How does the creature levelling work and more ?'s 1.1

[araknosdepal]

I noticed yesterday that there was a dramatic upgrade to the monsters when I hit Tristram and returned. For about 4 minutes around level 12 I had that good old ass-kicking feeling with my Amazon taking 2 shots to kill everything. Then I hit Tristram, hit level 13 to town and everything now seems buffed. Averaging about 5 shots now and some of those archers are taking even longer. Example: Sasquatch compared to Protector. I'm guessing Sasquatch has 4 times as many points, there's 5 times as many and I'm doing the same damage I've been doing relatively for 3 levels now.

And now Deckard will identify stuff but nothing seems worth anything any more? What gives with the money control Bro? Before I went to Tristram I had about 10 items worth 50 and now only one item is and everything else is worth 1!! If Act 1 is supposed to be easy I can't wait to see the rest.

[Brother Laz]

Then I hit Tristram, hit level 13 to town and everything now seems buffed. Averaging about 5 shots now and some of those archers are taking even longer.

Protector:
level 2, 58-67 hp, Cold Plains/Stony Field
Sasquatch:
level 6, 226-271 hp, Black Marsh/Tamoe Highland/Pit/Outer Cloister

You got very lucky there with the Protectors in Stony Field. In Stony Field, Skeleton Archers and Protectors are level 2 monsters; Dark Rogues, Invaders and Death Gnats are level 4.

In the Black Marsh, Hiddens are level 7, Dancing Lights, Sasquatch and Dark Huntress archers are level 6, Dark Huntress melee types and Invaders are level 4.

The problem isn't that Sasquatches are overpowered, the problem is that Protectors are apparently underlevelled. Monster damage ramps up quickly at those low levels, but at about your level it starts to flatten out. Don't panic yet.

As a comparison, here are some other randomly picked monster stats:

Skeleton:
level 1, 11-14 hp, Blood Moor, DoE, Cold Plains, Cave 1/2, Crypt, Mausoleum
Burning Dead Mage:
level 9, 122-195 hp, Barracks, Jail 1/2/3, Cats 1/2/3, Sewers 1/2/3
» They have less hp than Sasquatches.
Gloom:
level 13, 257-294 hp, Sewers 2/3, Stony Tomb 1/2, Halls 1/2/3
» Comparable hp to your Sasquatches, but much later in the game.
Jungle Rat:
level 21, 492-616 hp, Spider Forest
Obsidian Lord:
level 43, 1947-2596 hp, WSK 4, Throne of Destruction
» by far the toughest mutha in the game.

There are a couple of ways to increase damage:
· Dexterity, dexterity! It gives 2% damage per point. This really adds up.
· Art of War's global stat bonus also affects dexterity; see above.
· Combat Shot » free double damage.
· Phalanx » wide area effect damage.
· Banish » lowers monster hit points.
· The Act 2 Feral merc has Bloodlust, which can double your damage.
· The Act 3 Bloodmage merc has Banish at a fairly high level.

And now Deckard will identify stuff but nothing seems worth anything any more? What gives with the money control Bro? Before I went to Tristram I had about 10 items worth 50 and now only one item is and everything else is worth 1!!

Random luck. Higher end modifiers are worth more, but item drops themselves are random... don't count on an item with +2% lightning resist and +1 light radius to be worth 50 gold.

[araknosdepal]

Random luck. Higher end modifiers are worth more, but item drops themselves are random... don't count on an item with +2% lightning resist and +1 light radius to be worth 50 gold.

Laz, no I meant that items that were already in my inventory changed sell value when I came back from Tristram. Maybe I'm imagining it but I'm playing 3 characters and I checked them all after returning. A hat I was wearing was 50 sell and is now like 32. All the rings I had were over 20 are now 1. Anyway, if you say that's not possible I'll go with that but I thought it was worth mentioning.

Thanks for the tips. Any advice for the assassin? Mine is using an axe and a bow right now. She's regenerating at about 33% (so lucky) so she can use that buff damage skill without killing herself. Wait does that work with bows? Damm I'll have to try that.

Btw, Last Stand is a work of art. It's great when your evil AI is swarming the character (trying to pin him into a wall so he will get nailed with a firewall) and the BLAM! Haha...great. Followed by Cleave of course. Most fitting with the Barb.

[Brother Laz]

A hat I was wearing was 50 sell and is now like 32. All the rings I had were over 20 are now 1. Anyway, if you say that's not possible I'll go with that but I thought it was worth mentioning.

Wait, wait. This sounds like the Act 2 quest discount in reverse. I may have screwed up somewhere and turned some undocumented Act 1 quest discount into a penalty. [aaargh!] Will be looked at in 1.3, coming soon. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

Any advice for the assassin? Mine is using an axe and a bow right now. She's regenerating at about 33% (so lucky) so she can use that buff damage skill without killing herself. Wait does that work with bows?

· Raven Strike shouldn't work with bows, and currently isn't very useful in the late game due to only one target and less damage than Time Strike. However, it will be replaced in the next patch with a spell that allows you to ignore monster immunities for 5 seconds, with a 10 second timer. [Likewise, the sorc's Empower will shorten spell timers when used]
· The assassin is a melee/bow/caster hybrid class and should be equally well at each job, with a slight preference for melee and caster. She has the lowest hit points of any melee fighter, but Rune of Ice and Vampiric Icon make up for it. The trick is to slowly back off after every couple of swings while leaving Runes behind. This prevents you from being swarmed. It is also much easier to fight a frozen enemy than a live one.
· Vampiric Icon is basically godmode for a few seconds, but its timer is much longer than its duration, and of course you have to aim it. The circle part is generated around the cursor, and the cross part always points to the bottom right. Getting enemies to stand in the cross part is most efficient; they usually just run through the circle, often in between the flames to boot. It is most useful when you are close to death, to buy you a few seconds to kill or freeze the attackers. It is the only life stealing skill with a duration. You can laugh at the paladin and necromancer class skills now. [well paladins get their very own invulnerability spell, but still...]
· Her preferred weapon is the [fighting] staff, she is quite fast with it for a 2h weapon, like 50% faster than in CLoD.
· You don't need non-physical damage until Act 5. Nothing is immune or resistant until those Soul Burners in late Act 5. But you better have some sort of powerful elemental attacks by then, because SBs are hard enough already. Also, area effect chill from Hunting Banshee or Doom Serpents is always useful, and of course Glacial Nova.
· Regenerating at 33%? Regenerate life isn't a percentage; it heals the listed value divided by 256, 25 times per second. eg. if you have replenish life +33, then you heal 3.22 hp per second. I'd still use Vampiric Icon.
· Abuse Rune of Ice. It actually has a small area of effect that can catch multiple targets, and you don't have to aim it like Shackles. Whenever you're chased by multiple monsters, lay down a minefield to thin out the pack.
· You can drop a Holy Trap [or five] on top of a Rune of Ice and the rune will freeze the enemy on top of the ensuing firewalls. Just keep some sort of healing ready, because Holy Trap damages you for being an assassin, you goth sinner, you!

Btw, Last Stand is a work of art. It's great when your evil AI is swarming the character (trying to pin him into a wall so he will get nailed with a firewall) and the BLAM! Haha...great. Followed by Cleave of course. Most fitting with the Barb.

Upgrade to 1.2 for an even more effective version of this, involving Retaliate. Retaliate is the learnable 'when struck'-melee skill; if used directly after being struck by an enemy, area effect knockback ensues. It was fairly useless in previous versions, but in 1.2 it now inflicts 150% of your physical damage to everyone in its radius. This is very close to Last Stand's 200%, and it can be used whenever you are struck instead of only once every few seconds.