*UPDATE 1* Doom's beta review, livestream added

[adoomgod]

*UPDATE 1 please read all 3 of my first posts if you want to keep up with my updates. As a general rule I will try to edit new updates into the top of each post, making new info easy to find. The posts are now 3 sections: Post1-Personal Stories, New Features, juicy finds. Post2- Class skill break downs. Post 3- requested features, requested feature changes, bugs. I wrote update .5 because I can't write everything I have for update 1 tonight. I'll finish tomorrow *UPDATE 1*
*UPDATE LS* http://www.livestream.com/gamingwithdoom for livestream and old videos. *UPDATE LS*

I played thru Veteran(hard) and elite(very hard) with my embermage. It feels great but very hard is too hard in the last boss area. You get one-shotted repeatedly. The game is amazing, i lit bandit houses on fire to watch them tumble out, i killed bandit kings, I died here and there, and here and there again.

*U1*
2 NEW FEATURES FOUND! AUGMENTED WEAPON BONUSES!
I found a unique named Grim Flayer that says it will gain some bonus after i kill spiders with it. At 20/20 spiders killed, it just added like 3 more modifiers to the item. It's a powerful bonus.

PASSIVE SPELL SCROLLS. In tl1 all spell scrolls were active casted. In TL2 I just found "Pet Mastery" which gives my pets and minions a 4% dmg and health boost. I put heal all 1 and summon Zombies 1 on my Falcor. More details on those later.

I played 2 more hours+ with Matt Uelman and BrianW. Did I mention that our devs are really nice and chill people? I'm not biased, they are seriously good guys. Anyways, they outleveled me so they mostly just talked with me and pwned stuff. I came to a few new realizations which are written up now throughout my first 3 posts or will be tomorrow. I found a pirate ghost skeleton side quest and the infamous Madrox, the side boss that vomits on you. *U1*

I played for 45 minutes on Normal with 5 Devs! Yup, 5 yellow names popped in to welcome me and tore stuff up.

I won't rave about how amazing it was. It was amazing. Period.

There were some issues I quickly brought up and we generally agreed or, "it's being discussed."

I'll provide screenshots when I'm less lazy.

1. The minimap. When picking your chaaacter you get to pick the color of the little circle that represents you on the map. The problem being that there aren't many colors to pick and when 6 people are on it isn't the clearest. I picked red, because I'm doom, but I believe 2 of the developers did the same.3 I identical red dots buzzing around, not always clear where I was on the map at a glance.

I brought this up and suggested that they change the appearance of your dot for you only, so your character is always a star, or a bigger circle with a black dot in the middle, while others playing still see u as a circle.

On the plus side you can highlight any icon on the map and a tooltip tells you what it is. The UI has been extremely stream-lined and everything feels quicker.

2. Didn't bring this up in game, but the character movement speed is fast. It's great, but I feel it spoils us a little. You are the new hero and man your character must be excited because he sprints everywhere he goes. I think this will make +movement speed items a little crazy OP. I think a simple 5-10% decrease in base movement speed might be.... Fairer. But not being able to test it myself I could be wrong.
*Update 1* This has been addressed. +movement speed items are very rare and movement speed feels good now.

*Update 1* Normal is now properly difficult with more players. Thanks to the dev patch. Perhaps they made monsters scale a little too well with players now...

[adoomgod]

Class Analysis
*U.5* summarizinf some skills, will add accurate data later if not lazy *U.5*
Embermage so far: Very powerful and fun, and i was so rushed i didn't build to well. I will only address the skills I've used and to what extent I've used them.

Magma Spear only lvled to rank 1: shoots rapid fire piercing magma bolts for 33% of weapon DPS(increases per skill rank) and 35% (+5% per skill rank) chance to deal x (scales with character level) fire damage over 3 seconds.
---Useful but I'm rolling more ice/lightning for now. Just experimenting. One thing i find interesting is that my normal, no skill, weapon swing is better then many of my spells, but i realize that's because i haven't invested in nukes. It pierces enemies is what's really handy, so it's better against groups.

Charge Mastery only lvled to rank 1: Charge Decay Decreased by 6% (+6% per skill rank) and 4% (+4% per skill rank) charge bonus.
---This is deceptively useful, more notably on higher difficulties. The problem is that i don't know whether or not you get diminishing returns as you level it. Like maybe the last few levels only give +2% charge decay decreased and +1% charge bonus. I don't think i'd ever max it because I'm just not that mana hungry, but it's really good to have charge bar activated more often. I never have really been in danger yet, but some battles went a lot more smoothly because my charge bar activated just after i ran out of mana, essentially giving another chance to unleash ALL my spells without worrying about cost.

Icy Blast Shoots multiple ice projetiles that each deal 33% weapon dps.(Rank 1) Also has chance to freeze and chance to immobolize. What's the difference? (Devs?) I invested most of my skill points here. Prolly a mistake, maybe not. Things to note: I may be wrong but I think the number of projectiles increases with rank. The amount of projectiles should be in the description but isn't. This skill is mostly for keeping enemies at bay, but up close on big bosses u can get many projectiles to hit at once for good damage. I should have kept it lower because there are other skills I can get more damage out of. I use this to freeze mobs.

Hail Stormcomplicated AoE spell on 3 second cooldown. Casts a lightningblizzard around cursor. Deals direct damage that scales with character level and points invested but here is cool part: all enemies hit buy it take 20%(rank 1) increased lightning and ice damage for 6 seconds. (Don't know if debuff duration goes up). Oh and it has a decent chance to stun, over 56% at rank 3 I think. This is an opener for your ice and lightning skills.

Frozen Fate...just got it. Passive. 20% chance (rank 1) that when you kill an enemy they explode into an ice nova freezing nearby enemies for x seconds. Awesome because this works regardless of element used to kill an enemy.

Prismatic Rift(this thing is awesome) 20% rank 1 (+5% chance per rank, possibly diminishing returns) chance when an enemy hits you to cast "warp rift" teleporting them a away a random distance. I don't know if it does damage but it sure helps take the heat off from fast melees and ranged mobs.

Thunder LocusI named this "Summon Stan" because i love it so much. You summon a crazy awesome lightning orb of death, only 1 allowed at a time, that casts one bolt of electricity at a time. Dmg scales with skill rank and character level. Duration starts at 12 seconds and goes up 2 each rank. I love Stan. He zaps enemies like a lightning turret that can't be targeted back.

Shocking Burstshort lightning cone that u channel, costing mana as long as you hold down the casting button. Enemies killed by this explode which I think deals dmg to other enemies as well. (Devs?) Too weak for my taste. Kind of locks u in place at melee range. Think Darth Sidius. Not worth the point

*will update as time goes by*

[adoomgod]

Bugs/Desired Feature Tweaks/Unbalanced issues
*updated .5*
Unbalanced things
Rare Socketable- (I forget name) Willy's Other Eye effect on weapons - Conveys 75 physical damage over 5 seconds. I don't know if "convey" is anything different then, "+" but it's OP. I found a weak dps wand with 85 phys dmg over 5 seconds built on it. I just shot groups up then fled, the DoT(damage over time) was immensely strong. Saving up these socketables then putting them on a many-sockets-fast-ranged-weapon would make it crazy overpowered.
Does enemy armor even reduce this?

Feature Tweaks I'd like to see
U1--3 BIG ANNOYANCE. When trying to kill 20 spiders to augment my unique Grim Flayer, I discovered 2 things: spells and pet kills down count. I don't know if melee spells count but I'm guessing not. Edit-U1--3.1 on page four I changed my mind. Spells should count toward kills, not pet. Then just increase kills required to make it more balanced.

Also 20 kills seems a bit low. I'd like the range to be like 20-100 for possible requirements on a weapon. Maybe even split like 30 Sturmbeornen and 20 spiders. End game gear should have 1000+ kills to unlock. Maybe the best sword could have 100 of each monster type. Maybe the best armor could require you go back and kill each act boss once.

U1--1. Elite difficulty is fine until you reach the area the final act boss is in. There are 2 big problems: The Glaive Throwers that he summons and appear leading up to him are way too powerful. Especially elite versions which easily one-shot you, even at lvl 21. The final boss is pretty good but he summons dark lightning from the sky which also oneshots you. Hawkn's livestream shows us each dying like 100 times to him.

U1--2. I think the modifiers from enchanters should be a different color than the intrinsic magic modifiers on an item, same goes for modifiers added from "augmented weapons."

U.5--1. In Diablo 2 u could see your damage range (ie 5-7, 2-38, w/e dmg) for the spells you assigned to your left and right mouse button. (Your primary and secondary spells) I'd like this in TL2. While the spell does have a description like 33% weapon dps (increasing with skill points), or 58-99 fire dmg,( scaling with your characters level) the former gives no range, forcing me to do math, and the both examples don't show me my spells damage after bonuses from focus (tl2's intelligence stat variant) and +%dmg modifiers on my equipment.

1.You can't rotate your character at the load screen, which is horrible. I got this badass huge shield (unique) and it blocked most of my character. Let us rotate them for screenshots pleaaaaase.

2.The quit button is hard to find. Lol. Its a very faded x in the top right of the screen. Uhhh, yes I don't want to leave, I love tl2, but I was about to cntrl alt delete it before I found it. Just have a "quit game" button after new game load and options plz.

3.Way too many potions dropped. I had 50+ hp pots at lvl 12, tho i am playing on Normal. Still.
*Update 1* Never mind. You run out of potions in elite mode... Maybe make less drop in normal.

4.Two in one here: First, an inspect button. This just nice, a right click-> inspect on ur ally to see their gear without them having to stop playing or popping a window up in their face, so it only affects you in the form of a window containing their equipment, spell scrolls, skill spec, stats. Secondly a way to link items into chat like in path of exile. For example, open inventory, press enter to chat, control click an item and it's name appears in chat. Any player who clicks the item's name in chat gets a tiny pop up window of the item's stats n description.

5.Stash size. You get a character stash and a shared stash. Each is like 3x bigger than before because they have a tab for equipment\socketables, potions\scrolls\spells, and fish. I think. I suggested it be made bigger because some people like to collect cool unique model'd gear, like me, and there is not enough equipment space for the course of the whole game, IMO. More stash space never hurts right? Personally I can't get enough. Devs said it's being discussed.

6. Fishing; still boring. Minigame is harder, and u can get dynamite which instantly let's u get fish, but u get less attempts at the fishing hole. Me and Zidders on another thread suggested fishing should be automated. Rods should be part of the loot game, you find higher lvl rods that decrease the time it takes to fish. Devs said it's being discussed. I hope this passes because fishing loot would be very interesting to me and I don't like the minigame.

Bugs and Issues
U1--1. I found in the ice area on elite difficulty after dying in an area and teleporting in and out something strange happened. When my ally Hawkn teleported out for a bit, i noticed enemies weren't reacting to me. I had a good 2 minutes of killing enemies without them moving.

1. I found 2 rare helmets. One offered 3 dex, among other things, and the other had 4 dex and other things. I noticed when i switched helmets via right clicking the better one in my inventory, MY GLOVES UNEQUIPPED AUTOMATICALLY. Not a big deal, but i had to figure out why. It was because i didn't have enough dexterity without the helmets to equip the gloves. HOWEVER, both helmets enabled me to equip the gloves and thus the gloves unequipping themselves was unnecessary. I could use the gloves with both helmets, so what happened was for the millisecond between switching helmets where i lost 3 dex before gaining 4, the gloves were unusable and unequipped.

See this is a tiny tiny thing, unlike the next bug. But here is the important aspect: I only noticed my gloves unequipped because my inventory was near empty and the gloves appeared right next to where my helm was. However, if my inventory was full or near full, the glove would appear at the end of the inventory or on the floor, increasing the chance i don't notice this occurrence or just wasting time. minor minor thing, probably a pain to fix in coding, but would be nice.

2. Much bigger. Show Helmet Toggles is broken. I mean it works but brokenly. If i toggle show helmets off. Everyone's helmets are removed. that's silly. Even worse, if other people don't have it toggled off, they see my helm whether or not i have it off! This is not the purpose and not how it works in other game. When i toggle "show helmet" off it should only affect my helmet, and it should make me appear helmet-less to others in game with me. The whole point of this feature is to give our character's faces a chance to shine, and it changes the personality of one's appearance. There is something bold though unrealistic about fighting without one's helmet. It makes me feel more like a mine character and less like a npc guard. I REALLY REALLY think this should be changed.

[carrierx]

awesome !

Thanks Doom0r

[Neverr]

nice job, im glad to see so much information about the game, the good things and the one that still need a little work.

[Buio]

Thanks for the comments on TL2 beta, enjoyed reading.

[Crypto137]

1) What does a beta invite look like?
2) Have your Runic Account Management page changed?

[jamesL]

I've read many tweets and posts where people say something like "my 6 year old daughter loved the first TL, so I bought the pre-order as soon as it was available"

so I don't have a problem with normal being easy

I think TL2 should have a "children's" mode (no offense meant to anyone)
I think the art style for TL2 can definitely be enjoyed by both old and young alike (where as POE and D3 seem to be for a more "mature" audience)
so I think it's great if TL2 has a difficulty that can appeal to a younger audience also

[Brixtan]

Thumbs up Doom - great first impressions! Keep 'em coming!

[Ulvaak]

I've read many tweets and posts where people say something like "my 6 year old daughter loved the first TL, so I bought the pre-order as soon as it was available"

so I don't have a problem with normal being easy

I think TL2 should have a "children's" mode (no offense meant to anyone)
I think the art style for TL2 can definitely be enjoyed by both old and young alike (where as POE and D3 seem to be for a more "mature" audience)
so I think it's great if TL2 has a difficulty that can appeal to a younger audience also

I would support a "Children's mode" and an option to turn off blood.

[adoomgod]

1) What does a beta invite look like?
2) Have your Runic Account Management page changed?

1. An email, which welcomes me the the tl2 network test, gives me the activation key, the dl link, and info.

2. No.

I've read many tweets and posts where people say something like "my 6 year old daughter loved the first TL, so I bought the pre-order as soon as it was available"

so I don't have a problem with normal being easy

I think TL2 should have a "children's" mode (no offense meant to anyone)
I think the art style for TL2 can definitely be enjoyed by both old and young alike (where as POE and D3 seem to be for a more "mature" audience)
so I think it's great if TL2 has a difficulty that can appeal to a younger audience also

Um, I'm going to be blunt but please don't take offense: that's what easy mode is for. In my mind:

Easy - young peoples, and people who just aren't that great at vidja games (which there is nothing wrong with)
Normal - people new to ARPGs, average gamers
Hard - Veteran ARPG gamers, people trying to fall into that category
Very Hard - Pro arpg gamers
Mod beyond VH - Masochists

More to come! I'm very busy

*edit* I believe devs have said in past there will be a "no gore option"

[Shixax]

Good feedback, I appreciate the time you took to write this, thanks. I personally believe groups of max 4 people would be good, because if there's too many people on-screen it could be mayhem. Maybe that's just me, but I sure hope when playing online they allow us to limit the amount of people with let in our games.

[adoomgod]

Good feedback, I appreciate the time you took to write this, thanks. I personally believe groups of max 4 people would be good, because if there's too many people on-screen it could be mayhem. Maybe that's just me, but I sure hope when playing online they allow us to limit the amount of people with let in our games.

You are more than welcome, and while I agree with you, I have go to say, 6 people is fun. Totally imbalanced chaotic fun at the moment, but fun nonetheless. It was really nice being able to play with 5 devs, and with this post i am diving back in!

[jamesL]

Um, I'm going to be blunt but please don't take offense: that's what easy mode is for. In my mind:

Easy - young peoples, and people who just aren't that great at vidja games (which there is nothing wrong with)

aw, didn't know there was an easy mode

[Zidders]

1. Agree with you here


2.Totally agree here, too

3.Agree, and good to hear
4. This is one of my main problems. When fishing holes didn't have a set number of tries, missing the red circle was frustrating but not punishingly so. This time around, there's a lot more pressure. If I miss now, I actually feel angry at myself. Not everyone will feel this way, but it still adds an extra layer of disappointment/frustration to what should be a relaxing event, or at least a fun one.

I'll add that one other minigame frustrates me. The level puzzle minigame. I personally didn't really dig it because you can't really see the entire area, so you really don't know if you turned the right switch unless you run over to where you can see what area you've opened up and then run back. Dungeons & Dragons online had a smilar sort of puzzle only it involved getting certain points on a magical power grid to line up in a way that allowed power to course through and eventually touch the magic item in the center. Something like this might have worked better only because it doesn't involve stuff opening and closing offscreen where you can't see it.

5.Normal is way too easy for 'normal' and easy is too easy even for easy. I thought that very hard and elite were fine in four player bordering on 'normal' type difficulty with 6, so scaling does seem to be a bit wonky

6.Agree, and about the rotation, too. I still think there needs to be an in game 'vanity' cam where you can get a nice large view of your character where they would fill the screen, with the ability to rotate around it.

[gluemchen]

Happy you found stuff right away that bothered you. Miniboss in 20 sec is definetly too fast. In easy well ok, but not in normal though.
Great write up Doom.

[Chthon]

Thanks doom!

And good job on the constructive criticism re: player dots, movement speed, scaling, etc.

[Graeystone]

About 5 Difficulty - That's co-op though. Do you think you could do just as well in SP with the same situation?

[travisbaldree]

Thanks for the feedback, Doom!

Quite notes on difficulty - we expected things would be pretty easy with high party counts in this one. 6 players is a murdercoaster - in normal, MORESO - and progress is insanely fast with that many people destroying everything, stacking debuffs, and sharing XP.

We will be adjusting this probably quite a bit during beta as we gather data, observe, and work on balance. In fact, the next build should have some larger-party-size difficulty adjustments. We will undoubtedly slide the difficulty around quite a bit for all difficulty levels as well.

Honestly though, our expectation is that anybody who has played ARPGs at any length should probably play Veteran, and we're trying to name the difficulties and descriptions in such a way as to lead people to the right one. The fact that you can change your difficulty pretty much whenever you want makes it less of a pain than in TL1.

It has been in the plan for rotation on the char create screen. I usually hate it when your feet just slide around on the ground, so we were sort of hoping for a room that worked better to orbit in, but we may scrap that restriction and just let you rotate. It's not that big of a deal.

We don't do as much movement speed boost as in TL1, so we don't expect you to move a TON faster - movement speed tuning has a lot to do with areas and traversal times, especially since we have more backtracking and much bigger zones than TL1. Nobody likes walking slowly past a big pile of corpses to get back to where they want to be.

We're planning on autoassigning you a color in MP games. Just didn't quite get around to it for these first builds.

[adoomgod]

1We don't do as much movement speed boost as in TL1, so we don't expect you to move a TON faster - movement speed tuning has a lot to do with areas and traversal times, especially since we have more backtracking and much bigger zones than TL1. Nobody likes walking slowly past a big pile of corpses to get back to where they want to be.

2We're planning on autoassigning you a color in MP games. Just didn't quite get around to it for these first builds.

More coming my good man! You are always welcome!

1. Perfect, I was talking with BrianW in game today and i realized yes, as long as the movement speed bonuses you find on items stay small, it won't be overpowered. Still, the fast movement speed gives ranged classes a huge advantage over melee ones. I do humbly suggest giving monsters more slows as you get further into the game.

2. Awesome, because I was not able to find who I was at a glance at all when 2 other people were the same color circle as me.