Hidden shrines and Thinking Cap?

[winmar]

I recently found the unique helmet called "Thinking Cap". It's a great helm for a sorcerer, but unfortunelty it only got 1 durability! And since items with 0 dur will vanish in D1, im afraid to use it.

But then i thought about Hidden shrines, they give -9 Durability to a single item and +9 to all the other items! Will this work on uniques with the Altered Durability mod? I will certainly try it once i run into a hidden shrine if noone knows the answer! :thumbup:

[Lanthanide]

Actually it's -10 to one item and +10 to the others. Make sure you a using a sword/shield so that you have 4 items to choose from instead of just 3.

Yes, this works for getting the thinking cap up, I found something like 8 or 9 TCs (that I kept, anyway) and I got most of them up to 21, with a couple up to 41 or 61 which I used on my main chars.

I'm not sure if hidden shrines are completely random in which item they pick to take 10 dur off, or if they are proportional, ie something that has 200 dur is more likely to be picked for -10 than something that has 50 dur. Jarulf's guide doesn't have any details on it. It seems to me that it might work in that sort of fasion, because I would almost always get the first few shrines I used to bump up the durability on the TC, whereas later on once it got to a higher durability it was possible for it to lose durability from using a shrine.

[moo-cow]

some low scale testing in SP years ago made me believe that the game pre-determines which piece loses durability. Then again I suppose that if it chooses the shield and you don't have one equipped it will either cycle around again to the helm or pick at random.

[Flux]

i mentioned the thinking cap on the recently-created d1 shrines page (http://diablo2.diablowiki.net/D1_Shrines). I didn't note it there, but most often the shield is the item that loses durability. It's noted in Jarulf's v1.62, at the very end of the shrines section, along with Enchanted usually -Chain Lightning, and Mysterious usually +dexterity. Also note that hidden shrine won't break an item, so if you get unlucky, your hat will still be at 1; not vanished.

More durability is always nice, but 11 is plenty for a TC to be quite usable. You're back in town and can repair fairly often, and you shouldn't be getting hit that often playing a sorcerer anyway; that you can teleport and kill from a distance is the whole point in wearing a hat that gives virtually no AC bonus, eh?

And if you're playing Hellfire, there are various oils that boost max durability too. Which is nice, since they added more shrines so it'll take you that much longer to find a Hidden.

[jimbtx]

Using Game save. If you know which item is going to bite the bullet. You can substitute some junky drop item. But, I believe The durability bonus from shrines disappears when you start a new game. And, the same for damage bonus shrines.

The durability potions from HF are permenant though. I had my Mind Cap up to 88 durability. I love overkill.

[HegemonKhan]

i think there's two types of shrines that boost weapon and armor durability respectfully, but they only last for that game (temporary). i forgot what the shrines are called. these could be good when u play single player games.

AND

then, there's the hidden shrine which is *PERMANENT*, but it lowers and raises durabilty, unlike the two otehr shrines that jsut raise durability and are temporary though.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
the hidden shrine is the REAL shrine u wanna find which lets u permanently raise items durabilities (though it lowers items durability too).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
oops i messed up on the two shrines... (temporary ones)

the gloomy shrine raises armor ac by +2 but lowers -1 to weapon damage

the weird shrine gives +1 to weapon damage

i said they (temporary ones) did durability, that's wrong.

[Lanthanide]

Gloomy and Weird shrines only appear in single player, not multiplayer, because the effects only last for that same game (with SP this carries over saves). Hidden shrines do appear in multiplayer however, because the effects do last between games.

[V12V12]

Hrmm what about those durability potions: Blacksmith Oil that increases dur by 1pt. I currently have 3 (& more) saved up just in case I find a Thinking Cap (where do you find it again?)

As promised.... (referenced: http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=713022)

IT'S MY :balloons:!!!151st POST!!! ~ Drink & Be Merry! :balloons:

_____:propeller:

:wine: :guiness:

[Lanthanide]

Yes, the oils will add 1 durability permanently to a thinking cap. This makes TC much easier to use in Hellfire. As for where you find it - it is a unique Skull Cap I believe, and can be found quite early on in the game, but it's not a quest drop.

IIRC Hellfire has some other oils that add more than just 1 durability, but they only appear in single player? Not sure.

[V12V12]

Yes, the oils will add 1 durability permanently to a thinking cap. This makes TC much easier to use in Hellfire. As for where you find it - it is a unique Skull Cap I believe, and can be found quite early on in the game, but it's not a quest drop.

IIRC Hellfire has some other oils that add more than just 1 durability, but they only appear in single player? Not sure.


I'm not sure where I'm going to find any of this stuff with this mod... I know there are some unique upper lvl monsters in the Nest, I found a very nice amulet down there while tele'ing around, but it still irks me that my MELEE char build is still having to take on characteristics of a sorc to even survive. I don't mean a few, like tele'ing and healing, or Mana shield (well yes), but all the other spells, b/c my melee abilities with top gear are all underpowered Vs a similar mlvl foe. They've got much more life per lvl, do more damage, PLUS there's often times 5-10:1 gangbangs! :steam:

I took all these AC potions and upped my Arcane-Valor to AC71 (Brutal!) giving me ~217AC w/2xsword and 289 w/Storm Shield = Still getting thwamped!? :dizzy:
:rant: