And you probably died more times than Kim Kardashian has appeared on media...
I may just have to play a ranged class since the gear loot is clearly imbalanced, just because the stuff I need isn't dropping. I have a better chance looting an ancient SMK on Diablo 3 than finding stuff like you posted on Nightmare mode.
I'm New Here
-
DacianDraco
- Posts: 461
- Joined: 30 Aug, 2015 4:04
- Location: Cybertron
Not really, i've rarely died, i'd say 10 times max and i'm being generous. Normal and Nightmare are a breeze trust me, wait till to you get to Torment and see what the game is really about. As for gear, you just have to get a little lucky, for ex look what my Assassin has come across:
So after i clear the mobs i'll pop the upper 3 chests and bookcases, hit a shrine (chests/bookcase/shrines regenerate), pop chests and bookcases again, hit other shrine and keep repeating this until i am too bored.
For comparison since 2 days ago when i finished Normal with the Assassin (SoulStone can be seen in inventory) i've been able to beat half of Nightmare, and i thought the Assassin would be hardest, turns out i overreacted.
So after i clear the mobs i'll pop the upper 3 chests and bookcases, hit a shrine (chests/bookcase/shrines regenerate), pop chests and bookcases again, hit other shrine and keep repeating this until i am too bored.
For comparison since 2 days ago when i finished Normal with the Assassin (SoulStone can be seen in inventory) i've been able to beat half of Nightmare, and i thought the Assassin would be hardest, turns out i overreacted.
-
DacianDraco
- Posts: 461
- Joined: 30 Aug, 2015 4:04
- Location: Cybertron
Dagger/Bone Knife then Scimitar/Rapier then Long Sword/Battle Sword are the best weapons for Assassins, because of their high speed, the drawback is they have low durability and you will have to repaid them alot (more often then the Warrior's shield). Broad/Rune Sword and Bastard/Ancient Sword are better when they have around +30% Attack Speed as an affix. Barbarians generally use all 2h weapons well, but axes are better because there are more types to chose from and 2 have better speeds than 2h swords/blunts.
And the Assassin must NOT use a shield, because if they do they lose damage and speed, the offhand must ALWAYS be free, sometimes it's annoying because when you pick loot up a shield auto-equips, but you can see it in her hand.
Her life is very low, for ex i have ~300 at cLVL 30 now, and since it's a DEX based character you can't really wear top gear (that requires a lot of STR), so Light/Archon plate and usually a Grand Crown, because crowns have low STR requirement. Defense is their weakness but they will excel in damage if played right.
The general strategy is sneek up, hit and run. They don't have any Area Effect Attack (like Cleave has), so they must use the environment (doorways, corners, object on one side so they're not attacked from that side, etc) because they can't face packs of enemies, but are very good with single targets.
Stealth sometimes breaks (and doesn't work on Diablo), but it's ok because you only need to be about 5 squares away from a monster to cast it again, or behind a corner where monster doesn't see you directly. When in Stealth it's best to position yourself behind a target and use Maleficent Strike, it does 100% more damage this way (besides whatever bonus it has) and some Elites even die in 1 hit if you also land a Critical with that strike, very cool stuff.
Main attack (LMB) becomes Fanaticism (similar to Frenzy), mostly because of the speed bonus, you always need to stay mobile and run around picking targets one by one. When you get to max hits you can hit with Maleficent Strike and alternate some Fanaticsm to keep the timer up (same as Frenzy/Cleave combo).
With many hardhitting bosses you have to use just Dragon Flight, which basically teleports you behind the target and strikes hard, but after strike run immediately before the foe turns on you, since you can only take 2-3 hits before you die.
If you aggroed too much and can't manage it use Narcosis, it stun a 9 square area for a short time, but you have to be around 5 squares close to be able to use it, a bit difficult to get used to but once you know the area of casting Stealth you will know when you can use this as well.
And the Assassin must NOT use a shield, because if they do they lose damage and speed, the offhand must ALWAYS be free, sometimes it's annoying because when you pick loot up a shield auto-equips, but you can see it in her hand.
Her life is very low, for ex i have ~300 at cLVL 30 now, and since it's a DEX based character you can't really wear top gear (that requires a lot of STR), so Light/Archon plate and usually a Grand Crown, because crowns have low STR requirement. Defense is their weakness but they will excel in damage if played right.
The general strategy is sneek up, hit and run. They don't have any Area Effect Attack (like Cleave has), so they must use the environment (doorways, corners, object on one side so they're not attacked from that side, etc) because they can't face packs of enemies, but are very good with single targets.
Stealth sometimes breaks (and doesn't work on Diablo), but it's ok because you only need to be about 5 squares away from a monster to cast it again, or behind a corner where monster doesn't see you directly. When in Stealth it's best to position yourself behind a target and use Maleficent Strike, it does 100% more damage this way (besides whatever bonus it has) and some Elites even die in 1 hit if you also land a Critical with that strike, very cool stuff.
Main attack (LMB) becomes Fanaticism (similar to Frenzy), mostly because of the speed bonus, you always need to stay mobile and run around picking targets one by one. When you get to max hits you can hit with Maleficent Strike and alternate some Fanaticsm to keep the timer up (same as Frenzy/Cleave combo).
With many hardhitting bosses you have to use just Dragon Flight, which basically teleports you behind the target and strikes hard, but after strike run immediately before the foe turns on you, since you can only take 2-3 hits before you die.
If you aggroed too much and can't manage it use Narcosis, it stun a 9 square area for a short time, but you have to be around 5 squares close to be able to use it, a bit difficult to get used to but once you know the area of casting Stealth you will know when you can use this as well.
Interesting style of play, though I may have to farm up some gear for that class. I may have the swords part covered since I got a shitload using my Warrior. Although, I think I might make a Sorcerer. I have been hoarding a TON of books, and I found some nice staves on my Barb, so we'll see how that goes.
-
DacianDraco
- Posts: 461
- Joined: 30 Aug, 2015 4:04
- Location: Cybertron
Yeah, the Assassin is the most gear dependent character, and has the hardest to master play style in my opinion, because you have to stay at a distance to not get killed but still get in melee to kill, but it's redeeming that she has the best recipes and at end game does massive damage. Today i've done the Caves levels and it was a real chore, i became a potionholic because i got a bad roll of monster types, Spitting Terrors (fast and ranged poison dmg), Lightning Demons (ranged Lightning attack and dual melee attack), Magma Demons (ranged attack) and Horned Demons (always Charge at about 4 squares distance) so i died a lot, about 5 times per level. I barely could get away and focus on single targets, since the levels are open areas and most of foes were ranged, just couldn't really use the environment, it's like those wood fences with a door weren't even there to protect me. I would have really liked to have spawned some Overlords (slow and lots of life to leech) and Winged Demons (that turn to stone, so easy to manage). I hope in the Hell levels i'll get a better roll.
And you should have started with Sorcerer as your first character, spells are major part in the game, and with him you would have tested and learned them all, probably not Flash/Circle of Ice/Immolation and something else i'm forgetting that works best at close range. Books are overabundant and that's all you need, plus a staff, any type of staff works (unlike melee characters that need fastest possible weapons). Also with Sorcerer's Mana Shield you get about 1k hit points (life+mana) by the end of Nightmare and some physical resistance. He also has Elemental Drain skill that breaks a good percentage of all monster immunities and Temporal Slowdown to deal with fast monsters. I personally never really use Etheralize, it's a buff that makes you very resistant, but i'm good at dodging so i don't really need it, thou i would have really liked this skill on my Assassin. And with the Sorcerer you can just focus on Magic Find, increase monster power, spam OP spells and find a ton of loot fast.
And you should have started with Sorcerer as your first character, spells are major part in the game, and with him you would have tested and learned them all, probably not Flash/Circle of Ice/Immolation and something else i'm forgetting that works best at close range. Books are overabundant and that's all you need, plus a staff, any type of staff works (unlike melee characters that need fastest possible weapons). Also with Sorcerer's Mana Shield you get about 1k hit points (life+mana) by the end of Nightmare and some physical resistance. He also has Elemental Drain skill that breaks a good percentage of all monster immunities and Temporal Slowdown to deal with fast monsters. I personally never really use Etheralize, it's a buff that makes you very resistant, but i'm good at dodging so i don't really need it, thou i would have really liked this skill on my Assassin. And with the Sorcerer you can just focus on Magic Find, increase monster power, spam OP spells and find a ton of loot fast.
-
DacianDraco
- Posts: 461
- Joined: 30 Aug, 2015 4:04
- Location: Cybertron
Looking good mate. 
You could get some more +MAG and +Mana instead of +VIT and +Life but it's not really necessary, and look out for some amulets that among others also have +1 Spell Levels (req lvl 27/29/33) and then +2 Spell Levels (req lvl 45). Staves can also have +1 or +2 Spell Levels, but % Spell Damage and - Enemy Resistance is more important since the end of Hell difficulty and almost all of Torment is full of immunes to 3-4 elements. And you're not missing any spells, there just are 4 empty slots, maybe we'll see some new spells in the future. Also if you decide to play a Necromancer at some point you can use this exact gear, with a better belt.
But i see you only found 1 Blizzard book (indeed it is the rarest), so if you want to can farm a bit for some more, even in Nightmare they can drop, and you can just use Teleport to hop till the end of the Secret Tunnel (Lost Treasure quest), loot those 3 chests (at this point for salvaged materials) and then go into the Soulstone Chamber. Now, position yourself between the lever and the wall, pull the lever to the rooms (Mages won't see you), use Telekinesis on Bookshelves and Library Tomes, move 1 square to see what's on the floor, pick up (Telekinesis/Teleport on them) hopefully some Blizzard/Apocalypse/whatever you need and Teleport over to another room, you don't have to face the Mages even if they follow you out of their room, cause when you get to the next unopened room you can Teleport diagonally to safety on the other unopened wall side.
And once you find some Conjuror recipes (3rd set for Casters, like the ones you have in inventory) you can craft some gear with +3 to Chain Lightning and the useful Mana Regeneration. Then when you find the 4th set try and roll Meteor Cluster or Golem.
You could get some more +MAG and +Mana instead of +VIT and +Life but it's not really necessary, and look out for some amulets that among others also have +1 Spell Levels (req lvl 27/29/33) and then +2 Spell Levels (req lvl 45). Staves can also have +1 or +2 Spell Levels, but % Spell Damage and - Enemy Resistance is more important since the end of Hell difficulty and almost all of Torment is full of immunes to 3-4 elements. And you're not missing any spells, there just are 4 empty slots, maybe we'll see some new spells in the future. Also if you decide to play a Necromancer at some point you can use this exact gear, with a better belt.But i see you only found 1 Blizzard book (indeed it is the rarest), so if you want to can farm a bit for some more, even in Nightmare they can drop, and you can just use Teleport to hop till the end of the Secret Tunnel (Lost Treasure quest), loot those 3 chests (at this point for salvaged materials) and then go into the Soulstone Chamber. Now, position yourself between the lever and the wall, pull the lever to the rooms (Mages won't see you), use Telekinesis on Bookshelves and Library Tomes, move 1 square to see what's on the floor, pick up (Telekinesis/Teleport on them) hopefully some Blizzard/Apocalypse/whatever you need and Teleport over to another room, you don't have to face the Mages even if they follow you out of their room, cause when you get to the next unopened room you can Teleport diagonally to safety on the other unopened wall side.
And once you find some Conjuror recipes (3rd set for Casters, like the ones you have in inventory) you can craft some gear with +3 to Chain Lightning and the useful Mana Regeneration. Then when you find the 4th set try and roll Meteor Cluster or Golem.
How does one combat against enemies with Haste, Bloodlust, and Extra Strong? Any time I see enemies with any of those 3 affixes, they stun lock me to death. Sometimes they nail me instantly and I don't have time react, plus they kill my golem in seconds which gives me no time to figure out what else they are immune to.
Also, could you add some information to your documentation with the following answer to this question:
What are the BiS (Best In Slot) affixes for gear for all classes?
Also, could you add some information to your documentation with the following answer to this question:
What are the BiS (Best In Slot) affixes for gear for all classes?
-
DacianDraco
- Posts: 461
- Joined: 30 Aug, 2015 4:04
- Location: Cybertron
Well, first off you should never let monsters get in melee with you can't you can't really escape, Sorcerer's hit recovery is terrible even with investment into % Faster Hit Recovery, so Teleport backwards 2-3 times until they loose engagement and stop somewhere, now you can see what modifiers they have (or if you die hover over them before restarting in town), the uniq monsters have same immunities as the regular monsters, plus gain some more if they have some "element" enchanted modifier.
Now i'll give some tips depending on areas:
CATHEDRAL levels are the easiest, find a room with bares (you/they can shoot through them), don't open the door and just kill everything inside, then when needed lure the foe and Teleport inside it to take out him out safely, they won't open the door if you haven't opened it first.
CATACOMBS levels are similar, it's just that you won't see them directly, again don't open all doors to progress and sometimes move over by Teleporting, so that again you can lure difficult monsters to where the unopened door is. And Teleport on monster's side, cast Firewall/Lightning Wall near the dungeon wall that you will Teleport over for safety and stand on the other side of the wall so they fidget in Fire/Lightning and take damage. And if you are lucky, sometimes barrels block a path, don't destroy the barrels and have them between you and monster and cast Fire/Lightning Wall on their side, works best for melee foes, with ranged you have to find a good spot (a bit diagonally) where they can't hit you but you still have some vision and can cast Firewall/Lightning Wall on the other side.
CAVES levels are better because you can chose from all previous strategies. So most of the times you can close one of the wooden fence door and monsters (most Beast types/Skullwings/some other) won't open them, even if you used them before, so you can hit them from safety. In open areas Teleport back and forth and use those lava moats to your advantage, again with Fire/Lightning Wall and cast AOE spells (Meteor Cluster/Blizzard/Chain Lightning) at junctions where monsters gather to cross on to your side. And if you have 3 or more barrels on a cave wall, hit the one in the middle (with fire bolt/frost shard/lightning or anything that doesn't do adjacent damage) and Teleport between them to be safe.
HELL is hell so you have to tough it out and react faster, and in case you get those Death Knight (ones that have Charge) know that you can move safely by positioning in between you and them some chests, bones sticking out of floor, impaled bodies, etc so they won't Charge.
Most importantly always use Elemental Drain to break immunities, Temporal Slowdown when you need more time to react, and if hit in melee cast Etheralize to gain endurance and walking speed to walk one square away and Teleport to safety. When dead and returning inch your way back and hit them with AOE spells, because they will be clogged in one spot (over your body). And also make use of the auto-target spells, Guardian/Elemental/Chain Lightning/Sentinel/Bone Spirit paired with Phasing when dealing with those insanely speedy uniques that you can't aim at.
As for BiS, i have finished leveling the Assassin and today will analyze all data and will put in the docs the gains for each character's attributes and how their skills increase with leveling and attributes. Also i'll put the speeds for weapons and on each Character page there will be preferred weapon and armor. And i guess i should put some more info in FAQ page, like how life/mana leech doesn't work with spells and whatever i can remember, we'll see.
Now i'll give some tips depending on areas:
CATHEDRAL levels are the easiest, find a room with bares (you/they can shoot through them), don't open the door and just kill everything inside, then when needed lure the foe and Teleport inside it to take out him out safely, they won't open the door if you haven't opened it first.
CATACOMBS levels are similar, it's just that you won't see them directly, again don't open all doors to progress and sometimes move over by Teleporting, so that again you can lure difficult monsters to where the unopened door is. And Teleport on monster's side, cast Firewall/Lightning Wall near the dungeon wall that you will Teleport over for safety and stand on the other side of the wall so they fidget in Fire/Lightning and take damage. And if you are lucky, sometimes barrels block a path, don't destroy the barrels and have them between you and monster and cast Fire/Lightning Wall on their side, works best for melee foes, with ranged you have to find a good spot (a bit diagonally) where they can't hit you but you still have some vision and can cast Firewall/Lightning Wall on the other side.
CAVES levels are better because you can chose from all previous strategies. So most of the times you can close one of the wooden fence door and monsters (most Beast types/Skullwings/some other) won't open them, even if you used them before, so you can hit them from safety. In open areas Teleport back and forth and use those lava moats to your advantage, again with Fire/Lightning Wall and cast AOE spells (Meteor Cluster/Blizzard/Chain Lightning) at junctions where monsters gather to cross on to your side. And if you have 3 or more barrels on a cave wall, hit the one in the middle (with fire bolt/frost shard/lightning or anything that doesn't do adjacent damage) and Teleport between them to be safe.
HELL is hell so you have to tough it out and react faster, and in case you get those Death Knight (ones that have Charge) know that you can move safely by positioning in between you and them some chests, bones sticking out of floor, impaled bodies, etc so they won't Charge.
Most importantly always use Elemental Drain to break immunities, Temporal Slowdown when you need more time to react, and if hit in melee cast Etheralize to gain endurance and walking speed to walk one square away and Teleport to safety. When dead and returning inch your way back and hit them with AOE spells, because they will be clogged in one spot (over your body). And also make use of the auto-target spells, Guardian/Elemental/Chain Lightning/Sentinel/Bone Spirit paired with Phasing when dealing with those insanely speedy uniques that you can't aim at.
As for BiS, i have finished leveling the Assassin and today will analyze all data and will put in the docs the gains for each character's attributes and how their skills increase with leveling and attributes. Also i'll put the speeds for weapons and on each Character page there will be preferred weapon and armor. And i guess i should put some more info in FAQ page, like how life/mana leech doesn't work with spells and whatever i can remember, we'll see.
I pretty much have all of that covered that you mentioned (lots of experience from vanilla D1 etc...) But here's the issues that I keep running into:
Example:
Unique Mob - Gold Drake type
Immune to - Magic, Cold
Lightning Enchanted
Fire Enchanted
Haste
This asshole is immune to all 4 elements, and only takes damage from physical. This would take me all day to kill considering the only way to attack it is with a bow from a distance, which is slow on a Sorc. Plus the golem dies within seconds, AND using spells like Bone Spirit does nothing to it for whatever reason. So you know what I do? I don't fight it, I just ignore the bastard. lol
Really though, I keep finding mobs like this 80% of the time where I can only kill it with 1 attack that barely hurts it while that magic penetration skill is on cooldown. And even when it isn't, sometimes the mobs take no damage still. The ones that have cold as the only means of being damaged is also just as bad as physical, because it does the shittiest damage compared to all the spells.
Sorc really needs a spell that deals physical damage when Bone Spirit don't work...
Example:
Unique Mob - Gold Drake type
Immune to - Magic, Cold
Lightning Enchanted
Fire Enchanted
Haste
This asshole is immune to all 4 elements, and only takes damage from physical. This would take me all day to kill considering the only way to attack it is with a bow from a distance, which is slow on a Sorc. Plus the golem dies within seconds, AND using spells like Bone Spirit does nothing to it for whatever reason. So you know what I do? I don't fight it, I just ignore the bastard. lol
Really though, I keep finding mobs like this 80% of the time where I can only kill it with 1 attack that barely hurts it while that magic penetration skill is on cooldown. And even when it isn't, sometimes the mobs take no damage still. The ones that have cold as the only means of being damaged is also just as bad as physical, because it does the shittiest damage compared to all the spells.
Sorc really needs a spell that deals physical damage when Bone Spirit don't work...
-
DacianDraco
- Posts: 461
- Joined: 30 Aug, 2015 4:04
- Location: Cybertron
Bone Spirit is a Magic spell, that's why it doesn't work on Magic Immunes. And Meteor Cluster also does some Physical Damage so use it paired with Elemental Drain. Apocalypse too does a bit of physical dmg. Also the Golem does Physical Damage, and except the quest bosses all can be Stone Cursed, and the spell is instant, sure they take less damage when Stone Cursed but your Golem can dmg them while you wait for the timer of Elemental Drain to go down. As for the cold spells all of them slow monsters down, but with higher difficulty the effect is less noticeable, and just learn more Blizzard levels, it's the strongest, and i sometime use Ice Blast for it's Knockback and adjacent dmg. Anyway later on with -20% Resistance on staff and the bonus from Elemental Drain it will be like mobs arn't even immune. Serious OPness comes with Tal Rasha's and Rathma's sets, and there are some other uniq items that also reduce resistances.
Stone Curse is useless, I cast this on the enemy, and they are stone for exactly 0.8 seconds, no joke. And the freeze effect doesn't work on unique mobs most of the time. I'll get monsters that don't have a natural cold immunity as a unique mob, and i'll sit there and pelt them with the Ice Blast and all it does is knock them back for 50-80 damage per shot.
Judging by that last sentence, this game is starting to sound like it is all balanced around the sets you wear... I have seen other posts that people are wearing lower level sets and can't function without them etc. I weep for the future.
Judging by that last sentence, this game is starting to sound like it is all balanced around the sets you wear... I have seen other posts that people are wearing lower level sets and can't function without them etc. I weep for the future.
-
DacianDraco
- Posts: 461
- Joined: 30 Aug, 2015 4:04
- Location: Cybertron
Get some more levels into Blizzard, it's the best cold spell. And yeah, at Hell's end and in Torment you should have uniqs/sets and crafts to progress, otherwise it's a pain, it feels normal to me, you are finishing the game, and Torment is to enjoy the OPness of end game gear, so don't get bummed out now, here check out some vids of Torment's Terror Domain with all classes http://awake.diablo1.eu.org/please-show ... -t931.html And most sets are OP at the level they are required to wear, the low lvl ones can take you 10+ levels up, medium about 5+, then they start to become average (except the top ones) and you should improve the setup if you still want to feel OP, generally with some combination of sets/uniq/craft.
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 14 guests