when i was in high school, the cool (nerd) girls in show choir were either into Age of Mythology or Diablo II. I'm going to be honest and say that I've always been mid at RTS games; but diablo II was something really, really special. diablo ii taught me the idea of a "build", of making choices towards some kind of optimization, and of making seemingly-suboptimal choices that can creatively synergize towards a flavorful output. I loved playing a druid in diablo ii; I looooooved being able to turn into a werebear. i love the idea of turning into this big strong werebear; i always have since my first time playing! raaaaawr
Anyways if you spent as much time reading as you did playing the game (who is surprised) you could eventually learn about the Kodiak, a weird and highly flexible werebear build built around proccing a thing called Crushing Blow so that your -75% damage from attacking with Hunger (your werebear's fast bite attack, unlike its more lethal claw attacks) doesn't really matter. a key to this build is the unique quarterstaff Ribcracker, which is a weird staff in the game because it doesn't really boost spellcasting, but it has +50% chance of Crushing Blow, so it unlocked this whole other subversive playstyle. and that was my first useful iconic mystic artifact!
