Reimu II: Lord of Maidens v1.02

[Pesco]

The game only really needs 2 buttons. That's the design philosophy I borrowed from Titan Quest. If you want to use more buttons, it's up to you. Set the skill hotkeys under controls.

If you don't give your merc a weapon their damage will fall behind very quickly. Just about all the attack skills the mercs use carry a weapon damage component. If you really want to get rid of your merc, suicide and she dies with you and then don't resurrect her.

[Raikaria]

The game only really needs 2 buttons. That's the design philosophy I borrowed from Titan Quest. If you want to use more buttons, it's up to you. Set the skill hotkeys under controls.

If you don't give your merc a weapon their damage will fall behind very quickly. Just about all the attack skills the mercs use carry a weapon damage component. If you really want to get rid of your merc, suicide and she dies with you and then don't resurrect her.

She was wrecking everything without a weapon ._.

It just got worse when I gave her a bow I found.

Anyway, skillhotkeys. Now I know that, playing characters without just stacking passives would be fun. 'Specially casters. I have a so many things I want to try out it's silly. I'm like this in ANY game with skill trees.

[Changeling]

Hey Pesco, thanks for the update and all, but there is one thing in particular still bugging me. Immunities. Both Flandre and Tenshi, which can be taken together, have a lot of firepower available. I'm not complaining about that, it's fun and synergistic, but it does present a clear weakness. I don't suppose you'd consider adding thinking over giving one of them something to break fire immunities?

Thanks in advance.

[Pesco]

I considered making resistance breaking affixes available on trinkets. Hina runeword will give you a way to lower enemy resists. Other than that, no direct way to break enemy resists at the moment.

[highzealot]

Is Royal Flare's not 100% fire? Specifically the flames after the initial fireball. Asking because I noticed that the flames do damage to fire immune enemies in Phantasm.

Another thing to note is that the final bosses in Phantasm seem extremely weak. I don't know if it's Royal Flare but they seem to be dying really quickly. I'm not too good at explaining with words but I did highlight fighting Reimu on Phantasm on a stream of mine. Highlight link

Also have a highlight of fighting Sanae

Rewatching my own gameplay, I think it's either Royal Flare or it could be my mercenary doing all the damage now that I take a closer look.

/Edit: Would also like to ask if all enemies have a chance to drop Ya runes or if I need to kill something specific in those extra areas.

[Raikaria]

Running in rings dropping fire traps and watching everything die in 1~2 blasts got a little old quickly, and I somehow manged to die due to a huge mob near the end of Act 1 and lost a ton of gold and good equips, so I decided to rotate character and try out another thing I wanted to test:

Shou/Remi mix. Basically a berserk Miko build. I'm not very high level yet [Not even Double Digits], but the only things I'm not one-hitting with my Shou Spear right now is the Kedama Goddess and obviously bosses. The basic skill idea is:

Shou Tree: Grab max in the spear damage boost, and the AoE attack later
Remi Tree: Lifesteal, Heart Break to rush at people [Not sure if it's worth maxing or just getting 1 point for the dash here :/] , raise Blood as well to increase damage
Maybe go back to Reimu tree if there's enough points and grab some evasion afterwards

Grabbing 2 Strength, 2 Graze, 1 Lives per level. Bombs are not really needed when you mainly rely on passives and auras.

Kill them before they kill you style.

I also plan to try out a tank-Miko focusing on the Reimu and Byakuren paths.

Also, I find a couple of the non-lockouts a little strange. Like the Hermit, Shizuhara doesn't lock out Nitori, and vice-versa, despite both being pretty mutually exclusive [Both have a skill that specifically works only when using their own weapons], so they effectively can't be selected together without wasting a buttload of points for minimal gain.

[Pesco]

Nitori benefits from Shizuha's passives, attack speed bonus from Leaves and the crit/pierce from Eight Million Gods. Shizuha is too baller to need anything from Nitori other than maybe the evasion buff skill.

I'm finding myself enjoying melee builds more than casters or summoners. The main difference to me is that melees can move faster and can start fighting right away. I know how much fun a Marisa build can be but she's got such a slow startup. But hey, that's balance.

[Raikaria]

I only just found out what 'Cube to Unlock' meant. *Facepalm* So that's how you get enough of the attribute points for the bonuses to be useful.

Also I have no idea what they do but I turned 5 Power Fragments into a Power Piece.

I'M LEARNING SLOWLY.

[Pesco]

You could just ask...

[Raikaria]

Discovering stuff for yourself is fun.

Although there is one thing I'm unsure of:

The YFAA scroll, it has '+1 to passive stat updater'. What does that mean?

[Pesco]

Passive skills like Byakuren's hp/def bonus or Cirno's def bonus don't update when you change your equipment. The passive stats updater skill gives you a +1 to all skills for 1 frame of game time which forces the game to update the stats.

[Exxelent_]

Oh I had always thought that was for making sure your character-specific stat was updated after changing gear. Looks like I've been using it way too often.

Making headway into Act 5 Normal with my Youmu/Yorihime and I can say for sure I'm already noticing some more power behind my eternity slashes with the aura and the Yorihime swords passive compared to when I tried a sinilar build pre-update. My mercenary from act one is still owning everything in sight, so that's also good. Liking the update still, good stuff. I think the one problem I may have found is that slash of erernity seems to be wiffing way more often than it should although that could be my fault.

[ARF]

キタ━━━(゜∀゜)━━━!!!!!! I'm really happy to see you updated this (and without breaking old saves!). Gonna cube myself some charms now! And make some melee build characters...

[Raikaria]

Uh, Suwako, you OK there?

Also when she does whatever that attack is supposed to be it causes some horrible sound. As in 'Oh god my ears' level horrible. It sounds like a load of brute-type foes grunting but only getting halfway through on a loop for 3 seconds. Really loudly.

Oh, and she can decide to spam the attack as well, causing even more ear pain.

I only got the thing because I want 'Day the Sea Split'. [I'm testing out a spell-based Miko with Needles and Sea Split and that fun stuff]

Also why do I find good equips for every character except the one I'm using?

[Pesco]

Don't be a hater, it's Froggy Braves the Elements.

[ARF]

Okay, noticing that the charms drop much more frequently, I have like 10 different ones now. Set items seem to be much more rare in their actual set form however, and the conversion recipe doesn't seem to be working. Closest thing was when I tried it with a Wi rune and it just ate the rune with nothing else changing, the other runes don't seem to work (all set items that aren't green are gold now, but I guess that is intended). Loving the buff to two-handed weapons!

[Raikaria]

Don't be a hater, it's Froggy Braves the Elements.

More like Froggy Braves the annoying noise :V

Speaking of, Froggy is hitting pretty hard because I have like 20 Faith already. This isn't even gonna be a Suwako/Kanako build, this is a 'Pretend you're grouchy Reimu and blast everything' build. Specifically blast everything with Needles, Fantasy Seal and Lightning Bolts :V Sanae's tree is pretty useful when you just hold down rightclick and spray needles in rings at mobs as a 'panic button'.

Also why are Wind Gohei so baaaaad? Awful damage, awful durability, average attack speed, I'm only using one because the shop had one with a pretty decent fire damage enchant.

[Pesco]

Protip: You're not supposed to be hitting stuff with gohei

Okay, noticing that the charms drop much more frequently, I have like 10 different ones now. Set items seem to be much more rare in their actual set form however, and the conversion recipe doesn't seem to be working. Closest thing was when I tried it with a Wi rune and it just ate the rune with nothing else changing, the other runes don't seem to work (all set items that aren't green are gold now, but I guess that is intended). Loving the buff to two-handed weapons!

What level are you when you used the recipe? If you were over level 100 then I made need to lower the item level of the sets so that they can be upgraded in the cube.

[Raikaria]

Protip: You're not supposed to be hitting stuff with gohei

Then what are you supposed to be doing with it D:

Also I found a solution to Suwako's Annoying Noise.

I found the sound options :V

[Pesco]

Hold it for summoning your gods. If you want to hit stuff, put a real weapon in the secondary slot.

[Raikaria]

Hold it for summoning your gods. If you want to hit stuff, put a real weapon in the secondary slot.

And what if I want to spam spells?

Inb4 'Play Fairy'.

I guess what it'll end up being is I dump all my mana then use pots/Aura to pump my mana back up.

[ARF]

What level are you when you used the recipe? If you were over level 100 then I made need to lower the item level of the sets so that they can be upgraded in the cube.

I was 128, although my newly created Kogasa-chan is already level 24!!

Spoiler:

Urameshiya!!!

Her defensive spin is really useful, (or it may be the blazing wheel nerf) but I totally manhandled Orin this time around :3

[Raikaria]

*Suwako uses Brave the Elements*

*Walks in to get a good line for needles*

*Suddenly Lighting Enchant appears and walks right in front of me and in the Froggy attack*

*Pichunn instantly from Lighting retaliations at close range*

D: Suwako yu do this?

[Bgrmystr2]

And what if I want to spam spells?
Inb4 'Play Fairy'.

Play Fairy.

No, I kid. I actually have a casting Reimu. Granted she's only 55 so far, I do plan to spam her spells all the way to the end, and use items for other class spells when coming across something immune to.. Reimu.
You're not alone in wanting to spam spells, though, and so far from what I've played, it's not that bad, but I haven't played her since the update so I'll give her a go later today and return to show my findings. (For a good v1.00 vs 1.01 comparison)

Edit : @Pecso
Might want to update the original post with version 1.01 instead of 1.00, since knowing version 1.01 is on page 9 isn't going to be basic knowledge.

[Pesco]

I guess it might help to mention what playstyles I had in mind for the various character trees. The central character to each class is only meant to be for support. Reimu and Patchoulli are probably the only exceptions that can be self-sustaining for any amount of time after Normal.

Miko
Sanae - summoner/support
Byakuren - tank/melee
Shou - melee
Remilia - ranged
Eirin - ranged/support

Hunter
Chen - melee
Nue - melee
Kogasa - tank
Tewi - summoner (traps are summons, not spells)
Nazrin - melee

Warlock
Komachi - melee
Yamame - ranged/summoner/caster
Orin - summoner/caster
Alice - summoner
Yuyuko - caster

Brawler
Ichirin - melee/summoner/caster
Minamitsu - melee/caster
Yuugi - melee
Suika - melee/summoner/caster
Sakuya - ranged

Kensei
Youmu - melee
Cirno - melee/caster
Momiji - melee/summoner
Flandre - melee
Tenshi - caster

Fairy
Marisa - caster
Letty - caster
Iku - melee/caster
Mokou - melee/caster/tank
Medicine - caster/support/tank

Hermit
Yuuka - summoner/tank
Nitori - ranged
Shiuha - ranged
Aya - melee
Utsuho - caster

[Raikaria]

That's something I don't quite get. Why *are* the central classes more support based, especially when there's not party play? I see little reason to make a brawler simply because the Mystia tree seems utterly pointless in single-player. [And the other trees don't attract me that much in Brawler in general, except *maybe* Sakuya]

It's be more tempted to call Remi a tank due to her lifesteal, and the fact she has a couple of skills based on being in melee too [Red the Nightless Castle, Heart Break is a lunge]. She'd probobly the only character that can both play melee and ranged equally. That said, you could just get Remi's Heart Break and lifesteal if you're building Shou, and likewise, you can get Shou's ranged attacks if you're going Remi. Those two trees probobly have the most synergy of any tree that I've *really* looked at.

That said, I might be completely wrong :v

I'd say the Yorihime tree can probobly stand-alone too. It has several self-buffs, the damage increase on all sword-type weapons [Supporting other trees] and heavy resistances to any magic you want. It could make quite a tanky character.


EDIT: Oh and Meiling. Maybe she works well too, certainly isn't a support tree.

[Bgrmystr2]

I guess it might help to mention what playstyles I had in mind for the various character trees. The central character to each class is only meant to be for support. Reimu and Patchoulli are probably the only exceptions that can be self-sustaining for any amount of time after Normal.

Knowing me, I'll not only force my way to the end with support characters in some way. I'm known for making stuff work that's clearly not supposed to in some way, shape, or form. Sometimes by pure dumb luck, other times by just amazing intuition. Whatever happens to be the reigning life sentence at the time.

Also, Reimu's Fantasy Seal still hits your merc. Not sure if this is intentional, or it's supposed to heal, or.. what the story is. But they tend to stick around and get in between myself and the monster making the skill almost useless when situationed behind the merc. It sort of seems underpowered now at level 25 compared to Evil-Sealing Circle at level 10 (it does half the damage at more than twice the level) , but I need a bit more comparison to just chalk it up as that.

Edit :

I guess what it'll end up being is I dump all my mana then use pots/Aura to pump my mana back up.

I'm currently running a 330 bomb stat count on my Reimu at 57, and it's natural regeneration can just barely keep up with a level 10 Evil-Sealing Circle aura. It takes 9 uses of the aura to go from 3110 to break lower than 3099 Figured that'd be a nice heads up for the amount of natural mp regen you're looking at to counteract the usage of a level 10 aura at 23 mana cost per use. It'll be even more so at higher levels, but not by much.

[Raikaria]

Oh yeah, here's a question:

What type of character/build is everyone playing right now/had the most fun overall using?

I'm currently still in the 'Finding something I like' phase, but so far the most fun was had with a Shou/Remi hybrid. Not really tried out a lot of trees at all yet, however.

Oh yeah, and 1 more question:

Why is the Kensei the only one with a weapon specifically for it's main branch [Lunarian Sword], and does Yorihime's first skill work for all swords, or only Lunarian Swords?

[Bgrmystr2]

That's something I don't quite get. Why *are* the central classes more support based, especially when there's not party play?

You can use things like Hamachi, Tunngle, or other Lan programs that network over the internet. I personally switched from Hamachi to Tunngle because of Hamachi's lag and bad connectivity vs Tunngle's service which has shown superior connectivity, way less lag, lower pings, and smoother gameplay.* *Other user experiences may vary
No matter what you use for Diablo 2, there's always a way to play online without using Blizzard's battle.net service, not that there's anything wrong with it. I actually like their Battle.net service for D2, and have never had any major disconnection or connectivity issues at all.

Oh yeah, here's a question:
What type of character/build is everyone playing right now/had the most fun overall using?
I'm currently still in the 'Finding something I like' phase, but so far the most fun was had with a Shou/Remi hybrid. Not really tried out a lot of trees at all yet, however.

I'm currently trying to mainly use non-hybrid builds to see just how far I can push the individual characters without using or putting any points into the other active skills. (ignoring the the main character for that build.)

- Lv 71 "Marisa" LOLspark build Mk II, Version 0.90 got pretty high (110+? 120+?) I think 125 though Played only the last waypoint of act 2 (desert/tomb/boss) post 1.01
I've got 10 points into Patchouli's base stat simply for the mana increase bonus, none of her other skills used. The character was extremely fun first time around, 2nd time was just meh for me until I got to the level where Pesco implemented.. SAUSAGE SPARK bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Then it got amazingly fun again just like it was before. Unfortunately, since I mained this class all through Version 0.90 so I'm almost burned out on her. Thus the others.

- Lv 57 "Reimu" full build Mk II, Version 0.90 had a Remilia/Reimu hybrid, mainly Remilia. Played full Reimu build for about 3 levels worth of exp post 1.01
Decently fun so far. Haven't done much on it other than level it. Need to try more things. Needles seemed weak at first, so I jumped on Circle and Fantasy Seal soon as I could. I plan to revisit Needles once I'm higher level and have the points I can use on it.

- Lv 62 "Mokou" Phoenix AoE build Mk I, never made one in v0.90, but had plans to soon as I found that Phantasm glove. Have not played since v1.00
With Flying Phoenix to get around and get the jump on mobs and Possessed by Phoenix maxed out for major AoE fire output. (in 1.00 the latter wasn't buffed by item Rage's % dmg increase) Even without the % damage, this build is extremely fun to use. Using in tandem with an item that gives +2 to Orreries Sun, which is solid 25% damage to mp, makes me want to use this as an mp tank class since sorc gets way more mp than HP from stat points.. makes the hp regeneration itself hard to use, but the defense on it is worth every penny. I've seen what Phantasm items are capable of having for stats for very lategame, so I plan to make use of this class to the fullest.

- Lv 24 "Tewi" MagicFind build Mk I, didn't have in v0.90 Have not played since v1.00
Along with the gold find Tewi gets, I'll be leveling up Nazrin's Dowsing stat from items for as much Magic Find as I can get. Her traps are very interesting, but I only played an assassin once or twice on Vanilla D2, so it's completely new to me. I really like some of the traps (fire seems weak, ice is fun and awesome, poison seems powerful as hell, lightning is hard to use, but useful in mobs) Keep in mind, all of this was v1.00, so haven't tried with the nerfs.

- Lv 77 "Okuu" Reimu vs Okuu Dogfight build Mk I, did not have in v0.90 Haven't played since 1.00
Inspired by the legendary dogfight video of Reimu vs Utsuho, I wanted to make myself an Okuu and explore the skills she had available. She mains Heat Sign "Break Prominence" and Burning Star "Fixed Star". I used Petit Flare for a while, but then realized how weak it was compared to Break Prominence once I got it, so I promptly switched my main skill. This character is extremely fun so far, and reminds me somewhat of Mokou, but without the teleport attack. In the video and in SWR, she has a similar skill to Mokou's Flying Phoenix. I plan to at least get major points into that skill in particular to finish off this build, though I can't say if it'll be very powerful.

- Lv 6 "Remilia" Gungnir build Mk II, original was Reimu/Remilia Hybrid in v0.90 Have not played since 1.00
I did not get that far in this build, unfortunately. It was originally going to be trained with a friend, but she has no wants of playing Diablo 2 again, which very much saddens me.

- Lv 1x Remilia/Reimu Hybrid build / **Mk I Beta character v0.90 only**
Truth be told, This is the most amazing fun I think I've had so far of any character I've made yet. It got to low 1x, 11 or 13? Maybe. I played this with friend as said above back in v0.90, and we had a lot of fun. I got Remilia's Critical "Heart Break" and flew across the screen laughing like a god damned madman while burning my entire MP pool in seconds. It was amazing. Once I got spear, I leered at the large lighted box around the spear animation itself. It bugged my OCD to no end, but the spear itself looked absolutely beautiful. Keep in mind that I have NOT played this class beyond this level on any version, and have no idea what Red the Nightless Castle does or looks like, nor do I know if this class is fun later. I cannot imagine why it wouldn't be fun with stupid amounts of superspeed, but I do know that this is definitely a class I plan to play later on and give it lots and LOTS of love. I loved and cared for Zeusess, my Javazon (Lv 87) in Vanilla D2, and so will I take good care of this one.

[Exxelent_]

I'm playing a Youmu/Yorihime combination with the goal of making Slash of Eternity hit as hard and fast as possible. Once you have plenty of points in Sakura, it gets stupidly fast and Youmu's aura and Yorihime's sword passive are excellent for boosting the damage.