Discussion State of the Game - How do you play D2R? What have you been up to lately?

New Feature Related Questions:
Do you use quick cast? Much like a few of the others, I didn't really understand what it was. So I guess that's a "no". :)

Do you use force move keybinding? Same as above.

Do you use always show items (toggle item label display)? No. I tried it, but found that my habit of my thumb always hitting the space bar to show the items was still happening, so I settled for that and not cluttering the screen with all the drops all the time. It also allows me to enjoy the improved graphics of D2R that much more.

Do you use classic or resurrected item spacing? All of my characters D2R characters are untwinked and new (none imported), so I guess whatever the default is?

Are you using Terror Zones? I haven't as of yet but I intend to when I sit down next to play.

Would you use Terror Zones to go for level 99? I'd like to, but as of yet I have not for the following reason. I've been playing strictly HC untwinked in D2R, so the Terror Zones present an unexpected conundrum for me. I love the idea of introducing variety into the monotony of the same old stale runs for characters in their 90s, but have not as of yet because of the discussion of having a separate table or an asterisk beside those names that use Terror Zones, which is a little unsettling to me. In getting to 99, I view Enigma and it's level of OP as a far bigger "advantage" over Terror Zones in terms of not "doing it the hard way". With the +1 Teleport, every character class is suddenly granted the ability to teleport repeatedly straight through to specific high-experience targets (characters that, to me, are not meant to just hop around ad infinitum), saving a crazy amount of time. To me, that seems like a far more advantageous way of "avoiding the grind" than whatever Terror Zones might bring to the table. But I digress.... :unsure:

What have you been up to lately?
What character/build have you been playing/enjoying lately? I have three untwinked HC characters in the Untwinked 99 thread. My favourite is the Freezing Arrow Amazon, which is currently at 93 - I just love shattering everything in sight - but I also have a Skellymancer and a Fanatic Zealadin. I'd like to start some other characters, but time is limited and whatever gaming I get in is currently aimed at the Frostmaiden.

Are there any builds that stick out to you as more fun now than in D2LoD? I've only tried the above three characters so far, so I can't really answer this one.

What have you been doing in game? For the Frostmaiden, it's been a combo of Stony Tombs, Ancient Tunnels, Hell Cows, and Chaos Sanctuary runs, with Pindle mixed in as well, and the odd Mephisto or Baal run for variety. With the Skellymancer, I've been running Baal more frequently, Hell Cows, and doing Pits runs. The Pally has mainly been Pits for now, though I haven't played him for awhile now.
 
What have you been doing in game? For the Frostmaiden, it's been a combo of Stony Tombs, Ancient Tunnels, Hell Cows, and Chaos Sanctuary runs, with Pindle mixed in as well, and the odd Mephisto or Baal run for variety.
Oooo frostmaiden. Do you have a write up somewhere? What level are you, what's your gear setup, what player count you farming on, do you like it?
 
Oooo frostmaiden. Do you have a write up somewhere? What level are you, what's your gear setup, what player count you farming on, do you like it?

I've listed some sporadic updates in the Untwinked 99'er thread, with the latest one being here. In summary:

May-May (HC Frostmaiden)
Weapon - upped Wizendraw Crusader Bow, with +3 B/C Melody Stag Bow on switch (upped Wizendraw seems to leech mana better for me)
Helm - Rare Coronet - +2 Amazon Skills, +30% R/W, +3% Mana Leech, +5 Dex, socketed with 11/11/11/11 jewel
Amulet - Mara's (25% res all)
Armor - Chains of Honor Wyrmhide
Gloves - Rare Light Gauntlets - +2 B/C skills, +20% IAS, +4 Str, +9% FR, +21% MF
Belt - Arachnid's
Boots - Silkweave
Ring #1 - Rare - +5% Mana Leech, +12 Mana, 18/11/11/11 Resistances
Ring #2 - Ravenfrost
Charms - 1 B/C Skiller, various Life, Mana and Resistance charms
Resistances - 75/75/68/51

Merc:
Helm - Andariel's Visage
Weapon - Infinity ethereal Thresher (+311% ED)
Armor - Treachery Mage Plate

I'm currently able to comfortably run Stony Tombs, Ancient Tunnels, and Pindle on P7, but the lack of skillers makes P7 Chaos runs very sluggish with all the CI Oblivion Knights, so I go down to P3 for that and for Cows. Hell Diablo at P3 tends to cause problems for my merc's survivability (he feels that -70% FR on Andy's), so I'm thinking that, moving forward, I might switch his helm back to Tal's for those Diablo kills. I find that while the Melody Stag Bow does more damage than the Wizendraw, it leaves me chugging a lot more mana potions, so I stick with the Wizendraw for the most part (upping it to Elite really helped with the mana leech).

My normal favourites are Skellymancers and Fanatic Zealadins, so taking May-may to 93 is pretty solid evidence of how much I've enjoyed the Frostmaiden. I turn 51 next week so my reactions aren't as quick as they used to be when D2 first came out, so I tend to err on the conservative play side a bit. That being said, and I don't want to jinx it but as far as HC goes, playing her feels pretty safe, and she has enough +R/W to buy me space to spam Freezing Arrow to slow down the mobs. And boy, all those shattering sounds please me! :)
 
@Foghorn Leghorn That's a seriously impressive loadout for an untwinked frostmaiden o_O

Why that base for melody? So curious, wouldn't a higher phys damage base be better and solve those leeching problems?

Have you ever tried out maxing fire arrow/exploding arrow? I use a maxed fire/exploding arrow + max cold/freezing arrow on mine and it seems to work out pretty well. I suppose you need more points into pierce than I do since you're not running razortail.

I view Enigma and it's level of OP as a far bigger "advantage" over Terror Zones in terms of not "doing it the hard way". With the +1 Teleport, every character class is suddenly granted the ability to teleport repeatedly straight through to specific high-experience targets

Pretty sure if you 99 out a frostmaiden even with enigma it's going to be seriously impressive. Terror zones definitely make it less impressive but I disagree that enigma changes that feat for bow characters. IMO playing a bow guy you're already choosing "the hard way". I got my MS bowazon to 95 in the CS and let me tell you it felt like it took forever, but doing seal runs with enigma feels like the only way that won't take literally decades. Terror zones cut that down by a huge margin, I went from 95 to 96 in like a day and I'm almost 97 now, and that's while managing my fulltime job, my very needy wife and my under 1 year old baby. I mean getting to 95 on this bowazon char is like a year long of pretty steady playing, then bam 97 in like 2 weeks rofl. But I'm sure I don't need to tell you how long it takes since you're 93 which is way more impressive on an untwinked bow guy.
 
Have you ever tried out maxing fire arrow/exploding arrow? I use a maxed fire/exploding arrow + max cold/freezing arrow on mine and it seems to work out pretty well. I suppose you need more points into pierce than I do since you're not running razortail.
With my elemental Bowazon, I used a fully synergized Immolation Arrow, with max Freezing Arrow for Fire Immune monsters, and it worked very well. With ‘Mist’ bow, no points in Pierce were required. After maxing Freezing Arrow, extra points went into Cold Arrow. I made ‘Mist’ in a Matriarchal Bow with +3 Bow Skills. One of my favourite items 🤩
 
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New Feature Related Questions:
  1. Do you use quick cast? Nope. I've never even tried it, but maybe I will now.
  2. Do you use force move keybinding? Nope. As above.
  3. Do you use always show items (toggle item label display)? or do you use the old method (push and hold to display)? My thumb lives on the alt button.
  4. Do you use classic or resurrected item spacing? I think I use whatever the default is.
  5. Are you using Terror Zones? Sure am!
  6. Would you use Terror Zones to go for level 99? Getting to 99 as a goal never interested me much, so probably not. I have a level 94 hammerdin in 1.14d with saved ancients, so a "genuine" 99 is still an option for me (~10% done!). For now, though, he's just my dkey runner. Originally, I only got him to 93 to make crafting caster ammies easier.
  7. How are you using Sunder Charms? Which builds/are you using them etc. I only have 2 martial arts skillers in D2R, so I've been using both cold and lighting on my mosaicsin as that's my main way to pump up the damage. I'm currently levelling a fire druid (focusing on Fissure) and I plan to use a fire sunder charm on him once he levels enough.

What have you been up to lately?
  1. What character/build have you been playing/enjoying lately? Mosaicsin! I'm still really enjoying this stupidly broken build, and I'm not settled on the details. I might try a build that uses cold/light/fire/physcial sunder charms to see how high I can push the average dps. Having a lot of decent res charms helps a lot. It occurred to me yesterday while I was trying to get to sleep that the utility of sunder charms may be that you can translate the benefit of defensive gear into offense.
  2. Are there any builds that stick out to you as more fun now than in D2LoD? Hmmmm, no. Most of the builds I have in D2R are ones that I never tried in 1.14d. In D2R, I have: furyzon, fire sorc, light sorc, fishymancer, pitzerker, mosaicsin (started as kicksin), FoHdin, meleemancer (Oath), hunter druid, fire druid, orb frenzy barb, holy shockdin. Of those, I only have a furyzon and fishymancer in 1.14d, and I don't have Infinity or Griffon's Eye in 1.14d, so the main difference is clear speed, not fun. Well, that's not quite true. I have a hunter druid in 1.14d, but I also have a Faith blade bow there and no Faith in D2R. I haven't played my LoD kicksin in a long time, so it's hard to compare. Well, there's another exception. I started a phoenix striker in LoD, but I parked her Act 1 NM. It's hard to compare the phoenix striker to the mosaicsin, and I'm not sure if they're really the same build. Also, Infinity and Griffon's Eye make a huge difference.
  3. What have you been doing in game? (mfing, runefinding, LKing, leveling? and where?!) Mostly all-finding and levelling with my assassin. Also, I'm still questing my fire druid. I had just made Enigma and a 6 Ist PB right before the recent patch dropped, so I was going to do a lot of pit runs, but Mosaic drew my attention away. I might do some more LK once I pat the fire druid.
 
New Feature Related Questions:

  1. Do you use quick cast?
    I did not know what it meant as others, I tried it on my PS sin and found it quite useful, so maybe I'll use it in certain circumstances
  2. Do you use force move keybinding?
    nope
  3. Do you use always show items (toggle item label display)? or do you use the old method (push and hold to display)?
    I tried the new way but I prefer the old method
  4. Do you use classic or resurrected item spacing?
    I don't know what it means, since I started from scratch on D2R, it should be default
  5. Are you using Terror Zones?
    Absolutely
  6. Would you use Terror Zones to go for level 99?
    I have never reached lvl 99 and never had it as a goal since it looked boring to me, so yes definitely I might use TZ and try to get there with my assassin.
  7. How are you using Sunder Charms? Which builds/are you using them etc.
    Tried it a little bit on sorceress, but I'm not convinced. I think I still prefer to go to specific targets adapted to the builds I make.

What have you been up to lately?

  1. What character/build have you been playing/enjoying lately?
    - Before patch 2.6, I played almost only with my javazon on cows to collect HRs
    - I enjoy a lot a my new MA assassin with dual mosaic, going full on lightning damage with CoT and PS, running TZs
    - I'm playing a fire orb/metor sorceress with 500 mf on TZ whenever the zone is not fit to my assassin


  2. Are there any builds that stick out to you as more fun now than in D2LoD?
    - the MA assassin of course, also I enjoyed a lot playing with my Fohdin which has become much more viable in D2R
  3. What have you been doing in game? (mfing, runefinding, LKing, leveling? and where?!)
    until patch 2.6 as I said, mostly cows. Now I'm planning to run TZs alternatively with my PS sin for leveling and MF, and my fire ball sorceress for MF. Hopefully I can get Ravenlore and/or Death Web to try some more builds :)
 
@snickersnack What's your firesorc setup? Have you used the fire sunder charm with her at all? How do you feel about your fire sorc?
She isn't geared right now, but I'll probably dust her off after I pat my fire druid. I miiight respec her into a ranged enchantress, though.
 
@Foghorn Leghorn That's a seriously impressive loadout for an untwinked frostmaiden o_O

Why that base for melody? So curious, wouldn't a higher phys damage base be better and solve those leeching problems?

Ideally, I would have a higher phys damage base for it (like upping my Wizendraw, for the reason you cited). But sadly I've not had one drop yet with three sockets, nor have the ones I've cubed gotten three sockets. And I've yet to have a Razortail drop, either. At this point though, I'm not sure if I'd swap aout the Arachnid's if one did. I would at least try, because I feel like 100% pierce trumps the added damage from Arachnid's but only 85% pierce. As for the loadout, I have to admit doing about 1,000 LK runs to find the runes for CoH. But other than that and Mara's, I feel like I've really scraped by with my charms (I reroll a TON, and still only have the one skiller), and no chance of a torch, and not sure I'd ever try for an Anni if an SOJ ever drops (which it won't, as I've never found one in my 20+ years of Diablo 2).

Have you ever tried out maxing fire arrow/exploding arrow? I use a maxed fire/exploding arrow + max cold/freezing arrow on mine and it seems to work out pretty well. I suppose you need more points into pierce than I do since you're not running razortail.

No, I've never tried that one out. Up until now, I've relied on my merc killing all the Cold Immune stuff, so I'm most intrigued by your suggestion. :)

Pretty sure if you 99 out a frostmaiden even with enigma it's going to be seriously impressive. Terror zones definitely make it less impressive but I disagree that enigma changes that feat for bow characters. IMO playing a bow guy you're already choosing "the hard way". I got my MS bowazon to 95 in the CS and let me tell you it felt like it took forever, but doing seal runs with enigma feels like the only way that won't take literally decades. Terror zones cut that down by a huge margin, I went from 95 to 96 in like a day and I'm almost 97 now, and that's while managing my fulltime job, my very needy wife and my under 1 year old baby. I mean getting to 95 on this bowazon char is like a year long of pretty steady playing, then bam 97 in like 2 weeks rofl. But I'm sure I don't need to tell you how long it takes since you're 93 which is way more impressive on an untwinked bow guy.

Wow, I didn't realize you could go so fast with Terror Zones. And yes, I can only imagine how long it took you to get to 95....quite clearly, as a matter of fact. haha

I guess at the end of the day, I've just been afraid to start using Terror Zones because I don't want to invalidate my Zon, and get bumped to a separate table in that Untwinked 99'er thread. :p
 
@maxicek @Excalibur

Or for anyone - #2 force move is a new key binding option that allows you to bind a key on your keyboard that forces your character to move to the location of your mouse when you press the button.

This helps if you have item labels on, and you want to move through them without clicking them, or if you want to precisely place your character around or through groups of mobs, without accidentally clicking and attacking them.
It also majorly saves my mouse hand. I play on PC and things like LK runs use to give me wrist problems before I figured out I could run through town with the force move key.
 
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New Feature Related Questions:
  1. Do you use quick cast? - Yes, I'm getting less confused in surprise situations now.
  2. Do you use force move keybinding? - If you mean assigning e.g. "throw potion" on the left button while not using one, so it always resolves to running: Yes, sometimes
  3. Do you use always show items (toggle item label display)? or do you use the old method (push and hold to display)? - Push and hold (i.e. items show up when pressing alt).
  4. Do you use classic or resurrected item spacing? - I have no idea what is meant with that. Perhaps a console thing? I'm playing on a PC.
  5. Are you using Terror Zones? - Yes.
  6. Would you use Terror Zones to go for level 99? - I'm not going for level 99. I'm doing my best not to waste exp by avoiding to die, however.
  7. How are you using Sunder Charms? Which builds/are you using them etc. - I'm currently using one only on my physical bowazon (who has Atma's Scarab) and my new ranged enchantress (the holy fire aura of her Flickering Fame helm counters the fire res penalty and FF also adds decent -fire res), but I intend to equip some physical melee characters with them if I have the means to apply some -physical demage effects on the enemies without suffering in other respects. Regarding elemental builds (including poison), I would need Infinity on the merc or exchange gear with -res items that would weaken the character too much in other respects, so that's currently not an option.

What have you been up to lately?
  1. What character/build have you been playing/enjoying lately? - I'm using my bowazon on most terror zones (including the World Stone Keep, despite her mediocre resists), but using the better MFers in areas in which they are good, like the cold sorceress in the Tunnels or the fohdin in the Arcane Sanctuary or Chaos Sanctuary.
  2. Are there any builds that stick out to you as more fun now than in D2LoD? - The physical bowazon already was my all-time favourite, but now with several bugs fixed, she's even better.
  3. What have you been doing in game? (mfing, runefinding, LKing, leveling? and where?!) - MFing and rune finding like there's no tomorrow.
 
I'm currently using one only on my physical bowazon
That's bold. I kept getting 1 shot using it on mine. Most of the time of course no issues, you're far away, or you're dodging things, but man when something strong physical hits yah it really hits yah. I'm curious kris what your setup is? I heard you talking about it multiple places now and it just so happens that's what I'm doing right now as well :)
 
I'm curious kris what your setup is?

Gear: Giant Skull filled with Hel and IAS jewel (in lack of better alternatives, probably changing to 2 ptopazes soon), Faith GMB, Skullder's with ptopaz, LoH, Razortail, frw/res boots (Natalya's or rare), Atma's Scarab, Ravenfrost, dual leech ring, res charms with priority on lightning, Gheed's, Bone Break. Weapon/shield switch: Ondal's Wisdom for prebuffing.

Skills: Max strafe, multishot, guided arrow, enough in pierce for 100% , some points in critical strike (until further points add just 1%), dodge, avoid and evade (just one on evade), L17 valkyrie when wearing Ondal's.

Stats: Enough in str, enough into vit for 1000 life, rest into dex.

Strategy: Cast Valk, then KILL. In dangerous areas (like when dolls are around or when facing Baal minions) I cast a decoy ahead of me. She can basically go everywhere, although I avoid areas with too many gloams. Se could wear Thundergod's then, but I'm usually not in a mood for exchanging gear just for a single area. Also, she doesn't have a lot of magic find (just 168 or 186 or so), so I'm using my usual MF characters in areas which they can deal with (like my blizzard sorc in the Tunnels and versus Andariel, my fohdin in the Chaos Sanctuary and Arcane Sanctum).

If you don't have a Faith bow, but Windforce, you can replace the Giant Skull with Andariel's and you could invest a bit into penetrate, as WF doesn't have ITD. I don't know how well it will go with Harmony, a Witch Wild String or so, however.

That's bold. I kept getting 1 shot using it on mine.

Bone Break adds just 10-20% additional physical damage, that's not really much. I happened to find a 10% one. She had just 800 life before, but when I respecced her after I found the Giant Skull, I made it 1000 in anticipation of additional damage from physical attacks and tougher monsters.
 
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