Got GG gear, Now I'm Done

Lord-Jonty wrote: 2 years ago

I'm reasonably confident that I will never have an Enigma or an Infinity, I simply don't have the time required. On the one hand, that means the motivation to play will always be there but on the other hand, there are all sorts of whacky builds I would like to try but will never have the gear to manage (dual Dream, for example).

In the end, I'm not sure it matters to me. I've increasingly found that my enjoyment comes from getting different builds through the game, to see how they compare, and to experiment with different setups where possible. Have completed it on hell with 8 different builds I think, so only about 12 million to go, should give me plenty to do.

bruh, if you had time to beat hell with 8 different builds, you also have enough time to farm

Ber runes. if you are playing single player, set players to 8 and farm chests/corpses/baskets in

Lower Kurast. or join split mf-runs and do the same if you play online. it's tedious but it's not impossible. jsut make sure you have sufficient run speed or

Teleport.

schlachtergeselle wrote: 2 years ago

Lord-Jonty wrote: 2 years ago

I'm reasonably confident that I will never have an Enigma or an Infinity, I simply don't have the time required. On the one hand, that means the motivation to play will always be there but on the other hand, there are all sorts of whacky builds I would like to try but will never have the gear to manage (dual Dream, for example).

In the end, I'm not sure it matters to me. I've increasingly found that my enjoyment comes from getting different builds through the game, to see how they compare, and to experiment with different setups where possible. Have completed it on hell with 8 different builds I think, so only about 12 million to go, should give me plenty to do.

bruh, if you had time to beat hell with 8 different builds, you also have enough time to farm

Ber runes. if you are playing single player, set players to 8 and farm chests/corpses/baskets in

Lower Kurast. or join split mf-runs and do the same if you play online. it's tedious but it's not impossible. jsut make sure you have sufficient run speed or

Teleport.

On point, but in

Lower Kurast max rune that can be droped from chests is

Sur

You've inspired me to write a post.. I never do this.

I always find this stance and decision very interesting. I totally get it though.

I've also been playing D2 since launch, and the first Diablo when it launched (That walk speed in D1 hurts me now =( What a giant change in those 3? years.) I play virtually entirely solo these days, yet online for sake of sync with my Switch and if a buddy does pop on. Players 1 farming.. yay..
Used to go the Ladder route, and Hardcore. These days I play Softcore and only sometimes do I play Ladder, I've opted out of this current Ladder.
Hardcore or Ladder, or both, is an excellent way to stretch out the lifespan of this game if needed. Just a warning though, some hardcore deaths may be completely out of your control can be completely and utterly infuriating to lose so many hours of effort on no fault of your own. (Power outages, net issues, real emergencies if everything ends up ok.. Blizzard issues )

This run on D2R has been definitely the best I've done in my time in D2 in terms of drops and gearing. Though, I have taken a different approach to my farming and gearing. I started off much more focused on getting established quickly than my more natural progressing. My first character was a Cold/Fire Sorc.. My first Sorc ever.. I could have easily ended up in your boat solely on that choice alone, if I felt the same way.

I love to play different builds, I keep trying new ones with different playstyles. Though affording some of the really curious ones is difficult for me. I also don't like gear sharing between my characters much.

What I've noticed, which is completely different than I expected, is I'm more partial to hunt gear for a new character on something I'm finding truly enjoyable. My light sorc just makes a joke out of everything, but I find I hardly play her. She is by far my most efficient farmer, for example; to take her through

Chaos Sanctuary just takes a couple minutes. Or less than a minute if seal popping. Yet I'd rather take something else through Chaos, like my recently upgraded(?) bowzon (I have finally built Faith, I'm not sure if I like it yet, but it sure felt nice to build.), or whatever the flavor is that day.
I don't really ever run public

Baal's anymore, or stuff like that. Though sometimes I'll join a public non-rush leveling game.

To each their own is very important in life and games. I still will always find it interesting to call it a "Game Complete" on the obtaining of items instead solely of your Hell

Baal kill, or first Ubers/D Clone.
Or at least that was my interpretation when I read the last part of OP's post. (Though, first Infinity always feels like a really serious victory to build to me.)

Speaking of.. It's nice that Dclone occurrence is seemingly less frequent now. IP hunting always seemed kind of wrong for the game to me. Now, the aspect of a lot of people leaving computer on to pickup a suspected Dclone spawn is also.. Not really seeming that good for the game. (Lets not even get started on the insane quantity of spawns right after that patch! Thankfully there was no ladder at the time, but it has clearly had negative effect on the enjoyment or objectives of some, similar to OP's statement.) I love that all res on Anni. As a softcore non-ladder player, I really do hope it becomes more and more infrequent. Just not private IP hunting/spawning infrequent. I think I have six.. That is unreal in my mind, and it has surely lost some luster. (I still can't express my love for that resistance boost though!)

The whole item too overpowered, or item ruins game comment I see/hear a lot and still feel that is a bit more of a personal opinion on most items, most of the time.
Enigma is great for a lot of builds for comfort or actually making it not INSANELY painful to play.. Looking at you Hammerdin.. (Just my opinion though, I never played it endgame pre LOD.) I find it to be more of a comfort item, though that MF and Life can be overly appealing sometimes when you are well established have the ability to put one together for a new character.
Infinity is usually fairly intense for most to acquire the runes and the no regret

Eth base. It's ability to allow single element builds access more content is huge. Total comfort item.
It's also a personal choice and decision to use any said item on any said build. We can choose not keep up with the Joneses. BiS is indeed hard to ignore in a pure stat and non-playstyle influencing manner though.

Here's hoping that they decide to take some passes on old underused unique items or this whole new ladder runewords concept works out for diversity. I saw some that I would have likely used "endgame" already, like Mist or Obsession because I never really use staves anymore. There are lots of Unique items I miss and actually do opt out of using these days. The progression plateaus pretty quick upon some runeword builds, especially if you share gear between characters.

It is 2022, there are a bunch of new players. Not everyone got to witness the jump from classic to LOD. Not everyone liked it when they did. New players would probably have the same sentiment on these items mentioned as being over powered. Especially Grief which I do use and sometimes enjoy.. it IS pretty insanely cheap to make for it's strength, albeit a bit boring in my opinion. I see it more of a stepping Stone for non utility builds, until I can get something more interesting to play with. Those more interesting item's are are harder to make both rune and base wise, and should be looked at so they can output as such in their bases.
A built D2 character will always be a walking nuke (Especially in LOD), allowing options to bring the pain in more interesting ways, in visual or playstyle is always welcome?

As much as I hate the thought of messing with D2, some things could be done. LOD really changed the game. I just despise nerfs.. In any game. I feel that they are generally the absolute laziest and most uninspired route that anyone can take to "fix" or balance things. Truly, no other explanation broken engine level stuff is a different thing.. Although, lots of its quirks and issues are what really define D2 as itself, like Ebugging for example, was a real D2 thing.

I suppose all in all, I will have politely disagree with OP final line.

I completely respect the stance, but; A well built Javazon with Infinity is just insane. There is a reason they are desired builds. The screen wipe on a nice dense pack is really satisfying! One of my favorite for sure. However, they even clobber content without runewords. You can 45 point the Jav and

Spear tree (If you want

Charged Strike too.) and grab something else for light immunes with rest of points, and absolutely wreck content. They are just downright dominant in general. Quite a few builds are, especially if we can live without

Teleport.

It would seem you, OP, were possibly just after the ability to do all available content in game? If so, you really have achieved your goal and in that sense, "beat the game." I feel that would be equally relative to your objective within the game as well as these powerful runewords you have acquired to make this content comfortable and quick with your select builds. (From my interpretation of what you have said.)

In games like this, it seems if one is solely after min/max speed blitzing content.. Burnout or boredom will always soon follow when you have acquired the hunted gear.
There is also quite plainly only so much to do in Diablo. It's open ended for farming, but the whole modern concept of Endgame really doesn't exist aside from that.

Either way, congratulations on the nice arsenal of characters. I do hope you find another Wind or reason to some time come back and purge some more evil. If you do leave, I hope you manage to hold some feeling of achievement and reward from obtaining those items and building those characters! I can only assume it wasn't easy.

Maybe Blizz will give us all a reason to keep the fire burning. Burnout is real, in anything. I'm having some in, in waves, myself.

Ok, that felt like a short story.. I see can why I never post anything.

schlachtergeselle wrote: 2 years ago

Lord-Jonty wrote: 2 years ago

I'm reasonably confident that I will never have an Enigma or an Infinity, I simply don't have the time required. On the one hand, that means the motivation to play will always be there but on the other hand, there are all sorts of whacky builds I would like to try but will never have the gear to manage (dual Dream, for example).

In the end, I'm not sure it matters to me. I've increasingly found that my enjoyment comes from getting different builds through the game, to see how they compare, and to experiment with different setups where possible. Have completed it on hell with 8 different builds I think, so only about 12 million to go, should give me plenty to do.

bruh, if you had time to beat hell with 8 different builds, you also have enough time to farm

Ber runes. if you are playing single player, set players to 8 and farm chests/corpses/baskets in

Lower Kurast. or join split mf-runs and do the same if you play online. it's tedious but it's not impossible. jsut make sure you have sufficient run speed or

Teleport.

Well, there's a few things to say here:

1) I play exclusively online because I have a mate who likes to play, so we either do it together or I do solo online because that's where all my gear is and I don't fancy starting from scratch on singleplayer

2) I'm on console, specifically PS4, which is significant for a few reasons: a) the load times are really bad, b) until very recently there was no lobby system which made joining 8 player games impossible, and c) there is still no in-game chat function which makes joining 8 player games unappealing

3) I tend to prefer melee, or at least, I don't especially enjoy sorcs, and without an Enigma I do not have a reliable form of

Teleport. I have a staff but find recharging it annoying and expensive

4) I do enjoy the grind but only up to a point, I don't have the stomach for some areas. For example, I love clearing CS with Jonty Bonty (my lvl 91 FoH Paladin), must have done 200-300 runs with him, and I enjoy murdering cows with Janet (lvl 90 Java). I do a fair bit of

Key farming / Ubers with Akinfenwa (lvl 85

Frenzy Barb) but I do not like Trav (it's too quick, with PS4 load times I spend more time looking at a loading screen than playing), and LK is far too tedious for me

5) I suspect I am not the most efficient player, even with a decent build. A full clear of CS with the Paladin takes me 5 minutes on average. I also get bored of doing the same thing over an over, so like to take the Barb on a tour of all lvl 85 areas and bosses, for example, but that is not a quick process, definitely not the optimal way to farm

Perhaps I'm wrong about not having enough time, but all in all, I suppose I have spent about 150 hours playing since launch. I play most days but usually only an hour, rarely more than two. I would guess about 80 have been spent on clearing the game with different builds (conservative estimate of 10 hours to clear from normal all the way through to Hell

Baal, assuming that you're not rushing or dawdling) and 70 doing various bits of farming on Hell, in the slightly sub-optimal way mentioned above. The grand total of my good runes (this means

Pul+ to me) is something like 2

Pul, 1

Um, 4

Mal, 1

Vex, 1

Gul, 2

Ohm. I can only conclude that I am either very unlucky (and I find that hard to believe, it should even out over time) or the way I play is going to require a lot more time before I can afford anything like an Enigma, let alone Infinity or something obscene like Last Wish.

Lord-Jonty wrote: 2 years ago

schlachtergeselle wrote: 2 years ago

Lord-Jonty wrote: 2 years ago

I'm reasonably confident that I will never have an Enigma or an Infinity, I simply don't have the time required. On the one hand, that means the motivation to play will always be there but on the other hand, there are all sorts of whacky builds I would like to try but will never have the gear to manage (dual Dream, for example).

In the end, I'm not sure it matters to me. I've increasingly found that my enjoyment comes from getting different builds through the game, to see how they compare, and to experiment with different setups where possible. Have completed it on hell with 8 different builds I think, so only about 12 million to go, should give me plenty to do.

bruh, if you had time to beat hell with 8 different builds, you also have enough time to farm

Ber runes. if you are playing single player, set players to 8 and farm chests/corpses/baskets in

Lower Kurast. or join split mf-runs and do the same if you play online. it's tedious but it's not impossible. jsut make sure you have sufficient run speed or

Teleport.

Well, there's a few things to say here:

1) I play exclusively online because I have a mate who likes to play, so we either do it together or I do solo online because that's where all my gear is and I don't fancy starting from scratch on singleplayer

2) I'm on console, specifically PS4, which is significant for a few reasons: a) the load times are really bad, b) until very recently there was no lobby system which made joining 8 player games impossible, and c) there is still no in-game chat function which makes joining 8 player games unappealing

3) I tend to prefer melee, or at least, I don't especially enjoy sorcs, and without an Enigma I do not have a reliable form of

Teleport. I have a staff but find recharging it annoying and expensive

4) I do enjoy the grind but only up to a point, I don't have the stomach for some areas. For example, I love clearing CS with Jonty Bounty (my lvl 91 FoH Paladin), must have done 200-300 runs with him, and I enjoy murdering cows with Janet (lvl 90 Java). I do a fair bit of

Key farming / Ubers with Akinfenwa (lvl 85

Frenzy Barb) but I do not like Trav (it's too quick, with PS4 load times I spend more time looking at a loading screen than playing), and LK is far too tedious for me

5) I suspect I am not the most efficient player, even with a decent build. A full clear of CS with the Paladin takes me 5 minutes on average. I also get bored of doing the same thing over an over, so like to take the Barb on a tour of all lvl 85 areas and bosses, for example, but that is not a quick process, definitely not the optimal way to farm

Perhaps I'm wrong about not having enough time, but all in all, I suppose I have spent about 150 hours playing since launch. I play most days but usually only an hour, rarely more than two. I would guess about 80 have been spent on clearing the game with different builds (conservative estimate of 10 hours to clear from normal all the way through to Hell

Baal, assuming that you're not rushing or dawdling) and 70 doing various bits of farming on Hell, in the slightly sub-optimal way mentioned above. The grand total of my good runes (this means

Pul+ to me) is something like 2

Pul, 1

Um, 4

Mal, 1

Vex, 1

Gul, 2

Ohm. I can only conclude that I am either very unlucky (and I find that hard to believe, it should even out over time) or the way I play is going to require a lot more time before I can afford anything like an Enigma, let alone Infinity or something obscene like Last Wish.

The RNG in this game can be vicious and I like to pretend it is luck immune, for sanity sake. If your doing what you enjoy, just keep at it. Trading is also getting easier and easier these days, so if your into that, just keep an eye out for desired items and the like. Also Pgems, crafting runes, bases, maybe even BiS PVP unique items, I don't know the PS4 scene. but online saves are cross platform. You can nickle and dime, or just hunt more substantial but not unreasonable things.
Waiting for that absolute god drop in D2 can sometimes equal only pain, there is a reason not every single player is wearing griff. HR's do exist but purely hunting them online solo may not be working out for you. Your lvl 85 area tours are not a bad idea if you are enjoying them. There are more focused things you can do as well if your taking the trade route;

Key farming, ect. If your walking

Baal, the keep is also a good spot, albeit sometimes lethal.. I personally also swap things up to keep myself from burning out. It's been working, but also has periods of drought. Previously in D2, before resurrected. I've gone years without a

Ber or

Jah drop.

You will get those items. The game will give them to you.. Kicking and screaming.

Slipstick wrote: 2 years ago

The RNG in this game can be vicious and I like to pretend it is luck immune, for sanity sake. If your doing what you enjoy, just keep at it. Trading is also getting easier and easier these days, so if your into that, just keep an eye out for desired items and the like. Also Pgems, crafting runes, bases, maybe even BiS PVP unique items, I don't know the PS4 scene. but online saves are cross platform. You can nickle and dime, or just hunt more substantial but not unreasonable things.
Waiting for that absolute god drop in D2 can sometimes equal only pain, there is a reason not every single player is wearing griff. HR's do exist but purely hunting them online solo may not be working out for you. Your lvl 85 area tours are not a bad idea if you are enjoying them. There are more focused things you can do as well if your taking the trade route;

Key farming, ect. If your walking

Baal, the keep is also a good spot, albeit sometimes lethal.. I personally also swap things up to keep myself from burning out. It's been working, but also has periods of drought. Previously in D2, before resurrected. I've gone years without a

Ber or

Jah drop.

You will get those items. The game will give them to you.. Kicking and screaming.

I think that's the thing, I'm enjoying the hunt, in my own way, to the extent that I'm perfectly happy even if these things never drop. I'm certainly not about to ditch everything and invest hours a day popping chests in LK...

Have only just started getting into the trading side of things, it's not nearly as active on PSN as PC but I've been enjoying it nonetheless, filled a few obvious gaps in my gear (

Razortail, Gores).

Usually when i get to that beat the game moment where i've lost my motivation, i usually make a new class. Try something new, even if it is temporary or short lived. lots of neat builds to try in this game. Ladder, as someone else has already said, is a great way to reset the game and start over. Ladder and trading are two of this games biggest claims to fame.

baxo686 wrote: 2 years ago

schlachtergeselle wrote: 2 years ago

Lord-Jonty wrote: 2 years ago

I'm reasonably confident that I will never have an Enigma or an Infinity, I simply don't have the time required. On the one hand, that means the motivation to play will always be there but on the other hand, there are all sorts of whacky builds I would like to try but will never have the gear to manage (dual Dream, for example).

In the end, I'm not sure it matters to me. I've increasingly found that my enjoyment comes from getting different builds through the game, to see how they compare, and to experiment with different setups where possible. Have completed it on hell with 8 different builds I think, so only about 12 million to go, should give me plenty to do.

bruh, if you had time to beat hell with 8 different builds, you also have enough time to farm

Ber runes. if you are playing single player, set players to 8 and farm chests/corpses/baskets in

Lower Kurast. or join split mf-runs and do the same if you play online. it's tedious but it's not impossible. jsut make sure you have sufficient run speed or

Teleport.

On point, but in

Lower Kurast max rune that can be droped from chests is

Sur

This is incorrect, i just got a

Ber from LK a couple days ago, im pretty sure

Jah is the highest. Also, two

Sur will make a

Ber

Domi wrote: 2 years ago

baxo686 wrote: 2 years ago

schlachtergeselle wrote: 2 years ago

bruh, if you had time to beat hell with 8 different builds, you also have enough time to farm

Ber runes. if you are playing single player, set players to 8 and farm chests/corpses/baskets in

Lower Kurast. or join split mf-runs and do the same if you play online. it's tedious but it's not impossible. jsut make sure you have sufficient run speed or

Teleport.

On point, but in

Lower Kurast max rune that can be droped from chests is

Sur

This is incorrect, i just got a

Ber from LK a couple days ago, im pretty sure

Jah is the highest. Also, two

Sur will make a

Ber

Nope, the highest rune you can get from the LK super chests is actually a

Ber.