The Nudist Gazette

[T-hawk]

Yeah, there's no good way to name "nudist except for broken items to block off the slots". The label is fine, don't go by my nitpicking.

Re Diablo 1 - I did play a BNM once, though lost interest before finishing even normal difficulty, maybe I should go back to that sometime. I remember that to-hit for spells, though I thought it was stat points in magic, not mana so that Cranium Basher didn't affect it.

[KingOfPain]

LoL how I contradict what I just said the sentence before... My bad on the Cranium Basher affecting Magic to-hit. I should edit it.

I was thinking if D4 fails I would be playing D1 after this batch on D2 too.

[KingOfPain]

NatureCalls Does NM Diablo & Ancients

Diablo on Players 3 @ clvl 57
This was the second attempt on Diablo. What I usually do is to leave extra potions on ground and if I use up my belt and run out of potions to pick off the ground I would call it quits. It was really close the first try, if NC had 2 more healing potions Diablo would had died.

This second try got off lucky with all the pets holding Diablo in place. Big D is so much more dangerous when he moves around. And pets get scattered. Lovely to have the Bear on opposite side of the Rogue so she stayed safe thru out.




Ancients on Players 3 @ Clvl 60
Perfect example of how screwed up the Rogue AI is @ 4:35 - 5:00
Perfectly positioned, takes 2 shots at Madawc then decided to go on a holiday 





.

[KingOfPain]

NatureCalls vs NM Baal

This is the third attempt at Baal's throne. The last 2 times on players 3 were met with Baal clones too early and too often with the pet scatter everywhere but useful. NatureCalls gained 2 levels from the attempts and bumped him to Clvl64, which was just as well so that the Ravens are now sometimes useful.


After the ancients, I began to think about alternatives. Kyoto with her Thorns aura from the Edge seems to be doing okay, however, there's always the compromise between handling of mobs vs single targets such as bosses. The team needs more heavy damage to act bosses. This prompted a switch on Kyoto's setup. She is now wearing a Treasury to bump her IAS up 3 break points. Swapped in a Witchwild Diamond bow socketed with a Nef. I left 1 socket open pending on its performance with the team. A Shael would bump Kyoto's to the next break point from 1.92 APS to 2.08 APS. No hurry for that small increase. The other options are:

ED jewels which is great with the Elite upgraded bow.

An AMN is always nice especially Kyoto has no leech anywhere. But she's a rogue, why would she need leech

A Perfect Sapphire. A little Freeze would work great with the Knock Back.

Too bad A Ruby Fervor jewel's 15 IAS is not enough for the next IAS break point... then again I am not sure the bow is worthy enough for such an expensive jewel.


If Kyoto is for keeps, a decision would have to be made if she gets a Wisdom for 33% Piercing, or a Flickering Flame to up the Explosive Fire damages (not to mention Resist Fire for the whole team)














.

[T-hawk]

If you have the equipment available, this is the easy way to tackle Baal with a (town guard) merc. Swap between a Kelpie Snare for slows-target (while slowed enough, he'll never cast the clone, unless this changed in Resurrected) and a Hone Sundan for crushing blow. That's the faster way, though of course you can get it done with anything with enough patience.

[KingOfPain]

I am lost for words atm

[KingOfPain]

We will leave the rest of that for another day...

.... though of course you can get it done with anything with enough patience.

I am curious, though, if you truly embrace that oversimplification of the concept. What motivates you to run your hardcore team, multiple times?

I refuse to believe that we should equip the best we have, even to go as far as a pair of Griefs, Fortitude and a Arreat Face with a Cham on the merc just to get things done. That if we restrict ourselves to lower powers then it's only a matter of patience that Knowledge of the game, tactics and skill plays no role in overcoming the challenges. But it sounds like these are not even challenges according to your philosophy? Where's the happy medium, if there is one?



.

[T-hawk]

Heh, I think you took that the wrong way, friend. I meant that as a compliment, not an insult, about the patience. That you are getting it done with tactics and skills. Sirian always loved getting the most out of low-powered inputs, in both Diablo and Civ. I was trying to help with suggestions, not to ruin your approach.

I keep playing my hardcore teams for the journey more than the destination, the puzzle of arranging all the equipment and the experience of learning all the tactics. I set my rules to maximize the interestingness of the journey: the restrictions (once-through, no ladder runewords, no respecs) serve to maximize the diversity in what I do use. We're doing the same thing - set rules for what we want to use, in order to find what's interesting in the space beneath that line. I just couldn't have guessed your line for this was inbetween the merc equipment you were using and what I was suggesting.

But I still need some measure of success - if there's no way to lose, then there's nothing to win. Hardcore provides that clear line for me. How do you define your notion of the challenge - what would constitute not meeting it?

[KingOfPain]

I wasn't sure what you were getting at. My bad.



Ditto. It is all about the journey, the end game is actually the anti climax.



We are both doing it once thru. The difference is I do have wider choice of gear for the mercs, the ability to twink if you may. I try to be cautious with the mercs, of course, you should not see items on them that your once-thru-team would not have access to, for example. But my guys have the luxury of choices without worrying about limited resources, for example, the cheap Edge bow for the Rogue just now. That luxury extends to the changing of different mercs just for fun. That was the one thing I set out to do ever since they buff’d the mercs. Of course, I open myself for exceptions, for example, wanting to add a Harmony to the Nake Druid Summoner, for fun, not to gain any decisive advantages.



Amongst the few things to add more challenge to the toons

- Always try to do it at Players 3 (why not runs some forge mules while I am at it )

- Give the monsters a wide gap of mlvl-clvl advantage.

- Base Vit if I can help it.

- Don’t Die. there might have been 2 or 3 deaths across the whole batch. I think all of them in Norm Diff when I thought I would least likely to die

- If it gets too easy, ban or restrict. Among the restricted (or combinations thereof) is: Decrep, Dim Vision, Corpse Explosion, and Kelpie Snare ;p

- Admit defeat. I might carry a few extra potions down to the battle ground and if I use them up I call a reset. No towning forever to grab potions or dying until the boss die too.

- I always keep in mind that not all Variants are created to “beat the game”. It’s all about the journey, right? There is no real line on the sand to say if a character has met or failed the challenges as in HC. I guess whenever I stop playing/pushing them then that’s all they were meant to do. See point above. Or when it gets to be too tedious, for example, GGG pre-1.10. It would just be too painful to face all those Fire Immune in Hell.


But sometimes I would choose fun over challenge. Upon testing Grim Ward progression, it is clear as I had envisioned when I created Jeremiah that it would be a “powerful” build. Although Jeremiah would not reach such high skill levels he could still disable the entire screen. No Doom on a Might merc, but I would let him have his fun.



.

[KingOfPain]

ImMcTyraelGal vs NM Andariel & Duriel

Recap from her last report:
ImMctyraelGal is a heavy drinker, if she gets hit, she's drinking. Pretty fragile thing she is. Turning 30+ brings Shadow Master online, and the merc actually got some gears with names. The play took on a different drum now that the merc can tank, and Master does whatever the heck she wants. So the duty of casting Cloak of Shadow and Mind Blast fell on ImMctyraelGal.

She was around clvl 40 at Baal, and the first Nudist death, due to driver error. She was already 10 minutes    into the fight and then died when Baal was 1/5 HP. And no tp back down.

Act 1 as much as Act 2, including Andariel and Duriel, always seem so much easier in comparison to the Baal battle of the previous difficulty. Baal and its setup can be a killer for weaker characters. And so there really isn't much to say about NM Act 1 and 2. One thing remains the same is that she remains a thirsty girl. If a monster so much as look at her, she's drinking. ~200 HP is barely enough to takes a direct hit even with Fade on.



Later in the Tombs, I am starting to notice the maxed Shadow Master's killing speed. The SM still does alright, just not so much 1-2 hits anymore. I swear the Shadow Master is going to be the death of ImMcTyraelGal one of these days. She goes to aggro everything and jumps from mobs to mobs without finishing what she started. Typical Pubbies

I am beginning to entertain the possibility of a Respec   I would max Shadow Warrior and pump a couple of Traps instead. ImMcTyraelGal would still be Passive because only the Shadow would cast the traps....

Duriel @ clvl 51 - Typical Uber Drop from Duriel



.