Hardcore no fly zones (this is D2 related, I promise)

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As some might know from reading my daily post the other day, I've been playing
a singer barbarian recently, that I've outfitted for hell gold find and magic
find, specifically, hell travincal. He's currently kitted out as follows, a
compromise of resists, skills, gold find and magic find:

Hat - IK with two perfect topaz
Armour - Wealth dusk shroud
Amulet - Mara's
Ring 1 - Lightning resist/magic find
Ring 2 - Dwarf Star
Weapon 1 - Spirit sword and Spirit shield for main war crying
Weapon 2 - Two ali baba swords for horking (find item)
Gloves - Frostburns
Belt - Goldwrap
Boots - Infernostrikes

This gives him plenty of gold and magic find, and, combined with an investment
in Natural Resistances, the key resistances, fire and lightning, are 82 and
75% respectively (plus he has some fire absorb from his dwarf star ring).
Cold and poison are in the 40-60 range. War Cry stuns the regular council
easily enough, and has a smaller, but definite chance to stun the "big three"
council. So most runs are reasonably safe. However... some runs are
absolutely killer. Literally. Even in hell, with the FE bug "sort of"
fixed, he can still take in excess of 1000 damage from a FE council death
explosion. And with the right mods, a lightning enchanted boss can reduce
his 3200 life to zero in literally about one second. And melee shots in
excess of 1500 damage aren't too uncommon either.

It's fun as heck getting the large gold piles, and the random killer mods keep
things from getting dull, but clearly it's not an activity that the heavy
players of hardcore mode would want to engage in, if they have an interest in
surviving for very long. What other activities do you guys steer clear of?
I've heard it said that hardcore mode is also not a place for variant builds,
and also that teleport-to-boss style MF has limited application. What else
do you have chalked up in the "don't do" this column?


--
If in doubt, hit with axe.

 

[mark]

Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo,alt.games.diablo2 (More info?)

"Stephen van Ham" <svanham@xtra.co.nz> wrote in message
news:89n9919btkgnoj8hsljv2skcnh0f3h2sst@4ax.com...
>
> What other activities do you guys steer clear of?
> I've heard it said that hardcore mode is also not a place for variant
> builds,
> and also that teleport-to-boss style MF has limited application. What
> else
> do you have chalked up in the "don't do" this column?

I posted recently that I didn't understand how folks just teleported around
without getting killed. But that was after a NDE trying to do it while
rushing some folks through the Anya quest. The Gloams in the Frozen River
here absolutely hammering me even though my Sorc had 105 FC. I only lived
because when my belt ran dry I happened to find a quiet corner to regroup.
Since then however I have been running Hell Mephisto and gradually I became
comfortable doing it there. Now I just port her all over till I find the
stairs. It's really not a problem. The only cause for concern is when I land
into a group of mana burners and they drain my globe. But even then it's not
bad since my Insight merc almost instantly gives me enough to port away. So
I guess it's just a matter of picking you spots where to port around. I
certainly won't be doing it where Gloams are lurking.

But what do I avoid? Nothing I can absolutely put my finger on, but
generally places where the danger doesn't match the reward. For example my
Hell Mephy running MFer. After offing Mephy I'll open the chests and such in
the are and if one of the councilors wander in I'll kill them too. But if
they show up Conv I'll just bag it and move on to the next game. That
situation has a much greater chance of killing me than yielding a nice drop,
so that's why I squee.

Regards-
Mark

Bongo-Fury

 

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Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo,alt.games.diablo2 (More info?)

On Thu, 26 May 2005 08:26:46 +1200, Stephen van Ham
<svanham@xtra.co.nz> wrote:

>I've heard it said that hardcore mode is also not a place for variant builds,
>and also that teleport-to-boss style MF has limited application. What else
>do you have chalked up in the "don't do" this column?

Here are a few that I try to avoid:

CE, DS and LF in the presence of dolls.

Soloing Normal Diablo with a necro who hasn't got Summon Resist yet.

Meleeing FE bosses in NM and Hell.

Conviction, Fanaticism and Holy Freeze enchanted bosses in combination
with certain other mods like XF and MS.

Fighting while Amped, especially against ranged attackers or
high-damage monsters like bulls.

Multiple boss packs with auras.

Soloing no-shield builds in Hell.

-- Roy L

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo,alt.games.diablo2 (More info?)

"Stephen van Ham" <svanham@xtra.co.nz> wrote in message
news:89n9919btkgnoj8hsljv2skcnh0f3h2sst@4ax.com...
>
> As some might know from reading my daily post the other day, I've been
> playing
> a singer barbarian recently, that I've outfitted for hell gold find and
> magic
> find, specifically, hell travincal. He's currently kitted out as
> follows, a
> compromise of resists, skills, gold find and magic find:
>
> Hat - IK with two perfect topaz
> Armour - Wealth dusk shroud
> Amulet - Mara's
> Ring 1 - Lightning resist/magic find
> Ring 2 - Dwarf Star
> Weapon 1 - Spirit sword and Spirit shield for main war crying
> Weapon 2 - Two ali baba swords for horking (find item)
> Gloves - Frostburns
> Belt - Goldwrap
> Boots - Infernostrikes
>
> This gives him plenty of gold and magic find, and, combined with an
> investment
> in Natural Resistances, the key resistances, fire and lightning, are 82
> and
> 75% respectively (plus he has some fire absorb from his dwarf star ring).
> Cold and poison are in the 40-60 range. War Cry stuns the regular
> council
> easily enough, and has a smaller, but definite chance to stun the "big
> three"
> council. So most runs are reasonably safe. However... some runs are
> absolutely killer. Literally. Even in hell, with the FE bug "sort of"
> fixed, he can still take in excess of 1000 damage from a FE council death
> explosion. And with the right mods, a lightning enchanted boss can
> reduce
> his 3200 life to zero in literally about one second. And melee shots in
> excess of 1500 damage aren't too uncommon either.
>
> It's fun as heck getting the large gold piles, and the random killer mods
> keep
> things from getting dull, but clearly it's not an activity that the heavy
> players of hardcore mode would want to engage in, if they have an interest
> in
> surviving for very long. What other activities do you guys steer clear
> of?
> I've heard it said that hardcore mode is also not a place for variant
> builds,
> and also that teleport-to-boss style MF has limited application. What
> else
> do you have chalked up in the "don't do" this column?
>
>
> --
> If in doubt, hit with axe.


Nice set up, but why not chance guards? Typo?

I don't play sorcs, so I can't comment on teleport. When in hell mode I
mainly avoid places with stair traps. Everything else is doable.
Specifically the Tower, the act III dungeons, and WS Keep are places I can't
find a way to run safely with any of my characters.

I do WS keep if I have a playing partner and will occasionally do the act
III tome quest, but with a nasty double boss pack at the bottom of a stair
it could be game over even for a good team. Neither of us play barbs or
druids, so maybe with the extra life those places would be safe.

=Steve

 

[Watchman]

Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo,alt.games.diablo2 (More info?)

Stephen van Ham wrote:
>
I've heard it said that hardcore mode is also not a place for variant
builds,
> and also that teleport-to-boss style MF has limited application. What else
> do you have chalked up in the "don't do" this column?
>

I generally avoid going after Nilathak. His corpse explosion makes him
too dangerous and, let's face it, the quest reward is... pathetic.

As a rule, all my characters retreat when AD is cast and there are
archers around.

Watchman
--
'Anyone who isn't confused doesn't really know what's going on'

 

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Long ago, in the world without shrimp, "Steve W"
<stwysongREMOVE@sbcglobal.net>, supreme ruler of bunnies, hopped and flopped
and said:

>Nice set up, but why not chance guards? Typo?

Mana considerations. The frosties are a holdover from when I wasn't using a
mercenary with an Insight polearm. Even in full +mana setup, once he started
aggressively war crying, it made a Nova sorceress look downright economical.
But I've been thinking about switching from to chancies (and I do have a 40%
MF pair lying around spare, I do believe), since I now have an Insight
wielding Prayer mercenary backing me up.

>I do WS keep if I have a playing partner and will occasionally do the act
>III tome quest, but with a nasty double boss pack at the bottom of a stair
>it could be game over even for a good team. Neither of us play barbs or
>druids, so maybe with the extra life those places would be safe.

Battle Orders and Oak Sage can make a huge difference indeed.


--
If in doubt, hit with axe.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo,alt.games.diablo2 (More info?)

Stephen van Ham wrote:
> teleport-to-boss style MF has limited application. What else do you
> have chalked up in the "don't do" this column?

My fairly vanilla mf'ing HC barb doesn't poke his head into the Keep very
much. It's not that he can't, it's just that the rewards aren't worth the
effort/risk.

Any assy I build will ALWAYS use shield/claw rather than dual claws, so to
put in the correct form for the question, it would be "don't do a dual claw
assy", I suppose.

No character I play will stand toe up to a Moon Lord pack of any kind, aura
enchanted or not. If they can spread them out without too much trouble
maybe, but mostly it's "Homey don't play that way".

About the only other thing I can think of is the Universal Avoidance of
Nihlathak. Heh, my Azurewrath-equipped barb doesn't even mind wading into a
pack of dolls--in Hell, mind, not NM.

Speaking of which, I just remembered another "don't do this"--I play melee
characters exclusively, and they "don't do" NM once they graduate. At all.

--
chainbreaker