Endgame difficulty curve.

[James]

There's a lot of walls of text, but I agree to some point. It feels like you have to have your character end game before you even decide to start ubers. The problem with that is, so much wealth in the server is already here. Players become new, see these players with already end game gear and expect to do the same. But the big problem is inferno cows imo, where it drops all the rares/sets/uniques that they don't need. Leading the new players to pick them up. But where do they grind to get better to start doing inferno cows? Baal? Meph? Cows? None are nothing compared to Inferno cows or the ubers. (Where one mob kill is about the same loot as a Baal kill.) So we're stuck farming cows and all the none custom things to be able to do that. Or, we could try them and die 15-20 times in order to get a kill. Maybe, a buff to hell cows, or baal runs to make them easier for new players. Nothing is fun about getting rushed to hell in 10 minutes, and try to gear yourself off other people playing. Since there's a really easy way to get to hell, maybe make Baal a huge incentive? It'd be easier to farm, but limited to a time limit (being baal waves etc.). There's really no character that can farm these things efficiently without godly gear. I mean, fighting something with 1 million life, when I only have 150k dps as poison... As I can see, only a few specific builds can destroy these things. I don't see a Druid or an Assassin in these ubers.. I feel like it should be easier to farm, decrease the life, so we don't have to rely on crushing blow and deadly strike. Yeah, diablo II pvm is really easy, but not everyone sees it that way. Maybe add something in the middle of "end game" and "noobies". Like, vaud said. There is just too big of a gap, there is no real progression. Get lucky and if you do, get richer. Same as regular D2, but you could atleast get a diadem from baal that'd be worth 25+ hrs. Here it's like, hope I get either a zod drop or a enchantment that's decent. So one of the godly people looking for them and can over pay and I can farm ubers. I know it's not like this, but the curve is off. I've played Median, with a nice smooth curve into end game. Path of Exile same thing. I'm not complaining the server is awesome, end game content is really nice. But, something has to be done for new players and players that aren't as good or knowledgeable about diablo II as other players are. I just feel like, improving on this small spot will increase the amount of players on the server.

[Dante]

Stuff may seem a bit hard. Maybe some mid level content with low % chance of high gear could help yea, but I havn't played 3.2 yet, dunno how much areas and crafts help now.

Rune words are very nice here. Just to mention Guardian and extremely good and compared to stats cheap runeword. HRs can be farmed in hell cows or traded. There are some options to help new players closing some gaps.

I understand the pain it can be to die a lot of times trying to kill a boss. But don't forget this game is also not entirely meant to be played solo. Try it in a team, talk to people, trade. If you play with people and they hear you struggling, they will help you for sure. Some more, some less. Don't go with GM's here, they obviously play a lot, don't compare yourself with the rich guys.

I agree, annihilus is not really a casual server, you have to spend some time to get where you want, but that's also part of the idea here.
Drop insensitive could be a nice idea, but only if you encourage more public games. Have yourself fill up games to artificially gain the effect has killed a lot of fun for me here in the past though.

[LordManhammer]

I joined the server about 3 months before the ladder reset. Like any new player that joins now, I noticed that everyone was already geared to the hilt and wanted ridiculous amounts of hrs in exchange for the items I needed to trade for. I then decided to go it alone and find a way to progress without trading. Its definitely doable. I was playing a Zealadin at the time and was able to farm gear starting in the normal difficulty level inferno portals of act 5. When my gear permitted, I went to nightmare infernos. Eventually I was able to farm hell difficulty. It takes time but there is a path laid out for new players to gear their toons without trading. In my opinion the act 5 inferno portals have been nerfed in terms of difficulty and can be easily farmed now with minimal gear levels. Anyone remember the corpse explosion mobs? That shit sucked

There are plenty of build guides and content guides available for anyone who is willing to try a different approach to what they feel has been futile for them. Let me finish by saying that if you feel that an anni charm or a torche is going to put you over the top gear wise and suddenly make endgame content accessible that wasn't before, you are in for a huge let down

[vaudeville]

Yeah, pvm with regards to inferno cows is easy because you're decked out already Lampo. And it's pretty easy if you have a necromancer with corpse explosion and confuse. The only hard part there is clumping them together and killing one or 2 off so that you can finish the rest off. For any other character not equipped well or isn't a necromancer it isn't a walk in the park. I see newer players get wiped out fast all the time. Hek, most of them not only can do barely any damage against inferno cows even though they have decent equipment, are over lvl 90, etc. but they can't even get past ryleh and in particular Azathoth! What is your point? I've seen veterans get easily destroyed by that guy all the times. And you expect newer players to just play harder and succeed magically somehow? Have you lost your senses?

[vaudeville]

I never said I expected the torches and annihilus charms to be the end all be all. I'm pretty sure I mentioned getting those as just one step closer to buffing your characters.

I would add as a side note that the latter (the annihilus) charm is even more annoying to obtain when you consider that there are enchantment scrolls that require you to sacrifice one in order to get a skill point added. So guess what, that's more key farming. Terrific. And I also have to make or rely on a friend that will bring up to 24 people to have enough standards to get just one annihilus charm. Better hope that no character drops out in the meantime which there is a good chance of happening.

[vaudeville]

Exactly, James this is what I mean. And as far as I"m concerned this is still my experience. I couldn't have gotten as far as I've did without people tossing stuff they found that easily got me going. Granted, I'm not too bothered by this to an extent. I lend a helping hand every now and then to new players too if I find stuff I don't need, but that still won't get them past the dreamlands anytime soon or to the inferno pits most likely.

[qtp]

try harder, game is easy for pvm already
i'd suggest to make regular hell mobs even stronger

well u see lampo him not make like you : hunt inferno cows to teleport at box ^^ him enter in cow and kill cow's to farm and get.. soo nice to come with this hipocrit acting... without not even know how much this player are online from 24 hours... you talk like a pro ... but u acting in game like a garbage....

to get respect .. learn to respect...

you wanna more strong the mobs ... well start from 0 and after 2 weeks without anny friends help let me see if u wll think same...

u have 2 get a torch ... farm a set.. and bla bla.... now AFTER you have all wanna strong...

doh... dude... u are more worse then my english ...

even at general discussion you talk abouth yourself... you post for ? with what reson ? show " i ma the master pick up cow's player" .... damn.... we need more active server with active ( PUBLIC ) games but after.... u make those shit's like that.. ppl turn to play in private games... wow...

You pretend are smart.... ..... maybe in the next life...

[LordManhammer]

"doh... dude... u are more worse then my english" That's one hell of an insult

[vaudeville]

Stuff may seem a bit hard. Maybe some mid level content with low % chance of high gear could help yea, but I havn't played 3.2 yet, dunno how much areas and crafts help now.

Rune words are very nice here. Just to mention Guardian and extremely good and compared to stats cheap runeword. HRs can be farmed in hell cows or traded. There are some options to help new players closing some gaps.

I understand the pain it can be to die a lot of times trying to kill a boss. But don't forget this game is also not entirely meant to be played solo. Try it in a team, talk to people, trade. If you play with people and they hear you struggling, they will help you for sure. Some more, some less. Don't go with GM's here, they obviously play a lot, don't compare yourself with the rich guys.

I agree, annihilus is not really a casual server, you have to spend some time to get where you want, but that's also part of the idea here.
Drop insensitive could be a nice idea, but only if you encourage more public games. Have yourself fill up games to artificially gain the effect has killed a lot of fun for me here in the past though.

Yeah, that's what I would wish for, something in between perhaps. It ought to be

1) the regular game first
2) regular cows to lvl up fast and maybe get some blue organs, grand charms, and some decent runes and scrolls
3) uber
4) inferno cows
5) plaguelands
6) to be determined
7) Inferno pits and swamp pit (the other two places in my opinion aren't worth it)
8) dreamlands
9) crucible and anything else

The first 5 are doable especially with a party of at least 1 veteran (say people who've been here for a month). Beyond that, it gets difficult fast.

It's either that or the drops have to be improved in one of the steps. I still suggest keys be made easier to get especially if you're going to have scrolls requiring you to sacrifice an annihilus charm. It only makes sense to do that. If you want, you can make the "diablo clone" harder instead of making getting keys and standards tedious.

Certain rune drops below say vex or ber should be vamped up as well. It would help a lot if I could get more ohm or ist runes for more damage and magic find. I don't mind if the other higher runes are harder to get. That's ok, by why do the other runes have to be difficult to get? I don't want to downgrade a ber or higher rune just to get 1 ohm rune. That's absurd. Also in a related note, guess what? I can't use most scrolls without high runes (or divine gems). Go figure.

As for working with other people, what exactly do you think I've been doing? If anything, it's the opposite. They're working for me, and I still can't do much with any of my characters beyond my necromancers. Trust me, I've been trying to get people aboard. I want to trade with other people, but as James put it these people almost always want say at least 5 high runes or more that I don't have because the drop rate is bad even at over 200 mf, so there goes trading for most anything I still need (though thankfully by now that list isn't so large). I want to do crucible runs and dreamlands too, but it seems a lot of other players don't want to (likely because they already have what they need and are sure that whatever does drop will go to newer players making it completely un-beneficial for them). You see the conundrum here? Newer players can't advance any time past probably a number of weeks without the help of veterans, and they're very unlikely to get access to high runes. Older players have to support them, and they're unlikely to give them anything really good (cow queen set, chtulu stuff, shrunken head, eyeball charm, torches, annihilus charms, and more) unless the noobies give them high runes which they don't have. This is an impasse plain and simple. You can say I should play the game harder all you like, but if I can't get high runes or scrolls with which to trade, or play with veteran players, then I simply CANNOT advance.

[memories]

@qtp
You really gotta stop crying. This thread isn't even about what you're talking about. It's about new players getting decent items and how it's a bit difficult. Not about lampo. You sound like a 12 year girl talking to her friends about getting bullied for wearing a blue shirt with black pants.
@vaudeville
Why you gonna use the enchants you find? Trade them if you don't need them. It's a trading game. That's how you advance. You think all the "rich" players found the items they use? Mostly they trade...

The way you get items in this game is farm hell cows for organs/enchants/highrunes. Make good trades, drive a hard bargain for the items you need. Once you can run Plaguelands, keep at it. Farm farm farm. Necros can never do what zons and pallys do. There's a build for every scenario. There's never one build for everything.