The Green Team: An evergreen field...

(Posted by Babe Bridou on May 3, 2004)

The scene was set (pun intended)

This sunday, the Europe Realm hosted the beginning of the "Diablo 2 event of the year", the set-only team, which started in the rogue encampment. Akara, Charsi and their fellow rogues watched in amazement as Hansi, Hannes and Ian emptied their mules all over the place for the team members to pick their items of choice.

The whole camp was green.

"Has anybody seen that arcanna's flesh?"
"just below the well - did you see an arctic horn somewhere?"
"well I sure did, but forgot where"
"Who needed sigons? I just saw the belt over there"

After a while, the whole team was ready for battle.

Let's have a look at our eight heroes and heroins:

Soon enough, the whole Green team was ready to go munch fallens, zombies and rats in the blood moor. All except Gunde who couldn't join the team at first were dealing blows after blows, running and killing, running and killing. That was new for me, I never played in a normal start over game with such a high killing rate - but we managed to keep up with the rhythm, as we knew that whoever got too fast or too slow would be in a dangerous position. We had to stick together, share drops quickly, quaff the occasional stamina potion, as well as take the right decisions for our characters every level, including switching gear as we progressed through the quests.

I soon found out who would be the big hitters in the team (at least in normal), as we roamed through act1 and 2: Hansi's nova, Jens' corpse explosion and Kata's multishot were wreaking havoc in the enemy line. But the team as a whole was very, very aggressive, as agressive as can be a fully set-twinked team in normal. Act 1 was like a walk in the park. Sometimes the team would separate in wide levels such as the far oasis, the Maggot's lair or the Arcane sanctuary. At those times everyone choosed a partner and switched fighting style accordingly.

The team made a 2-hours pause, then Gundemarie joined the fun. She was a bit late, as we were in act2 and she had been starting over. But she soon kept up with the team. We finally reached duriel who couldn't manage to hit any of the 16 heroes charging him - Jens must have thought he was in a solo game with an uber minionmancer ;)

I was amazed by Gundemarie's fighting style. She was crazy. I said to myself at one point that I shouldn't let her disappear from my screen, or else she might be in real difficulty. As a priest, it was my duty to care for the health of each of my teammates, including all the mercs. Cleansing was active at all times, except when I needed to switch to vigor.

We were halfway through the spider forest when I lost Gundemarie from sight, once more. "well, I'm too far away this time, she keeps teleporting... at least Hansi, Hannes and Ian will be able to keep up with her again."

I switched to vigor and tried to rush my other teammates with me (bring back the lost sheeps ;) ) back up to the *other* frontline. Then Gundemarie disappeared. A teleport too far into a pack of thorned hulks. The team methodically cleared up the field to allow her loot. "Sin_Nomine was killed by... No! It can't be!". I just realized how hardcore allows no failure at all. I mean, I had suffered a number of hardcore deaths involving two or three days of cautious playing, but it was nothing in comparison. Sin_Nomine, Gunde's character, was only three-hours old or something like that. That wasn't even my character. But this game had something magic: playing a priest in a hardcore party has its very own flavour, and I felt personally responsible for her death (Nevermind, that was only an in-game feeling, but a very fun one ;) ).

I'll keep an eye on your newborn, Gunde!

I can't wait for the next session. This must have been one of my best gaming moments, you guys were GREAT!

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