Rogue Revival Team Launch

[dathon]

We're actually beginning to resemble something like a partially well-oiled machine, so our pace may be on the rise relative to yours.

That is, if we don't run into any more "easy" tombs filled wall to wall with fire resistant burning dead controlled by Mana Burn, Lightning Enchanted, Extra Strong, Multi-Shot, etc Unravellers, flanked by stacks of Apparition champs. I'm curious, did anybody keep track of how long that first tomb took to clear?

-dathon

[Sullla]

Here are some quick pictures from "one of the easy false tombs" last night.



This was the typical reception from the local pink guys in each room in the tomb. How many Unraveller boss packs was it total? Four or five?



There was also a multishot, extra strong (?) Unraveller boss in the same room, plus about 5 other normal Unravellers. By my estimate, it took us about 30 minutes to clear out a 4-room tomb.

On the plus side, however, I would also have to say that the group as a whole is working together much better than when we initially started out. There were relatively few deaths considering how difficult some of the areas we ran were. Of course, a lot of this may be due to everyone getting more used to teleporting out of trouble. On the other hand, many of our deaths now are caused by rogues teleporting INTO trouble.

[Occhidiangela]

OK, I spent a few hours more than two. Just past River of Flame/CS, and OH MY, that fight with the Infector of Souls was a run and gun twitch fest. Will have to start again, that fight took what little I had left out of me. Got to bed a bit late last night. Flash backs to rogue click killing, shift click killing, and using Teleport to line up bad guys. Am using terrain quite a bit more to channel the foes than I had gotten used to in D II.

Izual was completely boring . . . and Fatso's gem drop did not help. P Skull was not on the menu, will save for a hat I think.
(PS: Meph is a wimp, I found the sweet spot again, and Brem was easier than I expected . . . with a Hunter's bow with chipped blue, yellow, green gems and the above mentioned charms and the 1/3 damage enchant flame.)

Puzzled at one provision of the rules.

Why no + skills items? No + sorcie skills, no + Amazon Skills of course, as we are Rogues, they are good stuff to sell at Gheed's Flea Market so we can gamble for nice boots and gloves that match, but if you find an SOJ or make Lore, what is the problem with +1 skills here and there? Most you can get is five, unless insane luck provides a Silence bow. There were a number of + spells/skills items in Diablo I, to include I think the Dream Flange. (Mage Plate? Grrr, need to look at Jarulf's guide.)

Understand the Archangel's staff is a no no theme, more self indulgent sorcie stuff, but between the various items such as Silks of the Victor (what rogue would not wear silk given half the chance!) or an SOJ, should one drop it strikes me as within theme to put it on: if only to thumb one's nose a Murphy! :mad:

Given the restrictions to rogue stuff, was it your intention to make the + skills against + sorcie skills, or against all (inconsistent with a Rogue D1 capability) + skill items of the generic sort?

As for Murphy, Meph dropped me a Diggler! Wheee, ITD and enchant, I ROXOR! On the first night, some careless Carver boss dropped . . . Greyform!!!! Have not seen one of those in ages. Talk about a well dressed rogue, I just gambled a +30 Lgt res circlet, and while I may not look the Royal Rogue, I sure feel stylish. Hope I can catch up with you, though I suspect Act I NM will be a rude awakening, and I see Baal shaping up to be at least an hour long fight, what with is evil ;twin and all that . . .

Occhi, the Rogue

[Sirian]

A key aspect to the variant is the strictly limited and carefully balanced "Magic Skills" for secondary use. Skill bonuses of ANY kind would put a crapper on that. Unrestricted skill bonuses would open a loophole wide enough to drive a Mack Truck through. They would also create space between "haves" and "have nots", considering that everyone would be needing the exact same items. Bad mojo. Not going there, sorry.

There are reasons this has been my most successful team variant ever.

I must also say, my team has expressed interest in another run of some kind when we finish this. Although premature, I went ahead and took a look, spent some time working on a few concepts, and I have run into problems. My first concept has hit so many snags trying to keep it balanced that I am on the brink of scrapping it altogether.

As for Baal and A1 NM, my single player prototype took half an hour, so yeah, it won't be a cakewalk, but I did not die there. In fact, no major problems all the way up into Act 2. The days of falling WAY behind the mlvl curve in early nightmare are over. They fixed it in this patch to give you fair amounts of experience.


- Sirian

[Occhidiangela]

A key aspect to the variant is the strictly limited and carefully balanced "Magic Skills" for secondary use. Skill bonuses of ANY kind would put a crapper on that. Unrestricted skill bonuses would open a loophole wide enough to drive a Mack Truck through. They would also create space between "haves" and "have nots", considering that everyone would be needing the exact same items. Bad mojo. Not going there, sorry.

There are reasons this has been my most successful team variant ever.

I must also say, my team has expressed interest in another run of some kind when we finish this. Although premature, I went ahead and took a look, spent some time working on a few concepts, and I have run into problems. My first concept has hit so many snags trying to keep it balanced that I am on the brink of scrapping it altogether.

As for Baal and A1 NM, my single player prototype took half an hour, so yeah, it won't be a cakewalk, but I did not die there. In fact, no major problems all the way up into Act 2. The days of falling WAY behind the mlvl curve in early nightmare are over. They fixed it in this patch to give you fair amounts of experience.

- Sirian

Understand your concerns on the team issue in re + skills.

Diablo cost me 7 deaths, and I lost count of pots. My "tempt fate" vis a vis LBOD took a little working out, as I wanted to counterpunch as quickly as I could. One little mistake and . . . oops. He used LBOD on over 50% of the attack animations that I saw, and in one routine, 5 in a row! Something tells me they gave the AI a "show them no mercy" adjustment at some point in time, and given who the game is named for, About Darned Time!

Occhi

[Occhidiangela]

There are reasons this has been my most successful team variant ever.

- Sirian

Given that you are in NM Act 2, are we seeing some premature congratulation, or is your euphoria derived from the success of the "team" element? If so, huzzah! Good teams have given me my favorite D2 experiences.

The Legion of Greiz was a huge success as a team effort. I still regret that we were unable, due to the usual entropy, to complete the ISO team, that had a lot going for it. Your basic theme held nicely to the KISS principle, which I think is one of the keys to good team structure and appeal.

Slackers, scheduling issues aside as usual, is one of the better team synergy tests I was involved with. I shame we were unable to shoe horn you in on that one, Zed's concept forces team effort.

[Cyrene]

Diablo cost me 7 deaths, and I lost count of pots.

Heh. That reminded me of this old shot from 2002 I found cleaning up a drive. I don't actually remember the character, but, judging by the name, it was a naked druid variant of some sort.



The scary thing is that, iirc, that wasn't the entire story--the rest of them had already scrolled off the screen...

Good Hunting!

--Cy

[Sirian]

Given that you are in NM Act 2, are we seeing some premature congratulation, or is your euphoria derived from the success of the "team" element?

Attendance. Players complaining about their role on the team. Players complaining about the rules. Players leaving. Players MIA without notice or explanation.

So far, a perfect record on all these counts. The team cohesion in terms of battlefield performance is a more a question of individual players, their experience in this sort of situation, their experience with the game, their temperaments, none of which reflects on the variant design.

Everybody on the team is having fun. Thus, my best D2 team design to date.


- Sirian

[Occhidiangela]

Everybody on the team is having fun. Thus, my best D2 team design to date.

- Sirian

Ain't that what it's all about? Fun and games, or fun in games. Huzzah!

Occhi

[Hawkmoon]

And I'm sure looking forward to tonight's game! Huzzah for the Sisters!