March of the Doomed - Running Thread

[Vang]

This guy was using the PTR client with the updates to fire skills, I really like the way it played and got careless at the end and knew I should have stopped as archers + open area + full mf gear usually equals death.

How to fill the table
SP SC SR D2R Forum Name        Character Name       Class   Level Location                Score
-- -- -- --- ----------        --------------       -----   ----- --------                ----
         D2R Dazliare          Sentinel              Pal    01    Rogue Camp              Higher than Babyhell
         D2R Vang              Swoon                 Bar    81    Guardian                45
         D2R Babyhell          TheDeadman (it.2)     Nec    80    Kurast Docks H          36
SP       D2R Jcakes            Hades                 Nec    ??    Rogue Camp H            36
         D2R D4di56lu3         DevaZR                Asn    ??    Rogue Camp NM           15
SP       D2R Grisu             Karrin                Asn    ??    Kurast Docks            06
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Back to ashes (aka Deeds)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
         D2R Vang              Refractor             Dru    67    Frozen Tundra NM        27
SP       D2R ffs               Pound                 Pal    77    H Claw Viper Temple     39
SP       D2R lizard            Appolonia             Ama    50    The Pit NM              18
         D2R Vang              HoboJones             Dru    46    Pand. Fortress          15
         D2R Babyhell          TheDeadman (it.1)     Nec    22    Arcane Sanctuary        03
         D2R Vang              Cronan                Bar    14    Lut Gholein             06
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[Jcakes]

Sorry to hear that @Vang.

Act 1 Hell is done and dusted. Played through on /players 3 and kill speed was acceptable. I'll likely drop to /p1 for the rest of the game. Came across two unbreakable PIs (stone skin ghosts). One in countess tower and the other in the Catherdral. Both were parked and no major issues.

Merc had his beat stick updated to an Insight Thresher (found in the Crypt), did find a Ko so could make an obedience if I find a suitable 5os polearm.

The Jail dropped a Guillaume's face which is an extremely nice drop. I now have a source of Crushing Blow for act bosses. The Merc will probably continue to use the 3LL circlet I gambled ages ago.

Regarding Gear, start of the Act I basically swapped out all most of my MF gear for resists. Away went my 3 ptop soccketed armor and in came a Ghost Ghost Armour. Away went my 35MF circlet and in came a prismatic circlet (my circlet gambling luck has been terrible btw. 0 circlets with + necro skills). I swapped out my chancies for some resist gloves. Overall result is this (taken at end of act)



other random screenies from Act 1

Spoiler

My Army will destroy you!


the trifector


what a waste of time





This was actually quite nasty - 2 packs of champion archers in an area that skeletons are too dumb to run around. DV helped a lot and got well rewarded for it



bye Andy

Ready for an Andy Damnation

Act Damnation          Royal Seal used (skill only)

No1 Corpse Explosion   N
No2 Golem Mastery      N
No3 Attract            N
No4 Blood Golem        N
No5 Iron Golem         N

NM1 teeth              N
NM2 Iron Maiden        N
NM3 Lower Resist       N
NM4 Summon Resist      N
NM5 Revive             N

He1 -                  N
He2 -                  N
He3 -                  N
He4 -                  N

 

[Vang]

@Jcakes 11, Terror

 

[Babyhell]

March of TheDeadman - iteration 2
Summoning gamble

Maulers vs narrow passage... only one hit Mephisto for the whole fight xD
Amulet is a Nokozan again...

Act 3? Nothing noteworthy, really... straight push. Revive some Maulers for Mephisto fight. GG.

Oh, and normal socket quest has been used on the Shako to put a Flawless Ruby in for 31HP.
Edit: damnation is Fire Golem.

TheDeadman skills (90) Unused (0)

Summoning (62)
01 Skeleton mastery 20, Raise skeleton 20
06 Clay golem 11
12 Golem mastery 5, Skeletal mage 0
18 Blood Golem 0
24 Summon resist 6, Iron Golem 0
30 Fire Golem 0, Revive 0

P&B (24)
01 Teeth 1, Bone armor 7
06 Poison dagger 0, Corpse explosion 15
12 Bone Wall 1
18 Poison Explosion 0, Bone Spear 0
24 Bone Prison 0
30 Poison Nova 0, Bone Spirit 0

Curses (4)
01 Amplify damage 1
06 Dim vision 0, Weaken 1
12 Iron Maiden 0, Terror 1
18 Confuse 0, Life Tap 0
24 Attract 0, Decrepify 1
30 Lower Resist 0

TheDeadman damnation card

Seals available/used
No Y/N
NM Y/N

Act Damnation          Royal Seal used (skill only)
No1 Iron Maiden        N
No2 Dim Vision         N
No3 Iron Golem         N
No4 Lower Resist       N
No5 Attract            N

NM1 Poison Dagger      N
NM2 Teeth              N
NM3 Bone Prison        N
NM4 Bone Spirit        N
NM5 Decrepify          N

He1 Terror             N
He2 Bone Wall          N
He3 Fire Golem         N
He4 -                  N

Reset used (if any)
Normal    during <Act>
Nightmare during <Act>
Hell      during <Act>

How to fill the table
SP SC SR D2R Forum Name        Character Name       Class   Level Location                Score
-- -- -- --- ----------        --------------       -----   ----- --------                ----
         D2R Dazliare          Sentinel              Pal    01    Rogue Camp              Higher than Babyhell
         D2R Vang              Swoon                 Bar    81    Guardian                45
         D2R Babyhell          TheDeadman (it.2)     Nec    81    Pandemonium Fortress H  39
SP       D2R Jcakes            Hades                 Nec    ??    Rogue Camp H            36
         D2R D4di56lu3         DevaZR                Asn    ??    Rogue Camp NM           15
SP       D2R Grisu             Karrin                Asn    ??    Kurast Docks            06
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Back to ashes (aka Deeds)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
         D2R Vang              Refractor             Dru    67    Frozen Tundra NM        27
SP       D2R ffs               Pound                 Pal    77    H Claw Viper Temple     39
SP       D2R lizard            Appolonia             Ama    50    The Pit NM              18
         D2R Vang              HoboJones             Dru    46    Pand. Fortress          15
         D2R Babyhell          TheDeadman (it.1)     Nec    22    Arcane Sanctuary        03
         D2R Vang              Cronan                Bar    14    Lut Gholein             06
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[Jcakes]

@Babyhell 7 - Fire Golem (oops Bone Prison already taken)

I need my last Duriel damnation.

Act 2 hell update - as I get into hell, my desire to do full clears starts to wane a bit for a single pass character. So instead I decided that I will go completionist instead for hell (all quests, all waypoints, kill all superuniques). The last one I will leave a bit of wiggle room - visiting each SU is fine I am not going to spend ages killing an unbreakable physical immune (but so far that hasn't come up). \

The first part of Act 2 went realtively smoothly, No CE still sucks, but liberal use of Dim Vision + raise skeleton to clear corpses meant that greater mummies weren't too bad. The first real challenge was of course the Maggot Lair. I got through the first level relatively quickly (due to luck for the exit), but the second was being more painful so I took some time out to shop a teleport staff. New teleport staff in hand, I just skipped the rest of the mobs until I got to the staff.

Tomb Viper tomb was easy - open space is great for skeletons and there weren't too many greater mummies. So all in all relatively straight forward. I beelined down the palace cellar, stopping to pick up the waypoint and then take out fireye and onto arcane sanctuary.

I cleared most of the first wing of the arcane sanctuary (the one with the red portals), but quickly got sick of that and decided to teleport skip the rest of it. Probably not the smartest move and I went through a lot of juvies but we got there in the end and onto the tombs.

First Tomb and I immediately regretted having to find Ancient Kaa for my completionist, ended up seeing 3x stone skin unbreakble ghosts and a possessed unbreakable ... hmmm. More liberal use of DV + teleport staff to dodge and park ghosts and it wasn't kaa's tomb. Onto Tomb number 2 and success! we've found Kaa's tomb. This one also had apparations, but not as many stone skins so although slow I was able to clear it. Kaa was Mana Burn, Extra Strong, Lightning Enchanted, Cold Enchanted - not too bad and the skelies + merc cleaned him up no problems.

Duriels tomb had no ghosts, so was relatively straight forward and nothing much to talk about. Duriel himself succumbed to Decrep, CG + crushing blow from Guillames face

screenshots

Spoiler

Creeping Feature



Bloodwitch


Love it when this happens



Vang will be jealous (got 2 pieces of IK this playthough)



Time to burst a beetle



Vang will be jealous


the Darkest of Elders


Fangskin


like a fire in my eye


your summons were know match for mine


Ancient Kaa and his blind minions


Dead bug

Act Damnation          Royal Seal used (skill only)

No1 Corpse Explosion   N
No2 Golem Mastery      N
No3 Attract            N
No4 Blood Golem        N
No5 Iron Golem         N

NM1 teeth              N
NM2 Iron Maiden        N
NM3 Lower Resist       N
NM4 Summon Resist      N
NM5 Revive             N

He1 Terror             N
He2 -                  N
He3 -                  N
He4 -                  N

Hades level 81 Necromancer - Act 3 Hell Single Pass

 

[Babyhell]

@Jcakes 6: Poison Dagger.

I guess you are fine now. Good luck on the last stretch!

 

[Jcakes]

Thanks @Babyhell that's perfect. I can royal seal CE and still have one for Decrep if it comes up and be good for the rest of the game. I think it was 1/3 to hit a skill I cared about (RS, AD or DV) so dodging that is nice.

I can also finally dump my 28 or so saved skill points lol.

 

[Jcakes]

Act 3 is done. Much much faster now that I have corpse explosion. Was mostly done on /p3 with some areas done on /p1 (flayer dungeon, durance, council). I continued my run of activating all waypoints, killing all SUs and completing all quests. Nothing too difficult or too exciting for the act.

took me 2 hours total to clear the Act which isn't bad.

Act Damnation          Royal Seal used (skill only)

No1 Corpse Explosion   Y
No2 Golem Mastery      N
No3 Attract            N
No4 Blood Golem        N
No5 Iron Golem         N

NM1 teeth              N
NM2 Iron Maiden        N
NM3 Lower Resist       N
NM4 Summon Resist      N
NM5 Revive             N

He1 Terror             N
He2 Poison Dagger      N
He3 -                  N
He4 -                  N

Super Uniques (didn't get screenshot all of them)

Spoiler

Dead stormtree (oops)



Dead Council


Missed bremm




and a Dead Mephisto

Items

Spoiler

Only the one interesting drop - close but wrong class

 

[Vang]

@Jcakes 6, Decrepify

 

[Babyhell]

still have one for Decrep if it comes up

You read the future, man...

 

[Jcakes]

You read the future, man...

haha and there goes my final royal seal

Edit: Final damnation needed. Nothing much of note for Act 4, corpse explosion is amazing for clearing CS so glad I was able to unlock it finally.
Drops: Lycanders Pike, Lum (hellforge), Pul (Chaos Sanctuary). Nothing particularly amazing or difficult so can't be bothered with a propper write up.

Act Damnation          Royal Seal used (skill only)

No1 Corpse Explosion   Y
No2 Golem Mastery      N
No3 Attract            N
No4 Blood Golem        N
No5 Iron Golem         N

NM1 teeth              N
NM2 Iron Maiden        N
NM3 Lower Resist       N
NM4 Summon Resist      N
NM5 Revive             N

He1 Terror             N
He2 Poison Dagger      N
He3 Decrepify          Y
He4 -                  N

 

[Vang]

@Jcakes Final Damnation: 1, Bone Prison.

 

[Jcakes]

Hades the Damned has completed Act 5 (and for a bonus done the Cow King). Act 5 started easily enough, big open spaces, not too threatening mob types - skeleton archers + demons in the bloody foot hills, skeleton archers + spear women in the frigid highlands) and goatmen + skelly archers in the arreat plateau. Pace was nice and easy, Dim Vision everything, then amp stuff near the skellies, blow up with CE, rinse and repeat. The crystaline passage wasn't too bad either, frozen horrors (which slowed progress a bit due to lack of a body) and skeleton mages (who's boss packs all seemed to spawn extra fast). Nothing too threatening though and we progressed down to the frozen river to save anya.
Here I had my first NDE of the Act, lots of gloams and while I was focused on the gloams my skellies engaged, the moron walked over and aggrod some champion corrupted rogues, died pretty quickly and they advanced on me. quick tele to reposition skellies + a tp and I was ok but heart stopped for a second as they advanced.

Rest of the river proceeded ok, lots of DV for the gloams but otherwise anya was rescued and it was on to Nihlathuk. The temple was really anti climatic, cleared it without any issues whatsover. The halls of vaught had snakes, but fortunately their poision has been unbugged so it was smooth sailing. Nihalthuk was a battle of CE which I won. Unfortunately he teleported just as I slithered him and I had to risk walking past corpse to find him. We did it and it was onto the Ancients.

but first we had to make a detour to take down snapchip shatter (Super Unique in the Icy Cellar) and it was at this point that I almost gave up on clearing everything. Physical Immune succubi were a nightmare (even with DV). I ended up teleporting through part of the map, had a few close calls but snapchip was killed and it was onto the Ancients.

I was feeling pretty nervous at the Ancients given my last experience with them (deeds) so I was relatively cautious. Good a favourable roll first up (forgot to screenshot Madawc - due to aforemention nervousness), but we got there in the end.

Next up WSK. WSK 1 was a cake walk, can't even remember the mob type but no issues at all. WSK2 was a bit trickier, gloams + demons. Again DV proved worth it's wait in gold. WSK 3 however .... PI succubi and I got a little impatient so tried DV teleporting. Big mistake, got stuck in a fairly nasty room with 2-packs of succubi. Managed to get out of there, but used a lot of pots.

Throne of Destruction was a cake walk - OKs + Glaoms + CI succubi. Everything died to CE. Minons of Baal also a cake walk, CE rules basically.

Baal did Baal things (decrep + CG is so nasty on him) and we made it.

super uniques

Spoiler

Couldn't get a sceenshot of Snapchat so a minion will have to do


Apparently only Korlik wanted a photo



Did screenshot the minions but here is the Baal drop

And finally to close this out here is Hades in all his shirtless wonder

How to fill the table
SP SC SR D2R Forum Name        Character Name       Class   Level Location                Score
-- -- -- --- ----------        --------------       -----   ----- --------                ----
         D2R Dazliare          Sentinel              Pal    01    Rogue Camp              Higher than Babyhell
         D2R Vang              Swoon                 Bar    81    Guardian                45
SP       D2R Jcakes            Hades                 Nec    84    Guardian                54
         D2R Babyhell          TheDeadman (it.2)     Nec    81    Pandemonium Fortress H  39
         D2R D4di56lu3         DevaZR                Asn    ??    Rogue Camp NM           15
SP       D2R Grisu             Karrin                Asn    ??    Kurast Docks            06
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Back to ashes (aka Deeds)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
         D2R Vang              Refractor             Dru    67    Frozen Tundra NM        27
SP       D2R ffs               Pound                 Pal    77    H Claw Viper Temple     39
SP       D2R lizard            Appolonia             Ama    50    The Pit NM              18
         D2R Vang              HoboJones             Dru    46    Pand. Fortress          15
         D2R Babyhell          TheDeadman (it.1)     Nec    22    Arcane Sanctuary        03
         D2R Vang              Cronan                Bar    14    Lut Gholein             06
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[Babyhell]

Congrats Jcakes, completing it SP is quite an achievement!

Dim Vision and Decrepify FTW!

 

[Jcakes]

Congrats Jcakes, completing it SP is quite an achievement!

Dim Vision and Decrepify FTW!

Thanks for hosting - was good fun. I am thinking of re-enterering with a harder character.

Hopefully you aren't too far behind

 

[Babyhell]

@Jcakes I'm a Dim Vision far behind... and anyone reading your last act write-up can see what it means.

But I'm not SP, so I'll take a bit of time to gear up before the last stretch. Maybe I'll try my luck at the forge before endlessly running LK - maybe the forge can be nice enough.

For bosses, the no Decrepify will be the tough spot, but I'm piling up gold and count on merc's crushing blow and a high level Clay Golem. I'm not SP, but I will try keeping the Seals untouched.

 

[Jcakes]

@Jcakes I'm a Dim Vision far behind... and anyone reading your last act write-up can see what it means.

But I'm not SP, so I'll take a bit of time to gear up before the last stretch. Maybe I'll try my luck at the forge before endlessly running LK - maybe the forge can be nice enough.

For bosses, the no Decrepify will be the tough spot, but I'm piling up gold and count on merc's crushing blow and a high level Clay Golem. I'm not SP, but I will try keeping the Seals untouched.

I was going to say you still have seals you can use - but makes sense if you are trying to go sealess. I don't have a lot of experience with the other AI curses - but maybe confusion can help out for some CC?

 

[Babyhell]

Yes maybe...a Confuse + Revive Rhyme shrunken head would be a perfect shield

 

[skoolbus]

@Jcakes Congrats on the Guardian! Glad your damnations weren't too crippling to your build. Any ideas on what you would reenter with?

@Babyhell Looks like you're getting close to the end, good luck!

Played more of Terra, starting out killing the Cow King. It would have been a good map to do runs on, the Cow King was literally the first mob I encountered. After clearing out the cow level, Terra proceeded to NM. The first great drop came in the cave, a 4os gothic plate. Probably the earliest I've ever found one of those, haven't even filled her helm with PTopaz yet! The second great drop, wasn't a drop at all, but another gamble!



I had been gambling Chain Gloves hoping to get these, since she hasn't managed to find them, and what do you know! Once again, she got extremely lucky getting these very quick. It's very rare any of my tournament characters gamble a set/unique item, and she's already managed two!

Other "finds" included a nagelring in the Tower, though it's worse than my one MF ring I already have equipped.... Countess dropped just an Amn, one of the better runes for sure. At some point, she also found a 15% IAS jewel, hoping to find a few more of those. Before going into the Catacombs, I tried socketing a plain Bill, and got 4 sockets (50% chance) and made Insight for the merc. This really helped out on blue potion dependence. For whatever reason, I hadn't been remembering to pick up plain Partizans to attempt socketing, but a Bill is nearly as good. She is still wearing her flawed topaz armor from Act II normal since I haven't been able to stick 2 PTopaz into the gothic plate yet, but I'm close. She did find a Spineripper in Catacombs level 1 which I don't think I've ever found before (eth and not useful for her). After that, it was some great xp and killing Andy.


She's still using 1 point Freezing Arrow as her main skill at this point, it seems to do more damage than Multishot since my physical damage from the bow is pretty bad. I'm saving every chipped/normal/flawless gem so I can attempt to get a cruel elite bow later in NM or hell.

After killing Andy, I decided to dump some points into Cold Arrow for the FA synergy, and in case it gets damned, it won't be too bad. I will have to save a seal for Decoy, as I think that will be crucial if she is to make Guardian. Other than that, I'd like to use a seal for either MS or FA, though I could possibly go Strafe if both those get hit. So far she's been very lucky with damnations, Guided Arrow being the only skill I would have considered using, but no big deal to not have it. So with that, need my damnation please!

Spoiler: Current Skill Placement

Javelin and Spear (6)
01 Jab 1
06 Power Strike 1, Poison Javelin 1
12 Impale 0, Lightning Bolt 1
18 Charged Strike 1, Plague Javelin 1
24 Fend 0
30 Lightning Strike 0, Lightning Fury 0

Passive and Magic (26)
01 Inner Sight 1, Critical Strike 7
06 Dodge 1
12 Slow Missiles 1, Avoid 1
18 Penetrate 1
24 Decoy 5, Evade 1
30 Valkyrie 1, Pierce 7

Bow and Crossbow (22)
01 Magic Arrow 1, Fire Arrow 0
06 Cold Arrow 10, Multiple Shot 7
12 Exploding Arrow 0
18 Ice Arrow 1, Guided Arrow 1
24 Strafe 1, Immolation Arrow 0
30 Freezing Arrow 1

Act Damnation          Royal Seal used (skill only)
Fire Arrow             N
Impale                 N
Evade                  N
Guided Arrow           N
Fend                   N

Critical Strike        N
NM2 -                  N
NM3 -                  N
NM4 -                  N
NM5 -                  N

He1 -                  N
He2 -                  N
He3 -                  N
He4 -                  N

Reset used (if any)
Normal    during <Act>
Nightmare during <Act>
Hell      during <Act>

 

[Vang]

@skoolbus 3, Critical Strike