by Lujo on Sat Feb 11, 2012 10:51 am
Scumming was neccessary for certain situations or rather seemed so. The mana burn mechanic in particular, when put on bosses, makes Soul Orb mandatory in so many cases that you can't really go without it, and since the same was also true for a coulpe of items that you HAD to prep, you almost always ended up scumming for the orb.
My original "unlock the leas amount of stuff you need to beat the game" was really all about not having to scum for Soul Orb, most of everything else I "discovered" on that run, and by discovered I mean "recognized by me (as in I personally wasn't aware of how good it was before)" to be additional stuff I felt good about finding in a regular dungeon run as opposed to stuff I never had any (or little) incentive to use. Including gods - originally I unlocked TT to help me FARM GOLD in every run (so I don't get bored scumming for other stuff and failing).
But the main issue was Soul Orb. Anyone could complete the Old Gaan'Telet with soul orb, and noone could do it without it (except Berserker, but that was an exception). It's the same now, ony the end boss has mana burn, just one enemy in a 10 story dungeon, and even on a completely minimalist profile you can write off any run without soul orb - an item you won't need untill you reach the boss, and then it will just sit in your inventory doing nothing just so you can use both phys and magic against him with some ease.
I almost got pwned by Shifty Brickwork!