HOTFOOT, THE NEXT GENERATION
As you may already know from reading about my characters, Hotfoot was the first character I played to 3dots in D2. She was fire-tree only, across the board, specializing in Blaze and Hydra, with Firewall for situational use, lots of Fire Mastery and Warmth, and every skill in the tree used at least a bit. Hotfoot was the first-ever "Hot Babe", although DaShiv had earlier played a one-tree sorcie (lightning) through to the end on the back of maxed Static.
Hotfoot can't be my first 3dot char in D2X, as I had a sorceress in the beta that I played not only to the end, but some TWENTY-FIVE levels higher than any char I ever played in D2. She may well even have had more experience points than ALL my other chars combined -- just goes to show how much gravy the new party bonuses added. Don't get me wrong, I LIKE the new party, the bonuses, the incentives, the whole flow of the party game now. Problem is... none of that has been extended to single player. I'd like to see, for the sake of some balance, a way to speed leveling in single player (without having to go through a mod), even if it comes at the expense of making the game harder, temporarily OR even permanently for each character. It would be nice to be able to CHOOSE FOR YOURSELF how difficult things are, and how much experience reward you can get as a result. Is that going to happen? Doesn't seem likely, and I fear that if done too hastily, it might even break the game. Blizz, if you work on this, BE CAREFUL with it please.
Yet even though Sor-Cee got to 3dots first, she did so in a skewed, unfinished beta version: cold mastery loophole was still in at that time, among other things.
So Hotfoot will be my first 3dot char "legit" -- as I intend to take her all the way, and for her to be the first. I'm excited about other characters, but you might even call me "driven" to find the challenges with the sorcie.
I'm almost upset that the sorceress is now the ladder uberchar, thanks to full-damage that other chars don't enjoy any more. The physical resist cap really put the damper on most other builds, but the sorcie can find areas where she can kill stuff at full speed -- which is proper IMO (I believe the physical resistances, really ALL the resistances and immunities, need more attention). But if built for the loopholes, sorcie is now the uber, and that's kind of sad. I ENJOYED her underdog status, as it was "something" to play an old sorcie well, especially without SF and/or Teleport, or without Warmth, or without any cold. One difference though: when I called for specific nerfs for barbarians, necros, paladins and amazons (and the sorcie, too -- yes I complained a lot about SF) I always targetted specific game imbalances in terms of how the skills WORKED, not just based on their power. Necros got unending scaling factors with CE, Revives, Iron Maiden. It was insane how they could completely ignore game size, yet reap the benefits. Barbs had bugged masteries, WW with way too many attacks and completely ignoring weapon speeds. Amazons had overpowered Strafe and free extra attacks (only the bow bug kept them in check -- no WILDLY STRONG weapons to run them off the charts). Zons also enjoyed scaling valks and a broken Pierce skill that has YET to be fixed or properly balanced. Paladins got that silly Blessed-Hammer-equals-physical-damage loophole, that worked with Might/Conc. Sorcies were a one-skill whore for most players. Yuck. Yeah, I called for all the problems to be fixed, but NOT just because they were strong options. Now I see players calling to lynch the sorcie ONLY because she's strong now, when in fact she's NOT that far ahead of the druids and assassins. The whole leveling system is much changed, yet people see "level 99" and they must ALL be stupid or something, not to realize that that in no way compares to level 99 of old. There's party bonuses, MUCH higher mlvls, act five cakewalks, all of that to which everyone benefits. The sorcies are moving a little faster, but not that much. Yeah, sure, maybe lightning mastery was improved a little too much, and maybe firewall damage could be flat-rate per-level increases instead of BONUS damage added after levels 8 and 16 (Firewall does NOT need those particular bonuses, unlike most of the other sorcie skills). Meteor is OK, I think, because of the impact delay. Takes skill to use that wisely, in a way it does NOT take skill to use a firewall if you have a merc or another player tanking for you.
There should also be some kind of cap on elemental masteries. Making fire and lit masteries linear means no end to the bonuses of more and more +skill items. It's a little too much candy. I would NOT want the frontloaded scaling method they used to use, where the first six skill points are all that matters. Maybe just slightly lower bonuses per skill level after levels 8 and 16 could fix it. (I also think they ought to open up the level cap, raise it from 99 to 125, and let ladder players compete on the old "takes for-EH-ver to level" method -- because as it stands, not even two weeks in and already people have maxed their chars. That is a bit crazy.)
Anyway, the Hot Babe as I played her is now dead. There is true fire immunity in the game now, thus some other type of damage MUST be used, since it's not likely to be fun to try to park or avoid every last fire immune in the whole game. (Maybe an interesting challenge for next year, IF I get bored with the rest of the game. If.) SO... that means other types of damage. But, once that door is opened, is the character still a one-tree sorcie? Maybe, maybe not. You could nitpick that one if you wanted. I don't really care. I'm all about playing what is fun. That's one reason I haven't adopted the old D1 variants from Woody's make, and all the variants from Realms Beyond. I just have a slightly different slant on what makes a challenge fun vs making it tedious.
Thus the new Hot Babe, for D2X: SKILL POINTS may be invested only in the fire tree. No restrictions on items. Skills off staff or orb? Go for it. Charged items? Special weapons? Mercenaries? Go for it. All skill points into fire tree, and plug the gaps any way you like.
For Hotfoot in D2X, I'm going to go with a mercenary and a teleport/telekinesis staff. I'll also get a 3D shield and try to get a teleport orb, and I might consider some charged items, maybe see what a wand of bone spirits can do. Of course, depending on what I find, and how it goes, I might also change these plans as I go. The fire immune Doom Knights in act four of nightmare will be the first real test.
I'm quite looking forward to this challenge. I hope to make the report even half as fun to read as it will be to play. You'll have to be the judge of that.
- Sirian
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