Grrl Power #102 – Dabbler’s gunnin’ for KP
The marketer in me thinks maybe it’s a bit of a missed opportunity that I didn’t make the orbs more distinct. As a group of seven shown in color, they’re identifiable, but they do lack a certain uniqueness like for instance a Dragon Ball. I could slip one of those on to a page somewhere and people would immediately know what it was. If these orbs were to cameo in another comic, it’d would be more difficult to recognize them at a glance, but oh well. Maybe the one with the pseudopod in it would work. On the other hand I don’t want to overthink stuff, else it might get that corporate designed by committee stink on it. (Yes but do orbs make good toy tie ins? Let’s make them lego pieces instead since we already have a relationship with Lego Corp.)
Pushing Maxima’s buttons isn’t a challenge, I think Dabbler is just an adrenaline junkie.
The green orb is supposed to say “PROPERTY OF GALLAXHAR” but it’s way too small to be legible. :P
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The amazing thing is even a pokeball is mysterious, you’re driven mad by never knowing whats inside until it’s too late…NYAAAARRGG!!!!
a pokemon pissed of at being crammed inside a pokeball
“Ah yes, NYAAAARRGG. Long thought to be but a myth, it was later discovered that this pokemon simply had a very effective memory blast attack. Gingernorton is currently recovering at the local health centre, and is not expected to regain the memory of the attack. Police and special forces are seeking the person who put a NYAAAARRGG in a pokeball: the police want to arrest them for reckless endangerment, the special forces want to recruit them.”
Hah Hah! And that’s why special foces are badasses! Well, okay maybe the gruilling and intensive training meant to push the limits of the body and mind to their breaking point, resulting in combat techniques like “How kill me four different ways with a paper napkin” might have something to do with it too.
Heh heh. Nice to see Dabbler meet her magical match in the orbs.
Okay, I get that Arianna would be the one to install a ballroom in their HQ- but to what purpose? Really?
Press confrences and political meet and greet parties mostly.
This is a brand spanking new branch of the goverment, and they have to kiss ass and wrangle $$$ from congress just like all the other branches, and they don’t have politicians in their pocket who look after their intrests like all the other goverment offices do. So they need a place to dazzel them and woo people into their corner.
So the answer is as always POLITICS BABY.
To me, it looks like they just went and leased an office tower. I cite #81 as supporting evidence — it’s a standard suburban office tower near an airport and a freeway. The ballroom was already there when they signed the lease.
They’d be a new department, not a new branch.
The branches are the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches, also known as the Presidency, the two houses of Congress, and the Courts.
Arguably, they wouldn’t even be a new department, but rather a new agency under the department of defense. Even so they’d have to fight hard for their budget and appropriations, especially since they’re far too new to have established budgets, projects and so on.
Press conferences would be at the top of the list – like the one that Arianna has scheduled for this evening, officially announcing that the team exists…
Also to hold balls in probably.
I think Dabbler and Harem will hold balls is any room.
(In the background you hear AC-DC’s Big Balls)
*Points at Sydney*
“But she’s got the biggest balls of them all!”
That’s Dabblers favorite use for it. *ba dum dum*
Also I hope they have the magic or med-tech to regrow or replace eardrums, which have a breaking point considerably below that of glass. Particularly modern high-rise grade safety glass.
I suspect that all the windows in that building need glass considerably better than than the civvie-grade safety type.
I think it’s about resonance. That glass just doesn’t like the wavelength of Maxima’s punches.
If it matched the glass’s resonance the whole window would have cracked up or shattered.
A shock wave is still blunt force, the kinetic energy travels through the air (which is a medium, just like how you can hear thanks to sound vibrating the air molecules), this kinetic energy carries out in all directions from the impact and can break and destroy things.
In fact these shockwaves from explosions are more often far more fatal than the incinderary or the shrapnel.
(just watch Myth Busters when they do explosions; well you survived the shrapnel, you escaped the flames and heat, but the shockwave busted up your internal organs).
Now Daddler will be sucked into her pokeball
last panel: she’s had to expand her google search
Dabbler’s look in the last panel? That’s the face of a frustrated succubus. (Quick, somebody get that girl a vibrator!)
I figure that after next week’s page Max is going to owe Sydney another one.
Dabbler seems the type that if she get’s a serious look on her face, the fecal matter’s about to strike the rotary air impeller.
Or to quote Sheldon from BBT – “I believe the appropriate metaphor here involves a river of excrement and a Native American water vessel without any means of propulsion.”
I thought it said PROPERTY OF GO LAKERS myself when I first looked at it.
I thought it said PROPERTY OF GALLAFREY.
Hah, That would have been pretty damn funny!.
The Doctor has been looking all over space and time for them for six hundred years now.
Or since next Tuesday, everything relative.
Found it! It wound up in the throne of the Emperor of Third Great Roman Empire.
Heehee, I like the orb with the kitty face. :3 Also, the orb beneath it that looks like an incense burner – or one of those intricately carved eggshells – is really pretty! I can imagine it being on display in a palace. =)
I believe that one is meant to evoke a Faberge egg, one of the more expensive and useless things money can buy.
And people are still making them to this day.
Holy Crap! I had no idea that was a kitty face until you mentioned it, I just thought it was a bunch of random symbols being projected off the orb. Still took me a while to see it until I saw the two “A” looking symbols and noticed they were ears, after that things started coming together. I must appologize, before I actually saw for myself that that was in fact a kitty face, I thought you were just completely off your rocker!
I’m thinking the orb images are somehow connected with how Sydney thinks of them.
If they had bonded to another person of a non-geeky persuasion, then the images would be totally different. My guess, anyhow.
Nah, its just dave making a joke about their indistinct-ness, since he ruined his marketing oppurtunity by making them so simple..
He still has a marketing opportunity if he has some made out of that supper elastic material … or just silicone …. the soft and squish-able kind… just needs to find some toy manufacturer looking for a new twist on an old product.
They are a little distinct, with their colors and the things inside them. But the kind of distinct that works best as a set.
So that’s why she’s the next most power member of ArcSWAT: she can generate shields that, like Syd’s, can actually stop Max’s brute strength head on.
And it’s nice to see General Faulk finally act in a manner I can take seriously or as befitting his role and rank.
He allows more leeway than most generals given the gallery of personality types he has to work with, but he’s getting sick of Maxima getting in to a fight with each new person that enters the room.
Yep. Messenger, General Faulk is like the coach put in charge of a pro sports team with a lot of superstars: You have extremely talented people that aren’t easily replaceable, and they know it. The Patton type you’re looking for got fired from their last major league sports job about 30-35 years ago. It would be far easier to replace General Faulk than Maxima, and General Faulk realizes this. He has to pick his spots on when to pull rank.
As long as I’m on the subject, Dave, I’m going to praise you for the way you’ve handled your characters. These people would have some egos, and they do. Faulk would know he has to keep these people under control, but he needs to do it with a loose leash. And the dynamic between Sydney and Maxima is absolutely hilarious — Sydney’s shown she’s not intimidated by Maxima, and it’s making for some of the best scenes in the comic. I’m looking forward to seeing their friendship/rivalry.
I forget how I came here — probably some ad — but I’ve been hooked since #98 and eagerly await a new strip each Monday. Well done!
Thanks a lot. I’m just writing them as I see them in my head. At some point transcribing my daydreams won’t be enough and I’ll have to begin building some sort of history of interactions so everyone behaves in a consistent manner.
What brought me here was a good friend of mine.
As to comment about egos and everything, I think Messenger and Oarboat hit it on the nose. The General’s Position is important, the person actually filling it is less important. So, he has to make spot decisions on what he can let slide and what to bring the hammer down on. His job is not an easy job, nor one I’d want to have. Personally if I was a “normal” working for a team of meta-humans, I’d want to be nothing more important than the Cook(and even that would be stressful with potentially unusual dietary needs).
Condiments for Dabbler accidentally being put on Sydney’s salad and Sydney’s “Ketchup*****” on Dabbler’s sandwich… not a good combination
Sydney “Tastes kinda blah and salty”
Dabbler “…………………WATER!!!!!!!!!!!”
Or Dabbler: Wow! This tastes like that Lutrakian I used to date. Zhoashel was he equipped!”
I’m confused…
…didn’t we just establish in the comic above that this word “Zhoashel”= “Indistinct”? Therefore you’re saying:
“Indistinct was he equipped!”
…this just doesn’t quite “scan” to me…
…can you explain?
Actually the way it’s worded it could mean indistinct or it could be like saying “damn” while she was trying to think of the word.
ō_ō
Thinking about how the cook would go about adding Dapplers “condiments” makes my mental eyes bleed!
“Oh, tastes of Cook today.” :)
I can just see an arc where Gen. Falk is out of commission and another less flexible general is put in charge till Falk gets better. It is a night mare.
Yeah, she can generate shields that can actually stop Max’s brute strength head on, but if you check the cast you can see Dabbler’s shield strength is still rated as only 2 while Syd’s is rated at 5. Which begs the question: If Dabbler’s shield can stop Max’s brute strength head on, what would it take to challenge Syd’s shield? A broadside from a battleship’s 16in guns? A nuke? A dive through the centre of the sun?
My eternal disclaimer with the cast page being that I need to go update it, the 2 on her shield strength probably about right. She can deflect serious attacks with it, that is to say that it’s super strong, but it’s, as you see here, 3′ across, and doesn’t envelop her like Sydney’s shield does. Also she has to summon and maintain it so that’s factored into its rank.
yeah, it does look like a Hard Light of a what is sometimes called a Targe shield
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Targe
*Hard Light Version. Curse thee lack of edit function.
And like Gwen’s scan Dabbler cannot see them when she scanned the orbs… Wow the orbs could be anything and magically unscanable
The pokeball should contain the pseudopod tentacle.
Is “zhoashel” from any particular language, DaveB?
Yeah, I’m trying to come up with a few phonetically distinct languages (or words from different languages, I’m not making the next Klingon or anything) so Dabbler can bust out a “Galactic Trade Standard” or a “Infernal” or whatever.
What most people do to save skull time is to have them curse in alien characters and we get to decide how it sounds. Unless you want to go Lovecraft and create your own language works too. You could spend time creating an alphabet and keep it on file for consistency. See Futurama.
If I may offer a suggestion, I think this language is freely available to all:
[https://www.shikadi.net/keenwiki/Standard_Galactic_Alphabet]
I have actually tried to create four languages.
Aesperian,
Kuhrai,
Elder,
and
Rai,
I Gave up on Rai and Elder after making numerous notes of “magnetic field wavelength, psionic pattern, and chemical pheremone based…” Kuhrai and Aesperian I started to get too much cross-over, I did work on Aesperian a good deal (I even have a few “cuss words” that got stuck in my real vocabulary LoL, started to do it as a personal joke at work to curse and it just kind of stuck in general use.
I have to give major props to the guys who worked on the first ArTonelico who invented a language meant to only be sung.
Seeing Dabbler come unstuck against Sydney’s balls would be the quickest way to calm Max down. I get the feeling Dabbler’s disguise might slip!
Possibly, Dabbler is going to get some unexpected comuppance of some kind. Or, at the very least, discover something in the universe that she is NOT able to deal with.
Happened with Harem – she pulled that lipstick gag on Max, and later Sydney reflexively belted her in the face. Sydney seems to have a karmic rebalance thing going for her.
And dice karma, let’s not forget dice karma.
Whether intentional or unintentional, the innuendo in that sentence is ammusing to no end!
I predict one of two outcomes.
1: One of the two mystery orbs really is an illusion sight orb and rerobes Dabbler of her glamor
or
2: Dabbler either has to focus so much her disguise slips, or one of the orbs is a magic canceler and rerobes Dabbler
okay three outcomes.
Great use of suble changes in expresion in the last three pannels DaveB.
Must have taken some time to get them that perfect.
The power of cut and paste + minor changes. I’m pleased to say it’s getting easier over time making those subtle expressions.
I really like the markings Dabbler has in this scene.
Poor ballroom.
I like the way that Sydney is relatively unfazed by all of this (and Dabbler hides behind her force field :).
Like how dabblers brests are pressed against the force feild myself.
Prepare for disappointment because they’re not. That’s the light off Syndey’s orbs reflecting off Dabbler’s boobs.
Unless she’s also plastering her left up against the back of Sydney’s head. Which is, given both Dabbler and Dave, is possible.
They’re supposed to be pressed up against the shield. That’s harder to draw than I thought. Normally when flesh is pressed against glass you make an oval (or whatever) shape and make it uniformly one color, usually lighter, but the field also puts off a little light, so the spot where it’s contacting is light up with a light blue, but I don’t quite grock the effect.
Hey, I liked it, so don’t beat yourself up over it.
Just keep on trying to improve your art a bit at a time like you’ve been doing and we’ll all be happy to see the results.
So all that hitting of force feilds at supersonic speeds is starting to crack the windows.
Took me a while to figgure out what pannel two was about.
I’m suddenly reminded of a scene out of the book ‘Good Omens’ where a witch was confused by the fact that this one young boy had no aura. What she did not know was that he *did*, but it was so big she couldn’t see it. I believe the description was ‘like trying to see England while standing under Big Ben’.
One hopes Syndey’s orbs are not in the class of that boy – he turned out to be the Anti-Christ…
(FYI: He ended up liking humans, so the book had a happy ending of sorts.)
Neil Gaiman is one of the better wrighters out there.
Just finished reading Anistasi Boys and can’t wait to read something else of his.
Anansi the spider would be sad that you couldn’t say his name, even after reading an entire story about him.
Hey now don’t forget Terry Pratchet, he was co-author to that book and deserves the same amount of credit and publicity that these comments may or may not provide
If you get the chance read Nation.
If the Christ and the Anti-Christ came into contact with each other, how far could you power a starship on the resultant energy release?
Wait, what does god need with a starship?
Taking his followers to another universe?
Because they’re cool?
Only if it comes with bow ties and fez’s
Did you purposely semi quote Star Trek?
To do a drive-by on Hell? lol
Oh, that’s simple. If it’s big enough on the inside (think Royal Juraian starships) it can hold the odds and ends one picks up over time.
LoL
“What does god need with a starship” and you bring up Juraian ships.
So lets ask the goddess who takes the form of a starship and whose children are the nerve center of some of the strongest starships in the known universe.
In Tenchi muyo GXP, Seina Yamada on his first visit to a Juraian star-ship, commented on the size only to be told that it’s a parallel universe inside the tree, I can’t remember who it was though.
It was either Lady Seto or that girl of the distint Masaki family with him (I don’t remember her name off the top of my head), but I did love the line about not going inside the ship but between the ship. Sub-space environment.
“It was for the same reason that people in Trafalgar Square can’t see England.”
He also explained the the M25 motorway (big motorway goes all round the out side of London) is a demonic symbol (anyone who’s ever been stuck in traffic on the M25 can quite well believe it)
The ‘Indistinct’ balls may be a worse marketing opportunity, but they have provided an opportunity for a running gag. A worthwhile trade-off in my book.
As well as some truly abominable puns about how one might go about washing one’s “indistinct balls”, so that they’ll not smell quite so bad.
(…groan…)
:P
:)
Even Dabbler needs a bigger dice pool? Dang!
Dumb question (which will likely be answered in the next strip anyway, but I’m impatient!): Is Dabbler expressing frustration in that last panel or is she about to get knocked on her rear for real?
Power backlash that strips her of her illusion and throws the lot of them against their various walls?
Well that’s 5 of the 7 now what do the other 2 show? (Bet the illusion one is what’s blocking the scan)
Or the force field is blocking the scan.
They tried scanning it eariler with similar results. Page 80.
Gwen’s “Less than Nothing” result.
Those five sphere images in the comic weren’t actually revealed or anything, they’re just examples of various ways the spheres could be more distinct. Note that they correlate to the ways that Dabbler says that they could be more distinct:
Runes or writing/Etching = PROPERTY OF GALLAXHAR sphere
Inlay = Poké Ball sphere
Gilding = Faberge egg sphere
Orbitals = cat face sphere
or anything = sphere with the runestone welded to it
Ooooo, looks like she is actually going to have to take this a bit serious.
Of course, I have every bit of faith in Dabbler.
I first read panel 4 as “stop groping the hornets nest”…
Technically more accurate, not to mention amusing to no end!
Wait, wait : why dont Sydney put stickers on the orbs to recognize them ? I mean, being her, I think having an Octopus sticker on the pseudopod would be obvious.
I think she has had them long enough and knows what all of them do by color anyways at this point. Except for the two mystery orbs.
They are already color coded, why would she need stickers for? Pet names?
Not to mention the fact that the orbs seem to be mentally bonded to her and respond to her just thinking/wishing about what she needs. Syd likely doesn’t even need to see the orbs to call them into her hand, she probably just thinks “shield” and it’s there for her to use.
Couple things I am wondering about her sheild.
Will it only protect Sydney, or can it possibly expand and protect others? Or is that only possible if they are reeeaaally close to Syd, like hugging close?
Since two can be active at a time, what happens if she tried to use her Pew Pew orb while the shield orb is active? Would it fire outside the shield or would it create a fiery contained mess inside the bubble where her charred remains would be?
To add, what about her tentacle orb in her shield as well? At least I can see her using the flight and projection orbs at with her shield.
I don’t think she’ll try that. Considering their power not shooting through the shield would probably mean killing herself.
I imagine those things will come up in the comic at some point.
If it works out, I’m either dubbing pew pew orb and shield orb the testudo aka the turtle or the phalanx, not sure which yet.
Sydney really needs to work on her reflexes; she should have grabbed the force field orb much sooner than this (strip #99 panel 2, for instance, instead of just cowering; or strip #101 panel 6 instead of ducking backwards).
That cracked window now hidden by the falling drape…I’m sensing security breach…at least for audio.
However, did Sydney get her shield up at least as fast as Dabbler did or did she already have it up? If it’s the former, then it shows something about Sydney’s skill in reading the situation and being prepared.
Reading the audio in a room via a laser bounced off the windows has been standard practice for decades; breaking the glass isn’t going to make it any easier to get the audio out.
A high-security room won’t have windows in the first place.
But with good multiple-glazing and choice of filler gas (or vacuum), one could probably reduce the amount of vibration that reaches the exterior by quite a large factor. Crack the containment on the cavity, let air seep in, and that soundproofing starts to deteriorate. It might even be possible to run active scrambling by adding vibrations to the outer pane, which would be greatly disrupted by cracks.
the tool you’re referring to is called a “mumbler” – it trembles the glass at quickly shifting speeds to create the equivalent to white noise in a laser reader. It’s surprisingly effective, basically incorporating the existing sounds and makes deconstruction… not impossible, but certainly challenging. And the best part? You can build one out of stuff in your own house!
Sounds good – but I see what should be an easy way around it, in a room like the one shown: Aim at least two laser readers, at different (but nearby) panes of glass. Unless they both have mumblers, and the mumblers are all synchronized, you can look for commonalties, and discard all the white noise. (And if they are synchronized, then you modify the software using the fact that sounds will takes some finite amount of time to get from one window to the next.)
But it’s all moot, really: This is a room where they expect Dabbler to wear a disguise before entering, because it’s a low-security area. Major secrets are not discussed here, and I don’t expect any of the above security mechanisms to be in place. (Well, double-pane windows, but not for the security benefits.) The main lounge is a much more secure area. (No windows, although there is a skylight. There’s probably no line-of-sight to it from nearby buildings though.)
You can tell Dabbler is realy fustrated in the last pannel. I bet she isn’t used to not having instant access to any information she wants. Sort of like most of us after Google.
I’m expecting this problem of identifying the orbs will make it an obsession of an ADHD genius like Dabbler. She won’t want to quit till she cracks them. They are way beyond her at this point. Super high tech in the 7 range just seems like magic to the primitive like we Terrans are.
I think it would be interesting if the Orbs somehow reacted to Dabblers scans and walloped her one.
I wouldn’t be the least bit suprised, the way this comic is going.
As said elsewhere, wouldn’t surprise me either.
… Or at least give Dabbler the mother of all magically-induced migraines for a while. Given the readings (or lack thereof) that Gwen got earlier, this would seem quite possible.
One of the “unknown” orbs flying out and gut-punching her, perhaps?
Another possibility. A sort of “stop poking us” reaction as it were.
You mean like slowly escalating mild electrical tingles followed by the mother of all gooses when the orbs get tired of the game?
Something like that. :)
Consider what may be (for Dabbler, at least) the most insulting response of all…
…what if the orbs totally ignored Dabbler, no matter how hard she tried, & revealed no data whatsoever?
Another possibility. Dabbler’s antics at being thwarted would be amusing to to see.
Yay for ORT Rune
Huzzah! Glad to know I’m not the only one to recognize that one.
Definitely not the only one. D2 FTW!
Wow, there are no mistakes spotted on this page. Way To Go DaveB!
Congratulations! You uncovered the secret mistake, that Dave forgot to include a mistake this time. ^_~
OF COURSE! Why didn’t I see that? It’s so obvious now I’m surprized I didn’t get Dave’s little trick on us when I first read the page. ;)
Oh no I’m losing my touch…?
Son of a..! =P
Well, technically it should be, “Sure thing, Sparky.” but the comma was missing.
A very minor problem though; barely worth mentioning. However, I love trying to find the “gold bug” in every page. :-P (A cookie to anyone who gets that reference.)
Well, there was an Edgar Allen Poe story called “The Gold Bug”, about looking for buried treasure……
Also Richard Scarry
Ding! You get the cookie! :-D
@ NOTDilbert:
I believe it was also one of the earliest short-stories (June,1843) to explain to the public the mechanics of how a symbol-substitution cypher might be broken.
Panel 8 below the braid… I see woodgrain. :3
Son of a bitch I see it too. Welp, DaveB keeps his streak intact then, lol.
Well, you really had to go over it with a fine tooth comb to find that mistake.
CONGRADULATIONS WHITE MOUSE!!!!
It’s a missing finger.
But was that “mistake” there before or did Dave just add it so we could find it and he could “correct” it?
What are you talking about?
I’ve looked three times and counted all the fingers and they were all accounted for.
Yep all the fingers are there, her right pinkie in that last panel is impossibly bent in relation to her index finger…but given the pinkie isn’t real (Dabbler doesn’t have that finger I believe).
Not the last panel – the one above it. If you look at where her braid is cut off and we see wood grain instead you will notice a grey/blue oval like the ones surrounding her other fingers, but you wont see the finger that’s suppose to be there.
Still not seeing it, every oval has a finger, or corresponds to her palm or the extended sigil. Those two panels above the last one her pinkie would be dipped below shot but I am looking and I see panels and the right number of fingers.
Okay, now I see it, I was apparently looking at the wrong hand, and somehow also didn’t see the sigil button in front of her body.
I.T.Y.S. (i told you so)
Oops, the woodgrain is supposed to be thumb colored. I’ll try and fix that tonight.
When you’re doing a comic as richly detailed as this one is, and doing it alone I might add, it is a given that something will be missed.
Other comics have proofreaders to catch things like this. On this comic, that’s our job.
And our entertainment.
Dave, you said on a few occasions the you would like to post/publish more then once a week, which is fine you have the time, but, based on the number of posts about all the mistakes in each issue, which you then go back and correct, couldn’t the time be better spent?
There’s usually one small and (as far as I can tell) easily correctable mistake Shazz. Most of us treat it like an “easter egg”. And some of us are just volunteer proofreaders. At least we don’t go into the full-blown “Grammar-Nazi” about it.
You know, when you look closely the pokeball looks like the PPU ball covered with a pokeball wraper.
Oh, they are all the orbs, just with other stuff around them. The fabrege egg one threw me off.
I think only Sydney can see their inscriptions.
If any.
Diablo 2 Rune :D now to test memory, is it an ‘eth’ rune?
Dammit, just read Shrg’s comment, ‘Ort’ sigh.
What if the comet is real and the radar readouts are the illusion?
Hey, I just noticed that because we can see Maxima’s ears, that they are tapered. Not sure we’ve seen that before. What does this say about the origin of her abilities?
it was mentioned way back, like 3-4 HOURS ago! (During the robbery)
I like Sydney’s expression in panel three. It fits perfectly with the force field she just activated.
You could always give them the ability to change their appearance/have ’em change in reaction to something!
So I recognise the Diablo 2 rune, the Pokeball and I that one looks like a Madoka Magica Soul Gem. No clue about the others, I can’t quite make out that writing.
idea for the mystery orb, it has no powers other then making people waste time trying to figure out what it does.
Hey, I see an Ort rune from Diablo II. Play much on Battle.net by chance?
I put a lot of time into D2, but I haven’t gotten a single character to 60 yet in 3, and I suspect that I won’t. Besides needing most of my free time for the comic, I have some issues with some fundamental design decisions in 3. I miss skill points and synergies. I like being able to swap around my powers whenever but you lose something when you’re not committing to a build. The integrated auction house is a problem too. I understand the many reasons it’s there, but why use the vendors when you can search for the exact perfect thing you want and as long as it’s not a 60+ or a legendary, you can set your buyout limit at 5K and always find someone dumping exactly what you want. Instead of grinding for that awesome drop, just go buy it. :P The loss of skill points is especially problematic when you consider the 60+ game/inferno. Instead of leveling up and concentrating on a suite of skills, the only way you have of advancing is grinding mobs for loot – or just buying it, but if you’re just buying it, what is the point of playing the game at that point? Just grinding for gold so you can buy stuff?
I’m looking forward to Borderlands 2 and Torchlight 2 though.
I’m so happy to see a d2 reference in a comic. I miss skill points and synergies too T_T
Amen, Amen, and all God’s people said Amen. They made a mistake by taking out the skill trees and synergies and such in Diablo 3
For me those are all things I like about D3. In D2 I never got a character above 60 because I’d get there, find some flaw in my build, and have to restart it.
Yeah, I can see that. The new Characters are nice, so is the customization, but where’s the fun in it?