Hi, Im currently playing on the Switch while im waiting for my new laptop to arrive and have some questions for the switch players that hopefully that someone can answer for me?
1. How do you give your merc a health potion while playing ?
Use the ZL button in conjunction with using the potion, whether from your belt (arrow/d-pad keys) or by long-pressing A in your inventory.
2. Is there a way to zoom in on the switch ?
Yes. Use the built-in zoom capability of your Switch. Enable it through System Settings > System > Zoom. To use it, double-tap the Home button; you will then be able to zoom in and out using Y and X, pan using the thumbsticks or d-pad, and lock the zoom settings by tapping Home again (you need to do this if you want the buttons to have their regular game mappings while you're zoomed in). Double-tap Home once more to revert to non-zoomed mode.
3. Is there a quick way to change between small mini map and full map and can you scroll it around like the PC version to check that you have everything mapped out for example?
Hit the - button to turn the map on or off, and long-press it to cycle through top-left, top-right, and fullscreen map modes.
Unfortunately, there is no way to pan the map display as you can on PC using the arrow keys. This is a major annoyance for me while playing on the Switch; hopefully they will enable this in a later patch. For example, they could have used the right thumbstick for this.
4. Can you cross progress between offline switch to offline PC ?
Not to my knowledge. Any of the cross-play features work only with online characters, and you will need a Switch Online subscription to play on b.net. This is another annoyance.
There is also zero support for other multiplayer methods, like TCP/IP or LAN games. Apparently, this facility existed in the PC beta (I never used it myself, as none of my PCs can run the game), but they removed it for some asinine reason. Let's hope that with all the negative press they're getting about their server issues they decide to reinstate it. I'd *love* to be able to play D2R locally with other Switch users; imagine playing with e friend on the train or something.
When you've got a console with portability and local group play as main selling points, this omission seems particularly egregious.
Cant think of anything else for now thanks unless other ppl have switch tips and tricks they have found so far?
Thanks
Until you manage to farm some good starter gear, you will probably want to stick with a 'safe' character like a skellimancer.
You will quickly run out of room in your stash (yes, this includes the three shared stash pages) if you are accustomed to hoarding. Try to kick this habit. Use up those pgems, crap jewels, and low runes for some early-game crafting. Be brutal about selling items you'll likely never use; if it's some unique item that would have just sat in your GoMule stash pre-D2R, then you're probably better off selling it.
Dropping potions and then picking them up is often a faster way to fill your belt than trying to load them one by one from your inventory.
Keep in mind the targeting AI uses a 'targeting cone' (well, more of a wedge or pie-slice area) to determine what to target. This means that you still need to face the general direction of what you want to attack, unless you're using a skill like Strafe.
If you're using a third-party controller that supports turbo, it can be useful in some cases. In particular, skills like Zeal, Fury, Fend, and Strafe that start 'whiffing' if blocking, hit recovery, or Dodge/Avoid get triggered can likely benefit from this. I haven't tested it, but since rapidly clicking the mouse sometimes helped with this in legacy D2 (it forced a new attack cycle to begin, even if the player still saw the previous cycle's animation), I suspect that rapid button presses might help here. Blade Fury gets a special mention; I expect that rapid button presses would prevent the wind-down/wind-up animation that will probably happen if you just hold the button down, since you can't target the monster at the back of a pack like you could with a mouse.
Some skills that were previously very useful have lost some usefulness on console. Examples include Decoy (it spawns adjacent to your character, rather than allowing you to cast it at a distance) and Guided Arrow, Bone Spirit, and Fist of the Heavens (you can't target that shaman or greater mummy at the back of a pack). Revive has likewise lost utility, as you cannot select which corpse gets raised, and Raise Skeletal Mage micromanagement is harder since targeting Unsummon is near impossible.
There is no /playersx support on console, at least not yet, which means leveling is much more of a grind, and you're likely to be underleveled for bosses if you're accustomed to running /players8 through Normal and Nightmare. Normal Duriel, in particular, will likely pose a stiff challenge for non-melee builds unless you grind some levels.
On the upside, ladder-only runewords are enabled in offline play; I've already made Insight a few times, and I'm looking forward to Harmony when I find a nice base.