If poe had D2's immunity design.

I MISS MY FLASK TOO GIB POE BACK ;_;

"

Phrazz wrote:

Hands down the worst part of D2.

Agree. D2 was an amazing game. Easily in my personal top 5.
But that multiple immunities thing in the Uber Tristram quest was utter bullshit.
Fucking immune to everything Balrogs... what am I supposed to do, kill them with words?

Bonus points: Uber bosses in Median. Yeah fuck you too Cow Prince and Quov Tsin!

No. You see, this is where you get it all wrong, back then monster immunities, and double immunities at that was the only thing that kept sorceress... silliness in check. It was a clever thing on behalf of the game developers. And a necessity. Otherwise perma-fuckin-freezing cold sorceresses would be running around rampant, blasting everything to oblivion and beyond. Not that they weren't, as far as I can remember. But they had to be cautious. They had to pause, eventually, and thankfully. They needed to catch their breath, so to speak.

And that is where melee, and I mean true melee came into play. And that made melee shine. And it did. Provided you understood game mechanics, simple as they were, and you knew what you were doing with it.

Lets take a closer look at a Sword & Board Barbarian named Nakkai for instance, with Concentation (LMB) which was not interruptible (a great thing at the time and place) and Leap (RMB) for convenience, wielding Grandfather Colossus Blade socketed with a Cham Rune to freeze pesky mobs that hit and run all the time, and also to shatter them occasionally (an even greater thing and very satisfying, might I add), and Stormshield Monarch featuring an astonishing 35% Damage Reduction, socketed with the best jewel adding elemental/poison damage you could get your hands on. You could even swap Grandfather with an Astreon Ward Caduceus (Cham) which was the real BiS weapon because it had crazy 80-240 magic damage, 33% Crushing Blow and 25% Slows Target built-in, but then again that was a hammer, and your Barbarian wouldn't be a... Sword & Board Warrior, more like a Blunt & Board, so go figure...

Gear included the... pants down BiS armor Guardian Angel (indeed)... upgraded through horadric cube recipe Hellforge(!!!) Plate (and that is what I call irony, thumbs up Blizz) that provided an astounding 15% maximum all resist, which ensured our resistances would be capped at 90%, socketed with a Ber Rune for 8% extra damage reduction, Dracul's Grasp Vampirebone Gloves with Life Per Hit and 25% Open Wounds (which by the way worked wonders against any immunity), Gore Rider Myrmidon Greaves featuring Crushing Blow, Deadly Strike and Open Wounds all in one, Guillaume's Face (set) Winged Helm providing Crushing Blow and Deadly Strike, socketed with a Ber Rune for 8% extra damage reduction, plus it was the best looking helmet for Barbarian and I'm a sucker for looks. Add on top all that Crescent Moon amulet with Life and Mana Stolen per Hit and damage taken goes to mana and our problem with life and mana sustain was solved for good.

Now for the best part I left the elemental absorb for last (but not least), so here goes Thundergod's Vigor Colossus Girdle with Lightning Absorb and extra Lightning max res, skyrocketing to a 95% total which was the absolute limit, and a very good thing too because Lightning was by far and wide the deadliest element in D2 LoD. To conclude with the rings we get Dwarf Star for fire absorb and magic damage reduced, and Raven Frost for cold absorb and... CANNOT BE FROZEN, and that last one is a win-game by itself.

Throw in the mix as many charms as you can get (the more the merrier) with elemental and poison damage like of Winter, Storms, Incineration and Anthrax and... well you get the picture.

Note that you got 3 times the Socketing An Item Quest by Larzuk, and provided you wouldn't waste it early on, on some crappy low level item, you had the patience and the... method (in madness) till you got the BiS equipment.

So this Barbarian had dps and to Hit enough to kill anything fast, without faltering in the slightest, no chance to be interrupted whatsoever, fearing absolutely no immunity, 75% capped block (another great thing), 90% Cold/Fire/Poison Res, 95% Lightning Res, capped Damage Reduction, more than enough hit points, stamina to keep running all the time, life & mana steal permanently sustained, and lets not forget the Life Tap Bonus from Dracul's Grasp, a life saving auto-cast ability, especially in tight spots.

Give him the Act 2 defensive merc for some (like a lot actually) extra defense, brandishing the Doom Runeword Cryptic Axe, that came with a free level 12 Holy Freeze Aura, -60%(!!!) Enemy Cold Resist and Open wounds, Fortitude Runeword Archon Plate to fix his resist problem, plus skyrocketing his dps, and Vampire Gaze Bone Visage with Damage Reduction and you pretty much get a nigh unto invincible Player Character with an unkillable henchman that could devastate anything, anywhere, anytime in Diablo Lord of Destruction. This guy is HARDCORE safe, with caution, and after 1.13 with the removal of the pain in the arse Iron Maiden Curse that pretty much meant seppuku each time you blindly dived into the massacre head first without paying attention, the only thing that could kill him were those chargers but even then only when, and if you let your guard down and get overwhelmed, one or two or three of those charging him were no problem, nothing could one/two/three shot this true Son of Bul-Kathos.

Prety much the same build (albeit the Astreon Ward caduceus version) you could do with a Paladin, and it worked like a charm, only I swapped the plate armor with Gladiator's Bane because Paly had his resists already upgraded with passives, plus he looked cool in leather armor, and like I said I'm a sucker for looks, and the horned helmet with Steel Shade armet for the same reason and some extra fire absorb. And no my Paly wasn't a Hammerdin, I hated Blessed Hammer back then, still despise it (BH is NOT melee), I used Vengeance (LMB) which boosted his dps with crazy amounts of elemental wickedness and Holy Freeze aura (RMB), the combination meant perma-freeze and shatter almost anything bar cold immunes and the bosses, but Astreon and the rest of the gang killed them easily just the same.



Edit:
Note that I'm not saying it was fun, mobs having double immunities, only necessary, at the place and time. And it could be a very good lesson (case study) for modern game developers.

Just curious... how much time did it take to obtain all that gear?

Also, triple immunity Balrogs.

@johnKeys

The "...this is where you get it all wrong..." part was adressing the thread in general friend, it was neither targeted at your post, nor attacking your point of view, which is perfectly respectable as it is, it just so happened for me to post after you, this just to clarify things.

It could take a while, to amass the lot but 1.10 pretty much adressed loot problems, even more so 1.13 patch. Never moved to 1.14 for various reasons, median was at the top of the list. Trading aside, you could drop all these items in time, even in single game and complete your gear nicely. And there were always alternatives. To mention a few, Azurewrath & Lightsabre Phase Blades, Frostwind Cryptic Sword could easily be used by both Barbarian and Paladin, Flamebellow Balrog Blade Barbarian only since only he could wield two-handers single handedly.

As for triple immunities, that's why I mentioned four different kind of charms, as many as you could get your hands on, but most importantly the Open Wounds mod in certain BiS items that could overcome and void any and all immunities. Note that Cham Rune in weapon socket was my personal favorite, you could always settle for Um Rune which was lower level, a lot easier obtainable and gave another 25% Open Wounds.

Same goes for median, by the way, I mean the Open Wounds mod killing immunities. At tleast the pre Sigma one, I haven't got a clue what's changed now, since I never tried it, yet.

You're right I almost forgot about Open Wounds.
Actually I was that Sorceress player, who had to switch to Paladin to take on the Uber Tristram content. He eventually became my main and most geared character, and after a lot of effort got the Torch.

Regarding Median, I didn't get any younger but it's possible Path Of Exile made me a better manual-dodging player. May try to take on Cathedral Of Vanity to see if I can beat it for the first time.

"

johnKeys wrote:

Bonus points: Uber bosses in Median. Yeah fuck you too Cow Prince and Quov Tsin!

Oh, fuck
I remember this Median XL shit:D
Once I played MXL with my buddy, the mobs (Cogs in A2 Sewers) simply were not displayed.
He tells me constantly "There is nothing there!". He then sent me the screens to show me this glitch...

Idol of Vanity charm, hm, that's a tough one, took me many tries and deaths to get the bitch, but I prevailed in the end. Let me tell you what I did, that helped me a lot.

Go to Act3 town, enter the portal to Torajan Jungles at bottom right of map, fight your way to the far upper left of the area (which is quite large but with juicy drops, including those orbs that give free attribute points and lots of xp), find the boss Lord Aldric Jitan, kill him (watch out for his guards, they explode on death = sure death for PC too), acquire your precious Moon of the Spider charm, that gives you +1 to Jitan’s Gate, which is like the teleport witch's spell. Have that at the ready.

Then go to Cathedral of Vanity, enter the chapel, that's a small map with an empty room, and another bigger room with the laser and mobs. Brace yourself (the way a true Protoss Champion would do), enter the bigger room but without advancing too much, only to aggro as many mobs as you can, and Inarius, then hurry back into the small starting chamber, let them corner you at top left spot, but just before they get the chance to kill you, teleport to the next room and make your way to the laser, kill it, then boss and the gang become killable too.

With a bit of practice it's quite doable. Unlike for instance the Eternal Bone Pile charm in Ruins of Ureh, quite a trial only to get to Kingdom of Shadow, let alone get the charm itself, and those others with unkillable (even with Open Wounds) bosses that need purification like Vizjun, I finally gave up on them. Too much of a hassle.

Just ignore the immune mobs.

Always started D2 leagues with a sorc. Because they could do a lot of damage with potato MF gear. Just don't get hit. Spirit runeword on you and insight on the merc, and you didn't need much else to clear the acts/difficulties. Sorc could technically kill mobs without *any* gear whatsoever.