Kstuart's D2 Gameplay

[KStuart]

Mostly copying this across and as there is nothing much to report this one will be short and sweet

Restarted everything from scratch due to self isolating, what its a damn good excuse to reusme from nothing if you ask me, so just the one character to date. This will be Nena the eventual untwinked 99er as before and i'll update that thread once i get to a XP total that doesn't round to 0.00 billion. Currently in act 3 which i never really like in normal, or at all, as its a pain in the arse killing things without my Frozen Orbs up and running.

Build plan for Nena is the standard max Frozen Orb, some Cold mastery, max fire ball, max meteor, finishing on fire mastery as iirc this is the way to do it if you fire ball more than meteor which is how i usually play.

And just to have some pics this is my first S/U and also what the first plated belt i was gambling for (for the extra slot space) after many many many cycles with no plated belt gave me.

 

[KStuart]

Finally reached LK after the worlds longest great marsh ever. No seriously bloody huge and annoying.

Lvl 27 now and have also acquired both Cathan's rule and visage so a grand total of 4 Grail items now. I currently use Luhkoh grail remaining spreadsheet to see what i have left to go cos it does odds and when i get to Hell i can use the MF and area run times to see what i am meant to get.

Undecided on whether to start another character yet but if i do i shall prob fire up the first HC dude which will either be a Fishymancer or a Freezealot not sure yet, both are safe enoguh for HC though. HC also has separate stash on gomule for when i get stuff.

 

[KStuart]

Mini update

Did start a new character which is a HC Freezealot currently Lvl 10 having killed Blood Raven and done the other two areas there.

Nena is Lvl 28 having reached the Travi way point. Ideally i really want to get to Lvl 30 before venturing down into the DUrance levels so i can Orb the little buggers from a safe distance ideally with the moron rocking his Insight. Might be stretching that one a bit unless i choose to go rune hunting with the countess with a lot of luck and cubing so i'll just find them naturally. Even a Shael for Rhyme is a tad early. Prob spend sometime D2ing later today.

 

[KStuart]

Ended up doing a short spell only which was enough to get to Lvl 12 with Mr Freeze. Has a nice mapping sequence as Bishyboshy is right by the WP and then the WP for Raki is also next to him and the tunnel entrance. Bishy dropped Hsarus Iron FIst then circling around the area to play hunt the WP in the stony field got me Felloak.

Will see if i can find some time today but i'd not realised that World of Trucks had an event running which ends tomorrow so i have a few thousand km to drive still. Last night i trucked a double trailer load of er Gummy Bears across Holland.

 

[KStuart]

So did Diablo this morning on P1 to get it over and done with so i can hit Act 5 and some easy level ups on Eldritch. Nothing useful dropped as per normal. Did get a 4 os polearm from Shenk's mob via Larzuk so only need a Sol rune to complete Insight for the moron. Amusingly Eldritch dropped a Dol whilst quickly levelling to Lvl 34. A Shael would be nice too for a Rhyme shield so we'll see.

I guess i'll revert back to P1 from the P8 i was using on Eldtritch to power thru the Act 5 areas as things drop quicker at speed. Maybe get the runes i want faster this way.

Did also start a 3rd Character Buffy a dual wielding Assassin i'll figur eout how i want to build later on.

 

[Babyhell]

So you got a Paladin, a Sorceress and a new born Assassin right?

 

[KStuart]

So you got a Paladin, a Sorceress and a new born Assassin right?

Yep thats what i have so far. There will be others over time covering all characters just gotta work out what builds to go for and ideally 'cheat' by going for whateer best suits what the Sorceress collects.

 

[Babyhell]

I got the same building up process more or less with my pally in HC, but mine had been twinked a bit thanks to giveaways and a bit of trade afterwards. But most of the stuff used by my necro and assassin had been found by him, as shall be most of the stuff from my HC sept

In SC, same story, slightly more stressed due to traders/givers availability

On my sur I am now building up starting packs for characters to giveaway, just in case

 

[KStuart]

So some on off D2ing the last few weeks then i did a short 4 Countess NM spell tonight and got 3 greens and more to the point the Ort i was doing it for so i now have a spirit. Even got enough and a 4 os war scythe to make a second insight. Alas damagewise its worse than the first cos of poor rolls but on the flip side it is lvl 16 meditation which helps sorta.

As i am happily quipped i shall push on thru Act 1 and onwards now. As there is probably minimal difference between the two insights ill see how things go but maybe swap them back for a bit more damage.

Oh i may have accidentally created Brian a Fishymancer too.

 

[queenEm]

Oh i may have accidentally created Brian a Fishymancer too.

As is often done.... The Fishymancers sneak in wherever they can, when you are not looking...

 

[KStuart]

Pushed thru Act 2 last few days and even managed to net some green and gold. Nagelring to boost my MF, BLackhorn's face for the moron being it is Eth. Also several set items but nothing of noteor set completing.

Currently got Nena level 51 so will ponder updating the untwinked 99er thread but prob won't bother until i get into Act 4 or 5.

Also resisting creating other characters right now or even playing with the other 3 i have but i suspect that will change over the rest the weekend (which includes monday as its nominally my work from home week)

 

[KStuart]

So finally did some more today for 30 mins or so completing Act 3 having stopped after reaching LK last time i played. Rapidly found both a Lum and a Sol to complete Lore and Smoke albeit Lore is worse than my rockstopper which will stay. Smoke maxed my resists though.

Council dropped nothing useful and Duranve Act 1 and 2 where annoyingly miles away from the entrances. On the flipside the Act 2 waypoint and entrance to Act 3 are literally a single teleport apart or if you walk quite a long way

GUessing i may ponder farming Meph for stuff to stash and/or replace what i have already. Probably mostly to stash for other characters. Off course i have blown my good map luck on Nightmare not Hell now havn't it

 

[KStuart]

Lol RNG

Did 10 Meph runs middle week got one green, did 5 tonight got 7 green and gold combined albeit one was from a blood lord behind Meph. I had 3 green from a single drop.

Lycander pokey stick may be something i'll dabble with with a diff character in the future. More lol was a got enough flawless to make a set of perfect gems to roll a nifty 20% resist all and 30% MF ammy which is gonna make things better. I think i'll go thru Act 4 next with Nena as killing Izzy nets to skill points so i can boost up my fire balls to max lvl quicker. I forget which is the better way to max the others out when playing fire balls over fire bolts (or meteors although they hav their use when seperated from the baddies)

 

[KStuart]

So erm neglected D2 the last few weeks and have dabbled twice until tonight creating two new characters. A rabies druid and a IK conc Barby.

So tonight i thought i'd push on with Nena and went from having gone nowhere in Act 4 to river of flame and the hellforge in the space of 10 mins or so. Mostly down to short routes to next areas as well as being lazy and using P1. Izzy dead fast and so was Hephasto. AMusingly i got the max rune roll so now have a shiny Um rune stashed away. ALso got both Naj circlet and Natalya Totem as well as another Irthy Cuff.

I shall try and remember to do some more tomorrow and see how fast i cna melt things on the way to Diablo and then how fast he goes too. If it fast enough on P1 maybe do some runs there or maybe more likely to push on into Act 5 and set up for Shenk/ELdritch double running as a means to level up quickish with some decent drops now and then. Almost up to lvl 58 iirc.

 

[KStuart]

So er yes not a huge amount of D2 recently but some last few days or so mostly cos got a new telly due to upgrading my Sky package and needing a modern one with modern connectors. Means i can have netflix/prime on the telly whilst gaming which is a large upgrade to me. Better picture too

In terms of D2 play time mostly spent time getting my lesser dudes up to Lvl 12 or higher to open up 3rd tier stuff. Just got 2 of the 6 to go but might do some random killing with Nena on the off chance i get something decent. Resists are good but still only Lvl 71 in hell which is not really high enough

 

[KStuart]

So long delay in posting here then i see, oh well.

I now have D2R so will sort out the Gomule stuff soonish but essentially restartring from scratch and have a grand total of 3 characters to date.

A fishymancer that is merely created as i might stream that one on Twitch, a Freezelot and a dual weapon assassin. None are beyond den of evil and only the assassin has even been done and finished it.

This also means i have reset my grails back to zero hence needing to sort Gomule out even with the bigger shared stash.

On the plus side i watched the new cut scene for the opening of the game and thus Act 1 and that was a nice improvement. The game itself looks so so so much better too and am 'looking forward' to act 3 and seeing what the little buggers look like now.

 

[KStuart]

So then might as well bump this old one to semi track my goal for year progress. Here is what i posted in there the other day.

1) Try not to die too often trying to get past normal Duriel......
2) At least complete normal with a character so i can ogle the new cut scenes and better graphics throughout.
3) Grail erm under 400
4) Enter a tournament
5) Civ 6 Grail to 35 Leaders won with

So current status
1) Not gotten there yet but Fishymancer is in the Canyons currently
2) As above
3) Grail is -499 currently with Rixot's Keen and a Nagelring so far. Both last few days.
4) Kinda want higher up character first i think
5) Currently on 31/58 Leaders won with

Well erm first encounter with Duriel dropping back down to P1 naturally and using my Fishymancer. It went well so must have got the levelling right I had first point into Summon Resist which might have helped but managed to kill Duriel without having to go and rehire moron and acquire more skellies albeit skellies all died and moron was barely alive. Decentish drops too.

Pushed through early act 3 this morning all the way into Kurast (first part only) netting a angelic mantle and a blood rise.

Also don't know if it was the original graphics or just not looking that closely but today i saw the fetish shamen are one on top of another. I also quite like the snakes moving around the various jungle areas.

 

[KStuart]

Random sort of start of month update time

1) Try not to die too often trying to get past normal Duriel......
2) At least complete normal with a character so i can ogle the new cut scenes and better graphics throughout.
3) Grail erm under 400
4) Enter a tournament
5) Civ 6 Grail to 35 Leaders won with

So current status
1) Managed it twice easily enough with Fishymancer and with Freezealot Paladin. Might have been a tad too cautious but we'll see.
2) Fishymancer halfway thru Act 3 still as been on with others. As for Freezealot see below.
3) Grail is -499 currently.
4) Kinda want higher up character first i think
5) Currently on 31/58 Leaders won with

So then i had a pause over the Easter period as was away running marathons all long weekend. Waited until 2.4 dropped then cycled through all the characters i had and upgraded Gomule to 2.4 when it was sorted. Oddly my Freezealot refused to work with 'disconnected' appearing. Not too much of a issue as i could offload all gear onto shared stash then I deleted and made a new one. Meant I am a tad overpowered once i got the strength up (and level) but thats fine. Did mean Grail went down to as i simply made a new stash losing a few things which is fine being i only had 3 in there anyway.

Currently on 8 Characters as follows (yes names are a tad lazy)
BashyMcBashFace - Lvl 12 Concentrate based IK Barby
Cara - Lvl 5 Spearazon not fully decided how to set up yet but going to be physical damage.
ElleBishop - Lvl 7 Sorceress some sort of Lightning with a side of cold one
Gru - Lvl 28 Fishymancer
Kristen - Lvl 15 Assassin Dual claw weapon attacking of some sort
MrFreeze - Lvl 16 Freezealot
Nena - Lvl 19 Sorceress Orbiballer version as i prefer balls to meteors
Rabies - Lvl 6 Druid rabies/fury style

 

[snickersnack]

Cara - Lvl 5 Spearazon not fully decided how to set up yet but going to be physical damage.

You should try an Obedience spear. I made one for my spearzon (recently matted) and it was really quite strong. Not as good as something like BotD, of course, but certainly passable. It's too bad that Oath can't be made in a spear as that might be even better.

 

[KStuart]

Weekly update

Spent some time levelling up MrFreeze who is now lvl 21 and has a cube. Pretty much all thats been done so far in Act 2 but thats fine. Also done some more on Nena who is up to lvl 22 and has done the maggot lair this morning. Rabies is up to lvl 10 having killed Blood Raven and gone down below her home. Finally a little bit on Cara who is up to lvl 7 and ready to go into the cold plains.