09-30-2003, 02:34 AM
First of all, a confession -- the planned solo cold sorceress I wrote about a week or so ago has not materialized. Why not? Well, lag, believe it or not. When I first downloaded and played the patch, the lag was so brutal, it rendered the game completely un-playable. 100% un-playable. That sorceress hit clvl 3, IIRC. Simply couldnât do anything past that.
Now, I found a fix to that problem, but, in the meantime, a new solo, single player character has replaced her as my focus. Anyone remember Skeletorr? Iâm sure many of you do. For those who do not... http://sirian.warpcore.org/diablo2/skeletorr.html
Now, I do not have the patience, the skill, or the guts to do what Sirian did with some of his hardcore characters. My hardcore characters tend to die very early in normal act 1 due to acts of stupidity of a criminally negligent magnitude (I almost expect the estates of my late HC characters to band together in some sort of court case).
Skeletorr was a HC necromancer who full cleared all three difficulties way back in, what, version 1.06? Something like that. He specialized in skeleton armies. No revives, no poison and bone skills, minimal golem use. Such a task required immense levels of skill and patience. Several things have changed since then. You can walk through your own minions now, for one. Skeletorr frequently had to unsummon minions in act 3 just to get down the narrow walkways! Minions are rarely lost now -- just about every skeleton that gets trapped too far away from your main character now teleports to your location, just like mercs. And of course, skeletons are much, much stronger in the 1.10 patch. As in, thereâs no comparison. In terms of life, damage, AR -- Skeletorr would have wet himself, having minions this strong.
So, obviously, such a character is much, much easier in the current beta patch. And that got me thinking: just how easy would it be, single player, no twink, full clear, with as little repetition as possible? Every account of a skeleton necromancer in the patch keeps talking about a might merc and 20+ skeletons marching around the game.
So the bar is set much lower than it was for the original skeletorr, but itâs set nonetheless. No poison and bone skills, ever. No revives, ever. One point in clay golem, one point in golem mastery. Everything else into skeletons, mages, mastery, summon resist, and the curse tree (*note: after seeing just how strong the skeletons really are, I made the decision to keep my investments into the curse tree as minimal as possible. Through normal, I will not touch the AI branch of the tree, nor will I put more than a single point in any curse. *).
Originally, I intended to write up my experiences as they came, post them online, etc etc. Two things happened to change my mind. First, I became very immersed in the character (despite my second reason) and didnât want to use up my spare time writing rather than playing :).
Second of all... well, Iâll get into that in the next post. Iâd like to keep this post relatively short, mostly simply with info on what the plan is and what I expect out of the character.
Backing out of that mild digression -- I expected normal, particularly the early acts, to be a joke. The main interest would most likely be what kind of equipment I found, discovering how exactly the skills work, and noting the differences between 1.09 and the beta patch.
All of that I will get into soon enough. For now, the rest of the minor details: while this character is softcore, I am playing him as if he is hardcore. If I do die, well, Iâll make my decision then. For now, however, I am playing as if death is the end of the characterâs life. I donât expect this to be much of a problem, at least until Duriel, more likely until the Chaos Sanctuary. I decided not to worry about blocking -- maybe a mistake, but Iâm saving myself many, many points. Iâll be collecting diamonds, trying to make a 3 diamond shield (for hell, mostly, and possibly NM, assuming I make it that far). On my wand, Iâll be looking for the greatest combination of plus to skeleton mastery, raise skeleton and raise mage. Summon resist would also be nice, but a slight back-seat to the first three. Obviously, a nice +summoning tree wand would be just great, but weâll see.
Coming next: reason number 2 for the lack of detailed early reports, an overview of whatâs really happened and where the new skeletorr is now sitting.
gekko
Now, I found a fix to that problem, but, in the meantime, a new solo, single player character has replaced her as my focus. Anyone remember Skeletorr? Iâm sure many of you do. For those who do not... http://sirian.warpcore.org/diablo2/skeletorr.html
Now, I do not have the patience, the skill, or the guts to do what Sirian did with some of his hardcore characters. My hardcore characters tend to die very early in normal act 1 due to acts of stupidity of a criminally negligent magnitude (I almost expect the estates of my late HC characters to band together in some sort of court case).
Skeletorr was a HC necromancer who full cleared all three difficulties way back in, what, version 1.06? Something like that. He specialized in skeleton armies. No revives, no poison and bone skills, minimal golem use. Such a task required immense levels of skill and patience. Several things have changed since then. You can walk through your own minions now, for one. Skeletorr frequently had to unsummon minions in act 3 just to get down the narrow walkways! Minions are rarely lost now -- just about every skeleton that gets trapped too far away from your main character now teleports to your location, just like mercs. And of course, skeletons are much, much stronger in the 1.10 patch. As in, thereâs no comparison. In terms of life, damage, AR -- Skeletorr would have wet himself, having minions this strong.
So, obviously, such a character is much, much easier in the current beta patch. And that got me thinking: just how easy would it be, single player, no twink, full clear, with as little repetition as possible? Every account of a skeleton necromancer in the patch keeps talking about a might merc and 20+ skeletons marching around the game.
So the bar is set much lower than it was for the original skeletorr, but itâs set nonetheless. No poison and bone skills, ever. No revives, ever. One point in clay golem, one point in golem mastery. Everything else into skeletons, mages, mastery, summon resist, and the curse tree (*note: after seeing just how strong the skeletons really are, I made the decision to keep my investments into the curse tree as minimal as possible. Through normal, I will not touch the AI branch of the tree, nor will I put more than a single point in any curse. *).
Originally, I intended to write up my experiences as they came, post them online, etc etc. Two things happened to change my mind. First, I became very immersed in the character (despite my second reason) and didnât want to use up my spare time writing rather than playing :).
Second of all... well, Iâll get into that in the next post. Iâd like to keep this post relatively short, mostly simply with info on what the plan is and what I expect out of the character.
Backing out of that mild digression -- I expected normal, particularly the early acts, to be a joke. The main interest would most likely be what kind of equipment I found, discovering how exactly the skills work, and noting the differences between 1.09 and the beta patch.
All of that I will get into soon enough. For now, the rest of the minor details: while this character is softcore, I am playing him as if he is hardcore. If I do die, well, Iâll make my decision then. For now, however, I am playing as if death is the end of the characterâs life. I donât expect this to be much of a problem, at least until Duriel, more likely until the Chaos Sanctuary. I decided not to worry about blocking -- maybe a mistake, but Iâm saving myself many, many points. Iâll be collecting diamonds, trying to make a 3 diamond shield (for hell, mostly, and possibly NM, assuming I make it that far). On my wand, Iâll be looking for the greatest combination of plus to skeleton mastery, raise skeleton and raise mage. Summon resist would also be nice, but a slight back-seat to the first three. Obviously, a nice +summoning tree wand would be just great, but weâll see.
Coming next: reason number 2 for the lack of detailed early reports, an overview of whatâs really happened and where the new skeletorr is now sitting.
gekko
"Life is sacred and you are not its steward. You have stewardship over it but you don't own it. You're making a choice to go through this, it's not just happening to you. You're inviting it, and in some ways delighting in it. It's not accidental or coincidental. You're choosing it. You have to realize you've made choices."
-Michael Ventura, "Letters@3AM"
-Michael Ventura, "Letters@3AM"