Diablo 1 on GOG?

[haphazard1]

Mana is definitely a limiting factor. In current melee configuration my warrior only has about 40 mana, and that is with a ring of +magic. (Have not found anything more useful for that slot.) I do have various magic reading gear that would more than double that, but would have to give up a lot of life and armor/blocking.

Maybe a bow? Not really a warrior's normal focus, not sure I could get a good enough to-hit chance. Time to check the bible again on that.

[Sullla]

Well, you could try watching some of the Livestream footage of my current melee-only Sorcerer if you haven't done so already. You don't need spells or bows to deal with ranged attackers (although they do make it a lot easier). The trick is using careful footwork to divide up the enemy mobs, getting them to retreat in the direction that you want and pick off individual targets by mugging them in corners where they can't run away. This takes some practice but it does work against goat archers, witches with their blood stars, and so on.

Also Shanty Pete could definitely use a bastard sword with that +93% damage modifier on it.

[haphazard1]

I have been watching the adventures of Shanty Pete. Very informative, as well as entertaining. I am looking forward to seeing how you handle the caves levels. It is hard to chase ranged attackers into corners when there aren't many corners. And groups of ranged enemies on the other side of the lava streams where they are hard to reach has been a big problem.

The brutal sword was a useful find, increased my warrior's average damage by almost 50%. It isn't a king's sword of haste, but I am happy to have it.

[KingOfPain]

Firewalls

[haphazard1]

Firewalls

Just found my first book of fire wall. After casting it once, I think I am going to need some practice to get it to appear where I want it. First try was a bit random.

No books of fire ball or chain lightning yet. Last trip into the catacombs did produce four books of heal other. And my second book of mana shield, not that my warrior's mana pool is large enough for that to be very useful.

[KingOfPain]

The good news is Firewall damage does not depend on spell lvl but calculated by Clvl. As a low clvl warrior, you really can't afford the mana to kill much stuff with spells. Firewall is your best bang for the buck, especially when you are talking about the caves where monsters are separated between lava and will (or trained to) stand where you want them.

This here is all you would ever want to know about Firewall and how to use it.

You have probably maxed Dex already. There really is no hurry to pump Str, so put some points into magic to make the warrior more versatile/fun to play. Besides, when your warrior is older you will want to have enough mana for a few cast of teleport. TeleKill is where it's at, it is the pinnacle of warrior power. With Telekill you can herd these monster where you want them. You then play with monsters AI. Remember the magic number?

[haphazard1]

Thanks for the link, KoP. Very helpful. Hmmm, more spell levels would increase duration but also casting cost. Well, that is a worry if and when I find another book of fire wall.

Yes, dex was maxed some levels ago. I have added some points to magic, so my warrior can cast a couple spells and get some value from his (very limited) mana. I have not encountered the term "telekill" before -- more research needed.

And another book of Heal Other. That would be great if this was actually a multiplayer game, but is not very useful now.

[KingOfPain]

That is when you teleport to the monsters or players  to kill them, instead of chasing them down walking and taking damage all the while.

TeleKill Simplified


You do have to invest more in magic and/or finding readers gear. IIRC, Teleport cost less mana as slvl goes up, you want Teleport to be as high lvl as you can read the books.  Slvl 8 would give you minimal mana cost .

PS: Firewall cost less mana as slvl goes up, not more.

[haphazard1]

More wandering around levels 8 and 9 with my warrior. He killed a couple of bosses, found some better armor and a better ring. Still no amulets at all, hate having that slot empty.

I had not realized that bosses with special attacks/abilities also give the same special attack/ability to their followers. This explains a couple very nasty encounters I had great trouble with on previous runs. This time I ran into Baron Sludge, mud man boss, who has the ability to disappear like the hidden. Suddenly I had invisible mud men popping up all around me. Fortunately I had a doorway I could retreat to, where it was much easier to deal with them.

The nastier example was an acid beast boss, which has the fast spit ability (which includes always choosing to spit rather than close to melee). With the whole pack spitting at about double normal speed, the hallway was full of acid balls. Barely got out of that one alive. How do you deal with a boss like that when it appears in a large open area, so there is no good way to separate members of the pack to whittle it down?

Baron Sludge dropped a Glorious Cape (+70% armor). With the cape's base armor value of 1, that is pretty pointless. What is the most useless magical (non-cursed) item you have ever found? Ought to be some good stories out there.

[haphazard1]

More caves clearing. Red Storms are a pain. One of them did drop my first amulet. +12 dex, not amazing but useful for more to-hit and block percentage.

I did try a bow against ranged enemies, and it has worked fairly well. Not as much damage as the sword, but not having to chase every ranged enemy into a corner is certainly faster. And being able to shoot across lava is very helpful.

Found a book of stone curse. Maybe it will be useful some day with more spell levels to reduce the cost, but right now the 60 mana is more than my available maximum.

I found an item with a positive prefix and a negative suffix. I had not realized that was possible; need to reread the bible section on item generation again to try to understand it better. It sold for a couple hundred gold, which also surprised me. I had thought a negative prefix or suffix counted as cursed and gave a 1 gold sale price.

Lots more to learn about this game.