That’s definitely not true. In addition to the more numerous named mini-bosses you mentioned, there are a couple of higher-level monsters that weren’t in the original game (e.g. Monstrous Boars). Some named items and sets appear to be new, and of course there are the artifact scrolls.
Kalle
1682
Just want to take a brief moment and vent my general sense of WTF?! at the art direction in the expansion. Now, TQ was always a bit cartoony and over the top with the mobs, but when I’m attacked by giant freaking frogs, murderous crabs and weird ant-men WHILE IN HADES I can’t help but think that the creative department at Iron Lore ran out of steam a long, long time ago.
Well, you see, those frogs and crabs live on the banks of the river Styx, and the ant-men, um, err…
Kunikos
1684
Giant frogs, homicidal crabs, and ant-men gotta go somewhere when they die too, yo!
Enidigm
1685
… live underground! Hades is underground.
But… what’s under the underground? Have you thought about that?
[keanu] whoa [/keanu]
Dean
1686
Actually the frogs are from Aristophanes’ The Frogs where Dionysus descends into the underworld and is attacked by the croaking of millions of frogs.
The ant-men are a nod to the myth of Aeacus, one of the three judges of the underworld. When his kingdom suffered a horrific plague, the gods turned ants into men to repopulate his cities.
And the crabs… well, no idea there.
pwnt
The ant-men are a nod to the myth of Aeacus, one of the three judges of the underworld. When his kingdom suffered a horrific plague, the gods turned ants into men to repopulate his cities.
pwnt
And the crabs… well, no idea there.
The crabs have something to do with Lysistrata, I think
I really shouldn’t have bought the expansion. Started playing at about 1pm and now it’s almost midnight. Originally I had fired up my old level 36 Queasy Nart build but but soon realised it would be alot easier to run through with the super twinked hunter/storm toon I’ve got. Let’s just say now I’ve got the recipie for the divine artifact ‘Ikon of Zeus’ and have alot of farming to do.
Does anyone know if the level or relics used to make lesser artifacts matter? Also are certain levels of recipies only dropped on certain difficulties in a 9 hour run on legendary came across 2 divine recipies and only 2 lessers from quests.
I’m also curious if I can use epic boar hides for my artifacts. If not I’ll have to go back to Greece and farm boars now…
Kalle
1690
I’m pretty sure epic level charms are different from normal level charms, so back to greece you go.
Or, you could just take a new char and pool their artifacts and charms in the caravan. Means you’ve got a better chance of getting what you need for both of them.
I know that epic partial charms don’t combine with normal partial charms but are you sure that epic complete charms can’t be used for artifact recipes? That’s what I was wondering.
But I agree that the shared caravan area will be most likely used for charms and relics. It’s like Iron Lore tweaked the random number generator so that at least one charm/relic per artifact almost never drops. I can’t believe I never even got five silly boar hides. :(
Kalle
1692
Recipies list specific ingredients and since the game differentiates between epic and normal charms and relics the recipies do to. I think epic charms and relics are used with epic-drop recipies, though I haven’t found one yet.
Jab
1693
Yeah if the formula was found on normal then it only uses normal relics and charms, epic epic charms etc. I have formulas from normal and epic and it does differentiates between the types. I don’t know yet if normal artifacts will be used in epic and legendary formulas.
Geo
1694
The expansion re-addicted me in spite of me having all the technical problems many (but not all) users report (slowdown, erratic mini-pauses etc.). I’m often hosting games as “Maximus” (yes, I’m original :p), who’s level 40, so I’m doing early Epic level games now. The early game is a lot more fun with skills mostly developed and tougher creatures, better loot etc. at Epic.
Look me up. The revamped game browser is much more useful and you can see exactly who’s in a game (and what levels, types etc.) before joining.
I can usually host maybe 4 people total without too serious a lagging problemo.
Yeah, I wouldn’t mind a little MP action for either of my toons. I’ll browse around for a Qt3 game later tonight.
Finally finished hades on legendary and an odd thing happened, he dropped loot and the essence. I was using my sage and doing the kite around fire 2 shots run tactic died a few times learning the attack paths and patterns but witteled him down. Anyway I’m up for some MP tonight if it’s alright for me to bring my assassin along.
If anyone knows what quest ‘The Overlord’ item is for I’m curious to know as all of them are currently flagged as complete.
Jab
1698
I could probably host a game tomorrow night with either my new guy on normal or my assassin on legendary or epic.
Sounds good, just post when you’re ready.
Level 44 close to 45 assassin if you go epic prolly gonna get ripped apart in legendary.
Started a new dream/nature chick if you go normal still crawling along toward the end of act1 though. I tend to keep going back to the starting city and running from there again for the low level xp to get the skills up.
