Golemancer Attempt No.1
- Thread starter LozHinge the Unhinged
- Start date
LozHinge the Unhinged
Active member
Still in the inner-cloister? I check this thread every 3 days
Er ... last time I checked, I was about to encounter the Ancients in Nightmare!
Are you looking at a cached version of this thread?
LozHinge the Unhinged
Active member
Success and Failure
In preparation for the Ancients, Balboa wanted a couple of back-up plans. He prepared the ingredients for a Strength Iron Golem plus a hurty stick with ED jewels inserted. It seemed likely that more than one Rusty would be required to best the Ancients.
We needn't have worried. Talic spawned Extra Fast but he merely danced ineffectually in and out of the battle. On the other hand, Korlic was physically immune, but the unpleasant surprise was that the PI couldn't be broken by Decrepify nor even by Amp Dam. We had to settle for Decrepifying the Three and allowing Malice Rusty's Open Wounds to bring Korlic down slowly - very slowly. Once he fell, Talic was very quickly dealt with, which left only Madawc to deal with. The third Ancient had spent almost the entire battle Holy Frozen and Decrepified and he'd hardly moved. When we turned our attention (and Amp Dam, too) onto him, he tried to flee, leaving a trail of blood behind him. He was soon overcome by a golem and a merc that had suffered barely a scratch throughout the battle on the Summit!
Any over-confidence we had as a result of our success was gradually eroded in the Worldstone Keep. Things started well enough, with the two fighters entirely capable of handling the Vile Witches that infested the first level. Unfortunately, the team suffered a setback when a mixed group of Witches and Champion Death Lords overwhelmed Rusty - yes, we had lost another Malice golem! We re-grouped, and the backup Strength golem joined the team. Once again, I was left with the impression that Strength in a golem is less effective than the Malice version, which seems strange as surely CB is better than OW for damage? Balboa will have to ponder this puzzle.
Level 2 was easy enough, with Horadric Ancients and Skelemages making up the majority of the opposition - although there were some unpleasant exceptions. Occasionally, a Black Soul would wonder off over the precipices near the stairs, beyond the reach of merc or golem. Terror was effective in moving the 'Soul back into areas where the fighters could engage.
The reception on Level 3 was, frankly, too much for us. Ghosts, Hell Temptresses, Doom Knights and Oblivion Knights rushed us within a couple of seconds of coming out of the stairwell. An emergency portal was needed to escape as the Iron Maidened Rusty came within a hair's breadth of dying. We re-grouped in Harrogath and took the Waypoint back to the WSK.
This time, Balboa readied his Confuse and Attract curses to try to disrupt the charge, but the OKs overwrote those curses and we were soon driven back up the stairs. Razan's health had dropped to the point where I couldn't even see a sliver on his bar. This was getting ridiculous!
Round Three saw Balboa with Dim Vision and Terror prepared, to try and buy some time and hopefully drive the majority of creatures back, to obtain a foothold. This time the onslaught was so swift and so fierce, a good five-sixths of Balboa's own health was taken in the wink of an eye. Retreat was the only option.
We now sit in Harrogath, disconsolately considering our options (of which there appear to be precisely one).
Stats and Gripes
169 Stats and 9 Skill points unspent
The battle with the Ancients would have been a failure had Open Wounds not been available from my Iron Golem. That said, the decision to use Malice was a deliberate one as I was aware of the danger of an unbreakable PI Ancient.
However, my miscalculation on Lvl 3 WSK is a serious setback - I completely failed to get some distance between myself and the stairs, which meant that I was always going to be vulnerable to a stairtrap situation if I lost the first battle. This is exactly what has happened. I should have immediately run from the stairwell and on into the Level, as the TP I cast initially was far too close to the stairs. Now, I can make no further progress on this map and will have to re-roll it. By one measurement at least (i.e. my personal rule of full-clear, single pass) the experiment has failed here. However, I'm going to blame this on my inexperience and a certain amount of over-confidence, rather than on a weakness of the build and so will proceed. What a bitter disappointment though! I won't be making this mistake again anytime soon.
Slayer GumbyBalboa - Level 74, Act 5, Worldstone Keep Level 3
In preparation for the Ancients, Balboa wanted a couple of back-up plans. He prepared the ingredients for a Strength Iron Golem plus a hurty stick with ED jewels inserted. It seemed likely that more than one Rusty would be required to best the Ancients.
We needn't have worried. Talic spawned Extra Fast but he merely danced ineffectually in and out of the battle. On the other hand, Korlic was physically immune, but the unpleasant surprise was that the PI couldn't be broken by Decrepify nor even by Amp Dam. We had to settle for Decrepifying the Three and allowing Malice Rusty's Open Wounds to bring Korlic down slowly - very slowly. Once he fell, Talic was very quickly dealt with, which left only Madawc to deal with. The third Ancient had spent almost the entire battle Holy Frozen and Decrepified and he'd hardly moved. When we turned our attention (and Amp Dam, too) onto him, he tried to flee, leaving a trail of blood behind him. He was soon overcome by a golem and a merc that had suffered barely a scratch throughout the battle on the Summit!
Any over-confidence we had as a result of our success was gradually eroded in the Worldstone Keep. Things started well enough, with the two fighters entirely capable of handling the Vile Witches that infested the first level. Unfortunately, the team suffered a setback when a mixed group of Witches and Champion Death Lords overwhelmed Rusty - yes, we had lost another Malice golem! We re-grouped, and the backup Strength golem joined the team. Once again, I was left with the impression that Strength in a golem is less effective than the Malice version, which seems strange as surely CB is better than OW for damage? Balboa will have to ponder this puzzle.
Level 2 was easy enough, with Horadric Ancients and Skelemages making up the majority of the opposition - although there were some unpleasant exceptions. Occasionally, a Black Soul would wonder off over the precipices near the stairs, beyond the reach of merc or golem. Terror was effective in moving the 'Soul back into areas where the fighters could engage.
The reception on Level 3 was, frankly, too much for us. Ghosts, Hell Temptresses, Doom Knights and Oblivion Knights rushed us within a couple of seconds of coming out of the stairwell. An emergency portal was needed to escape as the Iron Maidened Rusty came within a hair's breadth of dying. We re-grouped in Harrogath and took the Waypoint back to the WSK.
This time, Balboa readied his Confuse and Attract curses to try to disrupt the charge, but the OKs overwrote those curses and we were soon driven back up the stairs. Razan's health had dropped to the point where I couldn't even see a sliver on his bar. This was getting ridiculous!
Round Three saw Balboa with Dim Vision and Terror prepared, to try and buy some time and hopefully drive the majority of creatures back, to obtain a foothold. This time the onslaught was so swift and so fierce, a good five-sixths of Balboa's own health was taken in the wink of an eye. Retreat was the only option.
We now sit in Harrogath, disconsolately considering our options (of which there appear to be precisely one).
Stats and Gripes
169 Stats and 9 Skill points unspent
The battle with the Ancients would have been a failure had Open Wounds not been available from my Iron Golem. That said, the decision to use Malice was a deliberate one as I was aware of the danger of an unbreakable PI Ancient.
However, my miscalculation on Lvl 3 WSK is a serious setback - I completely failed to get some distance between myself and the stairs, which meant that I was always going to be vulnerable to a stairtrap situation if I lost the first battle. This is exactly what has happened. I should have immediately run from the stairwell and on into the Level, as the TP I cast initially was far too close to the stairs. Now, I can make no further progress on this map and will have to re-roll it. By one measurement at least (i.e. my personal rule of full-clear, single pass) the experiment has failed here. However, I'm going to blame this on my inexperience and a certain amount of over-confidence, rather than on a weakness of the build and so will proceed. What a bitter disappointment though! I won't be making this mistake again anytime soon.
Slayer GumbyBalboa - Level 74, Act 5, Worldstone Keep Level 3
SpeedySlicer
New member
CB takes 12.5% of their health which of 800-1300 is 100-162.5 damage.
These are approximations of Succubus healths.
Open wounds is based on character level so likely it is based on your level of course and not the golems.
Spareing you the math and formula You at lvl 74 do 196.8 damage a second via open wounds over an 8 second duration it does 1571 damage aswell as makeing them unable to regenerate health.
So till enemies get higher health open wounds actually does more damage then crushing blow, But it will only do half that damage on Boss Monsters therefore crushing blow is better for Baal and Uniques.
These are approximations of Succubus healths.
Open wounds is based on character level so likely it is based on your level of course and not the golems.
Spareing you the math and formula You at lvl 74 do 196.8 damage a second via open wounds over an 8 second duration it does 1571 damage aswell as makeing them unable to regenerate health.
So till enemies get higher health open wounds actually does more damage then crushing blow, But it will only do half that damage on Boss Monsters therefore crushing blow is better for Baal and Uniques.
LozHinge the Unhinged
Active member
@kykle - thanks 
@SpeedySlicer - thanks for the explanation. I had guessed that something like this was the case but it's nice to get a better understanding of the game mechanics behind what I see.
Oh well, onwards and upwards ...
@SpeedySlicer - thanks for the explanation. I had guessed that something like this was the case but it's nice to get a better understanding of the game mechanics behind what I see.
Oh well, onwards and upwards ...
rickcarson
New member
rickcarson
New member
You are assuming that the Golem hits frequently with the Crushing Blow (approx 1/second). If the Golem hits infrequently (for instance, if the monsters have high block or the Golems attack rating sucks?) then Open Wounds may be better?
SpeedySlicer
New member
I'm assumeing that they both hit once a second. But true if the golem hit infrequently the duration of OW would work alot better then CB. However his golems seem to have a high enough ar to keep hitting at a good chance. Besides if I looked at it without a standard hit a second ratio it would be alot harder to calculate.
LozHinge the Unhinged
Active member
WSK 3 (Part Two)
The reception on the third level was once again instant and unfriendly. Strength Rusty and Razan engaged the mixed group of Fire Boars, Lasher-types and Doom Knights - the Oblivion Knights naturally hung back. A brief curse duel ensued, with Balboa's Confuse being over-written time and again. Once the OKs had Decrepified their own Confused allies, Balboa judged the time to be right and broke away from the stairwell. Fleeing blindly down corridors is not a comfortable experience and countless enemies, among them Flayers, were woken up. Balboa simply could not find a quiet corner of the dungeon in which to make a stand - Razan fell to Iron Maiden and Rusty was losing health at an alarming rate. Desperate measures were called for so the decision to "go cheesy" was made ... a TP was made and Balboa and Rusty slipped through it and escaped.
Once in town, Balboa arranged for Rusty to be repaired and Razan revived. We returned to the WSK via the WP and the stairs down and basically repeated the exercise (but without Razan dying). I think in the end it took four attempts of descending the stairs, running down corridors and TP'ing out when we were overwhelmed before we managed to clear the stairwell area. Further into the Level, Flayers, DKs and OKs made our lives very hard. The Bone Wall trick is handy for holding OKs in place, though.
The entire level was cleared in the end and the stairs down to the Throne of Destruction located. Hell Temptresses and Vile Witches made for a rather tactical game of hide and seek. At some point during this game, Strength Rusty vanished. Most irritating, as his Crushing Blow was being counted on to beat Baal. Malice was prepared and to be honest, Balboa thought that this would be a better bet against Baal's minions. Razan's CB alone would have to suffice for Baal.
All too soon, the rest of the level was cleared and only the Throne Room itself remained. Colenzo and his crew were surprisingly strong and required Decrepifying. The battle with Achmel and his fellow Ancient Horadrim was an epic in itself. It was necessary to draw as many troops as possible off to one side and then suddenly strike at the exposed leaders one at a time. Confuse, Dim Vision and Decrepify were the curses used to control the mob - once Achmel was isolated and engaged, we knew we'd win.
Bartuc and his minions were a different matter. Their attacks were too strong to resist and we were driven from the Throne Room. The time-honored tradition of teasing out Council Members away from their comrades one or two at a time was observed and as ever, proved successful. A similar tactic was needed against Ventar and Co.
At long last, only the Minions of Destruction stood between us and their Master. In spite of Balboa's foreboding, the Minions meekly strode up to Razan and Rusty in twos and threes and once Decrepified, offered little challenge. Even Lister himself fell with little drama.
When finally we followed Baal through to the Worldstone Chamber, his reaction was to instantly create a clone of himself. Very shortly after that, his tentacles were thrust up through the ground at us. Balboa cast his Decrepify, Malice Rusty engaged the tentacles whilst Razan tanked the two Baals. Once Rusty was free, he re-joined Razan and set to work ... Baal's clone was soon destroyed. Baal himself, Decrepified and Holy Frozen, moved sluggishly and although he cast the occasional spell, he had no answer for the two fighters. The end was a while coming but it was inevitable.
Meet Champion GumbyBalboa the Golemancer!
Stats, etc
174 Stats and 1 Skill point unallocated
In readiness for WSK Throne, I'd allocated all of my Skill points to max out CG and raise IG up to Lvl8, thus raising Rusty's AR and Def.
Rather foolishly, and because I was excited at having beaten Baal, I decided last night to finish the Cows as well. What a nightmare that was! I was completely swamped by bovines and very swiftly lost my Malice Rusty. Had to TP out and portal back in, this time with a Rusty with ED Jewels in a 4-soc Battle Axe or similar. He faired no better so next was a Rare Cinquedas with Cold, Poison and Nova on Striking. He got eaten too. FCOL, I've beaten Baal, how hard can some cows be? Having run out of Rusty items, I used CG until a suitable Magic item dropped - can't remember hat it was, something with ED anyway. The cow level was a slog that seemed to go on for hours. I was so tired that I found myself casting repeat AmpDams from time to time as my finger rested sleepily on the mouse button. Somehow, I survived, and killed every single cow except for the King himself. Ha!
Here's a screenie which was the only one I remembered to take. One compensation for all the effort was the amount of runes Ithat dropped: Dol, Shael, Sol, 3x Ort, Ral, Ith, Nef, Eld, El. Amazing!
Now it's time to plan for Hell - un-stashing charms for resists, considering how many stats points to spend in Vitality, seeing if I have any better gear stashed away that I'd not needed in NM and have forgotten about, etc. Oh, and a decision about the /players setting. Will I be able to continue at P8? We'll see.
Champion GumbyBalboa - Level 75, Act 1, Rogue Encampment
The reception on the third level was once again instant and unfriendly. Strength Rusty and Razan engaged the mixed group of Fire Boars, Lasher-types and Doom Knights - the Oblivion Knights naturally hung back. A brief curse duel ensued, with Balboa's Confuse being over-written time and again. Once the OKs had Decrepified their own Confused allies, Balboa judged the time to be right and broke away from the stairwell. Fleeing blindly down corridors is not a comfortable experience and countless enemies, among them Flayers, were woken up. Balboa simply could not find a quiet corner of the dungeon in which to make a stand - Razan fell to Iron Maiden and Rusty was losing health at an alarming rate. Desperate measures were called for so the decision to "go cheesy" was made ... a TP was made and Balboa and Rusty slipped through it and escaped.
Once in town, Balboa arranged for Rusty to be repaired and Razan revived. We returned to the WSK via the WP and the stairs down and basically repeated the exercise (but without Razan dying). I think in the end it took four attempts of descending the stairs, running down corridors and TP'ing out when we were overwhelmed before we managed to clear the stairwell area. Further into the Level, Flayers, DKs and OKs made our lives very hard. The Bone Wall trick is handy for holding OKs in place, though.
The entire level was cleared in the end and the stairs down to the Throne of Destruction located. Hell Temptresses and Vile Witches made for a rather tactical game of hide and seek. At some point during this game, Strength Rusty vanished. Most irritating, as his Crushing Blow was being counted on to beat Baal. Malice was prepared and to be honest, Balboa thought that this would be a better bet against Baal's minions. Razan's CB alone would have to suffice for Baal.
All too soon, the rest of the level was cleared and only the Throne Room itself remained. Colenzo and his crew were surprisingly strong and required Decrepifying. The battle with Achmel and his fellow Ancient Horadrim was an epic in itself. It was necessary to draw as many troops as possible off to one side and then suddenly strike at the exposed leaders one at a time. Confuse, Dim Vision and Decrepify were the curses used to control the mob - once Achmel was isolated and engaged, we knew we'd win.
Bartuc and his minions were a different matter. Their attacks were too strong to resist and we were driven from the Throne Room. The time-honored tradition of teasing out Council Members away from their comrades one or two at a time was observed and as ever, proved successful. A similar tactic was needed against Ventar and Co.
At long last, only the Minions of Destruction stood between us and their Master. In spite of Balboa's foreboding, the Minions meekly strode up to Razan and Rusty in twos and threes and once Decrepified, offered little challenge. Even Lister himself fell with little drama.
When finally we followed Baal through to the Worldstone Chamber, his reaction was to instantly create a clone of himself. Very shortly after that, his tentacles were thrust up through the ground at us. Balboa cast his Decrepify, Malice Rusty engaged the tentacles whilst Razan tanked the two Baals. Once Rusty was free, he re-joined Razan and set to work ... Baal's clone was soon destroyed. Baal himself, Decrepified and Holy Frozen, moved sluggishly and although he cast the occasional spell, he had no answer for the two fighters. The end was a while coming but it was inevitable.
Meet Champion GumbyBalboa the Golemancer!
Stats, etc
174 Stats and 1 Skill point unallocated
In readiness for WSK Throne, I'd allocated all of my Skill points to max out CG and raise IG up to Lvl8, thus raising Rusty's AR and Def.
Rather foolishly, and because I was excited at having beaten Baal, I decided last night to finish the Cows as well. What a nightmare that was! I was completely swamped by bovines and very swiftly lost my Malice Rusty. Had to TP out and portal back in, this time with a Rusty with ED Jewels in a 4-soc Battle Axe or similar. He faired no better so next was a Rare Cinquedas with Cold, Poison and Nova on Striking. He got eaten too. FCOL, I've beaten Baal, how hard can some cows be? Having run out of Rusty items, I used CG until a suitable Magic item dropped - can't remember hat it was, something with ED anyway. The cow level was a slog that seemed to go on for hours. I was so tired that I found myself casting repeat AmpDams from time to time as my finger rested sleepily on the mouse button. Somehow, I survived, and killed every single cow except for the King himself. Ha!
Here's a screenie which was the only one I remembered to take. One compensation for all the effort was the amount of runes Ithat dropped: Dol, Shael, Sol, 3x Ort, Ral, Ith, Nef, Eld, El. Amazing!
Now it's time to plan for Hell - un-stashing charms for resists, considering how many stats points to spend in Vitality, seeing if I have any better gear stashed away that I'd not needed in NM and have forgotten about, etc. Oh, and a decision about the /players setting. Will I be able to continue at P8? We'll see.
Champion GumbyBalboa - Level 75, Act 1, Rogue Encampment
Ed from Russia
New member
Awesome! Persistance pays off.
LozHinge the Unhinged
Active member
@kykle - thanks!
I've considered armour as the base for Rusty but something stops me. The golem is meant to be more than a mere tank for this build, otherwise a CG would be more than adequate. I need to make Rusty from powerful weapons - high damage, CB, OW, enormous elemental damage etc - for simple reason that I want this to be a golemmancer, not a merc-mancer. The golem has to be doing 50% percent of the work, or as near as I can make it. If I had the courage of my convictions, I wouldn't use a merc, but I want to finish the build before old age stops me! I compromise on the merc issue by using a Holy Freeze Act 2 merc rather than a Might merc. I may need to swap to a Defiance merc as some point, depends upon how bad Hell is. I don't know which will be better as yet.
@Ed from Russia - cheers mate. Persistence and caution are key for this build.
@ dutes - many thanks for that, my confidence took a knock I must say. In Hell I will need lots of luck and maybe a miracle or two. Preparations have been made thus:
- my Save has been moved from my Laptop to my PC, as I don't think I'll be able to S&E between sessions anymore - the small amount of re-running I sometimes have to do after I find a WP and save for the night will be probably be too much, even at P1.
- I've allocated 50 pts to Vitality, my Life is now 711 (more than my botched Lvl 93 Summonancer!)
- A Strength Rusty (from a War Scythe) is in place for when I start Hell, with a Malice Executioner Sword in reserve. I must find some more socketables ...
- I've re-jigged equipment to maximise my resistances as far as possible.
First I used my Hel rune to remove the two chipped emeralds I stuck in my +3 DV/+2 BA Zombie Head in Act 1 Normal :grin: and stuck two pDiamonds for some all over resists. Next I changed my Belt from Nightsmoke to a rare Sharkskin belt with LR 28% and FR 24%, plus four rows for potions! :grin:
Finally, I played around with my store of Charms.
Best switch resists are F80, C22, L80, P78. Not too shabby! Need some more CR for the CEs though ...
I remember the culture shock I suffered the first time I went from Nightmare to Hell - I hope I'm ready for it!
I've considered armour as the base for Rusty but something stops me. The golem is meant to be more than a mere tank for this build, otherwise a CG would be more than adequate. I need to make Rusty from powerful weapons - high damage, CB, OW, enormous elemental damage etc - for simple reason that I want this to be a golemmancer, not a merc-mancer. The golem has to be doing 50% percent of the work, or as near as I can make it. If I had the courage of my convictions, I wouldn't use a merc, but I want to finish the build before old age stops me! I compromise on the merc issue by using a Holy Freeze Act 2 merc rather than a Might merc. I may need to swap to a Defiance merc as some point, depends upon how bad Hell is. I don't know which will be better as yet.
@Ed from Russia - cheers mate. Persistence and caution are key for this build.
@ dutes - many thanks for that, my confidence took a knock I must say. In Hell I will need lots of luck and maybe a miracle or two. Preparations have been made thus:
- my Save has been moved from my Laptop to my PC, as I don't think I'll be able to S&E between sessions anymore - the small amount of re-running I sometimes have to do after I find a WP and save for the night will be probably be too much, even at P1.
- I've allocated 50 pts to Vitality, my Life is now 711 (more than my botched Lvl 93 Summonancer!)
- A Strength Rusty (from a War Scythe) is in place for when I start Hell, with a Malice Executioner Sword in reserve. I must find some more socketables ...
- I've re-jigged equipment to maximise my resistances as far as possible.
First I used my Hel rune to remove the two chipped emeralds I stuck in my +3 DV/+2 BA Zombie Head in Act 1 Normal :grin: and stuck two pDiamonds for some all over resists. Next I changed my Belt from Nightsmoke to a rare Sharkskin belt with LR 28% and FR 24%, plus four rows for potions! :grin:
Finally, I played around with my store of Charms.
Best switch resists are F80, C22, L80, P78. Not too shabby! Need some more CR for the CEs though ...
I remember the culture shock I suffered the first time I went from Nightmare to Hell - I hope I'm ready for it!
I'm hearing you there, just got my first ever character to hell (a lvl 76 Zealot Paladin) and after breezing through nm, knocking baal off with laughable ease and then... 3 deaths in the den of evil :shocked: needless to say i switched down from players 8 but its still a huge jump from nm.
Clap! Clap! Bravo for making it this far! The NM to HELL switch is quite the shock, and I'm glad to see you have a bunch of resists charms in the stash in preparation for the switch over. With the ladder reset, I'm back to playing untwinked hardcore ladder with my favorite starting character the fishy with mages to rebuild up the wealth again. I have to say, I've really enjoyed the reading and you've been very thorough in your documenting with screen captures!
kudos to you!
Good luck and good hunting!
Kirah
kudos to you!
Good luck and good hunting!
Kirah
LozHinge the Unhinged
Active member
The Learning Curve
Balboa felt he was as prepared as he could be for what was awaiting him outside of the Rogue Encampment. I had my doubts ... guess who was right.
Just outside the gate, we met a boss with Fanaticism and that was almost curtains for us. We ran back to the camp and thought awhile. The plan this time was to Terror away the minions and attack the boss on his own - aside from a moment when I thought we were going to lose Rusty, this worked well.
Our first fight in Hell and it was already like an Act Boss encounter! There was more to come - every band of monsters seemed to have its own tinpot dictator with its own brand of aura. Then, the biggie - a boss that we simply could not hurt. Crushing Blow on merc and golem and we could not take more than a tenth of Seethe Break's life before it healed. Stalemate. We parked the physically immune monster for the moment and moved on.
There were plenty of challenges. Spike Fiend type monsters made Razan's life hell, the poison really disagreed with him. These encounters allowed Balboa to determine one thing - Strength Rusty was not cutting it and would have to go.
Returning to the encampment, we created a new Rusty from a Rondel that had Poison damage over 5 seconds. Maybe this would interfere with Seethe Break's healing? The answer was a resounding "No", Poison Rusty was totally ineffectual. Finally, Balboa returned to the good old standby, Malice. We returned to the "unkillable" zombie boss and ... proceeded to kill him!
Buoyed by our success, we located the Den of Evil and descended. The response was nearly overwhelming, but Terror and Decrepify came to our aid. The two fighters seemed to grow in stature as we travelled ever deeper underground. Even the Shamans easily fell to the intrepid duo.
A running battle ensued with Corpsefire and his minions, with attack and retreat being the successful tactic against this powerful foe. I'm glad he wasn't Stoneskinned! In no time (ahem), the Den was cleared.
Proceeding on into the Cold Plains, we fought Dark Spearswomen and Hunters, one of which dropped a true treasure - Atma's Wail. Good defence and FHR, Razan was a picture of delight when he put it on.
The final climactic battle of the day was against Bishibosh and his hoard. We drew his troops away to the South, then swung around to the North-West to strike at the boss himself. With him dead, the Shamans fell next and finally the stragglers. A good days work.
Stats and Stuff
129 Stats and 3 Skill points spare - DV and IG will be the main competitors for points from now.
Good grief, this took hours. I wonder if I will have the willpower to keep this up at P8? Further compromises may have to be made - might merc? Hmm ...
In a strange (read, masochistic) way, I'm finding the challenge of Hell fascinating. Be warned though, it is very slow going.
(This has been a long update for what amounts to a fairly small degree of progress, in which I have attempted to provide a taste of the difficulty faced by this build in Hell. I'll try to be briefer in future!)
Replies
@sirwhere - he's going, he's going! :grin:
@zarfen - good to see you visiting here from the SPF. Many thanks!
@dutes - it is a big, BIG jump. Fortunately, nothing is easy for this build so Hell wasn't the big shock it might have been :wink:
@Kirah - thanks very much! I've only ever played untwinked, but with ATMA as a stash, you have so many options. However, now that I am Save and Exiting more infrequently, my opportunities for retrieving gear from ATMA are limited. Shifting the gear off the character is simple with hot muling, getting it back on again requires a S&E!
Champion GumbyBalboa - Level 76, Act 1, The Cave (in Cold Plains)
Balboa felt he was as prepared as he could be for what was awaiting him outside of the Rogue Encampment. I had my doubts ... guess who was right.
Just outside the gate, we met a boss with Fanaticism and that was almost curtains for us. We ran back to the camp and thought awhile. The plan this time was to Terror away the minions and attack the boss on his own - aside from a moment when I thought we were going to lose Rusty, this worked well.
Our first fight in Hell and it was already like an Act Boss encounter! There was more to come - every band of monsters seemed to have its own tinpot dictator with its own brand of aura. Then, the biggie - a boss that we simply could not hurt. Crushing Blow on merc and golem and we could not take more than a tenth of Seethe Break's life before it healed. Stalemate. We parked the physically immune monster for the moment and moved on.
There were plenty of challenges. Spike Fiend type monsters made Razan's life hell, the poison really disagreed with him. These encounters allowed Balboa to determine one thing - Strength Rusty was not cutting it and would have to go.
Returning to the encampment, we created a new Rusty from a Rondel that had Poison damage over 5 seconds. Maybe this would interfere with Seethe Break's healing? The answer was a resounding "No", Poison Rusty was totally ineffectual. Finally, Balboa returned to the good old standby, Malice. We returned to the "unkillable" zombie boss and ... proceeded to kill him!
Buoyed by our success, we located the Den of Evil and descended. The response was nearly overwhelming, but Terror and Decrepify came to our aid. The two fighters seemed to grow in stature as we travelled ever deeper underground. Even the Shamans easily fell to the intrepid duo.
A running battle ensued with Corpsefire and his minions, with attack and retreat being the successful tactic against this powerful foe. I'm glad he wasn't Stoneskinned! In no time (ahem), the Den was cleared.
Proceeding on into the Cold Plains, we fought Dark Spearswomen and Hunters, one of which dropped a true treasure - Atma's Wail. Good defence and FHR, Razan was a picture of delight when he put it on.
The final climactic battle of the day was against Bishibosh and his hoard. We drew his troops away to the South, then swung around to the North-West to strike at the boss himself. With him dead, the Shamans fell next and finally the stragglers. A good days work.
Stats and Stuff
129 Stats and 3 Skill points spare - DV and IG will be the main competitors for points from now.
Good grief, this took hours. I wonder if I will have the willpower to keep this up at P8? Further compromises may have to be made - might merc? Hmm ...
In a strange (read, masochistic) way, I'm finding the challenge of Hell fascinating. Be warned though, it is very slow going.
(This has been a long update for what amounts to a fairly small degree of progress, in which I have attempted to provide a taste of the difficulty faced by this build in Hell. I'll try to be briefer in future!)
Replies
@sirwhere - he's going, he's going! :grin:
@zarfen - good to see you visiting here from the SPF. Many thanks!
@dutes - it is a big, BIG jump. Fortunately, nothing is easy for this build so Hell wasn't the big shock it might have been :wink:
@Kirah - thanks very much! I've only ever played untwinked, but with ATMA as a stash, you have so many options. However, now that I am Save and Exiting more infrequently, my opportunities for retrieving gear from ATMA are limited. Shifting the gear off the character is simple with hot muling, getting it back on again requires a S&E!
Champion GumbyBalboa - Level 76, Act 1, The Cave (in Cold Plains)
Looks like Malice Rusty is the way to go at higher difficulties, great work getting as far as you have. Like I said before my Zealot couldn't make it out of the Den of Evil without a death and he was the same level as you. Great work, as for the length of the update... if you can, please keep up that level of detail it makes it very enjoyable to read :thumbsup:
