Great progress everyone, some truly amazing finds!
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Nightmare started out well as we quickly found a 4os War Scythe. Four Countess runs later we had the last remaining ingredient (Sol) and made a nice
Insight for the merc. With mana issues long gone, and Fissure still rolling at a devastating rate, the rest of Act 1 went smoothly and quickly and we were soon fighting
Andariel. The merc died, but the bear kept her busy and she was soon dead.
And just like that, Klaus has his end-game gloves! Sweet!
Act 2 was just a blur of sand and Fissures,
Duriel was kept busy by the bear, and
fell to an onslaught on Volcanos. Much the same in Act 3, low health enemies who run around all over the screen? Fissure says hello.
Meph took a while as he kept moving away from the Volcanos (also, Klaus' Volcanos aren't very strong since I haven't invested in the synergy yet), but before long he
fell too, leaving nothing of note.
Act 4. Things caught up with us a little bit here. The fact that Klaus hasn't changed most of his gear since act 1/2 in normal, combined with the increased monster life and firepower meant that fragility went through the roof. Since that's no good for HC, we re-assessed a little bit. Using a 4-soc Broad Sword that dropped in late Act 3, and a little bit of Countess farming to round out our runes again, Klaus got an upgrade.
He also made a Rhyme shield, and with the newly buffed Oak and Grizzly as well as some extra resistances, he was off to the races once again.
Izual went down, picked up a
Dol from the HF, and cleared our way into Diablo's living room. With the merc
snugged up in front of the Lightning Hose, and the Bear distracting him in the meantime, Kalus was free to Volcano Diablo until his eventual demise.
Well would you look at that, another useful drop from an Act Boss! Klaus slapped that Skullder's on and headed off to Harrogath in style.
Fissure is still quite devastating to non-FIs at this stage, so Act 5 was pretty much uneventful. The group plodded their way up the mountain, and handled the Ancients
with ease. The WSK was straightforward, Klaus found the stairs down quite quickly and dispatched of the minion waves without issue. As mentioned previously, Kalus is not a quick boss killer at this point, but he safely
whittled Baal down with Fissures and Volcanos and earned the title of Conqueror at the ripe young level of 70.
other finds:
plain Fletcher's skiller
1 elemental skills/3mdr amulet (not great, but Klaus is using it for now)