsters are in vanilla 1.10 extremely strong compared to normal monsters. i want to reduce the differences and will, in doing that, also reduce the boss strengths, thats not done yet except for duriel (in the coming beta update 1.02). i will adress mephisto and diablo as well i think, but they will still be strong.
remember that you can get yourself a lightning weapon with lightning absorb or better lightning resistance (what was your lightning resistance?).

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Re: experiences from the beta

Post by pmpch » Sat Sep 06, 2003 12:54 pm

LOL, did you put in those bunnies in act 5 or were they already there?
Bedevere: Well, now, uh, Launcelot, Galahad, and I, uh, wait until nightfall, and then leap out of the RABBIT, taking the French, uh, by surprise. Not only by surprise, but totally unarmed!
King Arthur: Who leaps out?

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Re: experiences from the beta

Post by Char » Sat Sep 06, 2003 2:48 pm

they were already there. but they are sweeet :).

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Re: experiences from the beta

Post by pmpch » Sun Sep 28, 2003 8:11 pm

(Elemental) Druid:

Bugs:
Bear doesn't show life bonus from spellpower (not sure if he gets it)

Skill impressions (skills @ lvl 14-18, clvl=33, with -act5 command):

- Fissure: No cast delay, nice damage, area effect, boosted by spellpower! #1
- Cyclone Armor: very useful
- Arctic Blast: Respectable damage
- Volcano: Ok damage, fire/physical
- Hurricane: Sux. Laughable damage.
- Tornado: Hard to aim, damage ok.
- Armaggedon: Sux! Absolutly laughable. Non-afforable (need like 80% of the total skillpoints till lvl 33 to get this!)
- Bear: Nice blocker, high life, ok damage. #2
- Dire Wolves: Gives nice life boost to bear #3
- All other skills are for for low level use only.

Now, some of those shapeshifting skills have crazy damage amounts!

- Fire Claw, near 200 damage!! Too high!
- Shockwave, this is way, I mean way beyond any balance!! 250++! And no cast delay, duuude! :mrgreen:

-----------------------------

Some item related stuff.
- Enlighted Armor (pala only) ... +2% all resis auto-mod... 2% c'mon!

Endbosses
- Diablo was a pain too, but Baal is almost unkillable for a casting/elemental druid. Even at level 45 I barely scratched his life. Basicly it's 1h of running around slowly wearing him down.

-----------------------------

Sorceress Skills:

- Meteor: High dmg + no casting delay => no further comment :mrgreen:
- Firebolt: 3-4x stronger then Fireball, due to clvl bonus
- Chilling Armor: Def vs Missile: 1 Second <- what is that?????
- Frozen Orb: No casting delay. Damage seems ok.

- Fire/Ltng Mastery: They give very little gain, also it's a bit confusion, as they are applied before spellpower, as it seems.


Note
Those -act2 ,-act3, -act4, -act5 commands are really great for balance testing.


Edit: Added tested Sorceress Skills.

pmpch
Last edited by pmpch on Mon Sep 29, 2003 2:08 am, edited 8 times in total.
Bedevere: Well, now, uh, Launcelot, Galahad, and I, uh, wait until nightfall, and then leap out of the RABBIT, taking the French, uh, by surprise. Not only by surprise, but totally unarmed!
King Arthur: Who leaps out?

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Re: experiences from the beta

Post by Char » Sun Oct 05, 2003 5:57 pm

[quote=pmpch";p="130261"]Some item related stuff.
- Enlighted Armor (pala only) ... +2% all resis auto-mod... 2% c'mon![/quote]

actually just a display error i think. it should be 2% maximum resist all, which is better by far ;). goes up to 15% on magic items / 10% on rares. quite useful later on, though quite pointless early on.
Last edited by Char on Sun Oct 05, 2003 10:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: experiences from the beta

Post by Char » Fri Nov 07, 2003 3:07 pm

i just wanted to update what i experienced with my necro. the necro is level 50 now, and at the end of act3 nightmare (i left out some areas and still need khalims brain from the sewers).

let me start with the stats i have (remembered from my head, so could be wrong):

48 strength (35 + items)
25 base dex + items, no idea, irrelevant
42 vitality (35 + items)
230 spellpower (225 + items)

343 life (90 through base vitality, 40 through act3 quest, 213 through items)
about 750 mana (100 of which are from items)

51% fire resist
60% cold resist (MAX)
53% lightning resist
-11% poison resist

equipment:
helm is a circlet with +1 necro skills, 30% faster run / walk, mag damage reduced by 7
armor is a rare, 2-socket armor with lots of +life, resistances, and socketed with runes for 30% fire and lightning resistance, and some other stats
the necro head has 10% mana recovery, 12% resist all and +3 lifetap / +2 poison explosion
the wand has +1 summoning skills i think, and +2 poison explosion
the rings: one gives life, mana and resistances, the other gives +1 summoning skills and some resist
the boots do something i have forgotten, fastrun and resistances i think
the gloves give resistance too
the amulet gives +1 life / lvl and +6% mana
the charms give resistances, strength and life mainly

as you can see, i have a quite nice circlet (which i gambled) and a quite nice caster armor. i have used the necro lowlevel set for a long time (including baal kill) and changed that once i found that armor. the problem was that the necro head was missing and is still missing, with the head i would quite likely have used the set some more.


skills:
skeleton 12
skeleton mage 11
skeleton mastery 7
summon resist 4

poison explosion 10
bone spirit 8

life tap 4 (item)


here, i have focused on poison explosion (which i get several bonuses to, which makes up lvl 16 or so) and summoning skills. poison explosion is great since it is cheap and has high damage. sadly, it needs a corpse, which i get through bonespirit kills. poison explosion deals around 300 damage (might be a bit overpowered).
i can have 6 skeletons and 5 mages, which is quite a nice army that blocks some damage. it helps my hireling to survive, and each skeleton deals around 20 damage. that might not seem much, but that is 120 for all skeletons together, and the mages deal about equal amounts of damage, which makes more than 200 damage (if they all hit).
i didnt get curses yet because the lifetap thingie i have because of my items is quite useful and makes my skeletons and hireling survive longer by far. i will get decripify someday.


NM turns out to be hard. actually, the "usual" fights are quite easy, but boss fights are a pain in the butt. some bosses still kill my skeletons very easy (getting the summon resist skill was very helpful in act1 NM), and my hireling doesnt survive very long when facing a boss group alone. stormtree in particular was ugly, although solvable (took me some money to resurrect my hireling multiple times). my hireling has about 850 life and high defense (etheral high-defense armor i found in act1, defense aura) as well as damage that is okay and 35% lifeleech through life tap curse.

the fifth act on normal difficulty was a bit too hard and gave a bit too few experience. i will have to change that i think. getting through NM is not easy, and it especially takes a LOT of time (two to three hours per act, if you dont hang around too much, otherwise even more). but it is fun, and i am looking forward to getting to hell diff.
i found several uniques, some for the second time already. this is funny because i dont have a lot of uniques implemented yet, and several of them are class-specific ones.

it is impossible to play on more than players 4 in easy areas and players 1, maybe 2 in hard areas. my skeletons just die, and necromancer are by default not very good against few, tough enemies. masses of easy enemies are fun (itchies, skeletons, devourer with their "children").

the random immunities are quite nice, but they dont bother me too much. i deal three kinds of damage (poison thorough poison explode, magic through bone spirit, physical through my hireling and skeletons), and my skeleton mages deal four types of damage. physical / poison or physical / magic immunes are quite rare, but always the ones left of a group ;). i already found one three-elemental immune (magic, fire, lightning) boss. the random immunities reduce my kill speed a bit, but not too much. i just have to find the non-magic-immunes in a group to fire my bone spirits on.

my mana could be more (its empty quite often), but mana potions help (greater: 750 points, super: 1500 points). my life is enough since i have high resistances and are not hit very often (my skeletons block the enemies). but if i am hit, i die quite quickly. my defense is not effectively existant, and 343 life are not THAT much (although quite a lot seeing that i almost exclusively pushed spellpower).


i can upload the character sometime if you are interested. you can also comment on the character if you like ;).

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