Beyond Nakedness

[KingOfPain]

Are we ready for the ultimate challenge?

What makes Beyond Naked Characters the Ultimate Challenge - Difficulty Setting
No, this is not what you think; it goes beyond Normal, Nightmare or Hell games. Among other player definable difficulty settings (Vit pump, item Twink, Skills choice), the most potent game altering setting is the use of Mercenaries and/or Minions. The ability to hire/cast a meat shield, who when properly equipped is almost un-killable, makes many heavily restricted builds possible.

Imagine playing naked with a restricted set of skills, no mercenary or minions. The fact that you are naked with no one to help you also forces you to distribute your stat points differently than your cookie cutter naked builds. To top it off, every monster in the game becomes a minion of an aura enchanted boss, and, your everyday aura enchanted boss becomes a double enchanted boss.

This variant requires high level of tactics and skill. It requires tight cooperation with your teammate(s) – your hostiled partner(s) who is out to hurt you. If you are ready for the Ultimate challenge… if you are ready to go Beyond, read on…

Welcome to the Beyond Naked Characters BN(X)!

TAGS – BN(x)
BNAmz – Amazon
BNAsn – Assassin
BNB – Barbarian
BND – Druid
BNN – Necromancer
BNP- Paladin
BNS – Sorceress


RULES - The rules are simple.
Naked - Naked means naked, no items equipped (see WEAPONS for exceptions), and no charms in inventory.

Beyond Naked - means you have to play with at least one partner, in hostile mode. Each of the players must use at least one skill that harms their partners, whether it is an always-on aura, or a curse, or a duration skill (such as Thunder Storm, Plague Javelin) that hurts partners.


What is Beyond Naked (BN)?
In Classic Diablo, there are cursed items a character can wear that would hinder a character’s abilities. These cursed items can take away some or all your mana, your hit points, minus all attributes, or add to the damage taken, etc. Essentially, you are better off naked, you are Beyond Naked when you use these items. CD BNs pride themselves on the “best” cursed items they can find.

D2 BNs will pride themselves on the partners they travel with! Although there are no cursed items in Diablo2 (and expansions), Classic Diablo BNs can never go as far Beyond as D2 BNs can. In fact, D2 BNs can be too cursed to be playable. For example, a BNS running Thunder Storm (although very low slvl TS would be acceptable with high lvl chars), or casting Iron Maiden with melee BNs in party. It is of major concern how much curse is too cursed.

WEAPONS
In Classic Diablo, BNMs are not allowed any non-cursed items whatsoever since they are magic users. BNRs and BNWs are allowed to use any weapons because they depend on weapons for dishing out damage…

A BN(x) would have to decide at birth if it is going to be Melee or Range class. Melee includes anyone who has to make direct contact to deal out damage. All others are considered as Range.

Ranger
Bow users - are allowed all bows. Druids would have to decide to use the bow for melee or range, but not both.
Throwers - are allowed all throwing weapons. If you use throwing weapons for melee, then you are a meleer and throwing is not allowed.
All other Rangers – No items allowed, period.


Meleer – No items allowed other than your chosen weapon type at birth. Meleer has to decide on its major attack skill and stick with his weapon type of choice.
Smiters - are allowed to use all shields.
Kick Asn - are allowed all boots
All other melee class can use all weapons.

Why the distinction for the bow users and throwers? I am thinking that melee class BNs should be allowed to use plain non-magical shields. Your opinions would be appreciated.


Although BNs can mix and match with other BNs, it is preferred to prearrange a team and decide on the skills/curses each players should use, to avoid duplicated curses and to avoid doing too much combined damage to partners. It is recommended that all BNs should have multiple curses of different strengths (if possible) so it can integrate into any BN team more seamlessly.


ACCEPTABLE PRACTICES
Curse may be turned off when there is no monster in sight.
Party up for quest bosses (before killing blow)
Party up for super unique bosses for exp sharing (before killing blow)
Letting the lower clvl BN make the killing blow for exp.
Wearing a broken belt to hold more drinks is acceptable. This variant is not a test of drinking from inventory skill.
Certain minion will be allowed for traffic control, which will be discussed under each class.


BASIC PVP INFO
When attacking other players, all damage of attacks and spells are cut in half. Minions do 1/4 damage except for Skeletons which do more damage. Some spells are special cased, such as Paladin Thorns, which will only do 1/10th the damage against other players. The duration of poison, cold, are not affected unless the player has equipment that relates to those elemental attacks.

Valkyries, Hirelings, Skeletons, and Golems will attack other players when Hostile. Minion's damage will be cut in half when attacking other players.



This covers the general objectives for D2 BN(x). As always, comments will be much appreciated.


KoP

PS: This has been long over due so I thought I would break this in parts and hope to be making individual posts covering each of the seven classes as to their role in Beyond Nakedness as I find the time. Please feel free to add to the sub threads, even before I do. TIA

Edit one - added in 2 more acceptable practices
Edit two - Added Basic PvP info

[KingOfPain]

Curses of an Amazon:

Inner Sight – Minus enemy defense. Minus DR 40@slvl1 - 615@slvl20
Only hinders melee classes

Slow Missiles - Slows the missiles of nearby enemies. Duration 12sec@slvl1 - 126@slvl20
Both a curse and a booster for ranger BNs at the same time. Some spells are more deadly when slowed. It was a long time ago when we tested it on various spells so details foggy at best, and new tests need to be make for 1.10.

Plague Javelin – Cloud of expanding poison at the point of impact.
Poison damage from slvl1 to slvl20 - 23-37 42-58 65-83 91-111 122-143 156-179 194-219 235-262 310-339 391-422 481-514 578-612 682-718 794-833 913-953 1040-1082 1233-1277 1439-1485 1657-1705 1888-1937
Duration: X sec. 3 3.4 3.8 4.2 4.6 5 5.4 5.8 6.2 6.6 7 7.4 7.8 8.2 8.6 9 9.4 9.8 10.2 10.6
Skill such as this, at a low slvl would be good on the swap setup (with basic low damage javelin for low physical damage in case you hit your partner).

Freezing Arrow looks good but 40-50 cold damage even at lvl 1 is too much for anyone but high clvl BNs, and a radius of only 3.3 yard might not be enough to cover the party.

Other AoE skills can be used with extreme caution and at low slvl. Remember that if you PK your partners too often due to your carelessness, no one will want to play with you.

Decoy is an acceptable skill usable at any slvl.

Valkyrie at slvl 1 without Decoy or Critical Strike pump(more than prereq) is usable from NM diff.
Lvl 1 minions without synergy are at best a temporary distraction (traffic control) for the monsters from NM and on.

Low slvl minions are also fun to have around, acting like task masters pushing the players onward without doing much damage. But, this was only tested during Friendly Fire team games where players are dressed therefore they should be unsummoned if requested.


Feel free to add in your thoughts.

KoP

[KingOfPain]

Curses of an Assassin:

Cloak of Shadow – Minus enemy defense %. 15@slvl1 - 72@slvl20. Duration 8@slvl1 – 27@slvl20
Only affect melee BNs

Mind Blast – Stun and Damage. Stun length 2@slvl1 - 5.8@slvl20. Damage10-20@slvl1 - 96-106@slvl20
Only slvl 1 is recommended mainly because of its stun length.

Low level traps that deal appropriately low damage makes a good curse. Use other skills for monsters.

Charge up skills with AoE effect such as Phoenix Strike should be used with extreme caution, and/or at a low spell level.

Shadow Master/Warrior is acceptable at slvl 1 after Normal diff. Shadows should be used with more caution than a Valk (for example) since they can spam AoE spells that might be too damaging to partners,


Feel free to add in your thoughts.

KoP

[KingOfPain]

Curses of a Barbarian:
Battle Cry – Lower target defense and damage.
Target Defense minus % - 50% to 88%
Target damage minus % - 25 to 44%
Only affects Melee BNs

War Cry – Stun and damage enemy
Stun length 1 to 4.8 seconds
Damage – 23-35 to 177-188
Should not be used until partners can take what you dish out.

Leap and Leap Attack
According to the AS
“Hidden Knockback Radius
Leap and Leap Attack both have a hidden knockback radius associated with them. With leap, it has a base of 2.6 (actually 2.64) yards, and gains 0.66 yards per level. Example, a level 10 leap will have a knockback radius of ( 1.98 + ( 10 * 0.66) ) = 8.5 yards. This is an approximation. With Leap Attack, the base knockback is 2.6 yards, and gains 1.32 yards per level. Example, a level 15 Leap Attack will have a knockback radius of ( 1.98 + ( 15 * 1.32 ) ) = 21.7 yards. As is obvious, high levels of Leap and Leap Attack can knockback almost an entire screen of monsters”

I was hoping LA Would work as advertised which would make LA a good skill vs monsters and a good curse for the partners as well. My testing so far suggested that LA does not work as described at the AS.

Leap remains a good curse.



Feel free to add in your thoughts.

KoP

[KingOfPain]

Curses of a Druid
Raven – Damage 2-4@slvl1 to 21-23@slvl20
This is a special case for minions. While ravens are somewhat useful due to its hit blinds target, they are unlike other minions that can deal out considerable amount of damage. They are not meat shields because they are airborne and mostly ignored by monsters. An excellent curse (and helper) at any spell level. You can cast to the maximum of 5 ravens.

Poison Creeper - Poison Damage Over 4 Seconds 4-6@slvl1 to 84-86@slvl20
Decent curse from low to high level.

Spirit of Barbs - % Damage Returned 50@slvl1 to 430@slvl20
Good curse. Some testing on actual damage returned in PvP will be needed to determine what slvl vs clvl is appropriate.

Wolf and bear – Only one wolf or bear, at slvl 1 without synergies other than prereqs, is allowed.

Only one of the 4 curses above is allowed at a time.

Rabies - Poison Damage Over... 18-43@slvl1 34-61 52-82 73-105 96-131 121-159 150-190 180-223 219-264 261-308 306-356 354-406 405-460 460-517 517-577 578-640 658-723 742-810 831-901 924-996@slvl20
.. X Seconds 4@slvl1 4.4 4.8 5.2 5.6 6 6.4 6.8 7.2 7.6 8 8.4 8.8 9.2 9.6 10 10.4 10.8 11.2 11.6@slvl20
Rabies Receives Bonuses From Poison Creeper: +18% Poison Damage Per Level
Low to low-mid lvl without bonus from Poison Creeper is usable for a fun transmitted curse.

Shock Wave - Damage 10-20@slvl1 to 99-109@slvl20
Stun Length (Seconds) 1.6@slvl1 to 13@slvl20
High level as one of the main attack skill, and very low slvl as a curse.



FireStorm and Fissure are alright as curses before getting Armageddon or Hurricane. They have half decent duration but lacks coverage. Casting delay prevent spamming to cover battle ground.

Volcano – Good coverage with half decent duration, and relatively low damage without synergies. Decent curse from low slvl to high slvl to match clvls

Armageddon - Fire Damage 25-75 at slvl 1 with a fixed radius of 5.3 yards for 10 seconds. Armageddon travels with the caster
Fissure: +2 Second Per Level
Firestorm: +14% Fire Damage Per Level
Molten Boulder: +14% Fire Damage Per Level
Volcano: +14% Fire Damage Per Level
Note that there are 3 prereqs for Armageddon that will boost this slvl 1 spell’s damage by 14% each.
A decent high end curse at slvl1 without synergies (other than prereqs) but with Fissure pumped for duration

Hurricane - Cold Damage 25-50 at slvl 1 with a fixed radius of 5.3 yard for 10 seconds. Hurricane travels with the caster.
While Armageddon looks like it does more damage, Hurricane is the one that would be more damaging to other BNs. Armageddon does random hits within its radius while hurricane damage everything within its radius, plus it deals Cold damage.
A decent high end curse at slvl1 without synergies pumped. Use Cyclone Armor to boost duration. Points in Cyclone Armor (absorb elemental damage) will good for the BND.



Feel free to add in your thoughts.

KoP

[KingOfPain]

Curses of a Necromancer
Corpse Explosion - Effect: The targeted corpse explodes, damaging all nearby enemies.
Radius (yards) 2.6 3 3.3 3.6 4 4.3 4.6 5 5.3 5.6 6 6.3 6.6 7 7.3 7.6 8 8.3 8.6 9
60-100% of Corpse Hit Points
Looks to be too much for a curse but usable as an attack away from meleer - need testing to see actual damage on PvP
Affects all

Poison Explosion Effect: Releases a cloud of poisonous gas from a corpse.
Poison Damage 28-86@slvl1 to 1345-1620@slvl20
Over X sec. 2 to 9.6
Poison Explosion Receives Bonuses From: Poison Dagger: +15% Poison Damage Per Level
Poison Nova: +15% Poison Damage Per Level
That is a lot of damage for low clvl BNs even at slvl1. Mid to high end curse.
Affects all

Poison Nova
Effect: A ring of poison explodes from the Necromancer.
Poison Damage 52-93@slvl1 to 427-468 Over 2 Seconds
Poison Nova Receives Bonuses From: Poison Dagger: +10% Poison Damage Per Level
Poison Explosion: +10% Poison Damage Per Level
Way more damage than Poison Explosion, especially at higher level. PE would make a better curse with lower damage, slower drain and longer duration.
Affects all


Amplify Damage
Damage Taken +100%
Probably want to pump this a few levels for a good coverage and spell duration
Affects meleer more than ranger BNs

Weaken
Decreases the damage the target can do by 33%
Decent coverage (6yd) and duration (14 sec) even at slvl1
Affects melee BNs

Iron Maiden
At level 1 - % Damage returned = 200, Duration = 12 sec, Fixed Radius of 4.6 yards
May just be tolerable for melee builds heavy on elemental damage instead of physical damage. Kick Asn with maxed Fade for physical resist with elemental charge up would work.
Affects meleer

Life Tap?
Attacker gets healed 50% of attack damage
Evil!

Decrepify
Target's Speed, Damage and Physical Resistance -50%
Fixed radius of 4 yards. Extra slvl boosts duration
Affects meleer more than ranger

Lower Resist
Radius (yards) 4.6@slvl1 to 17.3@slvl20
Duration (seconds) 20 to 58
Resist All -% 31 to 62
Only need a few levels for maximum effect as a curse vs BNs. Can be pumped for PvM.

Summons – Only one minion at slvl1 without synergies is allowed at a time. The main purpose for minions is to act as an emergency decoy. Golem would work better than Skeleton since it does not require a corpse and can be placed anywhere.



Feel free to add in your thoughts.

KoP

[KingOfPain]

Curses of a Paladin:
Holy Fire
Fire Damage 1-3@slvl1 18-21@slvl20
Holy Fire Receives Bonuses From Resist Fire: +18% Fire Damage Per Level Salvation: +6% Fire Damage Per Level

Holy Freeze
Slowed By % 30@slvl1 – 54@slvl20
Damage 2-3@slvl1 - 37-38@slvl20
Holy Freeze Receives Bonuses From Resist Cold: +15% Cold Damage Per Level Salvation: +7% Cold Damage Per Level

Holy Shock
Lightning Damage To Nearby Monsters 1-10 1-16 1-22 1-28 1-34 1-40 1-46 1-52 1-60 1-68 1-76 1-84 1-92 1-100 1-108 1-116 1-126 1-136 1-146 1-156
Bonuses To Holy Shock Resist Lightning: +12% Lightning Damage Per Level Salvation: +4% Lightning Damage Per Level

Affects melee and range BNs
Holy Fire/Freeze/Shock users must take in consideration of synergies bonuses to restrain from doing too much damage to partners. Keep in mind that elemental damage would increase in NM and Hell diff because of partners negative resists. Holy Freeze, while not doing as much direct damage as Holy Shock can, it is extra delicious as a curse because of its slow target bonus.

Thorns –
Damage Return +% 250 290 330 370 410 450 490 530 570 610 650 690 730 770 810 850 890 930 970 1010
Thorns will do 1/10th the damage in PvP.
Affects melee BNs only. Slvl 1 would be about right.

Conviction
Effect: Reduces enemy Defense and the Resistances of monsters.
Defense -% 49 56 61 66 70 73 75 77 79 80 82 83 85 86 86 88 88 89 89 90
Maximum Resist -% 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100 105 110 115 120 125
Affects melee and range BNs. Minus defense has no meaning to melee BNs since they are naked to begin with, but minus resists is going to hurt everyone. However, Conv need not be more than a couple of levels to take a BN’s resists to negative 100%.

Blessed Hammer
BH would be a decent skill to use if there is no melee BN in the group. Also, Hammer damage would not get the major boost from Concentration since you will be running a party cursing aura all the time. You will get around1.3K damage per hammer with Vigor, Blessed Aim and Blessed hammer maxed. You don’t get +10k damage a all twinked out Hammeradin would, but it is still not too bad for a BN.

All other melee skills looks okay to use since they do not rely on boosting synergies that would also hurt your partners when using Holy Fire/Freeze/Shock. Vengeance is the exception, but it can be worked around.

Vengeance Receives Bonuses From
Resist Fire: +10% Fire Damage Per Level
Resist Cold: +10% Cold Damage Per Level
Resist Lightning: +10% Lightning Damage Per Level
Salvation: +2% Elemental Damage Per Level.
The BNP can pump 2 of Vengeance’s synergies, except one of the Resists - the element that is used as a Holy curse. Salvation as a synergy for Vengeance is not worth the points, and it can boost a Holy curse output too much. So leave Salv at a low slvl.




Feel free to add in your thoughts.

KoP

[KingOfPain]

Curses of a Sorceress
Static Field – As bad as this seems at first glance, it is properly one of the safest curses because it can never kill you and it can only take your HP down to a certain lvl.

Thunder Storm – 1-100 lightning dmg at slvl 1 makes this curse reserved for high clvl BNs.

Nova
Lightning Damage 1-20@slvl1 to 131-188@slvl20
Fixed radius large enough to cover a lot ground. Frozen Nova would be a better substitute because you can judge when to cast again by looking at your partners color ;-)

Hydra
Damage 12-17@slvl1 17-23 22-29 26-35 31-40 36-46 40-52 45-58 52-66 59-74 66-81 72-89 79-97 86-105 93-113 100-121 109-131 118-141 127-151 135-161@slvl20
Hydra Receives Bonuses From
Fire Bolt: +3% Fire Damage Per Level
Fire Ball: +3% Fire Damage Per Level
Low level to mid level Hydra without synergies makes an excellent curse

Frozen Nova
Cold Damage 2-4@slvl1 to 56-67@slvl20
Cold Length (seconds) 8@slvl1 to 27@slvl20
Frost Nova Receives Bonuses From Blizzard: +10% Cold Damage Per Level
Frozen Orb: +10% Cold Damage Per Level
Fixed radius large enough to cover lots of ground. Usable at low level even if Frozen Orb is pumped as a main attack skill.

Blizzard
Damage per Second 51-86@slvl1 to 655-711@slvl20
Blizzard Receives Bonuses From Ice Bolt: +5% Cold Damage Per Level
Ice Blast: +5% Cold Damage Per Level
Glacial Spike: +5% Cold Damage Per Level
Very low level Blizzard without synergies or Mastery is usable for high clvl BNs.

Sorceress should use (with exceptions) curse(s) from one skill tree and have her main attack(s) from a different tree. It is preferred that the sorceress uses spells with the least AoE effect for her main attack.

Remember if you PK your partner often, no one would want to play with you. Use AoE spells only if you are confident at your skill with such spells.



Feel free to add in your thoughts.

KoP

[KingOfPain]

Use this sub thread to find BN partners.

I am available after 10 pm PST on most nights except on my days off, Monday and Tuesday. Mondays and Tuesdays are wide open for gaming atm, except Tuesday's ET team game which usually run from 5:30 to 8:30 PST.

I have no preference on classes so I would play any class, and skill set to match.

KoP

PS: BN(x) can mix and match to form a temporary team, so a "soandso(BNX) is looking for a partner for the night, or questing for xxx" would work too, once you have a character started.

[Zed-F]

I was thinking that Blaze would make a good curse since it restricts friendly movement unless they want to eat the damage. However, the lack of faster walk/run severely limits what you can do with it.