A Gamer’s Union ?

An Idea To Help Regulate Game Quality

.                     Before I get started it’s important to note that there are many establishments that do influence game quality.  Game review sites and fan sites have been gaming watchdogs for years and I applaud their efforts.  Gamespot, Ign, Gamespy etc.. these sources monitor and comment on the quality of games as they are released.  This in turn gives game developers an incentive to produce games that are more likely to be well reviewed.  The end result of all this is better games for us!  However, the system is far from perfect and the influence reviewers have on games is questionable.

.                    There are many bestselling game titles that are reviewed poorly by both professional reviewers and by players.  But many of these games outsell competing games that are better recieved.  I think that game reviews can only go so far.  Once a game has been released the damage is done; it’s not like game reviews can change a bad game into an innovative one.  Reviews and fan feedback can serve to discourage developers from making poor quality games.  Fan sites and reviewers can also discourage people from buying poorly made games but I don’t think this is a very effective method of choking up the production of lam video games.

.                     Because bad games can still sell great and because many game developers still feel safe producing crap, we need something more.  We need a greater incentive fore deveopers to up their game as it were.  We also need a way to majorly impact the sales of bad games.  I suggest that gamers and game consumers in general might for a union of sorts.

.                    I’m just brainstorming here.  The organization would have to be extremely easy to join and very easy to stay connected with.  I envision a website with a form to become a member on the very front page.  I also thing succinct e-mail warnings would be in order; a weekly e-mail identifying really crappy games of the week with a link to a master list of dud games on the website.  All dud games ever made would be on this list and the list would be updated as new games are released.  The list would have to be easy to navigate; sortable via date, genre, title and alphabetically.  The website would basically be the union’s hub and it would be a great place for angry customers to leave feedback.  The moderators and administrators of the website and the subsequent heads of the union would issue warnings to developers who announce games that sound like they might be duds in the making.

.                    Most importantly, a gamers union would be capable of boycotting bad games quickly and effectively and to great effect.  Let me know what you think of the idea!

-CallsignHUSKER

Published in: on January 29, 2009 at 9:11 pm  Comments (7)  
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A New Adaptive Combat System for Diablo 3

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The Adaptive Combat Speed System

…by: CallsignAPOLLO

.                          In these Diablo 3 speculation threads I’ve seen many combat tweak suggestions; the one that inspired my idea is called “Tackle Diablo” and is by Stillman. The system I have come up with has two parts:

  1. Enemies can slow your character’s ‘combat speed’.
    .
  2. At some point your ‘combat speed’ not only returns to normal but accelerates.

.                      I propose that enemies can ‘cling’ to your character; your character would have ‘cling points’. These are basically places where enemies can attach themselves to you. Each character class could have 5 or some could have more than others. These would act like a slot system to be filled with enemies. Each character class could have distinct points or they could be similar; ex. head, left leg, right leg, back, right arm. Now I would like to give a fleshed-out set of rules that could be implemented by Blizzard in a similar system.

The Rules

Part 1: Clinging
  1. Some enemies take up multiple clinging points.
    .
  2. Some enemies encumber your character more than others.
    .
  3. The more clinging enemies the slower your Combat Speed.
    .
  4. Combat speed is the response time it takes to perform spellcasting, walking, running, combat moves, item pickups, and any other similar actions.
    .
  5. Some characters are more easily encumbered by clinging enemies than others.
    .
  6. Some characters have fewer clinging points than others.
    .
  7. Extricating your character from a clinging opponent is a function of how long the enemy has been clinging to you, how much damage you are dealing in HP to other enemies, and how much your character is moving.
    .
  8. Modifiers and skills and armor can effect how many clinging points your character has and reduce the effectiveness of enemies while clinging.
Part 2: Acceleration
  1. After breaking free from a clinging enemy your character’s Combat Speed is accelerated.
    .
  2. Combat Speed acceleration depends occurs every time an enemy falls off.
    .
  3. Your character can be accelerated even if other enemies are still clinging to you.
    .
  4. Acceleration is decreased depending upon the number of enemies clinging to you, how long the thrown enemy was clinging to you.
    .
  5. Acceleration is increased depending upon item modifiers, skills, and how quickly the clinging enemy was thrown.
    .
  6. Combat Speed is increased by increasing stats like attack speed, cast rate, and run/walk speed.
    .
  7. The length of time that you are accelerated is also a function of how long an enemy was clinging to your character and how many enemies are clinging to your character presently.
    .
  8. Modifiers and skills and armor can effect how much Combat Speed acceleration your character has and increase your weapon/skill damage while accelerated.

*Explanation of Clinging: This combat effect is not meant to slow down combat. It is meant to increase the player’s sense of being overwhelmed and add a new way to utilize the game’s physics engine.

*Explanation of Combat Speed: This lumps several different speed values into one and allows your character as a whole to be sped up or slowed down. It is very important that this can effect all of your character’s rates/speed values otherwise the player would feel a disconnect in being able to for example move slowly but use spells quickly.

*Explanation of Acceleration: This allows for the pace of combat to actually be increased by clinging enemies which is something that I think Blizzard would find very appealing. Acceleration also serves to further stress the impact enemies have on the player’s character; you are slowed more than normal and then sped up more than normal. This should make combat more engrossing.


Let me know what you think!

Comment, but don’t hate!

-CallsignAPOLLO
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*This post is an extracted selection from one of my threads at diii.net forums for which the link can be found below; please feel free to comment but be constructive!

http://forums.diii.net/showthread.php?t=710571

Israel

My Take On The Israeli Palestinian Debacle

.                    I don’t think we should be selling weapons to the Israeli nation.  It was wrong when we sold weapons to the Nazi’s and the British before we became involved in WWII and many years later we’re pulling the same crap.

.                   The American ‘mass media’ is strongly biased on the subject of Israel and the reasons for this are mysterious and complicated.  My theory is that many people think we went into WWII because of the Holocaust and to rescue the Jewish people.  Israel is therefore some kind of continuation of that struggle.  Many Americans see us as the protectors of Jews and of Israel.  I find this theory highly disturbing.

.                   First of all, the United States entered WWII because of Pearl Harbor and Pearl Harbor alone.  The British were being bombed and we still wouldn’t enter the war.  At that time we were still selling weapons to both sides.  Oh the glorious bravery of the United States and their army and their leaders…   And, we certainly didn’t enter the war because of the Holocaust.  I’m just making this point because for some reason people connect the purposes of WWII with the purposes of our foreign relations with Israel.

.                  This is not to say that WWII and Israel aren’t connected in some other way.  In fact, it was the Zionists of Nazi Germany, other parts of Europe and the U.S that helped to form and maintain Israel as a country from the WWII era until now.  Israel was formed by forcing the Muslims who lived there out of their homes and by artificially promoting job success for Jews in that region.  The Nazis and many others didn’t want the Jews around so they made a place for them and enticed them and forced them to go there.  Jews were paid more for their work in Israel and it became harder and harder for the Muslims who had lived there before the Jews arrived to find work.  The Muslims were also mistreated on a large scale and some were forced out of their homes abrubtly.

.                  So when Israeli or American supporters of our increased and continuing involvement with Israel tell you that the Jews were “there first” they must mean before they weren’t there and before they kicked other people out into the Gaza Strip etc…  Are we giving the U.S back to the Native Americans because they were here before us?  I suppose we would think it were right if the Native Americans were to fight us for it…

.                  There is a strange belief among many Americans that Israel is becoming smaller and smaller and smaller…  Let me ask you this:  do the Palestinians live in the ‘Gaza Strip’ or do they live in the ‘Gaza Expanse’ or just ‘Gaza’?  It’s is called the Gaza Strip for a reason; it’s small and it’s smaller than it once was.

.                People will cite historical downsizings of Israel’s borders like the loss of the Sinai Dessert.  Ok, that was lost in treaty with Egypt because they didn’t really want the POS anymore.  Besides, they acquired it and then gave it away; that doesn’t really constitute a ‘loss’ does it?  If I you have two apples and I give you a third but you give it back to me is that a loss for you?

.                 The reason I’m talking about Israel now is because they recently broke a ceasefire agreement and hundreds of Palestinian civilians are dead.  CNN corroborates that Israel broke the ceasefire.  You can learn more about this by visiting theYoungTurks on YouTube or their website theyoungturks.com

.                 They have done a great job covering the news pertaining to this issue.

.                 What bothers me the most is the coverage of Israel in the news.  You will see stories about how Israeli citizens can’t get showers when they want to.  Or you’ll hear about some Israeli checkpoint guards getting killed by Hamas.  But if you look into the news from the Gaza Strip hundreds of civilians are dying, Israeli soldiers are illegally using white phosphorus around heavily populated areas and severely burning civilians.  This is classified as a chemical weapon and cannot legally be used against enemy combatants let alone to strike fear into the hearts of a civilian population.

.                 The terrible thing is that it’s our white phosphorus; we sold it to Israel.  This chemical burns when it comes into contact with air and the blaze cannot be put out with water.  If you come into contact with it you can be burned to the bone and/or killed.

.                So next time you get all excited about Israel ‘holding its ground’ or expanding itself, take a few minutes to smile to yourself… and then look at some of the photos and footage of dead women, men and children, burn victims, limbless teens and piles of wounded, and take note of the fact that none of them are wearing body armor.

.                 I’m not saying I’m on Hamas’ side but Americans should think twice before being blindly “pro-Israel”

-CallsignHUSKER

Mac Gaming

Is Gaming On An Apple Computer Viable… ?

Yes !

.                    Even the very well informed computer savvy magazine editors or technology correspondents will poke fun at “Mac Gaming”.  The assumption that gaming on an Apple computer is folly is made by pc users and technology gurus alike.  It is a false assumption.  However, I want to make it clear that you are not alone if you think that Mac gaming is silly or inferior.  Many Mac users themselves share this opinion.  There is a common belief that Mac’s are for schools or professionals.  It is a widely held and uninformed belief and I’ll tell you why.

.                     First I want to give an example of the aforementioned ignorance of PC users, gamers and commentators.

http://gizmodo.com/385324/razer-death-adder-gaming-mouse-for-mac-wha-mac-gamers

.                     This is a good example of what I’m getting at.  PC users etc.. are ignorant of what you can do on a Mac and they have strange ideas about what games you can play on a Mac.

.                     Let me tell you what games you can play on a mac.  On a Mac you can play any game you can play on a PC as well as any exclusively Mac games.

.                     Now let me tell you why and how this is the case.  Macs for quite some time now have had intel chipsets; this means that Macs essentially are PC’s.  You can easily install Windows on any Mac you buy now.  In fact, the drivers that let your Mac keyboard and mouse run under Windows are on your install disk that you get when you buy your computer!  Furthermore, the program to install Windows or any other operating system is installed on your Mac already before you even turn it on!  This software is called BootCamp.

.                     BootCamp isn’t virtualization software.  Using BootCamp and any Windows OS installation disk you can install Windows the same way you would do it on any other PC.  You just choose how much of your hardrive or which Hardrives you want Windows to be used on and there you go.

.                    I have a 1000gig hardrive and I installed Windows on 150gig’s of it.  For me this is more than enough even though I have alot of games because any other software I use can be purchased for Mac.  In fact Mac software is VERY good; any functionality on a PC can be had on a Mac and many Mac applications are sleeker and easier to use than PC counterparts.

.                    There’s just one more misconception I’d like to clear up, and it won’t take long.  OS X, Apple’s pre-installed operating system can have MANY games run on it natively.  Right now I have Call of Duty 4, Halo, Diablo 2, Warcraft 3, Starcraft, Doom 3, Quake 4, The Orange Box, Spore, World of Goo, Unreal Tournament (Pick a Year), Tomb Raider Anniversary, Age of Empires 3, Command and Conquer:  Tiberium Wars…  the list goes on and on…  So, that was for all the people who think that Oregon Trail is all that Mac’s can run in terms of games.

.                    On that note, I would like to talk briefly about the technical prowess of some Apple computers.  Imac’s currently come with either 20″ or 24″ HD displays and can be purchased with Nvidia 8800 cards which is quite popular with gamers.  It can also be packaged with even faster graphics cards and up to 4gigs of memory.  My imac has a 3.06GHz processor (dual core).  However, this is not the best Mac to get for gaming!  If you want a gaming beast the Mac Pro is your destiny!

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_mac/family/mac_pro?mco=MTE2NjQ

.                   The Mac Pro is the easiest gaming machine to use and upgrade!  The side opens very easily exposing the entire inerds of the computer.   Hard drives and memory slide into place!  You can slide hard drives into four different bays!  So right now you can have 4 terrabytes of disk space!  You can also load up to 16gigs of memory into the beast!  Oh, did I forget to mention that the thing can have up to two quad-core Intel Xeon processors!  No game in existence right now could possibly utilize all that muscle; most high-end games won’t use more than 2-3 cores.

.                    Well I hoped you liked my article on why Mac Gaming is a GO and not a NO !  Remember, this does not mean that your PC is serving you worse than a Mac for your needs; but next time your friend tells you he uses a Mac for gaming think twice before laughing or you might get fragged.

-CallsignHUSKER

Published in: on January 14, 2009 at 5:04 pm  Comments (4)  
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One of The Last Original Diablo 2 Builds

The TYRANNICIDES – Magic Finding, Corpse Searcher, and Boss Runner.
Guide – Written and developed by CallsignAPOLLO aka. LightALEX
Dedicated to: Those who support me, including, and above all, my girlfriend Bess.

 

Magic Finding Barbarian Guide – Third Edition.
Table of Contents
  

  • Disclaimer
  • Warning* Before We Get Started… *
  • 0 – Build Overview
  • 1 – Name Explanation and Background
  • 2 – Why Magic Find?
  • 3 – Why A Barbarian?
  • 4 – Why “Perfect” or High MF%?* The Build *
  • Stat Points
  • Skill Points
  • Character Equipment
  • Mercenary Overview
  • Mercenary Equipment
  • Playing Strategies* Additional Information *
  • Tips and Tricks
  • Tables and Links
  • An Example Build* Explanation and Conclusion *

 

 

Disclaimer

 

- This guide outlines a character that is not easy to make or afford. It is difficult to have this character work properly and do as it is supposed to do unless you follow this guide closely. The build is highly *Twinked (Reliant on specific items to work) and not using just one item can really throw it off. However, if you do make this character and it works for you as well as it works for me you will be pleasantly suprised. And, the character you will have made will have lasting value.

Warning!

- Please do not reply to this thread unless you have something constructive to say. A previous version of this Guide was *flamed until it was locked! However there was a marked improvement in the feedback for the second iteration of the guide. Lets keep moving forward; with your help I can streamline this build and improve upon it further. That said, this is not a thread for personal attacks and I myself will make none. Remember it takes alot of time and effort to put together a guide; dudes like me love positive feedback!{PLEASE BE CONSTRUCTIVE!}

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Before we get started…

0. {A brief overview of the build.} - The Barbarian: A fast teleporting barbarian that is a very sturdy tank capable of buffing it’s mercenary companion to great heights. A very rich character with lot’s of magic find. The Mercenary: A boss killer with huge crushing blow and great survivability; is capable of taking on just about anything except iron maiden of course.

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1. {Who were the Tyrannicides?} - 

http://www.culturacampania.rai.it/si…irannicidi.bmp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyrannicide

Harmodios and Aristogeiton were their names. Two ancient greek heroes. They helped to usher in a new era free from tyranny. They killed a tyrant in the Athenian empire anmed Hipparchus. I hope to usher in a new era for magic finding, with this guide.

The real reason this build is called The Tyrannicides is because this is one of the most (if not the most) mercenary dependent builds for any character class. Without your mercenary you can no longer function and your mercenary relies heavily on your barbarian. So, when making this barbarian or playing him don’t think of yourself as one character, but two inseparable interdependent forces. In this build your mercenary is just as important as you are!

The_TYRANNICIDES is also the name of my on-going experiment on US-East Non-Ladder to make the ultimate MF-Hunting Character. He has been remade many times… 

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2. Why magic find? - If you play Diablo 2 LOD online either in ladder or non-ladder then you have probably felt the rush of seeing a unique or set item fall to the ground; and then you rush to pick it up! Primarily a magic find character lets you indulge yourself in that sensation over and over. This is achieved by ainflating your chances to find good items and by achieving a fast speed and killing power with your character.

A magic find character can also be used to inspire you; the items you find prompt you to make something new. Perhaps you find a Windforce and the discovery prompts you to make an Amazon for the first time.
This build is meant for players that are in hell and have access to many high runes and valuable items. You might say, “But if you have great items, why magic find?” I would respond, there are MANY fantastic items out there in Diablo, begging to be used and to be used in varying ways and in countless combinations.

If you are new at magic finding and want to make a character exclusively for the purposes of magic finding I highly recommend a Sorceress. Here is small guide with a few detailed builds but it is focused largely on itemshttp://www.jpitems.com/diablo2mfguide.html. Here is Flux’s guide to MF to really get you startedhttp://www.diabloii.net/strategy/x-g…gic-find.shtml This guide is very comprehensive and teaches you alot, including all the basics. However, I think that some of the opinions expressed in this guide are about to be disproven. Specifically, that the Sorceress is the best Magic-Finding character.

Magic finding is for those looking to try out alot of different builds. I believe this applies to many of the people who are members of forums like this one. 

But this isn’t just a magic finding guide! Why should I try to make this build? A very good question, and one that I hope this guide answers. This build is for those who are Rich and Bored! This build strives to be just as fast and efficient as a Sorceress at magic finding but also to utilize massive magic find bonuses without having to switch items alot or sacrifice killing power.

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3. But why a Barbarian? - If one were to make a “Perfect” magic find character with the maximum percentage chance added to magic find you would have to make a barbarian! Here is a resource on a dicontinued attempt to do just this:http://www.planetdiablo.com/diablo2/…trategy/mfind/ The Arreat Summit itself points out that to achieve maximum magic find% you must use a barbarian: http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/ite…agicfind.shtml These two sources offered considerable inspiration for my build.

A barbarian also has the Find Item ability which proves invaluable when killing many regular, champion, unique, and evenSuperunique monsters , because it allows you to get their drops twice! if you’re lucky.

A barbarian is also ideal because it can achieve high life and defense totals for iiself and its mercenary.

Finally, a barbarian can have more magic find *on switch (on the alternate weapon set) than any other character. At maximum the barbarian can weild dual swords each socketed with six ‘ist’ runes!

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4. Why “Perfect Magic Find%? - Many people think that the diminishing returns on magic find percentiles are too sever to bother going above 300% or 700% magic find. The # varies but the philosophy remains the same. These people are missing out! I believe that the editors on Arreat Summit put it best when they say “Is there an ideal % Magic Find Number? No. The more the better. Previously a bug resulted a penalty for more than a certain percentage, but this has been fixed.” and when they say “Just remember, you can never have enough % Better Chance. Increasing your Magic Find Percentage will always help you.”

The more magic find the better! and this build takes that philosophy and runs with it!

The Build.  

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Stats.

  • —STRENGTH— This build does not utilize the combat skills of the barbarian so putting points into strength should be avoided at all costs. Unfortunately you must put some points into strength in order to equip some of the items I list in the equipment section. -Decisision- Put JUST ENOUGH! into strength in order to wear Enigma OR enough to wear Skullder’s Ire.
  • —DEXTERITY— This build does not utilize a shield in any way {I hope when there’s another patch they’ll let you dual weild sheilds!}. So, putting points into dexterity for max-block would be pointless. Do not put any points into dexterity because Annihilus and Helltorch should give you all you need. -Decision- NO POINTS!
  • —VITALITY— This is the most important stat for most builds. Vitality is ESPECIALLY important to this build because you will max the skill Battle Orders which gives a percentile bonus to life. This means you will see bigger bonuses than other characters for all the points you put into Vitality. -Decision- (everything you have to spare) MAX THIS! 
  • —ENERGY— If you stick to the equipment selections I lay out in my guide these stats. are superfluous. Your items should give you all the mana you need. Take into account the fact that you should not be using any moves that require mana very often, and when you do it is Teleport you will be using and at that time you will have dual HOTOs equiped and two huge mana rings. Your mana will come from your equipment and charms. -Decision- NO POINTS!

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Skill Points

  • -The Combat Skills- There are alot of useful skills here but this build would only be weakened by putting even a few points in here. If your source of damage is your mercenary then don’t pretend to be doing all the work! Your damage even with +skills will not be considerable when you combine one of these moves with the items in the equipment section. This barbarian was not meant to kill he is meant to bring new world order! Don’t put points into any combat skills. A new era of peace and Magic Finding is at hand!!!
  • -Increase Stamina- 1 Point as a Pre-req.
  • -Increased Speed- Exactly 8 Points If you’re not teleporting then you want to be able to walk fast. These eight points really are the icing on the cake and should be put in last. However, these points are useful for when you want to use one of the two switch armors I list later. Wealth and Skullders Ire both have their uses. If you are just running around checking corpses then you will be thankful for these points. These 8 points will come in useful when you want a change in pace freom Mephisto runs and decide to tag along in a chaos game to raid all the bodies!
  • -Iron Skin- MAX This move! Combined with Shout this will give you a huge passive bonus to your defense! This necessary because you don’t wear a sheild and you are far more vulnerable than your mercenary. (Except of course in Chaos Sanctuary and Worldstone Keep) This skill really is a must-have for this build.
  • -Natural Resistance- This will raise a few eyebrows. MAX This skill! Because you are not wearing ANY items that give resistances when you have Skullders or Wealth on and your 6-’ist’ed swords, this is a must! You will have few +skills because most of your +skills are actually +warcry skills so you shouldn’t encounter very severe diminishing returns. Your Annihilus and Helltorch won’t even get you out of the negative range in Hell. And, you’re not wearing any resistance charms. This skill is VERY necessary to this build.
  • -Find Potion- 1 Point as Pre-req. Some people think this skill is useful. I’ve even seen several builds around this skill! IBut, in my experience, Find Item ends-up finding you ALOT of potions anyway. I suppose in a pinch one might use this but I’ve never used it and I have it hotkeyed. (because this build has very few activated abilities {MTG term!} )
  • -Find Item- Exactly 12 (a dozen) Points! With your items on switch equipped a dozen points will give you a 55% Find Item that’s better than a helf/half chance! However, after 12 points it is many points before you will go up even one more percentile at this skill. 12 Points is optimal.
  • -Howl- 1 Point as a Pre-req.
  • -Taunt- 1 Point as a Pre-req. Unfortunately you won’t use this skill much because it doesn’t affect bosses. You will want to use Battle Cry most of the time instead.
  • -Battle Cry- 1 Point Wonder! You would think it would be a good Idea to MAX this but it isn’t. After you get to around level 20 in this skill you have reached the optimal level for it because you can’t lower an enemy’s defenses more than 95%. Put one point in this skill and use it single-cast on every boss and pack of monsters your merc fights because it significantly quickens the battle. Why not put more points in? Well, you can only lower defense by at most 95% so plus skills will give you all the battle cry you need! Use it on a boss BEFORE you switch from HOTOs to 6-’Ist’ed swords etc… because the +skills bring it to its most effective level.
  • -War Cry- 1 Point Wonder! Use this skill often to give your merc a chance to level the playing field. I find that it is almost never necessary to cast this spell but it is useful to have. This skill could help alot if you wanted to solo Chaos Sanctuary with this build. More points into this skill are inadvisable because the damage of this skill doesn’t go up much even if it is fully synergised, which it isn’t! The stun from this skill is more than adequate with +skills. And most importantly! this skill has a very nice low mana cost when you don’t put more than one point in. This skills mana cost gets VERY high if you choose to max it. Just look here at the mana cost of just a level 20 warcry! http://www.battlenet.co.kr/diablo2ex…s.shtml#warcry Maxing it would would be inefficient; just put one point in.
  • -Shout- MAX This skill! This skill goes very well with Iron Skin which you’ve already maxed. Also, this skill is incvaluable at buffing your mercenary. This is one of the core skills of this build.
  • -Battle Orders- MAX This skill! This skill helps you to have enough mana to teleport comfortably. But, this scores primary purpose is to further buff your mercenary who will be doing all the fighting. This is the other core skill to this build.
  • -Battle Command- 1 Point wonder! This skill doesn’t get any better after one point (other than increased duration). This skill will serve to buff you and your mercenary.

==================================================

Skill Point Distribution Breakdown  

20 – Natural Resistance

20 – Iron Skin

20 – Battle Orders

20 – Shout

9 – Points Total: 1 point into Increased Stamina, Find Potion, Battle Command, War Cry, Taunt, Howl, Battle Cry, Find Item, Increased Speed

* Those are the NECESSARY 89 Points you Need, after that I recommend…

11 – Find Item

10 – Increased Speed – (this would be at level 99)

 

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Character Equipment

  • HelmImmortal King’s Will Avenger Guard dual socketed with ‘Ist’ runes- Together with the ‘Ist’ runes this helm will give you lots of magic find. This helm also gives some very nice bonuses such as +2 to warcry skills. This helm is also fairly easy to find or trade for! and it looks cool!
  • ArmorEnigma Socketed in an Archon Plate- This will give you high defense as well as +2 to all skills and teleport! This also gives you nearly 100%mf. This armor is the core item of this build.
  • Secondary ArmorSkullders Ire ‘Ist’ed or Wealth socketed in an Archon Plate- These two armors are optional but I HIGHLY recommend using Skullders Ire for raiding corpses and for when you kill bosses! It adds significantly more magic find than enigma, around 50% more! I recommend keeping one of these in your cube for when you need it. What else is there to do in that short space of time while you are waiting for your mercenary to kill Mephisto? Wealth can obviously be used for goldfinding which is useful if you like to gamble for circlets or rings etc…
  • WeaponsDual Hoto’s (they don’t have to be high!)- Your natural resistance should take care of any variance in the +res from the Hoto’s. Heart of the Oak socketed in a flail gives you big bonuses to cast rate (40%fcr) and mana dual weild these while you teleport and when you BO your merc. Switch these off when a boss is about to die.
  • Secondary Weapons2 six-’Ist’ed Crystal Swords each giving +ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY % MF!- These swords are your very hard to put together. Please don’t use phase blades by mistake! Remember, no points into dexterity! Switch to these swords when you are searching bodies or about to kill a boss.
  • BeltArachnid Mesh- This gives you a mana boost and +skills! Importantly, this belt also pushes you past the 105%fcr breakpoint and gives you optimal teleporting speed. Although this belt is not part of perfect magicfind (because you could be getting another 30% from Goldwrap) it improves your ability to magic find significantly by giving you that last bit of faster cast rate.
  • Gloves- You shouldn’t need any more mana so wear Chance Guards if you do need more mana go with frostburns until you get better charms.
  • BootsWar Traveler Battle Boots- These give 50%mf. Now we’re really starting to stack up the magic find%! If you need more mana while you try to get better charms try using silkweaves.
  • Rings2x Magic 120 Mana 10%FCR rings- These are very important, you may only want to wear one though if you feel you have enough mana. You need at least one of these rings to get you the FCR you need to teleport as fast as a Sorceress! The mana bonuses from rings like these when multiplied by your BO are huge! This is your mana pool. Rings with less mana are acceptable but these are optimal. 
  • Secondary Rings2x Nagelrings- 30%mf each. You can use nagelrings or dwarf stars for more mf% or goldfind% respectively. If you’re greedy and want all the magic find you can get (like me!) then switch onto these rings while killing a boss. Keep them in your cube.
  • Amulet- Any +3 to warcry amulet will do but preferably with +30% to mf or more in addition to the +skills. This is a tough item to find but it can be done!
  • Annihilus and Helltorch- These need not be perfect but they are necessary. If you don’t use these you will get killed far more often because Natural Resistance can’t give you ALL of your resistances.
  • Optimal Charms4 Warcry skill charms with good modifiers (mana or life or defense). and 6 7%mf 17mana small charms. These will give you more mf% and more mana! 1 perfect gheeds grand charm. 1 annihilus and 1 helltorch for barbarian. Remember you want some room in your inventory (at least 2×8) so you can pick up items easily.
  • Your Inventory!- Yout inventory should look like this- You should have your cube all the way in the top right with 2x nagelrings, goldwrap and a second armor in it; if you want even more MF. You should have 8 spaces of free space giving you enough space to pick up any item in the game! You should have room for 1 tome of town portal and 1 tome of identify. This makes things easy on you! Other builds might have you not carry tomes at all or have no space to pick up items. I think the “Perfect” magic find build should be easy to use.

__________________________________________________ ______________
Mercenary Overview

__________________________________________________ ______________
Mercenary Equipment

__________________________________________________ ______________
Strategies

__________________________________________________ ______________
Gameplay Tips and Tricks  

If you like Goldfinding every once in awhile try keeping two ali-baba swords in your stash; they shouldn’t take up much room because they are 1×3 items. Socket each of them with two lem runes and you can wear them instead of the six-isted swords; they should provide significant MF% as well.

If you want to make this build but desire More Teleporting Speed and less magic find, try using dual wizardspikes perhaps socketed with hel runes to reduce the dexterity requirement, a 20%fcr ammy, a 20% fcr helm, magefist gloves and the rings and belt already listed in the equipment section. This will allow your character to hit the 200%FCR breakpoint which is also the fastest the Sorceress can teleport.

__________________________________________________ ______________
Useful Resources and Tables

Here is a link to a detailed overview of magic finding; it includes a table showing +MF% diminishing returns.

http://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Magic_Find

Here is a link to an outdated site that has impressively detailed information about some of the items used in the build.

http://library.planetdiablo.gamespy.com/unique.html

Here is a link all of you probably use frequently, all the same if you have any questions about items or runes…

http://www.battlenet.co.kr/diablo2exp/

This link is to another forum; you are by no means required to look at it! However, it is possibly the most comprehensive guide to mercenaries on the web.

http://realmgaming.net/index.php?act…post&id=216214

Here are some tables that include the Barbarian’s FCR breakpoints among other things.

Code:
General Breakpoints

FBR

Character       Weapon/Skill/Form          Block Frames

                                           17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10  9  8   7   6   5   4   3   2   1
Amazon          1-handed swinging weapons*  0  4  6 11 15 23 29 40 56 80 120 200 480
                Other weapons                                                      0  13  32  86 600
Assassin        All                                                                0  13  32  86 600
Barbarian       All                                                        0   9  20  42  86 280
Druid           Human                                         0  6 13 20  32  52  86 174 600
                Werebear                                   0  5 10 16 27  40  65 109 223
                Werewolf                                            0  7  15  27  48  86 200
Necromancer     All                                           0  6 13 20  32  52  86 174 600
Paladin         Without Holy Shield                                                0  13  32  86 600
                With Holy Shield                                                               0  86
Sorceress       All                                                 0  7  15  27  48 200 200       

FCR

Frames   Amazon   A3 Mercenary   Assassin   Druid Human   Druid WW   Druid WB   Pal/Nec   Barb/Sorc
19          0
18          7          0                          0
17         14         10                          4
16         22         15             0           10            0          0
15         32         30             8           19            6          7         0
14         48         40            16           30           14         15         9
13         68         60            27           46           26         26        18          0
12         99         90            42           68           40         40        30          9
11        152        140            65           99           60         63        48         20
10                                 102          163           95         99        75         37
9                                  174                       157        163       125         63
8                                                                                            105
7                                                                                            200 

FHR
Character          Weapon                     Hit Recovery Frames
                                              17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10  9  8   7   6   5   4   3   2
Amazon             All                                           0  6 13 20  32  52  86 174 600
Assassin           All                                                 0  7  15  27  48  86 200
Barbarian          All                                                 0  7  15  27  48  86 200
Act 5 mercenary    All                                                 0  7  15  27  48  86 200
Druid, human       1-handed swinging weapons*           0  3  7 13 19 29 42  63  99 174 456
                   Other weapons                           0  5 10 16 26 39  56  86 152 377
Druid, werebear    All                                     0  5 10 16 24 37  54  86 152 360
Druid, werewolf    All                                                        0   9  20  42  86 280
Act 3 mercenary    All                         0  5  8 13 18 24 32 46 63 86 133 232 600
Necromancer        All                                     0  5 10 16 26 39  56  86 152 377
Paladin            Spears and staves                       0  3  7 13 20 32  48  75 120 280
                   Other weapons                                       0  7  15  27  48  86 200
Act 1 mercenary    All                                           0  6 13 20  32  52  86 174 600
Sorceress          All                               0  5  9 14 20 30 42 60  86 142 280
Act 2 mercenary    All                               0  5  9 14 20 30 42 60  86 142 280          

Source: Tommy Gustafsson
Diabloii.net Character Class FAQs

Here is a link to the previous version of this guide.

http://forums.diii.net/showthread.ph…t=tyrannicides

__________________________________________________ ______________
Finished Build: Example Stats.

__________________________________________________ ______________
Explanation and Conclusion

Blizzard nerfed mercs in the latest patch, nerfing their offensive capabilities against bosses to 25% of their actual strength. Don’t worry about that though because this build works despite that nerfing! This is due to the crushing blow on the mercenary which remains unaffected by Blizzard’s changes. If you try to make this build without giving your mercenary plenty of CB it probably won’t work as well.

I’m still trying to increase the speed at which my merc kills Baal’s minions (i rarely have to worry about my mercenary dying) but he is fast enough especially with help from a friend. Baal is tough and i’m still experimenting on ways to kill his minions faster. Baal himself goes down pretty fast with this build as do most of the minions so long as you use you battle cry and war cry.

I would like to try using an Act 5 mercenary in place of the Act 2 mercenary; it could use and ethereal colossus Last Wish, ethereal Fortitude and Guillame’s or a giant skull. If you are interested in contributing to this build, I would suggest trying other mercenary configurations and their effectiveness against Baal or Mephisto. If I receive good suggestions I will add them to the guide and give those who made the suggestions credit!

Thank you very much for reading, and I very much appreciate your constructive feedback. I can’t wait to hear from all of you!

Published in: on January 13, 2009 at 10:56 pm  Comments (2)  
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A New Skill Redistribution System for Diablo 3

 

The Dynamic Character Growth System

…by: CallsignHUSKER

In these Diablo 3 speculation threads I’ve seen spammed across the multitude of Diablo fansites and strategy/news sites two main suggestions for how skills should work in Diablo 3:

1. Once assigned skills cannot be moved or modified.
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2. Once assigned any and all skills can be removed and/or reassigned.

I propose a third system: Skills are assigned as normal throughout gameplay and can be reassigned at a later time. However, some skills cannot be reassigned after certain conditions have been met.

The Rules

1. Skills can be made open for reassignment at a cost of gold.
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2. The amount of gold scales to reflect your character’s level.
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3. After 5 points have been spent in a skill you may only remove 1-4 points.
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4. After 5, every 5 additional points into a single skill becomes permanent.
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5. If you only put 1 point into a single skill it can moved without factoring into rule 6.
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6. Out of every 3 points assigned to a skill tree only 2 may be reassigned to a different skill tree.
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7. Some high level skills cannot be reassigned.
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8. There is special quest which can be completed three times which allows the reassignment of 5 skill points from any skill to any skill tree. (Excluding the skills covered by rule 7).

*Explanation of Rule 3: once 5 points have been assigned to the same skill, you can only remove up to four of those points. This prevents skill abandonment after a player has shown interest in that skill. This also trains the player to be cautious when assigning more than one point to a skill as does Rule 6.

*Explanation of Rule 4: if you have 5 points in a skill and put 3 more in you can reassign those 3 skills although 1 must be reassigned to the same skill tree. However, if you put 5 more points into a skill that already has 5 points in it, you may not reassign any points in that skill. In other words, after 5 points skills are ‘permed’ in 5 point increments.

 
Let me know what you think!

Comment, but don’t hate!

-CallsignHUSKER

 

*This post is an extracted selection from one of my threads at diii.net forums for which the link can be found below; please feel free to comment but be constructive!

http://forums.diii.net/showthread.php?t=710571

Published in: on January 13, 2009 at 9:40 pm  Comments (1)  
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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