The Nudist Gazette

[KingOfPain]

While naked Blaze is fun enuf  early on, it would be Not Fun later on. Got a dilemma there. If weak merc, Ethel running around would kill the merc. If strong merc, Ethel should be even stronger, have relevant contribution to the "team". Merc's AI will screw up your plan...

Blaze with Thunder Storm together would be nice
Want at least 50% Energy Shield to survive one hit kills. Probably 1/3 points in Nrg and 2/3 points in Vit.
Telekinesis, maybe lvl 10, can be useful for ES. Can pretend she's helpful knocking back monsters.
Enchant helps merc, but would need a strong merc to tank if she is going melee.
Max Warmth is a prereq.
There just isn't enough skill points to go around to get all I want. LoL

This girl is a headache

[KingOfPain]

FoulMouthAlice - The Naked Traffic Controller Does Baal

This naked Necro is a remake of the Traffic Controller, who used only curses, as a proof of concept that a naked Necro with a limited skill set can easily do Hell; just as her naked Amazon counterpart FireEngineRed who uses only the Passive Tree.

This time around, FoulMouthAlice tries to push the Traffic Controller concept even further. Besides his namesake Curse Tree, he will get a couple of skills that will help fulfill his duties as a traffic cop. He gets Corpse Explosion to clear the road blocks, and Bone Wall/Prison for those who insist on breaking the law. Traffic violation is a serious offense around here. Corpse Explosion is always restricted to limit collateral damage.  I doubt I will have enough points to make Bone Wall/Prison useful, just keeping the option open. This time around, FoulMouthAlice will use less DV+CE and use more Attract, Confuse, and Terror.

So as not to be accused of relying on a beefy tank to tank and do the killing, FMA has been using a Rogue merc all along. I found FMA in Act5 Normal after the Ancients, so the story begins from WSK.

The video shows a merge of two separate recordings, one with a Rogue merc and then an Act2 merc for the final fight with Baal.

The video begins with the third attempt at the Baal run. One failed to clear the 5 waves, and the remaining 2 with the Rogue failed to kill Baal. The last attempt with a Cold Rogue fitted with Koku (in this video) got close but resources were getting low and she was dying too much. Baal can be really tough on a ragdoll Rogue with a slow firing rate. The layout is a huge hindrance for the Rogue’s AI. She was standing around in the wrong places either not attacking or attacking the wrong Baal (Fake Baal seems to spawn often and earlier vs weaker players). How I wish for a Leg-Hugger (AI) Rogue.

FMA does good vs mobs, and has a better kill rate than the Rogue at times, as seen in the recording. In contrast, there isn’t much FMA can do to single targets (Bosses) besides playing a supporting role. That is quite alright for a clvl34 naked Necro with a limited skills set, base Vit, and still saved 70 Stat Points  after spending a bunch of points in Str to put on broken armors
 
The video jumps to the killing of Lister around the 6:00 mark, skipping 7 long minutes after the Lister wave began. When the video jumps to FMA with an Act2 merc and stats at 6:25, begins the fourth attempt at Baal.




PS: I know the code readers claim there’s only one AI for Rogue mercs. However, Charis and I found that not the case on the battlefield.

PSS: You will see in these vids I seem to run around without a purpose. That's me driving the mercs.

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[Kylearan]

PS: I know the code readers claim there’s only one AI for Rogue mercs. However, Charis and I found that not the case on the battlefield.

What do you mean by that? That there are different AIs for each type of Rogue merc?

[KingOfPain]

Kylearan

PS: I know the code readers claim there’s only one AI for Rogue mercs. However, Charis and I found that not the case on the battlefield.

What do you mean by that? That there are different AIs for each type of Rogue merc?


I would concede there is just one routine that controls the Rogue's AI. However, if it's AI, then that routine must allow for random adaptations and subroutines. Certain inherited random seed(s) could make the Rogues behave differently if only slightly. I didn't read the codes so we can argue until our ears turn blue.

When the data contradicts with real world experiences, I would value my observation over their interpretation of the codes. We tend to pay more attention to how the mercs act since we Variants move slower and tend to control and rely on them more. We would spend countless time to shop for a Rogue that fit our needs. Some behave more aggressive and will often walk ahead; good as an early warning decoy. Some we call Leg Huggers, skittish and will follow you at the heel; less aggro and easy to control. And then you have the dumber ones; ones that stand around as if they are DV'd... also a nightmare in the Catacombs cus they will get lost often.


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[KingOfPain]

Nature Calls Does NM Andy



Last we saw NatureCalls tested Normal Baal with both a Rogue and a Frenzy merc. The Baba turned out to be more useful against single targets, but the Rogue just as efficient and more fun vs mobs. Instead of changing merc again, NatureCalls went into NM with the Baba.



Stats @ NM Andariel





Act 1 was pretty easy going with nothing putting up a challenge. Nowhere did I feel NC's base Vit threatened. The hokeys are set up so that I am spamming Dire Wolf as FireEngineRed spams Decoy. So nothing much gets close enough to NC. Dire Wolf is also spam at Shamans at a distant to keep them busy while the rest of the gang work on the Fallen Ones.











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[KingOfPain]

The Odd Couple - GoGoGadgetz & FireEngineRed In Hell

FireEngineRed 57 & GoGoGadgetz (Necro) 59

This journey saw FireEngineRed and GoGoGadgetz travelling together, both new to Act1 Hell. They would take turns in doing one area each and meet up at Andariel together.

FireEngineRed, Passive Only Naked Zon - clvl 57
Inner Sight, Slow Missiles, Critical Strike and Penetrate @ lvl 1. Decoy = 13, Valk = 20, D/A/E = 9
Life = 1021, Res All =  -80
Merc Clvl56 - Crown Of Thieves, Treachery and Obedience. Mid Res all

GoGoGadgetz, No Skills Necro - clvl 58
Available skills granted by items.
Corpse Explosion = 13, Dim Vision = 5, Fire Ball = 18 (171-196 Dmg)
(Swap) Decrepify = 14, Life Tap = 12
(Or) BoneArmor = 16, Bone Spear = 16 (144-152 Dmg)

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That was a good warning of what's to come, the worst enemy for the 2 companions right outside the gate at Bloodmoor. And then Grisword. Many minutes and merc resurrections later....




Letting the monsters have a large mlvl vs clvl advantage is something I try to maintain to keep me on the edge. I would sometimes skip non quest areas to avoid lvl’ing. Jumping into Hell Diff with these low level characters is like doing NM Act5 Ancients and WSK to Baal, where every monster is at least 10 to 20 levels higher than the toons. What makes it worse in Hell is that the monsters, even though they may be the same lvl as Act5 NM monsters, are now (at least) hitting twice as hard, have 3 times more HP, damage resists and curse reductions.

The going will be considerably slower, as well as, more expensive in spell recharges and mercs.

The temptation of letting the toons catch up on lvl’ing is always present; not only for mlvl<>clvl, but also to let the toons/mercs (for those allowed to use Items) to break the next power gap. New Toys

As is, GGG has some decisions to make. A change of tactic is needed even though he is not getting any new equipment - awkward moment.
The only offensive skills he has, lvl18 Fire Ball 171-196, and lvl 16 Bone Spear 144-152, all at a sudden hurts less than a tickle. The spells were always at a cost of having the merc equip an Insight to begin with. The merc is already struggling to stay alive as is. The reasonable thing to do would be to free the merc to use better (situational) equipment, and let GGG use Dim Vision, Corpse Explosion as well as Life Tab more freely. Or let GGG level to 65 for a complete Trang Set (and lvl66 for MarrowWalk).

FireEngineRed is in a slightly different situation. She has 2 super tanks by now that she's got fully synergized Decoy and Valk. Killing speed might be slow but FER feels pretty safe. The 2 super tanks give her some freedom to play with using different mercs. We will see….


This will be double posted under GGGs' thread to keep things together. No need to read the other one under the same title.

BTW, each post has a different title. It keep things easy to find under the forum List View.


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[KingOfPain]

Jeremiah The Naked Baba Does Duriel

Jeremiah is no speed demon but he is no slowpoke either. Although he has no attack skills, none that does any damage, he earns his keep by:
Buff merc’s Defense
Buff merc’s HP
Buff merc’s attack rating and damage
Lower incoming damages
Keeps the mob to manageable sizes, knock back and slow monsters, disable monsters, especially casters.
Feed merc potions


But Jeremiah does have a mana issue for the time being.
The vid shows him heading to the Tomb and down, just to show how he plays, then cut to Duriel and stats. In the vid you can see I am still not used to deal with beetle mobs. I am still trigger happy with Leap which is not good for Jeremiah's health. Leap counts as an attack and triggers the beetles to release Charged Bolt en masse. OUCH!

 



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[T-hawk]

Yeah, I've also been finding that with my hardcore teams - any character can progress if they need to by way of the merc doing everything. He might kill at a quarter the speed of an average build or a tenth the speed of a power build... but that's a lower bound baseline that's always available to every character as long as you're willing to hire and equip the merc. If you don't want that to be part of your gameplay (generic you, and not saying if you in particular do or don't), then you need variant rules for that as well as any variantism going on with the player character.

[KingOfPain]

Yeah, I've also been finding that with my hardcore teams - any character can progress if they need to by way of the merc doing everything.  He might kill at a quarter the speed of an average build or a tenth the speed of a power build... but that's a lower bound baseline that's always available to every character as long as you're willing to hire and equip the merc.  If you don't want that to be part of your gameplay (generic you, and not saying if you in particular do or don't), then you need variant rules for that as well as any variantism going on with the player character.

This is a good subject for discussion.

Yea, it is never a consideration to equip a Variant's merc with better than cheap-normal gear. I would never equip GGGz's merc with an Infinity when the Necro goes full Fire mode, for example. Of course, there may be exceptions if the item fits the theme and mostly just for the cute factor. More on that later. The main determining factor would be just how I justify Jeremiah's worth. Although Jeremiah has no attack skills, he plays a large role in the merc's survivability as well as its killing speed.

FireEngineRed on the other hand does not contribute much to the merc directly. Partly why we don't hear much about her adventures. However, I think FER can easily do without her merc. Why I have said she is free to experiment with different mercs. What she brings to the table is 2 killer tanks from her Passive Only skills, her own survivability with pumped D/A/E, and her situational awareness. I like playing FER mostly because of her situational awareness - she predicts mob movement, she knows where to place the Decoy and Valk, and when to recast. That is when I am more immersed with the game, studying monster AI, manipulating the mob. FER is straightly a slave driver, but she earns her keep. What more can one expect from a naked toon with -80 res all and yet further restricted to using Passive skills only.

But, it is not necessarily good to have an absolutely useless merc, or without one at all. Yes Variants is about introducing more challenges, and through that, more fun (is where you find it). We hope each one offer a balance of both, and that it is a test of skill but not just a test of stubbornness - I am not about to prove Jeremiah can kill Baal without a merc, with Slvl 1 War Cry, which might take hours, dying a hundred times or not at all. Having played Ironman is taxing enough.

By the same token, some Variants are not meant to “beat the game”, it is all about the journey. Do we want to restrict the already heavily restricted Variants further by not allowing a merc?  A useless merc is actually more of a burden because it does nothing but you have to keep it alive. So we can boil the question down to merc or no merc. Do we want to end the Variant’s career at Normal Baal? Or, we let it continue with a little help, because it is a good thing that we are using skills no one would normally use, and have fun playing with a different style we otherwise would not.

Jeremiah, for example, plays differently than any Baba builds, mainstream or not.   

Variants being what they are will have their own limitations. (I mean there are mainstream uber builds who have to skip areas of the game. Tsk Tsk) Some can be great with mobs but less useful vs single targets. Some can be a Boss killer but have to advance carefully among mobs. Therefore, I would rather not, but I would accept more help from the merc upon certain obstacles.

I think the balance between merc or no merc is if the toon plays an active role in controlling “the game”.


Later:
I am contemplating making a Doom for Jeremiah's merc, for the Holy Freeze aura. HF fits the theme (to be revealed later) and is going to be there one way or another -
That might make a Defiance merc too strong.
Could just get a HF merc to keep a weaker merc.
That might work against Jeremiah's use of corpses.
Ice is too expensive
But I haven't made a Doom yet.
Ice for a Rogue is too expensive.....



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[KingOfPain]

Jeremiah Running Forge Mules Thru Mephy

Had to redo Mephy because one of the mule disco'd just before the kill.
Just got Grim Ward, Jeremiah is falling into his role more so. Always trying to set some wards in case I have to retreat; and Taunt monsters through it. That's is the Baba's version of Confuse +more.






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