So what was the original idea -- well this post forums/the-green-goblin-t1574188.html gave me an idea to separate characters in groups like Red team, Blue team, Yellow and Green; but then it felt like a bit incomplete so I added White, Black and Brown teams. So I thought of all skills that are connected to a specific color and then listed all the possible builds inside each one. I wanted (and still kinda do) to make all of the possible builds for each color just to see how they look but that will be an extension of this Secret Experimental Project #023 that I'm already horrified in advance because I'm gonna need sooo much stuff and going through games will be sooo slow (in some cases)... Anyway let me go back on track...
After I made a full list/table of all the possible builds it was time to choose the most representative ones for each color. Ofc I did put some things in like "poison Assassin" into the Green part just because green complements the default black of Assassin perfectly (so more options with the gear would instantly open up) buuuut except for Venom: Skill Assassin doesn't really have any poison skill so that was kinda on the edge of rules. Then I realized that there are only 2 viable builds to do and those are Poison Javazon and Poison Necro. So I also cut another corner and added Poison Sorceress just for the fact she is naturally green suited (however when it comes to skills it would be very questionable on what to allow her to use). Okay, now's there 4 options to choose from (even tho there are actually only 2 proper ones).
Then I did the same thing with Red - fire, Blue - cold/magic, Yellow/Gold - lightning, White (later I added Grey to this as well) - bone/white skills, but then there was another problem that emerged and that was choosing viable skills and builds for Black and Brown. *Quick note: I also added some alternatives for each of the main 4 color builds (where applicable). When you think about it for some time, there aren't that many "neutral" skills that could go into those 2 categories neither many of which can produce brown or black effects when casting/using. After some time of mixing and matching and making stuff up I finalized it with (what I thought could suit those colors the best or were just leftover skills from some characters):
Black builds
Amazon -- Strafe; alt. Multishot
Assassin -- Bladesin v0.9 ( Blade Sentinel/ Blade Fury/ Blade Shield)
Necromancer -- Revive/Melee but then I was like maybe use a few Trang-Oul parts and turn him into Fire Ball/ Meteor manace (however this didn't seem right) so I would probably go with full melee with just Revive as a skill and nothing else (contestant for one of the weakest/worst builds)
Barbarian -- Concentrate? I was so unsure about this one so I left it as just a "maybe"
Paladin -- Conversion? Again, same as Barb, just as a crazy option but this time it would suit the dark theme much better
Druid -- Raven/Vines/Melee (another exception I made for myself -- even tho vines are brown-ish just because this would match with the theme and I was wondering for some time even before this project about how far could you get with Ravens and Vines only)
Brown builds
Amazon -- Impale/ Fend?
Assassin -- Shadow Warrior/Melee with Claw Mastery/ Weapon Block/ Fade?
Necromancer -- Clay Golem/Melee/ Weaken or Amplify Damage (very if-y because Weaken produces yellow effect and Amp dmg orange one)
Barbarian -- Leap/ Leap Attack/ Battle Command/Battle Order
Paladin -- Blessed Hammer (I was 99% sure that I'm gonna finally choose this weakened Hammerdin since I never played him before anyway)
Druid -- Bear SS/ Shock Wave/ Hunger/ Summon Grizzly
Now it was time to decide which build suits the best what color. BUT I realized there are exactly 7 colors and there are well exactly 7 different characters so I was like PERFECT!! I will choose one and only one for each color so I can constrict myself even further and make myself play some weird quarter build that probably isn't going to work, but I also said that the end goal is not to make them viable to "beat the game" but to see how far can they go + the more important part to make them look good in appropriate color.
To clarify something else that I don't think I mentioned before (I know, I know, I said I won't make it too long but it's meeee after all hehe) not only that I wanted to make them be dressed in a singular color I also wanted ALL OF THEIR GEAR TO BE that exact same color when you open their inventories. Soooo you see where the main issue/problem lies. Something like a full Aldur's set wouldn't work solely because some of it parts are colored differently in inventory even tho they don't visually change anything on the character model (like gloves, belt, boots -- I think weapon could be accepted as "brown", armor and pelt as well but I'm pretty sure Aldur's Advance are in fact red). Thanks to @ShadowHeart and this link about colors https://planetdiablo.eu/diablo2/itemdb/ ... &patch=111 also this one https://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=68614511 I could easily determine which item is which color even when they were very indistinguishable (even some Uniques made me questioning my own eyes). I also found out that, for example, green gloves DO NOT exist in the game at all (so I had to be a little bit creative or let's say I bent the rules once again just because it was the closest I could do and alternative to this was to just not use anything/leave an empty slot which looked extremely odd)!
In the end...
I have chosen those combos (prone to changes not only because I highly doubt some of the classes will work out with the chosen build but because I don't think they'll look good when they finally get stuck progression/leveling wise):
Blue suit -- Sorceress ( Frozen Orb/Blizzard)
Green suit -- Amazon ( Plague Javelin)
Red/Orange suit -- Druid ( Armageddon/ Oak Sage or Heart of Wolverine)
*However since @vued made The Green Goblin (which also kinda originated from this post forums/best-looking-armor-in-the-game-t1213065.html) I definitely want to also make The Red Flash, yeees I know it's not from the same saga/comic but I just don't care and think he could potentially look awesome -- a red Pally running around with Charge bonking things with Holy Fire or something, but that's definitely another story...
Yellow/Golden suit -- Paladin Zeal/ Holy Shock
White/Grey -- Necromancer (Skeletons/ Iron Golem/ Bone Armor/ Bone Prison) however I ended up doing only Skellies/IG/Melee so far just because I think other Bone stuff are a waste of skills that can be used for synergies
Black -- Assassin ( Blade Sentinel/ Blade Fury/ Blade Shield + Shadow Warrior because I think it suits this theme and character the best)
Brown/Tan -- Barbarian ( Leap Attack/ Leap/BC/BO)
I am seriously thinking of swapping White and Green but also Yellow and Blue, but I'll decide that after and if I manage to finish the Normal completely with everyone.
I also transferred some gear to get them started and some which would probably be their 'end gear', as well as torches, annis, jewelry (since they can't be colored and only have skins I decided that would also be too much for me to match so I just went with what I thought each build would lack or benefit from the best), charms and some Gold to get them started (10k each + some dex/str/all res/skiller/sunder charms). I will continue farming with my main account just so I can find other stuff I still don't have and want to transfer to specific color or maybe if I find something interesting in the magic/rare department that can be used very well (for leveling or end gear doesn't matter).
Main rules for this fashion experiment that I enlisted so far:
-*Each character can use only 1 color (there are 7 colors so each class gets exactly 1, at least for the first time -- later you can do whatever combo you like)
-*All colors must match (if available) -- inventory and 3D model otherwise take the closest thing or leave that slot empty
-Combine the best/most useful stuff not only to look cool but to also be effective (like pure +Life belt is very cool and very red but like Death's belt + gloves are quite strong even tho they are orange so go for that instead)
-Skills must match the color to embrace the immersion unless they don't exist (there isn't really a "black" skill apart from maybe Revive or Conversion) AND also you are only allowed to use appropriate skills to level up (for example Armageddon is not available before lvl 30 so all other fire Druid skills are allowed to be used not only before 30 but also after 30th level as well)
-Magic skills/effects/damage is considered Blue with exception of Guided Arrow and Magic Arrow belonging to the White category because they look white
-Curses are colored by the color that appears above enemy creature's heads ( Amplify Damage is orange [Red, Yellow or Brown], Decrepify is blue, Terror is green, etc.)
-Since Lower Resist effect is purple and purple is a mix of blue and red, it can be used with both blue AND red builds (for example wands with LR charges)
- Vengeance and Salvation are multicolored and can be used with anything
- Zeal and Basic/Normal attack are colorless and can be used with anything
-Auras behave like curses, whatever color they produce under your feet is their color BUT can be combined to make a certain color for example blue aura + red aura = purple aura (Purple suit revealed?) or blue + yellow = green etc.
-Mercs are allowed and doesn't need to follow rules except for auras and curses (so don't use an item that gives an aura or curse of a different color [no Infinity/ The Reaper's Toll spam
-From the moment you start you cannot use any other color of gear apart from one you belong to and this also goes for belts which makes things far more interesting (especially for some colors like black where you theoretically have a first real belt at level 29 with Immortal King's Detail or alt. Iratha's Cord at lvl 15 that doesn't give you essentially any bonus apart from more pot slots); starting weapon (and only weapon) is considered colorless and can be used freely
-Skill procs are fine unless they are curses ofc but try to not over-use them
-Skins of facets are considered colorless and can be used freely (like skins for rings & amulets and charms) but their effect should still match -- don't use a fire facet for the cold build
-No rushes and help with leveling up/quests (Players X on SP is still in grey zone)
*Edit/addition on rules (so it's more clear on which skill belongs where and more):
-Blades skills (Assassin) are considered black or grey -- so can be used in black or white category
- Shadow Warrior (because she mimics your skills), Claw Mastery and Weapon Block are considered colorless and can be used with anything
- Shadow Master is forbidden because it mimics all skills
-Martial Arts skills that don't have elemental bonuses are considered colorless and can be used with anything
- Energy Shield, Teleport and Telekinesis are considered lightning and can only be used with appropriate build
-Singer skills are considered orange (but since we don't have an orange as a build they can be used with red or yellow [since they make orange] or alt. brown which is widely considered as dark orange), Grim Ward and Bash are red but all of them are not that distinguishable from brown (which also needs quite some boost so there's that); however BC/BO should be colorless and can be used freely (but only for Barbs -- so no CtA on other classes)
- Battle Orders is most definitely blue and can only be used with blue builds (however this opens it up to be used on ALL blue builds from now on -- mainly so that magic builds can benefit from it)
- Battle Command is still colorless (it's closest to brown) and can be freely used with any build HOWEVER if used from CtA then still needs to follow rules for colors and thus be built in an appropriate colored weapon thus reducing it's frequency even further
-Combat Masteries, Find Item and Find Potion are colorless and can be used with anything
- Stun (a Barbarian skill) is now blue along side of Berserk
- Frenzy and Whirlwind are still white
-Putting Double Throw and Double Swing to colorless due to major lack of viable Barbarian builds thus allowing some weird niche off-meta ones (and mainly Throw Barb to have more options)
- Impale/ Fend/ Dodge/Avoid/ Evade/ Critical Strike/ Decoy skills are colorless and can be used with anything
- Penetrate and Pierce are now colorless BUT can be only combined with non-elemental damage skills ( Magic Arrow, Guided Arrow, Strafe, Multishot)
- Valkyrie is special multicolored and can be used only with appropriate builds however you should re-summon her until she gets armor of appropriate color (the one gained thru Peace doesn't count and is considered fully multicolored/doesn't need to be re-summoned)
- Summon Resist is fully multicolored and can be used freely
-All synergies can be taken freely BUT NOT USED (didn't state this clearly before)
- Maul: Skill and Feral Rage are forbidden because they would belong to Red and Green by color of the orb but don't match those colors by theme
- Lycanthropy is colorless and can be used with anything
- Charge is colorless and can be used with anything
- Monarch now belongs to white AND yellow builds and can be used to build any runewords for those builds if needed as an alternative; however if it's colored in a different color (no matter how odd does it look) it's still considered that color as well and can be used with appropriate build
-Shrunken Heads are split like this (only putting down basic variants so it's the same for it's upgraded versions) since they don't change colors with mods nor gems: Preserved Head -- yellow and brown, Zombie Head -- red, Unraveller Head -- white and red, Gargoyle Head -- white and blue, Hierophant Trophy -- brown
^Other stuff are in the grey zone for example I transferred 1 Horadric Cube for one character to have it from the start but I also went through entire Halls of the Dead section later, also I'm playing on Online so all of them can level up solo on Players X if I want them to but I didn't use that so far
Please, be free to advise, suggest things I may have forgotten about, change some, add exceptions and help with the colors. For example, is Sash considered yellow or brown? Does Monarch belongs to white or yellow segment? If you get +all res on said Monarch or any other item and it just slightly changes its look, if it's barely visible purple colored is it still considered purple? What about runewords -- are they bound by the bases they are in? Stuff like that.
TheDoo
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