[FEEDBACK] Assorted 0.89b Comments

[Phrozen Heart]

Bon voyage

[Vhaeghar]

Hello. Having downloaded your mod i must say i'm very pleased with it. I've been playing hardcore through act one and i must say i am impressed.

It is very much harder than a lot of mods (sanctury in chaos is the closest feel to it in hardcore i'd say) which is no bad thing. I've lost 5 characters already (a barb, a sorc and 3 assasins) and now i'm playing an amazon.

I always play /players 8 and am using the shared stash plugin, so all comments below apply to this.

Tempered Items
I have collected a LOT of these bits so far and cannot use them yet. I must say some items are far better than others. +1% to a resist or +5% damage? I'd say that needs to be 2-3% damage at most.
The -2% enemy resist ones are almost too good as well, as -resist is uber for a lot of classes. Maybe -1%. Or you could bump up the resist ones maybe. But the concept is sound and is something to aim for on hardcore ~_^

Potions
Nice variety and so0me quite useful. The one that gives 300% health is nice, and the shocking grasp and vampiric potions are very useful to the hardcorer early on.
However i just found an adventurers brew. +5 permanent stat points. This was a welcome surprise, as it gave me enough points to invest some in mana. With 4 points per level hardcore is VERY close to the edge. nice.

Sets and Uniques
Havent had any sets drop yet. Got two uniques. One is a +40% attack speed, good defense 2-5 fire damage hat. awesome. use without hesitation.
The other is a -8 vitality, +14% poison res, -25% poison length glove. I would NEVER use this item ever, not even in softcore. It's worthless except as a collectors piece really. So variable quality but too early to tell how things will pan out.

Monsters
They hit hard and fast, especially ranged ones, and several types can off a HC character in seconds. The ones of note are...

Tumble Fiends:- Leapers on crack. They ended my barb fast. They are a right pain to kill too. They do seem to freeze solid in place though and not react sometimes...

Mist Horrors:- these things hit WAAAY too hard for where they are found. i like a challenge, but mobs in the graveyard that can kill level 15 characters is maybe a bit much ~_^

Goblin Marksmen (champion variety +) :- these little sods can rip down even the toughest assasin. I like. Strategy is needed on these, cos if a squad gets a shot volley off then a character goes down. (Level 16 assasin died in one volley from 4 champs)

Shadow Assasins (the boss pack by the obelisks) :- fast and deadly. If you get surrounded kiss character goodbye.



So overall even though i havent even finished act one i have a few impressions. Mostly good i will say =) I must try it multiplayer some time ~_^

[Phrozen Heart]

While I'm not trying to repress your right to post from a seperate HC point of view, I've merged your feedback with the v0.89 thread partly because it grants a better direct comparison between SC and HC play in one place and partly because I'm just anal like that Your experience appears to have been acquired over time so I'll assume you've been playing v0.88 but as none of the things below seem to have changed in this release and the old thread is locked down, here you are

Hello. Having downloaded your mod i must say i'm very pleased with it. I've been playing hardcore through act one and i must say i am impressed.

Well that's always a good start Still never played a HC character myself either in vanilla SP, a mod or battle.net so it's a unique angle for me at least.

It is very much harder than a lot of mods (sanctury in chaos is the closest feel to it in hardcore i'd say) which is no bad thing. I've lost 5 characters already (a barb, a sorc and 3 assasins) and now i'm playing an amazon.

Holy crap. I knew there were a number of ambush-type situations that could leave you screwed but five in act ONE?

I always play /players 8 and am using the shared stash plugin, so all comments below apply to this.

Ah that may have something to do with it

Tempered Items
I have collected a LOT of these bits so far and cannot use them yet. I must say some items are far better than others. +1% to a resist or +5% damage? I'd say that needs to be 2-3% damage at most.
The -2% enemy resist ones are almost too good as well, as -resist is uber for a lot of classes. Maybe -1%. Or you could bump up the resist ones maybe. But the concept is sound and is something to aim for on hardcore ~_^

Well the way I worked out the values while testing was "how powerful are 5x, 10x, 25x, 50x and 100x of these". Some are certainly a little (or in some cases SEEMINGLY a lot) more powerful but when you get to NM and Hell the damage is somewhat vital for melee characters. Granted you can create uber weapons from these but that's kind of the point, to build a custom weapon to your specification (and even add your name if you want) through all three difficulties. There will never be direct skill bonuses or that kind of "global powerup" on the reagents but enough to temper a single weapon you can take with you. I think there's around 40 reagents now in v0.89 which all have equal chance to drop so even when you do find one there's only a 2.5% that it'll stack with a particular mod you already have. The early game is a little tougher than vanilla so it's unfortunate you still don't get the cube until act 2 but collecting the reagents in act 1 is still definately worth it

Potions
Nice variety and so0me quite useful. The one that gives 300% health is nice, and the shocking grasp and vampiric potions are very useful to the hardcorer early on.
However i just found an adventurers brew. +5 permanent stat points. This was a welcome surprise, as it gave me enough points to invest some in mana. With 4 points per level hardcore is VERY close to the edge. nice.

My memory sucks but I believe the odds of the AB dropping aren't seriously high so that must have been a nice find The mod was never created for HC, but we didn't want to rule out HC play.

Sets and Uniques
Havent had any sets drop yet. Got two uniques. One is a +40% attack speed, good defense 2-5 fire damage hat. awesome. use without hesitation.
The other is a -8 vitality, +14% poison res, -25% poison length glove. I would NEVER use this item ever, not even in softcore. It's worthless except as a collectors piece really. So variable quality but too early to tell how things will pan out.

Well in case of Lor'cha's Denial (unique gloves) don't they also spawn with a light and mana bonus too? The whole mythos behind the item is that the half-elf Lor'cha prayed to Helm, god of protection, to spare him from the plague ravaging his village but instead his cries were "intercepted" by a demon (can't remember it's name for the life of me, but it was a "unique" genie-esque tanar'ri) and his wish was twisted. The whole thing ended up with Lor'cha being turned into a sentient enchanted zombie which spared him from the plague but left him kind of screwed in the long run

Monsters
They hit hard and fast, especially ranged ones, and several types can off a HC character in seconds. The ones of note are...

Tumble Fiends:- Leapers on crack. They ended my barb fast. They are a right pain to kill too. They do seem to freeze solid in place though and not react sometimes...

Hmmm...that's strange. Obviously they are modified leapers and they fit under my "fatal annoyance" category where the idea is to avoid them where possible because they can be quite powerful in numbers. Ranged attacks especially cold-based ones are good for clearing out gibberlings/tumble fiends.

Mist Horrors:- these things hit WAAAY too hard for where they are found. i like a challenge, but mobs in the graveyard that can kill level 15 characters is maybe a bit much ~_^

Another "fatal annoyance". Originally I'd wanted the "get in, get out" approach to Blood Raven which is where these creatures came from. Do you think perhaps slowing them down a touch would help? I don't believe they have ANY resistances in normal (physical, magic or elemental) so you can pretty much choose your weapon so to speak. I was debating making them immune to physical but take double magic damage and regular elemental damage but that could screw some builds.

Goblin Marksmen (champion variety +) :- these little sods can rip down even the toughest assasin. I like. Strategy is needed on these, cos if a squad gets a shot volley off then a character goes down. (Level 16 assasin died in one volley from 4 champs)

Errr...I seem to recall those guys aren't too different from the original Vile Archers but maybe I gave them a little something extra...

Hopefully shields having extra AC vs missiles in v0.89 will help a little

Shadow Assasins (the boss pack by the obelisks) :- fast and deadly. If you get surrounded kiss character goodbye.

hehe yep those guys actually turned out a lot less lethal than I'd hoped Shadow Thieves are supposed to be elite thiefs/assassins so at least they're just melee and don't have any special skills Ranged attacks and minions are generally a good tactic.

So overall even though i havent even finished act one i have a few impressions. Mostly good i will say =) I must try it multiplayer some time ~_^

Well "mostly good" works for me Give 0.89 a try and see if anything new crops up

[DreamBreaker]

OK, I just quickly tried the new version. The new mana potions have good graphics, but their name is a little confusing. Could it be possible to change it? Just removing the "charm" word should be OK.

By the way, It seems that scrying glass hardly drop since i'm in NM. Could it be possible to make the drop a little more often? I mean, it's OK for them to be rare, since Gambling potions should keep a part off risk, but they should drop a least once in an hour of play. And i just didn't found any since act3. Maybe adding a recipe to create them could be a nice alternativ. with some flint and potions, for example.

[Phrozen Heart]

OK, I just quickly tried the new version.

Well at least we now know it doesn't crash on startup

The new mana potions have good graphics, but their name is a little confusing. Could it be possible to change it? Just removing the "charm" word should be OK.

They're actually taken from Planescape: Torment which uses blood charms and heart charms as health potions but yeah I tend to agree with you there.

By the way, It seems that scrying glass hardly drop since i'm in NM. Could it be possible to make the drop a little more often? I mean, it's OK for them to be rare, since Gambling potions should keep a part off risk, but they should drop a least once in an hour of play. And i just didn't found any since act3. Maybe adding a recipe to create them could be a nice alternativ. with some flint and potions, for example.

I believe they got lumped in with the reagents treasure class so I'll probably move them to a very common class like arrows/bolts but with a low drop rate.

[DarkSlash]

Hey good mod guys, it's keepin me interested more than any other od has !

Now, I've only played this since .88 so I only have one paltry lvl 23 sorc in act 3, but here are my comments:

First, tomes; was it your intention to completely eliminate them? Because if it was, I'm sorry to inform you that I've found them(without cheats) . Bookshelves in Jail/Cats still drop tomes. So my suggestion would be to take them outta them bookshleves or to let them be sold in town again .

2nd, flawed skulls anim for leech flickers between 1 and 2%; which is it? would be good to have set right .

3rd, somewhere along the way in act 2 when i was only lvl 22 i killed some random monster and low and behold a set ring: toraks ring. Should I be getting items with char lvl reqs double what i have?

And I gotta say I love the contraband crates...my first crate gave me a rare circlet with +3 pally skills, +24% exp gained and some other small resists. granted I can't use it but it's nice anywayz (lvl req 63 and then i'm not a pally). I'm excited to get enough money for a gem bag.

Here's a query: what and how do you get tempered items? i hear all this talk about them but don't know exactly what they are :S.

Cheers and keep up the good work ! I'm off to play some more

DarkSlash

P.S. I hope this isn't too garbled cause my mind is fried and i SHOULD go get some rest...but I gotta play for a little while longer .

[Rivka]

Hi!

Been playing this great mod for a while now, and I like it very much!

The atmosphere is great, especially details such as the rats in the sewers.

My trap assassin is level 45 and just reached act 3 NM. Haven't encountered too many problems so far. Used shockweb and melee at low level, supported by rogue merc and shadowwarrior. Now she's using lightning sentry and shadowmaster. I tried getting a holy freeze merc but couldn't figure out which one it was ... were they changed from vanilla?

I noticed that even though synergies aren't listed, lightning sentry does receive bonus from shockweb and charged bolt sentry. Is this intentional? If you remove the synergy, the skills need to be revised (obviously).

Monster balance seems fine, maybe there are a bit too many skeleton mages in the catacombs

I saw the post about the HC and death traps, and found one I think is worth mentioning: in the arcane sanctuary, when you go through the second teleporter you end up in the middle of a group of cambions and other fiends. The cambion boss was lighting and cold enchanted and my trapper died within 3 seconds. Took me 2 attempts to retrieve my body. Bought a lighting resistance potion and resurrected my merc to do it
Maybe that pack can be moved a bit away from the portal.

Also I noticed a rune with leech where the numbers flickered from 3 to 4. Can't remember its name right now and don't have d2 here ...

I did treasure hunting runs on andariel, mephisto and nihilatak normal. Nihi indeed drops too much. I found loads of ioun stones and tempering items. Many sets and a few uniques.

Keep up the good work!

-- Rivka

[Phrozen Heart]

Hey good mod guys, it's keepin me interested more than any other od has !

Woohoo

Now, I've only played this since .88 so I only have one paltry lvl 23 sorc in act 3, but here are my comments:

Always good to have new players

First, tomes; was it your intention to completely eliminate them? Because if it was, I'm sorry to inform you that I've found them(without cheats) . Bookshelves in Jail/Cats still drop tomes. So my suggestion would be to take them outta them bookshleves or to let them be sold in town again .

Well the idea was to make you work for the convenience with tomes still droppable via bookcases. You can also cube tomes but I'm not telling how I forget if it was Dreambreaker or Playboybunny that already found those...

2nd, flawed skulls anim for leech flickers between 1 and 2%; which is it? would be good to have set right .

That's intentional along with a number of the runes. The value isn't determined for sure until you place the gem in a socket

3rd, somewhere along the way in act 2 when i was only lvl 22 i killed some random monster and low and behold a set ring: toraks ring. Should I be getting items with char lvl reqs double what i have?

Sets and uniques pretty much take the role of fixed magics and rares in PH just with a little more power sometimes so be ready to see a LOT throughout the game (including duplicates to sell/collect). That said, jewellery is a bit of a screwy part. On the whole, sets/uniques can now drop wherever their basic counterpart can as long as the monster is capable of dropping sets. With rings, necklaces etc having a broad range of levels sometimes they do drop way too early but I'll look into it thanks

And I gotta say I love the contraband crates...my first crate gave me a rare circlet with +3 pally skills, +24% exp gained and some other small resists. granted I can't use it but it's nice anywayz (lvl req 63 and then i'm not a pally). I'm excited to get enough money for a gem bag.

Wow now that's a nice find. I think my first crate had a lesser plague censor (they count as shields so can spawn in the armor crates).

Here's a query: what and how do you get tempered items? i hear all this talk about them but don't know exactly what they are :S.

Tempered items were in vanilla D2 just not really utilized but basically they're similiar to crafted items but with all pre-determined properties (rares being totally random and crafted items being partially). If you check out the various books of lore laying around the place (the canyon of the magi waypoint has a fixed one) sometimes they have Cespenar (the item-crafting imp butler from Baldur's Gate 2: Throne of Baal) give you an approximate cube recipe to make a tempered item which can be powered up using the various orange reagents. There's quite a few different tempered recipes depending on your choice of items so don't always try the first one you find. Pretty sure there are at least some class-specific ones for everyone.

Cheers and keep up the good work ! I'm off to play some more

DarkSlash

Have fun

P.S. I hope this isn't too garbled cause my mind is fried and i SHOULD go get some rest...but I gotta play for a little while longer .

If it is I'm as fried as you because it made sense to me

Hi!

Been playing this great mod for a while now, and I like it very much!

So PH has it's own lurkers huh?

The atmosphere is great, especially details such as the rats in the sewers.

Well what's a city sewer without some weak yet annoying rats to deal with? Pagan and I still get amused when facing unique ones though as Death Grumble the Lewd doesn't sound very rodent-esque

My trap assassin is level 45 and just reached act 3 NM. Haven't encountered too many problems so far. Used shockweb and melee at low level, supported by rogue merc and shadowwarrior. Now she's using lightning sentry and shadowmaster. I tried getting a holy freeze merc but couldn't figure out which one it was ... were they changed from vanilla?

They were but due to a couple of domino effect bugs they got reverted back to vanilla with the exception of the act 3 cold merc not having ice blast as that got changed to the frozen servant skill.

I noticed that even though synergies aren't listed, lightning sentry does receive bonus from shockweb and charged bolt sentry. Is this intentional? If you remove the synergy, the skills need to be revised (obviously).

The synergy displays are out as the skill sets aren't anywhere near finished just yet but we left the bonuses in for players in the meantime.

Monster balance seems fine, maybe there are a bit too many skeleton mages in the catacombs

Isn't there always?

I saw the post about the HC and death traps, and found one I think is worth mentioning: in the arcane sanctuary, when you go through the second teleporter you end up in the middle of a group of cambions and other fiends. The cambion boss was lighting and cold enchanted and my trapper died within 3 seconds. Took me 2 attempts to retrieve my body. Bought a lighting resistance potion and resurrected my merc to do it
Maybe that pack can be moved a bit away from the portal.

Well the cambion boss is actually random so you were just unlucky getting a LE/CE one I'm afraid. In cases like that it's time to break out the potions of constitution and use an elemental damage other than fire which they are resistant/immune to. Getting a LE/CE one of those must suck as they start with 70% fire resist in NM and the two bonuses give them 75% to lightning and cold too. If it happens again perhaps something poison based would help?

Also I noticed a rune with leech where the numbers flickered from 3 to 4. Can't remember its name right now and don't have d2 here ...

See above

I did treasure hunting runs on andariel, mephisto and nihilatak normal. Nihi indeed drops too much. I found loads of ioun stones and tempering items. Many sets and a few uniques.

Yep that's the idea Although if you think Nihlathak needs to be tougher, I'm open to suggestions. I wonder if revive works instead of corpse explosion for him...

Keep up the good work!

-- Rivka

We're trying

[DarkSlash]

Back again...thx for the quick reply.

Now here we go again:

Finished act 3...was an enjoyable act, more so than it was in vanilla. One thing I think you should fix is the goblin shamans...because when you kill them a goblin pops outta there body( I know they are just flayers dubbed over and the flayer shaman sat on a flayer's shoulders...but when it's a lone goblin it looks..odd).

Contraband goods: are they completely random? Cause again i got a insanely good item: cruel diadem with 230+% ED and 10+ to energy. and then after that i got a torch. 27k FOR A TORCH! . nevertheless, contraband is a lot funner than gambling,to be sure.

If there are any paladin characters looking for items my sorc has a knack for finding pally items...so if u got some sorc items to trade .

Back in Act 3 the sea mages..there seemed to be many champions of these and as champions come in groups of 4 it's nearly impossible to kill any cause they all just heal each. Had to run past a number ofthem.

Is there any other way to find out about tempered items besides tomes? I've found some cespener tomes but none that are useful for a sorc.

That's all for now, cheers to y'all !

Good work team!

[Phrozen Heart]

Back again...thx for the quick reply.

Now here we go again:

Finished act 3...was an enjoyable act, more so than it was in vanilla. One thing I think you should fix is the goblin shamans...because when you kill them a goblin pops outta there body( I know they are just flayers dubbed over and the flayer shaman sat on a flayer's shoulders...but when it's a lone goblin it looks..odd).

Yeah we wondered about that too Noted.

Contraband goods: are they completely random? Cause again i got a insanely good item: cruel diadem with 230+% ED and 10+ to energy. and then after that i got a torch. 27k FOR A TORCH! . nevertheless, contraband is a lot funner than gambling,to be sure.

27K? Slight vendor reduction? Even so that's the "fun" of the gamble

If there are any paladin characters looking for items my sorc has a knack for finding pally items...so if u got some sorc items to trade .

Just stack em up in PlugY's stash in case you ever feel that Paly urge

Back in Act 3 the sea mages..there seemed to be many champions of these and as champions come in groups of 4 it's nearly impossible to kill any cause they all just heal each. Had to run past a number ofthem.

Another fatal annoyance monster

Is there any other way to find out about tempered items besides tomes? I've found some cespener tomes but none that are useful for a sorc.

That's all for now, cheers to y'all !

Good work team!

Sorry just tomes but what do you mean "none that are useful for a sorc"? Apart from weapons/shields don't sorc's use gear as everyone else? Boots? Body Armor? Gloves? Or am I missing something?

[DarkSlash]

Lol, nope you hit it right. It's just the only tomes I had found up until then had been all weapons tomes. Found the Orc cookbook tome: is it saying if u transmute those 3 tempering items you get somethin else? Also found a heavy belt tempering recipe, but none of runes worked. Query: for the tempering recipes is it a magic item(ir: heavy belt) or should it be normal?

Complaint about Izual: Way too many hp and not hard enough. he didn't do any damage abut it took a good 5-10 minutes to finally whittle away all his health.

Complaint about Tears of the Dragon: Nearly useless skill . Sorry but it is. It doesn't do enough damage to offset the fact that it's completely random to hit monsters, and dificult to hit specific monsteres(in my case: cold immunes)...unfortunately, I'm not sure how to improve it without making it uber....make the fires last longer or have a largerblast radius maybe? Either make it easier to hit guys around you or boost up the damage so when you DO hit a monster it does some decent damage.

Also so far most of the uniques I've found don't seem to be very good or 'unique' period. And I don't just mean for my sorc...I mean for a character at that lvl req who normally would use a weapon like that. Maybe it's just my luck; who knows? :S.

For ioun stones and runes: first, is there still a period where it switches from needing 3 to upgrade in the cube to 2? would be nice to know. Also I've managed to collect the ral ort tal and nef runes from vanilla...is theer any use for these rune word wise or even to upgrade? or are they justthere cause you haven't managed to code edit the quest rewards?

There you go, I'm off to bed. Blurring screens make it hard to play.

Again, Cheers on the great mod; my comments are meant as constructive criticisms, not complaints cause i'm a whiner n00b who doesn't know how to play . (well maybe I am...make your own choice )

DarkSlash

[Vhaeghar]

Have no fear, you can condense any post into any thread you like, 'tis your forum ~_^

On the 'whats changed' front, purple items like censers and urns are dropping like rain from heaven, and i dont remember that from before ~_^
Also the drops of uniques/sets seems to be higher than before by a very noticable margin. Of course this could be just me (and no, i have added no magic find) but i'd be interested to see if others have noticed this trend or its just my luck going mental.

The new Myconids are better in my opinion. They pose a danger to ranged attackers now, as they crowd you and allow tougher foes to batter one as one tries to escape. They are also less annoying by far as one doesnt have to chase 'em down.

Anyway, back to the hardcore side of things.

with more uniqus and sets dropping i have gained some better ones, worth using. And if the bad ones are themed collectors items then that is good too, we all like collecting ~_^

Found a potion of skill. +1 skill point. VERY nice ~_^

the underdark is an awesome experience in hardcore. First floor is easy and of little worth, but floor two is tough and worth a ton of xp. Those beholders and umbers rock. Floor three is even better what with its hook horrors and driders. But floor four is the bomb. Nearly died a half dozen times to boss flayer packs. they DO seem a lot heavy on the green and gold drops though...
floor five was just too hard with my weak little zon with her gemmed hunters bow, but when i grab a better weapon i'll go back and smoke them bugbears ~_^

Act 2 is nice hardcore, but the sewers are ridiculously easy, the rats, they do nothing ~_^

[Kiwivagrant]

Also the drops of uniques/sets seems to be higher than before by a very noticable margin. Of course this could be just me (and no, i have added no magic find) but i'd be interested to see if others have noticed this trend or its just my luck going mental.

Ya, I have noticed as well, I don't think it's a bad thing though with the amount of uniques and set items that are available. I have found that you get copies fairly often which evens it all out.

Oh, I agree on the purples, maybe a slight reduction, it isn't too bad though.

Things are looking really good, maybe toughen Nithilak up a tad and as someone posted in the suggestions thread, give Izual wossname some extra attacks or an aura or three.

Pagan Heart once again preventing me from playing other mods which definately isn't a bad thing.




K.

[Molmoch]

Random thoughts on Izual.

I was a 28th level necro with a pack of minions exploring Izual's level on players 8. Wiping things out, looking forward to a challenge of Izual. As I approach, he whips out a frozen orb that wrecks some of my minions, and all the champs around him descend on my group. A quick retreat up a tp, and then back at it. But now, the champs have separated, and are easy to beat. I still figured Izual would be a fantastic boss battle. As it was, he just tried to wipe out my skeles, and besides that first orb, not a single one died. Granted, I had a magi using a cold attack, and I was using decripify, but he was just too lame.

And I found his graphic to be too small. I mean, come on! He's a fallen angel, and he should look menacing. He just didn't seem scary. I hate to say it, but I liked the original one better.

Random suggestions - Use a different token for Izual. I've just started act 5, so I don't know if you used these yet, but what about a Balor? That could be slick.

Change that AI. More up close power attacks. Vengeance? Zeal? Some tweaking here would be helpful. I always thought this guy should be fairly tough.

I really enjoy the mod though, and am having a blast! Although, I'm still struggling to make even one tempered item. Its a personal difference about cubing, and I respect the try it out approach. But with so many BOL recipies, its still a matter of luck if the recipe you get is one you want to use. *shrug*

[Phrozen Heart]

As I'm attempting to go on a short vacation tomorrow I'll just try and summarize this rather than doing my line by line breakdown

Izual - Not grand enough in appearance, too durable for the damage he causes. (just remember last time I pumped up a monster the act 5 imps became the "poison death" trichas )

Tears of the Dragon - Needs more damage or some form of synergy to increase damage (probably from meteor and/or fireball).

Uniques - Good and bad sides but on the whole they balance out along with being "nice" collector's items.

Ioun stones/Runes - Tri-cubing all the way sorry Oh and yes the old runes are essentially junk but I'm too lazy to follow up on CE gurus...

Purples - They shouldn't have changed but I'll see about increasing their rarity.

Myconids - Slightly less annoying now?

Underdark - Nice for hardcore apparently and yes level 4 is designed to be heavier on sets, gold and reagents with the emphasis taken off rares and uniques for once (although the thralls probably still drop some).

Nihlathak - Needs toughening up. Shouldn't be too hard.

That about cover it?

btw has anyone given the summoner a try in this patch? He's not all powerful by any means but he's at least a little stronger than before. Would be interesting to hear people's thoughts.

So does everyone hate the new blood drops then? (the "charm" test has been removed in v0.9).

[Vhaeghar]

Myconoids are much better yes =)
Enjoy your holiday =)

[Devastatius]

Where is The Underdark???

And I am wondering if +5 skill points potions are droppable (the first unmarked potion I gambled was +5 skill points ).

[Phrozen Heart]

Well the Underdark is accessed through the cave entrance in act 1 right outside the monastery (used to be "The Pit" I think).

As for the potion, I honestly don't remember sorry.

[Devastatius]

Thanks for the quick reply (as usual )

[Vhaeghar]

The potion is droppable, as is the +1 skill pointer, as i've found one of each =)

[Phrozen Heart]

Just noticed you metioned that above

[Devastatius]

I just did 2 Underdark runs, found many set items, including too much to count Orrick's Bonnets .

[Phrozen Heart]

Well just leave em or sell em then They're low-ish level monsters with low level items dropping in normal so it's somewhat of "live with it"-type situation.

btw. Just released an optional plugin for PH which you can read about (and download) from here.

[DarkSlash]

alright here are my 2 cents again...

first off: the summoner. I enjoyed fighting the summoner actually...he was the first hard place where I almost died. me being a sorc and him being immune to magic made it so i couldn't damage him...lol so i had to tele in and let my merc do it..unfortunately he kills mercs quick...took a few tries but when i did he dropped 2 set rings . I like him just the way he is.

I really like the red portals throughout act 5...a fun twist with nice rewards at the end. act 5 i mostly just have to tele throug hareas cause they r al cold immunes, but w/e. i've done a few nihlathak runs and aside from 1 set armor the first time i've killed him i've gotten almost NOTHING of value...maybe a few tempering reagents in total from 4-5 runs. Am i just having major bad luck or r u guys having very good luck? again for tears of the dragon...if there was a way to target with it you prob wouldn't need to boost damage...but it's really annoying to try to kill 1-3 cold immunes and barely hit them when i use that spell.
have tried contraband goods some more...nothing! meh thats how it goes i guess. ive had 2 godly items which should last for a long time. There's a bug with the farthest right ancient: he jsut stood on his pedestal and didn't move or attack. that's all for tonight.

DarkSlash

[DreamBreaker]

I was just going to says this.
The aura enchented Ancient (Loyalty?) just don't do anything.
Strange thing too, when looking at my stats, I could read: "average chance to hit KORLIC". Wrong name i suppose.

another lesser important report:
I found a good rare maiden javelin, but its selling price was 1 gold !?
I bought some contrabande crates. I was veyy unluky, since i only got non magical pieces of equipment. Plus a set pair of boots in the last one. Damn, 200K for this...