Adventures of a Purist

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mark

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Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

I made another attempt to accomplish what I consider the greatest challenge
in the game, a HC, SP, Purist Guardian. By 'Purist' I mean; no hacks, no
twinking, no cheeze, no exiting the game other than town, and once through
all areas killing everything (no MF runs, no parking). The hardest part for
me is stash management, what to save and what to throw away. My goal going
in was to wear as much MF as possible while maintaining reasonable resists.
I had around 50 MF in normal, 150 in NM and 200 in Hell. Overall I had
reasonable drops and I think the MF strategy paid off.

I decided to go with a Skellimancer. Maxed Skellies and Mastery, then 15 in
CE, followed by maxing Dim Vision. I had Decrepify on a head so I got away
with Amp as my only other curse (till I bought a Necromancers wand with
Attract). I also had one point in all the other Summons.

Since I only had one run through, I player all of Normal and NM at
'Players8', so as to maximise experience and drops. FYI, P8 clearing
everything gave me these benchmarks:
Andy- L20
Duriel - L28
Mephisto - L32
Diablo - L35
Baal - L48
NM A - L52
NM D - L60
NM M - L64
NM D - L67
NM B - L74
I tried the Hell Blood Moor at P8 and it was terribly tedious, so I switched
to P4.

In Hell I had good resists despite having 200ish MF. My resists were
75/66/75/-19. Most of my gear came from gambling. Though every wand I used
was purchased from the vendors. The only unique I used was a Dwarf Star ring
found in early A2 Hell. The rest was rares and magical (except for a 4 PT
Gothic Plate). My charms were all resist and life charms, I had some very
good luck rerolling charms. And I also crafted a nice +1 Necro, prismatic
Ammy with some other minor mods.

I had a good run going. In the open areas we generally swarmed the baddies.
I'd DV a large area then Amp the small areas where my minions were fighting.
This let us move along quickly and fairly safely. DV is an awesome skill at
high levels. Inside it was slightly different. I'd cast DV just outside a
door, then open it and cast DV again as far into the room as possible. Then
I'd run (or teleport) in as far as I could to drag my army into the room. If
the Mages stopped in the doorway, or if some of the minions stopped near the
doorway to melee, I'd TP back to town and immediately return to concentrate
my horde. Overall I was cruising and was sure I'd make Guardian.

But this was HC, and as soon as you start feeling comfortable and confident
....

I made it as far as the CVT. Things were going good.I entered another room
full of baddies and had just return TP'd when my Merc tied into an ES, FE
Beetle boss. I thought I was standing plenty far enough away. But one stray
spark caught me. Deeds.

Damn, I was pissed to fall to the FE bug. But I'm not sure how I could have
played it differently. I guess I could have stood outside the doors and
waited till someone made a corpse for me to explode. But that makes the game
really tedious. I did it a few times (a lot in the Maggot lair) when the
rooms were too full to run or teleport into. And it was extremely time
consuming. I really don't want to play like that, I prefer a more aggressive
approach.

Like I said, my biggest difficulty was stash management. I saved all
flawless gems to cube for rerolling, and that was good. I also saved all my
runes and cubed them up as I went. But I never used a rune except for
crafting blood ammies. Looking back, the runes took up about 20-30 inventory
slots, for very little return. In the future maybe I should just ignore
runes.

To mitigate some of my stash problems, I frequently left stuff laying on the
ground in town while I adventured. Of course I lost a lot of good stuff that
way. Socketed items seem to disappear very quickly. Does anyone know the
rules for when and why stuff left on the ground disappears?

I'd like to give it another go, but I'm pretty burned out on a Skellimancer
for now. Not sure which other character I can play that has a reasonable
chance to kill everything, while avoiding the FE bug.

Regards-
Mark

Bongo-Fury
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

> To mitigate some of my stash problems, I frequently left stuff laying on
> the ground in town while I adventured. Of course I lost a lot of good
> stuff that way. Socketed items seem to disappear very quickly. Does anyone
> know the rules for when and why stuff left on the ground disappears?
<snippage>

From the arreat summit
http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/basics.shtml

Items and Gold Disappear after time when left on the ground
Don't leave items or Gold lying on the ground any longer than necessary.
Regular items and Gold disappear in about 15 minutes. Magic, Rare, Set, and
Unique items disappear after lying on the ground for about 1 hour.

Condolences on your deeds 8D

--
In a World Full of Insanity
Here I Stand.
Sliver
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

Mark wrote:
> To mitigate some of my stash problems, I frequently left stuff laying
on the
> ground in town while I adventured. Of course I lost a lot of good
stuff that
> way. Socketed items seem to disappear very quickly. Does anyone know
the
> rules for when and why stuff left on the ground disappears?

non-Magical items, along with gold, potions and scrolls vanish in under
15 minutes (depending on server stress). Yellow, green and blue items
hike it after about 30 minutes, gold items in about an hour.

>
> I'd like to give it another go, but I'm pretty burned out on a
Skellimancer
> for now. Not sure which other character I can play that has a
reasonable
> chance to kill everything, while avoiding the FE bug.

A meatgrinder necro can survive anything, including the FE bug. the
only item that he really needs is a pair of frosties, everything else
is negotiable.

Mickey
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

On Mon, 07 Mar 2005 16:22:13 +0000, Mark wrote:

> I made another attempt to accomplish what I consider the greatest challenge
> in the game, a HC, SP, Purist Guardian. By 'Purist' I mean; no hacks, no
> twinking, no cheeze, no exiting the game other than town, and once through
> all areas killing everything (no MF runs, no parking). The hardest part for
> me is stash management, what to save and what to throw away. My goal going
> in was to wear as much MF as possible while maintaining reasonable resists.
> I had around 50 MF in normal, 150 in NM and 200 in Hell. Overall I had
> reasonable drops and I think the MF strategy paid off.
>
> I decided to go with a Skellimancer. Maxed Skellies and Mastery, then 15 in
> CE, followed by maxing Dim Vision. I had Decrepify on a head so I got away
> with Amp as my only other curse (till I bought a Necromancers wand with
> Attract). I also had one point in all the other Summons.
>
> Since I only had one run through, I player all of Normal and NM at
> 'Players8', so as to maximise experience and drops. FYI, P8 clearing
> everything gave me these benchmarks:
> Andy- L20
> Duriel - L28
> Mephisto - L32
> Diablo - L35
> Baal - L48
> NM A - L52
> NM D - L60
> NM M - L64
> NM D - L67
> NM B - L74
> I tried the Hell Blood Moor at P8 and it was terribly tedious, so I switched
> to P4.
>
> In Hell I had good resists despite having 200ish MF. My resists were
> 75/66/75/-19. Most of my gear came from gambling. Though every wand I used
> was purchased from the vendors. The only unique I used was a Dwarf Star ring
> found in early A2 Hell. The rest was rares and magical (except for a 4 PT
> Gothic Plate). My charms were all resist and life charms, I had some very
> good luck rerolling charms. And I also crafted a nice +1 Necro, prismatic
> Ammy with some other minor mods.
>
> I had a good run going. In the open areas we generally swarmed the baddies.
> I'd DV a large area then Amp the small areas where my minions were fighting.
> This let us move along quickly and fairly safely. DV is an awesome skill at
> high levels. Inside it was slightly different. I'd cast DV just outside a
> door, then open it and cast DV again as far into the room as possible. Then
> I'd run (or teleport) in as far as I could to drag my army into the room. If
> the Mages stopped in the doorway, or if some of the minions stopped near the
> doorway to melee, I'd TP back to town and immediately return to concentrate
> my horde. Overall I was cruising and was sure I'd make Guardian.
>
> But this was HC, and as soon as you start feeling comfortable and confident
> ...
>
> I made it as far as the CVT. Things were going good.I entered another room
> full of baddies and had just return TP'd when my Merc tied into an ES, FE
> Beetle boss. I thought I was standing plenty far enough away. But one stray
> spark caught me. Deeds.
>
> Damn, I was pissed to fall to the FE bug. But I'm not sure how I could have
> played it differently. I guess I could have stood outside the doors and
> waited till someone made a corpse for me to explode. But that makes the game
> really tedious. I did it a few times (a lot in the Maggot lair) when the
> rooms were too full to run or teleport into. And it was extremely time
> consuming. I really don't want to play like that, I prefer a more aggressive
> approach.
>
> Like I said, my biggest difficulty was stash management. I saved all
> flawless gems to cube for rerolling, and that was good. I also saved all my
> runes and cubed them up as I went. But I never used a rune except for
> crafting blood ammies. Looking back, the runes took up about 20-30 inventory
> slots, for very little return. In the future maybe I should just ignore
> runes.

I also played the Wolf I spoke of the other day as a purist with regard
to use of stash. In my case I only saved 1 PSkull (cubed) for possible
use (didn't) and runes I thought I might actually use
(did make a "rhyme" shield, but never found a decent base for "black").
I did MF and had some funny cases of finding the same set items
again that I had already sold to the vendor and having to go
through a whole new decision process as my game situation
changed (e.g. I had to sell a sigon shield at one point because
I was using a 2h weapon and storing the "rhyme" bone shield
base on my switch, but later I found an adequate 1h weapon
and got another sigon to use on switch for buffing my summons).

> To mitigate some of my stash problems, I frequently left stuff laying on the
> ground in town while I adventured. Of course I lost a lot of good stuff that
> way. Socketed items seem to disappear very quickly. Does anyone know the
> rules for when and why stuff left on the ground disappears?

I didn't leave anything I cared about on the ground but I did
lose one of my best finds to an SP version of "rollback" - my
infant needed attention and by the time I got back to Diablo my
Win98 computer had decided to save power, interacting badly with
the open diablo session and hanging it before enough additional
deltas had been reached to save my item find to disk. It was
a circlet with 20+ res and +1 skills.


> I'd like to give it another go, but I'm pretty burned out on a Skellimancer
> for now. Not sure which other character I can play that has a reasonable
> chance to kill everything, while avoiding the FE bug.

I find solo Skellimancer a little slow going even with twinked chars,
but maybe you just need some luck to avoid FE, as I managed
to melee my way through act1 hell without getting hit too badly
by that (let my merc kill them but I wasn't that far away). It
seems like a roll of the dice except for some obvious avoids
like FE ancients, council, griswold, etc. Bonemancer would
be a good alterntive if you are allowed to buy potions, etc.
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

"Mickey" <mickeyb@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:1110220251.985475.15200@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
>
>> I'd like to give it another go, but I'm pretty burned out on a
> Skellimancer
>> for now. Not sure which other character I can play that has a
> reasonable
>> chance to kill everything, while avoiding the FE bug.
>
> A meatgrinder necro can survive anything, including the FE bug. the
> only item that he really needs is a pair of frosties, everything else
> is negotiable.

I respect your opinions Mickey, but nothing can survive the FE bug. I got
hit by a Beetle. They can have over 6000 life in Hell. Times 4 for P4. Times
4.25 for being a boss. Times 2.5 for extra strong. So (6000 x 4 x 4.25 x 2.5
= 255,000). Even with 75% fire resist I took, over 63k damage. FE has been
fixed on the realms, but in SP it's as deadly as ever.

Regards-
Mark

Bongo-Fury
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

"Sliver" <SliverREMOVETHIS@personainternet.com> wrote in message
news:112p75n7ojngu8f@corp.supernews.com...
>
> Items and Gold Disappear after time when left on the ground
> Don't leave items or Gold lying on the ground any longer than necessary.
> Regular items and Gold disappear in about 15 minutes. Magic, Rare, Set,
> and Unique items disappear after lying on the ground for about 1 hour.

That's how it use to be, but it seems like it has changed with 1.10.
Socketed things disappear after about 5 minutes, potions about 15. And other
stuff seems to disappear sporatically. I have left things on the ground for
hours while going back and forth from the field. Then other times stuff will
disappear after you've been away from it for only 10-15 minutes. I haven't
figured out the pattern yet.

> Condolences on your deeds 8D

I enjoyed the character while he lasted, that's what matters.
'... it's better to burn out, than to fade away ...'
But thanks for the thought.

Regards-
Mark

Bomgo-Fury
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

In article <kt3Xd.48348$ya6.46064@trndny01>,
Mark <bongofury@verizon.net> wrote:
>
>"Mickey" <mickeyb@comcast.net> wrote in message
>news:1110220251.985475.15200@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
>>
>>> I'd like to give it another go, but I'm pretty burned out on a
>> Skellimancer
>>> for now. Not sure which other character I can play that has a
>> reasonable
>>> chance to kill everything, while avoiding the FE bug.
>>
>> A meatgrinder necro can survive anything, including the FE bug. the
>> only item that he really needs is a pair of frosties, everything else
>> is negotiable.
>
>I respect your opinions Mickey, but nothing can survive the FE bug. I got
>hit by a Beetle. They can have over 6000 life in Hell. Times 4 for P4. Times
>4.25 for being a boss. Times 2.5 for extra strong. So (6000 x 4 x 4.25 x 2.5
>= 255,000). Even with 75% fire resist I took, over 63k damage. FE has been
>fixed on the realms, but in SP it's as deadly as ever.

I think what Mickey was trying to say is that the 'meatgrinder necro'
(nice term :) is one of the few characters which has very little chance
of being near the FE bug when it happens.

Of course most spellcasters are of the 'stand off' variant, but the
summoning necro has the best 'buffer' between himself and the FE monster.

Regards,

Patrick.
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

Patrick Vervoorn <patrick.vervoorn@NOSPAM.perihelion.demon.nl> wrote in
news:2478b$422ccc48$82a1d3bf$25633@news1.tudelft.nl:

> In article <kt3Xd.48348$ya6.46064@trndny01>,
> Mark <bongofury@verizon.net> wrote:
>>
>>"Mickey" <mickeyb@comcast.net> wrote in message
>>news:1110220251.985475.15200@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
>>>
>>>> I'd like to give it another go, but I'm pretty burned out on a
>>> Skellimancer
>>>> for now. Not sure which other character I can play that has a
>>> reasonable
>>>> chance to kill everything, while avoiding the FE bug.
>>>
>>> A meatgrinder necro can survive anything, including the FE bug. the
>>> only item that he really needs is a pair of frosties, everything
>>> else is negotiable.
>>
>>I respect your opinions Mickey, but nothing can survive the FE bug. I
>>got hit by a Beetle. They can have over 6000 life in Hell. Times 4 for
>>P4. Times 4.25 for being a boss. Times 2.5 for extra strong. So (6000
>>x 4 x 4.25 x 2.5 = 255,000). Even with 75% fire resist I took, over
>>63k damage. FE has been fixed on the realms, but in SP it's as deadly
>>as ever.
>
> I think what Mickey was trying to say is that the 'meatgrinder necro'
> (nice term :) is one of the few characters which has very little
> chance of being near the FE bug when it happens.
>
> Of course most spellcasters are of the 'stand off' variant, but the
> summoning necro has the best 'buffer' between himself and the FE
> monster.
>
> Regards,
>
> Patrick.
>
>

OK, two questions. What is a "meatgrinder necro?" And, why would he
have very little chance of being near the FE bug. OK, I lied. Three
questions. What is the FE bug?

TIA
Diane
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

"Patrick Vervoorn" <patrick.vervoorn@NOSPAM.perihelion.demon.nl> wrote in
message news:2478b$422ccc48$82a1d3bf$25633@news1.tudelft.nl...
>
>>fixed on the realms, but in SP it's as deadly as ever.
>
> I think what Mickey was trying to say is that the 'meatgrinder necro'
> (nice term :) is one of the few characters which has very little chance
> of being near the FE bug when it happens.
>
> Of course most spellcasters are of the 'stand off' variant, but the
> summoning necro has the best 'buffer' between himself and the FE monster.

I was almost half a screen away from the beetle that got me. But one stray
spark from him carried the fire damage and that was all it took. Staying at
a distance will mostly save you from the FE bug. Mostly.

Regards-
Mark

Bongo-Fury
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

Diane <kirchbabe1@verizon.net> typed as if devouring a plate of spoo:
> Patrick Vervoorn <patrick.vervoorn@NOSPAM.perihelion.demon.nl> wrote
> in news:2478b$422ccc48$82a1d3bf$25633@news1.tudelft.nl:
>
>> In article <kt3Xd.48348$ya6.46064@trndny01>,
>> Mark <bongofury@verizon.net> wrote:
>>>
>>> "Mickey" <mickeyb@comcast.net> wrote in message
>>> news:1110220251.985475.15200@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
>>>>
>>>>> I'd like to give it another go, but I'm pretty burned out on a
>>>>> Skellimancer for now. Not sure which other character I can play
>>>>> that has a reasonable chance to kill everything, while avoiding
>>>>> the FE bug.
>>>>
>>>> A meatgrinder necro can survive anything, including the FE bug. the
>>>> only item that he really needs is a pair of frosties, everything
>>>> else is negotiable.
>>>
>>> I respect your opinions Mickey, but nothing can survive the FE bug.
>>> I got hit by a Beetle. They can have over 6000 life in Hell. Times
>>> 4 for P4. Times 4.25 for being a boss. Times 2.5 for extra strong.
>>> So (6000 x 4 x 4.25 x 2.5 = 255,000). Even with 75% fire resist I
>>> took, over 63k damage. FE has been fixed on the realms, but in SP
>>> it's as deadly as ever.
>>
>> I think what Mickey was trying to say is that the 'meatgrinder necro'
>> (nice term :) is one of the few characters which has very little
>> chance of being near the FE bug when it happens.
>>
>> Of course most spellcasters are of the 'stand off' variant, but the
>> summoning necro has the best 'buffer' between himself and the FE
>> monster.
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Patrick.
>>
>>
>
> OK, two questions. What is a "meatgrinder necro?" And, why would he
> have very little chance of being near the FE bug. OK, I lied. Three
> questions. What is the FE bug?
>

Meatgrinder necros IIRC use a combination of large numbers of minions and
lots of CE'ing to rip through the monsters and ensure they (almost) never
get hit by anything (except maybe curses from Cursed bosses and OKies). He
can stand back, Dim Vision or Amp, and watch his minions destroy almost
anything. <g>

--
--
There is no spoon.

EvilBill - http://evilbill.50megs.com/index.html
My Quake2 FTP site: ftp://65.30.181.223/quake2/EvilBill/
Jack of Hearts of the Eeeevil Trek Cabal (TINC)
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

On Mon, 07 Mar 2005 16:22:13 GMT, "Mark" <bongofury@verizon.net>
wrote:

>I made another attempt to accomplish what I consider the greatest challenge
>in the game, a HC, SP, Purist Guardian.

Problem: the FE bug has been fixed on the realms, but will eventually
delete any HC char in SP. Blizzard really needs to address this, as
it has made the SP game all but unplayable for HC fans.

>By 'Purist' I mean; no hacks, no
>twinking, no cheeze, no exiting the game other than town, and once through
>all areas killing everything (no MF runs, no parking). The hardest part for
>me is stash management, what to save and what to throw away.

Uh-huh. If only it were possible to identify the Satan-worshipper at
Blizzard who decided to make the stash smaller than 10x10, and
organize repeated global boycotts of any company that ever gives him a
job, ever again. Or just put out a contract on him. Of course, it
would be better to also assassinate all his family and friends, his
dog, his cleaning lady, etc. But we can only do so much.

>But this was HC, and as soon as you start feeling comfortable and confident

Yep.

>I made it as far as the CVT. Things were going good.I entered another room
>full of baddies and had just return TP'd when my Merc tied into an ES, FE
>Beetle boss. I thought I was standing plenty far enough away. But one stray
>spark caught me. Deeds.

My condolences. It was a good run. Losing a senior HC char to
incompetent coding is pretty painful.

>Like I said, my biggest difficulty was stash management. I saved all
>flawless gems to cube for rerolling, and that was good. I also saved all my
>runes and cubed them up as I went. But I never used a rune except for
>crafting blood ammies. Looking back, the runes took up about 20-30 inventory
>slots, for very little return. In the future maybe I should just ignore
>runes.

?? You never rune-worded anything? I guess it's different in
ironman, where you can't buy or gamble stuff. I'm pretty aggressive
about using gems, runes and jewels to improve my gear in SP. IMO it's
a reasonable way (there being no good way, short of ATMA) to deal with
the stash-size "bug."

>To mitigate some of my stash problems, I frequently left stuff laying on the
>ground in town while I adventured. Of course I lost a lot of good stuff that
>way. Socketed items seem to disappear very quickly. Does anyone know the
>rules for when and why stuff left on the ground disappears?

Sorry, there's some info on how the realms do it, but I don't know the
rules for SP. I have also lost a lot of good stuff in SP by leaving
it lying on the ground, but have also had the experience of leaving
junk on the ground and finding it still there several _hours_ later.
It's annoying, as there's no good reason to make the stuff disappear
in SP. It doesn't take _that_ much memory. And why can't the game
just delete stuff that hasn't been taken to town?

>I'd like to give it another go, but I'm pretty burned out on a Skellimancer
>for now. Not sure which other character I can play that has a reasonable
>chance to kill everything, while avoiding the FE bug.

Very tough. Trapper might manage it. I'm working on an ironman
hammerdin in SP right now (one more session to finish Normal), but I'm
very afraid of NM FE, and even of NM Nihlathak.

-- Roy L
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

"EvilBill" <quake2lives@gmail.com> wrote in
news:39420qF5rb157U1@individual.net:

> Diane <kirchbabe1@verizon.net> typed as if devouring a plate of spoo:
>> Patrick Vervoorn <patrick.vervoorn@NOSPAM.perihelion.demon.nl> wrote
>> in news:2478b$422ccc48$82a1d3bf$25633@news1.tudelft.nl:
>>
>>> In article <kt3Xd.48348$ya6.46064@trndny01>,
>>> Mark <bongofury@verizon.net> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> "Mickey" <mickeyb@comcast.net> wrote in message
>>>> news:1110220251.985475.15200@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
>>>>>
>>>>>> I'd like to give it another go, but I'm pretty burned out on a
>>>>>> Skellimancer for now. Not sure which other character I can play
>>>>>> that has a reasonable chance to kill everything, while avoiding
>>>>>> the FE bug.
>>>>>
>>>>> A meatgrinder necro can survive anything, including the FE bug.
>>>>> the only item that he really needs is a pair of frosties,
>>>>> everything else is negotiable.
>>>>
>>>> I respect your opinions Mickey, but nothing can survive the FE bug.
>>>> I got hit by a Beetle. They can have over 6000 life in Hell. Times
>>>> 4 for P4. Times 4.25 for being a boss. Times 2.5 for extra strong.
>>>> So (6000 x 4 x 4.25 x 2.5 = 255,000). Even with 75% fire resist I
>>>> took, over 63k damage. FE has been fixed on the realms, but in SP
>>>> it's as deadly as ever.
>>>
>>> I think what Mickey was trying to say is that the 'meatgrinder
>>> necro' (nice term :) is one of the few characters which has very
>>> little chance of being near the FE bug when it happens.
>>>
>>> Of course most spellcasters are of the 'stand off' variant, but the
>>> summoning necro has the best 'buffer' between himself and the FE
>>> monster.
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>>
>>> Patrick.
>>>
>>>
>>
>> OK, two questions. What is a "meatgrinder necro?" And, why would he
>> have very little chance of being near the FE bug. OK, I lied. Three
>> questions. What is the FE bug?
>>
>
> Meatgrinder necros IIRC use a combination of large numbers of minions
> and lots of CE'ing to rip through the monsters and ensure they
> (almost) never get hit by anything (except maybe curses from Cursed
> bosses and OKies). He can stand back, Dim Vision or Amp, and watch his
> minions destroy almost anything. <g>
>

Ah, then that sounds just exactly like my skellymancer. Hey hey hey,
I'm a meatgrinder.

Diane
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

"EvilBill" <quake2lives@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:39420qF5rb157U1@individual.net...
>
> Meatgrinder necros IIRC use a combination of large numbers of minions and
> lots of CE'ing to rip through the monsters

Hey, that's just about what I was playing, and I still died.

> and ensure they (almost) never get hit by anything (except maybe curses
> from Cursed bosses and OKies).

Or one tiny lightning blob that squeezes through your offensive linemen, and
tickles your feet just as you turn to run, deeds.


> He can stand back, Dim Vision or Amp, and watch his minions destroy almost
> anything. <g>

That's pretty much my MO. Though I do like to run into the thick of the
blinded enemies to get my minions into the action.

Regards-
Mark

Bongo-Fury
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

royls@telus.net <royls@telus.net> typed as if devouring a plate of spoo:
>
> ?? You never rune-worded anything? I guess it's different in
> ironman, where you can't buy or gamble stuff. I'm pretty aggressive
> about using gems, runes and jewels to improve my gear in SP. IMO it's
> a reasonable way (there being no good way, short of ATMA) to deal with
> the stash-size "bug."
>

Except for mods which use PlugY's infinite stash 😉

--
--
There is no spoon.

EvilBill - http://evilbill.50megs.com/index.html
My Quake2 FTP site: ftp://65.30.181.223/quake2/EvilBill/
Jack of Hearts of the Eeeevil Trek Cabal (TINC)
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

*snippy*


>>>I'd like to give it another go, but I'm pretty burned out on a
>>>Skellimancer
>>>for now. Not sure which other character I can play that has a reasonable
>>>chance to kill everything, while avoiding the FE bug.
>>
>> Very tough. Trapper might manage it. I'm working on an ironman
>> hammerdin in SP right now (one more session to finish Normal), but I'm
>> very afraid of NM FE, and even of NM Nihlathak.
>
> Ironmas Hammerdin? What are you going to do when you hit the Maggot Lairs?
> Let alone having to deal with FE.
>
> I thought about a Trapper. But you have the problem of dealing with
> LI/Physical Immunes. I thought of Blade Fury since that's a one point
> wonder. Will an elemental wand or other weapon kill with BF in Hell in
> order to get the DS snowball rolling? Fade, Mind Blast and CoS make the
> trapper an attractive choice for my next attempt.
>
> Regards-
> Mark
>
> Bongo-Fury


If you wanted a pure trapper, Fire Blast is supposed to work well as it gets
synergy bonuses from the lightning tree. I haven't played a pure trapper
yet so YMMV.

I was going to suggest trying a DTalon trapper, but the more I think about
it it would not be workable in hell unless you got very lucky with drops.
The BFury/Trapper should be workable though. There are plenty of cheap ways
to get crushing blow and even if your damage was not great, your merc should
be able to finish them off. I can't remember if CB works on PIs, probably
not. You should be able to find a decent elemental damage wand or weapon
which, with high Venom, will take care of PI/LIs (slowly). If they are too
tough, skip them. The biggest problem will probably be the Gloams in WS2/3.
If you are lucky, you won't roll them. If you do, Cloak and whittle away.
GL.

By the way, some examples of good cheap stuff are Clegs set, Strength,
Black, and crafted knockback gloves or Nef in weapon.

=Steve
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

Mark wrote:
> "Mickey" <mickeyb@comcast.net> wrote in message
> news:1110220251.985475.15200@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
> >
> >> I'd like to give it another go, but I'm pretty burned out on a
> > Skellimancer
> >> for now. Not sure which other character I can play that has a
> > reasonable
> >> chance to kill everything, while avoiding the FE bug.
> >
> > A meatgrinder necro can survive anything, including the FE bug. the
> > only item that he really needs is a pair of frosties, everything
else
> > is negotiable.
>
> I respect your opinions Mickey, but nothing can survive the FE bug. I
got
> hit by a Beetle. They can have over 6000 life in Hell. Times 4 for
P4. Times
> 4.25 for being a boss. Times 2.5 for extra strong. So (6000 x 4 x
4.25 x 2.5
> = 255,000). Even with 75% fire resist I took, over 63k damage. FE has
been
> fixed on the realms, but in SP it's as deadly as ever.
>

Oh, I know the damage is enormous. I wasn't inferring that the
meatgrinder can survive it by taking the hit, he can survive it my
avoiding the hit.

Mickey
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

In article <uq4Xd.92171$g16.50504@trndny08>,
Mark <bongofury@verizon.net> wrote:
>
>"Patrick Vervoorn" <patrick.vervoorn@NOSPAM.perihelion.demon.nl> wrote in
>message news:2478b$422ccc48$82a1d3bf$25633@news1.tudelft.nl...
>>
>>>fixed on the realms, but in SP it's as deadly as ever.
>>
>> I think what Mickey was trying to say is that the 'meatgrinder necro'
>> (nice term :) is one of the few characters which has very little chance
>> of being near the FE bug when it happens.
>>
>> Of course most spellcasters are of the 'stand off' variant, but the
>> summoning necro has the best 'buffer' between himself and the FE monster.
>
>I was almost half a screen away from the beetle that got me. But one stray
>spark from him carried the fire damage and that was all it took. Staying at
>a distance will mostly save you from the FE bug. Mostly.

Are you saying the spark generated from this beetle's death explosion
carried the damage you described earlier? I though the FE bug only
affected stuff within the explosion's radius (about a quarter to half a
screen is my 'safety zone').

If so, this is new for me... Luckily I only play on B.Net, where it has
been (mostly) fixed...

Regards,

Patrick.
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

On Tue, 08 Mar 2005 00:30:25 GMT, "Mark" <bongofury@verizon.net>
wrote:

><royls@telus.net> wrote in message news:422cda31.26431580@news.telus.net...
>>
>>>By 'Purist' I mean; no hacks, no
>>>twinking, no cheeze, no exiting the game other than town, and once through
>>>all areas killing everything (no MF runs, no parking). The hardest part
>>>for
>>>me is stash management, what to save and what to throw away.
>>
>> Uh-huh. If only it were possible to identify the Satan-worshipper at
>> Blizzard who decided to make the stash smaller than 10x10, and
>> organize repeated global boycotts of any company that ever gives him a
>> job, ever again. Or just put out a contract on him. Of course, it
>> would be better to also assassinate all his family and friends, his
>> dog, his cleaning lady, etc. But we can only do so much.
>
>Oh c'mon Roy, it's not that bad.

It's worse. It's a _totally_pointless_ irritant, roughly equivalent
to having to stop every 5 minutes during the game and type in the CD
key.

>While I agree the small stash is a pain in
>the ass for general play, I can certainly understand the design decision
>behind it.

Then I suspect you are not a game designer...

>It adds a whole other dimension to the game, what to keep and
>what to toss.

Wrong. That would be there anyway, even with a 10x10 stash. And if
that's what they wanted to do, why have a stash at all? The point is,
the 10x10 code, graphics, etc. is _already_there_ for the vendor
windows. They had to _go_out_of_their_way_, _incur_costs_, make the
game use more memory, etc., just to make the stash _less_useful_ to
the player. 6x8 is clearly and undeniably _too_small_, _far_ too
small, to allow SP players to use the game's resources effectively,
especially crafting and runewords. It _flatly_contradicts_ and in
large measure _reverses_ the other design decisions that put crafting,
gem and rune cubing, etc. in the game in the first place. You
_cannot_ store a useful quantity of gems, runes, jewels, socketed
items, craftable items, etc. for a SP char in a 6x8 stash. But you
_could_ with a 10x10 stash. So the 6x8 stash is just outright
Satan-worship, plain and simple, and the individual responsible for it
should _never_ be permitted to work in game design ever again, and
should have all the money they were paid while working at Blizzard
confiscated and used to make a patch that increases the stash to
10x10.

>And between mules on the realms and ATMA's for SP, there is a
>viable workaround for general play.

Deliberately forcing paying customers to use workarounds is
_Satan-worship_.

>I wouldn't want to play that way all the
>time, but I like the challenge on occasion.

Let me guess: you also like scratching blackboards with your
fingernails.

>> ?? You never rune-worded anything? I guess it's different in
>> ironman, where you can't buy or gamble stuff. I'm pretty aggressive
>> about using gems, runes and jewels to improve my gear in SP. IMO it's
>> a reasonable way (there being no good way, short of ATMA) to deal with
>> the stash-size "bug."
>
>I used a chipped topaz helm and armor from A1 all the way through normal. So
>I never made a Stealth or Lore, the most common runewords for a
>Skellimancer.

Oh, yeah, Stealth rocks for ironman!

>> Sorry, there's some info on how the realms do it, but I don't know the
>> rules for SP. I have also lost a lot of good stuff in SP by leaving
>> it lying on the ground, but have also had the experience of leaving
>> junk on the ground and finding it still there several _hours_ later.
>> It's annoying, as there's no good reason to make the stuff disappear
>> in SP. It doesn't take _that_ much memory. And why can't the game
>> just delete stuff that hasn't been taken to town?
>
>Yup, I don't understand it.

It's time to face the truth, Mark: _Satan-worship_.

>>>I'd like to give it another go, but I'm pretty burned out on a
>>>Skellimancer
>>>for now. Not sure which other character I can play that has a reasonable
>>>chance to kill everything, while avoiding the FE bug.
>>
>> Very tough. Trapper might manage it. I'm working on an ironman
>> hammerdin in SP right now (one more session to finish Normal), but I'm
>> very afraid of NM FE, and even of NM Nihlathak.
>
>Ironmas Hammerdin? What are you going to do when you hit the Maggot Lairs?

I think I can handle the Lair using tactical positioning, as long as
FE stays away. Except for FE, the Lair's worse for a skellimancer,
IMO.

>Let alone having to deal with FE.

That's the big one. Actually, I kind of took it on deliberately, to
train myself to deal with it. I don't actually expect to survive NM.

>I thought about a Trapper. But you have the problem of dealing with
>LI/Physical Immunes.

Right. You have some choices, though: Fireblast; BF with some kind of
big elemental/poison damage weapon; Venom; merc weapon; and SM. I'd
take BF anyway, just because it is so often useful and allows you to
get the benefit of any really good weapons that drop, and a strong SM
is really handy when you get into spots where you need a castable
minion to distract a baddy. The usefulness of the merc weapon depends
on your play parameters and what drops. So your strategic choice
almost comes down to maxing FB or Venom. A pure trapper would go with
FB, but IMO Venom is more useful at modest levels, if you don't have
the skill points to spare to max FB.

>I thought of Blade Fury since that's a one point
>wonder. Will an elemental wand or other weapon kill with BF in Hell in order
>to get the DS snowball rolling?

Yes, but slowly, unless the weapon is uber, like Gimmershreds.

>Fade, Mind Blast and CoS make the trapper an
>attractive choice for my next attempt.

GFI! Just have a plan for handling the Ancients...

-- Roy L
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

"Steve W" <stwysongREMOVE@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
news:2K7Xd.17554$hU7.12672@newssvr33.news.prodigy.com...
>
> If you wanted a pure trapper, Fire Blast is supposed to work well as it
> gets synergy bonuses from the lightning tree. I haven't played a pure
> trapper yet so YMMV.

I've used FB on a Ltg. Trapper and it's a slow killer. It'll do the job, but
I was hoping for something better.

Regards-
Mark

Bongo-Fury
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

"~misfit~" <misfit61nz@hooya.co.nz> wrote in message
news:422d19b4_5@x-privat.org...
>
> To change the subject a little, I have a skellimancer who has just about
> finished normal. Not HC, SP or Purist. However I decided to go MF all the
> way with him, equiped a Gull Dagger (100% MF) at lvl 4 as well as topazed
> everything, going from chippies to flaweds etc. Nagels as soon as I could,
> Goldwrap like wise, Tarnhelm, PTopazed as soon as he hit lvl 18. He is in
> act 4 and has played solo all the way through, no rushing and he has found
> exactly *ZERO* uniques so far. One or two set items but no uniques.
> Amazing
> huh?

It's funny how luck runs sometimes. You can have lots of MF and find squat.
Just like you can have zero MF and find lots of nice stuff. Nothing beats
good luck.

My Purist found two Cathans rings in normal. The only other set items he
found were Sigons gloves, helm (2), boots (3), and belt. Once again, it's
funny how things run sometimes.

> Well, I thought so anyway. I have quite a few high-level uniques but
> thought
> it would be nice to have some of the lower level ones I don't have to
> twink
> starting characters with. (Lenymo, Biggins Bonnet, Hotspur etc.)

Some of the low level items are some of the toughest to find. Many Grailers
have a tougher time getting some of them than they do the elite stuff.

Regards-
Mark

Bongo-Fury
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

<royls@telus.net> wrote in message news:422dfb90.9983890@news.telus.net...
>
>>While I agree the small stash is a pain in
>>the ass for general play, I can certainly understand the design decision
>>behind it.
>
> Then I suspect you are not a game designer...

I said I can understand the design decision, I didn't say it was a good
implementation.

> is just outright
> Satan-worship,

> Deliberately forcing paying customers to use workarounds is
> _Satan-worship_.


> It's time to face the truth, Mark: _Satan-worship_.

I fail to understand how you equate doing sloppy work with a persons
religious beliefs. Or are you just trying to make outrageous statements to
make a point?

>>I wouldn't want to play that way all the
>>time, but I like the challenge on occasion.
>
> Let me guess: you also like scratching blackboards with your
> fingernails.

No, but I do like to do 20 mile runs.

>>Ironmas Hammerdin? What are you going to do when you hit the Maggot Lairs?
>
> I think I can handle the Lair using tactical positioning, as long as
> FE stays away. Except for FE, the Lair's worse for a skellimancer,
> IMO.

I only played one Hammerdin, and the ML was just too tight for me to get the
hammers to kill effectively. No matter how I turned or moved I just couldn't
get them to come out in the right place.

The Skellimancer was slow with one skelly in the tunnel having to make the
first body. But then CE took over and it was easy from there. And standing
back meant I had zero chance of a FE problem. It would have been a lot
better if I wasn't doing full clears too. I would have just used my teleport
staff to bypass most of it.

>>Let alone having to deal with FE.
>
> That's the big one. Actually, I kind of took it on deliberately, to
> train myself to deal with it. I don't actually expect to survive NM.

NM doesn't scare me, it's A2 Hell with those damned beetles.

>>I thought about a Trapper. But you have the problem of dealing with
>>LI/Physical Immunes.
>
> Right. You have some choices, though: Fireblast; BF with some kind of
> big elemental/poison damage weapon; Venom; merc weapon; and SM. I'd
> take BF anyway, just because it is so often useful and allows you to
> get the benefit of any really good weapons that drop, and a strong SM
> is really handy when you get into spots where you need a castable
> minion to distract a baddy. The usefulness of the merc weapon depends
> on your play parameters and what drops. So your strategic choice
> almost comes down to maxing FB or Venom. A pure trapper would go with
> FB, but IMO Venom is more useful at modest levels, if you don't have
> the skill points to spare to max FB.

I'm looking at 46 points in Traps to max LS and DS. And another 26 in Shadow
Disciplins to get 17 in SM and one in everything else. So that puts me at
L65 in late NM. I'll probably need a few more in Fade to get my Hell resists
in order. So that should leave me enough points to pump one more skill. I've
done FB before, and that's iffy. Never tried Venom, how does that work out?

>>I thought of Blade Fury since that's a one point
>>wonder. Will an elemental wand or other weapon kill with BF in Hell in
>>order
>>to get the DS snowball rolling?
>
> Yes, but slowly, unless the weapon is uber, like Gimmershreds.

I guess there's no quick third killing option for the trapper. Either FB or
BF seem to be problematic.

>>Fade, Mind Blast and CoS make the trapper an
>>attractive choice for my next attempt.
>
> GFI! Just have a plan for handling the Ancients...

You think I can get away with running away screaming and continually
throwing SM at them? ;-)

Regards-
Mark

Bongo-Fury
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

"Patrick Vervoorn" <patrick.vervoorn@NOSPAM.perihelion.demon.nl> wrote in
message news:500e$422d6908$82a1d3bf$30605@news1.tudelft.nl...
>
> Are you saying the spark generated from this beetle's death explosion
> carried the damage you described earlier?

Yup, exactly.

> I though the FE bug only
> affected stuff within the explosion's radius (about a quarter to half a
> screen is my 'safety zone').

That's the common manifestation of FE. But it can also be carried on LE or
beetle sparks, CE death nova, melee or missile attacks, or HS and HF aura
pulses.

> If so, this is new for me... Luckily I only play on B.Net, where it has
> been (mostly) fixed...

Unfortunately, the SP part of the game is badly neglected.

Regards-
Mark

Bongo-Fury
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

"Mark" <bongofury@verizon.net> wrote in message
news😱t3Xd.45443$f%5.37551@trndny03...
>
> "Sliver" <SliverREMOVETHIS@personainternet.com> wrote in message
> news:112p75n7ojngu8f@corp.supernews.com...
> >
> > Items and Gold Disappear after time when left on the ground
> > Don't leave items or Gold lying on the ground any longer than necessary.
> > Regular items and Gold disappear in about 15 minutes. Magic, Rare, Set,
> > and Unique items disappear after lying on the ground for about 1 hour.
>
> That's how it use to be, but it seems like it has changed with 1.10.
> Socketed things disappear after about 5 minutes, potions about 15. And
other
> stuff seems to disappear sporatically. I have left things on the ground
for
> hours while going back and forth from the field. Then other times stuff
will
> disappear after you've been away from it for only 10-15 minutes. I haven't
> figured out the pattern yet.
>
Socketed Items and runes seem to disappear more quickly than anything else.
I lost a Lem in under 10 minutes, and I'm pretty sure I lost a few socketed
items in around 5 minutes.


short
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

"Mark" <bongofury@verizon.net> wrote in message
news:Vc%Wd.45427$f%5.32619@trndny03...
> I made another attempt to accomplish what I consider the greatest
challenge
> in the game, a HC, SP, Purist Guardian. By 'Purist' I mean; no hacks, no
> twinking, no cheeze, no exiting the game other than town, and once through
> all areas killing everything (no MF runs, no parking). The hardest part
for
> me is stash management, what to save and what to throw away. My goal going
> in was to wear as much MF as possible while maintaining reasonable
resists.
> I had around 50 MF in normal, 150 in NM and 200 in Hell. Overall I had
> reasonable drops and I think the MF strategy paid off.
>
> I decided to go with a Skellimancer. Maxed Skellies and Mastery, then 15
in
> CE, followed by maxing Dim Vision. I had Decrepify on a head so I got away
> with Amp as my only other curse (till I bought a Necromancers wand with
> Attract). I also had one point in all the other Summons.
>
> Since I only had one run through, I player all of Normal and NM at
> 'Players8', so as to maximise experience and drops. FYI, P8 clearing
> everything gave me these benchmarks:
> Andy- L20
> Duriel - L28
> Mephisto - L32
> Diablo - L35
> Baal - L48
> NM A - L52
> NM D - L60
> NM M - L64
> NM D - L67
> NM B - L74
> I tried the Hell Blood Moor at P8 and it was terribly tedious, so I
switched
> to P4.
>
> In Hell I had good resists despite having 200ish MF. My resists were
> 75/66/75/-19. Most of my gear came from gambling. Though every wand I used
> was purchased from the vendors. The only unique I used was a Dwarf Star
ring
> found in early A2 Hell. The rest was rares and magical (except for a 4 PT
> Gothic Plate). My charms were all resist and life charms, I had some very
> good luck rerolling charms. And I also crafted a nice +1 Necro, prismatic
> Ammy with some other minor mods.
>
> I had a good run going. In the open areas we generally swarmed the
baddies.
> I'd DV a large area then Amp the small areas where my minions were
fighting.
> This let us move along quickly and fairly safely. DV is an awesome skill
at
> high levels. Inside it was slightly different. I'd cast DV just outside a
> door, then open it and cast DV again as far into the room as possible.
Then
> I'd run (or teleport) in as far as I could to drag my army into the room.
If
> the Mages stopped in the doorway, or if some of the minions stopped near
the
> doorway to melee, I'd TP back to town and immediately return to
concentrate
> my horde. Overall I was cruising and was sure I'd make Guardian.
>
> But this was HC, and as soon as you start feeling comfortable and
confident
> ...
>
> I made it as far as the CVT. Things were going good.I entered another room
> full of baddies and had just return TP'd when my Merc tied into an ES, FE
> Beetle boss. I thought I was standing plenty far enough away. But one
stray
> spark caught me. Deeds.
>
> Damn, I was pissed to fall to the FE bug. But I'm not sure how I could
have
> played it differently. I guess I could have stood outside the doors and
> waited till someone made a corpse for me to explode. But that makes the
game
> really tedious. I did it a few times (a lot in the Maggot lair) when the
> rooms were too full to run or teleport into. And it was extremely time
> consuming. I really don't want to play like that, I prefer a more
aggressive
> approach.
>
> Like I said, my biggest difficulty was stash management. I saved all
> flawless gems to cube for rerolling, and that was good. I also saved all
my
> runes and cubed them up as I went. But I never used a rune except for
> crafting blood ammies. Looking back, the runes took up about 20-30
inventory
> slots, for very little return. In the future maybe I should just ignore
> runes.
>
> To mitigate some of my stash problems, I frequently left stuff laying on
the
> ground in town while I adventured. Of course I lost a lot of good stuff
that
> way. Socketed items seem to disappear very quickly. Does anyone know the
> rules for when and why stuff left on the ground disappears?
>
> I'd like to give it another go, but I'm pretty burned out on a
Skellimancer
> for now. Not sure which other character I can play that has a reasonable
> chance to kill everything, while avoiding the FE bug.
>
>
Now that's pretty impressive. The only drawback to the Skellimancer (IMO,
of course) is that sometimes you don't have time to react to a Boss's Mods
before he's dead. And those Beetle Bosses die rather quickly to Skellies
and Merc anyway.

I'm having good luck with an FO/FB Sorc but of course she's twinked out the
wazzzoo :)
The good thing about the FB Sorc is that you can put 10 points into Firebolt
early on so you have an attack right from lvl 1.
The only thing I've run into that is unkillable so far is the Hell Countess
and one of the Hell Countess Members, that are always CI/FI. Merc can
usually handle those guys though as long as I clear out everyone else first.
Oh, and Lord Disease popped out ExtraStrong and Stone Skin once, even my
Merc with ~70% CB couldn't damage him enough to keep him from regenerating.

Trappers work fairly well also. The only problem I have with mine is
forgetting to use Mindblast enough :) For some reason the monsters just
don't stand still on their own.

If you want to go the boring router you could go for a Hammerdin, but I
can't recall if the hammers swing out far enough to avoid the FE bug.


short - and don't forget the LF/Freezing Arrow Combo, that still works :)
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

"Mickey" <mickeyb@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:1110291034.424316.70730@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
>
> Mark wrote:
> > "Mickey" <mickeyb@comcast.net> wrote in message
> > news:1110220251.985475.15200@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
> > >
> > >> I'd like to give it another go, but I'm pretty burned out on a
> > > Skellimancer
> > >> for now. Not sure which other character I can play that has a
> > > reasonable
> > >> chance to kill everything, while avoiding the FE bug.
> > >
> > > A meatgrinder necro can survive anything, including the FE bug. the
> > > only item that he really needs is a pair of frosties, everything
> else
> > > is negotiable.
> >
> > I respect your opinions Mickey, but nothing can survive the FE bug. I
> got
> > hit by a Beetle. They can have over 6000 life in Hell. Times 4 for
> P4. Times
> > 4.25 for being a boss. Times 2.5 for extra strong. So (6000 x 4 x
> 4.25 x 2.5
> > = 255,000). Even with 75% fire resist I took, over 63k damage. FE has
> been
> > fixed on the realms, but in SP it's as deadly as ever.
> >
>
> Oh, I know the damage is enormous. I wasn't inferring that the
> meatgrinder can survive it by taking the hit, he can survive it my
> avoiding the hit.
>
> Mickey
>

Hehe, so can everyone else, IF they avoid the hit 😱)



short - but you're right, the Skellimancer has the best chance of doing that
 
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