EoFF Diablo II again, anyone?

[Tavrobel]

I plan to get it 6 months after it's out. By then Cim will have lots of nice things to give me. McLeech, activate!

Woah, and myself, Nominus, Mullet, SRL, Fonzie, and others did not give things freely?

Okay, you might have a case for me, since I required babies in exchange.


Is the UK release date the same as the NA one? I really, really hope so.

Not a chance in Hell. We, of course, as part of the loyal Blizzard community, will do whatever we can to create a CD-Key generator within 72 hours and a hack of the .mpq files.

[Tavrobel]

The first 36 hours are devoted to driving around town to pick up our multiple reserve copies and ogling the box art, while we say goodbye to our theoretical girlfriends as we leave their lives forever. The next 6 are for playing without showering, eating, or human interaction (unless you jumped straight onto Battle.net v.2), because Blizzard makes piss easy games. After that 6 is another 6 of planning how we're gonna screw it up and what we can complain about. The next 24 are for hacking.

The process is sacred.

[LunarWeaver]

I plan to get it 6 months after it's out. By then Cim will have lots of nice things to give me. McLeech, activate!

Woah, and myself, Nominus, Mullet, SRL, Fonzie, and others did not give things freely?

Okay, you might have a case for me, since I required babies in exchange.

I'll leech off all of you if it makes you happy. But nobody gives me stuff like Cim does, is all. That guy gave me all kinds of uniques, sets, runes, STDs, funny one-liners, and some military information.

[Markus. D]

FEAR MY WALL OF ZOMBIES *-*!~ EVER IMMOBILE AND STRUGGLING!!

[Flying Mullet]

So I managed to collect three keys for the first time on my own, and decided to pop open a portal to go play. :D

[Tavrobel]

I wonder if my accounts have been kept alive this whole time, Mulley. Coma started playing again. And I changed Tavrobel's password to a different password for security reasons.

[Flying Mullet]

No, you chars had all expired, at least on your main account. I checked it when I started playing again. :spin:

In an odd way it's been fun though, as I've done everything on my own from level 1.

[Nominus Experse]

That's all I can do now, since I've been banned...

Median is a little more fun, in my opinion, anyway. I do miss playing with you guys, though, sometimes.

[Tavrobel]

Yeah, Median is way more fun. Mostly due to the expanded crafting and Cube options (I spend a lot of time in town). Then again, endgame content keeps me coming back. I'm building a Crucify Assassin (yeah, call me conventional) with maxed Ways. I'll have a load of spare skill points, no doubt.

CtCs, reanimates, and other procs. God yes.

[Nominus Experse]

I was always enamored with Laz's method concerning crafts.

[Tavrobel]

Rant time.

Diablo II is such a peculiar game. Even despite all of its enormous and often aggravating flaws, I find myself coming back to this game over and over and over. Often it has led to the detriment of my social life, spurning an opportunity to hang out with my friend (who is equally annoying, but at least he can do Physics), an opportunity to talk about whatever I can with the Ravens Fan, homework, EoFF frontsite information and planning, or any other number of things. I figure I might be a better person if I just uninstalled the damn thing.

But I don't. So, anyways, I was moving items to and from pages in the PlugY stash while I was playing Median. This wonderful mod, expanded and horribly oversized can overwhelm even the most veteran of Blizzard players due to the sheer number of options. Unfortunately, these options are based entirely on luck and a flawed integer generator that, as it comes with any computer randomizer, is not truly random. Yes, bitch all you want about statistics, but computer randoms are not truly random. Especially not Blizzard coded-randoms. I had a case study with Starcraft mapmaker Shmidley about this randomizer. Case in point: it sucks.

So here I was, trying to twink out my would-be Assassin at level 94 with some good crafted gear. For the longest time, I resisted upgrading to the newest patches, because I barely got by without 60+ Resistance Magical Shrines and the 3x 10% Elite Reanimates from the Hidden Shrine. I resisted the change simply because it was a major nerf; God forbid I do anything that doesn't crash my system, and even then, 1.95 comes off the heels of a difficulty nerf. Yes, the game is easier. I do not like that. But anyways, I making some boots for myself, and rolled a very lucky level 71, +1 Assassin Skills, 250% ED, and 2% Dark Queen Elite reanimate. It even had some bonus lightning resistances on it. I was moving jewels around, comparing which ones were best, after unsocketing my loaded Jitan's Kamon Unique Armor.

I go to put in the final Jewel. BZZT CRASH

"Diablo II error: the character has too many items."

Suffice it to say, I have yet to recreate anything even close to +1 Assassin Skills, anything with ED, or an Elite reanimate. Furthermore, I lost 4 legacy -12% Req jewels with fire resistances (which I needed), and my loaded Jitan's. Gone. Poof. I didn't get the boots back. I had to go dupe myself a pair of boots with higher Strength requirements just to get a pair of Sacred boots with an item level above 84. Ran out of Hidden Shrines, no less, after trying to get back to where I started. I did however, make a +1 Necro Skills, 300% ED, and a 1%Adder/1% Living Flame boots. I raged, so I re-crafted. smurf Necromancers.

So, why do I bother with this game? I have a theory: I like the conventional, things which I know and know well. After all, for the last four years, I have more strongly embraced a love of Chemistry as opposed to a love of Physics. Chemistry sucks; it's counter intuitive, almost completely conceptual, and is in large parts, 100% rote memorization. Who cares if I know that the atomic mass of Flourine is 19.00 AMU (grams if you have a mole of them), its electronegativity is 4.0, and that it's the only group 17 element that will not potentially form a Strong Acid? Physics is like boys with big toys. Hell, yes!

I have a second theory: I like twinking more than I do actually playing the game. Peculiar thing, I had no trouble with Terror Acts I, II, and III. IV had Firebloods, which, everyone has problems with. Then I get to Act V. I die to the unique Ghost Pheonix halfway up the first stretch of land. Fine. It's happened before. But then I got a 120 monster mob. I died.

WAIT I DON'T DIE I MADE A LIVING OFF OF IT LOL NINETY ONE SORCERESS WITH INFINITY

I get my body back. I died.

HOW DID I DIE TO A MOB THIS DOESN'T HAPPEN TO ME

Mobs aren't particularly dangerous.

I DIED TO LOWLY MOBS HOW INSULTING IS THAT THAT I SHOULD DIE TO ANYWHERE OTHER THAN WHERE I EXPECT TO DIE

I get my body back. I died again.

SO THIS WHOLE TIME I'M EIGHTY NINE AND CAN'T GET TO NINETY I WANT MY GODDAMN UBERSKILLS

Made it Shenk. Cast a TP. I actually have a Dark Queen reanimate or a few from my non-legacy belt. No quest. Okay, I can live with that. It happens due to whatever glitch it was, even in cLoD. Then I go to town, upgrade to my new and shiny Sacred Crafts. Weapon (400-600 range), Shield (+4 Skills), Gloves (random mods that were just plain better than Pollice Versio, and didn't interrupt me to cast Vanquish), and a new Amulet (+2 skills, -enemy res). I died. Drop of a hat. My bar went from full to 0 in less than an instant.

wut

I finally made it to 90 after reaching Anya and dealing with Serafiends. A whole hour it took! Then I fight Pindleskin. Three seconds later...

N --> Level 92

...

Then I try to cool, off. I went to do the BRC challenge and get the final portion in the Amazon Islands, killing the Lightning and Ice Priestesses. I died. Real quick, actually. My mercenary lived longer. Okay, that's fine, I'll come back at level 120; at least I stored a copy of the Brains on my Amazon so I can dupe them (which means no more Fautzinville). I decided to bust out my 119 Blood Hatred/Earthquake Barbarian after a few months of neglect. I'm owning, running all over stuff. Then I go to do Cathedral of Vanity. BAM SPIRAL TO THE FACE, but that's okay, because I expected it. If only it didn't take 10 seconds. I went back to get my body, I'm running around for a full minute before anything stops me (and I didn't get my body back, by the way). Five deaths. In a row. And every single time, the screen read "Mar_Lindo was killed by Inarius." Wait a minute, I thought I was spiraled to the face every time? Well, apparently, I was, and I lived. Then he Blinkstriked or did some crazy voodoo thing, and killed me anyways.

Point being, why do I come back to this game? It clearly infuriates me. It is so heavily flawed, and there is no hope for the online community. I've lived it. I've lived it for ten years. Do not doubt that my exposure to this word has crafted me into this bastard coated bastard with bastard filling that I am, hoping to make other people my bitches and laughing at their misery. The engine sucks. The game is heavily unbalanced (cLoD, mostly), and the "pseudo-difficulty" as instituted by Laz in Median, though acceptable, is not true difficulty.

"But Tav, you're not allowed to complain because you can't do better."

THE BLOODY HELL I WON'T COMPLAIN

I'm not going to go into how I broke my old keyboard with the worn out letters by spilling Orangeade all over it. I'm now using the original keyboard, fresh out of its packaging that came with this five year old computer. Screw snow days. It has deprived me of precious time with Haley and irritated me an ungodly amount.

And furthermore, no one has even noticed how I compared FFVII to the Jonas Brothers. I swear, no one cares anymore. I can deal with hate mail. At least tell me that what I'm doing matters enough to get you to notice.

[Caraliz]

want to do this, will wait until i get paid or hack diablo 2 for myself

also tl;dr wtf is this like an essay thread?

[escobert]

I wish I had a working copy :(

[Caraliz]

I wish I had a working copy :(
Buy it with your change instead of wasting it on fatties!

[escobert]

I don't have that much change

[KoShiatar]

I'm not currently playing many videogames in my free time...

[Flying Mullet]

I don't have that much change
Diablo's dirt cheap now:

Diablo Battle Chest - Mac/Windows (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=4307084&st=diablo&type=product&id=1051806668653)

[Captain Maxx Power]

Believe it or not, Blizzard's doing a new content patch (1.13). (http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=15443288961&sid=3000&pageNo=1)

[Flying Mullet]

Fun with local hacks. This is a picture of my army and I on a lovely vacation to Tristram last fall to see the leaves change color.

[Tavrobel]

Needs more overpowered Auras, Mulleybear.

[Markus. D]

A patch... see, they do love you guys [B

[Flying Mullet]

I've picked up three key sets so I can make three portals in the same game to get the full organ set. :D

Another thought I just had, outside of the hell forge, the highest rune drop I've ever had was a Pul, and that was only once. How many times, if any, has anyone had a highish rune drop outside of the hell forge?

[Nominus Experse]

I've seen that broken maw spit out Hel runes and Gul runes far too often for my liking...

A random Fallen Shaman dropped a Vex rune once. But other than that, it's always been Puls and Ists from the various enemies in Chaos Sanctuary. There was once a game where I saw a Ja drop but there was a pickit in my midst...

[Tavrobel]

My highest was a Zod in the Worldstone, but it was single player.

On Battle.net, the second highest was a Sur Rune from Hell Council two seasons ago. The highest was a Cham somewhere on Arreat Plateau, three seasons ago. Various Ists, Mals, Puls, and Ums from Countess. But those don't really count.

[Tavrobel]

This is a post from Coma asking for advice. He and SS are planning a Machinegun Sorceress (Fire skills, maxed FCR). There are two major breakpoints, 105 and 200. The way FCR works, is that any values in between are completely useless for the sake of argument. I need to think of ways he can reach 200 FCR. 105 is easy: Eschuta's/Hoto (40), Skin of the Vipermagi (30), Spirit Monarch (35). But at the same time, he wants to max out his +Skills.

Now we need the other 95.
Helm: Rare Circlet (20), +2 Sorc skills, rainbow Res, FWR, Life, Mana, in that order. 6 mods, that's filled out for a rare Circlet-class; Griffon's Eye Diadem (25), +1 Skills; using this, he can switch out an FCR Ring for an SoJ, but misses the potential for an awesome Circlet, and two customizable Rings

Crafted Caster Amulet (20), +2 Sorc skills, rainbow Res, Life. 4 mods, that' all he can get from a Crafted item (plus the 3 automods)
Arachnid's Mesh (20), +1 skills
Magefist (20), +1 Fire skills
FCR Rings (10 + 10), rainbow Res, Life (anything else works, in this case after the first two)

That's what I'm thinking is optimal for an FCR Sorc. Is there anything else I missed? Jewels and Charms don't give FCR.

The other request was the build for an effective Multishot Amazon. This one is made for MFing; Cows to be more specific. I was thinking that he shouldn't need Vitality for this build (he shouldn't be getting hit, so). But then again, he shouldn't need anything else, and especially not Dexterity for Block. But, be that as it may, since Dexterity does increase damage; Multishot doesn't have an ED% component.

Full killer gear set:
Faith in a +3 Bow skills Grand Matron (Tier 3) Amazon Bow (everything he needs, Reanimates; what is this, Median?)
Andariel's Visage (+2 Skills, 20 IAS); Giant Skull Bone Visage (2Os, Knockback, Crushing Blow, +loads of Str)
Chains of Honor AP (+2 Skills, + 65 all Res); I can't think of anything else, since Fortitude doesn't help Bowazons, iirc
Gore Rider Boots (seriously, now)
Nosferatu's Coil Belt; Razortail for piercing attack (it's cheaper, too)
Dracul's Grasp Gloves (Life Tap proc on striking); Lava Gout Gloves (20 IAS, Enchant Proc on striking)
Amulet of choice (Highlord's, Mara's, Crafted, whatever)
Rings of choice (Res, Life, Dex)

MF gear set:
Anything with MF? I'll fill this out later. 24 was on.

[Flying Mullet]

Oh yeah, my normal hell forge quest coughed up an El rune!

[Flying Mullet]

Hah, I just gambled a Stoutnail. I'm so amazing!

[demondude]

I got my friends code! I can finally start wasting my life away again. =D

[Fonzie]

You know, I'm tempted to put this on my new computer.

[Markus. D]

So, I'm ultimately satisfied with Median's XL edition, very nice indeed.

[Flying Mullet]

From the Median XL FAQ:

Can I play Median XL with other people?
Median XL officially supports TCP/IP multiplayer and open battle.net. It does not work on closed battle.net ('realms') because a realm game runs on the server and all your computer does is display the graphics. Blizzard's servers do not have Median installed.
I can't believe people would think that they do. xD

[Markus. D]

Yeah it happens everywhere :D!

What should I make next in Median?

I was thinking a Charm Druid but then I remembered I'm sane.

[Tavrobel]

Says the person who doesn't think that you can Charm enemies in Uberlevels, too.

Wait. Oops.

Well, what have you made so far? I'm afraid I've only made a Javazon, an EQ Barbarian, and a Crucify/mixed-Ways Assassin. I really shouldn't have tried to do the attribute challenges on the first run of a class. 3000 life and only 14k damage on my Barbarian is not enough to do Cathedral of Vanity.

[Markus. D]

Ooooh never thought of that... mind you, wouldn't screwing up your charm kinda screw you over X.X?

Javazon.
Totem Minion Master
Crucify Assassin (They were buffed so hard in Median XL <333)
AoD/SS Necro
Ice/Poison Hybrid Druid.

I was thinking a Spider Sorc, ... I'm yet to see Carpet of Spiders, it sounds badass!
Or the Charm druid... hrm.

[Tavrobel]

Javazon.
Totem Minion Master
Crucify Assassin (They were buffed so hard in Median XL <333)
AoD/SS Necro
Ice/Poison Hybrid Druid.

I was thinking a Spider Sorc, ... I'm yet to see Carpet of Spiders, it sounds badass!
Or the Charm druid... hrm.

Spiders are quite fun, but I haven't really used them extensively I remember putting a Thul rune into my Javazon's weapon, and fighting in Travincal. I got that proc once, and the whole screen was cleared in an instant, due to the multitude of successive procs. I'm trying to get my Assassin to 120, but it's discouraging not being able to do the last part of the Black Road Challenge (Tran Althula's priestesses in 30 seconds). Once that happens, I'll be crafting 15 Orbs onto my weapon. Crucify with a chance to Crucify?

Yes. Although now, I'm tempted to want to do that Charm Druid.

[Markus. D]

xD! Oh LORD! Crucify with a chance to Crucify, screenshot that for me won't you XD?

Yeah I think I'll try the Charm Druid properly, myself.

[Tavrobel]

xD! Oh LORD! Crucify with a chance to Crucify, screenshot that for me won't you XD?

Yeah I think I'll try the Charm Druid properly, myself.

It works just like a regular Crucify according to my tests, oddly enough. Same blue sparks, except the damage varies, depending on which of the 8 things hits which enemy. Overall, it is a DPS increase, though I'm sure there's more effective ways to do it; this one was the only way I could think of to increase my AoE capabilities without investing into the Flower skills/Energy.

[Nominus Experse]

Decided to make a Paladin. No idea what I am to do with him though.

EDIT: I made it to the Rescue Caine quest using an interesting Holy build of the Paladin, I think. I don't know if it's already been attempted or not, but I am investing heavily in Defense, Life, Mana, and the Holy Skills of Searing Orb and Ring of Light as well as Wrath; and investing as much as possible into the Neutral skills of Vessel of Judgment and its Passive Light and Shadow, and I don't know quite what else to put my points into yet. Rapture is fun, but don't see how it can be much use if the spell timer is fixed at 10 seconds.

EDIT EDIT: This build sucks.

[Tavrobel]

Holy Caster Paladins need a lot of equipment, due to no real +spell damage skills; Unholy has that Terror Strike of theirs to increase damage, along with Superbeast and Dark King. Effectively, untwinked casting (and fighting) is for the Unholy, along with the attribute challenges.

I'm going to make an Elemental Druid. I enjoy cheesing the Summoning uberquests with Fire Fountain and Gamma Field.

[~*~Celes~*~]

I just recently (like 2 days ago) fell back in love with this game <3 Strongest character is a level 10 ladder and expansion sorceress. When I'm stronger, if you guys have a game going and I'm in the mood, maybe I'll join in?

[Tavrobel]

Have I ever told you guys just how scared I am of the "too many items" error? I can't even look at PlugY anymore.

Good for you, Celes.

EDIT: I hate the Cathedral of Vanity, too. See, in the old Median, it only shoots once. Now, it shoots twice. TWICE IN A SIXTY DEGREE COOLDOWN ARC HOW THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO DODGE THAT WITH A BARBARIAN AND A PHYSICAL IMMUNITY BOSS THAT I CAN'T TELL IS IMMUNE?

EDIT II: I lied. I'm going to make a Holy Caster, not an Elemental Druid. Fortunately, I'm twinked out to world's end; my Assassin is almost 120, and I finally finished Cathedral of Vanity (the key was to use Shower of Rocks and Bear Stance, oddly enough), which means I did the AC500 challenge for the Assassin and Barbarian classes. I'm going to be abusing Fascinating Shrines a hell of a lot, since all I can do is Physical/Fire damage. My first attempt at a real caster since the Alpha.

[Nominus Experse]

Laz lies about the Lucky Modifier recipe: I've gone through so many El runes and random weapons just to see if it will work, and it hasn't yet. 1:5 odds my ass I've done this 12 times now.

LIES

Btw: Crucifix Assassins are so much fun

[Tavrobel]

Yeah, it's a little on the low side, but, at least we can upgrade something past the maximum modifiers without a major drawback. Runes are so common, that it's worth doing it for virtually free.

Crucifiers are fun, but the last time I tried to do the Black Road Challenge, my mercenary accidentally killed one of the Priestess while I was running, so he got the swirlies, but not me. I was pissed. On the downside, its AoE capabilities, while substantial, are less than optimal for the conditions that I play on.

Nom, which skills/equipment/stats did you use for your Holy Paladin? And more importantly, what level did you get him to?

[Nominus Experse]

I made an Honorific Naginata that is fun...


What Paladin do you speak of? The Holy Mage made it to the Smith and that was it, whereas my Retaliator made it to Act III at players8 easily (both untwinked since I just began playing Median XL since the initial beta was made public way the smurf back during last summer).

EDIT: Fuck you .cpp fog whatever error. Fuck. You.

[Tavrobel]

I made an Honorific Naginata that is fun...

What Paladin do you speak of? The Holy Mage made it to the Smith and that was it, whereas my Retaliator made it to Act III at players8 easily (both untwinked since I just began playing Median XL since the initial beta was made public way the smurf back during last summer).

EDIT: smurf you .cpp fog whatever error. smurf. You.

Speaking of which, apparently the intended 1.99 full patch will have Naginata Crafted weapons capable of getting +10 Assassin Skills. It's already in the Beta 2.

The Holy Mage. I didn't know you made a Retaliator (oddly enough, the Paladin has more builds that are capable of doing the game untwinked; a stark contrast to Vanilla). But the Holy Caster does need to play twinked. There's no hope for it otherwise, but it just plain runs through everything. I can't wait to bring it to Fautzinville and get the right Azmodan's Heart/Worldstone Key/Scroll of Kings with the OSkills I want to make him godly. I already have a Key with Dark King on it.

[Flying Mullet]

After reading all of this, I might have to check out Median again. I played on version for a couple of hours a year or two ago. The biggest pain is learning all of the game mechanics, skills, equipment details, etc...

[Tavrobel]

The key is to keep your internet browser open at all times, multiple tabs to the information you need, and plan ahead. I spent half my time with cLoD in town; I spend a good 90% of it in Median. It's pretty easy to pick up.

Thank the universe that I made a caster character and a caster mercenary. The way to get damage is so radically different from melee (procs, ED, that kind of stuff). It's a bit of a relief, really, and it's doing wonders to my PlugY stash. I'm not even level 40 yet.

Have I mentioned that I hate Act III? Not because it's particularly difficult, but because it's just so poorly designed.

EDIT: So I tried putting a Naginata runeword with the ATMG Sentry OSkill (Io) on my Assassin. It works great with a half-maxed Doom; I still have 40 skill points to use, but I don't have Way of the Raven, so I can't sink all of my points in, just quite yet. It's fun, and seems as though it goes naturally with a Crucify main attack skill (for AoE and CB procs), but unfortunately, none of the Mystic Orbs are "on Striking," which is what ATMG uses. Anyone got any ideas on how to rectify this?

[Nominus Experse]

Are there Shrine craft affixes that could add the "Striking" modifier, perhaps? Mind you, I've not made it very far yet, and so haven't been able to play with Shrines as of right now. Laz has secreted away the actual list of modifiers again, right?

Do modifiers such as +x% to Poison Skill Damage / Duration also multiply the flat added bonus awarded to me by the various Ways within the Assassin skill tree? I ask this because I've been hunting the Demonstone Blood Jewels for the added tri-elemental damage bonus, but am wondering perhaps if hunting instead for the Eye of the Storm jewel instead due to its bonus to Spell damage.

[Tavrobel]

I believe that there are some "on Striking" mods, but they are Rare affixes, not Shrine affixes, so it wouldn't help anyways (but they could be generated). There is a list of what can or can't proc somewhere on Laz's Forums, but I haven't bothered to look. The only ones worth using are the ones on Runewords, Uniques, or Sets, but those don't always provide the bonuses I need, nor are they the procs I necessarily like to use. And even if there were good rare procs, a majority of them are "on killing," anyways.

Poison skills in melee get the +%spell damage, but not the missile component, which means the main strike from Crucify gets the +poison, but not the 8 extra pins. I've heard it's more effective to mod on some -%enemy spell resistance mods. In an Assassin's case, Poison and Fire. If you're farming jewels, I would upgrade as many of them as I could to rares, and then use the ones either with +%spell (relevant element) damage or -%enemy res. Until you get some one of the ones you like, invest in Runes and Gems.

[captkrill]

Ex-Diablo 2 player here and I quit playing after the patch with the Keys and Ubers came out...it was way to easy to get to 99 then killed the fun of MFing and doing manual (ie. no bots or super |337 hammerdins) Baal/Diablo runs. Have there been any real big changes that would interest me in coming back?

[Tavrobel]

If you quit after 1.11, then all you missed was the over-saturation of high runes on the Ladder market, the Uber Duriel waypoint hack, and a patch that was identical to the previous (1.12) with the exception of a legitimate no-CD crack. There's even ways to backpatch from 1.12 to 1.11b without the servers recognizing anything different.

So, no, you missed nothing.

[captkrill]

Uber duriel way point hack?

[Tavrobel]

Suffice it to say, it overloaded the market with Baal's Eyes. Forgotten Sands was a great place to level up, too.

Original mod thread at Edge of Nowhere (http://www.edgeofnowhere.cc/viewtopic.php?t=348408).

[Nominus Experse]

I used it to level

[Tavrobel]

TEEHEEHEE LOOK AT WHAT I STOLE FROM KURAST3KBA

http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/3797/screenshot001c.jpg (http://img156.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshot001c.jpg)

By the way, yes, it does work with Way of the Spider! So I just added a big giant boost to my limited AoE capabilities, and I'm going to go abuse my collection of Shimmering Shrines (%Poison crafting). TEEHEEHEE

EDIT: Works great with ATMG on my Naginata. I just set up seven or of the traps, cast Doom, and switch back over to my regular weapon at a choke point. The number of green sparklies, my blue sparks from Crucify, and 20% Spike Nova proc is more than enough to clear everything that dares to get in my way. Furthermore, Time Strike from Scales will proc from each Spike Nova if it rolls the chance and hits an enemy. My "pitiful" AoE before is now ungodly powerful. I clear screens without thinking about it. Ohh, and Doom is awesome.

EDIT II: Finished the BRC with my Assassin. Dear God, if I could count the number of times I accidentally killed a Priestess while three screens away because of the number of procs I have on my equipment. I'm still only 119, though; I'd really like to get on with my Edyrem summons at 120.

EDIT III: Screw that. I got to 120 after spending about 3 seconds in Act IV, and a Signet of Experience (which actually put me about 990 EXP above the cap required to level to 120. Everything has been maxed. Life is good.

[Purcifur]

Lol me and my bf play this whenever I have to go back home. I'll be the first person to admit that I'm terrible at it though :S I'm stoked for diablo 3. I'll work on failing less when that comes out I think.

[Nominus Experse]

It's finally mine.

EDIT: Astrogha is a bitch. But now mine.

EDITRA: I still don't understand why I've yet to come across a unique Mystic Orb.

[Tavrobel]

Show us your tits stats and equipment!

Because the chances for one are like, 1/350. I have 4 PlugY pages of MOs, and have thus far found only two: Kara's Trinket and Larzuk's Round Shot. I'm too afraid of using them properly because they are so rare, so I dupe them when I get the chance. Apparently, they have the highest chances of dropping in A1 and A2 Hatred, probably because MOs are level 1 items.

Suffice it to say, most of them aren't that great. I only bother using MOs on Crafted items, and the Honorific items that I have on my Holy Caster's A3 Cold Merc.

[Fonzie]

I feel like playing again, but using median. :eek:

[Tavrobel]

Rare rings and amulet with life and mana leech as well as +skills. Trying to craft some useful jewels now, though I am considering making myself a Shrine crafted and blessed Tiara. But I have yet to see +skills show up on even a circlet class items when Shrine crafting.

What's interesting is that when the Carpet of Spiders triggers, it triggers where the enemy died, not where I currently am. Rather strange, but useful.

So almost all Sacred Uniques and Great Runewords. I myself am stuck with single-crafted equipment (though my Barbarian does use blessed-craft items, they are also Legacy and lag to Hell and back), buffed to rLvl 119/120 in MOs. The only SU I'm using is Scales, and I can see that you are capable of farming Fautzinville. I'll post my Assassin's stuff one day. I've retired my dedicated Javazon after that duration nerf to Fairy Ring (though I have to yet to give her my Worldstone Key with Bloodlust on it).

Circlets, I believe, can get +3 All Skills. It appears to be a rare modifier, as I've seen it using both a Stone and a Shimmering Shrine in 1.95 (and it definitely does not roll as a Shrine component). As for your Carpet, that's odd; mine always spawns wherever I was standing when the monster died. I've seen instances where I've Blinked away before a Carpet began.

EDIT: Fonzie, in response to your AIM query about bodies, they work the same way in single-player as they do in multiplayer, with the exception of %loss of money in the stash on death. You only lose the money you currently have on the character, and bodies are restored based on which one dropped first (and therefore, which items you can equip; don't strength glitch). As long as you don't strength glitch, you can Save and Exit and get all of your stuff back.

[Chzn8r]

I don't know what's going on on this page... what's all that crazy hacked stuff?

Anyhow, I just wanted to bump this to update you guys:

The Arreat Summit - News (http://classic.battle.net/diablo2exp/)

LADDER RESET COMING SOON! Could be in a couple days! Along with 1.13 patch (which probably won't do anything, just kill hacks).

Get in any last playing that you want to before the ladder resets ^_^

Will anybody play the new ladder season?

[Markus. D]

I'm currently working on a Weaponless Melee Sin (Way of the X) in Median... and while this is the longer time I've had with an Assassin.
... I love her attack speed like THAT much it's crazy, it's faster than "psh psh psh" or "pshpshpsh" it's more like "pshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshsh" :D!

I'm currently a small few quests away from Baal.

[captkrill]

I have a question about those items. Where, how, and can I make them? LOL, I don't like b.net much anymore, obviously those are not b.net items so how can I make something like that?

[Flying Mullet]

They're all part of a mod called MedianXL. It's not supported by blizzard and you can't play on b.net as it's technically a hack: Median XL - Diablo 2 Mods by Brother Laz (http://modsbylaz.planetdiablo.gamespy.com/)

[captkrill]

Sweet, i never liked b.net. So this might be interesting. Also, the last time i tried installing D2 on my Vista machine it wouldn't run. Anyone been able to get it to run on vista, gone through all the admin ad compatibility and :bou::bou::bou::bou: like that still no luck. Anyone have any suggestions?

[Chzn8r]

I just installed it and played it straight up. Haven't had any Vista-related issues.

Any comments on the potentially soon-happening ladder reset?

[Markus. D]

Sweet, i never liked b.net. So this might be interesting. Also, the last time i tried installing D2 on my Vista machine it wouldn't run. Anyone been able to get it to run on vista, gone through all the admin ad compatibility and :bou::bou::bou::bou: like that still no luck. Anyone have any suggestions?

Run with compatibility for Windows XP Service Pack 2, run as admin... if those didn't work try disable visual themes.

If not!... >_<; do a backflip, combo it into a barrel roll (also make sure you've downloaded the newest update patch from the official website).

[captkrill]

Ive updated it to the current patch and still nothing.

[Nominus Experse]

gewg45hy34ygtfr

[captkrill]

I finally got my computer running the way I want it. Aint no way I am reformatting now...at least not until I get a 2TB HDD and partition it for 250 for XP and 1.75TB for Vista/7

[Nominus Experse]

egigerl?articleId=20746&searchQuery=vista&pageNumbrrl]

[demondude]

I've had problems with this too, and I just gave up.

[captkrill]

That's the first place I went to after i saw Diablo on the not compatible list of games for Vista. Did everything to the "t" and still no luck.

[captkrill]

Woohoo!

Finally found a way to get it working by modding the DEP in Win7 and running the game.exe instead of the diablo2.exe. Also running under Windows XP SP2 and as admin.

[Markus. D]

Did I say I'm playing through Median with ma' sister :O

I can also connect to others this time, WHICH IS AWESOME... so, someone play with me :3

[Tavrobel]

Yeah, I recently had to make a switch from a purely grounded line to wireless router. I can't play with anyone even with no firewall (which you shouldn't b using anyways).

I also believe that you would have to have been playing Median on the 1.10 patch, not anything afterwards to play with me anyways.

[Markus. D]

Yeah, I recently had to make a switch from a purely grounded line to wireless router. I can't play with anyone even with no firewall (which you shouldn't b using anyways).

I also believe that you would have to have been playing Median on the 1.10 patch, not anything afterwards to play with me anyways.

Yah I have upgraded to 1.12, they introduced a damage cap sometime around there ,-,;~ right?


Even with all the mixed types of damage one can get, I can totally see someone like Tav' being able to achieve 84k of a damage type rather easy.

So right now I'm making my way through with a passive Assassin I made on the side yesterday afternoon... gave her one of those uncommon Naginata... OH GAWD they own...

[CimminyCricket]

I am surprised this is still going xD

You guys play together at all or is this just a blog about how you're doing?

[Markus. D]

I am surprised this is still going xD

You guys play together at all or is this just a blog about how you're doing?

Everyone's too lazy to play with me :{...
and yeah, the thread is kinda going nowhere :p


... I've named my Naginata "Wilson"

[Tavrobel]

Yah I have upgraded to 1.12, they introduced a damage cap sometime around there ,-,;~ right?

Even with all the mixed types of damage one can get, I can totally see someone like Tav' being able to achieve 84k of a damage type rather easy.

1.11, to be precise.

I actually haven't broken or reached the damage cap, yet. However, all of my characters are melee built for AoE capabilities (a severe hamstringing, as it were). I'm also not someone who abuses Jewel-duping or gets perfect rerolls with +4 Skills and all of the mods that I need to make perfect equipment. I also have not made a caster character (where it is far easier to break the cap with). The closest I have, though, is my Assassin who can reach a huge maximum with some less-than-great survivability gear. Otherwise, she does a decent 54k with Crucify. 73k with Shadow Refuge (and I have a 20% Spike Nova Proc). The actual damage done is greater with Doom.

I'm not so sure about my Amazon, though. Since I used the respec tool recently, I turned her into a Spearazon, instead, and one of the charms that she is using has Bloodlust. She is using the complete Spear Set, pre-1.95.

Laz released a character pack with level 100 characters and most challenges done. You still need to have an original character to be able to do the Priestess-based level challenges, but those are easy (and you can dupe the Charms, if you can't stand doing them more than once).

You guys play together at all or is this just a blog about how you're doing?

It's a blog until 1.13's patch. I may consider coming back. Even Median is beginning to bore me.

[CimminyCricket]

OH GOOD JESUS smurf I WAS BORED AND I WAS LIKE WHAT SHOULD I DO AND THEN I HAD GAMING FLASHBACKS TO DIABLO II

THIS IS BULL:bou::bou::bou::bou: I JUST INSTALLED THE GAME, CREATED MY ACCOUNT AND RIGHT AFTER I CREATE MY CHARACTER, GUESS WHAT HAPPENS?


REALM DOWN

Magic Merge Posts!

[Flying Mullet]

I wonder if they've released the new patch and are resetting the ladder.


Hmm, no news on The Arreat Summit (http://classic.battle.net/diablo2exp/).

[Tavrobel]

Probably not. Ladder Resets are accompanied by large announcements and lots of freaking out. It could just be regular maintenance.

[CimminyCricket]

Vista sucks. I downloaded the patch, as I was forced to, played online for a bit and logged out. NOW I CANNOT PLAY IT BECAUSE BATTLENET CANNOT RESOLVE MY APPLICATION.

There must be some gaming God I forgot to pray to.

[Tavrobel]

In case you guys haven't quite gotten the memo:


We’re preparing for a Diablo II ladder reset to coincide with the release of the 1.13 patch that’s currently in development. We don’t have a final release date for the patch yet, but we’re providing early warning as a reset could occur as early as the end of April. We’ll be providing updates with more certain dates once the patch is closer to release.

Please be aware that with a ladder reset all ladder characters are moved to non-ladder. This means that your characters will still be accessible but will no longer have access to ladder-only features and games. In order to play in the new ladder season after the reset you will need to make new ladder characters.

This thread will be updated with more information as it becomes available.


Many of you are wondering what's up with the patch and the ladder reset. While I've sprinkled some information around, it's about time it was all mashed up in one easy-to-read location.

The Story -
Once upon a time our internal legacy development teams wanted to put some much needed love into Diablo II. Diablo II doesn't have tournaments with millions of dollars swirling about them, so it generally took a back seat to the patch development time of our other legacy titles. But one day the planets aligned, and it was finally time to give the old girl a new coat of paint and break a bottle of champagne over her bow with the release of a patch. This went well. Meetings were held, the community was involved and polled, and an extremely long list of ideas and changes was created. That list was then cut down to changes felt to be either necessary changes, or easily implemented to ensure development time was efficient. This also went well.

Not long after, the alarm bells sounded. The patch was progressing quickly, and the release was potentially imminent. Early on it was decided, and somewhat of a no-brainer, that a ladder reset with coincide with the patch release. With the patch progressing well, a potential release of two weeks was estimated, and as always this is the exact amount of forewarning given to players and the community before a ladder reset. An announcement was made quickly and immediately to ensure a full two week notice was given. There are many reasons for this standard two-week notice, not the least of which is that most players don't understand the meaning of ladder and non-ladder, and how a reset affects their characters. Following any reset our support departments are flooded with issues related to the change of their characters, so we attempt to inform beforehand and avoid any unnecessary confusion.

This was all well and good, the community was excited, and the developers were having fun and enjoying being able to work on Diablo II again. Then, as it tends to do, reality struck. (Battle.net - English Forums -> Warcraft III Custom Map Security Warning (http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=16888549346&sid=3000)) Work had to be swiftly and immediately realigned and has and continues to be focused on addressing issues for a different title to resolve a very serious issue.

The Now -
The Warcraft III patch is now on the Public Test Realm (PTR) and testing is progressing. Once that patch is released work can shift back to Diablo II and the 1.13 patch, and we'll be working to getting that patch up on its own PTR as soon as possible. This could be a matter of weeks. Once it's up and in a testing state for all of you, it's then going to be a matter of ensuring the features are good and it's a solid patch. The more people we have testing the patch and providing valid feedback, the better the patch will be, and hopefully the quicker it will be released. So that's my challenge to you. You've been waiting a long time, you want an awesome patch, you want a reset. To get all that, we need good solid testing and feedback, reproduction steps for bugs, detailed descriptions of issues or errors, etc. So once this goes live on the PTR, I expect some crazed-youruinedtheeconomy-testing.

Also, I've been playing Diablo II again, this time once again with Dark Alliance. A new patch was released some time back in March (which I missed, because, you know, "I didn't play DII anymore"). A few screenshots.

[Fonzie]

I'm replaying with a friend. :3