State of the Forums

Moderator: Os

Greetings to all. As you may have guessed I'm the latest addition to this fine team of moderators. As usual, my private message inbox is always open.

As some of you may remember, my Lord of Destruction CD met with an unfortunate end not so long ago. Having received my replacement copy, I vowed to start in single player mode this time, after spending all of my prior time playing on Battle.Net. Can't decide where to play yourself? Have a look over this thread to help you decide. It is laden with people who swear by Battle.Net, but you just can't count single player out. Here is a good argument against online play, the dreaded leechers.

One issue that caught my eye over the past week was that there was a certain amount of hostility between forum members. I posted this in one thread, but feel the need to reiterate.

There will always be people who rub you the wrong way, but many of those people are here to stay, and you just have to get used to them. It's tough, but without compromising, we can never become better people. Sometimes you learn to appreciate those who once annoyed you.

And lastly, has anyone else noticed how much the trading forums are picking up? Especially East, West, and last but not least Europe. The Asia forum is still pretty quiet, but you never know when they could explode with activity.

Moderator: Stomper

Once again, the Off-Topic realm needed to delve into the issues of what is and what is not spam and what and why actions are taken to eliminate it. If you'd like to stop in and take a look at the ongoing threads you can see them here:

• The Comeback of the Post Numbers Topics!
• Bassist- Message to the Mods
• In response to the closing of 'Yes!! i finally turn 300 today!'
• what are the criteria for closing a post?

On a lighter note, stop in to see what people are guessing about what happens in The Super Secret Discussion board of the Mods.

And talking about Amazons, ... what? I wasn't talking about Amazons; well, let's do that anyways! There are many ways to build this character class. You will find that as you create yours, you are inevitably drawn to what methodology should be used. Should I be a Bowazon? A Javazon? A Javabow (aka Hybrid)?

Personally, I go with the Javabow (my term), which is more commonly called the Hybrid Amazon. Here is how I build my version of the Hybrid:

Bow and Crossbow Skills
• Magic Arrow: 1 (Prerequisite)
• Multiple Shot: 4 (5 arrows)
• Guided Arrow: 20

Javelin and Spear Skills
• Poison Javelin: 1 (Prerequisite)
• Lightning Bolt: 1 (Prerequisite)
• Plague Javelin: 1 (Prerequisite)
• Lightning Fury: 20

Passive and Magic Skills
• Inner Sight: 1 (Prerequisite)
• Dodge: 1 (Prerequisite)
• Slow Missile: 1 (Prerequisite)^*
• Avoid: 1 (Prerequisite)
• Decoy: 1 (Prerequisite)^*
• Evade: 1+ (Prerequisite)
• Valkyrie: 5+
• Critical Strike: 8
• Penetrate: 1 (Prerequisite)
• Pierce: 7

^* But very helpful!

Total Skill Points allocated: 75

Notes: Adding more into Valkyrie can only help make your Valkyrie more effective. Why "1+" points in Evade? Because it's a passive skill and I am an active player. I suggest increasing it to about six points -- little things like Evade help when dealing with PKers. Why only eight in Critical Strike? Because of the diminishing returns after ninth. I always figure to have at least "+1 to Skills Levels". Why put seven in Pierce? Because not everyone (me) has Piercing weapons, so I need the piercing ability and after seventh level, once again it suffers from diminishing returns for the investment. Piercing is a key element to utilizing Guided Arrow to a greater effect.