I found a Lo rune and created my first badass armor: Fortitude runeword with 1456 defense based on a Superior Dusk Shroud (505 defense, 22 durability). Repairing 1 durability costs more than 50k gold. It seems to be a well known issue - is this a bug in the game?
Figured out that there is a repair recipe with Ral runes but I prefer simple repairs with one button press so I continue using my 698def Wire Fleece with Smoke runeword (or might create a better Smoke from one of my 2-socket 450def+ Dusk Shrouds). I give the Fortitude to my merc and use it myself only when I really have to because Iām lazy to waste my time on repairing it.
Iāll choose my next base more carefully. If we look at the full list of elite armors (http://classic.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/elite/armor.shtml) only the Wire Fleece and lower seem to have sane strength requirements but the Great Hauberk and Archon Plate are also nice. I came across only a few Hauberks and Archons. Finding one with the right number of sockets probably requires a lot of luck so waiting for one instead of using a different type might not worth it for a tiny bit higher defense. (Even though I prefer the looks of the metal types.)
Found out only a few days ago that there are recipes to put (a random number of) sockets into normal items (http://classic.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/cube.shtml). This can help in finding a suitable base. It can make it easier to find a better (chromatic) paladin shield base too because my current one is still a 20 defense 22 resist all with Spirit runeword.
it has existed long enough and during a point in time when they were still frequently patching the game to safely say it is intended.
blizzard north didnāt make the game āhardā by making it require skill or knowledge, they did it by adding tedium.
Basically anything you do or can do to get better just takes a ton of extra work for very little pay off but thatās kind of the point all that āworkā is just time spent in the game itās actually a kind of brilliant design except bots/dupes made it so stuff is balanced kind of odd and they made it multiplayer but actually deter playing with other people.
Not changing something for a long time doesnāt necessarily mean that itās intentional design/behaviour. Some issues that seem to be āsmallā sometimes require a lot of effort to fix. Those issues usually end up at the rock bottom of the infinitely long priority list.
I like that this game is difficult and complex but I donāt like stupid things. 1000 times higher price for +8% defense is stupid, thatās why I think that this is unlikely to be intentional. Itās more likely to be an unintended consequence (this ābugā is triggered by combining several different building blocks: armor, sockets, superior, runewords). However, I agree that this ābugā has a good chance to stay in the game forever.
na the game isnāt that itās convoluted and tedious and i really do enjoy the feedback loop that adds to the gambler addict inside my brain but the only complex things are understanding why the devs did what they did.
it was pointed out early on in diablo 2s life and the devs said it wasnāt a bug but unfortunately blizzard has scrubbed all the old bnet 1.0 forums.
it is even for non runewords the problem is just that it multiplies the cost when you turn them into runewords
To be fair, there are stupid things in real life too but there are workarounds in most cases. If a blacksmith told me that repairing a tiny kink in my armor is 50k+ Iād look for another blacksmith.
If a developer says āit isnāt a bugā that sometimes means āwe donāt want to deal with it for various reasonsā or āour bosses wouldnāt give us time to work on this low priority issueā. This game has a lot of building blocks and making sure that all combinations of those blocks work well probably isnāt possible. Fixing this ābugā by changing one of the building blocks might introduce other unexpected issues so there are good reasons to keep things as they are.
In my case it isnāt good enough. Farming Ral runes and repairing the armor less often with the cube is one thing but the armor has to be taken off every single time when I want to repair the rest of the equipment quickly with one button. That has to be done quite often. The chore isnāt worth my time and the difference between my old and new armor so Iāll just stick to my old armor.
The game punished me for farming and combining two rare components. I wonāt punish myself by becoming a victim of the sunk cost fallacy. My Lo rune is basically gone. I have to find another Lo and a better base that isnāt āsuperiorā.
Well, it has to be ok for me not you. For me it isnāt ok.
Iām also a millionaire (and I find an item worth 35k behind every single bush) but shopping and repair uses only the private stash and my pocket. That isnāt where I keep my money to avoid losing it when I die. Every now and then I save the gold from my pocket into a shared tab. If all shared tabs are full I empty at least one by gambling. (Sometimes I have no gold after gambling.)
I die more often when I donāt know how to kill a boss. Currently Iām stuck at Act 5 Hell at the Ancients and Iām experimenting with different strategies and equipment. Dying doesnāt even require a battle with the Ancients - trying new abilities and equipment on the field against mini-bosses is enough. I have to do a lot of farming too to get the required equipment for my experiments.
There are a lot of āhow to guidesā on the internet but I want to complete the game at least once without cookie cutters. Exploring and experimenting is more fun than following a guide that tells me which 1% of the game to focus on for optimal strategy. What about the other 99% that isnāt optimal but fun? This is why I tried to rely only on the official manual (http://classic.battle.net/diablo2exp/) and spent most of my time playing instead of reading. I started using the manual in Act 5 Normal when I didnāt know the order of the runes (RalOrtTal) dropped by a quest.
store your money in the shared stash instead of personal, if all tabs are full keep one emptty gambling once in a while
that should prevent that to happen again, shouldnt it ?
I donāt want a Lamborghini. I want a bulldozer or a tank. Itāll be easier to avoid scratches when I start a character with ranged weapons and abilities. My current character is melee.
Ehh the only real reason to play melee is to farm ubersā¦ if youāre farming ubers then you are farming countess, if your farming countessā¦ youāre going to have so many ral runes that youāll be wanting chipped gems to cube them past thul in no time, or just tossing them out.
I probably get 5-6 ral runes per key, so 15-18 per torch runā¦
Anything costing gold is essentially free in the game. Gold is so easy to come by, it might as well not exist and all the costs associated with gold might as well not exist too. The only time itās an issue is early game.
The issue is the inconvenient repair (chore) that is the result of storing my gold in shared tabs. I store it that way because I die often when Iām experimenting. Iām not a D2 veteran killing uber bosses 100x a day without dying. Havenāt even completed the game on Hell difficulty.
It seems to be a well known issue - is this a bug in the game?
