This blog is part of my series about my experiences in the Diablo III: Reaper of Souls beta. The beta ended quite some time ago. I am continuing to blog about it because I have tons of screenshots and things to say about them that have not yet made it into a blog. There are only a few more blogs left in this series (so I may as well finish it). When I left off, my Crusader, Joan, had just hit Level 22. This blog shows the highlights of her adventure from Level 22 to Level 23. All of the screenshots you see in this blog were taken on January 11, 2014.
The first thing that Joan the Crusader did upon returning to New Tristram was to start leveling up Haedrig the Blacksmith. This resulted in the Steeling With Feeling Achievement.
Steeling With Feeling: Level up the Blacksmith
I decided to go ahead and level up the Blacksmith to Level 4. There are no achievements associated with doing so. (The next one comes when you level the Blacksmith to Level 10). I cannot remember exactly why I stopped at level 4. My best guess is that I didn’t want to spend more money on leveling the Blacksmith just then.
This was when it dawned on me that I hadn’t identified the Legendary item that The Butcher dropped after Joan the Crusader killed him. It was the first Legendary I found in the Diablo III: Reaper of Souls (RoS) beta, so one would think I’d be in a hurry to identify it. However, considering the fact that I completely forgot that player characters can identify their own items, and thought I had to come back to town to find out what it was…. I’m going to guess that I was just really tired at that moment.
Joan the Crusader used the Book of Cain to identify her very first Legendary item. It turned out to be better than what she was currently using. (That’s always good!)
The Legendary Barter Town Pads had something special on them. Your Town Portal is no longer interrupted by taking damage. While casting Town Portal you gain a protective bubble that reduces damage taken by 50%. I’m not very good at comprehending numerical information, but I could tell that the Damage, Toughness, and Healing were all green. This tells me that the Legendary shoulders were better than the Rare shoulders that Joan the Crusader was currently using. There was also some “flavor text” on this item. Used in the arena in the center of the city of Kalden, the famed “Barter Town”.
The other interesting thing to note is that this Legendary item is Account Bound. That means I can’t give it to another player – ever. This is a change from what the game was like before the RoS expansion. Few things were Account Bound in the “original” Diablo III game.
Naturally, I equipped the Legendary Barter Town Pads. Doing so earned me an unexpected Achievement (that I almost missed taking a screenshot of).
Legends of the Brawl: Equip a legendary (orange) item
Shortly after earning that Achievement, Joan the Crusader completed Act I. She moved on to The Hidden Camp in Act II, and earned another Achievement.
The Last of the Horadrim: Complete all the quests in Act I
The Fallen Star, The Legacy of Cain, A Shattered Crown, Reign of the Black King, Sword of the Stranger, The Broken Blade, The Doom in Wortham, Trailing the Coven, The Imprisoned Angel, Return to New Tristram
Upon entering Caldeum, I decided to change the colors of Joan the Crusader’s armor. Take a close look at her in the following two screenshots, and you can see the change.
Born To Dye: Dye an item.
Color Coordinated: Equip your head, shoulders, torso, legs, feet, and hands slots with items dyed the same color.
It seemed fitting for a Crusader to wear all white armor. I did this on a whim, completely forgetting that there was an Achievement for doing so. Technically speaking, I didn’t have to pick white in order to get the Achievement. Any color of dye will do, so long as you dye everything that one color.
Next, Joan the Crusader, Kormac the Templar, and Eirena the Enchantress fought and killed Xalax, Patron of the Mad. He is “Nightmarish”!
Not long after, Joan the Crusader earned an Achievement called “The Takedown”. This was unexpected.
The Takedown: Kill 10 Champions of the Following Types
There is a long list of “types” that count toward this Achievement. I have a screenshot that show which ones Joan the Crusader killed.
1. Horned Bat 2. Carrion Bat 3. Spiderling 4. Dark Hellion 5. Disentombed Hulk 6. Ravenous Dead 7. Fallen 8. Dark Berserker 9. Unholy Thrall 10. Fallen Overseer
Something very strange happened when Joan the Crusader (and party) entered the Sirocco Caverns. Notice anything odd about the giant worm in the screenshot below?
If you look closely, you can see that Joan the Crusader, Kormac the Templar, and Eirena the Enchantress are all attacking the giant worm that popped out of the ground. When your character attacks a monster, there is supposed to be a health bar that appears at the top of the screen. It shows how much life the monster has, the monster’s name, and whatever affixes the monster has. (A good example of this is shown in the previous screenshot with Xalax, Patron of the Mad).
This giant worm (and all the other giant worms I encountered in the Sorocco Caverns) had no health bar. You could try and hit them, but you couldn’t actually cause any damage. However, they were perfectly capable of causing damage to the player character! This was the second “bug” I encountered in the Diablo III: RoS beta. Just to make sure that I had, in fact, found a “bug”, I threw a question about it into the Chat.
Me: Anyone know if the giant worms that pop out of the ground in the Sirocco Caverns are supposed to be invincible? Or is that a glitch?
Player 1: that’s a bug
Player 2: bug
Player 3: if you kill them on the same frame they burrow they will bug out
Player 4: what the heck I just opened a cocoon and a treasure goblin came out of it
Ok, so not everyone was on the same page, so to speak. However, most of the players who responded were surprisingly helpful. Clearly, this was a bug that a lot of players had run into. As such, I believed that it was very likely that someone else (or several someone else’s) had already reported it. The only thing to do about the invincible worms was to try and dance around them so they couldn’t cause my character any damage. This was easier said than done, considering the giant worms can burrow back into the ground and pop up in a new place. It was manageable, though, and kind of fun to do.
Onward! Next, Joan the Crusader (and party) fought Deathrattle, Mangler of Heroes. He had the Frozen Pulse affix. It looks all sparkly, but you shouldn’t stand next to it.
He dropped a Legendary item! This was the second Legendary item that Joan the Crusader had found in the Diablo III: RoS beta. She found the first one when she was Level 21. (It was dropped by The Butcher). At Level 22, she found this second Legendary item (dropped by a random Rare monster). Things appeared to be getting better!
Keep It Rare: Kill 10 rare enemies of the following types.
Which “types” did Joan the Crusader kill? I have some screenshots that answer that question.
1. Savage Beast 2. Scavenger 3. Skeletal Archer 4. Arachnid Horror 5. Retching Cadaver 6. Skeleton 7. Returned Archer 8. Dark Berserker 9. Unholy Thrall 10. Fallen 11. Cave Wing. Hmm.. seems I didn’t take those screenshots immediately after earning the Achievement. I was probably too focused on the second Legendary that Joan the Crusader found. There it sits, in all it’s orange glory! Naturally, I was pretty excited to find it.
At first glance, all I could tell was that this Legendary was a Two-Handed Sword. I decided to go back to town before identifying it. Why? My best guess is that my bags were full and I needed to sell stuff. Of course, that also meant it would be wise to have my armor repaired. I can’t do those two things in this cave.
This Legendary Two-Handed Sword was called Faithful Memory. It had 45.9 DPS (Damage Per Second), and the two-handed flail that Joan was currently using only had 34.1 DPS. (Her Rare weapon was named Savage Crack – which sounds like a potent form of illegal drug). It also had two green stats, so I decided that it must be a better choice of weapon for Joan the Crusader than what she had been using. The “flavor text” on the Legendary weapon says The Boosenian smiths forged swords with a technique centuries beyond their time. Few craftsmen have been able to replicate the quality of their work.
Back into the caves (with the invincible giant worms)! Next, Joan the Crusader and her party fought Hatemonger, the Discordant. (He did not drop any Legendaries).
He was worth the trouble of fighting (despite having Arcane Enchanted) because he provided the last little bit of experience points that Joan the Crusader needed to hit Level 23!
Joan the Crusader’s adventure from Level 22 to Level 23 proved to be full of unexpected things! Part of the fun with playing a beta is finding the odd “bugs” that hadn’t yet been worked out of the game . The invincible worms were amusing! In the next blog about my experience in the Diablo III: RoS beta, I will review Joan the Crusader’s adventure as she went from Level 23 to Level 24.