"Bother!", said Pooh, as he read Jaakko Raipala's latest post to
alt.games.diablo.
Post by Jaakko RaipalaAlong with Blizzard, Fireball has been my favorite spell ever since
the game came out. Hell, even longer than that: ever since the days of
DI. I think the fact that Fireball is useful now is the best thing
about 1.10. (The weird thing is that I still don't have a SC Fireball
sorc in the 1.10 final! I'm still waiting on that Tal's armor.) (My
other dream is a pure fire sorc with +3 Fireball Ormus', Mang Song's
or at least HotO + Visce, TO belt and gloves, +3 amu and hat... was
there some skill cap after 20?)
If all you want is the biggest FB ever, I think HotO made in a +3 FB/FM
staff would be even bigger. Leaves you with no shield for block or res,
though.
There's no cap on +skills that I know of, aside from getting only +3 from
the oskill on Trang. I'd rather have Magefist/Arach for those slots. One
less FB, but +2 fire/+1 all, better mana, and 40% FC. Part of the reason
Jasmine (the tal sorc) kills so damn fast is that she's casting at 110% FC
with the 'fists and rings on. That's slightly better than 3 FB per second.
15.5k per sec in pure firey goodness.
Post by Jaakko Raipala...but you have Tal's set! My equipment is Harley (no resists),
Skullder's (no resists), double Nagels (no resists) and so on. I don't
even have an Annihilius - and I only have one res charm for anything
else than the non-maxed elemental res (that's a +5 all sc).
I do have Tal's. I also have a 20/19/6 Anni charm and a Pdiamond Lidless.
The rest of my gear has basically no res. (Chances, 2xNagel, WT, mostly
life/mana charms, some mfsc) That's the beauty of the full set thing.
Post by Jaakko RaipalaOnce I get back from playing my MF javazon I'll probably switch some
of those resists for more MF: WTs, CGs (if I could finally find ones
that would be better than the +20 something MF I have on my rares),
maybe even an amulet, if I can gamble one with +2 sorc skills and MF.
I've got a +3 cold/MF and a +3 lit/MF, and a +1 sorc/10% FC/MF. Very few
if any +2 rare ammies, so far. Plenty of circlets though.
Post by Jaakko RaipalaPost by LineNoiseI'm working on an IK barb right now, but I'm sorely tempted to decide up
front that WW sucks, and start spamming channels with "Full IK 4 Ist".
Really? How high is he (ie. how close are you to wearing the full
set)? The last (and one) time I had a WW barb was when the game first
came out. I would've like it then, but it was way too overpowered for
even my cheesy tastes. But now all the IK barbs I've talked to say that
the set rocks even without the armor.
I just started him last night, I think. Level 42 and ready to kill baal
for credit, but I'm holding off in case I can carry a mule or two with him.
Post by Jaakko RaipalaAlthough if I were making a WW barb, I'd probably want a Tomb Reaver.
It may really just be one of those items that look cool on paper but
don't actually perform that well, but I have to try it out. So maybe
I'll try that Ist trade. (Nobody seems to want to trade just the armor
for an Ist - I wonder if the rest of the set would sweeten the deal
enough?)
The only WW barb I would ever make is full IK, because I don't much like
WW, but I can't think of a better skillset to use with IK. Big two handed
thing really wants to be whirled.
Post by Jaakko RaipalaHmm. I spend some Hels, too, but not Amns. I haven't been crafting
rings lately. Nor anything else, since I tend to find the perfect gear
for all my characters even without crafting. I've spent a *lot* of
Shaels on upgrading normal uniques, but that's the only low rune that
I spend in major quantities.
I'm using a few Amn on crafts, but more of them on Ral+Amn+Pamethyst makes
sockets in a weapon. Once on a +3 enchant staff (got 4 holes, might make a
Memory) and three times on a Phase Blade (1-hole, 2-hole, 5-hole).
The big demand for crafting runes for me is Sol and Ral. Blood rings and
Caster ammys. I've got a couple of nice 8% blood rings so far, one with 8%
res all on top. Not much luck on the casters, aside from a +2 elemental
(druid) caster.
Post by Jaakko RaipalaPost by LineNoiseI wanna make a Barb with maxed Leap Attack, Levi, Gaze and Gerke's, and
call him Kermit.
Now this one actually deserves a LOL... because it's true. LOL.
Highly impractical, of course, but I laughed when I thought of it, and
again when I read it back.
Post by Jaakko RaipalaHmm. I've upgraded every piece of equipment on my chars that I want to
upgrade right now. The next batch of upgrades will probably be some
merc stuff. (I wish I had some eth Kelpies. And eth shafts.)
I've upped two normal Shafts so far. Got a third from Andariel on a rush
tonight, was very happy. Probably sell that one though, don't really need
three of them. I've got a couple of shields that I want to upgrade next,
Viscera and Moser's.
Post by Jaakko RaipalaPost by LineNoiseAlthough, given that I was the one with the rusher sorc, all I need to do
is find a new bunch of people to put mules in my games, and we could crank
out those runes again. I've got mule-rush down pat, I've only temporarily
run out of mules.
Hmm. I'd offer to make a bunch of mules there in exchange for a bunch
of mules on Europe, but the timezone problem is probably unworkable. I
think sitting every other game out while someone else gets a rune
would still take much less time (and *much* less pain) than finding
someone to rush from the channels, explaining the idea to them and then
finally have them attempt to steal the rune anyway.
Actually, my latest scheme is that I've got a fourth mule account full of
nothing but rush mules, and with a password that I don't mind sharing. So
I've got the mules all right there ready to go, and I only need someone
else to login on it and sit through a rush. Given how many people are in
the agd games on any given evening, it might even work.
I also discovered that it's entirely possible for me to get hell hellforges
without any help at all. I have two comps, so I rushed a mule to act 5,
then made a public game called "baal 4 quest". Somebody joined, I invited
them, then teleported down to the throne with my rusher sorc and trashed
the joint. Joe Q. Public got his easy quest credit, and I pushed my mule
into NM. Rinse and repeat for NM. Worked fairly well. Hour and a half or
so of work, a bit of luck with the pubbies, and I'm up by Thul, Um, Pul and
a handful of pgems. And the aforementioned Shaft, but that's just dumb
luck. I think I'll be doing this some more.
Bulk rushing is still more efficient, assuming I can get anybody to man the
mules. But the one-at-a-time method is easier to organize.
Post by Jaakko RaipalaI don't remember if I posted about this yet, but after you reminded me
of this Hellforge rushing idea, I've occasionally tried to find people
to do it with, but it's *hopeless*. It seems like about half the people
who ask for rushing don't know what the Hellforge quest *is* and are
too suspicious to trade it away - and most of the people that do know
about the quest respond very unpolitely (but IMO entirely appropriately)
when they hear my price.
Whereas I've done two NM and a Hell rush today, not counting self-rushing
my mule through all three diffs. Different climate on West vs. Europe
maybe? All I do is advertise in the default channel, and/or scan the game
list for requests for rushes. Sometimes I even get other people requesting
it in channel, then all I have to do is reply.
Post by Jaakko RaipalaPost by LineNoiseWhere'dya think I got all those Ist runes in the first place, after all?
All but one were rush runes.
Now I *really* wish I knew someone to do that with!
If you've got a second comp, you might try the pubbie method. Other than
that, I dunno. Not enough AGD people on Europe I guess.
LineNoise
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For every action, there is an equal and opposite criticism.