The Core of Diablo

[jmerry]

Given how suddenly it went from "apparently fine" to "won't start up", probably. But it would definitely cost me, and everything else on that machine that matters was transferred long ago. I doubt I'll do anything.
Besides, if I do resume on patch 1.14, I only have one Guardian to go. And a skeleton necromancer is very well suited to self-found play. It's the character I started with, after all.

Update: I no longer have that 2015 model laptop with the inflamed battery. I took it in to the Apple Store for a technician to look at, and they were only able to offer two options:
- They do nothing. I go home with a dangerous machine that could spontaneously catch fire, even if I'm not using it. And maybe I find a third party shop that can do something.
- They take it off my hands to recycle. No money changes hands.

I chose the latter. So, no machines that can run any version of D2, short of installing an OS that's likely to run badly or setting up some form of Windows emulation. I won't go to that much trouble for this old game.

 

[O_Bruce]

I am to lazy to write down update on my own playthrough (and there is a lot to update on), so I'll just share a challenge run video by Zarfen the Loot Goblin:

 

[Antimatter]

I am to lazy to write down update on my own playthrough (and there is a lot to update on), so I'll just share a challenge run video by Zarfen the Loot Goblin:

 

[O_Bruce]

I'm not going to lie guys, when at Game Awards a new expansion for Diablo IV titled "Lord of Hatred", including a Paladin class, was announced I felt....
...
...
Absoultely nothing. It's amazing how much Activison-Blizzard managed to make me lose all interest in game I used to have so high hopes for. It's a first Diablo game I liked more at release day than after multiple updates.

 

[Antimatter]

I remember I was excited when I watched D4's first TGA trailer. It was so dark and full of the vibe that made D2 my favorite Diablo game. Then, with more details coming out about the game, I became hesitant, as the MMO-like part wasn't something I appreciated. I already had an MMO I frequently played (ESO), so I didn't want another game with seasons, events etc. Then I watched reviews and read comments, including your opinions, @O_Bruce. A steep price was also a factor. So I kinda took the approach "wait and see" regarding what will happen with the game later. It's sad seeing that the game eventually failed to live up to D2 fans' expectations.

 

[BelgarathMTH]

I finally bought a Diablo IV package on the Black Friday sale that included the base game up through the last expansion. It was only $30 for a limited time sale, so I figured that was too good a bargain to pass up for a game I'll probably want to try eventually, although I haven't gotten around to it yet because I've been playing Sacred 2: Remastered.

And then as soon as the Black Friday sale ended, they released the paladin class for those who pre-purchase the upcoming expansion releasing in April 2026. And paladin is the class I would actually want to play. I was going to have to settle for a sorcerer or maybe druid before, and I don't really want to play a barbarian. It costs $40 to pre-purchase the expansion and get the paladin class.

I noticed they were selling a complete pre-purchase package now that includes the base game and previous expansions along with the new expansion for $70. If I buy the new expansion for $40 to get the paladin class, and put that with the $30 I paid for the base game and previous expansions on the "fantastic deal" I got for Black Friday, well, what do you know, I've paid the $70 it would have cost me anyway to buy the whole deal.

I must say, I feel like I fell for a predatory marketing sleight-of-hand by Blizzard by taking that Black Friday deal.

 

[O_Bruce]

Hey and Happy New Year to everyone!

I have one question and some thoughts, all related to Diablo.

For my question: I have made a significant progress with my Assassin hardcore run. However, the sheer volume of things I have to update on makes me procrastinate on making updates. So, would it be okay for me to skip towards to current difficulty the character is on?

As for the thoughts, since I got myself a new PC in December, I used it as an excuse to try out how some games work on it now, Diablo IV included. And I'd like to share what I noticed. Due to changes to healing, monster behaviour, new elite monster affixes and so on, the journey from level 1 to level 60 is quite enjoyable, and I think this is partially due to lack of power creep early on. Due to changes to combat systems, on avarage you are encouraged to be more aware what's going on around you, be wary of elite's affixes and so on. This need of awareness dminishes once you enter the endgame, for the most part, simply because of your own power creep and legendary affixes and unique items combination you can get.

But then you get to some endgame activities, like uber bosses or infernal hordes. Infernal Hordes consist of waves of enemies you must survive under various modifiers, all while trying to earn as much burning aether as you can (burning aether is used to exchange it for rewards at the end of the activity). Often the way each wave devolves into are hundreds of enemies around you, some of which are elite/unique. The visual clarity is nearly non-existent, and due to combat changes you are strongly encouraged to notice and dodge affices of elite enemies. In short, the changes to combat system aren't working with this activity. I also noticed that the amount of burning aether that is required to unlock rewards that are not gold increased harshly.

As for uber boss battles, those are okay for the most part. You need to recognize what to dodge and learn patters. It is okay, but getting abruptly one-shotted is not fun. This is despite the fact, that outsie of this difficulty creep, your build can pretty much faceroll everything else. Both this and above mentioned Infernal Hordes made me realize that the endgame of Diablo IV is designed for meta build and nothing more. For streamers who spend significant amount of time at the game, who are creating the meta, and for people who blindly follows it. Infernal Hordes especially require build that straight up just clears your entire screen in no time at all. For people like me, who jsut want to create and test fun builds, this isn't it. This game is not for me. And that sucks, as Diablo fan.

One more thought: despite everything said above, a lot of people seem to have a fun with most recent season. Good for them. For me, on the other hand, while playing the endgame I felt a brain fog, and this isn't the feeling I want to experience in a videogame, even while grinding.

All of that made me think about why Diablo 2 is still the best for me, and I think it is because Diablo 2 actually enables you a lot of ways to play the game. If I want to play slowly and just experience the story and explore everything, I can. If I want a standard run, I can. If I want to do a challenge playthough, I can do it. If by some unfortunate miracle I'd like to try speedrunning the game, I can. If I want to grind to the end of times, I can. If I want to collect every single unique and set item, and create every single runeword, I can try. With Diablo 4, however I can have all those endgame activities and theoretical build diversity, and the game expects me to basically play meta. That's not fun to me.

In Diablo 2, I can try inspirational goals, because I am sure that in the months to come, nothing drastic will change the game. In Diablo IV, I can expect that months after basic mechanics will change.

Lastly, I think Diablo 1 is great for a roguelike experience. Diablo 2 is all time goat. Diablo 3 is deeply flawed, but it is still videogame first and it can be fun. Diablo IV is designed to be addictive service and for you to pay for cosmetics.

 

[BelgarathMTH]

@O_Bruce Thanks for writing about your experience and for your insights about how the franchise has changed. Even though I (foolishly) bought the game on sale at that Black Friday sale, I still haven't played, in part because I'm having more fun playing Sacred 2: Remaster right now for my arpg, but also in part because I'm still salty that they released a paywalled class (paladin) on the same package I bought three weeks after I bought it. I refuse to pay another $40 just to get the same game with one more class, even though it's the class I usually play in Diablo games. I think it's a crime they didn't have a paladin or crusader class at release.

You point out that the whole game seems to be designed as a money sink, built around seasons, microtransactions, and e-sport streamers. I really wish I hadn't bought it, and I haven't even played it yet, and I might not ever play it. The whole idea of paywalled classes stinks to me.

I'm also not a fan of the contemporary "enemies and effects vomited all over the screen until it looks like a scribble painting done by a four-year-old" style of games. I think more and more I should just stick to playing old classics I love and write off the entire contemporary gaming industry.

I've said it around here before, but I really miss the days when I could buy a game that was complete, that I owned on physical media and could rest assured that it would not be changed radically over time.

I'm so angry with Blizzard's predatory and deceptive pricing practices right now on Diablo IV, I'm considering not playing WoW anymore, which I still occasionally enjoy very much, just because I want to boycott Blizzard and their shady, greedy, business practices.

 

[Antimatter]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, @O_Bruce! I read your post when you first shared it, but only now had the chance to respond. What you describe about Diablo IV really does make it sound like an MMO whose endgame simply isn’t built with your playstyle in mind. I’ve only played one MMO myself, but even with that limited experience, I know that if the endgame doesn’t appeal to me, I’ll drop the game pretty quickly. The more viable builds a game allows, and the more it genuinely supports them, the better the overall experience tends to be. For me, being able to run non‑meta, non‑optimized characters and still tackle tough content is essential.

I also struggle with accepting that Diablo has fully shifted into MMO territory instead of being the single‑player series I fell in love with back in 2000. I imagine players without that nostalgia probably find it much easier to embrace Diablo IV for what it is now.

 

[Antimatter]

D2R got a new class. It was a shadow drop as the game came to Steam. And seems there are opportunities for more classes and content. That's really cool.

Blizzard says it's open to even more Diablo 2 expansions and reworks unless people get really mad at it about this one: 'We're going to have to see what the players say'

It's been burnt before, you know.

www.pcgamer.com

 

[O_Bruce]

Not gonna lie guys, what MrLlamaSC said at the end about the future changes made me excited

 

[O_Bruce]

Alright folks, I am currently in Act III hell difficulty with Warlock, and so I've got more to say.

For context: I played normal and nightmare difficulties on players 1 and self-found. This changed on hell difficulty, where I gave my Warlock nearly endgame-gear and started playing on players 5 for compensation.

What do I think of Warlock? I think the class is fun to play and there are interesting options for various builds. But, it is true that it is overtuned. Not quite to the extent I initially thought, but still. So far, I tried mix of chaos magic (with abyss spells) and demon magic. Both skill trees contains several 1-point wonders, and demon skill tree seems particularly powerful. Let's take a look at some skills.

Summon Goatman is overtuned, particularly at lower levels (it is level 1 skill that is better than Necromancer or Druids' level 6 summons), but that itself isn't that much of an issue. The problem is that, as you invest skill points into it, the goatman learns new melee skills, like Barbarian's Stun, Berserk and Frenzy, in that order, in addition to unique-to-itself area-of-effect melee attack. Basically, you can have level 4 Goatman at character level 5, that is way more powerful that any Golem can be at that point of the game, that can use Barbarian's level 12, 24 and 30 skills. If it seems to good for the early game, it's because it is.

Demon Mastery passive increases demon's attack speed, damage, attack rating and movement speed (also, allows you to have more demons in your party at level 10 and 20). And damage bonus is significantly better than Necromancer's Skeleton Mastery or Golem Mastery. Numbers are too good. Blood Oath passive increases demon's elemental and physical resistances, along with hit points. Also, it makes so that percentage of damage dealt to Warlock is instead redirected towards demons you control. As with Demon Mastery, the skill offers too much (vs. Summon Resist or Golem Mastery, for instance), despite being level 6 passive (the numbers are also overtuned)

You can support your demons with skills such as Death Mark (teleports your demons to a choosen target, granting them additional damage vs it), Engorge (consume corpse to heal your demons, increases their attack speed and grants them life leech). There's also option to sacricife % of life of your demon to deal area-of-effect fire damage or to consume your demon to gain various buffs, depening on demon in question.

But the most interesting abillity is Bind Demon. Is a level 30 skill that has a chance to give you control over injured enemy demon - and every single one outside of act bosses can be controlled. Before I go into implications of that, I want to mention that the controlled demon gets all bonuses from your passive skills, the Bind Demon itself gives your controlled demon both % damage bonus and point damage bonus. In addition, at level 5, the demon gains Extra Strong. At level 10, Extra Fast. At level 15, Spectral Hit, and finally at level 20, Aura Enchanted. Basically, you can create an elite from any given enemy demon.

Now, for the implication. If you want to have Lister the Tormentor or Hephasto as your b*tches, then you can. And from my experience, they can be extremely powerful summons, hands down surprising anything Druid or Necromancer can offer (provided you are leveling up both Bind Demon and Demon Mastery). Currently, I am binding the Smith, and no joking, he is responsible for at least 40% of my total damage outpout. That includes my spells, 2 goatmen and rouge mercenary. Also, I have never seen the demon I bound dying. I also think it might be interesting for an endgame to hunt down the particular unique/superunique demon with particular affixes.

That aside, like every character class, the Warlock has some 1-point wonders that initially made me worried. Sigil: Lethargy seemed like an equalivement of Deceprify that is availabvle way too early, and Sigil: Death made me think of Corpse Explosion that requires no corpse. In practice, Sigils only affects demons that are in their arrea of effect, which is initially small (and requires several points of skill investment to increase at all), Lethargy decreases enemies' physical resistance less than Deceprify, while Sigileath deals purely fire damage (as opposed to mixed with Corpse Explosion), meaning fire-immune enemies are unaffected. It still instantly kills non-bosses below 13% of life though. So, you get some, but you take some. Other notable skill is Blade Warp. I initially thought of it as cheaper teleport with 0.8 second of casting delay, but in practice, it is more similar to mix of Barbarian's Leap and Assassin's Dragon Flight skills. It turned out not to be as much as a big deal.

Yes, Warlock is oveprowered and some nerf are in order, but the class is also fun to play and I think Blizzard should be careful with balancing the class. Bind Demon is particularly tricky. While damage bonus can be easily lowered, I am not sure what to do about added afixes. Maybe the affixes are added only to non-unique/superunique demons? I don't know. What I don't want to be done with the skill, is to remove abillity to bind superuniuqe demons. Using them feels exceptionally fun, and it is cathartic to watch Lister beating the sh*t out of Baal. Earlier I was thinking than in addition to some changes to the skill, it would be a neat idea to add an item in the game, a very rare one, that would give anyone +1-3 skill points into BInd Demon, Demon Mastery and Blood Oath. It would feel much like Enigma runeword, a game changing piece of loot that is very valuable. Though in this instance, random number of skill points the item would mean the hunt for the perfectly rolled item, and it would be an additional part of Diablo 2 multiplayer economy. What I am also thinking while presenting this idea is the utility: binding a high level demon with Convinction Aura or with Cursed affix would be extremely valuable utility for spellcasters or physical damage dealers, and thus would diminish need to use act II desert mercenaries exclusively for those purposes (wielding Reaper's Wrath or Infinity runeword, for instance). That may result in more mercenary variety, albeit I am just one person and I cannot predict whether that would be indeed the case and whether that idea is good from the beginning.

Now, aside from power level. Warlock has some unique things about him: he gets more HP and less mana than other casters - which actually works really well, given easy access to mana potions. Because Warlock can wield 2-handed weapons in one hand (he is levitating the weapon with magic, thus doesn't actually need to use more than 1 hand), which allows for some more interesting combination, though I think he should suffer weapon damage penalty as a natural consequence. If Barbarian needs to deal with it, Warlock should as well.

For other things, no NPC has unique dialogue towards Warlock, which is rather disappointing, especially coming from Natalya. On the other hand, Warlock do comment a bit more on things than other character do. It's a small thing, but I appreciate that. Unfortunately, I think sound design of the class leaves a lot to be desired. The voice actor being rather quiet is one thing; the fact that many of Walrock skills lack impact by unimpressive sound design is another. Druid using Firestorm feels more impactful than Warlock creating rift of Abyss. Sigils, the closest things Warlock has to Necromancer's curses, are silent. In general, there are no iconic sounds coming from this class, and this is a bit sad.

I guess that would be all for now.

 

[O_Bruce]

Hello!

First of all, I'd like to give you all update on Emma, my hardcore Blade Sentinel/Blade Fury assassin. What was notable about her playthrough, I utterly banned runewords from it. I decided that it would be way too long for me to describe what exactly happened, even more so when the playthrough was done weeks ago and is no longer fresh in my mind. So instead of that, I'll just demonstrate the result:

Spoiler

I would like to talk about my thoughts and observation regarding this build, but I'll do it some other time, since today, I decided to roll out a new character.

Now that Warlock is a new, thing, I want to explore the class more - different build than I tried so far. I think there will be more reasons for me to update the playthrought, since Warlock is a nowelty for me. I look forward to experimenting with it some more. Anyways, let's start with fire by introducing Fajer:

I'm going to initially build him using Fire-based spells, meaning both directly offensive ones, as well as support and summoning ones (my summoned demon will be Tainted, who for some reason, is using Fire Ball-like projectiles instead of lightning orbs). I am not sure about which mercenary will be assisting me for majority of the playthrough - it is possible it may change in time.

Special rule: runewords that are overused by me in my playthoughs (like the Spirit, Smoke, Treachery or in case of the Warlock, Authority) will be only accessible no earlier than in the Hell difficulty. Also, I need to find the base for those in Hell difficulty as well, so no hoarding 4-socket crystal sword until Hell is banned as well.

Starting playthrough with players 5 setting, here we go:

Reaching level 2, my first skill point went into Summon G.O.A.Tman, then at level 3 into Demon Mastery. It made me realize that it is less useful to max out when you're going ot use Tainted as your summon - the only real thing Tained would gain from it is movement speed, and abillity to control one more demons at Demon Mastery level 10 and 20, which makes me think it might not be worth maxing out with my current build for normal to late nightmare difficulties.

The G.O.A.Tman is enough to help me with Den of Evil, even more so with Skill shrine:

(you see the white thingy above the G.O.A.Tman's head? That's defense debus from using Barbarian's berserk skill. At skill level 3 (possible due to being summoned with skill shrine). Way too good for this portion of the game, methinks)

I saved skill points up until level 6, then I picked Ring of Fire as my main attack, along with Sigil: Lethargy for support, Blood Pact as a passive bonus to my demon's survivability and Death Mark as a way to reposition my G.O.A.Tman. Ring of Fire is excellent early game leveling spell, it works quite well in players 5 setting as well. It also adds additional +5% damage bonus per yard of range, meaning that it hits harder the farther you are from your target. With the spell having set maximum range, it makes the positioning imporant and I like that mechanically.

Just ask Blood Raven. She dropped me the first Warlock-only item.

Utterly not useful for my current build, but hey, still neat. Anyways, I decided to not get reward from Kashya just yet: I'll wait until Fajer reaches level 13, since then Kashya would reward me with level 12 Rogue archer. I am aiming to get one with Explosive Arrow, and my experience tells me that early game, mercenaries are behing in their level, so if I pick one early, I would end up getting the archer to level 12 much later than I'd like to.

As a proof, by the time Fajer reached Tristram, he already switched from G.O.A.Tman to Tainted at level 12. Griswold was killed again, bless his poor soul, Deckard Cain was rescured, and the Countess was liberated from her hoarded treasure:

Later on, on Tamoe Highlands, I have found a nice item: a new early game set armor for Warlock:

Gotta say it, magic resist is a very rare affix in Diablo 2, so the armor has certainly some flavour, if nothing much else

Fajer, along with Tainted (I need to come up with a nickname for him) and Debi slayed Will guarding the Horadric Mallus. The decision was made to not use Charsis' quest reward right away, it is always best to save it for later.

Also, bonus info I forgot to share: the Tained has a small Resist Fire aura, so aside from helping with damage, the Tainted has also a defensive utility!

The game was also very aware of my doings, so it presented me with my first fire immune enemy (aside from Bishbosh, but he doesn't really count so early on) in the Cathedral. Luckily, Debi can dish out some physical damage as well. Fire immunities is a problem to be solved as some point - I have some ideas and I am curious if those would work. We will find out in the future!

Next, Fajer has reached Catacombs level 4 and faced Andariel in battle. Unfortunately, Debi has fallen in battle. Fortunately, Andaries is pretty weak to fire damage, so the fight didn't last that long, even on players 5 difficulty setting. What helped is that Fajer reached level 18 before Andariel, which enabled him to use Flame Wave and Blood Boil skills, both I find quite interesting.

The rare ring was really nice:

Good resistances, mana after each kill, and magic find + gold find bonus. Excellent!

Fajer's stats at the beginning of Act II:

Before we conclude, let's talk about stats. Warlock is interesting, since Daggers can spawn with +skills for him, investing stats into dexterity is not waste. Strength is always nice to have, especially if you're aiming for 156 for Spirit runeword in the shield. The rest stats can go into a vitality, and Warlock about as much HP as Assassin or Amazon, instead as a spellcaster. The trade-off is that Warlock receives less mana than other casters, but with very easily accessible mana potions, it is not a problem at all. That is a bit of a shame, since that could be an interesting disadvantage. Just imagine if the game was as stingy with mana potions as pre 1.10 patch: mana managament would be actual thing to consider, and Warlock especially would need to be careful. Could work well at clipping his wings a bit.

That probably will never happen though. AS much as I wish that Energy wasn't a dump stat, and that mana management would matter a bit more, it is what it is.

And with that, I'm ending the first part of Fajer's adventure.

Thank you for reading!

 

[O_Bruce]

Fajer continues his adventure through act II

First thing he did, was ressurect Debi just to take her armor off and ditch her, hiring Chalan as his new mercenary. His Defiance aura will grant a nice bonus to armor class, and thus Chalan, together with Tained (nicknamed Shad) could tank pretty well if the need arise. Afterwards, Fajer set out to avenge's Atma's family by killing Radament.

Fajer received a skill point from Book of Skill and discount from Lut Gholein's merchants as a reward. The Horadric Scroll he found gave him clue what to do next: get a Horadric Cube, and then get parts of Horadric Staff. Fajer had no doubt in his mind, that Diablo, the Lord of Terror and destroyer of Tristram, will suuuuurely have to go through the same bullcrap.

While Fajer traveled throught the desert in search for the Horadric Cube, he noticed Shad's damage outpout has started to drop down. It is not that surprising, given that Fajer is spreading his skills between offensive spells and summoning: but the thing is, Flame Wave is keeping up, even with players 5 setting on. Summon Tainted meanwhile, is not. Fajer decided the good use for Shad would be to reposition it via Death Mark to use it as a damage sponge and a victim of Blood Boil spell. Even more so, since Blood Boil gives a nice synergy for Summon Tainted, so maybe it will turn out alright.

The Horadric Cube was acquired

Then Fajer spend some time at locating the Staff of Kings, and it turned out to be hidden inside Maggot Lair. That's where he went. Deep inside the burrows, Fajer found a really nice boots:

A defensive utility in form of Frost Nova proc, nice +8 to stamina, Lightning and Fire resistances, great magic find bonus and +2 dexterity to help a bit with a block chance. Nice! Now all that's left is to get the Staff and get out of here

Next step: Claw Viper temple and the Viper Amulet.

(Chalan chilling in the upper left part of the screen here. Shad and Fajer battling Fangskin? Not his freaking problem.)

With amulet obtained, the Horadric Staff was remade:

Somewhere between here and getting to Canyon of the Magi via Arcane Sanctuary, Fajer reached level 24, learning Engorge and Sigil: Death spells. Engorge heals uses up a corpse to heal and give a buff to your demons, in this case Shad. It is useful after Blood Boiling the poor Tainted several times. Sigil: Death detonates enemies below 13% of their HP inside its radius. Contrary to what I've thought, this spell just like Corpse Explosion, deals both Fire and Physical damage, making it similarly useful to Corpse Explosion. The tradeoff is that enemies that dies in the Sigil's radius leave no corpses, which means you cannot use them to heal and buff your demons. A bit of caution is therefore required, if I want to make use of Blood Boil. It seems Fajer will be using both Sigil: Lethargy and Sigil: Death depending on the circumstances (only 1 sigil can be active at a time).

Arriving at Canyon of the Magi, Fajer found the senhart's Horns:

Chalan ended up wearing those. +6 to dexterity means more attack rating, and slight damage reduction might be useful. Plus, if Fajer manages to find Isenhart's Case, then it would work well with the helmet.

Fajer made sure to reach level 25 and strengthen his Flame Wave before facing Duriel. I the meantime, Fajer found +1 to Summon Tainted, +1 to Demon Mastery dagger, replacing his +1 to Summon Tainted he kept in second weapon slot. It made me realize that Demon Mastery does, in fact, enhance Tainted's Fireball damage as well. Not as much as Blood Boil does, but still. This bodes well for the build I am thinking about I plan for later Nightmare difficulty.

The reason I was convinced the Demon Mastery doesn't work with the Tainted's Fireballs was because it doesn't to appear to enhance Bound Demon's spell damage. It is possible that the Tainted's attacks simply doesn't count as spells/skills though.

Anyways, with a bit of preparation in form of thawing potions beforehand, Duriel went well.

Sigil: Lethargy helped reduce Duriel's speed and damage outpout, resulting in Chalan surviving, and Shad needing to be re-summoned about 2 times. As long as the Sigil was recasted, there was not real danger.

For the effort of taking Lord of Pain down, Chalan was rewarded with a new weapon:

Notice insanely big durability: this mean that the game actually rolled an unique item, but Duriel's treasure class was apparently too low for it to drop. In situation in which game rolls a unique item, but it cannot drop (either due to treasure class of the monster or unique item of a certain weapon/armor is unavaliable), the player gets a rare item with increased durability as a some kind of compensation.

Fajer's stats and skills before heading out to Kurast:

I think before making next update on Fajer's adventure, I'll talk about Emma a bit.

 

[O_Bruce]

I promised I'd talk about Emma a bit, so here it is. Let's start from the character's stats at the end of her playthrough:

Note that in this instance, the character is buffed with Fade (bonus to resistances and physical damage reduction), and also wearing an anti-boss weapon I was lucky to find and then upgrade:

It may be funny to see an perfect amethyst being socketed in there, but it actually serves a valid purpose. Attack speed isn't relevant to the skills Emma was using, which were both Blade Fury and Blade Sentinel (more about them later). As for her "normal" gear:

Oddly enough, I haven't taken a screenshot or the rings at the end of my playthrough. Also, I think my vs. boss armor was Rattlecage, simply due to the crushing blow chance it has as an affix.

You can see Ort rune in Bartuc's Cut-Throat, Hellmouth as gloves or Tall Rasha's Adjudication as my amulet. All of those, as well as some charms I had in my inventory, dealt additional elemental damage: this helped quite a bit more than you might think against physical-immune enemies. Despite small damage per hit, it added up quickly due to how often Blade Fury hits. This applies to some exten to Blade Sentinel as well, especially if there's more of those. Speaking of, let's talk about those skills. My initial plan was to pretty much rely on Blade Fury for offense, Fade for defense, Cloak of Shadows as utility and Shadow Master as tank (and sometimes elemental damage dealer). What I didn't expect that Blade Sentinel will retain a viability later on! Blade Sentinel uses your attack rating to determine chance of hit, but it doesn't add any bonus to it - you can see it on my character's stat sheet. That made me think that the skill is going to be nearly useless due to monster's defense. Turns out, 5 of those running while you damage Blade Fury are still useful, and even more so thanks to my rogue archer mercenary and her Inner Sight, decreasing monster's defense by flat amount. HAving several Blade Sentinels flying around while damaging with Blade Fury felt optimal against bosses. However, against groups of weak enemies, Sentinels were better due to mana usage rate, as Emma lacked mana leech per hit. Blade Fury, therefore, had potential to drain mana really fast.

As you might have noticed, there's no single runeword among gear Emma was using. You may recall I stated that I won't be using any runewords and I kept my word.

There were some close calls during this run, most notably because of Undead Stygian Dolls and Gloams (what a surprise!). I had expected hell Nihlathak to give me trouble, but surprisingly he didn't have that many corpses to work with and most of those were used against my Shadow Master.

In general, I was satisfied with playhtough and I though I am done with hardcore characters now. But then Warlock arrived.

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Speaking of, it nerfs for Warlock are incoming:


To be honest, I am relieved because most of the changes I see there aren't thoughtless. For instance, Warlock can still use 2-handed weapons in one hand, but there's a catch. His off-hand needs to be class-specific tome. So, you cannot use Mang Song's Lesson with Spirit, for instance. But a Mang Song with one of unique Warlock tomes - yes. Bind Demon was also rebalanced in interesting way, it doesn't remove the abillity to use Superunique monsters as your b*tches, but to do that requires hard skills investment. Same if you want to have more than 1 demon sunmmoned/binded.