Followup 1 - Apr/23/2000

The next day I played a smattering of other classes, so today you'll see snippets of the next characters.

PAL
Next character played was a Paladin, Cobra. He will also be a little Jack-of-all-Trades - non-optimal but I want to see as many skills as soon as possible.

After the earlier game with Amazon, and getting to know the areas around town, the Den of Evil was straightforward. First three skills: Prayer, Sacrifice, Might. Adding to dex and some str. Future level up scheme will be something like this:

clvls 4-5: do not distribute, save two for...
clvl 6: Defiance, Thorns, and Holy Fire. Yes you *can* save up points and use in higher lvl skills when you reach there, you just can't pile three into Defiance at clvl 6.
Max slvl = clvl - slvl_you_can_first_learn_it + 1
Defiance is a massive boost to defense, and Holy Fire is best at low lvls, so might as well grab it now. With thorns, foes hurt themselves when they hit you
clvl 7-11: Smite, Holy Bolt, and hold off on THREE skills til 12. On a real character I would likely push prayer and sacrifice more. One nice feature of Holy Bolt is that it's "Heal Other" as well clvl 12: Zeal, Cleansing, Blessed Aim, Charge. Zeal attacks multiple foes, and is good vs mobs.
Beyond 12: Zeal and Sacrifice some more, and some Prayer.

I'm mostly ignoring resistances, since it's an Act I only beta, and I don't expect massive spell use against me. Cleansing, which is great vs. poison, may be handy, especially for final battle.

NEC Static, a Summoner Necromancer
One of the most different features in D2 is the Necromancer summoning tree, with Skeletons, Skeletal Mages, and a variety of Golems. Fun stuff :) 2 Skels and 1 Skel Mast point make for quite a romp at low levels.

- Again, first character of each class will be more 'spread thin'
- Focus was on Raise Skel and Mastery
- Amplify Damage is also crucial for me, with +100% dmg at just slvl 1
- For a new player, the confusion of multiple minions was tough, and their pathfinding AI is rather poor (bug or feature?!)
- When processor or connection lagged, however, the minions were right on top of things (zero ping, as they're controlled by the server) while I was stumbling about
- Coop play, I could tell I was annoying others - blocking doors, taking a while to 'catch up' while the minions got stuck in corners, and cluttering up the screen of player-face-icons Being on the other end to, it's very clear that coop with a necro who focuses on summoning is a drag
- There is another option though... a single blood golem is a very good friend. Little clutter, and with some mastery points he speeds up. He's a tank too, I could not believe how long he would hold up. At times I would run into a boss mob, flee for my life. Drink a potion, pick a new spell, and peek back. There was Golly, punching away, with most of his hp still left. Cast Amplfy Damage on whatever he was hitting,
throw a few teeth, and raise a skel from what he killed, and the mob was cut to pieced, while I was undamaged. Wow.
- Graphics - I was a touch disappointed in the Necro's graphics. I looked like a 1950's football player with white shirt, shoulder pads and a silly leather cap with chinstrap. But... then I found some leather armor called "Bone Shell" Woo!!! It's a moderately good armor, but my top choice due to the 'look' alone. I get a great bone and rib look going :)
- The "Bone Armor" is very helpful, and lasts forever. The graphic for it is nice, but highly animated and visible - maybe too visible.
- Future play would go for a few more Skeletal Mages, so I could have four different elemental types around at once, and Golem Mastery.
- Static slew Andariel coop with an Ice Mage. What a great team- the Golem as 'point' kept both of us out of harms way, and with Amplify Dmg and Ice Blast, plus some Static Field, it was great. (tnx LloraC :) A Bar joined up with us for the final battle (WarLocke) and held Andy in place nicely.

Final battle stats: clvl 13 - 36/26/20/64 90 life, 138 mana Amp dmg 2, iron maiden 1, raise skel 2, skel mast 1, clay gol 4, skel mage 2, golem mast 2, bone armor 1. (Bone wall comes next ;)

* Other Necro thoughts
- I've since started a much more coop friendly Necro, "Shadow" who will have a high lvl teeth, good melee skills, and Amplify Damage. Maybe a simple low lvl Clay Golem to slow down pursuing mobs.
- I also plan an all-melee Necromancer with Poison dagger. This I call the "Toxic Necromancer" :)

MELEE+COLD Sorceress "Golgotha"
Golgotha has a heart for battle, and uses cold for slowing and freezing monsters to help with that. (If the mob is too big, alas I had to Static Field a bit to soften them up.) Later, when I'm more skilled, I will try melee-only - a "Muscle Ma'am" (See Followup 3)

She had a looong solo Tower and Monastery run, finding Infernal Cap and Vidala Ambush set pieces. At the end, she gambled at Gheed's and bought Bloodfist, +40 life and +5 min dmg. Totally sweet for her :P

More later...

Charis