Higher Berserker win, also, my thoughts on the game
Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2011 7:36 am
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.
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.
