El Diablo is spanish for \"The Diablo\"

Hey guys! More fun v1.10 wackiness for you.
http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/ima...

This is the new Azurewrath and the way it was meant to be, by god! For those of you not in the know (ie everyone else in the universe but me) Azurewrath as it stands in the game was something of a scandal when D2 first came out. This was the mightiest weapon ever forged in Heaven or Hell and Izual himself bore it in an assault on Hell. However, the actual in game weapon boasted weak damage and over all crappy stats.

Now that I've gotten my sick need to post useless Diablo2 trivia out of my system, on to business.

What clvl and Act are our characters in? I have absolutely no clue anymore. And... will Tuesday still be a good night for everyone?

OMG!!!

It will be funny to see all the hackers running around with one a couple days after the patch is released.

Oh man... If they implement weapons with inate paladin auras in them. Jesus that''s 100% insane!

BTW I would like to announce my congradulations to Mr. Sway on becoming a Champion (beat NM difficulty) at level 53 about 5 minutes ago!

It''s true, Fang''s sorceress alter ego pretty much escorted Gaald and me through Acts 3 and 4. Diablo proved to be peskier than usual pretty much draining all of our stashes. I would be perfectly content if the only addition to the 1.10 patch is an easy way to reload your entire belt when you retrieve your body. Gaald briefly cursed our names and logged out after Diablo, and Fand and I went to go recoup some of our losses.

My barbarian was going through some sort of puberty phase where he wasn''t being very effective. I needed a couple more levels to move him from early game usefulness to midgame usefulness. Fang suggested we go right to the top of the mountain and duke it out with the barbarians there. It looked like an episode of The Monkeys when we were up there. The whirlwind barb could pretty much clean either of our clocks and they all seemed to be resisting Fang''s cold spells. So we both pretty much just ran around the screen casting or swiping when we had a second. We would alternate dying to keep it from getting too monotonous. Finally we killed one and that gave us enough breathing room to go in for the attack. After completing that one quest, I was granted about 5 levels. All the points pushed me through my slump and I was able to continue without hiding behind Fang''s skirt.

I don''t know that either of us expected to get all the way to Baal, but we just kept moving through the quests. Before we knew it we were facing the waves of awful things Baal likes to summon from his throne. I was close to giving up then because of the rapidity at which we were dying. Once you give up your desire to hold on to any of your gold, you can pretty much get through anything though. We finished after midnight and now I''ve got my first Champion ever. I can''t wait to die by a quill beast.

I''m ready for tonight. I can''t remember what level my Tuesday night character is, but we finished Act 2. See you in GWJ at 9pm Eastern.

I''m at lvl 21 I think it''ll be lvl 21-22 max tonight, if we''re still on that is.

I must admit to completly sick of my lvl 43 assasin, I keep having to hide behind Fangs sorceress and Sways Barbarian, I can barely hit anything and my traps despite being pretty high level don''t seem to do much damage. Patience was wearing very thin during mephisto last night, (probably tiredness had a lot to do with it also.) but I''m pretty close to going back and starting again with a Barbarian or Druid I can tank with!

Odd, Kegboy. When Sway and I struck out a few nights ago, my level 43 assassin led the charge. Not that I was counting deaths, but I only died three times while Sway died four-hundred and sixteen times. I''m exaggerating of course ... I think I only died twice.

My bowazon is around level 20. We''ve completed Act 2 and are at the beginning of Act 3.

I think your assasin, Elysium, had a good few skill points in martial arts skills which I think helps your % to hit whereas I have none there, I put most of mine into shadow skills and traps, my % to hit was pretty damn low despite being able to deal 110-260 damage per claw, I kept having to run away from major battles or die horribly!

Yeah, Kegboy, that was a big part of my strategy. I went for a blend of melee attack supported by corpse explosion traps. All I need to do in a big fracas is take down one or two foes and then let the corpse explosion and electricity do their job. It''s pretty funny because I will feel like I''m up against insurmountable odds, and then the corpse explosion will suddenly leave me swinging my claws in the air.

"Elysium" wrote:

Not that I was counting deaths, but I only died three times while Sway died four-hundred and sixteen times.

Yeah...I''m pretty sure those stats were close to the reality. I was well on the way back to level 1 with all of the experience I was losing. I''m starting to feel comfortable with the barb again now that I''ve got some sort of direction.

If you''re going to restart, Keg, I might use that as my excuse to try that Necro I''ve been thinking about starting. Then again, I might just stick with the barb until 1.10 comes out and we find out what''s changed.

I''m also good for Tonight; I got my Necro at Lv.21 on Sat... and he is not the only one who gained a level that day... Like in one of Sway''s comics, Birthdays are more fun when you think of them as leveling up!

Guys, tanking is not an option in big games at Hell Difficulty. You''ve seen the difference between Normal and Nightmare difficulty. Now apply that difference again as we go to Hell difficulty.

Also every monster will have an immunity and a good percentage will have 2. High resistances, high hit points a shield and magic damage reduction help survivability.

Magic damage reduction is per frame (fraction of a second like in film) so it works excellently against poison, Diablo''s pink lightning, the Act 3 flayer shaman''s fire inferno.

Still, rushing in and being surrounded will get you killed with high frequency. Hit and run tactics are much better. Its like 4 steps forward, one step back, kill one, another step back, kill another, last step back, kill the rest, then take 4 steps forward again.

As a sorceress, I never cast more than once in between moving.

Barbs and other tanks have better defenses and more hit points so they can make about 2-3 swings before either using a health potion or running. The best tactic is to charge forward to get a group of monsters attention then fall back and pick off the few stragglers that continue to chase.

Assasins have the best skills for hit and run tactics. Their traps are excellent ""pullers"" and detectors. If you arent familiar with EQ, ""pulling"" is using a ranged attack to lure the attention of one of a group of monsters. You are pulling him out of the group to come fight you one at a time.

Assasins should place a trap at the edge of the screen in the direction they are going and at every fork in the path. If you dont see the traps activate, step forward to the trap and repeat again. If the traps activate, move forward just enough to get a better angle and place more traps to thin the pack. (before charging should you choose to)

We should stay in NM difficulty leveling in Act 5 until at least level 60.

Dont fret about the power of the sorceress'' Frozen Orb. You have been looking at my sorceress at her peak for about 15 levels now. I am also 10 levels higher than you. Im not getting anymore powerful. In fact, since Hell is twice as hard as Nightmare you will see my capabilities wane. You guys will keep getting better and better equiptment. Better equiptment doesnt do me as good since I pretty much have all I need know. The only thing that will help is skill up mods on items.

Hey guys, the word is starting to come down that we''re going to be getting a crap ton of v1.10 info (from Geoff Frazier) at around E3 time. www.diabloii.net is also reporting the much maligned original Azurewrath will be deactivated from here on out. Good Riddance!