I played, at one time (as anyone can see from this site) a lot of Diablo II. While I developed characters of every class, both online and off, Amazons were and are my favourites. I just like the mix of passive and active skills, and when it comes down to it, I like shooting things a tad more than chasing them down and whacking at them. It's a matter of style.
Kitsilan was born at a time when I had been playing a while, and wanted a slightly different challenge. A character who goes through the game depending on a first-level skill seemed to fit the bill. I didn't know if I could stick with it, or if such a character would even last through the end of the second major section, but the idea wouldn't go away. So one afternoon I sat down and clicked the 'New Character' button, and off she went.
She began in the world of plain old Diablo II, v1.05, some months before the expansion was released. In that venue, mercenary (helper) characters were quest rewards, mostly, and when they died, they were dead and gone. Nor could they follow the Hero from one section (or Act) to another. That was but one of the things that changed with the expansion, and a welcome change I thought it, but there were many others. Through all the upgrades, bug fixes, and so on, Kitsilan kept her focus: her attack was Magic Arrow.
She was also slated to put points in Guided Arrow, because that has the right 'roguish' feel for me. However, Guided Arrow's mana cost is such that it would be some time before she could actually use it effectively, if ever.
On items, there were no restrictions except that she must find, gamble or buy them for herself. No inheriting from other characters. In fact, no teaming up or playing with other characters. Kitsilan is single player only.
Playing sessions, and the accompanying reports, are divided into 'days'. A 'day' is a single playing session. Sometimes I have more time to play than others, and it made sense to me to close a report when I'd saved and exited, since the next time I started up, the monsters would have all regenerated. The occasions where she's repeating an area on purpose should be obvious.
Diablo II is regularly updated by Blizzard, in their ongoing efforts to clean up bugs and refine play balance. Some of the changes over the last few versions went right over Kitsilan's head, others affected her for both good and not so good.
I started her in (I believe) version 1.05. 1.06 I avoided, it having dubious merit where I was concerned, and 1.07 found its way onto my hard drive when I wanted to meet some friends on battlenet. When the expansion pack, Lord of Destruction, came out, I installed that and was faced with either converting Kitsilan to Expansion or leaving her in Classic mode. Complicating this decision was that during the LoD installation, my plain Diablo II installation was patched right up to v1.08.
In 1.08, the monsters were of a difficulty level with those of LoD, that is to say, harder, but without any of LoD's compensations. After much pondering and weighing in the balance, one factor stood out clear and I converted her. I rather think it will be apparent which one.
The skill choices I planned back then were based on how the game played at that time, and I've modified my original stance slightly as regards Kitsilan's secondary attacks. Originally I was undecided on Valkyrie, and had also some concerns with regard to Guided Arrow. When Kitsilan started, Guided Arrow was a decent attack but by no means a powerhouse. That changed later, via one of Blizzard's many 'rebalancings'. But what Blizzard giveth, Blizzard can take away again, and so I continued as planned. Sure enough, it appears that, as of even date, Guided Arrow has been squelched back to a nice mid-level attack once again.
The original plan called for Kitsilan to attempt to finish Normal level, which at the time meant killing Diablo. With the conversion, finishing Normal meant killing Baal, a much more daunting prospect considering the differences between Act 5 and the rest of the game. What I did not expect was that chronicling her passage through the game would become an even more engrossing activity than actually playing.
These accounts were originally posted to alt.games.diablo, under the subject, "D2 SPOT REPORT: An Amazon of Limited Means'. I said it then, and I'll repeat it now: thanks very much for reading, and I hope you enjoy the reports as much as I did writing them.