Re: The Certain Death Tournament.
Mara zipped through Act 3 at Players 7 leaving nothing standing. Mara’s Lightning Sentry was more than a match for every monster so the biggest problems were bug related (I think).
First, this happens to me all the time so maybe it isn’t a bug . . . but I can’t say I remember it ever happening on Bnet . . . so maybe it is . . . The issue was that throughout Act 3 and beyond (and for reasons unknown to me) the monsters would stop targeting Mizan (the merc) and everything would go after Mara. Mizan would be closer to the monsters, he uses melee attacks, and he could even be using a melee attack on a monster and every monster would still ignore Mizan and go after Mara (even the one getting attacked)! . . Needless to say that this was rather alarming when it happened in Travincal and the Council Memembers pretended that Mizan didn’t exist and in the Durance when groups of Dolls ran right past Mizan and swarmed Mara . . . she made it out alive but in Nightmare this is going to be fatal. I don’t know why it happens (i.e. how to prevent it in the future) and the only thing that seems to reset the monster AI to how it normally operates is exiting the game which really doesn’t work well with single pass full clears. Anyone know anything about this ‘bug’?
Past the issue with the merc the biggest obstacles in Act 3 were the six Kurast temples. Three of the six temples were trapped (the worst being the two on the Kurast Causeway . . . one had a ton of snakes, the other had an archer group that was cursed and lightning enchanted). I was a bit concerned about Mephisto (only because NM Mephisto killed my first character coming out of nowhere) . . . but he turned out to be really easy . . . so easy that even the merc didn’t die. Mephisto got hit with the
moat maneuver and things couldn’t have been safer or simpler.
Mephisto didn’t
drop anything useful . . . and that pretty much summed up the drops for Act 3. The best drops were probably
Cleglaw’s Sword and
Cleglaw’s Gloves (not great by themselves but if Mara could get the shield I’d probably equip the set and add Blade Fury to Mara’s repertoire). Other set/uniques included:
Iratha’s Gloves,
Isenhart’s Armor, and an eth
Steelclash.
Here were Mara’s stats at the end of Act 3.
Act 4 continued to be very easy for Mara. Players 7 was used and full clears were performed. There weren’t really any obstacles and Mara’s only close call came in the Chaos Sanctuary when the last seal was activated and the Infector of Souls’ group came charging (Mara had the bad map layout where your character is cornered after activating the seal) . . . anyhow, a couple Venom Lords came around the corner and got a good hit in on Mara (cutting her life in half) before she could get through her pre opened tp . . . that wouldn’t have been too bad but I then did some real world things, forgot the tp was hot and then sent Mara back through it :doh: I then nearly had a heart attack but managed to maneuver Mara through the Venom Lords and out of danger . . . but what a lousy way to go that would have been . . . Diablo was then engaged at Players 7 and going in I really wasn’t sure what to expect. For a moment it appeared that Mara might be able to kill Big D
without ever seeing him . . . but then Mizan wandered too close and then Diablo came charging. Big D’s elemental attacks all hurt but he didn’t use his bone prison so Mara was able to dodge everything with ease and Diablo soon fell without incident.
Diablo’s
drop was useless (the set crown turned out to be Milabrega’s). There were two other set/uniques dropped:
Sigon’s Shield (plus one to skills is nice but no resistances . . . no thanks), and
The Face of Horror (which the merc is using . . . the 50% chance to cause monsters to flee can be nice when they flee away from Mara but is a bit scary when they flee the merc towards Mara . . . I might need to get Mizan a new helm soon). The Forge
drop would wasn’t too good in terms of the rune but would certainly appeal to topaz enthusiasts. Also notable was the finding of a
large charm with +5 to all resistances (which couldn’t be used because Mara’s resists would go too high . . . oh well maybe later).
Here were Mara’s stats at the end of Act 4.
(If you’re still reading I’m really impressed with your commitment). Mara then continued into Act 5 still doing full clears at Players 7. Things continued to easy and the only problems encountered were related to the ‘bug’ where the monsters pretend the merc isn’t there and everything targets Mara. That ‘bug’ made for a really interesting clear of the Arreat Plateau, the Pit of Acheron, the Crystalline Passage, and Frozen River. The most dangerous events were battling an extra strong Frenzytaur group in the Pit and the Champion Frenzytaurs in the Crystalline Passage . . . both encounters made the Brave Sir Robin maneuver necessary (run away! run away!). After Anya was rescued I was able to restart the program and reset the AI and the rest of Act 5 was easy once more.
The usual dangerous monsters were all handled with ease. Nihlathak was nearly defeated without Mara ever seeing him (let’s hear it for dropping Lightning Sentry at the edge of the screen)! Baal’s Minions were all easy (but hey, as long as she doesn’t get hit Mara’s pretty much a regular character so what would you expect). Baal was done at Players 7 and didn’t put up much of a fight . . . well he did but Mara’s damage was too great and the battle was over in a couple of minutes.
Baal’s
drop was more useless items but some good things had fallen leading up to the boss. Set/uniques found included:
Isenhart’s Armor (again),
Angelic Ring (now if only I could get that ammy),
Cathan’s Helm,
Sparking Mail (which the merc is using),
Isenhart’s Armor (again, again),
Civerb’s Grand Scepter,
Nightsmoke,
Death’s Sword, and
Iratha’s Helm. The top rune find of Act 5 (and all of normal) was a
Thul Rune :unimpressed: .
http://i722.photobucket.com/albums/ww224/Hanshotfirst-Pics/Screenshot573-1.jpgHere were Mara’s stats at the end of Act 5.
Destroyer Mara then went off to destroy the cows . . . which she did with great ease. The drops were decent and included this handy
rare ring and
set item heavy boots! . . that turned out to be . . .
spoiler . . . yeah. The Cow King continued to refuse to
drop any of his set items. Mara then reorganized some equipment and . . .
Here were Mara’s stats entering NM.
[highlight]Mara, Traps, NM Rogue Encampment, Level 48[/highlight]
Holy smokes that was long . . . way too long :dizzy: . . . never again, never again . . .
.
(), Normal Lut Gholein, Life = 92 (161 with Oaks + Wolf Form) [/highlight]
