Newbie takes on D2 for the first time

[Boro]

Chance to hit is attack/(attack + defense), so if your defense equals the attack rating, that's 50% to-hit.  Problem is that monster attack rating escalates too much, it gets into several hundreds by the end of normal difficulty and several thousand by hell.  To keep up with that, you need good equipment AND high strength for it AND a defense multiplying skill, none of which a single-player sorceress is likely to have.  Teleport is a sorceress's defense.

 isn't it 2 * attack/(attack+defense) * attacker_level/(attacker_level+defender_level) ? Monsters are usually higher level than you in hell, making them harder to hit and more likely to hit you, even if you have uber defense.

And some have physical attacks that ignore target defense.

[haphazard1]

Monster attacks that ignore defense seem a bit unfair. What is the point of trying to improve that area if enemies can just ignore it? Things that are just difficult to evade like area of effect attacks would be a pain, but understandable. But just ignoring defense entirely? I guess this is a big part of why there is advice to just ignore armor rating.

Hmmmm, an exploding shrine? If there are no negative shrines in D2 then I guess it will not just go boom when I touch it, but the name is not reassuring.

A question: How are monsters determined for an area? In D1 each level usually had two types of monsters, which according to the very useful bible were randomly picked from a list of possibilities based on the level of the labyrinth. So far in D2 I have seen more than two types of enemies in a region, although maybe some of them are associated (fallen and fallen shaman, for example).

Also, it appears that each region is regenerated when I leave and later return. Does this only happen if I return to the base camp, or can it happen just by moving from one region to the next?

Good to see some veterans getting the urge to return to D2.

[Boro]

The one I know to ignore them is effectively a spell that deals physical damage, from the Death Mauler type enemies in act V, who shove their spines into the ground which then will after a delay burst up at your feet. They are easy to avoid but a pain if you are a melee type.

Exploding shrines damage monsters and create exploding potions that you can throw (mostly a novelty). Fire shrines cause all creatures including you near them to lose half life.

If you mean monsters being respawned by the game after you save and exit, then no, they only do so after you leave the session. Changing difficulties or going from single to multiplayer (even hosting a TCP-IP game I think) will re-roll all maps and generate a new world for you.

Monsters are locked to the area. For example, Blood Moor will always have Zombies, Quill Rats and Fallen. Cave level 1 will always have Skeletons, Hungry Dead, and Dark Archers, with the superunique Coldcrow somewhere on the level. Act V in Nightmare and Hell shakes things up a bit, choosing 3 monster types from a larger list, and varying things up a bit. Unfortunately, this is not as elegant as the level based monster draw in D1.

The only thing stopping me from really starting up with d2 is the task of finishing Cinderella's story. I streamed her last act, which made me lazy in reporting.

[haphazard1]

Thanks, Boro. So many new things to learn about how D2 works.

Explored the Stony Field and found the Cairn Stones and Underground Passage. My rogue companion died while fighting a unique (did not catch the name of it, but got the 'exploding shower of gore' effect that they seem to have when killed). Found a nice staff with +skill bonus for Warmth, Charged Bolt, and Static Field -- very useful for my lightning sorceress. Also found a socketed cap and used my first couple gems -- saphires for a bit of a mana boost.

Another question: On the Quest Log panel I see there are a fixed number of slots. Are there a set number of quests per act, guiding the storyline? That is what seems to be happening so far, but since I am still in the first act I am not sure.

[T-hawk]

Yeah, the to-hit formula also includes monster level vs character level.  That part is generally a minor concern since your level is always somewhat near the monsters, might be like 10% behind but that's not a big swing.

The entire history of attack rating in D2 is a giant mess.  Players weren't getting hit enough.  So Blizzard bluntly multiplied all monster attack rating by 4 shortly before the game's release. Except Blizzard didn't realize the real reasons, it wasn't attack/defense, it was that running is too easy and fast to get out of range of a melee swing, and that shield blocking can always trigger even silently without the animation if you're in the middle of some other action. Then later in the expansion and patches, once Blizzard understood their own bugs, they speeded up monsters to compensate for player running, and nerfed shield blocking to depend on dexterity... but never rebalanced the attack rating, leaving it a skewed mess forever.

All the quests are fixed, 6 per act (3 in act 4). Some are optional, some must be done to advance.

On negative shrines - some like Exploding will deal damage, but there's nothing that permanently cripples your character like the worst ones in D1.

[haphazard1]

Thanks for clarifying, KoP. So my suspicions of the name were rational after all.

Interesting bit of history. Tweak one thing, unbalance another thing (or several other things). Game design is harder than most players realize. Harder than many game designers realize, too.

[haphazard1]

Heh. Saw that KoP had posted in Boro's Cinderella thread, so I read the very first post of that one. About 90% of it went right over my head. Whole lot to learn before I even think about stuff like that.

At least it's fun stuff you are learning   But yeah, you have to experience normal before you know variants.

That's okay . We were all noobs in the beginning. We are being gentle on you before we bend you in our variant ways.  I posted my melee sorcy just to tease you so you know there are 1001 difficult ways to skin a cat. Hmm, is this even politically correct to say these days, I mean skin the cat? ;p

Boro's screenies is very helpful in understanding what his toons is up to. Beats writing up a list of stats and number.

One hint
You can make multiple accounts with 8 characters per account. Make an account or 2 of mule, characters to store your treasures. If you are a pack rat like me, make 10 mule accounts

To mule/xfer stuff. Make a private game with password. The game is set after 5 minutes, then you can leave gamer and bring other toons in. try not to login/out too much or too fast, otherwise bnet will disconnect you.

We used to play on USWest realm, if that matters.
Back in the days we used the game names rbd1 /2/3 for normal diff, rbd4 /5/6 for NM and rbd 7 /8/9 for Hell diff. PW is rbd. So when people come on line they check those game.

[Nelphine]

Interestingly, I've always found bow-azon the most newb friendly class, although one boss gives them some trouble. 

My favourite character was a sorceress though, max thunderstorm, max blaze.

[KingOfPain]

Interestingly, I've always found bow-azon the most newb friendly class, although one boss gives them some trouble. 

My favourite character was a sorceress though, max thunderstorm, max blaze.

A Blaze runner would be fun. I wanted to try that so many time, but always thinking nah, it wouldn't work in multiplayer. So it keeps getting put off.

[haphazard1]

Quoting KoP, although it was edited into my earlier post:

At least it's fun stuff you are learning   But yeah, you have to experience normal before you know variants.

That's okay . We were all noobs in the beginning.

Have to learn to crawl before attempting anything more ambitious.

Boro's screenies is very helpful in understanding what his toons is up to. Beats writing up a list of stats and number.

I need to experiment on getting a screenshot from D2. Then everyone can criticize how terribly I am running my sorceress.

One hint
You can make multiple accounts with 8 characters per account. Make an account or 2 of mule, characters to store your treasures. If you are a pack rat like me, make 10 mule accounts

I don't think I have anything yet that would qualify as a true treasure. I did find a yellow/gold javelin stack, but the traits do not exactly synergize with my sorceress.

I am a bit confused by the item classifications. The manual for the LoD expansion talks about "elite" items as being different than exceptional items, but it is not clear just how they are different. Not that I am going to see anything like that for a long time, anyway. But there are basic (white) items, magical (blue) items, then exceptional (yellow/gold) items, and also set (green?) items correct? Plus sockets, which can occur on any of these levels of items (I think).

I am still at the stage of being happy to find blue items.