Diablo II reports

[jude]

This is just a thread where anyone can write about playing Diablo II, whenever they feel like it. Think of it as a Diablo II progress report on your game(s).

Jude

[water_moon]

We got a new computer (a laptop) and the connection/processor speed is good enough that we're playing MP in HC mode. We'll see how long that lasts....

[jude]

Probably until one of the characters dies permanently.

How do you handle the division of spoils when you play MP? Do you look at each others' screens and talk about it, or do you do trades without knowing what all the other person has?

I just started (another) new character, a Necromancer named Zuleik. I'm going to make things a little difficult on him and restrict his skills to:
a Golem (plus Golem Mastery and Summon Resist), probably settling on the Fire Golem once I hit 30th level;
the central and right columns of the Bone Skills tree (Teeth, Corpse explosion, Bone Spear, Bone Spirit, Bone Shield/Wall/Prison);
and the left column of Curses (Dim Vision, Confuse and Attract).

I don't know how he's going to survive at first without Amplify Damage unless he uses it from a wand. I usually give that skill to my Necromancers right away, and work up to Decrepify.

Jude

EDIT: Well, he's been killed twice, so far, although I had him equipped with a wand to boost his Bone Shield and give him level 2 amplify damage, plus javelins in the switch weapon. The archers really take him down. It should be easier once he gets his merc, and now that he's finally reached 6th level...

[water_moon]

jude said:

How do you handle the division of spoils when you play MP? Do you look at each others' screens and talk about it, or do you do trades without knowing what all the other person has?

I MP with goltar, we're in the same room, so my slow typing speed/horrific spelling doesn't matter.

So since I insist on full clears (everyting picked up and cleared out) we mostly just figure out when were both full, head back to town and mention anything we think worth keeping. Stuff not for use by our characters now goes into our stashes.

I don't know that I can be of much help with a necro, that's the one class I've never played.

[jude]

Yeah, that's how I like to play when MPing side-by-side, too. Very friendly.

I have a lot of experience with Necromancers. My first character ever was Thrull the Necromancer. But this new one, Zuleik, is having some problems because of the restrictions I am placing on him. He will do better once he gets a decent golem and Bone Spear.

Jude

[jude]

Got a chance to play for a couple of hours yesterday. My Cold Sorc, Sapphire, has reached 15th level pretty quickly, but now seems to be gaining experience very slowly, even though I found a couple of experience shrines. She's still in Act One, about to take on the Countess.

Jude

[jude]

Am I the only one playing Diablo II, anymore?

I spent a few days at my Mom's place over Christmas. She's let me intall Diablo II LOD on her eMac, although it uses up almost 2 GB of her 40 GB hard drive.

Started a new character, there, a Barbarian named Merle (blackbird). My plan is to have him specialize in Axes for his Mastery, get the first 2 columns of Warcries with several points in Shout, plaus the first 2 colums of Combar skills, eventually using Whirlwind. He's only 8th level so far, though.

Jude

[water_moon]

We just got back from out of town, and goltar's been so happy on his Chistmas pressent (Morrowwind) that haven't played in the last month or so.

[jude]

Well, I was getting hooked on a new RPG called Eschalon Book I, but since it won't run on Capybara's older Mac, I went back to playing Diablo II LOD on her Mac instead: a Tri-Sorc named Hypatia.

Jude

[jude]

I just realized that when using the Druids Arctic Blast, you can just tap the mouse button and freeze your enemies (thereby slowing them down) with very little mana cost, usually one 1 mana used. This is handy since the mana cost is listed as rather high and I already put a skill point into Arctic Blast to get to the Elemental Shield, and I didn't really want to waste any more points in it. But having a nice "slow down" spell that costs almost nothing to use is nice.

Jude

[water_moon]

I'll have to keep that in mind if I ever play a druid.

Gotlar has been so taken wiht morrowind (playing now) I'm not even sure I recall what our D2 charaters were doing :/

[jude]

I have a question for anyone who has played a Barbarian. It seems that when I add a skill point to my weapon mastery (Polearm), the damage listed in the Character screen goes down rather than up, although it should have added 5% of physical damage with each addition skill point. I have 4 skill points in Polearm Mastery now, which should give me an 11% chance of doing Critical Damage (and I would also like to know exactly what Critical damage does!) although I can't prove it...

So, can anyone answer why my damage went down when I added points to my Mastery, and also, what is Critical Damage and is there a way to tell when it is applied with a hit?

Thanks.

Jude

[water_moon]

I've noticed critical hits make a different sound. And they do seem to have higher dmg. (this out on the blood moors in normal.) As for the masteries, I'd never noticed that the dmg reading dropped, it could be a read out bug, it could be base dmg goes down and critical goes up so average goes up. *shrugs*

Now I'm REALLY going to have to get out the new guys this evening, assuming goltar isn't too sick...

ps. goltar says that criticals do double dmg.

Also I was thinking about it and I know in several blizzard games criticals are rolled first, and they automatically hit. So a low hit rate with a high critial chance actully means a high hit rate.

[jude]

Okay, based on that, I guess I didn't ruin my Barbarian by putting more points into Polearm Mastery. Thanks. Why do you need Goltar to play -player? (And I hope he's feeling better. Thank him from me for the info.)


Jude

[water_moon]

We've got a pair of HC chars we're taking through MP right now, and that's my only current barbie. I try to avod playing him solo b/c then he gets ahead of goltar's dude and that just gets frustating for us both.