Malice2kuk said:
I've been out of it for a year or so and just wondering if there have been any major changes in gameplay. I've just reinstalled and all my characters have been deleted, oh well i can live with that.
When i left there was talk of changes in drops to stop farming runs on bosses and changes to boosting, is all this still possible? or will i have to lvl up the old fashioned way.
Also whats the difference between normal and ladder characters because all my characters (even normal) seem to have an expires in 10 days marking now.
thx, *ImmortalWombat
There have been some changes:
1) The "expires in 10 days" happens to new characters that have been played for less than 2 hours. Once you've given them actual game time (standing in town doesn't count), that will go away.
2) Ladder characters have access to runewords and items that non-ladder cannot get (until the end of ladder seasons).
3) Boss runs are still as valuable as ever. The first kill of a boss does a Super Drop (the way it used to be in classic). But the talk of lowering the subsequent boss drops was just talk... it wasn't implemented. Bosses are still the best way to get multiple set/unique drops.
4) Rushing (boosting): A few things have been added to make rushing take longer. The character being rushed can't take town portals in certain areas until something has been completed... they can't go to Canyon of Magi until Summoner is dead, they can't go to Durance of hate until the council has been killed, and you must be at level 20/40/60 to get credit for the ancients quests (though there is a sneaky way around that).
5) One big difference in item hunting is that they've added a new rule to monster levels. Certain areas of the game have Area Levels. Any monster in those areas take on the level of that area. Example: A Fallen in hell has a monster level of 68, and as such can't drop the best items. However, The Pit in the tamoe highlands of Act 1 has an area level of 85, so EVERY monster in there is either level 85, or 87 (champions/bosses), and can drop nearly any item in the game.
That's why you'll see several people talking about Pit Runs. The Mausoleum in the burial grounds is another, as well as river of flame, and a few other places, but The Pit and The Mausoleum are in Act1, so it lets people who aren't ready to face the hard hitting monsters in act 3,4,5 a chance to get the best drops in the game.
