Hostile Coop

Oxymoron Diablo!? Miss friendly fire? You don't have to any more! Choosing "Hostile" toward all others will restore the friendly fire. But you'll have to be VERY careful with spells and actions. In fact, you might want to develop a character with hostile coop in mind, since different skills are emphasized. Here's a glance at skills, focusing on up to the Beta s12 skills:

Amazon
- Critial Strike, Dodge, Avoid, Jab, Impale, Inner Sight all work great
- Thrown javelin spells, elemental arrows are good, but care needed
- Multishot is a huge danger, would only be used if you found yourself in an area alone
- A Javazon might be the best Hostile Coop form

Barbarian
- Poor guy, he'll be taking the brunt of the friendly fire :(
- His skill usage is virtually unaffect, he's not going to hurt anyone with his skills (unless he lands on them with Jump Attack :)
- Find Health will be *crucial*, as the party will be sustaining MUCH more damage than usual

Necromancer
- Severely affect. His minions would attack players, and would only be used in solo experience-gaining play.
- Bone armor, Bone Wall, Amplify Damage, Iron Maiden are all very good
- Teeth and Poison Dagger have their dangers, but could be useful
- 'Area' curses would be quite bad - Dim Vision, Weaken, Terror, as well as the Explosion spells
- It would be an option to cast Clay Golem, step back, let the sorceress blast to smitherines the mob that is attacking him, then 'dismiss' it
- Play style would be a lot of maneuvering for poisition (teeth), or melee combat (pois dagger), or up/down the golem. Throw in very liberal use of Amplify Damage to help out the party alot.

Paladin
- Most of the benefits of having a Paladin in the party are gone, as his lovely auras will
- Prayer, Defiance, most other ones are fine, but help Pal only
- Sacrifice, Smite, Charge, Blessed Aim, Thorns are good.
- Zeal is NOT as you will strike players. Likewise Holy Fire is bad.

Sorceress
- Hugely impacted by "Hostile", many choice spells are out
- Static Field, all Nova are very non-party-friendly
- Warmth still rocks
- The 3 bolts are very good, you just need a clear shot. Inferno should work
- The 3 blasts are useable, but have splash damage
- Frozen or Shiver Armor will help a LOT
- Melee sorceress getting on the front line with frozen armor will be extremely party friendly

One excellent Hostile-Coop party:
- Javazon (+ Inner Sight)
- Barbarian good at combat (+ Find Potion)
- Combat Paladin (much less focus on auras, more on combat)
- Toxic Necromancer (Pois dagger, melee alot, Amplify Dmg, an emergency golem)
- Frozen Melee Sorceress (+ some CB)

Several who do weak damage will find themselves in combat a lot - they should 'tag' - hit several monsters just once, to share exp. Hence their weapon should have freeze or poison effect. The Bar and Pal will do a lot of killing, and should hit-to-kill, not just tag. Use of spell effects vs single monsters will be very helpful. (Inner Sight, Blessed Aim, Amplify Dmg, etc.)

"Arc" spells will be good for mobs when the spellcaster leads:
- Charged Bolt, Teeth, Multishot, all definitely have their use if the player is careful. Unlike 'circle' (nova) or omni (static field) spells, these can be shaped in an "arc" and used vs a mob.

Specialty Hostile Games
* The Bishbosh Alliance
- One team of 1-4 characters is the "Ally" of the boss. They must reach the boss and minions, and lead them 'safely' to a waypoint in a _different_ area. The other team is the "Interceptor" and must wipe out the Boss and mob.
- All players are hostile to opposite party
- For added challenge, make sure the mob boss is a Shaman
- Option A- both look for and find mob together, then Interceptors back off until Ally in place
- Option B- Allies get a 2 minute "head start" and whoever reaches the boss first is in better shape
- Option C - Allies get a 90 sec "head start" into a random area of their choosing, and pick the first boss pack they meet. The hunt to find them becomes a key element.
- Unsure at present about balance, but you may need the Ally party to be significantly stronger than Interceptors, unless the boss mob also happens to be very very hard for the party
- Bishbosh is one example, one who repeats each game. Others, such as Rakadishu, would also be good (get him to 'virtually' walk thru the Orange portal)

* Hell Lady Deathmatch
- Essentially a team duel, which takes place not in a cleared field, but in the Burial Grounds with Blood Raven, or in the chamber of the Countess herself
- A player must be killed before the Hell Lady may die If she is killed early, the killing team loses

* The Rescue of Griswold
- Two teams of brand new characters start out, hostile to each other
- Each must try to get first to Innifus and then to Tristram
- Goal is to drag Griswold to the Orange Portal to rescue him
- The Interceptors must prevent this by killing him, or stealing the Innifus scroll