How do you like to play?

[Bjorn]

I play hardcore, solo, untwinked. I tend to start a character, play him obsessively until he dies, have a break for a bit, then start another one, etc. So I usually have only one character at a time higher than about level 12 or so. I don't plan characters in too much depth to begin with - I prefer to start off with a general build idea, and decide on the details once I get an idea of how they're actually going to play. If that means I end up wasting a couple of skill points, then so be it.

I used to MF a bit in softcore, but not any more - I don't have enough patience to be a grailer.

 

[MeBrutox]

I have been known to go both ways :scratch:

Seriously though, it depends on what mood I am in. Sometimes I will start with an untwink character and go through the game with it, sometimes I will start with a twinked character, and sometimes I will start with a untwink, and then twink at higher levels

 

[spiral55]

I play heavily twinked, not so I can own, but so I can stave off frustration. Part of this is because I refuse to play any overpowered builds like Fishymancers, Meteorbs, Hammerdins, etc. and partly because, as I freely admit, I'm not very good at this game. In fact, I'm pretty bad at it in terms of actually controlling a character, although I'm getting a bit better (only took 4 years :bonk: ). So, with my poor playing skills and refusal to play a build that's so easy anyone can do it, my only option is to twink my characters to the eyeballs. My twinking doesn't make the game "easy" for me, it makes it playable.

I admire the heck out of people who can Pat/Mat/Guardian untwinked, non-caster characters. Maybe someday I'll be good enough at the game to pull that off.

 

[phaedrus]

I play HC exclusively and twink heavily. Before I start a character, I have all of his beginning-, mid-, and end-game equipment selected, as well as a build strategy.

Because I have gotten sick of seeing build guides focused on godly uniques or runewords, my current project is to build Guardians in each class without the use of any unique or set items (only normal, magic, rare, and 1.09 runeword equipment). That means LOTS of shopping and lots of gem collecting to reroll magical items.

I love to MF, so when I'm not working on one of my characters, I'm usually doing MF runs. (The fact I'm not using uniques doesn't mean I don't like having them!)

 

[Slartibartfast]

I twink most of my characters very heavy, the higher /players x i can play hell on the more i like it
But once in a while i like a change and go untwinked, A few days ago i started playing hc untwinked with some unusual builds, just to see how far i can get them and maybe to even start my own sept

I'm also working on my own grail (as if i will ever finish all those things :scratch: ) and like to multiplayer once in a while, i guess that's about it

cheers,
Bart

 

[esd]

I play softcore. I always complete all quests and get all waypoints in normal and NM difficulty. I twink my characters heavily, but I have one char that doesn't use gear from trades or giveaways. I don't trade runes - it makes high level runewords especially rewarding - if I can ever get one. I'm also working on a collection of self-found white elite base items - it's currently at 93,94% complete.

 

[Jaffa Tamarin]

I prefer to play untwinked characters with non-standard builds. I've played hardcore in the past (got HC chars to hell in both SP and b.net), but for now I've reverted to softcore for extra challenge (no, really!) I mean, in HC I would feel compelled to go with safer builds that were at serious risk of dying only to the most cheesily overpowered and/or bugged boss packs, whereas in SC I can play characters that are challenging to keep alive even in less extreme conditions. I really wish Blizzard had gone with a death counter (and maybe different titles depending on how few deaths were incurred) instead of the all-or-nothing approach of HC vs SC.

Currently I'm working on a SC septavirate of no-mercenary characters (druid done, sorceress in progress).

Jaffa

 

[Miki-]

I play HC only, always solo and untwinked atm since I have only one character I might twink my next characters, or maybe not...

 

[factotum]

I usually like to twink, but since I'm not into continuous MF runs (find them deathly dull) that doesn't mean as much for me as it might for someone who has every item in the game--even when twinking I don't generally have any uber gear to hand. I also tend to run multiple characters, switching between them as the mood takes me, and since I won't remove any equipment from a character unless I'm either retiring them or upgrading their stuff, this ensures I have even LESS decent gear to go around.

For these reasons I can only DREAM of trying some of the more out-there builds like Zarhrezz's energy shield sorc...

 

[Neely022]

When I play, I tend to twink my characters pretty heavily... well, to say that I 'tend' to do that is abit much since I just started acquiring some of the items that I would even want to mule downwards. I also have a weird thing that when I find a good item, no matter how obscure, I always wanna make a character who could use it. Now that I have 2 Bartuc's... I'm about to start an assassin, though I don't know what kind....

 

[cft]

Was a personal-rules thread recently, very similar to this. But anyways...

* I save items, because I am a packrat.

* I play only with items my characters have found.(no trading) Partially this is a habit from avoiding all the duped items in the Realms trade pool. But partially it's because I get more enjoyment from using the items I found myself.

* I twink my characters. To me, its the end result of the time spent on previous characters, so I don't see it as unfair or unbalancing.

* I play hardcore, because I want the challange, and I don't want to "zerg" my way past bosses, dying several times in the process. Long ago I was loosing interest in D2 classic because "anyone can beat it if you just plow through and die a zillion times". HC put the danger back into dying for me.

* Even if my characters die, I don't want to loose my items. So I mule my items after death with ATMA (before ATMA, I actually played softcore but did not play my chars after they died, I only kept them to be able to mule their gear off)

* I don't delete my highest level ghost, until a new character passes them. I leave the ghost char on the selection screen as a challange.

* oh, and all my characters of the same type use the same name, with roman numerals. My skelemancer is Leethe_III (Leethe and Leethe_II are dead).

* I don't mind skipping quests, skipping waypoints, or worry about doing full clears. But, as I play single player, I don't get waypoints handed to me, I don't get power-leveled or power-acted.

 

[Death_Dealer]

I play twinked in SC but untwinked in HC when I want to abuse myself.

 

[laughingman]

I play untwinked, single player. I have recently dipped my foot into the hardcore waters, but they are awfully cold and the carnivorous fish bit off one of my toes. They grow back in about a week, but it still hurts...

I'm not much of a "full clear" guy, and I have always preferred rares to uniques, so I spend more time gambling than Magic Finding. I'm glad Blizzard made it so much more worthwhile in 1.10.

 

[Urlik_Skarsol]

Since 1.10 was released, I've started both HC and SC untwinked builds. I have a L75 Frenzy Barb Conquerer in Act 1 Hell and a L90 Blizzard/Ice-Blast/FW Sorc Matriarch (my Rune-Hunter).

In each case, I intend to twink down items they find to additional new characters as I see fit.

However, I would like to play each class in 1.10 untwinked for the challenge.


I generally prefer to play Solo, but may MP on occasion. I used to MP with a group organized by Darkness in 1.09 way back when....


Urlik

 

[discreaderror]

it's great to see items that I normally wouldn't look twice at suddenly taking on immense value to me!

Yes, I love that feeling. I think that's a big reason why for the longest time people debated that rares were more common in hardcore. It's not that they were more common, but what was once a crappy rare you wouldn't even bother hauling to town to sell now becomes a very good item. I think that's the biggest reason that debate used to always go on around here(assuming it doesn't still).

 

[tragor]

After about 12 months of fairly steady playing I would classify myself as an ignorant n00B. So I'm still playing to learn the game. And, true to my inner masochist, I learn by playing HC, untwinked.

HC teaches you strategy and focus with a dash of cowardice thrown in.
Untwinked 'cuz I have no gear and I'm too damned lazy to change my equipment anyway.

 

[NSXdreamer]

On twinking, I'll just say that I don't spent hours on MF only to let a hoz sit in my stash while my paladin is struggling with a buckler. :lol:

As for build, I don't follow any guide at all, only read them to see the endgame equiptment recommandation, that's why I don't like guides with no uber equiptment list . I don't like to follow an already defined route, so I don't plan my char much either.

 

[pharaoh]

I play twinked in SC but untwinked in HC when I want to abuse myself.

Hey, no talk of "abusing yourself" on an all-ages forum! :lol: