Proceed, Heroes, Into Terror's Lair! Diablo II Freestyle Group Slamdance Thread!

The hotkey isn't the issue. I've tried several. Whatever I use it still tabs me out of DII when I run it fullscreen whenever I take a screenshot. I have the settings set as the link instructed.

I guess I'll just have to play it windowed and alter every shot, but there has to a better solution somewhere.

Aha, I know what you did wrong. You need to set the option 'Show application after capture' off. It does point that out in that page.

I know, and I did, like I said, I followed the directions. It doesn't bring up the screenshotting program when it tabs me out of DII, it just tabs me out anyway.

You can change the screenshot key right in the game! Just go to Options > Configure Controls.

The first update will only cover up through the Den of Evil. The plan is to put it up Monday. I'm hoping to have each post cover one major event/quest/boss, but we'll see how long it takes me to actually write them...

And yeah, respecs! It's madness!

To be fair, fire is, indeed, hot.

I've got a suggestion from the last time I played Diablo II. Whenever I did this the last time with friends, we'd always make a room named the same thing so we could easily find each other online.

My suggestion would be making a room called 'TalkingTime' with a password (if any) of 'Tyrant'.

... as always, I never think to look for the easiest possible solution.

Ah well, in-game binding for the win. Thanks for the help anyway, Toothache.

Just a post to note that I'm now through Andariel—and have new items up for trade. Please note that I will not be able to collect more loot until next Saturday unless someone starts taking stuff off my hands.

Welp, I said I'd wait for Mr. Bungle, but I figured I might as well get the introductary post out of the way. I won't be touching any of the questing or killing in this installment. First up, just a bit of my own personal Diablo history.

Way back when I was playing the first game with some online friends I was roped into playing the Rogue. I didn't like the Rogue. But they other guys were a Warrior and a Mage, so they wanted someone to fill out the 'trifecta'.

The Rogue sucks.

I swore that I would not be roped into playing another Rogue in the sequel. So Diablo II comes out, we get a couple more folks and we each take on one of the classes, and I get my wish and am not stuck with a Rogue.

Because they're called Amazons now. I had to play one of those.

This was way back before anyone had any idea how to play a class to the ridiculous degree they do now, so I mostly just farted around and built her making selections that seemed good at the time. Looking back it's amazing she even managed to kill Diablo on her own. But I'll always remember what happened when she did.

A sort of karmic justice for being forced to play another class I didn't like. Usually I needed help from the others, who were currently rocking Nightmare, to take out the stuff in Act IV. But Big D I got on my own. And for my reward he dropped the unique Ancient Armor, Silks of the Victor.

My Amazon couldn't equip it (not enough strength) but like hell I was handing it over to the others. Sure, in the grand scheme of things there are better armors out there, but dangit, it felt like victory. At least for a moment.

Eventually I lost interest in the Amazon entirely (the build was so gimped there really wasn't any saving it, it was a Pokezon for the record) and I got a lot farther as a Barbarian. But I fell short of beating Hell since the expansion came out before I could knock on Diablo's door.

So I made a martial arts Assassin and went all the way to Baal. Good times.

In the years since I've tried all the classes and cleared at least Normal Mode with them all save two: The Amazon (could never stomach playing them again) and Druid. I tried the Druid at first because I liked the concept of shape shifting, but I soon realized one of the major drawbacks of that build which is a problem the Druids in WoW also share:

Lack of perceived advancement. With your gear constantly changing, it was one of those little 'instant gratification' things that Diablo does so well. But you don't get that as a shape shifting druid (or cat/bear/mutant chicken/tree (haha not anymore!) in WoW). Sure, turning into a WereGRIZZLEY and ruining some zombie's day was rad as hell, but it fast become boring with one of the sources of gratification gone.

Anyway, I have to confess here that I have never 'completed' Diablo II before. I've gotten a couple of characters to Nightmare, and one into Hell (skelly horde Necro ftw), but that's all. The repetition always gets to me by then. But this time I hope to finally conquer Hell. And I'm going to do so with one of the classes I never could get into: The Druid.

So let's get started! Heading on into the US-East Ladder I think on a name. Well, Druids wear the skins of animals, and that makes them kind-of-sort-of similar to one of our forum's newer memes, so I think we all know what he has to be called...


Balls.

Ok, ok, let's see here. Well, I'm making a Windy Druid, so if I just rearrange the letters a bit...


Balls.

Ummmm..... GUSTZ?



Alright alright, fine. We all know Druids are the smelliest, most uncultured and most pathetic class in the whole game. Why give him any dignity at all?



That's right. It's time for



Ha ha ha. I'm classy.

Anyway, I'll just start up a game on the US-East Ladder and get started with--



Holy hell in a handbasket!

Uh, yeah. Don't, uh, don't start an unlocked game, you guys. And I thought the gold spammers in WoW were bad, I'm kind of amazed Diablo II still warrents this kind of utter spammage. But it's a testament to how well the game has held up I guess.

One final point I have to make in this introductary post:



The best Act 1 starting zone is the one with the south-eastern bridge. This is a fact, proven by science and I refuse to listen to any other heathen claims.

And that's all for now. The adventures of Frrrt will continue following Mr. Bungle's first entry!

An amazing new free system that only costs $5? Count me in!

Also, I see Spoony goes for a similar naming system as me. I guess you'd have to, making a new character in a game that's been online for eleven years.

Doesn't get ganked by traps, doesn't need to waste inventory space on keys, and has an awesome RoF with bows? booo.

No class in D2 genuinely "sucks". Each just has a different means of being awesome. Some have more ways than others, admittedly.

And Holy Bolt is a way that works for everyone (with varying effectiveness).

So, I've been playing with an Amazon. I went with the build Bungle suggest some sort of Fishy Amazon or such...

Stabbypoke never was good at the talking and socializing bits of life but she does okay at the killing everything that moves parts...



That was Stabbypoke right after she turned Andarial into a thick demonic paste...

and this is what she was wearing:



I just realized that that screenshot doesn't tell you much does it? The javelins are magical... the armor is socketed with stuff that gives me more strength and something that regenerates mana when I hurt things...

All the build seem to tell you to ignore putting points into energy... How do they expect you to regain mana when using skills then? For most of the game I've been using regular old attack and then using powerstrike. When I wasnt using javelins to kill people I used a bow and cold arrow....

Update go!

I'm going to preface this a little bit:

First of all, big thanks to Cirno Mr. Bungle for hosting this LAP. I think we're gonna have a blast.

I've never done any kind of LP stuff at all, so bear with me in the beginning here. Let me know if I should be doing anything differently. Also, I'm not actually extremely good at D2, but I love playing. Furthermore, I haven't really played since 1.11d (I think?), so I'm looking forward to seeing what's different.

I'll be making use of ATMA, and I'm trying out this PlugY thing. For this update, I played with players set to 1, but I think I'll do all future updates with players set to 6 or 8, to make it more interesting.

Another note: Like I said, I will be using ATMA, but I'm playin on a fresh install of D2, so I have no previously stashed items or characters. Everything I use during this LP I will have found while playing it.

Now that that's taken care of, let's get to it!

I'll be playing a Paladin, focusing on Zeal (and associated synergies) and a couple auras. I don't have a precise build plan, but I know more or less what I wanna do. Also, since we can now respec once per difficulty, I don't have to worry quite so much about skills.



A Paladin emerges!



Kraken introduces himself to Akara, who doesn't waste any time asking him to kill several dozen creatures in a cave. Kraken likes killing things, so naturally, he accepts.

Almost immediately after leaving the Rogue Encampent...



...he finds this. This strikes me as fairly lucky, unless in 1.13 it's normal to find rare gear in the Normal difficulty Blood Moor.

Anyways, Kraken dons his new boots and, feelin' fairly fortuitous, heads down into The Den of Evil. Where suddenly...



..he finds this! Genius that I am, I forgot to take a screenshot of the hat's stats, so here they are:

[yellow]Plague Hood Cap[/yellow]
Defense:6
[blue]
+1 to Energy
+10% Enhanced Defense
Poison Resist +5%
+1 to Light Radius[/blue]

(Note: Don't worry, I'm not going to mention every rare I find; I thought these were noteworthy because I found them so early.)



Hat and boots equipped, it doesn't take Kraken long to kill his way to (and deftly dispatch) Corpsefire. He makes short work of the few remaining mobs, and is rewarded with...



...rays of brilliant sunlight, piercing through the darkness. (And a skill point from Akara.)

At this point, Kraken is a level 3 Paladin, with one skill point allocated to each of Sacrifice and Might.

He returns to the Encampent, where Kashya asks him to check out something weird in a graveyard. Suspecting this task might involve killing things, he eagerly accepts.

Kraken, however, is an easily distracted Paladin...



...and stops on the way for some spelunking. Inside the cave, he gains a level or two...



...almost gets killed by this Dark Ranger unique...



..and this one too! Fortunately, Kraken's been stocking up on health potions, so he lives (barely) to die another day.

He cleans up the cave without finding anything interesting. Oh well.

Remembering the task at hand, our hero jumps back on the path and continues towards the Burial Grounds. After taking care of stupid irritating Bishibosh and his stupid irritating endlessly resurrecting minions, he arrives.

(I realize that's not a terribly interesting boss battle video, but I'm gonna record them all, just because. I probably won't upload the boring/less important ones in the future.)

At this point, our hero is level 6, with 1 point each in Sacrifice and Might, and hasn't yet died (not that that's a huge accomplishment at this point, I'm just keeping track). I should probably put all these stockpiled points into Sacrifice, for Zeal synergy.

A friend gave me the idea to play kindof faux-hardcore (I'm not hxc enough for real hardcore.), where I attempt to avoid death at all costs. I think it could be cool and fun, and it would prevent me from TP rushing bosses (That's a term I made up just now, but I mean the strategy where you open a TP, get a few hits off on the boss, die, come back through your TP, open another, get a few more hits off, die, etc. etc.) Of course, if (when) I die, I'd continue to play, but I'd take each death very seriously, and keep a running death tally. Let me know what you think!

Anyways, that's it for this update, folks! Let me know how I'm doing. I'm a little concerned that there are too many images; I may have gotten carried away in my excitement.

While Bungle is roaming around the land amassing an army of skeletal abominations, other heroes are also hard at work bringing down the Lord of Terror. Or at the very least, pointing their destructive tendencies in a reasonably productive direction.



Meet the unimaginitively name Owfirehot. She likes setting things on fire with magic, and sometimes also freezing things with magic, because magic is defined by nothing if not its contradictions. Or at least its desire to not get screwed by immunities in Hell mode.

The Sorceress is one of my favorite Diablo 2 classes. They have incredibly high damage potential from the safety of range, several extremely useful utility spells, and are just generally badass. The build I will be playing, known as "meterob," is one of the oldest Diablo 2 power builds, and for good reason. This build focuses primarily on fire for raw damage, utilizing synergy bonuses to maximize the power of Meteor, as well as boosting a single high-tier ice spell in the form of Frozen Orb in order to avoid putting all of our damage dealing eggs into one tortured metaphor of an elemental basket. With the addition of a well-maintained henchman to help deal with small handful of fire/ice dual immune (as well as the occasional magic immune) enemies in higher difficulties, the meteorb build is capable of dealing very high amounts of damage to nearly every enemy in the game.

Meteorb is an effective, high-tier build that you just can't go wrong with using.

But enough babbling... let's get started!



Damn it, I said let's get started, not let's read stupid fluff text.



Shut up. Shut. Up.



Okay, finally! Apparently that purple-robed lady gave us something to do! Let's go find this Den of Evil and kill everything within for their experience points! Experience points are the best! We cross the bridge leading out of town, and almost immediately...



... we meet our first enemy! This is the common Quill Rat, and it poses precisely zero threat. Of course, our heroine isn't much of a threat yet either. Owfirehot was never much into studying at sorceress school. In fact, all she did was pilfer a staff that grants skill with the Fire Bolt spell and drop out. Owfirehot is kind of a jerk. So I guess adventuring is a perfect fit for her! Swords Spells, not words!

Let's use Fire Bolt and see what happens!



Death. Horrible burning death is what happens. Heh. Hahaha. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I HAVE THE POWER!



Oh just you wait Quill Rat, in a moment, you're going to be cinders!



Or not. Huh. Well, I guess I'm not that great after if all a demon has to do to nullify my incendiary assault is scoot a few steps to one side. Crap.



Biff! Vengeance is mine!



This is a zombie! They shuffle around and don't do a whole lot.



Muahaha! Get used to that burst of fire. You're going to be seeing it a lot.



Here we find our first glimpse of the Fallen! Fallen are minor demons thhat aren't very effective by themselves, so they are always found in large packs, where they attack en masse. They're very cowardly however, and when one is killed the others will scatter, giving you plenty of breathing room. They also have very little HP, so they spend most of their time in a panicked state. You know, fire is great, but mana doesn't grow on trees, so let's just bludgeon these guys with the business end of our staff.



If you thought Owfirehot was your typical mage with no upper arm strength, prepare to have your illusions shattered! Here you can see her club a Fallen so hard its pocket change is launched several feet straight up into the air. Ouch.

We kill a few more enemies in our search for the Den of Evil, and level up! Huzzah! Incidentally, that icon above our heads indicates that we found and activated a stamina shrine, which I failed to capture because I am an imbecile. It gives us unlimited stamina for a while, allowing us to run as much as we want! Normally, at this stage of the game your vitality stat is low enough that you're forced to do a lot of walking while waiting for your stamina to recharge, so the shrine was a nice boon.



We place our skill point into Fire Bolt. Now Owfirehot can cast a spell without the aid of an enhanted stick! Being a sorceress, master of the ways of magic and all that, clearly our first five stat points will be used to increase our mana pool.



Or not. The sad truth is, Energy is a pretty crappy stat in Diablo 2. Equipment and mana potions will supply you with plenty of mana, and boosting our strength will allow us to use much better equipment. We're going to be increasing our strength for quite a while.



Can you guess how I like to slay demons? hint: it is with fire



Boy, the Den of Evil sure is a long way from town this time. I gain another level searching for it. Also, the icon above my head is because I am under the effects of a mana regen shrine, which I also failed to capture. Way to drop the ball, me.



I increase my strength by another five points, and learn the Warmth passive ability, increasing my mana regen by 30%! Not much, but it helps boost my meager mana pool in the early game, and that single point will go a long way when we start picking up +all skills items in the endgame.



I finally find the Den of Evil, located in a small cave at the far end of the zone. Usually it's right next to town, but this game the game made me work for it. Well, you can see what the quest log wants us to do, and all these demons aren't going to eradicate themselves. Time to go to work!



This is a Fallen Shaman. They have the ability to resurrect defeated Fallen, which makes attacking any Fallen pointless as long as there's a shaman around. They're kind of annoying to kill, as their army of Fallen minions tend to get in the way of my Fire Bolts.



So instead I run right up to them and then cast Fire Bolt. Why not just melee them to death? Because fire.



New enemy! This is a Gargantuan Beast. They walk up to you and punch you. They hit fairly hard, and they have a lot of HP, a typical fighter-type monster. However, they can only attack from melee range, whereas I?



I can attack from whatever range I want.



This is a anice action shot I captured of Owfirehot violently beating a Fallen to death with her staff. Owfirehot sure is an adventurer.



This is the first unique monster the game throws at you! Corpsefire and his undead minions attack me! Er, sort of. Mostly they shuffle around randomly and ignore my presence entirely.



Until I try to incinerate them, anyway.

There were only a couple more monsters left in the Den of Evil, and the last one dropped a nifty jewel! Boy, this sure would be useful if I used melee or ranged weapons. As it is, it gets sold to a merchant. I level up, too!



Another five points dumped into strength, plus one point of enhancement from my gloves. Woo. More importantly, Owfirehot learns Ice Bolt, so she can deal with any fire-resistant enemies. Ice Bolt also applys a chill effect to the victim, reducing their movement speed and making it easy for Owfirehot to split up large groups.

Anyway, let's go back and get our reward!



Aside from our employer's desire to talk our ear off, we get one of the best rewards in the game from the very first quest! The first thing we get is a free skill point, and new to the most recent patch, we now get a respec, allowing us to re-choose our skills at a future time of our choosing. Sweet!

This is a big deal. One of Diablo 2's biggest flaws was always that playing the game with the endgame in mind involved intentionally hoarding skill points for endgame skills and their prerequisites, resulting in a rather boring, gimpy character for Normal mode and some of Nightmare. Now that respecs are available, players are free to tailor their skill loadout for each individual difficulty level, making the game much more fun.



On that note, Owfirehot learns another rank of Fire Bolt. Fire Bolt, in addition to being my main low-level attack, provides a strong synergy bonus to Fireball, and Fireball will be my primary means of attack for most of Normal mode once I gain a few more levels. Before the respec patch, Fire Bolt was traditionally left at level 1 forever, resulting in a very, very boring early sorc game. Not any more!

Sorry for the image-heavy first update... future updates will be a bit more succinct.

I don't have any exciting stories from Act 1, but I figured I share the basics of conjuring the devastating power of a mass voltage differential. Lightning offers some of the greatest raw damage output of any of the 3 sorcery trees at the cost of being extremely random. Unlike the other sets which offer upper and lower damage bounds within 20 points of each other or so, lightning typically has higher maximum damage values but minimum values that often times go as low as 1. Hopefully the RNG gods will smile upon me as I make my way through Sanctuary.

Charged Bolts - Level 1

Charged bolt sends out a wave of sparks in a random cone directly in front of your character. Each spark doesn't do a whole lot of damage on its own, but you can spam the spell quickly and as you gain an additional spark for each level put into the skill in addition to the damage increasing. For reference, here's my charged bolt at about level 5, throwing about 7 sparks per wave, imagine it when you're throwing 20+ sparks per wave.





Telekinesis - Level 6

Cast this and you can pick things up, open doors and go through portals. Not much to it beyond that. Used to be way more annoying when you could pick up anything and not just scrolls and potions.

Static Field - Level 6

AKA Gravity. Takes 25% of all enemies current health within a certain radius around the sorceress. Get in close to something with massive HP cast this a few times and enjoy. The trick is, getting in close enough to something that's worth casting this on, is usually not a place a squishy sorc wants to be.

Lightning - Level 12

My current bread and butter spell. Massive damage along a straight line. Unless the RNG isn't being cooperative, in which case, almost no damage along a straight line. Still, if I'm doing my math right, fully maxed out with all synergies, you're talking a potential of over 2500 per shot.





Nova - Level 12

Area of effect ring of destruction. Useful for when you're surrounded by a hoard of weaklings.

And now the most important part of any Diablo II run - what shiny goodies you found while adventuring!











I most likely won't post nearly as many loot shots later on in the run unless I find something truly spectacular, but I thought it was fortuitous to find all these useful rares in act 1.

And here's where we stand at the end of Act 1, ready to wander off into the desert:

Welp, Mr. Bungle must be preparing a written feast of information for us, so since other folks have gone on with their characters, I'll put down what I've done so far with Frrrt.


Shortly outside of the Rogue camp I come across an Experience Shrine. This is pretty useful for me, especially since I can't rely on the /players 8 command to help me level faster, so you can bet I'll be gunning for any of these I come across.


Frrrt also discovers an abandoned house just outside of the Rogue camp. This is one of the set pieces that can generate in the wilderness of Act I. I really liked touches like this, on top of adding more visual variety to the randomized maps it also helped give the player a sense of the damage Diablo's minions were doing. Things get worse and worse as the game goes on and you pretty much never see houses like this in later acts. Act I probably has the most undefiled countryside in the game, and yet people are still forced from their homes.


Anyway, Frrrt hits Lv2 pretty quickly thanks to the EXP shrine, I dump a few points into strength and the rest into vitality. By all rights I should be front-ending the strength to help me kill faster and reach equipment threasholds more quickly, but I like to build up my HP a bit early on. Especially on a build like this where I can't kill things very easily until later.

Frrrt puts a skill point into the Raven, a nigh useless ability that will see some activity for a short time and be forgotten forever.


Incidentally, I was always amused at how 1 gold piece is still represented by several pieces of gold. Unsurprisingly, Frrrt can't count.


Along the way to the Den of Evil, Frrrt comes across a larger house. Such a mansion is nothing like he's ever seen in his meager life, it's practically a Palace. While he is tempted to claim squatter's rights and lord over his new lands for the rest of his life, he did make a promise to clear out a cave. Perhaps he'll return to his new home later. The former inhabitants of the house left their old buckler under the bed (protip: click the beds you see, they may spawn items!), but sadly it is identical to the one Frrrt already has.


Level 3! More points into STR and a few into VIT. Exciting. Frrrt holds onto his skill point though because of a reason.


Huzzah! We see our very first magic drop of the game within the Den of Evil, and an Amulet no less! What riches await our stalwart Frrrt?


Well, I've seen worse. It's better than a naked neck.


And here Frrrt faces off against the first unique monster in the game: Corpsefire. Along the way in the cave he never had much trouble with the monsters, despite being armed only with a club and a tempermental Raven. Corpsey doesn't prove much of a challenge either, and succumbs to a smelly man in animals skins hitting it with a stick. Why were the Rogues so troubled by this cave again?


Corpsefire drops some new armors for Frrrt as well and--- SON OF A ... it's frickin ETHEREAL?

For those not in the know, Ethereal was a potential item 'enchantment' added in the expansion by a developer that I know will burn in hell for all eternity. Ethereal items potentially, POTENTIALLY, can be better than their non-transparent counterparts, but at the cost of NEVER BEING ABLE TO BE REPARIED EVER. So unless you come across an item that's both Etheral AND Indestructable (or you insert a certain rune that you can find in the endgame if you have the devil's own luck to get the rune AND find an Ethereal item worth using it on AND it happens to also come with a socket) it's essentially a useless piece of trash. Nothing's worse than getting an item in the game (especially the endgame) that looks like it has all the stuff you could ever want out of it, and then noticing the Ethereal tag on it.

Even worse still, Etheral items sell for peanuts. SCREW YOU WHICHEVER DESIGNER CAME UP WITH THIS.

(If you had something to say about Ethereal items, Bungle, sorry for stealing your thunder, I just had to rant about it since it was the first piece of armor that dropped for Frrrt)

Despite the negatives of Etheral armor, Frrrt equips it anyway since it's likely he'll replace it long before it breaks. (Spoiler: He does)


Oh yeah, Level 4. Once again Frrrt places some points into Strength, and some into Vital----- Wait the fuck?!

Yup, I screwed up and hit the wrong stat in Lv4 and put points into goddamn energy. Well that's just great, we get no respecs ever in this game and he's now stuck with those four points into his blue bar that should be in his red.


Actually that's a lie, we DO get respecs. Three per character (one at each difficulty level), though I think they're only on Realm characters. Or Ladder characters. Or maybe they're on all characters now! I haven't played an Open charcter since the last patch.

While I COULD erase my mistake, I'ma hold onto this respec. They're still far too valuable to waste willy-nilly. Also Frrrt holds onto his Skill point again for a reason.


With all that done, Frrrt rushes to the Cold Plains and hits his first Waypoint. These little teleport nodes allow him to warp around to any other at will. He can even warp between acts. Handy!


He also meets a new foe: Dark Hunters. Until now he's only fight Quill Rats, Fallen, Zombies, Skeletons, and occasionally some of his hairier cousins. Yet now Frrrt is forced to battle members of the fairer sex!

Frrrt has always been shy around women, especially since they tend to run away screaming just at the smell of him. Poor Frrrt even had to take his cousin to the Druid Prom. If Druids had Proms. They don't. They have an elaborate ceremony with whatever animals they can find, and even the animals don't want anything to do with it!

But these women are rushing right at Frrrt! Why, he may finally have a chance to find true love in this harsh world! Sadly, he has absolutely no people skills and even if he did would have no idea what to even say to a woman he just met having spent his entire life surrounded by animals. So he hits them all with his club. And they die.

Why must Frrrt be forced to destroy all that is beautiful???

CONTINUED...

To appease his conscience he dives headfirst into the nearby burning building (another set piece!) to save the poor children inside. Except the children are demons that want to kill him, so Frrrt has to club them too!

Infinite Sadness!


But one of the little demon children drops this and suddenly he's not so sad anymore. Hooray! Frrrt has discovered shallow materialism! The addiction begins!


He also comes across another unique monster. I always liked how you absolutely could not find another unique monster in the first area of the game besides Corpsefire, and then the game starts throwing them at you left and right as soon as you're done. You'll be killing these unique monsters for the whole damn game.

Incidentally, this was my second run through the Cold Plains as I was still getting the screenshotting to do what I wanted in the first. Alas, the random name 'Sin Killer' isn't NEARLY as entertaining as the 'Dragon Grumble the Hungry' I fought in the first attempt. I love DII's randomness.


And here we meet Bishibosh. He's one of the unique monsters you're sure to find in specific areas. There's always a Bishibosh somewhere in the Cold Plains, while Sin Killer up there was a randomized name, though a unique Dark Hunter of some kind is also pretty much a given.

Incidentally, Bishibosh is a fire enchanted, which means he explodes with a satisfying 'SPLURT' when he dies and does light fire damage in the explosion. This becomes more of an issue in higher difficulties where you have lower elemental resistances and the damage is higher, but for now it ain't no thang.

Bishibosh? More like PISHIPOSH!


Also here's a shot of me getting easily distracted. It's so easy to wander off to fight a straggler in a group of enemies you were fighting, only to aggro another group, and then another as you kill all of THEM off, and then yet another still. I had to warp back to town by the time I was done there. My wepon was getting low on durability.


Also, that's the swag Frrrt picked up from Bishibosh's camp.


Level up again! More points into Str, points into Vit PROPERLY this time.

And now it's time to SPEND those skill points!


A point goes into Oak Sage, Spirit Wolf, and Arctic Blast. Hooray, Frrrt finally has a means of fighting that doesn't involve hitting things with sticks and summoning an unreliable Raven to his aid. Now? Now things are about to go CRAZY GO NUTS.

Frrrt holds onto his other skill points, though. Things aren't THAT Crazy Go Nuts.

Each of those skills only need one point, you see. And while Oak Sage will eventually become his dump skill, that won't happen for awhile off yet. Partially because those points are better saved for now, but mostly because Frrrt is too busy giggling over the thought of his 'Dump Stat' to remember to do it. Like I said, he's a classy man.

Luckily Oak Sage is pretty swank just out of the box. It comes with a 30% boost to Life, instead of a flat rate that you need to build up to be useful later on. This means the single point of it remains useful to the end. More points build up the precentage it grants, but they can be saved.


And here Frrrt is with his full Lv6 arsenal. Got my wolf all up in your crib, whatchu gonna do 'bout it huh?! You don't like it? SUCK ARCTIC BREATH bitch! Haw! Serves you right!

I don't know WHAT brought that on, Frrrt clearly must've been hanging out with the wrong crowd.


These two items drop within spitting distance of each other. But Frrrt doesn't mind options!


Splunking time! (Frrrt cares not for the fifth letter of your english alphabet!)


Oh, and 'nother Level Up. Wooooo.

CONTINUED

Here Frrrt combats the mighty Coldcrow, another set unique monster. You're always going to encounter a Coldcrow somewhere on the first floor of The Cave. And she's always Cold Enchanted. Meaning she can easily ruin your day from a distance by slowing you down with her arrows, and this is especially bad if you need to get up close and personal like Frrrt. His wolf helps take a bite out of her health (haw!) but Frrrt still has trouble closing the distance. Worse still, her being cold enchanted means his new favorite spell means diddly squat, so he's back to hitting things like a commoner.

Oh and when cold enchanted foes die they blast a ring of frost which, if you weren't already slowed by the cold, you sure are now! And yet, that and fire still aren't the worst of the elements...


Nigh-useless jank from the chest on the bottom floor of The Cave. But it all translates into golds easily enough.


Barbarbar level barbar. This'll be the last time I update ya'll here. You can assume he sticks some into STR and some into VIT. Though I'm sure to bump my STR up to 27 here, which is what you need to wear Studded Leather. Haven't come across any yet, but I don't want to look like a chump if some does drop.


Time to see a Rogue about some long pent-up aggression.


As I understand it, canon has it that Blood Raven is THE Rogue from the first game. The Mage shows up later and the Warrior is, apparently, the one Blizzard decided to officially jam a soul gem into.

So now I get to have some karmic justice and take her out. That'll show her for existing and having my friends force me to play as her! (Don't care what ya'll say, I hate the Rogue)


I was always amused by her overly dramatic death animation. I mean, she's such a speedbump of an enemy, it seems the only reason she has it is because she was one of the 'returning cast', as it were. Oh well, she and her army die all the same.


Frrrt heads into the nearby crypt after his surprisingly cathartic victory over Blood Raven and finds another set unique monster. Yup, you'll always find a Bonebreaker in here. He's just a super tough skeleton. Next!


Well, that's neat. 5% chance to cast Amplify Damage? That could prove potentially useful despite its lower attack power. Out of curiousity Frrrt tries it out, but the effect only procs once for the rest of the play session and he ditches it soon after.

(YES I AM USING MMO TERMINOLOGY HERE AND YOU CAN'T STOP ME! PROC PROC PROC!)


Just pointing out how amusing it is to find a skeleton named 'Flesh Cloud'.


Also pointing out that ALL BARRELS EVERYWHERE MUST DIE FOREVER. There's just something about the sight of a wooden container like that which sets Frrrt into a blind fury. He's like an anti-Ashton Anchors!


Hahaha, not for long! Frrrt has no respect for the dead, not so long as they have a chance to generate a random item!


And more relatively useless gear. Though that bow will be nice on the Rogue that the camp decided to foist on me, as if sensing my deep-reaching Rogue-hate.

But she will serve her purpose. FOR NOW. Someday I will abandon her though. But that it is not this day.

(Spoiler: It's Act II Nightmare)


Frrrt makes a beeline to the next Waypoint to call it a day.


And this also drops. Goodbye useless Ethereal item.

It's worth noting that gear doesn't degrade in quality on a supporting character. Knowing that, Ethereal gear is SLIGHTLY less useless, so long as it's something you want to equip on them. But that's the extent of it.

AND SO ENDS PART 1 OF THE ADVENTURES OF FRRRT THE WINDY DRUID.

Next time I will likely be progressing farther and taking less screenshots. This LP thing is entirely new to me so it's a learning process!

So, I'm joining this thread with a build that I've played with ever since the synergies appeared in Diablo 2, back in update 1.09. I wanted to try something new, and synergies gave that option by making previously useless skills useful.

My favourite class is the Barbarian, so I tried experimenting with different builds that would work well. When I first played the game, I didn't see the point in the Warcrys skill tree at all, instead focusing on the other two skill trees. Later on, once I became a bit wiser and started to experiment with Warcrys, especially the ones that affect monster behaviour, I discovered a new appreciation for these skills, and all of my future builds have revolved around these skills in some form.

The idea around the build is to combine the buff power of the Warcrys tree, especially Shout and Battle Orders, with the defensive increase of the Concentrate skill, and make a character that can go toe-to-toe with many of the melee-heavy enemies with little fear. In short, I wanted to create a true combat meatshield for multiplayer games, one that grants team support with the Warcrys and can tank for the weaker classes easily. For single player games, this build is not particularly great but shines as team support. I also have the option to use monster controlling Warcrys and Grim Ward to round out his support role more effectively.

For stats, max blocking is vital, strength for equipment as needed, and everything else to Vitality. No Energy is needed, a little bit of Mana Leech is all he really needs to keep him going with Concentrate, and the Warcrys don't use much either.



I got the name Muntak from a barbarian I played in a D&D game. It sounds very Barbarian-esque.



Flavie Flav already? I always get lost trying to find caves.



First level up went all to Strength. I'll want some damage output to help me through the early game, and the equipment is nice. I'll probably stop pumping this around 60 for Normal, unless I happen across some Sigons gear.



I'll only put 1 point in here for now, but it will serve as a dump stat when I get my main skills maxed. Axes give an unmentioned +50% extra damage to demons, which is helpful, and the runeword selections are still pretty good.



One of the Warcrys is called Taunt, after all...



Corpsefire dropped this. I'll use it for a while.



Having fun with the old Bishibosh bash.



Nearly maxed out blocking already. Unfortunately, that won't persist with the diminishing returns this game likes to dole out, and the terrible shields you normally start with.



Yeah I'm having entirely too much fun taunting the demons.



Normally you'd have to hit and run this guy. Muntak can just stand there and tank him all day. Well, at least until his potions run out.



Poor Griswold. Didn't even get to curse me.



Found on the Tamoe Highlands. I was surprised as anyone to see a unique already, and even one that works well with my build. Pelta Lunata, when fully upgraded can reach 67% blocking, which means I don't have to waste all my stat points to reach max. It's a good option for now though, but my ultimate goal is a Sanctuary runeword shield. It is only Act 1 so I'm not worried about lack of resists yet.

I stopped at the Inner Cloister on my first session. So far, Muntak has not had a terrible start - he's found a useful unique already, and has been cruising along nicely through Act 1. Next up for Muntak is the Andariel fight and making headway into Act 2.

Good news! A friend of mine is letting me use his bnet account, so I can use the expansion and play with you guys.

Actually, I think I have yet to go through a playthrough where I have not obtained a Pelta Lunata. I always get it right around when you rescue Cain from Tristram, or right after that.

Note: I may as well spoiler, despite the fact that if you don't know what happens already, you really just kind of deserve it. I'm just nice that way.

I'm considering making a playthrough myself. If I do, it's gonna be an Assassin, because I just love that class. We'll see if I decide to or not yet, I'm having fun just playing through it for now.

Okay, yeah, this is definitely happening! I can do this! I'm going to make a Single Player Assassin, no particular build in mind. Just to let you guys know, this is my first LP, so if I violate anything in the Super Secret Rules Book feel free to let me know. I have it planned out to be a liiittle bit different than the LPs on here so far, so if I pull off something good let me know, yeah?

... So yeah, let me know in either of those cases. Now, then, to work!

Not to get ahead of my own LP, but I figure it's best if I ask this before I actually get to writing the part where it happens:

Anyone playing an Amazon (or some other kind of Crossbow wielding build) and playing on US-East Ladder interested in the Leadcrow? (first tier unique crossbow).

Of course Frrrt's very first unique drop had to be something pretty much useless to him. Dunno how viable the Leadcrow would remain, but I'd rather see it used than taking up space in my stash/eventually sold.

We begin our tale of heroics with our lovely heroine, Songbird. You see, Songbird here was raised to be an Assassin, it runs in the family and whatnot, and she was fine with the profession. That is, until her teenage years, where she fell in with a crowd with a different way of thinking and never quite got out of it. Among other things, she found a love for all the animals of the world, she grew distasteful of killing, and she changed her name to Songbird and refused to be called anything else. Not knowing what to do with their unruly scion, her parents sent her off to some rogue encampment to get rid of her.



After all, it's not like she could hurt anything, right?

We join our noble heroine..

... Ahem, our noble heroine as she eagerly...

..... eagerly agrees to.. oh, who am I kidding? They threw her out. She decided to camp out in the Blood Moor (thinking the name to have something to do with the evil hunters obviously present in the encampment) and commune with nature, until...

... she decided to fight back.

Now then, the assassin has a number of talents, among which we have the ability to make excellent use of traps, the ability to utilize the power of their mind to augment their body and even attack others, and finally, the ability to charge up power and convert it into finishing moves. Songbird will be relying most heavily on the latter during the beginning, though she'll move more into traps later on.

Deciding to fight for friendship bracelets everywhere, Songbird decides the best way to do so would be to persuade the rogues to let her back into the camp, and the best way to do that would be to take out those monsters in that "place of great evil" the lady was talking about.

On the way to the Den of Evil, Songbird found all sorts of interesting items on the enemies of nature she vanquished, such as this..

.... and this...

... before finally arriving in the foul lair of her hated enemies. (Oh, and that was as far into the town as they would let her, there.)

Arriving in the viper's lair, she began systematically eliminating her foes, finding them posing little threat to her new level 3 self. She even figured out a method for taking care of those nasty boss type enemies.

Step 1...

Step 2....

Step 3....

And finally, Step 4. With the last of her foul enemies vanquished, Songbird returned to the Rogue Encampment triumphantly... after they confirmed she had, in fact, done what she said she did, and eliminating demonic possession as a possible cause for her sudden change in attitude. With her improved disposition towards the necessary destruction of demons and other evil creatures to save friendship bracelets everywhere, we might just make a suitable heroine out of Songbird yet!

.... Look, I did say might.

Here's where we stand at the end of the Den of Evil.

Songbird has a couple of magic items equipped to her, but none of them are anything to write home about, which is why you didn't see any of them. Wellp, that's about it for this round, let me know if I missed anything! Next time we'll head into The Cave and the Burial Grounds!

Note: The reason there's a map on the picture with Corpsefire is because I missed screenshotting the first Charge Attack against him, and tried to find some more enemies to build up some charge. I didn't find any, so that's why it's also only a level 2 charge in the picture.

The Adventures of FRRRT! the Windy Druid Part The Second: The Rest of Act I


Frrrt heads back out into the Stony Field and comes across yet another juvenile unique monster name. To Frrrt this is the heights of civilized comedy. Heh heh, 'Bang'.

He's on a quest now to rescue some old dude named Deckard Cain, whom Frrrt has never ever heard of and is sure he's of no importance, and certainly won't be providing a useful service for the rest of the game at all. Still, a quest is a quest and the less time Frrrt has to think about where to go on his own the better. It's time for the surprisingly convoluted path to Tristram!


He also comes across this mo'fo. Rakanishu, the Fallen hero that Bungle mentioned in his post. Odds are this is the first Lightning Enchanted monster a player will come across.

Odds also are if a new player hasn't died yet in Diablo II they will here. A lot. Coming across Cold and Fire enchanted monsters hasn't been a big deal so far. A bit extra damage, some slowing, an explosion upon death, no big deal right? Lightning can't be much worse, right?



Lightning Enchanted uniques are absolute motherfuckers until you can get your lightning resist up to super-high levels. They're not so bad if you can attack from a distance, but Frrrt here (along with most Barbarian, Paladin, and Assassin builds) has to get up close and personal since his damage output from his wolf and his partner is not enough to take ol' Rakky down.

Y'see, when a Lightning Enchanted monster is hit, it sends out a number of electric charges. Thing is, if you're standing point-blank and wailing on it (like most melee classes are wont to do) there's a double-plus-good chance that they'll take the full brunt of all of those charges at once. If the monster is strong enough, your lightning resist is low enough, and you're unlucky enough it's not at all uncommon to see your health go from full to DEAD in just two or three smacks.

Hit and run tactics are the name of the game here. But when I first played this game? On my spear-wielding Amazon? She died here. Many, many, many times. So forgive me if I'm overselling the danger of Lightning Enchanted uniques, Bungle shall set me straight if I am, but that first fight I ever had against Rakanishu made he loathe the sight of 'Lightning Enchanted' for the rest of my Diablo II playing career.

GEE WHIZ IT'S A GOOD THING THERE'S NO STANDARD ENEMY THAT IS ALWAYS LIGHTNING ENCHANTED, LIKE IN THE NEXT ACT OR ANYTHING.

Anyway, Frrrt takes down Rakanakinakikanakashu and leaves the five phallic stones to their own mysterious devices for now, not having the wit to make a joke about them.


He also comes across a rotten old book that's been exposed to the elements for who knows how long but is still legible. Not that it matters since Frrrt can't read anything that doesn't have picture accompaniment. His Rogue partner translates for him, though, and tells him all about the tale of the Countess and the ruined tower.

Pffft, like we'll ever come across something like THAT.


Trufax: Much like how the BEST Rogue camp is the one with the bridge, the BEST Underground Passageway is the one that spawns on a cliffside and not in the middle of a field like every other cave in Act I.


Frrrt has a grand adventure in the passageway and finds some absolutely useless junk. Hooray!


He emerges from the cave in a forest and immediately seeks out the Waypoint. You know, there IS a joke I could make here, but even Frrrt is too classy for that. Especially when it's already been done.


I had to search through 8-bit's archive to find this panel, I HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY.


"Are you related to Spongebob Squarepants?"

Treehead can be a rough fight if you haven't been investing in vitality and have crap armor. But luck is with Frrrt today as both his wolf and his bow-wielding partner decided to focus on the super unique first and not the minions, and Treebeardhead goes down without a fuss.


And finally Frrrt comes across the Tree of Infus. Infinus. Infinitypuss. Infinnlefannlenissynoss. That one tree what the purple robed lady said its bark would have a magic instruction on it. Frrrt selectively forgets his nature-rooted druid training for a minute and rips some of the bark off of this ancient and precious tree. He then takes a potty break off in the bushes with said bark, and rips off ANOTHER bit before heading back to the Rogue camp.

Frrrt is a good druid.


Instructed to make his way back to Rakanishu's still warm corpse, Frrrt has to hit the stones in the proper order to open a portal to Tristram. I never really understood this, I mean, why would these stones be connected solely to Tristram? Why would the instructions be on a magical tree miles away? Can these stones be used to warp elsewhere? Who made them? Why are they here? Who am I? Where's the beef?


Well, Frrrt puts those existential questions aside and dives in. Tristram. Now a ruined town, formerly the site of the original game. The music is pretty much identical too. Incidentally, I hope D3 has some sort of callback to the Tristram theme also.


He even meets a former resident! Griswold! Sadly he's come down with a slight case of zombiefication and isn't interested in repairing our gear or selling us stuff. So Frrrt chops his head off, and his wolf rips off one of his legs.


Speaking of legs, Frrrt isn't picking up Wirt's old one just yet. He may be a idiot, but even he isn't going to lug around a rotten old leg in his inventory for the entire difficulty setting for no damn reason. He shall return later!

CONTINUED

Frrrt finds Cain strung up in a cage in the center of town, but is first forced to pick up all the shinies. Yeah, just hang on a second Cain! Frrrt will be done counting the gold in just a few hours!


Anyway, Cain thanks Frrrt for his freedom and offers to identify any items we find for the rest of the game for free. Hooray! If you leave Cain to rot in the cage for all of Act I and go on to Act II without saving him he'll still be there, but now he'll charge you for identifying items. Because you were a huge meanieface.

Frrrt runs through the Dark Wood and hits up the Waypoint in the Black Marsh. Despite its name it's not really all that Marshy and looks like every other field in Act I.


Welp, that's it. Frrrt is never going to come across a more hilarious name. To him, this is the peak. It's all downhill from here.


Within the hole the very first Druid-specifc item drops! Each class gets a type of equipment unqiue to them in the expansion (even beyond the Necro's wands, Sorceress' staves, and Paladin's Scepters, lucky bastards), and Druids get various types of ridiculous headgear (as opposed to a Barbarian's awesome headgear).

Sadly, fortune laughs at Frrrt, as the headpiece is only good for shapeshifters. Frrrt failed his shapeshifting classes since he could only transform into hideous abominations against nature.

And once you transform into Tim Buckley in front of your entire class, your reputation is ruined.


Also Charsi wants us to find a hammer or something. Sure, how hard could finding a hammer be?

Frrrt also takes this time to take stock of his equipment. Drops for him so far have been... lacking. He's still wearing a sash, which limits his potion supply! Time to fix that. Charsi is lacking any decent belts, but


There's always Gheed to fall back on! Normally by now I would have come across a better belt on my character, but since the RNG Gods hate Frrrt, it seems, he needs to get one here. Fortunately belts aren't too pricey, and even if it comes with a crap enchantment (spoiler: it did, so much so I didn't get an image of it) it's still worth it for the extra potion space.


Frrrt is also now able to take Cyclone Armor, his fist genuinely useful skill besides Oaken Sage! Cyclone Armor absorbs a set amount of elemental damage (and only elemental damage, so if it's physical or poison or pure arcane or whatever no dice). Sadly, unlike Oaken Sage it doesn't absorb a percentage, and the tiny amount the first skill level eats up will quickly become outdated. This needs to be maxed eventually, but still for now Frrrt only puts one of his stocked skill points into it. He'll fill it out gradually.


Really, it should be called Sperm Armor. Just sayin'...


Grin the Grim, huh? Sometimes the naming system does weird things.


Hey look! It's an old tower! That happens to be ruined! I wonder if there's some kind of life-sucking Countess dwelling in the cellar?


No, but apparently Bender and the Robot Devil from Futurama is! Sing us a catchy tune, Homer!


Helloooooooooooooooooo.

Yeah, first time I saw this room when I started playing the game back in the day my jaw dropped. All together that gold doesn't amount to a big lot, but seeing that much on the floor at once still brings a tear to my eye. Pity there's nothing really useful in either of the treasure rooms.


Aaaaaand here's the Countess. She's probably the first really hard super unique (or whatever the proper term is) you'll encounter. She takes a huge chunk out of Frrrt's life right from the start and he's forced to flee the room and chug a couple of potions to get back into fighting shape. With his health sphere full again, he heads back into the chamber and


She's already dead. His wolf and Rogue partner took care of her. Huh. Mission Accomplished?

Another new update that apparently happened since the last time I played this game: Runes are now texted in orange instead of bog-standard white like they used to be. They kind of resemble those crafted items you can later make with the Cube. They still make the bewildering squish noise, though.

Anyway, Frrrt picks up more useless gear as his reward and sets back out into the wilderness to find his way to the Rogue's Monastery. There he'll hopefully find Charsi's misplaced hammer, and the road....

To the East.

CONTINUED