Elemental bowazon was a super challenging leveling process. Lots of kiting, trips back to town for pots, and dodging dodging dodging! I enjoyed all of the leveling process despite how brutal it was (lv1-130 in a few days), especially all the new mobs and fights like Lister that bring new life into the game. There were also some nice skill tree improvements made to this particular build (as opposed to physical bowazon) which really helped out (keeping trinity arrow at level 1, slowly leveling wyrmshot to work with current mana pool). All in all I made it to 130 with a single reroll.
I do want to say that some of the builds people are complaining about leveling are later game builds. If your character is an amazing bosser like cold werewolf, it makes sense that you'd struggle in the early game to level up. You're rewarded in the late game by being able to run all the bosses for trophies as fast as any build. Same is true for bowazon, which is super hard to level. Your payoff is that you now have one of the best farming builds in the game to hit Duncraig, Fauzt, and Scosglen with MF gear and flourish.
Granted, it shouldn't feel impossibly rough, especially for newer players, but Median has a lot of nuance built into it and with some small steps (such as farming Countess a few times for low level runewords, dedicating early crystals to a TU weapon and its uptiering, mystic orbing gear if you're stuck) I think some of these builds are much more manageable.
We also probably wouldn't be playing Median if levels 1-100 were just handed to us. If we wanted easymode D2, we'd play clod, but clearly we're looking for a challenge. Not just a lategame challenge, but the challenge of flexibly building a character in the early-midgame and adapting whatever we find on the ground to make our build work out. The free rerolls up to level 50 help this out a lot too.
All in all I feel like even the builds I've had trouble leveling are still totally workable given a little ingenuity and some faithful item research. I'd be willing to bet the same for some of the other frustrated people here. That, or maybe you're paying the price now for having a strong build later in the game.
Player leveling struggle poll (Pick 2)
Common Posting Badge
Posted over 1.000 messages
Legendary Popularity Badge
Has a thread with over 250.000 views
Common Supporter Badge
Donated 1 time
I personally dont have issue with early game, but since traditionally ARPG required so much knowledge check, i just fear ppl might get turned off by the difficulty without finding answer for their problem. It was a joke in a past about RTFM or ask in forum/discord to get help, but personally different people will have different tolerance.
Of course the dream would be to make a starter guide or a tool that allow player to search for way / gears to solve their issue, but until that exist i guess ppl will stick to complaining on forum. The poll are probably biased and I just collecting votes just to see stuff from different perspective.
That said, i do feel like some stuff changed recently nerfed early games slightly (although my bias is more toward early median which was super easy normal, but tougher nightmare & hell). Progression for certain build might be changed by recent patch, although I dont have all exact changelogs details. (Not that I played sigma until endgame)
*Personally im more questioning tree design in this channel, which in some case, kinda affect the early game progression. (amazon to be exact)
**Also, Tcow carry to 120 plz lul (I dont play TSW, but i think that what ppl do. I just stick to /players 8 when it was still a thing)
Of course the dream would be to make a starter guide or a tool that allow player to search for way / gears to solve their issue, but until that exist i guess ppl will stick to complaining on forum. The poll are probably biased and I just collecting votes just to see stuff from different perspective.
That said, i do feel like some stuff changed recently nerfed early games slightly (although my bias is more toward early median which was super easy normal, but tougher nightmare & hell). Progression for certain build might be changed by recent patch, although I dont have all exact changelogs details. (Not that I played sigma until endgame)
*Personally im more questioning tree design in this channel, which in some case, kinda affect the early game progression. (amazon to be exact)
**Also, Tcow carry to 120 plz lul (I dont play TSW, but i think that what ppl do. I just stick to /players 8 when it was still a thing)
I'm doing reasonably well as a Summoner Necro right now (I'm only in Normal A3 so far) but I will note that the normal monsters in 2.0 do seem to do significantly more damage than their counterparts in 1.8. Particularly, monsters that do ranged elemental attacks can be dangerous, especially if you run into large numbers of them.
I sure wouldn't want to play a character that doesn't have an army of minions to support him / herself!
I sure wouldn't want to play a character that doesn't have an army of minions to support him / herself!
Great Popularity Badge
Has a thread with over 50.000 views
Common Supporter Badge
Donated 1 time
Totem mancer and WW barb were both quite a breeze to level. WW barb struggled in the beginning, but then I found a bugged area that would consistently give me 2+ levels for each clear for over 22 levels going from 45 to 67 or so. It's a small map so easy to clear. Get an exp shrine in A1, and run the area and you're lvl 65+ in no time.
I've played 4 builds so far this patch and they pretty much cover the entire spectrum:
1. Necro Summoner- 3/10 Worthless summons, very weak damage, clear, and survivability.
2. Javazon- 1/10 This is unplayable. Absolute trash of a spec/design. Honestly could add a 0 to everything they have and it would still feel bad.
3. Totem Necro- 7/10 Enjoyable. Felt balanced overall. Glass cannony, but it was a decently satisfying experience. The teleport gimmick is dogshit though. Swapping to place a cheap totem, dropping totem, swap to teleport, teleport to totem, swap to place cheap totem, etc. etc. is the most half assed design of a movement ability I've ever seen.
4. EQ Barb- 11/10 I feel like I'm cheating. From A1 norm to A1 Hell I literally just sprinted through the game 1 shotting every boss, rare, superunique, didn't matter. This build is busted. Starting to do rifts/dungeons and I just stand there facetanking 40 mobs plus the boss until it dies. Sound effect is overly edgelord levels of loud though. Sounds terrible, plays great.
1. Necro Summoner- 3/10 Worthless summons, very weak damage, clear, and survivability.
2. Javazon- 1/10 This is unplayable. Absolute trash of a spec/design. Honestly could add a 0 to everything they have and it would still feel bad.
3. Totem Necro- 7/10 Enjoyable. Felt balanced overall. Glass cannony, but it was a decently satisfying experience. The teleport gimmick is dogshit though. Swapping to place a cheap totem, dropping totem, swap to teleport, teleport to totem, swap to place cheap totem, etc. etc. is the most half assed design of a movement ability I've ever seen.
4. EQ Barb- 11/10 I feel like I'm cheating. From A1 norm to A1 Hell I literally just sprinted through the game 1 shotting every boss, rare, superunique, didn't matter. This build is busted. Starting to do rifts/dungeons and I just stand there facetanking 40 mobs plus the boss until it dies. Sound effect is overly edgelord levels of loud though. Sounds terrible, plays great.
Diconius wrote:4. EQ Barb- 11/10 I feel like I'm cheating. From A1 norm to A1 Hell I literally just sprinted through the game 1 shotting every boss, rare, superunique, didn't matter. This build is busted. Starting to do rifts/dungeons and I just stand there facetanking 40 mobs plus the boss until it dies. Sound effect is overly edgelord levels of loud though. Sounds terrible, plays great.
What is EQ Barb?
Common Popularity Badge
Has a thread with over 10.000 views
Great Supporter Badge
Donated 5 times
Great Auction Badge
Won 200 auctions
The finale of the AMA still continued to sit on the bench and did nothing good
Chance wrote:Diconius wrote:4. EQ Barb- 11/10 I feel like I'm cheating. From A1 norm to A1 Hell I literally just sprinted through the game 1 shotting every boss, rare, superunique, didn't matter. This build is busted. Starting to do rifts/dungeons and I just stand there facetanking 40 mobs plus the boss until it dies. Sound effect is overly edgelord levels of loud though. Sounds terrible, plays great.
What is EQ Barb?
viewtopic.php?f=40&t=22675
Earthquake (and Shower of Rocks). Basically 2h Barb in the Earthshaker tree. Tanky, solid damage, good singletarget. Super fast runspeed.
Common Posting Badge
Posted over 1.000 messages
Legendary Popularity Badge
Has a thread with over 250.000 views
Common Supporter Badge
Donated 1 time
You not gonna believe, but i just randomly spin 2 random wheel in order to figure out next class I should play.
The result was amazon -> javelin tree.
Since I already have amazon characters, I just resume bowzon test which I stopped at lower kurast. I tried to toying several stuff like reseting skill and try to use only available (some rune and gold) without farming any specific area.
1. Resist / gear check
I noticed that if you have low % resist combine with low health pool, you will be will put into hit recovery to death. There are just too many skill that multiple hit in kurast area & act 4. Noticeable part that I got killed alot : Council (die by random ring of fire i cant move because the hit recovery thingy), Mephisto triple ice lance and maybe some combination of tanky boss. Act 4 issue mostly are in river of flame & chaos with annoying rusher, high elemental damage as well as slow curse. I personally think you need 50% all resists at least here, thankfully TU amazon bow gave some nice resist. Worst part is I cant increase my survivability against spell with any skill point investment for bowzon.
2. Skill build testing.
I tried at least to come out with 3 main playstyle. Phalanx build, Wyrmshot and barrage. 1 point barrage still outperform other skill even with max skill investment, made it more reason to reason to focus on damage source like dragonlore (and new skill beside it) and ecstatic frenzy. Every skill feel like have its drawback, making bowzon skill kinda clunky on its own.
3. Sustaining fight
Since I dont play sigma or median xl for a while, i noticed 1 big fundamental change. Bowzon are now focused on elemental damage rather than physical with damage conversion. The weird part is, if you use elemental weapon, then physical damage conversion do nothing while going for physical bow will some issue. Old bowzon can sustain life & mana easily via life & mana leech. Converting them to elemental mean you have even weaker way to keep your health high.
Conclusion :
I dont like bowzon at least at beginning now. This is fundamentally much weaker than i remembered. Somehow no new mastery can help this much. I always feel like either lack of damage, lack of skill points to seem skill investment not rewarding enough.. yet. Sure if i properly research what kind of gear i needed, probably it will be much better. Considering it slightly to get rune, arcane shard or gold, maybe i should just spend more times to get at least decent gear.
Suggestion:
Consider making paragon as level 30 in skill in neutral tree with nerfed value. Perfect gems is awesome at early game & easy to get. It could increase some survivability for all build. Also add some more defensive mastery skill that can useful late game (although +%max resist probably too strong).
*Im off to javazon until max level. Since I already 40 something and i dont want to accidentally level up without chance to reset. I think i havent play javazon like years (not even in ultimative iirc)
EDITED:
Other suggestion i forgot to mention, that could ease early games problem. Mark of infusion (honorific creator) drop earlier, probably around act 2. Then add several way to get early game MOs either boss itself dropping random MOs or some gold farming (since sunless sea is still far away). Man, I missed the useful & customizable character orb, although it can be OP on certain case.
The result was amazon -> javelin tree.
Since I already have amazon characters, I just resume bowzon test which I stopped at lower kurast. I tried to toying several stuff like reseting skill and try to use only available (some rune and gold) without farming any specific area.
1. Resist / gear check
I noticed that if you have low % resist combine with low health pool, you will be will put into hit recovery to death. There are just too many skill that multiple hit in kurast area & act 4. Noticeable part that I got killed alot : Council (die by random ring of fire i cant move because the hit recovery thingy), Mephisto triple ice lance and maybe some combination of tanky boss. Act 4 issue mostly are in river of flame & chaos with annoying rusher, high elemental damage as well as slow curse. I personally think you need 50% all resists at least here, thankfully TU amazon bow gave some nice resist. Worst part is I cant increase my survivability against spell with any skill point investment for bowzon.
2. Skill build testing.
I tried at least to come out with 3 main playstyle. Phalanx build, Wyrmshot and barrage. 1 point barrage still outperform other skill even with max skill investment, made it more reason to reason to focus on damage source like dragonlore (and new skill beside it) and ecstatic frenzy. Every skill feel like have its drawback, making bowzon skill kinda clunky on its own.
3. Sustaining fight
Since I dont play sigma or median xl for a while, i noticed 1 big fundamental change. Bowzon are now focused on elemental damage rather than physical with damage conversion. The weird part is, if you use elemental weapon, then physical damage conversion do nothing while going for physical bow will some issue. Old bowzon can sustain life & mana easily via life & mana leech. Converting them to elemental mean you have even weaker way to keep your health high.
Conclusion :
I dont like bowzon at least at beginning now. This is fundamentally much weaker than i remembered. Somehow no new mastery can help this much. I always feel like either lack of damage, lack of skill points to seem skill investment not rewarding enough.. yet. Sure if i properly research what kind of gear i needed, probably it will be much better. Considering it slightly to get rune, arcane shard or gold, maybe i should just spend more times to get at least decent gear.
Suggestion:
Consider making paragon as level 30 in skill in neutral tree with nerfed value. Perfect gems is awesome at early game & easy to get. It could increase some survivability for all build. Also add some more defensive mastery skill that can useful late game (although +%max resist probably too strong).
*Im off to javazon until max level. Since I already 40 something and i dont want to accidentally level up without chance to reset. I think i havent play javazon like years (not even in ultimative iirc)
EDITED:
Other suggestion i forgot to mention, that could ease early games problem. Mark of infusion (honorific creator) drop earlier, probably around act 2. Then add several way to get early game MOs either boss itself dropping random MOs or some gold farming (since sunless sea is still far away). Man, I missed the useful & customizable character orb, although it can be OP on certain case.