The Exile's Path

Day 5 (29.04.2016)

Came to my senses, looked around; it seems it's still dark outside the window, but for some reason the date on the calendar has changed. Things happen.

Cruelty
Completely conquered all four acts on the second of three difficulty levels. Overall, this took far less time because I already knew where to run and who to kill, and generally didn't waste time anywhere.
Distinguishing features of Cruel versus Normal:

• Increased level and stats for enemies;
• Expanded locations, high enemy density;
• Greater number of elite packs and mini-bosses;
• New abilities and general access to unique skills even for every own shabby skeleton;
• New locations, new quests (secondary), new rewards, faster exp boost;
• Deadly experience penalty (sigh, can't just die normally now);
• New little monsters, like these, these cuties or even these;
• Bosses and their minions have also leveled up like Dariuses and are well-prepared for battles with outcasts;

I won't talk about interesting locations and special (un)friends today; I'll save them for Merciless to be completely objective regarding the ease or difficulty of individual subjects.


Explosions, death, flame, death, incineration, death: heat, stir, repeat until a noticeable result is achieved
Perhaps if I suddenly decided to play on hardcore, the Sorceress would be the last character I'd do it with (unless in the Necromancer specialization, which doesn't carry well at high levels, mde). Nevertheless, in terms of the speed of exterminating everything living (and not so much) on the map, this class probably beats all others by a long shot. Shotgun DPS on a single target goes over twenty-five thousand units, and the handheld Armageddon splits all victims within sight into atoms. As it turns out, even bosses cannot withstand several direct hits from nuclear warheads, but in battles with them, unfortunately, you can't cast them normally—the wind-up time is just too long, but anyway. On the other hand, I treated myself by defeating all final bosses without rips, which left me very satisfied.
And now about the downsides and flaws that affect specifically the Sorceress and none of the other classes. And if you barely feel them on Normal, here everything is much more serious, and it's even scary to imagine what awaits me on Merciless.
1) The need for direct interaction with object-characters—entering the line of sight of act bosses to activate corresponding events. The main and primary source of 90% of my deaths. Let me explain. In such difficult and heavy times, neither magical armor nor health pools save slender little Sorceresses from one-shots by own evil demonic abominations, so it's best to keep a safe distance from such nastiness. Here, however, we are specifically forced to approach another chest—trigger a dialogue with another boss—etc. It would seem that such a situation could be elegantly bypassed by adding even a second's delay before activating the combat event, but no, not so. Most often your future opponent simply chops/bites off your head a moment after it starts, while I have no way to respond to this, only frantically trying to use teleport. Sometimes it works, sometimes not, bad luck. But still unpleasant.
2) "Very well-chosen battlefields." In Diablo 3, this problem was eliminated by expanding combat zones with various fast-moving melee bosses; here we often have toilet-sized rooms where you have to huddle up with some not-so-pleasant unhygienic personalities. And maybe this adds its own difficulty, but essentially it just removes the possibility of kiting and encourages frantic teleports to town during especially dangerous combat phases. Anti-fun, as for me. Conversely, with enemies shooting bows or standing still, the far edges of the map are lost in the fog, heh, mda.
3) Enemies outside the hero's line of sight take no damage. A serious problem that surfaced during labyrinth walkthroughs, which, again, was easily solved in D3. Enemies that the player character doesn't see aren't displayed until the door opens/you turn a corner; here they are visible but protected from any damage, including AoE. Moreover, there is a serious flaw in the programmed AI behavior, which can simply lose sight of the hero hiding behind a small tree or post. Of course, such glitches aren't everywhere, but generally they clearly stand out.
4) Unfinished enemies. It's no secret that for us as ranged fighters, map visibility is a very important part of combat; however, there are guys who see further and better than we do. Due to the great 3D, it's clear that the bottom part of the map is always lit worse and visibility there is below average, which allows some snipers to land a headshot on the hero before they have even the slightest chance to react. The second most frequent cause of my deaths at this difficulty level.
5) Flaws of magical shields. This is probably more whining than a flaw, but the fact is that in the game there are too many creatures and abilities that destroy or ignore our main source of survival. In this regard, evasion rating or armor adds much more survivability; for us, it's essentially a second health bar that doesn't work against poison or piercing weapons, and generally for a mage with any health pool, it doesn't matter—it's still one-shots.


Break
Well anyway, let's not talk about boring things. I want to tell you about our dear questgivers, specifically those responsible for giving us various same-old side quests, appearing randomly in game locations at the most convenient moment. By completing their requests, we improve reputation (and get no exp, ha, why are they even needed) and feel like more authoritative and respected people. Okay, actually they open access to some mediocre weapons and materials for building your own country estate farm, but I had enough of that interesting activity in WoW Pandaria, no thanks.

Vagan, Weaponmaster

A bully, a carouser, a duelist, and someone who loves to measure weapons with everyone, even cute little witches like us. Quests usually involve friendly duels "not to the death, come on, don't be afraid—I won't kill ya, oh sorry," sometimes he gets offended and brings in his homies from the neighborhood. One of my least favorite masters, not only because I'm not interested in his weapon knowledge and crude humor, but mainly due to the need for manual duel activation, after which he instantly and joyfully skewers you on his rapier, which, agree, is hurtful and unpleasant.

Vorici, Master Assassin

A not-like-everyone-else assassin who is too old to kill and therefore sends us on errands. It would seem that nothing could be better, but as reputation grows, the guy's quests become even more wonderful: kill this one so you don't hit the guards; steal that right behind the guard's back; keep that one at low HP for ten seconds; feed this one your chest, kiss it on the forehead and put it to sleep. His quests are no more useful than those of the first master, but completing them as an AoE mage is quite a hassle. Oh, and he can "create" an assassination target right next to you, after which fifteen bodyguards charge into your carcass with joyful screams, turning you into bloody mince.

Tora, Master of the Hunt

The leader among local Greenpeace members and the society for environmental protection and preserving nature's purity in an unchanged form. Therefore she only hunts sick, infected, demonic, and just strange beasts—ah wait, everyone here is like that, so you can kill them all indiscriminately. The quests are appropriate. She is revered among archers; some even found cults in her honor. For a witch burning forests along with their inhabitants, she provides no benefit.

Haku, Armourmaster

Doesn't drink, doesn't smoke, leads a healthy lifestyle—an athlete, a Komsomol member, and just a handsome guy. He only suffers from excessive absent-mindedness, because of which he manages to lose his own spirit in the most dangerous places of the underworld with extraordinary frequency. We, as simple and kind people, have to rescue the unlucky Armourmaster every time, who thanks us with unliftable armor and other iron junk. Judging by how often I stumbled upon the lost little man in almost every game location, there's a suspicion that he's just mocking us. By the way, there is a possibility that this spirit isn't even his—not for nothing does it always try to run away and summon all sorts of filth to its aid, and apparently is somehow connected to his criminal past. The quest dungeons themselves shine with their unpredictability: it could be an easy location filled with weak monsters, or something like this.

Elreon, Loremaster

Loves to summon totems and tell interesting stories by the campfire. In his free time from work, he trades library books, magical rings, and amulets of various usefulness. The quests are not difficult, involving the protection or destruction of a corresponding number of totems, but I encountered him very rarely—a pity, too modest and quiet. The most sane of all eight masters.

Catarina, Master of the Dead

My little witch's best friend: smart, cheerful, a mad beauty, and an equally interesting conversationalist. Lived a long and full life; spends her immortality exterminating living beings, attacking human towns, and raiding for greedy civilized island residents. There is always something to learn from her, both in magic and in summoning various pets. Similar quests—find lost doggies created from the bodies of various creatures before they eat some savage settlement, feed demonic kitties with human hearts, help finish building a monument. It's also amusing to see her reaction (or rather lack thereof) to key plot events, while others start screaming and rush to share their feelings. The right approach to the matter.

Leo, Master of the Arena

Also a giver of dailies and an encourager of player enmity. Earns money from bets at arenas, where he specifically puts players of level 70 and above against novices. Gives various bonuses for items. A successful man who has achieved everything in life. A businessman of the demonic continent. Passes himself off as exceptional and special, and also, according to rumors, the strongest person in Ertenia. However, he doesn't enter the arena himself because there are no worthy opponents for him there. He takes great care of his hairstyle and looks after his fancy armor polished to a shine—just try staining it!

(The last master is only for end-game content, for which I haven't yet collected all necessary map pieces, so I will find and describe him later.)


Results: day 5
Playtime: ~14 hours (43h total)
Character level: 61
Experience gained: ~170.000.000
Number of deaths: ~15
Game modes: Cruel ✓


couldn't resist, I just love the local chat too much