1.13 Public Test Realm online!

Re: 1.13 Public Test Realm online!

Looks like an alright patch. It makes the game a little easier, and there's nothing wrong with that. The game is ancient and fundamentally broken, some little changes here and there are all we can and should expect. Would have liked to see RWM made unnecessary for SP, although just RRM becoming obsolete is excessively cool.

People who cry about respeccing are pretty disgusting, given all the abuses that are already condoned by SPF. "Oh no, official Blizzard approved cheese, this is NOT COOL because it doesn't require 3rd party programs!"

I hope that with this patch Blizzard stops wasting valuable manpower on D2 and simply concentrates on making D3 all it can be.
 
Re: 1.13 Public Test Realm online!

I must say all in all, I think they did some nice things, yes to higher drop rates for high runes, so the casual player can eventually find at least 1... yes to nerfed hammerdins...
 
Re: 1.13 Public Test Realm online!

Wow, you guys remember that post I made about high runes in Travincal?

In 1.12a, p3, a high council member had a 1:318696 chance of dropping a Lo rune. According to silo's 1.13 drop calculator, under the same conditions it's 1:179388 in 1.13. That's a monstrous difference.

I predict Travincal runs will be the best way to find high runes, beating both LK running and HF rushing. I haven't done any math yet though.

Edit: Gold isn't included in your drop calculator, silo? I can't find it.
 
Re: 1.13 Public Test Realm online!

That's a shame, gold and high runes are pretty much all I care about these days :)
 
Re: 1.13 Public Test Realm online!

the negatives (making the game easier) outweighs the positives (some skill/build balancing) for me.

Sticking to 1.12 for now.


LOL at CE though
 
Re: 1.13 Public Test Realm online!

I'm not happy with most of the changes judging by comments here (feel free to correct any of my assumptions if they prove to be incorrect):

1. Once again SP has been shortchanged - No Ubers, No DC, No Ladder Runewords, No Shared Stash etc.
2. Respec - I don't mind this, you don't have to use it if you don't want to - although making it unlimited is a bit of a fail.
3. Increased drop rate = good but not good enough if the numbers are correct.
4. Orange colour? That's pretty lame - I was hoping for more differentiation, I like my RRM colours thanks.
5. Gold limit = meh whatever.
6. Reduced damage of Willowisps = making them easier which is not necessary.
7. Requirements to create a hardcore character removed = good for new players.
8. FE damage reduced = ok, although I didn't mind it as it was before.
9. Uber's minions no longer give exp = well since the ubers aren't available in SP I don't care.
10. IM removed = I can see this being useful to my zealot and other melee characters, they can actually run WSK and CS now - but I too liked the challenge. I have mixed feelings, but overall I'd say I like this change so that more builds can do runs to break up the monotony.
11. Skill Changes:

- Immolation Arrow changes = good but not great, would have loved the removal of the timer to make it more like freezing arrow, or at least stop this from interfering with Valkyrie timer. Also no AR fix for bowskills :(
- Do not like that Arctic Wind and Inferno are still utterly useless.
- Do not like that some strong skills have been strengthened even more.
- No mention of mana burn on Energy Shield?
- Hammerdin has been nerfed but not in a crippling way - this is ok, I never really liked my hammerdin and he is somewhere in Act 2 Hell or something.
- Druid has some buffs - but what about making Aldurs actually useful?
- Necromancer has insane power ups, his power is level is over 9000.
- Cloak of Shadows hasn't been fixed and neither has Wake of Fire.
- Hydra = interesting, have wanted to build a Hydra sorc for a while.
- Lightning Mastery has been nerfed but they couldn't tighten up the damage range of lightning skills?

Luckily I quit playing D2 quite a while back (it's been so long that I forgot when) and none of this entices me to pick it up again. This is a good thing because I have far too much other stuff to do! It's still a shame that they took maybe a year(+) to bring out this crap. They have changed some of the skills and given them a power boost but they didn't change others? I'm assuming it wasn't difficult to change the power levels of these skills, so changing others would also be possible. The only thing that is left is the addition of a new Realm only event which I can only assume took up the other 364.5 they had to do this. So it better be awesome, but of course we SPers probably won't get to play it.

Anyway, this is pretty much what I have come to expect from Blizzard! Of course your opinions may vary and I wish those of you who continue to play lot's of green, gold and orange! (Although I don't intend to play again - until I am less busy, I may eventually succumb to the intrigue about Hydra, Immolation Arrow and melee builds in places they shouldn't be so I might see you guys around - also I do check in from time to time and will keep up to date with the new developments for the next few days just to see what else is happening.

@ Silo: You're the man for fixing GoMule and ATMA so quickly and if I do decide to start afresh, it will be GoMule all the way - it is much less RSI-inducing than ATMA).

@ NagisaFurukawa: Keep me up to date dude - let me know if I am missing out okay!
 
Re: 1.13 Public Test Realm online!

I did do the math for Travincal runs and high (Vex+) runes, using the same method I did when comparing High Council running to LK/HF in 1.12a. Here's the conclusion, which I imagine is all you guys care about anyway :)

[highlight]1.12a[/highlight]
p3 Travincal runs: 1 Vex every 4 hours and 28 minutes
p3 LK runs: 1 Vex every 3 hours and 9 minutes
1.07 LoD HF Rushing: 1 Vex every 2 hours and 34 minutes

[highlight]1.13[/highlight]
Using the same method and the same numbers, except the rune drop rates:

p3 Travincal runs: 1 Vex every 1 hour 39 minutes

Keep in mind these are just initial numbers. It's pretty telling I think, though. It's interesting to note that Sur has a higher chance of dropping than Lo, and Jah has a higher chance of dropping than Ber.

For more info of how I did the math, you can check out my High Runes and the High Council topic.
 
Re: 1.13 Public Test Realm online!

The travincal news is at least first good news today. Thanks Fabian!

Just a content unrelated sidenote:

(rant warning)
Am I the only one who fails to see any actual work done on the patch so far?

Boosting/nerfing skills - 5 minutes to find them in the source and replacing numbers
IM/Gloams - the same.
Rune colors - copypasting RRM (or making new class of colored items beside the green, gold etc) .. urm, an hour? Ill be generous.
Respecing - adding butons and new "quest" to A1 would probably need some arwork and say .. two days.
New items - well, having previous change working, you add few cube recepies (5 minutes), code in new items (30 minutes?), also it will take a whole piece of artwork newbie for one day.
... we can follow this pattern for all of those. Lets say a week for all this scattered bits and pieces.

Then there are some resolution, dupe bug, sound atc. fixes, which could take around a week to implement together.

Thats half a month for a group of, say 3-4 ppl. And it was spread over almost a year now? Pardon me, but this is a joke!

So I see it this way:
Legacy programers: you blizz we want to make some last D2 work.
Blizz: ok, but you can work only during cig pauses and/or toilet breaks. Also, we want you to lure as much new people to the game as possible. You dont have to worry about old schoolers, they will spend money for D3 anyways, no matter how much poo we shovel their way. See, we dont care about making good games anymore, we care about making games which gets us the biggest bucks. Now excuse us, we have some yacht party with EA guys near Hawaii ...
 
Re: 1.13 Public Test Realm online!

They could have repaired that "plague" runeword (or w/e) which just had 2 spelling errors in the mpq files and thus doesnt work..
 
Re: 1.13 Public Test Realm online!

@skiffcz: I was about to write the same, until I saw that ioupainmax had already made this point. So we share your feelings. ;)

ioupainmax said:
The only thing that is left is the addition of a new Realm only event which I can only assume took up the other 364.5 [days] they had to do this. So it better be awesome, but of course we SPers probably won't get to play it.
Click to expand...

Also, they spend quite some time (failing to) implement an increased stash. :whistling:

skiffcz said:
Thats half a month for a group of, say 3-4 ppl.
Click to expand...

I don't think there's 3-4 ppl working on D2. More like one, parttime. At least that what's I remember reading in a D3 interview where the 1.13 patch came up.

Either way, as a "content patch" it is very disappointing, especially for SP. I don't see myself upgrading to 1.13 just to make a hydra sorc.



 
Re: 1.13 Public Test Realm online!

Liquid_Evil said:
Why is everyone crying foul over the removal of IM? IMO, Iron Maiden was one of the most broken moves in the game, and I'm glad to see something was finally done. Its effects either needed to apply to casters and ranged attackers so that they could feel the sting of lame, one-click, self-inflicted deaths in a spread-the-joy fashion OR it needed nerfed. (And it looks like completely removing it was easier for the programmers than trying to rebalance it.) Now perhaps more melee characters will attempt the long haul to ninety-nine and the world will get a little more balanced.
Click to expand...

Because you didn't die on IM if you planned for it. Now the planning is gone. I can make a zealot who doesn't need to change his attack type the minute I get it. Boring :bored:

The same goes with the gloam nerfing. Dolls on the other hand ;)

But what with the bugs. Does Hoto ravens work for instance?

Ulla


 
Re: 1.13 Public Test Realm online!

sirpoopsalot said:
Doppel, it sounds like you're someone that's willing to follow guides (loosely, at least) when starting a game. However, when I start any new game, I begin by actually playing it. If it looks potentially fun I'll figure out more info later, but when starting out I usually have absolutely no clue about what will and won't work, especially in the long term. So while you started with a Meteorb and probably made tolerably quick progress through Normal and Nightmare and Hell, I started with a Bashing Barb with ~18 in Iron Skin that slowed down pretty fast. But at that time I liked my barb and would've gladly kept trudging along if he'd been viable longer than he was.

Being ignorant of what works and what doesn't and discovering ways around those problems are part of the challenge and appeal of learning a new game. I'm well aware that at some point if I don't want to follow a guide I could screw up and have to start over if I want to progress very far. When the game's fun enough, I'm willing to do that - not everyone will be, which is why I think they made respec's.

Yes respec's are fischer-price/cheese that's unnecessary for you & I. But if Blizzard's trying to increase their market saturation of D2 before D3 comes out, odds are they weren't making all of their changes based solely on what's 'required' for experienced players.
Click to expand...

Its not exactly true i'm "willing" to follow giudes when "starting" a game, that is to say, i haven't just "started" (i restarted) and when i do play a game for the very first time i generally avoid guides (or walkthroughs) at all costs. But, like i implied i played D2 for years now (admittedly not the second it came out for irrelevant reasons, which is kinda sad, but i was virtually clueless when i finally did have it). I do of course read guides now, not to just follow them but to get a better understanding of the game. (it would be for example foolish to not read up on FCR breakpoints and instead stubbornly "guess" them yourself)

Would i be using respecs if the game had them all those years ago? I seriously doubt i wouldn't as i would feel hugely disadvantaged, and i imagine everyone would. That's the sad part about respecs, they become the standard the second they're introduced, they're like a self proclaimed proficy, no matter what everyone's feeling are about them or if they enrich or diminish a game. I feel this is something most gamedevelopers fail to understand. (the only thing they see is that everyone uses them and thus many start asking them to appear in other games, therefor it must be a good implementation)

Anyways, where was i? I will not be using them now though, as i don't like the idea and ease behind them and i don't feel not making use of it is going to put me at too huge a disadvantage now. (i also don't make use of any sort of rushing, or forwarding of items from previous versions, etc,... even though they're officially allowed, i think)

Another point i'm trying to make is that if i think back to all those numerous screwed up characters i made throughout the years (many due to my fault, some due to serious logical game inconstencies) then i'm sure i wouldn't remember half of them if it were for respecs, simply because i'd respecced most to "unfail" at some point in time. For example, i wouldn't be remembering my first ever character which made it to hell, and then no further because he pretty much relied on firegolem as i would've repecced the moment i realised this. Or i wouldn't remember my Rabies druid which i made blinded at the damage potential he seemed to offer, to then realise its aweful slow to wait and see enemies getting infected and eventually die. (although i did find out how nice he did in pvp pubs, surprising lots of players at how fast they went down to the poison :D)
I think D2 would've died down by now if it were for respecs.

(by the way, this meteorber i choose as my started character this time around is technically my first ever true meteorber, although i of course made her with a lot of for knowledge of many mechanics of the game, and you wouldn't believe how many other characters, of which many many cookie cutters i haven't actually played yet and want to play some time in the future; Hammerdin, zealadin, tarper, to name a few obvious ones)


 
Re: 1.13 Public Test Realm online!

I like that gloams got nerfed. A character with 1000 life and 75 lightning resist would get put into hit recovery by normal gloams. Not fun for me.

Removal of Iron Maiden doesn't invoke any feelings for me. On the one hand, less instant death, on the other, the uniqueness of CS is gone. My ideal solution would have been to remove IM only from the WSK OK's.

I like repec more and more with every passing minute. I've yet to do it though, but it won't be long until I use it to optimize my GF barb, and take him to Travincal on p3 :D
 
Re: 1.13 Public Test Realm online!

Something i forgot to mention.

I do kinda like the increased rune drop rate.
But, now i do feel that many runewords are way too overpowered. (some of them are overpowered regardless)
If the nerfed many of the current "highend" runewords, and added in some new (as powerful as the current) Last Wish-esque runewords (Hel Lo Cham Ber & Zod), then that would've been nice.
 
Re: 1.13 Public Test Realm online!

Doppel said:
Something i forgot to mention.

I do kinda like the increased rune drop rate.
But, now i do feel that many runewords are way too overpowered. (some of them are overpowered regardless)
If the nerfed many of the current "highend" runewords, and added in some new (as powerful as the current) Last Wish-esque runewords (Hel Lo Cham Ber & Zod), then that would've been nice.
Click to expand...

That doesn't make any sense :)

You think runewords are too powerful, but you want more powerful runewords?



 
Re: 1.13 Public Test Realm online!

Um, no, i want current overpowered runewords (which were sorta fine because of their runerarity) to get nerfed heavily and new (many HR required) runewords which aren't that obviously overpowered.
 
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