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: 1 year 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: 1 year ago

fraggykrueger wrote: 1 year 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!!

Another update!
- now lvl 38, in Act 5 Normal, still players 8
- ethereal Boots NEVER drop, if you ask me. Am barefoot since forever.
- 2nd in the ranking of rare ethereal drops: belts.
- Zeal plus Fanaticism eat about 1 ethereal weapon per map. It's quite insane. My weapon throughput is remarkable. Am ABSOLUTELY agnostic about what to use.
- Have started making lots of low-level runewords (Malice, Strength, King's Grace, ...) with the excess "useless" low-level runes from the shared stash.
- still only passing ethereal uniques from other chars onto BrETH, otherwise SSF.

Aaaaand it's still fun!

Thanks for the update!
Honestly, I'm surprised you didn't succumb to the pressure to do Holy Fire Archer given the weapon mulching. Good on you for sticking to the stricter challenge!

EDIT: And how funny that you can't find Boots! Little did you know you should have named your character after a hobbit!

My biggest issue would be no Belt, it is so frustrating to play without couple potion slots.

BonyM wrote: 1 year ago

My biggest issue would be no Belt, it is so frustrating to play without couple potion slots.

That's actually not an issue, because you can keep the Belt on when it's broken. The Belt slots work, so I've still got a 4x4 Belt on. I think the defense does not get considered and its abilities don't work, but the potions go in. Just NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER EVER take it off

just for fun: current gear list at lvl 42

Helm: None (broke a while ago, I'll introduce BAWA as official abbreviation)
Amulet: Rare (1 skills, 2 life, 10 life regeneration, 5 mana, 11 all resistances)
Weapon: Ethereal 1-socketed Hatchet with a 6 dexterity / 6 magic find / 8 energy / 8 mana jewel in it
Armor: Ethereal Chain Mail
Shield: Ethereal Tower Shield with Rhyme
Gloves: Etheral Heavy Gloves
Rings: 1x Nagelring, 1x rare (10% FCR, 63 AR, 1 life, 20 fire res, 9 poison res, 29% Gold)
Belt: Ethereal Plated Belt, 25% reduced poison duration
Boots: None (BAWA)

All in all, TOP gear to take on Baal soon on p8 ^^

fraggykrueger wrote: 1 year ago

BonyM wrote: 1 year ago

My biggest issue would be no Belt, it is so frustrating to play without couple potion slots.

That's actually not an issue, because you can keep the Belt on when it's broken. The Belt slots work, so I've still got a 4x4 Belt on. I think the defense does not get considered and its abilities don't work, but the potions go in. Just NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER EVER take it off

Good to know actually, this might come in handy at some point.

update: lvl 48, just beat normal Baal (still p8)

gear changes:
- weapon is now a Hustle ethereal Maul (hurts a little bit to see the durability MELT away ^^)
- found a Helm! ethereal 36 defense plain vanilla
- Belt is now BAWA (keeping it on to keep the 16 potion slots)
- Boots are still BAWA (I genuinely have not found any ethereal Boots since at least character level 22, or earlier...! and believe me, I've been looking...)

update: lvl 53, defeated nightmare Andariel

gear changes:
- weapon: none (PUNCHES!!!!). Went through a Malice Battle Axe and a Spirit Battle Sword along the way.
- armor: sporting a broken Peace chest plate, wondering if that Valkyrie is still going to spawn now that the armor is broken
- other gear: plain-vanilla gloves (12def), Crown (60def), Light Plate Boots (16def)
- total of 12% life leech on the rings, otherwise I'd be royally screwed, given that it's players 8...

Currently pondering up to what rune levels I should use runewords, given that they last between 5 and 20 minutes of playtime (at least for weapons...) ^^

P8 with little to nothing... it must be tough.
Good luck!

I had seen this casually before, but now I read the whole thing and I'm invested in this journey.

What's your build?