My first win, and indeed my first character to get anywhere near that far, was Gruevy the Higher Berserker. I had a little trouble with some normal mobs chain confusing/stunning me, and I died eight times overall. I think only one or two of those were to bosses. I found the vor armory guy to be pretty hard, and the orc wyrmic pride boss to be outrageously hard, but other than that, no real trouble.
I sort of hobbled my character early on by accidentally buying a talent tree I didn't need instead of a rune I did, and I couldn't take that purchase back. It made things hard for me. I posted about this elsewhere, and some people responded with, "It was your fault, blah blah blah, derp" but I still think it was ridiculous. I think the whole idea of not being able to respec is retarded, as I've made abundantly clear, but losing a whole talent tree or healing rune when I needed it was simply not cool, and should not be possible. PERIOD.
Berserker damage is pretty crazy. By the end, my bumps were doing 1000-1500 damage, and when most bosses have under 3k hps, they're pretty trivial if you catch them alone. However, the only real problem I have with the damage is that shattering impact stacks with um... that one that does 210% damage to everything around you. Forget what it's called, but it seemed excessive.
The reason I don't think berserker damage is a problem in a general sense is that stun and confusion happen a LOT. Like, almost every fight after about level 20. It's terribly annoying, and honestly not even fun, when every other mob stuns or confuses you for 5 rounds. Match that with the ability of archers and mages to do outrageous damage to you every turn, and I found myself dying to normal mobs 6 times throughout the game. Basically, every time I couldn't get a couple attacks in in time, I died. If I got stunned or confused in an open area with lots of mobs around, I died. I needed that much damage. I can't imagine a melee character having any hope without it.
Although the kit is a *bit* less random now that there are better items in stores, I was still disappointed with much of the gear I ended up with. I wasn't able to pick and choose for the things I wanted (like stun resistance) on items I was willing to wear (stralite/voratun). Also, because of the randomness in artifact drops, I think that 90% of the items I had were suboptimal crap I found on a normal mobs. There is a lot of gear that drops, like a TON of gear, but almost none of it is useful to any one character. Theoretically, I should be choosing between resistances and buffs on all my armor, but there was so very little massive chest armor or high end feet/hands/head, that I could either purchase the 5 purple leather hats, or the one green metal one. I chose to wait for dungeon drops, and I ended up going most of the game with less than ten to my resistances, except I think I had 30 stun, blind, and confusion at one point.
Healing wasn't a problem after about level 35, but before that things could get dicey, partially because I couldn't use the talent tree point on a healing rune, and primarily because I kept getting stunned or confused and enemies can do a LOT of damage sometimes. Healing did seem to get excessive after about 35, and I think the problem is that regen infusions stack with the skill that gives you 250% or something regen when you get a critical hit, and by that time my crit chance was over 50%. That skill was almost always active and I was regening so fast after that point that I started to get careless and it didn't matter.
All in all, a fun time. Good game. I'll make a new post under general with the long list of changes I recommend.
Higher Berserker win, also, my thoughts on the game
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Re: Higher Berserker win, also, my thoughts on the game
Yep. Bloodbath is getting the nerf bat soon. (It does a lot more regen than the text says.) Enjoy it while it lasts.gruevy wrote:Healing wasn't a problem after about level 35, but before that things could get dicey, partially because I couldn't use the talent tree point on a healing rune, and primarily because I kept getting stunned or confused and enemies can do a LOT of damage sometimes. Healing did seem to get excessive after about 35, and I think the problem is that regen infusions stack with the skill that gives you 250% or something regen when you get a critical hit, and by that time my crit chance was over 50%. That skill was almost always active and I was regening so fast after that point that I started to get careless and it didn't matter.
As for stun.. did you not pick up berserker? It gives 65% stun resist for free, IIRC. From there, it's trivial to kit for 100% stun resist.
Re: Higher Berserker win, also, my thoughts on the game
Now that I think about, I did, and it was mostly confusion that hit me. Lots and lots of confusion.
Re: Higher Berserker win, also, my thoughts on the game
Confusion Resist could stand to be more common on egos and artifacts. I'll update one of my artifact suggestions to include it (it's fitting on one of them).
Re: Higher Berserker win, also, my thoughts on the game
Not if you have Telos' Staff Crystal.
I'm guessing it doesn't drop all the time though.. all my characters have found it, though.
I'm guessing it doesn't drop all the time though.. all my characters have found it, though.
Re: Higher Berserker win, also, my thoughts on the game
That's better!
If you are going to claim a win either post the character dump if you don't, like me, have an online profile. Or do as you have done, post a link to the character in the online space..
Regards
Jon.
Jon.