MXL 2017 first impressions

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Crash
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Tadace wrote:Median Xl was entirely based around a new and awesome endgame which is the reason these tedious time consuming quests were removed. I'm not sure why they added it back. If you want people to experience it, force them to do it once in Hatred.


Read the comment above that discusses a shortcut for creating the staff and flail.
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masochista
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Changing K3K place from spider forest to travincal is still confusing for me, ever after 10+ runs.
Overall, changes are pretty good imo. I'm playing Throwbarb and I don't have any problems with def or farming arcane crystals. M2017 is not so fast paced and I like that you cannot speedrun through everything untwinked.
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ChuckNoRis
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just finished hatred with all 7 classes , levels between 66 and 71 , all untwinked since plugy gives me that damn error c0000005 and i don't have the patience at the moment to do the needed stuff to fix it , in order to get the consumables from the older shared stash - arcane crystals / signets of experience / signets of gold / shrines / runes/ other crap usualy used for twinking .

impressions so far : hatred is indeed easy mode . i mean... with the paladin (melee retaliator) i went till act 5 with just t1 and t2 random rares , two TU's and shity runewords without feeling the need to upgrade my gear . i've kept all arcane crystals in inventory just to see where can i reach with crapy gear . once i\ve reached the crystalline passage i've decided to up my gear and push the pedal .

the only downside i felt was that if you can't get honorifics till act 5 (untwinked) it kinda sucks for minion based builds as you don't have many options to boost your army + the MO's are quite expensive , judging from that point of view .

by the time you get enough gold to do some proper honorifics you'll find sacred items and shrines so you'll get crafts instead . after you reached terror you're only a few hours away from doing Fauztinville , the heaven of shrines . i'm not sure anyone will invest into honorifics without twinking gold or farming the shit out of IOTSS

will revert with Terror impressions in about 2 days when i estimate i'll finish it with all classes .
Edited by ChuckNoRis 8 years.
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pantzirno
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I finished Hatred with 50 lvl with sorc.
Hatred was toned down way too much, I didn't mind dying once a while due to my mistakes or lack of good equipment. I went from instagibbing mobs to just barely keeping up with Terror enemies on Act 1. Have I just lucked out with my build? Tran Athula level challenge was also a piece of cake.
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Wasp
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Ok, the mod introduce a much more slick and interesting game play, the item affixes are supercool new stuff everywhere: it's good.

What i find weird though is how a breeze Hatred can be to a specific build, but can turn out to be an absolute chore for another; Take melee necro: now it is slower (note that i don't judge i only state things) so the gameplay is a bit sluggish. Add the fact that there is cold type mob in every map and end up with a shitty slow necro that cannot leach, hit less than a hit for every 2 seconds on every maps... Not counting low def and/or res because honorific have only +30 res now. For me it seems harder as a melee( Necro). (also i have 120% fhr so no excuses +T6 items is early terror)

NOW: I will, tomorrow, try to do a caster type game play and I will add a comment about how hard it feels. If it feels too hard I will delete my account, admit I am a noob and commit seppuku :lol:
Edited by Wasp 8 years.
Felnah
Prowler
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Co-op partner and I have a love hate relationship with the patch so far. No belladonna's being the biggest negative simply because of stat allocation and priority changes requiring the use of Akara respecs. We play TCP/IP, but my VM doesn't work with D2SE, so no plugy.

He' a melee necro, I'm a throwbarb. Throwbarb has been absolutely useless (in P8 terms, P1 hatred is a cakewalk regardless of build, even in MXLU) until decent elemental damage. Wolves+Lion stance worked well for bosses, but the wolf aoe is too small to affect groups well enough and snake stance doesn't scale well enough to carry. For him the attack speed reduction on scythes was a big problem, especially with all the slowing in the game (Mephisto was absolutely impossible for him to solo farm on P1, with acceptable gear).

Don't really care about the removal of -res as long as enemies are balanced enough so that it isn't required endgame. I'm completely fine with the rare item changes, I love that health potions drop plentifully.

Will have to wait till endgame to see if the mo changes are really a problem, I'll trust that they're balanced correctly.
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TomKatz03
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The concept median xl 2017 is awesome. No need complain it...
I was started with my sorceress on hatred difficulty yesterday. It was PIECE OF CAKE! I was completed hatred difficulty in 40 min and less with crap gears.
I want to say about Tran Athulua uber map. It is really nice and much better than old tran athulua map Gratz!
I feel that median xl 2017 bring classic diablo back i mean quests. That is good for us because new players are going to learn how to play and learn the new concept when sigma will release soon.
Oh, I was forgot to say about my sorc style : Lightning + Magic THAT'S IT !
I start Terror difficulty with my sorceress today and i'll comment here when i m done terror difficulty + challenges things.

On Hatred DIFFICULTY

PROS :
Gameplay is really nice. Much better than before
Less confusion about orb + craft + honorific things
Monster is a lot harder and better than before. (I m really happy)
Apple makes money money

CONS :

Lower damage but ok...
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RandomOnions
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have fun in terror
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Goodkidscc
Core Lord
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It has its pros and cons. Mob density in durance of hate is clearly greater than before, it's tougher to build up resists, but after you get decent gear and stats the game feels a bit easier.

I hate the newer duncraig layout with all the trleporting, but it also feels like duncraig was optimized. It feels smoother and cleaner, and I like that that odd tunnel was opened up into another room. Plus the full auto map is badass, as is tran athulua. My only gripe with duncraig is that it feels like most of the barrels are invisible and I die ALOT.


Overall I like the new patch. I always start the new ladders off with a traprat, and it feels like the midgame is muuuuch easier than in previous patches.
Esubane
Dark Huntress
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Ye I was really used to skipping hunting those quest items, that feature has been there in Median XL for a really long time.

I guess I will just farm some Arcane Crystals, craft like 5x of each q item, put it in shared stash and that's it.