Hi SPF (intro thread)
Hello everyone,
I've been reading the forum for a few months, but just now joined up. Since it looks like I'll post my first mat/pat thread in a day or so, largely due to the information I've gotten here, I figure it's time for an intro. Name's taken from the Usenet acronym for Yet Another Stupid Death, used frequently in the rec.games.roguelike newsgroups.
I became interested in Diablo when the original was previewed in the Warcraft II disk, and was one of the online beta testers for the game. It appealed to me at first for its resemblance to one of my all-time favorites, Nethack, but "real time", with graphics, and that nice Blizzardy touch. I stopped playing online after cheating became more the norm than the exception; the "bare naked mages" I'd attempt in response were small consolation at best.
I started playing D2 and the expansion when they first came out, but was again disheartened by the cheat+PKs, duping, and rampant rudeness I found on bnet. So I moved to solo play and self-muling from a second computer. In 2002, I stopped playing altogether as my progress was slow, my characters sucky, and my reflexes both slow and sucky, which can take the fun out of just about anything.
6 months ago, I stumbled across my D2LOD CD again while looking for a classic game to loan to a co-worker (Dungeon Keeper, fwiw). This got me tangenting back to thinking about D2 and led me eventually to this forum, which reawakened my interest in the game. Many of you here are quite inspiring, whether by way of the stories you relate, the information you provide, the excellent character build ideas you propose, and the challenges you voluntarily undertake within the scope of D2 - amazing, really.
Anyway, here's where I'm at:
CURRENTLY PLAYING - Softcore, single-player, 1.12, RWM+RRM+ATMA
BEST CHARACTERS -
BEST FINDS -
BEST ACT BOSS DROP - Gimmershred from Diablo(Hell diff), most of the quest drops have been lame so far
MOST FEARED MONSTERS - undead soul killers backed by greater mummies, anything capable of one-hit kills and fast enough to gain on my sorc while she's teleporting away (extra-fast frenzytaur boss from NM/HoA, I'm lookin' at you! - didn't even think it was possible until then... scary dude waxed my merc half a screen away in about half a second and nearly caught her while she was trying to jump into a TP! Tele'd across about half the level before I was able to lose him and portal out... chiling. And this is SC!)
PROBABLE NEXT CHARACTER - Caster druid or Trapasin, haven't decided
1.13? - Not just yet, I'd like a bit more confidence in RWM and muling compatibility, plus I'm kind of iffy about the OKs not casting IM anymore. That was a major strategic hurdle, and now its gone with a single patchy *poof*? Increased high rune drops sounds suspiciously like upgrade bait -- increasing the chances of something that's 1 in a million happening by 30% still means it's not going to happen much in regular single player games, while MP trading will continue to be plagued by dupers...
FAVORITE ACT - II for overall range of experiences and quality of "storyline", I think.
LEAST FAVORITEST - Hard to say. Act IV probably, it's too short and requires a super-extended questing session to get through the CS. Act III would be a close second, lately I've been getting an unsettling feeling that I might be murdering legitimate residents and indigenous population on my way through Kurast...
MOST DISAPPOINTING NPC -
THANKS -
Hello everyone,
I've been reading the forum for a few months, but just now joined up. Since it looks like I'll post my first mat/pat thread in a day or so, largely due to the information I've gotten here, I figure it's time for an intro. Name's taken from the Usenet acronym for Yet Another Stupid Death, used frequently in the rec.games.roguelike newsgroups.
I became interested in Diablo when the original was previewed in the Warcraft II disk, and was one of the online beta testers for the game. It appealed to me at first for its resemblance to one of my all-time favorites, Nethack, but "real time", with graphics, and that nice Blizzardy touch. I stopped playing online after cheating became more the norm than the exception; the "bare naked mages" I'd attempt in response were small consolation at best.
I started playing D2 and the expansion when they first came out, but was again disheartened by the cheat+PKs, duping, and rampant rudeness I found on bnet. So I moved to solo play and self-muling from a second computer. In 2002, I stopped playing altogether as my progress was slow, my characters sucky, and my reflexes both slow and sucky, which can take the fun out of just about anything.
6 months ago, I stumbled across my D2LOD CD again while looking for a classic game to loan to a co-worker (Dungeon Keeper, fwiw). This got me tangenting back to thinking about D2 and led me eventually to this forum, which reawakened my interest in the game. Many of you here are quite inspiring, whether by way of the stories you relate, the information you provide, the excellent character build ideas you propose, and the challenges you voluntarily undertake within the scope of D2 - amazing, really.
Anyway, here's where I'm at:
CURRENTLY PLAYING - Softcore, single-player, 1.12, RWM+RRM+ATMA
BEST CHARACTERS -
- Ballorbina, OrbItAll sorceress, 89/Hell/V
- RMortis, Fishymancer, 76/Hell/I
BEST FINDS -
- Ballorbina: UM - first trip into NM foothills (recently used for Duress)
- RMortis: 2 Skins of the Vipermagi - NM LK & KB, IIRC, on consecutive games (I started thinking they must be as common as Isenhart's Ubiquitous Case but haven't found any since)
BEST ACT BOSS DROP - Gimmershred from Diablo(Hell diff), most of the quest drops have been lame so far
MOST FEARED MONSTERS - undead soul killers backed by greater mummies, anything capable of one-hit kills and fast enough to gain on my sorc while she's teleporting away (extra-fast frenzytaur boss from NM/HoA, I'm lookin' at you! - didn't even think it was possible until then... scary dude waxed my merc half a screen away in about half a second and nearly caught her while she was trying to jump into a TP! Tele'd across about half the level before I was able to lose him and portal out... chiling. And this is SC!)
PROBABLE NEXT CHARACTER - Caster druid or Trapasin, haven't decided
1.13? - Not just yet, I'd like a bit more confidence in RWM and muling compatibility, plus I'm kind of iffy about the OKs not casting IM anymore. That was a major strategic hurdle, and now its gone with a single patchy *poof*? Increased high rune drops sounds suspiciously like upgrade bait -- increasing the chances of something that's 1 in a million happening by 30% still means it's not going to happen much in regular single player games, while MP trading will continue to be plagued by dupers...
FAVORITE ACT - II for overall range of experiences and quality of "storyline", I think.
LEAST FAVORITEST - Hard to say. Act IV probably, it's too short and requires a super-extended questing session to get through the CS. Act III would be a close second, lately I've been getting an unsettling feeling that I might be murdering legitimate residents and indigenous population on my way through Kurast...
MOST DISAPPOINTING NPC -
Tyrael, no question - this "angel" can apparently hand out skill points at will but withholds all but 2 per difficulty level whilst demanding human characters put their butts on a fairly dangerous line to solve problems created by his immortal mistakes. While losing(!) a battle to an (incomplete) Diablo in what we must assume to include normal difficulty, he even asks the obviously ailing and unreliable Marius to destroy Baal's soulstone, a potentially risky venture even for a well-equipped adventurer! And wtf is up with destroying the worldstone? At least TRY to fix it, first, will ya? Well, given how incompetent he's proven himself up to that point, it probably wouldn't end any better.
Tyrael should have his angeling license revoked. I wouldn't be surprised if he turned up again in DIII as one of the main bosses.
Tyrael should have his angeling license revoked. I wouldn't be surprised if he turned up again in DIII as one of the main bosses.
THANKS -
- Socialism and Nightfish for solid ground-up build guides;
- Sirpoopsalot, RTB, Tai, et al for extremely helpful additional info;
- InsaneWayne and Superdave for some amazing (and well-documented) tales of hardcore heroism;
- +props to all the mods for keeping this forum awesome