Changed playing style to win some fun: Ethereal-only

Sooooo I got bored with the my common playing style:
- always strong lategame characters
- endless soulless fast runs in endless soulless pursuit of even more items
- when getting items: "oh no, bad roll", "duh, ethereal", etc.

So I decided to try a new style today:
- (still offline play)
- softcore, so sharing items and money is possible
- anything worn except rings and amulet MUST be ethereal. If you don't have anything ethereal for that slot, it stays empty!
- (merc can wear whatever)
- players 8 (took this from the "play like Diablo 1" thread from some time ago)

Character selection: Paladin. Why?
- never played one
- pretty weapon agnostic
- auras built-in to character

First impressions (now clvl 13):
- happy punching around at players 8!
- many "can't touch this" moments with dropping gear!
- equipment so far: ethereal

Sash (2nd one already, 1st one broke), ethereal light armor! 2 rings and 1 amulet, some charms. Still unarmed, barefoot, nothing on the head!
- looking REALLY forward to -not- being annoyed by ethereal equipment dropping for other characters, but saving that stuff for the ethereal guy to use!
- I had a hands-in-the-air-because-of-joy moment when the blue ethereal light armor had selfrepair mod on it. Haven't had this feeling in YEARS, not even when endgame gear dropped!

going on... du di dum...

Try it! It's fun!

Awesome journey! I had a lot of fun reading this, so please update it constantly. Thanks and best of luck!

Sounds clearly more appealing than a naked run...

interim update:
- permanently seeing the colourful top right graphics with orange/red equipment symbols is a welcome optical change to the game interface!

- breaking

Belt absolutely no problem, works fine as long as one does not take it off. been running around with a broken

Belt for an hour, almost like in real life!

- additional level of excitement: entering Forgotten Tower, last level, with 1 durability left on the weapon. Will it last? (spoiler alert: no it won't,

The Countess therefore got some PUNCHES )

fraggykrueger wrote: 3 weeks ago

...
Sooooo I got bored with the my common playing style:
- always strong lategame characters
...
Character selection: Paladin. Why?
- never played one
...

Wait...what...?

Knappogue wrote: 3 weeks ago

fraggykrueger wrote: 3 weeks ago

...
Sooooo I got bored with the my common playing style:
- always strong lategame characters
...
Character selection: Paladin. Why?
- never played one
...

Wait...what...?

Well, my "strong lategame" is maybe not what others would consider so, but I mean lvl 75+ with more or less only killspeed problems on players1 in hell, and survival problems only appearing on higher players settings.

And about the firsttime paladin: I don't know why I never played one

Really happy that this game gives players so many ways to keep it fun and entertaining.

Never played Hammerdin, but from what I read, he can play the game naked and still be good

Update:
- character level 20
- completed Act 1
- had fun moments (e.g. ethereal weapon breaking and another ethereal weapon dropping from the FIRST monster I punched after that)
- used one of my ethereal uniques from the mules: a

The Jade Tan Do vs.

Andariel (poison resistance, baby!), which was direly needed with bad equipment and players 8. Didn't feel sorry to use it, even though its lifetime is limited. There is some durability left on it, gonna save it for

Duriel because of CBF.
- I'm thinking of disallowing the self-repair mod for my items. It kinda puts me back into looking for "better gear" rather than "any gear". This effectively reduces the number of ethereal items I can (and will) use, but is closer to the playing style I want.
- Found a replenishing ethereal

Throwing Knife. Was happy at first. Was appalled how long these &%$!! knives take to replenish. So I decided to allow quantity-replenishing throwing weapons, since you can't use them all the time.

Awesome idea! Keep us posted (As a coward, I would have chosen sorc or nec )

Update:
- paladin (his name is BrETH_Hart by the way of course, coulda named him BrETHart as well ^^) is level 22 (didn't play much)
- still no shoes
- still no

Helm
- fairly early in Act 2 (just got the

Horadric Cube)
- JUST FOUND AN ETHEREAL

Stormguild !! First time I am actually -happy- about finding one!!