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.
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Originally Posted by Bert
