h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It's got my brain too. (no pun intended)
I'm still hanging around in single player land, but watch for a sorceress called Archaya on battlenet. She belongs to a friend of mine, and will be most cooperative if you mention me. (Buff)

Well thanks for the offer. I am still in single player land too, until the phone company finally gets my DSL up and running. I am currently on my second character, a Paladin. My first character, an Amazon got abandoned after my friend lost me all my items (a not so interesting, not so long story). I will probably end up picking her back up after finishing with the Paladin. All my characters in video games are named Bruise (or in the case of the Amazon, Bruisina), the origin of which is yet another not so interesting not so long story. In fact, I had my nickname on here set to Bruise for a while, but where I can, I really like using Censory Deprivatoin because I like the concept as well as the play on words.

I was running a necromancer, and I got him all the way up to level 16. Then I started getting frustrated. Every time I got killed, I would have to save+exit, so as not to have to go chasing after my body, and THEN restart and go out to get some new skeletons, so I wouldn't get instantly wiped out in the catacombs. Very annoying.
I switched to a barbarian called ThudnBlunder, and he's going well. It's slightly irritating to cover the same quests, but not nearly as bad as getting repetedly killed. Necromancers are weak, and hard to play.

Do you have any idea what Wurts leg is for? I found it while rescuing Deckard Cain, and can't sell it in town. (item cannot be traded here)It seems like just another club type item.

It was trying the save & exit trick to recover my body for the first time which lost me all of my items. However, I went back to my Amazon yesterday and she had amazingly recovered them all on her own....weird. But, now I am involved in Bruise. It has been kind of annoying to travel through the same quests again, but I have found that it has gone much quicker the second time, and that I am playing my character much better.

I think that the necromancer is probably the most difficult character to play, I don't envy your choice. I think after I have some extensive game experience, I may go try and start one.

Supposedly Wurt's leg can be used after you beat the game to open up the "cow level". From what I understand, after killing Diablo, you take Wurt's leg and a tome of town portal, put them in the cube and it opens a portal to the cow level where cows then proceed to attack you, and madness ensues. There may or may not be a time limit, one person told me you have to accomplish this within 15 seconds of killing diablo. I think there may be some more information at various Diablo related internet sites.

Mad cows! Ooohhh!

I'll have a look at Diablo sites, but first... Sleep.

Bye now.

Goodnight. And I thought I was an insomniac.......

The birds were chirping. When the birds chirp, it's time to go to sleep quickly, before all those horribly well rested morning people come out.

Diablo II: I got Charsi to imbue some ringmail, and gosh is it impressive. Defense of 72, fastest hit recovery, cold resist + more! And I found the Arctic light belt of binding. Defense of 33. Wow.

What cool stuff have you found thus far?

Birds chirping ARE a good indication of it being time to sleep.

Yeah, with both characters I have played, I have had Charsi imbue armor. The first time, with my Amazon, I got armor similar to yours. The second time, with the paladin, it wasn't anywhere near as impressive. I have the Arctic Binding too, and the Arctic Furs, which I used for a while. I also found Civerb's Ward, which is a sheild with defence of 27 plus an additional +15 to defense. The set items are pretty awesome. There are some great sites online which will tell you about all the items you can find, and what all the sets do once you put them together. Two really good ones are http://www.battle.net/diablo2 which is actually run by Blizzard and http://www.diabloii.com which is the most comprehensive fan site I have seen.

I just played multi-player for the first time last night, it was a lot of fun. A few of my friends brought over their computers and we set up a LAN. Things are MUCH harder in multi-player to kill by yourself.

Definitly harder to kill in multiplayer. My friend who plays on battlenet is also getting killed all the time because of lag. He will enter a new territory, and by the time the computer is finished downloading it, something will have gotten like 8 hits in.

I found a ring that steals *6 life per hit, and a chipped skull that I put in my helm, which regenerates *2 life, and my gloves also regenerate *3 life. It's great in battle. My life sphere just bobs up and down. A couple of times I've come out of a battle in better shape than I went in.

Have you found any sites that list the combos for the horadric cube?

Yeah, my friend and I are currently running about 3 characters a piece and gathering gems to make them perfect. I am not sure if you have tried this, but if you take 3 gems of a particular level and type and put them in the cube together, they form 1 of the next higher level.

The best all around reference sites I have seen are http://www.battle.net/diablo2 which is run by Blizzard, and http://www.diabloii.net which is an unoficial site. Both have about the same recipies for the cube, but I think there are a few differences.

I love regeneration and life-stealing stuff, you are right, it is fun to gain life from a battle.

Thanks, I'll go have a look.

I've been exploring the false tombs of Tal Rasha, in act II. They all have a golden chest and a lot of gold in them. Plus my charecter gained like two levels.

I wish there were some way to un-socket items. I had a gemmed axe, and when I got a much better weapon, I sold it. I wish I could have kept the gems.

Bye now.

I have one of my characters who is almost to where you are. The other three are all at the begining of act II.

Yeah, unsocketing stuff would definitely be nice. I have a trick for gaining tons of gems, but it requires 2 networked computers and it isn't very ethical. If you want to know how, I will share, but I know that some people aren't big on tricks like that.

I think I know that trick. But I can't get the computers at my place to network, on account of the Gateway with Win 98 being a snob, and refusing to communicate with a 486. I'll just have to wait till I get around to Battlenet and trade for them.

I got to the end of act II. There is a big nasty slug thing in Tal Rashas chamber. It jumps right on you as soon as you get in the door. Act III has annoying territories. They're supposed to be swamps, so there are all these rivers and bridges. (and things tossing fireballs from the other side of the river, where they can't be killed)

I wonder what the mad cow level is like. I've heard that it's not a good idea to go there unless the charecter is high level. I want to know what it does to the rest of the gameplay. I mean, do you go and come back, or will it distort the whole game?

Yeah, all of my friends who have gone through Act III have been annoyed. Ranged attacks become very nice. I still haven't gotten there. I have been playing too many characters and trying to get them all through Act II.

My roomate got onto the Mad Cow level. It was amazingly difficult. The cows do a TON of damage, and they tend to swarm you. The trick is to take on one at a time by running away a lot and then town-portaling out of there, refilling on health, and going back. If you get surrounded by them, it is pretty much over.

Opening the cow level just opens a portal to their area, they are contained within it, so it doesn't really effect the rest of the game. You get some magic items, but they aren't powerful enough to significantly alter game play. It doesn't effect too much because you have to open it on a difficulty level you have already beaten, so if you beat "Normal", you can start a new Normal game and open the cow level. However, you can only do it once for each level of difficulty, so once you open it, you need to beat it because if you start another game with that character (single-player, multi-player, or battlenet) you won't be able to go back again.

Hmmmm... Interesting. I'll have to go ckeck it out. What's the farthest you've gotten with a charecter?

I have my Paladin about 3/4 of the way through Act II. However, I have two friends who I have watched beat the game, so I have seen most of it.

I've got one friend who got Diablo II when it first came out, and he's put in a lot of hours, but I never go over to his house and watch, so I'm basiclly proceeding blind. I have almost no idea what to expect in the next levels, or what kind of stuff can be found.

It must be kind of handy to see it played. You probably remember usefull nuggets, like what kind of critter is waiting where, or what tactic works.

Yeah, it has definitely helped in Diablo. But then, a lot of my friends game so we are own sort of support network for gaming problems, we help each other out, and share info. It is really helpful for gaming in general. However, there are now LOTS of good strategy and informational sites out there. They cover everything from skill selection, to what monsters are where, etc. I would recommend doing some reading if you really want a peek at what lies ahead.

Good luck, and don't let it take up all of your time!!

Todd

I'm not too bad about spending hours playing. I only get bad when I'm trying to complete a quest.

I think I will go and seek more Diablo info. I just get lazy, plus I'm easily distracted by other interesting things I find on the way. A search that should take me about 15 minutes usulaay takes an hour and 1/2. But anyhow...

Thanks.

Buffy

You are quite welcome. It is very easy to get distracted online. Happens to me ALL the time. So, if you don't mind discussing things other than Diablo....what are you studying at school?