3103

The text search for the Smith and the stash go a long way. It’s not perfect, but it’s much better than nothing.

3104

Have they also removed the button in the stash/inventory that auto-combines the components (probably)? Love this little change. I paid absolutely no attention to the partial components, just waited until I had something to add them to then searched for the keyword that I wanted to find the completed one. That they aren’t adjusting the drop rate is crazy but fun.

3105

No, that’s bad. I have way too much of almost everything outside a couple of crazy rare ones. I would rather they reduced the rate.

3106

Craft more stuff.

3107

Don’t need to. Maybe I need more crafting recipes? Whatever the case, I don’t need more components.

3108

PoE handles that by making the components the currency, which is really rather cool. Of course, that game has its own set of inventory clutter issues…

3109

Yeah, the logistics of partial components were always a pain in the butt.

3110

I got the notice that Titan Quest Anniversary would be leaving Game Pass for PC soon, so I decided to install it and fire it up. (For the record, I already own it on Steam since forever, but I just wanted to make sure the Game Pass version didn’t have Windows 10 achievements, and it does not).

After trying a Defender for the first time, even though the class sounded like the most boring class on the face of the planet, I actually had fun with it. Who knew? I think the secret is the difficulty. My main problem with Titan Quest has always been the uneven difficulty. I usually die a lot and it never feels good to play a game where you die a lot. But anyway, as a Defender, I only died 3 times in the first 5 levels, so I was having a good time. There’s no flashy abilities, it’s all just click on the enemies until they die, but at least with my defensive shield abilities on, I wasn’t dying (a lot) like other classes I’ve played.

Anyway, after I got to level 5, I thought, wait, why the hell am I playing Titan Quest? I should try Grimarillion instead, so I can play these same classes in Grim Dawn instead.

So I installed Grimarillion (which was easy and fast), and started the launcher for Reign of Terror, which started downloading all the files needed for converting Grim Dawn into Diablo 2. This was yesterday morning, and when I left for work this morning, that launcher was still slowly downloading files for Reign of Terror. So just a heads up to everyone: don’t use the launcher method of downloading Reign of Terror, it’s slow as hell.

Anyway, so back to Grimarillion. I started a Defender character, like in Titan Quest, and holy moly, it is NOT like the Defender in TQ. Right away they give you a couple of great flashy abilities that feel satisfying to use. One is a shield-throw similar to the Oathkeeper’s, except this one starts off by bouncing between a half dozen enemies. Another kind of reminds me of the blessed hammer ability that Paladins had back in Diablo 2, anyone remember that one, where a little hammer spiraled out from your character, passing through enemies doing damage? Well, the Defender has an ability like that to start off with, but with a shield, it does 18 damage to any enemy it passes through. Very cool.

Anyway, this is just one character. Grimarillion has so many characters. Honestly, this one mod probably has thousands of hours of gameplay potential just on Veteran difficulty. It kind of blows my mind. Surely it’s not all super well balanced maybe?

3111

My assumption is it’s not well balanced, given how many mods it’s combining together. It’s fun as hell, though, especially if you’ve already sunk a bunch of hours into the base game. :)

3112

The new shrines (totems? whatever) replenish on game load and are loot+rep fountains. It’s honestly a little silly.

3113

Also, I love how they expand the game’s inventory in Grimarillion. It’s insane how much room they give you. So much that it didn’t fit on my screen when I first loaded it up. Then I remembered, oh yes, Grim Dawn lets you scale the UI and one of the first things I ever did in this game was to scale up the UI so I could read things at a proper size. But Grimarillion forced me to scale back the UI to a smaller size just so that the inventory would all fit on the screen.

3114

I’ve tried to get into Titan Quest a few times and always found it lifeless and dull, despite the Greek-mythology theming which I like. Grim Dawn is so, so, so much better IMO. Those devs grew a lot.

3115

I haven’t really gotten into Grim Dawn as I did Titan Quest. I think the Mythology is the key difference, especially with the addition of the Norse.

I would love to play a whole game with just the Norse campaign (which can do, because you can start a game at level 40 at the Norse Starting point).

Everyone has their preferences I guess. But for me, I will stick to my Illusionist with throwing Axes.

3116

Agreed on all counts. I hope that for their next game they return to the Greek mythology theming or some other interesting theme. They’ve clearly learned a lot when it comes to how to make an ARPG more viscerally satisfying.

3117

I’m playing Reign of Terror now, as a Sorceress, and it is fantastic! But I’m a little afraid that the eye of Sauron is going to look this way and make this mod go away. I could be wrong, but all the extensive dialog in the game and all the sound effects and music sound like they’re lifted right out of the game that this is… ahem, paying tribute to. Honestly, that’s one of the reasons it’s so darn good. I’ve turned up the music and sound every time I play.

Btw, it’s so awesome to be able to play Diablo 2 with a controller finally. It’s so much better this way!

3118

Reign Of Terror mod is absolutely amazing. It’s not just a good re-do of D2, it’s a better game in every possible way. This is easily my favorite mod for any game ever. Being able to play D2, dual class, use a controller, auto pickup of mats…this mod is just so so good. The attention to detail in this mod is incredible, in every act/location so far, the mood/mobs have just been spot on.

I have ALWAYS wanted to be able to dual class in D2, I have wanted to do that since the release of D2, and now…being able not only to do that, but to combine all of the Grim Dawn classes as well, and play through D2 content? This mod is a dream come true for me, and I’m quite sure I’ll get 1k hours plus out of it. I can think of so many class combos I’m dying to try.

This mod is AAA+, and a must have for anyone even remotely interested in GD or D2.

3119

My enthusiasm did get a little damper on it yesterday after I fully explored “The Cave” in the second area. You know how the first area in Diablo 2 always had The Den of Evil, and then the second area had the Cave? Well, the Cave in this mod is just huge. It took me over an hour to clear the cave. Everything does seem a lot bigger than Diablo 2, and as a result takes longer, I think.

Not a big complaint, but I do feel like all the maps could be more compact, if they’re anything like The Cave.

Now, granted, it would have taken much less time if I’d been more powerful already, but then it would have been a breeze, and that’s not fun in its own way. At least the way it was now, I was constantly on the verge of dying.

3120

I feel like this mod deserves its own thread, and yet, I don’t want to increase the chances that it will be shut down.

I managed to kill Blood Raven last night, and made it to the next Waypoint in the Stony Field. My Sorceress is Level 6 now. In Diablo 2 I dismissed Inferno as a skill because of how inefficient it is with mana, but here I rely on it to take down crowds and to take down bosses.

Was the skill this useful in actual Diablo 2 as well? I feel like crowds weren’t this clustered in Diablo 2 (at least in Act 1, I mean. I know Act 2 and 3 had really heavy clusters). This thing can kill like a dozen enemies in a second because of how they cluster. It’s amazing.

3121

Ok, that is sounding kind of amazing, will have to check out Reign of Terror. Thanks for posting your impressions!

3122

Which DLC is required for Reign of Terror?