Median 2007 1.31 - Triumph of the Will

Median 2007 1.31 - Triumph of the Will

Back again with a new version of the mod (The Modâ„¢).

If you've played 1.24 T before:

- Five new uberbosses; The Butcher, Akarat, Death Projector, Tal Rasha and Koth.
- Nerfage of certain overpowered skills & items, boosts to underpowered skills & items.
- A certain bugfix...

If you've played pre-1.24 versions before, but not 1.24 T:

- Much easier - the 'grind' problem that started in Median 2 SE is gone.
- Two new uberbosses; Infernal Machine and Azmodan, with special charm drops.

If you've never played Median 2007 before:

- 30 new skills per class, each skill 'branch' is shared by 2 characters (105 brand new skills).
- New items, 6 tiers of item quality - tier 6 caps have 200+ defense.
- Monster AI changes, new monster attacks, providing monsters with more 'personality'.
- New runewords, uniques, rune stats, gem stats, magic affixes, etc...

Screenshot - Koth uberboss - Yes, that's a morph aura.
Screenshot - Death Projector uberboss - Omg lazor pew pew!1!
Screenshot - new Baal fight - Spaaamm!

Mods by Laz

 

So uhm.. isn't Tal Rasha one of the good guys? :grin:

 

Visit the site... what Laz has done with it is pretty cool. Not that I've played the mod (yet...).

 

Perhaps he became a little naughtier with Baal's soul stone stuck in his chest. :smiley:


Nice pics Laz. :thumbsup:

 

He is, but you turn into Baal for the occasion. Koth is a good guy too (D2 manual, Mace Mastery) and you turn into Diablo when you fight him. Those are special high level quests and should be ...special.:wink3:

 

brother laz you are amazing with what you are able to get from diablo. too bad that have many projects in SP.
but now and then i still play your mod.
awesome!!!
keep it this way!!!

 

Median is just about the best mod out there. I only wish I had the time to play it!

 

I wish I had the computer to play it.. I average about 20 FPS and from that screenshot I saw about 20 meteor's falling at once. My computer would flip me off, then explode into flames.

 

I just downloaded a version and I think Ill give it a try!
Thanks laz.

 

Does the MF running, lv85 running and boss drop in 1.11b apply on this mod?

 

this mod is a total conversion. lvl areas are different, item, skill, monsters. take a look at his webpage for more info about

 

Again, good work. Nice to see that you are still active.

I'm curious ... do you have an idea of how many downloads you've had for your mod(s)?

I'd be interested to know on a general scale how many people actively play your mod.

 

I've started (with 1.24), it's a lot tougher and faster, but fun. (And I'm not even out of normal yet)

@Suiling: It's completely different concerning just about everything. And unlike RRM or RWM this mod does NOT mix with normal vanille.

 

The MF mechanics haven't changed, but the items used and the area levels are different. More areas are level 95 and boss drops are better, but don't expect to defeat the end bosses so easily anymore... And there are the 7 new uberbosses, which may require special character setups to defeat them.

......

I'm going to put up a list of area levels in the near future, but the general rule is that pretty much every area from Act 3 Destruction (Hell) onwards is level 95. On the other hand, there aren't really too many items that require level 95 to find.

......

Hard to tell, because it resets with each new version and the download counter at Fileplanet is blatantly incorrect. Count on ~5-7K total downloads of 1.24 T over the past three weeks. Not many of them seem to find their way to the forum, though.

Over the past 1.5 year, I've probably hit 100K but most for incompatible or now outdated versions.

......

A quick guide for the item hunting professional

Item types 101

There are no exceptional and elite items, but six 'tiers' of item quality, each with increasing stats, reqs and level. Magic and rare items have 50% chance to spawn with a random amount of sockets. Uniques always spawn with max sockets.

Splint Mail (1): 107-214 ac, 61 str, level 10 (req 6), 2s
Splint Mail (2): 176-336 ac, ** str, level 24 (req 15), 3s
Splint Mail (3): 269-502 ac, 128 str, level 39 (req 23), 4s
Splint Mail (4): 392-716 ac,186 str, level 53 (req 32), 4s
Splint Mail (5): 548-994 ac, 270 str, level 68 (req 41), 5s
Splint Mail (6): 746-1346 ac, 391 str, level 82 (req 49), 6s

Uniques: Base items go up to 90, but you can take a lower level item and upgrade it to the highest 'tier' (level ~80-90). You could find tier 1 Harp of Vengeance, the unique long war bow (required level 12, (53-64) to (114-160) damage) and keep upgrading it to a tier 6 long war bow (required level 57, (465-512) to (821-914) damage) and get the same item as you would get if you killed Destruction Baal and he dropped a tier 6 Harp of Vengeance. The difference, of course, includes a Ber rune and 600 'crafting points' to upgrade it all the way.

Uniques are generally equivalent to good rares, with no really overpowered modifiers but a 'theme' and a guaranteed max number of sockets. Many high level uniques have 3-6 sockets. You can then put some nice runes or jewels into them. Another advantage is their low required level (equal to the level requirement of the base item), enabling you to upgrade their damage or defense with the Human Spirit recipe (at the cost of a required level penalty) without putting them out of reach.

Their drawbacks are that a lucky rare can beat them, and they don't really excel in any area.

Runewords: Runewords are much more common, ranging from El-El ('Rebel' body armor) to Zod-Zod-Ber-Zod-Sur-Zod ('Rampage' weapon). Every rune is used in at least ~10 runewords. Socketed items are fairly common, and most people use mostly runewords on their way to the end game. By the way, yes, you can find a Zod in a lifetime (~1/60 chance in level 95 areas).

Their main drawback is that you cannot upgrade them and they have no free sockets (they usually lose the rune bonuses, too). They are 'easy' end-game gear, but both uniques and rares beat them. Many runewords are themed, and some have built-in drawbacks as well.

Rares: A lucky rare could be one of the best items in the game, but the chance of getting the right affixes and the right number of (random) sockets on the right base item is obviously low. Still, bad affixes are eliminated from the affix pool at higher levels, meaning you will never find less than +131% enhanced damage on a magic or rare weapon that spawns with enhanced damage at level ~90, and you are much more likely to get enhanced defense on an armor than +light radius.

The affix pool is different; there is less +skills, more +skill damage%, more resistances and less flat +life/mana. Base items do much more damage and have way more defense, but the monsters nicely compensate for this.

To find a good rare, you do have to reach out and touch some high level monsters. Most affixes improve all the way until level ~90, and unlike uniques, upgrading rares to a higher item tier does not reroll their modifiers to better values.

Crafts: Crafts require hard to find runes and the chance of getting something useful is low, but if when is useful, it is really useful. This is where you get items with +450% enhanced damage, six open sockets and a required level of 70 and +60% off-weapon ED% on the weapon. These items will blow away everything else in the game, buuut... you need a Zod rune and 1600 crafting points to even attempt the craft, then you need to get lucky with the random preset attributes and lucky again with the rare affixes and even more lucky with the number of sockets.

This is what the big boys play with. There are crafting recipes for lower level characters, though.

Hunting grounds

As mentioned above, half of Destruction difficulty is level 95, giving you lots of options.

Baal: A great experience and MF area is Baal, because he spawns with three Spirits that each produce a Baal-quality drop as well, leading to very good loot even with rock bottom MF%. The drawback is that you actually need to be strong enough to have Baal on farm status, which is a lot harder than in the regular game.

Mephisto: Not too hard to get to and yields nice loot, but he too is much harder than in the regular game. Still, he should be fairly easy for the professional.

Travincal: The advantage of this area is that it has lots of bosses in a small area. The disadvantage is that you turn into a Hierophant when you so much as get near the temple, forcing you to kill the bosses at the speed of slow. They drop good loot, but Baal's quadruple Prime Evil drop is still better. The chest mechanics haven't changed, and people have reported a fountain of 4 or more uniques from a single sparkly chest - if you need high runes, Travincal may be the place to be. It can drop all the way up to Zod!

The Cow Level: Masses of Act 5 C monsters with only physical (and ranged magic) attacks, but it is very hard and not really possible to 'farm'. If you can survive it, you get nice loot but not much experience.

The Countess: Still capable of dropping nice r00nz and easy to reach, but the Tower is about twice as large and she faces competition from--

Andariel: The irritating raxjailcatscrypt maze is much smaller, making it actually possible to reach Andy in a reasonable amount of time. She drops slightly better runes than the Countess and slightly more often.

Stormbane: A superunique located in Act 2 Palace 1 (surprise!). Its drops are on par with a late Act 2 superunique, but on Destruction difficulty this includes most good items in the game and he is very accessible.

The dungeon uberbosses: The three 'special' bosses, Infernal Machine, Death Projector and Azmodan. They are very tough until you have defeated the respective difficulty level (and remain tough even after you do), but drop good loot and especially Azmodan is easy to reach from the Upper Kurast waypoint. Naturally, Azmodan is the hardest uberboss.

Both Infernal Machine and Azmodan come with a pack of high level, Act 5 C monsters that may drop good itamz as well, and in fact Infernal Machine summons more for your convenience. Death Projector does not really drop anything great, but yields lots of experience and is easier to reach than Baal.

In Destruction (Hell) difficulty, instead of their usual drop, they produce a special unique charm. Death Projector's charm has variable stats and Azmodan's spawns with a random skill, giving you plenty of reason to farm them...

The summonable uberbosses: The Butcher, Akarat, Tal Rasha and Koth. These can be summoned in low level areas, but are not exactly low level themselves. Their advantage is that you can just hang around in their area and summon them back to back, and while the first two are only one chance at a superunique drop, the latter two come with a pack of minions that is also very likely to drop good (iirc, they have an Act 5 C Unique drop). They are the Pindleskins of Median 2007 -- at least in Hatred and Terror difficulty.

In Destruction difficulty, they drop a special unique charm. Both Tal Rasha's and Koth's charms have variable stats, most notably random skills... so go farm them already. Of course, The Butcher and Akarat become useless for MF purposes once you have their charm on Destruction difficulty.

Tal Rasha and Koth provide gobs of experience as well.

......

:thumbsup:

 

ive never heard of this, ill have to try it out. sounds intense.

 

I tried it out today, with a new separate character, just for this mod: a Necro name Ecroman. It's different in a lot of subtle ways than Diablo II LOD, but it's kind of cool having new skills to try out and plan strategies. Thanks for making it work for the Mac, too!

I did have some problems with the way the potions work now, which is really different (and it seems you can't cube up rejuv potions now). Also, the skill, ARCANE STRIKE, seems rather difficult to use in conjunction with the other skills that need it to be active (SHADOW STRIKE, BLOOD STRIKE) because even with several points, ARCANE STRIKE doesn't last long (a bit over a second), and by the time you switch skills and cast, it seems that it's too late.

Anyway, I recommend it, and advise anyone who tries it to read the info links at the main website (on skills, items, monsters, etc.).

Jude

 

I also started playing this mod yesterday(I backuped all my chars before, just in case), and started with an amazon.

I'm up to underground passage, and I'm level 13 or something(p8 most of the way)...using the "middle" bow skill tree: catharsis(great skill) at level 1, barrage(way too much mana) and level 2 legion(coolest skill ever!!!!), saving up tons of skill points :laugh:

I have to say it's been a lot of fun...found those unique throwing axes(1) and they've been REALLY helpful....made a couple of runewords in bows(el-eld and eld-el) and cubed some gems...no big problems so far...

I'll get back to you! Nicely done, Laz!! :grin:

 

I started another character, a Druid named Ru, after I posted earlier, and I spent several hours playing. I really like the Plague Avatar/Doom Serpents combo attack, and the Barrage (and the other one?) on the throwing weapons. The Rejuvenate skill is really helpful, too, since the potions don't work quite the same way as in regular D2.

Kind of miss the Druid turning into a werebeast, though!

Thanks, Laz! First Diablo II mod I ever played, although I have been tempted before. You made it easy to do without corrupting the game, and you did a really good job on designing it!

Jude

 

Actually, the duration goes up quite rapidly with more points:

1 -> 1.4 sec
2 -> 1.6 sec
3 -> 2.2 sec
4 -> 2.6 sec
5 -> 3.0 sec
...

You do have to be quick, but Shadow Strike isthe most powerful single attack in the game.

......

However, the skill does work the same as the potions, though! (And doesn't stack with potions either)

There was a melee attack that provided a werewolf morph on striking in Median 2006 and earlier, but it was badly bugged (perma-miss with fast weapons or when chilled, etc.).

I did abandon some tempting code editing possibilities (new levels = more uberbosses!) because they would be 1.10 only, and I prefer to retain compatibility with the common D2 versions - 1.11 for most real life people, 1.10 for all other modders. Mods that work only on earlier versions, don't have a decent installer or installation guide and leave your D2 messed up with D2Mod or 1.10 installed give me the shivers.

 

I am not finished with 'normal' LoD yet, but I have to say I was impressed playing this. Very well thought out, superb graphics. Scary to see zombies running though. :shocked: