🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <5etent$d...@nntp4.u.washington.edu>,
K. Laisathit <kir...@u.washington.edu> wrote:
%Out of curiosity, what's it like to be a level 40?
...
%The reason I ask is that I can waltz through most of the
%dungeon in normal diff, without fear of dying. Which is,
%in fact, somewhat disappointing. I find the intense feeling
%of an impending doom quite exhilarating. Unfortunely, only
%low level hell still bring about those strong feelings.
%
%Perhaps, it's time to go to nightmare mode, you suggest.
%But then, I imagine that at level 30 or more, I'd be in
%the same boat as I'm on now. So, go to hell mode, you say.
%I can similarly imagine that my level 40 with much improved
%equipments shouldn't have too much problem there either.

I hit level 40 as a sorcerer tonight.  (Amazing what playing 2+
hours/day can do for you in a month or two...)  The excitement is
definitely lessening at this point.

Normal and Nightmare are pretty trivial to wipe out (including
Diablo).  Nightmare levels 13-16 take about 40 minutes to clear out,
counting town portal time to carry up items to identify.  Money is no
issue at all, since a suit of magical plate (any kind) usually gets
bought by the blacksmith for 5K-20K.  The only fun here, really, is
the hope of seeing an artifact I can save for one of my friends, or
the *really* remote chance of finding a good item like something of
the Zodiac (found 3 of these total - one amulet (+20) and two rings
(+20, and +19/resist lightning 55%) or a shield of blocking (only ever
seen one of these).  I've yet to see godly anything (except from Wirt,
and he never has godly anything-good...)

Hell is trivial through the caves (I can start on L1 and go all the
way through L12 without going up to town for mana potions - and the
items to be found before L13 aren't worth identifying since they're
not as good as what can be found in L13-16 in nightmare).  It's
moderately difficult at levels 13-14 (if I look away from the screen
for too long, I'll glance back to see my mana shield almost gone).
Levels 15 and 16 are pretty tough as a mage, since the Advocates are
immune to anything except stone curse, so I have to stone 'em and then
beat on them the hard way (with a golem for help, of course).  But
they're not _exciting_ - just _slower_ to beat.

What my sorcerer does these days:
*	Nightmare levels 13-16, in search of good items
*	Hell levels 5-8, in search of Gloomy, Hidden, and Weird
	shrines (Hidden isn't that hard to find, but I haven't seen
	a gloomy or weird shrine in the last week...)
Either one of these journeys is worth 3-5 million experience.  If I
play 2-3 journeys/day, I should hit level 41 tomorrow, and level 50
(1.2 billion, is it?) sometime this summer - if I haven't completely
lost interest by then...

--
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Randy Spangler              | --Computer analysis and composition of music--
rspa...@micro.caltech.edu  | 
CNS grad student            | Check out Annex BBS! ----> telnet to annex.com